People use social media tech to get stuff done. We saw it in the 2008 presidential elections, and now used effectively by the grassroots factions of the Tea Party. We see it used by veterans acting via IAVA.org and classroom teachers via DonorChoose.org

We also saw it used effectively using Gutenberg tech by a guy named Luther; it's not all that new.

The deal is that social media can be used to motivate large numbers of people if it's used to promote an idea whose time has come, to fire up a latent tipping point.

Big observations:

-- it works from the grassroots up
-- no one's really in control
-- the initiators of any such effort lose control of the message
-- it can be used for the common good or to exploit people of good will for personal profit

We're talking about leaderless organization in the sense that no one's the boss. An individual can inspire and lead by words and example, but no one's taking orders.

The decentralized nature of grassroots social media, however, means that any participant can transmit any variant of original messages they choose. That's why we have many Protestant churches, and why there are a number of different grassroots Tea Party factions.

People mostly act from good will, whatever that means to them. The preceding examples are of people acting from their own visions of the common good.

However, the down side of social media is that it can be used to manipulate people of good will, usually by disinforming them.

For example, social media has been used to successfully transmit a lot of bad info regarding healthcare reform, like the "death panel" thing. It's also been used to propagate disinformation regarding the president's political beliefs. In one notorious example, social media was used to smear a prominent philanthropic family.

Abuse of craigslist, which is supposed to help people, really pisses me off.  And in the short-term, that tends to suck all the joy of life from me.

Maybe I could just get even more pissed off, but I feel better about learning the lessons of social media, realizing that what makes me really happy is to get stuff done. That is, I can restore that joy by helping out a lot more people in ways that matter.

More specifically, I can find ways to connect people of good will, people who are good at getting stuff done, and maybe find ways to protect their efforts from scammers. Looks like what works is that I connect effective people, then get the word out repeatedly, and for the most part, I stay out of the way. (The last is the hard part.)

Just to repeat, instead of getting pissed off and living angry, I'll support and protect people doing good work, indirectly helping out more and more millions of people.

In general, I'm working with a team now figuring out how to enable everyone, and I mean everyone, to support good stuff in large connected networks.

First, we need some way to stand up and bear witness for the good work that others do, mostly focusing on nonprofits. The deal is that we can affirm their work, and maybe contribute cash and/or time. We can also link to other people who stand up for good stuff.

I'm hoping that people link up to good causes and to good people, creating an implicit network that eventually covers the world, billions of people.

This means that we need some kind of immune system to protect us from fake groups, like political fronts or fake nonprofits. This will be really difficult, but I'm talking to people who investigate this and also others building a "Yelp for nonprofits."

Aside from broad efforts, I'm looking at particular efforts I'm passionate about. For example, veterans need one stop help for basics, like getting educational and medical benefits. There are already a lot of good groups doing good work, but vets need one place to get help, maybe local.

Maybe the first attempt at building a broad network won't go anywhere; that's okay, we'll learn stuff that will make a subsequent effort work. I'm personally committing twenty years to this, should be enough. Y'know, better to light a candle than to curse the darkness; better to get others to change the world than to stay pissed off.

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Five days ago, the great river Indus continued its rush to the sea and flooded the plains of Thatta and Sujawal, towns located about 90 minutes outside of Karachi. Dr. Rashid Bhajwa hosted my husband, Chris Anderson, and me to visit the camps his organization is supporting there. Dr. Bhajwa, a thoughtful man in his mid-fifties with salt-and-pepper hair, a mustache and intelligent eyes, trained as a medical doctor. In 1992, he founded the National Resource Support Program (NRSP) to bring services to the poor across the country. Less than 20 years later, his nonprofit company employs 5,000 professionals, manages a $200 million budget and serves four million individuals.

We drive north along the old highway from Karachi to Lahore. The road is uneven; the colorful trucks, as big as buildings, are overstuffed with sugar cane and wheat and even rocks to such a degree that they look unreal. We pass ragged communities of people living in makeshift tents along the roads. That there is any organization at all is extraordinary -- in the past four days, 650,000 individuals have left their homes and 100,000 houses have been lost. People were given a day's warning to evacuate, so most people were able to hold onto their belongings. I'm struck by how little they have even in good times: a roped bed, a few blankets, some pots and pans, a few items of clothing, maybe a cell phone, although I don't see a single one all day -- right now, they are too expensive to use.

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At the request of the Department of Interior, the National Academy of Engineering formed a special committee to study the causes of the blowout of BP's Mississippi Canyon Block 252 well, dubbed Macondo.  The investigation of the blowout started in June, but news was made yesterday as the committee publicly interviewed members of BP's internal investigation team for the first time, as well as other parties.  You'll recall that BP's report, described by drilling contractor Transocean as "self serving", was issued earlier this month.  You'll also recall that of the eight failures identified by BP as the causes of the blowout, BP only took partial responsibility for two, completely ignoring key issues such as casing design and circulation prior to the cement job.  BP's team, led by Mark Bly, BP Group Head of Safety and Operations, placed primary blame for the disaster on Transocean, Halliburton, and Weatherford.  Their conclusions, transferring blame to others rather than identifying the true causes, called the entire report into question.

Yesterday, during the meeting, the Academy committee criticized the report pointing out that BP drew their conclusions without interviews of all involved or even inspecting the rig, which is still on the bottom, as well as the lack of available evidence.  Najmedin Meshkati, a professor at the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, wondered why BP didn't investigate organizational issues and rig scheduling, which could have caused worker fatigue, contributing to the confusion prior to the well blowout.  In criticizing the BP report, Meshkati said,  

"How could you call this great work accident investigation ... and not addressing human performance issues and organizational issues and decision-making issues?"

Under questioning, about BP ignoring the confusion and possible distraction of the crew with other activities, Bly said that, 

"It wasn't intended to be anything that it isn't.  It was a good contribution and a good foundation for further work for BP itself and others." 

That's not exactly what he said about the internal report, though.  They unequivocally determined that the cement in the annulus, the cement in the shoe track, and the float equipment all failed.  They also concluded that the casing design and the fact they didn't fully circulate the well played no role in the blowout.   While saying that new data may affect their conclusions, it was interesting that the causes they point to remain in the well, never to be recovered. 

Thomas Roth, of Halliburton, also questioned BP's conclusions that the cement failed and that the casing design didn't was not a contributing factor, saying,

"BP's well design and operational decisions compromised well integrity," said Roth. "BP proceeded with well operations without establishing well integrity. In the end, BP followed a decision tree that ignored multiple red flags."

When asked why Halliburton didn't order a halt to the operations if BP's actions were unsafe, Roth backpeddled, saying,  "We didn't see it to be an unsafe operation as it was being executed." 

This panel, stocked with engineers and scientists, is much more likely to come up with meaningful conclusions about the causes of the BP well blowout, as opposed to the President's commission, which is staffed with academians, environmentalists, and politicians.  As I am watching this morning's hearings of the President's Commission in its third session, it is becoming even more clear as, so far, testimony focused on booming and skimming and flow rate, with little time spent by witness Doug Suttles on the subsea response or causes.  As opposed to the National Academy Engineering panel, the President's panel continues to focus on investigating what happened environmentally after the blowout as opposed to seeking out the actual causes of the blowout.

The Academy panel is expected to issue a preliminary report about its findings on October 31, the day before the deepwater moratorium will be lifted.  Clearly, this will not be soon enough to affect operating policy; hopefully, since this disaster occurred, operators who resume work will make fundamental changes to operating and safety practices to lower the risk of another blowout.  My big concerns remain about fundamental design flaws in subsea BOPs and the level of training of rig personnel in kick recognition and early-sign well control.  These must be addressed to help prevent release of oil into the environment and possible loss of life.  Subsea containment procedures must also be developed in the event that well control is lost.

We're still a long way from being ready to safely operate in the deepwater, even though we will shortly resume operations.  Until new procedures and equipment are ready, it is  incumbent upon deepwater operators and their contractors to minimize risk through diligent operations and strict adherence to best practices.

Bob's new book, Disaster on the Horizon, will be released on October 22.

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Embattled mega church preacher Bishop Eddie Long came as close to confessing his sexual debauchery as any debaucher could come without actually confessing. He cryptically told his singing, shouting, handclapping flock that he wasn't a perfect man, and that he would face some painful situations. This was a good step forward for Long. He didn't do the usual soft shoe, duck and dodge around the issue. Or worse, defiantly claim that he was being persecuted for being a pure and righteous man of God. Or even worse still, break out in a teary eyed plea to family and flock for forgiveness.

These are the stock ploys that a bevy of celeb preachers, politicians and a Pope snatch at when caught with their sexual hypocrisy exposed. Long didn't go there. He simply spun his hypocrisy as that of a man engaged in a thoughtful and reflective soul search. Long now should take one more step in his soul search and apologize for his greatest sin. That's his near decade long, relentless, gay bash. Long didn't just do what many conservative fundamentalist black preachers do and quietly twist scripture and verse to make the case that God condemns gays to eternal hell and damnation. He actively led crusades against gay marriage, and by extension gays, railed against them on his websites, in fiery sermons, loudly backed George W. Bush's federal amendment banning gay marriage, and led a slanderous march to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s gravesite to denounce gay marriage. Each new accusation that Long used his youth training academy as a cover to procure kid sex, may ultimately prove him to be not just a hypocrite, but a full blown sexual predator.

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The Los Angeles Times recently reported that California Attorney General Jerry Brown charged "Bell leaders of secretly plotting to enrich themselves and conceal their lucrative compensation." Then the press reported the arrest of eight Bell officials for charges based on cheating taxpayers out of around $5.5 million dollars. District Attorney Steve Cooley said, "This was calculated greed and theft." Over the past few months, the Times has reported that the city manager of the mostly Latino working-class city was being paid nearly $800,000 a year and city council members around $100,000 a year for part-time work, entitling them to millions in state pension funds. At the same time, Bell residents were paying the highest property tax in the state, and Bell employees, barely earning minimum wage, were being laid off because the city lacked funds. Meanwhile, Bell police officers were being pushed to impound more cars to raise money for the city. When the first stories about the greed in Bell hit the news, a co-worker, who was born and raised in Mexico, jokingly kidded, "What do you expect when a bunch of Mexicans decide who's in charge."

Around the same time as the story of corruption in Bell, I read a news article about a guy named Joe Sanchez who Los Angeles was honoring for what he has done for our community. I wondered why we thrive on negative stereotypes. Is doing so an unavoidable part of our nature? Why don't we look at a situation through a positive rather than a negative lens? Instead of viewing the City of Bell through a stereotype that Latinos are greedy, why don't we expect people to act like Latino businessman and political activist Joe Sanchez?

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When we think of the fight for labor rights we often think of images of blue-collar workers being taken advantage of by "the man." Cesar Chavez's farm workers, or even the fictional "Norma Rae" come to mind. Rarely do we think of those working in glamorous professions in which the highest earners can make tens of thousands of dollars a day. Yet on the heels of New York Fashion Week it was announced that British Trade Union Equity has developed guidelines to ensure "safe and healthy working conditions" for models participating in London Fashion Week, which just wrapped up. The move is a watershed moment for the fashion industry that for years has gone unregulated, at times with disastrous results for its workers worldwide, many of them underage girls.

The new documentary film Picture Me chronicles the lives of several young models who have worked with top tier designers. Some of the stories are disturbing, to say the least. In a recent interview about the film one model recounted being burned by a photographer's bulb that rendered her unable to work for months yet she had no health insurance and received no worker's comp and was advised not to cause problems by litigating. There are also tales of models being sexually harassed and even raped by prominent men within the industry and being advised not to expose such behavior because it will harm their careers. (It is widely acknowledged that supermodel Stephanie Seymour had a long-term sexual relationship with John Casablancas, the former head of Elite, one of the largest modeling agencies in the world, that began when she was 16 and he was 41.)

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Long before I began writing fiction, I was writing about literature. This may be one of the reasons why it took me so long to write fiction. The saying goes that writing a dissertation is the surest obstacle to writing anything that anyone would read, and writing about great literature (as I did in my dissertation) is bound to make writing even mediocre fiction all the harder. I suffered under this curse for many years, writing plenty of books of the academic sort -- which is to say, books that no one read.

I owe my breakthrough to Jane Austen. I had written about Austen in that dissertation and had taken great pleasure teaching her to undergraduates. This was in the 1990s, at the beginning of the great tidal wave of Austen-mania, when the first of a spate of adaptations of her novels had begun to appear on screen. It was as though her novels had been waiting for the cinematic medium to jump-start her popularity with a mass audience. Austen's simple romantic plot lines, her opulent settings and clever, highly interactive dialogue were ideally suited to movies and television. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Knightley, in their cutaways, their brusquely proper manners, and their moral high-mindedness, were ideal cinematic heroes; Elizabeth and Emma with their arch good humor and empire dresses (presented without the period's modest lace coverage to reveal ample decolletage) were perfect cinematic heroines. Moreover, Austen's plots were good in any sort of setting and time period, as evidenced by the enormous success of the 1995 Clueless (Emma set in a Beverly Hills high school).

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Students are voting again in 2010 because we're building a movement. This movement did not begin with the 2008 vote campaign and it certainly did not end with the election of Barack Obama. It is a movement to make education a right and has been a driving force behind social progress for decades. We are fortunate enough to be organizing in a time of great opportunity and have capitalized on the leadership of President Obama and members of Congress. The passage of student financial aid reform, the biggest investment in higher education since the GI bill, is a testament to this. However, we are simply passing through one era of this movement and have a responsibility as organizers to build upon past victories. We are voting again, not just to elect members of Congress who will champion higher education causes, but also to construct a more perfect framework of student activism that will lead to students winning on issues directly affecting young people.

This is no lofty goal born of soaring but empty rhetoric. The 2010 election provides us with a strategic moment to make vast strides in the student movement. A strong foundation of grassroots organizing was laid during the 2008 election which was then utilized to mobilize young people around student aid reform, protesting budget cuts and tuition hikes, and making huge advancements for the Development, Relief and Education, for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. These efforts amplified the student voice worldwide and won some key victories in college affordability. The momentum from those campaigns must now be carried forward to the 2010 election so that additional victories will be won in 112th Congress.

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Last night's episode, "The Beautiful Girls," is all about Mad Men's ladies. The men and the business fall into the background, as we focus on women in the work place, dealing with issues other than work. The episode centers around Faye, Sally, Miss Blankenship, Peggy and Joan -- all in different stages of life, dealing with their own roles as women as well as their roles with the men that rely on them.

We see how much better Don's doing with Faye in his life. Since his rehabilitation last week, he's very much improved. He's drinking, but within reason and under control, he's back in shape and finally looks hot again. Faye's bringing him back from the dead, rattling the bed posts and almost breaking a lamp. Last week dropping her at her door was all Don could offer, but things have progressed. As they lay in bed together, it's clear they've established a close, intimate relationship. For a change, it's Faye that's setting boundaries, not Don. He wants her closer but she says it's too hot, "can I offer you a leg?" She's not quite ready to give herself to him completely but she's easing into it, one leg at a time. She won't tell him about her other work and is trying to keep things separate, "Do you know what a Chinese wall is?" It's good for him to be with someone that exerts a level of control over him. He leaves her in his apartment alone, signaling trust, but tells her "I'm taking everything interesting with me," as he zips up his pants (his timing is so on in this episode). It looks like he's finally got things under control. Enter Sally.

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This summer has been something of a bummer as far as the tent-poles are concerned (and I'm writing this scant hours after seeing Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, a film that does nothing to brighten my general opinion of the season). Smaller, cleverer, more thoughtful films are doing pretty good, though. We've gotten Cyrus and The Kids are All Right; still to come is the incredible Israeli war film Lebanon; a couple of gritty crime dramas -- Animal Kingdom from Australia and Mesrine: Killer Instince from France -- and the cleverly observed Change of Plans, also from France. That's a pretty solid line-up, and we haven't even covered documentaries.

And this week sees the opening of Get Low, the directorial debut of cinematographer Aaron Schneider, starring Robert Duvall as Felix Bush -- an Appalachian hermit who decides he wants to throw his own funeral before he dies -- Bill Murray as the funeral director all too happy to oblige, and Sissy Spacek as the woman tied to Felix's past. If just looking at that cast list gives you a warm glow, rest assured that the film fulfills the promise of the line-up. Nice to have something with the confidence to pull back and let the drama breathe, and that has a cast with the chops to handle that freedom. Hopefully this won't be the last time Schneider takes the helm.

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Not one to be left out of the fashion game, Courtney Love has started a style blog called What Courtney Wore Today detailing what she's been wearing lately. We're really into the behind-the-scenes pics and the vibrant illustrations. And the text is 100 percent Courtney prose. Some samples:

mens bespoke shirt , wangster t shirt, pre show Boston,plus anne boots , RO mens shirt and chloe "infamous" laser cut leggin's in Montclair New Jersey ( X" those Chloe leggings were an exclusive run of 100, they are really hard to find , did she ebay them? or just get lucky cos Chloe rarely gifts.... and I'm the declasse one so im going to call those covetable leggings at 800! for LEGGINGS! Good God, they have if i recall the editorial on them and the 3 pairs in the "CLOSET" intricate swirls, and laser cut buttons, but i seem to recall she wore Mcqueen leggings from Browns in Montclair w/ the Demuelmeester boots, which i believe she wears onstage every night" ) ahh...except two shes been wearing a pair of Manohla and i know CLO is no Manolo fan ..." Manonlo's are for teensy little things who like to toddle around, i did a walk of shame in lace Manolo's , it was raining in the street and i felt like they were soaked panties on my feet, I'm an Amazon, ( She IS 5'10 " and 3/4" she almost hissed at me when i informed her of her heighth... i dunno about the 3/4 but she is 5'10 and her theory runs something along the lines that Manolo's are too 'dainty' for "big girls"")

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New York has always been entangled in a wild love affair with Italian food. From the culinary delights of Little Italy to the family-style service of Carmines to the masterful refinement of Felidia, Cipriani and Sant Ambroeus, our romance with Italian food centers on its expansive range of flavors, regions, and cooking styles. This fall a new wave of Italian eateries will open all over the city begging the question, is there room in our hearts for all of them?

As a lover of all things food, one would think that I've tried everything. Don't get me wrong, I've tasted things most people would never dream of eating (breaded veal brains with butter and capers, anyone?), but in the last few months I have found myself exploring some of the city's most sought-after Italian restaurants -- Maialino, Quinto Quarto, Laconda Verde and Caccio e Pepe to name a few -- in pursuit of the best Italian delicacies. When I discovered the traditional dish caccio e pepe this summer I instantly understood why a restaurant would name itself after it. I was amazed that such a simple, three-ingredient dish could be so sinfully rich and decadently satisfying. Even the presentation was exhilarating -- our waiter mixed the pasta and the oily and pungent caccio cheese in a hollowed out wheel of caccio right at our table! I left dinner that night feeling as if I had fallen in love with pasta and cheese all over again. Maybe that's what it is about Italian food that keeps us craving it again and again... the over-the-top touches that truly make the most simplistic dishes memorable!

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By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger

Maybe it's time for environmentalists prioritize do-it-yourself climate fixes instead of looking to politicians. There are all sorts of options, including, for those dedicated enough, switching to an insect-based diet, as Change.org reports.

But in the private sector, inventors, corporations, and small businesses -- farmers in particular -- are finding more palatable ways to scale down their environmental impact. In short, politicians aren't the only ones with the power to make high-profile statements and strong choices on climate change.

No solar on the White House

Environmental crusader Bill McKibben had already given up on Congress; now the White House has disappointed, too. McKibben and other leaders in the climate change movement are eschewing lobbying on legislation in favor of pushing for more visible, direct action on climate issues. To that end, McKibben, along with three students, asked the White House last week to reinstall one of Jimmy Carter's solar panels on the roof. The answer was no.

McKibben describes the Obama administration's response to his request as "uncool...Asked to do something easy and symbolic to rekindle a little of the joy that had turned out so many of us as volunteers for Obama in 2008, they point blank said no," according to Truthout.

The administration officials that they met with, though, wanted to make sure that the climate activists knew something was being done to improve the country's environment. They touted the president's initiative to green the federal government--federal buildings in particular. One official, McKibben says, spoke more than once about a Portland, Ore., building that would soon have a "green curtain," likely a hanging garden.

It's not that McKibben disapproved. "Actually, it's kind of great," he wrote. "Still, I doubt many people are going to build their own vegetated fins."

The talking cure

That's the ultimate question: What will people build on their own? Solar panels could be one answer, although they haven't quite caught on yet. There are all sorts of technologies, though, that could help us minimize our carbon footprint. Grist's Ashley Braun checks out one new idea: drawing energy from sound waves:

Using that standby found in sunscreen, zinc oxide, to turn sound waves into electricity, these scientists have heard the bells of success starting to ring in their ears. Similar to other technologies aimed at harvesting energy from walking or dancing, this concept could also turn the roar of traffic into the hum of low-carbon electrons. How sweet the sound of renewable energy.

Scientists are considering using this technology in cell phones, creating, ideally, a device that would never have be plugged in, assuming, of course, that its owner used it frequently enough, and used it as a phone, rather than an e-mail/web-surfing/GPS device.

Go private?

Another option for climate reformers could be focusing on the private sector. Corporations have gotten the message that consumers buy green products, and more are churning out sustainable, climate-friendly offerings.

Care2's Emily Logan points to Nestle, eBay, and Sunny D as three companies that have heard the green gospel. Nestle is investing in sustainable coffee; eBay is pushing out reusable shipping boxes; and Sunny D, the beverage company, met its zero-waste goal three years ahead of schedule.

"Of course, like most large corporations who are making efforts toward sustainability, some of these companies have a long way to go," Logan writes. "But giving credit where credit is due is increasingly important when it comes to the environment."

You are what you eat

The farm sector is one private industry that deserves more scrutiny and pressure. Recall that agriculture interests ran one of the most successful campaigns to be exempted from the cap-and-trade bill, when it was working its way through the House. Even among liberals, the industry has its defenders: local, sustainable agriculture just won't work to feed the masses, the argument goes.

The problem with that line of reasoning is that we still haven't seen how large sustainable farms can grow. Take Joel Salatin, the crusading farmer made famous by Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. Salatin has been running a successful operation, Polyface Farm, for years while relying on organic and sustainable methods. As David E. Gumport reports at Chelsea Green, Salatin's farm has only grown:

Standing in front of a group of about 50 romping pigs, [Salatin] proudly revealed that Polyface has hit the the $2 million annual sales level, while sticking to Salatin's policy of not shipping food outside a 100-mile radius. The effect, he says, has been to strengthen local businesses-everything from a local breakfast diner serving visitors to his farm to local feed and supply companies.

Salatin is convinced his methods can be used to feed the entire population. What's certain is that there is room for more of this sort of growth in the agricultural system.

Here, too, would-be reformers run back into politicians: Salatin's food safety practices are not exactly FDA-approved, and to reseed his methods elsewhere, the government would need to relax safety standards for smaller, alternatives operations.

But for now, this sort of effort, and others outside of Washington seem to be making the largest impact.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

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I recently read a news story about girls going through puberty earlier than ever before. While a generation ago the average age was around 14-15, it has now dropped to around 12, and 10% of girls show signs of puberty as early as age seven. This is a concern because the onset of puberty -- the age at which a child is hormonally thrust into the adult world -- has all sorts of consequences, from medical to social. Breast and uterine cancer later in life have been tied to early puberty, for instance, and psychologists warn that looking more mature than you really are can lead to behaviors that are unsafe for a pre-teen. The reason for this mass change in physiology is unknown, though the study's authors cite possible exposure to chemicals such as BPA, sometimes found as a manufacturing by-product in plastic food containers, and increasing rates of childhood obesity.

While the effects of unwanted chemical compounds are easy to decry as 'unnatural,' with calls for increased industrial oversight, a rise in childhood obesity is perhaps less likely to galvanize policymakers. After all, if it's just 'baby fat,' surely the child will simply shed it as their body adjusts to the rigors of adolescent growth? As we learn more about fat, though, we're discovering that it plays a variety of roles in the body's complex web if chemical interactions -- it's not simply a passive storehouse for extra calories, but rather an active organ. Part of its role is to concentrate and synthesize female hormones, which -- in young girls -- can lead to early puberty, with all of the fallout that entails.

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The New Atheists continue to swing out against all and sundry. The Pope is an ever-popular target, especially with his trip to Britain. President Obama is another punching bag these days, what with his attempts to soothe down the row over the Muslim center near the World Trade Center site and his talk about America being a religious nation for folk of all faiths. But there is always a little venom to spare for the so-called "accommodationists," these being folk who think that one might possibly be onside with science and yet be religious. Some accommodationists, like Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project who now runs the National Institute of Health, are actually practicing Christians (or members of other faiths). Others, like me, have little or no religious belief. But all of us just don't see why the two cannot go together.

Of course, no one thinks that it is possible to hold every belief that someone has held in the name of religion also in the name of modern science. You cannot believe in a worldwide flood and in plate tectonics. You cannot believe that the Native Americans are the lost tribes of Israel and in modern physical anthropology. But the accommodationist claim is that there is much left over that you can believe in: a creator god, a divine backing for morality, and the notion that there is an ultimate purpose to it all with the possibility of some kind of eternal life, for instance.

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Saturday was September 11, 2010 and of course, the first thing that comes to mind for almost anyone is the tragic events of the twin towers coming down in New York City as well as the planes crashing into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and in Shanksville, PA. However, I believe that we each have our own personal stories of what 9-11 means to us. When my son called yesterday morning to say hi and catch up, we spoke of 9-11 and he reminded me that nine years ago on this day at approximately the same time the first tower came down, he was getting his driver's license. I reminded him that 28 years ago on this day his dad and I got married. A little later in the day my daughter called to say hi and she reminded me that last year on this day, her future father-in-law was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was in a hospice home when she and her husband got married only two months after his diagnosis, and passed on only a few short weeks after.

I share these stories as a reminder that 9-11 can mean different things to different people. As I was reflecting upon the past 28 years, I was reminded of the amount of healing that has taken place in our family. Healing is not always an easy path, but if you are willing to embark on its journey, the rewards can be numerous. Sean and Angie have experienced much joy, pain, laughter and sadness during the past 24 and 25 years of their lives. Through the ups and downs of marriages, divorces, births, deaths, cancer, diabetes, addiction -- and the list could go on and on -- Bob and I have both loved our children unconditionally. No matter what was going on in our own personal lives, we chose to put Sean and Angie above all else and remind them always that we were their mom and dad and we loved them unconditionally.

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I went into Lebanon convinced that I really didn't want to see another examination of the moral quandary that is the Middle East conflict. I came out of it -- head and heart racing -- convinced that I had seen one of the best films of the year. That's a considerable achievement, considering that Lebanon takes place primarily on one dark, constricted set, and that that set recreates a place that few of us would care to spend five minutes in, much less the 90 minutes of the film, much less -- from the characters point of view -- the desperate hours that form the opening day of the Lebanon War in 1982.

Save for the opening and closing shots, Lebanon is set completely within the confines of a tank, observing its crew -- four Israeli boys in their twenties -- as they get their first taste of war. Whatever we see of the outside world is only what they can see from inside, views limited to what can be observed through tiny windows and (tellingly) a gunsight. Whatever we can divine of the situation is only what they can figure out from those windows, from terse radio communications, and from limited dialogue with whichever superiors or purported allies drop down through their hatchway. In short, info is limited, which does not exempt the crew from making split-second decisions, many of them life-or-death. The experience is tense, claustrophobic, occasionally brutally graphic, and absolutely compelling; gripping drama with a higher goal.

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I wish getting to the top of that thermometer meant Justin Coussoule triumphs over the evil that is John Boehner. But that isn't what it means. It means we have enough money for another week of cable TV ads-- like this one or this one-- ads that Blue America and Americans For America volunteers made to help focus some attention on who John Boehner actually is. We know our efforts are minuscule compared to the $4,504,493 Boehner's campaign has collected so far this year. And we've begged the DCCC and the DNC for help. We could have been begging the NRCC and the RNC. They flatly refused every time. Even apart from the serious problem sleazy sugar industry shill and DCCC power-behind-the-throne Debbie Wasserman Schultz has with veterans and with progressives, the DCCC is determined to spend all the money they suck out of concerned Democrats on the actual Blue Dogs who have voted most frequently against the Democratic agenda and crossed the aisle to vote with Boehner-- reprehensible anti-Choice, antigay, anti-reform, anti-healthcare conservatives like Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD), Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Mark Critz (Blue Dog-PA), Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ), and Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA). Financial help for Alan Grayson? Not. One. Dime. Financial help for Justin Coussoule? Well, they don't even invite him to Democratic events down the road from his own home.

Thank God for independent-minded Members of Congress like Alan Grayson, Barney Frank, Raul Grijalva, Henry Waxman, Bob Filner, Earl Blumenauer, Mary Jo Kilroy and Betty Sutton and for organizations like the AFL-CIO, DFA, Vet-PAC and People For the American Way, who have endorsed Justin and have been trying to help him get his message across. Today I realized there are two more organizations out there swinging away for Justin. I did know that President Clinton posed for a photo with Justin and his wife Amanda when they both graduated from West Point and that he's seeing them again this week. What I didn't know is that the HRC Legacy PAC had endorsed and is working on behalf of Justin's campaign. On the same day they endorsed Ted Strickland for governor, they also backed Justin:

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"Is running your business like a man hurting you?" This is a question Alexis Martin Neely asked a roomful of women entrepreneurs last week in Los Angeles. Alexis is the founder and CEO of the Family Wealth Planning Institute, a business strategist and a go-to legal expert for many television news shows. She also was the host of the inaugural "Powerful Feminine Leadership" event held, not in a typical hotel conference room, but rather at a West Los Angeles yoga studio called Hub.

It's no secret that women have had to play a certain game to make it in the business world, i.e. be the bitchy boss, dress down their femininity, or abide by the rules of a hierarchical structure. Today, however, women are running their own businesses in increasing numbers and are making their own rules. According to the Center for Women's Business Research, women-owned businesses comprise 40 percent of all privately held companies in the U.S. and women entrepreneurs are among the fastest growing groups of business owners. Compare this to our mother's time when, in 1970, women contributed 2-6 percent of the family income. Now the typical working wife brings home 42.2 percent of the income, and four in 10 mothers--many of them single mothers--are the primary breadwinners in their families.

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As a non-practicing Jew growing up in the secular city of Tel-Aviv in Israel I recall the many times that my friends and I were complaining that it was too bad that Israel was so much "not like America" when it came to the relationship between religion and state. We certainly envied Woody Allen and our other co-religionists in New York City who were not subservient to the strictures set by the Orthodox Rabbinate and its definition of "who is a Jew?" and who actually had access to civil marriages or non-religious divorces. And most important, Americans were not engulfed in the never-ending Israeli-Arab conflict that was gradually being transformed into a violent clash between Jews and Muslims, including over the control of the religious sites in Jerusalem.

Well, it is beginning to feel as though it is America that is becoming more "like Israel" as far as the role of religion in public life is concerned as the question of whether to allow the building of mosque is turning out to be a national political issue that could affect the outcome of Congressional elections and that also is being intertwined with debates over U.S. policy in the Middle East.

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Fear is a natural reaction built into the mind-body system. It is triggered by danger, and after the danger is past, so is the fear response. But when fear spreads out into a general condition, it becomes a mysterious thing: anxiety. Anxious people are afraid even though there is nothing "out there" to be afraid of. Others overreact to triggers that ordinarily should be fairly easy to handle, such as being left alone for a day on their own. Still others are nearly paralyzed by highly specific phobias such as fear of heights, open spaces, or insects. What is going on and what can we do about it?

Record numbers of people in modern society, predominantly women, suffer from mild to extreme anxiety. Billions of dollars are spent every year on tranquilizers to treat this condition, yet as the doctor writes out a prescription, he knows two discouraging things: no medication is a cure for anxiety and the cause of the condition is unknown. Since human beings have lived with the fear response before recorded history, there should be a way to heal anxiety, and perhaps the best way to approach the mild-to-moderate types is not as a disease but as a challenge. In anxious people, fear is allowed to roam freely; we can truly say that fear rules the mind. Yet it should be that we use our emotions, not that they use us. The challenge is to bring the fear response back under control. Otherwise, anxiety becomes ingrained and over time will spiral downward. The anxious person begins to be afraid of being afraid, because she knows that she has no power against it.

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Caviar. Gobs of it, served on tiny blinis with a dab of crème fraiche. "We used about ten kilos of whitefish caviar from Northern California tonight, " said Chef Benjamin Bailly of Petrossian, the fine dining and caviar emporium on Robertson. It was towards the end of TASTE OF BEVERLY HILLS' Saturday night party, the third evening of this very successful event. After garnering two such dollops, I walked across the aisle to Chef Kerry Simon's SIMON LA booth to sample his startling offering: a Maine Lobster and Black Truffle Pot Pie, served in a small ceramic cup, with a morsel of the season's first sunchoke, green peas and oyster mushrooms. Both were not something you would usually see at a food festival, but this was not an ordinary event...not by a long shot. As I reported in my HuffPost last week about opening night, the four day/night TASTE OF BEVERLY HILLS, sponsored by Food & Wine Magazine, confounded all of its participants and guests by being so much more than expected. And how often can you say that about anything these days?

I've never met the guy, Jeff Best of Best Events, behind the project, but he must be something of a magician to have created this massive and delicious wonderment. The site itself turned out to be astonishing...atop the parking garage across from the Beverly Hilton, they build two huge spacious tents the size of football fields, abetted by several stages and acres of tables and seating. Then he and his associates enrolled over a hundred of the city's top (and bottom) restaurants to participate, with an equal number of wineries and spirit companies. (Mescal, spicy rum, Prosecca anyone?) I suppose a word of praise should be offered to the half-dozen main sponsors who came into the event: Life's Good (I agree that it is, but I never expected a high-tech garbage can company to tell me so!); there were several smart Infinity cars scattered about the site, all attended by equally smart blond women demonstrating their features (those of the car, not the women); American Express had a comfortable lounge where cardholders could relax and rest their feet; Stella Artois, a Belgian beer which actually is quite good, had a big display with working spigots; the Beverly Hilton, of course, although I do have a bone to pick with them, raising the self-parking rate in the garage to a flat $25 was outrageous; Angelino Magazine, whose food critic Brad Johnson had an esteemed event of his own recently; Intelligensia, Nick Griffith's fine coffee company in Silverlake and Pasadena, and S. Pellegrino, which I drank because my favorite, Fiji Water, doesn't yet have a sparkling water. The city's mayor, the Honorable Jimmy Delshad, was instrumental in making it work, which should earn him another term or two, especially after witnessing his comedy performance with three of the Drago brothers at their cooking demonstration Sunday evening. P.R. maven Mary Wagstaff, whose fabulous platoon of women did a smashing job in telling the world about the party, informed me that the Beverly Hills Education Foundation will receive some of the proceeds. Tickets averaged $150 each evening, which seems high but, hey, this was an expensive big deal all around and no one went home hungry or thirsty (which is more than we can say about much of the world.)

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My friend John Kennedy O'Hara, of Brooklyn, NY, has been called a "political street-fighter," a "mad dog," a "dissident." Among the incumbents who he tried to unseat in Brooklyn he was considered a troublemaker and a fool. He was also, it was said, a felon. When the district attorney called for his arrest as a "criminal voter" in 1996, O'Hara dismissed the charges as a joke. When he surrendered to the DA's detectives, they cuffed him and hauled him into central booking in his suit and tie - O'Hara was a lawyer at the time running for a seat in the New York State legislature - and walked him into a room of peeling plaster. They listed for him seven felony counts: O'Hara had allegedly voted from a sham address seven times in the early '90s, and only now, years after the fact, the cops were fingerprinting him with an old worn-out ink pad. Then they flashbulbed him for the mug-shot, and took him to a holding cell where the black kids who are central booking's main customers laughed when O'Hara told them the charge. "Lookit," the kids marveled, "they're lockin' everybody up."

If voting was the crime, O'Hara, 36 years old at the time, was a true recidivist. He was a "prime voter," in the electoral parlance, one of those citizens who votes not just in the big races for mayor and president but in primary elections and special elections and in obscure local elections for school boards and the like. He'd probably voted 50 times since he came of voting age, he was proud of the fact, and he was sure he'd never done it illegally. The courts concluded otherwise: He would end up with the honor of being only the second person in New York State history to have been convicted on criminal charges for the act of voting. To my knowledge, the only other New Yorker to achieve this status was Susan B. Anthony, in 1872.

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The encounter between artist and audience is far more ambiguous and problematic in the art world than in the entertainment industry in spite of about a half century of critical and art world exertions, for wholly varying motives, to minimize or eradicate that distinction. But drawing on the idioms of popular culture or the products of mass production for creative source material or inspiration is not the same as participating in it. The rise of the audience that regularly visits art exhibitions and the expansion of the art market itself is not the same thing, in either scale or kind, as the audience for television and movies. And just because the occasional Julian Schnabel or Dennis Hopper is able to move with relative success between the two worlds does not mean that the distinction between entertainment and art has ceased to have meaning. The membrane has always been extremely permeable, and hooray for that. But the intent and ethos of each are clear and distinct taken as a whole.

Simply put, when aesthetic purpose precedes exposure and sales, art plays the upper hand. When reversed, it's about entertainment. All the high priced creative talent in the world invested in a product formulated to perform in the marketplace does not add up to a lone artist maintaining the integrity of a single well conceived idea. For great entertainment I have no argument with $300 million spent on "Avatar." But it doesn't come close to the aesthetic depth and focus of Marina Abramovic's "The Artist is Present." The point is not the amount of money or labor that is invested, it's the nature of the engagement by both artist and audience.

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Last September, Fox News embraced a series of videos released by Andrew Breitbart that purported to expose ACORN, the national grassroots advocacy group, as fraudulently seeking governmental services for folks disguised as pimps and prostitutes. The ensuing rapid fire media reaction and the political firestorm it created drove ACORN to its knees, and it was quickly abandoned by its progressive allies, funders and supporters. All of this occurred long before the context and facts were investigated or evaluated, and the video "stings" were exposed as having been edited to misrepresent the alleged "facts" by both our independent report, "An Independent Governance Assessment of ACORN: A Path to Meaningful Reform", and the Public Editor's March 21, 2010 column in the New York Times.

The Shirley Sherrod incident that has played out in prime time this week has had all of the same elements and ingredients. The same conservative blogger -- Breitbart; the same network -- Fox News; the same kind of edited video -- again involving race. This apparently proved that the Department of Agriculture was engaged in illegal, fraudulent activities that were known and supported by NAACP and democratic and progressive leaders, including the Obama administration. This time, though, it backfired -- because the "victim" struck back immediately with the full facts, and the mainstream media gave equal time to her side of the story. As a result, the Obama administration and other democrats and progressives were forced to reverse their actions and rhetoric -- and admit that they had reacted to the first sign of political and media pressure without doing their own independent fact-checking!

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As David Poland correctly predicted just a week ago, Lionsgate has moved the newest Tyler Perry film, For Colored Girls, from its original January 14th, 2011 slot into the heart of the awards season. It will now open wide on November 5th, which is incidentally the same weekend that Precious (which Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey put their names on after the fact to insure a Lionsgate distribution) debuted in limited release, wracking up a record $108,000 per each of its eighteen screens. The film is a change of pace for Perry, as it is the first time that he is directing a film based on a prior source, the 1975 Ntozake Shange play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. The play itself is a collection of twenty poems dealing with various social issues (rape, abortion, etc) that are performed by seven women known only by a color ('Lady in Blue', etc). The cast is pretty huge, and includes a handful of Perry veterans (Kimberly Elise, Janet Jackson, etc), along with Whoopi Goldberg, Kerry Washington, Loretta Devine, Phylicia Rashad, and Thandie Newton making their debut in the Tyler Perry sandbox. To be blunt, nothing would make me happier than seeing a Perry film as a possible Oscar contender.

Mediate's Colby Hall has a new report today claiming that progressive media watchdog group Media Matters was never "serious" about putting up the funds to run an ad on Fox News about News Corp's $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association (RGA), pointing to the fact that Media Matters refused to edit its ad to meet Fox News' requests. But in an interview with the Huffington Post, Vice President of Research and Communications for Media Matters for America Ari Rabin-Havt said that those accounts are completely false.

The idea behind the Media Matters ad was to bring viewers' attention to the political activities of News Corp, which is the Rupert-Murdoch run parent company of Fox News. According to Media Matters, Fox News has devoted just 17 seconds of airtime to the organization's RGA donation, despite extensive coverage by other outlets. The group attempted to make the ad as straightforward as possible, to make it harder for Fox to reject it. View the original ad here. Fox News, however, took issue with some of the copy of the ad. Here are the changes the network requested, as outlined in an e-mail from the media buyer to Media Matters:

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by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger

A new study about the effects of immigration on U.S. employment supports the long-standing arguments of immigration advocates: Rather than displacing American workers, immigrant labor actually makes our economy stronger. Kevin Drum has the details at Mother Jones.

Now, with reports that undocumented laborers are a mainstay of disaster relief efforts all over the country, Americans are beginning to get a sense of the unsavory work relegated to many immigrants, and the high price immigrants pay for the simple privilege of employment.

Undocumented workers driving wages up

Going back to Mother Jones, new research examining the relationship between immigration and U.S. employment found that--contrary to conventional anti-immigrant wisdom--immigration does not negatively affect American employment. Instead, immigration drives wages up by pushing low-wage American workers into higher-paying jobs.

Here's how it works: As less-educated immigrants gravitate towards work that requires fewer English language skills (like manual labor), their less-educated American counterparts move on to higher-paying, communications-intensive work that capitalizes on their comparatively better English language skills. This naturally drives wages up, and makes for a more productive economy overall.

The irony, as Drum notes, is that those who complain about immigrants stealing American jobs are the same people who want immigrants to learn English and assimilate as quickly as possible. "If they did," Drum argues, "then they'd just start competing for the higher paying jobs that natives now monopolize."

Stiffed in New Orleans

The reality of being an undocumented worker in the U.S. is starker than most Americans realize. Not only are immigrants doing work that most would rather not, they are also often cleaning up the messes that Americans leave behind.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, undocumented laborers remain a key component of reconstruction efforts. Initially drawn to the city by the prospect of work and the Department of Homeland Security's decision to suspend employment immigration enforcement, many undocumented laborers relocated to New Orleans to assist with rebuilding. But, as Elise Foley reports at the Washington Independent, their immigration status renders them especially vulnerable to rampant wage theft, threats of deportation and workplace violence.

The situation is so dire for many workers that numerous nonprofit groups have initiated projects in the city and are calling for legislation to combat the problem. However, a key concern is that rising anti-immigrant sentiment in other parts of the U.S. could exacerbate difficulties in New Orleans. If such sentiment results in even greater labor abuses or renewed immigration enforcement, whole communities of people who have been dedicated to rebuilding the city could find themselves without livelihood, or even be displaced.

Exploited undocumented workers clean up oil spills

Given the reality that undocumented workers are charged with some of the dirtiest and most unsafe work American employers have to offer, it shouldn't be surprising that U.S. companies rely on immigrant labor to clean up their worst messes. Not only do undocumented workers have fewer employment options, their immigration status renders them far less likely to report unsafe working conditions, exposure to hazardous materials, and underpayment--making them especially attractive to employers looking to save money or hide bad behavior.

So, naturally, undocumented workers were called in to deal with the catastrophic BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico (though their compliance only earned them the undue attention of Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and, more recently, an oil spill in Michigan.

As Todd A. Heywood at the Michigan Messenger reports, one company in particular has come under fire for hiring and then exploiting undocumented laborers. Hallmark Industrial, a Texas contractor hired to clean up the oil spill, allegedly paid its workers only $800 for up to 100 hours of work per week. Additionally, the company subjected them to unsafe and hazardous working conditions, and even failed to provide workers with on-site toilets--forcing workers to relieve themselves in the areas they were charged with cleaning.

Just 24 hours after the Michigan Messenger broke the story, Hallmark Industrial was fired from the oil spill clean up, its contract terminated by the company which hired it, Garner Environmental Services, Inc. Whether that's a victory is questionable. Following the termination of the contract, 40 undocumented workers were arrested in Texas, on a bus chartered by Hallmark--presumably just returned from Michigan. While the termination of the contract ensures that its workers won't be subjected to further workplace abuses, it also ensures that those same individuals must begin the difficult task of finding similar work elsewhere.

Unemployed in California labor camps

Clearly, despite an inexorable willingness to perform low-wage manual labor, undocumented workers are not impervious to the unemployment epidemic. In U.S. labor camps--where migrant agricultural workers can find seasonal or even long term lodging near ranches--farm work is increasingly harder to come by.

As David Bacon highlights at New America Media, both undocumented immigrants and legal "guest workers" are adversely affected by the recession. While the latter possess work visas and may therefore stay in the country legally, both groups live together in the same labor camps, where they remain, ironically, unemployed. Given the present economic climate, there isn't enough work for even the lowest-wage workers. And in spite of their legal status, even guest workers are barred from applying for unemployment benefits.

The recession has cast both undocumented and legally sanctioned agricultural workers into circumstances even more dismal than those advertised by UFW when it launched its "Take Our Jobs" campaign earlier this summer. Outlining the long hours, low pay, and back-breaking labor associated with farm work, UFW satirically invited American citizens to replace the scores of overworked and undocumented laborers that keep our agricultural industry afloat.

Though meant to be a tongue-in-cheek response to the misconception that immigrants steal American jobs, the campaign exposes a real, if unfortunate, truth about undocumented workers: Even as their presence drives Americans into higher paying jobs, Americans employers are all too happy to subject the undocumented to the worst indignities.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse . This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

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Andrew Breitbart deserves a rousing defense. He single-handedly managed to get President Obama, much of the media, conservatives, and a big body of the general public talking about race, but not just race in the usual drive-by, finger pointing divisive way, but race in which there's near universal sympathy for a black victim of racism. The raw deal Breitbart dealt Shirley Sherrod drew variously either an apology, condemnation of the doctored tape, or a loud demand that she get her job back, from everyone from Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, and Bill O'Reilly to President Obama. Some prominent conservatives even lashed out at the rightwing smear machine.

For a brief moment, there was renewed clamor that Obama frontally address the issue of race and racism and hold the much talked about racial dialogue. Breitbart said that he released the doctored tape of Sherrod's speech in part to hit back at the NAACP for having the temerity to call out the tea party for the racism of some, many, are most of its activists and leaders in part. And in part he released the lying tape to expose the NAACP for allegedly giving safe harbor to its own racists. Breitbart did a service on both counts. He again tossed the spotlight on the tea party and how it deals with or more accurately ducks dealing with the racists among them. The NAACP took full advantage of the reopened window and again reminded that the tea party has racist elements among them. That in turn stirred some talk about having a dialogue on race between the NAACP and tea party leaders. NAACP President Ben Jealous quickly said that he would look with favor on that.

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Is the latest Newsweek poll "fishy?" As we reported yesterday, their latest sample of registered voters split evenly on the question of whether they plan to vote for a Democrat or a Republican for Congress this year. Over the weekend, Todd Eberly, an assistant professor of political science at St. Mary's College of Maryland, argued that the poll seemed "fishy" and "cooked." Jim Geraghty gave Eberly's post a plug on National Review Online and, as a result, commenters on my report on Pollster.com have been howling with outrage that we gave any credence to a "dishonestly weighted" poll.

As I noted yesterday, the Newsweek poll did produce a result on the more positive end of the bell curve for Democrats. Make no mistake: A simple average of recent polls (including Newsweek) shows a roughly five-point Republican advantage on the so-called generic House ballot -- a result that points to Republicans winning 50 or more seats and with it, control of the House. Moreover, the trend is moving in the Republican direction. So no one should interpret anything that follows as evidence that "all is well" for the Democrats.

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