Hodge Podge

50 Most Vile Movie Villains: Part 1

From Vader to Hannibal, Cruella to Max Cady; see all 25 names kicking off our rogues' gallery of the best (or is that worst?) baddies of the big screen, then cast your vote for the ultimate cinematic sociopath (and look for part 2 tomorrow)

DARTH VADER
Hayden Christensen/James Earl Jones/David Prowse
The Star Wars Saga (1977-2005)

The dark side can be awfully seductive. Just ask the Jedi formally known as Anakin Skywalker, who ditched his master Obi-Wan to fight for the forces of eeevil. Vader is the quintessential villain; he's got commanding height, an intimidating voice (thanks to the vocal stylings of James Earl Jones), wicked lightsaber skills, a badass all-black getup, and domination over galaxies far, far away. He's not exactly the portrait of good health, but don't let his heavy, mechanical air-sucking fool you: The Force is very strong with this villain. Gretchen Hansen

LEATHERFACE
Gunnar Hansen
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Sure, he was a mentally retarded, murderous cannibal wearing a mask of his victims' skin, but how many other dudes you know can both butcher a human body and pull off a chainsaw pirouette? Mike Bruno

PHILLIP VANDAMM
James Mason
North by Northwest (1959)

One thing a great movie villain ought to have is an impressive lair, and Mason's debonair Cold War spy fits the bill with what must be the coolest house in all of South Dakota: a stylish, modern, Frank Lloyd Wright-esque dwelling (complete with airstrip) built into a mountainside atop the presidents' heads on Mount Rushmore. So give him (and Alfred Hitchcock) points for that, as well as for making Cary Grant's life miserable as he chases the hapless ad man halfway across the country. Gary Susman

HEDY CARLSON
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Single White Female (1992)

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery until it creeps you the hell out. In Single White Female, Jennifer Jason Leigh was riveting as a pathologically needy new roomie who tried to steal Bridget Fonda's hair, clothes, and boyfriend, while also finding time to kill a puppy Bridget really, really liked. SWF made roommate-hunting terrifying and answered a key cultural question of the time: Hey, what if Fatal Attraction had two chicks? Jeff Giles

ANNIE WILKES
Kathy Bates
Misery (1990)

With her Puritanical outfits and disdain for foul language, Nurse Annie seems about as apple-pie wholesome as they come. Just don't be a dirty-bird and try to leave her, or she'll be forced to fetch the sledgehammer and hobble your wicked ass. Mike Bruno

MALEFICENT
Voiced by Eleanor Audley
Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Every Disney movie has a villain, but none has quite the same frightening and demeaning presence as Maleficent. With her piercing yellow stare, her lengthy skeletal physique and her devilish laughter, it's no wonder King Stefan and his wife didn't invite her to their newborn's christening. Did we mention she can also transform into a fire-breathing dragon? Samantha Harmon

COMMODUS
Joaquin Phoenix
Gladiator (2000)

'Am I not merciful?' yells Commodus, a weak, desperate man so hungry for power that he kills his own father to take his place as the emperor of Rome. Despite the character's vile, bloodthirsty, and spiteful nature, he emerges as more than shallow. The beauty of Phoenix's Oscar-nominated performance is that he manages to get you to feel a teensy bit bad for Commodus, who suffers by comparison with Maximus (Russell Crowe), a hero if ever there was one. Samantha Harmon

HANS GRUBER
Alan Rickman
Die Hard (1988)

An exceptional thief and one hell of a dresser, calculating Hans Gruber is the perfect foe for improvising John McClane (Bruce Willis). Why? Hans is clever enough to trade barbs with 'Mr. Cowboy,' but smart enough to know when to let his gun do the talking (bye-bye, Misters Takagi and Ellis) which makes him truly dangerous. He also earns points for letting his hostages have bathroom breaks. Mandi Bierly

NOAH CROSS
John Huston
Chinatown (1974)

Don't be fooled by his grandfatherly appearance. This aging tycoon cloaks his viciousness in respectability, and he excuses the depths of his own depravity by insisting 'that at the right time and right place, [people are] capable of anything.' In his case, murder, corruption, incest. Take your pick. Jeff Labrecque

CAPTAIN VIDAL
Sergi Lopez
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Vidal is twisted, vain, and loathsome. As a leader of men in fascist Spain, he thrives on the power he wields and thinks nothing of killing first and asking questions later. Despite the number of deaths by his hands mounting throughout Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-winning movie, his final act of cruelty is still shocking to watch. We're not gonna tell you what it is...because we're not as cruel as he is. Connie Yu

JOHN DOE
Kevin Spacey
Se7en (1995)

Manipulating two mismatched detectives (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) who are investigating his gruesome crimes, this sadistic arbiter of biblical justice concludes his masterpiece by putting Gwyneth Paltrow's decapitated head in a box. Thirteen years later, it's still chilling. Jeff Labrecque

NORMAN BATES
Anthony Perkins
Psycho (1960)

Poor Norman Bates looks no more menacing than a choirboy, but underneath Anthony Perkins' youthful appearance is a twisted psyche that comes out when anyone threatens his deluded existence. He's the reason why the phrase 'mama's boy' has a sinister ring to it. Joy Piedmont

FRANK BOOTH
Dennis Hopper
Blue Velvet (1986)

In David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Dennis Hopper portrays the violent, sadistic, and completely unpredictable Frank Booth, a criminal who is so mentally disturbed he can change moods in an instant. Hopper is so convincing as this killer/rapist/drug addict, it's hard to watch him in other films without remembering Frank. Joy Piedmont

MAX CADY
Robert De Niro
Cape Fear (1991)

Robert Mitchum was pretty scary in the original 1962 Cape Fear as Max Cady, an ex-con who seeks vengeance on the defense attorney who screwed him over and on the lawyer's wife and daughter as well. Thirty years later, De Niro raised the bar in the same role by sporting ominous tattoos, creeping us out in his flirtatious scene with teenage Juliette Lewis, displaying a Terminator-like indestructibility and, oh yeah, taking a bite out of Illeana Douglas' face. Gary Susman

HANNIBAL LECTER/BUFFALO BILL
Anthony Hopkins/Ted Levine
The Silence of the Lambs (1994)

It's worth remembering that the good Lecter movies Silence and Manhunter don't feature Hannibal the Cannibal as the main baddie. Which is why we've paired these two together. Besides, 'It places the lotion in the basket' is actually creepier than 'fava beans and a nice Chianti.' What makes lotion and baskets so creepy? Well, the association with a guy who wears the skin of his victims could be one reason. Joy Piedmont

KHAN NOONIEN SINGH
Ricardo Montalban
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

After Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) thwarted Khan's attempt to capture the Enterprise (in the classic Trek series), Kirk deposited the genetically engineered despot on a barely habitable planet and promptly forgot about him. That is, until a 20-years-older Khan surprised the now-Admiral Kirk and caught him with his pants down, tearing into the Enterprise while delivering some succulent Ahab-ian speeches. To wit, after Khan abandons Kirk inside a barren moon sweet, sweet revenge for leaving him on that lifeless planet and causing his dear wife's demise Khan whispers this taunt to his sworn enemy: 'I've done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her: Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive....' To which our dear James T. had but one response: 'KHAAAAAAAN!' Adam B. Vary

LITTLE BILL DAGGETT
Gene Hackman
Unforgiven (1992)

Hackman won an Oscar as the morally ambiguous Little Bill, a sheriff who wants no violence in his town, and who'll go to violent lengths to keep gunslingers out. In an older Western, he might have been the hero, but because he sparks a Jacobean cycle of bloody vengeance one that turns putative hero William Munny (Clint Eastwood) back into the cold-blooded killer he used to be he's Unforgiven's heavy. 'I don't deserve this,' he complains, as Munny is about to shoot him. 'Deserves got nothing to do with it,' Munny replies. Gary Susman

BILL
David Carradine
Kill Bill (2003-4)

In Vol. 1, Bill (David Carradine) was little more than a menacing voice, the final target of the Bride's (Uma Thurman) righteous campaign of vengeance against the assassins who laid waste to her wedding and left her pregnant body for dead. It wasn't until Vol. 2 that Quentin Tarantino gave us a look at the guy, and what we found was a little surprising: He's mellow, affable, talkative, and an aficionado of Superman mythology. But make no mistake; Bill still knows how to menace. After all, he did snatch the Bride's baby and raise her as his own. 'I'm a killer, a murdering bastard,' he tells her, just before she makes the title come true. 'And there are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard.' Hey, at least he's honest about it. Adam B. Vary

THE CHILD CATCHER
Robert Helpmann
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Kids, this is why you should never take sweets from strangers. The child catcher (played with an odd, leaping gracefulness by ballet dancer Robert Helpmann) is a grotesque-looking fellow with a Cyrano-size nose who takes a perverse glee in sniffing out and capturing hidden children in Vulgaria, a fairy-tale land where kids are verboten. That candy vendor disguise shouldn't have fooled anybody, but it works on Dick Van Dyke's tots, as the child catcher hauls them away screaming in a scene guaranteed to give young viewers nightmares. Gary Susman

HARRY POWELL
Robert Mitchum
Night of the Hunter (1955)

In Charles Laughton's dreamlike melodrama, Mitchum's itinerant preacher (with the famous 'L-O-V-E' and 'H-A-T-E' tattoos on his knuckles) emerges like a monster from a child's nightmare. In fact, he's stalking two kids for the fortune they unwittingly possess, and his murderous greed disguised as righteousness can be stopped only by real righteousness, in the form of rifle-toting matriarch Lillian Gish. Gary Susman

HARRY LIME
Orson Welles
The Third Man (1949)

Selling black-market medicines that do more harm than good to desperate citizens of postwar Vienna isn't very nice, but Welles' Harry Lime is still the most lively and enjoyable character in the movie, which loses some of its luster whenever he's not on screen. The character was so popular that he was spun off into his own radio drama series. Gary Susman

AMON GOETH
Ralph Fiennes
Schindler's List (1993)

When Hannah Arendt used the phrase 'the banality of evil' to describe the perpetrators of the Holocaust, Amon Goeth (Fiennes, in the future Voldemort's star-making role) was the sort of person she had in mind. The camp commandant in charge of liquidating the Jews of Krakow, Fiennes' Goeth is a dead-eyed void, standing on his balcony, his gut hanging out, as he shoots random Jews below simply out of boredom. And because he can. Gary Susman

CRUELLA DE VIL
Voiced by Betty Lou Gerson
101 Dalmatians (1961)

A person shouldn't be judged by their name. Unless, of course, they have a name like Cruella de Vil, in which case, it's best to assume the worst. When Cruella isn't out kidnapping adorable Dalmatian puppies and skinning them in the name of high fashion, PETA's worst nightmare is tearing around town in her Deville-style car, chain-smoking cigarettes and throwing spectacular temper tantrums. The Disney fashionista has hair, clothes, and accessories that all seem to share a similar black, white, and devil-red motif, but it's safe to say that Cruella's heart is pure black. One look at her permanently dour expression and you'll agree: 'If she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will.' Gretchen Hansen

DANIEL PLAINVIEW
Daniel Day-Lewis
There Will Be Blood (2007)

There's often a Freudian backstory that explains a villain's behavior, but not with Daniel Plainview, who seems to be a black force emerging from the bowels of the earth like the oil he covets. In his Oscar-winning performance, Day-Lewis makes Plainview's bloody deeds believable while preserving the mystery of his motives. Oh, and he's also got that nifty catchphrase. Gary Susman

DR. CHRISTIAN SZELL
Laurence Olivier
Marathon Man (1976)

Dustin Hoffman learns that going to the dentist can be torture, especially if the gum-gouging sadist is an escaped Nazi war criminal who's literally drilling you for information. Olivier has all the hallmarks of a classic movie villain, including an endlessly repeatable catchphrase ('Is it safe?') and wicked weaponry not just those dental tools, but also that switchblade-like contraption in his jacket sleeve that he uses to eviscerate his unwary foes. Gary Susman

Source: Entertaiment Weekly Online

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/31/2008 at 7:00 AM | Comments (7) | Permalink

Give Peace a Chance: 17 Memorable Anti-War Movies

With 'Stop-Loss' taking on Gulf War II in theaters, we look at notable films questioning history's great conflicts

STOP-LOSS (2008)
The Iraq War's little-discussed home front explodes in this weekend's Stop-Loss, which stars Ryan Phillippe (pictured) as a sergeant who returns to Texas only to get ordered back into unwilling service. It follows a long tradition of films about the devastating costs of warfare. Click through to see 17 more movies making statements about the human toll of military conflicts, from WWI to the War on Terror.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
The Hollywood adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's classic novel is one of the earliest anti-war films, and still stands among the most haunting. As naive young German troops fight and die in World War I, their devotion to their homeland comes to seem cruelly meaningless.

LA GRANDE ILLUSION (1937)
French auteur Jean Renoir looks at WWI from the other side of the trenches and arrives at much the same conclusion. Three captured officers (Pierre Fresnay, Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio) bond in a German POW camp and learn that nationalism and class divisions are less important than the things all humanity has in common. Such a damning statement that the Nazis seized its negatives when they invaded France three years later.

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
Call it the Stop-Loss of its day: Midwestern war heroes (Dana Andrews, Harold Russell, Frederic March) struggle to ease back into their small-town lives after World War II. A rare look at the long-term challenges faced by 'the Greatest Generation' once they defeated the Axis.

PATHS OF GLORY (1957)
Director Stanley Kubrick's first big box-office success was also his first foray into the anti-war territory he would return to again and again. Kirk Douglas stars as a compassionate French colonel defending troops who have been accused of cowardice by their brutal superiors during WWI.

DR. STRANGELOVE: OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964)
Kubrick's approach is considerably lighter in this mordant Cold War satire. As the U.S. and U.S.S.R. hurtle toward nuclear apocalypse for no particular reason, Peter Sellers pulls off a hat trick, playing the psychotic rocket scientist of the title, the ineffectual American president, and the lone sane military man. A masterpiece of weapons-grade gallows humor.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966)
Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo delivers a still-searing portrait of Algeria's mid-20th-century war of independence against its French colonial government. As both sides trade escalating acts of terrorism and brutality, the Western occupation is revealed as an exercise in gory futility.

CATCH-22 (1970)
Yossarian lives! Mike Nichols directs an all-star ensemble (Alan Arkin, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Orson Welles, Anthony Perkins, Bob Newhart...Art Garfunkel?!) in an adaptation of Joseph Heller's tragicomic WWII novel. The characters may have been Allied bombers stationed in the Mediterranean, but the theme of senseless violence amid a bureaucratic tangle could hardly have been more relevant to the ever-deepening Vietnam disaster.

M*A*S*H (1970)
Before Hawkeye and Trapper John were primetime-TV staples, they featured in Robert Altman's dark Korean War comedy. Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, and Tom Skerritt star as wisecracking Army doctors in a chaotic base camp south of the DMZ in the 1950s another thinly veiled stand-in for the situation in Vietnam.

COMING HOME (1978)
Three years after the U.S. withdrew from Southeast Asia, American audiences finally got a great film that explicitly addressed Vietnam. Jane Fonda and Jon Voight both took home Oscars for their roles in a love triangle involving a paraplegic veteran and his nurse...

THE DEER HUNTER (1978)
...and that same year, the Academy voted this intense Vietnam movie Best Picture. Robert De Niro, and Christopher Walken star as Pennsylvania steelworkers turned soldiers; we watch the war's inhuman violence tear them apart as they proceed from a pre-war hunting trip through the battlefield and back home. You'll never forget those Russian roulette scenes.

APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
In a loose re-telling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) journeys up a Cambodian river to find and kill the unhinged Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). It's since become one of the most iconic Vietnam War films quotes don't get more quotable than Robert Duvall bellowing, 'I love the smell of napalm in the morning!'

DAS BOOT (1981)
Back to World War II: Director Wolfgang Petersen takes us inside a claustrophobic German submarine, revealing the grueling realities of undersea battle for a young crew whose members are beginning to question Nazi ideology.

PLATOON (1986)
The first and most affecting of Oliver Stone's Vietnam films. Charlie Sheen, standing in for Stone's own wartime experiences, drops out of college and ships off to the Army. Caught up in the violent rivalry between two superior officers a brutal authoritarian played by Tom Berenger and a warmer sergeant played by Willem Dafoe  Sheen's ideals are shattered.

FULL METAL JACKET (1987)
Another insanity-of-war polemic from Kubrick, this one focusing on a troop of Vietnam-bound Marines. First we see Vincent D'Onofrio as a young recruit driven insane by the brutal dehumanization of basic training. The film's second segment follows the rest of the troops through a similarly hellish march into the city of Hue.

THREE KINGS (1999)
In director David O. Russell's quirky examination of the (first) Gulf War's aftermath, soldiers played by George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze happen upon a treasure trove of Saddam Hussein's gold bullion in 1991 and then things really get started. As they traverse the desert, gradually coming to realize the war's effect on Iraq's civilians, wry humor gives way to touching drama

MUNICH (2005)
Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated epic takes place more than 30 years ago, but it's still the only feature film that's truly done justice to the profound ethical complexity of today's 'War on Terror.' Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarn Hinds, and others are undercover Israeli spies, assigned to secretly track and assassinate the Palestinian terrorists who planned the vicious murder of Jewish athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Their mission seems entirely righteous at first but as they travel through Europe, picking off the men on their hit list, anything resembling moral clarity soon vanishes.

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS/LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (2006)
Clint Eastwood directed not one but two dramas about the punishing Allied campaign to take Iwo Jima at the end of WWII. In Flags, the U.S. government forces the soldiers who hoisted the stars and stripes above the island in the iconic photograph into uncomfortable propaganda roles when they return home. And in the Japanese-language Letters, we see the same bloody battle from the other perspective, as Ken Watanabe's Gen. Kuribayashi struggles to maintain dignity amid rising casualties.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/30/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

'Jericho' and 30 Other TV Shows You Loved, Lost

Save your peanuts, Jericho lovers your rallying cry helped convince CBS to spare the series from the scrap heap once, but alas, tonight's episode marks the end of the line for the series with the intense but not-ready-for-prime-time fan base. Still, you fought the good fight and helped squeeze an extra seven episodes onto the network schedule, which should be inspiration for TV obsessives everywhere. Consider how many shows have fallen into a ratings hole too deep to be saved by a lifeline from fans for example, the 30 series in this gallery that readers of EW.com's PopWatch blog told us they still lament having loved and lost. In the midst of your shellshock, Jericho nation, know that fans of the following shows feel your pain...

Freaks and Geeks, although they'd have to recast all the roles...Maybe just a very special 'where are they now' episode. Shannon

Angel. The darkest, most complex and interesting, and best of the Joss Whedon shows, especially during Season 5 when it was wrongly canceled. LMB

Sports Night. What a great show everybody went on to greater things except the second lead (whose name escapes me...but he was a cutie). (Editor's Note: It was Josh Charles. And, yes, he was a 'cutie.') TVSlave

Grosse Pointe was ahead of its time and on the wrong network witty and razor sharp, I think it would be a great addition to the HBO/Showtime lineup, where it could really let loose. X

I would have loved one more season of Rome I am still sad I never got to see the battle royale between Livia and Atia. Honeybee

Early Edition, a Kyle Chandler series from the '90s  anyone else remember it? He got the newspaper a day early? Laura

Popular. The WB put it in an absolutely horrible time slot in its second season, and it died there. But, seriously, has there been a better cast of characters than there was on this show? I need some more Mary Cherry. NOW. denny

Drive, with Nathan Fillion. Only because I hate it when shows get canceled right after a cliff-hanger. Adrienne

Covington Cross. Does anyone besides me remember this show? It took place in medieval times...kind of a cross between comedy and drama. I loved that show and was so upset when they took it off. Auriana

My dream, if I somehow became extremely independently wealthy, is to start a network that picks up shows with critical acclaim and devoted fan bases after networks have cast them off. Veronica Mars, you are safe here. El

My vote is for Eyes. Curse you, ABC. for only giving us a handful of what promised to be an awesome show! Tim Daly deserves better than the dreck that is Private Practice. maryw

HBO's Carnivale. It ended on a cliff-hanger, and it had one of the greatest casts in TV history; nobody could do gruff silences like Nick Stahl or the anti-Christ bellow like Clancy Brown. Michelle

I have to add Brimstone. John Glover could give Ray Wise a run for the money for 'most awesomest Lucifer.' Kathleen

Skinmodern-day Romeo and Juliet, where her dad was a porn mogul but a fairly decent guy and his parents were politicians and not very nice people. The Juliet character was played very nicely by a pre-O.C. Olivia Wilde. I was so sad when they took this off the air because they were setting up some really interesting plotlines. Lauren

I only recently discovered Once & Again, and I zipped through all three shortish seasons. Sure, the show had its flat moments, but there was so much to love and it ended too soon. Kati

Wonderfalls it's the only show I ever shed a tear over when it was canceled. step

My So Called Life. Hello, greatest show ever canceled. Possibly greatest show of all time. We will never find out if Angela's dad was cheating, if Angela chooses Brian over Jordan, if Rae Ann ever quits drinking, or what happens to poor loveable Ricki. Almost 15 years later and I still worry about these characters as if they were my friends in high school that I lost touch with. That show broke my heart. KR

Arrested Development. Though I am glad that the cast's careers are doing so well (especially Will Arnett and Michael Cera), I still hold a hope in my heart. Christine

Boomtown! This show was amazing, and I actually had to stop a Boomtown marathon because I was crying too hard and was waaay too invested in these characters. The acting is spectacular, especially from Donnie Wahlberg, Neal McDonough, and Mykelti Williamson. Emily

Kitchen Confidential! Created by Darren Star, aired as a lead-in for Arrested Development, starring Bradley Cooper, Nicholas Brendan, John Cho, Bonnie Summerville, and the rest of an amazing cast. It was a light, frothy cocktail of a show that I'm so sad there will never be more of. Alli

Farscape an absolutely compelling blend of comedy, drama, romance, and action with some of the wittiest dialogue and electric chemistry ever to grace the small screen. atlantagirl

Century City. It was a courtroom drama set in the near future, taking on cases like 'are avatars living beings and do they have rights?' ladyli1

Jake 2.0 It was like Chuck, but good. And Christopher Gorham is so fine, Ugly Betty doesn't use him enough. joan catskills

What, not one single other person on earth wants more Max Headroom? Scotto

I would love to see Gideon's Crossing brought back. A great, underrated show which featured McSteamy before he was McSteamy and a great Andre Braugher. RachelB

Joan of Arcadia. I was so crushed when they canceled it. How does a show get nominated for best drama one year and get canceled the next? Rhonda

You know what I wish would come out on DVD, let alone be resurrected? Homefront, my first view of Kyle Chandler, about life right after WWII. You'd think it would be topical again what with a war on and people coming home. Nix

Ooo...I totally miss Jack & Bobby. Christine Lahti was amazing. Marie

Okay, this is going back a few years, but Fox's show Reunion! It was the one about the six friends, one of whom ends up murdered, and it follows them from 1985 to 2005, in order to figure out who killed who. It only needed one season and they canceled halfway through. Still kind of bitter about that one. Wilson

Kindred: The Embraced about several clans of modern day vampires. The show was a summer replacement series about 10 or 12 years ago and, despite a few soap-opera plot lines, it was by far the most intelligent vampire-related series on TV prior to the Buffy and Angel universe. Van

Source: Entertainment Weekly Online

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/29/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Fighting With Spouse Can Be Good For Your Health

Study: Squabbling with spouse could lengthen your life
People who hold in their anger don't live as long, study finds
Wife blogs about marriage issues, husband reads blog, they talk

There are toilet-paper tiffs, thermostat scuffles, ongoing debates over money, sex and the television remote. And then there are the laundry wars.

"My husband has this thing with laundry that drives me nuts," says Amelia Zatik-Sawyer, a 28-year-old mother of two in Cleveland.

"He's supposed to wash and I'm supposed to fold, but he does like 10 loads at a time and then dumps it all on the bed. With two little kids, I don't have time to fold 10 loads all at once, so I'll leave it. And then he'll come home and throw it into the closet so he can get into bed. And then it just spirals out of control from there."

For many couples, spats are a necessary evil, something to endure or avoid (for the sake of the kids!). But new research at the University of Michigan shows that hashing out marital disagreements is actually good for your health. It's squelching anger, especially when you feel you've been wronged, that's dangerous.

A study published in January followed 192 married couples in Michigan from 1971 to 1988 and found that those who kept their anger in when unfairly attacked did not live as long as those who expressed their anger, says lead study author Ernest Harburg, Ph.D., an emeritus research scientist at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health and psychology department.

"We're all interested in longevity," says Harburg, who's studied the health effects of spousal sparring for over 30 years. "We watch our diet, we exercise. Now we need to add 'express anger constructively' to that list."

Women in particular may put their health at risk by holding back during arguments with their spouse, a 10-year study of 4,000 men and women from Framingham, Massachusetts, found. "Women who 'self-silenced' during conflict with their spouse, compared with women who did not, had four times the risk of dying, " according to findings published in 2007 in the journal "Psychosomatic Medicine."

But high schools don't offer Squabbling 101. So what are the nuts and bolts of a healthy fight?

Express Yourself

Harburg says the first step is to let the person know you're mad -- the sooner, the better.

"You can either express your anger directly or you can say, 'That makes me angry, but I don't want to talk about it now; let's discuss it later'," he says. "But in order to solve the problem, you need to first express your emotions."

For some, even acknowledging a problem can be a problem.

Eunice Verstegen of Seattle, a program manager for a large county agency, says her upbringing in Wisconsin prevented her from voicing her true feelings with her first husband, who was her polar opposite politically, emotionally and even gastronomically.

"I was taught to be nice and to keep my feelings buried," she says. "And as a result, I was silently miserable. But with my second husband, if something bothers me, I don't let it simmer. I speak right up."

Don't pout, let it out

Others let their actions do the talking.

"When I'm mad about something, I'll do the heavy sighing thing or toss the silverware as I unload the dishwasher, which drives my husband nuts," says Jackie Papandrew, 44, a syndicated columnist from Largo, Florida. "To him, the silent treatment is the worst thing in the world. He'll pester me and pester me until I finally blow up or laugh."

Papandrew admits she's also gone the passive-aggressive route, like the time she hid the remote because she was angry her husband watched so much TV -- and forgot where she hid it.

"If pouting leads to talking about the issue, then you're ahead of the game," says Harburg. "But passive-aggressive behavior doesn't work. It doesn't solve the problem. The best thing is if you can establish some kind of ritual, like regularly sitting down at a table to talk about your issues."

Communication and compromise

Laundry warrior Zatik-Sawyer uses a digital version of the kitchen-table confessional.

"My blog has become my therapy," she says. "When I have issues, I'll write a blog post and my husband will read it at work. And then he'll come home and we'll talk about the problem and solve it. If we have issues, they never really last longer than a couple of hours."

Harburg says both partners have to be willing to listen and work toward a compromise; otherwise it's a no-go.

"If you get into a zone where someone's impeding the discussion, then you can't solve the problem," he says. "Fear, intimidation, dirty looks, belittling remarks -- that's over the line. But if you can listen to each other, and hear what the other person is feeling and thinking, then you can reach a compromise: 'OK, I won't do this if you won't do that.'"

One final tip: Keep your sense of humor.

"Years ago, my husband and I were having a big spat, really yelling at each other," says Verstegen. "I screamed at him, 'You're so selfish!' There was this long silence and then he said, 'Did you just call me a shellfish?' I started laughing and that was the end of the fight."

Source: CNN News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/28/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Antarctic Shelf 'Hangs By Thread'

A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate

Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away.

The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s.

Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.

"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."

'Like an explosion'

BAS researchers were alerted to the break-up by daily monitoring of satellite images. They sent a Twin Otter aircraft on a reconnaissance mission to video what was happening.

This is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment Prof David Vaughan

Jim Elliott, who was on board the plane, said he had never seen anything like it before.

He said: "We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage.

"Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they've been thrown around like rubble - it's like an explosion."

A 41-by-2.5km (25-by-1.6 mile) berg appears to be breaking away, with much of the Wilkins Ice Shelf protected only by a thin strip of ice spanning two islands.

Since an ice shelf is a floating platform of ice, the break-up will have no impact on sea level. But scientists say it heightens concerns over the impact of climate change on this part of Antarctica.

'Unprecedented' warming

Professor Vaughan predicted in 1993 that the northern part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years if climate warming continued. But he said it is happening more quickly than he expected.

He told BBC News: "What we're actually seeing is a chunk of the ice shelf drop off in a way that suggests it is not just a normal part of iceberg formation.

"This is not a sea level rise issue, but is yet another indication of climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula and how it is affecting the environment."

Scientists say the Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out into the Southern Ocean towards the tip of South America, has experienced unprecedented warming over the last 50 years.

Several ice shelves have retreated in the past 30 years - six of them collapsing completely.

Other researchers believe the Wilkins Ice Shelf may hang on a little longer, as Antarctica's summer melt season draws to a close.

Dr Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado said: "This unusual show is over for this season. But come January, we'll be watching to see if the Wilkins continues to fall apart."

Source: BBC News

Massive Ice Shelf On Verge Of Breakup

A large chunk of the Wilkins ice shelf in Antarctica broke away last month
Only a narrow strip of ice is protecting the shelf from further breakup
"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly," scientist says
Ice shelves are floating ice sheets attached to the coast

Some 220 square miles of ice has collapsed in Antarctica and an ice shelf about the size of Connecticut is "hanging by a thread," the British Antarctic Survey said Tuesday, blaming global warming.

"We are in for a lot more events like this," said professor Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Scambos alerted the British Antarctic Survey after he noticed part of the Wilkins ice shelf disintegrating on February 28, when he was looking at NASA satellite images.

Late February marks the end of summer at the South Pole and is the time when such events are most likely, he said. Watch aerial footage of the area »

"The amazing thing was, we saw it within hours of it beginning, in between the morning and the afternoon pictures of that day," Scambos said of the large chunk that broke away on February 28.

The Wilkins ice shelf lost about 6 percent of its surface a decade ago, the British Antarctic Survey said in a statement on its Web site

Another 220 square miles -- including the chunk that Scambos spotted -- had splintered from the ice shelf as of March 8, the group said.

"As of mid-March, only a narrow strip of shelf ice was protecting several thousand kilometers of potential further breakup," the group said.

Scambos' center put the size of the threatened shelf at about 5,282 square miles, comparable to the state of Connecticut, or about half the area of Scotland. See a map and photos as the collapse progressed »

Once Scambos called the British Antarctic Survey, the group sent an aircraft on a reconnaissance mission to examine the extent of the breakout.

"We flew along the main crack and observed the sheer scale of movement from the breakage," said Jim Elliott, according to the group's Web site.

"Big hefty chunks of ice, the size of small houses, look as though they've been thrown around like rubble -- it's like an explosion," he said.

"Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened," David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey said, according to the Web site.

"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread -- we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be."

But with Antarctica's summer ending, Scambos said the "unusual show is over for this season."

Ice shelves are floating ice sheets attached to the coast. Because they are already floating, their collapse does not have any effect on sea levels, according to the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey.

Scambos said the ice shelf is not currently on the path of the increasingly popular tourist ships that travel from South America to Antarctica. But some plants and animals may have to adapt to the collapse.

"Wildlife will be impacted, but they are pretty adept at dealing with a topsy-turvy world," he said. "The ecosystem is pretty resilient."

Several ice shelves -- Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and Jones -- have collapsed in the past three decades, the British Antarctic Survey said.

Larsen B, a 1,254-square-mile ice shelf, comparable in size to the U.S. state of Rhode Island, collapsed in 2002, the group said.

Scientists say the western Antarctic peninsula -- the piece of the continent that stretches toward South America -- has warmed more than any other place on Earth over the past 50 years, rising by 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit each decade.

Scambos said the poles will be the leading edge of what's happening in the rest of the world as global warming continues.

"Even though they seem far away, changes in the polar regions could have an impact on both hemispheres, with sea level rise and changes in climate patterns," he said.

News of the Wilkins ice shelf's impending breakup came less than two weeks after the United Nations Environment Program reported that the world's glaciers are melting away and that they show "record" losses.

"Data from close to 30 reference glaciers in nine mountain ranges indicate that between the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 the average rate of melting and thinning more than doubled," the UNEP said March 16.

The most severe glacial shrinking occurred in Europe, with Norway's Breidalblikkbrea glacier, UNEP said. That glacier thinned by about 10 feet in 2006, compared with less than a foot the year before, it said.

Source: CNN News

Glaciers Melt 'At Fastest Rate In Past 5,000 Years'

Trekkers crossing Gangotri glacier in Indian Haimalayas.

The world's glaciers are melting faster than at any time since records began, threatening catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people and their eco-systems.

The details are revealed in the latest report from the World Glacier Monitoring Service and will add to growing alarm about the rise in sea levels and increased instances of flooding, avalanches and drought.

Based on historical records and other evidence, the rate at which the glaciers are melting is also thought to be faster that at any time in the past 5,000 years, said Professor Wilfried Haeberli, director of the monitoring service. 'There's no absolute proof, but nevertheless the evidence is strong: this is really extraordinary.'

Experts have been monitoring 30 glaciers around the world for nearly three decades and the most recent figures, for 2006, show the biggest ever 'net loss' of ice. Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told The Observer that melting glaciers were now the 'loudest and clearest' warning signal of global warming.

The problem could lead to failing infrastructure, mass migration and even conflict. 'We're talking about something that happens in your and my lifespan. We're not talking about something hypothetical, we're talking about something dramatic in its consequences,' he said

Lester Brown, of the influential US-based Earth Policy Institute, said the problem would have global ramifications, as farmers in China and India struggled to irrigate their crops.

'This is the biggest predictable effect on food security in history as far as I know,' said Brown.

Based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's mid-range prediction that global temperatures will rise 2C above their long-term average, UNEP last year warned of further dramatic declines in glaciers by the end of the century.

The revelation that the world's glaciers are in retreat came as Tony Blair began a series of high-level environmental meetings in Japan, China and India as the leader of a new international team charged with securing a global deal on climate change. In a speech yesterday in Chiba, Japan, Blair said that the world now faced catastrophe.

'We have reached the critical moment of decision on climate change,' he said. 'Failure to act now would be deeply and unforgivably irresponsible. The scale of what is needed is so great that the purpose of any global action is not to ameliorate or to make better our carbon dependence; it is to transform the nature of economies and societies in terms of carbon consumption and emissions.

'If the average person in the US is, say, to emit per capita, one-tenth of what they do today and those in the UK or Japan one-fifth, we're not talking of adjustment, we're talking about a revolution.'

The key to that revolution was a vastly increased use of nuclear power across the world, he added.

Blair is also scheduled to meet Yasuo Fukuda, Japan's Prime Minister, and members of the Indian and Chinese governments.

Source: The Observer

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/26/2008 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Beatles Fixer And Friend Takes Secrets To The Grave

Neil Aspinall (left) talks to Beatles Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

Neil Aspinall, who died yesterday aged 66, was one of only two people of any importance in the Beatles saga who never told their story. Which is strange, when you think we've had a thousand Beatles books these last 40 years, from people who never met them, to lawyers who did in passing, chauffeurs who once drove them and scruffs who stood outside their offices hoping for autographs.

Neil knew everything, everybody, and now, alas, has taken it all to the grave. Unless there is a posthumous memoir, waiting to be released, which I doubt. I asked him countless times, saying he should get it all down, before it's too late, if just for his children. He always said no. Neil was there from the very beginning, a constant friend and associate, never leaving the magical mystery circle, until a few months ago when he retired as head of Apple Corps, looking after their business interests. Quite a job, when you think of all the legal dramas after the Beatles split, and the personality differences at one time between Paul and Yoko.

Born in Prestatyn in 1941, Neil was in the same year at Liverpool Institute as Paul, and the year above George. His first memory of George was George asking him, behind the bike shed, for a drag on his ciggie. He studied to become an accountant but came back into contact with Paul and George through his friendship with Pete Best, at one time the Beatles drummer.

Neil was living at the house of Pete's mother, Mona, who ran the Casbah, the little club where the Beatles then played as the Quarrymen. Neil started working for them as a part-time roadie in 1961, running them to local gigs in an old van for five shillings per man per gig - £1 a night.

One of the more dramatic events in early Beatles history, known well by all true believers, occurred in 1962 when Pete Best was sacked as drummer and Ringo took over. There were demonstrations on Merseyside, fans campaigning for Pete who was looked upon as much handsomer. Pete went on to slice bread for a few pound a week while the Beatles went on to be the most famous group in the world.

What never came out at the time was that Neil was having an affair with Mona, Pete's mother. In fact they had a son who was born that same year. Neil, only 19, was caught in a terrible emotional turmoil, with Pete sacked by his new best friends and Mona, his lover, furious at how Pete, her son was being treated. John did tell me this gossip, sniggering, in 1967 when I was doing their biography, but said don't repeat it. I only half believed it anyway. John also told me that he, John, had a one-night stand with Brian Epstein, their manager, which I now believe was true.

That same year, 1962, Neil gave up his accountancy studies and joined the Beatles full-time. Later, when they had started national touring, he was joined by another roadie, Mal Evans. Mal was big and beefy and unflappable. Neil was lean, rather neurotic, always seemed worried.

He was with them through all their years of fame. He would get shouted at, told to fetch impossible things, fix ludicrous arrangements. In 1968, Paul decided on the spur of the moment to come and visit me in Portugal with his new girlfriend Linda, and her daughter Heather. Neil was told to get them on a plane to Faro. The last flight had gone. So, late at night, Neil secured a private jet and off they went.

But Neil was more than a roadie and fixer - he was their friend and confidant, helped with words of songs when they got stuck, with personal relationships when they wanted them unstuck.

His accountancy training proved invaluable when he came to run Apple. As the years went on, he masterminded much of the group's professional affairs and back catalogues. On the whole, Neil won most of the battles, helping them make further millions. He did also have a creative streak, acting as the producer of the film Let it Be and organising the Beatles Anthology.

Neil was totally loyal and faithful to them - and yet not at all starstruck. He was more than aware of their foibles, greed, stupidities, unreasonableness, would readily slag them off. It was clear he was part of the family, so while moaning, as all family members do, he would never betray their secrets.

When I pressed him for inside stories, he used to say he couldn't remember. Mick Jagger always says the same. In Neil's case, it could be because he wasn't really much interested in the personal stuff. His mind didn't quite work that way. He had a dry, austere, rather resigned, cynical view of most people, more interested in facts and figures than tittle tattle. He was there, but was somehow floating above it all. The Beatles were very fortunate to have him.

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/25/2008 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Inside The Court Of The Tibetan God-King

Randeep Ramesh travels to McLeod Ganj and finds that the Dalai Lama's commitment to peace is being tested - both by China and by Tibetans who want decisive action in the face of escalating violence

The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama

When the Dalai Lama sat down yesterday with Richard Gere and Robert Thurman, father of actor Uma and US professor of Buddhism, it was supposed to be for a few hours contemplating sacred art and silent meditation.

But with Chinese troops smothering the protests in Tibet with brutal ease, the 14th Dalai Lama, an incarnation of Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion, found himself pondering not celestial peace but bloody violence.

Like almost everything the 72-year-old does, who he meets and what he says in his lopsided English are picked over and pulled apart. Gere and Thurman founded Tibet House, in New York's hip Upper West Side, which serves as a cultural mission for the 'occupied' nation of Tibet. Their headline-grabbing appearance will no doubt deepen suspicions in Beijing that yesterday's event at the Delhi Foundation for Universal Responsibility was politics masquerading as religion.

On Friday, one of China's bitterest critics, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, descended the steps of the main temple at the home of the Dalai Lama in McLeod Ganj, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, hand-in-hand with the Tibetan spiritual leader and blasted Beijing.

Pelosi, who unfurled a pro-democracy banner in Tiananmen Square in 1991 on an official visit, infuriated the Chinese government with a call on all 'freedom-loving people' to denounce the communist regime, which has grown edgier about international pressure on Tibet ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Although he describes himself as a 'simple Buddhist monk', last week's events in the Tibetan plateau have underlined the Dalai Lama's importance as a symbol of peaceful protests and a struggle for cultural freedom. For Tibetans, he is the Ocean of Wisdom, a god-king who engenders intense devotion - his name was chanted repeatedly by protesters across the roof of the world.

Chinese officials have a different view, one rooted in the feeling that the Dalai Lama has used his moral and religious authority to destabilise Tibet. In an extraordinarily vituperative attack, state-run media said that the Chinese leadership is engaged in a 'life and death struggle' with the Dalai Lama, who is 'a wolf in a monk's robe, a monster with a human face but the heart of a beast'.

To anyone standing in McLeod Ganj, a British Raj hill station above Dharamsala last week, where he has lived in exile since 1959, the rhetoric seems faintly absurd - a Chinese dragon scared by a mouse that prayed.

The Dalai Lama's base of power is a former British cantonment compound that now consists of a concrete monastery, a temple and a long yellow bungalow called the Heavenly Abode. It is a far cry from his former home, Lhasa's Potala Palace, which sprawls across more than 1,000 rooms and 13 storeys. Supporters say that his private office has just 'half a dozen' full-time officials.

Every year hundreds of Tibetans risk bullets, imprisonment, frostbite and hypothermia to escape through Nepal to the Dalai Lama's home in exile. Last week one monk from Tibet said he had made the perilous journey because he wanted to see 'the god before he left the Earth'.

'Chinese should get out of Tibet, we don't like them. They are murdering our culture. The Dalai Lama is proof we are not Chinese,' said Ruchun, a 31-year-old Tibetan monk from China's Gansu province, on one of the daily protest marches in McLeod Ganj last week.

Another reason the Chinese government so loathes the Dalai Lama is his considerable political influence. He is regularly named alongside Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi in the pantheon of great modern-day apostles of non-violence. But his fame as a Nobel laureate and backing from Hollywood has produced little concrete benefit - the most visible sign in McLeod Ganj is the town's only public lavatory, paid for by Richard Gere. No country recognises his 'government in exile', which runs from a series of ageing wooden chalets and yellow concrete offices. The Central Tibetan Administration runs schools, health services, cultural activities and economic development projects for India's 130,000-strong exiled Tibetan community.

Sitting under snowcapped mountains, the government in exile remains a potent image for Tibetans. But turning up at the department of information is an underwhelming experience. The government's revenues, generated from donations and a small levy on Tibetans in India, is thought to be about $20m (£10m). The New York Tibet Fund disburses another $3m a year, which the Chinese media consider a front for the US government because part of the funding comes from the State Department.

In this Buddhist version of David versus Goliath, the Dalai Lama's strategy has been to hug his giant adversary into agreement. The spiritual leader has kept his requests modest and is ready to accept Chinese sovereignty in exchange for genuine autonomy. He refuses to back the call for international sanctions such as those imposed when Burma suppressed pro-democracy protests last year, or a boycott of this summer's Olympics.

Perhaps this softly-softly approach can be explained by the growing middle-class Chinese interest in spirituality. Like other religions, Tibetan Buddhism is gaining new adherents in China and the Dalai Lama sees a potential huge congregation in the Chinese mainland, even from within the Communist Party. 'Every Chinese from mainland China we meet always says "Please don't forget us, come to China, help us".'

This may explain why, even as Chinese troops flooded into the Tibetan plateau, the Dalai Lama said he was prepared to meet with Beijing's top leadership, including Hu Jintao, China's President, who as regional Communist Party boss oversaw a bloody repression of Tibetan protests in 1989. But such apparent timidity has drawn fire from Tibetan groups who say it is time to seize the moment and press ahead with an aggressive stance on complete independence. These groups say the talks are just a ploy to subdue resistance to their rule and wait for his holiness's death.

'The Dalai Lama dropped his calls for independence in 1979 after Deng Xiaoping offered talks in return. But we have had six rounds and got nothing in return. That is why we agree to disagree with his holiness and call for complete independence,' said Dhondup Ladhar, the 31-year-old general secretary of the Tibetan Youth Congress, who left Tibet after five members of his family were killed during the 1989 uprising. 'I knew nothing of our history, our culture. The communists just brainwash us at school. That is why we cannot live with them.'

Others say that, for all his supposed spiritual wisdom, the Dalai Lama is a 'poor and poorly advised political strategist'. 'The Dalai Lama should have closed down the Hollywood strategy a decade ago and focused on back-channel diplomacy with Beijing ... Sending his envoys to talk about talks with the Chinese while simultaneously encouraging the global pro-Tibet lobby has achieved nothing,' wrote Patrick French, author of Tibet, Tibet, in the New York Times

Demonstrating a deft political touch with journalists last week, the Dalai Lama defended his strategy to talk - characteristically praising the gods of Chinese communism, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, while decrying the moral deficit of emerging Chinese power.

The Tibetan leader described Chairman Mao, whom he met sereval times in the 1950s, as a 'very gentle, calm person' who was a 'great revolutionary. I was so convinced by him. I wanted to join the Communist Party ... but power spoilt him. China today needs moral authority to be a genuine superpower. It should be an open society. If six million Tibetans remain separate, [China] will always remain weak.'

Hundreds of campaigners, including many Tibetans living in exile in the UK, marched through central London yesterday in a demonstration against China's crackdown on protests.

Source: The Observer

Tibetan Protests Quashed, Claims China

Tight security sees troops flood western provinces
Acts of defiance continue despite crackdown

A Tibetan demonstrator in Delhi

Anti-government protests which spread from Tibet into western provinces are under control, the Chinese government said yesterday, as much of the region remained in lockdown.

Thousands of troops have poured into areas with large Tibetan populations in Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai and even Yunnan, which has not seen unrest. Many Buddhist monasteries are under lockdown.

But Tibetan support campaigns said yesterday that they believed smaller scale acts of defiance were taking place despite the massive security operation and hunt for protesters. Journalists have been excluded and removed from the region and little information is trickling out, making it impossible to verify claims.

"Of course there is an escalation of troops. But we are hearing there are still protests breaking out in different places," said Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet. "Even though there is tremendous fear and many people are expecting the knock on the door in the middle of the night, it seems as though there has been a revitalisation of pride in their cultural identity and concerns about issues of religious freedom."

She cited reports of a hunger strike by monks at Tarthang Monastery, Jigdril county, Qinghai after a protest on Friday led to arrests and three protests in Quinghai and one in Gansu in the last few days.

Peaceful protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa escalated into violent riots on March 14, with attacks on Han Chinese and Hui Muslims. Unrest then flared in provinces with large Tibetan populations.

China yesterday revised the death toll from the Lhasa protests to 22, with the state news agency Xinhua reporting that the bodies of a family of five - including an 8-month-old boy - had been pulled from a garage which had been burned down.

The Dalai Lama's exiled government says 99 Tibetans have been killed - 80 in Lhasa, 19 in Gansu province.

China yesterday accused the Dalai Lama of plotting "terror" in Tibet and colluding with Uighur separatists in Xinjiang as it stepped up its security and propaganda drive. The People's Daily, the main mouthpiece of the Communist party, accused his followers of taking the Olympics "hostage" to force Beijing to grant concessions on Tibetan independence.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader dismissed the accusation as baseless, saying he supported China's hosting of the summer games. He has criticised the violence in Lhasa and said he wants talks with China to negotiate autonomy rather than independence.

China also attacked Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States house of representatives, who called on the international community to denounce China and demanded an investigation into the situation in Tibet in a meeting with the Dalai Lama last week.

Xinhua said: "Human rights police like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and ungenerous when it comes to China."

One of Thailand's six Olympic torchbearers has withdrawn from the relay - which begins today - in protest over Tibet. Narisa Chakrabongse said in an open letter that she wanted to "send a strong message to China that the world community could not accept its actions".

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

China blasts Dalai Lama, U.S. House speaker over Tibet

China accuses Dalai Lama of stoking Tibetan unrest to sabotage Beijing Olympics
Dalai Lama says accusations "baseless," says he supports China hosting Olympics
China berates U.S. House speaker after she spoke out against oppression in Tibet
China accused Nancy Pelosi of ignoring the violence caused by the Tibetan rioters

China has accused the Dalai Lama of stoking Tibetan unrest to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and berated U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she spoke out against Chinese government oppression in Tibet.

The Chinese government said Sunday that formerly restive areas were under control and accused the Dalai Lama of trying to harm China's image ahead of the summer games.

The Tibetan spiritual leader called the accusations against him "baseless."

China's official Xinhua New Agency published commentary Sunday accusing Pelosi of ignoring the violence caused by the Tibetan rioters. Pelosi's visit to the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India, on Friday was the first by a major foreign official since the protests broke out.

This month's violence in Tibet and neighboring provinces has turned into a public relations disaster for China ahead of the August Olympics, which it had been hoping to use to bolster its international image.

The Chinese government said through official media that formerly restive areas were under control and accused the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, of trying to harm China's image ahead of the summer games.

"The Dalai clique is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet independence," said the People's Daily, the main mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

The Tibetan spiritual leader called the accusations against him "baseless," asserting that he supported China's hosting of the summer games.

"I always support [that] the Olympics should ... take place in Beijing ... so that more than 1 billion human beings, that means Chinese, they feel proud of it," he said Sunday in New Delhi, India.

Pelosi's visit to the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India, on Friday was the first by a major foreign official since the protests broke out. The Democratic leader said if people don't speak out against China's oppression in Tibet, "we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world." Watch demonstrators in India voice support for the Dalai Lama »

China's official Xinhua New Agency published commentary Sunday accusing Pelosi of ignoring the violence caused by the Tibetan rioters.

"'Human rights police' like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and ungenerous when it comes to China, refusing to check their facts and find out the truth of the case," it said.

"Her views are like so many other politicians and western media. Beneath the double standards lies their intention to serve the interest groups behind them, who want to contain or smear China," it said.

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Sunday that Pelosi condemns the Chinese government's crackdown in Tibet and calls on it "to begin a substantive dialogue and to allow journalists and independent monitors into Tibet to find out the truth."

China's reported death toll from the protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa earlier this month is 22. Tibet's exiled government says 99 Tibetans have been killed.

Xinhua said Sunday that 94 people had been injured in four counties and one city in Gansu province in riots on March 15-16. The report also said 19 rioters had surrendered in Gannan, a prefecture in Gansu, but it did not give any details.

Despite the media restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, some information was leaking out. An American backpacker who traveled to Chengdu, the capital of western Sichuan province, said he had seen soldiers or paramilitary troops in Deqen in northwest Yunnan province, which borders Tibet.

"What was an empty parking lot by the library was full of military trucks and people practicing with shields. I saw hundreds of soldiers," said the backpacker, who would give only his first name, Ralpha.

There have been no reported protests in Yunnan.

Monks at the Gedan Song Zan Monastery outside of Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan prayed Sunday for peace and an end to the recent unrest among ethnic Tibetan populations in China. The monks, who characterized themselves as both Tibetan and Chinese, said they felt that the upheaval and riots had helped no one.

The government has insisted that stability has returned to the troubled areas. State broadcaster China Central Television said Sunday that electricity and telecommunications had been restored in Lhasa.

The official lighting of the Olympic torch is set for Monday in Greece, and some 1,000 police will surround Ancient Olympia to keep away pro-Tibetan protesters from the ceremony. The torch is scheduled to travel through 20 countries before the Beijing Olympics open on August 8.

One of Thailand's six torchbearers withdrew Sunday in protest. Environmentalist Narisa Chakrabongse said in an open letter that she decided against taking part in the relay to "send a strong message to China that the world community could not accept its actions."

Meanwhile, a group hosting the Dalai Lama's visit to Germany May 14-20 said Sunday that the trip was still scheduled to take place. The trip is to include meetings between the Dalai Lama and various German state leaders.

Source: CNN News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/24/2008 at 8:30 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Spring TV Preview: The Scoop on 26 Returning Shows

TV is back! We break down all the must-see series that survived the strike. Find out what you'll see and when you'll see it for favorites like 'The Office,' 'Desperate Housewives,' 'Gossip Girl,' 'How I Met Your Mother,' 'House,' and more

GREY'S ANATOMY
APRIL 24 9 PM ABC
EPISODES LEFT: 5

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Derek (Patrick Dempsey) had to deal with fallout from his kiss with Rose (Lauren Stamile); Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) put the brakes on Derek's plans for 'their' house; and Hahn (Brooke Smith) told McSteamy (Eric Dane) she's not into office romances. Also, Bailey (Chandra Wilson) watched a faith healer save her child, while George (T.R. Knight) declared that he was determined to rediscover 'the man that Bailey named her baby after.'

UP NEXT: George will move toward 'becoming that guy,' reveals Grey's exec producer Shonda Rhimes, which is a huge relief to T.R. Knight: 'He's been such a mess for so long, making weird choices, it'll be nice to see him grow up a little quicker.' Helping him get there? The Chief (James Pickens Jr.), who will take George under his wing. Christina (Sandra Oh), meanwhile, will have her own professional crisis over being Hahn's resident, and Ava/Rebecca (Elizabeth Reaser) will be back for three episodes. Also making a brief return: Addison (Kate Walsh). 'There are a couple of surgeries only she can perform,' says Rhimes, 'and there are a lot of relationships only she has. It's going to be a very significant visit for a lot of the characters particularly Addison.' And we've saved the best for last: While Rose is returning for all five episodes, Meredith and McDreamy will be getting together 'for good,' says Rhimes. 'The goal was not always to get them together at the end of the season, but that is my goal now.' Ari Karpel

THE OFFICE
RETURNS: APRIL 10 9 PM NBC
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Michael (Steve Carell) botched Jan's wrongful-termination suit; Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) went public with their relationship.

UP NEXT: Michael and Jan (Melora Hardin) who aren't exactly living in domestic bliss  throw a dinner party, complete with an ill-fated game of Celebrity. As for Jim-Pam, 'They're together and things are going strong...but are they?' says Office exec producer Greg Daniels cryptically. Well...are they? 'Hard to judge,' he answers. 'I'm not with them every moment.' Let's ask someone who is: John Krasinski. 'They're a fantastic couple,' he reports. 'They're very real. It's nice to see that a love story that people have waited for doesn't bend toward the gooey side.' In other non-gooey relationship news, Angela (Angela Kinsey) finally gives in to the advances of Andy (Ed Helms). 'They're going to be like a very old preppy couple from the get-go,' says Daniels. Meanwhile, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) who's 'a seething cauldron of tension' over Angela's new romance enters a management training program that Jim hijacks. Plus, he'll sue some neighborhood kids in small-claims court. ('It's an agricultural dispute,' explains Daniels.) We'll also meet the other tenants in the office park ('a mix of the attractive and the dangerous') after a parking-space flap. And as for life outside Scranton, Ryan (B.J. Novak) is joined by Michael and Dwight for a night of NYC clubbing. How does that go? 'Have you been clubbing in New York recently?' asks Daniels. 'Neither has Michael. It's really not his world.' Dan Snierson

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
RETURNS: APRIL 13 9 PM ABC
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Thanks to a neighbor, Lynette (Felicity Huffman) and her family emerged from the tornado unscathed. Gabrielle (Eva Longoria Parker) found out that her late politico husband left her nada in his will. Bree (Marcia Cross) and her frenemy Katherine (Dana Delaney) had finally bonded (after several testy run-ins, mostly pie-related) when Bree learned of Katherine's husband's former affair. And with Mike (James Denton) in rehab, mom-to-be Susan (Teri Hatcher) welcomed Bree and Orson (Kyle McLachlan) into her home while their house underwent repairs.

UP NEXT: 'I didn't mind taking a little break,' says creator and exec producer Marc Cherry about the writers' strike. 'I feel more recharged than ever. I think in a weird way the strike could be the best thing that ever happened to the show.' Among his plans for the new episodes: Katherine and Bree have a fast falling-out over planning a Founders Day banquet, but they will reconcile once again and launch a catering business together. Gabrielle will learn that ex-hubby Carlos (Ricardo Chavira) was permanently blinded in the tornado but not before Carlos tricks her into remarrying him. Bree and Orson will keep living with Susan until their home is repaired and Orson eventually will reveal his part in the accident that put Mike in a coma back in season 2. The ladies will freeze out Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) when they think she's slept with one of the husbands, but 'she has not,' Cherry says. 'Well, she's probably gone farther than she should.' And The O.C.'s Chris Carmack will guest as Susan's cousin and a possible paramour for one of the ladies; Julianne Moore, however, will not appear, contrary to rampant Internet rumor. ('I love her,' Cherry sighs. 'If I thought I could get her, I'd cast her.') Meanwhile, over at the Scavo household, Lynette's crush Rick (Jason Gedrick) will return to wreak more havoc on her marriage. But don't worry, Cherry knows how nervous that makes you: 'Tom and Lynette's is the marriage that America has said to me, 'You have to protect them.' I have to be very careful.' Instead of Rick and Lynette consummating their emotional dalliance, Rick will simply cause more conflict when 'something awful' befalls him that Tom (Doug Savant) may or may not be responsible for. Finally, the two-hour finale will include the unveiling of Katherine's secrets and a huge twist ending. What could it be? 'How can I describe this without giving it away?' Cherry teases. 'It's going to be shocking, and it's going to change the whole series.' Jennifer Armstrong

This Desperate Housewives preview is an excerpt from Entertainment Weekly's March 28, 2008, cover story. Read the full article in EW's Spring TV Preview, on newsstands now.

30 ROCK
APRIL 10 8:30 PM NBC
EPISODES LEFT: 5

30 ROCK Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Liz (Tina Fey) tried to buy an apartment, Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) became addicted to caffeine thanks to a cappuccino machine from Tracy (Tracy Morgan) and Jack (Alec Baldwin) and his liberal love C.C. (Edie Falco) broke up.

UP NEXT: Don't look for art to imitate life with the onscreen writers of 30 Rock's show-within-a-show going on strike. 'Audiences didn't find the strike that entertaining to begin with,' says Rock's creator/star Fey, 'so to try to keep it going seemed like a drag.' Instead, Jack and rival Devon (Will Arnett) will renew their battle to become the successor to CEO Don Geiss (Rip Torn). Devon's wedding to Geiss' daughter Kathy is 'increasingly imminent,' explains Fey, but we probably won't see the wedding: 'His bachelor party is in an episode. We're trying to save the money weddings are superexpensive.' And Liz will reconnect with two exes. First, Dennis (Dean Winters) the beeper salesman 'redeems himself by being a subway hero.' Then Floyd (Jason Sudeikis), who fled to Ohio last season, makes a return: 'The idea is that in the age of global warming there is an April blizzard and Floyd is on a business trip [in New York],' says Fey. 'He calls Liz to ask, 'Can I stay with you?' Oh, and did we mention Liz will have a pregnancy scare? Sooooo, whose maybe-baby is it, Tina? 'That's a cliff-hanger!' Ari Karpel

UGLY BETTY
APRIL 24  8 PM ABC
EPISODES LEFT: 5

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Betty (America Ferrera) was getting frustrated with uptight nerdy-hot boyfriend Henry (Christopher Gorham); Wilhelmina (Vanessa Williams) had coerced Christina (Ashley Jensen) into carrying her baby with the late Bradford Meade (Alan Dale); while Daniel (Eric Mabius) was dating Wilhelmina's little sister Renee (Gabrielle Union).

UP NEXT: During the strike, Betty exec producer Silvio Horta and star Ferrera spent hours watching their own show and came to the same realization. 'In the second season we lost a lot of what we loved about Betty,' says Ferrera. As Horta explains it, 'We were getting away from Betty's point of view. The show had become incredibly funny, but it started to lose some of its heart.' As soon as the team returned to work (with new executive producer Joel Fields, who replaced Marco Pennette), Horta wrote the word 'Heart' on a dry-erase board for all the writers to see. 'Whenever we're lost or confused with a story line, we look at that,' he says. Several pre-strike stories were altered or scrapped (including a musical episode) for new plots that will include Betty's love triangle with Henry and Gio (Freddy Rodriguez), a Meade publications softball game (perhaps featuring the athletic stylings of Naomi Campbell), and, of course, the return of Wilhelmina to Mode. Ferrera couldn't be happier about the show's refocusing. 'If anything good came out of the strike, it's that we were able to step back and breathe,' she says. 'We're coming back with our heads on straight.' Jessica Shaw

GOSSIP GIRL
APRIL 21 8 PM THE CW
EPISODES LEFT: 5

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: The Upper East Side's social hierarchy was thrown for a loop after ambitious Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen) usurped Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) as queen bee. Dethroned and depressed, Blair attempted to skip town, but BFF Serena (Blake Lively) managed to stop her at the helipad.

UP NEXT: 'I would say one of the big headlines on the next five episodes is definitely the Blair-and-Jenny power struggle,' says creator Josh Schwartz. Look for the newly manipulative Jenny to even attempt to seduce Nate (Chace Crawford), although he'll find comfort in GG's resident outcast, Vanessa (Jessica Szohr). It's just the beginning of what Schwartz promises are five 'explosive' episodes. The fireworks come courtesy of Georgina Sparks, a visitor from Serena's past who reveals the true reason why Serena left town. (Hint: It wasn't because she slept with Blair's ex-boyfriend Nate.) The role, yet to be cast, was originally offered to Schwartz's former O.C. bad girl, Mischa Barton, but 'we made her an offer and she was busy.' While Serena once again shows her rebellious side, costar Penn Badgley wants his character, Dan Humphrey, also to take a turn straddling good and evil. 'I wish he would let things go a little bit more,' says Badgley. 'Dan holds people to such high standards and it makes him very flawed, which is necessary. I'd just like to dirty him up a bit.' Don't fret, Penn there's always season 2. Tim Stack

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
RETURNED MARCH 17 8:30 PM CBS
EPISODES LEFT: 8

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Ted (Josh Radnor) and Robin (Cobie Smulders) are broken up, Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel) bought an apartment that turned out to be a money pit, and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) came down with a serious case of the yips.

UP NEXT: Someone named Britney Spears will be on the show March 24. She'll play a receptionist named Abby, and exec producer Craig Thomas can do nothing but praise the pop tart's professionalism: '[It was] like a guest actor doing a nice job and being cool about it. This experience had none of the Britney Spears that you see in the press.' Assuming the stunt casting brings in extra viewers, what other plotlines have producers concocted for the folks who decide to stick around? Thomas reports that Ted is 'back on message' looking for true love. We'll also get that long-awaited Robin Sparkles B-side breakup ballad, and a special March Madness episode in which the group applies bracketology to discover which ex is stalking Barney. Expect a season-ending cliff-hanger, involving 'actual compelling emotional situations.' But for Harris, the primary focus is on getting HIMYM off the CBS bubble and into a fourth season. 'I think we have a bit to prove right now,' Harris says. You and a certain guest star. Whitney Pastorek

BROTHERS & SISTERS
APRIL 20 10 PM ABC
EPISODES LEFT: 4

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: While Robert (Rob Lowe) got deeper into the presidential race, his campaign strategist Isaac (Danny Glover) began dating Walker matriarch Nora (Sally Field). Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke MacFarlane) grew closer, and Rebecca (Emily VanCamp) bonded with David (Ken Olin), an old boyfriend of her mother, Holly (Patricia Wettig).

UP NEXT: 'Nora and Isaac have been getting serious,' says exec producer Monica Owusu-Breen. 'Isaac is going to offer a big change to Nora. [Her decision] will ricochet through the entire Walker clan.' As for Kevin and Scotty, 'We've to'd and fro'd for so long now,' says Rhys. 'I think we're ready to become a little more domesticated and settled in our relationship, which is about time.' In other couples news, Kitty (Calista Flockhart) and Robert will try to conceive, and embark upon IVF treatments. Also, look for Robert's presidential race to be resolved. But the biggest twist involves Rebecca and whether she is actually William Walker's biological daughter. 'It gets resolved, but then it brings up something that no one will see coming,' teases Owusu-Breen. 'So there's a surprise in store for the Walkers. When Greg [Berlanti, one of Brothers' executive producers] pitched it, we were dumbfounded for 10 minutes. It's just amazing.' With that kind of buildup, it better be. Tim Stack

HOUSE
APRIL 28 9 PM FOX
EPISODES LEFT: 4

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: 'Honestly, I can't quite remember,' laughs Lisa Edelstein, who plays House's forever-beleaguered boss. 'What I know for certain is that it's nice to be working again.' TV's nastiest M.D. (Hugh Laurie) had hired his new team of harried associates (Olivia Wilde, Peter Jacobson, Kal Penn) and was beginning to deal with a conundrum more perplexing than lupus: the romance between best bud Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard) and associate wannabe Amber (Anne Dudek). 'One of my favorite moments in the last episode was House's realization that Wilson is, in essence, dating him,' says exec producer David Shore. 'Amber's aggressive, pushy, controlling just like House.' Does that mean that Wilson and House are basically in love with each other? 'You know,' laughs Shore, 'there's no good way to answer that question without creating all sorts of speculation.'

UP NEXT: The House/Wilson/Amber 'triangle' will deepen. Shore says associates new and old will continue to have a presence, but won't reveal as much character development due to the loss of eight episodes. Still, says Edelstein, 'you'll see how everyone fits into the new structure.' Look for Dr. Mean to treat a man afflicted with acute niceness and a season-ending two-parter in which House must battle through short-term-memory loss in order to solve a case. Will the finale bring a possible cast shake-up? 'Believe it or not,' says Shore, 'that's not a simple question to answer.' With House, it never is. Jeff Jensen

CSI
APRIL 3 9 PM CBS
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Sara (Jorja Fox) inexplicably walked out on her job and Gil (William Petersen), while Warrick (Gary Dourdan) went toe-to-toe with a ruthless mobster-turned-club owner after a stripper showed up dead.

UP NEXT: As part of a writer-exchange program, Two and a Half Men exec producer Chuck Lorre is guest-scripting an April episode about a murdered sitcom diva. But in the first show back, exec producer Carol Mendelsohn playfully addresses the CSI team's absence during the strike by putting them on sick leave. 'They are all suffering from various stages of the flu,' says Mendelsohn. 'Grissom is still home sick, so he has to get dragged out of bed to solve a case involving the death of a grand jury witness.' Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) ends up going to Grissom's inner sanctum to talk about the case, and uses the visit to find answers about Sara's disappearance. 'By the end of the episode, the audience will have a better sense of where Sara and Grissom are with their relationship,' promises Mendelsohn. It may just provide the cast with a little closure, too. 'We didn't have much time to get used to the idea of Jorja leaving, because soon after she left, we all shut down for the strike,' says Eric Szmanda, who plays lab rat-turned-investigator Greg Sanders. 'That's one thing that will take a lot of time to get used to.' Lynette Rice

BOSTON LEGAL
APRIL 8 10 PM ABC
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Denny Crane (William Shatner) and Alan Shore (James Spader) had both fallen for the sexually adventurous Andrea (Alison La Placa) and were preparing to take the Coast Guard exam.

UP NEXT: 'Duck and run for cover!' warns creator David E. Kelley: Crane and Shore are going to Washington, where they'll argue a death-penalty case before the U.S. Supreme Court. 'Shockingly,' reports Kelley, 'none of the actual justices would appear, so we've gone with look-alikes.' Plus, longtime best friends Denny and Alan will battle each other in court. 'That should have a unique set of fireworks,' says Kelley, who hints that there will be serious 'personal fallout.'

MY NAME IS EARL
APRIL 3 8 PM NBC
EPISODES LEFT: 8

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Released from jail, Earl (Jason Lee) was hit by a car driven by his crush, Billie (Alyssa Milano).

UP NEXT: Earl is in a coma. Don't worry it's a comical coma! 'We created a fun device of going into his unconscious mind,' says exec producer Greg Garcia, who signed up Paris Hilton for an inner-Earl cameo. 'Earl is slowly building the perfect life with Billie in his mind.' Meanwhile, Earl's dad (Beau Bridges) gets tangled up in a drug ring, a main character tries to kill another, and Joy (Jaime Pressly) consults with a 9-year-old faith healer to get rid of a 'ridiculously huge zit' on her forehead. Yep, this show is ready to explode! Dan Snierson

SUPERNATURAL
APRIL 24 9 PM THE CW
EPISODES LEFT: 4

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: After being arrested by Special Agent Henricksen (Charles Malik Whitfield), Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) helped defend the jail from a mass demon attack. The Winchester brothers managed to escape shortly before demon Lilith (Rachel Pattee) killed Henricksen.

UP NEXT: The Supernatural boys are venturing into reality...television. 'We're coming back with a reality show version of Supernatural,' says creator Eric Kripke. 'It's sort of our loving tribute to Ghost Hunters. People will either congratulate us or think we're totally effing insane.' The second episode will return to normal at least as normal as Supernatural gets  with Sam and Dean visiting a town haunted by phone calls from dead loved ones. Due to the strike, though, Kripke had to jettison some plots in order to focus on Dean's ongoing entanglement with Satan. 'We put almost every other story line on hold until next season,' Kripke explains. 'We're gonna charge full-steam into Dean's deal with the devil, because his soul is coming up due.' Adds Padalecki: 'Sam is trying new and different methods to try and save Dean. In the third episode I think we have a week left of Dean's life, and we're sprinting to the finish line to beat this deal that's closing in.' Seeing as Supernatural was recently picked up for season 4, we're guessing that race is won. Tim Stack

BONES
APRIL 14 8 PM FOX
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: No big whoop, just, you know, Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan (Emily Deschanel) made out! It was a dare, but still.

UP NEXT: 'Yeah, we have to deal with how awkward that made us feel,' sighs Deschanel, who tips us off to another ep in which the two have to care for a baby, and one in which she sings. ('Oh my gosh, it was horrible,' she says.) We'll also see the inevitable trial of Brennan's murderous dad (Ryan O'Neal), but it's not exactly a seamless return for the Jeffersonian team: There's been some strike-wreaked havoc on other plotlines. 'Some we've decided just to truncate,' reports creator Hart Hanson. 'We were gonna do stuff with Booth's family. We were going to catch the Gravedigger. There's only so much room.' One side benefit: We'll get a quicker ID on everyone's favorite medieval serial killer, Gormogon. (Or is it Gorgamon? 'We type it both ways,' admits Hanson, 'and someone has to check it every time.') He'll be corralled in a single episode instead of an extended arc; while no one's giving away any deets on the Gor-man's identity, we can tell you that Hanson loves everyone's conjecture he actually giggled when we suggested it might be John Francis Daley's Dr. Sweets and he promises that Gormogon is 'not just somebody out in the world. I probably told you too much.' Um, not so much, actually. Whitney Pastorek

SCRUBS
APRIL 10 9:30 PM NBC
EPISODES LEFT: 5

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: The hospital board wanted to remove chief of medicine Dr. Kelso (Ken Jenkins).

UP NEXT: 'A major character is sent packing,' hints exec producer Bill Lawrence. Meanwhile, Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) moves up in his career, and the Janitor (Neil Flynn) continues to date Lady (yes, a real woman!). Also, brace thyself for an ambitious fairy-tale homage to The Princess Bride directed by Zach Braff, whose J.D. plays the village idiot. 'It's an entire episode as told by Dr. Cox to his kid as a bedtime story,' says Lawrence. 'We did it partly because it's a cool story and partly because my wife was giving me s--- that I haven't written an episode of the show that my kids could watch.' Dan Snierson

WITHOUT A TRACE
APRIL 3 10 PM CBS
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: A human-trafficking case put Agent Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia) at odds with his right-hand woman, Vivian (Marianne Jean-Baptiste).

UP NEXT: Things start with a bang: 'Jack actually gets shot,' reveals exec producer Jan Nash. But because those sex-ring perps are still at large, Jack ditches the hospital gown and gets back on the case. Overall, 'there's more of a slant toward how our characters are progressing through their lives,' adds exec producer Greg Walker. So, then, what of the bump Sam Spade (Poppy Montgomery) has been sporting? Babies rule sweeps, so look for the crew to head back to the hospital come season-finale time. Tanner Stransky

REAPER
RETURNED MARCH 13 9 PM THE CW
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Slacker Sam (Bret Harrison) reluctantly serves Satan (a suave Ray Wise) by nabbing bad souls who've escaped from hell. Pals Sock (Tyler Labine) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez) are his sidekicks.

UP NEXT: Things will heat up between Sam and Work Bench beauty Andi (Missy Peregrym). Also on tap: more serialized mythology. Sam will meet other fallen angels who aren't too hot on Lucifer and learn more about the mysterious missing pages of his soul-damning contract. 'We're back to Sam's quest to beat the devil,' says exec producer Tom Spezialy. The dramedy is on the bubble at The CW, but exec producer Tara Butters insists, 'If we go out, we're going out with a bang.' Jeff Jensen

LAW & ORDER: SVU
APRIL 15 10 PM NBC
EPISODES LEFT: 5

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Detectives Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Benson (Mariska Hargitay) tracked down a sperm-bank thief, and Benson's biological clock began ticking louder than the show's trademark cha-chung sound effect.

UP NEXT: Executive producer Neal Baer promises a Benson-related surprise in the show's second new episode. She'll also have to endure 'her toughest assignment ever' while working undercover at a women's prison in the premiere. As for Stabler, he'll play cat and mouse with a special guest star in SVU's 200th episode (April 29). The star's identity? Baer insists he's 'movie-star quality, for sure,' but is pleading the Fifth until a deal is inked. Kate Ward

NCIS
APRIL 8 8 PM CBS
EPISODES LEFT: 7

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Gibbs (Mark Harmon) busted an al-Qaeda recruiter who was knocking off Muslim Marines.

UP NEXT: Medical examiner Ducky (David McCallum) drops a bombshell that causes tension between Gibbs and Director Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly). Meanwhile, the flirty relationship between Tony (Michael Weatherly) and Ziva (Cote de Pablo) is derailed when he runs off to Baghdad with returning intel analyst/germaphobe Nikki Jardine (Susan Kelechi Watson). And one episode is all about goth forensic expert Abby (Pauley Perrette): 'A dog is a murder suspect,' says exec producer Shane Brennan, 'and Abby's trying to prove the pooch didn't do it.' Tanner Stransky

SAMANTHA WHO?
APRIL 7 9:30 PM ABC
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: A quick, intense relationship with a carpenter (Eddie Cibrian) yielded the first true post-amnesia break-up for Samantha (Christina Applegate).

UP NEXT: Reality check for one, please! 'After a few months of living at home, Samantha has to move forward with her life,' says exec producer Donald Todd. Expect our lovable amnesiac to face her problems with ex-boyfriend Todd (Barry Watson), but not before she moves back in with him and awkward! his current girlfriend in an attempt to appease the apartment's co-op board. Plus, trouble brews with bitchy BFF Andrea (Jennifer Esposito) after both ladies start eyeing the boss, Winston Funk (Timothy Olyphant). Tanner Stransky

CRIMINAL MINDS
APRIL 2 9 PM CBS
EPISODES LEFT: 7

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: While the unit hunted sickos and psychos, new guy Rossi (Joe Mantegna) joined the team, Hotchner's (Thomas Gibson) wife left him, and Penelope (Kirsten Vangsness) survived the worst first date in history when her escort shot her.

UP NEXT: Things lighten up with a relationship for Penelope and a baby for J.J., thanks to A.J. Cook's real-life pregnancy. 'We definitely are trying to put a little bit of lightness with all the dark,' says executive producer Ed Bernero, hinting that there might even be romance for resident hunk Morgan (Shemar Moore). Obviously, dirty Minds just want to get Moore shirtless. 'Nooooo!' protests Bernero. 'Okay, yeah, we do.' Alynda Wheat

BACK TO YOU
APRIL 16 8:30 PM FOX
EPISODES LEFT: 4

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Anchorman Chuck Darling (Kelsey Grammer) was slowly bonding with daughter Gracie (Laura Morano), who still didn't know he's her dad.

UP NEXT: For starters, the station will get a new owner (Help Me Help You's Suzy Nakamura) who wants to shake things up. And due to the truncated season, Chuck will mature faster than expected, finally buying a house and, after a battle with Gracie's mom, Kelly (Patricia Heaton), telling the teen the truth about his identity. 'We want to get to the heart of these characters,' says exec producer Steve Levitan. 'And maybe worry a little less about getting to the big wacky joke.' Josh Wolk

THE BIG BANG THEORY
RETURNED MARCH 17 8 PM CBS
EPISODES LEFT: 8

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) 'continued along as the smartest people in the world who don't understand how to get along in society,' explains exec producer Bill Prady.

UP NEXT: Sheldon becomes ill and Penny (Kaley Cuoco) agrees to take care of him. He's also about to be caught in a social white lie and has no idea how to clear himself other than to lie further. DJ Qualls (Hustle & Flow) will play a physicist who helps the little fibster with his predicament. And if that doesn't put a smile on the face of fans, consider this: Big Bang has already received a full second-season pickup for 2008-09. Lynette Rice

SMALLVILLE
RETURNED MARCH 13 8 PM THE CW
EPISODES LEFT: 6

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: The show's been on-and-off all year, and the final March episodes will see Tom Welling's proto-Superman harassed by Lex (Michael Rosenbaum), who remains determined to crack the secrets of Clark's Kryptonian cousin Kara (Laura Vandervoort).

UP NEXT: In April, look for the death of a longtime character. 'It kicks off a big story that puts Lex and Clark at incredible odds,' says exec producer Al Gough. The season finale could mark Lex's departure, as Rosenbaum's contract is up: 'The cliff-hanger could go either way for Lex,' says Gough. Meanwhile, the May 1 outing, Smallville's 150th and directed by Welling, brings a 'final showdown' with James Marsters' Brainiac. Jeff Jensen

MOONLIGHT
APRIL 25 9 PM CBS
EPISODES LEFT: 4

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Girl meets vampire. Girl flirts with vampire, but still loves boyfriend. Boyfriend gets shot, and vampire struggles in vain to save boyfriend's life. Girl blames...vampire?

UP NEXT: Beth (Sophia Myles) 'really wanted [Mick] to turn her boyfriend into a vampire' to save him, explains exec producer Gabrielle Stanton. She also has a brief opportunity to be with Mick (Alex O'Loughlin), now that he's temporarily human after taking 'the cure.' 'There's going to be a little tension,' vows exec producer Harry Werksman, who adds that we'll soon see a lot more average folks who happen to be vampires. 'Very happy, nice people,' adds Stanton, 'buying their blood legally.' Alynda Wheat

TWO AND A HALF MEN
RETURNED MARCH 17 9 PM CBS
EPISODES LEFT: 8

WHERE WE LEFT OFF: Despite having been warned by Teddy (Robert Wagner) not to date his daughter Courtney (Jenny McCarthy), Charlie (Charlie Sheen) decided to hook up with the nutcase anyway.

UP NEXT: Now it appears Courtney's about to become Charlie's stepsister, as Holland Taylor's Evelyn 'is going to marry Teddy,' says executive producer Chuck Lorre. And a murder mystery envelops the Harper household in May when CSI executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar trade jobs with Lorre for one episode each. 'We can be funny,' insists Mendelsohn, who's keeping mum about her plans for the cast. 'We tell that to Billy Petersen all the time.' Lynette Rice

Source: Entertainment Weekly Online

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/23/2008 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

'Enchanted' Evenings: 14 Fairy Tale Flicks

As the hit musical sings its way onto DVD, we remember 13 other fairy-tale movies that live happily ever after, from old-school picks like 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty' to modern faves 'Legend,' 'Princess Bride,' and 'Pan's Labyrinth'

ENCHANTED (2007)
On the surface, fusing an animated world with a live-action one might seem a little too kitschy for a modern-day fairy tale, but Enchanted, now out on DVD, proves worthy of the genre. Amy Adams brings delightful layers to the endearingly naive Princess Gisele and James Marsden practically steals the show as the sword-toting buffoon Prince Edward. One thing we could do without: those nasty toilet-cleaning vermin.

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/22/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

Holocaust Survivor Lived To Describe Hatred, Horrors

A Holocaust survivor told St. Cloud State University students how the symbol of the swastika - seen on campus this year - reminds him of hatred, loss, and almost unspeakable atrocities.

Holocaust survivor Henry Oertelt spoke at St. Cloud State University on Wednesday about his experiences in concentration camps and what seeing the swastika means to him. His talk came during a school year in which a number of swastikas have been found on walls across the St. Cloud State campus.

Many times over the past 15 years, Henry Oertelt has made the drive from his home in the Twin Cities to St. Cloud State University.

He has spoken to classes there. A granddaughter graduated from the school. And in 2006, he received an honorary doctoral degree from the school, something the 87-year-old called one of the highlights of his adult life.

Thursday's visit was different.

Since November, St. Cloud State has issued eight safety notices after swastikas were scrawled on walls and doors on campus. In December, a female foreign student of color reported seeing a man give a Nazi salute and being spit upon by three white males.

Those events came on the heels of FBI statistics indicating that St. Cloud had more bias-motivated crimes than any other city in the state, a finding disputed by city officials.

A Jewish survivor of five Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz -- the prisoner number B-11291 is tattooed on the inside of his right arm -- Oertelt paid close attention to the happenings at St. Cloud State. The reports of swastikas drawn on residence hall walls and carved into a study area in the multicultural activities center left him hurt and angry.

"How can anyone be so stupid?" Oertelt said. "They must feel stupid because they do it secretly. They're looking over their shoulders. They're not only stupid, they're cowards on top of it."

For more than 90 minutes Thursday, Oertelt spoke to a group of several hundred students (in addition to a group of students in Fort McMurray, Alberta, who watched electronically) about what the swastika means to him.

"It's a symbol of hate," Oertelt said. "All of the suffering and my incarceration and the loss of my family was all done under the icon of the swastika.

"It's a subject that, regretfully, I'm an expert on."

That was exactly the message St. Cloud State administrators wanted students to hear.

"There have been several incidents on the SCSU campus with swastikas, and we consider it to be hate graffiti," provost/vice president for academic affairs Michael Spitzer said. "We want to make clear what the meaning of the swastika is and was to millions of Americans."

The appearance of swastikas on the campus of about 16,000 students wasn't the sole reason for Oertelt's appearance, but it was a factor.

Teacher Krista Saunders, who was teaching Oertelt's book, "An Unbroken Chain: My Journey Through the Nazi Holocaust," found a series of podcasts of the book that had been produced by the St. Cloud State student radio station. In January, she contacted the school to see if it was possible to contact Oertelt.

"We saw it as an opportunity to not just host an [interactive television] conference with Fort McMurray, but to do something proactive toward educating people on our campus about the swastika," said criminal justice Prof. F. Barry Schreiber. "We chose an in-your-face title for the presentation -- 'What the Swastika Means to Me' -- because he really knows."

Robbed of freedom, life

Oertelt was a 12-year-old living in Berlin when Hitler first came to power. Over the next several years, he experienced firsthand the gradual loss of freedom by Jews. First, he was ignored by teachers, then expelled from school because of his religion. Employers could fire Jewish workers. Jews weren't allowed to have bicycles or pets, and had to adhere to a curfew. They had to sew a yellow Star of David on their clothing.

At 19, Oertelt and his family were taken away by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. Over the next three years, he was moved to four other concentration camps -- including once when prisoners were herded into a railway boxcar like cattle and stuck there for more than two days. He witnessed countless atrocities.

"The worst thing I ever witnessed was children being taken away from their parents at Auschwitz," Oertelt said. "The kids were taken to the gas chamber."

Oertelt's mother died in the Auschwitz gas chamber, too.

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/21/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

The War In Iraq, Counting The Cost

The Iraq war has proved far more costly than the US government thought when it went to war five years ago.

But controversy still rages over the ultimate size of the bill for the war, with some suggesting the cost could reach $3 trillion ($3,000bn, or £1,500bn).

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the direct costs of the war on terror, which include operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, have so far have reached $752bn, if the current year's appropriation of $188bn is included.

War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq - so now they argue the war costs too much President George W Bush

About 80% of that cost has been spent in Iraq.

By the end of next year, the direct cost to US Treasury will be over $1 trillion.

The war has been far more costly than planned because it has gone on so long.

That has led to growing spending on procurement, to replace ammunition and vehicles, as well as higher costs for the large numbers of troops on the ground.

In fact, the yearly cost has doubled since the 2003 appropriation of $74bn - which the Bush administration expected to be the total cost of the war.

'Necessary costs'

According to President George W Bush, speaking at the Pentagon on 19 March, it has been a cost worth paying.

IRAQ WAR COST ESTIMATES Direct costs: $750bn Future direct costs: c$500bn Cost of US casualties: $600bn Losses to economy: $400bn Added interest: $600bn Macro-economic impact: $1-$2 trillion sources: CBO, OMB, Stiglitz and Blimes

"No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure - but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq."

Others, mainly Democrats, say the money would have been better spent at home.

Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that the trillion dollar cost "is enough to provide health care for all 47 million uninsured Americans and quality pre-kindergarten for every American child, solve the housing crisis once and for all, and make college affordable for every American student".

The higher cost of the war has also contributed to the US budget deficit, which could rise further if the economy slows down, and has reduced the fiscal headroom to put in place a bigger economic stimulus package.

The Bush Administration insisted on funding the war as a "emergency appropriation" each year, which means it has not been included in the official calculation of future budget deficits.

Economic impact

Many economists argue that the indirect costs of the war are even greater.

A study by the Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Linda Bilmes, a budget expert from Harvard, concludes the cost could be at least $3 trillion.

The figure is so large because, Professor Stiglitz says, it includes costs that official estimates do not, such as the cost of the lifetime medical care for 65,000 injured American personnel.

And he says that 100,000 of the 750,000 combat troops who have been discharged so far have been diagnosed with mental health problems.

On the strength of evidence from previous conflicts, he said, still others will have various health and mental problems in the future.

There will be disability pay and health care costs to the US budget that will continue for several decades.

He estimates these costs could add another $600bn to the price of the war.

Health costs

His figures also include the loss to the economy from injured people being unable to contribute as productively as they might otherwise would have done, and the cost of sending hundreds of thousands of National Guard troops who would otherwise have had worked at their civilian jobs - which he says amounts to around $400bn.

More controversial are the attempts to add up other economic costs of the war.

Professor Sitglitz - who served in the Clinton administration and is a former World Bank chief economist - says it is right to add the interest that the government will have to pay on its borrowing to his cost calculation, which will amount to another $600bn.

He also brings in the cost of higher oil prices, which he says are partly due to the conflict.

He argues that by financing the war by deficit financing, the long-term macro-economic cost to the economy could be as high as $1.9 trillion.

And he says the overall cost of the Iraq war is approaching that of World War II, which cost the US $5 trillion in today's money.

His calculations on the broader impact of the war are similar to those in 2002 by Yale economics professor William Nordhaus.

And they also echo the concerns expressed by Lawrence Lindsey, President Bush's first economic adviser, who was sacked in December 2002 for warning that the Iraq war could cost $200bn.

Controversy continues

However, the war's supporters say that many of these arguments are hypothetical and being made on political grounds.

President Bush argues that war critics are rounding on the cost of the war because of the very success of the "surge."

"War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq - so now they argue the war costs too much. In recent months we have heard exaggerated estimates of the costs of this war."

However, with the US involvement in Iraq likely to carry on for some time, whatever happens in the November election, the controversy over the costs of the war is likely to intensify.

Source: BBC News

Poll: Bush's Popularity Hits New Low

31 percent of Americans approve of Bush's job performance, poll shows
Approval rating is 40 points lower than at the start of the Iraq war
President Bush says victory in Iraq is necessary to demonstrate U.S. resolve
Anti-war protesters take to the streets in Washington, San Francisco

Five years after he green-lighted the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, President Bush faced strikingly low approval ratings as he reaffirmed his commitment to "accept no outcome but victory" in the war.

Just 31 percent of Americans approve of how President Bush is handling his job, according to a poll released Wednesday, the anniversary of the start of the conflict in 2003.

Sixty-seven percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey disapprove of the president's performance.

The 31 percent approval number is a new low for Bush in CNN polling and is 40 points lower than the president's number at the start of the Iraq war.

"Bush's approval rating five years ago, at the start of the Iraq war, was 71 percent, and that 40-point drop is almost identical to the drop President Lyndon Johnson faced during the Vietnam War," CNN polling director Keating Holland said.

"Johnson's approval rating was 74 percent just before Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964, which effectively authorized the Vietnam War. Four years later, his approval was down to 35 percent, a 39-point drop that is statistically identical to what Bush has faced so far over the length of the Iraq war," he said.

But there was no sign that the conflict would end soon.

During a speech at the Pentagon Wednesday, the president called the debate over Iraq "understandable" but insisted that a continued U.S. presence in the region was crucial.

"Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home," he said.

"We're helping the people of Iraq establish a democracy in the heart of the Middle East. A free Iraq will fight terrorists instead of harboring them." Watch Bush speak on the fifth anniversary of the war »

Not far away from the Pentagon, where the president was speaking, voices called for an end to the conflict.

Several hundred anti-war protesters marched through Washington, splattering red paint on government and defense contractors' offices and occasionally scuffling with police.

Protesters, including many veterans, demanded the arrests of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as war criminals. Watch the protests in Washington »

Others hurled balloons full of paint at a military recruiting station and smeared it on and outside buildings housing defense contractors Bechtel and Lockheed Martin.

At least 31 people were arrested after crossing police lines outside the Internal Revenue Service building on Pennsylvania Avenue, protest organizer Freida Berrigan said.

Other protests took place in San Francisco, where 115 people were arrested and released after being cited for misdemeanors such as trespassing, resisting arrest and blocking an intersection, said Sgt. Steve Mannina, a police spokesman.

The legacy of the war

Bush ordered U.S. troops into Iraq on March 19, 2003, after months of warnings that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hiding stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

U.N. weapons inspectors found no sign of banned weapons before the invasion, and the CIA later concluded that Iraq had dismantled its weapons programs in the 1990s.

Almost 4,000 Americans have died in Iraq since then, and estimates of the Iraqi toll range from about 80,000 to 150,000 or more.

Almost 160,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and the war has cost U.S. taxpayers about $600 billion, according to the House Budget Committee.

The president's approval rating has been below 35 percent since October and has not cracked 40 percent since September 2006. Watch CNN's Bill Schneider discuss Bush's poll numbers »

Still, Bush's approval number is still better than the lowest number for his father, George H.W. Bush, who bottomed out at 29 percent in July 1992; Jimmy Carter, who fell to 28 percent in June 1979; Richard Nixon, at 24 percent in July and August 1974; and Harry Truman, who dipped to 22 percent in 1952.

"Lame-duck presidents presiding over unpopular wars or struggling economies have gotten low approval ratings in the past," Holland said.

"By contrast, lame ducks like Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower and Bill Clinton had robust approval ratings in their final years in office, but each one was presiding over good economic times and a country at peace."

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted by telephone with 1,019 adult Americans from Friday through Sunday.

The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Source: CNN News

Female Veterans Report More Sexual, Mental Trauma

Dept. of Veterans Affairs diagnosed 60,000 veterans with PTSD
Women have comprised 11 percent of military force in Iraq and Afghanistan
VA: 22 percent of women, 1 percent of men suffered sexual trauma in military
Expert says women afraid to report sexual harassment for fear of retribution

On a good day, Keri Christensen spends the day watching her children. She prepares their meals, gets them ready for school and helps them with their homework.

But this housewife and mother of two is far different than most of the women living in her Denver, Colorado, suburb.

She's an Iraqi war veteran, among the first women in the United States to be classified as combat veterans.

Even though she's been home from the war for more than 2½ years, she's now fighting another battle -- this one with depression, nightmares, sleeplessness and anger. She says all of it is caused by her time in Iraq.

"I start feeling those feelings of 'I'm not worthy. I can't raise my family,' " Christensen said.

Women have made up about 11 percent of the military force in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past six years, according to the Department of Defense; that's an estimated 180,000 women in the war zone. The figure dwarfs the 41,000 women deployed during the Persian Gulf War and the 7,500 who served during the Vietnam War, mostly as nurses.

Unlike past wars, women are assigned to combat support roles. Many are seeing violence firsthand in an unconventional war. Watch CNN's Randi Kaye report on female veterans »

Anderson Cooper 360°

They've made history in combat, now witness the struggles many female veterans endure once they return home.
Watch "Anderson Cooper 360°" Thursday, 11 p.m. ET

see full schedule »

As a member of the National Guard, Christensen transported tanks in Iraq. She says she was shot at and was nearly a victim of a roadside bomb when a convoy in front of hers was hit.

"You have this fear, 'Oh, my God, I still have to go through there,' " she recalled. " 'Am I going to make it?' "

Christensen says that she was sexually harassed by a superior while serving in Iraq and that the harassment added to the pressure created by just being in a war zone.

"I just know it took a big toll on me because I was trying to deal with it myself. Just trying to be a soldier," Christensen said.

In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs found that women are reporting signs of mental health issues when they return home at a higher rate than their male counterparts.

The VA diagnosed 60,000 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Of those, 22 percent of women suffered from "military sexual trauma," which includes sexual harassment or assault, compared with 1 percent of men.

Christensen, who has been diagnosed with PTSD, says she doesn't like leaving her comfort zone. She doesn't drive more than two miles from her home.

"When I get outside my familiar safe territory, I start to feel overwhelmed," Christensen said. "It gets foggy. Not sure where I'm really going. Something comes over me where I don't feel like I have control over it."

"PTSD is actually something that shows up over time, and so the natural recovery process doesn't happen," said Dr. Darrah Westrup, who counsels female veterans at the VA-run Women's Health Clinic in Menlo Park, California.

"So three months out or so, you find yourself still not sleeping, still with nightmares, still having intrusive thoughts," Westrup said.

Westrup says another factor contributing to poor mental health is the high amount of sexual trauma reported by women screened by the Veterans Administration. She says many women have trouble reporting the trauma to their superiors out of fear of retribution.

"When you are in a war zone, your survival depends on people watching your back and on unit cohesion," Westrup said. "The same individuals who attacked you are those who will be protecting you, or you'll be fighting alongside the next day."

Christensen receives counseling and group therapy sponsored by the VA. However, the military has said there is no merit to her claims that she suffered military sexual trauma.

Like many who suffer from post-traumatic stress, Christensen still has her ups and downs. She says she's just working to get past the feelings of guilt, shame, loss of control and low self-esteem.

"I don't think we'll ever be the same. I think that you can learn to cope with it, and that's what I'm learning right now," she said.

Source: CNN News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/20/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Federal Reserve Slashes US Rates

The Federal Reserve has cut US interest rates sharply in an attempt to restore confidence to nervous financial markets and boost the ailing economy.

The central bank lowered rates to 2.25% from 3%, but the cut was smaller than financial markets had expected.

Many economists believe the US economy is already in a recession.

The Fed has taken strong action this week to avert a financial panic after investment bank Bear Stearns was forced into a fire sale to avoid collapse.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson admitted earlier on Tuesday that the economy was facing a "sharp decline" at the moment, but hoped for a recovery later in the year.

Aggressive action

The Fed's action is yet another forceful move in its attempts to alleviate the liquidity crunch and to shore up a rapidly weakening economy, Arun Raha, senior economist at Swiss Re

The Fed has now lowered rates six times since mid-September, with the economy reeling from the credit crisis that was triggered by a slump in the US housing market.

"Today's policy action, combined with those taken earlier, including measures to foster market liquidity, should help to promote moderate growth over time and to mitigate the risks to economic activity," the Federal Reserve said.

US shares initially trimmed gains after the Fed's announcement but the benchmark Dow Jones industrial average later resumed its ascent.

Wall Street rallied earlier after two leading investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, reported smaller falls in profits than analysts had been expecting.

The dollar, which has been hitting record lows against the euro, gained ground.

Recession fears

The Fed is hoping its actions will stave off both a recession in the wider economy and go some way to ease unprecedented conditions in the financial system.

"The Fed's action is yet another forceful move in its attempts to alleviate the liquidity crunch and to shore up a rapidly weakening economy," said Arun Raha, senior economist at Swiss Re.

As the economy worsens, banks and financial institutions are calling in loans and becoming increasingly reluctant to lend money, particularly to borrowers considered to be high risk.

Bear Stearns got into trouble when other banks refused to lend it money over fears that it had too many bad debts due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

"There can be no health in the economy until the banking system is working properly," said K Daniel Libby at Sands Brother Select Access Fund.

Inflation concerns

The Fed expressed some concern about inflation in the statement that accompanied the interest decision. Analysts said this could signal that an end to the current cycle of rate cut cycle was fast approaching.

"The economy is in, or close to, a recession, but increasing oil prices have kept inflationary pressures from abating, complicating the Fed's task," said Mr Raha.

US producer prices, released on Tuesday, rose by 0.3% in February compared to the month before, but a key measure of producer core inflation rose by 0.5%, the fastest pace in well over a year.

There were also signs of opposition inside the Fed to the aggressive moves.

Two members of the central bank's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted for a smaller cut in rates.

"By cutting 75 points rather than 100 points, the Fed sought to restore leadership over the market and indicate that its actions would not be entirely dictated by market expectations," the Bank of New York said.

Source: BBC News

Fed Cut Brings Markets Back From The Brink

The US Federal Reserve put pressure on the Bank of England and other central banks last night to follow its lead in warding off a global economic slump when it cut interest rates for the sixth time since the financial crisis began last summer.

Amid calls from the City and business groups for the Bank to act, the Fed cut its key interest rate by 0.75 points to 2.25% in an attempt to restore confidence to Wall Street following the weekend bailout of Bear Stearns.

The move was less aggressive than the one point cut financial markets had hoped for, but was enough to push leading shares sharply higher. The Dow Jones closed up more than 400 points higher and the Nasdaq technology market experienced its biggest one-day gain in five years.

In a statement the Fed said "financial markets remain under considerable stress", adding that credit and housing market problems would continue to weigh on economic growth. But concerns over rising inflation and the recent weakness of the dollar led two of the Fed's open market committee to vote for a smaller half-point cut in interest rates.

Financial markets rallied before the Fed's announcement on hopes that Sunday's Fed-inspired purchase by JP Morgan of Bear Stearns - America's fifth biggest investment bank - would mark the end of the financial turmoil.

Markets are now looking to the Bank of England and the European Central Bank to lower borrowing costs. In the UK rates are still at 5.25% in spite of two recent cuts by the Bank while the ECB has rates at 4%.

Responding to the Fed's decision, George Bush said he remained confident about the US economy. "In the long term we are going to be just fine," he said.

But analysts cautioned that with rates now at 2.25%, the Fed might soon run out of ammunition with which to fight the credit crisis.

"At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, there are only 225 basis points between the current Fed funds rate and zero. There are very few bullets left for the Fed to fire," said Nick Parsons, of NAB Capital.

In London the FTSE 100 gained 3.5%, or almost 200 points to close at 5,606, recouping almost all of Monday's losses. Bond prices fell as investors left safe-haven assets to move back into shares.

The Dow Jones had gained more than 2% in advance of the Fed's announcement on relief that earnings at investment banks Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers had not been worse than expected. Goldman's profits were down 53% in the first quarter as it made $2bn in writedowns related to the credit crunch. Lehman's profits were down a similar amount but trading losses were partially offset by strong earnings in its merger advisory division. Shares in both banks rose, especially as Lehman's had plunged on Monday on fears it could follow Bear Stearns into collapse.

"Goldman's report was a good report and Lehman's was not the end of the world," said Sal Arnuk at Themis Trading in New Jersey.

Shares in Bear Stearns rose as investors bet that a rival bid could emerge for the bank that JP Morgan agreed to buy at the weekend for just $2 a share. Bear's shares jumped as high as $8 a share.

But the euphoria was dented by figures showing another fall in US housing starts last month where the origins of the credit crunch lie. Building permit activity, a sign of future construction plans, fell to its slowest rate since September 1991.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley in New York said that pointed to a further drop of more than 10% in house prices in the coming year, which would represent a 25% fall in just two years. The rapid fall in house prices has left many properties worth less than the mortgage taken out on them and is the main reason why credit markets are deteriorating nine months after the crunch began.

Henry Paulson, the US treasury secretary, said the economy was in "sharp decline" but continued to resist using the word recession. "There's no doubt that the American people know that the economy has turned down sharply. To me much less important is the label that's placed on it today. Much more important is what we do about it," he said.

Oil prices were more subdued yesterday after setting a record high of $111.80 a barrel on Monday. The price rose by about $2 over the day to nearly $108. Gold closed in Europe at just over $1,000 an ounce, having set a record of $1,033 on Monday.

In the UK inflation rose to a nine-month high of 2.5% last month from 2.2% in January, well above the Bank of England's target of 2%. The Office for National Statistics ascribed this down to a change in the way it put rises in electricity and gas bills into the figures, but economists said the rise complicated the Bank's task of cutting interest rates.

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/19/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

A St. Patrick's Day Toast to 17 Celtic Classics

IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER
'He threatened to kill my Da!' Nobody yells with more ferocity than Daniel Day-Lewis, who claimed one of the seven Oscar nominations bestowed on Irish director Jim Sheridan's tense 1993 drama. Falsely convicted in the IRA bombing of an Irish pub, Day-Lewis' Gerry Conlon is coerced into confessing and then struggles both to prove his own innocence and clear his father's name, after the elder Conlon (Pete Postlethwaite) imprisoned along with his son dies in jail.

THE FIELD
Jim Sheridan should have his own Irish Masters gallery. He directed 1989's powerful, Oscar-winning My Left Foot, then followed it with this triumph. No film illustrates the ties between the Irish and their land like his 1990 adaptation of John B. Keane's play about a crusty old man (Irish native Richard Harris, stealing the show) whose fight to keep the small acreage he's spent his whole life tending ends tragically.

THE QUIET MAN
Ireland's breathtaking landscape of lush greens and rocky grays is also at the heart of John Ford's 1952 Technicolor love story about an Irish-American boxer (John Wayne) who comes to Ireland to claim his family farm and falls for a local red-headed spitfire played by Irish native Maureen O'Hara.

ASTRAL WEEKS AND MOONDANCE, VAN MORRISON
The Godfather of Celtic soul, Van Morrison howled and whispered his way into rock & roll history by boldly infusing his music with R&B, jazz, blues, Irish influences, and epic poetry. The unpredictable Belfast-born innovator proved his vast spectrum early on with 1968's haunting and personal Astral Weeks (featuring the scatty 'Sweet Thing'), followed two years later by the ethereal and invigorated Moondance.

THE COMMITMENTS
And speaking of soul, Alan Parker's 1991 musical dramedy, based on Irish writer Roddy Doyle's novel, chronicles the spirited rise and the jealousy-fueled fall of Dublin's hardest-working band, mainly a bunch of amateurs assembled by a music-loving manager out to bring soul music to the masses. Look closely at the band and you'll spot 2008 Oscar winner Glen Hansard (Once) on guitar.

DEDICATION: THE VERY BEST OF THIN LIZZY, THIN LIZZY
'The Boys Are Back in Town' doesn't sound at all Irish, but the lads in Thin Lizzy started rockin' together in Dublin in the early '70s. Late lead singer Phil Lynott wrote songs of working-class heroes and infused his music with a love of poetry and literature, notably in their edgy, amped-up version of the traditional Irish song about a betrayed bandit, 'Whiskey in the Jar.'

ULYSSES, BY JAMES JOYCE
Irish literary giant James Joyce spent seven years turning one day in the life of main character Leopold Bloom into Ulysses, an obsessively detailed chronicle of Dublin in 1906 that parallels Homer's Odyssey. Packed with stream of consciousness, parody, and broad humor, the hefty tome may seem intimidating, but taken in chunks, it's like a lazy afternoon spent in a pub with a Guinness and a garrulous local.

ANGELA'S ASHES, BY FRANK MCCOURT
Frank McCourt went from unassuming New York teacher to Pulitzer Prize winner (while remaining an unassuming New York teacher) with his heart-wrenching 1996 memoir of growing up in dilapidated row houses in Depression-era Limerick. His story of an alcoholic, out-of-work father and a weary mother trying to keep their family afloat is not easily forgotten.

BLOODY SUNDAY
By the end of '71, Northern Ireland had become a tinderbox. The nationalists grew increasingly frustrated with British control of the country's north and the rift between Catholics and Protestants grew. Director Paul Greengrass' 2002 docudrama chronicles the events that led to the inevitable explosive and chaotic clash of Jan. 30, 1972, when British troops fired on 26 protest marchers, 13 of whom were killed.

MICHAEL COLLINS
Want to learn more about the rift between Northern Ireland and its southern brethren? Irish director Neil Jordan tackles that historical conundrum in his 1996 film about hero and reluctant politician Michael Collins (Liam Neeson) who, through guerilla fighting tactics, helped bring an end to the fighting between England and Ireland. But his controversial settlement with the British led to an Irish civil war. Ignore Julia Roberts' lame Irish accent.

THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY
Retracing some of the rebellious ground plowed in Michael Collins, this Irish indie and winner of the 2006 Palme d'Or at Cannes  follows the struggle for an independent Ireland farther, showing how the civil war that erupted tore at the loyalties between friends and families. Ice-blue-eyed Cork native Cillian Murphy plays a would-be doctor whose career plans get derailed by his sense of duty.

IRISH DRINKING SONGS, THE CLANCY BROTHERS & THE DUBLINERS
All that strife, struggle, and the Troubles would lead anyone to drink. And no one does that with as much energy and enthusiasm this time of year as the Irish, especially when you've got songs like 'Whiskey, You're the Devil' and 'Mountain Dew' skididdle-diddly-eye-a-doodling in the background from two Irish folk groups whose tin-whistle ditties are guaranteed to git yer wee toes a-tappin'.

IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD, THE POGUES
After a few more drinks, you'll no doubt be ready to croon along with the gritty Irish folk-punk poetry of Shane MacGowan and the Pogues. In 'Fairytale of New York' now an unlikely Christmas classic MacGowan takes on the persona of an Irishman who's recounting tales of holidays past and present from a New York City drunk tank...where you may end up if you don't leave the pub soon.

RIVERDANCE LIVE FROM RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL
Your heart will start to race the second Bill Whelan's majestic Celtic score and the lightning-quick step-dancing kicks in during this production of the wildly successful Irish export. Dare I say you won't even miss original Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley, who got whisked away by his ego and is replaced here by Colin Dunne, who joins flame-haired Jean Butler.

LONG BLACK VEIL, THE CHIEFTAINS
Blending the modern with the mystic, these tireless promoters of traditional Irish music spread the sounds of the Emerald Isle worldwide. Proving the timelessness of their songs and sound, they teamed up with rock and pop stars like Sting, the Rolling Stones, and Sinad O'Connor for 1995's Long Black Veil. O'Connor's plaintive wail on 'He Moved Through the Fair' will transport you to a simpler time.

THE MATCHMAKER
If you can't make it to the annual matchmaking festival in Lisdoonvarna, Ireland, the next best thing might be this underrated romantic comedy from 1997. Ever curmudgeonly Janeane Garafalo stars as a prickly politician's assistant who, while searching for her boss' roots in Ireland, becomes the prize set-up for two competing matchmakers and falls for the lucky charms of a rough-around-the-edges villager (David O'Hara).

Source: Entertainment Weekly Online

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/18/2008 at 8:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Dalai Lama 'helpless' Amid Protests

As Tibetans make their most forceful demands for independence in years, their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in exile in Dharamsala, India, outlines his concerns to the BBC's Chris Morris.

The Dalai Lama says he does not control the Tibetan people

"Am I early?" asked the Dalai Lama, as he ambled into the room. He sat down and coughed, and thanked us for coming.

"This is a critical time for us," he said, as he waited for the interview to begin.

He compared it to 1959, an iconic date for many Tibetans, when a huge uprising against Chinese rule was suppressed, and the Dalai Lama himself was forced to flee into exile on horseback.

Eventually, he made his home here, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, in this small town which is known to some as Little Lhasa.

It is awash with thousands of Tibetan activists-in-exile. As unrest in Tibet itself has escalated, there have been daily protests in Dharamsala throughout the week.

Cars waving Tibetan flags weave through the pedestrian traffic, leaflets are pressed into passing hands, and a hunger strike is taking place outside the entrance to the Dalai Lama's temple.

I'm a spokesman for the Tibetan people, not the controller, not the master Dalai Lama

"We have to do our bit," said one of the marchers, who gave his name as Tenzin. "We have to support those who are struggling in Tibet itself, in our homeland."

Emerging patience

But beyond the slogans there is not much that most people here can do except watch and wait, as accurate information about what is happening in Tibet becomes harder to find.

Many of the activists take a more radical line than the Dalai Lama himself. For years now he has campaigned for genuine autonomy in Tibet, not for independence. But a new generation seems increasingly impatient with nuanced diplomacy.

Dharamsala is now home to many Buddhist nuns and monks

"I've already received a request from Tibet," he said. "Don't ask for the demonstrations to stop."

"I'm a spokesman for the Tibetan people, not the controller, not the master. It's a peoples' movement, so it's up to them. Whatever they do, I have to act accordingly."

Tibet's spiritual leader is also appealing to the Chinese authorities. "Stability is important" is his message - but it must come from the heart, not simply from the use of physical force.

There is not much sign, though, that Beijing is listening.

"Of course I feel helpless," the Dalai Lama admitted. He is particularly worried about the deadline given by China, for protestors to surrender by midnight on Monday (1600GMT) or face the consequences.

China angered

But the one thing Tibet's spiritual leader does have - here and around the world - is moral authority.

That is why President Bush met him in Washington recently, where the Dalai Lama was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, America's highest civilian honour.

It infuriates China, but it is something that the authorities in Beijing cannot control.

And even if this spate of demonstrations peters out, even if they are successfully suppressed, it seems unlikely that we will have heard the last of the Tibetan issue in this Olympic year.

Source: BBC News

Qiangba Puncog, the Tibetan regional governor, insisted calm was returning to Lhasa, as a deadline for protesters to hand themselves in approached.

Thirteen "innocent civilians" were killed in the protests, he said. Exiled Tibetan leaders say at least 80 protesters died in a Chinese crackdown.

His comments follow reports of protests spreading to neighbouring provinces.

Rights groups say several people were killed when police and Tibetan protesters clashed in Aba, Sichuan province on Sunday. Protests were also reported in Gansu province.

China has given Tibetans involved in the protests a deadline of midnight on Monday (1600GMT) to surrender themselves to police.

The Dalai Lama has called for an international inquiry into China's crackdown, while western leaders have called for restraint. Olympic chief Jacques Rogge said he was "very concerned" about the situation.

'Not fired'

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing, Mr Qiangba said that security forces "did not carry or use any lethal weapons".

"I can tell you as a responsible official that guns were absolutely not fired," he said.

TIBET DIVIDE China says Tibet always part of its territory Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before 20th century 1950: China launched a military assault Opposition to Chinese rule led to bloody uprising in 1959 Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled to India Q&A: China and Tibet In pictures: Lhasa tense

Mobs killed 13 people and injured several members of the security forces, he said, urging Tibetans involved in the protests to give themselves up.

"If these people can provide further information about those involved, then they could be treated more leniently," he said. Those who had committed serious crimes would be "harshly" punished.

Exiled Tibetan leaders say at least 80 people were killed in Lhasa in monk-led anti-China protests that began on 10 March - the anniversary of a Tibetan uprising - and gradually intensified.

On Friday, demonstrators in Lhasa set fire to Chinese-owned shops and hurled rocks at local police, triggering a crackdown.

Witnesses reported hearing gunfire in the city and the presence of large numbers of Chinese troops.

By Sunday, parts of Lhasa were burnt-out and deserted, a foreign tourist told the BBC. Chinese security personnel were not allowing him to leave his hostel.

Protests spreading

Unrest was also reported in nearby provinces over the weekend.

Eyewitness: Lhasa 'in cinders'

Witnesses said police fired on about 1,000 monks protesting in Aba, Sichuan on Sunday. Reliable reports put the death toll at seven, Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet said.

In Machu, Gansu province, hundreds of protesters marched on government buildings and set fire to Chinese businesses, Reuters reported, quoting the Free Tibet Campaign.

Smaller protests were reported elsewhere in the province.

In an interview with the BBC, Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said he feared there would be more deaths unless Beijing changed its policies towards Tibet.

"It has become really very, very tense. Now today and yesterday, the Tibetan side is determined. The Chinese side also equally determined. So that means, the result: killing, more suffering," he said.

China says Tibet has always been part of its territory. But Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before the 20th Century and many Tibetans remain loyal to the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959.

Source: BBC News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/17/2008 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

The 20 Best Movies for Kids

THE PARENT TRAP (1961)
La Lohan starred in a more-than-decent remake 10 years ago, but the original brought heart, sass, the adorable Hayley Mills (two of her!), and all those frickin' catchy musical numbers. Sing it with us now: 'Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah...'

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
No forest critters or sing-alongs here, but Mockingbird remains an educational favorite. Set in the Deep South during the Great Depression, it tells the story of noble lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) and his highly charged defense of a black man, Tom Robinson (Brock Peters). Kids can easily identify with Finch's daughter, Scout; the movie unfolds through her eyes and teaches lessons on race, class, gender roles, and the death of innocence.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
'The hills are alive...with the sound of muuuusic!' Kids these days may be more inclined to associate the first two words of that classic line with the MTV reality show, but what a shame: Julie Andrews conducting 'Do-Re-Mi' to a klatsch of Von Trapp children had kids driving their mothers crazy back in the day and learning to appreciate music.

WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)
At face value, this confection where five kids with golden tickets get to tour Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory seems like it'd have all the longevity of, say, a piece of cotton candy. But it holds up surprisingly well, in great part because Gene Wilder's Wonka wasn't simply weird he was scary. And what's a good story without a little fear in it? We could wax on about remake, too, but the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp collaboration doesn't hold an everlasting gobstopper to this timeless movie.

CHARLOTTE'S WEB (1973)
Honestly, who can say they didn't watch Wilbur and Charlotte's farm friendship blossom about a million times as a child? This story of the sweet camaraderie between a naive pig and his wise spider friend with loveable supporting characters like Ram, Goose, and Templeton the omnivorous rat still spins quite the spellbinding web after all these years.

E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
There are so many reasons to love this touching tale of an alien who is abandoned on Earth, tries to fit in, and longs for home: (1) Seeing the bewitchingly cute Drew Barrymore as a child actress; (2) Reese's Pieces; (3) the adorable alien; (4) the rockin' spaceship; and (5) the catchphrase 'E.T., phone home.' Enduring.

BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a typical American teen of the '80s, is accidentally sent back in time and proceeds to mess with it. Are there lessons here? Probably your parents were young once, too, and made just as many boneheaded moves as you did but in the end, it's just a killer movie about a cool teenager who loved his skateboard and his rock & roll.

SPIRITED AWAY (2001)
Call this a fairy tale, a moral quandary, or just plain fun. Chances are you might have missed this stunning little Japanese film from anime godfather Hayao Miyazaki, about a strong girl and a greedy monster who eats everything in his path. Spirited won the second-ever Oscar given for Best Animated Feature, because going up against Miyazaki is like going up against Spielberg: inadvisable.

LITTLE WOMEN (1994)
Life's tragedies and celebrations births, romance, war, weddings, and death are brought together in Louisa May Alcott's classic Civil War family drama. The beauty of the epic is the growth of the four sisters (played in this film version by Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, and Trini Alvarado), who shed their individual flaws vanity, selfishness, shyness, and a hot temper. The focus on family is heartwarming, too.

BABE (1995)
He's the other precocious farm pig who captivated viewers of all ages. Using his charm, good attitude, and a heap of advice from Ferdinand the Duck and Maa the Sheep, Babe went from potential dinner fare to beloved ribbon-winner.

SHREK (2001)
The evil Lord Farquaad has banished fairy-tale beings from his land of Duloc so it can be as cookie-cutter boring as he is, but a few loveable characters stand in his way: a smelly green ogre with a heart of gold named Shrek (Mike Myers); his faithful Donkey (Eddie Murphy); and the beautiful but down-to-business Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). Screwy fairy-tale-tastic antics ensue with multilevel jokes that manage to amuse both young and old.

THE INCREDIBLES (2004)
The family that takes on maniacal weaponeers and giant robots together stays together. That's what 'retired' superhero Mr. Incredible learns, anyway, as his on-the-side derring-do gets the whole Incredible clan Elasti-Girl, Violet, Dash, even baby Jack-Jack into hot water.

THE IRON GIANT (1999)
A scary metal machine falls to Earth and spooks the residents of a small town in Maine in Commie-obsessed 1958. Then it finds a friend in 9-year-old Hogarth Hughes, who teaches his new iron buddy the ins and outs of life on our planet (killing is bad, Superman is awesome, and cannonballing into a lake is the cat's meow). Naturally, the Army shows up and ruins everything. We dare you no, we triple-dog dare you not to mist up at the end.

STAR WARS: EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE (1977)
Good versus evil. Mentors and rogues. Lightsabers and Death Stars. It's not just kids who dig George Lucas' masterwork... everyone does.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY (2001-2003) "]
Okay, a warning: The orcs may be a little intense for some kids. But many will love one of cinema's truly great friendships: Frodo (Elijah Wood) and his best friend, Sam (Sean Astin) along with a whole host of other people and creatures take a very powerful ring to the end of Middle Earth to save their world. Nothing can come between them or their appointed task. They're like wee little mailmen, who deliver themselves from evil. Even the smallest of us can do great things is as fine a moral as you'll find.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987)
Rob Reiner's story of lost love and high adventure is beneath the fairy-tale exterior and, let's face it, very mature humor really about the quicksilver nature of storytelling itself. An old man's tale for his sick grandson blossoms into exactly what the boy needs, exactly when he needs it. You get the feeling that the story never remains the same...and that's how the great ones survive.

THE LION KING (1994)
Yes, this Disney movie contains a murder most foul. Which is fitting for a savannah-set coming-of-age story that was referred to as Bamlet, for its mixing of parental death (Bambi) and dastardly avuncular deeds (Hamlet). But the story of Simba, the lion cub who matures into the King of the Jungle, is a brightly colored fantasia, filled with catchy songs (betcha'll start humming 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight?'), a cast of memorable characters (Timon and Pumbaa, anyone?), and lasting themes about friendship and identity.

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (2004)
Any Harry Potter flick is good for the young ones, but Azkaban, directed by Alfonso Cuarzn, is the best of the bunch. Why? Because it concocted, for the first time, a real magic world, and gave those who live in it Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the lot real weight as characters. Azkaban's about learning to mind one's temper, keep track of time, and hold on to family, wherever one many find it (even in prison).

STAND BY ME (1986)
Based on Stephen King's short story 'The Body,' Stand by Me is a lesson in male bonding and growing up: Four friends played by Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O'Connell, and the late River Phoenix go on an adventure and find the body of a kid their age who was presumed dead. Don't let the profanity scare you away: This is a story about children on the cusp of adulthood, cherishing what it was to be a kid before it faded away.

Source: Entertainment Weekly Online

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/16/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Watching the Unwatchable: 16 'Dare You To Look' Scenes

PULP FICTION (1994)
We almost went with Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) getting raped in the basement, but as hard as that is to watch, it doesn't have the same protracted agony as Mia (Uma Thurman) taking a blow to the heart with a very large needle. Plus, after she gets that home-administered adrenaline shot, she gains consciousness with it still stuck in her chest. Ughh. Say no to drugs, kids. Kate Ward

MARATHON MAN (1976)
Regular dentists are bad enough. But Nazi dentists? Nazi dentists who don't use Novocaine?! It's hard to imagine a more perfect form of evil. So when Lawrence Olivier slaps young Dustin Hoffman down in a dental chair and proceeds to interrogate him 'Is it safe?' with the help of his whirring, buzzing friend, Mr. Pointy, you'll be forgiven for feeling a little clammy and lightheaded. Chris Nashawaty

AMERICAN HISTORY X (1998)
I'd never heard of 'curbing' until I saw Tony Kaye's neo-Nazi diatribe. When Edward Norton's hate ideologue Derek Vineyard forces a black car thief to get down on the ground and place his open mouth on the sidewalk's curb, teeth grating, I got sick to my stomach. When Derek stomped on the back of the thief's head splitting his head like a melon I whipped my own head around as if struck. Despite being impressed with the power of Norton's performance, I've never seen the film again. Marc Bernardin

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000)
Darren Aronofsky's drug-spiral odyssey is one cringeworthy moment after another, but never more so than when Harry (Jared Leto) shoots heroin into the cavernous black hole of infection that is forming on his arm. The festering arm is later sawed off by an emotionless doctor, but watching how it got that way is positively revolting. Mark L. Luckie

SYRIANA (2005)
Torture is never fun to watch, but most films ones that aren't reveling in their own torture-pornitude, anyway don't make you watch the most gruesome parts. Not Syriana. We get to squirm along with George Clooney as his CIA analyst gets his fingernail painstakingly removed with large pliers. Such a small body part to cause such agony. Marc Bernardin

BLADE RUNNER (1982)
Speaking of fingers, watching Rutger Hauer snap Harrison Ford's in Ridley Scott's sci-fi noir is no walk in the park either. Like twigs, they seem to break so easily. Which is what makes it so skeevy. Marc Bernardin

RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
You were probably too busy shielding your eyes the first time, but if you actually rewatch Quentin Tarantino's ear-slicing scene you know, the one where Michael Madsen's psychotic Mr. Blonde struts around to 'Stuck in the Middle With You' and douses a cop hostage with gasoline you might be shocked at just how much isn't shown. The camera pans away during the worst of it. Ironically, that just makes the whole thing that much more unbearable. Chris Nashawaty

SAW (2004)
The sequels might have upped the gore ante, but none of them were as deeply disturbing as their predecessor. Watching Amanda (Shawnee Smith) dig through a live man's stomach was bad enough, but the film's climax  which showed Cary Elwes sawing off his own leg in a desperate attempt to break free of Jigsaw's psychotic trap was one of the most horrific things ever put on screen. Even if you turned away, just imagining the gruesome act would be enough to make your blood curdle. Kate Ward

THE HITCHER (1986)
We've got to say that being C. Thomas Howell's boyfriend was the second worst thing to happen to Jennifer Jason Leigh in this sparse highway thriller. The first would be getting kidnapped by serial killer Rutger Hauer, strung up between two tractor trailers, and slowly pulled apart. Yeah, that's bad. Marc Bernardin

MISERY (1990)
Nobody brings the crazy like Kathy Bates. When author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) veers off the road during a nasty snowstorm, his Number One Fan (Bates) promises to nurse him back to health. That is, until she slams a sledgehammer into his ankles to make sure he doesn't wander from her adoring gaze. Mark L. Luckie

IRREVERSIBLE (2002)
It just...doesn't...stop. The rape scene in Gaspar Noe's reverse-chronological-order film that stirred so much controversy is so hard to watch because the camera never cuts away. We don't get to take solace in the subliminal artifice that comes with edits; instead, we're forced to watch as Monica Belluci gets brutalized in one, long, steady take. Marc Bernardin

THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (2006)
The grotesque sight of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) dangling from the ceiling by his nipples, courtesy of two big ole meat hooks jammed into his chest, is like a sucker punch to the gut. Unlike torture scenes in cheesy horror movies, this one terrifies because it's sickeningly realistic, especially given the storyline. And what's more disturbing is that he never makes a sound, even as the hooks slice through his skin. Reportedly, McAvoy even passed out the first time he filmed this scene. Who wouldn't? Jill LeGrow

UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929)
It might be the most instinctively inviolate part of the human body, the eye. And so when, in this Luis Bunuel-Salvador Dali short film, a knife slices into a woman's bare eyeball, it triggers the most visceral of responses. The most insidious part is that you're using the very organ that's being cut into to watch it. Marc Bernardin

THE RING (2002)
Before Hollywood dulled the scare factor of Japanese horror adaptations by churning out an endless supply of remakes (see: The Grudge, The Eye, etc.), Gore Verbinski's The Ring had us clinging to our seats or to the person next to us in sheer terror. One look at Katie (Amber Tamblyn) literally scared to death in that closet, and I'm out of the room faster than you can say "Sarah Michelle Gellar." Kate Ward

AUDITION (1999)
Torture. Long needles. A dismembered man in a burlap bag. Eating vomit. Do I really need to elaborate? (For your own sakes, no. Trust me.) Just writing this blurb about Takashi Miike's disturbing revenge film will give me nightmares and the urge to shower. Kate Ward

Source: Entertainment Weekly Online

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/15/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Electronic Gadgets Latest Sources Of Computer Viruses

iPods, digital picture frames, navigation systems have had virus problems
Problems appear to come from lax quality control, not sabotage
In most cases, Chinese factories are the source

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today's hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory: pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam.

Computer users have been warned for years about virus threats from downloading Internet porn and opening suspicious e-mail attachments. Now they run the risk of picking up a digital infection just by plugging a new gizmo into their PCs.

Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include some of the most widely used tech devices: Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by Target and Best Buy stores, and TomTom navigation gear.

In most cases, Chinese factories -- where many companies have turned to keep prices low -- are the source.

So far, the virus problem appears to come from lax quality control, perhaps a careless worker plugging an infected music player into a factory computer used for testing, rather than organized sabotage by hackers or the Chinese factories.

It's the digital equivalent of the recent series of tainted products traced to China, including toxic toothpaste, poisonous pet food and toy trains coated in lead paint.

But sloppiness is the simplest explanation, not the only one.

If a virus is introduced at an earlier stage of production, by a corrupt employee or a hacker when software is uploaded to the gadget, then the problems could be far more serious and widespread.

Knowing how many devices have been sold, or tracking the viruses with any precision, is impossible because of the secrecy kept by electronics makers and the companies they hire to build their products.

But given the nature of mass manufacturing, the numbers could be huge.

"It's like the old cockroach thing: You flip the lights on in the kitchen, and they run away," said Marcus Sachs, a former White House cybersecurity official who now runs the security research group SANS Internet Storm Center. "You think you've got just one cockroach? There's probably thousands more of those little boogers that you can't see."

Jerry Askew, a Los Angeles computer consultant, bought a Uniek digital picture frame to surprise his 81-year-old mother for her birthday. But when he added family photos, it tried to unload a few surprises of its own.

When he plugged the frame into his Windows PC, his antivirus program alerted him to a threat. The $50 frame, built in China and bought at Target, was infected with four viruses, including one that steals passwords.

"You expect quality control coming out of the manufacturers," said Askew, 42. "You don't expect that sort of thing to be on there."

Security experts say the malicious software is apparently being loaded at the final stage of production, when gadgets are pulled from the assembly line and plugged in to a computer to make sure everything works.

If the testing computer is infected -- say, by a worker who used it to charge his own infected iPod -- the digital germ can spread to anything else that gets plugged in.

The recent infections may be accidental, but security experts say they point out an avenue of attack that could be exploited by hackers.

"We'll probably see a steady increase over time," said Zulfikar Ramzan, a computer security researcher at Symantec Corp. "The hackers are still in a bit of a testing period; they're trying to figure out if it's really worth it."

Thousands of people whose antivirus software isn't up to date may have been infected without even knowing it, experts warn. And even protective software may not be enough.

In one case, digital frames sold at Sam's Club contained a previously unknown bug that not only steals online gaming passwords but disables antivirus software, according to security researchers at CA Inc.

"It's like if you pick up a gun you've never seen before. Before you pull the trigger, you'd probably check the chamber," said Joe Telafici, vice president of operations of McAfee Avert Labs, the security software maker's threat-research arm.

"It's an extreme analogy, but it's the right idea. It's best to spend the extra 30 seconds to be sure than be wrong," he added.

Consumers can protect themselves from most factory-loaded infections by running an antivirus program and keeping it up to date. The software checks for known viruses and suspicious behaviors that indicate an attack by malicious code, whether from a download or a gadget attached to the PC via USB cable.

The AP contacted some of the world's largest electronics manufacturers for details on how they guard against infections, among them Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., which is based in Taiwan and has an iPod factory in China; Singapore-based Flextronics International Ltd.; and Taiwan-based Quanta Computer Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc. All declined comment or did not respond.

The companies whose products were infected in cases reviewed by the AP refused to reveal details about the incidents. Of those that confirmed factory infections, all said they had corrected the problems and taken steps to prevent recurrences.

Apple disclosed the most information, saying that the virus that infected a small number of video iPods in 2006 came from a PC used to test compatibility with the gadget's software.

Best Buy, the biggest consumer electronics outlet in the U.S., said it pulled its affected China-made frames from the shelves and took "corrective action" against its vendor. But the company declined repeated requests to provide details.

Sam's Club and Target say they are investigating complaints but have not been able to verify that their frames were contaminated.

Legal experts say that manufacturing infections could become a big headache for retailers that sell infected devices and the companies that make them, if customers can demonstrate that they were harmed by the viruses.

"The photo situation is really a cautionary tale. They were just lucky that the virus that got installed happened to be one that didn't do a lot of damage," said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "But there's nothing about that situation that means next time, the virus won't be a more serious one."

Source: CNN News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/14/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Cancer Survivor Triumphs For Second Year In Iditarod

Lance Mackey couldn't shake four-time champion Jeff King and his faster team.

So Mackey pulled off a stunt at the Elim checkpoint -- 123 miles from the Nome finish line -- that proved to be the turning point en route to winning his second consecutive Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Wednesday.

Mackey arrived at the Elim check point Tuesday three minutes ahead of his rival, drank coffee and made a show of settling in for a nap. He told checkpoint volunteers to wake him in an hour and -- with King snoring -- sneaked out of the checkpoint 70 minutes ahead his opponent.

"I just beat the best musher in the world," the 37-year-old throat cancer survivor said after he crossed the finish line under Nome's burled arch. Fans mobbed Mackey along the final 10 blocks, whooping and cheering and slapping his hand while chanting his name.

"He baited me to sleep, was waiting until I closed my eyes," said King, who won in 2006. "I didn't open them until after he got out the door."

In its 36th running, the Iditarod commemorates a run by sled dogs in 1925 to deliver lifesaving diphtheria serum to Nome. The modern-day Iditarod trail crosses frozen rivers, dense woods and two mountain ranges, then goes along the dangerous sea ice up the Bering Sea shore.

Mackey's win was a repeat of his 2007 feat, when he became the first musher to win back-to-back runs in the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race and the Iditarod. Last month, he won his fourth straight Yukon Quest and headed into the Iditarod, aiming for another double win.

"I'm not much to brag very often, but damn, I'm going to this time," said Mackey, from Fairbanks, whose father and brother won past Iditarods. "I don't know exactly how to explain it. I'm just blessed with an incredible dog team."

Mackey used many of the same dogs that competed in those races in the trek across some of Alaska's harshest terrain.

At the Nome finish line, his family greeted him and he took congratulatory phone calls from his father, Dick Mackey, and Gov. Sarah Palin.

Palin told Mackey: "You're a hero, and truly an inspiration to all of us."

For much of the race Mackey tussled for the lead with King, who closely tailed him from checkpoint to checkpoint. Mackey also struggled with dogs stricken with diarrhea and slowed by unseasonably warm weather that marked much of the trail.

But Mackey's team was in better health in White Mountain, where mushers are required to take an eight-hour break before heading up the icy Bering Sea coast for the 77-mile homestretch to Nome.

"They're the best dogs, hands-down," Mackey said.

Mackey's dogs also quarreled on the trail. He had to drop Hobo -- a leader Mackey called the speed and driving force of the team -- who was badly injured in an ongoing rivalry with Larry, another leader considered the brains of the pack. Some of his dogs were coughing and one was in heat.

King, a 51-year-old musher from Denali Park, ran most of the trail with a full team of 16 dogs that looked remarkably fresh and alert as the race progressed.

King finally dropped two dogs Tuesday at the checkpoint in White Mountain. When he crossed the finish line at 79 minutes after Mackey, the winner was there to shake his hand.

"It was tough competition, but an easy race," King said at the burled arch.

Running a competitive race for third place were Ramey Smyth of Willow, Ken Anderson of Fairbanks, Martin Buser of Big Lake and Hans Gatt, a three-time Yukon Quest winner from Whitehorse, Yukon.

Twelve mushers scratched since the start of the Iditarod and one withdrew. The last was 43-year-old Steve Madsen of Cougar, Wash., who scratched Tuesday in Galena, citing concern for the health of his 11-dog team. Counting Mackey and King, 82 mushers were in the running.

Three dogs died in this year's race. A 7-year-old male, who showed signs of pneumonia, died Saturday. A 3-year-old female was struck by a snowmobile, and a 4-year-old male died Tuesday.

A necropsy will attempt to determine the cause of death of the two dogs, Iditarod officials said.

This year, organizers introduced a new tracking system that let fans follow online the real-time progress of 18 top mushers. Officials hope to expand the system to all participants in future races. Mackey and King each carried one of the devices.

Mushers compete for a piece of an $875,000 purse, to be paid out among the top 30 finishers to reach Nome. Mackey won $69,000 and a new truck.

Source: Sports Illustrated

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/13/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

US Mid-East Commander Steps Down

The commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Admiral William Fallon, is to retire from his post early.

He cited the "embarrassing situation and public perception of differences between my views and administration policy" as the reason for retiring.

He was the subject of a recent article by Esquire magazine, which said he was opposed to the use of force against Iran over its nuclear programme.

The 63-year-old admiral became head of the US Central Command a year ago.

'No policy differences'

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the decision to take early retirement was entirely Adm Fallon's, added that he agreed it was the right thing to do.

"I have approved Admiral Fallon's request to retire with reluctance and regret," he told reporters at the Pentagon, adding that he would be sorely missed.

I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command Adm William Fallon Profile: William Fallon

President George W Bush said the admiral deserved "considerable credit for progress that has been made... in Iraq and Afghanistan".

The Esquire article suggested Adm Fallon was standing up to a president supposedly contemplating war with Iran.

He is described in the article as "the strongest man standing between the Bush Administration and a war with Iran".

Mr Gates said the idea, suggested in the article, that Adm Fallon's departure indicated that the US was planning to go to war with Iran was "ridiculous".

He said "there is a misperception" that the admiral disagreed with the Bush administration's policies towards Iran. "I don't think there were differences at all," Mr Gates said.

'No war'

But Adm Fallon's resignation is richly suggestive of discord at the top between the military and the White House, says the BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington.

His comments, such as those to al Jazeera TV last year that "I expect there will be no war", incurred the wrath of the Bush administration, says our correspondent.

The Bush administration's official policy towards Iran is to use diplomatic and economic pressures to resolve differences while retaining the possibility of military options.

The US and other Western nations suspect Iran is using its nuclear programme to develop atomic weapons - a charge Tehran denies.

In a statement released through Central Command's Florida headquarters, Adm Fallon said: "I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command.

"The simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America's interests there."

Central Command covers an area from the Horn of Africa into Central Asia and includes responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Source: BBC News

Fallon Resigns As Chief Of U.S. Forces In Middle East

Bush: "He deserves considerable credit for progress that has been made"
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he accepts the resignation with regret
Gates says Fallon will be replaced by his deputy, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey
Fallon cites what he calls inaccurate news reports for decision to step aside

Adm. William Fallon has resigned as chief of U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia after more than a year in the post, citing what he called an inaccurate perception that he is at odds with the Bush administration over Iran.

Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command, was the subject of a recent Esquire magazine profile that portrayed him as resisting pressure for military action against Iran, which the Bush administration accuses of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

In a written statement, he said the article's "disrespect for the president" and "resulting embarrassment" have become a distraction.

"Although I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility, the simple perception that there is makes it difficult for me to effectively serve America's interests there," Fallon said.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the Pentagon that he accepted Fallon's resignation "with reluctance and regret."

But, he added, "I think it's the right decision." Watch why some believe Fallon was forced to resign »

"Admiral Fallon reached this difficult decision entirely on his own. I believe it was the right thing to do, even though I do not believe there are in fact significant differences between his views and administration policy," Gates said.

In a written statement, President Bush praised Fallon for helping "ensure that America's military forces are ready to meet the threats of an often troubled region of the world.

"He deserves considerable credit for progress that has been made there, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Fallon, a 41-year veteran of the Navy, took over as chief of Central Command in early 2007. Gates said he will be replaced by Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, his deputy, who commanded an Army division in Iraq in the early days of the war and led efforts to train the Iraqi military.

The perception that Fallon has opposed a drive toward military action against Iran from within the Bush administration dates to his confirmation hearings in January 2007, when he told the Senate that the United States needed to exhaust all diplomatic options in its disputes with the Islamic republic.

But he also has said that the United States would be able to take steps if Tehran were to attempt to block the Strait of Hormuz, the outlet of the Persian Gulf and a choke point for much of the world's oil.

And he recently told CNN that the United States is looking for a peaceful settlement to disputes "in every case."

"We're trying to encourage dialogue and find resolution," he said. "In fact, that's our message to the Iranians out here, given that everybody is nervous and anxious about their activities, is to come forth and explain what they are doing with all the people in the region."

On Tuesday, Gates said, "We have tried between us to put this misperception behind us over a period of months and, frankly, just have not been successful in doing so."

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Fallon's resignation showed that independent views "are not welcomed in this administration."

"It is also a sign that the administration is blind to the growing costs and consequences of the Iraq war, which has so damaged America's security interests in the Middle East and beyond," said Reid, D-Nevada. "Democrats will continue to examine these matters very closely in the coming weeks and months."

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain offered words of praise for Fallon.

"Under Adm. Fallon's leadership at Central Command, the situation in Iraq has improved dramatically," McCain said in a statement. "All Americans should be grateful for Adm. Fallon's service and respect his decision to retire."

Gates' spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said Monday that the secretary and the admiral still had "a good working relationship" and that the Esquire article -- "The Man Between War and Peace" -- had not changed that.

He said Gates had read the article and had no comment on

Source: CNN News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/12/2008 at 9:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

US Drinkers Upstage Smoking Ban

Bars in Minnesota have found a dramatic way to get around the US state's recently introduced smoking ban.

The law grants an exception from the ban to performers in theatrical productions. So the bars have become theatres, and their customers, actors.

Now some bars print bills listing the "cast" of bartenders, and ashtrays become "props". Drinkers don costumes and attempt strange accents.

But a health official said it was time for the curtain to fall on the ploy.

'Before the Ban'

At the Rock, a heavy-metal bar in Maplewood, owner Brian Bauman explained why his clientele were doing little more than sitting around, smoking and drinking to a soundtrack of deafening music.

It's turned into the most fun thing I can imagine Lisa Anderson Bar owner

"They're playing themselves before 1 October - you know, before there was a smoking ban," he said, according to the Associated Press.

"We call the production, Before the Ban!"

Other bars have taken to the scheme with greater gusto, with customers dressing up in costume, the entrance labelled "stage door" and promising productions such as the Tobacco Monologues.

Up to 100 bars across the state are relying on the legal loophole to allow smokers to continue lighting up.

Health warning

But the state's health department says they are indeed breaking the law, and has threatened to hit them with fines of up to $10,000 (£5,000).

"The law was enacted to protect Minnesotans from the serious health effects of second-hand smoke," said Sanne Magnan, the Minnesota health commissioner.

She said the "theatrics" would have to end.

But bar owners fear their takings will fall once the ban is reimposed, while others will miss the antics.

"It's turned into the most fun thing I can imagine," said Lisa Anderson, owner of a bar in Hall City.

Source: BBC News

Health Officials To Bars: No More Theatrics

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/11/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

No One Wants To Know

Brian De Palma, Nick Broomfield and Paul Haggis have been called traitors and villains, their films branded 'Bin Laden cinema'. They are desperate to tell the truth about what is going on in Iraq. But there seems little appetite for war films right now

It's 2006, and Brian De Palma can't believe his luck. Dotcom billionaire and aspiring film producer Mark Cuban offers him $5m to make a movie. About anything. The only proviso is that it has to be shot in hi-definition. Of course, De Palma jumps at the chance. He tells Cuban he'd like to make a film about the war in Iraq, Cuban hands over the $5m, deal done, everybody is happy.

Fast-forward two years: Redacted has won the prestigious Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, websites such as BoycottRedacted.com are encouraging people not to see it and De Palma has been labelled a traitor. Oh, and De Palma and Cuban have fallen out, the film-maker accusing his producer of censorship.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. After all, De Palma has spent much of the past 40 years inflaming public opinion. He has always loved to play Contrary Mary, and seems to take pleasure in offending. He has been called a misogynist (feminists were infuriated by 1980's Dressed To Kill and its conflation of stilettos, sluts and slashing) and a plagiarist (for borrowing from, or paying homage to, heroes such as Hitchcock). He has even been called a traitor before - his 1989 film Casualties Of War also showed soldiers raping and murdering, back in Vietnam. But this time it's different. In a less liberal America, his fellow countrymen seem to have had enough of him. Scan the internet and lap up the bile. One blogger writes: "This guy should be held accountable for each American death after the release of this filth. He is a treasonist, and should be stripped of his citizenship, and expelled from this country as penniless as he came into it in birth." Fox anchor Bill O'Reilly called De Palma "a true villain in our country" and wished that "FDR was president so De Palma could be imprisoned for treason... Even if you disagree with the Iraq war, even if you dislike President Bush, no loyal American should support an enterprise that incites hatred against America." Meanwhile, US critic Michael Medved focused his criticism on the film. "It could be the worst movie I've ever seen," he said.

The true surprise is that America has not simply turned its back on De Palma's war film, it has turned its back on all Iraq war films. Not even Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie or Robert Redford can entice Americans into the cinema to explore Iraq. What has changed? After all, war movies have been a Hollywood staple. Even hugely unpopular wars, such as Vietnam, have produced hugely popular films such as The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Coming Home, Platoon, Born On The Fourth Of July, all of them Oscar winners. Yet look at the figures for the latest batch, and it seems that all you need to do is shout Iraq to have the public running in droves from the cinema.

Redacted is based on the gang rape, murder and burning of 14-year-old Iraqi girl, Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, by US soldiers in March 2006. The soldiers also killed her parents and younger sister. Redacted means edited or revised to make suitable for publication - De Palma's point is that the authorities have not allowed us to see what we have done to the people of Iraq. Access has been limited, images have been censored, and the few that have been seen have often contradicted the official version of events. De Palma was determined to tell a story that showed the full horror of the Iraq war.

Rather than watching a movie, we seem to be eavesdropping on the very worst of humanity, as his semi-deranged squaddies cross into the heart of darkness. His soldiers refer to the Iraqis as "sand niggers"; they say killing them, or "lighting them up", is like stamping out cockroaches; they mock the suggestion that they might feel guilty for pumping a pregnant woman full of lead. "You can't afford remorse - you have remorse, you get weak; you get weak, you die. Simple as that," one character says.

The film is shot in segments. There is a squaddy's version of events (the character Angel Salazar is recording the action in Iraq, and hoping his video diary Tell Me No Lies will get him into film school when he returns); a documentary in French about routine searches at checkpoints; and blogs from soldiers and their families. All three elements are fiction, created by De Palma, coming together, bit by fractured bit, to tell the appalling story. This is a very modern form of cinema verite, a dramatic reconstruction that does not allow for the traditional comforts of cinema - narrative drive, beauty, recognisable stars, redemption. Redacted is cinema at its most grimy and unforgiving.

The film was fictionalised for legal reasons. But barely - instead of being 14, the raped girl in the film is 15. Early on in Redacted, one of the squad is blown up by an improvised explosive device and another is kidnapped and beheaded by fundamentalists. Their distraught buddies lose their senses and exact a grotesque revenge. De Palma's camera does not turn away from the atrocity. He has never been one for subtlety or suggestion. His critics say that he glories in the explicit depiction of depravity.

I meet the film-maker in Paris, where he once lived. He is in his late 60s and as combative as ever. He is a hard man to like. Grumpy, growly and impatient, he's not the most obvious choice as a spokesman for humanity.

De Palma asks the same question again and again - where are the pictures? "As an American taxpayer I am financing a war that I totally don't believe in; and if we're going to finance the bombing and destruction of a country, I'd like to see the pictures from it. Where are the pictures?"

Have there been fewer pictures from this war than previous wars? "Oh, of course. Of course." How come, when everyone is out there making their own home movies? "They never make their way into the mainstream media because the mainstream media is a big corporation now, and they've got stockholders, and they don't like to put unpleasant pictures up on the air because you can't sell advertising and you're showing a depressing view of the war." In Vietnam, he says, at least sufficient images found their way home to enable people to make an informed decision on the war. But that was the lesson the US government learned from Vietnam - if you're going to fight an unpopular war, make sure photographs of scorched girls running for their lives don't reach the public.

Did he anticipate such hostility to the film? "I knew if I was critical of the soldiers I would get a very strong reaction, because the way the soldiers have been portrayed in the mainstream media has always been as valiant warriors making the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom and liberty of America." He talks about his other controversial movies - Dressed To Kill, the erotic thriller Body Double and the uber-violent Scarface for starters - and says he's used to the pickets and incendiary headlines. Then he stops. Actually, he says, they weren't quite the same. "What I didn't think is that nobody would want to see Redacted. Even the good reviews said, 'Well, this is very difficult to watch.' So that was surprising - that they just don't want to see any movies about Iraq."

He says the mistake that his detractors make is to see this film as simply an attack on the US military. It's an easy mistake to make - their behaviour is unforgivable. Yes, says, De Palma, but that's not the point. "When you have a terrible crime, you want to know how these boys were brought to do this, and that's what the movie shows." And what did bring them to do it? "They are very young. They are taken to a place that they have no idea of or experience of, a very hostile environment, it's very hot, they're carrying 120 pounds of gear on their back, they don't know why they're there because the reasons they are given could be false. They are surrounded by a mysterious and hostile populace. The only logic they can make of why they're doing what they're doing is protecting themselves and their buddies, and then their buddy gets blown up or assassinated, and they turn all their frustration on that populace out there."

Everything about this war, he says, is futile and relentless. Even the landscape in Iraq is hopeless: rubble and wasteland. "In Vietnam there were beaches, tropics; this is a gritty environment."

War and rape are recurrent themes in De Palma's work. "It's a metaphor for my feeling of what America did to Vietnam and what we're doing to Iraq. We come in, we destroy, we rape, we kill and then we leave. The girl represents the innocent country." But it's more than a metaphor, isn't it? "If you're going to rape a country, why not rape its women at the same time," he says baldly. De Palma believes that the consequences of an unjust war are felt for generations, and he quotes one of his characters. "McCoy says you have to have a very good reason to go out and kill people. Because if you don't, it twists you all up inside, and we will be suffering the repercussions of those soldiers that will never be able to deal with the experience of killing women and children for generations."

He is happy to see his film as a form of counter-propaganda. "I want people to try to understand a little better how and why this terrible crime was committed, and how it tells us a lot about our whole occupation and invasion of Iraq."

In some ways, Nick Broomfield's Battle For Haditha is eerily similar to Redacted. Again, it is shot more like a reconstruction than a traditional movie, using no recognisable stars (in this case, mainly non-professional actors), and again it is unremittingly bleak. Both films are based on true stories and have pretty much the same starting and finishing points. In the Iraqi town of Haditha, on November 19 2005, a marine was killed by an insurgent bomb. On the same day, 24 civilians were killed. Initial reports said that 15 had died from the bomb blast and the others in subsequent fighting with US soldiers. But an amateur video, shot by an Iraqi the day after the killings, told a very different story - this had been a massacre. Five men in a taxi had been lined up and shot on the spot, and nearly all the others had been shot in their homes, including seven women and three children, the youngest aged three. Haditha has been called Iraq's My Lai. Four marines faced charges of unpremeditated murder, which were later dropped. Squadron leader Frank Wuterich, who was charged with 12 counts of unpremeditated murder, could still face jail if convicted on charges of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, dereliction of duty or obstruction of justice.

Broomfield tells the story from three perspectives - that of the marines, the two insurgents who plant the bomb and the Iraqi family living in the vicinity. Although the atrocity is every bit as shocking as that depicted in Redacted, Broomfield's film is more nuanced, more humane. Battle For Haditha starts with a series of talking heads - the marines who go on to slaughter the innocents. "What d'you want to know?" asks one boy-man, who looks as if he has not even started shaving. "I live in a shit barracks. Constant threat. I get shot at any minute through every window. I wake up every morning and do the same patrols every day and basically the only thing I'm fighting for, that I know I'm fighting for, is to make it home every day without being killed, because I don't know why we're here." We sympathise with all three sides. The marine largely responsible for the carnage begged to see a doctor before the incident because he was having nightmares - and was refused permission; the older insurgent was a former Iraqi soldier given negligible compensation when the US disbanded the army; the Iraqi family are warm and loving.

Broomfield has not yet found a US distributor for his film. Is that because nobody wants to see films such as this or because distributors have lost confidence in them? "With a couple of million dollars' P&A [promotion and advertising] behind it, one would have a chance." How much has he got behind it? "Well, nothing." But he knows he's having his cake and eating it. This is a guerrilla movie, divorced from the mainstream. Of course, Broomfield doesn't expect a lavish Hollywood-style marketing spree.

He talks more like a campaigning journalist than a movie-maker. Like De Palma, he feels that while there are so few official images provided of body bags and charred victims, it has become the film-maker's role to act as an official recorder. And because they are so angry that the truth has been withheld from the public, they are all the more determined to make their films hard-core.

If there is such a need to chronicle the war, why are the films struggling for an audience? Broomfield points out that the films from Vietnam were made years after the event, when it was no longer so raw. "The other main difference is there was conscription in Vietnam and middle-class college kids were being killed. Here, it's just the poor and dispossessed being killed in Iraq. Nobody needs to deal with it. The rich don't need to deal with - it's Puerto Ricans and white trash being killed in America." However savage the portrayal of Vietnam in Apocalypse Now, made six years after the end of the war, it is obvious to viewers that this is fiction (indeed, it is based on Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness). At least to that extent, we are let off the hook.

The "stars" of Broomfield's film are the very troops he's talking about - former marines who have given desperately convincing performances and now hope to establish themselves as actors. Broomfield calls it real cinema - real people shot in real locations. Now, with cameras so portable, you can shoot on the run, use non-professional actors for long takes and not worry if they screw up because the video is so cheap. "For non-actors you need to make things real, and part of that is you don't have them hit marks and spots and deliver particular lines, and you don't keep stopping them."

As much as anything, he says, these films are about the evolution of technology. "If you look at the story of film, it started off on massive sound stages and was influenced by the theatre. Because the equipment was gigantic, you couldn't move it. Then, when you could move the cameras, you got cinema vérité, and a different way of film-making. So with each technological leap, a whole new school of film-making develops. Especially in De Palma's film - you couldn't possibly have done that a few years ago."

Initially, Broomfield says, things got too real and he feared he might have to stop filming. "The guy who plays the younger insurgent had lost three brothers in Fallujah, and when he learned that some of the marines had been in Fallujah, he wanted to have a confrontation with them. I thought it would be impossible to make, but after two or three weeks they became good friends and were amazed by how much they liked each other. In Iraq, these marines had never really got to know anybody else as human beings - initially, they were full of 'Arabs are dirty' and 'You can't trust them'."

In the second world war, many directors felt it their patriotic duty to make feel-good films to boost the allied effort. Back then, John Wayne was virtually a one-man propaganda machine, starring in Flying Tigers, The Fighting Seabees, Back To Bataan and They Were Expendable - all made between 1942 and 1945. "The Nazis were the horrible enemy," Broomfield says. "They were an easier bad guy than anything that we had in Vietnam or now." Actually, he says, even the Vietnam films had something of a heroic nature, however damaged the soldiers it depicted and however pointless the war it portrayed. Most told the stories of disillusioned stoners who couldn't make sense of what was going on. And yet, even then, it was a simpler war - soldiers knew why they were there, to fight the Commies, even if they disagreed with the rationale. "In the Vietnam films by Oliver Stone, there was a kind of grandeur, an epic quality about them. Iraq is a grubby war. I don't think there's any glory in these films. This is a war where the best footage is all shot by the people on the ground; either the insurgents shoot footage or the American troops shoot footage, and that's probably also influenced the way people depict the war."

Broomfield says making the film left him traumatised. "I used to have nightmares editing it - that I was directing this massacre. For months on end. It was quite haunting, and it did stay with me rather too long."

In The Valley Of Elah, again based on a true story, makes up a trilogy of Iraq bad-apple movies. Directed by double Oscar winner Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby), it is more conventional than the Broomfield and De Palma pictures. It has a conventional narrative (a father determines to find out how his soldier son, just home from Iraq, died), it belongs to a cosier genre (murder mystery) and it has stars (Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron). But at its heart is another unspeakable act committed by the military.

In The Valley Of Elah has also failed commercially. Rightwing groups have labelled it "Bin Laden cinema" and called for it to be boycotted. Haggis's inspiration also came from trawling the web. He was horrified by the blogs soldiers were posting - a shot of a kid with a burned corpse talking to it as if to a buddy, a soldier picking up a dismembered hand and waving it as if it were his own. "I said, 'My God, what is happening?' I know these to be good men and women. These are kids; these are good kids they are sending there."

Since making the film, Haggis has screened it to soldiers and has been shocked by further discoveries. "There is the highest suicide rate in the military in 30 years right now. I was screening this film for some troops and their family members in Washington DC, and afterwards a woman came up to me and said, 'Thanks so much, it was a really hard film to watch. My husband was in active duty, and when he came back he hung himself.' Then another woman came up and said, 'Thanks for making the film. It was really hard to watch because I saw my son in it. He was in Iraq, and the first week back he shot himself.' I walked out and another woman came up to me and said, 'My husband was an Iraq war vet. I was really afraid for the first two weeks until he hung himself.' "These are three women who didn't know each other and this is within seven minutes of me walking out of the theatre. What the fuck is going on?"

Haggis has asked the same question as De Palma - where are the images? "During the Vietnam war, photos were shown that were disturbing, like the one on the evening news of the young child burned by napalm." He doesn't bother asking why they have been excised from the network screens. "It's not brain surgery that when you see a picture of a kid with no head, you can't sell deodorant any more."

Not all the movies to have emerged from Iraq have been so relentlessly feel-bad. But none has been a box-office smash. Rendition, about the kidnap of an Egyptian-American by US authorities who suspect he's a terrorist, starred three Oscar winners - Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin. It took a disappointing $23m at the global box office. Robert Redford's speechy Lions For Lambs, about a US squadron in Afghanistan and boasting its own triumvirate of superstars (Tom Cruise, Redford and Streep again) cost $35m to make and took around $57m worldwide. Even though that may seem like a decent profit, when marketing costs are taken into account, it is not a success - a $100m return is the least that would have been expected. Little wonder New York magazine called it "a critical flop and a box-office bomb". A Mighty Heart, the true story of Marianne Pearl's search for her husband, the journalist Daniel Pearl, starred Angelina Jolie and managed $19m at the box office. Grace Is Gone, which stars John Cusack and features original music written by Clint Eastwood, tells the story of a father who does not want to tell his two children that their soldier mother died in Iraq. The film was made for a tiny $2m, but it has taken a much tinier $50,899 at the box office after being released last December in only four American theatres. Despite winning the Audience award at last year's Sundance Film Festival, Time Out New York gave it minus one star and dismissed it as "grief porn". Perhaps the most successful film about the "war on terror" is The Kingdom, which had grossed $83m by the end of last year; perhaps not surprisingly, although it is a story about Arabs, terrorists and bombs, it is not actually about Iraq, bares little relationship to reality and works as an escapist thriller.

Of all the recent antiwar films, it is De Palma's that has caused the biggest outcry. Despite its award at Venice, and the many column inches it garnered, Redacted was released in only 15 theatres in the US last November and on its first weekend took a paltry $25,628. The latest figures show it has taken $500,000 worldwide.

The pugnacious De Palma has found himself at odds not only with the neocons and a reluctant audience, he has also found himself in conflict with his own producer. Although he was promised he could make the film as he wanted for $5m by Mark Cuban, it didn't quite turn out that way. The film ends with a montage of still photographs (some taken by the Guardian's Ghaith Abdul-Ahad) of war victims - the maimed and the dead. Cuban insisted that the faces be disguised to protect families or those still living. De Palma was outraged, saying that the photographs had already been seen in the press and were available on the internet, and that it would be impossible to obtain permission for usage. He called it an act of censorship.

While De Palma is undoubtedly disgruntled, you can't help sensing he enjoys the irony of his film Redacted being redacted. Has he fallen out with Cuban? "I was very unhappy that my pictures got redacted," he says with a stony face. Didn't Cuban offer him the opportunity to buy the film back from him, though? "That's not true. He never offered me that opportunity, he never answered my phone calls." He gave up on the film? "Absolutely - he didn't want to be associated with those photographs."

I ask why he thinks so few people have watched his movie in the US - lack of opportunity, the call for boycotts, they don't believe it's true, the lack of narrative, the radical format, they don't regard it as entertainment? "A combination of all those things," De Palma replies. "It's reported that it's all not true, that it's a very negative representation of the soldiers, and even though it happened, this is a tiny part of the military and why would anybody make a movie like this. And even the people who like it say, well, this is an extremely difficult film to watch."

Does he find it difficult to watch? "It's pretty tough material, yes. But I found Casualties Of War hard to watch, too." Is Redacted harder to watch? "Yes, it's very sad material."

But he is convinced its time will come. He says that it's a film ahead of its time, and reminds me that the earliest Vietnam movies were made years after the war finished. "Redacted deals with very moving material in a very new form and it may take a while for people to adjust to it. In time, they will come to accept it because all the information the Bush administration has been suppressing will come out and we'll learn the terrible stories that they've been hiding from us for so long. Whether it finds it this year or in years to come, I just think the movie will find its audience."

Redacted is released on March 14.

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/10/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Bush Vetoes Interrogation Limits

US President George Bush says he has vetoed legislation that would stop the CIA using interrogation methods such as simulated drowning or "water-boarding".

He said he rejected the intelligence bill, passed by Senate and Congress, as it took "away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror".

The president said the CIA needed "specialised interrogation procedures" that the military did not.

Water-boarding is condemned as torture by rights groups and many governments.

It is an interrogation method that puts the detainee in fear of drowning.

Track record

Speaking in his weekly radio address, Mr Bush did not mention water-boarding specifically.

"The bill Congress sent me would not simply ban one particular interrogation method, as some have implied," he said.

"Instead, it would eliminate all the alternative procedures we've developed to question the world's most dangerous and violent terrorists."

He added: "This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe."

Correspondents say the slim margin by which the bill was passed means it is unlikely that the Democratic-controlled Congress could gather enough votes to overturn Mr Bush's veto.

The bill would have restricted Central Intelligence Agency officials to using the 19 interrogation techniques outlined by the US army field manual.

It would ban the CIA from using not only water-boarding, but sensory deprivation and other harsh coercive methods on prisoners.

The CIA recently publicly admitted using water-boarding on three people, including high-profile al-Qaeda detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but not for the past five years.

Source: BBC News

Bush Vetoes Bill Banning Waterboarding

Bush: Wrong to ban "practices that have a proven ... record of keeping America safe"
Bill would also ban beating, electrocuting, burning, using dogs
Also would ban stripping detainees, forcing them to perform or mimic sexual acts
Senator: "Bush's veto will be one of the most shameful acts of his presidency"

President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said. The bill he rejected provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and has the interrogation requirement as one provision. It cleared the House in December and the Senate last month.

"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," the president said.

Supporters of the legislation say it would preserve the United States' ability to collect critical intelligence while also providing a much-needed boost to country's moral standing abroad.

"Torture is a black mark against the United States," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California. "We will not stop until [the ban] becomes law."

The bill would limit CIA interrogators to the 19 techniques allowed for use by military questioners. The Army field manual in 2006 banned using methods such as waterboarding or sensory deprivation on uncooperative prisoners.

Bush said the CIA must retain use of "specialized interrogation procedures" that the military doesn't need. The military methods are designed for questioning "lawful combatants captured on the battlefield," while intelligence professionals are dealing with "hardened terrorists" who have been trained to resist the techniques in the Army manual, the president said.

"We created alternative procedures to question the most dangerous al Qaeda operatives, particularly those who might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland," Bush said. "If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the field manual, we could lose vital information from senior al Qaeda terrorists, and that could cost American lives."

The legislation's backers say the military's approved methods are sufficient to any need.

Those 19 interrogation techniques to which the bill would have restricted CIA personnel include the "good cop/bad cop" routine, making prisoners think they are in another country's custody and separating a prisoner from others for up to 30 days.

Among the techniques the field manual prohibits are hooding prisoners or putting duct tape across their eyes, stripping them naked, forcing them to perform or mimic sexual acts, or beating, electrocuting, burning or otherwise physically hurting them.

They may not be subjected to hypothermia or mock executions. It does not allow food, water and medical treatment to be withheld. Dogs may not be used in any aspect of interrogation.

But waterboarding is the most high-profile and controversial of the interrogation methods in question.

It involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his or her cloth-covered face to simulate and create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years to the Spanish Inquisition and is condemned by nations around the world and human rights organizations as torture.

Some argue it must be banned because, if torture, it is illegal under international and U.S. law. The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 includes a provision barring cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment for all detainees in U.S. custody, including CIA prisoners, and many believe that covers waterboarding.

Others say that, even if legal, there are practical arguments against waterboarding: that its use would undermine the U.S. when arguing overseas for human rights and on other moral issues and would place Americans at greater risk of being tortured when captured.

"President Bush's veto will be one of the most shameful acts of his presidency," Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said in a statement Friday. "Unless Congress overrides the veto, it will go down in history as a flagrant insult to the rule of law and a serious stain on the good name of America in the eyes of the world."

He noted that the Army field manual contends that harsh interrogation is a "poor technique that yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to say what he thinks the (interrogator) wants to hear."

The U.S. military specifically prohibited waterboarding in 2006. The CIA also prohibited the practice in 2006, and says it has not been used since three prisoners encountered it in 2003.

But while some Bush administration officials have questioned the current legality of waterboarding, the administration has refused to rule definitively on whether it is torture. Bush has said many times that his administration does not torture.

The White House says waterboarding remains among the interrogation methods potentially available to the CIA. Its use would have to be approved, on a case-by-case basis, by the president after consultation with the attorney general and the intelligence community. Among the acceptable situations for approving it could be belief of imminent attack, according to the White House.

"Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists," Bush said.

Source: CNN News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/09/2008 at 9:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Remember: My Very First Concert

Bryan Adams. I was 14. Waking Up the World Tour. I've been to millions of shows since, but that was definitely A+++. I wore the T-shirt to school a couple times and older kids totally ragged on me. I still have the shirt and those kids can get bent! BA is my guilty pleasure.  Nat X

New Kids on the Block at the Oakland Arena, when I was 13. The opening act was, I believe, Dino, who I can see in retrospect was kind of a sleazy guy to have singing to a bunch of preteen girls. I don't know if I'd give the show a very high grade overall (particularly because my only clear memory is of noticing they had a Mac in the backstage area), but it did serve as a useful introduction to the concept of mass hysteria.  daisyj

My first concert ever was Genesis in 1983. It was a good show, but what I'll most remember about the show was that it was the first time I ever smelled pot! Yes, I led a sheltered life up till then. I also remember getting rear-ended on the way home. 'There must be some Misunderstanding/There must be some kind of mistaaaaaaake.'  JoeC

My first concert was Smashing Pumpkins at the Cow Palace. But more importantly, my favorite band of all time, Garbage, was opening. Staring up at Shirley definitely rates the show an A+.  Jessica

My first concert was A ++++++++ It was 7th grade and the band was Led Zeppelin. They projected all those weird symbols from the album on the ceiling of the Indianapolis dome. My dad bought me tickets for my birthday. Coolest birthday present ever. I know this just dated me horribly, but I'm proud that Led Zeppelin was my first.  amy

Janet Jackson, The Velvet Rope Tour, 1998 with Usher as the opener. Awesome first concert, but it was totally topped years later by both the Cher Farewell (I really mean it this time!) Tour and Madonna's Confessions Tour.  JEM

Tears for Fears in DC, June 1985. I was 14. At the time, I recorded it my journal as so excellent!! (Please imagine the extra exclamation marks, underlines and little hearts in the margins.) But since then, I've regretted going to that show, as it prevented me from seeing the Smiths the following evening. I believe my continuing regret has been catalogued on this very blog a while back.  Martha

My first concert was Jimmy Buffett. I'm not sure why my parents let my wayward uncle take me. It was just one huge margarita-soaked party where a concert happened to be going on. I got lost after partaking in a conga line. I don't think I saw enough of the actual show to grade it.  Rose Tyler

This is tough to admit, but I think it will be good to get it out there. My first concert was Weird Al. I was only 10 and didn't know any better. I thought UHF was funny and thought, "Hey, this could be fun." At the time it was, but looking back, good God, has that dead horse been beaten to death ten times over.  DCR

Hootie and the Blowfish. I was 6 years old singing along with drunken frat boys. I don't know what my parents were thinking either. A plus plus, though.  chree

Duran Duran, April 13, 1987 in Copenhagen, Denmark. I was 13 at the time and the show was so unbelievably good that I promptly spent all my savings with a scalper to buy a ticket for next night's show. I've seen them 12 times since and they never disappoint. Glam-Britpop aside, they are a great, great live band!  Sorgenfri

Stevie Wonder with Rufus featuring Chaka Khan opening. It was definitely A+. Stevie was funny, sincere, sang his hits in great voice, improvised and toyed with the audience with synthesizer before saying in a childlike singsong voice, 'I won the bet  Ali won the fight.' Ali had beaten the seemingly invincable (and at that time much-disliked) George Foreman. The whole place went NUTS and Stevie broke into 'Superstition.' Oh yeah, Rufus was good, too.  starchild

Everyone will laugh at me for this...I was 15 and my mom got me tickets to a Backstreet Boys concert...While she went to find our seats in the nose-bleed section, I talked a security guard into letting me on the main floor and I was front-row center the entire night screaming at Nick Carter (cuz I was in looove)...  Jessica

Limp Bizkit. To this day, I wish I could see them again, A+ for sure. It was good family fun, but with added swearing. Time to break out the Yankees cap in remembrance!  Daniel!

The Beach Boys when I was nine. It might sound lame until you hear UNCLE JESSE was on the drums. It ruled.  Meghan

Rick Springfield at the Philadelphia Spectrum. I cried like a little girl, which is acceptable because I was, well, a little girl.  Jelana

My first show was Fishbone at Stony Brook University! Must have been '87 or '88. I was just a wee lad and have never, ever experienced ANYTHING like that show before. Or since, for that matter. They completely blew me away and my ears were never the same. To this day, it is the BEST live show I have ever attended. It was the first time I ever let go and just danced, danced, and danced. I didn't want it to end. Thinking about it now brings back all those wonderful feelings.  Harry

I like to pretend my first show was Fishbone/Primus in 1991 (I was 14 then) and it was an A+++ show. But the truth, the painful truth, is that my first concert was Debbie Gibson in Milwaukee back in 1988. I went with my MOM and I was maybe 11 at the time. Man, those kids at school really made fun of me for wearing that Debbie Gibson 1988 Tour T-shirt. Part of me's always wondered if that ridicule was what caused me to go punk in high school.  Ep Sato

Source: Entertainment Weekly

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/08/2008 at 9:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Year That Changed Hollywood

New book "Pictures at a Revolution" tracks 1967 best picture Oscar nominees
Films show where Hollywood was heading -- and how it got there
Year included groundbreaking films "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Graduate"
Personalities such as Sidney Poitier caught in societal currents

When Jack Warner, head and co-founder of the studio that still bears his name, was ready to screen "Bonnie and Clyde" for the first time, he cautioned director Arthur Penn that he wasn't inclined to be gracious to Penn's troubling little movie.

Star and producer Warren Beatty, center, and "Bonnie and Clyde" paved the way for a new generation of films.

"If I have to get up and pee," he said, "I'll know it's a lousy movie."

Warner, recalls Penn in Mark Harris' "Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood" (Penguin Press), wasn't suffering from bashful bladder that day. "He was up before the first reel, and several times after that," Penn told Harris.

But, in his ignorance, Warner was missing more than a few scenes of the Warren Beatty-Faye Dunaway gangster film. He was missing the arrival of a new era of movies, one heralded by two groundbreaking 1967 films: "Bonnie and Clyde" and "The Graduate."

Those two films are considered landmarks in American movies, but they weren't all that 1967 produced.

In his new book, Harris shows how the five films nominated for the best picture Oscar -- which also included "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "Doctor Dolittle" and eventual winner "In the Heat of the Night" -- suggested not only the changing of the movie business, but a reflection of their times, with a colorful cast of characters (even movie critics) negotiating the whipsaw currents.

Harris, a columnist for CNN.com partner Entertainment Weekly, says he wanted to dig deeper into an era that has proven fodder for no shortage of excellent books.

"I certainly knew that what everyone now considers a golden age of American movies had been written about," he says in a phone interview from New York, referring to the wealth of material on 1970s moviemaking such as Peter Biskind's "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls." "But I was interested in what precipitated that."

We tend to see movies as if they're of their immediate times, he observes; certainly, "Bonnie and Clyde," "The Graduate" and "In the Heat of the Night" seem very much of their 1967 zeitgeist, when public opinion had started to turn against the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement had begun to splinter.

But Harris adds, "We forget that movies take two to four years to develop." When we talk about their timeliness, he says, "we're really talking about a miracle."

"Bonnie and Clyde," for instance, originated in 1963 as a project by two Esquire staffers, Robert Benton and David Newman, intended for French director François Truffaut. Over the next four years, it accrued and dropped talent, financiers and thematic elements, its changes paralleling those of society.

And any betting studio mogul would have picked "Dolittle" as the most likely success. In the mid-'60s, when the project got under way, "My Fair Lady" and "The Sound of Music" had won back-to-back best picture Oscars, and the latter had become the biggest box-office success of all time.

Musicals were a sure thing -- or so thought the aging moguls trying to hold onto their studios, which were being gobbled up by conglomerates.

But the moguls were missing the cultural shifts of the times -- not only ways of doing business, which were shifting from top-down studio machinery to independent producers, but the rising influence of art films and youthful, film-savvy moviegoers looking for more than beach movies, weak sex comedies and bloated epics.

Harris notes the transition was anything but smooth -- even within the movies themselves. The directors and actors may have been relatively young, but some crew members (and studio heads) could trace their careers back to the silent era.

For example, "Graduate" director Mike Nichols, then a wunderkind with one film under his belt, had to find a way to collaborate with cinematographer Robert Surtees, whose career dated back to the early '30s. (Ironically, Surtees was also the cinematographer of "Doctor Dolittle.")

At its best, the relationship benefited both sides, Harris says.

"They turned into collaborators," he says. "Nichols made Surtees more modern, more contemporary in style, and Surtees taught Nichols a lot about making movies."

Harris himself benefited from talking to a number of the principals, including Nichols, Beatty, Penn, "Graduate" star Dustin Hoffman, "Heat" director Norman Jewison and 20th Century Fox executive Richard Zanuck -- not that they all agreed with each other, or even their former selves.

"I had to not only arbitrate between two conflicting accounts of people involved with the films, but also with differing accounts from the same person," Harris says. (Beatty, talking about a Penn opinion of their 1965 film "Mickey One": "He now believes I was right? That's funny, because I now believe I was wrong.")

One person Harris didn't get to speak to was Sidney Poitier, in many ways both the hero and tragic figure of "Pictures at a Revolution." He was "a complete gentleman" when approached, Harris says, "but he had his own reasons" for not speaking. Fortunately, Harris adds, Poitier has been quite candid in other interviews and books.

The African-American actor was the top box office star of 1967. Yet he was caught in several binds. His movies struggled for distribution in the South. He was too often hailed as a noble representative of his race, which lost him credibility among younger audiences, but as the only major black movie star, his choice of roles was limited by what the studios would support -- such as the flawless doctor in "Dinner."

"I don't think he would want to be referred to as a victim, but he was not only a victim of outright racism but a victim of the insidious effect of being the exception," Harris says. "He was the only one allowed to have those lead roles. It had to have been a terrible burden. ... I think he handled it as well as anybody."

The 1967 nominees didn't change Hollywood overnight; "Old Hollywood didn't magically vanish in 1967," Harris says. (Best picture of 1968: a giant musical, "Oliver!" The groundbreaking and popular "2001: A Space Odyssey" wasn't even nominated.) But they forced the studios to recognize a new age had arrived.

"What convinces Hollywood to change is money," Harris says. "By the time 'The Graduate' was at the end of its run, it was the third highest-grossing movie in history. Those are the kinds of numbers that make even hidebound executives say, 'We're in a new world.' "

Source: CNN News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/07/2008 at 9:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Contests Leave Democratic Race Up In The Air

Clinton wins primaries in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island; Obama takes Vermont
Race could go all the way to the Democratic convention in August
Clinton hints at possible joint ticket
Pelosi says race will be decided before the convention

The latest round of Democratic contests leveled the playing field, leaving everyone asking, "Now what happens?"

Sen. Hillary Clinton says her wins Tuesday night mean voters think she can win in the fall.

Sen. Hillary Clinton picked up critical wins Tuesday night in the Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island primaries. Sen. Barack Obama won in Vermont.

The Texas caucuses -- which offer up about a third of the state's delegates -- are still too close to call.

Obama didn't lose his lead, but he lost his momentum. The Illinois senator was on a 12-contest winning streak since Super Tuesday before Clinton stopped him by winning the two big prizes Tuesday night.

CNN's latest delegate count has Obama with 1,520 delegates to Clinton's 1,424. To clinch the Democratic nomination, a candidate must get 2,025 delegates.

But because the Democratic delegates are allocated proportionally, the race appears to be headed to the party's convention in August. Clinton or Obama would need substantial wins in almost all of the remaining contests to get the magic number. Watch what's next for the Democrats »

The Democrats' next big primary is seven weeks away. The race shifts to Pennsylvania, where 158 delegates are at stake. Wyoming and Mississippi hold contests before then, but there aren't as many delegates up for grabs.

Both camps already have their Pennsylvania teams working hard. Watch how Pittsburgh could play a key role »

"Pennsylvania on paper is a good state for Clinton. It's a lot like Ohio demographically. Like in Ohio, she has the support of the very politically active governor, Ed Rendell. So I think Obama has his work cut out for him there," said Mark Halperin, a political analyst with Time magazine.

The upcoming contests will be crucial in determining who holds the momentum, but the math's not there to crown a winner.

"There are not enough votes left among pledged delegates for anybody to win the nomination," said Mary Frances Berry, former chairwoman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. "One person's going to be ahead, one's going to be behind. It will come down to the superdelegates."

The nearly 800 superdelegates -- various party leaders and officials who cast their vote at the convention -- are free to vote for the candidate of their choice.

Based on superdelegates who have publicized their preference, Clinton leads Obama 238-199.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday now is not the time for superdelegates to wade into the fight.

"I think the electoral process has to work its way," the California Democrat told reporters.

"There are still many voters unheard from yet, and I think that our candidates both have the capacity to inspire, to bring out a big vote that will hold us in good stead in November, and I think that now is not the time for anybody to weigh in."

Pelosi said she was confident the nominee would be decided before the Democratic convention in August, and that she was "never among those who believed this would be resolved by now."

She argued that the prolonged campaign is good for the party, and offers Democrats a chance to "make a clear distinction" about their differences with Republicans on a range of issues.

Tuesday's contests made Sen. John McCain the likely Republican nominee, so the Democrats are competing not only against each other but also against McCain.

While Democratic contenders fight for their party's bid, McCain can turn his attention to the general election.

Obama Wednesday challenged Clinton's claim she was the best candidate to take on McCain in the fall.

"I think that I am in a much stronger position to run against the Republicans than she is, otherwise I wouldn't be running for president," he said.

Clinton said she could go "toe-to-toe" on national security issues with McCain.

"People who voted a month ago didn't know who the Republican nominee was going to be. They didn't perhaps factor in that it will be about national security because, indeed, with Sen. McCain, that's what it will be about," Clinton said Wednesday.

Clinton and Obama both say they will be their party's nominee, and while that's not possible, it is possible they could both appear on the Democratic ticket.

Clinton Wednesday said she would consider being part of what some Democrats call a "dream ticket" that would include both candidates.

"That may be where this is headed," the New York senator said on the "CBS Early Show." "But of course we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."

The Obama camp has avoided making similar statements.

Meanwhile, another big question looms over the election -- what do the Democrats do with Michigan and Florida? Clinton won both states, but no delegates were at stake because the states were penalized for violating party rules by scheduling their primaries early.

The Democratic candidates had agreed not to campaign in either state, and Clinton was the only major candidate on Michigan's ballot.

Clinton wants both states to count, and there's talk in Florida of a primary do-over. The problem is another primary would not come cheap.

"If the [Democratic National Committee] wants to talk about another Florida presidential primary, but not paid for by the taxpayers of Florida -- they have already paid $18 million for the presidential primary that was held. If the DNC were to pay for another election, then that might be considered," said Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat.

Source: CNN News

Divided Democrats Face Long And Dirty Campaign

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are preparing for a long and potentially brutal struggle for the Democratic party's presidential nomination, with both campaign teams hinting darkly about resorting to even more negative tactics as the race progresses. Clinton's campaign attribute her wins in the primaries in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island on Tuesday night to her aggressive tactics in the past week that forced Obama on to the defensive.

The Obama team yesterday threatened to retaliate by exploring skeletons in the cupboard of former president Bill Clinton and his wife, and to demand disclosure of her tax returns. She has been reluctant to release the latter, possibly afraid to let voters see the extent of her wealth.

Despite her three victories on Tuesday, Clinton has failed to make a significant dent in Obama's commanding lead in the race for the Democratic nomination. Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island awarded her only 12 more delegates than he got.

Obama won Vermont and also regained lost ground in the Texas caucuses, held immediately after the state's primary. With 12 delegates still to be awarded from the 370 at stake, the breakdown was 185 for Clinton and 173 for Obama.

During a round of television interviews yesterday morning Obama claimed that his lead in delegates was too big for her to catch up. "We have an insurmountable lead. We're very confident we can win the nomination and the general election."

Although the arithmetic is against Clinton, her wins provide her with momentum going into the primary in Pennsylvania, a megastate, on April 22.

The long timelag allows Clinton to attack Obama with even more intensity than she displayed during the past week, and which exit polls suggest swayed last-minute voters on Tuesday. Her team concentrated on his links with Anton Rezko, the Chicago property developer on trial for alleged corruption, broadcast a scare ad suggesting that Obama was weak on national security and was lying about his policy on jobs and international trade.

The Clinton camp signalled it would keep up the aggressive tactics. She is to hold an event today aimed at highlighting what she claims is Obama's lack of national security experience.

The contest is unlikely to be decided in Pennsylvania and could now continue all the way to Denver. The prospect of a prolonged campaign is alarming many in the party, who fear intensive in-fighting will help the Republicans. One compromise would be for Clinton and Obama to run on the same ticket.

Obama has 1,562 delegates, including the super delegates, members of Congress and other senior party members who have an automatic vote at the summer conference, and Clinton 1,461. It takes 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination. He is expected to extend his lead by winning the Wyoming caucuses on Saturday and the Mississippi primary next Tuesday.

Asked on CBS whether she and Obama should be running mates, as presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Clinton said: "That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me." But relations between the sides are poor and neither side is prepared to accept the consolation prize.

David Axelrod, Obama's communications chief, indicated yesterday that he expected the race would continue to be rough. "If Senator Clinton wants to take the debate to various places we'll join that debate," he said. "We'll do it on our terms and in our own way, but if she wants to make issues like ethics and disclosure and law firms and real estate deals and all that stuff, as I've said before I don't know why they'd want to go there, but I guess that's where they'll take the race."

Even if Clinton wins Pennsylvania, it would not be enough to close the gap. Her team is suggesting for the first time that primaries should be rerun in Florida and Michigan, which held contests in January but were disqualified from sending delegates because they breached party rules. Clinton won both contests, partly because Obama did not participate.

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/06/2008 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Multimedia Search Sorts Messy Web

Finding video and audio on the net is getting easier as more companies look to automated ways of delivering specific content to people's computers.

Multimedia search firm Blinkx is the latest to use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) to make it easier for people to find the web video and audio they want.

Users can look for any word uttered in news videos, podcasts and video blogs.

Multimedia search is beginning increasingly important with Google and Yahoo also providing video search.

Text analysis

Blinkx's service uses smart voice recognition technology to scan video and audio it finds on the web. A searchable transcript is then automatically generated.

With RSS built into Blinkx's service, Harry Potter fans can save a Potter search and enter it into the webfeed reader.

It is allowing media content to be atomised and split into smaller chunks Suranga Chandratillake, Blinkx Pick of the podcasts RSS explained

Blinkx founder, Suranga Chandratillake, told the BBC News website said that because there was so much audio and video on the net, particularly with the advent of podcasting, it made sense to make search and delivery automated.

"What we did there was look at where search today fails," he said.

"One big area is TV and video content. There is lots of it but it is surprisingly difficult to find it."

Although video and audio on the web has been around for some time, the rise of broadband and better compression techniques have driven its popularity and quality.

Most main news websites carry video reports now. Blinkx, a year old this week, has pursued talks with the likes of the Bloomberg, BBC, CNN and Fox to index their content.

There is also a small but growing band of video bloggers now who are also threatening to take podcast-type programmes into the visual arena.

Poor descriptions

The video search services offered by Google and Yahoo do not analyse the content with voice recognition or play the programmes. They search description information from host sites, or closed caption information.

Potter fans can get Potter news delivery (not by owl post) by RSS

US broadcasters and the likes of the BBC are obliged to include closed caption information in broadcasts as part of a commitment to accessibility.

But, explained Mr Chandratillake, it is often missing in older, archival content.

Often publishers do not provide adequate enough descriptions of the what is in web video either, he said.

Blinkx uses voice recognition technology too, which has been around for some time but is becoming smarter and more accurate.

The speaker-independent voice recognition technology, from UK-based Autonomy, is 96-97% accurate on broadcast quality video, according to Mr Chandratillake.

The same "listening" technology is used by the Department of Homeland Security in the US as well as other security agencies.

"Our core back end server is an IBM machine which cost around $1,500. One of them can listen to four 'conversations' in parallel," he said.

"One of the content types we have added recently are podcasts. That alone is generating 500 hours a day of content to search."

My media

Blinkx monitors nearly 27,000 podcast "channels" or feeds, a jump from just over 1,200 in January.

Google has its own kind of video search

There are other services popping up, such as Podscope, which search the content of podcasts, rather than services which list them in directories according to genre or popularity.

What Blinkx and others are doing with automated search and delivery is yet another step closer to people defining their own media channels.

"It is allowing media content to be atomised and split into smaller chunks to be passed around to different devices," he explained.

"People will expect more and have more control over when, where and what they watch."

Source: BBC News

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/05/2008 at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Hillary Will Never Say Die, But Tuesday Could See Her Killed Off

This week's primaries in delegate-rich Ohio and Texas are Clinton's last roll of the dice: for months, she led the opinion polls in both states, but now Barack Obama, the Democratic frontrunner, looks likely to snatch at least one of them away from her. Paul Harris in Texas reports on the crumbling hopes of an American family

Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton in New York, April 2007

It did not look like a political wake. Senator Hillary Clinton emerged into a basketball stadium in Houston wearing a bright red jacket, beaming broadly and waving at thousands of screaming supporters.

Gene Green, a Texan congressman, introduced her with confident words predicting her return to the White House. 'I think we have a president standing on this platform! The next president of the United States!' he shouted. Clinton carried on the mood of hopeful triumph. She skilfully worked the crowd, hushing it with touching anecdotes and sparking cheers with exhortations to support her. 'It is beginning to grow,' she said of her Texas campaign. 'We are moving!'

But the cracks in Clinton's bid for the presidency were also on display. Though 6,000 people had come to the Delmar Sports Complex in the Houston suburbs, there were many empty blue seats in the stadium. High up in the top tier, whole rows went unfilled.

Clinton is in the battle of her life and the odds are against her. And it is not only a fight to be the next occupant of the White House. It is also about the legacy that Clinton and her husband, Bill, have left America and whether they still have a role to play.

They are also willing to play nasty to emerge victorious. American TV screens are now full of one of the most aggressive attack ads in recent history. Dubbed 'Children', it in effect suggests that a vote for Barack Obama will lead to such weakness on national security that the American homeland will be in peril. It is shot over pictures of sleeping babies and it appeals directly to the 'security moms' demographic that Clinton needs.

But the facts on the ground remain the same. It has finally come down to this: on Tuesday, Clinton needs to win Texas and Ohio. Anything less could force her from the race and spell the end of the Clinton dynasty. The revered Clinton brand, once so confident of a second act, is now desperately fighting to stop the curtain coming down early.

Even her most ardent fans have doubts. Toy Halsey, 67, had waited for hours to see Clinton in Houston. But would Clinton win Texas? 'I hope so,' Halsey said, and then looked unsure. 'It is going to be hard,' she admitted. Later, as Clinton's speech wore on, a steady trickle of supporters left early. They were like loyal fans near the end of a football match ducking out because they knew their side was going to lose.

It was not meant to be like this. It has been forgotten in the rush to write the Clintons' political obituaries, but for most of last year Clinton ran a flawless campaign. She dominated through the spring and summer and early autumn, fending off the challenge from the upstart Obama. Then, during a televised debate on 30 October, she fluffed a question about driving licences for illegal immigrants. Suddenly it was open season on Clinton. First came defeat in Iowa. Then followed a disastrous performance in South Carolina. She steadied herself on Super Tuesday, before the momentum behind Obama propelled him to 11 straight victories.

Now Clinton's presidential hopes are pinned on winning Texas and Ohio. Yet neither looks certain. She still leads in Ohio, where her blue-collar support seems to be giving her a narrow lead. But, in Texas, Obama has now nudged ahead, mobilising his familiar combination of black, educated professional and young voters. If previous contests are a guide, once Obama has overturned a Clinton lead in a state, he tends to win it. 'Times have changed. The reality is that the Clinton campaign is now in a place that they never expected to be in,' said Professor Shawn Bowler, a political scientist at the University of California at Riverside.

If Clinton's ambitions for the 2008 White House do die in Texas, it will be a fitting full stop. For it was here, back in 1972, that a youthful Hillary Rodham and her boyfriend, Bill Clinton, worked on voter registration for the anti-Vietnam war candidacy of George McGovern. That was her first big political experience in the field. Now, as she seeks to be America's first woman President, the Clintons are back where it all began.

Her campaign here is pulling out all the stops. As Clinton arrived at the Houston rally, it would be her third speech of the day. Her voice was not just hoarse because of recent campaigning. It has been hoarse for weeks as one of the most gruelling battles in memory has played out across the country. Yet Clinton herself still seemed on top form. Her stump speech was powerful and delivered with enthusiasm. The crowd responded too. The cheers, amplified by the small indoor venue, were deafening.

Nor is Clinton alone in her fight. Chelsea Clinton has been cutting a trail across American campuses. And, of course, Bill Clinton has been pounding through Ohio and Texas on a punishing schedule. He can make up to half-a-dozen appearances a day, on the stump for his wife in a bid to return to the lost glories of his own days in the White House.

Yet the Bill Clinton campaigning now is different from the one whose actions in South Carolina - playing the race card and talking about himself more than his spouse - helped derail her candidacy. In a rally on a college campus in Austin, he even said she would be a better president than he had been. 'I believe that if you elect her... you will have more jobs, more broadly based prosperity, during her presidency than when I was president. You will never have a chance to vote for a better change-maker,' he said.

Such a profound shift shows how much has changed. Behind the scenes, Bill Clinton remains as powerful as ever, playing a key role in a recent shake-up of her top staff. But in public he has backed off from 1990s nostalgia; now the focus is not on a return to the prosperity of the Clintonian past, but a desperate bid to convince Americans that the Clintons remain relevant.

It is no longer an easy sell. At the Austin rally, a group of Obama-ite students heckled the former President. One of Clinton's prominent Austin supporters, county commissioner Margaret Gomez, made her pitch with a metaphor that seemed to spring out of a high-school prom. 'When you get to the front of the line, you don't let a nice cute guy take your place,' she told the crowd of students. 'Especially if he's going to whisper sweet nothings in your ear.'

But that nice, cute guy is doing well in Texas and his sweet nothings have an eager audience. A day before Clinton appeared in Houston, Obama addressed a crowd of thousands at the small college town of San Marcos. It was an enormous rally, planned with the precision of a rock concert. The town's main street was shut down, snipers patrolled the rooftops and hundreds of people crowded the edge of the outdoor event, desperate to get a peek at Obama. Nearly all of them were young. 'His coolness is definitely better than Clinton's,' said photography student Mitchell Ahrens, 22.

The brutal fact is that no one in Clinton's campaign predicted the emergence of the Obama phenomenon. It was a staggering oversight and blindsided their otherwise enormous efforts. Even now, with the pundits saying her campaign is in ruins, Clinton's bid for the presidency would be stellar in a normal race. She raised an astonishing $35m in February. She speaks to huge crowds. Yet this is no longer a normal race. At each turn, 'Obama-mania' is beating her hands down. Obama is expecting to have raised more than $50m last month. His crowds across Texas - and everywhere else in America - have shattered records.

Now that the Clintons are fighting for their political future, they have belatedly realised that Hillary is battling not just an opponent, but a fully fledged movement. So they have gone negative. After all, there is little left to lose.

Her brutal new attack ad in Texas is simply the latest line in a series of nasty volleys at Obama. But it does set a new standard for naked aggression. The advert features a crisis hotline ringing in the middle of the night at the White House. 'It's 3am and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?' the voiceover asks ominously over shots of sleeping babies.

The underlying message is stark: electing Obama will allow terrorists to hurt your children. But that ad is just the surface. Photos of Obama dressed up in traditional Somali garb on a trip to Africa surfaced on the infamous Drudge Report website.

The Clinton campaign has also stepped up attacks on the media for giving Obama an easy time, while pushing claims that Obama had plagiarised speeches and had borrowed the tactics of Republican bête noire Karl Rove in spreading misinformation. It has rapidly become a street fight, and it could get even dirtier.

The Clintons have prepared for this campaign since 2000; they are not about to let it go without using every tactic in their disposal. 'They don't give up. They don't know how to,' said Bowler. And yet the countdown has begun. Tuesday's vote looms in Texas and Ohio. If she loses one of those states, the pressure for her to quit will be immense.

But this fight may not be over. Clinton could win both her target states and spark yet another comeback. Or she could ignore the advice of her close advisers and fight on to Pennsylvania in six weeks' time. Late last week, top Clinton staffers were briefing reporters that she might fight on even if she just won one state this week. If that happens, she would probably face a revolt from party elders desperate to avoid a divided convention in August.

But she could ignore them and keep fighting with everything she has left. She could go to the courts to try to reinstate the currently discounted delegates of Florida and Michigan. Her team has already raised the prospect of suing in Texas, whose election rules are seen as too arcane. And that is before Texans have even voted.

So far, Clinton has given no sign that defeat is seen as likely, no sign that this race is Obama's and that her final hope might actually lie 2012. Or that her time has finally passed.

In Houston, she was still asking her supporters for help in shaping the America to come, not looking back at her achievements. She still has a vision of a Clinton Era Mark II.

She ended her rally with a loud appeal. 'Are you ready?' Let's go out and make history together!' The crowd dutifully roared its approval. But the empty seats above the cheerers delivered a different kind of verdict. The days of the Clintons making history might soon be over.

Source: The Guardian Unlimited

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/04/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink

New Film Explores Fate Of Nazi Germany's Titanic

A new television film about the sinking of a Nazi ship carrying thousands of German refugees at the end of World War Two has lifted the lid on one of Germany's most painful memories.

The film, to be broadcast on Sunday and Monday, tells the story of the former Nazi cruise ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", torpedoed by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea on Jan. 30, 1945. As many as 9,300 people died -- believed to be biggest loss of life on a single ship.

Yet the tale of the Gustloff, which has frequently been referred to as Germany's Titanic, remains relatively unknown outside the country due to the reluctance of postwar generations to examine publicly Germans' suffering during the war.

"It's been very hard to talk about this because it raises the difficult question of German victimhood in a war the Nazis began," said British historian Roger Moorhouse. "This enforced silence for years will have been painful to many people."

"But it's really a testament to how the treatment of German history is returning to normal that the story is now being told as a big budget film on prime-time German television."

The multi-million euro production "Die Gustloff" was to be aired on ZDF state television.

The imposing 209 metre-long (685 feet) Gustloff, named after the assassinated head of the Swiss Nazi party, was launched in 1937 and conceived as a cruise liner for the Nazis' leisure organisation Kraft durch Freude, or "strength through joy".

Once war broke out, it was used by the German military.

Hundreds of soldiers were on the ship when it set off on its final voyage from Gotenhafen (now Gdynia in Poland) for Kiel. However, the vast majority of its passengers were refugees, many of them women and children fleeing from the advancing Red Army.

TERRIBLE SCREAMS

The ship was designed to carry about 1,500 passengers, but historians now estimate over 10,000 people were on board when it sank on the 12th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's seizure of power.

Directed by Joseph Vilsmaier, who made the anti-war film "Stalingrad", the three-hour movie is the first to dramatise the Gustloff's fate since German reunification in 1990. In 1959, a black-and-white West German film about the sinking was shot.

Until Germany's Nobel laureate Guenter Grass addressed it in his 2002 novel "Im Krebsgang" (Crabwalk) the history of the Gustloff -- whose death toll compares with around 1,500 for the Titanic -- was relatively obscure even inside Germany.

The film, which Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of Germany's Central Council of Jews saw in advance, purports to detail incidents from the sinking like a woman who gave birth on a rescue boat as death surrounded her in the icy waters.

"The screams were terrible," Ursula Kossmann, a 77-year-old who managed to clamber on board a rescue boat with her mother, told daily Die Welt. "Some officers shot their families."

Survivor Guenther von Maydell, who was 13 at the time, told the same paper he wasn't afraid when the ship began to go down.

"I was just focused on escaping," he said. "I only realised later how lucky I'd been. I must have had a guardian angel."

Source: Rueters

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/03/2008 at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

30 Under 30: The Actresses

SCARLETT JOHANSSON

AGE 24

BROKE OUT IN... Lost in Translation as Charlotte, a lonely newlywed drifting through her quarter-life crisis in Tokyo.

WHY HER Her classically elegant beauty combined with her no-way-she's-how-old? sophisticated demeanor allows the New Yorker to blend in to everything from period pieces to modern-day romantic comedies. Plus, we already know Woody Allen adores her.

WHAT'S NEXT She'll follow up The Other Boleyn Girl with August's He's Just Not That Into You (yup, based on the book) co-starring Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck. In 2009, she'll appear opposite Penelope Cruz in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona and in The Spirit, based on the classic Will Eisner comic.

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/02/2008 at 2:00 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

30 Under 30: The Actors

MICHAEL CERA
AGE 19

BROKE OUT IN... Arrested Development, as doting son George Michael Bluth then his sensitive teen roles in both Superbad and Juno took him wide.

WHY HIM We've only hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his wit and canny dryness.

WHAT'S NEXT A music redux (remember his sweet singing/guitar-playing with Ellen Page in Juno) as queercore band member in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

ELIJAH WOOD
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... Radio Flyer (1992), showing talent beyond his years.

WHY HIM The Lord of the Rings franchise made Wood a megastar, but the actor has used his box office power for good instead of evil in off-beat movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Everything Is Illuminated (2005).

WHAT'S NEXT Wood lends his voice to an upcoming feature-length version of 9 (2005), an award-winning animated short set in a post-apocalyptic world. Why there's not more is beyond us.

CHRIS EVANS
AGE 26

BROKE OUT IN... Fantastic Four (2005), as the fiery (and fiery-tempered) Human Torch.

WHY HIM He looks like beefcake (The Nanny Diaries typecast him as 'Harvard Hottie'), but Evans isn't scared to take on meaty roles in dark films like the sci-fi thriller Sunshine (2007).

WHAT'S NEXT Evans costars with Keanu Reeves and Hugh Laurie in the police thriller Street Kings (April 11) before getting dramatic in an upcoming adaptation of Tennessee Williams' The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.

CHANNING TATUM
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... The 2006 hip-hop dance hit Step Up.

WHY HIM A former model, Tatum finally turned heads with his acting chops as a hotheaded delinquent in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006).

WHAT'S NEXT After going to war in Kimberly Pierce's Stop Loss next month, Tatum will lead the troops in next year's G.I. Joe movie and team up with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in the upcoming Public Enemies.

PAUL DANO
AGE 23

BROKE OUT IN... Little Miss Sunshine (2006), proving that silence can be golden as a willfully mute loner.

WHY HIM Dano didn't stay quiet for long. He raised his voice and his profile  with an electrifying performance as a fire-and-brimstone preacher in the Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood (2007).

WHAT'S NEXT He voices a monster named Alexander in Spike Jonze's upcoming adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.

JOSEPH GORDON LEVITT
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... NBC's 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001), as an adult alien stuck in the body of a human teen.

WHY HIM Using the tried-and-true 'go indie' method for career revitalization, Gordon-Levitt shed his goofy image with parts in daring, moody dramas like Mysterious Skin (2004) and Brick (2005).

WHAT'S NEXT Like fellow 30-Under-30 pick Channing Tatum, Gordon-Levitt has parts in both next month's Stop Loss (March 28) and G.I. Joe (summer 2009).

GAEL GARCIA BERNAL
AGE 29

BROKE OUT IN... Y Tu Mama Tambien, as a Mexican teenager who embarks on a journey of sexual discovery with a friend (Diego Luna) and an older woman (Maribel Verdu).

WHY HIM Bernal isn't just another latin heartthrob. His choice in movies leans toward brainy fare like Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education (2004) and Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep (2006).

WHAT'S NEXT This summer, he stars opposite Julianne Moore in the thriller Blindness, from City of God director Fernando Meirelles.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... Donnie Darko (2001), as a brooding teen with visions of an oracular rabbit.

WHY HIM Brokeback Mountain (2005) made him an easy target for jokes but also earned him an Oscar nod. And he's consistently taken solid roles (Zodiac, Jarhead) that make up for the ones that aren't quite so firm (The Day After Tomorrow).

WHAT'S NEXT He plays the underachieving brother to Toby Maguire's soldier in the upcoming drama Brothers, co-starring Natalie Portman.

MICHAEL PITT
AGE 26

BROKE OUT IN... Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers (2003), as an idealistic American student in sex-crazed Paris.

WHY HIM Pitt's eye for buzzworthy films has led him to parts in John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig & the Angry Inch (2001), M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (2004), and Gus Van Sant's Kurt Cobain biopic Last Days (2005).

WHAT'S NEXT He terrorizes Naomi Watts as a white-gloved psychopath in Michael Haneke's Funny Games (April 4).

TAYLOR KITSCH
AGE 26

BROKE OUT IN... NBC's Friday Night Lights, as the team's brooding fullback.

WHY HIM Adding unexpected depth to his FNL role, Kitsch proves that he can take a role and run with it.

WHAT'S NEXT He incarnates the card-slinging Gambit in the hotly anticipated X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 2009).

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN
AGE 26

BROKE OUT IN... Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones (2002)

WHY HIM People tend to forget that Christensen best known for sci-fi epics like Star Wars Episodes II & III and Jumper (2008) is a Golden Globe nominee who won critical acclaim in movies like Life As a House (2001) and Shattered Glass (2003).

WHAT'S NEXT In the upcoming Beast of Bataan, Christensen plays a lawyer defending a Japanese general against charges of war crimes after World War II.

JESSE EISENBERG
AGE 24

BROKE OUT IN... The Squid and the Whale (2005), as an introspective high schooler dealing with his parents' divorce.

WHY HIM The NYC native has become an in-demand indie actor with nuanced performances in recent films like The Education of Charlie Bartlett and The Hunting Party.

WHAT'S NEXT Eisenberg stars as a college grad that takes a job at an amusement park in the upcoming Adventureland.

JASON SCHWARTZMAN
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... Rushmore (1998), as the precocious and multitalented Max Fischer.

WHY HIM In his frequent collaborations with cousin Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette) and family friend Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited), Schwartzman brings a mix of geekiness and pitch-perfect deapan to his outsider roles.

WHAT'S NEXT Schwartzman goes back to school as a man who refuses to outgrow his days as a high school musical star in next year's The Marc Pease Experiment, costarring Ben Stiller.

LEE PACE
AGE 28

BROKE OUT IN... ABC's freshman series Pushing Daisies, as a pie shop owner who can raise the dead with his touch.

WHY HIM Talk about range: Long before Daisies, Pace was a Golden Globe nominee for his portrayal of a transgendered nightclub performer in Showtime's Soldier's Girl (2003).

WHAT'S NEXT He appears as a charming pianist alongside Amy Adams and Frances McDormand in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (March 7) as well as in the upcoming lush fantasy, The Fall.

JIM STURGESS
AGE 29

BROKE OUT IN... Across the Universe (2007), as a British expat in love with a young American (Evan Rachel Wood).

WHY HIM Shaggy good looks got him noticed, but it's Sturgess' elastic talent that put the London-born actor on Hollywood's map.

WHAT'S NEXT Trouble is in the cards for Sturgess and Kate Bosworth in 21 (March 28), a thriller based on the true story of six MIT students who used their math skills to con Vegas casinos out of millions.

BEN FOSTER
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... a recurring role on HBO's Six Feet Under, playing Russell, the sexually ambiguous boyfriend to Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose).

WHY HIM Because he's simply arresting at playing creep-o characters ranging from a psychopathic drug dealer in Alpha Dog and a nutcase in 30 Days of Night to a stunning performance as Russell Crowe's cold-blooded sidekick in last year's 3:10 to Yuma.

WHAT'S NEXT Foster plays the cunning brother to Ginnifer Goodwin in dysfunctional family drama and Sundance movie Birds of America

EMILE HIRSCH
AGE 22

BROKE OUT IN... 2002's independent Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (produced by Jodie Foster), in which he played a rebellious teen alongside Kieran Culkin.

WHY HIM The youngster has been disarmingly good in everything from Altar Boys and The Girl Next Door to Lords of Dogtown. With his stunning turn in Into the Wild last year and what's sure to be a heavy role in Gun Van Sant's upcoming biopic, Milk, Hirsch is gunning for Ryan Gosling's career.

WHAT'S NEXT The plum lead spot of the Wachowskis' Speed Racer movie, which hits screens on May 9.

JAMES McAVOY
AGE 28

BROKE OUT IN... 2006's The Last King of Scotland, which saw him play the personally physician to Forest Whitaker's oppressive dictator.

WHY HIM Between Scotland and his Oscar-nominated turn in last year's Atonement, McAvoy gives off a decidedly throwback vibe. He's got the makings of a movie star.

WHAT'S NEXT He leaves the period pieces behind: McAvoy stars as a drone who gets a makeover and joins a secret society opposite Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie in Wanted, out on June 27.

JAMIE BELL
AGE 21

BROKE OUT IN... Billy Elliot (2000), as the titular ballet-loving boy.

WHY HIM Since earning raves for Elliot, Bell has shown off his tough side with supporting roles in King Kong (2005), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), and Jumper (2008).

WHAT'S NEXT Bell plays a Jewish resistance fighter alongside Daniel Craig (a.k.a. James Bond) and Liev Schreiber in Edward Zwick's upcoming WWII drama Defiance (Dec. 19).

SETH ROGEN
AGE 25

BROKE OUT IN... Last summer's blockbuster yuk-fest Knocked Up, playing a loveable schlub who, you know, knocks up Katherine Heigl.

WHY HIM His everyman in hits like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up makes the masses howl; plus, he's got comedy king Judd Apatow behind him, which ain't a bad thing.

WHAT'S NEXT A voice in March 14's Horton Hears a Who, then the lead in Apatow's next comedy, Pineapple Express (Aug. 8), which finds him starring as a pot-head with James Franco. And he's currently shooting Kevin Smith's Zach and Miri Make a Porno.

JONAH HILL
AGE 24

BROKE OUT IN... Judd Apatow's teen-sex romp Superbad as desperate-for-booze-ad-sex high school senior Seth.

WHY HIM There's something undeniably loveable about his plump appearance and general well-intentioned demeanor in the broad comedies he's made. Plus, barring any huge Apatow-backlash, he'll be busy with roles alongside that comedy troupe for a long time to come.

WHAT'S NEXT Besides voicework alongside Seth Rogen in Horton Hears a Who, Hill gets back in step with Knocked Up co-star Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (April 18).

ZACHARY LEVI
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... NBC's comedic thriller Chuck, playing underachieving Chuck Bartowski, who accidentally downloads a government super-computer full of spy secrets.

WHY HIM Because he's carrying one of this season's few unqualified hit shows almost by himself. Plus, he's, like, puppy-dog cute.

WHAT'S NEXT Another season of playing Chuck come fall, as well as two movie projects, out in 2008: He's searching for an identity as Pakastani-American Ray Rehman in Shades of Ray and road-tripping with buddies in Wieners.

RYAN GOSLING
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... edgy 2001 Sundance fave The Believer, as a Orthodox Jew who becomes a neo-Nazi. Surprise romantic hit The Notebook, however, made him a household name.

WHY HIM Gosling doesn't mess around with roles that don't push him creatively. In the last few years, he's bounced from a being a lovesick country boy (The Notebook) and drug-riddled teacher (Half Nelson) to a delusional man with a thing for sex dolls (Lars and the Real Girl). He's good simply because he always keeps us guessing...

WHAT'S NEXT But for once, he doesn't have anything slated for release anytime soon. Right now, he's set to star in the romance Blue Valentine opposite Michelle Williams and All Good Things opposite Kirsten Dunst.

SHIA LaBOEUF
AGE 21

BROKE OUT IN... 2003's critically lauded YA flick Holes, as a troubled teen who goes to a discipline camp and is forced to dig a hole everyday.

WHY HIM He's unquestionably Hollywood's young darling. 2007 saw him star in mega-hit Transformers and the trippy Disturbia. And Stephen Spielberg took him under his wing for his next project...

WHAT'S NEXT ...the hotly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which reboots the franchise after 19 years and co-stars Harrison Ford.

JUSTIN LONG
AGE 29

BROKE OUT IN... the 2001 creature feature Jeepers Creepers, as an ill-fated college student who tangos with the wrong beast. Oh, and those Apple ads.

WHY HIM His deft ability at smaller roles (The Break-Up, Live Free or Die Hard) only make us curious to see what he'd do with a real starring role.

WHAT'S NEXT The Love, Actually-like sprawling ensemble comedy (co-stars include girlfriend Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Anniston, and Ben Affleck) based off the best-selling book, He's Just Not That Into You (Aug. 1).

ZAC EFRON
AGE 20

BROKE OUT IN... Disney's insanely popular High School Musical franchise, and kept the tunes coming last summer as Link Larkin in Hairspray.

WHY HIM Efron can dance (and sing) circles around his cohorts and has been smart about continually upping the ante with each successive project.

WHAT'S NEXT Natch, the next installment of his career-making franchise, High School Musical: Senior Year, hits in October only this time, on the big screen. The Big-in-reverse flick, Seventeen Again (he plays the young embodiment of an older, regretful guy going back to high school) lands this year, too.

CHRIS PINE
AGE 26

BROKE OUT IN... Joe Carnahan's flashy, amped-up shoot-out flick, Smokin' Aces.

WHY HIM Because of all the young men in the whole wide world, J.J. Abrams decided to make him the captain of his newest enterprise, the revamped Star Trek.

WHAT'S NEXT Um, Trek. And a flick about wine, Bottle Shock, that played this past Sundance.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
AGE 27

BROKE OUT IN... guest-hosting gigs on Saturday Night Live. Sure, Alpha Dog showed his serious chops, but few saw it. The memorable Dick in a Box skit on SNL showcased his comedic side.

WHY HIM Just try and name one person who doesn't simply love JT?

WHAT'S NEXT Timberlake continues to go for laughs, starring alongside Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, and Meagan Good in this summer's The Love Guru, a comedy where he plays a girlfriend-snatching skater.

DANIEL RADCLIFFE
AGE 18

BROKE OUT IN... 2001's mega-blockbuster Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as the prodigal boy wizard.

WHY HIM He's utterly charming and managed to do the growing up thing with grace, even with a skin-baring role in a West End production of Equus. Plus, he's got a teeny tiny fan base, seeing as how the Potter blockbusters have grossed nearly $4.5 billion (movie's biggest franchise ever!) around the world.

WHAT'S NEXT World domination! No, really, Radcliffe's got the last two Potter flicks Half-Blood Prince is set for release in November, and Deathly Hallows in 2010. Broadway, too, will see his Equus in 2008.

ELIJAH KELLEY
AGE 21

BROKE OUT IN... last summer's movie musical Hairspray, in the role of civil rights-minded Seaweed, opposite Nikki Blonsky and Amanda Bynes.

WHY HIM He stole nearly every scene in Hairspray, and that poised, super-grinning turn paired with his note-perfect vocals and dancing have us wanting lots more.

WHAT'S NEXT Only the perfect project: A meaty, Walk the Line-esque biopic of Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr.

Source: Entertainment Weekly Online

Posted by: Ms_Hodge_Podge on 3/01/2008 at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

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