Latest News and Politics from the U.S. - Huffington Post (April 2011 Diet)

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"The rain is washing away all the snow," I said into the back of my daughter's head, grateful for the steady drenching that granted me another day's reprieve on outdoor chores.Her quiet response: "Does that mean the snakes are coming?"More...

Source: Spring Forward, And Do Look Back

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A horse added a new layer of congestion to several streets in Philadelphia this weekend after its rider fell off in the city's Fairmount Park.According to Fox, the horse, named Flo, was eventually captured after a group of people managed to stop it from its wild run.More...

Source: Horse Runs Loose In Philadelphia (VIDEO)

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The 2003 Iraq alumni association is studded with stars.  Its reunion would be a cheerful occasion for mutual congratulations.  Donald Rumsfeld is promoting his self-serving memoir on the talk show circuit where he is received as a respected elder statesman. George 'Slam Dunk' Tenet is distinguished professor in Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.  Condoleezza Rice of Stanford University has just composed an endearing, skillfully mendacious account of her noble service to the Republic.  General Stanley McChrystal, who set up the network of torture facilities in Iraq and then laid the cornerstone of its Begram counterpart, teaches Modern Leadership at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.  Paul Wolfowitz, spiritual leader of the neo-con pack, is avidly sought by network anchors for sage advice on Egypt, Libya, Bahrain et al.  His brother in arms at the Pentagon, Douglas Feith, is also edifying Georgetown youth as professor and distinguished practitioner in National Security Policy -- evidently without a reference letter from General Franks who judged him to be "the f.....g stupidest guy on the face of the earth." (From Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack). Meghan O'Sullivan, right-hand woman to L. Paul Bremer III in the Green Zone, is the Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.  There, she invites media inquiries on some 42 topics ranging from accountability through ethics, judgment & decisionmaking to volunteerism and women.  Many other less renowned alumni have done commensurately as well.This recitation of the professional successes racked up by those who produced the catastrophe of Iraq calls our attention to how evanescent memories of that historic exercise in deceit and failure are.  It is necessary to point this out because the process of individual rehabilitation is apace with the spreading number of benign retrospectives of Iraq that are drawn upon to offer forecasts for America's future place in an unruly Middle East.More...

Source: Iraq: Memory and Meaning

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One of the dubious benefits of "voluntary" recruitment into the military, rather than a draft, is that presidents can more easily conduct wars despite a skeptical public, and another is that some civilians can regard service as mainly another cash transaction, as if to say, "nobody forced them, too bad if they claim to be invisibly hurt."How can warriors be welcomed home by us, including those who have passed up the opportunity to enlist? Regardless of how we regard the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and earlier in Vietnam, what's a decent way to help reintegrate soldiers who have served in our name?More...

Source: Welcoming Warriors Home: The Film

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By Debra RubinReligion News ServiceMore...

Source: At Interfaith Church, A Rabbi Does The Easter Sermon

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President Obama outlined his plans for dealing with the economy today.  In large part, he has let the GOP set the terms of the debate about America's economic future since the mid-term elections of 2010. Today, in a speech at George Washington University, the president sought to recapture his leadership position by offering a progressive vision of a new American future -- a stark contrast to the GOP's dark budget proposals that would leave the elderly without health care, millions of vulnerable people (many children) without food stamps and massive cuts in public education. President Obama offered a moral vision of what America should be.  Consider his opening words:

From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America's wealth and prosperity. More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government.More...

Source: President Obama Offers Moral Vision, Faith Leaders Must Press For More

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Suffolk University4/10-12/11; 600 registered voters, 4% margin of errorMore...

Source: FL-2012 President: 43% Romney (R), 42% Obama (D) (Suffolk 4/10-12)

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A jealous Chinese man is accused of attacking his wife and tattooing "degrading" onto her face after suspecting she had an affair.The scandal, which has apparently gone viral on Chinese sites, was loosely translated into English on the China Hush website. According to the site, Wei Shengxiong and Xiaowei, who had been married since 2006, fought bitterly because Wei had suspected his wife of having an affair.More...

Source: Chinese Man Tattoos 'Degrading' On Wife's Face After Accusing Her Of Infidelity

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At HuffPost Education, teachers, politicians, superintendents, principals and parents weigh in daily with their opinions on controversial issues, from value-added assessment to bans on school lunches.But how would students approach these hot-button topics? We rounded up their ideas from sites across the Web on what they would do differently, if they were to take over as principal for a day.More...

Source: How Students Would Handle Education Reform, School Lunches And Bullying

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One of the weirdest things about the ongoing commedia dell'arte performance that is the Donald Trump campaign for president, is that he's spent all of his time in recent weeks indulging in conspiratorial nonsense instead of working on an affirmative case for his presidency or a "Trump vision for America."  The best that any of has to go on is that he will make people "respect" us again and he will swindle world dictators on tent leases.By putting forth no ideas for the political media to talk about and insisting on promulgating long-debunked conspiracy theories, Trump is all but goading the press to engage in the most painful vetting process imaginable.  What if it turns out, say, that he didn't actually send investigators to Hawaii, as he claimed?  What if someone wants a specific answer to the question of where he keeps all the Bibles he says are sent to him, beyond "at a certain place"? And what happens when reporters start doing in-depth examinations of his financials?More...

Source: Donald Trump Can't Wait For Reporters To Check Out His 'Huge' Financials