Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Uma vs. Lancome: Round Two
Uma vs. Lancome: Round Two
Sat., May. 10, 2008 12:30 PM PDT
PacificCoastNews.com Anyone who has seen Kill Bill knows you don't mess with Uma Thurman.
The Oscar-nominated actress is firing back against the makers of Lancôme cosmetics, whom she claims knowingly used her image to sell their products after her contract expired.
Thurman's $15 million countersuit was filed Friday in Manhattan federal court, just two days after the French makeup giant filed a preemptive suit about the matter.
The 38-year-old beauty signed on as a spokeswoman for Lancôme in 2000 but says her name and image continued to pop up on the company's websites and billboards in Canada and Asia after her contract ended in 2005.
In her lawsuit, Thurman's lawyer, Bertram Fields, claims that "The worldwide and unauthorized use of Thurman's name and likeness for years after the expiration dates significantly diluted the value of Thurman's name and likeness for advertising or promotional purposes."
Lancôme maintains that use of her image was completely unintentional and all advertisements were pulled as soon as the company became aware of them.
At This Point, MLK Memorial Needs a Fresh Star
By Marc Fisher
Sunday, May 11, 2008; Page C01
Martin Luther King was never an arms-folded kind of man. He was never one to tighten up against slings of opposition, never one to choose a cocky or grandiose pose.
Leaf through hundreds of photos of the man, and you see him standing before oceans of Americans, one arm raised to the sky, his mouth open in a call to unity. He reaches forward, rallying, cajoling, explaining. Or he is leaning in, head to head with Lyndon Johnson, and you can almost hear King, the gentle voice, the rock-hard logic.
Nowhere do I find King depicted the way a sculptor in China is interpreting him for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial that is supposed to be built at the Tidal Basin next year. Nowhere but in this proposed arms-crossed sculpture is King seen in the arrogant stance of a dictator, clad in a boxy suit, with an impassive, unapproachable mien, looking more like an East Bloc Politburo member than an inspirational, transformational preacher who won a war armed with nothing but truth and words.
The road to the King memorial has been difficult from the start. It has taken decades to raise the money, select the site and create the design. But of all the battles over how to remember King, this latest round is the most disturbing. As work continues in China on a model of the 28-foot-tall statue, the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts has issued a harshly worded denunciation of the image of King that is being carved out of foreign granite.
Far from the original concept of a King who is "dynamic in stance, meditative in character," the sculpture now being built "features a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character," says a letter from the commission secretary, Thomas Luebke.
The federal panel wants the sculpture reworked "to return to a more sympathetic idea." But the government's arbiters of art seek far too limited a fix. The problem is not merely one of artistic vision. The centerpiece of the memorial, known as the Stone of Hope, has gone completely off the rails. The solution is to start over.
It is simply wrong to have outsourced both the sculpting and quarrying of the granite -- and especially to China, a country whose government during King's lifetime called him a "reactionary running dog" for his advocacy of nonviolent protest. China even now stands firmly against King's vision of an open, free society in which power flows from below and people are cherished as individuals, not defined by group identity.
Harry Johnson, president of the King Memorial Foundation, has argued that hiring a sculptor from China, even if he is a Communist Party member whose works include tributes to Mao Zedong, is "no different from the Houston Rockets working with Yao Ming, or Jackie Chan in Hollywood movies. We don't want to take the stand to say African Americans can only work on this project."
But those analogies don't work: Yao and Chan came here to display their special talents, whereas the sculptor, Lei Yixin, is building the King statue in his Changsha, China, studio with a staff of 10 other Chinese sculptors, working with Chinese granite on a memorial to a great American figure for display on our country's most prominent showcase of historic symbols and stories.
It is not jingoism but rather a healthy sense of pride and loyalty that mandates that this memorial be designed and executed by those who live in the country that King so inspired and changed.
In Barre, Vt., craftsmen whose roots in stonework go back centuries have provided raw materials and artistry to the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War memorials. No one ever gave those workers a shot at making the King sculpture.
"We've got incredibly talented sculptors who work wonders with granite," says John Castaldo, executive director of the Barre Granite Association. "Our manufacturers have said from the start that this design is not a representation of King, that it's all wrong."
Only after legislators protested the outsourcing did the Memorial Foundation agree to give some work to New England artisans. But that work is limited to other parts of the memorial, and still no Vermont granite firm has heard from the foundation, Castaldo says.
The Fine Arts Commission's latest critique "signifies that we were right as far as the Chinese's ability to create a likeness of Dr. King," says Gilbert Young, an Atlanta sculptor who founded the "King Is Ours" protest movement. Young's online petition against the choice of Lei specifies that an African American artist should get the job. But when I asked Young about that, he backed away, saying, "I would have no complaints if this was done in the United States by anyone who knows our culture, like the Asian woman who designed the Vietnam Wall."
So far, opposition to outsourcing the sculpture has come mainly from African Americans and the U.S. granite industry. "White people are afraid to attack the monument because they fear they'll be perceived as racist," Young says. "But Dr. King challenged us to talk about race without making accusations of wrongdoing."
King's message is universal, but his story is American. A memorial on the Mall requires American designers and artists to confront his legacy and thereby continue King's wor
Ashton Kutcher: I used to sleep around
Ashton Kutcher: I used to sleep around
Friday, May 9th 2008, 3:10 PM
Gries/GettyAshton Kutcher says he loved to bed hop before meeting Demi Moore.
Hunky actor Ashton Kutcher has revealed how he couldn't keep it in his pants before he was married.
The 30-year-old hottie has said that not only was he an enthusiastic bed hopper, but he actually set out to sleep with as many women as possible.
Too bad for all the single ladies out there, one woman changed his wandering ways: Demi Moore.
"At the time we met I was in New York partying and I was hosting Saturday Night Live and I was saying to myself, 'I am going to party, I'm going to sleep with this girl and that girl,' " Britain's The Sun newspaper reports him as saying. "And then I met my wife. As soon as you make that decision not to have a relationship, you will find one."
Now, married for three years, Kutcher is a husband and step-father to Moore's three children from her previous marriage to actor Bruce Willis. And there are no signs that the young hunk wants back into his old life.
Kutcher stars along side Cameron Diaz in his new movie, "What Happens In Vegas," in which he plays a man who regrets a jiffy wedding in Sin City after a drunken wild night. Not so far from his party past, we're betting Kutcher didn't need much research to pull off the role.
Many creatures underfoot in 'Chronicles of Narnia
Many creatures underfoot in 'Chronicles of Narnia'
Sunday, May 11th 2008, 4:00 AM
There'll be no shortage of computer-generated characters to be found in movie theaters this summer, but for the sheer number of make-believe beasties onscreen, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" wins hands-down.
Centaurs, fauns, talking animals and humans mingle within seamless special-effects shots that will have even jaded audiences wondering "How'd they do that?!"
"We had a lot of people in blue tights," says "Caspian" director Andrew Adamson, explaining how his effects wizards erased and replaced the dressed-in-blue performers with their imaginary counterparts in post-production.
After directing the original "Shrek," its first sequel and the first Narnia film "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" in 2005, the 41-year old New Zealander is an old hand at bringing fantasy critters to life.
"It's a painstaking process, especially when you're doing crowd scenes," says Adamson. "On the previous film, we used some on-set faun legs that kind of worked, but we didn't have many people in fur pants this time - just blue pants."
Four high-end special-effects shops worked on "Caspian." Their challenges included grafting digitally created goat legs and horse bodies onto actors, many of whom wore power risers to bring them up to centaur eye-level.
"Sometimes the centaurs were fully computer-generated," says Adamson. "And sometimes they were a combination of a real horse and a CG person."
Computers also whipped up Reepicheep, the movie's smallest star: a scene-stealing, swashbuckling mouse capable of giving "Shrek's" Puss in Boots a run for his whiskers.
"I thought I was acting with a glowing tennis ball," which was on a stick held by an offscreen crew member, recalls Peter Dinklage, who plays the film's crusty dwarf, Trumpkin.
"Then when I saw the film: 'Where did the tennis ball go?' Suddenly there's a talking mouse [who] wasn't there on the set."
Adamson says making a live-action movie versus an animated film is like the difference between "running a sprint and a marathon - the intensity is the same, but the duration is different. In animation, you get a lot more chances; you can refine things over and over and over again."
During a live-action shoot, he adds, "you've got 500 people looking over your shoulder - you don't have the same freedom."
But when months of effects work follow that shoot, it's more like starting a marathon the moment the sprint ends.
"The nice thing about combining live-action with animation is that you don't necessarily have to reshoot stuff," says Adamson. "You can give lines to characters you create six months down the track. In both ['Narnia'] films, I've repurposed scenes later on with animated characters that made the live-action parts work better."
Even though he has more time to work with his computer-created actors, Adamson admits: "You don't always get the performance you need from them. You're obviously working on it for as long as you can, but at some point you have to say you're done." Joe Strike
Feminists sharply divided between Clinton, Obama
Feminists sharply divided between Clinton, Obama
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer Sat May 10, 10:31 AM ET
NEW YORK - No constituency is more eager to see a woman win the presidency than America's feminists, yet — despite Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic candidacy — the women's movement finds itself wrenchingly divided over the Democratic race as it heads toward the finish.
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At breakfast forums, in op-ed columns, across the blogosphere, the debate has been heartfelt and sometimes bitter. Are the activist women supporting front-runner Barack Obama betraying their gender? Are Clinton's feminist backers mired in an outdated, women's-liberation mind-set?
Ellen Bravo is a Milwaukee author and activist who advocates on behalf of working women — and is an Obama supporter. She faults Clinton for her 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war and believes the Illinois senator would be more supportive of grass-roots political action.
At times, Bravo, 64, has been dismayed by the harsh criticism directed at women like herself from pro-Clinton feminists.
"I felt it was an ultimatum — vote for Hillary Clinton or you're betraying the women's movement," Bravo said. "It's very self-defeating and alienating, particularly to younger women who, regardless of who they support, don't like to be told, 'Do this. Do that.'"
Clinton supporter Gloria Feldt, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, accepts that the women's movement is not single-minded, yet worries that the Obama-Clinton rift is eroding whatever clout it might have.
"We're squandering an opportunity to be seen as a voting bloc that turns elections," Feldt said. "Unless we are working together, in a strategically thought-out effort to vote in our own best interests, we are in danger of never having another election where people will say women can determine the outcome."
Overall, Clinton's now-endangered campaign has survived largely because of her 60 percent to 36 percent edge over Obama among white women voters in the primaries to date. But among college-educated white women — the demographic of many feminists and of Clinton herself — her edge is much smaller, 54 percent to 43 percent, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks.
One factor in play is generational. There is a widespread perception in the women's movement that younger feminists tilt more toward Obama while most of their elders favor Clinton.
Clinton frequently mentions the elderly women she's met on the campaign trail who were born before women were able to vote and have confided to her they thought they'd never see a woman elected president.
Indeed, 74-year-old Gloria Steinem, a Clinton supporter and icon of the women's movement, riled some younger, pro-Obama feminists with a New York Times op-ed suggesting that they were in denial about America's persisting "sexual caste system."
Ariel Garfinkel, a sophomore at Mount Holyoke College, wrote one of the many counter-arguments in an online column. She and many other young feminists supported Obama because they perceived the Clinton campaign as trying to capitalize on racial divisions and to impugn Obama's patriotism.
"This pattern of old-style politics and adherence to un-feminist values is part and parcel of the campaign Hillary Clinton has run," Garfinkel wrote. "In this race, Barack Obama is the true feminist."
New York-based author Courtney Martin, also an Obama supporter, wrote on Glamour magazine's blog Glamocracy last month that she was not backing Clinton "in part because she reminds me of being scolded by my mother."
But the 28-year-old Martin has joined in appeals for activist women in the two camps to tone down their hostilities and prepare to work together on behalf of the eventual Democratic nominee.
"I deeply respect what Clinton has endured as a woman painstakingly unknotting gender and power," Martin wrote for The American Prospect.
Another young New York-based feminist writer, Hannah Seligson, backs Clinton and feels somewhat isolated among her mostly pro-Obama peers.
"I shy away from conversations with them," said Seligson, 25. "They're so passionate and there's so much vitriol toward Hillary."
For all the divisions among individual women, there was little dissension at the best-known feminist group — the National Organization for Women — before its political action committee endorsed Clinton in March 2007.
NOW's president, Kim Gandy, sees Clinton's determination and combativeness as among her strongest attributes.
"The women who've had to struggle the hardest and run into the most difficulty because they're women are clearly gravitating to a candidate they identify with," Gandy said. "They see her fighting."
Gandy knows some feminists dismiss Clinton as a woman whose political ascension depended on her husband's career, but she rejects that thinking.
"She might have been president instead of him if things had gone a little differently," Gandy said. "No one will ever know whether her marriage to Bill Clinton held her back politically as much as it moved her forward."
While still holding out hope that Clinton can win, Gandy suggests that her defeat would be a huge blow to some feminists. "It's hard to imagine that anytime soon there will be another candidate as extraordinary as Hillary Clinton," she said.
Gloria Feldt conveyed similar sentiment.
"I'd feel very sad to miss this enormous opportunity to bring the United States of America into the circle of nations that have had women as their leaders," she said. "I feel strongly when you have the opportunity to support a women so clearly qualified and capable, do it. Do it for your daughter."
The campaign has brought the women's movement to a crossroads, according to Obama supporter Kate Michelman, the former head of the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America.
"We're at a time and place where we don't have to base everything we think about in terms of gender, and that's a sign of progress," she said. "This rigid view that when any woman runs, we have to all fall into line — that's contradictory to what I consider feminism to be about."
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer Sat May 10, 10:31 AM ET
NEW YORK - No constituency is more eager to see a woman win the presidency than America's feminists, yet — despite Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic candidacy — the women's movement finds itself wrenchingly divided over the Democratic race as it heads toward the finish.
ADVERTISEMENT
At breakfast forums, in op-ed columns, across the blogosphere, the debate has been heartfelt and sometimes bitter. Are the activist women supporting front-runner Barack Obama betraying their gender? Are Clinton's feminist backers mired in an outdated, women's-liberation mind-set?
Ellen Bravo is a Milwaukee author and activist who advocates on behalf of working women — and is an Obama supporter. She faults Clinton for her 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war and believes the Illinois senator would be more supportive of grass-roots political action.
At times, Bravo, 64, has been dismayed by the harsh criticism directed at women like herself from pro-Clinton feminists.
"I felt it was an ultimatum — vote for Hillary Clinton or you're betraying the women's movement," Bravo said. "It's very self-defeating and alienating, particularly to younger women who, regardless of who they support, don't like to be told, 'Do this. Do that.'"
Clinton supporter Gloria Feldt, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, accepts that the women's movement is not single-minded, yet worries that the Obama-Clinton rift is eroding whatever clout it might have.
"We're squandering an opportunity to be seen as a voting bloc that turns elections," Feldt said. "Unless we are working together, in a strategically thought-out effort to vote in our own best interests, we are in danger of never having another election where people will say women can determine the outcome."
Overall, Clinton's now-endangered campaign has survived largely because of her 60 percent to 36 percent edge over Obama among white women voters in the primaries to date. But among college-educated white women — the demographic of many feminists and of Clinton herself — her edge is much smaller, 54 percent to 43 percent, according to exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks.
One factor in play is generational. There is a widespread perception in the women's movement that younger feminists tilt more toward Obama while most of their elders favor Clinton.
Clinton frequently mentions the elderly women she's met on the campaign trail who were born before women were able to vote and have confided to her they thought they'd never see a woman elected president.
Indeed, 74-year-old Gloria Steinem, a Clinton supporter and icon of the women's movement, riled some younger, pro-Obama feminists with a New York Times op-ed suggesting that they were in denial about America's persisting "sexual caste system."
Ariel Garfinkel, a sophomore at Mount Holyoke College, wrote one of the many counter-arguments in an online column. She and many other young feminists supported Obama because they perceived the Clinton campaign as trying to capitalize on racial divisions and to impugn Obama's patriotism.
"This pattern of old-style politics and adherence to un-feminist values is part and parcel of the campaign Hillary Clinton has run," Garfinkel wrote. "In this race, Barack Obama is the true feminist."
New York-based author Courtney Martin, also an Obama supporter, wrote on Glamour magazine's blog Glamocracy last month that she was not backing Clinton "in part because she reminds me of being scolded by my mother."
But the 28-year-old Martin has joined in appeals for activist women in the two camps to tone down their hostilities and prepare to work together on behalf of the eventual Democratic nominee.
"I deeply respect what Clinton has endured as a woman painstakingly unknotting gender and power," Martin wrote for The American Prospect.
Another young New York-based feminist writer, Hannah Seligson, backs Clinton and feels somewhat isolated among her mostly pro-Obama peers.
"I shy away from conversations with them," said Seligson, 25. "They're so passionate and there's so much vitriol toward Hillary."
For all the divisions among individual women, there was little dissension at the best-known feminist group — the National Organization for Women — before its political action committee endorsed Clinton in March 2007.
NOW's president, Kim Gandy, sees Clinton's determination and combativeness as among her strongest attributes.
"The women who've had to struggle the hardest and run into the most difficulty because they're women are clearly gravitating to a candidate they identify with," Gandy said. "They see her fighting."
Gandy knows some feminists dismiss Clinton as a woman whose political ascension depended on her husband's career, but she rejects that thinking.
"She might have been president instead of him if things had gone a little differently," Gandy said. "No one will ever know whether her marriage to Bill Clinton held her back politically as much as it moved her forward."
While still holding out hope that Clinton can win, Gandy suggests that her defeat would be a huge blow to some feminists. "It's hard to imagine that anytime soon there will be another candidate as extraordinary as Hillary Clinton," she said.
Gloria Feldt conveyed similar sentiment.
"I'd feel very sad to miss this enormous opportunity to bring the United States of America into the circle of nations that have had women as their leaders," she said. "I feel strongly when you have the opportunity to support a women so clearly qualified and capable, do it. Do it for your daughter."
The campaign has brought the women's movement to a crossroads, according to Obama supporter Kate Michelman, the former head of the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America.
"We're at a time and place where we don't have to base everything we think about in terms of gender, and that's a sign of progress," she said. "This rigid view that when any woman runs, we have to all fall into line — that's contradictory to what I consider feminism to be about."
Obama outlines plans for race against McCain
Obama outlines plans for race against McCain
By CHARLES BABINGTON and SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writers 41 minutes ago
BEND, Ore. - Barack Obama began sketching the outlines of his expected presidential contest against Republican John McCain on Saturday, saying the fall election will be more about specific plans and priorities than about questions of political ideology or who is more patriotic.
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Barely mentioning Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said he was open to campaigning with McCain in "town hall" events. But he also warned that controversial issues such as McCain's ties to the Keating Five savings and loan scandal are fair game, and he called McCain's proposal for a temporary halt in the federal gasoline tax a pander and a gimmick.
He did not mention that Clinton supports a similar plan.
Obama also said he soon will campaign in Michigan and Florida, two battleground states whose Democratic primaries were essentially nullified by party disputes, angering many voters. He is scheduled to campaign Tuesday in Missouri, marking the first such visit to a state where the primary is over and McCain awaits him in the fall.
Saying he still has not secured the nomination, Obama nonetheless entertained several questions about the likely outlines of a contest against McCain. As he campaigned in Oregon, whose primary is May 20, Obama picked up four superdelegate endorsements, erasing Clinton's once-substantial lead among the party leaders who will determine the nominee.
Many party leaders feel it is only a matter of time before the former first lady must concede defeat. But Clinton forged ahead Saturday, holding a fundraiser in New York.
"Let's keep going, stay with me, this is a great adventure and we're going to make history," she told the crowd.
Speaking with reporters in Bend, Ore., Obama brushed aside suggestions that the fall campaign may be largely about his race, liberalism or patriotism.
"In a contest between myself and John McCain," he said, "there is going to be a very clear choice on policy that I don't think is going to have to do with ideology and who theoretically is more liberal or who's more conservative. I think it is going to have to do with who has a plan to provide relief to people when it comes to their gas prices, who has a real plan to make sure that everybody has health insurance, who's got a real plan to deal with college affordability."
"So rather than an abstract set of questions about, 'Is he too liberal, is he too conservative, how do voters handle an African American, et cetera,' I think this is going to be a very concrete contest around very specific plans for how we improve the lives of Americans and our vision for the future," he said.
Obama said he realizes he must continue introducing himself to millions of Americans who do not know him well, and acknowledged that some question his patriotism because he no longer wears a lapel flag pin.
He said the test of patriotism "is whether we are true to the ideals and values upon which this country was founded," and willing to fight for them "even when it's politically inconvenient."
Obama said McCain has received "a free pass" while he and Clinton have battled for months.
McCain, he said, "has a straight-talker image, but it's not clear that lately he's been following through on that image. I mean, this gas tax holiday was a pander. He didn't even have a way of paying for it."
The McCain campaign noted that Obama, as an Illinois state senator, once voted for a temporary gas tax suspension. Obama now says he made a mistake.
Obama was asked Saturday if the fall campaign might touch on the 1987 Keating Five scandal, in which the Senate Ethics Committee said McCain used "poor judgment" for allegedly pressing regulators to go easy on the owner of a failed Arizona savings and loan who was also a campaign contributor.
Obama said there is no doubt the Keating Five case is "germane to the presidency."
"I can't quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that," he said.
Clinton, meanwhile, spent the afternoon in Manhattan raising money for her cash-strapped campaign.
She made her pitch to a crowd of several hundred people, most of them women — appealing to the group that has largely been responsible for keeping her in the race this long. In the primaries to date, Clinton has held a 60 percent to 36 percent edge over Obama among white female voters.
Appearing with her daughter, Chelsea, Clinton took questions from the audience after a short speech that touched on issues like equal pay for women and balancing work outside the home with family responsibilities. She barely mentioned Obama, only noting their differences on health care and the gas tax.
She said it would be "exciting to have the first mother in the White House."
"Part of what that would mean is that we would have someone who has lived the experiences that many of us share," she said.
Clinton has struggled to raise money in recent weeks, and was set back further this week when she squeaked by with a narrow win in Indiana while Obama won handily in North Carolina. Aides also disclosed that Clinton had lent her campaign $6.4 million since mid-April, and said she had not ruled out doing so again. The recent loans come after a separate $5 million loan in February.
Clinton is favored to win Tuesday's primary in West Virginia, and on Saturday she implored her audience to stick with her.
By CHARLES BABINGTON and SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writers 41 minutes ago
BEND, Ore. - Barack Obama began sketching the outlines of his expected presidential contest against Republican John McCain on Saturday, saying the fall election will be more about specific plans and priorities than about questions of political ideology or who is more patriotic.
ADVERTISEMENT
Barely mentioning Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said he was open to campaigning with McCain in "town hall" events. But he also warned that controversial issues such as McCain's ties to the Keating Five savings and loan scandal are fair game, and he called McCain's proposal for a temporary halt in the federal gasoline tax a pander and a gimmick.
He did not mention that Clinton supports a similar plan.
Obama also said he soon will campaign in Michigan and Florida, two battleground states whose Democratic primaries were essentially nullified by party disputes, angering many voters. He is scheduled to campaign Tuesday in Missouri, marking the first such visit to a state where the primary is over and McCain awaits him in the fall.
Saying he still has not secured the nomination, Obama nonetheless entertained several questions about the likely outlines of a contest against McCain. As he campaigned in Oregon, whose primary is May 20, Obama picked up four superdelegate endorsements, erasing Clinton's once-substantial lead among the party leaders who will determine the nominee.
Many party leaders feel it is only a matter of time before the former first lady must concede defeat. But Clinton forged ahead Saturday, holding a fundraiser in New York.
"Let's keep going, stay with me, this is a great adventure and we're going to make history," she told the crowd.
Speaking with reporters in Bend, Ore., Obama brushed aside suggestions that the fall campaign may be largely about his race, liberalism or patriotism.
"In a contest between myself and John McCain," he said, "there is going to be a very clear choice on policy that I don't think is going to have to do with ideology and who theoretically is more liberal or who's more conservative. I think it is going to have to do with who has a plan to provide relief to people when it comes to their gas prices, who has a real plan to make sure that everybody has health insurance, who's got a real plan to deal with college affordability."
"So rather than an abstract set of questions about, 'Is he too liberal, is he too conservative, how do voters handle an African American, et cetera,' I think this is going to be a very concrete contest around very specific plans for how we improve the lives of Americans and our vision for the future," he said.
Obama said he realizes he must continue introducing himself to millions of Americans who do not know him well, and acknowledged that some question his patriotism because he no longer wears a lapel flag pin.
He said the test of patriotism "is whether we are true to the ideals and values upon which this country was founded," and willing to fight for them "even when it's politically inconvenient."
Obama said McCain has received "a free pass" while he and Clinton have battled for months.
McCain, he said, "has a straight-talker image, but it's not clear that lately he's been following through on that image. I mean, this gas tax holiday was a pander. He didn't even have a way of paying for it."
The McCain campaign noted that Obama, as an Illinois state senator, once voted for a temporary gas tax suspension. Obama now says he made a mistake.
Obama was asked Saturday if the fall campaign might touch on the 1987 Keating Five scandal, in which the Senate Ethics Committee said McCain used "poor judgment" for allegedly pressing regulators to go easy on the owner of a failed Arizona savings and loan who was also a campaign contributor.
Obama said there is no doubt the Keating Five case is "germane to the presidency."
"I can't quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that," he said.
Clinton, meanwhile, spent the afternoon in Manhattan raising money for her cash-strapped campaign.
She made her pitch to a crowd of several hundred people, most of them women — appealing to the group that has largely been responsible for keeping her in the race this long. In the primaries to date, Clinton has held a 60 percent to 36 percent edge over Obama among white female voters.
Appearing with her daughter, Chelsea, Clinton took questions from the audience after a short speech that touched on issues like equal pay for women and balancing work outside the home with family responsibilities. She barely mentioned Obama, only noting their differences on health care and the gas tax.
She said it would be "exciting to have the first mother in the White House."
"Part of what that would mean is that we would have someone who has lived the experiences that many of us share," she said.
Clinton has struggled to raise money in recent weeks, and was set back further this week when she squeaked by with a narrow win in Indiana while Obama won handily in North Carolina. Aides also disclosed that Clinton had lent her campaign $6.4 million since mid-April, and said she had not ruled out doing so again. The recent loans come after a separate $5 million loan in February.
Clinton is favored to win Tuesday's primary in West Virginia, and on Saturday she implored her audience to stick with her.
One dead at Afghan demo against US-led soldiers: witnesses
One dead at Afghan demo against US-led soldiers: witnesses
by Samoon Miakhial Sat May 10, 7:22 AM ET
MARCO, Afghanistan (AFP) - At least one person was killed and several wounded in Afghanistan Saturday when police opened fire to disperse a protest accusing US-commanded soldiers of killing civilians, witnesses said.
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The clash erupted in the eastern province of Nangarhar as up to 1,000 demonstrators tried to block a road with rocks to protest against the killing of three men in a military operation overnight, witnesses said.
"Police tried to stop them, they threw stones at the police. Police then fired at the crowd. One person was killed and three others were injured," said a local, Darya Khan.
An AFP reporter was shown the body of a man whom protestors said was killed in the police action. Other demonstrators alleged three people were killed but this could not be confirmed.
A doctor in the nearby city of Jalalabad said six people were admitted to hospitals. "They were all wounded by gunshots but their wounds were not deep. They were treated and released," doctor Baz Mohammad Sherzad said.
Provincial police chief Sayed Abdul Ghafar denied his men had caused any casualties, saying they had only fired into the air after being shot at from the crowd. Two policemen were wounded, he said.
Ghafar however said that -- contrary to US-led coalition claims -- the men killed in an operation overnight in the Shinwar district were not militants or from the extremist Taliban movement.
"The coalition conducted independent operations in Shinwar and martyred three people. They were civilians," he told AFP.
Before the demonstration was dispersed, protestors chanted slogans against foreign troops, US President George W. Bush and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
"The Americans killed three civilians," said demonstrator Pizwan Khan. "They were my neighbours and I knew they were not Taliban," he told AFP above shouts of "Death to America, death to Bush, death to Karzai."
Others said the dead were an elderly man shot in a mosque and two other men, employed as drivers, shot in their homes.
But the US-led military coalition said it had only killed militants who had attacked troops searching for a "foreign fighter network."
"During the operation, several militants were killed when they attacked coalition forces. Nine militants suspected of foreign fighter facilitation were detained," it said.
It is often difficult to verify events in Afghanistan, where thousands of Afghan and international soldiers are working against several rebel networks, some with Al-Qaeda backing.
International troops are often accused of mistaking civilians for rebels or being heavy-handed in their operations; the soldiers say they work on verified information and have the right to self-protection if attacked.
The issue of civilian casualties is deeply sensitive with many Afghans already wary of the presence of foreign troops seven years after they helped to drive out the extremist Taliban government.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban are fighting to topple the US-supported government in Kabul and have demanded the removal of the international troops, most of them Westerners, on which the country relies.
by Samoon Miakhial Sat May 10, 7:22 AM ET
MARCO, Afghanistan (AFP) - At least one person was killed and several wounded in Afghanistan Saturday when police opened fire to disperse a protest accusing US-commanded soldiers of killing civilians, witnesses said.
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The clash erupted in the eastern province of Nangarhar as up to 1,000 demonstrators tried to block a road with rocks to protest against the killing of three men in a military operation overnight, witnesses said.
"Police tried to stop them, they threw stones at the police. Police then fired at the crowd. One person was killed and three others were injured," said a local, Darya Khan.
An AFP reporter was shown the body of a man whom protestors said was killed in the police action. Other demonstrators alleged three people were killed but this could not be confirmed.
A doctor in the nearby city of Jalalabad said six people were admitted to hospitals. "They were all wounded by gunshots but their wounds were not deep. They were treated and released," doctor Baz Mohammad Sherzad said.
Provincial police chief Sayed Abdul Ghafar denied his men had caused any casualties, saying they had only fired into the air after being shot at from the crowd. Two policemen were wounded, he said.
Ghafar however said that -- contrary to US-led coalition claims -- the men killed in an operation overnight in the Shinwar district were not militants or from the extremist Taliban movement.
"The coalition conducted independent operations in Shinwar and martyred three people. They were civilians," he told AFP.
Before the demonstration was dispersed, protestors chanted slogans against foreign troops, US President George W. Bush and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.
"The Americans killed three civilians," said demonstrator Pizwan Khan. "They were my neighbours and I knew they were not Taliban," he told AFP above shouts of "Death to America, death to Bush, death to Karzai."
Others said the dead were an elderly man shot in a mosque and two other men, employed as drivers, shot in their homes.
But the US-led military coalition said it had only killed militants who had attacked troops searching for a "foreign fighter network."
"During the operation, several militants were killed when they attacked coalition forces. Nine militants suspected of foreign fighter facilitation were detained," it said.
It is often difficult to verify events in Afghanistan, where thousands of Afghan and international soldiers are working against several rebel networks, some with Al-Qaeda backing.
International troops are often accused of mistaking civilians for rebels or being heavy-handed in their operations; the soldiers say they work on verified information and have the right to self-protection if attacked.
The issue of civilian casualties is deeply sensitive with many Afghans already wary of the presence of foreign troops seven years after they helped to drive out the extremist Taliban government.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban are fighting to topple the US-supported government in Kabul and have demanded the removal of the international troops, most of them Westerners, on which the country relies.
US official in Abkhazia to seek restored dialogue: report
MOSCOW (AFP) - A senior US State Department official arrived in Abkhazia on Saturday to try to help to restore dialogue between the breakaway region and Georgia, Russian news agencies reported.
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Matthew Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, was quoted by the Ria Novsoti news agency as describing the situation as tense but not beyond a solution.
Bryza spoke to journalists ahead of meetings with leaders of the breakaway territory where tensions have been mounting and where neighbouring Russia -- seen as backing the separatists -- has military forces.
They reached new heights Thursday as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili warned of a risk of war with Russia.
Foreign ministers from five EU member state -- Slovenia, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia -- were expected Monday to travel to Tbilisi to try to mediate between Georgia and Russia.
The US official was quoted Saturday as saying it was essential to restore and stimulate negotiations between the Georgian government in Tbilisi and the Abkhaz side, suggesting that Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and others might mediate.
The Abkhaz leadership has claimed the downing of five unmanned Georgian spy planes in the last two months, while Georgia has only acknowledged one such shooting, carried out it said by a Russian fighter jet.
Abkhaz officials said Friday that an Georgian drone shot down the day before was carrying an air-to-air missile.
As deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, Bryza is responsible for policy supervision and management of relations with countries in the Caucasus and southern Europe.
This includes leading US efforts to advance peaceful settlements of the separatist conflicts of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia.
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Matthew Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, was quoted by the Ria Novsoti news agency as describing the situation as tense but not beyond a solution.
Bryza spoke to journalists ahead of meetings with leaders of the breakaway territory where tensions have been mounting and where neighbouring Russia -- seen as backing the separatists -- has military forces.
They reached new heights Thursday as Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili warned of a risk of war with Russia.
Foreign ministers from five EU member state -- Slovenia, Sweden, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia -- were expected Monday to travel to Tbilisi to try to mediate between Georgia and Russia.
The US official was quoted Saturday as saying it was essential to restore and stimulate negotiations between the Georgian government in Tbilisi and the Abkhaz side, suggesting that Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and others might mediate.
The Abkhaz leadership has claimed the downing of five unmanned Georgian spy planes in the last two months, while Georgia has only acknowledged one such shooting, carried out it said by a Russian fighter jet.
Abkhaz officials said Friday that an Georgian drone shot down the day before was carrying an air-to-air missile.
As deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, Bryza is responsible for policy supervision and management of relations with countries in the Caucasus and southern Europe.
This includes leading US efforts to advance peaceful settlements of the separatist conflicts of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia.
New US Fourth Fleet raises question: gunboat diplomacy?
by Jim Mannion Sat May 10, 2:06 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Navy has raised the profile of its operations in Latin America, reviving the US Fourth Fleet after nearly a 60-year slumber.
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And some, beginning with Cuba's Fidel Castro, are asking why.
The ailing Castro raised the question in a column published Monday in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, suggesting it signaled a return to gunboat diplomacy.
"The aircraft carriers and nuclear bombs that threaten our countries are used to sow terror and death, but not to combat terrorism and illegal activities," he wrote on Monday.
Evo Morales, president of landlocked Bolivia, called it "the Fourth Fleet of intervention" in an interview with Cuban television.
The US Navy insists the re-establishment of the fleet is only an administrative measure that assigns no permanent naval assets to US forces in Latin America.
US warships and submarines will come under the fleet's control as they pass into the Caribbean and waters off the coast of Central and South America, the navy says.
The move also puts the US naval command for the region, which is headquartered in Mayport, Florida, directly under the chief of US naval operations, positioning it to compete bureaucratically for assets and resources, officials and analysts say.
Unlike the other US fleets, which are led by three star admirals, the Fourth Fleet will be led by a two star, Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, when it goes into operation July 1.
Re-establishing the Fourth Fleet in itself is largely symbolic, analysts say.
Rear Admiral James Stevenson, the current commander of US naval forces in the region, said it "sends the right signal, even to the people that you know aren't necessarily our greatest supporters."
But what is the signal?
"On the one hand in the region there are those who make the argument, "Uh, Oh, here we go again," said Frank Mora, a professor at the National War College.
"The United States' obsession with Venezuela, Cuba and other things indicates they are going to use more military force, going to use that instrument more often," he said.
The opposite view, one that Mora said he shared, is "this is not about the United States trying to use this military instrument to invade or cooerce any country, but to actually work together with other countries to deal with common threats and challenges."
The United States has watched with concern as leftists have been elected to power in a string of Latin American countries, sometimes with an assist from oil-rich Venezuela and its vehemently anti-American President Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela's acquisition of high performance fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, and diesel submarines also have raised flags for the US military.
But since becoming head of the US Southern Command in 2006, Admiral James Stavridis has taken a soft power approach to the region, pushing exercises, port visits and humanitarian missions to better US relations.
An amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, is currently working its way down the Pacific coast of Central America and South America with doctors, dentists and engineers to work on community health care and construction projects.
The USS Kearsarge, another amphibious assault ship, will deploy from August through November on a similar humanitarian mission with stops in six countries in the Caribbean and South America.
The aircraft carrier USS George Washington made a port visit in Rio de Janeiro at the end of April, and took part in exercises with the Brazilian and Argentine navies.
"This doesn't have to be seen as some kind of deterrence, or as threatening things for countries. That's not the intent," said Jay Cope, a retired army colonel and former chief of staff at the US Southern Command.
Stavridis' aim is broader than that, he said.
"Maybe once upon a time, back in the Cold War era, we liked to be able to think of this as sort of our backyard. The fact is today that is really a bad way to look at this region. It's not our backyard.
"We have got to compete with other countries of this world for our relationships with the countries of this hemisphere," he said.
Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, said the muted US response in March when Venezuela and Colombia nearly went to war over a raid against leftist guerrillas in Ecuador "suggests that the whole notion of a backyard is gone really."
"Is it because the US now recognizes Latin America is more mature, that it can deal with its problems on its own, and that it's giving it space to do so? "Or is it that basically that the US doesn't care right now, it just doesn't feel threatened by all this? It's impossible to know at this point," he said.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Navy has raised the profile of its operations in Latin America, reviving the US Fourth Fleet after nearly a 60-year slumber.
ADVERTISEMENT
And some, beginning with Cuba's Fidel Castro, are asking why.
The ailing Castro raised the question in a column published Monday in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, suggesting it signaled a return to gunboat diplomacy.
"The aircraft carriers and nuclear bombs that threaten our countries are used to sow terror and death, but not to combat terrorism and illegal activities," he wrote on Monday.
Evo Morales, president of landlocked Bolivia, called it "the Fourth Fleet of intervention" in an interview with Cuban television.
The US Navy insists the re-establishment of the fleet is only an administrative measure that assigns no permanent naval assets to US forces in Latin America.
US warships and submarines will come under the fleet's control as they pass into the Caribbean and waters off the coast of Central and South America, the navy says.
The move also puts the US naval command for the region, which is headquartered in Mayport, Florida, directly under the chief of US naval operations, positioning it to compete bureaucratically for assets and resources, officials and analysts say.
Unlike the other US fleets, which are led by three star admirals, the Fourth Fleet will be led by a two star, Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, when it goes into operation July 1.
Re-establishing the Fourth Fleet in itself is largely symbolic, analysts say.
Rear Admiral James Stevenson, the current commander of US naval forces in the region, said it "sends the right signal, even to the people that you know aren't necessarily our greatest supporters."
But what is the signal?
"On the one hand in the region there are those who make the argument, "Uh, Oh, here we go again," said Frank Mora, a professor at the National War College.
"The United States' obsession with Venezuela, Cuba and other things indicates they are going to use more military force, going to use that instrument more often," he said.
The opposite view, one that Mora said he shared, is "this is not about the United States trying to use this military instrument to invade or cooerce any country, but to actually work together with other countries to deal with common threats and challenges."
The United States has watched with concern as leftists have been elected to power in a string of Latin American countries, sometimes with an assist from oil-rich Venezuela and its vehemently anti-American President Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela's acquisition of high performance fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, and diesel submarines also have raised flags for the US military.
But since becoming head of the US Southern Command in 2006, Admiral James Stavridis has taken a soft power approach to the region, pushing exercises, port visits and humanitarian missions to better US relations.
An amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, is currently working its way down the Pacific coast of Central America and South America with doctors, dentists and engineers to work on community health care and construction projects.
The USS Kearsarge, another amphibious assault ship, will deploy from August through November on a similar humanitarian mission with stops in six countries in the Caribbean and South America.
The aircraft carrier USS George Washington made a port visit in Rio de Janeiro at the end of April, and took part in exercises with the Brazilian and Argentine navies.
"This doesn't have to be seen as some kind of deterrence, or as threatening things for countries. That's not the intent," said Jay Cope, a retired army colonel and former chief of staff at the US Southern Command.
Stavridis' aim is broader than that, he said.
"Maybe once upon a time, back in the Cold War era, we liked to be able to think of this as sort of our backyard. The fact is today that is really a bad way to look at this region. It's not our backyard.
"We have got to compete with other countries of this world for our relationships with the countries of this hemisphere," he said.
Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, said the muted US response in March when Venezuela and Colombia nearly went to war over a raid against leftist guerrillas in Ecuador "suggests that the whole notion of a backyard is gone really."
"Is it because the US now recognizes Latin America is more mature, that it can deal with its problems on its own, and that it's giving it space to do so? "Or is it that basically that the US doesn't care right now, it just doesn't feel threatened by all this? It's impossible to know at this point," he said.
The US military
BAGHDAD, (AFP) - The US military said on Sunday it supported a ceasefire in Baghdad's Sadr City where the militia of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr cut a deal with the Iraqi authorities to end the bloodshed.
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"We support political solutions in Sadr City as well as all of Iraq. We would welcome an end to violence by the criminal elements who continue to endanger the lives of innocent Iraqi citizens," US military spokesman Colonel Jerry O'Hara told AFP.
The Iraqi government and Sadr's movement said on Saturday they had agreed on a deal to end weeks of fighting which has killed hundreds of people in Baghdad.
In clashes on Saturday afternoon, American troops killed four militiamen, the US military said in a separate statement, adding that a tank was used to return fire after soldiers came under attack in Sadr City.
"If we see illegal activity, rocket or mortar teams, those carrying rocket-propelled grenades or improvised-explosive device emplacers, we will engage them with precision fire," the statement said.
Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, spokesman for Sadr's office in the central shrine city of Najaf, said the deal to end the firefights in the movement's east Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City would be effective from Sunday.
Since March 25, US and Iraqi forces have been battling militants, mostly from Sadr's Mahdi Army, in the sprawling Shiite district.
The fighting erupted after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shiite militiamen in the southern port city of Basra on March 25.
That military assault triggered widespread clashes in other Shiite areas of Iraq, particularly in Sadr City.
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"We support political solutions in Sadr City as well as all of Iraq. We would welcome an end to violence by the criminal elements who continue to endanger the lives of innocent Iraqi citizens," US military spokesman Colonel Jerry O'Hara told AFP.
The Iraqi government and Sadr's movement said on Saturday they had agreed on a deal to end weeks of fighting which has killed hundreds of people in Baghdad.
In clashes on Saturday afternoon, American troops killed four militiamen, the US military said in a separate statement, adding that a tank was used to return fire after soldiers came under attack in Sadr City.
"If we see illegal activity, rocket or mortar teams, those carrying rocket-propelled grenades or improvised-explosive device emplacers, we will engage them with precision fire," the statement said.
Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, spokesman for Sadr's office in the central shrine city of Najaf, said the deal to end the firefights in the movement's east Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City would be effective from Sunday.
Since March 25, US and Iraqi forces have been battling militants, mostly from Sadr's Mahdi Army, in the sprawling Shiite district.
The fighting erupted after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shiite militiamen in the southern port city of Basra on March 25.
That military assault triggered widespread clashes in other Shiite areas of Iraq, particularly in Sadr City.
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