More TV Ads Project Racial Harmony Part 1

Ever see an inner-city schoolyard filled with white, Asian and black teens shooting hoops? Or middle-aged white and Latino men swigging beer and watching the Super Bowl on their black neighbor's couch? Or Asians and Latinos dancing the night away in a hip-hop club?


All it takes is a television.

Yes, that mesmerizing mass purveyor of aspiration, desire and self-awareness regularly airs commercials these days that show Americans of different races and ethnicities interacting in integrated schools, country clubs, workplaces and homes, bonded by their love of the products they consume.

Think about one of Pepsi's newest spots, "Refresh Anthem," which debuted during the Super Bowl. The ad, which features Bob Dylan and hip-hop producer will.i.am, is a collage of images from the '60s and today that celebrate generations past and present.

Whites and blacks are shown returning from war, surfing, skateboarding, dancing and waving American flags at political rallies, while a boyish Dylan and a present-day will.i.am take turns singing the Dylan classic, "Forever Young," each in his signature style.

Or, take the latest hit spot from E TRADE, which stars the E TRADE Baby, a 9-month-old white boy, and his newest buddy - a black infant who, from his own highchair, agrees with the wisdom of online investing even in a down economy.

Ads like these are part of a subtle, yet increasingly visible strategy that marketers refer to as "visual diversity" - commercials that enable advertisers to connect with wider audiences while conveying a message that corporate America is not just "in touch," racially speaking, but inclusive.

It wasn't always like this. For much of the past century, "minorities were either invisible in mainstream media, or handed negative roles that generally had them in a subservient position," says Jerome Williams, a professor of advertising and African-American studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Today, you're starting to see a juxtaposition of blacks and whites together, doing the things people do ... Now, advertisers are not in a position of pushing social justice. But to the extent that they can put whites and blacks together in situations, I think that's a good thing."

These "multiculti" ads may be evidence of the vitality of assimilation, America's distinctive, master trend. To advertisers, though, they're simply smart business - a recognition of a new cultural mainstream that prizes diversity, a recognition that we are fast approaching a day when the predominant hue in America will no longer be white.

"Going forward, all advertising is going to be multicultural by definition, because in most states, majority ethnic populations will no longer exist," says Danny Allen, managing director at SENSIS, an ad agency in Los Angeles that specializes in reaching multicultural audiences through digital and online media.

Just as the Obama campaign sensed the nation's desire to reconcile its racial problems, he adds, "advertisers are also tapping into that same yearning, particularly among younger Americans, to put racial divisions behind us and move forward in a more unified way."

And yet, some critics wonder if depicting America as a racial nirvana today may have an unintended downside - that of airbrushing out of the public consciousness the economic and social chasms that still separate whites, blacks and Latinos.

Even on Madison Avenue, which is generating the inclusive messages, recent studies find few nonwhites in decision-making and creative positions within the advertising industry itself.

Are multiculti ads, then, an accurate barometer of our racial progress, a showcase of our hopes in that direction - or a reminder of how far we still have to go?

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In the days when Aunt Jemima appeared on boxes of pancake mix as a servile "Mammy" character - a plump, smiling African-American woman in a checkered apron and a kerchief - advertisers aimed largely for the so-called "general market," code for white consumers, rather than smaller, satellite "ethnic" markets.

Whites still hold most of the economic clout in the United States - 85.5 percent of the nation's annual buying power of $10 trillion, according to a 2007 study by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

In recent years, though, marketers have been revising old assumptions and campaigns in anticipation of profound shifts in the nation's demographics, and in reaction to changes already under way in what the Selig Center describes as "The Multicultural Economy."

Ads like these are part of a subtle, yet increasingly visible strategy that marketers refer to as "visual diversity" - commercials that enable advertisers to connect with wider audiences while conveying a message that corporate America is not just "in touch," racially speaking, but inclusive.

It wasn't always like this. For much of the past century, "minorities were either invisible in mainstream media, or handed negative roles that generally had them in a subservient position," says Jerome Williams, a professor of advertising and African-American studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Today, you're starting to see a juxtaposition of blacks and whites together, doing the things people do ... Now, advertisers are not in a position of pushing social justice. But to the extent that they can put whites and blacks together in situations, I think that's a good thing."

These "multiculti" ads may be evidence of the vitality of assimilation, America's distinctive, master trend. To advertisers, though, they're simply smart business - a recognition of a new cultural mainstream that prizes diversity, a recognition that we are fast approaching a day when the predominant hue in America will no longer be white.

"Going forward, all advertising is going to be multicultural by definition, because in most states, majority ethnic populations will no longer exist," says Danny Allen, managing director at SENSIS, an ad agency in Los Angeles that specializes in reaching multicultural audiences through digital and online media.

Just as the Obama campaign sensed the nation's desire to reconcile its racial problems, he adds, "advertisers are also tapping into that same yearning, particularly among younger Americans, to put racial divisions behind us and move forward in a more unified way."

And yet, some critics wonder if depicting America as a racial nirvana today may have an unintended downside - that of airbrushing out of the public consciousness the economic and social chasms that still separate whites, blacks and Latinos.

Even on Madison Avenue, which is generating the inclusive messages, recent studies find few nonwhites in decision-making and creative positions within the advertising industry itself.

Are multiculti ads, then, an accurate barometer of our racial progress, a showcase of our hopes in that direction - or a reminder of how far we still have to go?

---

In the days when Aunt Jemima appeared on boxes of pancake mix as a servile "Mammy" character - a plump, smiling African-American woman in a checkered apron and a kerchief - advertisers aimed largely for the so-called "general market," code for white consumers, rather than smaller, satellite "ethnic" markets.

Whites still hold most of the economic clout in the United States - 85.5 percent of the nation's annual buying power of $10 trillion, according to a 2007 study by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

In recent years, though, marketers have been revising old assumptions and campaigns in anticipation of profound shifts in the nation's demographics, and in reaction to changes already under way in what the Selig Center describes as "The Multicultural Economy."
Part 1

Chandra Wilson: 'Grey's Anatomy' Star Back On Broadway

Today's News NJ has learned that Chandra Wilson will star in Broadway's hit musical 'Chicago,' for a limited run starting June 8 through July 5.

The 'Grey's Anatomy' star will play the role of Matron "Mama" Morton, which was portrayed by Queen Latifah in the big screen remake of the show in 2002.

Wilson has portrayed Dr. Miranda Bailey on the ABC hit drama series since 2005. For her turn as the no-nonsense hospital honcho, the Houston native has garnered three Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She also won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series, a second Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Drama Series Ensemble and three NAACP Image Awards.

'Chicago' will not be her first turn on The Great White Way; she starred in the production of Lynda Barry's 'The Good Times Are Killing Me,' both at the Second Stage and Minetta Lane Theatres, for which she won a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut Performance. In 2004 she won raves for her role as Dotty Moffett in 'Caroline, or Change,' which was written by Tony Kushner, composed by Jeanine Tesori and directed by George C. Wolfe.

She also appeared in the Broadway productions of 'Avenue Q' and 'On the Town/'

Wilson, who has been performing in musicals since the age of five, earned her BFA in Drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she spent four years training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

Pfc. LaVena Johnson: Why You Need to Know Her Story By Carmen Dixon

Any American with a television has heard the details of how Pat Tillman was mistakenly killed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, despite the military's best efforts to obscure that truth. But unless you are an avid blog reader, you may have never heard of Pfc. LaVena Johnson. Johnson, who died in 2005, is the first woman soldier killed while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, and much of the evidence related to her death indicates that she was brutally murdered.

Those facts were initially concealed from the family by an official declaration that Johnson's death was a suicide. From Jezebel via What About our Daughters in July 2008:

Private LaVena Johnson's nose was broken, teeth were loose, one eye was concave and there were abrasions over her body. The supposed M-16 hole to the head was far too small for the revolver-sized exit wound and was on the wrong side of her skull for a right-handed woman to have pulled the trigger. Her genital area showed evidence of acid, perhaps used to destroy DNA evidence. She had white military gloves glued to her burned hands.

Since then, the Army has continued to insist that the LaVena committed suicide by pointing her rifle with her nondominant hand at the side of her head and set herself on fire, all after she beat herself up and poured acid on her genitals... Oh, and there was a trail of blood leading away from the tent where her body was found.

The blogosphere mobilized and online activists got busy.

Momentum is building in our efforts to gain Justice for LaVena Johnson!

The love and persistence of her family in the three years since LaVena was killed has been remarkable. The online activism of Philip Barron of Wave Flux, Shakesville has been equally remarkable. In fact, it was Bro. Barron's LaVena Johnson Petition that created the first call to action as he collected 12,000 signatures to be delivered to the Armed Services Committee.

Original Villager Danielle Vyas created an online petition calling on Congress and the president to reopen her case. She plans to close out her online petition when it reaches 3,000 signatures. Currently, 1,837 signatures have been collected. Have you signed it yet? Online activism for LaVena Johnson gaining momentum.


That was in July. The goal of 3,000 signatures was reached and surpassed. To date, the Johnson family continues to press for answers. No formal investigation has been launched into the death of Pfc. LaVena Johnson.

Accuser and Wrongly Convicted Man Now Friends

If you're searching for an example of what open human hearts can achieve, and grace in action, then look no further than the story of Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton.


When Jennifer Thompson identified Ronald Cotton as her rapist in 1984, she was sure she had found the right man. But she was wrong. Cotton, then 22, was convicted of raping Thompson and another woman on the same night in Burlington, N.C. He would spend the next 11 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit.

That's not so uncommon, right? We now know how unreliable eyewitness testimony can be. That was the tragedy; now for the remarkable part:

In 1995, DNA evidence cleared Cotton of the rapes and showed that another man who was in prison with him was the rapist, a case recently covered by CBS' "60 Minutes." Now, Thompson and Cotton are friends and have written a new book together on their story, called 'Picking Cotton.'

The two speak on the phone weekly and travel together to speak out on the problems with eyewitness evidence. Even their families are friends. Thompson said she felt horrible guilt when she found out Cotton was not her rapist. "Suffocating, debilitating shame," she told "60 Minutes" She asked Cotton if she could meet with him at a local church. "I started to cry immediately. And I looked at him, and I said, 'Ron, if I spent every second of every minute of every hour for the rest of my life telling you how sorry I am, it wouldn't come close to how my heart feels. I'm so sorry.' And Ronald just leaned down, he took my hands...and he looked at me, he said, 'I forgive you,'" Thompson told CBS. "I told her, I said, 'Jennifer, I forgive you. I don't want you to look over your shoulder. I just want us to be happy and move on in life,'"Cotton said. Source

I hope none of us reading this will ever find ourselves in Cotton's or Thompson's postion. But the path that these two chose to walk together stands as a beacon of conduct for all of us.
Is there someone YOU need to forgive to free yourself?

Court Refuses to Expand Minority Voting Rights

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that electoral districts must have a majority of African-Americans or other minorities to be protected by a provision of the Voting Rights Act.

The 5-4 decision, with the court's conservatives in the majority, could make it harder for southern Democrats to draw friendly boundaries after the 2010 Census.

The court declined to expand protections of the landmark civil rights law to take in electoral districts where the minority population is less than 50 percent of the total, but strong enough to effectively determine the outcome of elections.


In 2007, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down a state legislative district in which blacks made up only about 39 percent of the voting age population. The court said the Voting Rights Act applies only to districts with a numerical majority of minority voters.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, announcing the court's judgment, said that requiring minorities to represent more than half the population "draws clear lines for courts and legislatures alike. The same cannot be said of a less exacting standard."

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito signed onto Kennedy's opinion. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas agreed with the outcome of the case.

The four liberal justices dissented. A district like the one in North Carolina should be protected by federal law "so long as a cohesive minority population is large enough to elect its chosen candidate when combined with a reliable number of crossover voters from an otherwise polarized majority," Justice David Souter wrote for himself and Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens.

The decision complicates matters for southern Democrats who will redo political boundaries after the next census.

Democrats have sought to create districts in which African-Americans, though not a majority, still were numerous enough to determine the outcome of elections with the help of small numbers of like-minded white voters. Those districts could be challenged under Monday's decision.

In another election-related case, the court let stand an appeals court decision that invalidated state laws regulating the ways independent presidential candidates can get on state ballots.

Arizona, joined by 13 other states, asked the court to hear its challenge to a ruling throwing out its residency requirement for petition circulators and a June deadline for submitting signatures for independent candidates in the November presidential elections.

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader sued and won a favorable ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

China’s harassment of U.S. survey ship not the first, won’t be the last

On Sunday, five Chinese vessels shadowed and then maneuvered aggressively toward USNS Impeccable, a U.S. government oceanographic survey ship. Impeccable was operating in international waters 70 miles south of Hainan Island when the confrontation occurred. This article from AFPS finishes the story:



The Chinese vessels dropped pieces of wood in the water directly in the Impeccable’s path, and two of the ships stopped directly in the U.S. vessel’s path, forcing it to stop.

[Defense Department spokesman Bryan] Whitman said the Chinese used poles in an attempt to snag the Impeccable’s towed acoustic array sonars. Impeccable’s master used bridge-to-bridge radio circuits to inform the Chinese ships in a friendly manner that it was leaving the area and requested a safe path to navigate.


The confrontation with Impeccable was the culmination of a series of recent brush ups between the U.S. and China, as the article explains:


A Chinese patrol vessel shined a high-intensity spotlight March 4 on the USNS Victorious operating in the Yellow Sea 125 miles from China’s coast. Chinese maritime aircraft “buzzed” the ship 12 times March 5.

A Chinese frigate crossed the bow of the Impeccable at a range of about 100 yards March 5. Maritime aircraft buzzed the ship after that incident.

Another Chinese ship challenged Impeccable over bridge-to-bridge radio March 7, calling its operations illegal and directing the American ship to leave the area or "suffer the consequences,” officials said.

The Impeccable is one of six surveillance ships that gather underwater acoustical data, Whitman said. U.S. ships routinely operate in the area.


Commentary

What exactly Impeccable and Victorious were doing near China is likely highly classified. A very good bet is that these ships were collecting data about water characteristics and ocean bottom features that are crucial to potential U.S. submarine and anti-submarine operations in that area.

China’s rapidly expanding diesel submarine fleet may have the potential in the future to greatly increase the risk to U.S. Navy surface vessels operating in blue water near China. In order to counter this future threat, the U.S. Navy needs to understand the specific characteristics of the waters around China and how China’s submarines operate in these waters. In short, the U.S. seeks to take away China’s "home court" advantage in this area.

Conversely, China is very interested in denying this information to the U.S. Navy. China realizes that its diesel submarines, operating near home, will be its best weapon should a fleet action against the U.S. Navy ever occur. Impairing U.S. anti-submarine effectiveness would be a key to China’s success.

An interesting sidebar to this story is the “hybrid war” nature of this confrontation. The U.S. Navy employed a quasi-civilian ship, manned with a civilian crew, to collect the ocean data. When China finally chose to stop Impeccable it also chose quasi-civilian craft, or at least no obvious surface combatants.

Why no surface combatants in this standoff? The U.S. Navy wants its warships doing warship work, not survey work, a task suitable for a civilian ship. For their part, the Chinese must have hoped that using trawlers and a Bureau of Fisheries patrol boat rather than cruisers and frigates would appear less provocative. Giving the U.S. Congress a dramatic excuse to expand the U.S. Navy’s budget would not help China’s interests.

We can be sure that this will not be the last of these kinds of incidents. Access to the western Pacific and the sea lines of communications that run from the Indian Ocean to Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Americas and elsewhere may be the U.S. Navy’s single most important mission. For the first time since 1945, a credible challenge to the U.S. Navy’s access to this area is now visible on the horizon. This challenge will play out below the surface of the water. Both sides are attempting to find an advantage.

Greenspan: The Fed Didn't Do It By Mark Thoma

Alan Greenspan takes on John Taylor's claim that the Fed caused the housing bubble, and he warns against "micromanagement by government" regulators. Greenspan says the Fed couldn't have caused the housing bubble because it lost control over long-term interest rates once financial markets became globalized, and those were the rates that caused the problem:

The Fed Didn't Cause the Housing Bubble, by Alan Greenspan, Commentary, WSJ: ...The Federal Reserve became acutely aware of the disconnect between monetary policy and mortgage rates when the latter failed to respond as expected to the Fed tightening in mid-2004. Moreover, the data show that home mortgage rates had become gradually decoupled from monetary policy even earlier...


[T]he presumptive cause of the world-wide decline in long-term rates was the ... surge in growth in China and a large number of other emerging market economies that led to an excess of global ... savings... That ... propelled global long-term interest rates progressively lower between early 2000 and 2005.

That decline in long-term interest rates across a wide spectrum of countries statistically explains, and is the most likely major cause of ... the global housing price bubble. ... I would have thought that ... such evidence would lead to wide support for ... a global explanation of the current crisis.

However, starting in mid-2007, history began to be rewritten, in large part by ... John Taylor... Mr. Taylor unequivocally claimed that had the Federal Reserve from 2003-2005 kept short-term interest rates at the levels implied by his "Taylor Rule," "it would have prevented this housing boom and bust." This notion has ... taken on the aura of conventional wisdom.

Aside from the inappropriate use of short-term rates to explain the value of long-term assets, his statistical ... analysis carries empirical relationships of earlier decades into the most recent period where they no longer apply.

Moreover,... the "Taylor Rule" ... parameters and predictions derive from model structures that have been consistently unable to anticipate the onset of recessions or financial crises. Counterfactuals from such flawed structures cannot form the sole basis for successful policy analysis or advice, with or without the benefit of hindsight. Given the decoupling of monetary policy from long-term mortgage rates,... the Fed ... could not have "prevented" the housing bubble. ...

It is now very clear that the levels of complexity to which market practitioners at the height of their euphoria tried to push risk-management techniques and products were too much for even the most sophisticated market players to handle properly and prudently.

However, the appropriate policy response is not ... heavy regulation. That would stifle important advances in finance that enhance standards of living. ... The solutions for the financial-market failures ... are higher capital requirements and a wider prosecution of fraud -- not increased micromanagement by government entities. ... Adequate capital and collateral requirements ... will not be overly intrusive, and thus will not interfere unduly in private-sector business decisions.

If we are to retain a dynamic world economy capable of producing prosperity and future sustainable growth, we cannot rely on governments to intermediate saving and investment flows. Our challenge in the months ahead will be to install a regulatory regime that will ensure responsible risk management..., while encouraging them to continue taking the risks necessary and inherent in any successful market economy.

We seem to have a disagreement on the scope of regulation. Ben Bernanke:

Bernanke Calls for Broader Regulations, WSJ: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said regulators should be given broad new powers to oversee financial markets... Among his recommendations were tougher capital requirements for big banks, limits on investments by money-market mutual funds, and the introduction of some mechanism that would allow the U.S. to wind down big financial institutions and possibly run them temporarily. ...

The recommendations were largely consistent with measures being pushed by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.), who is expected to be a key architect of the new financial regulation. ...

Mr. Bernanke ... also pushed for much tougher policies over ... big companies. "Any firm whose failure would pose a systemic risk must receive especially close supervisory oversight of its risk-taking, risk management and financial condition, and be held to high capital and liquidity standards," Mr. Bernanke said. ...

I'm in agreement with Greenspan's response to Taylor to the extent that following the Taylor rule wouldn't have stopped the crisis, but I think the low interest rate policy pursued by the Fed is part of the story and served to magnify other factors. As for regulation, relying mainly upon enhanced capital requirements as Greenspan proposes isn't enough, so I'm at least where Bernanke with respect to close supervisory oversight of firms who pose a systemic risk. But I'd go even further and - to the extent possible - break up the firms into smaller entities and sever their interconnections until they no longer posed a threat to begin with. This is harder than it sounds, or so I'm told, but I'd still pursue the option.

Senate Passes Big Spending Bill - Now, On to 2010!

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And with another couple days at it, the Senate has cleared the big omnibus spending bill and it goes to the President for his signature. He is sure to sign it as funding for most of the government runs out if he doesn’t.

Spending per U.S. family in the bill amounts to just under $4,100 per U.S. family. The Washington Post has a good write up of some of the process and the issues that made the bill tough to pass.

Now that we’ve swallowed that gourd, ask yourself: Is this something you want to see happen again? Huge spending bills, passed in haste, with thousands of earmarks amounting to billions of dollars?

President Obama said he would get rid of earmarks, but politicians don’t actually do things that you don’t hold them to. So let’s look after it ourselves, and start where earmarks start: in the appropriations process. (Oh - by the way - “appropriations” is fancy Washington-speak for “spending.”)

When that process is working, there’s plenty of time to review bills and debate spending. When it’s not working, huge bills with all kinds of earmarks and nonsense flow in.

The fiscal year 2010 spending process is already underway. A brief write-up of that process is here and the chart above is a handy summary. Let’s see how the process is going so far:

President Submits His Budget (due: first Monday in February) - LATE - President Obama produced his budget on February 26th, over three weeks late.
Congressional Budget Office submits report to Budget Committees (due: February 15th) - OVERDUE - CBO has yet to produce its analysis of the President’s budget proposal (which will be here).
Committees Submit Views and Estimates to Budget Committees (due: not later than six weeks after President submits budget) - President’s budget was late, and views needed by April 1 deadline for Budget Committees to report budget resolution, so DUE MARCH 31.
Now, this is a lot of complex jargon, and maybe we’ll spend some time in upcoming posts unpacking what all of these steps are about, but here’s the quick summary: THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS HAVE ALREADY FALLEN BEHIND ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2010 BUDGET PROCESS. The forecast is for earmarks.

Diddy: I didn’t judge Chris Brown & Rihanna, I supported them

Diddy has said he wasn’t condoning domestic abuse when he allowed Chris Brown and Rihanna to stay at his Florida home.

After their allegedly assault incident a month ago, the couple spent three weeks in hiding at separate locations but reconciled at Diddy’s Miami mansion at the end of last month.

Speaking in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday, Diddy, real name Sean Combs, explained: “We know sometimes relationships get ugly [but] I don’t think it’s right for anybody to hit anybody.

“It was a dark time for them and I was there as more of a support.

“I’m not immersed in [their situation]. I’m not going to pass judgement on it. I’m going to be there as a friend.

“I don’t cast a stone - cast judgement on anybody. So, if friends ask me for a favour, then I’m going to be there for a favour as long as I know the energy of the favour is positive.

“We don’t know exactly what’s going on. There are two young individuals [involved]. We need to pray for them.”

In related news, Chris Brown’s spokesperson has denied new rumours that the assault incident was sparked by flirtatious text messages from Chris’ manager Tina Davis.

A police source has claimed the messages about “hooking up” came from “from a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with” but Chris’ spokesperson George Davis has said there is no truth in the claims: “Those are old rumours”.

Shooting in Germany leaves at least 15 dead.

At least 15 people have been killed in a shooting at a school in south-west Germany, police say.

Most of the dead are thought to have been pupils at the Albertville secondary school in Winnenden, north of Stuttgart.

Unconfirmed reports say the gunman, a 17-year-old former pupil wearing black combat gear, was arrested after fleeing into the town centre.

Police, rescue teams and fire fig More..hters are at the school.

"We have to assume a death toll in the double-digits," a spokeswoman for the interior ministry in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg told the Reuters news agency.
These are students," she said.

The editor of the local paper, Frank Nipkau, told television channel N-TV that eight pupils and two adults were among the dead.

The incident is reported to have begun around 0945 (0845 GMT).

About 1,000 children are thought to attend the school, in the town some 20km (12 miles) north-east of Stuttgart.
Less..

Eye on the Middle East: Arab States’ Growing Fear of Iran

No single country can help Obama achieve his objectives in the Middle East more than Iran. It can help stabilize Iraq, which is crucial to the withdrawal of 100,000 American soldiers by 2010. It can establish alternative supply routes to Afghanistan instead of the ones provided in Pakistan, which are deemed unsafe. And, it can defuse both Hizbollah and Hamas.

Obama’s rapprochement with Iran, however, has unnerved Arab states. Already fearful of an expansionist Iran, they fear that the new American-Iranian relations may encourage Tehran’s hardliners to pursue their nuclear ambitions more freely. They are also concerned that Iran will be emboldened to expand at the expense of small Arab states such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and, of course, Iraq.

Arab television stations, newspapers and Web sites no longer portray Israel as the primary threat in the Middle East, despite all the recent bloodshed in Gaza. Arab states, especially in the Gulf, find themselves facing more imminent and direct threat from its neighbor Iran.

The London-based Al Hayat newspaper ran an article by Saud Al Ris titled, “The Greater Iran” on Feb. 21. “Until recently there was a lot of talk about the Zionist project of Greater Israel, however this is no longer possible,” he wrote in the article. “Israel territorial ambitions were overwhelmed and it has withdrawn from territories it occupied in the past such as Sinai, South Lebanon and Gaza.”

He added: “entering into a dialogue with the U.S., does not necessarily mean that Iran will give up its ambitions or change its policies. Iran is trying to gain more time so it can surprise the world one day with the announcement that it has nuclear weapons which will pave the way for Greater Iran”.

Mustafa Alani, at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center told the Jordan Times, "at the same time we have huge concerns that the Americans could give concessions to the Iranians which would undermine our security and be unacceptable to us…. Our basic demand is that America should not give concessions on the Iranian nuclear program and its interventions in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine."

Iranian settlement activities in the Arab oil-rich region of Khusistan or Arabistan province, along the border with Iraq, have been equated with Israeli resettlement activities in the West Bank, according to the Al Arabiya website.

Farj Ismael and Naser Al Kabi wrote on the Al Arabia Web site on March 4 that, “More than 5 million Arabs live in the region, their Arab identity are constantly under attack; they are subjected to raids, arrests and random executions; their homes are demolished with pretext that economic centers need to be built there and hundreds of thousands of them are being displaced.”

Although the region provides Iran with 80 percent of its oil exports, the disfranchised population there suffers from 50 percent unemployment. Arabs comprise more than 66 percent of the population in the city of Ahwaz, but they only hold 5 percent of public offices there.

According to Al Arabiya Television, the Iranian government is resettling 500,000 non-Arabs in Khusistan province, shifting the demographic character of the region.

Ahwaz is not the only point of contention between Arab states and Iran.

The Arab News, the first English newspaper in Saudi Arabia, criticized the “recent provocative statement” by the Iranian conservative and high-level adviser, Ali Akber Nateq Nouri, who called Bahrain Iran’s 14th province.

Nouri’s and other Iranian officials’ statements generated a storm of condemnation among Arab states. The Gulf Cooperation Council was quick to respond. “Statements made from time to time by Iranian officials infringe on the sovereignty and independence of the Gulf states,” it said, “especially Bahrain, and represent a flagrant aggression on the Arab identity of Bahrain.”

Iran recently said that it respects the sovereignty of Bahrain. Its explanation, however, was not perceived as genuine by Arab states, especially when Iran continues to occupy three islands, including the strategic island of Abu Musa at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz since Nov. 30, 1971. The islands belong to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Gulf Cooperation Council has repeatedly demanded that Iran return these Islands to the UAE, but Iran has refused.

Since 1992, Iran denied entry to the occupied islands to non-native Arab residents, including teachers and medical workers without acquiring an Iranian visa. Recently Iran opened government offices on these islands.

In response, the UAE has taken a major step to preempt Iran’s occupation of the strategic island of Abu Musa at the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz. According to Al Arabiya, the UAE last month started the construction of a new port that will enable it to export 70 percent of its oil without having to go through the Strait of Hormuz. If oil pipelines are extended to the port from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other Gulf States, it will become a vital oil exporting hub.

The head of the Gulf Research Center, Abdel Aziz Ben Saqer, told Al Arabiya, that the construction of this port, which will be completed in 2010, is a direct response to Iran’s threats to shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Indeed, the threat is now a common concern between Arab states and Israel, and therefore changed the way they view each other. Despite Israel’s recent invasion of Gaza, Arab states have kept the Saudi-sponsored Arab Peace Initiative alive.

The overwhelming force used by Iran in 1971 to take over the UAE islands escalated an arms race between Arab states and Iran. This arms race continues despite the global economic crisis. The Khaleej Times recently reported that “despite a slump in oil prices, the UAE made record purchases at the Exhibition worth $18.4 billion (Dh) (almost $5 billion USD). The debate among defense analysts is that this particular trend of military bolstering by the UAE, of its strategic arms, is particularly directed against any possible threat from the Iranian side.”

According to same source, the UAE also purchased the Patriot Missile Air Defence System from the United States last year, and it plans to obtain a missile defense shield system known as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD. The sale is likely to be approved by the U.S. Congress, which will make the UAE the first state after the United States to possess such a military capability. Other Gulf States are to follow suit since they share similar security threats.

Ironically, Israel, which traditionally opposed such weapons deals, is now looking the other way.

NYCLU Announces Findings About Impact Of Rockefeller Drug Laws

The NYCLU is expected to announce findings about the statewide impact of the Rockefeller drug laws in Albany.

This, as Governor David Paterson gets set to introduce legislation that would repeal the state’s tough drug sentencing statutes.

The State Assembly last week passed legislation to eliminate the mandatory sentences for drug offenders.

Now, the governor is pushing a middle-of-the-road plan for the closely-divided State Senate.

Paterson's plan would eliminate mandatory sentences for first-time drug offenders and would give judges the discretion to send offenders to treatment instead of prison, as long as they plead guilty. The Assembly measure does not require a guilty plea.

Paterson's bill would also not be retroactive, meaning nearly 2,000 prisoners who may have been eligible for re-sentencing under the Assembly's bill will have to remain in prison until their sentences expire or they are paroled.

Official: Seattle police chief to be drug czar

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration plans Wednesday to nominate Seattle, Washington, police chief Gil Kerlikowske as the nation's drug czar.

Vice President Joe Biden was expected to name Kerlikowske as chief of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a job that requires Senate confirmation, at a midday ceremony, an administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

Kerlikowske had been widely expected to be named to the position, after his name was leaked in early February. The administration official said the delay in announcing his appointment was not linked to disclosures that his stepson, Jeffrey, had an arrest record on drug charges.

He takes over for John Walters, who held the job under former President George W. Bush.

The administration official said that Biden was making the announcement given the "breadth of knowledge" he has on U.S. drug policy.

"The vice president will work closely with the director-designate to oversee both the international and domestic anti-drug efforts," the official said.

The agency will no longer have Cabinet-level status, but the official said that Kerlikowske "will have a seat at the table when important decisions are being made ... and full access and a direct line to the president and vice president."

Kerlikowske served a stint during the Clinton administration as deputy director in the Justice Department's COPS program, which promotes community policing. He has also held top police positions in Florida and Buffalo, N.Y.

Kerlikowske is viewed as a workmanlike, circumspect choice who has street perspective and the policy smarts to navigate the bureaucracy. As president of the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, he is known as a progressive and a proponent of community oriented policing.

Colleagues expect him to ramp up efforts to stem demand for illegal narcotics by emphasizing prevention and treatment.

"I would expect Gil to say there's absolutely a role that enforcement plays, but what other things do we need to do at the community and the state and federal level on prevention and intervention in order to be successful," San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis, a friend of Kerlikowske's and vice president of the Major Cities Police Chiefs, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "If all we do is arrest people for drugs, we're missing the opportunity to get involved in the beginning and take people out of drugs. Gil gets that concept."

In the Clinton administration he worked on ways to monitor grants that the agency gave to local police efforts, and he frequently emphasized analysis and data, looking for "ways to prevent crime rather than reacting to it," said Tim Quinn, COPS acting director.

John Carnevale, an official in the drug office from its inception in 1989 until 2000, met Kerlikowske while working on ways to measure the agency's effectiveness. "He's big on accountability," said Carnevale. Kerlikowske's Washington and local policing background is a plus, particularly if other appointees bring a strong treatment and prevention background, he said.

Seattle activists who work on drug-reform issues called Kerlikowske smart and reasonable, and noted that his police department has largely abided by a voter-approved initiative that made marijuana possession the city's lowest law-enforcement priority.

Even at the city's annual Hempfest protest and festival, police arrest only a few people despite the open-air pot smoking, said Vivian McPeak, director of the event.

Douglas Hiatt, an attorney who defends medical marijuana patients, said the chief has tried "to do the right thing on medical marijuana. He's trying to get it across to his officers not to hassle patients."

Kerlikowske told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in December that if he went into the Obama administration, "At my age, at this point in my career, I'd want something where you feel like you could make a real impact."

President Obama pushes his education reform agenda

A reader has written to educate me that the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reserved education as a state issue, not a federal issue. He writes the economy is a big enough national attention item and President Barack Obama should not get involved in state and local public education. This may be why in 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez 411 U.S. 1, 35 (1973), Plyer v. Doe (1982), “Education, of course, is not among the rights afforded explicit protection under our Federal Constitution.

However, in the District of Columbia everything is a congressional issue, from education to vehicle registration to taxi cab fares. Nothing would give District residents greater pleasure than to have the federal government and the Congress out of District affairs, especially local public education. That just does not happen. This is why District residents need to have full voting rights in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. (Hint Hint)

To push his domestic agenda further along while he still has the support of Americans, President Obama gave a strong address before the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce outlining his vision for America’s education in the 21st century. When The President said, “education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it is a prerequisite,” few people can differ with him. Students and parents want and deserve high quality public education, taught by highly qualified teachers, led by highly qualified school officials, to include highly qualified school chancellors.

Issues such as teacher merit pay, tougher education standards, longer school days, parental involvement, and greater community involvement should not be impediments to making America the leader in education again. Also, in his speech, President Obama highlighted Massachusetts as a benchmark for high education standards for students. Last year’s rise in test scores by DC public school students rightly can be attributed to DCPS standards based on the Massachusetts model and the master education plan instituted by former DCPS Superintendent Clifford Janey.

It will be a real challenge for politicians and school leaders in the District of Columbia and across America to move quickly to get better teachers into the classroom, develop tougher standards, measurable assessments, and devise innovative education programs for the 21st century. It will also be a difficult challenge but necessary goal for governors, mayors, council members, chancellors, superintendents, and business leaders not to exclude parents, teachers, and education advocates in helping our youth to achieve the American dream.

Alabama sheriff's deputy: 'I cried so much, I don't have a tear left'

(NECN: Samson, Ala.) - A Geneva County sheriff's deputy lost his wife and 18-month-old daughter yesterday to an Alabama gunman on a rampage. In all, ten people were gunned down across two Alabama counties.

"I cried so much yesterday, I don't have a tear left in me," says sheriff's deputy Josh Myers.

Authorities say the gunman, Michael McLendon, killed his own relatives and shot apparent strangers and police before killing himself.

Geneva County sheriff's deputy Josh Myers says his team was "not even equipped to handle two people killed in a homicide, let alone ten."

"I'm so proud of the guys I work with, everybody handled everything great. I really want to thank the guys who did everything they could," says Myers.

The bloodshed began when McLendon burned down his mother's house in Kinston -- according to officials.

"I'm never in my life going to be able to fully understand it. Just going to have to take it one day at a time. I need help from my friends and my family. I need everyone's prayers. I just don't know what to do," says Myers.

Myers also has another daughter in the hospital with a gunshot wound to her leg. She is believed to be in stable condition.

Police have not commented on a possible motive.