Big Media Blog aggregator

Huffington Post: Michael Giltz: Swingers: The New Voting Bloc That Could Change Politics Forever

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:20 -0500

Barack Obama has inspired a wave of young voters to get involved in politics for the first time. Like Ronald Reagan, Obama might be at the forefront of a Democratic majority for the next three decades the same way the Republicans dominated during the last three. But in fact the biggest news of this election was not a new Democratic majority. It was the rise of the Swinger. That's the independent/moderate voter who dislikes candidates that cater to the fringes of either party. Is the US a center-left or a center-right country? The truth is that it's a center-center country, with most voters -- whatever their party affiliation -- representing a moderate middle that likes practical solutions to the real problems that face us and have no patience with special interests and the parties who are beholden to them.

Huffington Post: Kerry Trueman: Shopacoplypse Now

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:19 -0500

image: Breeding Zombie Consumers by Sam Sebren I've tried to put myself in the shoes of the Long Island lemmings who stomped the life out of Jdimytai "Jimbo" Damour in their rampage to ring up a bargain, but I just can't seem to fit into their frenzied footwear. Black Friday--this travesty of a tradition of dashing out the door to score a discounted tv or dvd player before you've even begun to digest your Thanksgiving dinner--is a sign of how badly we need to heed the Reverend Billy and seek salvation at the Church of Stop Shopping.

Huffington Post: Chris Rodda: Creationism: The Latest in Military Suicide Prevention

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:19 -0500

Here at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), we get countless complaints about religiously-based mental health and counseling programs, which, over the past few years, have been systematically replacing proven psychological and medical approaches to a multitude of issues faced by military personnel. I've seen so many truly insane, not to mention blatantly unconstitutional, ways that the military is playing with the mental well being of our troops since I began working for MRFF that I really didn't think it was possible for me to be surprised by anything anymore. Then I was sent a PowerPoint presentation by an airman at RAF Lakenheath, the largest U.S. Air Force base in England. On the MRFF scale of classifying by various expletives the egregiousness level of things that are reported to us -- "holy crap," "holy shit," and "holy f..." -- this one, promoting creationism as a means of preventing suicide among our military personnel, was definitely a "holy f..."

Huffington Post: Jayne Lyn Stahl: Not Just a Passing Ghost

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:18 -0500

After spending 7 years of my life head to toe with the characters of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle, you can understand my amazement when, at 11 A.M. that autumn morning, the phone rang and the person on the other end introduced himself as "Stephen Joyce." On the morning of September 18, 2008, Stephen James Joyce, grandson, and only surviving relative of renowned Irish writer, James Joyce, called from France in response to a letter I sent to him some weeks before.

Huffington Post: Susan Smith Ellis: What World AIDS Day Means To Me

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:17 -0500

For some, today is a day of reflection, to remember a loved one or friends lost to AIDS. For others, today is a day to acknowledge the progress we've made fighting this pandemic, and the tens of thousands of lives that have been saved thanks to the availability of life-saving antiretroviral medicine, and new ways of getting access to it, like (RED). For me, today is a day where I think of what still needs to be done, of the literally millions of people we still need to help in Africa who are fighting to survive. I recently traveled to Rwanda and saw the impact of the (RED) money at work. Clinics that a few years ago lacked basic sanitation and supplies, now are functioning well and helping thousands of people live a better life. Real results in preventing mother to child transmission of the virus . Real progress in getting the anti retroviral drugs to those in need and to stemming the spread of AIDS. However, this clearly isn't work that is finished and today is the day where I see not only how far we've come, but how much more remains to be done.

Huffington Post: Jim Randel: Will Commercial Real Estate be Next?

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:17 -0500

There's been a lot of talk in the media these days that the next shoe to drop in the credit crisis/financial meltdown will be commercial real estate. Two weeks ago there were a couple of moderately-sized defaults on mortgage loans (hotel and retail projects) that were packaged in commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS). The media seized on this and started worrying out loud about commercial real estate.

Huffington Post: David Ambroz: The Exploitation of Children By The "Pro-Family" Agenda In Arkansas

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:16 -0500

This November 2008, I was gifted the chance to address the 35,000+ strong Civil Rights March in Los Angeles, California. I walked to the podium, passing the Mayor, Ricky Lake, Lucy Lawless, the City Attorney, Connie Rice, amongst a host of other luminaries. Amongst this series of speakers, I was to address an issue that is near to my heart -- the proponents of Prop 8 exploitation of children via fear mongering; and the passage in Arkansas of a measure to strip GLBT adults the right to foster or adopt. Much has been written about the misleading (blatant lies) by the proponents of 8 regarding public education here in California. However, the passage of a measure in Arkansas is even more troubling as it strips young people of a crucial right; the right to be in a loving adoptive or foster home. Here are the remarks I delivered.

Huffington Post: Cecile Richards: Sen. Clinton Champions Women's Health Worldwide

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:15 -0500

Late on election night, I received an email from a Planned Parenthood staff person, Njeri Wahome, in Nairobi, Kenya. Njeri wrote to me to verify what she was seeing on television -- that Senator Obama had won. "Can it be true? We are over the moon ... at the making of history." For a woman who has dedicated her life to improving the health of women and children in her home country, Njeri knew that a change in U.S. administration could have a dramatic impact on women in Kenya. For the past eight years, the Bush administration has enforced a global gag rule, an executive order that prevented thousands of health care entities around the world from providing women with birth control. In some parts of Africa, women have a one-in-10 risk of dying in childbirth. And as Nicholas Kristof wrote in the New York Times in October, the result of the so-called "pro-life" policy has likely been tens of thousands of additional and avoidable abortions each year. In addition to implementing the gag rule, each year the Bush administration has denied funding to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, at the behest of the far right -- money that would have paid for the provision of critical reproductive care.

Huffington Post: Mark Ishaug: High Hopes Await Obama in HIV/AIDS Fight

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:15 -0500

My Thanksgiving ends each year in a solemn reflection of the dozens of friends I have lost to AIDS and the indelible scar the pandemic has etched across the globe. Today, on World AIDS Day, I wonder what Ron, Michael, Cecil, Charles, Gigi, Larry, and so many other Chicago AIDS activists gone-by would say of the incoming Obama Administration. Would they triumph in the President-elect's message of hope or lament the effects of HIV stigma, complacency, and competing priorities in muting needed change?

Huffington Post: Peter Clothier: Let's Take a Breath...

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:05:14 -0500

... everyone. He's not even in the Oval Office yet. The media are running around like a bunch of chickens, clucking wildly about those things they don't know and those things they do. They need to replace their election drama, I suppose, with some post-election, pre-inauguration drama. It's about the ratings. Meanwhile, the new rooster in the yard continues to play it cool, careful not to crow, and saying nothing when he has nothing to say. I admire his restraint. I admire his smarts. I admire his refusal to be flustered. Once in a while, I find myself in complete agreement with conservative columnist David Brooks in the New York Times. Last Friday was one of those occasions. I started out thinking he was going to be a smart-ass, but he surprised me. His column is worth a read.