While Samsung's somewhat disputed earnings report has left it on top for the third quarter this year, HTC has also announced record numbers in its Q3 earnings report.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/FmlT6WDpTWc/
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WASHINGTON ? Looking for a big-name speaker?
Now may be the time to send President Barack Obama an invitation, especially if your group represents a key political constituency.
Obama has been making the rounds of Washington's awards dinners and black-tie galas this fall, donning a tuxedo or dark suit and heading to ballrooms across the nation's capital to speak to organizations representing blacks, Hispanics, Jews, women and gays. This weekend, he adds Italian- Americans to that list.
With the 2012 campaign picking up steam and Obama struggling to recapture the enthusiasm of 2008, the president's role as headline speaker has plenty of political undertones. He needs the well-connected, politically active leaders of these groups to help him motivate their members, raise money for his re-election and get people to show up to vote in next year's election.
And the president's remarks give him a chance to address specific criticism from some supporters, and tout lesser-known administration actions that target their needs.
Since September, Obama has been the featured speaker at dinners for the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a forum on American Latino Heritage, and the annual gala for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights group. The president will speak Saturday at a black-tie dinner for the National Italian American Foundation, and in early November, at an awards dinner for the National Women's Law Center. The Union for Reform Judaism also says Obama will speak at its December conference.
Obama is following the path of many of his predecessors, who have also tried to curry favor with influential Washington-based organizations, particularly those with similar political leanings.
The president has also sent out his own invitations, bringing influential constituencies to the White House for Tribal Nations conferences, for Passover Seders, for Iftars.
With a presidential election just about a year away, the outreach to key voting blocs is more critical than ever. The president's approval ratings have dipped into the mid to low forties amid persistently high unemployment. And with sagging enthusiasm among some core supporters, Obama's campaign could face challenges in getting the first-time voters who helped him win the White House, particularly blacks, Hispanics and young people, back to the polls next November.
White House officials won't say exactly how aides decide which events the president attends. But it's little surprise that Obama rarely finds himself in front of anything less than a supportive audience.
The president often shows up just before he's scheduled to speak, and rarely stays for dinner. His speeches, sometimes delivered before a crowd of thousands, pull from his day-to-day messages on the economy and jobs, but are typically tailored to his audience.
During a fiery speech earlier this month at the annual gala for the Human Rights Campaign, Obama heralded his role in ending the military's ban on openly gay service members and his administration's decision to stop enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. He also used the opportunity to jab Republican presidential candidates for failing to stand up for a gay service member who was booed by an audience at a GOP debate.
"You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient," Obama said.
Rich Galen, a Republican strategist, said Obama would be better served spending more time working with Congress to bring down the nation's 9.1 percent unemployment rate than in trying to boost his political base.
"Doing all of these things is doing nothing to foster any meaningful legislation," he said.
White House officials insist the economy, not politics is the president's primary focus. Trying to show action on the economy in any way possible, they've launched a new campaign dubbed "We Can't Wait" to highlight action the president is taking without waiting for Congress.
The White House announced two minor actions Friday, with Obama directing government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace, and calling for creation of a centralized online site for companies to easily find information on federal services
At a Congressional Hispanic Caucus dinner in September, the president touted the impact the jobs bill he had recently proposed would have for Hispanic workers. But he also took on criticism of his administration's lack of progress on immigration, saying it couldn't all fall on his shoulders.
"We live in a democracy, and at the end of the day, I can't do this all by myself under our democratic system," he said.
The president took a similar approach later that month at the Congressional Black Caucus. Aware of rumblings from some members of the group that he hadn't done enough to address unemployment among African-Americans, Obama told blacks to quit crying and complaining and "put on your marching shoes" to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity.
The president's comments left some at the event a bit unsettled, including Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who said she found the president's language "a bit curious."
Democratic strategist Karen Finney said it's just as important for Obama to trumpet his accomplishments when he meets with supporters as it is to acknowledge the areas where there is frustration.
"I think it takes a certain amount of courage to do that," she said. "He gets a lot of respect for showing up."
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The St. Louis Cardinals won a remarkable World Series they weren't even supposed to reach, beating the Texas Rangers 6-2 in Game 7 on Friday night with another key hit by hometown star David Freese and six gutty innings from Chris Carpenter.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/45068534#45068534
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An undated photo released by Henry Fricke shows a sampling of dinosaur teeth from the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. Scientists analyzing 32 teeth of plant-eating dinosaurs found that they migrated from the lowlands to highlands in search of food and water during the late Jurassic period. A new study suggests long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs migrated hundreds of miles to find enough food for their gargantuan appetites. (AP Photo/ Henry Fricke,/Colorado College)
An undated photo released by Henry Fricke shows a sampling of dinosaur teeth from the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. Scientists analyzing 32 teeth of plant-eating dinosaurs found that they migrated from the lowlands to highlands in search of food and water during the late Jurassic period. A new study suggests long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs migrated hundreds of miles to find enough food for their gargantuan appetites. (AP Photo/ Henry Fricke,/Colorado College)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? What did giant plant-munching dinosaurs do when they couldn't find enough to eat in the parched American West? They hit the road. An analysis of fossilized teeth adds further evidence that the long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods ? the largest land creatures ? went on road trips to fill their gargantuan appetites.
Scientists have long theorized that sauropods foraged for precious resources during droughts because of their preserved tracks and long limbs that were "ideal moving machines" and allowed them to cover long distances, said paleobiologist Matthew Bonnan of Western Illinois University.
The latest study is the best evidence yet that at least one kind of sauropod "took to the hills in search of food when times got tough in the lowlands," said paleontologist Kristi Curry Rogers at Macalester College in Minnesota.
The new work, published online Wednesday by the journal Nature, was led by geologist Henry Fricke of Colorado College.
The researchers analyzed 32 sauropod teeth collected in Wyoming and Utah. The teeth came from massive plant-eaters that roamed a semi-arid basin in the American West during the late Jurassic period about 150 million years ago.
The largest sauropods weighed 100 tons and were 120 feet long. The type in the study was smaller ? about 60 feet in length and weighing 25 tons.
Scientists can get a glimpse into the source of the dinosaurs' drinking water by comparing the oxygen preserved in the tooth enamel to that found in ancient sediment.
A chemical analysis showed differences in the teeth and the basin where the dinosaurs were buried, meaning they must have wandered hundreds of miles from the flood plains to the highlands for food and water.
Fricke said the movement appeared to be tied to changing seasons. Sauropods left the basin in the summer for higher elevations ? a trek that took about five months ? and returned in the winter.
In lush times, sauropods would have feasted on a diversity of plants including ferns, horsetails, conifers and moss, said John Foster, a curator at the Museum of Western Colorado, who had no part in the research.
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Online:
Journal: http://www.nature.com/nature
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Follow Alicia Chang's coverage at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia
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ERCIS, Turkey?? Rain and snow on Thursday compounded difficulties for thousands rendered homeless in the powerful earthquake that hit eastern Turkey, and the government said the death toll has gone up to 523.
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The prime minister's center for crisis and emergency management said 1,650 people were injured and 185 were rescued from the rubble.
Meanwhile, a moderate earthquake, measuring 5.4 according to Turkey's Kandilli seismology center, hit the neighboring province of Hakkari, sending people rushing out of buildings in fear and panic. No injuries were immediately reported in that temblor, which was centered some 90 miles south of the epicenter of Sunday's devastating quake.
Story: Teachers, teen pulled from Turkey quake rubbleTurkish authorities delivered more tents after acknowledging initial problems in the distribution of aid for survivors of the 7.2-magnitude quake that shattered at least 2,200 buildings on Sunday.
Survivors pleaded for more tents on Thursday, fearing death from cold in the wake of the tremor.
Some blamed the ruling AK party for a slow response and accused officials of handing aid to supporters, after standing in long lines only to be told there were no tents left. Others said profiteers were hoarding tents and reselling them.
"Everyone is getting sick and wet. We have been waiting in line for four days like this and still nothing. It gets to our turn and they say they have run out," said Fetih Zengin, 38, a real estate agent whose house was badly damaged in Ercis, a town of 100,000 that was hardest hit by Sunday's quake.
"We slept under a piece of plastic erected on some wood boards we found. We have 10 children in our family, they are getting sick. Everyone needs a tent, snow is coming. It's a disaster."
Slideshow: Powerful earthquake strikes Turkey (on this page)Ergun Ozmen, 37, was carrying loaves of bread after queuing for food. "People are taking 10 tents and selling them. It's a disgrace. I slept in the municipal park all night in the rain. My shoes are filled with water. I only registered to get a tent this morning as I have been busy burying the dead," he said.
Foreign assistance began arriving after Turkey said it would accept help to house survivors through the winter. Israel, which has a troubled political relationship with Turkey, sent emergency housing units, blankets and clothing. Germany also dispatched supplies, including tent heating units. Russia and Ukraine also contributed.
Some media reports had said rescuers pulled out a 19-year-old alive from the rubble on Thursday, but Mustafa Ozden, the head of the team that brought out the young man, told The Associated Press that he was rescued on Tuesday, not Thursday.
Rain gave way to intermittent snow, deepening the hardship of thousands of people either rendered homeless in the powerful earthquake or too afraid to return indoors amid aftershocks that continued to rattle the area.
In Ercis, families who managed to obtain tents shared them with others.
Some people spent a fourth night outdoors huddled under blankets in front of campfires. Snow fell overnight in the mountains and many said they feared the onslaught of winter. Occasional scuffles broke out.
Exhausted relatives clung to the hope that loved ones would be found, keeping vigil at the site of their destroyed homes as searches went on for any sign of life.
Overnight, groups of shell-shocked people roamed aimlessly, with no home to go to, huddling around fires as temperatures dropped to freezing. Others congregated in relief camps.
"After 15 days, half of the people here will die, freeze to death," said Orhan Ogunc, a 37-year-old man in Guvencli, a village of some 200 homes deep in the hills between Ercis and the city of Van. His family had a Red Crescent tent, but were sharing it with five other families.
Many mud-brick villages have been devastated, but few are ready to leave their land.
"They say we will get prefabricated houses in one-and-a-half months," said Zeki Yatkin, 46, who lost his father in the quake. "We can't tolerate the cold, but what else can we do?"
Sermin Yildirim, who was eight months pregnant, was with her twins and husband. They shared a tent with a family of four who were distant relatives. Her apartment in a three-story building was not damaged but the family was reluctant to return.
"It's getting colder, my kids are coughing. I don't know how long we will have to stay here," Yildirim said. "We were not able to get a tent. We are waiting to get our own."
Turkey's weather agency predicted intermittent snowfall for the next three days.
More than a dozen television stations organized a joint aid telethon, amassing just under 62 million Turkish Lira ($37 million) in aid for the region.
Searchers sifting through piles of debris recovered more bodies. They included two dead teenage sisters and their parents who were holding hands, and a mother clutching her baby boy, according to media reports.
Two teachers and a university student were rescued from ruined buildings on Wednesday, but there were no signs of survivors elsewhere and excavators were clearing debris from some collapsed buildings.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45057254/ns/world_news-europe/
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Rodgers' recently published memoir, 'Le Freak,' talks about his musical achievements, but it only tells a part of his life story. Like his biological father, Rodgers success as a producer was accompanied by a serious drug addiction. When it got out of control in the early '90s, Rodgers went into rehab and has since become clean and sober for almost 20 years. But then, in October 2010, he revealed he was battling another obstacle: An "aggressive" form of prostate cancer.
In this interview with Spinner, Rodgers talks about the origins of Chic. working with Bowie, Madonna and Duran Duran, the cocaine-fueled moment that turned him around and his cancer treatment.
How are you feeling since your cancer surgery?
It's up and down, in and out. It's really weird for me. There's no straight line to recovery and healing. Especially for the first five years, it's sort of an up and down rollercoaster. Right now, you caught me in the middle of a cycle where I had a test a week or a two ago and I haven't gotten the results yet. It's a weird period.
Was the book already in the works when the cancer happened?
You won't believe this. I handed in the book -- it was done. Two days later I get a phone call from my doctor -- I'm on my way to Rome to do a concert. And he tells me to sit down. I said, "I can't sit down I'm late." "You got to sit down because you have very aggressive cancer and we need to discuss your options." It freaked me out but I caught the plane, went to Rome, played a great show and came home and said, "Now what were you saying, doc?"
I'm pretty optimistic. You just don't feel great, especially when you're waiting for test results. Not knowing in a way, that sort of it stinks, but it's easier not knowing because you can project anything you want. And typically I project something really great.
They absolutely influenced the way that I live my life. The good part of it was that my parents were very open-minded [and] super intellectual. They could see any subject from any point of view, so we can talk, talk, talk. So it was a great environment, but in another ways it was also sad because I was a loner. I was rarely around other kids. So I gravitated towards adults and adult-types of teachings and adult types of entertainment. I loved being into Nina Simone, Clifford Brown, Max Roach and bebop. I liked the fact that we had this sort of hip house.
Your biological father had a profound influence on you, and the parts in the book that mention him are pretty heartbreaking to read.
My biological father was amazing. But he was really strung out on heroin and he was really strung out on love with my mother. My mother just didn't love him. She really liked him a lot because he was a really nice guy and he was generous as he could possibly be with me and everybody else.
Flash forward to when you were in your teens and met Bernard Edwards before Chic happened. What were your early impressions of him?
We met on the telephone [and] we didn't get along at all. In fact he told me to lose his number and to never call him again. And then we met accidentally on a pickup gig, not realizing that we were the same people who had spoken months earlier. When we met at the pickup gig, it was musical love at first sight because he and I were two totally different types of people. I was a complete hippie, skintight jeans with the embroidery and big platform shoes; Bernard was a total R&B guy, dressed very conservatively.
Bernard was a genius. He had this musicality that was just infused in his bone and his whole persona, his whole being. He was able to sort of reel me in and say, "Hey man, with your knowledge, you could be one of the most commercial guys in the world, because not many people know what you know. Now let's put that into practice in a way that the masses can consume it." That's what made our partnership so unique, was because like with any artists, the genius is never in the writing, it's always in the rewriting. So I would give him so much stuff that he'd always say to me me, "Man you got 10 records in here."
I go see Roxy Music and coincidentally they were playing at a place called the Roxy in London. It was the most sophisticated, slick, atmospheric, textural rock 'n' roll that I had ever seen. I remember saying it to Bernard that I had seen a completely immersive artistic experience. I'm like, "Roxy Music, they got this thing, they have chicks on the cover and they're dressed up in high fashion outfits and costumes and it was all hip." I flew home a few days later and we started to put together this concept. We didn't' know what it was going to be, but we needed a starting point. So we started with Roxy Music.
When we hired our keyboard player Rob Sabino, he was good friends with Ace Frehley from Kiss, and this was before Kiss blew up. We would go to these different nightclubs around New York in the early punk scene. We'd see different bands and the one band that was more outstanding than any of the other bands were Kiss. We just thought it was so amazing that they were so anonymous off stage, and on stage they were so recognizable and identifiable. We thought, "Let's mix that with Roxy Music and do it as a black band." We started to dump it out on the table and it looked like this thing called Chic and we just started to cast it.
You later produced David Bowie's 1983 album 'Let's Dance.' It was a partnership that was mutually beneficial: It gave him hit singles and you recovered from a string of less-successful Chic albums.
After 'Good Times,' Chic never had another hit. Even though Atlantic let us finish all the albums on our contract -- that means we did four more albums -- all were flops. Then I meet David Bowie at an after-hours club and we talk and just hit it off. We convinced each other that we were supposed to be working together. He came to my apartment and listened to my solo record, which was a total flop, but he thought it was amazing. And like they say, the rest is history. We worked hard on 'Let's Dance' before we recorded a record. We didn't even write music, we just talked concept. David is a great conceptual guy. And being around him was like being around my parents. They can talk in these abstract terms and you know exactly what they were talking about.
Before you later worked with Madonna on the 'Like a Virgin' album, you first saw her perform as the opening act for Jenny Burton at the Roxy in New York in 1983. As you write in the book, at the time you were intrigued about Madonna but didn't know what to make of her. What turned you around?
Madonna herself. I have never met anyone in my lif -- and this is an absolute statement, so it's almost science -- that was more certain that they were gonna make it and spend more energy devoted to making it than Madonna ever in my life. And I've been around superstars. Nobody under the sun was like Madonna. She was positive and clear and wholly dedicated to achieving everything that she's achieved. And I thought I was positive, I thought that I knew what I wanted to do.
I love Duran Duran. I think that we were the right paring -- it was the right thing at the right time. I don't like to overly take credit for anything, but since they said it first ... When we did 'Notorious' [and] when the two other Taylors [Roger and Andy] left, that's a heavy blow to a band at the top of their career. I think I was the glue that held that together. I used to say to the guys, "People don't realize how great you are because you're still like this boy band and the girls are still talking about your looks, and the music becomes sort of an added bonus. Now it's time to go in the direction where you can become more like a U2 that's really classic and solid artistically. You got to build that foundation and let's take the fans along with us." And that's what the 'Notorious' album was supposed to do.
You had serious drug addiction throughout the years. At one time in Miami, around Madonna' 36th birthday party, you went through a cocaine psychosis because there was a contract out on your life. You write in the book that you armed yourself with a samurai sword and a .45 automatic for protection.
I was on a three-day bender. I hadn't slept at all. By the time I got to Madonna's [party] the next night, I was completely out of control. I was absolutely the last person to leave Madonna's house. [My friends] were carrying me to the Marlin Hotel on South Beach and I slept for about an hour or so. When I woke up, I had my first and only bout of cocaine psychosis. I called my home in New York and heard my answering machine tell me clearly that there was a contract out on my life. Then I went into in this crazy downward spiral for the next two to three hours. I really don't know how long it was, but it felt like an eternity. I was actually hearing voices that were whispering in my ear and they were clear as a bell.
That incident and finding out about Keith Richards' decision to get help for his substance abuse problem convinced you to get treatment.
I was so afraid, I didn't know what to do. I was calling people to come down and rescue me -- a bunch of private detectives I knew who were ex-homicide cops. While I was waiting, I read an article in some magazine where Keith Richards was talking about how he was going to give up drugs because music was more important to him than drugs. I went into rehab and I gave it up. That was more than 17 years ago and I never had another drink or drug since.
Along with the book, are you working on any other projects?
My life is as artistically exciting as it's ever been. You know how when you're writing you get in a zone? I've been in a zone for quite a while now. I've been working on a Broadway show for about the last five years. And notice I call it a Broadway show, even though it's not on Broadway, just because I focus on the end game. We're in the process of being picked up -- we haven't signed the contract yet, so I don't want to make something go wrong. [The] Alabama Shakespeare Festival, where we put up the work in a sort of workshop/reading form this past summer, we got a 20-minute standing ovation. So they're in the process of picking up our option and becoming our partners in this Broadway musical that I have composed called 'Double Time.' It's about a guy named Leonard Harper, who was the first and only African American to bring the Harlem Renaissance revue to Broadway in 1929.
Chic have been nominated several times to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but have yet to be inducted. What are your thoughts on that and do you think you'll get in?
Of course. In my opinion, when we were coming up, it was all rock 'n' roll. In other words, rock 'n' roll was the classification of all of this kind of contemporary pop music and you just figure out what type of rock 'n' roll it was. We weren't doing show music, we weren't doing classical music. We weren't even doing jazz. We were doing this pop thing that was under this broad banner of rock 'n' roll.
We're a funk/R&B band, we're a groove band that other people happened to like and gravitate towards. We were being very opportunistic because we saw that in the discos, they would play music by jazz musicians -- all you had to do was have a great groove. These guys figured out how to get in and so that's what we were. We were these jazz fusion instrumentalists who learned how to write songs.
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Source: http://www.spinner.com/2011/10/25/nile-rodgers-cancer-book/
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By Morty and Shelly Lefkoe
Remember the last time you heard a parent say, "My kids are wonderful. They always obey me." Or, "They never talk back." Or, "They are never a problem." Did you sigh with envy and say, "Oh, I wish my kids were like that"? Think again. What would children have to believe about themselves to always obey, never talk back, or never be a problem?
We started out as typical parents who sometimes envied those parents with "perfect" children. But as we started to consider what our children must believe to act that way, we started to have second thoughts. It would be nice if we called our children and told them dinner was ready and we found them sitting at the table seconds later. But what would they have to believe if they were playing when we called and they immediately dropped what they were doing to come to dinner? They would have to consider what we want to be more important than what they want, which might result from such beliefs as, What I want doesn't matter, and, I'm not important.
The biggest problem many of us have with our younger children is getting them into the car when we have to leave the house. A child who was always ready to leave would bring joy to any parent's heart. But, again, what beliefs would a child have to have to act that way? In addition to the two just named, another belief might be, The way to be accepted is to make people happy, to never upset them.
The Consequences of Those Beliefs
What are the long-term consequences of such beliefs? One of our clients, Joan, always did what her parents wanted when she was a kid. Her parents described her as "the perfect child." Two of the beliefs that made her compliant as a child were, What I want doesn't matter and I'm not important. As an adult these same beliefs led to passive behavior and a sense of victimization. Larry, another client, had concluded early in life, The way to be accepted is to make people happy, to never upset them. His problem as an adult was an obsession with what others thought of him and a fear of expressing his own opinions.
In session after session, hour after hour, we have heard over 13,000 clients describe the experiences they had with their parents that resulted in the beliefs they were trying to eliminate as an adult: "My mom and dad always did...," "They never did...," "They always said...," "They never said...."
Parenting Behavior Is the Source of Our Beliefs
In Shelly's parenting course, "Parenting the Lefkoe Way," she explains in detail how what parents do and don't do, say and don't say, provide their children with the experiences that the children interpret into beliefs. As we began to see how our behavior as parents led to our children forming beliefs that then determined the rest of their lives, we began to question the long-range implications of having children "obey."
Maybe getting children to behave is good for us, as parents, but not necessarily good for our children. It might make our lives easier, but what does it do to them? We asked ourselves the question: If we succeed in getting our children to do what we want, and, as a result of our interactions with our child, they form negative self-esteem beliefs, such as, I'm not good enough (as a result of frequent criticism), or, I'm not important (as a result of parents who aren't around a lot of the time), or other negative beliefs, such as, What I want doesn't matter, or, I'll never get what I want, is what we achieved short-term with our children worth the long-term cost?
We're not saying that our children's behavior on a daily basis is not important. Of course it is. There are some things that children need to do for their health and well-being, and there are some things children need to do for our well-being. We clearly would be remiss as parents if we took a totally hands-off attitude and allowed our children to do whatever they wanted. We need to learn parenting skills that enable us to influence our children's behavior when necessary, without leading to negative conclusions.
For example, instead of calling our children just when we are about to sit down to dinner or two minutes before we are about to leave the house, expecting them to drop whatever they are doing because our schedule requires their presence, we can give our children ample warning. Fifteen minutes before we will need them, we can ask them what they are doing, acknowledge that it probably is very important to them, and then ask them if they can complete whatever they're doing in 15 minutes because dinner will be ready, we will be leaving the house, etc. If we treat them and what is important to them with dignity and respect, the odds are good that they will respect our needs, without forming any negative beliefs about themselves.
The Importance of a Healthy Self-Esteem
And that is the crucial point. The single factor that has the greatest impact on whether or not our children achieve happiness and true satisfaction in life is a healthy self-esteem, a positive sense of life, and other positive beliefs, for example, Relationships work, It's safe to express feelings, and People can be trusted. Nothing they do, learn or feel as children will have as much influence on their adult life as the fundamental beliefs they form as children and take into adulthood.
Given that fact, what do you think the major role of parents should be? Getting children to behave, or assisting them to create positive decisions about themselves and life?
If you chose the latter, the best way we know to insure that you are getting your job as a parent done is constantly asking yourself the question: What is my child likely to conclude about him or herself and life as a result of this interaction we just had? If it is a positive belief, congratulations! You got your job done. If it is a negative one, go back, apologize and clean it up.
After we've changed our focus as parents, from getting our children to obey, to assisting them to create a positive attitude about themselves and life, we may no longer consider the ultimate parenting accolade to be: "Your child is so well-behaved." We may come to prefer: "Your child has such a positive attitude about him or herself and life."
Morty Lefkoe is the creator of The Lefkoe Method, a system for permanently eliminating limiting beliefs. For more information go to recreateyourlife.com/free.
Copyright ? 2011 Morty Lefkoe
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/morty-lefkoe/do-you-really-want-your-c_1_b_1020816.html
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While it?s too early to predict how Occupy Wall Street will affect local elections, presidential candidates have begun to recalibrate their campaigns to address the movement's challenges.
As buzz grows and poll numbers rise for Occupy Wall Street, the now-global movement that launched in New York City on Sept. 17 may yet become the unexpected, outside player that forces the 2012 election field to adjust its course.
Skip to next paragraphA new AP-GfK poll shows that 37 percent of the American public supports OWS, while research firm Chitika shows that online interest in the movement has swelled 150 percent over the past month.
?This will have major implications on the upcoming elections,? says Gabriel Donnini, analyst at the Westborough, Mass.-based Chitika . ?The movement is not dying out or going quietly and candidates will need to address the concerns and demands voiced by those on the streets and making a buzz on the Internet,? he adds.
While it?s too early to predict the impact Occupy Wall Street will have on local elections, presidential candidates have begun to recalibrate their responses, say political observers.
GOP hopeful Mitt Romney, for instance, has already shifted from using class warfare rhetoric, says Sarah Sobieraj, assistant professor of sociology at Tufts University in Massachusetts and author of "Sound-bitten: The Perils of Media-Centered Political Activism."
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Republicans spent the past decade being shocked and stunned by Democrats who dared to question their president?s motives for going to war in Iraq.
The late liberal lion, Sen. Ted Kennedy, took an extra large heaping of abuse from the right for his constant attacks on George W. Bush?s character as commander in chief. One low point for political civility was when Kennedy said the war in Iraq was ?made up in Texas? for political purposes.
Continue ReadingThe House Republican leader at the time called the remarks ?hateful,? ?disgusting? and attacked the Massachusetts senator for ?insulting the president?s patriotism.?
Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, characterized this and other similar Kennedy comments as ?paranoid lunacy.?
I seem to remember him calling Kennedy?s words ?shameful.?
And they were.
Can you imagine any United States senator stooping so low as to suggest that our commander in chief would risk the safety of American troops for political purposes?
Sadly, I can.
That?s why I wasn?t surprised to see GOP politicians lining up to question the president?s character in recent days when the topic of Iraq came up again.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham practically lifted Kennedy?s words line for line when he told CBS?s Bob Schieffer that ?Iraq and Afghanistan are being run out of Chicago, not Washington.?
Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann piled on for the sport of it, saying the decision to end an 8-year war and occupation was decided by ?General Axelrod?, the architect of President Obama?s reelection campaign.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also channeled Teddy Kennedy by accusing the current commander in chief of ?putting U.S. troops in peril by making a political statement to his base.?
Given GOP comments over the past weekend, are we to assume that Republicans now consider it acceptable to accuse a president of politicizing a war while threatening the safety of Americans for nakedly political considerations?
Did it ever occur to these Republican candidates that there are millions of conservative Americans who believe that after 8 years, 4,500 U.S. deaths and the federal government?s spending of $750 billion of taxpayers? money, we have given enough of our blood and treasure to Iraq? That maybe it is time to stop rebuilding Iraq and start rebuilding the U.S.A.?
And that perhaps the president made the decision he did because he thought it was in America?s best interest, instead of simply his own?
I doubt it. Whenever Democrats or Republicans lash out at their political opponents, logic never seems to get in the way of a cheap shot.
At the start of the Iraq war, Ted Kennedy conveniently forgot that the idea to depose Saddam Hussein was not ?made up in Texas? but rather during the Clinton administration, when regime change in Iraq became official policy. Kennedy himself supported Clinton?s Iraq policy and told fellow senators that ?we have known Saddam Hussein has been seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction for some time.?
This week, it is Republicans who are making themselves look foolish by attacking Obama for following a timeline laid out not by ?General Axelrod? but by George W. Bush.
The GOP would do well to live by the same standards of civility that they espoused during the Bush era and be guided by the quaint belief that politics should end at the water?s edge.
A guest columnist for POLITICO, Joe Scarborough hosts ?Morning Joe? on MSNBC and represented Florida?s 1st Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001.
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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? After years of demanding Pakistan crack down on militants in a lawless tribal area on its border with Afghanistan, the United States has now set out a possibly tougher challenge -- bring those militants to the peace table.
It's a tough task. Ties have been strained between the two allies for months since Osama bin Laden was found holed up in a town two hours from Islamabad.
And there are doubts the Pakistanis can, or will, persuade the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network to take part in the nascent peace process to end the Afghan war, given Pakistan's ties to the militants and its competing interests in the region.
On a two-day visit to Islamabad last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Pakistan's relationship with the Haqqanis akin to keeping "snakes in your backyard".
She demanded that Pakistan deny the group any safe haven in the border zone. The network is one of the most effective factions of the Afghan Taliban-led insurgency and was blamed for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul last month,
But talking with militant groups has been a long-standing effort by the United States as it prepares to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and Clinton herself said there had been U.S. overtures to the Haqqanis. Now she wants Pakistan's help.
"We think that Pakistan, for a variety of reasons, has the capacity to encourage, to push, to squeeze ... terrorists, including the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban, to be willing to engage on the peace process," she said during her visit.
Clinton's comments seemed to be well-received by a Pakistan public weary of war and increasingly convinced the U.S.-led global fight against militancy is not its battle.
Pakistan says it has sacrificed more than any other country and says up to 40,000 civilians, troops and security personnel have been killed since 2001.
But it also reflects the reality that the United States is running out of options in Afghanistan.
"They have recognized the principle of talking to the Taliban. It's almost a natural thing to talk to the others," said Ayesha Siddiqa, a noted defense analyst. "And secondly, what are the options?"
BOLD ATTACKS
Across Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO forces have been unable to deal a decisive blow to Taliban insurgents and their allies like the Haqqanis, blamed for a series of bold attacks on American targets. More than 2,700 NATO troops have been killed since 2001, as well as more than 11,000 civilians. Many thousands more have been wounded.
Formidable challenges face foreign troops in the east, along with an uncertain ally across the border in Pakistan.
NATO is seeking to weaken a host of insurgents, who in eastern Afghanistan also include the independent Hezb-i-Islami group, and push them toward embryonic peace talks with the Afghan government rather than achieving a decisive battlefield victory in this long guerrilla war.
But it's an open question as to whether Pakistan will use whatever influence it may have to bring the Haqqanis off the battlefield, because Pakistan and the United States do not have the same interests in the region.
The network is led by the battle-hardened but ailing Jalaluddin Haqqani, although his son Sirajuddin is its operational leader.
It is considered close to both al Qaeda and the Pakistani security establishment. It was one of Pakistan's most valuable assets during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and Pakistan acknowledges it maintains contact with the group.
Pakistan wants to regain influence in Afghanistan by using Afghan Taliban militants and the Haqqani network taking shelter in Pakistan. The United States needs to eliminate or neutralize those same militants and their sanctuaries so it can withdraw its combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
So, Clinton may have demanded more help in facilitating peace talks, even if the Haqqanis so far have seemed irreconcilable.
"We asked very specifically for greater cooperation from the Pakistani side to squeeze the Haqqani network and other terrorists, because we know that trying to eliminate terrorists and safe havens on one side of the border is not going to work," she said. It's unclear exactly what Pakistan is willing to do.
In the end, it's in Islamabad's interests to have a pro-Pakistani government in Kabul, and they see groups like the Haqqanis as a means of ensuring that. A potent fighting force of pro-Pakistani militants could bull its way into, or even topple, a fragile Afghan government after NATO withdraws the bulk of its combat troops.
"In the long run, the United States will have to get realistic about the region," wrote Christophe Jaffrelot, a senior research fellow at the Center for International Studies and Research at Sciences Po in Paris.
"It might just have to admit that the Pakistanis do not believe that the two countries share interests, even if Washington continues to pretend that they do."
(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn and Missy Ryan in WASHINGTON; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Paul Tait)
Welcome to THG's Week in Review! Below, our staff takes a look back at the stories, stars and scandals that made these past seven days so memorable.
If you don't already, you can FOLLOW THG on Twitter and Facebook for 24/7/365 news. Day in and day out, let us be your entertainment news source!
Now, a rundown of the week that was at The Hollywood Gossip:
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/thg-week-in-review-october-15-21-2011/
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MAUMELLE, Ark.?? Firefighters have contained a chemical fire at a factory that produces artificial fingernails and related products in central Arkansas.
North Little Rock Fire Assistant Chief Steve Smith says the fire at the Onyx Laboratories plant in Maumelle, just north of Little Rock, continues to burn early Thursday afternoon but is under control.
Smith says one person was taken to a hospital, but that he has no details of that person's injuries.
He says up to 4,000 gallons of acetone ignited in the blaze. The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management earlier said some 40,000 gallons were alight.
Workers at the plant were filling bottles of acetone in the back of the building when the fire started, officials told television station KARK.
Fire engines blocked the road leading to the facility as firefighters sprayed water on an outbuilding where the fire burned. The building was used to fill bottles of nail polish remover for retail sale. Workers at light-industry businesses in the immediate area were evacuated.
The state Department of Environmental Quality was testing the air around the site for safety.
The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44976151/ns/us_news-life/
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ReutersAllen Craig hits an RBI single against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.
updated 11:13 p.m. ET Oct. 19, 2011
ST. LOUIS - Nobody plays a hunch like Tony La Russa. Not this October, anyway.
The St. Louis manager once again looked like a genius, especially when Allen Craig pinch-hit for ace Chris Carpenter and delivered a go-ahead single that sent the Cardinals past the Texas Rangers 3-2 on Wednesday night in the World Series opener.
Craig's slicing hit in the sixth inning fell inches in front of sliding right fielder Nelson Cruz. Game 1 was just that tight throughout a cold, damp evening.
"Man, he's tough," Craig said of hard-throwing reliever Alexi Ogando. "He came right at me with fastballs, and I missed the first two. Then that last one I was trying to get the barrel on it, make the defense make a play. Fortunate, kept it fair, and Cruz made a great attempt on that. It was a great play all-around."
It was a game perfectly suited for the National League style ? lots of bunts, intentional walks and pitching changes. And in a postseason in which he's made all the right moves, the 67-year-old La Russa was at the top of his game.
After pulling Carpenter, La Russa coaxed three scoreless innings from his deep bullpen. Five relievers did the job, with Jason Motte closing for his fifth save of the postseason.
A day earlier, Texas manager Ron Washington joked, "I don't think I can ever live up to matching wits with Tony La Russa." Who can, these days?
The Cardinals even won without their Rally Squirrel. There were no sightings of the elusive critter still roaming Busch Stadium ? good thing for the rodent, too, because La Russa probably would've devised a way to catch him.
Game 2 is Thursday night, with Jaime Garcia starting for the Cards against Colby Lewis. Texas has not lost two straight games since August.
This was the first time Texas had ever played in St. Louis. Yet Josh Hamilton, Cruz and the big-hitting Rangers looked a lot like the team that fizzled at the plate in last year's World Series against San Francisco.
Each team wound up with six hits. The wild-card Cardinals just did more with them.
Lance Berkman put St. Louis ahead with a two-run single in the fourth. Mike Napoli tied it with a two-run homer in the fifth.
Carpenter earned his eighth postseason win, breaking the team record he shared with Bob Gibson. Of course, all of Gibby's victories came in the World Series.
"Carp, he did what he usually does," Craig said. "He was our leader out there tonight. "Went out there and threw strikes, got early outs, and he led us tonight. It was great."
Carpenter helped himself with a nifty play in the first inning, diving to catch a toss from first baseman Albert Pujols and tagging the bag with his glove. He didn't argue when La Russa removed him ? all the Cards know too well to doubt La Russa's smarts.
Cardinals relievers Fernando Salas, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, Arthur Rhodes and Motte finished.
C.J. Wilson fell to 0-5 in his last seven postseason starts, dating to last year.
The Texas lefty recently spent 2? minutes in a Dallas cryotherapy chamber, where liquid nitrogen lowered the temperature to 295 degrees below zero trying to speed body recovery. It was a bit warmer at the ballpark, at 49 degrees for the first pitch.
Wilson became the first pitcher to lose an All-Star game, an AL division series game, an AL championship series game and a World Series game in the same year, STATS LLC said.
In a postseason where St. Louis and Texas starters have struggled, Carpenter and Wilson each pitched well enough. They both left in the bottom of the sixth when the managerial wheels started to spin.
It was 2-all when the Rangers pitched around eighth-place hitter Nick Punto with a four-pitch walk that put runners at the corners with two outs. La Russa did not hesitate and pulled Carpenter, sending up the versatile Craig.
Washington countered, yanking Wilson and bringing in Ogando. All the pieces in place, it was time to play ? and what followed was the play of the game.
Craig swung through two fastballs, then hit a slicing drive toward the right field line. Cruz tried to make a sliding catch, except the ball bounced just before it reached him and thudded off his left leg for an RBI single. The hit scored NL championship series MVP David Freese, the St. Louis area prep star who led off with a double.
Napoli kept up his season of slugging, hitting a two-run homer in the fifth that made it 2-all. He had come into the game 3 for 3 lifetime against Carpenter and had been the only Texas hitter to homer off him, but he bounced into a double play with two runners on his first time up. He avenged that with an opposite-field drive to right.
Traded twice within a week last winter, Napoli blossomed in Texas, prompting Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon to pronounced it "The Year of the Napoli" during the AL playoffs.
The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead in the fourth after Pujols hit ? or was hit by pitch, more precisely. The St. Louis star was plunked on the lower left leg to start the inning, Matt Holliday sliced a double and Berkman chopped a two-run single down the first base line.
Players, umpires and techs needed a little time to work out the kinks.
Freese saw Ian Kinsler's leadoff grounder glance off his glove at third base for a single, and stared at the glove that betrayed him. The next inning, Adrian Beltre doubled off Freese's leather.
Third base umpire Ron Kulpa missed his first call in a Series. He ruled Beltre caught Pujols' liner to third when the ball actually bounced in the opening inning.
And there was a glitch when "American Idol" winner Scotty McCreery started to sing the national anthem. The microphone didn't work and he got a replacement. The delay came with Michelle Obama and Jill Biden standing on the mound to honor military veterans. The first lady's husband stood in the same place to throw out the first ball at the 2009 All-Star game.
NOTES: It was 49 degrees at the start, tied for the third-coldest for an opener since Major League Baseball started keeping temperature records in 1975. ... This was the Cardinals' 106th World Series game, breaking a tie with the Dodgers and Giants franchises for second most in history. The Yankees lead with 225. ... Garcia is 0-2 with a 5.74 ERA in three postseason starts. ... Lewis is 4-1 in the postseason. His loss came this year to Detroit in the ALCS. ... The team that has won the Series opener in 12 of the last 14 years has gone on to take the crown. ... This was the first AL Central vs. NL Central matchup in the Series since baseball went to six divisions in 1994. ... Texas star Michael Young had his 35th birthday. Cardinals infielder Daniel Descalso turned 25. ... NBA All-Star Dirk Nowitzki of the champion Dallas Mavericks is set to throw out the first ball at Game 3.
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsPinch-hitter Allen Craig singled in the go-ahead run off reliever Alexi Ogando in the sixth inning with a sinking line drive that dropped just in front of right fielder Nelson Cruz, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 3-2 on Wednesday night in a chilly World Series opener.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44968588/ns/sports-baseball/
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FILE - In this Saturday, June 12, 2010 file photo, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi talks during a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of the American military bases in the country, in Tripoli, Libya. The Associated Press is aware of reports that Moammar Gadhafi has been captured in Sirte. The chief spokesman for the revolutionary National Transitional Council Jalal el-Gallal and the council military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin told the AP that those reports are unconfirmed. (AP Photo/ Abdel Magid Al Fergany, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, June 12, 2010 file photo, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi talks during a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of the American military bases in the country, in Tripoli, Libya. The Associated Press is aware of reports that Moammar Gadhafi has been captured in Sirte. The chief spokesman for the revolutionary National Transitional Council Jalal el-Gallal and the council military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin told the AP that those reports are unconfirmed. (AP Photo/ Abdel Magid Al Fergany, File)
This image made available by the Al Jazeera television channel claims to show former Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi, after he was killed at an undisclosed location in Libya, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. Libya's information minister said Gadhafi was killed Thursday when revolutionary forces overwhelmed his hometown, Sirte, the last major bastion of resistance two months after the regime fell. (AP Photo/Al Jazeera)
FILE - In this Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 file photo, Libya's leader Moammar Gadhafi attends a wreath laying ceremony in the Belarus capital Minsk. The Associated Press is aware of reports that Moammar Gadhafi has been captured in Sirte. The chief spokesman for the revolutionary National Transitional Council Jalal el-Gallal and the council military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin told the AP that those reports are unconfirmed. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010 file photo, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi chairs the Arab summit in Sirte, Libya. The Associated Press is aware of reports that Moammar Gadhafi has been captured in Sirte. The chief spokesman for the revolutionary National Transitional Council Jalal el-Gallal and the council military spokesman Abdul-Rahman Busin tell the AP that those reports are unconfirmed. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 8, 2011 file photo, a portrait depicting Libya's former ruler Moammar Gadhafi is riddled with bullet marks and vandalized with paint on a wall in Tripoli, Libya. NATO confirms it hit a convoy of Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists fleeing Sirte as the city fell Thursday, but there are conflicting reports whether the ousted Libyan leader was in the convoy or possibly killed or captured.(AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) ? During nearly 42 years in power, Moammar Gadhafi ruled with an eccentric brutality. He was so mercurial he turned Libya into an isolated pariah, then an oil power courted by the West, then back again. At home, his whims became law and his visions became a warped dictatorship, until he was finally toppled by his own people.
The modern Middle East's longest-reigning figure, Libya's 69-year-old "Brother Leader" became the first ruler killed in the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region this year.
After rebels overwhelmed the capital Tripoli and drove him into hiding in late August, Gadhafi vowed in messages to fight on until "martyrdom or victory" and to "burn Libya under the feet" of his enemies. And indeed, he met his end Thursday alongside his last heavily armed supporters, cornered by revolutionary fighters in Sirte, the fishing village where he was born and which he transformed during his rule into a virtual second capital city.
In the last images of him alive, a wounded Gadhafi staggered and shouted at fighters dragging him away after pulling him out of a drainage tunnel where he took refuge trying to flee Sirte with loyalists. His goateed face was bloodied, his head balding after the loss of the hairpiece that filled out his trademark bush of curly hair.
"What do you want? Don't kill me, my sons," Gadhafi said to the fighters as they grabbed him, one commander said.
Gadhafi leaves behind an oil-rich nation of 6 million traumatized by a rule that drained it of institutions after four decades when all issues came down to one man and his family. Notorious for his extravagant outfits ? ranging from white suits and sunglasses to military uniforms with frilled epaulets to brilliantly colored robes decorated with the map of Africa ? he styled himself as a combination Bedouin chief and philosopher king, with titles from "leader of the revolution" to "king of the kings of Africa."
He ruled by mad lurches. He was a sponsor of terrorism whose regime was blamed for blowing up two passenger jets and who then helped the U.S. in the war on terror. He was an Arab nationalist who mocked Arab rulers. He seemed to revel in infuriating leaders, whether in the West or the Middle East.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan branded him a "mad dog" after a 1986 bombing that killed U.S. servicemen in Berlin was blamed on Libya. Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who fought a border war with Libya in the 1970s, wrote in his diary that Gadhafi was "mentally sick" and "needs treatment."
Behind the flamboyance and showmanship, associates say Gadhafi was meticulous in managing the levers of power. He intervened in decisions large and small and constantly met personally with tribal leaders and military officers whose support he maintained through lucrative posts.
The sole constant was his grip on the country. Numerous coup and assassination attempts against him over the years mostly ended with public executions of the plotters, hanged in city squares.
The ultimate secret of his longevity lay in the vast oil reserves under his North African desert nation and in his capacity for drastic changes of course when necessary.
The most spectacular U-turn came in late 2003. After years of denial, Libya acknowledged responsibility ? though in a Gadhafi-esque twist of logic, not guilt ? for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people. He agreed to pay up to $10 million to relatives of each victim.
He also announced that Libya would dismantle its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs under international supervision.
The rewards came fast. Within months, the U.S. lifted economic sanctions and resumed diplomatic ties. The European Union hosted Gadhafi in Brussels. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2008 became the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in more than 50 years. Rice had a special place in the heart for Gadhafi, who in an interview once called her "my darling black African woman ... I love her very much ... Leezza, Leezza, Leezza." Tony Blair, as British prime minister, also visited him in Tripoli.
International oil companies rushed to invest in Libya's fields. Documents uncovered after Gadhafi's fall revealed close cooperation between his intelligence services and the CIA in pursuing terror suspects after the 9/11 attacks, even before the U.S. lifted its designation of Libya as a sponsor of terror in 2006.
Still, Gadhafi's renegade ways did not change. After Swiss police had the temerity to briefly arrest his son Hannibal for allegedly beating up two servants in a Geneva luxury hotel in 2008, Gadhafi's regime arrested two Swiss nationals and raked Switzerland over the coals, extracting an apology and compensation before finally releasing the men nearly two years later. European countries, eagerly building economic ties with Libya, did little to back up Switzerland in the dispute.
But Gadhafi became an instant pariah once more when he began a brutal crackdown on the February uprising in his country that grew out of the "Arab Spring" of popular revolts across the region. The U.N. authorized a no-fly zone for Libya in March, and NATO launched a campaign of airstrikes against his military forces.
"I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents. ... I will die as a martyr at the end," he proclaimed in one of his last televised speeches during the uprising, pounding the lectern near a sculpture of a golden fist crushing a U.S. warplane.
Gadhafi was born in 1942 in the central Libyan desert near Sirte, the son of a Bedouin father who was once jailed for opposing Libya's Italian colonialists. The young Gadhafi seemed to inherit that rebellious nature, being expelled from high school for leading a demonstration, and disciplined while in the army for organizing revolutionary cells.
In 1969, as a mere 27-year-old captain, he emerged as leader of a group of officers who overthrew the monarchy of King Idris. A handsome, dashing figure in uniform and sunglasses, Gadhafi took undisputed power and became a symbol of anti-Western defiance in a Third World recently liberated from its European colonial rulers.
During the 1970s, Gadhafi proceeded to transform the nation.
A U.S. air base was closed. Some 20,000 Italians were expelled in retaliation for the 1911-41 occupation. Businesses were nationalized.
In 1975 he published the "Green Book," his political manifesto that laid out what he called the "Third International Theory" of government and society. He declared Libya to be a "Jamahiriya" ? an Arabic neologism he created meaning roughly "republic of the masses."
Everyone rules, it declared, calling representative democracy a form of tyranny, and Libyans were organized into "people's committees" that went all the way up to a "People's Congress," a sort of parliament.
In the end, rule by all meant rule by none except Gadhafi, who elevated himself to colonel and declared himself "Brother Leader."
"He aspired to create an ideal state," said North African analyst Saad Djebbar of Cambridge University. "He ended up without any components of a normal state. The 'people's power' was the most useless system in the world."
In the 1970s and 1980s, Gadhafi supported groups deemed by the West to be terrorists ? from the Irish Republican Army through various radical Palestinian units to militant groups in the Philippines. He embarked on a series of military adventures in Africa, invading Chad in 1980-89, and supplying arms, training and finance to rebels in Liberia, Uganda and Burkina Faso.
A 1984 incident at the Libyan Embassy in London entrenched his regime's image as a lawless one. A gunman inside the embassy opened fire on a demonstration by Gadhafi opponents outside, killing a British policewoman.
The heat was rising, meanwhile, between the Reagan administration and Gadhafi over terrorism. In 1986, Libya was found responsible for a bombing at a Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. troops in which three people died. America struck back by sending warplanes to bomb Libya. About 40 Libyans died.
The Lockerbie bombing followed in 1988, followed a year later by a bombing that downed a French airliner over the West African nation of Niger. The West was outraged, and years of sanctions followed.
Libya's road back from pariah status began in 1999, when Gadhafi's government handed over two Libyans for trial in the Lockerbie bombing. In 2001, a Scottish court convicted one, an intelligence agent, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The other was acquitted.
In 2002, Gadhafi looked back on his actions and told a crowd of Libyans in the southern city of Sabha: "In the old days, they called us a rogue state. They were right in accusing us of that. In the old days, we had a revolutionary behavior."
Throughout his rule, he was a showman who would stop at nothing to make his point.
His appearances at Arab League summits were an annual cause of cringing among fellow Arab rulers. At one, he argued vehemently with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, winning the monarch's eternal hatred. At another, Gadhafi smoked cigars on the conference hall floor during speeches to show his contempt.
In a 2009 address at the United Nations, he rambled on about jet lag, then tore up a copy of the U.N. charter, saying the Security Council "should be called the terrorism council."
On state trips, he would insist on setting up a tent to stay in. He sported a personal escort of female guards ? which he once explained by saying: "There are no men in the Arab world."
A 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable released by the website WikiLeaks spoke of Gadhafi's intense dislike of staying on upper floors of buildings, aversion to flying over water, and taste for horse racing and flamenco dancing.
"At night, Moammar dreams; by day, he implements," Libyans would say, referring to the bizarre rules Gadhafi would randomly impose on the country, like demanding all storefront doors be painted green, the signature color of his regime. Or like complaining that Libyans were going abroad for medical treatment and deciding it was because of a lack of Libyan doctors ? so he ordered Tripoli's main medical school to take 2,000 new students regardless of qualifications, well beyond its 150-student capacity.
He even renamed the months, calling the cold month of January "Ayn al-Nar," Arabic for "Where is the Fire."
In the past decade, power was increasingly concentrated with his eight biological children, who snapped up elite military posts or lucrative business positions. His British-educated son Seif al-Islam was widely seen as being groomed as a successor. There was no immediate word on his fate Thursday.
His only daughter, Aisha, became a lawyer and helped in the defense of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's toppled dictator, in the trial that led to his hanging.
Gadhafi did spend oil revenue on building schools, hospitals, irrigation and housing on a scale his Mediterranean nation had never seen.
"He did really bring Libya from being one of the most backward and poorest countries in Africa to becoming an oil-rich state with an elaborate infrastructure and with reasonable access by the Libyan population to the essential services they required," said George Joffe of Cambridge University.
Still, about a third of Libya's people remain in poverty. Gadhafi showered benefits on parts of the country, such as Tripoli. Meanwhile, eastern Libya, ultimately the source of February's rebellion, was allowed to atrophy.
At least one of his sons, Saif al-Arab, was killed during the 2011 uprising, and another, Khamis, was believed killed. Others, along with his wife Safiya, fled to neighboring Algeria or Niger. Seif al-Islam and Muatassim, who commanded one the military units involved in the crackdown on protesters, fled into hiding when Tripoli fell.
___
Keath reported from Cairo. Christopher Gillette in Sirte and Rami al-Shaheibi in Tripoli contributed to this report.
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