COHN COMMUNICATIONS

Looking at Corporate Logos Closely

2012-02-01T06:05:00.001-08:00

I received this email today. I don't know the source but was fascinated by the message. We see corporate logos every day. Did you ever look closely at them? Scroll down and be surprised.

s
Do you see the arrow between the “E” and “x” ?? I had never noticed this before.

2nd and 3rd “t’s” are two people sharing a tortilla over a bowl of salsa

Probably the world’s most famous bike race. The “R” in “Tour” is a cyclist – yellow circle front wheel of bicycle.

Arrow probably means Amazon has everything from A to Z ??

There is a sideways chocolate kiss between “K” and “I”

There is a bear if you look closely at image of Matterhorn . Toblerone
chocolate bars originated in Berne , Switzerland whose symbol is the bear.

See “31” embedded in the “ B R” ?? Thirty one-derful flavors !!!

Northwest Airlines. Circle is a compass. Guess which direction the arrow in upper
left corner (or beginning of “W”) is pointing ??? (north west)

See the gorilla and lioness ??

Smiley face is also a “g” like in “goodwill”

Used to be the emblem for the Milwaukee Brewers. Baseball glove forms an “M” and a “B”.
Logo was designed by a college art student.

Interesting, huh??

Reviving Audio Drama in Modern Times

2012-01-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

Using modern technology, audio dramas can be downloaded in a way that fits with our changing entertainment lifestyle. And, it offers a new way to market products and services.
The mission of Vermont Audio Drama Podcasting (VTADP) is to translate the literary works of authors into audio drama presentations suitable for broadcast over the Internet or other audio communication channels. Initially, we are working to convert the Vermont-based Joe Gunther mystery novels by Archer Mayor into audio dramas.
Even for those who didn't grow up during radio's golden era, mention radio drama to most Americans and it culls up the image of a family huddled around the radio anxiously on a Saturday night waiting for a program to come on. Most are familiar with the furor over War of the Worlds, and can bring names like "The Shadow" and "The Green Hornet" to the tips of their tongues. These same people are astonished to learn that Orson Welles started (and may have produced his best work!) in radio, and that "The Lone Ranger" existed long before its television debut.
Audio book sales continue to grow. Audio drama allows “readers” used to single-voice narrator stories to the allure of full dramatizations. The Wall Street Journal in an article about us makes this point.
A classic story about the power of audio drama:

A little girl who, when asked whether she preferred television to radio, answered,
"I prefer radio.”
"Why?”
"Because the pictures are better."

There are some great examples of radio theatre sponsorship from the Golden Age of Radio up to the 1980s:

The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, which last aired over thirty years ago, was produced with a young audience in mind but only lasted a year. It attempted to capture the success of CBS Radio Mystery Theater that continued to air until 1984.
Hallmark Playhouse, which aired from 1948-1953, was geared to family entertainment and was the basis of the long-running TV series.
Maxwell House Coffee Time, which aired for over two decades, beautifully combined print and radio campaigns with the message that "Maxwell House Coffee is part of the American Scene."

Ten years ago, Richard Fish predicted “…the invention of the internet and the World-Wide Web has brought a new channel of distribution for audio theatre, “broadcasting on demand,” if you will. Many websites now feature OTR programming available to the properly-equipped browser via RealAudio, MP3, or other software. More and more websites offer brand new audio theatre productions, either in part or in whole. The audio theatre art form is having a renaissance of major proportions, and it is now proper to speak of the “audio theatre Industry.” Kept alive for decades by a few devotees and funded by grants, audio theatre is being weaned off the dole and coming back into the marketplace…”

Charles Osgood, noted broadcaster, said:

No television set that’s made,
no screen that you can find
Can compare with that of radio:
the theatre of the mind
Where the pictures are so vivid,
so spectacular and real
That there isn’t any contest,
or at least that’s how I feel.

Using modern technology, audio dramas can be downloaded in a way that fits with our changing entertainment lifestyle. And, it offers a new way to market products and services.

If you are interested in collaborating on this idea, send me an email.

Giving Day is a yawn

2011-12-04T17:33:00.001-08:00

The Brattleboro Reformer published an op/ed I penned about declaring the day after Thanksgiving as a Giving Day, a day to reflect on philanthropy. Sadly, I received no feedback. Click here to read the piece.

Martin Cohn named Paul Harris Fellow

2011-07-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Newfane resident Martin Cohn was named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Brattleboro Rotary Club. The Paul Harris Fellowship Award, named after the founder of Rotary International, is one of the highest honors Rotary can bestow upon a person. Recipients exemplify the highest ideal in Rotary in placing "SERVICE ABOVE SELF."

Cohn, president of a local public relations firm, has served as secretary of the Brattleboro Rotary Club for the past two years. He became president-elect at the club’s annual changeover dinner held at the Brattleboro Country Club on Thursday, June 23, 2011. Cohn produces the Club’s annual film festival, which raises funds for international projects.

The Brattleboro Rotary Club, founded in 1950, is an active community service club of over 80 members who engage in community and human service projects locally and internationally.

For more information about the Brattleboro Rotary Club, visit www.brattlebororotaryclub.org

-ROTARY-

PHOTO: L-R Brattleboro Rotary Club President Liz Harrision presented Martin Cohn with a Paul Harris Award, one of the highest honors Rotary can bestow upon a person.

White House: Gaza flotilla activists may be breaking U.S. law

2011-06-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

U.S. State Department says Gaza is run by U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization Hamas and Americans providing support to it are subject to fines and jail.

By Natasha Mozgovaya and The Associated Press

The Obama administration is stepping up pressure on activists planning to challenge Israel's sea blockade of the Gaza Strip, warning that they will face action from Israeli authorities and that American participants may also be violating U.S. law.

The U.S. State Department said Friday that attempts to break the blockade are "irresponsible and provocative" and that Israel has well-established means of delivering assistance to the Palestinian residents of Gaza. It noted that the territory is run by the militant Hamas group, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization, and that Americans providing support to it are subject to fines and jail.

"Groups that seek to break Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza are taking irresponsible and provocative actions that risk the safety of their passengers. Established and efficient mechanisms exist to transfer humanitarian assistance to Gaza. For example, humanitarian assistance can be delivered at the Israeli port of Ashdod, where cargo can be offloaded, inspected, and transported to Gaza," a State Department press release said.

"We urge all those seeking to provide such assistance to the people of Gaza to use these mechanisms, and not to participate in actions like the planned flotilla."

The warning is the third in as many days and follows the announcement by 36 Americans that they will sail aboard a U.S.-flagged vessel in a flotilla to Gaza.

The statement also reiterated the U.S. stance on Hamas, calling the Islamic group "to play a constructive role by renouncing violence, recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and accepting past agreements."

Despite warnings by the State Department, one traveler planning to ignore that advice is celebrated poet and novelist Alice Walker, who intends to join with other European and American activists when they set sail from the ports of some 22 countries.

"Why am I going on the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza? I ask myself this, even though the answer is: What else would I do?," Walker wrote, explaining her motives in an open letter to CNN and outlining her plan to carry letters to the people of Gaza on board the Audacity of Hope boat. "We will be carrying letters ... expressing solidarity and love," she writes.

Walker's letter goes on to discuss the brave "followers of Gandhi," and the "Jewish civil rights activists" who stood side by side with blacks in the South, and places her current "mission" within this context. She ends with a rebuke to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies and those in the U.S. that back them.

Meanwhile, the Turkish humanitarian relief foundation IHH has announced that the refurbished Mavi Maramara ship, on which nine activists were killed during an attempt to break Israel's coastal siege on the Gaza Strip in May 2010, will not join the flotilla planned to set sail at the end of the month.

This story is by:

Natasha Mozgovaya
Published 19:58 24.06.11
Latest update 19:58 24.06.11

Awesome article

2011-05-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

Beth Sawyers posted an interesting article on ragan.com about how the word "awesome" is overused. She lists 45 alternatives.

Read it here.

Faux Facebook

2011-03-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

How to combat phony Facebook profiles

Companies, Army generals and a city zoo battle the problem of false identities in social media.

By Russell Working | Posted: March 16, 2011

Oshkosh, Wisc., has a Facebook problem.

A cyber Grinch created a phony Facebook page for the city zoo and was sabotaging its annual Celebration of Lights, which runs from November to early January.

“It was purely malicious,” says city information technology director Tony Neumann. “They were periodically posting that it was closed, and they were indicating free admission this night or that night, which wasn’t the case.”

Oshkosh isn’t alone is its battle—unsuccessful, so far—to take down the bogus Facebook site. Imposters are using Facebook and other digital media to undermine organizations and smear the reputations of everyone from CEOs to four-star generals.

Read the rest of the article here.

History of Jewish Humor

2011-03-05T05:40:00.000-08:00

Just in time for Purim, a fascinating history of Jewish humor.

Badkhn Belt? Jewish humor was born in 1661, prof says

Just in time for the Oscars: Rutland Herald Online

2011-02-21T08:17:00.000-08:00

New app allows you to be a movie producer for only $1.99. Watch out Spielberg!

Just in time for the Oscars: Rutland Herald Online

Why did Palin choose "blood libel"?

2011-01-13T06:14:00.000-08:00

C.W. Anderson, an assistant professor in the Department of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island (CUNY), wrote an excellent analysis of Sarah Palin's use of the term "blood libel" following the tragedy in Tuscon this weekend.

Anderson's article, “Blood libel”: How language evolves and spreads within online worlds," traces the evolution of the term in news accounts.

It appears that the term first appeared in some Internet accounts and then had the momentum to be used in the traditional media.

This is another example of the power of the Internet in shaping public discourse.

12 Famous Companies' Surprising Beginnings

2010-11-05T05:30:00.000-07:00

Quick, when you think of Nokia, what immediately comes to mind? Cell phones, right? Most of us would be surprised to know that Nokia didn't start out in the mobile phone business. In fact, its roots go back to 1865 when it was involved in the "original" communications technology: paper. Yes, Nokia began as a wood pulp mill in southern Finland. It then entered the rubber business in 1898 (even making rubber boots!) and it wasn't until 1968 that it entered the mobile business.

But Nokia isn't the only company to have such a story. Here we take a look at 11 other popular companies that all have one thing in common: Surprising beginnings.

Read the whole story: Wallet Pop

Chicago's Tribune Co files reorganization plan

2010-10-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

From Reuters....

Sat, Oct 23 2010

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tribune Co filed a reorganization plan late on Friday that will turn over control of the bankrupt newspaper publisher to its leading creditors including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Angelo Gordon & Co and Oaktree Capital Management.

The plan signals an important step toward the recovery of the media company -- which owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune -- from what Sam Zell, the real estate developer and architect of the 2007 leveraged buyout, called "the deal from hell."

Zell took the 163-year-old publisher and owner of 23 television stations private in a 2007 deal that loaded the company with more than $8 billion in debt. It filed for bankruptcy a year later, buckling under the weight of a heavy debt load and a severe decline in advertising revenue.

The reorganization plan was made public just hours after chief executive Randy Michaels, under fire from reports that he tolerated a sexist and hostile workplace, resigned.

Michaels was replaced by a committee of Don Liebentritt, the company's chief restructuring officer; Nils Larsen, its chief investment officer; Tony Hunter, the CEO of Chicago Tribune Co; and Eddy Hartenstein, the CEO of Los Angeles Times Communications LLC.

Larsen was also named chairman of Tribune Broadcasting.

However, the new management is unlikely to serve more than a few months.

Creditors have been in contact with media executives including Peter Chernin, former chief operating officer of News Corp, to become chairman, people familiar with the discussions said.

The new agreement combines two previously announced settlement offers from leading lenders and a group of unsecured creditors.

Some bondholders would receive $420 million, or 32.73 cents to the dollar, and interest in a litigation trust.

The plan requires the approval of the court and creditors.

The company expects operating cash flow for the full year 2010 to be $617 million, or $123 million higher than 2009.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey ruled on Friday to let a committee of unsecured creditors sue Zell, other executives and advisers.

Bondholders opposing the reorganization plan are girding for a fight.

Daniel Golden, an attorney representing hedge fund Aurelius Capital Management LP, said on Friday they planned to file a rival plan next week. Aurelius is among the largest holders with $1.3 billion of senior Tribune bonds.

(Reporting by Kenneth Li; editing by Jim Marshall)

The New Nerd

2010-10-10T10:02:00.001-07:00

Story in Sunday's Boston Globe really highlights how the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. It talks about the "success" of thirteen year old social networker, Lane Sutton.

Worth the read.

5 Minute Management Course...

2010-10-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

This is a few years old but worth repeating. Source unknown.

Lesson 1:

A priest offered a Nun a lift.

She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg.

The priest nearly had an accident.

After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?'

The priest apologized, 'Sorry Sister but the flesh is weak.'

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.'

Moral of the story:

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lesson 2:

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.

They rub it and a Genie comes out. The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.'

'Me first! Me first!' says the administration clerk... 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.' Poof! She's gone.

'Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of pina coladas, and the love of my life.' Poof! He's gone.

'O.K., you're up,' the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.'

Moral of the story:

Always let your boss have the first say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lesson 3

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.

A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?' The eagle answered, 'Sure, why not.'

So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:

To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lesson 4

A turkey was chatting with a bull. 'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.' 'Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. 'It's full of nutrients.'

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.

The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:

Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lesson 5

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field.

While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was.

The dung was actually thawing him out!

He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Moral of the story:

(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.

(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.

(3) And when you're in very deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lesson 6

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor.  

Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you $800 to drop that towel."  

After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.  

The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?" 

 "It was Bob, the next door neighbor," she replies.  

"Great!" the husband says, "did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?"  

Moral of the story:

If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders, in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

THUS ENDS THE FIVE MINUTE MANAGEMENT COURSE

Public Relations Hiring Growth, at Agencies and in-House

2010-09-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

Marketing Job Watch Sep 29 2010

By Shareen Pathak

Public relations, often downplayed and misunderstood by the rest of the marketing community, has become a central part of most marketing plans. The sector is diverse, offering opportunities to connect the business with the public. It is also difficult work, with outreaches often leading to dead ends and strategies not panning out. But best of all, it's hiring.

Rising revenues and companies' growing realization of the importance of having a public relations team, whether retained or in-house, are helping that growth along.

Demand Growth

According to a survey by the Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF), 65% of firms interviewed experienced higher revenues in the first quarter of this year compared to last year. "In January this year, business started picking up and all the positions that were frozen last year and in 2008 opened up again," said Lindsay Olson, partner and recruiter at New York-based Paradigm Staffing.

There is a general feeling of optimism among businesses, leading them to hire more PR professionals, either in-house or through agencies. That is having a trickle down effect on PR shops as well.

At Ogilvy PR, there is a general feeling that business is going to pick up. "Depending on your niche, companies are cautiously embarking on new campaigns," said Sheri Leonardo, senior vice president at the PR heavyweight. "Pharmaceuticals and healthcare are especially hot." Ogilvy current has 61 positions open, according to its careers page, from senior vice presidents to digital media strategists to account directors.

Since the crisis, businesses have also been increasingly interested in tapping into the value of having a public relations team. Gary McCormick, the chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), said that crises and social media are pushing businesses to pay attention to their PR budgets. "There are repercussions for businesses who used social media incorrectly, or didn't use it at all, and suddenly they're realizing a need for PR," he said. "We are the ones who understand how to build a relationship with a customer, and that's what they need."

Agency Jobs

Demand for social media capabilities is climbing at PR firms.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, the CPRF's survey of its members revealed that 82% expect to see social media PR demand increase in 2010. And another survey by the PRSA found that almost 80% of its member firms look for social networking capabilities when they are hiring.

Companies will often expect candidates to demonstrate the work they have done, or to propose an innovative social media tactic at the interview itself.

"Having a Twitter account is not enough," said Leonardo. "We want to see demonstrated experience in implementing social media tactics and blogger influence research, things like that."

At Fleishman-Hillard, Agnes Gioconda, chief talent officer, said her firm has around 100 openings in any given week, across all levels and regions. Generally, entry level positions come from the internship pool, while for more senior positions they will look externally.

Like at many other agencies, there is a behavioral interview process where candidates are expected to walk interviewers through recent projects, and those with social media skills have a competitive advantage, said Gioconda.

But if you really want to go where the jobs are, turn on C-Span, advised McCormick of PRSA. "Watch the Congress, and watch the careers," he said. "Anytime there is a public discourse on the environment, for example, public relations will need to be there, and will need to staff up."

Corporate Jobs

There is an increased demand for internal communications, according to Maryanne Rainone, a senior vice president at recruitment firm Heyman Associates who specializes in hiring on the corporate side.

The recession has made companies more eager than ever to reach out to their staff, and as the economy picks up, they want to make sure they're keeping them on board.

"They want to keep employees in the loop," said Rainone. "And many jobs are available at the director level."

There is also a lot of need for digital media specialists in-house. Following in the footsteps of Gatorade, every company wants a "hub" where they monitor and target social media to find out what is being said about their brands.

At the corporate level, subject matter expertise is not as essential as in agency jobs, said Rainone. "What they want is someone who can make a strategy around communications," she said. "They won't have to have that technical expertise."

A common career path is moving from an agency job, where you may get to try out all sectors and types of companies, finding your niche and then moving to corporate.

But according to Leonardo, it gets "boring" very quickly, and she'll often see people boomerang back to the agency. "There is a lot of movement," she said.

Write to Shareen Pathak

http://sales-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SB128578316844742183/Public-Relations-Hiring-Growth-at-Agencies-and-in-House

The news is, that pitch was paid for

2010-09-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

James Rainey reported in the Los Angeles Times today about a "new" phenomenon -- experts appearing on the news are actually shills for the products they are presenting. It appears that to fill the large amount of news time, producers are neglecting to ask who's paying the experts.

It's a good article and worth the read.

Coverage of Koran Case Stirs Questions on Media Role

2010-09-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Brian Stelter wrote in the September 9, 2010 issue of The New York Times, "A renegade pastor and his tiny flock set fire to a Koran on a street corner, and made sure to capture it on film. And they were ignored.

That stunt took place in 2008, involving members of the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kan., an almost universally condemned group of fundamentalists who also protest at military funerals.

But plans for a similar stunt by another fringe pastor, Terry Jones, have garnered worldwide news media attention this summer, attention that peaked Thursday when he announced he was canceling — and later, that he had only “suspended” — what he had dubbed International Burn a Koran Day. It had been scheduled for Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Unlike the Koran-burning by Westboro Baptist, Mr. Jones’s planned event in Gainesville, Fla., coincided with the controversy over the proposed building of a Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan near ground zero and a simmering summerlong debate about the freedoms of speech and religion.

Mr. Jones was able to put himself at the center of those issues by using the news lull of summer and the demands of a 24-hour news cycle to promote his anti-Islam cause. He said he consented to more than 150 interview requests in July and August, each time expressing his extremist views about Islam and Sharia law.

Stelter goes on to quote Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, who said, “The freedom to publish includes the freedom not to publish.”

Read the entire article here.

Sacred Memories: A 9/11 Ritual

2010-09-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

by Rabbi Irwin Kula — Posted: September 11, 2009

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-irwin-kula/sacred-memories-a-911-rit_b_283534.html

I live in New York City. Two friends, including someone at whose wedding I had recently been the rabbi died in the World Trade Center. The acrid smell came through my apartment windows for days and sacred ashes, which I wiped away with tears, fell on my window sills for weeks.

My children who were 13 and 10 at the time were cut off from me and my wife as they could not get home from school on 9/11 because the subways were closed. The father of one of my daughter's playmates from the time she was a toddler was killed on 9/11. The fear we felt was unforgettable and the innocence our kids lost forever so very sad.

So what message would I like to send out today 9/11? What memories do I want to preserve and wisdom do I want to learn at least for today? No words at all. Simply the following chant (using an ancient melody used to chant the Biblical book of Lamentations which describes the destruction of Jerusalem) of actual final cell phone conversations of people, who in the face of terror and the dearness of the vanishing moment, showed no anger or any desire for revenge but simply and heroically witnessed a yearning to love and the faith that love ultimately swallows up death.

Listen to the chant here

Tips for Handling Telemarketers and Junk Mail

2010-09-08T19:51:00.000-07:00

(1) The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please...'    Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.     Then when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.    These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting. 

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?   

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales person to call back and get someone at home.     What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call, and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!   

(3) Junk Mail Help:  

a) When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.    

b) When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 44 cents postage, 'IF' and when they receive them back. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.   

c) One of Andy Rooney 's (60 minutes) ideas: Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!   If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.    You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 44 cents.    The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice! Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!    If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

E-Mail Tracker Programs

2010-09-06T10:31:00.001-07:00

Received some good intel that I would like to share about e-mail tracker programs.

By now, I suspect everyone is familiar with snopes.comand/or truthorfiction.com for determining whether information received via email is just that: true/false or fact/fiction. Both are excellent sites

Advice from snopes.com VERY IMPORTANT!!

1) Any time you see an email that says "forward this on to '10' (or however many) of your friends", "sign this petition", or "you'll get bad luck" or "you'll get good luck" or "you'll see something funny on your screen after you send it" or whatever --- it almost always has an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of 'active' email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell to other spammers Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you're not ashamed of God/Jesus --- that is email tracking, and they are playing on our conscience. These people don't care how they get your email addresses - just as long as they get them. Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease "how would you feel if that was your child" --- email tracking. Ignore them and don't participate!

2) Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of email is, is a way to get names and 'cookie' tracking information for telemarketers and spammers -- to validate active email accounts for their own profitable purposes.

You can do your Friends and Family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them. You will be providing a service to your friends. And you will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam emails in the future!

  Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listing regardless how inviting they might sound! Or make you feel guilty if you don't! It's all about getting email addresses and nothing more.

You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT!

Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached! Plus, we are helping the spammers get rich! Let's not make it easy for them!

ALSO: Email petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress of any other organization - i.e. social security, etc. To be acceptable, petitions must have a "signed signature" and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the email trackers.

Interesting partners in cancer research fundraising

2010-09-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

The Seattle Times has an interesting blog today about relationships between cancer research and corporations. Blogger Kristi Helm gives two examples of questionable tie-ins. The first is between cancer research and Fat Bastard wines. The winery will donate money to breast cancer research up to $75,000 by donating 25¢ per bottle of wine sold. However, research has shown that women who consumed an average of two drinks or more a day had a 24 percent increase in breast cancer over non-drinkers. The second example is tanning salons donating money to Vitamin D breast cancer research. In this case, by tanning more you can donate to breast cancer research while increasing your chances of getting skin cancer.

Read the blog by clicking here.

Also, to learn more about those "pink ribbon" campaigns for breast cancer research, click here.

The Growth of Farmers Markets

2010-09-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

CBS Sunday Morning had a segment this past weekend on farmers markets. It reported what I've learned five years ago.... vegetables are better when you buy directly from a farmer. Unfortunately, the report didn't cover our wonderful market in Brattleboro but overall the piece was informative.

Here's the transcript or you can check it out by clicking here.

(CBS) Been to the supermarket this weekend? These days you have another choice: Farmers markets have taken root in cities across the nation. Martha Teichner takes us on a tour in our Sunday Morning Cover Story guaranteed to make you "green" with envy...

As farmers markets go, it isn't impressive: One little stall in the lobby of an office building. It's not impressive, unless you consider where these vegetables were grown . . .

The roof.

"It's a 40,000 square foot rooftop farm, it's about an acre," said Ben Flanner of Brooklyn Grange. "And we're growing 50, 60, 70 different varieties of vegetables."

Flanner and four friends are running a commercial farm, seven stories off the ground, surrounded by a to-die-for view of the New York City skyline. The soil, a million pounds of it, had to be raised a sack at a time by crane.

"There's thousands and thousands of empty rooftops across New York City," he said," and it just makes sense to do something productive on them."

Commercial farms on city rooftops may not be a trend, yet, but the growth of farmers markets in this country definitely is. Just out: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture figures showing the number at 6,100 plus, up 16 percent since 2009, meaning more than 850 have opened just this past year.

"Speaking of the USDA, it has a farmers market every Friday outside its Washington, D.C., headquarters, where Deputy Secretary of Agriculture (and farmers market booster) Kathleen Merrigan shops regularly.

"The access to the fresh, high-quality food, the joy of connecting with a farmer, really should be for everybody," Merrigan said.

"Do you think in the last few years, something fundamentally has changed about how Americans see food and the access to it?" Teichner asked.

"I think people are waking up," Merrigan replied.

Madison, Wisconsin, has the nation's biggest farmers market. Naturally, it sells local cheese. Every region showcases its own specialties, from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Me.

In Maine, Anna and Eli were shopping: "We've got some carrots, some basil, tomatoes, blueberries."

Just randomly stopping shoppers, especially younger ones, what's clear is that shopping at farmers markets isn't just fun . . . it's serious, part of a socially responsible life.

Teichner indicated the pregnant belly of Anna. "He's going to eat well!" Anna said.

"Yeah," said Eli. "He's getting food from, you know, his community."

(CBS)

For decades we've been hearing about the death of the family farm, but consider this: Farmers markets and other forms of selling straight to customers are helping to keep farmers in business.

Third generation Maine farmer John Snell makes twice as much money selling at this Portland market as he would selling wholesale to middlemen.

Now, this next piece of information may come as a shock:

Snell says a farmer with 1,000 acres or soybeans and corn in rotation do NOT make more money per acre. "No, no. Their gross, per acre is significantly less, which is why they're farming 1,000, 2,000 acres, where we're probably farming for vegetables, maybe, 25."

Stacy Brenner grew up in the suburbs; so did her husband, John Bliss. They're part of a new wave of committed farmers.

"It's about eating well and living well, working hard," Brenner said. "I don't need to go the gym; I just go outside and do a little work!"

"None of this is about money; I want enough to live on, but that's plenty," she said.

They operate Broadturn Farm in Scarborough, Maine.

Brenner says CSA produce is the "bread and butter" of their farm.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Customers pay $500 a season for a weekly share of the produce.

Instead of going to the farmers market, members (as they're called) come to the farm.

"They know exactly where the food is grown, they see how the food is grown," said Bliss. "And they leave with a really, I think, broadened perspective on farming."

(CBS)

The USDA is now spending roughly $5 million a year as part of its new Farmers Market Promotion Program.

The first grants were announced last September, on the day first lady Michelle Obama launched the new "By the White House" market in Washington.

"This market is not just about food, it's about our community, and this is just the beginning of the discussion," she said.

Much of that discussion is about how to make healthy food available to lower income Americans in urban areas considered "food deserts."

Farmers markets that accept government benefits are seen as one answer. Washington, D.C., markets match them with what they call double dollars.

"My granddaughter is covered by WIC, and her mother, you know, is covered by WIC," said Gloria Foss.

"Today, I'm planning to get some melons and some corn, and with my free dollars, if they still have the crabs over there, I'm gonna go for some crabs," Foss laughed.

Sure enough, they did, caught the day before, steamed that very morning.

But here's a question: Without double dollars or WIC or some other government program, are the people who need access to fresh food most, priced out of farmers markets?

In season there are bargains. But in Washington, Mark Seibert sells his organic milk for approximately $12 a gallon, with no apologies.

"We feel that the prices we charge reflect true costs of production and getting here to market it," Seibert said at his Clear Spring Creamery stall.

At New York City's Union Square market, Brazilian chef Marco Moreira is concerned about price but he's more concerned about quality.

Salad at $12 a quarter-pound? "This is worth every penny," Marco said.

"It's a guest of honor but, you know, so you use it carefully," he said.

It's Wednesday, and the market is crawling with chefs, not to mention on average 60,000 other shoppers, all looking - just like Moreira - for their "guests of honor" . . . those perfect chanterelle mushrooms or maybe teeny, weeny little cucumbers the size of your thumbnail.

Teichner sampled some parsley she described as stronger than normal. "That's why I recommend everyone tasting, all day long," said seller Franca. "Tasting is believing."

Moreira's restaurant, Tocqueville, is half a block away and features a daily greenmarket menu.

"The ingredients speak for themselves, so you don't really need to do a lot to them," Moreira said.

Back in the kitchen, Moreira's composition takes shape:

Tomato confit, corn salad, crispy zucchini flowers, chanterelle brown butter vinaigrette . . .

"A little taste of summer," Moreira said. "Let's see if it works!"

Grilled lobster meets the green market, in all its glory.

(CBS)

Seeing is not always believing - especially when it comes to Israel

2010-08-31T05:07:00.000-07:00

On September 30, 2000, The New York Times, Associated Press and other major media outlets published a photo of a young man -- bloodied and battered -- crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified him as a Palestinian victim of Israeli brutality -- with the clear implication that the Israeli soldier was the one who beat him.
That young man was, in fact, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago, who was beaten within inches of his life before being rescued by the Israeli border policeman in the photo.
Honestreporting.com was launched ten years ago to combat the media bias against Israel.
Please check out the interview with Tuvia Grossman, the Palestinian victim who turned out to be an American Jew. Also, he gets to meet the Israeli soldier, Gidon Tzefadi, who saved his life.
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/EXCLUSIVE_VIDEO_Dramatic_Reunion_Ten_Years_After_The_Photo_That_Started_It_All.asp

Vermont Politics Makes History

2010-08-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

Article published Aug 26, 2010
An historic race may make more history
By Louis Porter
Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER — A vigorous five-way contest to become the Democratic nominee in the race to become governor may not be the only bit of history made in the primary election which is almost, but not quite, concluded.

If the election goes to a recount – and it seems likely candidates will be within the 2 percent margin that allows a candidate to call for recount of votes in Vermont – it will be the first time in recent history that a primary for statewide office has sparked a recount.

Official, certified results will be filed Tuesday, although the Secretary of State's office may put out updated estimates before then.

Unofficial tallies have Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin just fewer than 200 votes ahead of his nearest competitor, state Sen. Doug Racine.

Racine has said he will await official results before deciding whether to ask for a recount, and Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz will almost certainly be able to request a recount as well.

Such a recount would entail ballots being transported to Washington County Superior Court, where the recount would take place. Exactly how long a recount would take is not known, but a fair guess would be up to two weeks after the request is made, said Deputy Secretary of State Bill Dalton.

Such a request must be made within 10 days of the election.

One thing that makes it hard to determine how long such a recount would take is that a candidate challenging the results of an election can ask to have optical scan ballots recounted by machine and only ballots from hand-counting towns recounted by hand.

Since roughly 70 percent of the state's ballots (from roughly 40 percent of polling places) use machine-read ballots that would be much quicker than a full recount by hand.

However, in part because of concerns about the security of machine-read ballots, a challenging candidate can still request that all ballots (roughly 70,000 in this case) be examined and tallied by hand.

“It's up to the challenger,” Dalton said.

In part because more polling places in the state now use optical scanned ballots, the margin by which a candidate can apparently lose and still request a recount was reduced this year from 5 percent of the total vote count to 2 percent.

That is a function of the voting system, thanks to more optical scan ballots, being more accurate, Dalton said.

There have been nine statewide races that have gone to recounts since 1958, when Robert Stafford beat Democrat Bernard Leddy, both in the original tally and after a recount.

There have been times when a recount has changed the result of an election, including for current auditor Tom Salmon (then a Democrat, now a Republican) in his 2006 contest against Republican Randy Brock.

In a recount of the November general election of that year that went into December, Salmon's vote total grew from 111,349 to 111,770. Brock's votes, meanwhile, grew as well, but only to 111,668, giving Salmon the victory.

It was in part because of that recount – in which most of the errors were in hand-counting towns – that the law was changed to allow the results from optical-scan polling locations to be recounted by machine, if the challenger requested it, said State Rep. Ken Atkins of Winooski, a member of the House Government Operations Committee.

“We tried to make it easier for those that have the optical scanners,” he said. “Instead of having to count each dot they can put them through and see if they get the same count.”

In the recounts he has observed, including for a local contest in his hometown, optical scans have proven to be accurate, Atkins said.

“The optical scan was right on,” he said.

In the end, he is proud of his Democratic colleagues running for governor and the way they have conducted themselves, he said.

“I am just so proud of those five people. They had a really adamant campaign, all of them, and they kept it clean,” Atkins said.

In the end, it is far from a sure thing that there will be a recount.

Eric Davis, Middlebury College professor emeritus of political science, said if official results are close to the unofficial tally, Shumlin may move ahead without a recount.

“My guess is that if the certified results show a margin close to what (The Associated Press) is reporting now, in the 175 to 200 range, then there's a strong argument for having the winner move forward from there into the general election,” Davis said. “If the certified result shows Racine behind by less than 100, then I think the case for a recount would become stronger.”

In any case, the Secretary of State's office will be working to get the official results compiled as the first step.

“We will be working over the weekend,” Dalton said.

An historic race may make more history: Times Argus Online

Blockbuster to file bankruptcy in September

2010-08-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

Source says that video retailer could close 500 to 800 of its stores

msnbc.com news services

updated 8/26/2010 7:35:12 PM ET

Blockbuster Inc. will file bankruptcy next month, people familiar with the matter have told the Los Angeles Times.

In a report on the Times website, the sources said the pre-planned Chapter 11 filing would be used to restructure a debt load of nearly $1
billion. A planned bankruptcy allows the debtor to work with creditors about payment terms ahead of the filing.

Movie studios, the Times reported, want the Dallas-based company to succeed so it can be a viable competitor to Netflix and Redbox.

Netflix's success already contributed to the downfall of video rental chain Movie Gallery, which filed for bankruptcy protection for the
second time earlier this year. The company, which also owns Hollywood Video, is in the process of closing its remaining 1,050 stores.

Blockbuster also has been closing hundreds of unprofitable stores during the past two years. It still lost $65.4 million during the first
three months of this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38873287/ns/business-retail/#

Modern technology could revive old radio dramas

2010-08-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Good article by David Williamson on how radio drama is being revived in Wales.

Aug 19 2010 by David Williamson, Western Mail

In an era where technology dominates people’s consumption of entertainment, David Williamson looks at how the radio plays could be in for a revival

LIVE radio dramas have an intensity of emotion and excitement which can thrill audiences in an iPod age, according to fans at a Welsh university who have teamed up with a leading Hollywood scriptwriter.

The potential of plays whose only images exist in the imaginations of listeners to grip an audience was demonstrated to bold effect in 1924 with Danger, Richard Hughes’ BBC drama about a group trapped in a Welsh coal mine.

In the same decade, operas, Broadway musicals and stage plays entertained American families who clustered around radios. And Orson Welles’ 1938 War ofthe Worlds epic convinced startled listeners a martian invasion was under way.

Professor Richard Hand of the University of Glamorgan is adamant that the time has come for a revival of live drama, where actors cluster around microphones and technicians generate sound effects on the spot. The craft brings together the immediacy of theatre and conjures the imaginative magic of storytelling.

He said: “It’s about the most nerve-wracking thing I’ve ever done.”

Together with staff and students at the Cardiff Atrium campus, he helped stage a “full-blooded” radio dramatisation of the gruesome legend of Sweeney Todd, the murderous barber of Fleet St.

This was released on Apple’s iTunes and won the attention of Boston-based screenwriter Diane Lake, best known for her work on the multi-Oscar nominated 2002 drama Frida.

He said: “She got in touch and said, ‘Would you accept a script?’. We said, ‘Definitely!’”

Ms Lake, who has written for Columbia, Disney, Miramax, Paramount and NBC, created a detective drama based around the mysterious character of super-sleuth Violet Strange.

The US detective comes to England and quickly becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding a series of thefts and a group of socialites known as the Inseparables.

In contrast with the decapitations of Sweeney Todd, Prof hand describes the tone as “very Gosford Park” – a reference to Robert Altman’s acclaimed country house drama.

The story involves Strange initially encountering barriers in a male-dominated society but gradually exploiting the cracks in the British establishment.

Prof Hand said: “She realises she can use her status as a woman to get much deeper than any man could.”

The drama comes at a time when Sherlock Holmes’ recent exploits on both the cinema screen and in a modern television adaptation have proved there is an enduring appetite for idiosyncratic investigators unravelling mysteries which reveal dark secrets in British society.

Lake crossed the Atlantic to take part in the production which was staged in front of an audience at the university Atrium.

Prof Hand was in the director’s chair and fellow lecturers Stephen Lacey and Geraint D’Arcy took roles, alongside a team of students from Glamorgan and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

This involved learning new skills and pushing the creativity of actors and technicians to new heights.

Describing the sound effects team as “heroes of live radio”, the professor said: “We were looking at getting a car sound. In the end we used a trombone, very slowly played – it worked as a car engine.”

Actors had to learn to tame some of their expressive impulses.

He said: “A lot of actors aren’t used to radio. With radio, there’s that consideration of how they use the mic and that’s incredibly difficult because they want to move and bring life to things but if you move your head six inches that sounds like you are 60 yards away...

“It’s not a form for improvising. It’s almost like a musician working with a score.”

There has been renewed interest in radio drama through epic BBC projects such as the Complete Smiley – dramatisations of all eight of John le Carré’s George Smiley novels with Simon Russell Beale in the title role.

Early American radio dramas won audiences of millions with cliffhanger endings and tales of adventure, but this tradition came to a sudden halt in the US with the advent of television.

Prof Hand said: “CBS and NBC put all their eggs in the television basket and it killed it. We are so fortunate with the BBC because the BBC [kept] on with radio and we still have 300 plays a year.”

Now that the internet means people do not need to be next to a radio at a specific time of broadcast, people are free to explore drama series at their leisure.

He said: “I’m aware some of my students and colleagues have listened to a series in one go.”

He now believes it is worthwhile taking on the extra challenge of recording the work as a live piece, despite the looming creative hurdles such a production will face.

He appreciates that universities enjoy a creative freedom to pursue such projects which is almost unique.

He said: “We can succeed and fail. The wonderful thing in an academic environment is if something doesn’t work we can co back to the drawing board...

“It’s all experimentation; it’s all adventure. We’re allowed to do that.”

These early efforts have won an enthusiastic response and he is increasingly convinced that the ubiquity of MP3 players signals people want to listen to more than just their favourite bands and that a new age of audio drama could await.

“I think music is fantastic but I think people want more,” he enthused. “People are so busy that they want to listen to stuff.

“There is something exciting about the spoken word; sometimes music is not enough.”

The role of a director in a live radio drama is more like a conductor of an orchestra than a filmmaker. Only two microphones are used in a production and actors must be in place at the precise moment they are required.

In sharp contrast with theatre, the length of a production must be strictly controlled. Finishing seven seconds early would leave a gaping moment of dead air on a radio schedule.

They abandoned the cosy confines of the Atrium’s radio studios and invited an audience of around 60. People who came to watch the performance were guaranteed a night out quite unlike any other on offer in Cardiff.

“We do dress up in the 1940s style, even though [the cast and crew] would be much more comfortable to be in T-shirts,” the professor said.

He is looking forward to further audio adventures which will stretch their creative muscles.

He admitted: “It was quite demanding, I have to say, because what we do is very rough and ready and we don’t apologise for that. Also, with post-production you can polish things and make them sound so smooth and we’re not able to do that.”

Prof Hand, whose interests include horror films, video games, Frank Zappa and Joseph Conrad, thinks Ms Lake enjoyed the rapid turnaround of the project and how this contrasts with the years spent preparing for a Hollywood blockbuster.

He said: “When she got in touch and said ‘How long will it take?’ and we said ‘two to three weeks’ she just couldn’t believe it.”

There is the potential for Violet Strange to add further mysteries to her casebook, and Prof Hand is delighted that the university now has a strong working relationship with Ms Lake, who can explain to budding scriptwriters both the principles of her craft and the machinations of the industry.

He said: “I think Glamorgan is very good at getting interaction with the creative industries... [It] was a special time to spend time with her.”

Her dramatisation of the life of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo was named one of the 10 best films of 2002 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. It was also nominated for six Academy Awards, and she has experience of nurturing students through her role as a screenwriting professor at Emerson College in Boston.

The Casebook of Violet Strange: The Inseparables, can be heard online for free from the University of Glamorgan’s channel on iTunes (http://itunes.glam.ac.uk).

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Modern technology could revive old radio dramas

The Pitfalls of Blogging

2010-08-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

Anyone who blogs should this great article by David Savage in the August 23, 2010 edition of LA Times.

Blogger beware: Postings can lead to lawsuits

A false sense of Internet security can mean legal quagmires for critics who are careless about facts.

By David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau

August 23, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers. But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

"It was probably inevitable, but we have seen a steady growth in litigation over content on the Internet," said Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

Although bloggers may have a free-speech right to say what they want online, courts have found that they are not protected from being sued for their comments, even if they are posted anonymously.

Some postings have even led to criminal charges.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger from New Jersey, faces up to 10 years in prison for posting a comment that three Chicago judges "deserve to be killed" for having rejected a 2nd Amendment challenge to the city's handgun ban in 2009. Turner, who also ran his own Web-based radio show, thought it "was political trash talk," his lawyer said. But this month a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted him of threatening the lives of the judges on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In western Pennsylvania, a judge recently ruled a community website must identify the Internet address of individuals who posted comments calling a township official a "jerk" who put money from the taxpayers in "his pocket." The official also owned a used car dealership, and one commenter called his cars "junk." The official sued for defamation, saying the comments were false and damaged his reputation.

In April, a North Carolina county official won a similar ruling after some anonymous bloggers on a local website called him a slumlord.

"Most people have no idea of the liability they face when they publish something online," said Eric Goldman, who teaches Internet law at Santa Clara University. "A whole new generation can publish now, but they don't understand the legal dangers they could face. People are shocked to learn they can be sued for posting something that says, 'My dentist stinks.' "

Under federal law, websites generally are not liable for comments posted by outsiders. They can, however, be forced to reveal the poster's identity if the post includes false information presented as fact.

Calling someone a "jerk" and a "buffoon" may be safe from a lawsuit because it states an opinion. Saying he wrongly "pocketed" public money could lead to a defamation claim because it asserts something as a fact.

"A lot of people don't know how easy it is to track them down" once a lawsuit is filed, said Sara J. Rose, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in Pittsburgh.

The Supreme Court has said that the 1st Amendment's protection for the freedom of speech includes the right to publish "anonymous" pamphlets. But recently, judges have been saying that online speakers do not always have a right to remain anonymous.

Last month, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Nevada judge's order requiring the disclosure of the identity of three people accused of conducting an "Internet smear campaign via anonymous postings" against Quixtar, the successor to the well-known Amway Corp.

"The right to speak, whether anonymously or otherwise, is not unlimited," wrote Judge Margaret McKeown.

Quixtar had sued, contending the postings were damaging to its business. The judge who first ordered the disclosure said the Internet had "great potential for irresponsible, malicious and harmful communication." Moreover, the "speed and power of Internet technology makes it difficult for the truth to 'catch up to the lie,' " he wrote.

Media law experts say lawsuits over Internet postings are hard to track because many of them arise from local disputes. They rarely result in large verdicts or lengthy appeals to high courts.

Goldman, the Santa Clara professor, describes these cases as the "thin-skinned plaintiff versus the griper." They begin with someone who goes online to complain, perhaps about a restaurant, a contractor, a store, a former boss or a public official. Sometimes, one person's complaint prompts others to vent with even sharper, harsher complaints.

"There's a false sense of safety on the Internet," said Kimberley Isbell, a lawyer for the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University. "If you think you can be anonymous, you may not exercise the same judgment" before posting a comment, she said.

Not surprisingly, the target of the online complaints may think he or she has no choice but to take legal action if the comments are false and malicious.

"These can be life-changing lawsuits. They can go on for years and cost enormous amounts in legal fees," Goldman said.

He is particularly concerned about teenagers and what they post online. "Teenagers do what you might expect. They say things they shouldn't say. They do stupid things," he said. "We don't have a legal standard for defamation that excuses kids."

Media law experts repeat the advice that bloggers and e-mailers need to think twice before sending a message.

"The first thing people need to realize, they can be held accountable for what they say online," Baron said. "Before you speak ill of anyone online, you should think hard before pressing the 'send' button."

david.savage@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blogger-suits-20100823,0,5604043.story

Economy impacts Nonprofit Sector

2010-08-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Guidestar just published its new survey: The Effect of the Economy on the Nonprofit Sector.

Some 40 percent of participants in GuideStar's first nonprofit economic survey for 2010 reported that contributions to their organizations dropped between January 1 and May 31, 2010, compared to the same period a year earlier.

Among the other findings:

Eight percent of respondents indicated that their organizations was were in imminent danger of closing.
In order to balance budgets, 17 percent of respondents reduced program services, and 11 percent laid off employees.
More than 60 percent of participants reporting decreased contributions attributed the drop to a decline in both the number of individual donors and the size of their donations.
Among organizations that use volunteers, 17 percent used one or more in what had formerly been paid positions.
About a third (32 percent) of organizations increased their reliance on volunteers, whereas 9 percent experienced a decline.

4th Annual BAJC Israeli Film & Food Festival

2010-08-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

Good article about the upcoming event.

Welcome to THE COMMONS -- News and Views for Windham County, Vermont

Generalized symbol of hate

2010-08-06T04:59:00.000-07:00

The Anti Defamation League came out with its annual survey this week and reported that anti-Semitic incidents in Vermont decreased slightly in 2009. The ADL survey showed that there were three reported harassment incidents in 2009 compared to 2008 in which there were four harassment occurrences and one vandalism incident.

However, in April 2010, I learned of two incidents of vandalism and one incident of harassment in Windham County. And, this month there were two incidents of vandalism in Dummerston.

While the Vermont Partnership and houses of worship are busily working on a public service advertising campaign to denounce these recent hate messages, it is interesting to note that the painting of a swastika -- that dark, ubiquitous signature of hateful vandals everywhere -- is no longer automatically considered an act of anti-Semitism under new guidelines for recording attacks against Jews by the Anti- Defamation League.

The most prominent Jewish defense agency in the country announced that it has revamped its guidelines for recording anti-Semitic incidents in its annual survey for the first time in 30 years, taking a more conservative approach.

"We know that the swastika has, for some, lost its meaning as the primary symbol of Nazism and instead become a more generalized symbol of hate," said Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director in a statement. "So we are being more careful to include graffiti incidents that specifically target Jews or Jewish institutions as we continue the process of re-evaluating and redefining how we measure anti-Jewish incidents."

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish educational and human rights group based in Los Angeles, said he understood the reasoning behind the Anti-Defamation League’s move.

"The swastika is shorthand for every racist and bigot on the planet," Rabbi Cooper said. "It is amazing that 60 or 70 years later that symbol has not lost any of its potency."

Using its new accounting, the ADL still logged 1,211 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2009. That was down from 1,352 incidents in 2008, in part because of the new approach to swastikas.

Was the swastikas painted on the Dummerston Bridge an act of anti-Semitism or just general hate?

Researching the history of the symbol, one finds that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis stole it from the Hindu and Buddhist religions and perverted its meaning. Ironically svastika is Sanskrit for "all is well" and is seen throughout Asia today--including emblazoned upon Buddha statues around the world. It was intended to be a message of harmony and well being to all those who gazed upon its satisfyingly balanced shape. In Buddhism it is almost always seen pointing left, whereas the Nazis used it facing right. It became the defining motif of anti-Jewish hatred and is still the contemporary calling card of many neo-Nazi groups.

So, regardless of the motivation of the vandals in Dummerston, we must continue to be vigilant toward intolerance and speak out as a community whenever hate messages appear.

Martin Cohn is president of Cohn Public Relations and serves as president of Congregation Shir Heharim, Brattleboro Area Jewish Community. 

Published in Brattleboro Reformer, Friday August 6, 2010

http://www.reformer.com/ci_15690410?IADID

WHY YOU'LL BE PAYING LESS, AND MORE, TO THE BANK

2010-06-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

The Federal Reserve placed a soft cap on credit card late fees last week, the latest salvo in an ongoing battle between Congress and corporations that squeeze consumers with punishing surcharges and fees. It's a small victory for consumers, but on many other fronts in this war the news isn't nearly so good. When you consider the way new rules are impacting checking accounts and credit card interest rates, and Congress’ incredible unwillingness to take a stand on 401(k) retirement account fees, it seems consumers are getting nowhere fast.

The rule imposing a $25 limit on credit card late fees isn't bad, although it is ironically dogged by fine print. When Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility (CARD) Act last year, it directed the Federal Reserve to take a crack at making late fees fairer. The Fed issued its new rule last week.

Our World: The plain truth about Israel

2010-06-08T05:05:00.000-07:00

Carolyn Glick wrote a good analysis of the fallout from Helen Thomas' outrageous comments

Our World: The plain truth about Israel

And, now that Ms Thomas has resigned, it's interesting to read Howard Kurtz's column and Richard Cohen's op/ed in today's Washington Post.

Cartoonists respond to Gaza Flotilla

2010-06-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

Noted how the Arab media responded to Gaza Flotilla in both editorials and cartoons.

The Gaza Blockade and International Law

2010-06-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Israel's position is reasonable and backed by precedent.

By ERIC POSNER

Israel's raid on a fleet of activists bound for the Gaza Strip has led to wild accusations of illegality. But the international law applicable to the blockade eludes the grasp of those in search of easy answers.

The most serious charge is that by seizing control of the flotilla, Israel violated the freedom of ships to travel on the high seas. The basic law here is that states have jurisdiction over a 12-mile territorial sea and can take enforcement actions in an additional 12-mile contiguous zone, according to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention (which Israel has not ratified, but which is generally regarded as reflecting customary international law). Outside that area, foreign ships can sail unmolested.

But there are exceptions. Longstanding customary international law permits states to enforce publicly announced blockades on the high seas. The Gaza blockade was known to all, and certainly to those who launched the ships for the very purpose of breaking it. The real question is whether the Israeli blockade is lawful. Blockades certainly are during times of war or armed conflict. The U.S.-led coalition imposed a blockade on Iraq during the first Gulf War.

The catch here is the meaning of "armed conflict." Traditionally, armed conflict can take place only between sovereign states. If Gaza were clearly a sovereign state, then Israel would be at war with Gaza and the blockade would be lawful. If, however, Gaza were just a part of Israel, Israel would have the right to control its borders— but not by intercepting foreign ships outside its 12-mile territorial sea or contiguous zone.

Gaza is not a sovereign state (although it has its own government, controlled by Hamas) and is not a part of Israel or of any other state. Its status is ambiguous, and so too is the nature of the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas. Thus there is no clear answer to the question whether the blockade is lawful.

However, the traditional idea of armed conflict involving only sovereign states has long given way to a looser definition that includes some conflicts between states and nonstate actors. The international rules governing blockades attempt to balance belligerents' interest in security and other countries' economic interests in shipping. During war, security interests prevail.

War-like conditions certainly exist between Israel and Hamas. And because Israel intercepts only self-identified blockade runners, its actions have little impact on neutral shipping. This balance is reflected in the traditional privilege of states to capture foreign pirates on the high seas.

So Israel's legal position is reasonable, and it has precedent. During the U.S. Civil War, the Union claimed to blockade the Confederacy while at the same time maintaining that the Confederacy was not a sovereign state but an agent of insurrection.

When the Union navy seized ships trying to run the blockade, their owners argued that a country cannot interfere with shipping on the high seas except during war, and one cannot be at war except with another sovereign state. The U.S. Supreme Court approved the captures in an ambiguous opinion that held that an armed conflict existed, even though one side was not a sovereign state. The opinion suggests a certain latitude for countries to use blockades against internal as well as external enemies.

Human Rights Watch argues that a blockade to strike at a terrorist organization constitutes a collective penalty against a civilian population, in violation of Article 33 of the fourth Geneva Convention. This argument won't stand up. Blockades and other forms of economic sanction are permitted in international law, which necessarily means that civilians will suffer through no fault of their own.

Most attention has focused on the question whether Israeli commandos used excessive force while taking control of one of the flotilla ships, which resulted in nine deaths. Human Rights Watch says that Israel's actions violated the 1990 United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. However, that document is not international law; its principles are akin to a set of "best practices" for advising countries with poorly trained police forces. It is also vague and it would not apply to a military operation.

Military operations must respect the principle of proportionality, which is a fuzzy, "know-it-when-you-see-it" test. But one thing is clear. Ships that run blockades may be attacked and sunk under international law. If Israel had exercised that right, far more than nine people would have been killed.

Mr. Posner, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, is the author of "The Perils of Global Legalism" (University of Chicago Press, 2009).

Israelis Wonder: Has the World Lost Its Mind?

2010-06-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

The U.N. Security Council urgently convenes to create yet another anti-Israel kangaroo court—even as the sanctions effort against Iran's nuclear program falters.

By YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI

Jerusalem

The outcry in Israel over the operation against the Gaza flotilla has cut across political lines. Yet unlike the outrage being expressed abroad, the concern here is over tactics, not morality. "It's not enough to be right," wrote one liberal columnist in the daily Ma'ariv, "one also needs to be smart." The assumption that Israel was right to stop the flotilla—and right to maintain its siege on Hamas-led Gaza—is largely a given here.

Israel and the rest of the world seem to be speaking dissonant moral languages. How, Israelis wonder, can pro-Hamas activists wielding knives be confused for peace activists? What is pro-peace about strengthening Hamas's grip on Gaza and thereby reducing the likelihood of a two-state solution? For that matter, what is pro-Palestinian about condemning the people of Gaza to jihadist rule?

The disconnect between Israel and the international community begins with radically differing perceptions over why the peace process has faltered. Most Israelis believe that their country, under Labor and Kadima governments, made repeated efforts to achieve a two-state solution, only to be rebuffed by Palestinian leaders. The election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, Israelis note, wasn't the cause of the breakdown of the peace process. It was the result. Even today, Fatah leaders continue to insist on the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel—rather than to a Palestinian state—thereby undermining Israel's Jewish majority. Fatah insists, in other words, that the price for a two-state solution is a one-state solution.

In principle, the Israeli mainstream has endorsed the two-state vision of the international community. Many in Israel, and not only on the left, argue that a Palestinian state is an existential need for Israel—to extricate it from growing pariah status, from the moral dilemmas of occupation, and from an untenable choice between its democratic and Jewish identities.

But at the same time, Israelis also define a Palestinian state as an existential threat. Israelis fear that an independent Palestine would be either unwilling or unable to control terrorists from attacking the Israeli heartland just over the West Bank border. Even primitive Qassam rockets could make normal life in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem impossible. Moreover, international condemnation of Israel's 2009 war against Hamas—initiated after Israel withdrew from Gaza and then endured three years of almost daily rocket attacks—has convinced Israelis that they would be denied world approval to re-invade the West Bank in response to terrorist provocation.

The growing estrangement between Israel and world opinion is a tragic negation of the Zionist vision. For Israel's founders, Zionism wasn't only about returning the Jews to their homeland but to the community of nations. The root cause of anti-Semitism, argued the 19th century proto-Zionist thinker Leon Pinsker, was the human fear of ghosts: The Jews, a disembodied people without a land, were haunting the nations. By "concretizing" the Jews and turning them from wanderers into a nation like any other, he predicted, the illness of anti-Semitism would be cured.

Now, though, it's the Jewish state that is the target for demonization. The result is a crisis of confidence among some Jews in Zionism's ability to keep them safe.

From its founding, the state of Israel, denied legitimacy by its Arab neighbors, has had to contend with diplomatic isolation. It responded with daring and creativity. In the 1950s, Israel dispatched agricultural advisers to Africa and Asia, becoming a role model for developing nations. Later, its high-tech industries helped shape a strategic alliance with India.

The low point in Israel's international stature occurred after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Under pressure from the Arab oil boycott, Third World countries severed relations with the Jewish state. At the U.N., PLO leader Yasser Arafat declared that Israel had no right to exist and received a standing ovation from the General Assembly. A year later, in 1975, the U.N. voted to declare Zionism a form of racism.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had instigated the anti-Zionism campaign, Israel's status abruptly changed. The Zionism-racism resolution was repealed. And by the early 1990s, Israel was maintaining relations with most of the non-Muslim world.

The Zionist vision of acceptance by the nations seemed finally on its way to being fulfilled. The result was a greater willingness among Israelis to take risks for peace, as expressed by the 1993 Oslo peace process.

Now, Israel's international status is perhaps even worse than it was in the 1970s. Anti-Israeli animus then was largely a result of political and economic motives. Today, however misguided, the moral outrage against Israel is real.

By appealing to the world's conscience, Israel's jihadist enemies have learned how to turn their relative powerlessness into a strategic asset. Israel is being increasingly forced to choose between self-defense and acceptance by the nations. The likely result will be a growing sense of empowerment among jihadists, and a growing sense of desperation among Israelis.

Israelis watch with cynical astonishment as the U.N. Security Council urgently convenes to create a Commission of Inquiry—yet another anti-Israel kangaroo court—even as the sanctions effort against Iran's nuclear program falters. They contrast the banner headlines in the world's media over the flotilla with the barely noted news item of recent days that Tehran now has enough uranium for two nuclear bombs. And as some self-described friends of Israel are publicly wondering whether the Jewish state needs to be "saved from itself," Israelis reciprocate the outrage and ask: Has the world lost its mind?

Mr. Klein Halevi is a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and a contributing editor to The New Republic.

Interesting analysis of Gaza Flotilla

2010-06-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

Krauthammer: Those troublesome Jews

Charles Krauthammer
Friday, June 4, 2010; A19

The world is outraged at Israel's blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in. The Obama administration dithers.

But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel -- a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets.

In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded ("quarantined") Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.

Oh, but weren't the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel's offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiel and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza -- as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza.

Why was the offer refused? Because, as organizer Greta Berlin admitted, the flotilla was not about humanitarian relief but about breaking the blockade, i.e., ending Israel's inspection regime, which would mean unlimited shipping into Gaza and thus the unlimited arming of Hamas.

Israel has already twice intercepted ships laden with Iranian arms destined for Hezbollah and Gaza. What country would allow that?

But even more important, why did Israel even have to resort to blockade? Because, blockade is Israel's fallback as the world systematically de-legitimizes its traditional ways of defending itself -- forward and active defense.

(1) Forward defense: As a small, densely populated country surrounded by hostile states, Israel had, for its first half-century, adopted forward defense -- fighting wars on enemy territory (such as the Sinai and Golan Heights) rather than its own.

Where possible (Sinai, for example) Israel has traded territory for peace. But where peace offers were refused, Israel retained the territory as a protective buffer zone. Thus Israel retained a small strip of southern Lebanon to protect the villages of northern Israel. And it took many losses in Gaza, rather than expose Israeli border towns to Palestinian terror attacks. It is for the same reason America wages a grinding war in Afghanistan: You fight them there, so you don't have to fight them here.

But under overwhelming outside pressure, Israel gave it up. The Israelis were told the occupations were not just illegal but at the root of the anti-Israel insurgencies -- and therefore withdrawal, by removing the cause, would bring peace.

Land for peace. Remember? Well, during the past decade, Israel gave the land -- evacuating South Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005. What did it get? An intensification of belligerency, heavy militarization of the enemy side, multiple kidnappings, cross-border attacks and, from Gaza, years of unrelenting rocket attack.

(2) Active defense: Israel then had to switch to active defense -- military action to disrupt, dismantle and defeat (to borrow President Obama's description of our campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda) the newly armed terrorist mini-states established in southern Lebanon and Gaza after Israel withdrew.

The result? The Lebanon war of 2006 and Gaza operation of 2008-09. They were met with yet another avalanche of opprobrium and calumny by the same international community that had demanded the land-for-peace Israeli withdrawals in the first place. Worse, the U.N. Goldstone report, which essentially criminalized Israel's defensive operation in Gaza while whitewashing the casus belli -- the preceding and unprovoked Hamas rocket war -- effectively de-legitimized any active Israeli defense against its self-declared terror enemies.

(3) Passive defense: Without forward or active defense, Israel is left with but the most passive and benign of all defenses -- a blockade to simply prevent enemy rearmament. Yet, as we speak, this too is headed for international de-legitimation. Even the United States is now moving toward having it abolished.

But, if none of these is permissible, what's left?

Ah, but that's the point. It's the point understood by the blockade-busting flotilla of useful idiots and terror sympathizers, by the Turkish front organization that funded it, by the automatic anti-Israel Third World chorus at the United Nations, and by the supine Europeans who've had quite enough of the Jewish problem.

What's left? Nothing. The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense. Why, just last week, the Obama administration joined the jackals, and reversed four decades of U.S. practice, by signing onto a consensus document that singles out Israel's possession of nuclear weapons -- thus de-legitimizing Israel's very last line of defense: deterrence.

The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million -- that number again -- hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists -- Iranian in particular -- openly prepare a more final solution.

letters@ charleskrauthammer.com

Israel is in dire need of a strategic public relations director!

2010-06-04T03:58:00.000-07:00

Israel’s Delegitimizers Are Gaining

Gary Rosenblatt

Flotilla fiasco underscores Jewish state’s vulnerability; think tank urges dramatic change in diplomacy.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Gary Rosenblatt

Editor And Publisher

This week brought another political and diplomatic disaster for Israel — further proof that Jerusalem must change dramatically its hasbara efforts, not just to persevere but perhaps even to survive.

The deadly encounter between Israeli armed forces and boatloads of pro-Palestinian activists seeking to break the blockade in Gaza is but the latest example of the increasingly aggressive and successful campaign being waged by Israel’s enemies to marginalize and delegitimize the Jewish state.

Counting on Israel to use force when provoked, and then, when it does happen, portraying Jerusalem as a cruel, oppressive pariah deserving of universal condemnation, is consistent with a pattern of behavior in recent years that has seen Israel’s status as a state become openly questioned, and opposed, in Europe as well as the Arab world.

Indeed, there are those who believe that the delegitimization efforts — negating Israel’s very right as a state — may soon rival the Iran nuclear campaign as an existential threat to Israel.

The Gaza flotilla episode pinpoints the weakness of an Israeli mindset that maintains that the greatest threat remains the military battlefield and is caught flat-footed in dealing with political assaults, resulting in major blows.

By sending a few boats toward Gaza, the anti-Israel activists had no intention or possibility of confronting Israel militarily. Rather they manipulated the Israelis into overreacting, and the diplomatic and public relations fallout was huge, with the loss of contact with Turkey, a longtime key Muslim ally, a strategic disaster.

Unfortunately, we should expect to see more such diplomatic forays aimed at piercing Israel’s sense of invincibility.

The Re’ut Institute, an independent think tank based in Tel Aviv, earlier this year issued a detailed “conceptual framework” for countering these types of danger, identifying the two separate forces driving the delegitimization campaign, and urging the Israeli government and pro-Israel community to become far more focused and sophisticated in combating the effort.

Gidi Grinstein, the founder and president of Re’ut, asserted in an interview that the “systematic and systemic assault” on Israel’s economic and political model has “potentially existential implications.”

The 92-page Re’ut report notes that in addition to the military resistance movement in the Mideast, composed primarily of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, there is a relatively small group of networks, or hubs, that are loosely based but share a hatred of Israel and seek to disseminate information globally that challenges Israel’s moral and legal legitimacy.

Working through NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), the media, academic institutions and strong local Arab or Muslim communities, these groups initiate protests, boycotts, sanctions, divestments and lawsuits, as well as campus events, with an emphasis on branding Israel as an apartheid state.

Other key concepts being promulgated are that the notion of a Jewish state is religiously or ethnically biased and unacceptable, and that a one-state solution is the only equitable way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (That would result in an Arab majority doing away with Israel as we know it — through democratic elections, and without firing a weapon.)

One goal of the militants and strategists is to “overstretch” Israel’s capacity to control the Palestinians and, under increasing criticism, gradually implode from within.

Go On Offense

The Re’ut report identifies the most prolific hubs around the world as operating in London, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Paris, Sydney and the San Francisco Bay area, and urges the Israeli Foreign Ministry to aggressively respond to their charges — not by defending and countering, but by going on the offensive.

“We call for moving from a local, situational defense to a global systemic offensive,” says Grinstein, insisting that Israel should point out that the anti-Israel forces stand in violation of human rights, women’s rights, gay rights, due process of law, control of arms, etc., while Israel is a true democracy.

Israel too often engages in debates that are “too close to our goal line,” according to Grinstein, like defending the right of Jews to have their own state. “We should be pushing toward the other goal line,” he says, leaving our comfort zone to name and shame the delegitimizers and brand them as haters, attacking them on facts, substance, and statistics.

One thing we can learn from the delegitimizers, who include a wide array of radical activists and anarchists, is that they utilize what Grinstein calls “the open tent approach,” accepting anyone who opposes Israel, regardless of their other beliefs. This gives the delegitimizers more clout than their numbers would indicate.

Many pro-Israel activists, by contrast, make up a closed tent community, quick to say, in effect, “if you’re not with me on every issue, I’m against you” — from Evangelical Christians, whose theology is seen as suspect, to J Street-type activists, often critical of Israeli policy.

The Re’ut report argues that such thinking is dangerously limiting, and encourages accepting as “pro-Israel” anyone who supports a Jewish state and the right of Jews to self-determination. That would include, for example, someone like Richard Goldstone, a Jew and self-defined Zionist whose report on Israel’s behavior during the Gaza War has been widely criticized as biased.

His findings may be unfair and intellectually dishonest, but he should not be thrown out of the pro-Israel tent, according to this argument, because he supports a Jewish state.

Target Liberal Progressives

The real battleground in strengthening the case for Israel’s legitimacy is “the hearts and minds of the liberal progressive elite,” according to Grinstein. Such thinking dovetails with the rationale of the recent essay by former New Republic editor Peter Beinart that has generated so much discussion and debate in the Jewish community. The article, published in the New York Review of Books and titled “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” argues that young American Jews, raised with liberal values, are becoming increasingly disenfranchised from Israel, which they see as an occupier and oppressor of Palestinians.

The Re’ut report seems to confirm Beinart’s plea to embrace rather than marginalize critics of specific policies of Jerusalem who nevertheless define themselves as Zionists.

Easier said than done.

Yet while it may be emotionally difficult for groups like AIPAC and the Zionist Organization of America to sit at the same table and strategize with folks from J Street and Peace Now, if the common cause is the survival and flourishing of our only Jewish state — and the realization is that the current effort is floundering, or worse — we must put our secondary differences aside and work together.

More than that, Grinstein insists that the Israeli Foreign Ministry, an institution that he says has not changed since the 1950s, is in need of a complete overhaul in its thinking and activities, from beefing up its staff in “quality and quantity” to increasing its representation in places like London and Sydney, where anti-Israel networks are particularly effective.

He sees Re’ut’s role as making the pro-Israel community “feel uncomfortable,” challenging traditional thinking by offering hard-nosed facts and careful analysis.

“We can be a catalyst,” he says, to help Israel utilize its strategic forces by establishing networks of its own to offset the damage of the anti-Israel networks.

“We can’t make them go away,” says Grinstein of the hostile networks, “but we can cut them down to size” by mobilizing the Israeli elite — intellectuals, policy makers and the media — as well as an American Jewish community that Grinstein believes “has lost a substantive amount of its capacity to stand together on this issue.”

The first step, though, is recognizing the depth of the problem and the need for a fresh approach. Maybe in that way, this week’s disastrous encounter on the seas near Gaza will chart the course for an effective new strategy.

E-mail: Gary@jewishweek.org

Great response by Netanyahu on flotilla raid

2010-06-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

Finally!!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37463504/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

Media folks are learning that there may be another side to Flotilla stories

2010-06-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

Honest Reporting.com is doing a good job of posting videos taken during the boarding of the flotilla near Israel. It's getting harder to describe the folks on the flotilla as being just peaceful demonstrators.

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/Special_Alert_Boats,_Bias_and_Big_Lies.asp

Israel needs better public relations

2010-06-01T04:42:00.000-07:00

Analysis: Israel's PR machine fails yet again

By YAAKOV KATZ
06/01/2010 10:26

Without an early Israeli response, media was full of one-sided reports.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=177102

Flotilla Battle Unleashes Anti-Israel Wave

2010-05-31T06:27:00.000-07:00

Check out

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/Special_Alert_Flotilla_Battle_Unleashes_Anti-Israel_Wave.asp

Brattleboro Rotary Club celebrates 60 years

2010-05-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

By BOB AUDETTE / Reformer Staff

Friday May 14, 2010

BRATTLEBORO -- For the past 60 years, the Brattleboro Rotary Club has been serving the local community.

On May 4, the Brattleboro Selectboard proclaimed the week of May 10 through 16 as Brattleboro Rotary Week.

The Brattleboro club is part of Rotary International. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices.

The Rotary Club was founded in 1905 and by 1921, it had members on all the continents except Antarctica. Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to over 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. There are 90 members in the Brattleboro area.

The Rotary Club’s motto is "Service Above Self," and the Brattleboro club has lived up to that standard.

In 2009, the Brattleboro Rotary Club and the Sunrise Rotary Club, which was founded by the Brattleboro Club in 1995, conducted an "Indian Film and Food Festival," which raised $8,500 towards the matching grant.

Rotary’s efforts are also focused on literacy and providing clean water.

The roots of Pure Water for the World began in Brattleboro in 1994 when Peter Abell, a member of the Brattleboro Rotary Club, volunteered to go to a small Salvadoran village to provide medical services.

With the support of the local club, Abell decided to help the people by providing rural villages with potable water.

This year, the Brattleboro Rotary Club is partnering with the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico, to support Casita Linda, which builds adobe brick homes for families who are among the poorest of the poor in San Miguel de Allende and the surrounding areas.

Locally, the members of the Brattleboro Rotary have supplied elbow grease for projects benefiting the Reformer Christmas Stocking, Habitat for Humanity, the Gibson-Aiken Center, Living Memorial Park and Youth Services.

The Rotary Club also awards annual Gateway Scholarships to the region’s high school graduates.

Rotary International was the world’s first service club when it was formed in Chicago on Feb. 23, 1905, by Paul P. Harris, who became a resident of Wallingford when he was 3 years old.

Harris, who eventually became an attorney, founded Rotary International in an effort to capture what he had learned while growing up in Wallingford.

"Vermont farmers were tenacious," wrote Harris, in "The Story of a Boy, a Vermont Community and Rotary." "Having once gotten a grip on a place they could call home, only the direst of calamities or death could break it."

Harris was also impressed by the fortitude of the state’s residents.

"When Vermonters have a purpose in mind, they are not easily discouraged," he wrote.

Harris was born in 1868 in Racine, Wis. Three years later, he, his brother and their father moved to Vermont.

In 1886, the University of Vermont "indefinitely suspended" Harris from the school after he was wrongfully accused of hazing another student. In 1919, UVM awarded him an honorary Bachelor of Arts degree and presented him with an apology for his expulsion. It awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1933.

In 1891 he received his law degree from the University of Iowa and in 1896 he moved to Chicago to practice law. He died in 1947 in Chicago, shortly after he wrote his autobiography.

Things haven’t really changed in Vermont in the 63 years since he wrote his story.

"While the majority of the newcomers to my New England valley are retired business folks who wish to spend their remaining days in the restfulness of the country, there are a considerable number of writers, artists and educators who have no intention of retiring," he wrote. "They are attracted to the mountains by their love of beauty and their desire to rid themselves of the useless complexities of life in order that they may apply themselves more effectively to their chosen tasks. Vermont has attracted more than its proportionate share of these folks."

As it grew, its mission expanded beyond serving club members’ professional and social interests. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need.

May 21 is the deadline to apply for one of the eight $3,000 Gateway scholarships. Submit applications to: John C. Mabie, Esq., c/o Corum Mabie Cook Prodan Angell & Secrest, PLC, 45 Linden St., Brattleboro, VT 05301.

And on June 10 at the Brattleboro Country Club, the Rotary is hosting its 35th Annual Charity Golf Tournament. Proceeds from this year’s tournament will benefit three local projects: The Vernon Recreation Department Playground Restoration, the Boys and Girls Club of Brattleboro and the Gateway Scholarships.

While regional Rotary clubs are putting together teams for the tournament, members of the public are encouraged to participate either as a golfer or a sponsor.

The cost is $125 for an individual and $460 for a foursome.

To register for the tournament, e-mail Rotarian Cathy Coonan or call her at 802-251-3782.

Bob Audette can be reached at raudette@reformer.com, or at 802-254-2311, ext. 273.

http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_15083311

Brattleboro and Burlington Chosen in Top 25 Arts Destinations Poll

2010-05-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

MONTPELIER – Two Vermont cities are among the Top Arts Destinations in AmericanStyle magazine’s annual readers’ poll. Burlington and Brattleboro were named in the 25 Small Cities category (populations of up to 100,000). Santa Fe, New Mexico took the top spot on the list which also included Boulder, CO, Chapel Hill, NC, Key West, FL and Carmel, CA.

The 12th annual poll showcases the nation’s small, medium and large cities that roll out the red carpet for art tourists and cultural travelers. Unique performance venues, premier galleries and year-round festivals are among the reasons readers selected these Vermont communities.

“I’m delighted for both Burlington and Brattleboro and not at all surprised at their selection,” said Alex Aldrich, the Executive Director of the Vermont Arts Council.

“Frankly, I am surprised that only two Vermont cities were named. My hope is that people visiting as a result of this article will discover that they have to return again and again to experience all the art and culture that Vermont has to offer.”

"Remember the vital roles played by artists during the last recession," said Wendy Rosen, publisher of AmericanStyle, a lifestyle magazine for art enthusiasts, collectors and travelers. "They moved in to dying Main Streets, shuttered factories and warehouse districts, and converted them into galleries and art scenes. Their murals, outdoor sculpture and other public art enchanted tourists and helped spark new investment. Artists led the way then, and they are leading the way now."

"Tough economic times also make consumers conscious of where their products come from," Ms. Rosen added. "Art lovers know they can make a positive impact by buying from local galleries and local artists, so their dollars recycle in the community and support homegrown talent. We all know that art and handcraft galleries are among the few remaining places where you can find authentic, made-in-America gifts and art products."

With so many Vermont communities to choose from, arts lovers will be itching to hit the road this summer. The diversity of cultural options for all interests will provide Vermont vacationers and "staycationers" dozens of delightful destinations within easy driving distance.

White House charm offensive pays off: Wiesel says tension is ‘gone’

2010-05-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

By Ron Kampeas · May 4, 2010

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- When Elie Wiesel says it's all kosher, it's good.

For now, anyway.

President Obama capped an intensive two weeks of administration make-nice with Israeli officials and the American Jewish community by hosting Wiesel, the Nobel peace laureate and Holocaust memoirist, for lunch at the White House.

"It was a good kosher lunch," was the first thing Wiesel pronounced, emerging from the White House to a gaggle of reporters.

And not just the food.

"There were moments of tension,” Wiesel said. “But the tension I think is gone, which is good.”

That echoed Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, who a few days earlier told leaders of the American Jewish Committee that the "slight disagreements are behind us."

The tension and the "slight" disagreements, of course, were between the United States and Israel -- and by extension, the mainstream pro-Israel community -- and started March 8, when Israel announced a major housing start in eastern Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden rebuked Israel, but it didn't stop there. Next came an extended phoned-in dressing down from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and claims by Clinton and other U.S. officials that Israel had "insulted" Biden.

Then, when Netanyahu arrived in Washington to address the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, Obama all but snubbed the Israeli leader, agreeing to meet him only without photo ops.

The pro-Israel community was virtually unified in its reaction: Yes, Netanyahu had screwed up, but this was piling on.

As the recriminations grew more pronounced, so did concerns about the relationship: Did this portend a major shake-up? Was Obama distancing himself from Israel?

In private, Jewish organizational leaders reached out to White House friends and said whatever you're selling, you need to explain it before "tensions" become a full-fledged "crisis."

There were signs of that, with messages -- some blunt, some oblique -- about the dangers of pressing Israel on Jerusalem. The author of one of the messages, in the form of a full-page New York Times ad, was Wiesel.

In response to such rumblings -- around the time of Israel Independence Day, mid-to-late April -- the Obama administration launched its love assault. If you were a Jewish organization, no matter how particularized, you would get administration face time from Clinton (the American Jewish Committee) through Attorney General Eric Holder (the Anti-Defamation League) down to Chuck Hagel, the co-chairman of Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board (American Friends of Hebrew University.)

Clearly there was a checklist for the speakers:

* Mention that there is "no gap -- no gap" (and say it like that) between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security. (Jim Jones, the national security advisor, to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; his deputy, Daniel Shapiro, to the ADL.)

* Repeat, ad infinitum, the administration’s "commitment to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons." (Clinton to the AJC; Dennis Ross, the top White House official handling Iran policy, to the ADL and just about everyone else.

* Make it clear that while resolving the conflict would make it easier to address an array of other issues, the notion that Israel is responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in the region is a calumny. (Robert Gates, the defense secretary, at a news conference with Barak: "No one in this department, in or out of uniform, believes that." Shapiro to the ADL: "We do not believe this conflict endangers the lives of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.")

* Resolve to resolve differences "as allies" and don't forget to criticize the Palestinians as well, for incitement and for recalcitrance in refusing to come to direct talks (proximity talks are resuming this week).

* And explain the fundaments of what is good about the relationship: defense cooperation.

The most pronounced evidence of this approach was in the ADL's double whammy: The civil rights group got two speeches from two officials, Ross and Shapiro, who had not spoken publicly since taking their jobs in the administration. Each was in a position to go into detail about the details of the defense relationship, Ross handling the Iran perspective, and Shapiro handling Israel and its neighbors.

"We have reinvigorated defense cooperation, including on missile defense, highlighted by the 1,000 U.S. service members who traveled to Israel to participate in the Juniper Cobra military exercises last fall," Shapiro said. "We have intensive dialogues and exchanges with Israel -- in political, military and intelligence channels -- on regional security issues and counterterrorism, from which we both benefit, and which enable us to coordinate our strategies whenever possible.

"We have redoubled our efforts to ensure Israel's qualitative military edge in the region, which has been publicly recognized and appreciated by numerous senior Israeli security officials. And we continue to support the development of Israeli missile defense systems, such as Arrow and David’s Sling, to upgrade Patriot missile defense systems first deployed during the Gulf War, and to work cooperatively with Israel on an advanced radar system to provide early warning of incoming missiles."

Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director, was impressed, saying this was more than just rhetoric.

"We've heard all kinds of phraseology in the last few weeks, but this is an inventory," he said.

Tom Neumann, who heads the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, agreed that the defense relationship remains strong -- but wondered whether the rhetoric did not portend more substantive changes.

"On a soldier-to-soldier basis it remains solid," Neumann said. "But much of the defense relationship is ultimately dictated by the administration. Obama may yet put pressure on Israel through the transfer of arms through how to confront Iran."

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/05/04/2394667/charm-offensive-pays-off-wiesel-says-tension-is-gone

Leslie Buck, Designer of Iconic Coffee Cup, Dies at 87

2010-05-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

April 29, 2010

Leslie Buck, Designer of Iconic Coffee Cup, Dies at 87

By MARGALIT FOX

It was for decades the most enduring piece of ephemera in New York City and is still among the most recognizable. Trim, blue and white, it fits neatly in the hand, sized so its contents can be downed in a New York minute. It is as vivid an emblem of the city as the Statue of Liberty, beloved of property masters who need to evoke Gotham at a glance in films and on television.

It is, of course, the Anthora, the cardboard cup of Grecian design that has held New Yorkers’ coffee securely for nearly half a century. Introduced in the 1960s, the Anthora was long made by the hundreds of millions annually, nearly every cup destined for the New York area.

A pop-cultural totem, the Anthora has been enshrined in museums; its likeness has adorned tourist memorabilia like T-shirts and ceramic mugs. Like many once-celebrated artifacts, though, the cup may now be endangered, the victim of urban gentrification.

The Anthora seems to have been here forever, as if bestowed by the gods at the city’s creation. But in fact, it was created by man — one man in particular, a refugee from Nazi Europe named Leslie Buck.

Mr. Buck, a retired paper-cup company executive, died on Monday, at 87, at his home on Long Island, in Glen Cove. The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, his son Robert said. Mr. Buck, previously a longtime resident of Syosset, N.Y., also had a home in Delray Beach, Fla.

The Anthora has spawned a flock of imitations by competitors over the years, but it was first designed by Mr. Buck for the Sherri Cup Company in Kensington, Conn.

Mr. Buck’s cup was blue, with a white meander ringing the top and bottom; down each side was a drawing of the Greek vase known as an amphora. (“Anthora” comes from “amphora,” as filtered through Mr. Buck’s Eastern European accent, his son said.) Some later imitators depict fluted white columns; others show a discus thrower.

On front and back, Mr. Buck emblazoned the Anthora with three steaming golden coffee cups. Above them, in lettering that suggests a Classical inscription, was the Anthora’s very soul — the motto. It has appeared in many variant texts since then; Mr. Buck’s original, with its welcome intimations of tenderness, succor and humility, was simply this:

We Are Happy

To Serve You.

Though the Anthora no longer dominates the urban landscape as it once did, it can still be found at diners, delis and food carts citywide, a squat, stalwart island in a sea of tall, grande and venti. On the street, it warms the harried hands of pedestrians. Without the Anthora, “Law & Order” could scarcely exist.

Laszlo Büch was born on Sept. 20, 1922, to a Jewish family in Khust, then in Czechoslovakia. (It is today in Ukraine.) His parents were killed by the Nazis during World War II; Laszlo himself survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

After the war, Mr. Buck made his way to New York, where he Americanized his name and ran an import-export business with his brother, Eugene, who had also survived the camps. In the late 1950s or thereabouts, the brothers started Premier Cup, a paper-cup manufacturer in Mount Vernon, N.Y.

Leslie Buck joined Sherri Cup, then a startup, in the mid-’60s. Originally the company’s sales manager (for a time, he was its entire sales force), he later became its director of marketing.

Sherri was keen to crack New York’s hot-cup market. Since many of the city’s diners were owned by Greeks, Mr. Buck hit on the idea of a Classical cup in the colors of the Greek flag. Though he had no formal training in art, he executed the design himself. It was an instant success.

Mr. Buck made no royalties from the cup, but he did so well in sales commissions that it hardly mattered, his son said. On his retirement from Sherri in 1992, the company presented Mr. Buck with 10,000 specially made Anthoras, printed with a testimonial inscription.

Besides his son, Robert, and brother, Eugene, Mr. Buck is survived by his wife, the former Ella Farkas, whom he married in 1949; two daughters, Beverly Eisenoff and Linda Rush; and four grandchildren.

In recent years, with the gentrification of the city and its brew, demand for the humble Anthora has waned. In 1994, Sherri sold 500 million of the cups, as The New York Times reported afterward. In 2005, the Solo Cup Company, into which Sherri had been absorbed, was selling about 200 million cups a year, The Times reported.

Today, Solo no longer carries the Anthora as a stock item, making it only on request. Other companies still turn out versions of the cup, though not in the quantities of its 20th-century heyday.

But given the tenacious traditionalism of many locals (“Avenue of the Americas,” anyone?), it is safe to assume that the Anthora and its heirs will endure, at least for a while, in the city’s steadfast precincts. For some time to come, on any given day, somewhere a New Yorker will be cradling the cup, with its crisp design and snug white lid, the stuff of life inside.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/nyregion/30buck.html

Is anybody out there?

2010-04-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

I can really relate to yesterday's Garfield strip.

Buzz on Woods Improves, Data Indicate

2010-04-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

APRIL 11, 2010, 1:58 PM

Buzz on Woods Improves, Data Indicate

By STUART ELLIOTT

Zeta Interactive, a company that monitors message boards, blogs and social media posts, is finding an improvement in public perceptions of Tiger Woods, although he is nowhere near his pre-scandal levels of approval.

The data, released on Friday, also included findings about the Nike commercial featuring Mr. Woods and the voice of his father, Earl, who died in 2006.

The data showed that the first day of the Masters golf tournament — Mr. Woods’s first day of public golf since the scandal — significantly helped his online reputation.

On Wednesday, the day before the Masters began, Mr. Woods’s online reputation stood at 51 percent positive and 49 percent negative, Zeta reported. On Friday, the positive figure had soared to 69 percent and the negative had fallen to 31 percent.

The 69 percent is still a far cry from the 91 percent positive rating that Mr. Woods enjoyed in the Zeta data before the scandal.

Looking at words or terms used online to describe Mr. Woods, Zeta found that those in use a month ago, like “lie/lied/liar,” “cheat” and “scandal,” had given way by Friday to “win,” “performance” and “dominant/dominate.”

As for the Nike commercial, it helped the Nike brand online, the Zeta data indicated. The company’s positive ratings, which had recently hovered in the range of 68 to 73 percent, soared to 83 percent after the spot began running.

And as of Friday morning, the volume of posts online about Nike had increased by more than 270 percent, the data showed, making Nike more buzzed-about than any retailer.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/buzz-on-woods-improves-data-indicate/

VPR News: Project Turns Author's Stories Into Radio Dramas

2010-04-05T13:39:00.000-07:00

Archer Mayor and I were interviewed about our new business venture, Vermont Audio Drama Podcasting , by Vermont Public Radio's Jane Lindholm that aired on April 5, 2010 Vermont Edition.

VPR News: Project Turns Author's Stories Into Radio Dramas

The Pastor's Ass

2010-03-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

The pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won.

The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again.

The local paper read: PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT.

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the Pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.

The next day, the local paper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey.

The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent.

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day: NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.

The bishop fainted.

He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.

The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.

This was too much for the bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.

The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.

The bishop was buried the next day.

The moral of the story is: Being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery & even shorten your life. So be yourself and enjoy life. Stop worrying about everyone else's ass and you'll be a lot happier and live longer!

Why no Palestinian state exists

2010-03-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

March 23, 2010 – New York – AJC Executive Director David Harris in his national radio commentary on the CBS radio network, reminds listeners why no Palestinian state exists. “The key to peace? Palestinian leaders who say yes, not no. When that happens, a new day will dawn,” says Harris.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there’s a lot of hype and spin.

But facts are facts.

In 1947, the UN recommended two countries.

The Jews accepted. The Arabs didn’t. If they had, there would’ve been a Palestinian state.

In 1948, Israel was established. It called for peace. Instead, it got war.

After the war, the Arabs, not Israel, were in control of the West Bank and Gaza.

They could’ve created a Palestinian state there any day of the week. They didn’t.

Instead, they planned more war against Israel. The goal? To destroy it.

Now fast forward to 2000.

The US and Israel offered the Palestinians a viable state. The dramatic proposal was rejected.

Fast forward to 2009. Another far-reaching proposal for a Palestinian state. Again, turned down.

The key to peace? Palestinian leaders who say yes, not no. When that happens, a new day will dawn.

Visit ajc.org.

http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=2818289&ct=8113859&notoc=1

54 Ways You Can Help Israel

2010-03-13T11:15:00.000-08:00

54 Ways You Can Help Israel

NYT: Banks apply pressure to collect fees

2010-02-23T05:14:00.001-08:00

Industry mounts campaign aimed at keeping billions flowing into coffers

By Andrew Martin and Ron Lieber

The New York Times

updated 6:47 a.m. ET, Tues., Feb. 23, 2010

NEW YORK - For many households trying to improve their finances, tossing out pitches from the bank has become almost automatic. But in recent weeks, Chase has been fanning special letters out to consumers with an offer that it urges them not to refuse.

“Your debit card may not work the same way anymore, even if you just made a deposit. Unless we hear from you,” the message, emblazoned in large red type, warns. “If you don’t contact us, your everyday debit card transactions that overdraw your account will not be authorized after August 15, 2010 — even in an emergency,” with “even in an emergency” underlined for emphasis.

As the government cracks down on the way banks charge fees for overspending on debit cards, the industry is mounting an aggressive campaign aimed at keeping billions of dollars in penalty income flowing into its coffers. Chase and other banks are preparing a full-court marketing blitz, which is likely to include filling mailboxes with various aggressive and persuasive letters, calling account holders directly, and sending a steady stream of e-mail to urge consumers to keep their overdraft service turned on.

Starting this summer, banks must get consumers to agree, or “opt in,” to a service covering purchases on a debit card when there is not enough money in their account. The Federal Reserve has ordered the same restriction for banks that want to let people withdraw more than their balance at an automated teller machine. Many banks now automatically provide such coverage for fees of up to $35 or more.

So many people now dip their balance below zero that banks generated an estimated $20 billion from overdraft fees on debit purchases and A.T.M. transactions in 2009, according to Michael Moebs, an economist who advises banks and credit unions. All of this revenue is potentially at risk, since these are the two areas that the new Federal Reserve regulations cover. (Banks generate an extra $12 billion by covering checks and recurring bills; under the new rules, they can still cover those and charge fees without customers’ consent.)

Persuasion campaigns
Over the last decade, these fees have become an increasingly important source of income for banks as consumers have turned to debit cards to pay for a wide variety of their purchases, whether monthly bills or a pack of gum. (Many banks also offer less controversial overdraft programs in which consumers sign up to cover shortfalls in their checking account by pulling money out of a savings account or a credit card.)

The persuasion campaigns, which are just getting under way, come at a precarious time for many banks and credit unions as they scramble to find new revenue streams amid an economic downturn and new laws and regulations that threaten profitability. For instance, new credit card laws that went into effect Monday limit banks’ ability to raise interest rates on existing balances.

Given the billions at stake, consultants are urging banks and credit unions to hire them to help. “Your fee income will take a substantial ‘hit’ if you don’t start getting consumers to ‘opt-in’ for POS/ATM overdrafts NOW!” Mike Sobba, president of Strunk & Associates, a financial institution advisory service, warned banks in a pitch on the company’s Web site.

Some are even lobbying banks to focus their pitch on the minority of customers who are responsible for the vast majority of overdraft fees. According to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation study in 2008, 93 percent of overdraft fees come from the 14 percent of people who exceed their balances five times or more in a year.

“Doesn’t it make sense to try and protect this revenue stream and encourage these customers to opt-in?” said Eric Wittekiend, strategic adviser at Raddon Financial Group, in a report aimed at banks and credit unions. “Right now I’m favoring an aggressive opt-in strategy to protect as much revenue as possible,” he said.

Another consultancy, Pinnacle Financial Strategies, advises an “Opt-in Total Solution” program for banks and credit unions trying to stem losses in overdraft fees. Pinnacle’s briefing paper urges an “account holder identification process” to zero in on consumers who pay such charges repeatedly and persuade them to keep the status quo.

The banks’ marketing campaigns range from subtle to alarming. In recent weeks, Chase has tested several direct-mail pitches to see whether an assertive or alluring tone will drive people into a branch to sign up for overdraft coverage. “Watch your mailbox so you can say ‘Yes’ to continue Chase debit card overdraft coverage,” read one note, a toned-down version of an alternate letter warning consumers that their debit card might not cover unexpected emergencies, like a highway tow.

A spokesman for Chase said: “We have begun to reach out to customers and are encouraging them to sit down with a branch banker to make sure they understand overdraft services, which can be confusing. We want them to make an informed decision.”

When consumers get to the bank, another pitch awaits. Mark Sorenson went into a Dallas branch of Bank of America to turn off the overdraft function on his debit card recently and got a distressing response.

Beware, his banker cautioned. If Mr. Sorenson used the card to buy gas, the station might place a hold on his account and he might not be able to fill up at all, even if he had enough money in the bank to cover a full tank.

“My impression was that it was something he’d been briefed on,” said Mr. Sorenson, an architect who said he had tired of paying multiple fees when the bank automatically covered shortfalls on his debit card. “He was trying it out on me.”

A Bank of America spokeswoman said that its efforts, including giving consumers a document called “Opting Out of Overdraft Coverage,” were not meant to encourage customers to remain in overdraft services but to make sure they understood the complexity of the issue.

Rebecca Borné, policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, said banks still had “tremendous incentive to get as many consumers to opt in as possible.” That is because new Federal Reserve regulations taking effect this summer would still allow banks to charge high fees for overdraft, with no limit on the number of times they impose the penalty.

Twinned with the blitz is a lobbying campaign in Washington by community banks and credit unions against several Congressional measures that would impose tough limits on overdrafts. They argue that their overdraft fees tend to be less than the large banks, and that overdraft provides a valuable service to customers, helping them overcome short-term money woes and saving them from the embarrassment of having a card rejected.

Public outcry
Several members of Congress have proposed legislation that would allow banks to charge just one overdraft fee a month, and six a year, and prohibit the reordering of transactions from largest to smallest to maximize fees. But while Democratic leaders insist overdraft legislation remains a priority, the bills have languished as lobbyists have pushed for delay and Congress focused on other financial issues.

“The ultimate strategy was not delay for delay’s sake,” said Steve Verdier, director of congressional affairs at the Independent Community Bankers Association. “The strategy was to ask Congress for enough time to explain the complexity.”

Amid a growing public outcry over these fees, several large banks announced changes to their overdraft policies last year. Bank of America said it would not charge a fee when customers exceeded their balance by $10 or less per day and would limit overdraft fees to four per day. At the end of March, Chase is eliminating overdrafts for customers whose accounts are overdrawn by $5 or less and has already limited overdrafts to three per day.

But even with those changes, customers could still incur more than $100 in fees a day if they opt to take overdraft coverage.

At least one credit union is using the new Fed rules to try to differentiate itself from its competitors. On its Web site, the UW Credit Union in Madison, Wis., says, “While we expect some financial institutions may aggressively market the idea of a consumer ‘opt in’ within the boundaries of this regulation, we have no such plans.”

This story, "Banks Apply Pressure to Keep Fees Rolling In," originally appeared in The New York Times.

Hitler's ‘Mein Kampf’ makes comeback

2010-02-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

Back in 1982, I served as a press secretary to the Alan Cranston for President campaign. Among Senator Cranston's accomplishments was the fact that, as a young AP reporter, he discovered Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. He translated it and smuggled back to the US. Hitler's lawyer's successfully sued Cranston and his book publisher to stop distribution of the book. Now, there's a group trying to get it published.

Historians lobby for right to reprint Adolf Hitler's infamous memoir

The Associated Press - Feb. 5, 2010

BERLIN - Publish Hitler's infamous memoir "Mein Kampf" in Germany? It sounds like the ultimate taboo.

But a group of German historians is lobbying to do just that, arguing that it's necessary to get an authoritative annotated edition ready for bookshops by the time the copyright runs out in 2015, opening the way for neo-Nazi groups to publish their own versions.

The memoir has been under a de facto publishing ban in Germany since the end of World War II, with the government body that holds the rights refusing to let anybody print it.

Bavaria's Finance Ministry has rejected proposals by Munich's Institute for Contemporary History to publish the tome, but there has been growing support for the idea. This week, the state's science minister emerged as an energetic backer of printing a critical edition.

"Once Bavaria's copyright expires, there is the danger of charlatans and neo-Nazis appropriating this infamous book for themselves," Wolfgang Heubisch said Thursday.

Edith Raim, a historian at the Munich institute, envisions a thorough, academic presentation that places Hitler's work in historical context. She says that would be the best defense against those who might want to use the book to advance racist or anti-Semitic agendas.

Raim noted that "if someone really wants to get a copy of the book, then he can do so anyway, for example over the Internet."

Bavarian copyright
Though widely available in the English-speaking world, the book has never been reprinted in Germany since World War II. While possession is not illegal, resale of old copies is tightly regulated, essentially limited to research purposes.

But German copyright law dictates that any author's work enters the public domain 70 years after his or her death. In Hitler's case, that is just over five years away: the Nazi dictator killed himself in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945.

After World War II, the Allies agreed to hand the rights to "Mein Kampf" over to the Bavarian state government.

The Munich historians tried to initiate a similar project two years ago, but the Bavarian Finance Ministry was categorically opposed.

While its position may be softening somewhat, it still isn't keen and says it hopes publication of "Mein Kampf" can be prevented beyond 2015 under laws against incitement to hatred. It argues that holding back the book is matter of respect for the victims of the Holocaust.

'A chance to demystify'
The president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch, opposes publishing the book — but her organization's general secretary takes the opposite view.

"I'd rather see the book with commentary than printed in a normal version," Stephan Kramer told The Associated Press.

"I understand the survivors, but the publication is going to come anyway," Kramer said. "So we should use this opportunity."

"It also represents a chance to demystify 'Mein Kampf,'" he added. The vast majority of Germans are sufficiently educated and responsible to read it and draw their own conclusions, he said. "The longer it remains forbidden, the more attractive it becomes."

Raim and Kramer were both skeptical that a court would forbid the book's publication after 2015, as that might constitute a breach of freedom of expression.

A similar case involving the reprint of some Nazi-era newspapers in Germany by London-based publisher Albertas Limited went through several layers of jurisdiction before a court last year essentially ruled against efforts by the Finance Ministry — which held the rights to these documents as well — to keep the infamous documents off the shelves.

Historian Raim also points out that diaries by prominent Nazis like Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler are already available in Germany.

1930s best-seller
Hitler wrote the 700-page book — its English translation is "My Struggle" — after he was jailed in the aftermath of the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.

After the Nazis rose to power in the 1930s, the book became a best-seller. Copies of it were given free to every German soldier and newlywed couple.

The book is widely available around the world in translations including English, Arabic, Russian and Japanese; Bavaria has sought to block it from publication and sale in some countries.

Bavaria successfully defended its copyright in recent court proceedings in Poland, the Finance Ministry said. Another trial in the Czech Republic is about to start, it said.

Last year a Spanish translation — "Mi Lucha" — appeared in Apple's online store as an audio book. Apple removed it immediately after learning about the Bavarian copyright, the ministry said in a statement.

In other countries, however, the Finance Ministry couldn't hinder the book's publication due to different copyright legislation. A special case involves the U.S. and Britain, where the copyright had already been sold during Hitler's lifetime.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35261148/ns/world_news-europe/

Why Tanning Beds Are the Cigarettes of Our Age

2010-01-29T05:05:00.001-08:00

Kate White

Editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan

Posted: January 28, 2010 04:18 PM

Why Tanning Beds Are the Cigarettes of Our Age

When we first launched Cosmopolitan's Practice Safe Sun (PSS) campaign in

2006, it was in response to some shocking statistics I'd just learned:

Melanoma had become the second most frequently reported cancer in women in

their 20s. It was only later, though, that I began to hear the stories

behind the stats, and they've been heartbreaking: Women in their 20s and 30s

having multiple and disfiguring surgeries to remove the cancer and many

dying of the disease. I learned this week about a young mother who died of

melanoma five months after her twins were born. So often the common

denominator among these women is that they loved to be tan--from the sun and

often from tanning beds as well.

These stories have kept us highly motivated at Cosmo to make women aware of

the dangers of both outdoor and indoor tanning. This week we took Cosmo's

PSS initiative to a new level. We hosted a press conference in our offices

at which Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Congressman Charlie Dent

(R-PA) announced their plans to introduce The Tanning Bed Cancer Control

Act, a key piece of bipartisan legislation that would expand federal

regulation of tanning beds with the aim of limiting the strength of the UV

rays emitted by tanning beds and the time consumers may be exposed to

harmful radiation.

If you have any doubts about how dangerous beds are, consider the

announcement made in July by the World Health Organization. They described

tanning beds as definitely carcinogenic--putting them in the same category

as cigarettes, asbestos, and uranium. If you tan indoors before age 30, your

skin cancer risk rises by 75 percent (and nearly 70 percent of customers are

young women). When we did an undercover report with ABC's 20/20, we found

tanning salons routinely misrepresented the risks.

But at the same time that the evidence against tanning has become more

clear, we've seen the continuing glorification of the tan in popular

culture. Just check out the pervasive reality series, Jersey Shore. The

daily routine is "GTL"--gym, tanning, laundry.

As Representative Maloney said when she introduced this new bill, tanning

beds are the cigarettes of our age. We owe it to everyone, particularly to

young women, to make sure that the risks of tanning are clearly communicated

and understood and that tanning beds are regulated as tightly as devices

with their risk-profile merit. Please write your congressperson and let him

or her know you support this legislation.

And if you use a tanning bed, please stop. Now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kate-white/why-tanning-beds-are-the_b_440880.h

tml

Indoor Tanning Association Settles FTC Charges That It Deceived Consumers

2010-01-27T04:55:00.000-08:00

In a news release issued on January 26, 2010, according to the Federal Trade Commission, the Indoor Tanning Association has been charged with making false health and safety claims about indoor tanning.

Indoor Tanning Association Settles FTC Charges That It Deceived Consumers About Skin Cancer Risks From Tanning

The Federal Trade Commission today charged the Indoor Tanning Association with making false health and safety claims about indoor tanning. Contrary to claims in the association’s advertising, indoor tanning increases the risk of squamous cell and melanoma skin cancers, according to the FTC complaint. The association has agreed to a settlement that bars it from any further deception.

“The messages promoted by the indoor tanning industry fly in the face of scientific evidence,” said David C. Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The industry needs to do a better job of communicating the risks of tanning to consumers.”

The Indoor Tanning Association represents tanning facilities and suppliers of tanning equipment. The FTC complaint alleges that in March 2008, the association launched an advertising campaign designed to portray indoor tanning as safe and beneficial. The campaign included two national newspaper ads, television and video advertising, two Web sites, a communications guide, and point-of-sale materials that were provided to association members for distribution in local markets. In addition to denying the skin cancer risks of tanning, the campaign allegedly also made these false claims:

Indoor tanning is approved by the government;
Indoor tanning is safer than tanning outdoors because the amount of ultraviolet light received when tanning indoors is monitored and controlled;
Research shows that vitamin D supplements may harm the body’s ability to fight disease; and
A National Academy of Sciences study determined that “the risks of not getting enough ultraviolet light far outweigh the hypothetical risk of skin cancer.”

The complaint also alleges that the association failed to disclose material facts in its advertising.

Under its settlement with the Commission, the association is prohibited from making the
misrepresentations challenged in the complaint, from misrepresenting any tests or studies, and from providing deceptive advertisements to members. The settlement also requires that future association ads that make safety or health benefits claims for indoor tanning may not be misleading and must be substantiated. Further, the order requires that certain future advertisements from the association contain disclosures. Ads that make claims about the safety or health benefits of indoor tanning are required to clearly and prominently make this disclosure:

“NOTICE: Exposure to ultraviolet radiation may increase the likelihood of developing skin cancer and can cause serious eye injury.”

Ads that claim exposure to ultraviolet radiation produces vitamin D in the body, or make other claims about the effectiveness or usefulness of indoor tanning products or services for the body’s generation of vitamin D, must clearly and prominently make this disclosure:

“NOTICE: You do not need to become tan for your skin to make vitamin D. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation may increase the likelihood of developing skin cancer and can cause serious eye injury.”

For more information about how indoor or outdoor tanning increases the risk of melanoma and other types of skin cancer, read the FTC Consumer Alert Indoor Tanning athttp://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt174.pdf

The Commission vote to approve the administrative complaint and proposed consent agreement was 4-0. The FTC will publish an announcement regarding the agreement in the Federal Register shortly. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days, beginning today and continuing through February 26, 2010, after which the Commission will decide whether to make it final. To file a public comment, please click on the following hyperlink:https://public.commentworks.com/ftc/indoortanningassoc and follow the instructions at that site.

Copies of the complaint, the proposed consent agreement, and an analysis of the agreement to aid in public comment are available from both the FTC’s Web site athttp://www.ftc.gov and the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. A consent agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission of a law violation. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $16,000.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,700 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

MEDIA CONTACT:: Betsy Lordan
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-3707
STAFF CONTACT:: Janet Evans
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-2125

(FTC File No. 0823159) (Indoor Tanning.wpd)

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/01/tanning.shtm

Indoor Tanning Industry Fights Back??

2010-01-26T19:55:00.001-08:00

Despite the overwhelming body of scientific study that has shown a causal relationship between indoor tanning and skin cancer, the indoor tanning industry is fighting back with an argument that our country's Bill of Rights should be expanded to include the "right to tan."

Studies last summer reported that “…international cancer experts have moved tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk category, deeming them as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas.”

Indoor tanning before age 30 has been associated with a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, according to a review of medical literature last summer by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization.

Today, two US reps introduced the "Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act."

According to the International Smart Tan Alliance (ISTA), "The bill is yet another attempt by the AADA and cosmetics industry at dismantling the indoor tanning industry for their own benefit." So ISTA believes that it's cosmetics companies, not UV rays, that are causing cancer.

The following news release from the ISTA came through my Google alert

Jan 26, 2010 08:30 ET

Opposing Statement to Rep. Carolyn Maloney Tanning Bed Bill Available to Media

Indoor Tanning Industry Spokesperson Available for Comment to the Media Highlighted Links

Smart Tan

JACKSON, MI--(Marketwire - January 26, 2010) -

WHAT: U.S. Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Charles Dent (R-PA) are introducing legislation called the Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act on Tuesday, January 26, 2010.

WHO: Joe Levy, Vice President of the International Smart Tan Alliance -- the voice of the indoor tanning market

QUOTES: The following statements can be attributed to Joe Levy, Vice President of the International Smart Tan Network, and utilized by the media. "In creating this bill Rep. Maloney and Dent have been duped by the cosmetics industry, chosen to ignore the latest research on UV light and have sided with cosmetic companies who seek to keep all of America out of the sun and covered with sun screen.

"At the Vitamin D Conference in Toronto last fall, doctors reported that the sun scare message is the primary source of America's epidemic Vitamin D deficiency which is linked to the increased risk of 105 different diseases including heart disease, MS, and 30 types of deadly cancer including colon and breast cancer.

"Dermatologists use the same tanning equipment in their offices and regularly prescribe UV light treatment to patients to treat cosmetic conditions such as Psoriasis. The bill is yet another attempt by the AADA and cosmetics industry at dismantling the indoor tanning industry for their own benefit.

"The indoor tanning industry supports 20,000 businesses, employs more than 190,000 people and services more than 30 million customers each year. Salon owners and customers have sent hundreds of post cards and petitions to Rep. Maloney's office in support of indoor tanning and sought to meet with her to voice their opinion on the topic. Reps. Maloney and Dent have chosen to ignore their constituents and the millions who support the right to tan.

"The indoor tanning industry has been working with the FDA for the last 10 years on appropriate regulations and self-regulation. There is no need for more regulations on this industry or U.S. citizens; it is a redundant bill that is a waste of taxpayer's time and money."

WHEN: Availability upon request, please contact Lotus Public Relations to schedule an interview with Joe Levy, VP International Smart Tan Network

About The International Smart Tan Network

The International Smart Tan Network (Smart Tan) was founded in 1985 to provide information and support to indoor tanning businesses in North America. In 1996, Smart Tan became a membership organization serving the indoor tanning retailers and now has more than 3,000 members representing over 6,000 professional tanning businesses. Smart Tan provides educational information and training to salon owners and employees to help encourage

professionalism in all aspects of operation. Smart Tan's technical and service-based training helps member businesses service the needs of the 21st century indoor tanning community. For more about Smart Tan, visit