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September 28, 2007

Where Have All the Recruits Gone?

It might not seem like the best idea for a Navy recruiter to use the phrase "narcissistic praise junkies" to refer to potential sailors. But it turned up in a presentation at the Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference to describe the qualities of so-called "millennial" kids, the ones they're trying to get to join the Navy now. Here's a link to the whole presentation. (Warning: It's a PowerPoint document.)

But along with the amusing pieces in the presentation (favorite line: "This is not just a generation gap, but dealing with a somewhat alien life force." And a translation of l33t speak: Navy! FTW!), there is something that shows what we've been hearing all along: that the kids today just aren't all that interested in heading over to Iraq. Check out the slide below, showing the negative effect of the Iraq war on kids' patriotism and their likelihood to join the military.

Total sidenote: In the slide of the presentation that talks about the millennials' trademarks (never seen a film camera, always been online, etc.), there is one odd lapse for a military document. It says, "WW1 started nearly a century before he was born (For Boomers, Civil War started a century before birth)." Now, check me on this, but World War I started in 1914 (1917 if you're dating it to when America entered the war), which is 60-70 years before the millennials start being born (depending on when you count the beginning of the millennial generation). And the Civil War started in 1861, and assuming we're counting the boomers as being born after World War II but before the Vietnam War, that's about 80-some-odd years later. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but don't they teach bloody dates at Annapolis anymore?

(Thanks to Danger Room.)

- JJ Sutherland

A slide from a presentation about recruiting members of the millennial generation at the Annual Navy Workforce Research and Analysis Conference.

Conference Web site

Myanmar Shuts Down Internet Access

The government of Myanmar has cut off the public's access to the Internet. That access has played a major role in allowing us to see images of what is happening during the anti-government protests in the country.

It looks like the government is continuing to violently clamp down on the protests that have drawn thousands of people into the streets, often led by Buddhist monks.

One blog that is still getting some stuff out of Myanmar is Ko Htike's. He's a native of the country, now living in London, who has been posting photos and reports on what is happening since the crisis began.

(Warning: Some of the images on his blog are graphic depictions of the results of the violence.)

- JJ Sutherland

Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day

A few months back, someone proposed designating Dec. 8 as "Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day." And it's gaining steam online. The rules are simple: You can be from a utopian future or a dystopian one, or, "for beginners," the past.

Here's my favorite, the dystopian, from the proposal:

- If you go [for] the "prisoner who's escaped the future" try shaving your head and putting a barcode on the back of your neck. Then stagger around and stare at the sky, as if you've never seen it before.
- Walk up to random people and say "WHAT YEAR IS THIS?" and when they tell you, get quiet and then say "Then there's still time!" and run off.

- Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell "NOOOOOOOOO"

People from places as far afield as Florida, Holland, Australia, Canada, Belgium and California have already signed up. There's a Facebook event with more than 2,000 confirmed guests. There are pages and pages of ideas and costume proposals.

One of my faves:

One of the ones I've done in real life was to get my friend to shave his head, draw a bar code on the back of his neck, stagger up to people and say "WHAT YEAR IS THIS" then run off. Then a second person walks up to that same person later with a photo and says "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN"? It helps if you have a little eyepiece or small piece of obtuse technology on you.

Now, I have no idea if anyone will actually pull this off, but the enthusiasm seems to be running high, with blogs and sites talking about it. It's similar, perhaps, to the zombie day in San Francisco earlier this year. Or the incredibly insane anime dance number done in Tokyo, where a bunch of people met up online and decided to do the dance in the street, until the cops came. Kind of like a flash mob, like the 4,000 people who showed up during rush hour at London's Victoria station and danced. For two hours.

Of course, these kinds of things can be used in ways besides just odd public art pieces: protests, marketing, whatever. It might be the next step in linking virtual and "meat" space. And it's not moderated or organized by anyone really; it just comes from an idea that people build on. Open-source action.

- JJ Sutherland

'I'm Not in the Business. I Am the Business.'

Director Ridley Scott attends the Blade Runner premiere at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

I just got off the phone with Tom Bullock, our head foreign producer. When both of us are in the country, we share a very small, very messy office. He's in Baghdad right now, but I called him with the news that Ridley Scott is releasing yet another version of Blade Runner in the coming months.

We have had a long-running conversation about various top fives (obviously inspired by High Fidelity), and Blade Runner makes both of our lists. As does The Empire Strikes Back, as well as Alien and Aliens. We disagree about the last entry, but that's simply because he's wrong in thinking 2001 is better than Terminator.

But yet another cut of Blade Runner? The movie was released 25 years ago, the director's cut 15 years ago, and now a five-disc set.

Blade Runner, in my opinion, still works. It feels real. It feels like a dirty, rainy, global megalopolis that could exist today. It still feels like an accurate portrayal of an ever-approaching future.

Why? Well, Wired has an interview with Scott this week. Here's what he says about how he approached the design of the film:

In this instance, my special effect was the world. That's why I put together people like [industrial designer] Syd Mead who were actually serious futurists. The big test is saying, Draw me a car in 30 years' time, without it looking like bad science fiction. Or, Draw me an electric iron that will be pressing shirts in 20 years without it looking silly. I wanted the world to be futuristic and yet feel — not familiar, because it won't be — but feel authentic. One of the hardest sets to design was the kitchen. It's easy to fantasize about Tyrell's giant neo-Egyptianesque boardroom, but imagining a bathroom and kitchen in those times, that's tricky. Nevertheless, fascinating. I love the problem.

It's on my Netflix list. You all rate the top five differently?

- JJ Sutherland

The Questions Being Asked Later

(Tom Regan is off today. NPR's JJ Sutherland is filling in.)

I never saw Baghdad before the war. I've heard it described as impeccably clean. A spread-out city more akin to Los Angeles than the densely packed old cities in the Middle East. Not much traffic, not a lot of cars.

It's still spread out, but the cleanliness and traffic have changed. Rubble and trash litter the streets. Sometimes someone has made a half-hearted effort to sweep the rubble into loose piles. The occasional burned-out car, usually from a car bomb, can be seen on the side of the road. Massive concrete walls seal off buildings and neighborhoods and markets in an attempt to secure them. Miles of razor wire spill in loose coils onto the street. It is not a pretty city.

But the scariest part to me is all the guys with guns. There seem to be dozens of different uniforms and vehicles, and many of them wear masks. But they all carry weapons, and they seem to be pointed at you all the time. It is not uncommon to be sitting in Baghdad's horrific traffic with some guy in a pickup truck or van or SUV pointing a rifle at you, and the only thing you can think is: "Who are those guys?"

And of those guys with guns, the Blackwater guys with their mirrored shades stood out. The rumors and stories about them among Iraqis are unending.

And so, this latest incident that is causing all the furor here and in Iraq didn't really surprise me. But reading The New York Times today did.

Continue reading "The Questions Being Asked Later" »

September 27, 2007

Study Finds Men Are Happier Than Women

This report caught me completely by surprise because I thought the results would be reversed. A new study by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that men are happier than women. It's a major change from surveys 30 years ago.

And the main reason? While women do have more opportunities, the study found they are also being asked to handle many responsibilities, like a job and the housework. The guys? It seems they just get to "play a lot more than women do," as one of the survey subjects put it. (Which is shorthand for they're not doing housework.)

[Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the Wharton School] said that choosing between work and family is a major source of stress. "If you are at work, you feel torn you should be home," she said. "And if you are home you feel you should be at work. And if you cut back your hours as a stay at home mom, you feel you are a failure as a career woman."

But one big difference between today and past decades is that women do not intend to suffer in silence. "Perhaps one of the achievements of the women's movement is they feel more honest, and capable of being honest about their lack of happiness," Stevenson said.

GAO: Canadian Border Presents Security Concerns

A threat from the Great White North, eh?

A Government Accountability Office report, presented today to the Senate Finance Committee, says there are too many vulnerable spots along the 5,000-mile-long U.S.-Canadian border where someone could smuggle radioactive materials into the United States.

CongressDaily reports that on three separate occasions GAO officials "probed apparently unmonitored and unmanned sections of the northern border, finding that they could sneak from Canada into the United States undetected even while carrying a red duffel bag to simulate the smuggling of radioactive materials or other contraband." A GAO video shows agents going back and forth across the border.

A Customs and Border Protection spokesman downplayed the findings and hinted that officials might have been aware of what the GAO was doing but determined it wasn't a threat. CBS reports that border officials still believe the border with Mexico is a far greater threat.

U.K. Firm Tells U.S. Workers to Remove Helmet Decals

I remember seeing plenty of workers for KeySpan, a big natural gas firm in the Northeast, sporting hard hats that were so covered with stickers and decals, you couldn't see the white underneath.

Not anymore. The Boston Globe reports that a month after the British energy giant National Grid PLC took over KeySpan, managers told employees that the decals and stickers — often depicting the American flag or carrying slogans like "Proud to be an American" — had to go, or they would be suspended.

Some workers have resisted the new rule. A spokesman for the company says it's a safety issue as well as one of appearance because the decals could cover cracks and wear in the hard hats.

Now, I'm not quite sure if these British owners realize what they have done. I lived in Boston for a long time, and I can tell you that Bostonians still don't take well to British rule. It wouldn't surprise me at all if some of those safety helmets wind up in Boston Harbor.

How do you feel about the hard-hat stickers? Should workers be able to express themselves on the job?

Judge Rules Provisions of Patriot Act Unconstitutional

For the second time this month, a judge has ruled sections of the Patriot Act unconstitutional.

CNN reports that the two provisions struck down Wednesday deal with searches and intelligence gathering. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken of Portland, Ore., ruled that the act violates the Constitution because it "permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

The government "is asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning. The court declines to do so," Aiken said.
The Justice Department was reviewing the decision, said spokesman Dean Boyd.

Aiken's ruling came in a case brought by attorney Brandon Mayfield, a Portland native who had been wrongly detained as a terrorism suspect in the Madrid bombings of 2004. As The Washington Post reports, the FBI used expanded powers under the Patriot Act "to secretly search Mayfield's house and law office, copy computer files and photos, tape his telephone conversations, and place surveillance bugs in his office using warrants issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."

A New York judge also struck down part of the Patriot Act this month, ruling on Sept. 6 that provisions allowing the FBI to use national security letters to get data from private companies without a court warrant were unconstitutional.

September 26, 2007

Did Columnist's Gender Play Role in Coach's Tirade?

Watch Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy's rant.

YouTube

By now, much of America has seen the tirade that Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy unleashed on Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson after she wrote a scathing column about OSU quarterback Bobby Reid. (In case you missed it, it's a big hit on YouTube.)

Gundy said he felt that Carlson was too hard on an amateur player and that she wasn't able to understand how upset Reid was over losing his starting position because she didn't have any children.

More than a few sports columnists have taken Gundy to task for his rant. (He has refused to apologize. Carlson has written that she will stand by her original column.) Observers also have pointed out that Division I football players are often treated more like professionals than amateurs.

But Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Carol Slezak wonders if Gundy would have openly berated a male columnist in the way that he went after a woman.

I can't imagine Gundy screaming during a press conference about a male writer's lack of offspring. I can't imagine him substituting ''daddy'' for ''mommy'' in his rant. I also wonder, as one of the few — or perhaps only — women in that room, if Carlson didn't make for an easy target in Gundy's mind. Watching the video, I sensed a subcurrent that gave me an uneasy feeling. As if what Gundy was really thinking was, ''How dare that bitch criticize one of my players. She shouldn't be writing about football. She should be home making babies."

Do you think Gundy's tirade was influenced by Carlson's gender or would he have treated a male writer the same way? Either way, was his anger at the column itself justified?

GAO Takes Administration to Task over Vet Benefits

The Government Accountability Office took the Bush administration to task today over veterans' benefits — or, to be more precise, the lack of them. The testimony before a House subcommittee was the first preliminary assessment of how things are going since The Washington Post documented problems with outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The Army has touted the creation of more personalized medical care units to prevent wounded veterans from falling through the cracks, but GAO officials found that 46 percent of returning service members who were eligible didn't get the service because of staffing shortages.

GAO officials reported that the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department remain "far away" from having a comprehensive system for sharing medical records, even after 10 years of review, The Associated Press reports. The administration also lacks a solution for delays in disability payments, which average almost six months, despite reviews at multiple levels of government.

USA Today's On Politics blog speculates that the GAO's report could reignite a debate about veterans' care among the presidential candidates. You might even see it discussed during the Democrats' debate tonight in New Hampshire.

Security Forces Start Crackdown in Myanmar

Fears that Myanmar's military rulers would retaliate against protesting monks and activists were realized today when security forces began a violent crackdown. The Associated Press reports that at least one person was shot and killed and dozens of Buddhist monks were dragged away. As many as 300 monks and activists were arrested.

There are differing reports of casualties. Agence-France Presse reports that three monks were killed — one when a gun went off as he struggled with a soldier, and two others who were beaten to death.

The military junta had banned all gatherings of more than five people and imposed a nighttime curfew following days of anti-government marches.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called today for a U.N. Security Council meeting, vowing there would be "no impunity'' for human rights violators in the country.

UAW, General Motors Reach Tentative Deal

The two-day strike is over. The United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement with General Motors on a four-year contract early this morning.

The two sides released few details of the new contract, but the Chicago Tribune reports that it will shift "a $51 billion liability for retiree health care to a union-run trust fund." The union will take over managing the liability in a voluntary employee beneficiary association. It means the union will assume the risk of future increases in health care costs.

Union leaders said this morning that the contract includes assurances from GM that UAW workers' jobs will be protected and lump-sum bonuses instead of annual wage increases.

The next step is for local UAW presidents review the contract, and then it will be put to the union's 74,000 members at GM for a vote. The contract also needs court and regulatory approval, which means it may take a while to implement.

The agreement is expected to set a pattern for contract talks at Ford and Chrysler.

September 25, 2007

Microsoft Hopes to Stay Ahead with 'Halo 3'

Microsoft is pinning a lot of hopes on today's release of the game Halo 3, including its ability to continue to claim the Xbox as the most popular video-gaming system.

Bloomberg reports that Xbox has been steadily losing ground to the more family-friendly Nintendo Wii system. But Microsoft hopes that Halo 3 — aimed at the gaming world's "sweet spot" of male teens and young adults — will become the year's biggest entertainment event. That title is currently held by the seventh Harry Potter novel, which brought in an opening-day total of $170 million.

Halo will sell for $59 to $129. Hardcore fans can even get a special edition Xbox for $400 in the green and gold colors of Master Chief, the soldier who defends humanity from alien invaders in the game.

Microsoft may have grand expectations, but Halo fan Rich Douek, a 32-year-old graphic designer from New York, tells The Associated Press that he's not expecting to be blown away.

"At end of the day it's just a really good first-person shooter. I don't see it as breaking any molds or being any new revolutionary concept in gaming," he said. "It may turn out to be best first-person shooter ever, but it's not going to, like, change the world in a meaningful way."

DEA Busts Steroid Rings with Links to China

One sports columnist is calling it "Armageddon for athletes."

The International Herald Tribune reports that federal officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration have made 124 arrests and seized millions of dollars' worth of illegal drugs as part of a bust that exposed "a sprawling underground distribution network for steroids, human growth hormone and other illicit bodybuilding drugs supplied by 37 companies in China." The DEA revealed the scope of the 18-month operation Monday, which also included raids and arrests in Mexico, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Thailand.

The authorities seized $6.5 million cash, 25 vehicles, 3 boats, 27 pill presses and 71 weapons while executing 143 search warrants at 56 makeshift steroid labs and other locations, the drug enforcement agency said.

The DEA estimates that 99 percent of the steroids were made with materials imported from China. A spokesman said if the agency comes across the names of athletes who received the illegal drugs during their investigation, they will leave it up to the Justice Department to decide if the players' leagues should be notified.

The Washington Post reports that the arrests "could have unusual and unnerving repercussions for the clientele of the labs" because the DEA is creating a database of people who received the drugs.

High Court to Hear Lethal Injection, Voter ID Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed today to hear cases examining the constitutionality of two prominent issues: lethal injection and voter identification requirements.

The Associated Press reports that the court will hear an appeal from Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr., two Kentucky death-row inmates who sued the state in 2004, claiming lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Baze was scheduled to be executed today, but the Kentucky Supreme Court halted the proceedings earlier this month.

Lethal injections are used in 37 states. Anti-death penalty advocates say the three-drug "cocktail" used in injections can lead to excruciating pain. In Kentucky, an appeals court and the state's Supreme Court have ruled that lethal injection is constitutional. But a judge in Tennessee ruled against lethal injection last week and ordered the state to not to use it. A California judge made a similar ruling last year.

Ohio State University law professor Douglas Berman points out at his Sentencing Law and Policy blog that the court's decision to hear the case could mean a moratorium on all lethal injection executions nationwide until a ruling is issued, possibly as late as June 2008.

And in a case that will have implications for the 2008 elections, the Supreme Court also agreed to decide if voter identification laws unfairly dissuade minorities and the poor from voting. The challenge originates from an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo ID at the polls. The state says the law reduces voter fraud.

Along with these two cases, the court agreed to hear 15 others.

Housing Prices Decline Sharply in July

A decline in U.S. home prices sped up across the nation in July, leading to the sharpest drop in 16 years. The Associated Press reports that the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 10 cities out today shows a 4.5 percent drop from last year.

In the index of 20 cities, there was a 3.9 percent decrease. According to the report, prices are still rising in five of those cities: Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Portland; and Seattle — but Atlanta and Dallas are close to moving into negative territory.

The results of a Reuters/University of Michigan survey last week shows that today's news will come as no surprise to many homeowners. In the survey, 26 percent of homeowners said the value of their homes has fallen in the past year, while 21 percent said they expect their homes' value to fall in the year ahead.

But Diana Olick writes at CNBC that, as big as that 26 percent figure is, it only shows that the other 74 percent of homeowners are not facing the reality of the situation.

Sellers are stubborn; they just don't get it. Prices during the boom were unsustainable, affordability is now ridiculous, and continued price appreciation makes no economic sense in the current atmosphere. The boom-time price inflation in homes was thanks to a faulty mortgage system, which is now in the process of righting itself, and home prices rightfully have to fall in line. Do I like writing those words? Hell no! I own a home. I like money. I also like logic. Sue me.

Buddhist Monks Continue Protest Despite Threats

Buddhist monks and their supporters march in protest in Yangon today, despite stern warnings from Myanmar's junta.

AFP/Getty Images

Thousands of Buddhist monks continued their protests against the country's military rulers today in Myanmar, formerly Burma, despite threats of retaliation.

The monks and their civilian supporters again marched through the streets of Yangon, chanting, "We want dialogue" and "Democracy, democracy." The protests began Aug. 19 after the government sharply raised fuel prices.

Reuters reports that there were no overt signs of soldiers during the march, but police and military trucks drove into the city center after demonstrators left.

Monks have been passing out pictures of the late Aung San, an independence hero and the father of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Bush administration has entered the fray, threatening further sanctions against the Myanmar government and those who fund it, The Associated Press reports. President Bush is expected to announce the sanctions during his speech today at the United Nations. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Reuters that the U.S. also will step up pressure for U.N. Security Council action on Myanmar.

September 24, 2007

California Church Wants Apology from IRS

It seems that the clergy and parishioners of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., are not interested in turning the other cheek when it comes to the Internal Revenue Service.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Rev. J. Edwin Bacon Jr. said Sunday that the IRS had notified him that it had ended its lengthy investigation into what it considered an anti-war sermon given in the days before the 2004 election. The IRS said the church continues to qualify for tax-exempt status, but the agency still considers the sermon illegal.

Instead of accepting the decision, the church has decided to "seek clarification, a corrected record and an apology from the IRS." It also wants the Treasury Department, which overseas the IRS, to investigate reports of inappropriate conversations between the agency and the Justice Department.

Those conversations, documented in e-mails obtained by the church through Freedom of Information Act requests, appear to show that Justice Department officials were involved in the All Saints case before the IRS made any formal referral of it for possible prosecution, an attorney for the church said. The discussions raise concerns that the IRS' investigation was politically motivated, church officials said.

Chinese Happy About Mattel's Apology

Toy maker Mattel's very public apology to China over its recent recall of millions of Chinese-made toys is getting high marks in the country. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Chinese newspapers editorialized today that the apology allows China to reclaim the "dignity" of the "made in China" brand.

A Mattel senior vice president apologized Friday. "Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys," Thomas Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president for worldwide operations, told Li Changjang, China's product safety chief.

But why would Mattel make such a public apology? Financial experts told The Associated Press that Mattel is concerned about its bottom line.

"Mattel is worried that the Chinese government is going to make it difficult for them to produce, put their costs up and hurt their stock price," said Peter Navarro, a business professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Chinese officials blame the world media for unfairly targeting China. And they may have an argument. A new report by two Canadian business professors says that of the 550 toy recalls since the 1980s, about 75 percent were caused by design flaws, not problems in the manufacturing process. In the Mattel case, the company said 17.4 million toys were recalled because of a design flaw involving loose magnets that could be swallowed and 2.2 million were recalled because of lead paint from Chinese suppliers.

UAW Members Start Picketing General Motors

United Auto Workers members wait at UAW Local 22 for news and their strike assignments Monday in Detroit.

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

The Detroit Free Press reports that United Auto Workers members started picketing General Motors plants in suburban Detroit and Lansing, Mich., after an 11 a.m. deadline passed for the two sides to reach a new labor agreement. The walkout coincided with the lunch break at several plants.

A General Motors spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press that the UAW has called a strike against the company. Spokesman Dan Flores said GM was disappointed that a strike was called.

"The bargaining involves complex, difficult issues that affect the job security of our U.S. work force and the long-term viability of the company. We remain fully committed to working with the UAW to develop solutions together to address the competitive challenges facing GM," Flores said.

The strike, the first against General Motors since 1998, was unexpected. The Chicago Tribune reports it comes "as Asian automakers are grabbing bigger shares of the U.S. market and could be damaging to both sides." GM has cut more than 150,000 UAW jobs since 2005. A prolonged strike would likely lead to plant shutdowns and more layoffs.

It's Global Warming Week in America

If you're interested in global warming, this is the week to pay attention to the news.

Starting with a meeting today at the United Nations in New York, there will be a series of gatherings designed to confront the problems created by global warming — like the news that the Arctic polar ice cap retreated farther this summer than apparently any other time in more than a hundred years — and find political solutions. Today's gathering, designed to coincide with the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, will include representatives of more than 150 countries.

On Wednesday, the Clinton Global Initiative will bring together business and international political leaders for three days to discuss "grass-roots" solutions to global warming. Then on Thursday, President Bush will host the leaders of the world's top carbon-emitting countries, including India and China. (Some critics have charged that Bush is trying to upstage the U.N. meeting, but his supporters deny it.)

All these meetings come just a few days after 200 governments agreed at a U.N. conference in Montreal to speed up a treaty to phase out hydrochlorofluorocarbons, chemicals that harm the ozone layer.

Ahmadinejad Comes to the Big Apple

This may be the most-watched visit to New York since, well, King Kong.

Controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will drop by Columbia University today to address students and bring "alternative views" to a U.S. audience. It's my guess that his reception will be somewhat similar to a heckling Red Sox fan who shows up at Yankee Stadium. Then again, he probably won't get beaten up ... physically.

Police rejected Ahmadinejad's request to visit the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes Sunday night, Ahmadinejad said he wanted to visit to honor the victims of the attacks. Sort of.

"Usually, you go to these sites to pay your respects," Ahmadinejad said. "And also to perhaps air your views about the root causes of such incidents."

Ah, I'm not sure I've heard that one before. (And reading the transcript of the interview shows the Iranian leader is pretty dogged when it comes to spin, noting that "70, 80 percent of the American people are against their troops, their sons and daughters being in Iraq and war.")

Speaking of Iraq, The Associated Press reports that tensions between Iran and the U.S. continue to grow, most recently over the U.S. arrest of an Iranian official there, with the Iraqi government seeming to lean toward Iran.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the arrest, saying the official had been invited to Iraq. U.S. forces say he is a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which is accused of smuggling weapons into Iraq.

"The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa, it is responsible for the visa," al-Maliki told AP. "We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable."

September 21, 2007

Study Shows Quitters Are Winners

Winners never quit and quitters never win. Unless you count being healthier and happier. Seriously.

Two Canadian psychologists, Gregory Miller of the University of British Columbia and Carsten Wrosch of Concordia University in Montreal, wondered about the link between tenacity and health. So they developed a way to distinguish between "people who are relentless by nature and those who are much more accepting of life's curveballs." Or Bulldogs and Quitters.

For a study published in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science, the two men followed a group of teenagers for a year. Their results indicate that people who know their own limits are healthier in almost every measure than people who won't give up.

As Wray Herbert writes at Newsweek, "knowing when to throw in the towel is only half the story."

The psychologists also sorted both the Bulldogs and the Quitters by their willingness to re-engage and set new goals after they gave up on something important. While they did not find a direct link between re-engagement and physical health, they did find that people who readily jumped back into life had a greater sense of purpose and mastery and were less likely to ruminate about the past. Setting new goals appears to buffer the emotional consequences of failure, especially for those, like the Bulldogs, who have the hardest time admitting defeat.

Or, quoting Herbert quoting W.C. Fields, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it."

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

Blogosphere Plays Role in 'Jena Six' Story, Others

If anyone doubts that the blogosphere is increasingly playing a role in shaping our political and news environment, this week's events may convince them otherwise. Three stories in the past few days illustrate the point.

First, there's Eric Weiner's piece for NPR.org about the role that African-American bloggers played in bringing the story of the "Jena Six" to the forefront of the traditional media. The story of the six black youths charged in the beating of a white classmate was largely untouched by mainstream media outlets for months, but a loose network of black bloggers (sometimes called the "Afro-Sphere") refused to let it die. Eventually their efforts helped lead to Thursday's massive — and massively covered — demonstration.

Shawn Williams, a blogger from Dallas, compared the bloggers' network to "the underground railroad. A lot of people are faceless and nameless. So just like the underground railroad, you know where to go but you don't know who might be there once you arrive."

Second, Dan Rather might still be an anchor at CBS, rather than suing it, if not for the blogosphere. After CBS aired a damning story about President Bush's days in the Air National Guard based on a series of memos, bloggers immediately raised concerns that they were phony. Eventually CBS retracted the story, which ultimately led to Rather's departure.

Finally, The Washington Post reported Sunday that President Bush had met with a group of military bloggers. The Post notes that the meeting offered Bush the chance to get around the traditional media, while also reaching out to the providers of a new source of information for soldiers, their families and others who follow the conflict in Iraq closely.

"More and more we are engaging in the new-media world, and these are influential people who have a big following," said Kevin F. Sullivan, the White House communications chief.

FBI Reportedly Taped Alaska Senator in Probe

The Associated Press reports that the FBI worked with an Alaska oil contractor to secretly tape telephone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens in a public corruption sting. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator, is under investigation in the FBI probe of several prominent lawmakers in Alaska.

[Bill] Allen, a wealthy businessman and Stevens' political patron, agreed to the taping last year after authorities confronted him with evidence he had bribed Alaska lawmakers. He pleaded guilty to bribery and is a key witness against Alaska legislators. He also has told prosecutors he paid his employees to renovate the senator's house ... Stevens has said he won't discuss the investigation for fear it will look like he's trying to influence it.

Allen testified in federal court last week that the FBI asked him to call several people. An example of Allen's handiwork surfaced in the trial of former Alaska House Speaker Peter Kott. In a call taped by the FBI, Allen asked Kott how his son resolved his financial troubles. Kott said, "It was your check."

The Anchorage Daily News reports that Kott said at his trial that, while he accepted money, he didn't take bribes.

Report: U.S., Israel Shared Data about Syrian Site

Well, it looks like the recent speculation that Israel conducted a raid in Syria because of possible nuclear activity there might have been on the money. The Washington Post reports that Israel decided to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear site after sharing information with the United States that indicated North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria.

Ultimately, however, the United States is believed to have provided Israel with some corroboration of the original intelligence before Israel proceeded with the raid, which hit the Syrian facility in the dead of night to minimize possible casualties, the sources said.

But some proliferation experts have doubts about the intelligence that precipitated Israel's strike, the Post reports. They say Syria showed no interest in nuclear weapons in the past and it's possible North Korea was just unloading what it didn't need. North Korea denied this week that it was giving the country any nuclear aid.

Simon Tisdall of The Guardian writes that this "nuclear spectre has been conjured largely by American officials, some of whom famously misdirected similar WMD allegations at Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq." He says another explanation for the attack seems more plausible: that Israel was targeting Iranian arms on their way to Hezbollah. While Iran says it only provides financial support to the Lebanese organization, Tisdall writes, there are "persistent, credible reports" that Iranian weapons are making their way through Syria from northern Iraq.

September 20, 2007

Canadian Dollar Matches U.S., While Euro Soars

Several years ago, when I lived in Canada and worked via the Internet for The Christian Science Monitor in Boston, the gap between my U.S. salary and what it was worth in Canadian dollars was so large, I had to pay an additional $30,000 in taxes in Canada. That's how much extra income the dollar difference generated.

Well, I wouldn't have to pay extra today. For the first time in 30 years, the Canadian and American dollars are at par. That's because this week's half-point interest cut had the effect of "weakening the dollar versus other currencies by reducing the cash yield on dollars," The Associated Press reports.

This will make Canadians heading to America on vacation very happy and Canadian auto-part makers, film people and American ball players in Toronto very unhappy.

But what's going on with the Canadian dollar is small potatoes compared to the euro. It hit $1.40 U.S. today, which is a big deal, as AP explains:

That level had long been seen as a key benchmark in terms of solidifying the euro's position on currency markets and giving it momentum toward becoming a reserve currency of choice — a position long held by the now-weakening dollar.

Is the U.S. Relationship with Israel Too Close?

John Mearsheimer is in the house, so get ready for the firestorm.

Mearsheimer and his colleague, Stephen Walt, generated a lot of debate last year with a controversial article about U.S.-Israeli relations in the London Review of Books. They argued that the United States should not have a special relationship with Israel and should instead treat it just like any other nation that does business with the United States.

Mearsheimer, of the University of Chicago, and Walt, of Harvard, also claim that the objectives pursued on behalf of the U.S. and Israel by the organizations that make up what they call "the Israel lobby" are actually harming both countries.

The two went on to publish a book on the subject, and Mearsheimer is a guest on Talk of the Nation today to talk about The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.

The book has received several negative reviews (although some have been positive), and the authors have been labeled everything from "politically naive" to "anti-Semitic." However, Scott McLemee, who reviewed the book for New York's Newsday, writes, "The real problem with their argument is not that it is anti-Semitic, or even overly polemical. (You can find harsher criticisms of both Israel and its American supporters in Israeli newspapers.) It's that the term 'Israel lobby' is both too diffuse and too narrow."

Blackwater Affair a Propaganda Victory for U.S. Foes

While U.S. politicians and talk show hosts debate what really happened in Sunday's deadly shooting involving security firm Blackwater USA in Baghdad, the Iraqi public seems to have already decided the matter — they think Blackwater's employees are guilty of murder, CBS News reports.

For instance, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a press conference Wednesday that he cannot tolerate "the killing of our citizens in cold blood."

The shooting has become a "huge propaganda victory for America's enemies in Iraq" at a time when the U.S. felt it was making positive strides, CBS reports.

The already negative image of the security contractors was reinforced by televised interviews with survivors of the shooting (including Hassan Jaber Salma, 50, a lawyer who suffered eight gunshot wounds), who said they had been trying to help the diplomatic convoy that Blackwater employees were guarding get through the intersection but were shot anyway.

Anne Garrels reported for All Things Considered that reports of similar incidents involving Blackwater have poured out since Sunday's shootings, as if "the lid of compliance and silence was suddenly broken."

Karim Muhammed, who owns a furniture store, said he's seen people killed by foreign security companies. He said Iraqi officials should have done something about this a long time ago. "Why do they consider American blood first class, and ours a cheap commodity?" Muhammed said. "Are they better than us?"

Bill to Give Troops Extra Rest Fails

Senate Republicans have once again rejected an effort to give U.S. troops extra time at home between their combat stints. The proposal, co-sponsored by war veterans Jim Webb of Virginia and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, was blocked with a 56-to-44 vote, short of the 60 votes needed to advance. The measure would have required the military to allow troops to remain on leave for at least as long as they were most recently deployed before going back to war.

The bill, viewed by many as the Democrats' best chance to affect war policy, was doomed by a joint effort from the Bush administration and the Pentagon, which convinced a number of wavering Republicans, including the other senator from Virginia, John Warner, to kill it. Although there are a number of other Iraq measures in the pipe, they are unlikely to go anywhere.

"I don't think there's going to be any meaningful change of votes or switching until we get into next year," Hagel told The Washington Post.

Republicans took a chance in defeating the measure. While the vote will make military leaders happy, it may not please the families of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are already signs that more troops are shifting their support to the Democrats.

But Democrats don't have the anti-war vote in the bag. Politico reports that anti-war groups are furious over the lack of progress and may target Democrats they consider too weak in their support of anti-war measures in next year's primaries. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly met with leaders of the movement this week to try to pacify them.

The Reid mission reflected the paradox bedeviling the anti-war movement. It is powerful enough to command constant care and feeding by the Democratic Party's presidential candidates and congressional leaders. But so far it has proven largely impotent in forcing policy changes.

It's going to be an interesting election year.

September 19, 2007

Jeb Bush Takes Aim at His Successor over Insurance

Then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (left) and Charlie Crist talk during a Crist campaign event in 2006.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

President Bush's brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, is not too happy with how his Republican successor, Charlie Crist, is handling the state's insurance crisis — Bush's biggest challenge while in office.

Florida and other Southern states have found themselves with major insurance problems, largely brought on by the aftermath of Katrina and other hurricanes. The governors of Alabama and Mississippi have said that insurers' refusal to write new policies in certain areas, especially near the coast, have "forced the state to pick up the riskiest property and not charge sound rates," the St. Petersburg Times reports.

Bush, addressing the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies convention outside Dallas this week, criticized Florida's latest efforts at reform, the Times reports. He specifically targeted "a January special session bill that doubled the state's catastrophe fund to $32-billion and allowed state-backed Citizens Property Insurance to directly compete with the private market."

The Times reports that Crist has all but "declared war on State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide and other large insurance companies operating in the state" because of their refusal to grant coverage to some homeowners. But Bush, without mentioning Crist by name, said the expansion of risk into the public domain would come back to hurt the state.

Crist said he did not take the remarks personally.