When Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, launched an attack last week on Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, it set off a week of heavy fighting. In the end, U.S. and British troops were called in to provide support, and the fighting spread to other cities, including Baghdad. Now, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on members of his militia to withdraw, in what he is calling a victory. On the show today, we'll talk about what's happened in Iraq this past week, why Sadr abruptly withdrew his forces over the weekend, and who -- if anyone -- can claim victory. We'll also talk about the role of U.S. troops in the fighting, and what all of this means for the future of Iraq.

I'm really a literary omnivore. I adore Dickens, Tolstoy, Hemingway, but there's an awful lot of Daphne Du Maurier, Philippa Gregory, and yes, at one time, Dan Brown (!) on my night table as well. That said, I really do not think I could love a man who didn't share certain of my literary tastes -- for instance, the phrase "Saw the movie..." when talking about, say Ian McEwan's masterpiece Atonement would be the literary equivalent of halitosis (i.e., I'm not going to kiss you if you haven't read the book. I still may not kiss you if you didn't love it.) Rachel Donadio captured this perfectly in her much read -- and railed about -- piece in the Sunday New York Times, "It's Not You, It's Your Books." So today, lend us your snobbiest stories -- the moment when a paramour mispronounced J.M. Coetzee (it's cut-ZEE-uh -- Duh), or confessed an aversion to Nabokov (that's na-BOK-off). Or -- have you happily made a home with someone who loves their Tom Clancy (I am a Clancyphile, so there)?

The Dalai Lama.

Giulio Napolitano/AFP/Getty Images

 

In 1997, Martin Scorsese released Kundun, a biopic about the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso. (I was one of a handful of people who saw it, I think; the movie wasn't a commercial success.) The plot is mostly chronological. We follow the Dalai Lama from his birth and discovery to India, where has lived in exile since 1959, after the Tibetan National Uprising. In that quarter century he became a political figure when the Dalai Lama was called upon to lead Tibet. In 1954 he traveled to Beijing to meet with Mao Tse-tung. Since then, he has traveled the world, lobbying for a solution to the disagreement between the Tibetan people and China over their homeland. One of his three commitments is to "the Tibetan issue," as he calls it.

His Holiness has a responsibility to act as the free spokesperson of the Tibetans in their struggle for justice. As far as this third commitment is concerned, it will cease to exist once a mutually beneficial solution is reached between the Tibetans and Chinese.

In the last few week, tensions and violence in China have showed us (as much as we've been able to see) how strong the disagreement over the territory is. (Very few Western journalists have been able to enter Tibet.) An estimated 150 people died in protests, which resulted in some 400 arrests.

In our second hour, we'll get an update on the political and social situation in Tibet as we get nearer and nearer to the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. And we'll try to find out more about who the Dalai Lama is as a religious and political leader. We'll talk with Pico Iyer, who wrote The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. An excerpt from his book, with some beautiful photographs by James Nachtwey, is available here. Iyer has known the Dalai Lama for more than 30 years. If you have a question for him, please leave it here.

A poster advertising Earth Hour 2008.

Source: aussiegall

This past Saturday night, the world went dark for an hour.* I missed it of course. I was busy in another kind of darkness -- developing my prints of DC's cherry blossoms in my friend's makeshift darkroom. But, apparently, at 8 pm, starting in Christchurch, New Zealand and working west from Australia, Dubai, and Dublin to New York, Chicago, and finally San Francisco, people from around the globe turned off their lights for a full 60 minutes in an attempt to highlight the link between energy use and climate change. They called it "Earth Hour," and it joins the ranks of other efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, such as Earth Day and last year's Earth Live concert. Bryan Walsh, who writes the Going Green column for time.com, will join us today to talk about his op-ed, "Earth Hour '08: Does It Matter?" So tell us, did you participate in Earth Hour? How did you mark the event? Or did you miss it, like me? In either event, what difference do you think it made, and does it matter?

* No, it wasn't a total solar eclipse (cue sigh of disappointment), or a prelude to the apocalypse (cue sigh of relief).

At the top of the show, we will talk about what is happening in Iraq a day after Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen to put down their weapons. This comes after ongoing violence between Shiite militas and Iraqi and U.S. forces. We'll talk about what happened and what it means for the future of Iraq. Following that, we'll talk to writer Rachel Donadio about her essay that appeared in the New York Times last weekend entitled, It's Not You, It's Your Books. In it, she describes how similar tastes in literature could indicate romantic compatibility and a missed literary reference "makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast". So tell us... Do you have a literary standard that could make or break a budding relationship?

In our second hour, we will talk with journalist Pico Iyer about violence and anti-Chinese protests in Tibet. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet, but he is also the head of the Tibetan government and has been blamed for the unrest by the Chinese government. Iyer will talk about his conversations with the current Dalai Lama over the past 34 years, and his new book, Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. At the end of the hour, we'll talk to you about what you were doing this past Saturday evening when the world went dark for a full hour. Were you a participant in "Earth Hour"? (Did you even notice?)

I have a zillion cousins, each more interesting than the last. It's a family tree too complicated to elaborate on, but suffice it to say I got to spend a lovely morning with about a dozen cousins from three generations on Saturday, and we had a great conversation about motherhood and careers. Sure, it's well-trod territory, but it's particularly interesting right now. Not to me personally -- don't worry, there are no buns in this oven --, but my best friend has a new son, and I know she and her husband have had to work out a solution for their family, and that what felt like a good strategy yesterday may not today. My cousins have all seemed to reach various happy mediums, and what's so interesting to me is that there is so much gray now. When I was growing up, either your mom stayed home or she worked. Dad worked. Period. My mom stayed home, and then volunteered in our schools as we aged. So that's the model I grew up with, but I'm not sure it'll be right for me. Nowadays women can work nontraditional schedules if they need or want to stick with their careers, and since women make up so much more of the workforce these days, some workplaces are actually changing to accommodate "off-ramping" moms. Whatever I decide when my day comes, you can bet my decision will be met with strong opinions. Think we've evolved past the "staying home is anti-feminist"/"working is child abandonment" debate? Think again... and if you're unconvinced, take a look at the message boards for TLC's new reality program, The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom. Chilling. Clearly, how you choose to raise your children is one of the most personal and important decisions a person ever makes, and that decision is bound to be wrapped up in passionate opinions. But why do others feel so free to critique that decision? And why can't we talk about it nicely? So, in an effort to be constructive instead of de-, what's the best advice you received when you were making this decision?

Politics is inescapable these days... It's taken over dinner conversations, chatter at the water cooler, certain radio shows every Wednesday, you get the idea. And as we get closer to the November election, many people get more firmly set in their views. Here's the question, though: Where did those views come from? Do your political views come from your parents? Or in spite of them? Did you start out leaning left in college, but now lean right? Or vice versa? We're going to talk today about those moments when your politics became, well, yours. So turn on the TV pundits in the background, get fired up, and tell us your stories: Where do your politics come from?

Today's the day -- we're introducing GMV guru Joe Matazzoni to TOTN. It's GMV+JMAT+TOTN.. And we'll be talking to Liz Garmendia about her commentary -- the one Sarah liked so much from earlier this week. This is democracy in action (DIA), folks, so get to GMV and start uploading -- and while you're there, go watch some of our favorite people (ZZ Packer! Kinky Friedman!) do the same thing. The link is below -- check it out.

The late Tupac Shakur.

Source: Getty Images

In 1994, rapper Tupac Shakur was attacked in New York City, in the lobby of Quad Recording Studios. Two years later, he was shot dead in Las Vegas. Neither case has been solved.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times published an article by Chuck Philips, called "An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War." Citing new reports, Philips wrote that associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs were responsible for the first attack on Shakur, in Manhattan. In the last week, Combs cried fowlfoul, denying his involvement. Last night, the newspaper issued an apology. The documents on which the article centered, it seems, were fake, drafted by a con man. (The Smoking Gun dug deep into this story.)

David Folkenflik, NPR's media correspondent -- and the ringleader of Talk of The Nation's "Media Circus" -- will join us in the first hour, to talk about the Times story. If you have a question for him, leave it here.

September 13, 1993: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres signs the agreement on Palestinian autonomy in the occupied territories after months of secret talks in Oslo, Norway. One more step forward -- preceding a couple steps back.

Source: J. DAVID AKE/AFP/Getty Images

 

In Aaron David Miller's new book, The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search For Arab-Israeli Peace, he tells an old story about a rabbi summoned to the czar. He is told his whole village must be relocated to Siberia.

Determined to avoid this fate the rabbi tells the czar that if he cancels the decree, the rabbi will teach the czar's favorite horse to sing within a year. Returning to his village, the rabbi happily reports his success. "You can't deliver on that promise," the villagers reply. "I know, said the rabbi, "but in a year the czar, the horse, or I might die, or the horse might talk."

Miller tells this story as an illustration of one of the tactics that both Arab and Israeli negotiators use to respond to ideas they don't like. If they waited long enough, one of the players would change, or die -- and no horse ever sings. It's only one of the reasons that the path to peace in Israel and Palestine has been so long, so bloody, and yielded so little actual peace. Aaron David Miller spent almost a quarter century working in the State Department -- and working on that most Sisyphean of foreign puzzles. His book is incredibly readable -- just flipping through it I found his descriptions of the larger-than-life characters he worked with (Arafat, Netanyahu) really compelling. We'll talk to him today -- specifically, about America's role in the process. If you have questions for him, post them here.

AA planes got so grounded.

Source: Scott Olson/Getty Images

American Airlines and Delta grounded hundreds of planes today in order to perform safety maintenance re-inspections. This, two weeks after Southwest Airlines knowingly flew passengers on over 40 jets that hadn't undergone inspections. Not surprisingly, confidence in airline safety has waned as a result. Jim Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, warns:

The safety we know in this decade is a result of a whole lot of accidents that occurred in the 1990s that were investigated and, because of them, changes were made in the system... If this [current] culture continues, then we could face another rash of accidents in this decade.

John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, will join us today to answer our questions about plane safety and routine maintenance inspections. Got a question? Leave it here.

In our first hour today, we'll talk to guests and to YOU about that "a-ha!" moment when you realized exactly what your political views are. We want to hear about the people or experiences that helped shape those beliefs. Was it a family member who triggered your lightbulb moment? Or a stint as student body president? Maybe it was a contentious debate with a friend with an opposing view. What happened in your life that determined your political views? Tell us your story. We'll spend part of the hour talking to the head of NPR's "Get My Vote" online project that gives people a platform to share their personal stories about how their core political beliefs were formed. At the end of the hour, NPR's David Folkenflik will talk about an internal investigation at The Los Angeles Times over an article that linked associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs to the 1994 attack on rapper Tupac Shakur. New evidence has revealed that details in the report were partially based on false documents.

In our second hour we will be joined by Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator. Miller's new non-fiction book, The Much Too Promised land, America's Elusive Search for Arab Israeli Peace, goes inside the workings of the Middle East conflict. Miller will explain why he believes that peace in the region is possible. Stay tuned for the topic of discussion for the end of the hour. We're working on it!!!

You know the old adage, "One man's trash is another man's treasure?" It's a phrase I've certainly used, but in recent days I've realized it's even more true than I thought. Last month I joined Freecycle as a way to offload some computer detritus I'd amassed over the years and didn't want to haul to my new home (where everything would sit buried in a bin somewhere, of course). If you don't know what it is, Freecycle's a simple email list attached to a locality, and on it folks offer up their unwanted items. Typically, the taker comes to the giver and picks up the offering, so it's even more convenient than Goodwill. Plus, it keeps perfectly good stuff out of landfills. As a relative newbie to the Freecycle world, I've been shocked and entertained at the items offered up and claimed, from racy comic books to knee-high socks (ok, that was me.) My dad, however, is a Freecycle veteran, and he's seen it all...

I have seen, for example, serviceable (if in need of some repair) sailboats with trailers offered on my local Freecycle board, while at the other end of the spectrum I have on more than one occasion seen single "cents-off" coupons on grocery items offered (and taken!). One would think that the cost of gas to drive over and pick it up would exceed the value of that coupon for $0.35 off on that jar of mayonnaise - even after doubling!

Mayonnaise coupons?! Boats?! What's your tallest Freecycle tale?

Sen. Clinton in Pittsburgh Tuesday.

Source: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

This may be spring break (hope you're enjoying the sunshine Ken!), but politics stops for nothing. So, while our political junkie is tanning his toes on a beach somewhere, we'll talk with guest junkie Matt Bai. And is there plenty to talk about... Re-votes seem less and less likely in Michigan and Florida, Barack Obama's pastor continues to face criticism, Hillary Clinton says she mis-spoke about the sniper fire in Bosnia, and John McCain stands against big bank bail-outs. And with the Clinton campaign facing pressure from some opinion writers about the viability of her winning the nomination, we'll talk about the fierce arguments over whether or not she should continue her campaign. We'll hear from one writer who says, why should she get out when there are so many reasons for her to stay? What do you think?

A collector's item! (The sticker, not the car.)

teresia

 

A few years ago, a friend of mine got into a fender bender. It was no big deal, really. I thought that the damage was aesthetic: a few dents here, a small scratch there. When he took it to a garage, though, a mechanic told him that the whole thing had to be replaced. Bumpers are different than they used to be, he said. They're full of new safety features and sensors. The small wreck cost my friend several hundred bucks.

Bumpers are different these days, aren't they? They're made of plastic, not shiny chrome. And what happened to those bumper stickers that used to cover them? They're gone too. Well, not entirely, but they used to be everywhere. There were joke bumper stickers. They acted as resumes. "Guess where I went to school?!" And they helped us broadcast to the world who we planned to vote for. (Or, in many cases, who we voted for two or three elections ago.)

Our guest at the end of the first hour, Patti Brown, says that the political bumper sticker is alive and well. She has been collecting them -- and blogging about them -- for a while now.

Do you put political bumper stickers are on your car? Do you have a favorite?

This Google worker is recharging so he can get back to making "free" profitable.

Source: joelogon

Made ya look. But honestly, you don't have to go far to find free things on the web. Mail, music, news, coupons, blogs, even web design. If you're paying for almost anything, you're a sucker. (I am always horrified when I go to a news site and have to pay for an article -- which is hilarious, given a) how much I pay for shoes, and b) the public radio model is just to beg for money. (Now take this moment to go pledge or something.) I do everything on the web -- and I do it all for free, and mostly through Google, but also with the help of Tumblr, Weebly, Digg, and all the other various Lifehacker recommended sites. Which of course begs the question: How the heck are they making any money? (My online banking is free, too, FYI.) Someone's got to pay for those awesome Google nap pods. (I just use the floor under my desk.)

The advertising revenue model might not be the saving grace of social networks and webmail it's cracked up to be. But venture capitalists are still putting money into these things. The question is, What business model do they think will give them a return on their risk? We'll ask them today. Come out of your nap pods, people. Let's get thinkin'.

"Homi Kharas, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, estimates that by 2020, the world's middle class will grow to include a staggering 52% of the total population, up from 30% now."

It sounds like good news, right? And, of course, it is -- the projection is attributed to folks moving up from poverty, not down from wealth. But according to Moises Naim, the thunder created by the far-off middle class herd is already audible... And it is getting louder.

Briefly, a larger middle class creates a higher demand for the comforts we're all used to, like an ample variety of foods, modern appliances, and a wardrobe (and not just the clothes on your back). And what does a higher demand make room for? Higher prices. And scarcity. It's simple economics, and according to Naim, it's unpredictable, and it's going to be noisy.

NPR's Get My Vote project is in full swing. Many of you have answered the question Neal posed last week: "When was the first time you became political?" Jackie Matlock did. For most of her life, she voted Democratic, but wasn't that active in party politics. In 2004, she became involved.

By joining in I was introduced to elected officials, candidates for public office and dedicated citizens who worked to benefit our community, its citizens, and our country and it's image around the world.

"I learned that one person, one voice can make a difference," Matlock says.

On tomorrow's show, we'll feature audio and video commentaries from Get My Vote. So send one in! Head on over to Get My Vote and tell us when you became political.

Today, the role of the political junkie will be played by Matt Bai, author and political writer for the New York Times magazine. (Ken Rudin is on vacation and has yet to promise us that he will be back next week). In this week's Political Junkie, we'll talk about Bill Richardson's endorsement of Barack Obama, the delegate grab-bag in Michigan and Ohio, and author Leslie Bennetts will try to put to rest the question that has been rearing its head around the political-sphere: Should Hillary drop out the race? Stay tuned for our topic of discussion for the end of the hour. It's coming together as I type this.

In our second hour, Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.com, and Brad Feld, a venture capitalist, talk about the cost of offering online information... at NO cost. How does it work? How do businesses get their money? And is this the only business model that works? At the end of the hour, Moises Naim, editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine, explains why he believes the lifestyles of the existing American middle class will have to drastically change to make room for a new emerging global middle class.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin salute President Richard Nixon. From the Moon.

NASA

 

"One small step for man..."

NASA

In 1973, I stayed up much of the night to watch the fuzzy, black-and-white image from a single camera trained on the tarmac of Clark Air Base in the Philippines, to await the arrival of the first planeload of American POWs released from North Vietnam. (At least I remember the picture as both fuzzy and monochromatic -- it might well have been the nine-inch black-and-white Sony TV I had at the time.)

The event was memorable by itself, but I distinctly remember a thrill reading the words on the bottom of the screen, "Live from the Philippines." Luzon seemed so far away that the technology that made all this possible might as well have been magic. It was on a par with seeing the words, "Live from Moon" just a few years earlier.

Then, this morning, before heading into work, I scarcely thought twice about flipping on my substantially larger, flatter and more-colorful TV to watch a couple of innings of the Boston-Oakland baseball game splashed across half my living room in the exquisite clarity of HD. Four years ago, HD signals from the Summer Olympic Games in Athens arrived on these shores a day late. Later this year, live, glorious HD images of gymnasts, swimmers and
basketball players in Beijing will seem like a birthright (no live images from Tienanmen Square, but that's another issue that we'll talk about today with columnist Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post.)

I know the march of technology is a cliche, but it's hard not to marvel at what's happened in the 35 years between Clark Field and the Tokyo Dome, and wonder which previously insuperable barriers of time and space will seem mundane a few years from now. Who knows, we might even see "Live from Moon" again.

I've always had a murky sense of what went on between Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 and the desegregation ruling of Brown v. Board in 1954. The question I would ask myself -- and forgive the naivete -- is, Why didn't the civil rights movement happen earlier, like, say, during the 20s and 30s? What took so long? Turns out, slavery wasn't really over when Lincoln said it was over. A new book by Douglas Blackmon called Slavery by Another Name argues that slavery persisted in different forms long after 1862. Black men arrested for petty or non-existent crimes that couldn't make bail were leased to white cotton farmers or sold to coal mining companies to pay it off. To me, it sounds like a form of indentured servitude, and Blackmon says this extension of slavery helps explain why black Americans made so little economic progress before the civil rights movement. If you have questions about where, when and how this happened, and what it means for us today, leave them here.

Spring break in Miami Beach.

Source: tavopp

Good grief, am I glad to be past spring break. I know it's the event college kids across the country hotly anticipate, waxing and tanning and sweating to prime their physiques for debauchery. To no one's surprise, I'm sure, I was far too... too something* to participate in this ritual during college. And, now, as a nearly-30 non-supermodel, I'd be far too intimidated to go. Spring Break's never been about sipping root beer floats and holding hands, but according to the Los Angeles Times's Meghan Daum, it's not just about getting drunk and hooking up, either: For young women, it's about confidence building.

Huh?

She hit Cancun for an article, and she found women defending what some might call raunch -- wet t-shirt contests and worse -- by explaining it was all about validation. In a Girls Gone Wild world it's no surprise, really, that this has happened, and I hate to be puritanical about it, but what?! It's just so foreign to me that I honestly can't get inside the head of those girls, and it's certainly not fair for me to judge them, so I want to know: If you're headed for spring break (or have just returned anytime in this decade), does what you did and -- er, accomplished -- there affect how you define yourself now?

*Nerdy? Hipster-y? Broke?

Rampant rumors: a giant game of telephone.

Source: Leo Reynolds

There. I've done it. I've started a rumor -- a vile, despicable rumor about my own prejudice against frogs, Jim Henson, and possibly the color green, which, as we all know, it ain't easy bein'. Now, this rumor is a lie. I love Kermit -- and can sing the Rainbow Connection from beginning to end with no mistakes and much feeling. But here's the thing that's kind of amazing -- if I continue to send around the title of this blog post enough, people will believe it. Worse, if I debunk it entirely, they're more likely to believe it. This is why outright falsehoods -- such as the Obama-as-Muslim rumor -- are so dangerous. Today -- at the speed of rumor -- we're taking you on a trip through Rumorville. From the first mention, to the campaign to discredit it -- it's all rumor on Talk of the Nation. And I LOVE Kermit. Spread that.

Take me out to the ballgame.

Source: wallyg

I don't miss the weather in Chicago (5-inches of snow last week!), but I do miss Wrigley Field. There's nothing quite like sitting in the right field bleachers, screaming "left field sucks" at the top of your lungs, and gorging on hot dogs and peanuts (and frosty beverages). The bleachers are a culture unto themselves, and now (in some parks, anyway) it's a bleacher buffet. Last year the Los Angeles Dodgers announced that, for $35, you could get an all-you-can-eat bleacher seat (note that's eat, not drink, for obvious reasons). And Neal Pollack tried it out last spring, and survived... Barely. He wrote about it in a piece called All You Can Eat Baseball. We'll talk to him today about bleacher culture, and let us know your stories of life in the bleachers.

Today I was poking around the Get My Vote website and found a really interesting answer to Talk of the Nation's favorite related question: When was the first time you became political?* Liz Garmendia joined the military and signed on for its healthcare, and came to realize that, unlike her father, she saw merit in universal health coverage... and that led her to vote in this year's primary, her first vote ever cast. So how'd she vote? Go to her commentary on Get My Vote and find out, then submit your story!

*We want your answers to this question for our Thursday show! So head on over to Get My Vote and tell us: When was the first time you became political? Maybe we'll feature your story!

In our first hour, we will be joined by Douglas Blackmon, the Atlanta bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal. Blackmon will talk about his book Slavery by Another Name, where he argues that slavery did not end with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, but in fact continued for another 80 years, a period which Blackmon calls an "Age of Neoslavery." Following that, we'll talk with Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum about why she feels women see their sexuality as their only currency. Daum's column appeard in the March 15th edition of the L.A. Times entitled, "Raunch is rebranded as 'confidence.'"

We'll talk about the psychology of a rumor in the second hour and how our brains distinguish truth from fiction. According to an article written by guest Farhad Manjoo for the New York Times, "repetition, psychologists have shown, easily tricks us... if one person tells you that something is true many times, you are likely to conclude that the opinion is widely held, even if no one else said a thing about it." Tell us your story. Have you ever been subject to a rumor? How did you handle it? At the end of the hour, we'll talk with author Neal Pollack about his recent experience as a spectator in the "all-you-can-eat" bleacher seats at Dodger Stadium. (Sorry. Beer not included.)

I just got a Playstation 3. As I typed those words, a small thrill of excitement coursed through my body like a sip of Drambuie. To clarify -- I (we, really, there's a man involved in the arrangement) intended to by a Blu-ray, but was told that the Playstation 3, which also plays Blu-ray discs, was a better deal. A better deal for whom, is the question? Visions of my as-yet unborn children, lying neglected on the living room floor as I battle Nazis in Call of Duty haunt me. I'm afraid to even look at PS3 games, because I remember the long nights I spent building elaborate villas for my Sims. By long, I mean ALL NIGHT LONG. But here's the thing: Despite my great fear of my own vulnerability to the snazzy graphics and complicated levels of PS3 games, I think I'm far more vulnerable to the simplest of games. On my Blackberry, that's Kaglom, a sort of exploding Tetris (I just made it sound like a gastrointestinal disorder, I know). I can play it for hours. I think I pulled my thumb over the weekend trying to beat my high score. And on my desktop, the game that sucks away everything, including my desire for food, is Desktop Tower Defense. This thing is so simple, so free, and so addictive, that I think if it was a dollar a day to play, I would play it. They should make it part of a pledge drive. Every day when the show is finally, laboriously on the air, I take a DTD nap -- that is, I play the game in order to give my brain a much needed respite. So here's the question: Why would anyone heed the Call of Duty when there's so much to do on your own desktop? See above for examples.

Yesterday evening, four American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb. Now, just days after we marked the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, we acknowledge another milestone: 4,000 American troops have died in Iraq. (For more information on soldiers who have been killed, you can go to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count and USA Today.)

On today's program, we'll hear from a widow of a soldier who was killed in Assadah; a Marine who lost six friends in a suicide attack; a father whose son died near Haditha; and a reporter who has written hundreds of obituaries for the Fayetteville Observer. If you've lost a brother, sister, son, daughter, co-worker, or friend in the war in Iraq, we want to hear from you. What was he or she like? And today, when you read that 4,000 troops have been killed, how do you mark that loss?

"Too Black." "Not Black Enough." "Black Enough." "Post-Racial." "The Black Candidate."

Sen. Barack Obama's race and "blackness" have been a part of the dialogue surrounding his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination from the outset, sometimes despite his best efforts to keep the focus on other issues. Today, we're going to approach the conversation from a different angle: Obama's "white side." Poet, satirist and educator Bomani Armah joins us in our weekly op-ed segment to discuss why it's necessary to "start pushing the idea of how white [Obama] is." The reason? It has something to do with what Armah refers to as "the 'Aw Hell No!' voting bloc." He joins us in our first hour to elaborate and field your questions. The op-ed ran in the Washington Post over the weekend, and is titled, "Okay, Barack. Now Show 'Em Your White Side." It can be found here. Read it, listen in, and tell us your opinion.

Mike Rowe, the dirtiest man on television.

Source: Paul Souders

There's just something about ostrich poop that really makes for great television. A little more than a year ago I was hanging out with my new boyfriend's roommate, sans boyfriend. It was mostly fine, because we'd been friends for a bit, but the sudden change in status all around made things a little, well, awkward. We were sitting in the living room with the TV tuned to the Discovery Channel, and there on the screen host Mike Rowe was doing one of the most disgusting things I'd ever seen -- cleaning up after a farm full of ostriches. Now, I'm no girly-girl -- my grandma lives on a farm, so I'm just fine with cow pies and pig sties. But whoa -- the ostrich farm? A thousand times more disgusting. Turns out, the poop's not even the worst part with ostriches. Nope, what's worse is that they puke a little every time they take a drink of water, which quickly leads to water troughs filled with ostrich vomit. EWWW!!! Trust me, there was no gap in conversation this show couldn't fill, and I pretty much haven't stopped talking about it since. I've since watched Mike at vineyards (dirtier than you'd think), harvesting all kinds of seafood, compacting garbage, cleaning silos, and more. And each time I'm sure he's done the last dirty job there is, another episode of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe rolls around. So thanks to him I'm dying to know, BotNers, do you have a dirty job? Tell me all about it!

My brief moment of bracket glory.

Source: Yahoo Fantasy Sports

Cast your eyes to the left of this entry, squint real hard, and you will just be able to make out my rank in the office NCAA tourney pool. My team is Pajama Friday (the name is courtesy of a moment in the office last spring -- rookie intern yielding comic gold -- you know who you are, Goobers), and the rank, is ONE. Numero Uno. Granted -- I'm sharing it with a few other people, but it's a moment of pride for me, before more Cinderallas and Giant Killers stomp all over my bracket. People -- share your pride -- share your defeat -- share your Schaden -DUKE- freude -- and bless this special time of year, where almost every game is good, and every streak can be broken. We're talkin' Tourney Time. Go 'hawks.* Go 'heels.** Go 'toppers***. Amen.

*For my honey.
**For my history.
***For the fun.

The number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq has reached 4,000. Today, we want to talk about who those men and women were. Call, email or leave us a blog comment with your stories about a loved one who you've lost in the war over the past five years. Tell us what you remember most about them, and how your lives have changed. We will talk about fallen US service members for most of the first hour. Following that, we will talk to Bomani Armah about his Washington Post op-ed where he gives a satirical take on why he feels it's time for Barack Obama to switch gears. His piece is entitled, Okay, Barack. Now Show 'Em Your White Side.

Now I haven't had the gross pleasure of watching the Discovery Channel series called "Dirty Jobs", but what I've heard so far??? EWWW! Mike Rowe, the host of the program, will be our guest in our second hour to talk about what it's like to be knee and elbow deep in some of the more disgustingly messy jobs that could ever grace a resume. We're talking everything from installing a billboard to collecting road kill. Think you can top him? Call in with a dirty job of your own. You may give Mike Rowe ideas for his next episode! After that, we will talk about the sweetness of the NCAA sweet 16!!!

Go, Heels!

Source: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

I could've caught March Madness here, in Washington, D.C. Three local universities were in the big dance, and one of them was expected to make it to Ford Field, maybe to the Alamodome. At the Verizon Center, just three blocks away, Duke narrowly beat Belmont, then lost to West Virginia; Georgia, Sarah's alma mater, fell to Xavier; and the Boilermakers burned Baylor. (Barrie, who is equal parts fan and clairvoyant, boasts the best bracket among us.)

But I went home instead, to North Carolina, where I first caught basketball fever.

On Friday night, Chapel Hill bars and restaurants were full of fans, eager to see the Tar Heels take down Mount St. Mary's. (They did. Handily.) On Saturday afternoon, I happened to be in the UNC Student Stores for the final minutes of the Duke v. West Virginia game. (The crowd, gathered around a modest flat-screen display there, rejoiced when the Blue Devils were felled.) Later that day, over dinner in Durham, my dad pointed out how solemn everyone seemed to be. (For their beloved DeMarcus Nelson, it was all over. A championship title had eluded Greg Paulus, Martynas Pocius, and Jon Scheyer again.)

For my part, I promise to be productive 'til Thursday, when North Carolina plays Washington St. And I'll try to resist the urge to barrel down I-95, back to Chapel Hill.

This week, Talk of the Nation embarks on a new political adventure - and we're asking you to serve as our guides. NPR recently launched a new project called Get My Vote, which invites you to share your thoughts on a simple question: What will it take for a candidate to get your vote? We've created a Web site that allows you to upload your own commentaries in the form of audio, video or text, as well as explore other people's commentaries.

We want you to participate and we plan to feature some of your commentaries on air, beginning this Thursday, March 27. Since this will be our first time doing this on air, we thought we'd frame it by asking you to tell a story of the first time you became political. What happened, and how does that experience influence your politics today?

Here's a video from host Neal Conan talking about the project and how you can join in.

You can share your story and upload your own Get My Vote commentary by clicking on the big button above. And stay tuned on March 27 - you might just hear your story on air!

I went to a high school that was predominantly white. There were maybe five black kids in the entire school, a couple of Latinos, and a handful of Asians. Race was rarely a topic of conversation among friends, except maybe in history class when we discussed race relations during the 50s and 60s.* It wasn't until college, at Berkeley, where the population was much more diverse, that I began to really discuss race with my friends and family in a concrete way. We talked about reverse racism, the black tax, white guilt, and the list goes on. As a white woman, many of my comments about race were marred by hedges and uncertainty. Sometimes I'd even couch my point of view in humor, and I was insufferably PC for about a two-month period during my sophomore year. Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia this week has launched an open conversation about race in many circles that we haven't seen since, arguably, the O.J. Simpson trial... or the L.A. riots. Today we want to talk about how we talk about race. Is race something you talk about at home, at work, or school? Do you word things differently depending on who you're talking to? Do you find that conversation about race generates resentment or anger? Do you feel excluded from the discussion, or too uncomfortable to participate? Tell us, how do you talk about race?

* I guess when you're in a homogenous environment, it's easy to miss (or ignore) issues that tend to come up in more diverse settings.

In high school, a few friends and I would while away Friday evenings in Bynum, North Carolina, a small mill town, halfway between Pittsboro and Chapel Hill. Bynum, which sits on the northern edge of the Haw River, isn't a big place; its residents have resisted development for years.

Every weekend, the Bynum General Store hosted local musical talent. Singers and bands of all stripes would play on its front porch, for an audience that filled the front yard and the sleepy street in front of it. Families would bring picnic baskets, couples would share bottles of wine. The setting couldn't be beat. You could hear the river rush over the Haw River dam, there were lightning bugs, and the sky, high above the pine trees, was sprinkled with stars. Do I sound wistful?

Tift Merritt, whose music we'll hear today, started out at the Bynum General Store. Since then, she's gone on to record two well-reviewed albums, one of which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Sadly, the Bynum General Store has closed its doors. (That development it tried to stave off got the best of it, finally.) I visited it a few years ago when I was home for vacation, and I got into a conversation with its owner. Tift Merritt put Bynum back on the map, he told me, drawing crowds to a town that most North Carolinians forgot when they built a bypass. He pointed to a few photographs of her. She hasn't forgotten us, he said. Whenever she went on tour, she always came back; and her shows there, informal as they were, would draw hundreds.

Tift Merritt has a new album out called Another Country, which she wrote while she was in Paris. She may have derived most of her inspiration for it from the City of Lights, but it isn't hard for me to close my eyes and remember where she came from. If you have a question for her, please, leave it here.

The late, and wonderful hat champion Isabella Blow in 2006.

Source: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

I adore hats. I cannot walk by a hat -- in a department store, a street fair, a friend's closet -- without trying it on. I love tiny little cocktail hats with a demure little blusher veil, wide brim silk confections stacked with faux flowers, fetching fedoras , leopard-skin pillbox hats (of course), Philip Treacy's Dali-esque creations, Stephen Jones' careful artworks, and the funky designs of Eugenia Kim. If I could still wear a corset and white cotton gloves I would slide them on in a second -- but failing those old-fashioned accessories, a hat is the statement for me. It's the cherry on the top of your outfit; and most of all, it's the little piece of magic that allows you to become someone else. "I am a woman of mystery," purrs a fedora tipped over your highly smoky eye. "I am a lady," coos the lacy slice of heaven pinned to your curls. "I am an artist," intones... well, anything the late, great, Isabella Blow ever wore. Today, just in time for Easter, Los Angeles Times columnist, and hat devotee Patt Morrison will tell you how to unlock your inner Hedda Hopper. And if you want a how-to video on topping off your outfit hosted by Ms. Morrison herself, go to this link.

The discussion of race continues to be a hot button issue across America... even if the conversation is simply, "I'm tired of talking about race!!!" Whether or not you ARE talking about race, the door has certainly opened to let your opinions in. In this show's case, our phone lines and blog comment space are open and we will continue to invite you in to talk about your views and opinions as we try to peel back layers upon layers concerning the issue of race in the coming weeks. Today, for our entire first hour, we will discuss HOW we talk about race. What do you say when you're sitting at your dinner table surrounded by loved ones? Does that change when you are in public or among people of different ethnic groups than your own? Are you more uncomfortable? Do you completely shut down? Or have you chosen not to discuss race at all? We want to hear from everyone today... and particularly from those of you who may be feeling left out of the discussion entirely. Do you feel the issue of race has been narrowed down to just a "black-white" issue? Please call-in or send us your blog comments.

Our first hour should generate a very lively and perhaps a sometimes heated discussion. So for our second hour we'll cool things down a bit with some music!! Singer/songwriter Tift Merritt will be here with her band to play a few tunes. She went to Paris, France to write her latest album, it is titled Another Country (she'll be singing strictly in English, though). She'll talk about how 'Gay Paree' changed her sound, her life on the road and how she moonlights as a public radio host. Following that, pull out your Easter Bonnet (or Easter Brim). Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison will talk about the allure of the hat!

Happy first day of spring!!!

The news of the death of Arthur C. Clarke earlier this week hit home on a couple of levels. Along with Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delaney and others too numerous to mention, Clarke helped shape my imagination. I read a fair amount of science fiction to this day, but as a boy and adolescent, I vacuumed Ace Doubles before lunch. Clarke had his flaws as a writer but his best was as good as anybody.

I never had the chance to meet the great man, but spoke with him a couple of times by phone, and, one memorable morning, got the chance to introduce him to Chuck Yeager.

Continue reading "'Who Is Arthur Clarke?'" >

Who'd have thought that in this relatively dry period in the national political contest, we'd have so much to talk about we need to take Junkie for the full hour? Not me, that's who! I've been out for a couple days, and media-free, so I had no idea about the degree of fervor Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race has inspired. Now that I've heard it, I get it. After yesterday's focus on the speech as a whole, today we're going to just pull a bit of it, on the feelings of white Americans, to focus on. Specifically...

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience -- as far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything. They built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and they feel their dreams slipping away. And in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

We're taking his oratory as an opportunity to look at how white democrats are voting this season.... and then there's Sen. Clinton's first-lady-schedules to pore over, plus McCain on Iran...

One month ago, The New York Times inaugurated a new blog, Baghdad Bureau: Iraq From the Inside, "a collaborative blog produced by reporters, photographers and Western and Iraqi staff, who all live in the Iraqi capital outside the Green Zone."

One of the first posts featured this video, narrated by correspondent Stephen Farrell:

To my mind, Baghdad Bureau is revolutionary. The diversity of voices, Western and Iraqi, combined with photographs, video, and podcasts, is astonishing. (I tip my hat to the McClatchy Newspapers, whose Baghdad Observer and Inside Iraq blogs came first.)

We'll talk to Eric Owles, the chief multimedia producer for NYTimes.com, who has been in Iraq since January. He helped set up the Baghdad Bureau blog, and produces a lot of material for it, including this video. Owles asked blog readers to send questions they have for Iraqis, and he took to the streets with a camera, to find answers.

What question would you like to hear an Iraqi answer? Do you read the Baghdad Bureau blog? Are there any other blogs from Iraq you would recommend?

Last year, The Washington Post broke the story about the poor conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center. For many wounded, ill and injured soldiers, care services have been inconsistent and marred by bureaucratic red tape. Thankfully, the Army is slowly starting to change that. 35 Warrior Transition Units have been created worldwide to better help injured soldiers heal and transition back to military duty or civilian life. This is a concrete step in the right direction, but other challenges still abound: from conflicts over disability ratings to inadequate care for post traumatic stress disorder. Today, we take a look back at the past year since we first heard about Walter Reed -- how much has improved, and what still needs to be fixed? Brigadier General Mike Tucker, the U.S. Army's new Assistant Surgeon General for Warrior Care and Transition, will join us to field your questions. If you're in the Army and received care at a military hospital, what was your experience like? Have you seen improvements? And what still needs fixing?

Useful Information:

Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline
Phone: 1-800-984-8523
Email: wsfsupport@conus.army.mil
Website: www.armymedicine.army.mil/amap/amap.html

Neal Conan is back, looking rested, refreshed, and ready to talk about today's topics...

Politics, politics and more politics. So much politics, that we've decided to mega-size our mega-sized Political Junkie this week. Ken Rudin will be with us for the full first hour, which will be divided into three segments. In the first part of the hour, we'll talk more about the speech made yesterday by Barack Obama, explain a just released 11,000 page document outlining Hillary Clinton's time and involvement as First Lady, and discuss John McCain's recent gaffe during a Middle East tour. Our second Political Junkie segment will focus on the impact Obama's speech made on white voters, and why white voters in mostly urbanized areas are not as enthusiastic about voting for Obama. And in the final segment, we will talk with Iraq war veterans who are running for Congress and find out whether their war experience plays into their campaigning.

In our second hour of Talk of the Nation, we will commemorate the fifth year anniversary of the Iraq War. Eric Owles, chief multi-media producer for NYTimes.com, will talk about his travels around Baghdad and the experiences told to him by Iraqis about life in the region since the start of the war. Following that conversation, we'll focus on the medical care system for those who have been wounded in the war, and provide and update on the current conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

This JuicyCampus.com site just keeps getting bad press, and just keeps getting more popular. Though, if you click on the most popular links ("Juiciest") the second post says "this site is stupid." A nascent backlash, perhaps. For the unjuicy: the site breaks down by college campus, and is a place for students to post completely anonymous information/gossip/rumor for all the world to see. So far, the topics cover things like who sleeps around the most, and
who's starred in porn films. It's like passing notes in high school, taken to the extreme. Now, there's a report that the site is being investigated by New Jersey prosecutors.

It's not the first seemingly anti-social social media site, but it's the most widely covered at the moment. And in a world of Facebooks and MySpaces, it is one of the diminishing number of sites that offer total anonymity to its users. Being unidentifiable was one of the promises of the web, and was supposed to lead to wider and more open discussion. For any number of reasons, mostly human nature, web 2.0 took things in the opposite direction. Now, everyone wants the world to know who they are... through blogs, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

I realize I'm not the target audience for most social media sites, and certainly not JuicyCampus, but whether or not you put it all out there for the world to see online, do you think there's still a place for anonymity on the web? Or do you think the only way to real credibility is to identify yourself?

Outside the Supreme Court, waiting to hear District of Columbia v. Heller.

Source: David Gura/NPR

 

On my walk home yesterday, I passed the Supreme Court. On most evenings, there isn't much traffic on First Street, Northeast. Last night, it was bustling. Television cameras and network news correspondents lined the sidewalk, and a group of would-be spectators formed a queue that stretched from the stairs to the street corner. They'd ordered pizzas, set up folding chairs, and covered themselves in blankets and sleeping bags.

By arriving early, they had hoped to get tickets to one of the hottest shows in town: District of Columbia v. Heller, an Supreme Court argument about gun control. Huzzah! Ah, Washington....

Essentially, the case centers on an ordinance that makes it illegal to own a handgun for self-defense in the District of Columbia. For the first time in more than two centuries, the Supreme Court could decide whether the Constitution guarantees every American's right to own a gun. (For more information about District of Columbia v. Heller, read this.)

By 8:55 this morning, as I headed back to NPR, "Camp SCOTUS" had been disassembled, police officers had corralled everyone into an orderly queue, and a band of protesters competed for attention. Arguments began at 10 a.m.

The proceedings ran late, but we'll have audio from the oral arguments and insights from David Savage, of the Los Angeles Times, during the first hour. And you'll have a chance to ask Walter Dellinger and Alan Gura (no relation), who argued the case today, your questions. Do you think that the right to own a gun is as unalienable as, say, the right to free speech?

This past weekend, the Federal Reserve bailed out Bear Stearns, a notable Wall Street bank that was on the verge of collapsing due to losses in the mortgage market. It got us thinking about what the Fed is, exactly, and how it has come to serve as a sort of safety net for major corporations. Why was the Fed able to bail out Bear Stearns, and will it be able to keep this up? Vincent Reinhart, the former director of the Federal Reserve Board's Division of Monetary Affairs, will elucidate these questions for us today. And if you have other questions about the Fed, leave them here.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) speaks about race and politics in Philadelphia.

Source: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

A little behind the scenes today: we had planned a segment for this afternoon on the role of white voters in the presidential election. Some argue that white men are the new soccer moms. After listening to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) speak earlier today, however, it became clear that people weren't talking about the role of white voters, specifically. They were talking about Sen. Obama's speech... a personal and open discussion of race in America, and an effort to overcome the criticism he's taken recently over the past remarks of his former pastor.* Of course, the question after almost every political speech is: did it accomplish what he set out to do? Who were his remarks aimed at? And did those voters hear it that way? We'll talk about race in America and in politics during the second hour today. What's your take?

* Full transcript of the speech here.

In today's first hour, we'll hear audio from today's Supreme Court proceedings in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. The Court is now in a position to decide whether or not the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns. Our guests will be Los Angeles Times Supreme Court reporter David Savage and the two main lawyers who argued the case today. Following that, we'll answer your questions about the Federal Reserve Board with the former director of the Federal Reserve Board's Division of Monetary Affairs. And we'll read from your letters and blog comments and hear from author ZZ Packer about which century she'd like her personal time travel machine to land in.

For our entire second hour today, we will talk to guests about a speech made earlier today by Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama where he addressed the issue of race and how it has played out in this election. In his speech, Obama said, in part:

"...Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy -- particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction -- a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people -- that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union...."

Guests in our second hour talk about their reaction to Obama's speech on race and controversial remarks made by his longtime pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Who knew this crazy internet thing worked so well? I worked from home yesterday, thanks to a bit of a plumbing emergency. Of course, I did all of my work-related duties, thank you very much. But more interestingly, I tried out Craigslist for the first time. A little background: For the last 6 months or so, I've had an old, 1999 vintage computer monitor in my basement. I didn't want to throw it away, wasn't sure if I could somehow recycle it, etc. So, sitting on the computer yesterday morning, I figured why not give it away online. I posted the ad by 10am (FREE CRT monitor!!!), got two email replies by 2pm, and the giant paperweight/monitor was out of my hair before 4pm! All in a day's work, I suppose. And now that old bookshelf I've been dying to get rid of (and half the junk in my attic) is looking ripe for the giving. I know I'm behind the curve on Craigslist (and in my defense, I have bought and sold on eBay), but anyone else unload something in record time, or get a really great deal on something online?

Remember the good ol' days?

Source: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

 

Remember how comforting Alan Greenspan's testimony used to be? I miss those days.

Check out this quotation, from yesterday's Financial Times:

The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war.

C'mon, Alan! You're killing me, buddy. Where is the optimism? The confidence? The characteristic impenetrability?

In the last 24 hours, JPMorgan bought out Bear Stearns (with help from the Federal Reserve), markets around the world fluctuated wildly, and "crisis" and "recession" became watchwords. (Greenspan used "crisis" five times in his piece.)

In the first hour, we'll talk about what the Bear Stearns collapse means for Wall Street. And for your wallet. Mark Zandi, of Moody's Economy.com, and Sam Hayes, of Harvard Business School, will join us, to parse and posit. If you have a question about the economy, no matter how basic, leave it here.

Hello, Governor!

Source: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

The state of New York gets a new governor today, and Gov. David Paterson is legally blind:

When David Paterson takes the oath of office in Albany on Monday, he will not only become the third African-American governor since Reconstruction, he will also be the first legally blind chief state executive. I think it's a safe bet that Governor Paterson's visual impairment will be harder for the public to understand than his race.

That's how Stephen Kuusisto began his op-ed in The New York Times on Friday. And it's a subject he knows personally... He's blind himself.

I'm guessing there are some who wonder whether a blind man is up to the job of governing the Empire State. Even though there are 10 million blind or visually impaired Americans, many people have never seen one of them in a job of such responsibility -- or in any professional role at all. Even though it has been close to 20 years since the adoption of the Americans With Disabilities Act, the unemployment rate for the blind is estimated to be 70 percent. In this era of superb computer screen-reading software and talking P.D.A. devices, when many blind Americans are college graduates, this statistic implies that the public still doesn't fully understand how talented visually impaired professionals are.

We'll talk with Stephen Kuusisto on the Opinion Page today, about the things he can and can't see, and the things the rest of us miss in life, but many blind people pick up.

The newest performance-enhancing drug?

Source: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Here's a little word association game: when I say "performance-enhancing drugs," what comes to mind? Pill-popping professors looking for an academic edge... that's exactly right, well done! Seriously, there's quite a debate going on in some academic and professional circles over whether or not it's fair/ethical/safe to use what are called "cognitive enhancing drugs." Is it like taking steroids in sports, or more like an extra cup of coffee in the morning? Think about it... if you've got a big job interview that requires an aptitude test, but you haven't been sleeping well would you take a pill to improve your chances, just this once? Or if it's finals time and you have to get an "A" to get into grad school, and you know that other student competing for the fellowship is taking a little brain-booster, what do you do? It's not just an academic debate, either. A commentary in the journal Nature on this topic set off a spirited back and forth on the news blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education. And, The New York Times wrote about a possible "era of doping... in academia." What do you think: is popping a pill to give your brain a boost just as bad as taking steroids in sports? And more to the point, would you do it?

A new report from the Project for Excellence in Journalism says that the news media is in trouble, but not for the reasons we might normally think. My ears piqued. Called the "State of the News Media 2008," here are some of the more interesting findings:

* News is no longer a single, finished product -- it's a 24/7 service that's constantly being updated. And fewer and fewer reporters are being ask to do more.

* The Web is not, it turns out, a surefire to democratize the media.

* Citizen-produced news and blog sites are actually less welcoming of outside commentary and participation than mainstream media sites.

* The agenda of the news media continues to narrow rather than broaden: more than 25% of the stories on television, online and in the papers last year were about the Iraq war and the 2008 presidential election.

Today we'll talk to Tom Rosenstiel, Director of PEJ and Vice Chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, about the findings in more detail. So tell us, what changes have you seen in the news media over the past year?

Top o' the morning to ya!! Lynn Neary will be the host on today's show (and tomorrow). And here's what's coming up!! (I wish I could write this all in green):

The lucky charm of St. Patrick's Day hasn't affected Wall Street, but a lot of green is certainly flying around. Bear Stearns, the fifth-largest investment bank, has been bought by JPMorgan Chase at $2 a share. As a result, the Federal Reserve will provide up to $30 billion to JPMorgan Chase to help it finance the purchase. The Fed will also cut interest rates on direct loans to banks to prevent a market meltdown. So what the heck does all this mean? We'll ask Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com about the buy-out deal and the possible affects it could have on small businesses. Then on our opinion page, Stephen Kuusisto talks about his piece, from last Friday's edition of The New York Times, in which he explains the ways visually impaired people are uniquely and extraordinarily qualified to hold leadership positions.

In our second hour, we'll talk about brain enhancement drugs. Pills like Ritalin and Adderall not only help people with conditions such as attention deficit disorder, they help students, teachers and professionals get a little brain boost as well. Guest Barbara Sahakian, professor of clinical neuropsychology at Cambridge University, has dubbed brain enhancers "the professor's little helper." Have you used brain enhancement drugs to help you perform more efficiently at school or work? Tell us your story. At the end of the hour, we'll talk to Tom Rosenstiel, director for The Project for Excellence in Journalism, about the just released report that analyzes the state of the news media.

Enjoy today! May the luck of the Irish be with you!!!

A Monday morning "news" primer:

The Iraq war anniversary according to the New York Times' John F. Burns: "Five years on, it seems positively surreal."

You can blame global warming for that pricey bucket of extra-butter popcorn at the movie theater... when your car runs on corn, it means less for you.

Stop being pathetic... a 10-step guide to getting tough.

If you're not spying on your kids, why not?

Spring Break partying all about confidence for young women?: "After a week of talking to people in various states of undress and intoxication, I can tell you this much: What's happening on spring break beaches isn't just boys being boys and girls going wild. It's young people, women especially, deciding that the way to measure their readiness for the adult world is not in terms of education or emotional maturity but sexual desirability."

Digital dumpster diving... Anyone seen my Macbook Air?.

Polaroid denial: Save the instant (analog) photo.

Blackface is back in Hollywood: "Blackface fades but never goes away, the greasy rub between the fingers of racial loathing."

Former US Central Command Chief Admiral William Fallon last year in Abu Dhabi.

Source: AFP/Getty Images

Here's a question: Should men and women in uniform criticize the country's policy on war? It's being asked again with the early retirement of Adm. William Fallon this week. He's been in open disagreement with the administration over Iran for months, and his interview in Esquire magazine may have been the last straw... He gave up his post as head of American forces in the Middle East. Obviously, this was a big debate during Vietnam, and more recently a handful of retired generals have spoken out against various aspects of the war in Iraq. But what about those still IN uniform? What are the limits on criticism from below? Is it different if you're a private or a general?

Silda Spitzer stands by her man.

Source: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

In this office, as we watched Eliot Spitzer's apology for "private failings," the first thing out of most people's mouth was, "Whoa, his wife's there too... I wonder..." My brain went straight to, "He cheated on her! How can she stand by him?" I wasn't alone, but then my boss (there's a reason she's the boss) said, "Wait, hold on, what do we really know about the Spitzers? There could be things going on between them that we don't know about." And she's right, of course -- some marriages are open, some have "understandings," and many were quick to point out that in Europe, this would be no big deal. But, still, even if my high-profile man and I had a deal that he could hire call girls and he got busted, I still imagine my response would be more along the lines of "You did the crime, you do the time" than "Stand by Your Man." What do you think? Have you ever stood by your spouse through an incident in which they embarrassed you? Why or why not? Today we'll hear from one former first lady who had to deal with this firsthand.

Coach Stringer and her Rutgers team.

Credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

 

C. Vivian Stringer has long been known as one of the best coaches in women's college basketball ever. But when Don Imus made his now-infamous comment about her winning Rutgers squad last year, she proved she's more than a good coach -- she's a great leader and person. Her response was measured, passionate, and elegant, a far cry from the shock-jock's verbal bomb. If there's anything good to be said about the entire fiasco, it's that it brought Coach Stringer to the national stage, and she joins us today to talk about her remarkably trying life. Leave questions and comments here.

I'm a HUGE fan of rock music -- hard rock, indie-rock, blues-rock, rock & roll, you name it. I mean, who can resist the guitar stylings of Eric Clapton from his days in Cream, or the powerhouse combination of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards? Anytime I flip on ZZ Top's "La Grange" or hear "Baba O'Riley" by The Who, I feel like I can conquer the world. The only downside is that there are very few women in high profile rock bands. Rolling Stone's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" included only two women: Joni Mitchell and Joan Jett.* Thankfully, that picture appears to be changing. There's a music camp in Portland, Oregon called Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls where girls age 8 to 18 can spend a week at a time learning how to play electric guitars, bang drums, and write lyrics. Filmmakers Arne Johnson and Shane King spent a week trailing some of the girls, and chronicled their experiences in a documentary called Girls Rock. We'll have the director and one of the stars from the film on the show today. And we want to hear from girls that rock, literally. Tell us your stories here.

* Here's a supplementary list of the greatest female guitarists of all time.

In our first hour of Talk of the Nation (and our last day with guest host Robert Smth) we'll discuss dissent in the military. A former Marine sargent will be among our guests who will explain the consequences for disagreeing with a commanding officer in the military. At the end of the hour, we'll talk to Chicago Tribune syndicated advice columnist Amy Dickinson about marital infidelity and when a man or woman should (or shouldn't) stand by their cheating spouse.

In our second hour, we will talk to C. Vivian Stringer, head coach of the Rutgers University women's basketball team, about her recent 800th career game win, bouncing back from Don Imus' racial slur against her Rutgers team, and her new autobiography Standing Tall: A memoir of Tragedy and Triumph. Following that, we'll talk to the filmmakers of Girls Rock, a documentary about a music camp in Portland, Oregon where girls aged 8 to 18 learn what it takes to be a rock star in a rock-and-roll band.

You, me, The New York Times, Dupre...

Source: MySpace.com

It does seem rather handy that so many people have an online identity now. Especially if you're a journalist. When you're trying to find someone -- or information on them -- those MySpace pages sure are useful. Take for instance, the MySpace page of Ashley Alexandra Dupre. On it, she mentions several things about herself. For instance: "I am all about my music, and my music is all about me. It flows from what I've been through, what I've seen and how I feel. I live in New York and am on top of the world." Well, as most people know now, Ms. Dupre has a good deal more to her, namely, her involvement in the ugly scandal that took down the House of Spitzer. So here's what's interesting to me about it -- The New York Times article on Ms. Dupre seems to approach its subject through the prism of her MySpace profile -- without a whole lot of skepticism. Granted, the Times did speak directly to her, and to her mother -- it's not as if the story is reported entirely from the online identity Ms. Dupre wishes to show -- but the tone is surprisingly naive. For instance,

Her MySpace biography says she started singing professionally after a musician she was living with heard her singing the Aretha Franklin hit "Respect" in the shower and burst into the bathroom with his lead guitarist. She says she toured and recorded with them, then moved to Manhattan in 2004 and spent the first two years getting to know the music scene, networking in clubs and connecting with the industry."

Kinda hard to tell what came from her, and what came from the page. Of course, a lot of this is the pot calling the kettle black (I'm the pot), because during the Virginia Tech shootings, we got so much information from Facebook memorials to the kids who were shot. It seemed to me at the time, a good use of social networks -- for a good cause, if you will. But in the wake of the false Bilawal Bhutto Zardari page, the Megan Meier tragedy -- it kind of makes you feel a little icky about using Facebook or MySpace to report a story. Pity the old media types -- the web moves a lot faster then they do. And if anyone wants information about me, you should know that half the TV shows I mention on my Facebook page I barely watch anymore. Fact check it, y''all.

No, this is not another post about disgraced, soon-to-be former Governor Eliot Spitzer, or the company he allegedly...er...rents. This is about all those friends, supporters, advisers that hang around the candidates -- fundraising, strategizing... and running their mouths. Last week Barack Obama adviser Samantha Power was forced to resign after referring to Hillary Clinton as a "monster" -- albeit off the record. And this week, the Clinton campaign is fighting backlash against friend and supporter Geraldine Ferraro, for her controversial comment to a newspaper about Barack Obama's shot at the White House -- "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." (You can see both Obama and Ferraro's response to the comments and the subsequent controversy below.) Today on PoJu, we're focusing on how much the actions of your friends reflect on you -- no, not Ken -- but if you're a candidate, can you get your friends to do your "dirty work," or should they mirror you completely? And yes, we'll talk about Spitzer, we'll parse results from Mississippi, and there will be trivia. And no blood. Comment at will: we've got a pocket full of PoJu (PFOPJ).

Stephen King.

Source: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

Stephen King is pretty much the man. I started reading his novels when I was in high school, and to this day I can't figure out which was the most terrifying. Oh, the clown in It. He was super scary. But, somehow, posessed-car Christine was no less-so, no matter how absurd the conceit. Ooooh, what about Thinner, The Tommyknockers, and The Running Man? Just typing "tommyknockers" gave me chills. I used to devour his books as soon as I could get my hands on them, and while I've fallen off in recent years (I think the last one I read was The Green Mile, as a series, which was horrifying in a different way), I can still conjure the fantastic images that raced through my head as I read those novels -- the white face of It, the rotting gypsy man in Thinner. Eeeeew. Well, now the horrormaster is giving us the images to go with the stories through a collaboration with Marvel comics. They've released the second installment of comics expanding on King's fantasy opus, the Dark Tower series. The first installment was a huge hit; so if you read it, get ready to ask King all about it!

Rabbit, hat. It's magic!

Source: Mirela Schenk/iStockphoto.com

As a kid, I was unimpressed by magic tricks, probably because I never saw any good ones.

On Halloween, year after year, my neighbor would pull a quarter from my right ear. One of my dad's colleagues, who must have learned his tricks from the same book, magician, or crazy uncle, had a similar gimmick. He'd grab my nose, then he'd tell me that his thumb, wedged between his index and middle fingers, was it. Hilarious? Maybe. Convincing? Hardly.

After I read Adam Gopnik's most-recent article, "The Real Work: Modern Magic and The Meaning of Life," in The New Yorker, I developed a new appreciation for the craft of magic. As it turns out, a good trick takes practice and dexterity, and an understanding of the supernatural, of course.

Gopnik will join us today, with Jamy Ian Swiss, one of the illusionists he profiled. If you're a magician, we want to know what trick got you hooked. How old were you? Where were you? Who did the trick? And what made it so great? If you have a general question about magic, you can post that here too.

What's my question? (Thanks for asking).

"What does 'Abracadabra' mean?" I'm pretty satisfied with Ambroise Bierce's answer, in The Devil's Dictionary, which you can read after the jump.

Continue reading "Abracadabra!" >

Here's the headline that greeted me on the front page of the New York Times this morning: "Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls." As a future father, the news was a bit of a shot in the gut. But, while the numbers seemed high to me, apparently they're right in line with historical patterns. On its website, the Wall Street Journal says, "Teen STD Rates Cause for Concern, Not Panic." So many news sources today reported this story differently, and with varying degrees of concern, that there must be questions about what this report means, what's being done to prevent STDs in teens, and what parents and teens can do. NPR's Brenda Wilson covered this story yesterday, and will explain what it really means; and we have an M.D. to explain what is and isn't new in these numbers, and to take your questions about teens and STDs. Parents, teachers, teens... What questions do you have?

In today's Political Junkie, NPR's Ken Rudin talks about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's announcement that he is resigning amid allegations that he was a client in a high-end prostitution ring. We'll also look back at yesterday's primary results in Mississippi, and look ahead to Pennsylvania. And we'll discuss Geraldine Ferraro's recent remarks about Sen. Barack Obama. Ferraro, a former Democratic vice-presidential nominee was quoted as saying: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Former presidential campaign manager Susan Estrich will explain how campaigns deal with the fall-out when candidate surrogates make controversial comments. Following that, we'll talk with horror guru Stephen King. The man who has sent shivers up our spines and blankets over our heads will talk about his love for....comic books. What? Actually it does make sense. Marvel comics has just released the next installment in a series of comic books inspired by King's Dark Tower series.

There's not much I remember about my early childhood. One thing I do remember is being about four years old and clapping my hands in excitement whenever I saw a particular gentleman friend of the family. That's because I knew whenever he saw me, he would do a magic trick for me. Usually it was of the basic pull a quarter out of my ear variety, but I adored it! I've been a true fan of magic (and our family friend) ever since. In our second hour, New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik will talk about the future of modern magic, and magician Jamy Ian Swiss talks about the art of teaching and preserving "old school" magic tricks. Following that, we will answer your questions about a disturbing study that reports one in four teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease.

I sweded myself. You can too!

Source: Ashley Grashaw

 

So I finally saw Be Kind Rewind last weekend. It's Michel Gondry's latest film, starring Jack Black and Mos Def. I liked this movie for several reasons:

A) Delectable cast. The Jack Black/Mos Def pairing was a brilliant move; and Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, and Melonie Diaz dazzled in supporting roles.

B) Inspiration. In my opinion, BKR is a shining beacon of hope for low-budget, aspiring filmmakers -- proof that good, smart films don't necessarily need mega bucks. A little creativity and humor can go a long way.

C) VHS tapes and independent video stores. A sweet nod to the movie medium of the 80s, and a nostalgic look back at life before Blockbuster, Netflix, et al.

and, lastly, my favorite,

D) Sweding. A new concept that basically amounts to inserting yourself into your favorite films -- re-making them with whatever props you have lying around, until the end result is a new movie based on the old one. I would love to swede The Princess Bride -- who can resist Inigo Montoya and Miracle Max?

What movies would you swede? And what treatment would you give them?

Swede yourself!

Today's tabloid diet.

Source: The New York Post, the New York Daily News, Newsday (as reproduced on Gawker)

 

When a sex scandal breaks, I turn to the tabloids. The New York Daily News referred to Eliot Spitzer as the "Pay For Luv Gov." "Ho No!" the New York Post read. "Gov Nailed In Hooker Shock." (They're good, no?)

OK. Enough puns! Save your spoonerisms! It's time for some analysis of what happened. Michael Powell, a reporter for The New York Times, will join us to talk to us about the story, what happened when, and any late-breaking developments. (His newspaper broke the scandal yesterday afternoon). Eric Dezenhall, who runs a crisis-management company here, in Washington, will help us try to figure out what Spitzer might do next. And Alan Dershowitz, who teaches law at Harvard University, will give us [a few of] his thoughts.

What questions do you have about the case? Do you think Spitzer's political career has come to a close?

We don't know the details of what New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer did or didn't do, but we know that he apologized yesterday: "I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong." Somewhere in that sense of right and wrong live many of the conversations people are having today... about what he did, why he did it, how he got caught, etc, etc. At the heart of it, it's about vices. Something our own Peter Sagal has thought a lot about (his book is called, The Book of Vice after all). We'll get a chance to talk with Peter at the end of the first hour today about people's fascination with vice, on the front page and in our own lives.

I'm going to lay it out for you -- straight. We're doing a show on time travel. That's right, time travel, folks. (See above for more explanation). Ashley, intrepid producer that she is, called an assortment of famous people, and asked them this: "If you had a time machine, what period would you like to visit?"

I'm pretty sure there were a few people/publicists (not quite the same thing, you know), who thought we were crank calling them. But darn it all, we've got them for you -- everyone from Miss Manners to Joseph Ellis -- and they're going to let you in on their secret wishes for time travel.

But now, on to the important part -- ME. My secret wish is to go back to the early sixteenth century, and just hang with Queen Anne -- Boleyn. Actually, hang might be literal -- I suppose I just want to see the court of Henry VIII right as he broke with Rome. I am addicted to the various fictionalized versions of the story (bless Philippa Gregory), and I am dying to see what a stomacher does for my figure. I'm including in here a clip from my favorite film version of the famous story, Anne of a Thousand Days. You can see Genevieve Bujold kicking royal butt about a day before she's beheaded. Awesome, right?

Who really knows what Heath thought?

Source: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

So, the other day I read Heath Ledger's personal "diary", the entries he wrote after his death. After his death. Whaaat? Yes, you read that correctly, but here's the catch, of course: It was written by a reporter for Esquire, Lisa Taddeo. Esquire's calling it reported fiction -- Taddeo researched Ledger, then wrote a fictional account of his last days -- and it's sort of rough. Jack Nicholson and Mary Kate Olsen make cameos, and those parts are entertaining. Their media personas are practically caricatures as it is, so I just found those parts vaguely scintillating. When Taddeo gets into Ledger's relationship with his daughter, Matilda, and ex-girlfriend, Michelle Williams, however, my stomach churned...

I walk to Mulberry. I get the steak and eggs and a coffee for breakfast at the only place in Little Italy that's open early enough for me. I'm catching up on my e-mails. There's one from Michelle, with an attachment. It's Matilda in a little Swedish milkmaid outfit. I sit there for a while trying to think of the right thing to respond. On Prince there is a beetle-faced Asian woman half my length with a little stand of children's T-shirts. There is a white one, Matilda-sized, that reads, "Somebody in New York Loves Me." I think, This is appropriate, because after all she isn't in New York, she's in Sweden with her mother, and wouldn't it be cool if I FedEx'ed it over? (Ignoble intentions: It wouldn't be for Matilda but for her mother.)

To me, there's something about those relationships that just seems sacred, and (here I go speculating, when speculation is what's got my hackles up now) it seems as though Ledger felt the same way. He never appeared in anything akin to a People spread with Michelle and Matilda a'la Joel Madden, Nicole Richie, and baby Harlow. There's more to it than my own squeamishness, though... As Edward Wasserman, Knight professor of journalism at Washington and Lee University said,

The biggest problem I see is you are sacrificing the biggest strengths from each of the genres. You are losing the veracity of journalism, and you are losing the imaginative license of fiction. You run the risk of ending up with something that is neither true nor interesting.

An astute observation, to be sure. What do you think? Is it in poor taste, or a good idea published too soon, or just an inevitable blurring of the line between fiction and reality that happens all the time on television?

In our first hour today, we will discuss the news that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was alledgedly involved in a prostitution ring. As we speak, several New York newspapers are calling for Governor Spitzer's resignation. But today we'll ask our guests if there is a case to be made for Spitzer keeping his job. We'll talk about Spitzer's political career, and ask the question, "When does sex become a public issue?" We're still working on our main "ender" topic, so stay tuned for that. And we'll read from your email and blog comments at some point during the hour.

So I've gotta say, 2008 has been a pretty far-out year for me so far. Not for any particular reason. Being part of this brand new millenium is just absolutely cool. But I do have to say, from a musical standpoint, the '70s must have been the era to be in. Live bands where horn players were prominent, bass lines were strong and deep "in-the-pocket," and lyrics uplifted and inspired. And that's just the funk bands. It was the golden age for a songwriter strumming an acoustic guitar, too. If I could travel in time, l'd be the Afro proud girl wearing a caftan with stack of LPs under her arm, circa 1975. So tell us... where would you go if you could time travel? Would you go forward or backward? In our second hour, we'll theorize about traveling through time and ask you and our guests, "What time and place would you like to travel to, and why?" At the end of the hour, we'll talk to David Granger, Esquire magazine's editor-in-chief, about a recently published piece that appeared in the magazine detailing the final days of the late actor Heath Ledger... entirely from his point of view. It's all completely fake, but Granger calls it 'reported fiction.' Tell us what you think.

Inaccurate "headcuts"?

Source: The Wall Street Journal (as reproduced on the Daily Intelligencer)

 

Until yesterday, I had assumed that the small, stippled portraits in The Wall Street Journal were digitally rendered, the product of some special Photoshop filter. In fact, each one is drawn by hand, inked on vellum. (I'm embarrassed to admit that I missed this piece, by NPR's Petra Mayer, about Noli Novak, who heads the department responsible for The Journal's "headcuts," as they're called). It sounds like meticulous, if not tedious, work.

A post on the Daily Intelligencer caught my attention: "'Journal' Stipple Artists Find Obama Challenging."

Instead of Obama's trademark dark brow and big open eyes, we got an image of a man who looked, well, a little bit like a generic black dude. That's weird, right? But maybe we should just chalk it up to the limitations of the medium. And in that case, let us say that said limitations are kinder to Hillary. When was the last time you saw her looking that joyful and young?

They do look strange.

The post reminded me of an interview I heard a few weeks ago: NPR's Melissa Block spoke with Jack Ohman, political cartoonist for The Oregonian, and Kal Kallaugher, of The Economist magazine, about the challenges of drawing Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). Ohman said that he has received a fair amount of negative feedback.

But the fact is, is that you have, you know, racial and gender issues when you're portraying these people. And I do not, you know, try to demean anybody in terms of the way they look. I just try to communicate who they are.

And that, understandably, can be tough.

Bob Garfield, who co-hosts On The Media, asked Nick Anderson, a cartoonist at The Houston Chronicle an important question: "When you're dealing with a woman and an African-American, do you think your colleagues feel fettered in any way lest exaggeration turns into something, I don't know, more pernicious?"

Much of the mudslinging between Senators Obama and Clinton comes down to one issue, and it's not the war, it's not the economy or the price of oil. Experience. Who's got it, who doesn't, what counts and what doesn't, how do you add it up, and what do you subtract? It's fuzzy math to say the least, where the variables on either side of the equation are hard to quantify. Who can really speak with authority on Clinton's experiences as first lady... besides Clinton herself? And how does experience as a community organizer relate to the job of president? There's no way to make a strict one-to-one comparison, so what matters to you? And it may sound blasphemous... but is there a situation in which the most experienced candidate -- for president, or for any job, really -- isn't the best choice?

Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax died last week.

Source: Vanessa Pike-Russell

Dungeons & Dragons has been a cultural line-in-the-sand for a long time. If you play it, you're a nerd. If you don't, you make fun of those who do.

Even if you don't actively make jokes about the gamers, you can probably nod knowingly when someone else uses D&D as a descriptor, or makes a comment about a multi-sided die. But Adam Rogers, senior editor at Wired, has a more-nuanced reaction to the game. A professed D&D gamer himself, he says that while it never helped him get girls, it did help him understand the world. Read his tribute to creator Gary Gygax, who died Tuesday here, and leave your D&D memories below.

There's little I can say about the ending of The Wire that hasn't been said (or won't ruin the show for Sarah, Gwen, and the rest of the TOTN staff still watching it). It's bleak, it's sad, it has moments of hope, and it's ineffably human. It also has the best cast assembled in one place -- ever (take that, David Chase). Today, you've got your shot to talk to creator David Simon, and writer Ed Burns, about the ups and downs of Bodymore, Murderland. I'll leave you with my favorite scene from Season Two of the series.

True that.

What's on tap?

Source: good_day

The AP reports that "a vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans." If you live in the Passaic Valley, you're probably ingesting some carbamazepine. Who knew that there was estrogen and a mood stabilizer in New York City's famous tap water? (I didn't).

The fine print on this story: scientists say that there are only trace amounts of pharmaceuticals. "Trace" is a fancy science term for "very, very, very, very, very small." (It might even be smaller than that). Still, it does make you pause. Doesn't it?

So, as Mike Nizza, of The Lede, asked, "There Are Drugs in Drinking Water. Now What?" Well, we'll try to answer that question today. Joan Rose, a water researcher at Michigan State University, will explain the AP report and put us at ease. We hope. If you have questions for her, leave 'em here.

All this week, Neal Conan is away and NPR reporter Robert Smith will be in the Talk of the Nation host chair. This is what Robert will be talking to our guests (and you) about today:

As Democratic Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama run neck-and-neck in the race to the White House, "experience" seems to be the word that most often divides them. Does experience really matter? We're asking that question of presidential historian Robert Dallek... and YOU in our first hour. Tell us what type of experience you feel is the right one for a president. Stayed tuned for the ender topic for that hour. We are working on our 'opinion page' segment as I type this.

The Wire. What can I say about The Wire? I've come to know the characters better than I know members of my own family. The series finale aired last night. Now, I must confess here that I'm a late bloomer when it comes to The Wire. I started watching this fifth season mainly out of curiosity because I knew the series was ending and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I got so hooked on it that a few months ago I started Netflixing the show from the beginning... Season one, episode one. I haven't had much of a personal life since. So while the series has officially ended, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of episode one, season three. The love affair continues!!! BUT while I am still in the first blush of a budding romance, I have now seen how it eventually ends, and this makes me sad. Anyone else feel the same way? Need to talk it out? How about a therapy session with The Wire creator David Simon and co-producer Ed Burns? They are our guests in the second hour to talk about The Wire, Omar, and our heartstrings getting "got." ~sniff~ At the end of the hour, we'll talk about what the discovery of trace amounts of prescription drugs in our drinking water could mean for you and the safety of your water.

Ed Burns and David Simon, in Hollywood.

Source: Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images

 

SPOILER ALERT: The following post has major spoilers. Don't read if you're not caught up on The Wire.

The series finale of The Wire didn't leave us with much in the way of comfort. But, in the end, Bubbles was enough.

I love realism, and I love The Wire for its grit, for its bleakness, for its grim honesty -- but after the deaths of Stringer, Prop Joe, and Omar, and the ruin of Dukie and Randy -- my poor li'l heart wouldn't have been able to take it if there wasn't some redemption in Charm City.

To see the door open for Bubs -- now Reginald -- proved to me that there was balm in Baltimore, even if it was pure fantasy. I'm not going to lie to y'all though -- there were moments in all five seasons when I wanted to bang my fists on a table and scream at David Simon and Ed Burns (despite their dual genius) for breaking my heart -- and the hearts of the characters and the city I love.

If your passion for their creation rises to that level -- you're in luck on this sad, Wire-less day -- Simon and Burns will be here with us, at 3:00 EST, for you to commend, curse, or congratulate. Here's a little required reading for you in anticipation of the show. And if we let some spoilers fly? It's all in the game.

This photo was taken in March of 2003 in Kuwait City, Kuwait. The activation of the media into their military embedded positions was a sign that a war with Iraq was coming.

Source: Richard Ellis/Getty Images

One of the first TV images of the Iraq war -- which started five years ago this month -- was Ted Koppel standing in the Iraqi desert. He was embedded with some of the first troops to cross into Iraq, and reported on the advance to Baghdad for ABC News in the early hours of the invasion. In Baghdad, NPR's Anne Garrels painted a picture of a city under siege as the "shock and awe" campaign began, and she stayed at her post throughout the early days of the war. For most of us in 2003, journalists were our eyes and ears in the war, and it's been that way ever since. Today, Anne Garrels and Ted Koppel, along with John Burns from the New York Times and Hoda Abdel-Hamid with Al Jazeera English, reflect on what they saw five years ago, and what they've seen in Iraq since. March 2008 is in many ways just another month in a long conflict, but the 5-year mark offers an opportunity to look back to lessons learned, and stories told, as well as to look ahead. When you think back to March 2003 and the initial reports of the invasion, what are the stories... and who are the storytellers... you remember most?

How long do we stay? How do we go?

Source: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

When you think about the American military in Iraq, it's hard not to just squeeze your eyes shut tight and say, "When will it be over -- I want Iraqis and Americans to be safe." But what does "over" mean? The military relationship we have built in Iraq cannot be dismantled easily -- and there are burning humanitarian questions that linger even if we were to just disappear overnight. How long, and how we are to stay in Iraq remains a question that is constantly debated at dinner tables, on the radio (see, er... here), in the blogs, in newspapers -- and everybody loves to play military adviser (it's much easier to give yourself stars -- or a cabinet position). Today, we're talking to actual military men -- about the stay or go debate -- but we want your input as well. What factors should you consider before pulling out of Iraq? What factors would make you stay?

The two words we were talking about yesterday: Texas and Ohio. Today, the two words we keep hearing are Florida and Michigan. As in: The Democratic party stripped Florida and Michigan of its delegates as punishment for moving their primaries to an earlier date, but now want those delegates counted. And the only thing at stake here is the nomination itself. How will it turn out? Who knows. Howard Dean, the head of the Democratic National Committee, was on NPR yesterday, and was asked if Florida and Michigan would eventually have their delegates seated at the convention:

There is a process within the rules. They can come and petition, and give the Rules Committee a new plan for selecting their delegates.... They could appeal to the Credentials Committee.... We don't have any control over that. That's the elected delegates of the convention who'll make that decision.

We'll hear from Florida and Michigan on the show today, and find out how much is at stake here, and whether delegates from either state (or both) will eventually be counted.

For our entire first hour today, we'll have a conversation with four reporters who have been covering the war in Iraq since it began almost five years ago. NPR senior Foreign Correspondent Anne Garrels and NPR news analyst Ted Koppel will begin the program, and later in the hour we'll be joined by John Burns of The New York Times and Hoda Abdel Hamid of Al Jazeera. They will all give their personal accounts of what they have seen and heard while reporting in Iraq, how the stories have changed over the years, and which stories they can no longer cover.

We'll take a look at the future of Iraq in our second hour. Troop levels in the region are a major political issue in this presidential election. Both Democratic hopefuls say they will withdraw US troops in Iraq, while the presumptive Republican nominee argues the United States should "stay the course" in Iraq until the job is done. So what do we do? Two military experts with different points of view discuss the risks and benefits of pulling out of Iraq... or staying. At the end of the hour, we'll talk about the buzz surrounding Michigan, Florida and a possible voter "re-do" that could tip the Democratic presidential nomination

No cussin' on the Virginia Beach beachfront.

Source: Tuaussi

It might surprise my parents, but at times, I've got a filthy mouth. Good thing I don't live in South Pasadena, because starting this week, it could cost me. Mayor Michael Cacciotti has proclaimed this week "No Cussing Week," and while no one will be jailed -- or even fined -- cussing is very much frowned upon for now. To be clear, I'm reasonably selective about my cussing. I try not to do it in public where strangers -- especially kids -- could hear. I think it's sort of scary as a little kid to hear random adults spewing epithets in the grocery store, at the bus stop, whatever. So I try not to be that person. I also, for a time, tried not to curse at all. I'd read or overheard somewhere that cussing is really about linguistic laziness, that we resort to those words because we're too dumb to find a better expression of our feelings. After my own little no-cussing experiment, I believe that that's true... sometimes. Sure, if you're using the f-word to modify every word in your sentence (it's an incredibly agile word, it's true) you could probably do a better job expressing yourself with some diversifications. But other times, it's absolutely essential to curse, and there's just no better way to characterize a person, place, or thing than with a carefully placed profanity. How do you feel about it? Do you have a strict no-cussing policy, or do you relish the occasional -- or not-so -- dirty word?

Last night I listened to three hours of election results -- including the NPR special -- as I painted my new bedroom (you're jealous, I know -- painting is so darn fun!). About halfway through the third wall I stopped short: McCain had earned enough of the vote to be declared the Republican nominee for president. Not very surprising. But what is surprising is that it took so long to reach this conclusion... and that we may have to wait until the Democratic convention in the end of August to find out who their nominee is. The other thing that surprised me about last night is how much I enjoyed Huckabee's gracious concession speech. It contained two lovely anecdotes, one about Kansas City Royal George Brett and another about Colonel William Barret Travis at the Alamo; and while they certainly weren't new, I found myself listening to every word. In today's news special, we'll talk all about last night, and all about what's next. What are your reactions to last night's results?

When an addict reaches a point where nothing matters more than the drugs -- not family, not personal safety, not money, not the future -- bad things happen. Maybe a young addict living at home brings home drug dealers, whose volatile presence leaves the rest of the family with little else to do but lock themselves in a room and wait for the dealers to leave. Maybe an older addict, living alone, passes out in the kitchen with a glass in her hand, sprawled in shards. And it gets worse, of course. Watching a friend or family member self-destruct in the throes of addiction is absolutely horrific, but there may be an option for some: stage an intervention. Essentially, a family turns to a therapist or addiction specialist for help. They gather, lure their addicted loved-one to the room, and offer him or her the chance to get help to get clean. Now. Or face consequences. It's heart-wrenching, but it can work. Have you intervened... or been the subject of an intervention? Share your stories here.

This past Saturday, Colombian forces crossed into Ecuador and killed some twenty guerrilla rebels, including a top FARC leader, who were taking refuge there. Colombia officials discovered a FARC laptop which they claim contains evidence that the rebels had been seeking radioactive material to make a bomb, and that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez channeled $ 300 million to the FARC. Venezuela and Ecuador have deployed troops to their borders in response to Colombia's raid, and President Chavez called Colombia the "Israel of Latin America."

Most Latin American countries, including powerhouse Brazil, have condemned the raid and are calling on Colombia to apologize. But President Bush said we will stand by Colombia, who has been a longtime ally of the U.S. Today we will talk to Julia Sweig, Director of Latin America Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and to Michael Evans, the Director of the Colombia Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, about the political implications of these recent events. If you have questions about the tensions between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, or about the roles of the U.S. and the FARC, leave them here.

Our first hour today will be branded a NPR News Special, with host Neal Conan. You'll hear the proper trumpet fanfare letting you know that for the full hour we will be talking about the results of last night's presidential primaries. Mike Huckabee has dropped out of the race and now John McCain is officially the Republican nominee after winning in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island...and getting the endorsement of President Bush this morning. On the Democratic side, the battle goes on. Hillary claimed victory in Ohio and Texas and Rhode Island last night, but Obama still leads in the delegate count. So where do we go from here? Our own senior Washington editor Ron Elving will join Neal Conan and campaign managers for Clinton, Obama and McCain for a look at what's changed in this election. Towards the end of the hour, we'll talk to former Congresswoman and 1984 Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro.

In our second hour, it's back to Talk of the Nation. *cue familiar theme music here* We will talk about the often painful decision families make in confronting loved ones who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. How exactly does intervention work? And how effective is confrontation when the addict hasn't hit rock bottom? Guests will talk about the pros and cons of staging interventions for drug and alcohol abusers. Following that discussion, we'll talk about Venezuela and Ecuador's growing conflict with Colombia. Last weekend, Colombia crossed the border and conducted a deadly assault against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or FARC) rebel camp inside Ecuador.

Slate's handy-dandy little calculator.

Source: Slate.com

It's been an exciting morning here at headquarters. We have a new home, about eleven blocks from here, which we'll move to in 2012. This is a relief to many of us -- I mean, can you imagine Neal saying, "From NPR News in Hagerstown, Maryland, this is Talk of the Nation!" Also -- I only just got my commute under control. Of course, the other talk of the TOTN is also probably the talk around your neck of the woods (apologies to Willard) -- another couple of primaries leaves Dems in limbo and the GOP gearing up for the general election. More on that later -- we're prepping a delicious news special for y'all -- but first, if you want to understand the importance of superdelegates, check this out. Slate's delegate calculator is the coolest (read: nerdiest) election tool out there. And you'll see -- the math doesn't give you a Democratic candidate any way you add it up. Sigh. We're still on that long road to the conventions.

It's really hard to get out the scissors.

Source: b.franchina

Public radio is a thing you do for love -- not money. When I worked at a member station, the starting salary was so teeny that there was no way I could support myself without using my credit cards -- to pay for gas, food, and yes, the occasional pair of peep toe heels. It was a constant calculation -- pay off my debt, or pay my electric bill. Sometimes I would (and still do, argh) send too much money to the cards, and end up seriously cash poor. Compounding the whole thing is an interest rate that would make a loan shark blanch. Sigh. The responsibilities only grow -- now I own a house, and a car, and a whole raft of handbags that I might start selling off -- and the problem of debt management only becomes more serious as time goes by. I've discovered some nifty online tools to help (Mint and various debt calculators are my favorites), but there are so many conflicting ideas about how to manage your debt, that the whole thing just makes me want to buy stuff on Ebay just to make myself feel better. Well today, we're going to help you figure it all out -- so whatever the size or shape of your debt, let us know, and we'll give you some solid advice about how to get out from under it without selling your handbag collection

This may sound odd, but this video of a plane nearly blowing off the runway in Germany makes me feel better about flying (if you haven't seen it yet, it's incredible... Unless you're already petrified of flying, obviously). I figure if THAT landing didn't break the plane, chances are I'm awfully safe landing in a little wind gust at O'Hare (though obviously the pilots in this case deserve all the credit, not the plane). I'm no expert (spent maybe 15 hours flying a little single-engine plane before I ran out of money to support my habit) but crosswind landings are nasty. As the jet is coming in for the landing, you can see the pilot has the nose pointing way off to the right, but it's still flying straight ahead... A good sign of a nasty crosswind. The problem over the weekend started once the wheels were actually on the runway, and a huge gust of wind blew the plane sideways. Why a plane was cleared to land at all on a runway with that kind of wind is a matter for the German aviation folks, but George Bibel knows all about aviation near-misses and disasters. He wrote the book, Beyond the Black Box: The Forensics of Airplane Crashes and will explain what happens in plane v. wind landings, why we had a happy ending in this case, and why this doesn't happen more often.

Can you teach your spouse how to back flip like this?

Source: slimdandy

Shamu (v.): to use "the principles of animal training to solve a behavioral riddle" between humans.*

That's the subject of Amy Sutherland's new book What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers. It builds off of an op-ed she wrote in the New York Times in June 2006 about her attempt to improve her relationship with her husband -- and get him to pick up his dirty laundry -- by using the techniques of exotic animal trainers. It became the newspaper's #1 most emailed article for the entire year. Today she joins us to talk about her methods, and what worked and what didn't. If you have questions for Amy, about animal training, or about how the techniques can be applied to human interactions, leave them here. And if you've ever shamued someone, we want details!

* That's right, she verbed a proper noun.

From 2006... Sorry, guys.

Source: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

When I was in middle school, my friend invited me on a family trip to Wisconsin, where he was born. "We'll play hockey on a frozen lake," my friend promised. (We did). "We'll go skiing," he said. (We did that, too). "And you'll eat your fill of custard and curds." (I'm still full).

It was my first trip to the Midwest. From his mom's Dodge Caravan, I saw Kenosha, Waukesha, and Oconomowoc. Snow was everywhere, up to my waist, and it was bitterly cold.

On Sunday, we drove to his uncle's house in Menomonee Falls, where we played football until the Green Bay Packers took to Lambeau Field. There was a seriousness to those spectators. They swilled Milwaukee's finest. They donned Cheesehead hats. And everyone, save for me, wore a hunter green jersey.

Without exception, Wisconsin sports fans will raise a Pabst or Stroh to Brett Favre, who announced his retirement from the Packers today. If you're a Green Bay fan, what is your favorite Favre memory? If you're not a Green Bay fan, give us your least-favorite.

Neal Conan is back, and here's what's happening today:

So of course we know we're supposed to pay off our credit cards, but with talk of an impending recession, it seems we need those credit cards more and more often. In our first hour, we'll talk about that darn credit card debt. How to manage it, ways to control it, and advice on how to avoid it altogether. Then, have you seen that video of the plane landing in Germany that was caught in the cross-winds? It's seeing things that like that cause me to make a mental note to pay close attention to the "in case of emergency" spiel before take off next time. We'll go inside the cockpit with George Bibel and find out how much blood, sweat and tears it takes to safely land an aircraft. At the end of the hour, we'll read your email and blog comments about life after serving a long-term prison sentence and the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

In our second hour, journalist Amy Sutherland gives us some advice on how to improve your relationships by applying some of the same techniques animal trainers use to tame even the wildest of beasts. She's written it all down in a new book entitled, What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers.
Then we'll give a play-by-play rundown of some of the more memorable moments in the career of Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Favre. An official announcement that Favre is retiring was made this morning.

Brett Favre.

Source: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

News just crossed that the Green Bay Packers' quarterback Brett Favre is leaving football. Although I've never been a Packers fan, per se, I'm a Favre fan, for reasons I can't really explain. There's just something classy about the guy. As soon as I saw the news I knew I had to blog about it, and not five minutes later Neal came up behind me, "Sarah, you're my barometer on this: Brett Favre retiring?" To which I responded, "Yes. I think it's a big deal." So now, faster than I can type this, it looks like we're going to try to get a segment together to talk about the man and his career. Clearly, he's one of the best quarterbacks to play the game, winning MVP trophies and a superbowl, and playing through countless injuries with incredible heart. The Southern-born Favre thrived in the snow, and made Lambeau Field a treacherous place for visiting teams in the frigid postseason. He's also a cultural touchstone -- when his once-unpronouncable name became a laugh line and star turn in There's Something About Mary, (Brett Fah-vruh) -- he achieved the kind of fame that transcended sports. So stay tuned for more on Favre, and get ready to share your favorite Favre moments.

The US House continues to debate FISA.

Source: Chung Chu

Remember that song, "I'm just a bill... Sitting here on Capitol Hill..."? It's come in handy over the last week or two in trying to follow this back an forth over FISA. The Senate passed an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would allow the government to wiretap suspected terrorists and grant retroactive immunity to phone companies that helped the government after 9/11. The President backs the bill, and is ready to sign. But, the House refused to grant that retroactive immunity (if FISA is Greek to you, read Ari Shapiro's explainer) and is still in a stalemate with the White House. Why all the fuss over immunity? We'll find out on the show today. The Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Justice Department will explain the government's position, and take your calls. And we'll hear an argument against offering retroactive immunity to phone companies. Here's the question for you: Do you care what happens with FISA?

Heir apparent?

Source: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Last week, David Kuo, former deputy director of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, posed a question: "Who will govern the new religious right?" (Now that Jerry Falwell and D. James Kennedy have passed away, and James Dobson and Pat Robertson are getting older, Kuo says there are [several pairs of] big shoes to fill).

Kuo's answer to his own question, which might surprise you, is Mike Huckabee.

Do you agree with Kuo's prediction that, "when Huckabee is done not being the GOP nominee, he might just sit back, look at his list of donors and the gaping hole in leadership on the religious right and decide it's not so bad being king . . . maker."? Who do you think will be the next leader of America's religious right? And how influential do you think that person will be?

The Gallup Center recently surveyed more than 90% of the global Muslim community about their opinions on a variety of topics, ranging from democracy to Islam to radicalism to women's rights. With nearly 40 Muslim countries represented, it is the largest and most in-depth study of its kind. One surprising finding: when asked what they admired most and least about the West, both Muslims and Westerners (who were also surveyed) gave the exact same answer. The findings have been published in a new book, Who Speaks For Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think. Today we talk to Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and co-author of the book, who will break it all down for us.

Showdown in Texas tomorrow... Who will Latinos support?

Source: JOE RAEDLE/AFP/Getty Images

Texas wraps up voting tomorrow, and the question on many minds comes down to this: How will Latinos vote? Hillary Clinton has a long-established relationship with the Latino community, and for a long time, pundits presumed she'd carry that demographic handily. But with chants of "Si se puede!*" ringing in our ears, we're all wondering if that's still true. On an issue like this, the most interesting perspectives can come from within, not without, so we've got Roland Roebuck, who believes Latinos won't vote for an African American because of historic tensions between Latinos and blacks; and Ricardo Ramirez, who says race isn't the problem, it's just that Clinton has a 16-year lead on her competitor. So if you're Latino, how do you see it? Who are you voting for... and why aren't you voting for his or her competitor?

*Interesting tidbit from the Wikipedia entry linked above -- Sen. Obama has actually been using "Si se puede" as a catchphrase since 2004... I'd just assumed he adopted it after its prevalence during the 2006 immigration protests. Not so!

Today, NPR reporter Ari Shapiro will grace our airwaves from the host's chair. (Neal Conan will be back tomorrow.) And here's what's coming up on the show today:

In our first hour, we will discuss the the debate over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Right now, Congress is still negotiating to amend the law that tells the President when he needs a court warrant to eavesdrop on phone or email conversations. FISA has been amended many times over the past 30 years, but this time has been unexpectedly difficult. The Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's National Security Division will be among the guests to discuss the details of a new FISA law. Later in the first hour, we'll talk with David Kuo, a former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Kuo wrote an op-ed that appeared in the February 24th edition of the Washington Post where he examines the question, "Who will govern the new religious right?"

In our second hour, we will talk about how people in the Muslim world view democracy, radicalism and women's rights. And if you ever wondered what Muslims admire most and least about the West, a Gallup organization posed the question to both Muslims and Westerners. Surprisingly, both groups gave nearly the same answers. We'll talk about the survey with Dalia Mogahed, co-author of a new book entitled, Who Speaks for Islam? What a billion Muslims really think. The book represents the largest comprehensive survey of Muslim attitudes around the world. Following that discussion, we'll talk about why many Latino voters tend to favor Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.

So, there are a thousand things I read about every day that I don't understand. I can not understand the Texas voting system. I still don't quite understand the writer's strike. And I cannot, for the life of me, understand what's going on with FISA. But, Justice correspondent and TOTN fill-in host extraordinaire Ari Shapiro has agreed to put an explanation right here, in this very spot, that even idiot creative writing majors like me can understand. Here it is:

Congress first passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the 1970s, as a response to President Nixon's overreaching. The law created a secret court -- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- inside the Justice Department. Congress told the White House that any time the President wants to wiretap an American in the US, he has to get permission from the judges on that court.

In 2005, the New York Times revealed that the Bush Administration established a secret wiretapping program after 9/11 that operated outside of FISA. The program tapped phone calls and email conversations with one end in the United States and one end overseas, without going through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. FISA has been amended many times since 1978, but the revelation of the Bush Administration's secret warrantless surveillance program prompted a new, far more heated debate about how to amend FISA again.

In August of 2007, Congress passed a bill called the "Protect America Act." It was essentially a short-term update to FISA. The Protect America Act established that the President does not need individual warrants to wiretap foreigners calling the United States, as long as the foreigners (and not the Americans on the other end of the call) are the target of the wiretap. The law would only last for six months, until Congress could come up with a more permanent solution. The bill did not include one provision that the Bush Admininstration badly wanted...immunity for telephone companies that cooperated with the White House's warrantless surveillance program after 9/11.

People who believe their privacy was violated under the Bush Administration's warrantless surveillance program have sued the phone companies that allegedly cooperated with the White House on the wiretaps. President Bush says any new spying law must protect those phone companies by throwing out the lawsuits. The Senate included immunity in its bill, but the House did not. Last month, before the House and Senate could resolve the issue, the Protect America Act expired.

Now the House and Senate are negotiating on whether to include phone company immunity in a new FISA law. They say they could reach an agreement as early as this week.

-- Ari Shapiro

PHEW. Thank you, Ari. Could you please explain superdelegates to me now?