Osama Bin Laden is dead, President Obama announced Sunday night, in a televised address to the nation. His death was the result of a U.S. operation launched today in Abbottabad, Pakistan, against a compound where bin Laden was believed to be hiding, according to U.S. intelligence. After a firefight, a small team of American forces killed bin Laden and took possession of his body, the president said.

“Tonight I can report to the American people and the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden,” Obama said during brief remarks at the White House.

(SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE UPDATES)

“Justice has been done,” he said, in comments that marked a formal end of the manhunt for the most visible and emotionally-charged symbol of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The president said U.S. intelligence operatives received a tip in August on bin Laden’s whereabouts, which ultimately led to Sunday’s attack. Obama said he determined last week that the U.S. had enough reliable information to take action; by Sunday morning, he had authorized “a small team of Americans” to conduct an operation targeting bin Laden.

“After a fire fight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body,” the president said. “No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties.”

Obama said the 9/11 attacks that bin Laden and his lieutenants orchestrated nearly 10 years ago remain “the worst attack on the American people in our history” and said the images of the crumbling Twin Towers “are seared into our national memory.”

The president emphasized that Americans “did not choose this fight” against al Qaeda, but rather, “it came to our shores.” He praised U.S. military and intelligence professionals for working “tirelessly to achieve this outcome.” To the families of 9/11 victims, he noted that the U.S. has “never forgotten your loss.”

“Tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11,” Obama said. “I know that it has, at times, frayed. Yet today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people.”

Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had targeted bin Laden during their presidencies, and both had failed to either capture him or kill him. The failure to snare bin Laden weighed most heavily, perhaps, on the Bush Administration, which occupied the White House during the 9/11 attacks, and the al Qaeda leader’s killing falls exactly eight years to the day when Bush famously declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq.

Bush said in a statement that Obama called him Sunday night to inform him of “the momentous achievement” of bin Laden’s death.

“I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude,” Bush said. “The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.”

Clinton, who was president when the first World Trade Center bombing occurred in 1993, issued a statement calling bin Laden’s death “a profoundly important moment not just for the families of those who lost their lives on 9/11 and in al-Qaida’s other attacks but for people all over the world who want to build a common future of peace, freedom, and cooperation for our children.”

In a conference call with reporters just after President Obama spoke, senior administration officials provided a detailed sketch of how the intelligence on bin Laden’s whereabouts was gathered.

Intelligence officials had been conducting lengthy reconnaissance work prior to receiving their key tip in August. According to senior administration officials, suspected terrorists in custody since 9/11 — including the attack’s mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — identified a courier who had a close relationship with bin Laden.

“This man was one of the few al Qaeda couriers trusted by bin Laden,” one senior administration official said. “They indicated he might be living with and protecting bin Laden. But for years we were unable to identify his true name or his location. Four years ago we uncovered his identity… About two years ago, after months of persistent effort, we identified areas of Pakistan where the courier and his brother operated. Still, we were unable to pinpoint exactly where they lived due to extensive operational security on their part. The fact that they were being so careful reinforced our belief that we were on the right track.”

When the intelligence community finally pinpointed the courier’s location, they were “shocked by what we saw,” said this official.

The neighborhood in Abbottabad was “relatively affluent with lots of retired military,” this official continued, and was insulated from urban areas or places susceptible to natural disaster and terrorist attacks. The home was “roughly eight times larger than the other homes in the area,” and it was surrounded by 12-to-18-foot-high walls, topped with barbed wire. It had two security gates and a value of roughly $1 million, although it lacked telephone and Internet connections.

An even more telling clue for intelligence operatives: The occupants of the house were burning their trash rather than putting it out for collection.

One senior administration official suggested bin Laden had been staying at the compound for at least six months without moving. Bin Laden was known to have regularly shifted locations to evade capture, so it’s unusual that he chose to stay in on spot for such an extended period.

More recently, the Obama administration had reduced the number of drone strikes in the area — while ramping up surveillance — in an effort to give the al Qaeda leader a heightened sense of safety in his home.

Prior to the operation, Obama convened nine meetings with his national security team to review intelligence. According to a White House aide, “Principals met formally an additional five times themselves and their deputies met seven times.”

The president made the decision to undertake the operation at 8:20 a.m. on April 29th in the White House’s Diplomatic Room before he left to survey tornado damage in Alabama. Tom Donilon, his National Security Advisor, prepared the formal orders and convened the principals at 3 p.m. that same day to complete the planning.

The next day, without giving off a hint of the weighty operation being planned, Obama prepared for and delivered his address at the annual White House Correspondent’s Association dinner. The next morning he played nine holes of golf.

Final preparations were made on Sunday. At 2 p.m., the president met with top advisers for an hour and half, at which point he returned to the Situation Room for an additional briefing. Twenty minutes after that, he learned that bin Laden had been “tentatively identified.” By 7 p.m. he was told it was highly probable that bin Laden was at the compound. By 8:30 p.m., he received an additional briefing. He signed off on the attack after that.

No other intelligence operatives in other countries were told of the attack before it occurred — including Pakistani operatives — according to administration officials. Vice President Joseph Biden informed congressional leadership of the attack shortly before it took place, aides on the Hill told the Huffington Post.

Details about the fight itself are still difficult to come by. According to local reports in Pakistan, a helicopter involved in the attack had a mechanical problem and crashed.

U.S. forces intentionally destroyed the remainder of the wreckage to reduce signs of their presence in the area , according to NBC and other media reports. Two helicopters remained to provide cover for Joint Special Operations Command forces; in addition, there was a predator drone.

The fight lasted only 40 minutes and was described by a senior administration official as a “surgical raid” conducted by a Navy Seals unit. Bin Laden’s adult son was killed, as were two of his couriers and a woman being used as a human shield. Bin Laden himself “did resist the assault force,” a senior administration official said. Reports on Sunday night said the terrorist leader was ultimately shot in the head.

Officials warned that in the aftermath of the attack, Americans should be on alert for a reprisal from al Qaeda. However, one official added, there were “no specific threats” as of Sunday night. ABC News reported that authorities plan to bury bin Laden’s body at sea in order to leave no definitive location for his final resting place. It will be done, an official added, “in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition.” Hours later, CNN reported that the burial had taken place.

“Americans understand the costs of war,” Obama said toward the end of his remarks. “Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies.”

DEVELOPING…

Today’s show is about Christian Nativity versus an Atheist sign challenge. We will discuss why a Washington State Governor allowed an Atheist sign to be displayed in the capitol next to the Christian Nativity scene. Was it a good decision, or should the Governor’s decision be challenge?
Story

SOURCE: MYNORTHWEST.COM
Updated Dec 5, 2008 - 3:35 pm
Atheist holiday sign returned
An anti-religion placard posted alongside Christmas displays drew a thief, a preacher, a part-time elf and a security detail to the state Capitol on Friday, as a weeklong uproar over religious speech hit a bizarre peak.
It all started Monday, when the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation unveiled a winter solstice sign in the grand marble hallways around the Capitol Rotunda.
The sign’s atheistic message - reading in part that “religion is but myth and superstition” - drew top billing on conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly’s TV show.
Several days of angry messages to Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire followed, and on Friday morning, someone removed the atheists’ sign and apparently hustled it out of the Capitol.
A radio station in Seattle, about 60 miles north, soon reported that an unidentified man had dropped off the pilfered placard, and the Washington State Patrol dispatched someone to pick it up.
Meanwhile, people flocked to the Capitol to check out the crime scene, set up their own protest signs and speak to a bank of TV news cameras jamming the hallway.
Among the crowd was James Pritchard of Seattle, who wore a pointy green hat and passed out candy-striped business cards proclaiming him “J. Elfus, Special Assistant to the Claus.”
Despite his obvious preference for Christmas, Pritchard said he wants everyone to celebrate any holiday they like. But he was offended by the atheists’ message, which he felt was designed mostly to mock religion.
“I heard about what was going on down here, and we had to order a truckload of coal,” he said.
And that was just the start.
Pastor Ken Hutcherson, a Christian preacher well-known here for his commentary on social issues, also arrived to put up a sign that flipped the atheists’ message into an affirmation of religion. Another small group put up a handmade poster reading, “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
Several other parties submitted applications to state groundskeepers, seeking to display everything from a set of Nativity balloons to an aluminum Festivus pole - an homage to the invented “holiday for the rest of us” coined by the long-running comedy show “Seinfeld.”
Burly State Patrol troopers paced the hallway the whole time, presumably guarding against any other shenanigans. Statues of the Holy Family remained undisturbed in their cedar stable.
Annie Laurie Gaylor of Madison, Wis., a co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said the group planned to install a replacement solstice poster until the proper sign could be recovered.
The group has displayed a similar sign in the Wisconsin Capitol for more than a decade, and has gotten used to this sort of response. For the first few years, opponents of the anti-religious message have turned the sign to face the wall, stolen it, and even showered it with acid, she said.
“It is interesting that our views are so threatening that they have to be stolen and stifled completely,” Gaylor said.
Gregoire and Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna have defended the atheists’ right to display their sign in the Capitol.
The state began granting broader access to religious displays a few years back, after a Jewish group added a Hanukkah menorah to the long-standing display of a massive evergreen Christmas tree - these days called a “holiday tree” - sponsored by the Association of Washington Business.
A local real estate agent sued after his subsequent request for a Nativity scene was denied, but the case was settled and the creche installed. This year is the first time the Freedom From Religion Foundation added its holiday message to the mix.
State carpenter Jim Buenzli, who first noticed the missing atheist sign Friday morning, said he was fed up by the whole furor. That’s why he applied for permission to place the Festivus pole, which he planned to purchase and install next week.
“I got sick of the way these things were going, so I wanted to put some humor into it,” Buenzli said. “They’re making a big mockery out of our state on the news.”
—
AP Writers Doug Esser, Manuel Valdes and Rachel La Corte contributed to this report.
© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY

In Florida, an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Passover

holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against

Christians, Jews and observances of their holy days.

The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate

presentation
by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring,”Case

dismissed!”

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, “Your honor,

how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas,

Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my

client and all other atheists have no
such holidays.”

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, “But you do. Your client,

counsel, is woefully ignorant.”

The lawyer said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance

or holiday for atheists.”

The judge said, “The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day.

Psalm 14:1 states, ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God.’

Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no

God,

then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.

MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BOOK DEAL AND PALIN IS BESIDE HERSELF
PALIN SNUBBS OPRAH…
It’s not Oprah Winfrey’s fault that former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin hasn’t been a guest on her talk show yet! Winfrey declared, “I said I would be happy to talk to Sarah Palin when the election was over… I went and tried to talk to Sarah Palin and instead she talked to Greta [Van Susteren]. She talked to Matt [Lauer]. She talked to Larry [King]. But she didn’t talk to me. But maybe she’ll talk to me now that she has a [multi-million dollar] book deal.”
When asked if Oprah will have Barack Obama on the show, she responded, “There’s always an open invitation for the president-elect and first lady.”
“Extra’s” AJ Calloway caught up with Winfrey at last night’s Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s 50th anniversary celebration where she served as honorary chair. Winfrey joked, “In my wildest, wildest, crazy, crazy dreams, I am a dancer…When I’ve like had too many tequila shots and I go to sleep, I dream of being a dancer.”
AND - Winfrey told Calloway the one thing that she had to rescue when the Santa Barbara wildfires threatened her home was a book of letters from Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and all the young ladies who attended her Legends Ball. Winfrey exclaimed, “So when the fires were coming and the flames were a blowin’, I said, ‘Get my letters!’”

Book Deal Story

From The Sunday Times
November 16, 2008
Sarah Palin’s failure set to reap her $7m book deal
Tony Allen-Mills in New York
She failed to save John McCain from presidential election doom, but Sarah Palin, the Republican senator’s controversial running mate, may yet emerge as the saviour of the American publishing industry. Literary agents are queueing up to sign her to a book deal that could earn her up to $7m.
With Barack Obama’s election victory certain to generate dozens of volumes from politicians, strategists and journalists – and with another shelfload of memoirs expected from members of President George W Bush’s administration – Palin’s personal account of her tumultuous introduction to national politics is widely regarded as the book most likely to repay a multi-million-dollar advance.
“She’s poised to make a ton of money,” said Howard Rubenstein, New York’s best-known public relations adviser.
“Every publisher and a lot of literary agents have been going after her,” added Jeff Klein of Folio Literary management.
Palin’s profile showed no sign of diminishing last week, despite McCain’s defeat and embittered Republicans seeking a scapegoat for the party’s collapse.
She now finds herself in a position similar to Obama’s in 2004, when the then mostly unknown Chicago politician delivered a mesmerising speech to the Democratic convention, was elected to the Senate and swiftly wrote a bestselling book – The Audacity of Hope. This proved to be the springboard for his presidential launch.
Like Obama, Palin has come from nowhere – in her case, Wasilla, Alaska. She is considered a likely candidate to move to Washington as Alaska’s senator if one of the state’s two seats falls vacant next year. Her book may reach a vast audience fascinated by her journey from the moose-hunting wastes of the Alaskan tundra to a historic battle for the White House.
Undaunted by her poll defeat, Palin was in fighting form last week, inviting cameras into her home, serving visiting interviewers home-cooked moose chilli and haddock and salmon casserole.
She scoffed at untrue reports that she initially thought Africa was a country and that she didn’t know members of the North American Free Trade Agreement. She said much of the criticism levelled at her came from “bloggers in their parents’ basements just talking garbage”.
At a sombre meeting of Republican governors later in the week, Palin’s megawatt celebrity far outshone her more experienced colleagues. Frank Luntz, a prominent Republican consultant, called her a “rock star”, but Tim Pawlenty, the governor of Minnesota, warned that she would be only “one of the voices” leading the party forward.
Yet there are already signs that conservative Republicans, thrilled by Palin’s right-wing views, are manoeuvring to keep her in the public eye with a view to the 2012 elections and beyond. One group, called Our Country Deserves Better, last week collected tens of thousands of dollars to pay for television advertisements to run over the forthcoming Thanksgiving holiday. The adverts are to thank Palin for her efforts.
Despite polling evidence that Palin failed to make much impact on any of the groups that McCain strategists hoped she might deliver – women, independent voters and suburbanites – her supporters insisted that she should not be blamed for either McCain’s shortcomings or the legacy of the Bush administration’s failures. Palin herself noted that in view of the Bush record, “it’s amazing we did as well as we did”.
Although anonymous McCain aides had variously described her as a “diva” and a “whack job” and Maureen Dowd of The New York Times derided her last week as “Eliza Know-little”, she has earned plaudits from a surprising range of friends and former foes for keeping her cool under fire.
Camille Paglia, the radical feminist, declared that she had “heartily enjoyed [Palin’s] arrival on the national stage”. She had been subjected to “an atrocious and sometimes delusional level of defamation”, Paglia added. “I can see how smart she is and, quite frankly, I think the people who don’t see it are the stupid ones.”
Joanne Bamberger, the liberal author of the popular PunditMom blog, praised Palin for not “fading into the Alaskan woodwork”, and added: “She’s got some serious chutzpah . . . Palin has taken charge of this moment . . . and she’s making the most of the notoriety that was offered her”.
With publishers as nervous as everyone else about next year’s economic prospects, Palin’s popularity has become a boon. “Nobody is waiting for George W Bush’s memoirs,” one New York agent noted.

Palin Oprah

Today’s Topic:
Today’s show is about a Gov. Sara Palin snubbing Oprah after the GOP’s failed presidential bid, and post campaign 7-Million dollar loser’s purse. Tune in, we will discuss the details of the story in depth.

Palin Gaffes

Show Date and Time: 1-3-08 at 7:00p.m.
Politicsforher.com Show
Host: Monica Brown
Co-Host: Carolyn Vining

Today’s Topic:
A Convicted Felon vs. Federal Prison
Family appeals to allow dying girl to see father…
Today’s show is about convicted felons and urgent family crisis that warrants special consideration. Should prisons grant prisoners special relief in urgent life and death family matters? We will discuss why the moral and humanistic side of the controversy, and the public safety side of the issue.
Local Media
Dying girl’s (Jayci Yaeger) last wish is to see her convict felon father

Associated Press

CNN

Federal Prison Inmate Jason Gets A chance to see his dying daughter

Story
Family appeals to allow dying girl to see father
BY KENDRA WALTKE / Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Mar 21, 2008 - 07:38:22 pm CDT
Jayci Yaeger no longer can speak, but tears roll down her face when she hears her father’s voice on the telephone.

Back when the 10-year-old was well enough, she expressed one dying wish: To be with her dad. The Lincoln girl’s seven-year struggle with cancer appears to be drawing to a close.

But her father, Jason Yaeger, can’t be at her side because he’s incarcerated on a methamphetamine conviction at a federal prison camp in Yankton, S.D., three hours away.

“I believe she’s just hanging on for her daddy,” her uncle, Ed Yaeger, said late Friday afternoon.

Twice, doctors have told the family to pay their last respects.

“Yesterday and last evening, she gave us quite a scare,” said Ed Yaeger, Jason Yaeger’s brother.

Jayci is in hospice care in Lincoln. She last saw her father three weeks ago during a two-hour visit supervised by a prison guard.

Her father has repeatedly appealed to the Bureau of Prisons for a furlough, or escorted release, which federal prisons can allow in cases with “extraordinary justification.”

“But they say this is not extraordinary,” said Jayci’s aunt, Heidi Genthe of Pleasant Dale.

No timetable was requested for the furlough, Ed Yaeger said.

“He’s left the time open so he can be here when she passes and for the funeral.”

Jason Yaeger has visited his daughter three times since her condition was declared terminal last fall, once in October and twice in the past month. Each visit cost the family $200 to $300 for the guard and expenses.

He has nearly a year left on a 5½-year sentence and is set for an August release to a Council Bluffs, Iowa, halfway house, where he would be allowed to visit Jayci in Lincoln.

Now he fears he will not see his daughter alive again.

“It’s eating him up,” his brother said. “Every second counts.”

The story, first reported on local television stations, has drawn outrage at home and nationwide from those who say a child is being punished for her father’s crime.

Jayci’s mother, Vonda Yaeger, was on the “CBS Early Show” Thursday. Ed Yaeger spoke to CNN live on Friday. Jason Yaeger was interviewed by ABC.

Phone calls and letters poured into the offices of South Dakota and Nebraska politicians.

Ed Yaeger hopes the national attention will force the Bureau of Prisons to overturn its decision,

“Anything anyone can do to put pressure on them will help us,” he said.

Gov. Dave Heineman has expressed his empathy to the Yaeger family, said spokeswoman Jen Rae Hein, but the matter is federal. Nebraska’s congressional delegation also received many calls.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry’s office requested a clarification of the term “extraordinary” from the Bureau of Prisons, said Fortenberry spokesman Josh Moenning.

The matter rests in the hands of the federal agency, Moenning said.

In a response to Fortenberry’s request for clarification, sent in reference to Yaeger’s plea for early release to the halfway house in Council Bluffs, Michael K. Nalley, the regional director for the bureau, wrote: “While there are no set determining factors, ‘extraordinary circumstances’ are determined on an individual, case-by-case basis. … His case is not unlike that of many other offenders, whose incarceration takes them away from loved ones who must endure both financial and health-related hardships.”

Ed Yaeger said all decisions appear to be left to federal prison officials, who upheld the Yankton warden’s recommendation.

“It appears the Bureau of Prisons does not answer to anyone but the president,” Ed Yaeger said.

“I think the thing to stress is that Jason is in a minimum-security prison. There are no bars, no walls. He has to cross a busy public street to get between the buildings.”

When he transferred from a prison to the Yankton site, Jason Yaeger was given a furlough and “put on a Greyhound bus.”

In a statement to the press, the Yankton prison said: “Bureau of Prisons officials have reviewed inmate Yaeger’s request for a compassionate release and have determined his situation does not meet the criteria.”

A spokesperson for the prison indicated no more information would be publicly released until next week.

Jayci’s parents were living near Princeton when she was diagnosed with brain tumors at age 3. They have since divorced.

The south Lancaster County area has been very supportive of the girl, even naming a Princeton street “Jayci Lane.”

Shelby Yaeger, Jayci’s younger sister, is not taking the illness well, their uncle said. The girls live with their mother in Lincoln’s Air Park.

“Jason has just about paid his debt to society,” Ed Yaeger said. “It’s not really about Jason, it’s about a little girl who just wants to see her dad.”

Story
Workplace Bullying ‘Epidemic’ Worse Than Sexual Harassment
By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 08 March 2008 08:15 am ET
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Workplace bullying could cause more harm to employees than sexual harassment, researchers say.

Belittling comments, exclusion from outings and criticism of work may seem relatively benign and get brushed off by business higher-ups as “kid’s stuff.” But the consequences to employees and even the bottom line are far from child’s play.

“Organizations don’t realize that just rude behaviors, ongoing discourteous types of behaviors, have such negative effects on employees,” said Sandy Hershcovis, assistant professor of business at the University of Manitoba, who is presenting research here today at the Seventh International Conference on Work, Stress and Health.

The meeting was co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology.

“Unless you’re in the situation you just don’t understand,” Hershcovis told LiveScience. “A lot of people say, ‘Oh it’s just a personality conflict, they don’t really mean it.’ But when you’re in the situation - and many of us have been - it’s pretty horrible.”

Bully prevalence

The Workplace Bullying Institute found in a nationally representative poll last year that 37 percent of the U.S. workforce, or 54 million employees, have been bullied now or some time during their work life.

“Anything that affects 37 percent of the public is an epidemic. But it’s a silent epidemic,” said Gary Namie, Director of the Workplace Bullying Institute in Bellingham, Wash.

Evidence from several research fields, including law, communications, business management and psychology, are revealing the hardships that targets of bullying face, and they ain’t pretty.

“Targets of severe workplace bullying are suffering from physical and psychological conditions that would just drive even the strongest of us into the ground,” said David Yamada, of Suffolk University Law School in Boston. Yamada chaired a presentation session here on workplace bullying.

Bully consequences

Hershcovis and Julian Barling of Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, reviewed 110 studies conducted over 21 years and involving the consequences of workplace aggression and sexual harassment. The research duo focused on 12 consequences, including: job satisfaction, co-worker and supervisor satisfaction, job stress, intent to quit, psychological and physical well-being, anger and anxiety levels, withdrawal from work and level of commitment.

Bullying is just one form of so-called workplace aggression, which the researchers divided into categories:
• Incivility: rudeness and discourteous verbal and non-verbal behaviors.
• Bullying: persistently criticizing employees’ work; yelling; repeatedly reminding employees of mistakes; spreading gossip or lies; ignoring or excluding workers; and insulting employees’ habits, attitudes or private life.
• Interpersonal conflict: behaviors of hostility, verbal aggression and angry exchanges.

Compared with sexually harassed workers, employees on the receiving end of raging-boss behaviors and other forms of workplace aggression reported lower overall well-being, less job satisfaction and less satisfaction with their bosses; they were also more likely to quit their jobs.

Specifically the bullied employees reported more job stress, less job commitment and higher levels of anger and anxiety than did sexually harassed employees.

The upshot

The review results by Hershcovis and Barling suggest that bullies can wreak more havoc on a company than can sexual harassment.

“I want to make sure that’s not misinterpreted to mean that sexual harassment didn’t also have negative outcomes; it did,” Hershcovis said. “It’s just that bullying was worse.”

Some explanations for the findings include the fact that sexual harassment is illegal.

“There is a legal outlet to victims of sexual harassment,” Hershcovis said. “Organizations have policies in place to prevent and deal with it. That ability to voice may give employees who experience sexual harassment some kind of hope.”

In addition, since sexual aggression is illegal, the victims may be more likely to blame the perpetrator and not themselves, as can happen with workplace bullying, Hershcovis said.

Bully ban?

Beating up the bully may succeed on playgrounds, but inside the business world success is not so clear-cut. For one, often the bully is the boss or other manager, and so fighting back could cost a job.

While some countries, such as Sweden, and places like Quebec and Saskatchewan have implemented some form of anti-bullying workplace legislation, researchers here agree the United States has done little in the form of anti-bullying laws. Corporations in the United States also lack policies for preventing or dealing with workplace aggression.

“Employers ignore bullying because they can. Its legality is what gives them the license to ignore it,” Namie said during his presentation at the conference.

Following in the footsteps of sexual harassment, however, bullying could gain enough awareness for legal action.

“Where we are now with workplace bullying is where we were with sexual harassment maybe 15 years ago,” said Suzy Fox of Loyola University in Chicago, “before we had key court cases, before we had the major Anita Hill blow-up.”

(In 1991, Hill, a law professor at the time, came forward with accusations that Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her.)

And like sexual harassment, workplace bullying needs a clear definition, Fox noted.

“Bullying is often more subtle, and may include behaviors that do not appear obvious to others,” Hershcovis said. “For instance, how does an employee report to their boss that they have been excluded from lunch? Or that they are being ignored by a coworker? The insidious nature of these behaviors makes them difficult to deal with and sanction.”
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About You
• 8 Tactics to Bust the Office Bully
• Office Bullies Create Workplace ‘Warzone’

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been “hundreds” of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: “I hope Obama gets assassinated.” That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law’s front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.

She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.
“I can’t say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it,” said Millner, who is black. “But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they’re capable of and what they’re really thinking.”

Potok, who is white, said he believes there is “a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them.”

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: “I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.
“If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama’s) church being deported,” he said.

Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is “the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War,” said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina.

“It’s shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries.”

“Someone once said racism is like cancer,” Ferris said. “It’s never totally wiped out, it’s in remission.”

If so, America’s remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.

The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama’s victory.

Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.

The student’s mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: “Whether you like it or not, we’re in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision.”

Other incidents include:

Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: “Let’s shoot that (N-word) in the head.” Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.” Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. “Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count,” the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written “Let’s hope someone wins.”

Racist graffiti was found in places including New York’s Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and “Go Back To Africa” were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted “assassinate Obama,” a district official said.

University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. “It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork,” Houston said.

Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted ‘Obama.’

In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying “now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house.”

Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.

“The principle is very simple,” said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book “A Peacock in the Land of Penguins.” “If I can’t hurt the person I’m angry at, then I’ll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race.”

“We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by ‘the white man.’”

“It’s as stupid and ineffectual as kicking your dog when you’ve had a bad day at the office,” Gallagher said. “But it happens a lot.”

Show Date and Time: 11-19-08 at 7:00p.m.
Politicsforher.com Show
Host: Monica Brown
Co-Host: Carolyn Vining
STORY
‘Pregnant Man’ doesn’t deliver much depth
By Matthew Gilbert
Globe Staff / November 18, 2008
The idea of a man getting pregnant and giving birth is fabulously provocative. It implies some kind of biological miracle. No wonder America has been a little bit obsessed with Thomas Beatie, the “pregnant man,” the guy in the People magazine photos with a hairy belly and a massive baby bump. He represents a challenge to the

TELEVISION REVIEW

PREGNANT MAN On: Discovery Health
Time: Tonight, 9-10
Of course, it’s a little inflammatory to call Beatie “a pregnant man.” The more accurate description would be “a pregnant female-to-male transgender who identifies as a man but whose female reproductive organs are intact,” but that probably wouldn’t sell as many tabloids or draw as many viewers to “Oprah,” “20/20,” or, tonight at 9, the Discovery Health documentary “Pregnant Man.” When it comes to grabbing eyes, detailed descriptions can be inconvenient.
But in truth, “a pregnant female-to-male transgender who identifies as a man but whose female reproductive organs are intact” is really fascinating in itself. Yes, Beatie is of interest scientifically, to a small extent; he stopped his testosterone treatments and used artificial insemination. No miracles there. But on a social, psychological, legal, and moral level, he is a walking, talking Rorschach. He represents an eye-crossing twist on long-held notions of gender and identity. He’s one of the year’s great tabloid photo ops, for sure; but he’s also one of the year’s great opportunities to think about what makes up a man, a woman, a marriage, a mother, and a father.
As Beatie puts it in the Discovery Health documentary, “Does a penis make a man?” Alas, “Pregnant Man,” does not go very deep at all on such matters. The hour is a cheery newsmagazine-level primer on how Thomas and his wife, Sarah, got pregnant, became famous, and had their daughter, Susan.
There’s plenty of footage of Thomas’s naked belly, naturally; that’s the money shot that doesn’t stop giving. And then we finally see Thomas in the delivery room in labor (”He’s taking it like a man, as they say,” notes one of the documentary crew members.) But why are people so taken by and distraught about the Beaties? What buttons are getting pushed so hard as to inspire hatred and disgust from the likes of Fox News and strangers on the Web? Maybe someday PBS will take that one on.
“Pregnant Man” also doesn’t bother enough with the Beaties’ motivation for going public, staying public, and making money on their baby-making. (By the way, Thomas recently announced he’s pregnant again.) Are the couple sincere about feeling pushed into the limelight? Do they truly struggle to avoid the always poised-to-pounce paparazzi? Inquiring minds want to know.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. For more on TV, visit www.boston.com/ae/ tv/blog.
Blog Posts

Men do not give birth. This person is a woman living as a man, plain and simple.
by boeingdiva November 19, 11:53 AM
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I admire Thomas for taking the challenge and for making a difference. We don’t have the right to judge his life and his family. If I am in his case I would do the same thing! For those people who keep saying it’s so wrong he is making money out of this… just S.T.F.U. mind your own life! Go Thomas! I’m with yah man!
by bebote November 19, 5:38 AM
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ok so the article points out that the show’s title does strike ones curiosity, which is true. However, the truth is that a chick with a beard is having a baby…who cares. Im not sure why so much controversy is sparked in this matter.
by mihai83 November 18, 9:58 PM
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I myself am bisexual and am now with a woman… But I strongly disagree will sex changes, but then again I’m no one to judge… I just want to wish the child good health…
by cuteINpink November

AP

Show Date and Time: 11-17-08 at 7:00p.m.
Politicsforher.com Show
Host: Monica Brown
Co-Host: Carolyn Vining

Today’s show is about the big three auto’s bailout proposal, GM and viagra. We will discuss why the auto industry should or shounldn’t be bailed out and why viagra is in play.

Story
GM Spends $17 Million Per Year on Viagra
By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com
April 18, 2006
Lifestyle drugs — chiefly Viagra — are costing General Motors $17 million dollars a year and the cost is passed along to car, truck and SUV consumers. The blue pill is covered under GM’s labor agreement with United Auto Workers, as well as benefit plans for salaried employees.
GM executives estimate health care adds $1,500 to the price of each vehicle but they do not break out how much of the premium is caused by erectile dysfunction expenses. GM provides health care for 1.1 million employees, retirees and dependents and is the world’s largest private purchaser of Viagra.
GM recently raised the co-pay for erectile dysfunction drugs to $18 under a new agreement with the UAW and the company has also pared benefits for salaried workers.
The automaker spends almost $5.6 billion each year on health care. While lifestyle drugs are a small fraction of the total medical bill, every health care expense is added into the price of every new vehicle and is a drag on the struggling goliath’s earnings.
Given the large number of aging autoworkers in the U.S., the industry?s Viagra tab and bill for other erectile dysfunction drugs is certain to continue rising.
Neither Ford nor Chrysler will disclose the amount spent on erectile dysfunction drugs.
While many government and company health plans have eliminated impotence drugs from coverage plans, GM has more than two retirees for every active worker on its rolls and must negotiate eliminating the drugs from the union health plan with the UAW.

Today’s show is about a pastor’s seven day sex challenge. We will discuss why he did this and the moral and faith based vaule of the challenge.

Story
Associated Press

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

DALLAS — The pastor of a megachurch says he will challenge married congregants during his sermon Sunday to have sex for seven straight days — and he plans to practice what he preaches.

“We’re going to give it a try,” said the Rev. Ed Young, who has four children with his wife of 26 years.

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Young, 47, said he believes society promotes promiscuity and he wants to reclaim sex for married couples. Sex should be a nurturing, spiritual act that strengthens marriages, he said.

“God says sex should be between a married man and a woman,” Young said. “I think it’s one of the greatest things you can do for your kids because so goes the marriage, so goes the family.”

Young said he will deliver his seven-day sex challenge while sitting on a bed in front of his Dallas-area church campus.

He is founder of the nondenominational Fellowship Church, which draws about 20,000 people each Sunday and also has campuses in Fort Worth, Plano and Miami.

Earlier this year, a southwest Florida pastor, perhaps having more faith in his congregants’ stamina, issued a 30-day sex challenge.