Three New Blogs Join 'The Ruckus,' a New Group Politics Blog

Brian Leubitz of Calitics.com, Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft.com and David Oatney of The World According to Oatney have been invited to join Newsweek's politics blog, The Ruckus.

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NEWSWEEK: Cover: The Real Michelle Obama

The February 25, 2008 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 18), "The Real Michelle Obama," looks at how the aspiring First Lady is coping with the scrutiny, balancing work and family life, and making sure her husband is "keeping it real" on the campaign trail. Plus: How Latinos may save Hillary Clinton's campaign; What the assassination of Imad Mugniyah means to Hezbollah; How Second Life avatars may one day serve therapeutic purposes; and new ways of fighting male infertility. (PRNewsFoto/NEWSWEEK) NEW YORK, NY UNITED STATES 02/16/2008




17 Feb 2008 17:42 Africa/Lagos


NEWSWEEK: Cover: The Real Michelle Obama

BARACK OBAMA'S 'ROCK,' MICHELLE OBAMA MAKES SURE HE'S 'KEEPING IT REAL' ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

THE ASPIRING FIRST LADY SHARES THOUGHTS ON BALANCING FAMILY, WORK AND ACCEPTING PUBLIC SCRUTINY

NEW YORK, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ --

Michelle Obama was never much interested in calling attention to herself. Now a very public figure, Michelle has accepted the role of aspiring First Lady and the sometimes uncomfortable scrutiny that comes with it. In Newsweek's February 25 cover, "The Real Michelle Obama" (on newsstands Monday, February 18), Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe profiles the woman who Barack Obama has called "my rock" -- the person who keeps him focused and grounded.


(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080217/NYSU003 )


Those who know Michelle Obama invariably describe her as poised, relaxed and confident. "There is no difference between the public Michelle and the private Michelle," says University of Chicago law professor David Strauss, who sits with her on the board of the University of Chicago's Lab School. "There's no pretense." Yet that confidence did not come naturally. Now 44, Michelle has had to overcome persistent self-doubts and insecurity-about her abilities, about race and class, and about what kind of life she was supposed to lead.


Part of Michelle Obama's appeal is that she comes across as so normal despite the growing national campaign. As a political spouse, she is somewhat unusual. She isn't the traditional booster who sticks to a script. Nor is she a surrogate campaign manager, ordering the staff around and micromanaging the candidate's every move. She travels the country giving speeches and attending events, but resists staying away for more than one night at a stretch. When the couple catch up several times a day on the phone, the talk is more likely to be about their daughters than the latest poll projections. Michelle has made it her job to ensure that Barack doesn't himself lose sight of what's normal. Michelle does this in part by tethering him to the more mundane responsibilities of a husband and father. She insists that he fly home from wherever he is to attend ballet recitals and parent-teacher conferences. Michelle recently bought two MacBook laptops, one for Barack and one for the kids, so they could have video chats over the Internet. Last Thursday, she cleared his schedule so he could return home to Chicago and spend Valentine's Day with her and the girls.


During an interview with Newsweek she said that she feels she and Barack's relationship is "exactly the same because we talk every night. We talk as long as we need to. So I don't feel like I'm in any way disconnected from him ... I'm probably more connected with his work than I've ever been before ... In terms of physical time together, it's more sporadic. But mentally and emotionally, it feels like we're right where we've always been."


Still new enough to politics that she doesn't yet belabor her every word, Michelle's sharp humor poking fun at her husband -- she's joked that Obama snores and has bad breath in the morning -- can sometimes fall flat. This is especially true when people see the punch lines in print, where her comments can be read as disrespectful. At a recent speech in Wisconsin, the excited young woman introducing Michelle flubbed her line, saying she was "honored to introduce the next president!" Michelle strode to the podium with a big smile. "I like that promotion that I got," she told the crowd. "I don't know if Barack knows yet. We can announce it on the news tonight. He's going to be the First Lady." Although she realizes not everyone finds her jokes funny, she doesn't seem all that interested in curbing her tongue. "Somehow I've been caricatured as this emasculating wife," she tells Newsweek. "Barack and I laugh about that. It's just sort of, like, do you think anyone could emasculate Barack Obama? Really now."


She is, however, learning to not always say what comes to mind, especially within earshot of reporters. She took flak for voicing ambivalence about Hillary Clinton in a recent ABC News interview, when she said she would need to "think about" supporting her if she won the nomination. (Now she says that interview was edited to cut out her positive comments about Clinton.) Michelle had in fact spoken positively about Clinton in the past, saying she admired her accomplishments as First Lady. "This is what I haven't learned how to do," she says. "It's like I can't think out loud. I can't sort of meander through because then somebody takes a clip of the first part" and twists it.


When asked if she wants to emulate Clinton's model of a First Lady who took on policy issues, Michelle said, "I never think in terms of her or anybody else, because I don't know Hillary Clinton ... I don't think I can honestly emulate somebody else. I think I can only be who I can be in this role. And that's going to come with all the pluses and minuses and baggage and insecurities and all the things that I'll bring into it, plus my hopes and dreams along with it."


In her stump speech, she uses her own life as a rebuke to those who have said that she and her husband aren't ready for the White House. She tells the story of a 10-year-old girl she met in a beauty parlor in South Carolina who told her that if Barack wins the White House, "it means I can imagine anything for myself."


That story, Michelle says, was just like her own: "She could have been me. Because the truth is, I'm not supposed to be here, standing here. I'm a statistical oddity. Black girl, brought up on the South Side of Chicago. Was I supposed to go to Princeton? No ... They said maybe Harvard Law was too much for me to reach for. But I went, I did fine. And I'm certainly not supposed to be standing here."


Also in the cover package: Associate Editor Raina Kelley writes that while Michelle Obama defies stereotypes, she also can't escape them. "She is a strong, smart black woman who does not hesitate to speak her mind," Kelley writes. "But as her husband rises from underdog to front runner, and Michelle becomes more visible and vocal in the campaign, those 'feisty dame' stereotypes that had been her strengths might be turning around to bite her. Critics are now taking her to task for being emasculating, sarcastic and bossy-characteristics that are just on the other side of the looking glass from strong, smart, black and female." But which stereotype will stick?


(Read entire cover package at www.Newsweek.com)

Cover: Barack's Rock
http://www.newsweek.com/id/112849

Interview: "I Can Only Be Who I Can Be"
http://www.newsweek.com/id/112775

Column: A Real Wife, in a Real Marriage
http://www.newsweek.com/id/112721


Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080217/NYSU003
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN1
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Newsweek

CONTACT: Brenda Velez of Newsweek, +1-212-445-4078


Web site: http://www.newsweek.msnbc.com/

Kim Jong-il of North Korea is the World's Worst Dictator

15 Feb 2008 18:31 Africa/Lagos


PARADE Magazine Names Kim Jong-il of North Korea the World's Worst Dictator

Despite Atrocious Acts, the U.S. Continues To Do Business With Many Dictators

NEW YORK, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ --

Kim Jong-il of North Korea has been designated the World's Worst Dictator in PARADE Magazine's 6th annual listing by Contributing Editor David Wallechinsky. Kim beat out Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan, who held the No. 1 position for three years in a row, from 2005 to 2007. Kim was No. 1 in 2003 and 2004.


Kim runs the most isolated, repressive regime in the world, says Wallechinsky in this Sunday's issue of PARADE. His citizens have no access to information other than government propaganda. His harsh system includes collective punishment (three generations of a family can be punished for one member's alleged crime); detainment of roughly 200,000 citizens in labor camps; and the capture, torture and jailing of those who try to flee to China. Last year, Kim's government carried out its pledge to the U.S. and other nations to shut down its nuclear reactors. However, it missed December's deadline to disclose its full nuclear inventory.


The dictators were chosen and ranked based on their human-rights abuses, the level of suffering that their leadership has caused and the amount of absolute power they wield. Sources include the U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders. Despite all of the atrocities, however, the United States continues to do business with many of the dictators' countries.


Omar Al-Bashir comes in second place this year. Than Shwe of Burma (Myanmar) has been in power since 1992 and has risen to the No. 3 slot on this year's list, up from No. 6 last year. Rounding out this year's list are the following dictators:


4) King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
5) Hu Jintao of China
6) Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe
7) Sayyid Ali Khamenei of Iran
8) Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan
9) Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan
10) Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea



Contributing Editor David Wallechinsky has reported on world leaders for PARADE and is the author of Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators (Regan Books). Be sure to visit Parade.com/dictators for more on The World's Worst Dictators.


Source: PARADE Magazine

CONTACT: Alexis Collado, Publicity Manager for PARADE Magazine,
+1-212-450-7014


Web site: http://parade.com/dictators

Dugie: Barack Obama Has No Solutions

THERE IS NO CHANGES WITH OBAMA EXCEPT THE MEDIAS HELP AT HIDING HIS RECORD OF SUPPORTING THE WAR AND BUSH.

Obamas record shows he supports the war, voted twice in 2006 against bringing America's troops back home.

He voted for war appropriations giving our money to Halliburton and Blackwater.

His latest bit of posturing S 433 allows the Bush Administration to suspend any troop withdrawal!!!!if not suspended, still keeps the troops in Iraq for a long time to come?

Obama when faced with tough choices always gave in to pressure from the Bush administration or corporate lobbyists. Such as Obama voted for Bush's energy bill, sending more than $13 billion in subsidies and tax breaks to oil, coal, and nuclear companies.

Obama voted with Republicans to allow credit card companies to raise interest rates over 30 percent, INCREASING STUDENT LOANS RATES AND FEES increasing hardship for families.

Obama voted for one of Bush's top priorities - expanding Nafta to South America - even as President Bush obstructed all the top Democratic priorities.

Obama voted with Bush to make it harder for ordinary people to hold big corporations accountable when they do things like sell toxic toys, poisonous pet food, or just plain rip you off.

Obama was the Senate's biggest Democratic advocate of subsidies for liquid coal, even though liquid coal produces twice the global warming pollution of the crude oil it's meant to replace and voted for increased subsidies, albeit with conditions.Obama, a Hamiltonian believer in free trade and supporters of globalization has lent his support to the "Hamilton Project formed by corporate-neoliberal Citigroup chair Robert Rubin and other 'Wall Street Democrats' to counter populist rebellion against corporate tendencies within the Democratic Party.

Obama provided assistance to pro-war candidates (such as Joe Lieberman). Obama voted for "business-friendly 'tort reform' bill that rolls back working peoples' ability to obtain reasonable redress and compensation...from corporations!!!

Obama considers single payer universal health care too socialist and has stated that he prefers voluntary solutions. **He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive. Abortion opponents see Obama's vote on medical care for aborted fetuses as a refusal to protect the helpless. Some have even accused him of supporting infanticide.

He supported allowing retired police officers to carry concealed weapons, but opposed allowing people to use banned handguns to defend against intruders in their homes. And the list of sensitive topics goes on. With only a slim, two-year record in the U.S. Senate, Obama doesn't have many controversial congressional votes which political opponents can frame into attack ads. But his eight years as an Illinois state senator are sprinkled with potentially explosive land mines, such as his abortion and gun control votes. recent land purchase from a political supporter who is facing charges in an unrelated kickback scheme involving investment firms seeking state business.

Obama has no substance. He has provided no solutions.

Posted by: Dugie February 17, 2008 9:33 AM

Does Ann Coulter Hate Obama Or What?

I enjoy reading Ann Coulter and I am entitled to my view of her, regardless of whatever bias others have against her. I believe we should be entitled to our peculiarities as long as such peculiarities are not dangerous to the lives of others.

Ann Coulter has no apologies or regrets for her polemics and even if I do not agree with her all the time, I can tolerate her. She is not hypocritical.

I believe is the freedom of speech and the freedom of thought.

I received the following article from Media Matters on why the MSNBC should no longer tolerate the "hate speech" of Ann Coulter against Barack Obama, the Clintons and other personalities in America.

............................

MSNBC still doesn't "get it": hosts Obama-bashing hatemonger Ann Coulter ... again
A month ago, after Chris Matthews made a forced (and ridiculously inadequate) apology for one of his many sexist comments about Hillary Clinton, MSNBC colleagues Joe Scarborough, David Shuster, and Mika Brzezinski leaped to Matthews' defense.

Brzezinski and Scarborough suggested that Matthews had been taken out of context; in doing so, they falsely portrayed the controversy as being about a single Matthews comment, rather than a years-long pattern of behavior that has been exhaustively detailed by Media Matters, Bob Somerby, and others. Shuster complained: "[T]o see him have to go through this is absolutely infuriating, to see the way these groups used him for pure political gain is absolutely infuriating." Scarborough added, "This ain't about Hillary Clinton's campaign."

This morning, Matthews lashed out at the Clinton campaign, saying that Clinton should "get rid of the kneecappers that work for her," referring to her communications staff who go "after the press." Matthews added, "The kneecapping hasn't worked. Her press relations are lousy. ... If all you do is intimidate and punish and claim you'll get even relentlessly, people of all kinds of politicians -- and in all fairness, the press -- human reaction to intimidation is screw you."
For the record, Matthews' overt hostility toward Hillary Clinton cannot honestly be described as a reaction to how her presidential campaign has treated the press: More than six years ago, Matthews said of Clinton, "I hate her. I hate her. All that she stands for." More to the point, Matthews' apparent blaming of the Clinton campaign for his own sexism is the clearest indication yet that he doesn't "get it" and that MSNBC doesn't care that he doesn't get it.

MSNBC apparently still doesn't understand that this controversy "ain't about Hillary Clinton's campaign." And it isn't about just one comment, or just one MSNBC reporter. It's about a steady stream of inappropriate comments by Chris Matthews ... and by Joe Scarborough and by Tucker Carlson and by David Shuster. Not just about Hillary Clinton, but about (and to) many women, including some conservative women. And the problem at MSNBC isn't limited to the cable channel's treatment of women: Remember, this is the network that hired Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, and Don Imus. All three were fired after making (predictably) disgraceful comments. Only Imus' firing had anything to do with sexism, and his controversial comments were both sexist and racist.

The controversy, in short, ain't about Hillary Clinton's campaign and never has been. It is about NBC News allowing MSNBC (and, to a somewhat lesser extent, NBC itself) to be a safe haven for hate speech and a sanctuary for sexism.

How else to explain MSNBC's decision to make Ann Coulter a frequent guest? As MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan (a well-known bigot in his own right) explained after a Coulter appearance on the cable channel last year: "I don't think she's peddling hate. ... MSNBC certainly doesn't ... because if they did, they would never put her on the air for an hour."

Ann Coulter peddles nothing but hate. Well, that isn't quite fair -- she typically throws in a few lies as well. But the hate is her bread and butter. MSNBC knows this; they fired her for it long ago. Yet they continue to host her.

Media Matters noted in October:
As Media Matters for America documented, in the weeks following the release of her last book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism (Crown Forum, June 2006), Coulter made numerous appearances on MSNBC, CNBC, and their parent network, NBC, where she unleashed a stream of attacks on the widows of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As Media Matters also documented, while NBC continued to provide Coulter an open platform with which to spew her inflammatory and offensive rhetoric, several NBC hosts and anchors -- including Tonight Show host Jay Leno, Today co-host Matt Lauer, and Nightly News anchor Brian Williams -- expressed disapproval of Coulter's "harsh" and "nasty" statements. On June 26, 2007 -- the date Godless was released in paperback -- Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, claimed that Coulter forces him to "go to confession." Matthews, however, has a history of inviting her on his show. Following an appearance on Today in June 2006 -- during which Coulter criticized the 9-11 widows for "speak[ing] out using the fact that they're widows" and "using their grief" and "the fact that [they] lost a husband" to make "a political point while preventing anyone from responding" -- Williams devoted a segment of the Nightly News to the subject of "civility in American life," highlighting Coulter's comments. And yet NBC and its cable affiliates have continued to invite her on the air. The upcoming release of Coulter's new book gives rise once again to the question of whether NBC programs will keep hosting her.

According to a Media Matters review*, Coulter has been interviewed at least 194 times on at least 13 individual programs on MSNBC, CNBC, and NBC since April 28, 1997.
Just yesterday, Coulter was a guest on MSNBC Live. A day earlier, she had referred to Barack Obama as "B. Hussein Obama" five times in a span of two minutes and once described him as "President Hussein." During her appearance on MSNBC, the cable channel touted her recent statement that Obama "wouldn't be running for president if he weren't half-black," which she has described as his "big accomplishment."

On NBC programs alone, Coulter has called former Vice President Al Gore a "total fag" and has attacked former President Bill Clinton as a "latent homosexual." She has defended her claim that 9-11 widows were "enjoying their husbands' deaths." She has wished aloud that "the American military were targeting journalists." She has claimed that "John Kerry does not believe in God." And she has spoken of "perfecting Jews."

After Elizabeth Edwards responded to Coulter's description of her husband, John, as a "faggot," MSNBC Live host Chris Jansing asked Edwards, "There are people who support your opinion, I'm sure you know, who say, 'Why even dignify it with a response? Why give Ann Coulter more publicity?'"

Why give Ann Coulter more publicity? That's a question that should be directed to Steve Capus, not Elizabeth Edwards. As the president of NBC News, Capus may be more responsible than anyone else on earth for giving Ann Coulter publicity.
In August 2006, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said of Coulter: "[W]hy she has not been banned from this network, I do not know." That's a good question, and one Capus should answer -- but it is also too narrow a question.

MSNBC is the channel that hired Coulter in the 1990s, only to fire her after her controversial comments to a disabled Vietnam veteran; that hired Michael Savage in 2003, then had to fire him for telling a caller to "get AIDS and die"; that hired Don Imus, then had to fire him for making sexist and racist comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. This is a cable channel that has, for years, been a welcome home to highly questionable comments about race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation.

Chris Matthews has said Republicans "have a right to fear" seeing a "majority Latino population"; when his guest defended America's "tradition" of welcoming immigrants, Matthews retorted, "Do you live in a Mexican neighborhood?" Tucker Carlson used his MSNBC show to call the NAACP a "sad joke that should be shut down" and has attacked Barack Obama's religion, saying of Obama's church, "[I]t's hard to call that Christianity." Joe Scarborough says that pollster John Zogby, an Arab-American, "may be biased" on the issue of the Iraq war and "the Middle East situation."

Before Don Imus was fired, his executive producer told MSNBC viewers that Obama has a "Jew-hating name"; Imus himself referred to the "Jewish management" of CBS Radio as "money-grubbing bastards." MSNBC apparently didn't have any problem with those comments; it would be months before Imus was fired. The cable channel, however, did issue public apologies for ethnic slurs on Imus' show in 2004 and for comments made on the program about the movie Brokeback Mountain in 2006 -- though the later apology whitewashed Chris Matthews' role in the matter.

MSNBC frequently hosts Bill Donohue, an unrepentant bigot who has said that "[p]eople don't trust the Muslims when it comes to liberty," referred to the "gay death style," demanded that the gay community "apologize to straight people for all the damage that they have done," asserted that Hollywood "is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular," and claimed that Hollywood "likes anal sex" and "abortions." Not to mention his repeated use of the slur "gook." And he has said all of that on MSNBC.

This is a cable channel that, in the middle of a monthlong controversy over its pattern of broadcasting sexist comments, chose to host Ann Coulter, a pundit whose defining characteristic is her tendency to make utterly inappropriate comments about women and minorities. (A more tone-deaf response to such a controversy is hard to imagine, though Arkansas Democrat-Gazette political editor Bill Simmons' decision to respond to accusations that the paper's newsroom is a "good ole' boys club" filled with racist and sexist commentary by referring to "boys being boys" was indescribably bad.)

This is what MSNBC is. It is the cable channel of Ann Coulter and Michael Savage and Don Imus. It is the home to Chris Matthews and Tucker Carlson and their deeply disturbed attitudes toward women.

The longer MSNBC responds to legitimate concerns about the conduct of its hosts and guests by lashing out at critics and booking Ann Coulter again, the more clear it becomes that the problems at MSNBC go much higher than Chris Matthews.