I was asked by a young producer, “Attorney Marler, if you had a magic wand, what would you do to make food safer?” Read More… More on Food Politics
View original post here:
William Marler: If I Had A Food Safety Magic Wand
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
William Marler: If I Had A Food Safety Magic Wand
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010Jeffrey Feldman: Speaking in Yellow: The Crisis in Our Politics
Friday, September 3rd, 2010Lately, American politics is neither blue nor red, but yellow. Like the ” yellow journalism ” that plagued the turn of the last century, this new era of Gilded Age politics has been overrun by obscene exaggerations and outright falsehoods, all whipped into national hysteria by newsrooms that long-ago swapped research method for PR wave moxie. Most of this yellow journalism, of course, flows from a few for-profit news outlets seeking to make money by keeping their readers in a constant frenzy. William Randolph Hearst, allow me to introduce you to Rupert Murdoch. As you might have noticed, however, media induced frenzy in the age of newsboys in shorts is like a codeine stupor compared to the cocaine jolt of cable news with a Facebook-Twitter chaser. It seems quaint these days to even call the news cycle “24/7.” The last plague of yellow journalism grew from big headlines and front page stories. Today’s yellow journalism thrives in second-by-second updated web and social media where sensationalism reproduces faster than bacteria in a middle school gym locker. Today, yellow stories overwhelm the actual issues before any real ink hits actual paper. And with this kind of speed, today’s yellow journalism instantly engulfs any political issue it wants. The border between yellow journalism and yellow politics is, as a result, a distinction without much of a difference. Most of us probably cannot remember the last time we debated, let alone acted upon, a national issue devoid of yellow politics. Taxes? Tea Party! Health care? Nazi extermination! Environment? Global conspiracy! Afghanistan? Collusion with terrorists! Education? War on Christmas! Economy? Socialist takeover! Manufacturing? Communist takeover! Family? Homosexual takeover! Urban planning? Muslim terrorists! And on, and on. There is no end to this new run of yellow politics. And as a result, we have become a nation that does nothing — a nation that can do nothing, apparently, but keep churning through yellow stories. Think about it: Are any of the current debates on the issues that concern our future actually happening in terms of red vs. blue anymore? Supposedly, FOX News is the broadcast voice of red America. But tune in, lately, and the programming is all yellow. Glenn Beck tells us that on the issue of healthcare, Americans should not be debating actual programs or solutions, but whether or not our government is totalitarian. He says much the same for the rest of the issues we face. And his viewers do just that. Yellow, yellow, and more yellow. At last week’s speaking tour event Beck billed a “rally,” his viewers demonstrated what it sounds like when American’s speak 100% fluent yellow. To speak yellow, one need only replace the actual issues that face our current government (i.e., levy vs. do not levy taxes, public vs. private education, war vs. diplomacy, etc.) with hyperbolic imaginary stories. Replace red and blue with yellow. How should we pay for Social Security? Obama is a Communist! What should be America’s foreign policy in Central Asia? Obama is a secret Muslim! What kind of energy policy should we craft to transition from oil to renewables? Obama blew up Deep Water Horizon to pass his radical agenda! Do you have any evidence proving any of these fantastical conspiracies to be even remotely true? God bless Glenn Beck! Nobody can argue with a person speaking entirely in yellow because there is nothing to argue against. It’s like arguing with a bag of marshmallows. And yet, while FOX News, Beck, Limbaugh and most of the Newscorp-cum-Clear Channel business sector are a driving force behind the yellowing of our politics, they are not the only force. Since running for Vice President and quitting her job as Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has cultivated the extraordinary power to turn any political issue yellow by the simple act of updating her Facebook status (a remarkable feat when you think about it). For years, for example, Republicans and Democrats debated the best way forward on healthcare reform. Now, Sarah Palin updates her Facebook status and — death panels! Suddenly, we are all speaking in yellow. For months, FOX News discussed the merits of having new “moderate” Muslim leaders in and around the World Trade Center neighborhood in New York. Now, Sarah Palin updates her Facebook status and — ground zero mosque! Suddenly, we are all speaking yellow. And what is the result of this sudden onset of yellow? For starters, the people pushing yellow are making a mountain of cash doing it. In the time since she stepped down from her job as Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has amassed a staggering $13 million, and the money keeps flowing. Tens of millions of dollars for typing sensationalist lies into her Facebook status line? There are a few more steps involved (i.e., speaking fees, book advances, reality show contracts, etc.), but the engine that drives the Palin gravy train runs on high octane yellow. If this keeps up, Sarah Palin will be the first politician in history to successfully ride the yellow wave from total obscurity to mega millionaire media mogul. And once she hits that threshhold (say, $25 million), Palin’s yellow fortune will be large enough to buy her some legitimate credentials: a Senate seat, perhaps? How do we get out of this cycle? How do we stem the tide of yellow? Well, the last wave of yellow journalism to sweep the country ended when the country twice voted for FDR, against the hysterical warnings on the pages of newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst. With the wind kicked out of his yellow business model by a President willing to push populism and strong reforms, Hearst’s yellow empire faded quickly. I am not so sure the same thing would happen, today. And yet, it sure would be great for the country if it did. Imagine if President Obama — elected on a groundswell of popular optimism and youthful energy for tackling real issues with real action — imagine if he were to suddenly find his fighting voice. Imagine if he were to draw the line and push back against the yellow tide drowning the country. “Epic” would be too small a word. What the President needs to do is remind us what issues are really at stake. And he can do that by focusing debate relentlessly on the core symbolic issues we face and the practical choices. These are the stakes. This is what’s real. This is what we must do. He has ended the war in Iraq, now he must bring the fight at home — the fight against yellow politics. We need to hear from the President more, much more, on the everyday issues that concern us. We need to see him speaking passionately and often, away from DC, outside of the backroom negotiation tables. He needs to become, again, a voice so big and a story so large that the yellow voices will seem puny again by comparison. Sure, Sarah Palin will probably make more cash along the way, but so be it. Without the President stepping up to lead national debate, yellow will continue to overrun the levies until we are all drowning. The crisis in American politics is clear: Either we stop speaking in yellow or America should accept its fate as a nation that can do nothing — that will do nothing. Either we do what is necessary to return to real issues and meaningful action in our politics or: marshmallows, as far as the eye can see. And that is a fate we can, and should, avoid.
Originally posted here:
Jeffrey Feldman: Speaking in Yellow: The Crisis in Our Politics
Ben Domenech: American Naivete and Moderate Islam
Friday, September 3rd, 2010America’s political leadership has a love affair with the concept of connecting with the moderate Muslim world. This is not the domain of one party or one ideology — indeed, the administrations of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama are heavily invested in the idea. Yet in the push to find moderate Muslims with whom to interact, there’s a question that seems to keep coming up: how far are we willing to stretch the definition of “moderate” in order to overlook certain uncomfortable facts? We’ve seen this problem most recently in the interactions with Imam Rauf in the swirl of controversy about his mosque project in New York City. Some view Rauf as a moderate go-between who could further legitimate relations — but others point to his funding sources and refusal to denounce Hamas as a sign the moderate label is questionable. The Rauf situation inspired the Wall Street Journal to arrange a roundtable of several Muslim figures this week — but the panel unintentionally served as a perfect example of the kind of strained definition of “moderate” some sources employ when it comes to leading Muslim political figures. In this case, the Journal included Malaysia’s opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, in the conversation. His statement is worth reading, but it must also be studied with a critical eye: Skeptics and cynics alike have said that the quest for the moderate Muslim in the 21st century is akin to the search for the Holy Grail. It’s not hard to understand why. Terrorist attacks, suicide bombings and the jihadist call for Muslims “to rise up against the oppression of the West” are widespread. The radical fringe carrying out such actions has sought to dominate the discourse between Islam and the West. In order to do so, they’ve set out to foment anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. They’ve also advocated indiscriminate violence as a political strategy. To cap their victory, this abysmal lot uses the cataclysm of 9/11 as a lesson for the so-called enemies of Islam. To some, Ibrahim is a beloved figure — he is charming and a capable communicator, who has been subject to malignant political and legal attacks, and has defenders in the United States ranging from Al Gore to Paul Wolfowitz. Yet to read Ibrahim talk of those who “foment… anti-Semitism” for public relations gain is jarring, considering it is exactly the sort of activity he is utilizing to mount his political comeback. One of the oldest tactics when it comes to relations with the Western world is the art of saying one thing in English, and another in your native language. Ibrahim is canny enough to know that his purposes are best served by keeping his anti-Semitic messages in a form which appeals to the right audience — in this case, he’s invoked the spectre of Jewish influence on more than one occasion. The pattern prompted a letter from B’Nai Brith earlier this year , sent to the State Department and the leaders of Senate and House committees, requesting that U.S. officials cease relations with Ibrahim over his “anti-Jewish and anti-Israel slanders,” which include suggesting that Israeli spies are “directly involved in the running of the government,” are antagonizing him through the police force, and are organizing a public relations campaign against him. We would be wise to consider the aims of individuals like Ibrahim, not just accept his words to the American press at face value. I had the opportunity recently to interview Lee Smith, the author of The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations and a columnist for Tablet. He advances a view of American-Muslim relations that is both more sophisticated and more straightforward than the one which ruled in Washington over the past ten years. A key takeaway from his approach to understanding the Muslim world is that we must understand the way that individuals like Ibrahim and Rauf use the American approach to foreign relations to their advantage , and not allow for entanglements that make us lose sight of their real aims. In any case, it’s clear that honest relations with legitimate spokesmen from the Muslim world are paramount as we move closer to a decade removed from the 9/11 attacks. Yet we should have no illusions about the nature of those friendships, and we must reject the idea that figures can get away with saying one thing in their own countries and in their own language while criticizing that same activity in our newspapers and in English. Americans would not tolerate such two-faced activity from our own leaders, nor should we tolerate it from others.
Originally posted here:
Ben Domenech: American Naivete and Moderate Islam
Tom Morris: Interview With a Philosopher: Our Blackberries, I-Phones, Droids, and Souls.
Friday, September 3rd, 2010Is that incredible screen and keyboard often in your hand the greatest personal and professional tool ever, or is it the devil’s device, insidiously sucking the time out of your life and the life out of your soul? Today, I get to talk to William Powers, the author of a new book that raises exactly this question, but without the diabolical overtones. Its title is Hamlet’s Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age . Bill is a former staff writer for The Washington Post , whose worked has also appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times , and many other publications. This book arose out of research he did while basking in the glory of a prestigious fellowship at Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. Tom: Bill, I love your book. It’s chock full of great life philosophy that we need now. It’s in a sense about a troubling paradox we’re almost all experiencing in some form. I can imagine some tech genius sitting around years ago thinking, “Wouldn’t it be GREAT if we were all connected to everything and everyone else ALL THE TIME?” And here we have our first approximation, the exciting new 3G/4G/Who-knows-how-many-G network, and it’s taking over our lives! Read More… More on Happiness
Read this article:
Tom Morris: Interview With a Philosopher: Our Blackberries, I-Phones, Droids, and Souls.
‘Dirty Sexy Politics’: Meghan McCain’s New Memoir
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Meghan McCain’s memoir, “Dirty Sexy Politics,” hit stores yesterday, but if you don’t want to slog through all 194 pages, we’ve picked out some highlights. On The 2000 Presidential Campaign (Daily Beast): “I told her [my sister Bridget] I believed in karma–and that what goes around comes around, and those events will live with President Bush and Karl Rove, his creepy campaign “mastermind,” and with the individuals from the Christian Coalition who helped orchestrate it and helped push polls.” On Mitt Romney (Boston.com): “It was hard to adjust to nice thoughts about Romney, or to stop laughing at him. [He's] the politician whom I most loved to watch and ridicule.” On Mitt Romney’s Sons (Boston.com): “We wondered whether the Five Brothers, the nickname for the Romney sons, could handle the constant drinking and swearing that went on in our campaign – the press corps included. Not to mention all the tawdry stories about crazy-sex you never read about.” On Sarah Palin (Forbes): “I was waiting for her to explode. There was a fine line between genius and insanity, they say, and choosing her as the running mate was starting to seem like the definition of that line.” On The Palins (Daily Beast): “The Palins were nice and down-to-earth. I’ve said that before. And I mean no disrespect to them when I say this, but when they arrived from Alaska and unpacked their bags, they brought dramas, stress, complications, panic, and loads of uncertainty. And they brought a tabloid-attention-getting quality my family has never had–and God willing, never will.” On Hillary Clinton (Daily Beast): “As a woman, I have to admit that I admired her dogged energy and amazing encyclopedic brain. She won all the debates, as far as I was concerned, while Obama always seemed out of his depth and foggy. Every time Hillary opened her mouth, even if she wasn’t actually saying something serious, she seemed impressive, so articulate and razor sharp.” On Being Republican (Forbes): “Being Republican is not a lifestyle choice. And it doesn’t mean you can’t be young, or gay, or black, or anything else.” On Jenna Bush’s bedroom (Washington Post): “The size of a dorm room … there was a creepy painting of two celestial babies — twins — that scared me.” On Laura Bush’s Frigidness Upon Meeting The McCains (Washington Post): “For Mrs. Bush, this was one more meeting she had to take during the day.”
View original post here:
‘Dirty Sexy Politics’: Meghan McCain’s New Memoir
Meghan McCain: Sarah Palin Brought ‘Drama,’ ‘Panic’ To 2008 Presidential Campaign (VIDEO)
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010In an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), dished about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, her father’s running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign. The younger McCain referred to Palin as “a Republican feminist,” but wouldn’t say whether she would vote for Palin if the she runs in 2012. The insights come as the 25-year-old political daughter releases her new book “Dirty Sexy Politics,” which offers a unique glimpse into life on the campaign trail as well as her take on the political trajectory of the Republican party. Here’s an excerpt of the one-on-one that went down between McCain, a Daily Beast columnist, and GMA host George Stephanopoulos: Stephanopoulos: You write about her quite a bit in the book, you say there are a lot of things you like about Sarah Palin, but you also point out that she snubbed your mom’s efforts to reach out to the Palins, that she wasn’t much of a team player. You talk about doubts at the end, where you thought she actually hurt the campaign. McCain: Yes, but I do clearly state at the end that we did not lose because of her. And, I’m speaking out now because I do have conflicting feelings about her. I mean, she brought so much momentum and enthusiasm to the campaign. In her newly-unveiled book, McCain writes about the darker side of Palin’s presence on the 2008 campaign. When Stephanopoulos asked about an excerpt highlighting the “drama, stress, complications, panic and loads of uncertainty” the Alaska governor brought to the political operation, McCain responded: “It’s true, I mean a lot of things happened, but I think that’s how campaigns are in general, no matter who comes.” (Click here to read an excerpt of McCain’s new book “Dirty Sexy Politics” on ABC’s Web site.) WATCH today’s GMA interview:
Read the original:
Meghan McCain: Sarah Palin Brought ‘Drama,’ ‘Panic’ To 2008 Presidential Campaign (VIDEO)
Imam Says Politics Has Stoked Controversy Over Center – New York Times
Sunday, August 29th, 2010Times LIVE Imam Says Politics Has Stoked Controversy Over Center New York Times The imam behind the proposed Islamic center near ground zero, Feisal Abdul Rauf, told a Middle Eastern newspaper that he believed election-year politics had stoked the debate over the project and blamed a “tiny, … American Islam: Who is in Charge? Religion Dispatches Rabbi, ex-mayor weigh in on the controversy over Park51 Aspen Times Politics behind mosque opposition: imam Sydney Morning Herald The Press Association
W.Va., La. voters go to polls for Senate primaries – The Associated Press
Saturday, August 28th, 2010W.Va., La. voters go to polls for Senate primaries The Associated Press CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Fourteen candidates sought a shot at the late Robert C. Byrd's Senate seat, with popular Gov. Joe Manchin the front-runner on the Democratic side and a wealthy businessman and a former US House candidate the best-known of the GOP … Manchin Favored to Win West Virginia Senate Primary U.S. News & World Report Not-So-Special Election WVNS-TV State Politics Remain Murky, Quirky State Journal Wheeling Intelligencer
Kerry Trueman: Iowa’s Secretary of Ag Brags About Iowa’s Eggs
Friday, August 27th, 2010Bill Northey, Iowa’s secretary of agriculture, is so darn proud of his state’s capacity to crank out factory farmed eggs that he had to make a YouTube video to boast about it. From January 14, 2010: We’re not only number one in corn, soybean, and hog production, we’re also number one in egg production, in this state. In fact, we have one farm up in north central Iowa that produces all the eggs for all the McDonald’s west of the Mississippi, including Hawaii and Guam. Read More… More on Food Politics
Go here to see the original:
Kerry Trueman: Iowa’s Secretary of Ag Brags About Iowa’s Eggs
Glenn Beck rally in context: Events on the Mall – Washington Post
Friday, August 27th, 2010msnbc.com Glenn Beck rally in context: Events on the Mall Washington Post The Lincoln Memorial — and the rest of the Mall — is a popular site for protests and rallies. Here are some noteworthy ones that show how hard it is to measure the size of a protesting crowd. With Glenn Beck's Saturday rally, it's best to be wary of … DC's 'truth, honor' rally tests Glenn Beck's power The Associated Press Glenn Beck Takes His Dream to Washington TIME Maryland Politics: Glenn Beck rally angers MLK event organizers Baltimore Sun NPR
