Florida has clinched the nation's No. 2 spot for millionaires.
According to new wealth stats released by the I.R.S. Florida had 199,000 residents with a net worth of $1.5 million or more as of 2004 (their latest period). That topped New York's count of 168,000, though it still trailed way behind leader California, which boasted 428,000-more than a fifth of the nation's total.
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It's almost hard to believe there's a single stone of veep-related speculation yet to be unturned and over-examined, but here's one: If Delaware Sen. Joe Biden becomes Barack Obama's running mate, we can expect another cycle of news analysis regarding the impact of race on the presidential campaign.
In part, that's because Biden hasn't always struck the most sensitive tone when it comes to talking about race. Referencing the Indian-Americans he'd met in his home state of Delaware, Biden once said "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent." While the Senator clearly meant to praise the hard work and entrepreneurship of his state's fastest growing minority group -- and was even speaking to an Indian-American supporter at the time -- his comments were nevertheless fodder for embarrassment.
More famously, and even more damaging, Biden kicked off his presidential campaign in early 2007 by describing Barack Obama in highly inelegant, loaded racial terms. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden told the New York Observer. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."
Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama both endeavored to let Biden off the hook upon which he'd fastened his own petard, but the damage to Biden's campaign was still palpable.
Given this history, there are several possible ways that Biden-as-VP nominee could reignite the debate between the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain over race. First, McCain could argue that any further parsing of racial subtext in the campaign to be null and void, given Biden's own checkered linguistic past. If Obama were to tread at all close to his talking points warning of racially-charged remarks from Republicans, McCain could attempt to label the Democratic ticket as hypocritical on the subject.
Notre Dame Professor of Political Science Darren Davis believes that Biden's selection as a running mate would bring an unneccessary amount of scrutiny to a topic Obama should actively be trying to avoid. "Obama needs to stay away from issues of race as much as he can, and although he brushed off Biden's comments early in the primaries, he cannot be seen as embracing a VP whom many thought was racist and insensitive toward Obama himself. ... Imagine how much fun the Republicans would have with that," Davis said.
However, it's easy to imagine a somewhat counter-intuitive angle on the Biden-race angle. With many white voters potentially uncomfortable with the strictures of politically correct verbiage, Biden could stand out as a sympathetic figure. As Obama's running mate, he could say, "I know how tough this is to navigate sometimes, and I'm living proof that folks with the best intentions trip wires they don't mean to trip from time to time." Having consolidated his standing as someone who has earned a few scars in the PC-wars, Biden could speak out against any GOP gambits that explicitly attempt to capitalize on vague feelings of "foreign-ness" regarding Obama -- such as McCain's "an American president for America" tag. Speaking as someone who knows the difference between innocent slips and the real deal, he could conceivably have some standing on the issue.
Davis disagreed with that hypothesis, saying that Biden's checkered PC past "would not endear whites to Obama, but it would raise questions about Obama's decision making."
But either way, if Steve Clemons is right about Biden being the pick, it's not hard to see how that could spark some new lines
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When Jason Maloney and Kira Kay, two freelance journalists who work frequently with HDNet, first pitched me a story about some obscure places called Abkhazia and South Ossetia a few months ago, I was skeptical to say the least. A story about breakaway territories in the Caucasus didn't exactly scream 'ratings magic.' What they described, however, was chilling. Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, two breakaway territories in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, might be the center of a new war that pitted the U.S.-backed Georgians against the Russians, who support the independence claim of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
They convinced me to approve the story, and Jason and Kira were reporting in Georgia when war broke out. The story they've come back with is not so much about the military battle, but rather an exploration of what led to this crisis. Anyone who was caught by surprise by the violence wasn't paying enough attention. Jason and Kira found a region with ethnic tensions boiling over, national aspirations thwarted, and a dangerous brinksmanship on all sides.
Just hours before the war began, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili told Kira that "with all the courage I can observe in our troops, nobody would be crazy enough to attack the Russian army, right?" But attack, he did, in South Ossetia, and the Russian Bear was unleashed.
"HDNet World Report: Under Siege" airs on Tuesday, August 19 at 9:00 p.m. ET with a re-air at midnight ET to accommodate West Coast Prime Time.
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An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: At the Saddleback Church Forum, pastor Rick Warren began his interviews with John McCain and Barack Obama by saying: "We believe in separation of church and state, but not faith and politics." What's your response to that and to the forum?
For me, the God quiz that Barack Obama endured with barely concealed sweaty palms and that John McCain breezed through with seasoned casualness has no place in American politics. Rick Warren is a feel-good preacher who softened the interrogation and administered no canings, but that's irrelevant. To claim that "faith and politics" is different -- and more acceptable -- than "church and state" is semantic sleight of hand. The reason that any contemporary presidential candidate is forced to suffer the indignity of confessing his religious beliefs in public goes back to the Reagan revolution. Pandora's box was opened by the right wing in 1980, admitting not just inappropriate matters of religion into political life but also making acceptable a range of prejudice, bigotry, and divisiveness that had been banished by an era of liberal social legislation. Reagan, after all, was the president who, if left to his own devices, would have let thousands more AIDS victims die through neglect and lack of funding for basic medical research. The implicit reason, well understood by the right and endorsed by fundamentalists, was that gays deserve what they get if they pursue a lifestyle that doesn't match right-wing Christian ideology. Minorities, women, immigrants, and progressivism in general were given the same back hand.
The Obama-McCain evening, being a stepchild of conservative beliefs, was stacked against Obama, or any secularist, Democrat or not. Indeed, it was stacked against anyone who understands the basic reason for separating church and state, which is to keep closed the box of religious divisiveness that Reagan sprang open. As a performance, neither candidate displayed either the unvarnished truth or unblemished integrity. The real message that was meant to come across from Obama was "I really am American," and from McCain was "I'm really right as Reagan." Viewer's notes: Dull pandering to the audience from both sides. Lots of mention of Jesus, sin, faith, prayer. McCain came off as more prepared and polished in his responses. He went for Reagan's easy folksy confidence, catering to the audience's craving for moral simplicity. His answer to the question "Is there evil and how to deal with it?" was typical: "Yes, there is evil and we will defeat it." Obama said, roughly, "Yes there is evil, and we can't hope to defeat it on our own, but we can be soldiers for the Lord to do what we can."
For McCain, it's all as simple as what Reaganism carved out almost thirty years ago: Gay marriage is bad, abortion is bad, activist judges are bad. Winning in Iraq is good, getting Osama bin Laden is good, offshore oil drilling is good, and freedom is great. Obama talked about the hard work and sacrifices we need to make in order to overcome energy dependence and academic mediocrity, also the respect we need to accord others on the abortion issue--not quite as stirring as reactionary platitudes.
In short, McCain appealed to our escapist magical morality, Obama appealed to reason and practicalities. That has been the story throughout the campaign. Everyone concedes that Obama's way is more mature, realistic, and ultimately right. But I doubt that's enough to cure a case of sweaty palms.
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From time to time, Hollywood loves to make movies about itself.
It's a place so insular and self-centered that it's convinced that everyone else on the
planet is as enraptured as they are about themselves and the going-ons behind the scenes.
That is the central theme behind the new rambunctious, and very hit-or-miss comedy Tropic Thunder.
It's an occasionally funny comedy that actually isn't nearly as funny or as clever as it thinks it is. It's mainly aimed for people who like to delude themselves that they're "in the know" about the movie business although most of the really savage satire would sail right over their heads without them having a clue.
Marking his return to the director's seat since his unfunny Zoolander and the underrated and dangerously subversive The Cable Guy,
Ben Stiller plays a fading action movie star who is working on a big budget Hollywood action flick about the Vietnam War, that is being shot on location in Vietnam, alongside fellow actors
Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson. Jackson plays a rapper with the name of Alpa Chino (say it loud to yourself), who is acting in his first film.
However it's obvious from the very start that the film's clueless, stressed out, neophyte Brit director (Coogan) is in way over his head and the film quickly winds up over budget and way
behind schedule, incurring the anger of the film's extremely foul mouthed, hyper-aggressive producer (Tom Cruise wearing a bald wig, scraggly beard, fat gut and profuse chest hair).
Desperate to save the film, and more importantly his career, Coogan gets
rid of most of the film crew and comes up with the insane idea of dropping
his actors in the middle of nowhere in the jungle to make a low budget,
guerilla style movie with hidden video cameras placed all around as they
struggle to make it out on their own.
Of course there wouldn't be much of plot of things didn't quickly go from bad to worse, (as it does) and the actors find themselves tangling with dangerous real drug dealing guerillas led by a 12-year-old kid (Soo Hoo), though the actors are too imbecilic and self-centered to realize that they're not making a film anymore and their situation is for real.
Though Thunder definitely has its genuinely funny moments especially
due to Jack Black, who while relegated mainly to the background at first
eventually comes into his own with some hilarious crazed behavior and
rudely twisted lines, the film suffers badly from a lumpy pace with its
uneven storyline and too many scenes of people screaming at each other for
no apparent reason.
It's also dragged down by one too many inside jokes about the business that are not even that funny for those who gets who's being spoofed such as McConaughey's manic part inspired by real life super agent Ari Emanuel, Coogan's take on the real British film director Sam Mendes
(Jarhead) and especially Cruise's character who's a blatant mockery of legendary producer Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men) who's famous in the business for his volcanic temper and tyrannical behavior.
However, no doubt most of the attention will center around Robert Downey's
Kirk Lazarus, a Russell Crowe type known for his intensity and hard drinking behavior who's so dedicated to his craft that to play a black man in the film he undergoes cosmetic surgery to look black to play the part. Of course the concept is intentionally outrageous and decidedly non-PC
with the image of a white guy in modern day blackface to illustrate how ridiculous Lazarus is, especially in his awkward and embarrassing attempts to portray a black man.
And besides, since it's the current "Mr. Cool of Hollywood" Iron Man himself, so how bad could it be? But when it gets down to the
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