links for 2009-06-04

And since none of these remarks have any chance whatsoever of ever having any effect anywhere, politicians who courageously "speak out" on this "critical issue" risk absolutely nothing. It's win-win.

And as the ongoing full-speed development of nuclear weapons in India, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea tnat we know of clearly demonstrate, throwing lots of adjectives, adverbs and even urgent verbs at the situation is having an obvious effect. A few more speeches and news releases like this and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-il will surely cave.

In the letter, Obama writes:

But I believe if we are going to make people responsible for owning health insurance, we must make health care affordable. If we do end up with a system where people are responsible for their own insurance, we need to provide a hardship waiver to exempt Americans who cannot afford it.

While over the past few months the White House has said Obama would be open to the idea of an individual mandate, this language suggests that he's more or less accepted the idea, and that he'll use this "hardship waiver" concept to provide wiggle room to explain his tremendous flip flop.

n an interview with Star magazine, Adam Miller claims that long before she met husband Jon, Kate Gosselin pressured the factory worker to marry her.

The couple was set to wed until the unthinkable happened – an affair at her 21st birthday party!

According to Miller, the reality star “hooked up with some guy in a Corvette” after her party. “She was always chasing the money,” Miller added.

And though they reportedly met back in 1995 when Miller was just a 17-year-old high school graduate, Gosselin, then 18, was reportedly happy to have him play sugar daddy.

Jon Gosselin says it's "ridiculous" that people claim he and his wife Kate are exploiting their eight children by doing their TLC reality show, Jon & Kate Plus 8, for which they earn $25,000-$75,000 an episode.

But Dr. Michael Brody of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry tells the new issue of Us Weekly: "Kids at this age shouldn't be working at all. They should be playing." Dr. Brody adds that the children are indeed being "exposed and exploited."

The Pennsylvania labor department is currently investigating whether the TLC show is complying with the state's child labor laws. Kevin Kreider, Kate's younger brother, recently told CBS' Early Show that when he brought the subject up to the couple, they told him "'This is how we're going to provide for them.'"

Continuing in our series of cable news show ratings decline sagas, which has included the ratings woes this year for MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, as well as the declines for CNN’s AC360.

When it premiered last October, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show was a big improvement over what MSNBC previously had in their 9pm hour. Sadly for MSNBC, the show has lost almost 65% of its adults 25-54 demo (targeted by cable news networks) since its premiere month. As always, your guess as to why is as good as mine.

Rather, the United States is a country built on the very concepts about which Obama now seems embarrassed: freedom, liberty, respect for property, separation of church and state, constitutionalism, and rule-of-law. Rather than pander to Egyptians as if Egypt is just another constituency on a whistle-stop tour, perhaps Obama should emphasize our freedoms as the core of the American brand name.

It reminds me of an example — pointed out several years ago, I believe by Rob Satloff — of a State Department pamphlet about Muslims in America. About 90 percent of the women in its pictures were veiled. The problem is, that perhaps only 10 percent of American Muslims cover themselves. And yet, rather than send the message that Muslims in America could be free to dress however they wanted without fear of getting beaten, stabbed, or have acid thrown in their faces, the State Department chose to pander and implied acceptance of a far more conservative definition of proper Islam.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday sent a letter to Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) asking them to agree to waivers in certain cases for those least able to afford mandated health coverage.

“I understand the Committees are moving towards a principle of shared responsibility — making every American responsible for having health insurance coverage, and asking that employers share in the cost,” Obama wrote. “If we do end up with a system where people are responsible for their own insurance, we need to provide a hardship waiver to exempt Americans who cannot afford it,” he continued. “In addition, while I believe that employers have a responsibility to support health insurance for their employees, small businesses face a number of special challenges in affording health benefits and should be exempted.”

Attorney General Jerry Brown, whose office has issued subpoenas in a widening public pension fund corruption probe, has received $52,500 in recent campaign contributions from relatives and a company of the two California businessmen he's now investigating.

The contributions from four family members of Sacramento lobbyist Darius Anderson and the company of Los Angeles political fundraiser Daniel Weinstein went to Brown late last year – months before his office reportedly subpoenaed companies run by the two men. They have not been charged in a public pension scandal that has migrated west from New York and resulted in a handful of indictments and two guilty pleas, including one by one of Weinstein's former employees.

Last summer, I took on a 30-day "Wii Fit" challenge on Fox and Friends. I lost 10 pounds, even though I regularly complained to my co-hosts how sore I was.

Now I can do it all over again with Nintendo's brand-new "Wii Fit Plus," announced Tuesday at the E3 gaming expo.

"Wii Fit Plus" introduces 15 new balance games, including a booty-shaking dance routine which I'll be sure to try out with the shades drawn. Go ahead and sweat your way through six new strength and yoga exercises.

Whether it’s post-election cable news hangover and/or seasonal declines as the weather improves, Countdown with Keith Olbermann hit its lowest ratings of the year in May down over 30% in the cable news adults 25-54 demo target from January.

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in office, reiterated on Wednesday his anti-Israel stance by calling the Holocaust a "big deception".

Ahmadinejad also said liberal democracies of the world have degraded "human values," the Iranian state television news website quoted him as saying.

"The identity of the liberal democracy has been exposed to the world by its protection of the most criminal regime in the history of humanity, the Zionist regime, by using the big deception of the Holocaust."

"There is no doubt that the only way to replace the liberal thought is to go back to the teachings of the divine prophets," Ahmadinejad said.

U.S. private employers chopped more than half a million jobs in May, signaling job conditions remain tough and dashing some hopes the economy was not deteriorating as rapidly as thought, a report on Wednesday showed.
U.S. companies axed 532,000 jobs last month, though this was fewer than the revised 545,000 jobs lost in April, according to the ADP National Employment Report.

The April figure was originally a decline of 491,000.

The median forecast of economists surveyed by Reuters for the ADP Employer Services report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, was for a loss of 520,000 private-sector jobs in May.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said large U.S. budget deficits threaten financial stability and the government can’t continue indefinitely to borrow at the current rate to finance the shortfall.

“Unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth,” Bernanke said in testimony to lawmakers today. “Maintaining the confidence of the financial markets requires that we, as a nation, begin planning now for the restoration of fiscal balance.”

Bernanke’s comments signal that the central bank sees risks of a relapse into financial turmoil even as credit markets show signs of stability. He warned the financial industry remains under stress and the credit crunch continues to limit spending.

In the two weeks since Newsweek has redesigned, the magazine’s editors have sent out a statement that they intend to sever any and all connection to the turgid, dusty newsweekly of yore. And Jon Meacham, the magazine’s editor, is trying to recapture that age-old magazine editor’s trick for his newly conceived book: buzz.

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) published last month a detailed 268-page dossier disclosing the addresses and specifications of hundreds of U.S. nuclear-weapons-related facilities, laboratories, reactors and research activities, including the location of fuel for bombs.

The document, which was removed from the Web on Tuesday, is a draft declaration of facilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, required under agreements that the United States signed in 2004. It is considered highly sensitive though technically not classified.

The vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican, said the disclosure revealed "a virtual treasure map for terrorists."

Elizabeth Edwards, fresh off promoting her latest book, has a new business venture — an upscale furniture store in downtown Chapel Hill.

The News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C., reports that the wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards plans to open up a store called Red Window, named after the store The Red Door her mother apparently used to manage when she lived in Japan.

Edwards reportedly bought furniture from High Point, N.C., for her store by the University of North Carolina campus.
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Frees up John to take careof his new child, now doesn't it?

President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful.

In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, Obama also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it to set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.

"Without going into specifics, what I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations. On the other hand, the international community has a very real interest in preventing a nuclear arms race in the region," Obama said.

Washington Post: President Barack Obama suggested that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy – provided it proves by the end of the year that its aspirations are peaceful. In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, he also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor. Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons. "What I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations," Obama said, adding that the international community also "has a very real interest" in preventing a nuclear arms race.

The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of all civilian nuclear sites and their activities in the United States.

The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Barack Obama to the U.S. Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive."

While there is security at the facilities, the list could presumably be useful for terrorists or anyone else who would like to harm the United States.