NPR: The NPR News Blog

July 31, 2007

Teaching Inner-City Kids About Death

Tell Me More has an interview with Todd Walker, a football coach in Oakland, Calif., who has started a program, Restoring Inner-City Peace, or R.I.P., that brings urban kids to funeral homes to help them understand the reality of death. Walker shows the kids -- some as young as 6 -- a casket, a gurney and a cremation box, items that can help make the often fatal consequences of violence more real.

I applaud Walker's efforts, especially in an area where violence can be an everyday event. But I'm not sure if the sterile surroundings of a funeral home are enough to make a difference. In my experience, it's only the death of a close friend or a relative that pushes you to consider your own mortality. Otherwise, I fear the effect is only temporary.

I can still remember the first time I saw a dead person. The mother of my parish priest. I was about 7 years old, and our Cub Scout master had taken the entire troupe to the funeral home to pay our respects. I remember kneeling beside the open coffin, but it seemed more gross than scary.

'Truth' Cartoon Wins Scientists Group's Contest

Truth will out! Depictions of it also help win editorial cartooning contests.

Last week, the Union of Concerned Scientists announced the winner of its 2007 Science Idol: Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest. The winner, Jesse Springer of Eugene, Ore., won with a cartoon that "depicts politicians shoveling dirt onto the word 'Truth' as scientists work to uncover it."

Springer received nearly 4,300 of the 20,000 votes cast. Here's a collection of all 12 cartoons that made it to the finals. They're funny, irreverent and quite blunt, so you might want to avoid them if you're a Bush appointee in a science- or health-related government agency.

The winning cartoon.

Jesse Springer/Courtesy Union of Concerned Scientists

California Proposal Could Influence 2008 Election

Oh, this is deliciously sneaky. It's just an idea at the moment, but Thomas Hiltachk, a prominent GOP lawyer from Sacramento, wants to put a proposal on the California ballot next year that would change the way the Golden State awards electoral votes in presidential elections.

If it passes -- heck, if it even makes it to the ballot -- it could prove to be a real thorn in the sides of Democrats.

Currently, the winner of the state's popular vote takes all 55 electoral votes -- and they've been pretty solidly Democratic votes for the past few election cycles.

But Hiltachk's proposal would see the winner of the popular vote only get two guaranteed electoral votes, while the rest would be awarded based on who won the popular vote in each of the state's 53 congressional districts. Although George Bush lost the state by double-digits in 2004, he won the vote in about 20 congressional districts. If the proposal passed, the Republicans' share of California's electoral bounty could pretty much give them a lock on the White House.

Here's the bottom line: Even if the proposal makes it to the ballot, it would be a longshot to pass because Democrats and independents (who make up the majority of voters in California) would likely oppose it. But it's ingenious in the way it would force Democrats to spend a lot of money fighting it in a state where they can normally count on keeping their expenses to a minimum.

And in presidential elections, every dollar counts.

Blogs Push GOP Contenders to Attend YouTube Debate

For many conservative bloggers, the news that few top GOP contenders have committed to take part in the Republican version of the CNN-YouTube debate in September is like having your best friend get cold feet before her wedding -- you see the long-term gain, she fears the short-term pain.

So far, only Arizona Sen. John McCain, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul have said they will participate in the debate, scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg, Fla. (Maybe the rest are afraid of talking snowmen?)

Whatever the other candidates' reasons, this has not gone down well with many conservative bloggers, who say that if the major GOP contenders take a powder on the debate, the Internet community and many young voters will not forget. Former RNC eCampaign Director Patrick Ruffini has created a site, Save the Debate, to help convince Republican holdouts like Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani to participate.

There are, of course, a few conservative bloggers who think maybe the candidates are right to be wary and advise skipping the whole thing. But for most, it's a real no-brainer. Candidates who don't come will be asked about it from now until the primaries, and then, if they fail to win the nomination, pundits will cite it as one of the reasons.

But there are signs that the leading contenders are starting to reconsider (although there are reports that the date may be changed to accommodate some candidates' schedules).

Iraqi Legislature Breaks for Recess Without Progress

Nothing, it seems, nothing, can make Iraqi legislators move faster toward the set of benchmarks the U.S. Congress feels absolutely necessary to achieve.

So it was time to go on vacation.

Iraqi legislators are starting a monthlong recess today. The break comes, however, after the current session had been extended by a month to try and reach deals on important issues like "oil investment and revenue-sharing among regions, the re-integration of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime into government, and provincial elections," the Los Angeles Times reports. But it just wasn't going to happen. And, based on the sectarian divides in parliament, it seems unlikely that these benchmarks will be reached anytime soon.

The relationship between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, is not helping the situation. The Associated Press reports that it is apparently so poor that al-Maliki may ask Washington to withdraw Petraeus. Petraeus' decision to arm some Sunni militant groups to battle al-Qaida in Iraq has infuriated the Iraqi PM, who is a Shiite.

An unnamed diplomat quoted by the Times says we had better get used to frustration with the parliament: "Politically, there isn't going to be a breakthrough," said the diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not stating official policy. "There isn't going to be the sun comes up one day and everybody loves each other. They are going to muddle through, but in this part of the world, a lot of governments just muddle through for years."

I doubt, however, that "muddling through" is going to thrill American lawmakers who know that progress in Iraq may be the key to their re-election -- or their defeat -- at the polls next year.

July 30, 2007

Dave Robicheaux Finally Tackles Katrina

Oh, I have been waiting for this for the past two years.

There are two detective characters whose stories I never miss -- Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch and James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux. And ever since Hurricane Katrina tore apart my favorite city in America, New Orleans, I wanted to see how Burke and his Cajun detective would deal with it. Martha Woodroof reported on Day to Day that my answer has come: The Tin Roof Blowdown.

I have next week off, and you can bet I'm headed down to the bookstore to get my copy. Summer reading here I come. (You can read an excerpt of Burke's latest Robicheaux novel at Simon & Schuster's Web site.)

Poll: Most Americans Support Surveillance Camera Use

A security camera in the World Trade Center PATH station in New York. A London-style surveillance system is being planned there that will blanket the area with 3,000 security cameras.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

My wife spotted them first. "Look at those," she said, pointing to the rather obvious cameras now parked on the top of the stoplights by the Tysons Corner mall in Virginia. No doubt the cameras' blatant positioning sent as strong a message as their actual activities: "We're watching now, so no more running that red light or trying to sneak through on a late yellow. And let's keep to the speed limit, OK."

Cameras are sprouting up everywhere these days, both the red-light traffic kind and regular surveillance cameras. But when it comes to the latter, a new ABC News poll shows Americans apparently don't care. In fact, they would like to see more of it -- 71 percent support the increased use of surveillance cameras. Republicans overwhelmingly favor it -- 81 percent like the idea -- but Democrats and independents back it as well, although by smaller margins, 66 percent and 71 percent, respectively.

What do you think about the use of surveillance cameras? And, while we're on the subject of cameras, what about the red-light ones like those I saw with my wife?

Did GOP Use 'Caging' to Block Some Voters in 2004?

Ever since the 2004 election, rumors have floated occasionally in the media -- and frequently in the blogosphere -- that there was some kind of monkey business in Ohio that helped tip the vote for President Bush.

On Friday, PBS' NOW explored allegations that the Republican Party used a tactic called "voter caging" in Ohio, Florida and other key election states to prevent typically Democratic-leaning groups like minorities and students from voting. And NOW investigated reports that a similar plan may be in place for the 2008 election. (You can watch the entire program on the show's Web site.)

In a political context, "voter caging" involves using direct mail to challenge people's voter registration. Few had heard of it before Monica Goodling mentioned it in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

NOW talked to journalist Greg Palast, who first reported on "voter caging" for the BBC in 2004, when a Bush parody site claimed to have accidentally received confidential e-mails about it.

Palast also explained his charges in a recent post on the liberal BradBlog: "The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked 'Do not forward' to voters' homes. Letters returned ('caged') were used as evidence to block these voters' right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and --- you got to love this --- American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters."

NOW reports that the voter caging issue might be tied into the Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys. NOW interviewed one of the fired prosecutors, David Iglesias, who says he was pressured by key Republicans to engage in "unlawful activities," including what would have amounted to voter suppression. He believes that the White House is withholding documents to protect people like Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor because there is "incriminating, possibly criminally incriminating evidence contained in those e-mails and other memoranda."

I suspect that voter caging is something we'll hear more about in the next few weeks.

What Should the Future Hold for Harry Potter?

(Spoiler alert: Don't read any further if you haven't had a chance to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yet.)

It didn't take very long for this idea to surface.

In her glowing review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for Forbes, writer Lisa LaMotta argues that Harry must keep going and that the series should not end. But who should take over from J.K. Rowling now that Harry is grown up? Apparently, book chain Borders polled 1,500 people in Britain, and "their favorite, by far, is Irvine Welsh, author of the drug- and sex-filled novels Trainspotting and Porno."

Oh my. That would make for, er, interesting reading, indeed. But what do you think? Is Harry done? Or should he have some grown-up (although not necessary "adult") adventures as well?

Learning About Bergman from His Film Editor

While I never had the pleasure of meeting Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director who died today, I did have the opportunity to learn from someone who worked very closely with him on some of his greatest films.

In the mid-1980s, I was chosen to learn about screenwriting as part of a Canadian film program called DramaLab. The person who was supposed to teach us dropped out at the last second, and Ulla Ryghe stepped in. I had no idea who she was. But one of the DramaLab organizers told us that she had edited some of Bergman's films: Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence, Persona, Hour of the Wolf, to name a few.

Some of my fellow screenwriters grumbled because screenwriting wasn't her specialty. But no way was I going to waste a chance to learn from a person who had worked with one of the world's greatest directors. Ryghe saw I was interested and, as a result, made me work pretty hard. But I learned a lot about making movies.

Occasionally she would talk about working with Bergman, how hard he pushed her, how creative he was, how intimidating he could be at times. I knew a lot of what she was teaching me was what she had learned from him, combined with her own deep knowledge about film.

In particular, the things she taught me about how to observe the world -- to pay attention to the obvious things we miss every day -- serve me very well in my current job.

July 27, 2007

Simpsons, Meet the Simpsons ...

A Simpsonized Tom Regan

Simpsonizeme.com/Meghan Gallery

OK, two things right off the bat.

First, I've been a Simpsons fan from the beginning. Second, no way is Springfield in Vermont. It's in Massachusetts. Springfield, Mass., may not have a nuclear reactor, but if you've ever been there it has the same, er, outstanding qualities as Homer's Springfield. Sort of. In a way. If you close your eyes and imagine.

Now that I have that off my chest, we're all set for today's opening of The Simpsons Movie. Mark Jordan Legan of Slate gave the lowdown on what critics had to say about the movie on Day to Day. In short, they like it; they really, really like it.

Meanwhile, Morning Edition talked to the man behind the Simpsons curtain, creator Matt Groening, on his, well, inspiration for the crazy family.

Better yet, you can Simpsonize yourself. Burger King has created the site, which allows you to upload a headshot that will be used to create a Simpsons character who looks like you. (But be prepared to wait; it's taking a long time, probably due to the demands on the Web server.)

That's it for this week. If you see anything interesting, you can e-mail us at newsblog@npr.org.

(Tom's Update: OK, we finally got through to the Simpsonizeme site, and the result is above. I was momentarily excited when I thought that it had given me brown hair -- my hair hasn't been brown since Jimmy Carter was president. But alas, my editor told me it was steel gray. Rats. Darn color-blindness.)

Australia Drops Charge Against Indian Doctor

After plenty of fumbling, bumbling and stumbling by Australian authorities, the country's top prosecutor dropped a terrorism charge today against Mohamed Haneef, an Indian doctor whose cousins are suspected of involvement in the bombing attempts in London and Glasgow.

A short time later, Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews -- who had moved to keep Haneef in custody by canceling his visa after a court ordered him released on bail earlier this month -- announced Haneef would be released. He will continue to be under residential detention.

Haneef had been charged with recklessly supporting a terrorist organization after authorities said he gave his cell phone SIM card to a cousin when he left Britain for Australia.

But government prosecutors acknowledged two major mistakes in Haneef's case. First, they said the SIM card that he had given to his cousin was found at the crash site at the Glasgow airport, and it wasn't. Second, they said he had lived with some of the suspects before moving to Australia, when he hadn't.

There's always an argument in terrorism cases that it's better to be safe than sorry. (Hey, I lived in Boston, where we shut down an entire city over some colored panels showing cartoon characters.) But, in this case, even the judge who ordered Haneef released on bail pointed out that there was no clear evidence that he was involved in the British plots.

Now, Australian officials are forced into "an embarrassing climbdown," as The Guardian puts it. There is more finger-pointing going on in Canberra than there is in L.A. after a Lakers playoff loss. However, the officials involved have refused to even offer an apology.

This is the kind of mistake that can bring a government down in the parliamentary system. It will be worth watching the fallout in the coming days.

Tillman's Mother Still Upset with Army over His Death

Pat Tillman's mom is furious, and she's not afraid to let people know it.

The mother of the NFL-player-turned-Army-Ranger, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, said Thursday that the Army's latest investigation into her son's death is a "sham."

"It's so humiliating and disrespectful," Mary Tillman told the New York Daily News. "It's one more example of the Army investigating itself. It was all done to glorify this war ... Pat deserves the truth."

(The Associated Press also reports some new details about Tillman's death. They include the rather disturbing revelation that, at one point, medical examiners felt that the bullet holes in Tillman's forehead were so close together that it appeared the bullets were fired from just 10 feet away. The Army even did a criminal investigation to see if Tillman "was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed." Tillman's death was ultimately ruled an accident.)

Army Secretary Pete Geren is not expected to recommend any criminal action in Tillman's death. He will likely urge that four generals and three others be reprimanded for "'critical errors' that misled the family and the nation into thinking Tillman was killed in combat in April 2004." Geren is expected to recommend that retired Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger be busted down to major general -- which will cost him about $900 a month off his pension.

But Mary Tillman isn't buying any of it. She says that Kensinger is just the "fall guy" and suggests that then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also knew the truth but hid the real facts so that her son's death could be used for war propaganda.

It's unlikely that Mary Tillman or her family will get the satisfaction they want from the Army. But the Army's "critical errors" in telling the truth also appear to have created a formidable opponent who will not let her son's death rest.

Mr. Spock Makes a Logical Return

Leonard Nimoy

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Fans at San Diego's big Comic-Con festival got more Spocks for their money than they had anticipated.

During a Paramount Pictures panel Thursday about the new Star Trek movie, which will feature the crew of the Enterprise during their early years in Starfleet, director J.J. Abrams (known for his work in Mission: Impossible III and Lost) introduced the actor who will play the young Spock -- Zachary Quinto of Heroes. But then Abrams told the audience he had more casting news ... and he introduced Leonard Nimoy, who will also have a small role in the film as the older Spock.

When asked why he was returning to the Trek film universe, Nimoy said the decision was logical.

Well, what else would you expect him to say? All I can say is that I hope the film lives long and prospers.

NASA Probing Reports of Astronauts Flying Intoxicated

Looks like NASA might be searching for a new motto -- something like "99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer."

This morning, The Washington Post details NASA's latest headache -- reports that astronauts were allowed to fly while intoxicated, even after getting warnings that they posed "a potential flight-safety risk." A NASA spokesman said that "one of two reviews of the medical and psychological health of astronauts scheduled to be made public today will include secondhand accounts of astronauts drinking before flights."

Aviation Week reports that the panel that conducted the review also said that there was lots of heavy drinking within the 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule applied to flight crew members. The reviews came about as the result of another NASA scandal -- the bizarre Lisa Nowak love-triangle allegations.

NASA said the reports of drinking did not necessarily refer to flights on the space shuttle but could have happened on test flights on other vehicles.

Um, pardon me for saying so, but does it really matter? The idea of plastered pilots flying off into the wild blue yonder is disconcerting regardless of their particular vehicle. There are no cops to pull you over for a Breathalyzer test at 30,000 feet.

Add to that the Nowak case, and it seems to me that NASA has some pretty serious 'splaining to do.

July 26, 2007

Proofreading Your Way to Fame and Fortune

As a blogger for a news organization, I'm frequently asked about being edited. Although some bloggers think that writing a blog should be a pure stream-of-consciousness experience, I'm a firm believer in editing. I think the best blogs are the best-written blogs -- and editing makes a blog better in so many ways.

We don't all have editors, but anyone can fall back on good old-fashioned proofreading. One of my favorite blogs, Daily Writing Tips, offered a fun post Wednesday about "The Impotence of Proofreading" (complete with 12 intentional mistakes).

"Let's be honest, misspelled words are defiantly a sign of ignorance," the post reads.

You should proofread virtually any written piece, from emails to blog posts. Proofread your homework as well, since you don't want to drive the principle of your school crazy.

Look, typos happen. (I make my fair share.) No one is saying you have to join the grammar police. But if you need help, maybe you could turn to blogger Kate McCulley. Earlier this week, Talk of the Nation interviewed McCulley, Boston's self-proclaimed "grammar vandal," who corrects errors on signs in public places. It's just another reminder that people really do care about clean copy -- on a blog or on a sign.

We're Still Trying to Deal with 'Data Smog'

Slate has posted an interesting retrospective from David Shenk about his famous book, Data Smog.

Back in 1997, Shenk wrote that, thanks to the information revolution spawned by the Internet, we were in danger of being overwhelmed by too much information. Now, 10 years later, Shenk finds that, while he was just plain wrong about some of his concerns, his main theme has proven all too real. We are increasingly struggling with too much data and how to process it -- "a nonstop orgy of connectedness that can sometimes crowd out tenderness and meaning."

Shenk's reflections were posted Wednesday, the same day that I interviewed Josh Ehrlich of BeamPines in New York, who works with top-level executives on just this "data smog" issue -- how to avoid being overwhelmed by technology when you're trying to lead an organization.

His job is to help business leaders learn to turn off technology's siren call, so that it won't distract them from important issues. (Ehrlich's profession probably wouldn't have even existed before data smog came into our lives.) It's tough because, as he says, Americans are not that good at being able to sit back and reflect. He says it's important to learn do this in external and in internal ways.

"We have to change the environment," he told me. If focus is needed for an important task, "turn off the computer screen or the TV or the BlackBerry. And then internally, we have to discipline our minds to slow down."

He recommends taking in a "mindful" breath, to borrow an idea from Buddhism. When the cell phone rings or the instant message comes in, pause a moment to decide if you want to interrupt what you're doing to answer, and then take a deep breath to help you shift away from the previous task and focus on the new one.

The trick is, he says (and I love this line), don't get on every thought train. "You have to control your own attention and not let the technology control it."

Nursing Home Cat Seems to Know When Death Is Near

This is kind of weird and scary but ultimately fascinating. Morning Edition reported today that a cat living in a Providence, R.I., nursing home seems to know when people are about to die. The cat, Oscar, has held vigil at the deaths of 25 patients on the third-floor dementia unit of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

"He's a cat with an uncanny instinct for death," Dr. David M. Dosa, assistant professor at the Brown University School of Medicine and a geriatric specialist, told The Boston Globe. "He attends deaths. He's pretty insistent on it."

I've always noticed that my cats are more likely to snuggle with me or the kids when we're sick. But man, if I saw Oscar coming, you wouldn't catch me alive in that room ... so to speak.

Researchers Say Being Obese Is 'Contagious'

It seems each day brings a new report in the battle of the waistline. But this one is a real eye-opener. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that obesity is "contagious." Just one example: If you have a close same-sex friend who becomes obese, there is a 71 percent chance that you'll start packing on the pounds as well.

Using the Framingham Heart Study (which we mentioned Wednesday -- it's a study that has been following thousands of people's health for almost 50 years), researchers concluded that obesity spreads through social ties in subtle ways. Bloomberg reports that it seems to be largely a matter of rationalization.

"What appears to be happening is that a person becoming obese most likely causes a change of norms about what counts as an appropriate body size,'' investigators led by Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, wrote in the July 26 edition of the New England Journal. "People come to think that it is okay to be bigger since those around them are bigger, and this sensibility spreads.''

When I mentioned this study to my wife, she commented that it will "make it easier to hate fat people." And sure enough, Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the comprehensive weight control program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, tells the New York Daily News that he has the same concern. "Is a mother going to say, 'I'm not going to let my kid play with an overweight kid because it's going to make my kid overweight'?"

Here's another thing -- if your friends influence your weight, how did that first person in your group get fat? It had to start somewhere. The report really doesn't address this. And there's a certain "well, duh" element here, too. We know that our social networks influence the clothes we buy, the shows we watch, the music we listen to. It makes perfect sense that they would influence our opinions on body image as well.

But there's a silver lining, as Morning Edition reports. If you lose weight, your friends are more likely to do so. I recently lost about 40 pounds ... Anybody want to be my friend?

TSA Praised for Latest Warning on Terrorist Dry-Runs

It's amazing what finding a block of cheese can do for your reputation. In the case of the Transportation Security Administration, it's won it praise from security experts, politicians and even longtime critics.

On Wednesday, CBS News/AP reported that TSA recently sent out a routine advisory to the nation's airport security workers, warning them to be on watch for terrorists doing dry-runs. The advisory was prompted by four recent seizures of possible bomb-like ingredients in people's luggage. In one case, a bag "contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese."

Block cheese is of interest to TSA because it has a consistency similar to some explosives.

These seizures elicited praise even from longtime critics, who say this shows that TSA has matured beyond seizing scissors and cigarette lighters, AP reports. "This is what TSA should be doing whether it turns out to be a whole bunch of harmless coincidences or part of a plot," said James Carafano, a security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation who in the past called for TSA's abolition.

The cheese, by the way, turned out to be a false alarm in at least once case. But that really doesn't matter to Brian Jenkins, a RAND Corp. terrorism expert. "I'm glad they are picking up these things whatever they turn out to be. The TSA did their job. The police did their job. No sweat."

July 25, 2007

Muslim Support for Suicide Bombings Plunges

A new Pew Global Attitudes Project survey shows that support in many Muslim nations for suicide bombings is way down. But the dark lining in this silver cloud is that concern about the Sunni-Shiite divide is widespread.

As part of a larger survey of 47 nations on global attitudes toward a variety of issues, Pew researchers asked residents of 16 predominantly Muslim nations if suicide bombing is justifiable.

Muslims in eight of these countries were asked this question in 2002, and only one country has seen an increase in support since then: Those in Turkey who believe suicide bombing is often or sometimes justified moved from 13 percent to 16 percent. In other Muslim countries, the percentage plummeted: In Lebanon it fell 40 points to 34 percent; in Jordan it was down 20 points to 23 percent; and 9 percent of Pakistanis approve, down from 33 percent five years ago.

In the eight new nations surveyed, the percentages were in a similar range, from 8 percent to 39 percent, except in the Palestinian territories, where 70 percent approved.

A Los Angeles Times editorial argues that the drop in support for this kind of terrorist action might provide the West an opportunity for reconciliation with the Muslim world.

But the survey also bears the marks of an emerging problem -- the growing animosity between the Shiite and Sunni branches of Islam. In many of the countries where people were surveyed, a majority expressed concern about this sectarian feud.

Cyclists Protest at Start of Tour de France Stage, As Race Leader Kicked Off Team

Word is that yet another cyclist at the Tour de France has tested positive for a banned substance, this time testosterone. Even the cyclists, particularly from France, are upset about all these cheating allegations. The Associated Press reports that a large block of riders refused to start today's stage at the scheduled time.

But the best thing about this latest version of "Everything you always wanted to know about doping but were afraid to ask a pharmacist" is the excuse from the last rider accused of cheating, Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan. Vinokourov tested positive for a banned blood transfusion after he won last Saturday's time trial, but he told French media that he hadn't cheated. "I heard that I made a transfusion with my father's blood," Vinokourov said. "That's absurd, I can tell you that with his blood, I would have tested positive for vodka."

Whoa. Talk about throwing Dad under the peloton.

(Tom's Update: The hits just keep on comin'. AP reports that Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen was kicked off his team Wednesday, for violating the team's internal rules.

The expulsion ... was ordered by the Dutch team sponsor, was linked to "incorrect" information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director over his whereabouts last month. Rasmussen, who also has been suspended from the team, missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico. But a former rider, Davide Cassani, told Denmark's Danmarks Radio on Wednesday that he had seen Rasmussen in Italy in mid-June.

Australian Police Make a Bungle in Terrorism Case

Australia's federal police force has had more than a bit of egg on its face over the past few days. Seems it dropped the ball on what was supposed to be a key piece of evidence against Mohamed Haneef, the Indian doctor charged in Australia with "recklessly" supporting the attempted terrorist bombings in London and Glasgow.

Haneef is accused of giving his cousins his cell phone's SIM card when he moved from Britain to Australia. The government prosecutor, based on information from the police, reported in court hearings that the SIM card was found in the Jeep that his cousin, Kafeel Ahmed, allegedly drove into the Glasgow airport terminal.

Whoops. Wrong. Turns out that the SIM card wasn't anywhere near Glasgow, Australian media reported. In fact, it was back in Liverpool with another cousin, Sabeel Ahmed, who also has been charged in the case. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a "source close to the British investigation" said Scotland Yard had nothing to do with the screw-up -- it was all the Australian police.

Haneef's lawyers slammed the police over the weekend, saying that they were leaking damaging allegations to the media about their client because the case is weak. The government revoked Haneef's visa to keep him in custody even after a court granted him bail.

Soda Linked to Heart Attack Risk Factors?

"This is the Health Police. We want you to slowly place that soda on the ground, put your hands in the air and move away from the can. Just move away from the can and your heart will be fine."

OK, maybe it's not that dramatic, but you can bet a new report that soda -- regular or diet -- appears to have a distinct link to heart disease risk factors is going to cause a stir. ABC News reports that a study published in the current issue of Circulation, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association, suggests that drinking even one soda a day is associated with an increase in risk factors for heart disease.

The study's researchers report that those who said they drank a soda or more per day had a 31 percent greater chance of developing obesity, a 30 percent increased risk for gaining inches around the waist, a 25 percent chance of developing high blood sugar levels and a 32 percent greater chance of developing lower "good" cholesterol levels.

The study was based on data collected for the Framingham Heart Study, which has tracked the health of thousands of people for decades.

Well, as you can imagine, the soda industry is not taking this lying down. The Baltimore Sun reports that Jeff Stier, associate director of the American Council on Science and Health, an industry-friendly consumer education group, said the study's effect on public health is nil. "This study doesn't conclude that drinking soda will give you a heart attack," he said.

That's something the researchers agree with, by the way. But they do theorize that drinking soda every day could be a "marker" of a lifestyle that is generally unhealthy. That someone who is drinking that much soda is also likely to be the person who orders the extra-large burger, a super-sized order of fries and a cherry pie for lunch.

Sunni Bloc Suspends Membership in Iraqi Government

Well, this isn't going to help the situation in Iraq. The news this morning is that the largest Sunni bloc has decided to suspend its membership in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition government.

The Associated Press reports that the Iraqi Accordance Front gave al-Maliki a week to meet its demands or it will make its decision to leave final.

Reading from a prepared statement, [Sheik Khalaf al-Elyan] said the front's demands were a pardon for security detainees not charged with specific crimes, a firm commitment by the government to human rights and the disbanding of militias.

The last demand on the list is a direct shot fired across the bow of the influential radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (whose support is key to al-Maliki's hold on power) and his Mahdi militia. The Sunni group had threatened earlier this month that it might take such an action if it felt al-Maliki, a Shiite, was not responsive to their proposals.

The Accordance Front has five cabinet members in the current Iraqi administration and 44 of the parliament's 275 seats.

July 24, 2007

Putin Accuses Britain of 'Colonial Thinking'

This Britain-Russia name-calling, diplomat-expelling row reminds me of listening to my kids argue. Just when you think things have calmed down, one of them will say something or poke somebody or complain too loudly, and the whole kerfuffle flares up again.

The latest poke comes from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who today accused Britain of "colonial thinking" in the ongoing diplomatic spat over the murder of the Kremlin critic and former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. The Guardian reports that Putin, in his harshest remarks in the matter so far, described Britain's demand that Russia extradite suspect Andrei Lugovoi as "insulting."

"What they propose is an obvious vestige of colonial thinking," Mr Putin said on Russian state television. "They must have clearly forgotten that Britain is no longer a colonial power, there are no colonies left and, thank God, Russia has never been a British colony."

It may be that Putin was just playing to the domestic Russian audience. The Daily Telegraph points out that last week he described the entire affair as a "mini-crisis" to an audience made up of international media.

Both countries recently expelled four diplomats from the other country. Russia also imposed a visa ban on British officials and said it would no longer cooperate with Britain in the war on terrorism.

Map Shows How Our Spread Is Spreading

If you want to see the weight gains of Americans in the past 20 years, check out this map at CNN. It shows how many of us throughout the country are now not just overweight but obese.

While nearly every state had at least 20-24 percent of its residents in the obese category in 2004, the problem appears to be really growing, so to speak, in the South, where more than a quarter of the population in several states was obese.

No jokes from me on this one. I've struggled with weight my entire life thanks to my love-hate relationship with fried food. Basically, if you deep fried an old sneaker, I would probably eat it.

Commanders in Iraq Prepare Plan for Next Two Years

The New York Times headline reads "U.S. Is Seen in Iraq Until at Least '09." But the real news in reporter Michael Gordon's story is the American command's new two-year plan to restore security in Iraq.

The plan, known as the Joint Campaign Plan, is the brainchild of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Its first aim is to restore security in localized areas around the country by the summer of 2008 and then to build on that to restore security nationwide by 2009.

Military officials, as is to be expected, aren't willing to guarantee success, considering the fate of other plans in Iraq -- especially former commander Gen. George Casey's plan to train Iraqi soldiers to take over responsibility from U.S. troops. We all know how well that one turned out.

The k/o blog notes that The Washington Post reported in late May that Petraeus and Crocker were working on a new plan that would emphasize the political over the military in terms of moving conflicts to the local level so they could be solved more easily. k/o writes that the plan "extends for at least two years into the future the fig leaf of the Iraqi government or military taking any action for or by itself without significant United States intervention."

Shaun Mullen at The Moderate Voice blog writes that the mere fact that this plan was shared with a Times reporter "shows how concerned commanders, and presumably the White House, are that ... public support for the war has eroded severely."

Drew Carey Agrees to Host 'The Price Is Right'

Drew Carey speaks about another game show he's hosting, Power of 10, at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in California earlier this month.

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

At first, I thought I was hearing things. Driving to Dulles airport around 3 a.m. to pick up my wife, home from a month overseas, I heard the announcer say the new host of The Price Is Right -- an American institution rivaled only by Mount Rushmore and Old Faithful for longevity and durability -- was going to be ... Drew Carey.

Drew Carey?! The host of the hilarious, frequently ribald Whose Line Is It Anyway? taking over one of my long-dead grandmother's favorite shows? Drew Carey, who admitted in his autobiography that he got frustrated with censors while filming his eponymous TV show because they wouldn't let him tell more dirty jokes? It was like having an out-of-body experience.

But when I looked online later this morning, there was the news: Carey is taking the reins from Bob Barker, who had hosted the show since FDR was president. (OK, actually, it was Nixon.)

The Associated Press reports:

The deal was set shortly before a taping of CBS' Late Show with David Letterman, where Carey confirmed it. "I realize what a big responsibility this is," he said. "It's only a game show, but it's the longest-running game show in American television and I plan to keep it that way."

Twenty years ago, when I worked in Nova Scotia, I interviewed a popular local DJ, who told me that his real goal in life was to be a game-show host. I almost laughed out loud. What kind of ambition was that?

But I think I've changed my position. Game shows are a lot more fun now than they were 20 years ago. (Think Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!) Hosting one could actually be kinda cool.

YouTube Questions Were Frank (and Sometimes Weird)

Despite all the uproar online about how the video questions were being picked for Monday's Democratic debate sponsored by CNN and YouTube, that "top secret team" (to quote Monday's post) at CNN that picked the questions didn't really pull any punches.

Many online adherents had complained that the YouTube community itself should have selected the questions from among the 3,000 submitted by YouTube users.

However, the ones picked still made it a bad night for "news anchors and Washington bureau chiefs, the traditional interrogators of would-be holders of American high office," writes Steve Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. The questions from YouTube users made the evening lively and more informative than past debates and "offered further demonstration of the Internet's rapid ascension to a place of prominence in American politics."

The YouTube users put a different spin on the questions they asked about gay marriage, gun ownership, even the candidates' relevance to the political system. Parents with children in Iraq asked about the war, and, as NPR's Mara Liasson reported on Morning Edition, a snowman even asked about global warming.

The San Francisco Chronicle writes that this may have been the first debate where the questions were more important than the answers.

As an observer, I can say it was a darn sight more interesting than almost all debates, Democratic or Republican, that I have seen before.

July 23, 2007

Plan to Use YouTube Videos in Debate Attracts Disdain

Tonight's Democratic presidential debate, sponsored by CNN and YouTube, will feature questions from citizens submitted via the video-sharing site. That might sound like a great way to allow people other than the media or a hand-picked audience to ask questions, but it has been royally roasted in the blogosphere.

Hot Air writes that YouTube should post a note on the first page of the questions submitted for tonight that reads, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

The top secret team that's sifting through the pile of questions, rants, false flag lobbying operations and statements dressed as questions must be cursing whoever came up with this idea. I went about 1100 videos in (out of about 2700 total) before concluding that the vast majority of people who submitted questions are a) very, very liberal and b) mostly ignorant or unconsciously self-parodying, c) self-important beyond reason and d) really, really have some problem or other with America.

NPR's Robert Smith reports on Day to Day that most people who want to ask the candidates a question "blow it," putting their pets or kids on camera or dressing up like Elvis. And Smith also notes it's that "top secret team" (CNN producers) that has bloggers upset. Many don't think it's appropriate for back-room media types to pick the videos and that it should be done by the YouTube community itself.

So the Web site Community Counts is asking online users to pick the questions that should be used. (The No. 1 question this afternoon is about impeaching President Bush.) And two of the candidates, Chris Dodd and John Edwards, have agreed to answer top questions chosen by the Community Counts users.

If there is one thing we've learned about online communities, it's that they react negatively when they believe their freedom to choose is being limited. Online tools like YouTube have the potential to give voice to lots of people and open up the political process. But the structure for tonight's debate makes it not much different than if the audience had been picked in advance.

India's Latest 'Robin Hood' Killed by Police

India, it seems, has seen nearly as many real-life versions of Robin Hood as Hollywood studios have film versions in their archives.

The latest "Robin Hood," Shiv Kumar, also known by the alias Dadua, was killed along with several companions by police during a fierce gun battle Sunday. The Associated Press reports that Kumar, believed to be in his 60s, led one of the last remaining bands of outlaws that roam central India.

Kumar had a reputation for being fiercely loyal to the poor villagers in the region, particularly those from his Kurmi caste, a group on the lower rungs of India's complex social ladder and one of the most downtrodden in the area in which he operated.

But a man known as Veerappan, who was killed by police in 2004, was also called India's "Robin Hood." CNN reported he gained international notoriety in 2000 when he kidnapped India's most popular movie star, Rajkumar, then released him a few months later.

And in the '50s, there was the "Robin Hood of the Himalayas" in neighboring Nepal. Former Indian army clerk K.I. Singh started giving out land to Nepalese peasant farmers before the Indian army threw him in jail. He went on to become Nepal's prime minister.

When reading all this, it's hard not to think of the story of the Dread Pirate Roberts from the The Princess Bride (a pirate who retired and gave someone else the name when he was rich enough).

No More Harry Potter Books Is a Daunting Thought

Stacks of the seventh and last installment of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, at a bookstore in Washington.

Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

I just finished it. The seventh book.

Yes, yes, I know I was reading at work. But it was just the last five pages. And a journalist has to research the important stories of the day, right? Since I picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Saturday around 4 p.m., I've been reading the more-than-700-page book non-stop.

And here is what you'