| How Obama Can Win
**--See, e.g,, his December 2 Stephanopoulos interview ("I also have a record of being in the private sector, not only in small business, but being involved in the human work of touching people's lives from the cradle to the grave ..."). 2:02 P.M. ___________________________ School Me (a new feature in which I advertise areas in which I'm embarrassingly ignorant, in the hope that readers will fill me in faster than I could fill myself in by, say, making phone calls): Back in June, Ron Brownstein wrote that in California "liberal interests and labor unions ... hate the idea" of an "individual mandate" requiring everyone to buy health insurance. Does that "hate" hold true nationally? Is it grounded solely in the sentiment Brownstein alludes to--that "they consider it unfair to working families"? Or does it also have a more cynical, institutional grounding, namely unions' fear that an individual mandate would undermine employer-provided insurance and the role of unions in negotiating for that insurance? ...
The Facts Of Life
If that money earns an 8.5% net annual return, you'll build up $97,362 in that account after 20 years. But say you bought a $250,000 20-year term policy instead. That would cost you $225 annually from Federal Kemper Life, giving you an additional $2,275 a year to invest as you saw fit. If you earned the same 8.5% return, you'd rack up $121,687 beating that permanent-life account by 25%. So why do agents push permanent life so hard? Simple: Higher premiums mean higher commissions. That said, permanent life can make sense for select groups of people. Peter Katt, a life-insurance adviser in Mattawan, Mich., recommends it as a savings vehicle for people who consistently have income left over after maxing out their other tax-deferred accounts. But Katt urges even those clients to cover their baseline insurance needs the money to protect their families with cheaper term life.
Saints into fifth round of FA Cup
Kelvin Davis was down quickly to save with the rebound striking Baker and trickling just wide of the post. It was a real wake-up call for Saints who then threatened themselves for the first time from a corner with Grzegorz Rasiak's header scrambled away off the line and Jason Euell lashing the follow-up shot over the bar. Bradley Wright-Philips was the next to come close. Saints were having plenty of joy in the air from crosses and after Rasiak cushioned a header back Wright-Phillips' half volley whistled just wide. After a shaky start Saints started to get a grip on the game and push Bury back deeper and deeper but still their quality on the ball was not the best. When Bury did attack on the break on 29 minutes they weren't far away again.
Fixing health-care system a priority, Upstate voters say
It wasn't long after Kathy Rice was diagnosed with breast cancer that she was laid off. There was COBRA insurance to help pay for her surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, though at $1,300 a month, it was hard to afford. When her husband was laid off, too, the Powdersville couple was forced to choose between paying their insurance premiums and medical bills and a couple of mortgage payments. And even though they were working with their lender, they lost their home, and all the equity they had in it. Now on Medicare, Rice, 51, is battling her fourth recurrence since she learned she had the disease in 2001. And with the presidential race underway, she wants the candidates to address the nation's health care system. .
Business big shot: Marc Bolland
Shortly before Christmas, Marc Bolland was going round a Wm Morrison supermarket in Wimbledon, southwest London, highlighting how the business was finally giving customers in the capital what they wanted. One minute he was stooping down to pick up a "Best" ready meal, one of many new premium products introduced to compete with Tesco Finest and Taste the Difference at JSainsbury. The next the 48-year-old was showing off the organic lamb and fresh beef cut up and prepared by a team of in-house butchers. Not even one shopper's protests about how the store's bakery staff always burnt his rolls put the amiable Dutchman off his stride. He smiled, acknowledged the concerns and promised it would not happen again. Little seems to fluster the man charged with guiding the Morrisons empire into a new era.
Hippie hippie shock, in technicolour
At home in Sydney's Bellevue Hill, Martin Sharp, one of the artistic powerhouses behind many of Oz's most famous covers, told the Herald he allowed the reproduction of some of his artwork but had signed no waivers to the movie's producers, accepted no money for his portrayal, and continues to be appalled by the script. He counted 55 scenes in which his character appears and which he says were concoctions: "It was complete fiction. It is not even about mere historical inaccuracy. That is the inherent problem with this sort of filmmaking. I was really shocked when I read the first one [script] and I am not much less shocked now. "They are trying to use real people as an anchor for their fantasy it is a theft of one's life and is a very uncomfortable feeling. If they want to make a fantasy, why don't they use fictional characters." According to insiders, the director, BeebanKidron, flew to Sydney in July for a series of quiet crisis meetings and met several protagonists, including Louise Ferrier, the designer Jenny Kee and Neville's Oz co-editor in London, Jim Anderson.
In Europe, Where’s the Hate?
In September 2006, British novelist Martin Amis told the Times of London: "There's a definite urge–don't you have it?–to say, 'the Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order.' What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation–further down the road. Curtailing of freedoms. Strip-searching people who look like they're from the Middle East or from Pakistan…. Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children." Far from being the principal purveyors of racial animus in Europe, Muslims are its principal targets. Between 2000 and 2005 officially reported racist violence rose 71 percent in Denmark, 34 percent in France and 21 percent in Ireland. With few governments collecting data on racial crime victims, it has been left to NGOs to record the sharp rise in attacks on Muslims, those believed to be Muslims and Muslim targets.
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