June 2008 Archives

Amendment 2 - Right To Bear Arms : A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Supreme Court overturned a virtual total ban on hand guns and any other arms in the District of Columbia. The law that was stricken out held that the Second Amendment was meant to give militias (that is, the US Military and other government para-military entities like local police) the right to bear arms, not to individuals in and of themselves.

Yet in a 5-4 decision led by Antonin Scalia, the court argued that the law infringed on individuals rights to bear arms, not necessarily on localities rights to impose restrictions on the handling of said arms. SCOTUSBlog has a great recap and analysis of the decision [PDF document] :

In District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), the Court nullified two provisions of the city of Washington's strict 1976 gun control law: a flat ban on possessing a gun in one's home, and a requirement that any gun -- except one kept at a business -- must be unloaded and disassembled or have a trigger lock in place. The Court said it was not passing on a part of the law requiring that guns be licensed. It said that issuing a license to a handgun owner, so the weapon can be used at home, would be a sufficient remedy for the Second Amendment violation of denying any access to a handgun.

While the declaration of the individual right was clear-cut, as was the decision's nullification of key parts of the Washington, D.C., law, the Court did not lay down a standard for judging the constitutionality of any other federal laws -- an omission that the dissenters attacked strongly. Even so, the opinion made it clear that, whatever ultimate test emerge, it probably would be a tough one to meet, at least when self-defense is at issue. As Justice Scalia put it, whatever remains for "future evaluation" about the strength of the right, "it surely elevates above all other interests the right of law-abiding responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home."

Right wing commentators are already branding this decision the "Roe v. Wade of Gun Rights". And just as many people suspected, the National Rifle Association has not wasted time in putting money behind court challenges to local gun bans in cities like San Francisco, Chicago. They are considering New York City next.

Believe it or not, I think this ruling is good if only because it upholds the US Constitution as a document upholding the rights of individuals, not just government bodies.

As a rabid supporter of a woman's right to not be treated as chattel, property or a slave for the sole purpose of a man's reproductive needs, I believe that DC v. Heller is in a way going to reinforce the rights of Woman as an Individual and a Citizen.

Yet as much as I identify with Libertarian causes, I am first and foremost a social libertarian, someone who believe that government is indeed needed to protect and enhance the rights of individuals. So as much as I believe in the constitutionality of an individual's right to bear a gun, I also believe municipalities and states have the right to set under which circumstances people can bear those arms --as long as they don't infringe on an individual's right to have a gun at home for protection. I also believe that this interpretation is only restricted to gun, not semi- or automatic weapons like AK-47s or any other kind of machine gun.

So, as much as I hate the NRA for their loathsome lobbying practices, I do believe this ruling was necessary.

Days before the Oregon presidential primary I was visiting Portland when I learned that Barack Obama would appear at a rally at University of Oregon. From September 11, 2001, when I saw on TV the second plane hit the World Trade Center, I had dedicated my life to peace. Because Obama had voted against the war, he was my candidate.

So, I stood in line for two hours so I could be among the 7,000 people at the rally.

It reminded me of the 1960s when many people attended political events because people had hope of changing the course of our country and the world. Among the Obama supporters that I met were a tattooed punk rocker, a middle aged African American man and his best friend, a white woman, and people who were there with their toddlers and same sex partners. Since I'm African American and came of age during the civil rights movement, it added to my joy to see such support for Obama in a state that is overwhelmingly white.

I framed this picture to show the diversity of people at the rally, and the themes of hope and change that we can believe in.

Our friends at Good Magazine brought to our attention this amazing trailer for a new documentary about Pororoca, a tidal condition in the Amazon River that produces the some of the longest, and most beautiful, waves on the planet. Enjoy...

Today Michael Kinsley and Conor Clarke launched their website/ social experiment "Creative Capitalism: A Conversation." The cyberspace location will serve as the sounding board for a forthcoming book -- to be published by Simon and Schuster in the fall of 2008 -- which riffs on Bill Gates' January speech on the limits of philanthropy at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The speech, titled "A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century," touted the idea of harnessing the power of free market capitalism and economic self-interest to better the lives of the world's poor. Many great economic minds have signed on as contributors.

Consider all the lost potential of Third World children that never make it to adolescence, thus never bettering the world with their contributions. Leo Strauss, that profoundly misunderstood political thinker, used to say something to the effect of the fact that he was not philosophizing, , per se, but merely preparing the ground for the Burmese philosophical genius of the future who will take up where Aristotle left off. It is an interesting idea. What if that genius of a world-historical calibre dies of cholera in South America, unheralded and unsung? What if the next Stephen Hawking or the next Marie Curie or the next Miles Davis is presently dying in Darfur from the drought?

Can the profit-motive of the free market somehow be harnessed to help the world's poor? It is certainly an experiment worth talking about. And so let the conversation begin here.

[Image: Harvard Business School]

The Supreme Court ruled this week that raping a child is not grounds for the death penalty, provided the child did not die. The case was brought to the United States Supreme Court after the Supreme Court of Louisiana issued the death penalty on a man who had raped his eight-year-old daughter, overturning that decision.

Justice Anthony Kennedy said that executing the man would violate the US Constitution's Eight Amendment, which forbids "cruel and unusual punishment."

Moreover, this would have been the first time that someone was executed for child rape since 1964, and the death penalty has not been used against rapists of adult victims since 1977.

The overall sentiment of the ruling, and of Justice Kennedy's remarks, was of restraint and caution. He also stressed that when employed, the death penalty should be used with the greatest decency possible.

There were detractors, of course. Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the Court's decision conflicts with Eight Amendment principles, and that it ignores the "moral depravity" of child rape and the "grievous injury" it inflicts on its victims and society at large.

This goes beyond the pro-or-anti debate regarding capital punishment. Wherever you may fall on the issue, this raises a litany of additional questions about the gray area of moral turpitude and fair punishment.

[Image Credit: USDA Photo by Ken Hammond on wikimedia commons]

The members of your opponent's party peddle your name as a sign of political hipness.
Oh, snap!

This is an ad for Oregon's Republican Senator Gordon Smith. He starts the ad with Barack Obama's name in order to brag about his "bi-partisan" credentials. The man is in a heated race in a state that went solidly to Barack Obama during the Democratic Party's primaries.

In view of this, Barack Obama had to put out a statement saying that in no way, shape or form did he support the Republican senator for re-election :

"Barack Obama has a long record of bipartisan accomplishment and we appreciate that it is respected by his Democratic and Republican colleagues in the Senate. But in this race, Oregonians should know that Barack Obama supports Jeff Merkley for Senate. Merkley will help Obama bring about the fundamental change we need in Washington," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

McCain must not be very happy.

H/T Talking Points Memo's Election Central.

It's easy to blame the Bush administration for all the rotten things that have occurred in the past seven years. But not all of it is G.W.'s, Dick Cheney's, or even Donald Rumsfeld's fault. Sometimes the maddening, irrational, almost sociopathic decisions coming from Capitol Hill are made by average low profile politicians who nevertheless have enough clout to screw things up for lots of people.

Currently, seven Republican senators are fighting a bill that would invest $50 billion over the next five years in the global fight against AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. This is a remarkable increase from the $19 billion allocated for the first five years of the initiative, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

These averse senators believe the spending is irresponsible, in part because Congress eliminated the requirement that 55% of the funds be spent on prevention, as opposed to treatment and services.

Obviously, $50 billion is a lot of money, and a more than 60% increase in the amount spent between 2003 and 2008.

The author of an Op/Ed piece in the New York Times last week speculates that even with a new president and Congress, the bill will not likely find bipartisan support because of the faltering economy, and suggests that we should fight for it to be passed now in order to strengthen President Bush's standing at the G8 Summit in July.

Stay informed at PEPFAR Watch, an online resource for AIDS awareness updates on US policies affecting the global fight against the disease.

[Image: IntangibleArts]

Since it is Tuesday today, that could only mean one thing for television -- it's Green Night on the Sundance network! This week, the green programming will consist of three episodes regarding important environmental subjects - including the ecological impact of animals on the planet and global warming.

To kick off the night, Big Ideas for a Small Planet: Animals will air at 9pm and will "explore how animals' diets and living environments are increasingly reflecting the 'green-ness' of their human guardians." This episode will take you to various locations, including the Bronx Zoo, an eco-friendly animal shelter, the Dallas Animal Services and Adoption Center and Washington, D.C.

Next, an all-new U.S television premiere of the eco-documentary The Great Warming takes a closer look at how a changing climate is affecting the lives of people around the world: "The film taps into the growing public interest in climate change to present both an emotional and an accurate picture of the future of our planet. This episode will include commentary from scientists, opinion-makers, and the up and coming voice of the American Evangelical community regarding the most dangerous environmental issue of this time and America's lack of leadership."

The Green programming offers a great opportunity for entertainment, as well as information, useful advice and community building.

While most people seem to mellow with age, George Carlin, the iconic stand-up comedian who died Sunday of heart failure, grew ever harsher. By the age of 71, Carlin had perfected his routine as a foul-mouthed curmudgeon, a life-long persona that grew more cantankerous with each passing year.

Born in 1937 and raised on West 121st Street in New York City, near Columbia University, Carlin fell more or less ass-backwards into comedy. He joined the Air Force, moved to Texas, and was soon discharged for being "unproductive." He started working on comedy routines as a radio host with Jack Burns, moved to California, and before long was a regular on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

In the spirit of Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, Carlin began taking shots at politics, pointing out hypocrisies, and doing it with a healthy dose of four-letter words. Nothing was off-limits, and no word was too baudy for the gravel-voiced, long-haired Carlin. He was a 1970s embodiment of Henry David Thoraeu's theory of "civil disobedience" -- the active refusal to abide by certain laws in order to register dissent with the political status quo, but without resorting to physical violence.

The young Carlin first appeared on television in a suit and tie, with neatly coiffed hair and a fresh smile that almost obscured the mischievous, sometimes maniacal look in his eyes, and those eyebrows that never seemed to stop bouncing around above them. By the mid-1970s, though, Carlin had shed the tie, grown the hair, and begun his comic revolution.

Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Carlin alternated between making a point about something and just making dirty words funny time and again. But one thing that never changed was his impeccable comedic timing, and the fact that Carlin's humor was instrumental in the radical change that has occurred in this country over the past four decades.

And what better time than now to revisit one of those early Carlin routines, in which the late comedian makes a pretty strong case for why he might, in fact, still be alive:

[Image: Mister Scratch]

Economists at UCLA published a study saying that the economic consequences of gay marriage could be a much needed boost to its economy : $684 million in revenue that would translate in about $9 million in marriage certificates, about $69 million in state taxes and more than 2,200 jobs.

This ought to have people dancing in the streets. Instead, the extreme right has gathered enough signatures to force a vote this coming November on a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.

On that note, when I saw the title of this video clip, I immediately thought of Kenneth (as in Cole) and his punning ways. The title of the video is "Same-Sex Stimulus".

Kenneth Cole Media Marketing Manager Heather Dumford alerted readers to a PBS Frontline special on a growing demographic rift in China

David Alm remembered the many contributions of journalist Tim Russert and pointed to a new cultural phenomenon known as "green noise"

Raymond Fudge uploaded a photo from an anti-war rally and march in Washington, D.C.

Jenny Buccos linked to an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich

PAPER Magazine editor David Hershkovits reports on an innovative way that commuters are trying to beat the high price of gas

Inspired by Barack Obama's victory, Kenneth Cole employee Evan Greenberg uploaded a popular video by will.i.am

In the wake of the extreme flooding in the Midwest, Liza Sabater wonders aloud whether the drowning of big government means the drowning of America?

I wrote back at techPresident, the technology and politics "web think tank" for which I write for from time to time, and declared it to be the first viral video of the 2008 Presidential Elections.

Why do I think this is the first video of the presidential elections? Well, it was published on June 10th (my birthday, by the way), right exactly one week after Obama's victory speech as the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Also :

1. It clearly defines the candidate to beat (in this case the whole Republican Party)
2. It clearly states the reasons to vote against the candidate.
3. It uses the cognitive power of satire to deliver the "bad news" in a positive way.
4. It has burned through the "first-adopter-sphere" like wild fire.

It's June 20th and the video has well surpassed the 1 million view mark at Youtube --which are, btw, measured not by page view but by actual completion of a viewing a video.

I love, love, love this video. It's perfect due to my political biases but most importantly because it does not have to resort to mudslinging and dirty politics. All it does is speak the truth about the Republican Party's actions and policies as the "party in power" of the last 8 years.

Watch it!

It is hard to imagine how Alan Cumming manages to navigate the worlds of film and theater and yet still finds time for his tireless advocacy on behalf of organizations as diverse as AmFar, New Democracy Project and The New York Restoration Project. The Scottish-born actor, who was just tapped as the new host of PBS' "Masterpiece Mystery," makes it all seem as if there are more than 24 hours in a day.

It therefore comes as no surprise that the exuberant Alan Cumming, will receive The Trevor Hero Award on Monday June 30 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The award comes from The Trevor Project, which is a resource for gay and questioning young people. Because gay and questioning youth four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, The Trevor Award shines a light on life-affirming people navigating the cultural landscape. Jacque Wing, the Communications Director of The Trevor Project emailed us:

"The Trevor Hero Award honors an individual who, through his or her example, support, volunteerism and/or occupation, is an inspiration to gay and questioning youth. It is not a competition. Rather, each year one individual is selected who inspires gay and questioning youth to pursue their dreams and reach their full potential.

"Cumming was selected by The Trevor Project as this year's recipient because he is an excellent example of an individual who is a true role model for gay and questioning youth through his spectacular and highly successful career."

We couldn't agree more. Bravo.

The New York Times published a provocative piece last Sunday on what the paper calls "green noise" -- the overload of often contradictory edicts, opinions, inventions, and philosophies meant to inspire a more eco-friendly way of life.

Organic produce that's been transported a thousand miles, or locally grown produce from a large, commercial farm?

Wash your dishes by hand, or use a water-efficient dishwasher that nevertheless relies on electricity to function?

Drink bottled water, whose environmental problems have been documented exhaustively in recent months, or re-use the Nalgene jug you used to attach to your backpack in college, despite the fact that it contains the potentially hazardous chemical bisphenol-a?

The endeavor to live green is getting harder by the hour, not only because we keep finding out about yet another environmental hazard at the core of daily existence in the western hemisphere, but also because there's always someone there to contradict whatever it is you heard yesterday. And sometimes it's hard to tell if you're just being suckered by some green marketing campaign, whose only real "green" concern has the face of Benjamin Franklin.

It's not just green stuff, either; it's just about everything.

There was an article in last month's Runner's World featuring lots of experts discussing how it's impossible to get too much protein, and that anyone, but especially athletes, should consume as much of it as possible. Then, last week, the Times published a piece with equally impressive experts making an equally convincing case for why people eat way too much protein, even stating that an adult man can only use about 10 grams at a time.

As someone who takes his diet pretty seriously, always conscious of my protein to carbohydrate ratio, these stories left me befuddled, to say the least.

Likewise, while I'd never claim to be an ecological saint (I do live indoors, wear clothes I didn't make, and eat food I did not grow myself), I try to be conscious of my carbon footprint. And just like the protein debate, the "green noise" has my head spinning.

Please, help me figure out what to do. Let's get a dialog going. Post some of the theories you've encountered, let us know what you believe, and explain why! Let's see if we can find our way out of this jungle of contradictions.

[Image: origamidon]

For the third time since Guantanamo Bay became a US prison for suspected terrorists in 2002, the US Supreme Court has ruled against President Bush and for the people detained in that facility, stating that they are entitled to the basic rights granted to any prisoner detained on US soil.

The first, Rasul v. Bush in 2004, laid waste to Bush's proclomation that as Commander-in-Chief, he had the right to determine who was and who was not an "enemy combatant," ruling that US courts have the power to determine whether a given prisoner at GITMO has been wrongfully detained.

The second instance came in 2006, in a case known as Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, when the Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration's use of military tribunals at GITMO was unconstitutional. This resurrected talk of the Detainee Treatment Act, of 2005, which states that "No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment." Such treatment was defined as anything prohibited under the "Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution."

And now, in the third instance of justice for the GITMO prisoners, the Supreme Court determined that the people there deserve to be protected under the "writ of habeus corpus," a law that dates back to our nation's founding that requires a captor to bring his prisoner before a court, where it will be determined whether the prisoner's detainment is justified or not.

The upshot is that GITMO prisoners are entitled to a fair trial and the system of due process that differentiates our country from a fascist one. Already the blogosphere is abuzz with talk about this historic ruling.

I don't have to spell out what it means that that the Bush administration lost these cases. What I will point out, however, is that John McCain backs Bush, not the Supreme Court.

Something to think about.

[Image: Andifeelfine]

Last week, at Politickled!, a panel discussion co-sponsored by the New Yorker and Awearness, one of the panelists discussed the Moustache Brothers, a comedic trio in Burma that regularly stages pranks and protests to challenge the policies of their strict military dictatorship, and just as regularly goes to jail for their antics.

You might think of them as Burma's Al Sharpton, the New York minister and activist for social justice whose own protests have landed him in jail time and again.

But where Sharpton is a serious, the Moustache Brothers are fun. They satirize their regime's leader, the notoriously humorless Senior General Than Shwe, go to jail, get out, and repeat.

Check out their Website to find out where they are now, and again next week, because in their world, it's bound to have changed.

The mantra for Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign has come to be definitively defined by three words... Yes We Can. There has been a video floating around for some time and, with Obama's recent victory, it seemed the appropriate time to present it to this format. Created by Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am ("still I stand, mike in hand"), with inspiration from Obama's speech following the 2008 New Hampshire Primary, I have found the video to be continually motivational and re-watchable:

Now, I am in no way advocating that you decide who you want to vote for because of a music video. It is important to take a look at the issues and the people involved. Plus, I'm sure that John McCain has inspiring videos of his own (I encourage readers to post other Obama and McCain videos as responses to this blog entry).

If nothing else, take a look at the video and try to see how many notable Obama supporters you can recognize. SPOILER: Yes, that is Scarlett Johansson with a vocal solo in there. Almost makes me want to check out her Tom Waits tribute CD... almost.

At one point in this video, a beekeeper from New York City says : "It takes a lot of people to pull this off, just like the bees". He was talking about having at least thousands of beehives in the city by greening all the empty and wasted space of building rooftops in Manhattan and it's boroughs.

A lot has been said in recent months about how colonies upon colonies of bees are dying and how their disappearance is multi-billion dollar blow to the agricultural industry as well as a huge, unmeasurable damage to our environment.

What I liked about it is how we can use bees to re-green New York City and Chicago, two of the biggest man-made deserts in the United States.

Last Saturday, along Prospect Park West in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a modest celebration was taking place that you probably didn't even know was happening. I didn't know myself, even as I ran under an archway made of multi-colored balloons, past the stage where a very convincing transvestite was testing the mic, and on into the park for my daily run.

I soon figured out that I was immersed in Brooklyn Pride, a smaller, more intimate version of the circus that dominates Fifth Avenue in Manhattan every June for the annual Gay Pride Parade. I don't mean to bash that event, of course, which will be on Sunday, June 22nd, but merely to point out that pride can take many forms. Sometimes celebrating who you are doesn't have to be an explosive affair on an epic, Manhattan-worthy scale.

The Gay Pride Parade is fun to watch, but I always think of a New Yorker cartoon I saw years ago: a middle-aged gay couple are sitting on their sofa, one is lying down and the other is on the phone. The caption reads: "No, we're not doing anything for Gay Pride this year. We're here, we're queer, we're used to it."

The Brooklyn Pride event, on the other hand, from what I saw, just looked like a fun day in the park. There were a few people soliciting money for gay rights causes, such as one gentleman I met from the Human Rights Campaign (full disclosure: I did not give him any money because I had nothing on me but a pair of running shoes, shorts, and a key to my apartment), but fundraising didn't seem to be the focus.

Everything about the event was very Brooklyn: diverse, polite, and full of spirit. And it made me proud, too, just to call Brooklyn home.

I took the photo while participating in an anti-war rally and march here in D.C. The thing that motivated me to take this photo was the juxtaposition of the American flags and the Veterans For Peace (my organization) banner.

Tim Russert, who died Friday of a heart attack at age 58, was one of those rare journalists whom very few people can say anything bad about. He was a fair, rigorous, and intelligent interviewer, but plain-spoken enough to de-mystify the rhetoric that often obscures political discourse.

He possessed qualities that might seem to cancel each other out: he was humble yet confident, warm yet intense. He made learning about politics almost fun for the millions who tuned in to watch him every Sunday on Meet the Press.

He filled an important role in the media landscape, and I can only hope that role will be filled again by a reporter of such class.

The BBC released this video after his death recalling what made this man from an Irish, working-class neighborhood in Buffalo, New York so remarkable:

[Image: rocketart]

There is a standoff in Pakistan that has been brewing for years over the principle of Law versus the caprice of military rule. The AFP is reporting that around 20,000 Pakistani political activists and lawyers are presently making their way to a scheduled protest, a sit-in, outside the parliament building in Islamabad. The so-called "Long March," which over the past few days has traversed miles, is calling for the reinstatement of judges dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf during the past year. Most prominent among those attending the rally is the well-respected Pakistan Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, whose ouster by Musharraf last year led to protest marches around the country and the boycotting of the court system. It was a pivotal moment in Pakistani history.

Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry has been a particular thorn in Musharraf's side in representing the rule of law. Previously Musharraf was head of both the army and the government, which consolidated his power but was considered unconstitutional, thus putting him at odds with the Chief Justice. Chaudhry, who considers himself a patriot governed by the Pakistani constitution, found himself outside of the orbit of Musharraf's influence.

Their differing views on the limits of Presidential power set the two on an eventual collision course. Musharraf, fearing that Chaudhry would force him to choose between being head of the military and being head of state, had Chaudhry dismissed as head of the Court and, with the backing of the army, placed him under house arrest. It was an ill-advised maneuver that backfired. Behind the scenes Chaudhry contacted the media, exhorting the public to stand up for the rule of law which bends for no individual's whimsy. And surprising everyone, the Pakistani public expressed furor and Musharraf backtracked, freeing Chaudhry. The mysterious assasination of Benazir Bhutto has only increased the boldness of Chaudhry and the public in questioning the legitimacy of Musharraf's grasp of power in Pakistan.

This present standoff is particularly sensitive because Pakistan, a principal US ally in the War on Terror, is a nuclear power. That is one of the primary reasons that the United States is tentatively backing Musharraf, who promises stability for the nuclear nation (as well as support against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan), as opposed to backing the side of the principle of Law, whose ascension into power could potentially be messy on a nuclear scale.

[Image: Reuters]

Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Greg Marinovich, and ProjectExplorer journalist, Ilana Fayerman, discuss the lifestyle of being a conflict photographer. From issues of access to severe injuries sustained, Greg shares his insights on this most dangerous of professions.

"Set against the vibrant backdrop of Tel Aviv's hippest neighborhood, this smart comedy/drama follows the lives and loves of three twentysomething Israelis: earnest Noam (Ohad Knoller), acerbic Yali (Alon Friedmann) and headstrong Lulu (Daniella Wircer). When Noam meets and falls in love with a Palestinian man named Ashraf (Yousef "Joe" Sweid), the three roommates join forces to help Ashraf stay in Tel Aviv, despite his lack of papers. But even as the lovers grow closer, the political and social realities of the Middle East threaten to burst their utopian bubble."

On the AWEARNESS blog, Liza Sabater recently wrote about same-sex marriage in California and Kenneth Cole model Theo Kogan shared her thoughts on a gay teen murder that generated a considerable outpouring of emotion across the country.

[image: The Bubble]

This spring and summer, a phenomenal new documentary has been touring the United States, but if you don't live in one of the cities or towns on its itinerary, or if you do but happen to blink while it's being screened (most likely at just one art house cinema, and just for a couple of days), you've probably never heard about it.

The Dhamma Brothers is about the transformative power of an ancient Indian mediation practice called Vipassana, and its ability to affect a most unlikely population: inmates of a maximum security prison southwest of Birmingham, Alabama.

This trailer provides a glimpse of the film's artfulness, and the beauty of its message.

The documentary has yet to open in a number of cities, including Chicago, Seattle, and Cleveland. Check the screening schedule here to see if it's coming to a theater near you.

And lest you think this is just the wishful thinking of armchair liberals, you can read a thorough report on Vipassana's benefits for prisoners' lives while incarcerated as well as their re-integration into society upon release here.

While I wait for YouTube to process a little clip I have from the other night's "Honoring With Pride" by amfAR, I think y'all should take a look at this clip they created for last night's event.

I am actually impressed. It really is like a "Cliff Notes" version of the history of what I like to call the "Act Up" era --the time when AIDS and the gay rights movement collided and gave rise to organizations like ActUp!, GLAAD and indeed amfAR.

Does anybody remember the weekly candle light vigils on Washington Square Park? Do you remember the Messe Commission or the fight for needle exchange programs? Do you remember the landscape of homeless men and women covered with sarcoma in the East Village? Do you remember the shock and horror when people found out Magic Johnson had AIDS and just like that, AIDS ceased to be the "gay plague"?

I do.

It's amazing to think that AIDS has been around for almost 30 years., It's also inspiring to see that and that organizations like amfAR have expanded their focus to make their mission a global fight against AIDS.

So take a moment to watch amfAR stands for ... and witness a little bit of history.

We're here at the Helen Mills Theater for a night of politics and laugh with a panel moderated by Andy Borowitz (The Borowitz Report), David Rees (Get Your War On), Scott Dikkers (editor-in-chief of The Onion) and Robert Lanham (The Hipster Handbook); and he started it with an awesome stand-up comedy bit. One of the quotes : "John McCain is a true American Hero and I honor his years of service to our country ... but what an asshole".

David Rees says his political satire started with the 9/11 and subsequent "war on terror".

At The Onion they started with silly fake news and it wasn't years later that they figured out that they could create political satire through their fake news. Borowitz asks Dikkers about the famous edition of the newspaper that they published right after 9/11, at a time when comedians were told that comedy was dead. But through out the years they learn that "tragedy equals comedy". After creating fake editions about the Titanic and after covering the explosion of the, they find the right tone. They knew they needed to spoof the event and the aftermath but not the victims. "Laughter becomes a wonderful coping mechanism ... you have to release some tensions ... that release helped up release with some of those tension".

"My first babysitter was Tom Coburn, a senator known for advocation the death penalty for abortion doctors", says Robert Lanham. When he heard that the evangelical right had helped Bush ascend to power, he decided to write about this particular part of politics that he had been raised in.

More funny bits :
Dikkers : I don't want to make fun of a tragedy, but it is harder during years of prosperity like during the Clinton years. It is too easy with Bush.

Borowitz : The Joe Scarborough's of the world are losing their shit and it's going to get worse. (On how comedy workers will have lots of material to work during an Obama administration)

Reese: The deep structural problems are going to get so, so bad and I think that it's going to be good for satire.

Borowitz : This is reassuring to me. You're giving me the will to continue.

Dikkers says that nobody has made fun of the fact that John McCain has always had short arms. Borowitz says that he can't even pick up the phone.

Lanham can't wait to see Obama and McCain debating because it's be fun to see McCain loose his temper. Also because he's much shorter than Obama (by as much as 3 feet) and that makes for good visual comedy.

David thinks it's going to be pretty depressing after Bush leaves office. "I think it'll be rough". "For me the big dynamic is to move beyond the baby boomers and their psychodramas".

Awesome moment :

Borowitz : Hillary Clinton lying about Bosnia was the single most insane thing said in American politics.
Reese : And she said "I said things that I knew not to be true".
Borowitz : She lied in a pathological way.
Reese : Oh so you're misogynist
Borowitz : Now I feel I have to cry to bring the audience to my side.

Dikkers : "This is why I love David's work because he is genuinely cynical and depressed".

Reese : "I am so not cynical, I am embarrassingly optimistic".

Borowitz makes the point that 1 million people watch The Daily Show on a good day but about 21 million still watch the evening news. The panel agrees that satire doesn't have a profound effect. David Reese makes the point about the Mustache Brothers of Burma who do political satire and get constantly imprisoned for their work. Political satire is important when it is dangerous to do, like in a repressive system like Burma.

The one surprise Lanham had with his book about evangelicals is that it's read by many evangelicals who like it and thank him for it.

"I hate that!" David Reese says satire has gone way off the rails when you want to have Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on SNL for a bit. David Reese has gone into an awesome rant about The Colbert Report having Henry Kissinger on the show for a "Guitar Hero" bit. "That crossed a creepy line".

"All you Hillary voters who want to vote for McCain, there you have it ... That is the one word I have not used on my comic strip. It's such a bad word. And he uses it and on his wife. He went there!", David Reese on reports about John McCain insulting his wife with the C-word years ago in front a whole group of reporters. (The source is Cliff Schechter's unauthorized biography, "The Real John McCain")

Kenneth Cole, amfAR's current chairman and Dr. Mathilde Krim, amfAr's founding chairman

Monday night the temperature didn't go below 97F. Depending on how much concrete and little ventilation you had around you, there were parts of the city that were hovering well around the sweltering 100F. I can bet that one of those places was amfAR's "Honoring With Pride" event at the Hudson.

Kenneth Cole, Mario Cantone and others were at the Hudson to honor leaders in the LGTB community for their commitment to the fight against AIDS. There was a silent auction with some awesome offers -- unfortunately the David Barton membership didn't come with the guy. Fundraisers of this kind can seem all the same, so to me the successful ones are those that take care of little details like giving our hand fans to people in the middle of their mini heat wave.

I didn't stay until the end but was there for one of the most poignant moments I've seen in a political event, courtesy of Mario Cantone.

After Julie Davids had accepted her award and given a slew of statistics that prove that the crisis is not over, Mario took a moment to ponder on the significance of those numbers. And one of the most insightful things I've heard about the fight against AIDS is how after decades of gains in gay rights activism, the epidemic set back the community in such a way that it's just barely recovering from the impact.

The audio is not that great but his commentary is just priceless. Watch it!

"As corporations have begun embracing green business practices to increase productivity and promote their image with consumers, this episode of Big Ideas for a Small Planet profiles some companies - both large and small - that have profited by doing good for the earth."

In the video clips available online that accompany the show, it looks like tonight's segment of Big Ideas for a Small Planet will profile Google (which, through its Google Earth unit, has partnered with over 300 environmental non-profits) and Edun (a clothing company co-founded by Bono that produces and sells clothing 100% made in Africa).

[image: Big Ideas for a Small Planet]

"The world vowed "never again" after the genocide in Rwanda and the atrocities in Srebrenica, Bosnia. Then came Darfur. Over the past four years, at least 200,000 people have been killed, 2.5 million driven from their homes, and mass rapes have been used as a weapon in a brutal campaign - supported by the Sudanese government - against civilians in Darfur. In On Our Watch, FRONTLINE asks why the United Nations and its members once again failed to stop the slaughter."

You can watch the PBS Frontline special tonight (June 10) or as an eight-part series online. Also, be sure to look for continued coverage of Darfur, Uganda and Zimbabwe and other issues on the AWEARNESS blog.

[image: PBS Frontline]

It was a highly symbolic moment.

Hillary Clinton was standing tall at the National Building Museum in Washington, the same place where she and her husband waltzed during the inaugural gala of his first four years as President. The place not only suited her for its historical significance. It gave her the platform for a last hurrah where all eyes were focused on her.

It's no secret I was never hot for Clinton's bid for the nomination. Actually, for years I have been saying that her nomination would be a bad idea if one because it was ramping up to be as the second turn in a dynastic loop of presidencies that started with George Herbert Bush. Imagine the line up :

George Herbert Bush (1988)
William Jefferson Clinton (1992)
William Jefferson Clinton (1996)
George Walker Bush (2000)
George Walker Bush (2004)
Hillary Clinton (2008)

and then maybe because she would have been the incumbent,

Hillary Clinton (2012)

That would have been 28 years of Bushes and Clintons. And that's of course, not counting the 8 years George H. Bush spent as Vice-President. Yes ... ponder that one.

So when Hillary Clinton finally conceded on Saturday it became a moment of huge historical significance.

Barack Obama ran on the message for CHANGE, one that many Washington insiders, including Hillary Clinton, dismissed as "fairy tale" talk. And yet, Clinton as the ultimate insider and one of the most powerful women on the planet, could not make her party's movers and shakers, the superdelegates, give her the nomination.

That to me, and not just the fact that she was the first woman to come thisclose, is the number one reason why her campaign is of such historical significance.

Yes, she is an expert politician. Yes, she showed tenacity and "testicular fortitude".

Yet Hillary Clinton ran as the ultimate representative of the status quo and as the standard bearer of "The Twofer" or the "Bill Clinton 2.0" presidency. Had she been any other woman she would not have come this far. She made it because she was a Clinton after all.

That's why she's so important for the future first woman president of the United States. There are so many mistakes and so few rights that Hillary Clinton's campaign will become the stuff of legend in many political science and feminist studies programs if only because it's the looking glass needed to highlight why the U. S. has yet to elect a woman to the White House.

So here's to Hillary Clinton for blazing trails in the way that she least expected. Surprises, in the end, are what life is worth living for.

You have to admire a man who, at age three, told his mother that her shoes did not go with her dress.

Yves Saint Laurent clearly found his calling, and, though I only met him casually on a couple of occasions, he was a giant on whose shoulders much of the industry has been able to stand.

One of YSL's signature contributions was to liberate women, in regard to acceptable ways of dressing at certain times of the day.

What were previously considered "men's" clothes (for example: pants, safari jackets, trench coats, and, in a boon for more than one female politician, pant suits), no longer were.

He is credited with democratizing fashion, not only in allowing much more haute couture to be purchased off the rack, but also in his having been the first designer to use black models on his runways.

Yves Saint Laurent taught us the value and merits of pushing the limits, in regard to not just how we live our lives, but "in what."

So as we reflect on his life, it is important we all "be aware" of this one man's impact on more than just "what you wear."

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it (for now).

Sorry to be a downer, but I think this is important to remember. Forty-years ago last Friday Robert Francis Kennedy was assassinated after winning the California primary in the 1968 Democratic Party's presidential primaries.

I honestly believe that his death was the last blow from which this country would not recuperate, ever. His death came in the same year as Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, one year after Malcom X's, two years after his brother John F. Kennedy's killing in Dallas and three years after the assassination of Medgar Evars.

Politically, the 1960s were a brutally violent time in the history of this country. My father worked with him here in New York briefly and he would say that Bobby was the kind of guy that gave hope for reconciliation and peace between colored folks and whites in this country and especially after the violent times of the Civil Rights movement and the War in Vietnam. He wasn't an angel, he would tell me, what with his wire-tapping many of the same black leaders of the CRM.

Yet after all those violent deaths, people lost sight of the sometimes brutal US Attorney General Robert Kennedy and instead set their sites on "Bobby". It was Bobby, not Robert, who was looked upon as the last great white hope. For one, he had vigorously tried to not just desegregate the office of the U. S. Attorney General. He was deeply committed setting an example for all of government by hiring black and latino lawyers and to giving minorities a fair professional chance in his office.

And second, he was the last of the "Union" or "Yankee" Democrats who had a fighting chance at becoming president of the United States. It's an interesting not-so-little detail in the political history of this country that after desegregation, the striking down of anti-miscegenation laws and the Voting Rights act, this country has only one ambiguously "northern stater" as president and that was the unfortunate George Bush I.

Not only that, take a look at any history book and you'll see that the two presidents elected by the Democratic Party in the last 40 years were both from the South : Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

So here's to Bobby Kennedy and to what could have been with him as president of the United States.

Presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain is cleverly cornering his political counterpart, the presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama, into a series of unmoderated Presidential debates that recall the famous Lincoln-Douglass debates of 1858. It is a particularly crafty proposal from the Senator from Arizona because the early days of Senator Obama's campaign were carefully choreographed to mirror those of the 16th President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln. "And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a house divided to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America," is how the Senator from Illinois began his campaign in February 2007.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 are among the greatest examples of political rhetoric in the history of the world. Those seven debates for a coveted United States Senate seat from the state of Illinois took place between incumbent Senator Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat, and his challenger Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. It is unfortunate that an American student could today graduate from high school never having read these magnificent debates on subjects ranging from racial equality and slavery to the idea of popular sovereignty. Lincoln ultimately lost the Senate race, but his principled and eloquent opposition to the institution of slavery gained him national prominence and, two years later, a rematch, where he returned to defeat Douglas to become President of the United States.

Senator McCain has proposed publicly that the first such debate could occur as early as next week at Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan. Considering the financial gap between McCain's organizational fundraising and those of his well-financed Democrat opponent, McCain could certainly gain from the free publicity. It seems likely that Senator Obama, a rhetorician of uncommon talent, will accept McCain's bold proposal as the format suits his talents.

Senator Obama's economic speech at The Great Hall at Cooper Union and his "A More Perfect Union" speech on race last March in Philadelphia suggest an acute understanding of American history. Still, Senator John McCain, who has issued the challenge, should not be discounted. He has vast experience in the arena of foreign policy - where, no doubt, the debates will linger -- and while stiff in front of the teleprompter, he has debated for hundreds of hours on arcane subjects of importance the the Republic from the well of the United States Senate. Even as the Obama campaign pivots from comparisons to Lincoln to being a continuation of the Kennedy legacy, it will be hard to predict a winner. But the obvious winners of this great contest would be the citizens of this country.

[image: Encarta]

"If you have to ask the price," the adage goes, "you can't afford it." And while it makes sense for truffles, yachts, and couture to be cost prohibitive, politics shouldn't be. But, from buying airtime to printing those indispensable bumper stickers, running for president is expensive. The candidates need to stick up whoever they can for cash.

In this original GOOD Video we look at where the presidential hopefuls are getting their money, and marvel at the record-breaking totals.

So now there's talk that solar technology is becoming so cheap that it's becoming a real business alternative to coal energy plants in areas with cheap desert land. Bloomberg is reporting the likes of Google, Chevron and Goldman Sachs are betting the price of running solar energy plants will become competitive by 202 :

Unlike photovoltaic solar panels that convert sunlight to electricity, solar thermal focuses sunrays with mirrors to heat oil in glass pipes to about 700 degrees Fahrenheit (370 degrees Celsius). The oil turns water to steam, which spins an electric turbine.

Nine solar thermal plants built in the California desert from 1985 to 1991 still operate, with Juno Beach, Florida-based FPL Group Inc. running seven. They have combined capacity of 354 megawatts, enough to power 230,000 Southern California homes.

Development slowed when Congress eliminated tax credits for alternative energy in the early 1990s. Laws put in place in 2005 give solar investors a 30 percent tax credit.

That raises a lot of questions for me, like the potential negative impact of solar farm sprawl in desert ecosystems. Still it makes me happy to see that at last, after all these years, the United States it seriously considering solar energy as an alternative to oil.

More at EcoGeek.

Reducing the recent wave of violence in South Africa to a simple instance of xenophobia fails to get at the heart of the problem. Oftentimes the portrayal of the South African narrative in the West ignores the phenomenal achievement of a peaceful transition from totalitarian regime to democracy at the fin de siècle, and instead goes in for one rife with AIDS and violence. That template of the typical African basket case is well-worn but wide of the mark. And the recent violence between immigrant workers from around the continent hoping to make a better life for themselves and their economic competitors the native South Africans unfortunately plays into that narrative.

"Makwerekwere" is a highly derogatory word used by black South Africans to describe non-black South African migrants. These migrants are fleeing from places like South Africa's economically distressed neighbor, Zimbabwe, which had an astonishing inflation rate of 165,000 percent in February. Nigerian and Mozambican nationals have also been tagged with the contemptuous term. The writer Pius Adesanmi has written what he calls the Amakwerewere Syndrome, observing, "It reminds one of how the ancient Greeks referred to foreigners whose language they did not understand as the Barbaroi." This Us-versus-Them ideology comes from poverty, according to the acute social observer and comedian Chris Rock, whose South African comedy tour coincided with the attacks. From The Sowetan:

"The saddest thing about xenophobic violence is that it is a 'broke-on-broke crime,' US actor and comedian Chris Rock said yesterday.

"I don't believe in black-on-black violence because everybody robs and kills people...,' he said at a media briefing in Sandton, Johannesburg. 'It's not black-on-black but broke-on-broke when people rob each other.'"

Because these new immigrants often compete for jobs with the South African poor, the tensions can become acute. In 1997, for instance, local South African street traders clashed with foreign vendors. That was a classic episode of poor on poor violence fuelled by poverty. On the economic underpinnings of these tensions, Mandela Rhodes Scholar Boitumelo Magolego writes on the ThoughtLeader Blog:

"'I believe that pre-democracy, the black population by and large had a very similar and flat income profile (barring the few families which had shops, butcheries and medical practices); this homogeneity I believe played down issues of who had what, because by and large everyone was the same. Enter black diamonds and some families can now afford more than others. This I think creates subliminal pressure and frustration among those who are failing to access and reap the benefits of the country's liberalised economy. You may argue that this is not unique to South Africa; yes, nonetheless it is a contributing factor."

[image: AP/WorldWide Photo]

The timing of this presentation by Democracy Now! is just eerie. It was published on April 28th of this year. By May 12th the earthquake had hit near the very area Yung Chang filmed his documentary, "Up The Yangtze".

One of the unfolding stories about the earthquake catastrophe is that the Three Gorges Dam may well have been the reason why the earthquake happened.

Back in 2006 the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks announced a study being conducted by one of their researchers in Giant Chinese Dam May Cause Earth to Move. Astoundingly, the Chinese government had not done any catastrophe assessment of how the millions of cubic tons of water they were damming would induce earthquakes by putting pressure on the tectonic plates that lie right underneath the Yangtze river.

What's most astounding is that little over a year before completion, Chang says in the clip that the Chinese government finally acknowledged in September 2007 that if there were a major catastrophe in the region, they would have to relocate at least 2 million people. That is 2 million more people after the 2 million they relocated for the building of the dam.

Unfortunately, the emergency management estimates by Chinese officials were off by 10 million souls.

We might start hearing exchanges like that in 2011 when Al Gore's book-cum-documentary film An Inconvenient Truth takes on yet another form. As an opera.

Italian composer Georgio Battistelli will write the score and lyrics for Mr. Gore's cautionary lecture about global warming, set to debut at Milan's La Scala opera house.

Gore's film was the fourth most popular documentary of all time in the US, after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, and Sicko, and earned $49 million at the box office.

La Scala's director, Stephane Lissner, was hired three years ago when its previous director of 20 years left, and those three years haven't been easy. Change never is. But Lissner's plan to reinvigorate Italy's once-premier opera house through unconventional projects -- and writing arias to the rhetoric of Al Gore isn't even the most daring effort afoot -- might turn things around, provided people want to sit through a 29-hour opera, see contemporary politicians swimming in a pool of Iraqi oil, and of course, be educated on how we can decrease our carbon footprint and protect our precious ozone.

Hey, why the hell not? When I was 15, I saw an opera version of my favorite children's book, Where the Wild Things Are (which, incidentally, is being made into a film by Spike Jonze to be released next year).

Besides, operas have always dealt with tragedies and tales of woe.

I just wonder who will play Al Gore.

"The recent building boom - one of the biggest in history - used enormous quantities of resources and generated millions of tons of garbage through the demolition of older structures. This episode surveys some fresh ideas for eco-conscious construction and de-construction. In Buffalo, NY, we'll watch 33-year-old Michael Gainer and his team from Buffalo Re-Use as they meticulously dismantle two abandoned houses slated for demolition, salvaging valuable materials to be used in new construction. Maverick architect Michael McDonough takes us on a tour of his family house, E-House, a showcase of green living that boasts numerous experimental, high-tech and low-tech innovations. And recycling reaches a new level with architect Peter DeMaria, who is transforming hulking metal shipping containers into elegant modernist homes."

[image: Big Ideas for a Small Planet]

The New York Times published not long ago an article that tried to probe Leonard Lauder's theory of how patterns in lipstick buying could forecast an economic downturn :

But the next day at Sephora, she made a substitute purchase. "I could buy one or two lipsticks for about $40," she said. "That's far less than $280."

Ms. Stein's rationale for buying lipstick echoes a theory once proposed by Leonard Lauder, the chairman of Estée Lauder Companies.

After the terrorist attacks of 2001 deflated the economy, Mr. Lauder noticed that his company was selling more lipstick than usual. He hypothesized that lipstick purchases are a way to gauge the economy. When it's shaky, he said, sales increase as women boost their mood with inexpensive lipstick purchases instead of $500 slingbacks.

The article actually revolves around the push for lipsticks that several companies are making in order to cash in Lauder's theory. Now, it's left me pondering several things :

1. How women's common shopping patterns are usually NOT part of the leading economic indicators that show the health and wealth of an economy.

2. I find interesting how they are putting importance on the psychology of compulsive buying to show how consumers not necessarily spend disposable income but justify using some of their income as disposable.

3. Related to point #1, wouldn't it actually be logical to see shopping patterns for fashion "basics" : jeans, t-shirts, cardigans and jackets, little black dresses, skits and slacks. Then correlate that to seasonal accessories? If times are hard, women are going to spend money on basics they can fashion up with accessories, not with pieces that'll go out of style in a few months.

4. Last but not least, I would have thought gloss was an indicator of further economic downturn since you can use lipgloss to extend the life of a tube of lipstick. So the more lipgloss bought, I would have assumed that the worse the economic conditions.

What do y'all think?

Okay, not really, but water that's at least been in the toilet has been approved by Los Angeles authorities as safe for drinking.

That is, after it goes through an extensive purification process that will turn it into semi-distilled water that's perfectly healthy to drink. Sound disgusting? Get over it.

The project -- described as the world's largest advanced water purification project of its kind, puts highly treated sewer water through a three-step process that includes micro-filtration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide, said Ron Wildermuth, of the Orange County Water District.

The resulting water, when injected into groundwater basins, will eventually provide up to 70 million gallons per day, he said.

The system was actually approved back in January, but only recently has it become a hot topic, when the plan was expanded to include penalties on those who waste water wantonly by washing their cars, watering their lawns, and being generally careless with California's endangered resource.

If this method works, other cities will very likely replicate the experiment. And it might just buy us some time here on the home planet, before our species does what Timothy Leary once prophesized: move to idyllic space colonies and leave the world behind like an innocent, broken egg shell.

The day was closing, and already the cops were calling out through their loudspeakers that unless the protesters dispersed, our permits would be revoked. In the face of the massive crowd behind me, it almost seemed like a ludicrous threat...but as more riot gear clad Capitol Police lined up on the steps, some armed with shotguns, their threat felt less then idle. I was so close I could see the faces behind the plexiglass shields, the officer in front of me couldn't have been a day over twenty. I tried talking to him, but he just stared straight through me; leaving me to wonder if this freckled, peach fuzzed kid had it in him to bring that riot stick down on our heads. Looking at the older, more aggressive officers to his left and right, I didn't doubt for a second that he'd follow their lead.

I've been photographing protests since before the war in Iraq began, and I know what can happen when they turn ugly. On the day the war began, I was in San Francisco covering the protests when a police officer's baton caught the side of my face, breaking a wisdom tooth in half and smashing my camera. Ever since then, I've always been wary of getting caught between the cops and the crowd. The strange thing is, when you're in and amongst the crowd, you can't help but feel this vibe that the numbers somehow protect you; that you're on the right side of things, that keeping the crowd behind you and the camera in front will protect you from harm.

It doesn't matter how big the crowd behind you is, or how moral your cause might be....when I saw that second surge of cops standing on the Capitol Building steps lining up the arrested protesters, this terrible feeling just filled me, this idea that "this isn't the way things are supposed to be." That's when I took the shot.

Survivors of the earthquake that has devastated China are in danger of succumbing to exposure.

Their #1 request are tents : They have had to evacuate or relocate over 1 million people in the Sichuan region and do not have enough housing or shelter for them. There are places where they are fitting 15 people to a tent.

So here's a list of places you can send your donations :

American Red Cross, China Earthquake Relief

Medecin Sans Frontiere Shelter is the overwhelming need
following the Sichuan earthquake. To donate, go here.

Google's Support Earthquake Relief In China, Donation Page

Oxfam America : China Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund