Here's a bit of the transcript:

HOWARD KURTZ: Don't you feel deep down that this is overdoing it?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: No, I don't feel it's overdoing it. And I don't -- and when I hear people say that, I have to be very honest with you, Howie, I think it's elitist. I don't remember -- I'm sure there was some criticism when there was the coverage of Princess Diana's death, but I don't think that there was this sort of criticism that we're having with Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson is an accidental civil rights leader, an accidental pioneer. He broke ground and barriers in so many different realms in artistry, in pictures, in movies, in music, you name it. So, no, I don't think it's overkill.

KURTZ: Okay. He did all of those things. He also was accused of child molestation, and was a seriously weird person. But he has been dead for more than a week and we are still going almost wall-to-wall.

LEMON: Well, he has been dead for more than a week, yes, but Michael Jackson twice -- well, once, I should say, he was acquitted of child molestation. The other time it was settled out of court.

KURTZ: Right.

LEMON: And if you talk to people who were involved in those cases, they don't believe that he did it. So let's put that aside.

The Pew Research Center released findings last week indicating that "nearly two-in-three Americans say news organizations gave too much coverage to the story. At the same time, half say the media struck the right balance between reporting on Jackson's musical legacy and the problems in his personal life."

Blacks followed the death of the African American singer - who had been on the national stage for four decades - more closely than the population as a whole. Eight-in-ten African Americans say they followed news about Jackson's death very closely, compared with 22% of whites. Women followed the story more closely than men (35% very closely compared with 26%). Close to four-in-ten (38%) of those under 40 say they followed the music icon's death very closely, compared with 27% of those between 40 and 64 and 20% of those 65 and older. [...]

About two-thirds of the public (64%) say news organizations gave too much attention to the death of the 50-year-old performer, who had been rehearsing for a major comeback tour. About three-in-ten (29%) say the coverage was the right amount. Only 3% say there had been too little coverage.

The fact that Las Vegas has desert climate was certainly no surprise to me. I mean, it wasn't like I'd never been here before or that I was unaware that the desert is dry, hot, inhospitable to such flora as lilacs and hospitable to fauna that includes a variety of snakes and deadly insects. Of course I was aware of all that. And I was also aware -- and am constantly reminded -- of how beautiful the desert landscape is. The sky is that amazing blue that you see in movies. The colors are breathtaking. In fact, if you think Red Rock Canyon is spectacular, just take a ride to the northeast of Las Vegas and spend some time in the most aptly named Valley of Fire.

(And if you want to learn all about the local flora and fauna, be sure to visit the wonderful Springs Preserve where they have all sorts of exhibits and cultural events and -- because this is Las Vegas, after all, they also have a very nice, very moderately priced "cafeteria." That word is in quotes because it is a Wolfgang Puck-owned cafeteria so it features extraordinarily good food for a public institution.)

I arrived here at the tail end of winter and while was a much milder winter than I knew from the northeast, it did feature one element that came as a surprise. The wind. The first month I lived here the wind would awaken me at night, howling and roaring like I'd never heard. You can walk outside after a windy night and find your car covered with detritus from the trees. It was a new phenomenon, but one I easily got used to.

But the heat? Yeah, I'd heard stories. I'd also been one of those people who'd say to friends in Las Vegas, "You have heat, but you don't have humidity. We have humidity in the east."

Well, please, if you and I are discussing the heat in Las Vegas, don't say that. One moves to Las Vegas and, almost instantly, the skin gets dry, soaking up moisturizer like.....like....it's trying to survive in a desert. (Duh.)

(It's important to note the very serious fact that in Las Vegas, in the summer, many, many elderly people die from dehydration. I spoke to a dietitian once who said, "In this climate, never ask the elderly friend or relative you're visiting, 'Would you like a glass of water?' They don't want to be a bother, so they'll say no. "Always get the water and give it to them. Don't ask.")

Anyway, this year Las Vegas had one of its coolest Junes on record. It seems to be making up for it in July. Today the nearby thermostat read 105º even before the hottest part of the day -- late afternoon -- arrived.

What does it feel like? Some people say it's like being what they'd imagine being inside an oven would be like. At night, when the warm wind is blowing, I imagine it's like being inside a clothes dryer just when it's winding down and the clothes have dried. Not a drop of dampness, just the driest heat imaginable.

A true Las Vegan does not complain about the heat. A true Las Vegan goes swimming, plays golf, grills dinner and generally goes about his or her business as if it were only a temperate 95º outside.

I, however, as much as I love the scenery and as much as I enjoy being a resident here, am apparently not a "true" Las Vegan. I know this because when I said to a friend who's lived here five times longer than I have, "It was sooooo hot out today," she said, "Hot? This isn't hot. 'Hot' is at least 110º."

Oh.

She was so unclear and evasive about the reasons for her resignation that I kept banging my car's dashboard thinking my radio was just giving off a lot of static. It didn't work. No matter how much I pounded on her, I couldn't get a straight answer. See if you can figure it out in this AP post.

Sarah Palin The Quitter. I think she said she quit because the media was too negative and she didn't want to waste millions of tax dollars to fight ethics investigations. But really, it doesn't matter. She quit. She gave up. She betrayed everybody who gave money, made phone calls, and invested all their energies into electing her. This is the legacy that Sarah Palin leaves behind:

Thanks, Sarah Palin for being a role model our daughters can look up to. Thanks for living up to the stereotype that women aren't tough enough to stick it out. Thanks for showing everybody that the best way to shoulder responsibility is to wiggle out of it. That when things aren't to your liking the best thing to do is run. And thank you especially for the reminder that quitting is a gift for the people you quit on.

Sarah Palin, Meet Hillary Clinton. She has a thing or two to teach you. Against all odds, Hillary never quit the presidential race until every note of the swan song played out. Weren't you listening when she said that she got up for every American that got hit and went down? Didn't you see her when she refused to wave the white flag you so furiously wave now? Has she taught you nothing? Let me repeat her mantra to you: Never give in; never give up.

Sarah, you're a sissy.

There was nary a franchise in sight; those stores were on another street in nearby and slightly more staid Santa Monica, discounting their merchandise before it had settled onto the hanger, announcing a summer sale that seemed to overlap the spring sale, feeling ever so slightly overextended and hoping for the best.

When Clint Eastwood was the mayor of Carmel, California, the city banned franchises on its main street, and Carmel, like Ann Arbor, Michigan, became something of a living museum. Both cities celebrated the individual entrepreneur and held the chains at bay. You could strike up a conversation with a local purveyor of coffee, of ice cream, of all sorts of retail treats. Borders Books had an Ann Arbor outpost only because it was born there; the rest was local.

The little street in Venice isn't that pure - there's a Pinkberry adjacent to a gelateria - but on the day I was there, the indie ice cream maker had lots more customers.

We may be in for a rebirth of the Carmel/Ann Arbor spirit, on both sides of the cash register. Scrappy people seem to be turning up everywhere, figuring out how to work even though their previous rug has been pulled out from under them. From the woman selling mini-cupcakes out of a window-sized shop in Manhattan, to the folks with the sushi truck, lots of people are finding creative ways to keep afloat; one New York restaurant even has its own food cart parked right outside its door, to offer lower-priced dishes to people who might otherwise settle for a pre-made market salad. Makes all the sense in the world: If customers aren't prepared to pop for a sit-down meal, better to sell them something than to watch them walk on by.

And customers who might stride down franchise row without buying so much as a sock are finding out that shopping at local shops has its advantages, even if some of the inventory comes from who knows where. It was hard, at first, to figure out who the proprietor was in some of those Venice shops, because no one was wearing a tiny mike with which they could talk to the storeroom or standing behind a multiple-station check-out counter. It was much more old-school than that; it was about as much fun as spending money can be these days.

It is not a trend without consequence, as the warring food-truck drivers in midtown Manhattan have learned; more new food trucks plus a finite number of attractive parking spots yields turf wars that make the old battles between brick-and-mortar businesses and mobile retailers seem like a gentlemen's disagreement. As storefronts sit empty, the economy spills onto the street and forces us to confront the question of who has priority, a long-time purveyor of halal food with questionable personal and professional documentation, or a guy who lost his six-figure job and wants to sell gourmet desserts on the same block as the halal cart. And going into business for yourself is hardly a global solution, not when some people have trouble paying their utility bills.

But this is not a post about logistics, or zoning, or the history of black-market mobile food permits, or national strategy. This is a small nod to people who see life as a crossword puzzle to be solved: You look for clues to the new order, learn the vocabulary of the new environment, and figure out how to fill in all the blanks.

Brace yourself. It's on YouTube:

Chill, Don't Kill Video

What a message to see on Independence Day. Should we celebrate America's birth or ease it into oblivion? Does this band-aid have a chance?

I'm too familiar with a large number of attempted murders in one major American city, St. Louis, because I see the surviving patients that result. I treat their spinal cord injuries, brain injuries and polytraumas for several weeks, learning way more than I want to about the circumstances of their beatings and shootings. The stories are pointless and mind-numbing. There is no rationale or justification for the brutality. But can we replace innate morality with catch phrases like "Chill, Don't Kill?" If so, media is this atheist's new religion. But I fear it's an apocalyptic one.

Now remember boys and girls: Don't bust a cap. Take a nap.

State media initially said at least three ethnic Han Chinese were killed in the violence Sunday, though later reported that an unknown number died, among them an armed policeman. An activist group said one demonstrator may have died.

Protesters, mostly from the Uighur ethnic group, set at least one car on fire, overturned police barriers and attacked buses in several hours of violence that appeared to subside somewhat as police and military presence intensified into the night, according to participants and witnesses.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that "the situation was under control" by Monday morning and that police had shut down traffic in parts of the city as a precaution.

Tensions between Uighurs and Chinese are never far from the surface in Xinjiang, China's vast Central Asian buffer province, where militant Uighurs have waged sporadic, violent separatist campaign.

Protesters gathered Sunday to demand an investigation into a fight between Uighur and Han Chinese workers at a factory in southern China last month. Accounts differed over what happened next in the city of Urumqi, but the violence seemed to have started when a crowd of protesters _ who started out peaceful _ refused to disperse.

Adam Grode, an American Fulbright scholar studying in Urumqi, said he heard explosions and also saw a few people being carried off on stretchers and a Han Chinese man with blood on his shirt entering a hospital.

He said he saw police pushing people back with tear gas, fire hoses and batons, and protesters knocking over police barriers and smashing bus windows.

"Every time the police showed some force, the people would jump the barriers and get back on the street. It was like a cat-and-mouse sort of game," said Grode, 26.

The government's Xinhua News Agency quoted unnamed officials saying that at least three ethnic Han Chinese were killed in the violence, in which the crowd attacked passers-by, torched vehicles and interrupted traffic on some roads. It later said an unknown number of people were killed, including the policeman.

Xinjiang's government accused Uighur exiles led by a former businesswoman now living in America, Rebiya Kadeer, of fomenting the violence via the Internet.

"The violence is a pre-empted, organized violent crime. It is instigated and directed from abroad and carried out by outlaws in the country," said a government statement carried by Xinhua.

Kadeer's spokesman, Alim Seytoff, said by telephone from Washington, D.C., that the accusations were baseless.

"It's common practice for the Chinese government to accuse Ms. Kadeer for any unrest in East Turkestan and His Holiness the Dalai Lama for any unrest in Tibet," he said.

Uighur rights groups and militants demanding an independent Xinjiang often refer to the sprawling region of deserts and mountains, which borders eight Central Asian nations, as "East Turkestan."

The clashes Sunday in Urumqi echoed last year's unrest in Tibet, when a peaceful demonstration by monks in the capital of Lhasa erupted in riots that spread to surrounding areas, leaving at least 22 dead. The Chinese government accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the violence _ a charge he denied.

Seytoff also read a brief statement from Kadeer: "The real cause of the problem lies with the Chinese government's policies toward the Uighurs. It's not alleged instigation by me or some outside forces."

The demonstration started peacefully with more than 300 people staging a silent sit-down protest in People's Square in Urumqi to demand an investigation into the June 25 brawl at a toy factory in southern China, said Gulinisa Maimaiti, a 32-year-old employee of a foreign company who took part in the protest.

Xinhua said two died in last month's factory melee in southern Guangdong province, others say the real figure was higher.

Gulinisa said in a phone interview that the crowd grew to 1,000 people, and when they refused to disperse, police pinned protesters to the ground before taking 40 protesters away.

Video shot from a building nearby and photos from mobile phones showed people running from police and a car on fire. In other shots, smoke rises in the distance and fire engines race to the protest.

The Urumqi police and city government would not comment about the incident.

Uighur separatists have waged a sporadic campaign for independence in recent decades, and the military, armed police and riot squads maintain a visible presence in the region. After a few years of relative calm, separatist violence picked up last year with attacks against border police and bombings of government buildings.

Four Uighur detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba were recently released and relocated to Bermuda despite Beijing's objections because U.S. officials have said they fear the men would be executed if they returned to China. Officials have also been trying to transfer 13 others to the Pacific nation of Palau.

Patrick Obrist has been sweating all night, curing in his own body heat.

"I feel like I have a hangover," he says, as he steps out of his concrete room that turned into a Dutch oven last night. The generator wasn't working, which meant no air conditioning. The night slipped by and Patrick rolled under the fuzzy blanket of Chadian humidity. "You sweat so much you become dehydrated," he says. It's been averaging close to 110 degrees in Abéché, Chad, and Patrick's been averaging close to three showers a day.

Abéché is a town as dry and brown as burnt pie crust, its mud houses constantly blasted by a hair-dryer-hot wind. During winter, it cools down to the mid 80s. But it's the peak of the hot season now. And 122 degrees--the temperature of glue guns and a good cup of hot chocolate--is common. Patrick, a 30 year-old Nebraskan and CRS' lone American based here, grew up on sweet corn and Omaha Steaks and Husker Football. Lincoln, he says, never got this hot. No place he's ever been got this hot.

"Go to your oven and turn it on to, say, 350 degrees," he says. "When the oven reaches that temperature, go open it while your face is really close. The blast furnace that you feel is pretty close to what 122 degrees feels like. Only it does not dissipate."

CRS' international workers are usually based in capitals. A strong cappuccino, Wolf Blitzer, and an imported bottle of Chanel No. 5 are never far away. Even the cities that ring with danger--Islamabad, Kabul, Beirut--have pockets of luxury. When your sanity is threatened by stress, you can lie down for a deep tissue back massage, the kids can sip Shirley Temples, and there's always someone with that familiar, granular American accent. Not here. Not in this dust-blasted wasteland on the far edge of nowhere.

What's it like to work here? How do you adjust to a life of curfews, bandits, and gluey porridge in the morning? Abéché is arguably CRS' most difficult posting. Patrick's life, and that of other Americans here, reveals the personal sacrifices aid workers make in order to help Darfur refugees. The isolation, the cultural differences and the grinding monotony, all take a toll on humanitarian workers. Yet without them, the Darfur refugee camps would cease to function.

When Sudanese refugees from Darfur started streaming across the border in 2003, Abéché went from town where a husky donkey was the closest thing to an SUV to a city awash in them, all gleaming and imported from America. The population shot up from 40,000 in 1988 to more than 80,000 today. Now it's packed with some 150 expatriates and international staff working for humanitarian organizations. CRS' partner, Secours Catholique et Developpement, manage three of the 12 Darfur refugee camps.

For some expatriates, this Saharan landscape is a refuge, an escape from home countries that have spun out of control. Americans here don't want to dance with the stars or idolize Americans with Paula, Randy and Simon. Survivor is not a reality show in Abéché; it's an appellation for of an entire population.

This is: firewood delivered to the refugee camps so women won't get raped collecting it; four girls in class seven in one camp. Only four, yes, but that's a start. That's better than being forced to marry as a sixth grader. Outreach workers who lecture men about why they shouldn't hang their wives upside down from trees and call their brothers to help beat them.

But this is far from Patrick's daily schedule. He isn't on the frontlines feeding starving babies or bent double digging wells. He's in an office, fighting Western donor fatigue.

"Darfur is something I read about on the BBC," he says. "People always think that I am some crazy savior and self-sacrificing martyr for working out here," he says. "But I am really just a paper-pusher. We are the ones who support the whole effort and assistance. We are less visible but still needed."

When the splashy headlines about George Clooney's trip to the refugee camps dry up and the klieg light swing away from Mia Farrow surrounded by Darfuris, the invisible battalion of aid workers push on. Patrick will still be there, wedged into an office with three other men for 10 hours a day, sharpening budgets, chasing after receipts, and sweating over spreadsheets.

"You just have to realize your niche and do it the best you can," Patrick says. "It makes a difference on the ground." Someone, he says, has to make sure the funds are still rolling in. Last year, to run the three camps, it cost just under $5 million.

* * *

Patrick's life is surprisingly mundane, he says, for being in the geopolitical crosshairs of Africa. Sure, there are a handful of conflict junkies, but most of the humanitarians in Abéché spend their days behind laptops like the rest of the world. Everyone has their own reasons for being here.

Take Lauren Stroschin, an American pilot based in Abéché who flies aid workers to the refugee camps, wanted to get away from the United States. She wanted to help the refugees, who she sees as heroes, not victims to be pitied. Their resilience and determination inspires her, something she rarely felt living in the United States.

"I just want to be a better citizen of the world," she says. "I wanted to get the real news for myself instead of the filtered version we get in the US. I wanted to be the person that travels and disproves all the negative stereotype about Americans; to show that some of us do care, travel, and know there are events happening outside our boarders."

Patrick admires Lauren; she's a veteran of Abéché, having stayed three years. Most don't last that long, he says. The length of the average contract is about a year. He talks about Abéché, like hardened criminals talk about solitary at San Quentin. "I could do this stint standing on my head," he says. But then adds, "If it wasn't for Tara."

Tara lives in Virginia, and Patrick's in love with her.

"Life here would be easier if I didn't have a girlfriend I think about constantly." Not long ago, she tried to rendezvous with Patrick in Paris. But Patrick was asked to stay in Abéché; a US Congressman was coming through, one of the steady stream personalities and politicians who blow through in eastern Chad. He stayed. Tara wandered around Paris alone then returned to Virginia, never having seen Patrick.

Long distance chats, courtesy of Skype, keep the flame alive.

The social scene in Abéché is limited, and that's tough for someone as garrulous as Patrick. Wit is his strong suit; humor his Vaseline on the raw sting of Abéché . But his funny is hamstrung in by the complexities of French and his jokes fall flat at dinner parties. The conversations are superficial, anyhow, he says, mostly focusing on refugees and life's frustrations.

American playwright Lillian Hellman once wrote that "Lonely people talking to each other can make each other lonelier." That's true in Abéché. Conversations start with how long have you been here and are quickly followed by when do you leave. Patrick has done one year. He will stay on for another.

His time in Peace Corps in the Ivory Coast and Madagascar prepared him for the strain.

"Life is easier for me than for most people here because I did Peace Corps," Patrick says. "That helps me deal with the isolation." Find him a dive bar, put a Gala, a Chadian beer, in his hand and surround him with local men who like a good chin wag and Patrick is content. But they don't always take too kindly to the expatriates. "The locals seem to hate us or see us as circus freaks," he says.

* * *

After being cooped up in an office all day, Patrick, a former soccer player, needs to exercise. But his options are limited. There's no place to run and when you try, your lungs are sandblasted and turn to jerky. There's hardly a blade of grass in the city. The only green space is a balding strip of ground in the middle of town with a punctured hose lying on it. But the grass is closer to dryer lint than fescue, and clouds of dust from passing vehicles carpet it with sand. The trees surrounding it are foliated with black plastic bags.

For a little exercise, Patrick MacGuyvered a solution: he filled some giant powdered milk cans--as big as industrial buckets of laundry detergent--with concrete and connected them with an iron pipe: dumbbells. He also convinced some American pilots to pick him up an exercise bike in Uganda. "Now I can sweat for a reason," he says.

Abéché isn't all bad, says Lauren: "I love that I don't have stand in the grocery store line and stare at the Enquirer and read those terrible, pointless headlines. It's liberating: No cell phone contracts, cable TV, taxes, rent, car insurance. All that is gone."

But not the Chinese food. You can buy an uninspired plate of sweet and sour pork and a $6 Chadian beer at the Shanghai, a restaurant that opened last year. For entertainment, sit back and watch Chinese television and the French military flirt and air kiss the tired-looking waitress. For a night cap, hustle back to your guest house before curfew and admire the cosmos. No electricity in Abéché means no light pollution, and the stars shine like diamonds on black velvet.

Patrick prefers the Afrique Etoile, an open-air joint where the main dish is chicken, dusted with the spice and the air-borne grit of Abéché. It's U-Pick here, and you point the piece you want. A dish of spicy dipping sauce, the color of old makeup, is free of charge. The saving grace: a stein of the foamiest, most invigorating smoothie a dollar can buy. Made from powdered milk, ice, sugar and bruised bananas and beat up mangos, the juice makes an Orange Julius--that stuff they sell in American malls--taste like cold pulp.

Don't let the restaurants and starry nights lull you into complacency. Things can turn on a dime here. It's a security level 4, the highest in CRS. Patrick's evening out recently was rudely interrupted when an enraged military man went ballistic in a popular restaurant and pulled out a Ramboesque knife and plunged it into a table.

That's the problem, says Patrick: The people who are meant to protect are often the problem. In February, in a town not far from Abéché, the United Nations said a Chadian military soldier entered a bar, tied up the owner's sons and told one of them to call their 17 year-old sister. When she arrived, she was raped by several military men.

It's not just the local military. A French Foreign Legion soldier based at the French military base in Abéché recently killed four men this April. The spokesman for the French military said he "went a little mad".

And then last month, for example, it was pancake Sunday at Lauren's house. One of her colleagues was pulling into the compound. The gate was opened and just as the vehicle was about to enter, a man with a pistol tried to force his way in. He was after the 4x4. Thankfully, Lloyd, a skinny male with a hoarse voice, was in the courtyard. He terrified the bandit and he took off. That night, Lloyd the guard dog was treated like a king.

"I think it all boils down to if someone sees something you have, and they want it, they will take if from you, by force if necessary. The bandit wanted our truck and he was willing to kill for it," says Lauren. "Then Lloyd changed his mind."

Patrick lives with Matchurin, a CRS staffer from Burkina Faso. They recently got a dog, Bobi, to add another layer of security. But Patrick has started stashing his valuables in the walls of his room. He wonders if it's just a matter of time before their compound gets broken into.

But something much more pedestrian terrifies Patrick: The 10 minute drive to work. Every morning he gets in the RAV 4 and steels himself against the kids who dart out into traffic, grinning as cars honk and dodge. It's a favorite game here: who can touch the passing NGO vehicle. "It's the most stressful part of my day," Patrick says, as a boy runs across the central artery, nearly getting hit. There are no streetlights or stop signs here. It wouldn't matter if there were, drivers prefer to gun it and swerve, rather than stop and signal.

Patrick fumes, almost seethes, when he talks about how many times he's seen drivers almost hit children. He says Chadians have been known to rear end vehicles then demand huge payments. If there's a problem, people don't get out and take pictures of the damage and exchanges numbers over the hood. The problem is often settled with a knife.

"The way Westerners were raised and educated and the way African's have been raised and educated have created two different sets of logic and reason," says Lauren, diplomatically. "To look at a problem and have two different solutions to that problem, and you just know that the African solution will not work, or will not work long term, it just wears on me. I really miss Western logic."

* * *

The heat is starting to thin at Patrick's compound. He's in the hammock, beneath the sun- crisped banana trees. He likes it here. He says the rustling of the leaves help calm him down.

The former English major is making a dent in all the English literature he never got to in college. He made quick work of The Great Gatsby, The English Patient and just polished off Aiden Hartley's The Zanzibar Chest. Right now, he'd give anything for a deep dish pizza. And after a year looking at various shades of brown, his eyes could use a field of green grass and his throat a microbrew, preferably back home with Brad, Curtis and Dustin, his buddies from Nebraska.

"In the US everything is easy," he says. "I can hop in my car and go see a movie or buy food without haggling. I can renew my license or go to small government office and not have to pay a bribe."

But for now, this is his life. And he can stomach it. He believes in the work he's doing, albeit behind the scenes. The heat, the monotony, the culture, none of that bothers him. What does is trying to describe his life to people who have no point of reference about Africa. Soldiers returning from Iraq, he says, go through the same thing. You don't know what it's like, he says, and you'll never understand Abéché unless you've lived it.

"The isolation aspect arises when I try and relate my experiences to people stateside," he says. "They ask how Africa was, and I am like, well do you have a few hours? Their eyes glaze over quickly. So I boil it down: It's Africa, the roads suck and it's hot. I know this is lame and stereotypical, but it is too fatiguing to try and describe and nuance the experience here."

Lane Hartill is the West Africa regional information officer for Catholic Relief Services. He is based in Dakar, Senegal.

Texas advocates and legislators worked very hard this session on developing a CHIP buy-in program that would have allowed families who were just over the CHIP income limit to pay sliding scale premiums that increased with their income. This would have given parents like Jason and Misty, who have no other options for providing affordable health coverage for their children, the opportunity to purchase CHIP coverage. The CHIP buy-in proposal was extremely popular among Texans, powerful Texas Chamber of Commerce leaders, and Texas legislators and it passed in both chambers with strong bipartisan margins. But because of the lack of support from the Governor and a few other key legislative leaders, the bill was allowed to expire without receiving a final vote. Now roughly 80,000 Texas children who would have been covered with the passage of the CHIP buy-in proposal will become or remain uninsured.

Unfortunately, the James family is all too familiar with the consequences of being uninsured. Several years ago, the family experienced a lapse in coverage for similar reasons. Health coverage through Misty's job would have cost them roughly 12 percent of their salaries, making it financially out of reach after paying child care and other basic expenses. During that period their oldest son, 11-year-old Isaiah, had a painful cavity that went untreated for nearly two years. When they were finally able to take him to a dentist, they learned that Isaiah's tooth had abscessed down to his jaw bone and required an emergency root canal. Isaiah ultimately lost his tooth and now has permanent jaw damage.

During the Texas legislative session's debate on the issue, Misty traveled to the State Capitol to testify about her family's story and to request the option of being able to contribute to keeping her family's CHIP coverage, instead of being forced to use the emergency room for care or to put problems like Isaiah's cavity off until they become a crisis. Misty said, "We hate to add to the rising cost of health care by taking them to the emergency room, but we just do not have anywhere else to go... I do not know if our leaders know how much it costs to raise children these days. Child care today costs more than our rent. We shop at the thrift store for clothes and do not go to the movies or have other frivolous spending. Just the basics of food, housing and child care do not leave us enough to provide health coverage for our children. I get so frustrated that I can't take my kids to the dentist or doctor when I work hard and make a decent living."

But at the end of the day in Texas, children lost out to politics. Texas serves as a prime example of why health reform at the national level that guarantees all children affordable, high-quality and accessible care is desperately needed. We cannot be fighting these kinds of battles separately in all 50 states. And when smart policy proposals with broad support finally make it to the table, children can't afford inaction. The time for real health care reform in our nation is right now. Congress and the President must ensure all children a national eligibility floor of 300 percent ($66,150 for a family of four) and free all children from the unjust 50-state lottery of geography. All children need comprehensive health benefits no matter where they live. Enrollment in coverage for children should be automatic and simple, so they don't experience harmful delays or denials―and it must be truly affordable. Unless these conditions are met, the promise of health reform remains unfulfilled for children.

Email your Members of Congress today to let them know that affordable, comprehensive health coverage for everyone--especially children--is important to you at: www.childrensdefense.org/healthaction.

Today is my first Sunday in a new city. I just moved to Washington, D.C. and this morning felt strange as I munched at a local Greek restaurant in my new neighborhood. A Greek Salad is neither breakfast nor lunch! I begin to think about my home for the past 22 years and a typical Sunday.

Location: Bubby's restaurant on Hudson Street in TriBeCa. Meeting time: noon.

It is 11:45 as I run into a Starbucks on the Upper East Side. I need caffeine for the train ride down to Canal Street. As I order my Venti, Katie, who I am meeting for brunch, calls. She is also running late and "will explain when I get there."

We finally both get to Bubby's half-an-hour late. The line is, as expected, out the door so we put our name down. These places never seem to take reservations. "45 minutes," the maître d' says. Of course.

Katie and I join the ranks of other starving New Yorkers who can't wait to dive into their pancakes and French toast. On the curb, she tells me about her day. She had just started renting a new apartment and found a dresser on Craig's List. Her apartment is in midtown, but the dresser was downtown, so she ran there to pick it up. Of course, getting the large piece back in the cab was a problem. Waiting to hail the right sized cab, a former drug dealer (or at least that is what he said) approached her on the corner, still very hungover from the night before. He wanted to help Katie with the dresser and began talking. Finally Katie hailed the right sized cab and shook off the former drug dealer. She brought the furniture home. Having not eaten all day, she needed a cup of coffee and was now going to be late. It seemed like an action-packed day and it was only 12:30 in the afternoon.

In what other city in the world would people starve themselves to have the perfect pancake or bagel? Why would they meet at 12:00 and wait for 45 minutes? Sure, we love good food. That is a given. It is also built into the fabric of New York. You go to brunch to recharge. The energy in a New York restaurant like Bubby's is ecstatic. The hassle and bustle and the ebb and flow of people coming in and out is invigorating. This is NEW YORK CITY!

We go to brunch to cap off your week and prepare to begin a new one. There are stories to tell, people to meet, deals to be made, fun to be had, and Mondays to look forward to. We are all New Yorkers who do more in the morning before brunch on a Sunday then some do their entire weekday. And in a big city of former drug dealers, people who sell dressers on Craig's List, and a woman who just bought a new apartment and now a dresser, there is nothing like going to your "local" diner. You are surrounded with people who you never met, but who strangely enough understand you and what you went through to carve out two hours in the middle of your day to eat with a friend.



Katie finishes her story about why she is late and now it is my turn. After all, we have another 40 minutes before our name even is called to be seated. As I sit in our nation's capital I know I will find good restaurants, great friends to eat with and maybe a decent bagel. But only in New York can you really have brunch.

Looking into this issue for MRFF (in what I wrongly thought was going to be a very temporary job), I found that the Stone Mountain event was far from an isolated incident. The military was regularly providing flyovers at countless evangelical Christian events all over the country, not only violating the regulations prohibiting military participation in religious events, but spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money in the process.

MRFF began exposing these events, which included flyovers on the five holidays when flyovers at civilian events are permitted, and even a few at National Day of Prayer events, and began to see some decline in their frequency, but we weren't sure if the number of flyovers at these events was really decreasing, or if the military and organizers of these events were just being more careful not to make the nature of the events so obvious.

Well, needless to say, the following letter denying, for the first time in 42 years, the request for a flyover at one Christian rally, released on many websites in conjunction with a Christian Newswire article titled "Pentagon Denies Flyover of Patriotic 'God and Country Rally' in Nampa Idaho Because of its Christian Content," was the best 4th of July present MRFF could have asked for.

Thank you for your request for Air Force aviation support during God and Country Festival on 01 Jul 2009 in Nampa, ID.

We have carefully reviewed this particular event. As you may recall from the request form's instructions, the Department of Defense (DoD) authorizes the Air Force to participate in flyovers for those recognition events held in direct support of the five patriotic holidays (Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, POW-MIA Day and Veterans Day) and for aviation-related events, such as airshows and airport dedications. Sporting events that fall on one of the five patriotic holidays mentioned above are not considered to be events held in direct support of a holiday commemoration and will require a waiver.

Your Air Force aviation support request doesn't fall into either approved category, as such, we are unable to approve it. Air Force and DoD policy prohibit support for events which appear to endorse, selectively benefit, or favor any special interest group, religious or ideological movement.

With an increasingly high operations tempo and limited resources to meet our training and operational commitments, we are required to take a hard look at all of our requests and carefully follow our policies and guidelines. In denying your request, we are not questioning the worthiness of the event, but rather enforcing DoD and Air Force policy to preserve the operational and training requirements of our aviation units and to practice the prudent stewardship of taxpayer-financed resources.

We hope that you can appreciate and understand our position. We believe that your event will, nevertheless, be a success. Any further questions can be referred to me at 703-695-9664.

Tech. Sgt. Roy Utley

Aviation Support

703-695-9664 Phone

703-693-9601 Fax

www.airshows.pa.hq.af.mil

Upon seeing the above letter, MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein issued the following statement:

"The Military Religious Freedom Foundation offers its most profound support to and thanks for the U.S. Air Force's correct constitutional decision to deny the flyover request of its aircraft in support of the clear Christian sectarian mission and purpose of Nampa, Idaho's 'God and Country Rally.' It may have taken 42 years to get this right decision from the Air Force, but better late than never. The United States Constitution allows everyone's religious faith, or no particular faith at all, to gloriously prosper but no American's faith is allowed to dominate the others by engaging the awesome power, prestige and financial heft of the State. The requested flyover in question would have done just that, yet again! To those in the fundamentalist Christian cabal who vigorously oppose this long sought, terrific decision by the U.S. Air Force, may I suggest that they consider holding their event next year in Kim Jung Il's North Korea or the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia as neither of those countries have a separation of Church and State as we do in beautiful America."

The organizers of the event are, of course, blaming the Obama administration for putting an end to the use of the U.S. military to promote the clearly Christian agenda represented by their "God and Country Rally."

From the Christian Newswire article:

The group is concerned that this new policy may indicate an open hostility toward public expressions of faith by the Obama Administration.

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, states,

"For years, flyovers have been allowed by the Pentagon at the 'God and Country Rally' in Nampa Idaho. These flyovers were not to endorse or promote any one religious faith tradition. Rather, they were held to honor and pay tribute to our heroic men and women who have served or are currently serving in our armed forces.

"For the Obama Administration to deny a flyover for the first time, is a slap in the face to all those who proudly serve our country especially when we are at war. These flyovers have been a special part of the 'God and Country Rally' for many years.

"Will the new policy of President Obama be that a person has to surrender their faith tradition to honor and pay tribute to our courageous men and women who serve in the military?

"With respect to the economic concerns that the Pentagon mentioned, I would answer this way. If we can pay hundreds thousands of dollars for President Obama to go on a date with his wife to see a Broadway show and have an expensive dinner in New York City, we can certainly find a way to honor our brave men and women who serve in the armed services with a simple flyover.

"The Christian Defense Coalition will diligently work to reverse this unjust policy and determine why this flyover was denied in the first place."

Brandi Swindell, national Christian activist and Director of Generation Life, based in Idaho, adds,

"For the Pentagon to deny this flyover for the first time in the history of our state is deeply troubling and disturbing.

"During a time of war and especially around the 4th of July we should be doing all within our power as a nation to honor and respect our military.

"It must be stressed that the flyover was not to honor Christianity but to honor our fallen heroes who have proudly given their lives to protect our country and advance the cause of liberty around the world.

"Does this mean in the future that all public rallies must be stripped of any expressions of faith to respect our military? This Administration should be protecting religious expression in the public square not crushing it.

"I hope that President Obama will reverse this unjust policy and next year we will be allowed to give the military the honor they deserve."

In reaction to the Christian Newswire article, one MRFF supporter emailed:

"This is why I will always continue to be a huge supporter of the MRFF and what you do. I am amazed that anyone would think that a rally called the 'God and Country' rally, organized by a Christian group would not be religious. I have to laugh that it's the 'Christian Defense Fund' that is saying this -- if it wasn't a Christian event, why is that group defending it, and not the ACLU!"

So, while those who seek to use the U.S. military to inseparably combine religion with patriotism might find the Pentagon's decision "deeply troubling and disturbing" and will certainly get a lot of mileage out of this decision to spread the notion that the Obama administration is bent on "crushing" religion, we at MRFF see it as a good sign that, under our new commander in chief, the Department of Defense might just finally be starting to obey its own regulations.

Inspired by Maureen Dowd's Op-Ed in the NYT, July 5, 2009 ("Now, Sarah's Folly"):

As Alaskans settled in to enjoy holiday salmon bakes and the post-solstice thaw, their governor had a solipsistic meltdown so strange it made Sparky Sanford look like a model of stability. On the shore of Lake Lucille, with wild fowl honking and the First Dude smiling, with Piper in the foreground and their Piper Cub in the background, the woman who took the Republican Party by storm only 10 months ago gave an incoherent, breathless and prickly stream of consciousness to a small group in her Wasilla yard. Gobsmacked Alaska politicians, Republican big shots, the national press, her brother, the D.C. lawyer who helped create her political action committee and, yes, even Fox News, played catch-up. What looked like a secret wedding turned out to be a public unraveling as the G.O.P. implosion continued: Sarah wanted everyone to know that she's not having fun and people are being mean to her and she doesn't feel like finishing her first term as governor. She can hunt wolves from the air and field-dress a moose, but she fears being a lame duck? Some brickbats over her ethics and diva turns as John McCain's running mate, and that dewy skin turns awfully thin....

Palin's speech is classic casuistry. After girlish burbling about how "progressing our state" and serving Alaska "is the greatest honor that I could imagine," and raving about how much she loves her job, she abruptly announced that she was making the ultimate sacrifice: dumping the state on her lieutenant. Why "milk it," as she put it, when you can quit it? "Only dead fish go with the flow," she said, while cold fish can blow out of town. Leaving Alaska in the lurch is best for Alaska. She can better "effect change" in government from outside government. She can fulfill her promise of "efficiencies and effectiveness" by deserting Juneau midway through her term -- and taking her tanning bed with her. "We need those who will respect our Constitution," said Palin, who swore on the Bible to uphold the Constitution. She said she can't fulfill that silly old oath of office in the usual way because she's not "wired to operate under the same old politics as usual." Naturally, she dragged the troops in, saying that her trip to see wounded soldiers overseas "fortified" her decision to give up because "they don't give up." She refuses to succumb to the "politics of personal destruction." It's no fun unless she's the one aiming those poison darts, as she did when she accused Barack Obama of associating "with terrorists who targeted their own country." Sometimes, she explained, if you're the star, you have to "call an audible and pass the ball" and leave at halftime, "so the team can win" somehow without you. The maverick must run free when greener pastures beckon. The musher must jump out of the dogsled when warmer climes call. As Palin's spokeswoman, Meg Stapleton, says, "The world is literally her oyster." But just remember, beloved Alaska, it's all about you.

© 2009 Gershon Hepner 7/5/09

Lemon: You broke the story before the time of death from the coroner.

Harvey: Well, before it was officially announced. We really knew this significantly before even what was going on, but this was, you know, crossing every t. We were positive when we put it up. We put it up when we were 100% positive.

Asked by Lemon how he feels when mainstream outlets rely on TMZ reporting and yet are reluctant to cite or link to him, Levin dismisses the question as one he's not interested in. He says his only interest is in the story:

I think what happened is that again we just beat everybody on this one. And there are people who feel like wow we should have gotten that. Well, too bad, so sad.

Lemon on Sunday went on CNN's Reliable Sources to defend the extensive coverage of Michael Jackson's death, calling critics "elitist" and Jackson an "accidental civil rights leader."

Send us tips! Write us at tv@huffingtonpost.com if you see any newsworthy or notable TV moments. Read more about our media monitoring project here and click here to join the Media Monitors team.

Any interesting information about actors with whom Doris Day didn't work but met because of her Animal Rights Activism or other common interests? I'm thinking of people like Judy Garland, Clint Eastwood, and Mary Tyler Moore.



It was while Day was making a, for the most part, forgettable musical called Lucky Me, that she met and instantly befriended Judy Garland on the Warner's lot. (Garland was working on A Star Is Born.) But in keeping with what I was just saying, above, I don't know that they subsequently spent any real time together, except when they found themselves on the same train.



Same train?

Yes. After having several near misses when she was touring with Bob Hope in the late 1940s, she developed a fear of flying, and made all her trips east by train and car, over the years.

Two of the greatest singing voices to ever emerge from Hollywood, Day and Judy Garland met in 1954 and became fast friends.

Photo by Floyd McCarthy - (C) MPTV

As for Clint Eastwood, they also shared their mutual admiration when he was the Mayor of Carmel, where Day has been a resident ever since 1981. Eastwood even went on one of the five TV documentaries devoted to Day, saying that the local supermarket is like her office, and that's where he ran into her, every so often. Once again, I don't think they ever made plans to get together, nor did they.

Although Mary Tyler Moore did cross paths, I know of nothing to report about their (minimal) interactions.

Besides Ella Fitzgerald, who were some of DD's favorite singers?

While she was making Calamity Jane, Day was asked who her favorite singer was, and in addition to Ella Fitzgerald, she cited soprano Helen Traubel, Gordon MacRae, Perry Como, and Nat King Cole.

Apart from directors Hitchcock and Curtiz, about whom you write extensively, how did she get along with Gene Kelly, Charles Vidor, Delbert Mann, George Seaton, and Norman Jewison?

There is at least one other director who belongs on that list -- David Butler, who directed Day in four films, including one of her most important, Calamity Jane. It's worth noting that, when looking back on working with Day, both Butler and Jewison proved quite candid in talking about her quirks, and the difficulties they had had with her. Butler talked about how, by the time of Calamity Jane, she had come in to her own and was more demanding. Jewison, who made two pictures with Day (The Thrill of It All and Send Me No Flowers), focused on how insecure and temperamental she was about her appearance. As for the others you mention, there are far too many stories and angles to discuss given our space limitations.



I did get some interesting stories from Day's co-star Elizabeth Wilson about Gene Kelly, who directed them in The Tunnel of Love, a relatively obscure film, which is obscure for many reasons, and especially because Kelly failed to elicit a true comic performance out of Day's co-star, Richard Widmark. Indeed, there are good stories I gathered from people who worked on most of the other pictures with Day, but far too many to relate here.

May we focus on The Tunnel of Love for a moment? I've seen it, and the tone of the film is puzzling.

As I explain in my discussion of Tunnel..., the "tone" of the picture is indeed off. In adapting the Broadway hit for the screen, they made a big mistake in softening what had been a controversial ending, implying that Widmark's character had a child with another woman. That was quite risque for the mid 1950s, and too risque for what they hoped would be a mainstream film.

Apart from neither playing Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate nor being able to work with Mike Nichols, what other roles and directors got away? Were all of these due to Melcher's interference or were some because of Day's own insecurities?

There were many that "got away," but to scrutinize the life of any star, is to discover that for every picture that was made, there may have been several under consideration. But certainly, of all the roles she nearly took on, the biggest disappointment for Day, her fans, and posterity, was her failure to play Nellie Forbush in the film version of South Pacific. The primary reason she lost the part was financial: Melcher was holding out for too much money, and Mitzi Gaynor did it for a mere pittance.

Nellie Forbush seems made for Day. I always imagined her playing the role. Another reason for DD followers to fume when reminded of Melcher's short-sightedness and greed. Can you mention just a few of the songs that remain unrecorded because of his unique interference?

After he became a music producer, Melcher would not let his wife record any songs, unless he retained the publication rights. Needless to say, some of the composers of new songs wanted to retain the rights themselves, so there were any number of songs that Day might have recorded, but didn't. As I explain in the biography, Mitch Miller told me that, during the ten years he was Day's producer at Columbia Records, he knew of only one instance when Day defied Melcher's wishes, along these lines. She recorded "Everybody Loves a Lover," even though the writer, Robert Allen, kept the rights for himself.

I believe DD's favorite film is Calamity Jane, why do you believe it's her favorite? I haven't seen the entire film in many years, but in the documentary clips I've viewed, she seems seamless in every scene.

Doris Day has said, and on more than one occasion, that Calamity Jane is her favorite film, because she was a tomboy when she was growing up, and she could really relate to that part for that reason. (In the same breath, Doris also added that she "played with dolls" as well. She insists on being contradictory at practically every turn.)



You have interviewed and reviewed the books of John Updike, so you must have interesting insight into his DD references. He was even moved to write a poem where he describes her voice as a "silver arrow" that pierced his heart. What was it he felt and why?

Updike, who was also interviewed for one of the TV documentaries about Day, has said that it's hard for him to put his finger on Day's appeal, but that it was always there for him. Clearly, he found her sexy beginning with his adolescence.

Might he have sensed the tragic subtext?

In contrast with any notion of sensing her "tragic subtext," and in his longest investigation in to Day -- his review of her memoir, which ran in the New Yorker in 1977 -- he said that her recurring problem with marriage may have had to do with her being something of a "Queen Bee."

That's surprising. What do you make of his "Queen Bee" theory?

I think Updike's "queen bee" theory has some validity. But I also think it's misleading to emphasize the degree to which Day was a so-called control freak, without pointing out that she also ceded control to those who managed her -- first her mother, then her husband, and finally, her son.

I reviewed a French biopic, Seraphine, which was wonderful, and I admire the recent La Vie en Rose about Edith Piaf. I haven't cared much for Hollywood biographical films, but my fantasy DD biopic would star Renee Zellweger (who's already sort of played her in the film Down with Love). In your casting fantasy who would play DD?

I think Renee Zellweger is already too old to play Day at her height, the early to mid 1950s. I think Reese Witherspoon would be ideal, but unless a picture is made quickly with Witherspoon, she also might become too mature to play the younger Day, just breaking into films.



Performers like Judy Garland and Doris Day are icons for many complicated reasons. The difference with DD is that, unlike Garland, Elvis, Montgomery Clift, or Marilyn Monroe, she has endured. Few performers who live as long as she has maintain this special status.

It's interesting that each of the other icons you mention famously had personal problems to contend with. Day, on the other hand, always represented the relatively carefree, straightforward and simple aspects of America -- both to Americans and to the rest of the world. Though nothing could have been further from the truth, when it comes to the real Doris Day, as opposed to the image that has permanently attached itself to her name. And for that matter, nothing could have been further from the truth, when it comes to America in the 1950s, Day's heyday. However happy-go-lucky America seemed during the period, there was a good deal of turmoil, unrest, and hypocrisy, just beneath the surface.

A year after your book first appeared, what are your thoughts regarding the nature of her personal appeal to people she knew and the public's enormous thirst to know more about her? It seems you can barely get on with your next biography because you are hounded to continue making public appearances about DD.

Yes, I continue to be both astonished and overwhelmed by the ongoing interest in both Doris Day and in my biography. A year later, I continue to get requests for interviews and public presentations. I'm giving one on the upper east-side for seniors in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon the end of June, and I was just told by the woman who's organized it that she's already booked to capacity for 75 people, that she has ten people on a waiting-list, and that she's turned still more people away.

Finally, I'm curious about your take on the types of questions and emotional responses (enthusiasm and affection, among others) you perceive in fans who never knew her. I've been at your DD presentations two times myself and find it both interesting and moving.

It all confirms what I always suspected -- Day was a much larger part of our culture than the culture seemed to acknowledge or allow. She was omni-present on the radio and on the screen--and in the last few decades on TV -- and, I think, very much taken for granted. What was most surprising, was the discovery that she has an enormous number of fans today who are teen-agers. In other words, they are growing up -- or should I say, catching up? -- with her now, more than 40 years after she released her last film. Beneath it all, is the happiness that she brought to the world, and clearly continues to. Her talents simply cannot be denied, no matter how schlocky and vulgar some of her films and songs remain.

Happy times for Doris Day with co-star and close friend Rock Hudson. They made three films together: Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, and Send Me No Flowers.

From Sly Stone and film scholar Molly Haskell to John Updike and Oprah Winfrey, Doris Day's appeal covers a remarkably wide spectrum. The Day phenomenon is obviously difficult to pin down. Kaufman comes closest in capturing her essence as a mass of fascinating paradoxes connected to early tragedies. While his hardcover book is simply too lovely to take to the beach, as the pages might get wrinkled by saltwater and stained by suntan lotion, movie buffs and biography enthusiasts shouldn't hesitate to toss the paperback into their favorite canvas bag this summer and savor the story of this enigmatic performer and critically unsung artist -- until now, that is.

End of Part II.

To go back and read Part I, click here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/penelope-andrew/summer-reading-on-sunny_b_220680.html

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