Aretha Franklin Battling Cancer
Entry #3,585
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WikiLeaks supporters cripple Visa, Mastercard and hack Sarah Palin
Platt/GettySarah Palin was a victim of WikiLeaks supporters, who hacked Visa and Mastercard Wednesday.
Shadowy supporters of jailed WikiLeaks wizard Julian Assange launched a barrage of cyber attacks on Wednesday that shut down the web sites of Visa and Mastercard.
The hackers, who call themselves "Anonymous," went on Twitter to declare war on the credit card companies for blocking payments to WikiLeaks.
"Operation Payback," their message read. "TARGET: WWW.VISA.COM :: FIRE FIRE FIRE!!! WEAPONS."
Visa temporarily went down at 4 p.m., around the time the Mastercard site was restored after being down most of the day.
In an online interview with Agence France-Presse, the hackers vowed to stage cyber assaults against anyone with an "anti-WikiLeaks agenda."
The group has also claimed credit for taking down the sites of PayPal, the Swiss Post Office bank, and other entities that have begun shutting off the WikiLeaks money spigot.
Sarah Palin told ABC News that she too had been hacked.
"No wonder others are keeping silent about Assange's antics," Palin emailed. "This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts."
The computer-based campaign was waged a day after Assange was thrown into a British jail after a judge denied him bail on a controversial Swedish rape rap.
His supporters call him an Internet hero and the victim of a U.S.-backed frameup to keep him from revealing more secrets on the web.
Meanwhile, the latest batch of WikiLeak-ed documents revealed that Libya bullied the Brits into releasing the Lockerbie bomber.
They warned the British government "flat out that there will be 'enormous repercussions'" if they didn't spring Abdelbaset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, cables from the U.S. embassy in Tripoli revealed.
The Brits are caught "between a rock and a hard place," the Oct. 24, 2008, cable warned.
Less than a year later, the Libyan secret agent was released from a Scottish prison, over the objections of the U.S. government and outraged relatives of the 270 victims of the 1988 bombing.
The Brits insisted Al-Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, had three months to lives. They denied that Libyan dictator Col. Moammar Khadafy threatened to bar British companies from access to his oil.
Al-Megrahi, 58, is still alive more than a year after his release.
Most of the people aboard the doomed New York-bound flight were Americans, many from the metro area.
There were also 35 Syracuse University students on the doomed flight.
Entry #3,584
Ikea gives bicycles to its workers
Entry #3,583
Cash-sniffing dog comes through at airport
Wed, Dec. 8, 2010
Cash-sniffing dog comes through at airport
Philadelphia Inquirer
1CASH-SNIFFING DOG
COMES THROUGH
Nina, the currency-sniffing dog, sniffed out a bonanza Friday at Philadelphia International Airport - $41,500 in the checked luggage of a passenger bound for Jamaica. The money was concealed in the suitcase liner, Stephen Sapp, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, said.
That was in addition to $1,802 in the carry-on bag of the woman, a U.S. citizen, who was headed to the Caribbean. The woman had declared that she was carrying $5,000, Sapp said. The woman abandoned the $43,302 and was released, he said. There is no limit to how much currency travelers can carry into or out of the country, but they must declare amounts exceeding $10,000.
Entry #3,582
CNN founder Ted Turner urges world to only have one child
Ted Turner: Adopt China's one-child policy to save planet
Christian Boone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Metro Atlanta / State News 1:19 p.m. Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Atlanta's most unguarded tongue is at it again, telling global leaders meeting in Mexico that the rest of the world should adopt China's one-child policy, CNN founder Ted Turner: "If we’re going to be here [as a species] 5,000 years from now, we’re not going to do it with seven billion people."
"If we’re going to be here [as a species] 5,000 years from now, we’re not going to do it with seven billion people," CNN founder Ted Turner said Sunday at a conference discussing the impact of demographic trends on the future of greenhouse gas emission.
If such a plan was adopted, the father of five said, poor people could profit from their decision not to reproduce by selling fertility rights.
China claims its policy has resulted in 400 million fewer births since 1979, limiting emissions growth even as the country becomes more industrialized. But critics argue the mandate has contributed to more abortions and high levels of female infanticide.
Former Irish president Mary Robinson said such a radical proposal is a non-starter.
"If we do it the wrong way, we can divide the world," said Robinson, who, in a dig at Turner, added "[many] people in the climate world could communicate this very badly.
Of course the former Braves owner is no stranger to controversy. A look at some of his more colorful statements over the years:
- In 2008, Turner, appearing on Charlie Rose's PBS show, warned that if global warming is not properly dealt with, most of mankind will be destroyed "and the rest of us will be cannibals." At that time he advocated a two-child limit per American family.
- He later apologized for his 2001 observation that Ash Wednesday adherents were "Jesus freaks." In the same interview, Turner called opponents of abortion "bozos."
- He defended Iran's nuclear ambitions, telling Reuters in 2006, "They're a sovereign state. We have 28,000. Why can't they have 10? We don't say anything about Israel — they've got 100 of them approximately — or India or Pakistan or Russia."
- Turner was also sympathetic to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer in 2005 the U.S. should "give ‘em a break," adding that the isolated regime posed a "non-existent" threat to America. When Blitzer suggested North Korea's missiles could reach Alaska, Turner demurred: "Well, what, the Aleutian Islands? There's nothing up there but a few sea lions."
- PR maven Bob Hope, an executive with the Braves when Turner owned the club, recalled an incident in which his boss offended a Jewish group with an off-color quip. Turner penned a long letter of apology, signing it, "Yours in Christ."
Entry #3,581
Palin Success Triggered FCC Complaints
Palin Success Triggered FCC Complaints
Voting, hug angered “Dancing with the Stars" viewers
DECEMBER 6--
In the days after Bristol Palin was voted into the finals of “Dancing with the Stars,” viewers from across the country wrote to the Federal Communications Commission accusing the ABC show of everything from running a “payola type program” to “encouraging and promoting teen pregnancy.”
Many of the complainants, whose letters were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, were upset that, as one Oregonian put it, “the top scores were voted off yet Sarah Palin’s daughter remained on.”
One viewer from Pittsburgh alleged that the show’s voting system had been “fixed by extreme supporters of the Tea Party and Radical Right-Wing. I find that it has become a political platform for Sarah Palin to improve her image and ooze her political slime.” The aggrieved correspondent continued, “Bristol is not a star, what did she do, she had sex and got pregnant. Lets reward her…I made several call to ABC’s complaint line and I hope that their phone lines melt. It has become a political movement, with Tea Party websites instructing on how to vote for Bristol. Ridiculousness!”
Another source of grievances was a hug delivered to the 20-year-old Palin by one of the show’s judges, Carrie Ann Inaba.
Noting that “no other dancer was called over for a hug,” one viewer claimed that the clinch was a “signal for the GOP/Tea Party supporters of Sarah Palin to ‘stuff’ the vote for Bristol Palin, who on both dates had to be dragged over the dance floor.” The writer added, “My 96 year old Mother-in-Law can dance better than Ms. Palin...I want my Government to protect me the viewer from deceptive practices.”
A Cerritos, California resident reported that the “physical contact” made by Inaba “sets the contestant up for thinking the judge will favor them. She was impartial to one and partial to the others.”
Other viewers sought an FCC probe of the show’s voting, since “people are bragging how they ‘gamed the system'.” Two other viewers (one from Indianapolis, the other a Brooklynite) were upset that Palin beat out the R&B singer Brandy for the last spot in the program’s three-person final.
Palin, whose baffling success led one man to blast his own TV set, ultimately finished third behind actors Jennifer Grey and Kyle Massey in the November 23 “Dancing with the Stars” finale. It is unclear whether the FCC received complaints about the outcome of that vote. (7 pages)
Entry #3,580
Elizabeth Edwards dies at 61
Tuesday, Dec. 07, 2010
Elzabeth Edwards died at the age of 61 in her North Carolina home after a battle with breast cancer on December 7, 2010. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Elizabeth Anania Edwards, who became a national figure in her fight against cancer and as a partner in her husband John's political career, died today. She was 61.
Edwards spent much of her life as a little-known Raleigh lawyer and mother. But that all changed when her husband, John Edwards, entered politics as a U.S. senator and became a two-time presidential candidate and the Democratic nominee for vice president.
Her husband's career put her in the spotlight as a smart, plain-spoken wife who was a key adviser to her husband.
She later became a figure of sympathy as she battled breast cancer and dealt with her husband's infidelity. And, in the last few years, her public image shifted again: the scorned woman whose husband fathered a child with another woman.
She and John Edwards separated at the beginning of 2010 but remained close.
Still, Elizabeth Edwards helped change the way political wives were viewed. She was the self-proclaimed "anti-Barbie" who was comfortable sitting in on campaign strategy meetings, chatting with Oprah on TV, or even going head-to-head with conservative columnist Ann Coulter.
She brought a similar self-possession to the media attacks that circulated around her in the wake of news about her husband's infidelity.
"I'm 5 feet 2, dark-haired and could hardly be further from the Barbie figure," Edwards once said. "I think of myself as a fairly serious person."
After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she spent two years in graduate school with the goal of earning a doctorate in English literature and pursuing a teaching career. But job prospects for English graduates were poor, and she entered law school, something her mother had always wanted her to do.
It was at UNC's law school that Elizabeth Anania met Johnny Edwards, three years her junior.
He was the pseudo-redneck who had been out of the South only once -- on a trip to Washington. He had few intellectual interests. She was a devotee of Henry James and a politically active liberal Democrat.
He was the soft-spoken, get-along guy. She was an outspoken, hot-tempered Italian-American who dominated every social situation. She was also regarded as more of a catch, drawing the attention of many of the boys.
They were married a few days after they graduated and passed the bar exam. She kept Anania as her last name until her husband prepared to run for the Senate.
Although John Edwards had the high-powered legal career, their marriage was one of intellectual equals. She became his most trusted adviser in both law and politics. She was be a major influence on his life, just as Hillary Clinton was for Bill Clinton.
Edwards could have had a high-profile law career like her husband's, but she did what many women do: She balanced her career with the demands of rearing two children -- Wade, born in 1979, and Cate, born in 1982.
She still practiced law, working as a bankruptcy lawyer for the firm of Merriman, Nicholls & Crampton, in the state Attorney General's Office, and as an instructor at the UNC law school.
During big trials, John Edwards often talked to her by phone, asking her to critique the day's events.
Living in the fashionable Country Club Hills section of Raleigh, she was also a soccer mom, hauling coolers of soft drinks to her children's soccer games. One Halloween, she dressed Wade and eight other children as a nine-hole golf course, growing grass on sandwich boards they wore over their shoulders.
The family's life took a dark turn in 1996 when Wade, 16, was killed in a freak automobile accident on Interstate 40 between Raleigh and the coast.
The couple were crippled emotionally by Wade's death. John Edwards stopped working for six months, and Elizabeth quit practicing law for good.
They left their son's room unchanged for years, a capped, half-finished bottle of Gatorade left on the bedside table along with his papers and an 11th-grade textbook.
Elizabeth Edwards would read to her son at the gravesite at Oakwood Cemetery and lie down on his grave to be close to him. The couple continued to invite their son's friends over for dinner every Tuesday night.
"The intensity of that pain is greater than any emotion I ever had," she would write in her memoirs. "Not love, not fear, not wonder. The greatest of all is pain."
Wade's death changed the arc of the Edwardses' lives. They found religion, began a second family in midlife and changed careers from law to politics.
Edwards was an active participant in her husband's political career, serving as a sounding board for nearly a decade as he climbed the ladder, which culminated with his selection as the Democratic vice presidential running mate of Sen. John Kerry in 2004.
She became a popular figure on the presidential campaign trail in 2004, seen as someone approachable, less glamorous and more down to earth than her husband. She would make fun of herself as someone without perfectly coiffed hair or a stylish outfit, as someone who struggled with her weight.
It was during a campaign trip in Wisconsin a few weeks before the 2004 election that Edwards noticed a lump in her breast. Tests indicated that she had cancer, but she and her husband kept it a secret until after the election.
The day after the election, when Kerry and John Edwards made their concession speeches in Boston, Edwards went to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for a biopsy and to begin treatment. She spent much of 2005 undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment after surgery.
She received 65,000 messages of support.
The Edwardses returned to North Carolina, moving to a 28,200-square-foot home they built just outside Chapel Hill. To critics, the size of the home was jarring, given John Edwards' emphasis on helping the poor. But the Edwardses had become multimillionaires and had lived in a Georgetown mansion when he was in the Senate.
In 2006, Edwards wrote her best-selling autobiography, "Saving Graces." The book focused on her health struggles and sold nearly 180,000 copies.
When John Edwards entered the 2008 presidential campaign, she said her cancer was in remission. But in March 2007, she and her husband stunned the political world by announcing that her cancer had spread to her bones and that while it was treatable, it was not curable.
Doctors said most patients in her position had five years to live, but she urged her husband to continue the campaign.
All the while, the Edwards' marriage was unraveling. The unraveling was a secret to the world, and also to Elizabeth.
John Edwards began an extramarital affair with Reille Hunter, a part-time videographer who met him outside a New York City hotel.
Seven months after Edwards dropped out of the race for president, he dropped his bombshell.
John Edwards went on national TV to acknowledge an affair with Rielle Hunter, but denied that he was the father of her baby. He said he had told his wife about the affair in late 2006 and had broken off with Hunter.
Elizabeth Edwards did not appear on TV with her husband when he admitted the affair. But she put out a statement saying she stood by him.
"John made a terrible mistake in 2006," she said. "The fact that it is a mistake that many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with my diagnosis in March of 2007."
Friends described the situation as anguishing, but Elizabeth Edwards chose to continue in her marriage, in part for the sake of the children.
In July 2007, the couple celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary by renewing their wedding vows in a backyard ceremony.
After the revelation about the affair, the Edwardses largely disappeared from public view.
But in 2009, a federal investigation into John Edwards' campaign finances pulled them back into media reports. Edwards' associates and his mistress were called to testify before a grand jury in Raleigh.
In January, another bombshell: John Edwards admitted paternity of Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn. In those same stories, the Edwardses acknowledged they had separated.
The couple, friends say, remained close. Elizabeth Edwards went with John to spend time with Frances Quinn after their separation.
Elizabeth Edwards spent most of the year doing the routine things -- attending UNC basketball games or Christmas shopping with her youngest daughter, Emma Claire, at Target. She also opened a furniture store in Chapel Hill.
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/07/1894481/elizabeth-edwards-dies.html#ixzz17T4IMtG9
Entry #3,578
Fight erupts between bridesmaids
Fight erupts between bridesmaids
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
ANTHONY G. ATTRINO AND MOLLIE GRAY
Verona-Cedar Grove TimesStaff writers
ADAM ANIK/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Police officers from Verona, Cedar Grove and Montclair were called to break up a fight between two bridesmaids at the Richfield Regency last Sunday, according to police.
The bridesmaids had been attending a wedding reception when an argument broke out and the two got physical, police said.
The catering hall is located at 420 Bloomfield Ave.
Verona Police Chief Doug Huber said the disagreement arose between a 17-year-old girl and an adult woman, both of whom had been in the wedding party.
"They had some sort of verbal dispute that led to them pushing each other," Huber said.
Guests made efforts to keep the bridesmaids away from each other, said Jude Roppatte, owner of the business.
"They tried to break up the fight, but we didn't want to take chances so we called the police," Roppatte said, adding: "We call the police because we need to protect ourselves."
Roppatte called the fight a "family dispute between bridesmaids" but said he did not know what caused the problem.
A Richfield Regency staff member called police about 4 p.m.
The feud was still going on when the first officers arrived, according to Huber.
Four officers from Verona responded. Huber said additional backup was needed from Cedar Grove and Montclair police.
Roppatte said he didn't know why so many officers were needed, saying the decision to call in more agencies was made by police.
"There was a big crowd there, that's why we called in other officers," Huber said. "We had to separate the people because there was a large group of people around."
He estimated that more than 100 were at the reception.
Four people were treated by the rescue squad, but no serious injuries were reported.
No one was arrested, Huber said.
"Once the police got here everybody calmed down," Roppatte said. "The police calmed everybody down."
The bridesmaids were escorted out of the catering hall, Roppatte said.
"The wedding continued right after," he said.
The names of the bridesmaids were not released.
Roppatte called the disturbance out of the ordinary for the Richfield Regency. The business website describes the establishment as "a unique blend of city sophistication and suburban charm."
Entry #3,577
Judge denies WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail
Judge denies WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail
AP – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, back to camera, is driven into Westminster Magistrates Court in London
CASSANDRA VINOGRAD and RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Dec 7, 2010 1 min ago
LONDON – A British judge jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday, ordering the leader of secret-spilling website behind bars as his organization's finances came under increasing pressure.
Assange showed no reaction as Judge Howard Riddle denied him bail in an extradition case that could see him sent to Sweden to face allegations of rape, molestation and unlawful coercion.
Assange denies the accusations and has pledged to fight the extradition, while a spokesman for his organization said the U.S. diplomatic secrets would keep on flowing — regardless of what happened to the group's founder.
"This will not change our operation," Kristinn Hrafnsson told The Associated Press ahead of Assange's hearing. As if to underline the point, WikiLeaks released a cache of a dozen new diplomatic cables, its first publication in more than 24 hours.
Assange appeared at before City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London after turning himself in to Scotland Yard earlier Tuesday, capping months of speculation over an investigation into alleged sex crimes committed in Sweden over the summer.
Assange and his lawyers claim that the accusations stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex" in Sweden in August, and have claimed the case has taken on political overtones. Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny has rejected those claims.
Riddle asked the 39-year-old Australian whether he understood that he could consent to be extradited to Sweden. Assange, dressed in a navy blue suit, cleared his throat and said: "I understand that and I do not consent."
The decision to fight the extradition could be difficult. Extradition experts say that European arrest warrants like the one issued by Sweden can be tough to beat, barring mental or physical incapacity. Even if the warrant was defeated on a technicality, Sweden could simply issue a new one.
Assange's website, meanwhile, came under increasing financial pressure Tuesday — with both Visa and MasterCard saying they would block payments to the controversial website.
In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press, Visa Inc. said it was taking steps "to suspend Visa payment acceptance on WikiLeaks' website pending further investigation into the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules."
MasterCard sent a similar statement, saying it would suspend payments "until the situation is resolved."
The move chokes off two important funding avenues for WikiLeaks, a loosely knit group of activists who rely on individual donations to fund their operations.
PayPal Inc., a popular online payment service, has already cut its links to the website, while Swiss authorities closed Assange's bank account on Monday, freezing several tens of thousands of euros, according to his lawyers.
WikiLeaks is still soliciting donations through bank transfers to affiliates in Iceland and Germany, as well as by mail to an address at University of Melbourne in Australia.
Entry #3,576
Elizabeth Edwards' cancer takes turn for worse
Elizabeth Edwards' cancer takes sharp turn for worse; estranged husband John reportedly by her side
Helen KennedyDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Originally Published:Monday, December 6th 2010, 5:24 PM
Updated: Monday, December 6th 2010, 5:29 PM
Sayles/APElizabeth Edwards arrives at the 'Stand up to Cancer' event in Culver City, Calif., in September.
Elizabeth Edwards' loved ones were rushing to her bedside Monday after her cancer took a sharp turn for the worse and doctors said further treatment was useless.
The wronged wife of the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee posted what read like a goodbye on Facebook:
"The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that," she wrote.
"I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope," Edwards said.
"These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined."
The Edwards family in Chapel Hill, N.C., released a statement saying that doctors told her any further treatment would be "unproductive."
"She is resting at home with family and friends," the statement said.
ABC News reported the former senator was also by his estranged wife's side.
Elizabeth Edwards, 61, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in the final days of her husband's failed 2004 general election campaign. She was a popular figure on the campaign trail and a major asset to her husband.
The cancer went into remission, but returned in 2007 during his 2008 primary bid - when the North Carolina senator was also secretly cheating with the blonde videographer who would bear his child.
He continued both his campaign and his marriage until the lies caught up with him in August 2008.
A federal grand jury is investigating potentially serious charges of using campaign donations to pay off the secret girlfriend. His former campaign manager and his press spokeswoman gave testimony last Thursday.
John and Elizabeth, married 33 years, are legally separated and were reportedly planning a final divorce next month.
They had four children: an adult daughter, Cate; a son, Wade, who died as a teenager; and two younger kids, Jack, 10, and Emma Claire, 12.
Edwards fell ill over Thanksgiving and was briefly hospitalized last week, People magazine said. Doctors advised her to return home. The cancer has spread from breast to bone to liver.
"It isn't possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone who has and continues to support and inspire me every day," Edwards wrote on Facebook.
"To you I simply say: you know. With love, Elizabeth."
Entry #3,575
Be careful what you say the world's listening
Be careful what you say, even in confidence; the world's listening
12/5/2010 11:34 PM
Gene Owens
Aiken Standard
I empathized with Katie Couric when I learned about her open-mike comments on the Palin family after Gov. Sarah was chosen as John McCain's running mate.
Katie was going over Palin's bio with her news team when she came to the name of her eldest son, Track.
"Where the h--- do they get these?" she asked, flashing a pearly smile. And when she read that the governor's parents were out hunting caribou when they got the news of the selection, she cracked, "You can't make this up."
It's understandable small talk when you're chatting in private with friends and colleagues. It's embarrassing when the word gets back to the object of your levity.
But Katie's embarrassment is small-time when compared to the embarrassment felt around the world over the release of secret diplomatic cables by a hacker who runs a website called WikiLeaks.
How would you like to be the king of Saudi Arabia and have it get back to the president of Pakistan that you called him the biggest obstacle to progress in that country and that "when the head is rotten, it affects the whole body"?
How would you like to be the U.S. ambassador to Eritrea and let it get back to the despotic leaders of that little country on the Horn of Africa that you told your bosses, "Eritrean officials are ignorant or lying"?
How would you like to be Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the eccentric leader of Libya, and have the world told that you're spending most of your time with your voluptuous Ukrainian nurse? And how would you like to be the diplomat who confidentially disclosed that juicy bit of gossip to his superiors?
If you're realistic, you know that people say things behind your back that they wouldn't want you to hear - and that you probably wouldn't want to hear.
In the case of Couric, Palin is using the "gotcha" tape to show that the CBS anchor was biased against her during the presidential campaign and therefore made the Alaska governor look bad during their famous interview.
News flash: It would be wretchedly hard to find anybody in any news organization that isn't biased one way or the other in a presidential race. Good journalists recognize their biases and struggle for objectivity in spite of them. Bad journalists let their biases bleed through their reportage.
And most journalists have a strain of cynicism - or at least irreverence - that surfaces in the privacy of conversations among themselves. It's one way of keeping your equilibrium in a wacko world.
So yeah, I can imagine even a conservative Republican looking over Palin's bio, coming across the unconventional names of her kids and saying "Where the h--- do they get these," especially when she's reading up on the candidate for the first time. And Palin's folks out caribou hunting when the word reaches them? It's a classic "You gotta be kidding me" situation.
But that doesn't explain why the interview turned into a fiasco for Palin. The governor was like a rookie up from the minors who was not yet ready for the big leagues. The questions Katie asked her were fair questions, and they were asked in a neutral way. The governor, who is normally articulate and quick-witted, was poorly prepped. The responsibility for the debacle lies with her and her handlers, not with her interviewer.
As for the kings and presidents and ambassadors who are being embarrassed by the blogger's harvest of "gotchas," I say a pox on the leakers instead of the speakers.
There are times when candor is necessary; when one has to speak in the confidence that what you say will go no farther than the ears you're speaking into.
I remember once when a new executive editor called me into his office and asked for my candid appraisal of the people who supervised me.
"Let's have it with the bark off," he said.
I gave it to him as honestly as I could, and I think it helped him lift the newspaper a notch or two above the mediocrity in which it had wallowed for years.
Later, I was asked for written appraisals of the people who worked under me. I considered them all to be friends, but I felt that I owed top management candid assessments. The appraisals were a long way from scathing, and I thought they reflected my generally positive feelings toward my staff. But when one of the staffers found the memos unguarded and shared them with his fellow workers, it created some tensions.
So I can understand the anxiety Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must feel as she engages in damage control with the foreign governments who are now hearing what the United States has said about them to their backs. And I can understand the angst foreign diplomats may feel as they wonder which of their unguarded comments might get back to the officials who have the power to fire them and even to execute them.
Diplomacy is like liver pudding coated with chocolate. It's supposed to look nice on the outside, but the inside is smelly and messy. Maybe the public needs to know all the smelly and messy details. But once they learn about them, North Korea will still have nuclear arms and a recklessly contemptuous attitude toward the rest of the world; Iran will still be eager to flex its nuclear muscles; China will continue to be on the rise, hoping to emulate the West's technology while spurning its human-rights values; and Russia will still be a ponderous giant unsure of whether it wants to take the plunge into democracy or to retreat into its traditional tyranny.
And the hackers out there will continue to make it difficult to have a confidential conversation.
Entry #3,574
Obama and GOP reach deal to extend tax breaks
Entry #3,573
Winfrey picks 2 Dickens novels for book club
FILE - In this May 3, 2010 file photo, Oprah Winfrey arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file) Email This Story IM This Story Print This Story
Winfrey picks 2 Dickens novels for book club
HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer Sun Dec 5, 11:36 AM PST
Better set some time aside for Oprah Winfrey's latest book club pick.
The talk show host has selected a pair of Dickens classics, "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Great Expectations." The two novels are being issued in a single bound Penguin paperback edition, around 800 pages, with a list price of $20. The electronic version, also from Penguin, sells for $7.99.
Because the copyright has long expired on the 19th-century novels, they are available through a variety of publishers and even directly from retailers. "Great Expectations" can be downloaded for free on Amazon.com's Kindle reader. "A Tale of Two Cities" costs 99 cents on Barnes & Noble's e-book device, the Nook.
Winfrey is to announce her selection Monday, when her long-awaited reconciliation with Jonathan Franzen will air.
Winfrey picked Franzen's "Freedom" nine years after his ambivalence over her selection of his novel "The Corrections" led her to withdraw his invitation to appear on her show. Franzen has written enviously of Dickens' time, when a new literary release "was anticipated with the kind of fever that a late-December film release inspires today."
On Sunday, The Associated Press purchased a copy of the new Dickens volume, which has the book club logo on the cover.
Messages left for Winfrey's Harpo Productions in Chicago weren't immediately returned.
Winfrey has chosen older works before, including Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" and John Steinbeck's "East of Eden." Her website recommends Dickens' "David Copperfield," noting it was a favorite of Tolstoy's.
___
Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report from Chicago.
Entry #3,572
First privately owned spaceship set to attempt launch into orbit
SpaceX's Dragon capsule, first privately owned spaceship, set to attempt launch into orbit
Lukas I. AlpertDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, December 6th 2010, 4:00 AM
SpaceXFalcon 9 rocket with Dragon capsule will launch from Florida.
The future of the space travel will undergo a crucial test Tuesday when the first privately owned spaceship attempts a launch into orbit.
If it succeeds, SpaceX's Dragon capsule will then try to reenter the atmosphere - also a first for a nongovernment-owned spacecraft.
The outcome of the launch will play a vital role in determining the direction of U.S. space travel as NASA looks to private companies to fill in the gap as the space shuttle program is put into mothballs next year.
"[It is] a huge thing, gigantic, historic," TV science host Bill Nye told AOL News. "It may very well lead to everyday people having access to space."
Other commercial firms - most notably Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic - have achieved suborbital flight, but this would be the first to break free of the atmosphere.
SpaceX - founded by PayPal guru Elon Musk - signed a $1.6 billion contract with NASA in December 2008 to conduct 12 resupply missions to the International Space Station
A second rocket-building company, Orbital Sciences Corp., has a similar $1.9 billion deal with NASA.
Tomorrow's test launch from Cape Canaveral will attempt to put the gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule into orbit atop an 18-story Falcon 9 rocket.
If it makes it back, it's hoped the capsule will land in the Pacific off California.
It would mark an important step in showing that private industry is technologically up to snuff to take over travel into space.
Musk, 39, said when Congress authorized the private launch in October that it set "NASA on an exciting course" while "recognizing the valuable role American companies are ready to undertake."
With News Wire Services
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