Politics Daily

French Comedy 'Potiche' Mixes Laughs With Social Message

Eleanor Clift — 2011-03-14T23:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up

For women, and men too, weary of nuance and yearning for a straightforward liberated woman to cheer and a tyrannical and pompous husband to deplore, the French comedy "Potiche" is for you. Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu star in this delightful confection with a social message. Set in 1977, Deneuve is a stay-at-home "trophy wife" treated like an exalted maid by her sexist pig of a husband who's got a mistress on the side. The husband, played by Fabrice Luchini, struts around and issues orders and comes across as an all-around fool while his wife busies herself catering to his every whim. Then the workers strike at the umbrella factory he runs, hold him hostage, and the poor fellow is shaken to the core. Once he's released, his sympathetic wife dispatches him on a cruise to recover his health.

While he's out flirting with whomever he can find, she takes over the factory and -- voila! -- she does a better job. Of course, it was her father's business to start with. She also rekindles an old flame with her leftist boyfriend, played by Depardieu, who's a union activist and holds a seat in government. She implements his pro-worker views and the factory hums along with new bright colors for umbrellas created by her decidedly gay son, whom the husband disparages as "the little runt." Her daughter, who it turns out is more conservative, keeps the books and tries to put the brakes on her mother's social experiment. The family dynamic over workers' rights is a microcosm of the arguments we've heard in Wisconsin. How much should workers prosper? The difference is that in "Potiche," there is no ambiguity. The grievances of the workers are so clearly justified.

There are plenty of surprising twists and laughs in this film, adapted from the hit play of the same name, as Deneuve's submissive character transforms into a top business executive, a rarity in 1977. The employees thrive and the husband is reduced to watching daytime television, a trophy spouse who takes his wife's old role (except he mostly lies around the house and doesn't tend to things, as she did). But it doesn't end there; hubby pulls off a devious power play, but cannot shake Deneuve's newfound confidence, even if she does yield back the factory.

The film is what the French call a "boulevard comedy" -- star-driven, light, not too challenging; in short, a movie to be enjoyed. The director, Francois Ozon, is openly gay, and says that the female characters in his movies represent him; it's through them that his emotions and thoughts surface. Deneuve's character triumphs, though with complications for her newfound affair. She doesn't seem all that bothered, though; this is a movie that exalts career at a time when it eluded most women.

The particular French sensibility about sex comes through in an amusing way. Mistresses are no big deal, and it turns out Deneuve's character had a few flings herself, which dismays her leftist lover. In another gender reversal, he's the one who pines for what might have been. Film critic Gerald Peary, who spoke after a recent screening of the film, pointed out that even though "Potiche" is set in a time when women's liberation was just getting into full swing, "all movies about the past are really about today."

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Can the Girl Scouts Help Balance Georgia's Budget?

Joanne Bamberger — 2011-03-14T08:27:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Taxes, Woman Up, Conservatives, Analysis, Economy

If Georgia lawmakers get their way, corporations doing business in the state will get a nice tax cut and the Girl Scouts will be chipping in to help make up the difference in the budget.

Yup. As crazy as that sounds, that's what's going on in the Peach State. In an attempt to bring more jobs to Georgia, GOP lawmakers have proposed a cut in corporate tax rates for domestic and foreign corporations, while calling for a tax increase on gasoline and groceries.

Like most states, Georgia has a budget problem. A recent task force that studied how to manage the shortfall recommended cutting corporate taxes. To help make up for that loss in revenue, House Bill 385 would impose a tax on nonprofit fundraising efforts, which would mean taxing the popcorn sold by the state's Boy Scouts, as well as those Tagalongs and Samoas that the Girl Scouts sell every year to raise money for their leadership and community involvement programs.

The Girl Scout's slogan for the organization's annual cookie drive is "Every Cookie Has a Mission." If this new tax law is passed, that mission will, in effect, include helping the state balance its budget.

The proposed bill doesn't specifically target the goodies that neighborhood Brownies and Daisies sell, but the impact is just the same.

While policy debates are always being made about whom to tax and how to create more jobs, shifting even a portion of the tax burden to nonprofits reflects a certain tone-deafness in the name of fiscal responsibility. How could Georgia Republicans not have foreseen that their new strategy would make them look like the Grinch sneaking into Cindy Lou Who's house at Christmas and stealing the roast beast?

But there's a larger issue here than just one state's approach to its budget crisis. This move in Georgia is just the latest episode in a growing effort to change our culture through legislation. Wisconsin is pitting teachers against taxpayers with its collective bargaining saga. In New Hampshire, some lawmakers want to stifle college-student voters because those crazy kids vote with their hearts, not their heads. And, as Lent proceeds, Congress is investigating religion in a way that makes me think about those so-called Salem witches.

Such efforts may seem "neutral on their face," as they say in the law, but when viewed together they create a larger picture of how those with more power treat those who have less.

As for those Scouts in Georgia, there is one leadership lesson they're learning from all this. The head of the Greater Atlanta Girl Scouts, Marilyn Midyette, reportedly sent an e-mail encouraging parents and supporters to contact their lawmakers about the proposed shift in the state's tax laws -- but asking them to do it in a courteous and "Scout-like" way, of course.

You can follow Joanne Bamberger on Twitter and Facebook.

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Mom Has Cancer. Her Son Reacts.

Donna Trussell — 2011-03-13T13:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up

My friend Julie Levine had everything I lacked: A charmed childhood, beautiful kids. I might have envied her had she not been the nicest person I ever met. And, therefore, a magnet for cancer. (On an Internet bulletin board I once frequented, we joked that compassion and a zest for living were risk factors.)

Julie is eight years younger than me, so I assumed she would someday speak at my funeral. Especially once I received a diagnosis of stage III ovarian cancer in 2001. Julie came to my hospital room. She took me to chemo. She and her mother came to my house bearing brisket, fudgy peanut clusters and matzoh ball soup.

As a Jew, Julie had wonderful traditions. As white trash (OK "white nomad" if you want to be PC about it) I did not.

Julie had loving parents of high moral character. Me? Nope.

She had children. I did not. And that's how I came to meet Julie Levine. In 1990, she took out an ad in the neighborhood rag. She needed a babysitter for her 7-month-old firstborn, a boy named Adam, so she could go to exercise class.

After my hysterectomy in 1988, children were no longer an option. But one day it occurred to me: I can babysit. Up popped Julie. She needed a babysitter, and she lived just five minutes away from me.

Ever since, she's been like a sister. I came to the hospital after her next two kids were born. I went to Adam's bar mitzvah, Samantha's bat mitzvah, and the bar mitzvah of her youngest, Elliot.

The latter was a poignant affair. Due to her 2008 diagnosis of stage III breast cancer and, seven months later, a second primary of lung cancer, Julie wore a wig to Elliot's bar mitzvah. I saw a niece at the synagogue weaving a bit, and holding back tears. But Julie stood straight as a board. We were there to celebrate Elliot, and by god, that's what we were going to do.

Almost three years have passed, and since then Julie has endured a total of six surgeries. I wondered what Elliot thought now, looking back at the experience of watching his mother go through such a challenging ordeal.

So, a few days ago, I asked him. Here's what he wrote:

I think that overall, this experience has made everyone stronger. When my mom was going through all of her treatments and was thinking to herself if all of it is worth living through, I would tell her that its way better than being dead. Everything happens for a reason, and many times it starts out bad, but if you wait and let life take its time, then good things will come out of it. For example, most everybody thinks all of the little things in life are so bad and stressful and so on, but when someone goes through having two different types of cancer in a very short amount of time, it makes all of us realize how stupid we were when we worried about all of the small things in life. When I get sick or have a cold, I try not to complain because I think about my mom and her sickness and realize that she didn't complain at all. Overall it has made me and everyone else a better and stronger person, and it makes you really think about life in a very different way and convinces all of us to just live life and have fun with it because you can never know what will happen the next day.

Wow. Elliot is all of 15 years old.

What I didn't know then was that for three years Julie carried in her purse a note Elliot wrote to her on the evening of her initial diagnosis. Elliot was 13 years old.

Dear mom,

Oyyyy, I really don't know where to start. You are an amazing person, not only in your young looks, but in your heart. I know you are going through some very rough times and they will get worse, but you are so brave in everything. I know you are going to fight this and give it your best because that is what you always do no matter what. Also I know you are so sad that there is a chance we might not be able to go to Israel this summer, and yes it makes me a little sad, but seriously, when I'm older people will ask if it was an amazing experience if we went this summer, and of course I will remember it for the rest of my life. That really means nothing compared to how much you mean to me, even better, when I'm older people will say "wow, what a nice guy" I wonder where learned everything from? Then I can say I learned it from my amazing mom who is wayyyyy more memorable than an old trip to a foreign country. I know you will get through this and you will be extra brave! I will always love you and remember you as being the most amazing women that a boy could possibly be raised by.

Love,
elliot

As I've said before in my position as contributor for Woman Up, I am not a religious person. I've been everything from a congregant at my mom's loosey-goosey Methodist church (in the 1960s, a Dallas haven for inter-racial couples and the LGBT crowd) to a "born again" Christian to an atheist. Today, I'm nothing at all. To paraphrase singer/songwriter Iris Dement: I'll let the mystery be.

But I do take note of blessings like Elliot. I draw no conclusions, but it's hard not to see some grace in a young man like that. And in the woman who raised him.

Follow Donna Trussell on Twitter.

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In Today's Manic Journalism World, What Would Lou Grant Do?

Suzi Parker — 2011-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Woman Up

In this manic age of journalism, what would Lou Grant do?

As some may have read in these pages and elsewhere, after two years Politics Daily has lost its lease with AOL and will be vacating this space soon. Some of the newspeople who work here will bring you news from other "verticals" at AOL, and some of them will report from new Web addresses. I'll still be reporting, as I always have, from various other outlets and chasing a new story sooner rather than later.

It's in my blood. As a kid, I was obsessed with "Lou Grant," the CBS drama that ran from 1977 to 1982. While other kids loved Barbie dolls and GI Joe, I loved newspapers. (Yes, I was a geek.)

Crotchety Lou Grant, played by Ed Asner, left a job as a television news producer (after being fired) and an ex-wife in Minnesota to return to the newspaper business at the fictional "Los Angeles Tribune" as its city editor. Newspapers were in troubled waters, and it was up to Grant, who got his journalism start in newspapers, to figure out how to increase circulation. Weekly, he had to battle a changing journalism world, the advertising department, and a bossy publisher while making sure his reporters told compelling stories.

Even the opening credits for the show that first season fascinated me. A bird chirps, a tree falls, that tree becomes newsprint, and that newsprint becomes liner in the bird cage. To me it symbolized there was another story to write the next day and the one after that. Watch here:

So, if Grant was an editor these days, how would he deal with the rapid changes buffeting the industry?

First, he'd learn the lingo (while cussing under his breath) as to not look stupid. "Content" has become the new term for "copy." "Clicks" replace "circulation." "Content management system" is the new printing operation. "Unique visitors" is the equivalent of how many people buy or subscribe to a newspaper.

He would chortle and realize today's news biz, even the digital aspect, is in many ways the same as it ever was. The clash between the advertising department, striving to control editorial content for dollars, and the editorial side still exists. The publications that thrive on tragedies, disasters, and juicy scandals are still out there, too, except they loom on your browser instead of at the grocery market check-out. Lazy reporters who plagiarize other reporters' stories? Yep, they still exist, too.

One critical element remains most constant -- readers' craving for good stories.

In every episode of "Lou Grant," Grant knew a compelling story was always worth seeking out, investigating and then clearly explaining to readers. Grant also realized that taking chances for a front-page -- or these days, it would be called "viral" -- story was worth the expense and the agony of dealing with higher-ups.

He was a harsh editor who put his reporters through long hours, challenging edits and tight deadlines. Journalists, cub reporters and veterans alike, all need that direction once in a while.

In the series premiere, Grant acknowledges he doesn't know anything about the new-fangled machines -- desktop computers -- that have come into the newsroom since he left ten years earlier. But that doesn't stop him from plunging in with gusto.

In the 1970s, television was newspapers' biggest competitor. The competition was stiff. The medium could broadcast live from a breaking news story and reach thousands immediately. Radio, with the same immediacy, was a stiff competitor as were fully engaged wire services with countless reporters who moved fast to cover breaking stories with the basic who, what, when, where, why and how.

Lou Grant and his staff hardly acted like dinosaurs slugging around waiting for their extinction.

Instead, they reported the stories of their day, finding new angles on police corruption, spousal abuse and Nazi sympathizers long before it was vogue in mainstream television. Sure, "Lou Grant" was a TV show, but it won 13 Emmys, and I learned a lot about journalism from it.

My hero on the show was Billie Newman, an intrepid girl reporter with a heart. She started her career in the lifestyles pages where women were relegated back in the 1970s. But when she was sent on assignment to interview a famous author and he ended up dead, Newman took the story and ran with it. She scooped Joe Rossi, the star reporter in the all-boy newsroom, and won Grant's heart.

Grant, Newman and Rossi would be unstoppable in the current Wild West frontier of journalism. Social media, search engine optimization, or whatever the next big technological advancement in journalism might be -- it would not intimidate Grant's newsroom. While Grant might not understand some of it fully, he would see it as a useful tool to reach more readers.

He would tell his reporters not to miss a tweet or a Facebook post by a possible corrupt politician or news figure. He would press them to excel at multimedia (360-degree photographs, audio and video) and realize that media now work across a cross-platform system that allows readers to read their stories almost anywhere (in the newspaper, on an iPad, through an app). But most of all, he would tell them not to just report, but dig deeper, investigate a story. With deadlines looming, he would stress to them to balance the brave new world while adhering to the tried-and-true rules of old-school journalism -- ethics, original reporting (in the field), and fairness.

And he would see -- even now -- journalism as an honorable profession.

Without a doubt, over a stiff drink at his local watering hole with his staff, Lou Grant would seize the 21^st-century challenge. (Today, colleagues in virtual newsrooms like ours kick back in closed Facebook groups.) Hell no, Lou would say, this technology won't beat us. We're reporters. We tell stories. Now get to it.

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Race, Crime and Justice: It Was Never Just About Henry Louis Gates

Mary C. Curtis — 2011-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Crime, Race Issues, Woman Up, al Qaeda, Law

The summer of 2009. It was that long ago when the arrest of an African American scholar at his home by a white police officer in Cambridge, Mass., had the country choosing sides and a president convening a beer summit at the White House to cool things down.

What most remember as a political spat that ensnared Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates, Sgt. James Crowley and President Barack Obama didn't start or end that summer. When Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree -- Gates' lawyer and friend -- visited Charlotte, N.C., recently, it wasn't just to sign copies of "The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America," his book published last summer.

It was also to seek remedies for an issue so raw that it was barely touched on by the time a photo-op -- with the president, Vice President Joe Biden, Gates, Crowley and smiles all around -- took the story out of the headlines.

Are Social Media the Future of Local Government?

Delia Lloyd — 2011-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up, International, Internet, United Kingdom, Technology

LONDON -- Social media have already transformed how the private sector conducts commerce. And they are rapidly altering the way local governments do business as well.

Last week, an enterprising government in the English city of Walsall undertook an interesting experiment. For 24 hours, a local council (county) posted all of its activities on Twitter. The tweets ranged from information on pothole repairs to efforts to combat racism in public housing to calls for cleaning up dog excrement.

The idea was to give the community a sense of the problems its government confronts -- and tackles -- in an ordinary day. "People here are genuinely doing it because they believe in local government and what local government does, a lot of which goes unrecognized or unreported," said a council spokesman.

But while officials in Walsall were using social media to effectively market their services, other groups in the U.K. have harnessed social media to attack local problems. In recent years, dozens of hyper-local websites have sprung up to address such concerns as crime and recycling, as well as to showcase planning applications and the opening times of local libraries. Nonprofits are also beginning to train local governments in how to use social media to interact with their citizens.

As William Perrin, the founder of one of the first, widely viewed DIY websites in the U.K., explains, no one has time anymore to attend evening meetings, read long stacks of papers or attend lengthy lectures. Instead, sites like his give "a 21st century interface to a 19th century system. People have got involved because the time cost to them is so much less."

But it's not just the time-savings efficiency of such "civic websites" that makes them increasingly attractive to local neighborhoods and governments alike in the U.K. These ventures also fit beautifully with Prime Minister David Cameron's Big Society initiative.

Big Society was a key theme in the Conservative Party's general election campaign last spring. It's centered on giving voluntary groups and communities power to run public services. While partly a cost-saving mechanism, Big Society is also about empowering local communities to govern themselves, and having local governments oversee that process.

Nor is the U.K. the only place where localism is embracing technology. In the United States, the "Give a Minute" program provides a fast, cheap and easy way for neighborhoods to share ideas, connect with each other, and bring about change. So, for example, if the problem in one urban zone is to reduce the use of cars, text messaging can be used to generate ideas that will encourage residents to walk, bike or use public transportation. While early adopters of this program were nonprofit groups, some local governments are also jumping on board.

Of course, while e-government has its upsides, it also has its challenges. For example, in a cost-saving, environmentally friendly move, many municipalities in the U.S. have begun using iPads to cut costs and reduce paper. But accountability concerns quickly sprung up about disclosure, since not all electronic records are public.

It's also true that for all the technological wizardry out there, social media can't operate in a vacuum. You need cadres of volunteers to blog/tweet/text, train others how to do so and, most importantly, galvanize communities to actually address the problems that pop up in their Twitter feeds.

To that end, if the future of local government resides (in part) in technology, it equally resides in volunteerism. Volunteering comes pretty naturally to most Americans. (Some have even suggested it as our defining national trait). But as I've noted elsewhere, volunteerism is not the Brits' strong suit. (Although the government is taking measures to address this problem by setting up a National Citizen Service that will require all teenagers to volunteer as a rite of passage.)

The Walsall Council spokesman summed it up best when he said that his government's pilot Twitter project was being "powered by free software and staff goodwill."

In today's cash-strapped times, that strikes me as a mantra not just for Walsall but for all of us.

Follow Delia on Twitter.

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Lara Logan Assault: Why Female Foreign Correspondents Need Self-Defense Skills

Mary Winter — 2011-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Crime, Woman Up, International, Egypt Crisis

How does a woman acquire the trademarked name "Dr. Ruthless"?

If you're Melissa Soalt, aka "Dr. Ruthless," you preach the gospel of low-down, dirty, eye-gouging, groin-crushing, go-for-the-throat self-defense tactics for women. You also take your 26 years of martial arts training -- Soalt is in the Black Belt Hall of Fame -- and combine it with your insights as a former psychotherapist. You come up with a potent message to women that constant fear is a crippler, and that you can learn how to fight like a warrior -- or a mad dog -- always keeping in mind that fleeing, if possible, is your best defense.

Recently, Soalt joined an online discussion at Politics Daily about the attack on CBS reporter Lara Logan in Egypt. Soalt questions why female foreign correspondents don't routinely get self-defense training. She sent us her thoughts, and we followed up later with a call to her home in Massachusetts.

Why did Lara Logan's attack touch such a nerve?

Journalists tell stories the world might otherwise never hear. They also speak for people who sometimes cannot speak for themselves, usually out of fear. And sometimes the journalist, the storyteller, becomes the story. That was the case with Lara Logan.

Women in Politics: Groups Aim to Increase the Numbers in 2012

Sandra Fish — 2011-03-11T21:09:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up, 2010 Elections, 2012 Elections

With the 2012 elections in mind, several groups are gearing up to recruit and train women candidates after a mixed showing in 2010.

The 2010 census means districts for the U.S. House of Representatives and for state legislatures are being redrawn, creating the potential for more open seats, more competitive races, and possibly more women in office.

"We have to take advantage of that once-a-decade opportunity," said Mary Hughes, a California political strategist who is founder and director of the 2012 Project, a nonpartisan group trying to recruit women candidates. On the conservative side, Smart Girl Politics is also adding to the mix by training women to run for office.

Members of the 2012 Project are attending a range of women's professional events in an effort to encourage women to run for office in 2012.

"Women need to be asked," Hughes said. "We don't self-nominate. The most important thing to do is to go out and to find qualified, gifted, experienced women...We've specifically targeted baby boomer women who are already achievers."

About 60 former and current women officeholders, both Democrats and Republicans, are helping in the effort. They include Florida's Republican Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, former Republican National Committee co-chair Jo Ann Davis, former Democratic National Committee vice chair Polly Baca, and former Democratic Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin, among others.

"We send them to conventions, seminars, regional meetings of leadership groups, associations," Hughes said, to " demystify the process and get them on the road to filing."

The organization is affiliated with Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics. Partner groups include the National Women's Political Caucus, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Republican Majority for Choice and other mostly progressive groups.

Right now, the group is focusing on off-year legislative elections in New Jersey, Mississippi, Virginia and Louisiana.

If women are interested in becoming candidates, 2012 refers them to training groups such as the White House Project or Ready to Run, also affiliated with Rutgers.

"Anyone who comes to a presentation we do has already identified as a woman first. We don't get into what people's views are," Hughes said. "We will ultimately connect them with their state's party structure whether they are R or D."

Meanwhile, Smart Girls Politics is training conservative women to get involved in politics.

"It is important for conservatives to step up efforts to recruit and train women because we are an under-represented group at all levels of government," Smart Girl co-founder Teri Christoph said in an e-mail. "In addition, we bring a unique skill set that would improve the dynamic of any legislative body. I am hopeful that women like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann will inspire a whole new generation of conservative female candidates."

Christoph said the group isn't recruiting candidates for specific races, but is offering online training for members and non-members. A session Thursday included information on what to consider before becoming a candidate, including building a base of support.

"Once they decide to run, we offer follow-up training for building a campaign apparatus, fundraising, social media, and a host of other issues," she said in an e-mail.

Despite the publicity surrounding high-profile women candidates in 2010, the numbers in Congress declined slightly. Six women currently serve as governors, down from a high of nine in 2004 and again in 2007.

Hughes hopes to see improvement in 2012.

"We don't need thousands, we need really good people situated in competitive districts. We're very optimistic."

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Outlaw Justice: When Hackers Retaliate Against Cyber Security

Bonnie Goldstein — 2011-03-10T22:20:00+00:00

Filed under: National Security, Woman Up, PD Investigations, WikiLeaks

I used to be a hacker. It was a long time ago, decades before the future World Wide Web was available. I operated anonymously (except to my clients who paid me for what I discovered). I tracked down people whose cars, pledged as security on automobile loans, had been targeted for repossession.

I performed my "hacking" duties over the phone using codes and pretexts. I infiltrated semi-secure bureaucratic systems (unemployment claim offices, utility company billing desks etc.) to precisely extract the whereabouts of drivers who had borrowed money to buy automobiles and then skipped town without paying. To be clear, I didn't crack these systems for the challenge or the fun of it, as true hackers are said to, and it wasn't personal. I did it for hire. My tactics were not precisely illegal (the government had not yet passed fair credit and privacy laws), but some were on the line. Although I wasn't an outlaw, I knew where to find them.

It is a function of age and time that, as a grandmother, I've gotten squeamish about virtual breaking and entering, but I have retained a fondness for the current generation of hackers, some of whom have banded in a loose alliance called "Anonymous." I see these youngsters as natural extensions of the outlaws of my day -- inveterate snoops and mostly harmless believers in open access, driven by a commitment to transparency and a subtle addiction to cyber safe-cracking. (That said, hackers are sometimes impatient with boundaries and often go too far. Especially when technology, and the uses it can be put to, outpace a slow-by-design legislative and regulatory oversight process.)

Although they can take themselves very seriously and have lately been recast as "cyberactivists," and "hacktivists," hackers are historically seen as pranksters. (A key scene in last year's film "The Social Network," foretelling the creation of Facebook, depicts a prank by sophomore Mark Zuckerberg as he hacks into Harvard's content management system to retrieve images of co-eds while inviting fellow Cambridge-area classmen to rate them for attractiveness.) As fans of the 1995 Angelina Jolie film, "Hackers," recall, however, practitioners are ferociously loyal to their cultural values and you don't want to cross them.

Today's Anonymous group's members go by web handles such as "Q," alluding to the mysterious James Bond character, and have been known to break into government computers for both amusement and ideological reasons. The group is widely suspected of being a source for many documents that end up on WikiLeaks. In a statement last year, Anonymous claimed that its members "don't have much of an affiliation with WikiLeaks, [but] we fight for the same reasons."

For folks who obsessively fly beneath the radar, some Anonymous hackers raised their profile considerably last year by creating a "war of data" against companies that dropped WikiLeaks as their client, including Visa and MasterCard, painting the document repository as a venue for vigilante justice. In the hacker culture and perspective, they are good guys in a world where government and corporations keep secrets to the disadvantage of average citizens.

Where there are outlaws, however, there are sheriffs. Into that construct Anonymous hackers drew the attention of a cyber security firm with federal contracts that set out to get them to stop. The firm, HBGary Federal, waved a red flag in front of a bull last month when its CEO bragged to a Financial Times reporter in San Francisco that his company had unmasked Anonymous' ringleaders and planned to turn them over to law enforcement agencies. The HBGary Federal executive, Aaron Barr, told the FT that he had identified the hacker group's most senior organizers, a half dozen people scattered around the world who "co-ordinate and manage most of the decisions."

A few days later, DagBlog, a website read by hackers and those who admire their work, reported that Anonymous' hackers had "managed to breach every aspect of the HBGary Federal infrastructure. All of it. Even the phone system. They also breached the infrastructure of the parent company."

To make it clear they had trespassed and why they had done so, Anonymous left a calling card manifesto at HBGary Federal, taunting their targets as "a pathetic gathering of media-whoring money-grabbing sycophants who want to reel in business for your equally pathetic company."

Directing scorn and retribution at Aaron Barr, the executive who had spoken to FT, Anonymous immediately released tens of thousands of documents from Barr's personal e-mail account onto a torrent file. (Note to computer security experts: You do not need to save 50,000 e-mails. You are never going to read most of them again. Delete them as you go.)

What the purloined letters had to say aggravated the hackers even more. Files found on the security company's computers included proposals to potential clients (disturbingly referred by another client, the U.S. Justice Department), including a presentation for Bank of America proposing cyber-attacks against WikiLeaks servers. (WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange had hinted recently that his group plans to "take down" major financial institutions.)

The Anonymous hackers also retrieved a blueprint intended for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, touting the security firm's skills in beating the outlaws at their own game. Made public was a security plan seeking a $2 million contract to discredit critics of USCC, including creating and distributing counterfeit documents. The disclosure quickly brought forth disclaimers from the commerce group that the strategy "was not requested by the Chamber, it was not delivered to the Chamber and it was never discussed with anyone at the Chamber."

Although what the Chamber of Commerce knew, and when it knew it, has not been fully explored, the principal object of the security plan was a liberal, nonprofit oversight organization called ChamberWatch, organized in 2010 by "a federation of five unions and 5.5 million workers." Democrats on Capitol Hill quickly called for an investigation of a conspiracy to use "subversive techniques" and "possible illegal actions against citizens engaged in free speech."

HBGary Federal executives initially attempted damage control, announcing they had "been the victims of an intentional criminal cyberattack. . . . To the extent that any client information may have been affected by this event, we will provide the affected clients with complete and accurate information as soon as it becomes available." But as more embarrassing files were disclosed, the security firm's clients, business partners, and even HBGary Federal's parent company quickly distanced themselves from the firm's activities.

Rival security experts used the infiltrated files as a cautionary tale and (without noting the irony of a security company getting so thoroughly pantsed that, more than a month later its website is still offline) have developed security tips to avoid a similar attack. This week Aaron Barr was forced to resign. Moral: Don't try to beat outlaws at their own game.

In an observation of occupational drawbacks, a poster on a hacker blogsite noted that Barr had been bitten by the outlaw bug. "He was more or less riding the same high a hacker gets from cracking a system and had made it pretty personal."

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Participatory Budgeting: In a Chicago Ward, Residents Call the Spending Shots

Alison Fairbrother — 2011-03-10T22:09:00+00:00

Filed under: Budget, Woman Up, International

Joe Moore, an alderman from Chicago's 49^th Ward, was nearly voted out of office in 2007 by frustrated constituents. So he decided to try something new.

With help from the Participatory Budgeting Project, Moore turned his $1.3 million discretionary budget over to the 60,000 residents of his ward, a vibrant neighborhood encompassing Rogers Park on Chicago's North Side.

Residents of the 49^th - who collectively speak 80 languages, and constitute one of the most diverse communities in America - deliberated and prioritized their needs through research and data collection, and voted democratically on a series of community-improvement projects, including street resurfacing, traffic control signals, bike lanes, community gardens, and murals.

Moore won re-election with a landslide 72 percent of the ward's vote on Feb. 22, and residents have already started working on plans for a second year of participatory budgeting in their neighborhood.

"There is no question in my mind that participatory budgeting played a large role in my overwhelming victory," Moore told Politics Daily. "It was the single most popular initiative that I have launched in my 20 years as alderman."

Participatory budgeting is a small but energetic movement through which ordinary people directly decide how a portion of their municipal budget is spent. Pioneered in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1990 as a democratization strategy, the process has spread to over 1,200 cities around the world. From Cologne, Germany, to Entebbe, Uganda, the concept is giving more people more control over how their tax dollars are spent.

Although participatory budgeting has been recognized as a best practice of democratic governance by the United Nations, no elected official in the United States had ever invited citizens to allocate public money directly - that is, until May 2009, when Chicago's 49^th Ward took the leap.

Polls show that most Americans don't actually know what the federal budget includes, and many of us are equally in the dark when it comes to municipal budgets.

"The energy was pretty incredible," said Maria Hadden, a 49^th Ward resident who had joined the leadership committee for planning this year's process. "It captured the attention of a large part of the community."

Following Moore's lead, seven aldermanic candidates who pledged to implement participatory budgeting were elected in February 2011, according to a release from the Participatory Budgeting Project.

Some aldermanic candidates, like Ameya Pawar of the 47^th Ward, campaigned vigorously on a platform of participation. A 30-year-old former Northwestern University program assistant, Pawar has became the first Indian-American to be elected to the Chicago City Council.

"What I've heard over the course of the campaign is that a lot of [discretionary-fund dollars] have been used to achieve political ends," he said. "You might see the same streets receive attention again and again. There isn't a holistic plan. Money and resources are thrown at certain things, without worry about process or how it plugs into a larger system."

Though $1.3 million might seem like a small amount, Pawar argued, over a four-year term this represents $5.2 million that can be allocated collectively. "What we should be doing as a community is programming those dollars in an effective and equal way," he said.

Other aldermen were measured in their enthusiasm.

Leslie Hairston of the 5^th Ward said she loved the idea of participatory budgeting, but would have trouble implementing it without a full-time staff person to organize the process.

Proco "Joe" Moreno from the 1^st Ward told Politics Daily, "I have an extremely diverse ward, both racially and economically. Let's say I have a street that has all millionaire stay-at-home fathers. They all want flower pots at the end of the street. On another street, it's all single mothers that have ten kids. The last thing on their mind is organizing."

Moreno said that he is working with his staff on designing a mechanism to deal with the possibility that wealthier residents or special-interest groups might try to co-opt the process.

But Josh Lerner, co-director of the Participatory Budgeting Project, says that Moreno's extreme example has yet to be the case in the 1,000-plus participating cities.

"Millionaires can already get what they want through other means, so they don't need to participate in participatory budgeting to get flower pots," Lerner said. "When community members meet face to face for regular meetings over the course of several months, they tend to move from individual interests to the common good. It's hard to sit across the table from someone who clearly has greater needs than you and still advocate for your interests over theirs," he said.

Still, there are legitimate concerns about barriers to participation. Latino turnout was particularly low in the 49th Ward, according to data collected by Gena Miller, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Some ways to overcome this, according to 49th Ward resident Maria Hadden, would be to collaborate with organizations that have experience mobilizing underrepresented communities, provide food and interpretation at public meetings, schedule meetings at convenient times and places for working people, and produce publicity that is appealing to people who tend not to turn out. Hadden says her leadership committee is working on taking steps to make sure that everyone has an equal voice.

In a video about the participatory budgeting in the 49th Ward, a ward resident on the transportation committee addressed potential tensions between competing interests:

"We have members of our community that are very passionate about getting away from a car-based lifestyle; then of course we have members of our community who live a car-based lifestyle," she said. "So there's some tension there, and anytime you bring passion with tension there's going to be a conflict. That's a challenge, I don't think that's a bad thing. I think we've been able to work through that."

Watch here:

Alderman Moore cautions that it is one thing to make a promise on the campaign trail, and quite another to actually undertake participatory budgeting, a logistically challenging and time-consuming process.

Community members in the 49th Ward met for three months, conducting research and designing proposals, before they voted on final budget proposals. And it took Alderman Moore and his staff over a year to plan the process and implement each stage of it.

Meanwhile, six additional Aldermanic candidates who support participatory budgeting are heading for run-off elections on April 5: David Moore (17th Ward), Cuahutemoc Morfin (25th Ward), Michelle Smith (43rd Ward), John Arena (45th Ward), James Cappleman (46th Ward), Deborah Silverstein (50th Ward).

According to Lerner, the Participatory Budgeting Project is in discussions with elected officials and community groups about introducing the process in New York City; Boston; San Francisco; Springfield, Mass.; Providence, R.I.; and Greensboro, N.C. "The conversations are very promising," he said.

Alderman Moore has said that he is happy to act as a resource for other government officials who are interested in taking the plunge. He is also planning on telling Rahm Emanuel, Chicago's new mayor, about participatory budgeting as soon as he gets the opportunity.

"What I have found is that when you give up power, you gain power," he said. "My constituents have a better sense of the challenges and constraints of city governance, and when they don't like something, I say, 'Hey, that was your neighbor's decision. If you don't like it, come out and participate. This is a democracy.'"

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Sarah Palin: Could She Run as an Independent or Third Party Candidate?

Suzi Parker — 2011-03-09T22:56:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, 2012 President, Woman Up, Independents, Conservatives, White House, 2012 Elections

Sarah Palin talks a lot about the tea party.

On Fox News last week, she said, "I find inspiration in tea party patriots [and] those with common sense who aren't playing a lot of games."

She could be considered the tea party's godmother. With her Sarah PAC and support for 2010 tea party candidates, Palin has generated a lot of good will, not to mention publicity, for a movement that began only two years ago. She also isn't afraid to attack popular Republicans such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Open Letter to My High School Class. Especially Paula.

Donna Trussell — 2011-03-08T17:01:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up

In my four decades since graduating, I have avoided high school reunions. But this year we're coming up on the 40th anniversary, and you know how everyone likes round numbers. And, unlike ten years ago, we now have facebook.

Just a month ago, my maiden name was nowhere to be found on the Internet. I didn't want to be found by people who knew me during that painful time in my life.

My father was an engineer, and he made an excellent living. Despite that, we lived in a run-down Dallas neighborhood. But the district lines of Bryan Adams High School were so expansive -- graduating class of 1,116 -- that I was in the same school as kids from affluent, professional families.

If my only obstacle had been poverty, I might have been fine. But over the years, my father (who died in 2000) descended into mental illness. The things he did to our family were not just cruel, but criminal.

This was long before the days of 1-800 phone numbers to help endangered kids. I did not cope well. Imagine a teenage girl with Asperger syndrome and a mean streak (I was taught by masters, after all) and you'll get a sense of why I faced so much rejection in high school.

To make matters worse, my 7th-grade teacher enrolled me in the honors program. For the next five years, I shared classes with the same small group of bright, highly functional students from successful, conscientious families.

Except for one class. I took civics with the normal kids. You know, the class taught by a coach who's easy prey for students trying to distract him and get him to ramble on anything but civics.

I loved that class. Students wore cheap, sloppy clothes. No one put on airs. Boys flirted with me. What a thrill, at last, to "belong."

I should have taken the hint and spent the remainder of my high school days outside of honors and certainly outside of extracurricular activities like the drill team. But I was a fool.

The upside of the path I chose was an exceptional education I'd rank with that of any private school today. The down side was my square-peg-round hole grind, five days a week, for five years. And weekends and summers in my little room in my scary home.

So it was with some trepidation that I attempted to join in the fun with a new facebook group founded by a former classmate. He's one of those rare creatures who was nice-looking, popular and smart, but also kind enough to give me the time of day, then and now.

The group was brand new. My yearbooks long ago ditched, I looked around online for relics from our Dallas past. One treasure: The old Buckner Drive-In with the strange clown on the front.

As a professional writer, I strive to come up with a lively headlines. Above the picture of Buckner Drive-In, I posted: "Who lost his/her virginity here? Might as well fess up. The clown knows."

I was joking, but a classmate named Paula was not pleased. She posted:

Obviously you lost YOUR virginity at the Buckner Drive-in Donna, or you wouldn't be looking for SO many companions who did. I find this offensive and unnecessary to the content of this website.

Oh, the irony. "I wished!" I privately commented to a friend. "It wasn't from lack of trying." In high school, any kind of life, even that of a runaway slut, looked better than going back to my house every night.

But I was a religious girl in high school. And in any event, no one wanted me.

I replied to Paula: No offense intended (but fyi you're incorrect). If you're not enjoying the comments, feel free to unsubscribe. You can start your own group, you know.

Paula did not back down.

Oh geez Donna....didn't know you were the "Goddess" of this website. I meant no harm, it appears from a psychological point of view (which I have a degree), you were pushing for information from others. I have no desire to participate, unsubscribe, or start another "group" . I never liked you, Donna, in HS so 40 years later I see no point. Enjoy your CONTROL here, you obviously need it. CHEERS! Have fun with your "groupies."

Whoa, nellie!

A few classmates came to my defense. I attempted to stand my ground without adding to the bile just dumped on this heretofore friendly, easygoing facebook gathering.

In reply, I posted that high school was not a happy time for me, and I don't blame people for disliking who I was. (To quote the songwriter Lloyd Cole: "She drove her mother's car / to get away from me / heaven knows that I / I can sympathize / oh I can sympathize.")

But, I continued in my reply, 40 years have passed, and I'm not the same person. I like my life now. And I thought maybe the people who knew me at my worst would cut me some slack. I told Paula I did not remember her, but if I was unkind to her, I am sorry.

I haven't seen her online since, and her two posts to me have disappeared. One classmate commented: Looks like Paula has taken her vitriol and gone home.

I was touched by the classmates who stuck up for me, but I was surprised at how much Paula's comments stung. I guess you never really get out of high school. But I'm going to try.

I was religious back in the day. I am religious no longer, but I still admire the pacifist traditions of Buddhism and Judeo-Christian religions. If I do attend my high school's 40th reunion, and Paula is there, I will extend my hand and say, "Bury the hatchet?" Just as she could not know of my hellish existence at home years ago, I have no idea what she has endured that would make her say such harsh things today.

As a middle-aged woman, she's unlikely to throw a punch. She'll probably just turn her back, and I'll say my own secular version of a prayer for her, just as I wish she'd once prayed for me.

In fact, everyone might turn their backs. For all I know, I'll be greeted with one big flash mob "freeze," where everyone looks away, and pretends I'm not there. (Kind of like high school.) No doubt I'll cry a few tears. But, unlike high school, waiting for me at home will be a good husband and good friends.

I also have memories of a grandmother who did everything humanly possible to counteract the transgressions of my father. And -- before high school, before the bad times began -- my free-range childhood, full of adventures.

And I'll have life. As an ovarian cancer survivor, I honestly didn't think I would make it this far. Every day I wake up to the sight of the "wonderful world" immortalized by Louis Armstrong.

When you've seen so many lovely people die prematurely (and most cancer survivors have) you don't take the world for granted. Case in point: The Silent Killer Takes Out a Woman Who Would Not Shut Up.

To paraphrase the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi, why dwell on those who have hurt you when below you is the river that welcomes you, and above you the sky, which has never betrayed you?

Even if someday I lose my house, my husband, my career, (and what's left of my health), I'll still have the sky. I'll take it.

Follow Donna Trussell on Twitter.

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Title IX Reality: In 2011, Girls Still Shortchanged in Sports, Says Ex-Olympian

Carla Baranauckas — 2011-03-08T15:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up

For Nancy Hogshead-Makar, who won three gold medals and one silver in the 1984 Olympic swimming competition in Los Angeles, success has often required a large dose of persistence.

As an elite swimmer, she was undefeated in dual meets throughout her high school and college competitive careers and she qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team. But the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics because the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan, and it was four years before she could feel the thrill of standing atop the Olympic podium.

As International Women's Day marks its 100th anniversary Tuesday, Hogshead-Makar is reaching for another goal that has seemed even more elusive - equal access for girls and women to competitive sports in schools.

Enacted in 1972, Title IX bans sex discrimination for any education program or activity receiving federal money, and it is credited with bringing girls' and women's sports into the mainstream of scholastic and collegiate athletics.

Even though the law is closing in on its 40th anniversary in 2012, Hogshead-Makar notes that girls have 1.3 million fewer slots or opportunities on high school teams than boys have. "The differential between boys and girls has stayed fairly steady for the last 15 or 20 years," said Hogshead-Makar, the advocacy director for the Women's Sports Foundation.

"Sports is the only sex-segregated area in the whole school," she said. "That's exactly what makes it so important to treat boys and girls the same way."

Part of the problem, she said, is that there is no requirement for schools to report to the federal government the number of slots they have for boys and girls.

In January, U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York, a Democrat and longtime women's rights advocate, did something she has done repeatedly since 2004: introduced a bill called the High School Athletic Accountability Act, which would require high schools to report basic data on the number of female and male students in their athletic programs and the expenditures made for their sports teams. Federal law already requires colleges to report information about gender equity in athletics.

"While we have made significant strides towards equity in athletics, we must continue to monitor our progress and ensure that our nation's young women have the rights and opportunities they deserve," Slaughter said in a statement last month. "I want to remind everyone that ... high school girls still receive 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play sports than high school boys. It's high time we corrected this inequity."

Slaughter added: "Better information can help high schools and parents of schoolchildren foster fairness in athletic opportunities for both girls and boys. Ultimately, this is about expanding the opportunities of girls and women to play sports and live physically active lives."

Hogshead-Makar cited studies that indicate that girls who participate in sports are more likely to reach higher levels of education and higher levels of pay in the workforce. She also noted that the teenage pregnancy rate is lower for girls who participate in sports. "The more we know about what sports experience does for kids, the more that his becomes a more urgent public policy message," she said.

Slaughter's bill, which has 26 co-sponsors, including one Republican, was sent to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which referred the measure to its subcommittee on early childhood, elementary and secondary education.

Whether the bill will make it out of committee is questionable, considering that it failed to do so when Democrats controlled the House. Now, with Republicans in control of the House and tea party supporters looking to reduce government, the prospects of the bill may be even more daunting.

Eric Pearson, chairman of the College Sports Council, a group that advocates reform of Title IX and opposes "gender quotas in high school athletics," said that especially at a time when school districts are facing financial problems, requiring them to report more information to the federal government is imposing an unnecessary burden.

He said that most of the information the law would require is already reported at the state level and to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Pearson emphasized that his organization supports the basic goal of Title IX. "We don't think anybody should be discriminated against on the basis of gender," he said. But in the current financial climate, he said, if a school is required to provide equal numbers of slots for girls and boys, it is likely to decrease the number of slots for boys instead of increasing the number for girls.

"We're concerned that administrators will pull down the number to 50-50 rather than expand the opportunities for girls," Pearson said.

So far, he said, he has not been made aware of any high schools eliminating a boys' team to even the number of slots, but he has heard of cases in which a community wanted to add a baseball team or a soccer team but couldn't do so without adding a softball team or a girls' soccer team.

Hogshead-Makar said that what she has seen is that the addition of sports for girls has often led to an increase in the sports opportunities for boys and that the "unmet demand for sports is enormous for both boys and girls."

She said that she can easily see the lasting benefits that sports provided in her life. A tenured professor of law at the Florida Coastal School of Law and the mother of a son and two daughters, Hogshead-Makar said, "I learned a lot on the days that I did not want to get into the water with every cell in my body but that I was committed to something other than being in a good mood." She said that kind if discipline developed through sports translated to the kind of discipline it took to become a tenured professor or to be "a good parent at 3 o'clock in the morning."

She said she wants to make sure that "other kids get to have this thing called sports in their lives."

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McDonald's Grows Up: Coffee, Wi-Fi Supplanting Junk Food Image

Delia Lloyd — 2011-03-07T23:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Health Care, Woman Up, Michelle Obama, Economy

Well, it would appear that the New York Times magazine isn't the only iconic American institution undergoing a makeover. McDonald's is changing its menu and ambiance to project a more grown-up image.

Over the past few years, the fast-food chain has embraced a whole new look and feel. On the menu end of things, it has begun offering healthier fare like salads, Asian chicken sandwiches and fruit smoothies. And on the appearance end of things, McDonald's has also upgraded its look, offering free Wi-Fi, comfortable seats, funky lighting fixtures and cool wall hangings.

Front and center in this up-market move is coffee. According to Business Week, the company's McCafe drinks, which were rolled out nationally in 2009, have driven revenue growth at the company in six of the past seven quarters. The idea has been to offer a lower-cost alternative to Starbucks (although Starbucks -- which has had its own image makeover -- disputes that McDonald's is making serious inroads into its business).

The goal behind Mickey D's transformation is to reach new, more sophisticated customers. And while that doesn't mean renouncing its signature "Happy Meals" for children, the net effect is that the fast-food chain now feels more, well . . . adult. Indeed, among other casualties of the image overhaul is Ronald McDonald himself, who will now play a much more muted role in the company's marketing.

The changes to McDonald's are no doubt brought on in part by a series of recent legal actions. Last April, lawmakers in Santa Clara County, Calif., passed a bill prohibiting restaurants from giving away toys with meals that didn't meet national nutritional standards for children.

In June, a public health watchdog also called upon the fast-food giant to stop giving away toys with its meals, on the grounds that toys lure children into the restaurant to eat food that is high in sugar and fat. The Center for Science in the Public Interest expressed its intent to sue McDonald's over this issue, and in December it found a plaintiff for the case.

There's also been a sea-change in public attitudes toward obesity, which has no doubt raised the stakes for fast-food chains in today's political landscape. The obesity crisis is now well-documented, not just in the U.S. but in the U.K., where I live .

There's much more public attention showered upon the adverse health effects of eating junk food. Michelle Obama has made reducing childhood obesity a cornerstone of her work as first lady. And Walmart has announced a five-year plan to cut back on unhealthy foods and make healthy foods cheaper. Heck, you can't go into a restaurant in New York state these days without seeing a calorie count on your menu.

I'm not a big fan of junk food. My son has extensive food allergies, which means that on the odd occasion when we do grace the doorstep of a McDonald's, we have to "hold" so many items on his Quarter Pounder (the cheese, the mayo, the bun) that all we're left with is a naked piece of flattened ground beef lying on a paper wrapper (which is rather depressing). Plus, all I have to do is call up the image of that guy in the film "Super Size Me" -- or look at that ad with the fat guy lying on a stretcher clutching a half-eaten McDonald's hamburger -- to remind myself why I rarely go there.

Still, I'd like to take a moment to mourn Ronald McDonald's diminishment in our collective consciousness. With his stripey undergarment, blaring yellow overalls, fire-engine-red hair and enthusiastic (bordering on creepy) grin, he embodied all that is oversized, outlandish and inappropriate about childhood.

And as much as I love my lattes, I will be sad to see him go.

Follow Delia on Twitter.

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Wishing Charlie Sheen Farewell, a Speedy Recovery and Effective Rehab

Bonnie Goldstein — 2011-03-07T17:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up, Culture

After a week of Charlie Sheen madly ranting and raving to anyone who would listen (which added up to a substantial crowd), Warner Brothers Television announced Monday afternoon that despite a wildly successful seven and a half seasons, it has terminated the star of "Two and a Half Men" their top-rated show, "effective immediately."

Maybe now he will get medical help.

I've tried to avert my eyes from the train wreck that has become Charlie Sheen's faster-than-a-locomotive life, but a story on the front page of The New York Times business section on the TV and film industry culture Monday pulled me in. The story, by reporters Brooks Barnes, Bill Carter and Michael Cieply, blames Sheen's many handlers, who have "fed on" his "antics" and allowed the sitcom star to sink deeply into what appears to be a mental illness or a serious addiction. Money doesn't prevent insanity but it helps ameliorate the damage from its symptoms. Sheen got paid $1.8 million dollars per episode for a half-hour weekly comedy playing a slightly more stable version of himself, but without the violence.

I make no social judgment against Sheen's personal demons, but I suspect the list of intoxicants he is susceptible to includes power. For citizens of both cities, comparisons between Hollywood and D.C. are common. In every culture there are addictions. Washington's core industry -- politics -- probably has fewer cocaine habits per capita than Hollywood, but I'd bet there are at least as many power addicts. Neither makes for great character building (although power is usually more socially acceptable).

According to the Times, one film industry contact told a clean and sober Tom Arnold seeking to bring Sheen into "Hollywood's recovery community" that he could not assist Arnold because "we make a lot of money from him. I can't be part of it." The Times also quoted an unnamed source who said that by Hollywood standards, Sheen always hit his marks. Despite his well-documented all-night carousing, the hit show's star was reliably on time to the set. "He might be out until 5 a.m., but he always showed up on call at 7."

Los Angeles-based singer and artist Stew notes ironically in his 2000 hit tune "Rehab" that folks "seem to not mind a junkie with a well-paying job." That's probably because enabling usually pays off. Sheen has resisted getting professional help, recalling, for me, another lyric from Stew: "Once she said, 'Hey listen baby, I ain't gonna lie, there just ain't nothing I like more than getting high.'"

As it turns out, the star of "Two and a Half Men" did not just play the part of Charlie Harper, selfish drunk, on his laugh-track-sugared TV show. He actually is one. Instead of the successful jingle and children's songwriter Sheen played on CBS's top-rated series -- one who vexes family members (brother, nephew, housekeeper and mother) circling his self-absorbed nucleus -- the real Charlie had and conferred intoxicating movie-land power.

A second-generation Hollywood scion, the son of TV and movie actor Martin Sheen and the younger brother of "Breakfast Club" star Emilio Estevez, Sheen's real brother and father have not commented on his most recent tailspin. I'm certain their relative's crack up has been painful. Jokes about Sheen's meltdown have scored laughs on "Saturday Night Live" on NBC and his demented-sounding interviews have been big audience pleasers at ABC's "Good Morning America" and "20/20." Not one to miss an opportunity to exploit his celebrity, Sheen's own Twitter feed broke land speed records for rubber-necking followers hoping to witness the 45-year-old's inevitable crash landing.

And although an astute observer of social issues recently reminded us that Hollywood children are cared for by "nannies, and caretakers, and nurses," I can't help thinking his children (including toddler twins) are at emotional and maybe even physical risk from their impaired father's behavior. For them and the rest of his family, friends, colleagues and fans, I wish Sheen the best of luck getting a grip.

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N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue Vetoes Challenge to Health Care Reform Bill

Mary C. Curtis — 2011-03-07T12:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Democrats, Republicans, Health Care, Woman Up, Governors, 2010 Elections, Conservatives, 2012 Elections

North Carolina won't be joining the list of states challenging federal health care reform legislation -- not yet, anyway. Over the weekend, Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed legislation passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature that challenges a provision that would require the purchase of health insurance.

In a statement, Perdue called the house bill "an ill-conceived piece of legislation that's not good for the people of North Carolina." She said the state law contradicts federal law, and that since 27 states are already challenging it, "this issue will reach the Supreme Court in a timely manner without North Carolina spending money and energy on it."

Sarah Palin's India Trip: Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela Have Made Same Journey

Suzi Parker — 2011-03-06T22:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Trade, Sarah Palin, Woman Up, International, Barack Obama, 2012 Elections

The jokes are already flying as Sarah Palin prepares to embark on a trip to India later this month, and more are surely to come. Will she rock a sari? Perhaps guest star in a Bollywood movie? Or bathe in the Ganges for a photo op?

Palin has been invited to give the keynote address, "My Vision of America," at the two-day India Today conclave in New Delhi, an event hosted annually by the magazine since 2002. The March 18-19 event is sponsored by global business heavyweight Aditya Birla Group, a billion-dollar metals company, along with a bevy of industry co-sponsors.

The news came in late February via her cybermessenger, Rebecca Mansour, who tweeted: "Governor Palin will be travelling to India next month." Neither Palin nor Mansour has expounded on the details of trip.

Representatives for India Today did not return e-mails about Palin's trip. India Today is the country's most diversified media group, with interests in magazines, newspaper, television, radio, Internet, books and music.

It is unclear if she is getting paid to appear, but Palin usually charges upwards of $100,000 for such speaking engagements, according to various news accounts.

Palin has traveled outside the United States only a few times since Sen. John McCain chose her as his running mate in 2008. At that point, she had only traveled to the Middle East to visit U.S. troops. Since then, she has given a speech in Hong Kong and visited Haiti alongside Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham.

An article by the magazine on the conclave website states: "Her visit to India has generated immense buzz in U.S. political circles over if she will run for president in 2012. Palin is reportedly shy of traveling abroad but her keynote address at the India Today Conclave 2011 is seen as an attempt to articulate foreign policy where she was found wanting in her 2008 bid for V-P, say some experts."

New York Sun columnist Pranay Gupte describes the gathering as the "biggest private-sector megaphone in the world's largest democracy."

Palin will certainly have plush accommodations and the chance to mingle among international intelligentsia.

The event will be at the Taj Palace Hotel New Delhi, which sits on "six acres of lush greens in the exclusive Diplomatic Enclave of the city," and is only 10 minutes from the airport, "well equipped, offering simultaneous translation in five languages."

India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, will deliver the opening keynote address at the event themed "The Changing Balance of Power." Other speakers include feminist writer Germaine Greer speaking on a panel titled "Can the Burqa Co-Exist With the Bikini?" and Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, who gives a dinner keynote on "The New Middle East."

For a governor who served only 31 months in office, Palin is in fairly auspicious company.

In the event's inaugural year, Al Gore spoke, and the next year Bill Clinton appeared. Since then, special guests have included Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Colin Powell, Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Afghanistan President H. E. Hamid Karzai, and Hillary Clinton, who spoke when she was senator of New York.

Some Palin critics have said that her trip is a slap in the face to key 2012 states, like Iowa and New Hampshire, and her absence from those venues signals that she is not running for president.

"I know, presidential candidates like to travel abroad to boost their foreign policy credentials. And Palin needs those credentials badly," wrote Andrew Cline, the editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union Leader. "But I find it hard to believe that, presumably less than a year from the primary, someone who makes a trip to India a higher priority than a trip to New Hampshire is a serious presidential candidate."

But hold on, say some political watchers, who argue Palin has time to go to India and still be a powerful 2012 player.

Dr. Lara Brown, assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, tells Politics Daily: "The first thing that comes to mind is that she is preparing for a presidential run. Presidential aspirants typically travel internationally before the invisible primary season gets under way."

Brown notes that Nixon was one of the first to do this after losing his 1960 presidential bid against John F. Kennedy and his 1962 loss to Pat Brown in the California gubernatorial race. He traveled to Europe, Japan and Vietnam where he hosted press conferences and met with leaders.

"Foreign travel gives the candidates a broader perspective on the world and allows them to talk in a more informed way about foreign policy," Brown said.

While it is unclear whether Palin lobbied for a spot on the conclave ticket or the group reached out to invite her, India is an interesting choice of country for her to visit. The Obama administration has given keen attention to the South Asia republic. The first White House state dinner the Obamas hosted was in honor of the Indian prime minister and they visited India just three months ago.

It's also a smart trip politically because Indian-Americans have increasing clout in the American political process. Republican Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who Palin supported, is the daughter of Indian immigrant parents as is Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, also a Republican.

The Indian American Conservative Council (IACC), a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that supports conservative, pro-business values, has praised her visit. "It is only fitting that Palin travel to New Delhi since India is an economic partner with the United States, with both nations benefiting from $50 billion in annual trade, along with mutual cooperation in the global war on terrorism," IACC chairman Dino Teppara said in a statement.

Palin could use the conclave platform to counter many of Obama's viewpoints, and she is going into friendly territory. India likes female leaders, such as the powerful Sonia Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress, the lead party in India's coalition. Gandhi is the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1984.

India media reports frequently on Palin and her family. A Google search covering the period from Jan. 1, 2010, to Jan. 1, 2011, turns up 2.4 million hits pairing Sarah Palin and India, most of them from Indian media. Palin's trip to India could be just political curiosity on both her part and the country's movers and shakers. But it could be a diplomatic springboard into the 2012 presidential waters.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated how long Sarah Palin was governor of Alaska. She was governor for 31 months, not 18 months.

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Nikki Haley Is Grading S.C. Lawmakers as She Advances Conservative Agenda

Mary C. Curtis — 2011-03-06T21:59:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Budget, Woman Up, Governors, 2010 Elections, Conservatives, Tea Party, 2012 Elections

Nikki Haley is sending out report cards. She will be grading the votes of state legislators.

The governor's announcement last week came with a letter "To the People of South Carolina" that said: "The purpose of the report card is to track the results of legislation that are important to what you elected me to accomplish. And believe me, your voice is loud and clear: you want more transparency, more accountability, more efficiency, and you want it done with less of your money.

"This is not personal. This is not partisan. This is good government."

The 13 categories for judging state House and Senate members include votes on spending caps, requiring more on-the-record votes, requiring the governor and lieutenant governor to run together on one ticket, and votes to sustain Haley's vetoes on the budget. The card leaves space for "other issues to be determined."

While state Sen. David Thomas, a Republican from Greenville, told The State newspaper that he appreciated the report cards because they spelled out Haley's priorities, state Sen. Joel Lourie, a Democrat from Richland, called the report cards an offensive public relations stunt. "Am I supposed to take it home and get my mother to sign it?" Lourie said.

Haley was certainly clear about her uncompromising conservative views during her campaign against Democratic opponent Vincent Sheheen. In pre-election debates, she supported South Carolina's status as a right-to-work state and her intention to "keep unions out." The pro-business Haley also looked to corporations for solutions to the state's budget problems, suggesting that they step in to save libraries. But issues at times faded into the background amid charges that she had had extramarital affairs and name-calling (and that was just from her own party).

Haley also gently put distance between herself and her one-time mentor, former Gov. Mark Sanford. It wasn't just because of his messy public affair with a woman he called his soul mate. (He is now divorced.) It was also his reputation for butting heads with legislators and for such stunts as carrying two live pigs into the House chamber in 2004 to protest the override of his veto on a budget bill Sanford said contained "pork." He garnered national attention as a rising Republican star before his personal life unraveled over several news cycles.

The telegenic, Indian-American Haley started out a star, with the backing of the tea party and the support of Sarah Palin. Haley and her state are in no danger of disappearing off the national map, especially with South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary drawing all manner of presidential hopefuls, and a debate among them scheduled for May.

As governor, Haley is comfortable in the national spotlight, whether it is confronting the president in Washington or telling The New York Times magazine on Sunday, "I don't lose."

For now, the state's first female governor is following up on the vision she laid out in her State of the State address, which promised smaller government and specific cuts to trim South Carolina's budget shortfalls.

Her plans to cut $2.5 million in financing for the arts commission and more than $9.5 million to ETV have met resistance. ETV operates a statewide network of television and radio stations and a closed-circuit telecommunications system used by schools, government agencies and businesses. Though the system is popular, Haley's actions follow similar moves by state governments across the country.

Haley has also had a number of legislative successes, including bipartisan support on House measures to create a new Department of Administration under the governor's control, and to require the governor and lieutenant governor to run on the same ticket.

She remains firm in her opposition to federal health-care reform legislation; she has urged President Obama to let South Carolina opt out while it comes up with its own plan.

Speaking of her plans to issue her report card: "I understand that it is difficult for all 168 members of the General Assembly and I to agree, but certainly we can be united in recognizing that we do the people's work and it's to the people that we have to answer. My hope is that you find the report card useful in helping exercise the power of your voice and instructive when you go the polls to elect your chosen leaders."

And the elected officials she has pledged to work with?

"Let me be clear: I will give your legislators prior notice about where I stand on legislation, as I have done throughout the year thus far, so that they will know what could be included in the report card before votes are cast."

Presumably, Haley won't be grading on a curve.

Click here to follow Mary C. Curtis on Twitter.

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Note to Mike Huckabee: Lay Off of Natalie Portman's Baby

Bonnie Goldstein — 2011-03-05T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up, Culture

Following the Academy Awards telecast, Mike Huckabee told radio host Michael Medved "I'm very happy to say that I missed it because usually it's about the most boring waste of several hours that I've ever experienced."

I can't disagree with the former governor about the dullness of most of this year's broadcast, but I dotake issue with what he had to say next about Best Actress winner Natalie Portman. The former and perhaps future GOP presidential aspirant disparaged the star for being a poor example by encouraging women to have "out-of-wedlock" children (why not just call them "bastards," Huck?).

Like Huckabee, I missed Natalie Portman thanking the Academy and the special gratitude the notably pregnant movie star bestowed on her choreographer boyfriend Benjamin Millepied, who in addition to training Portman on her award-winning ballet moves, is the daddy of her baby due sometime this spring. Suggesting that raising her baby-to-be would be her most imperative portrayal, Portman said Millepied has given her "my most important role."

My colleague Lizzie Skurnick has implied that Natalie's boyfriend is essentially a full service "sperm donor" albeit on a much more intimate level than the character played by Mark Ruffalo in the competing film "The Kids Are All Right." In that Oscar-nominated movie, Annette Bening (also nominated in the Best Actress category) plays one half of a lesbian couple with co-star Julianne Moore. Their characters conceive two children using sperm samples from the same donor. In a key scene Moore tells the teenagers "the bottom line is marriage is hard. It's really f---in' hard. It's just two people slogging through the s--t, year after year, getting older, changing - f---ing marathon, okay?" I love my husband but I must agree.

While some feminists chafed at Portman's use of the superlative, and wondered whether reproducing is truly "the greatest thing Natalie Portman will do with her life?" my colleague Joanne Bamberger countered, "the experience of motherhood adds, not subtracts, from the full picture of being an accomplished woman."

Portman at 29 has worked as an actor since she was 11 years old, is literally and theatrically a beautiful girl, and is indisputably an inspiring creative talent. Portman loves her profession and has delivered sustained theatrical excellence for 18 years. Disciplined in both work and school, she is also a stellar role model for studious science-oriented girls. In high school her "environmentally friendly" project to convert waste into useful energy, was a semifinalist in the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search and she later graduated from Harvard where she studied neuroscience and the evolution of the mind.

Disclosure: I walked out of the theater last fall during Darren Aronofsky's film "Black Swan" (I have low tolerance for self-mutilation images). Nonetheless, for first 20 minutes of Natalie Portman's on screen performance, I found her character persuasively sober and damaged, (especially impressive, since we now know, the actress was having a great romance with her dance instructor and was presumably swimming in oxytocin).

As she has proven to be in so many other areas, Portman will no doubt be a successful mother. Huckabee, a conservative family values proponent who has written a book declaring "The Most Important Form of Government Is a Father, Mother, and Children," nevertheless used her winning moment to insult "most single moms" who he described as "very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care."

In my family, we are particularly fond of moms who make it on their own. Until our now adult daughter was 13, I was a husbandless mother. I was also "uneducated" but I was a quick learner, loved my daughter and worked hard. Rearing a child, like marriage, is a marathon. Portman will soon find that with or without a baby daddy to help in the wee hours, and even with "nannies, and caretakers, and nurses," caring for and protecting her new tiny human, she will have moments, both humbling and thrilling, like nothing she has ever rehearsed.

(I might also add that as able and loving a father my husband has been to both our children for the last 26 years, there is never a guarantee a partner will be a worthy co-parent. All reproducing women should at least be prepared to shoulder the job alone.)

My daughter did not starve to death and coincidentally is now herself a member of the Motion Picture Academy which votes on the Oscars. As she cast her ballot for the Bening/Moore film, she joked she was in solidarity with the sperm donor. In political elections and film industry awards, people vote based on their bias, emotional reactions and strongly held belief in their candidates' abilities. Little things sway the results.

Although he has not officially decided whether he will run in the 2012 race, Mike Huckabee has apparently been looking to sway some votes of his own.

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Gabrielle Giffords Listed Among 15 Most Vulnerable Democrats by DCCC

Eleanor Clift — 2011-03-04T21:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Woman Up

It has only been four months since the midterm elections, but Democrats are already building a safety net under their most vulnerable members. Of 15 lawmakers dubbed "Frontline Members" by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, one is Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. She, of course, is recovering in a Houston rehab facility from a gunshot wound to the head. Fellow Democrats are looking out for her, getting fundraising underway that she can't do personally -- and not presuming there will be a big sympathy vote carrying Giffords to reelection.

Politics has a way of turning nasty when the stakes are high, and it's uncertain whether Giffords will recover sufficiently to resume the arduous life of a legislator (and candidate). Reading the most recent account of her recovery in The New York Times is to appreciate the remarkable progress she's made, but also to understand the tough road ahead. Aides are briefing her on events, including the populist uprisings in North Africa, but she's been shielded so far from details of the shooting in January that claimed six lives and wounded her and 13 others.

The Times recounts Giffords' ability to follow along and mouth song lyrics. Singing is governed by a part of the brain separate from the speech center, and in Giffords' case was apparently untouched by the bullet that tore through her head. Aides say she is speaking and communicating, but not in "paragraphs." Her mother marvels at the erect posture her daughter has managed to regain after being "kind of a limp noodle" after the shooting.

Giffords represents a Republican-leaning district, and was the only woman among the conservative Blue Dog Democrats to survive the midterms. The fact that she won is largely due to the popularity she enjoys as a warm, outgoing personality able to reach across partisan lines. The shooting has made her a beloved figure in the district, and indeed the country, and her reelection depends almost entirely on her medical progress. As Giffords works hard to regain full function, her support network in Congress, led by Florida's Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is not taking anything for granted in trying to re-elect their friend. Wasserman Schultz heads up the "Frontline" effort, and made sure Giffords was on the list.

The other 14 are Reps. Tim Bishop and Bill Owens of New York, Leonard Boswell of Iowa, Russ Carnahan of Missouri, Ben Chandler of Kentucky, Gerry Connolly of Virginia, Mark Critz of Pennsylvania, Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, Jim Matheson of Utah, Jerry McNerney of California, Gary Peters of Michigan, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, and Tim Walz of Minnesota.

National Journal's "Hotline" points out that at least nine of the 15 Democrats are likely to be negatively affected by redistricting in their states. Republicans won key statehouses and legislative chambers in the last election, and that means these Democrats could be doubly vulnerable -- in some cases, perhaps beyond saving. The announcement of the list from DCCC Chairman Steve Israel includes this disclaimer: "Unlike previous cycles, Frontline Membership will change as Members' political circumstances shift as a result of redistricting, their opponent, or other factors." In other words, there's always room for reality to intervene.

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