Burmese Nobel Laureate to Face Military Trial

BANGKOK — Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, was taken to prison by security officials Thursday morning and will stand trial for allowing an American man to stay overnight in her home, an apparent violation of her long-term house arrest, her lawyers said.....read more here

Shouldn’t the military be blamed on the breach of the security? Let’s say that nutty Burmese Mormon was a psycho and killed Aun San Suu Kyi, what would the military respond?

The incident was just, according to the report, a “pretext to extend her house arrest, which by some calculations ends on May 27” and the military want to make sure that she would not have a chance to run the first nationwide election since 1990 that would have made Aung San Suu Kyi a leader of the country.

Tae Athi

Briton Ben Southall wins 'The Best Job in the World' contest

Briton Ben Southall wins 'The Best Job in the World' contest!

"He has ridden an ostrich, bungee jumped, scuba dived and crossed deserts.

Now, Ben Southall has landed a six-month job strolling the white sands of a tropical island after being crowned the winner of "the best job in the world" contest.

The 34-year-old Brit will spend the next half-year as  caretaker of an island off Queensland, Australia, where he will feed the fish, clean the pool and file weekly Internet progress reports.

He will live rent-free in a three-bedroom beach house overlooking the Great Barrier Reef with his Canadian girlfriend.

"It's amazing," Southall told The Times of London, all decked out in his regulation boardshorts and flip-flops.

"You think of a three- or four-bedroom house in England and it has nice red bricks and is quite small. But this house is a dream. It's enormous and looks out over the Coral Sea and at least four or five people can stay at any one time."

The contest generated worldwide interest, and Southall, who used to work in fundraising, beat off 34,000 other applicants.

Southall will earn $100,000 in the job, which begins July 1. His new pad also comes equipped with a swimming pool and golf cart.

The contest was part of Tourism Queensland's plan to bring more visitors to the 600 islands around the Great Barrier Reef.

Some 16 finalists were flown to Hamilton Island on Monday for interviews with a four-person panel before Southall was picked.

"I just can't wait to start," he said.

"There's a lot of different things to do over the next six months. I hope I can sell the reef as much as everybody is expecting."

From NY Daily News by Christin Boyle

David Souter is Leaving the Supreme Court

David Souter is Leaving the Supreme Court

Souter’s departure will leave Obama the first opening to nominate the Supreme Court Justice in his presidency. As the high court is moving to the conservative side, he would be under tremendous pressure from the progressive side to nominate someone who will advance the progressive agendas. Moreover he has to consider women or minority candidates to satisfy his base.

This is what Nan Aron, President of Alliance for Justice, a coalition of public interest organizations suggested.

“Most Republican senators can be expected to oppose any worthy nominee, so nothing is to be gained by nominating someone who is not a strong and effective voice for core constitutional values. Many of those senators are on record explicitly opposing filibusters of judicial nominees; their hypocrisy should be exposed if they attempt to block a majority vote.”

Tae Athi

Miss USA California Responds To Gay Marriage Question From Perez Hilton

Even though I don’t completely agree with her, this is a free country and I really believe that everyone is subject to his/her opinion. Right or wrong, like it or not, it's her belief after all. The fact is the gay marriage has moved forward for the past two years and the public opinion is moving in favor of this issue. I think constructive arguments from people who support the gay marriage would be more useful to advance this controversial issue than to condemn another side.