AMERICA'S VEGETABLE PATCH

From the beginning, Michelle Obama's kitchen garden has been an overachiever, churning out more peppers, parsley and eggplant than expected, and generating interest that — yes, really — crosses oceans.

Now, the first lady has added a 271-page book, American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, to her gardening resume, and Americans can read all about the planting misses that came with the hits, get tips on gardening at home and, she hopes, draw some inspiration that just might change their lives.

The book, released Tuesday by Crown Publishers, traces how a city kid from the South Side of Chicago who became a working mother and then a political spouse found herself fretting on that first planting day, March 20, 2009, about whether an L-shaped stretch of soil would prove fertile ground for a national conversation "about the food we eat, the lives we lead, and how all of that affects our children."



The book is chock full of colorful, glossy photos of luscious-looking vegetables. There are maps tracing the growth of the garden over the past three years, and stories about community gardens around the country. Even a how-to on creating a compost bin.

The book is divided into four sections marking the seasons, and includes a complement of recipes for each.

There are inside stories about planting travails that will ring true with any weekend gardener: pumpkins that wouldn't grow, cantaloupes that tasted blah, blackberry bushes that wouldn't play nice with the raspberry bushes and an invasion of cucumber beetles.

The first lady makes clear that schoolchildren, White House staff and volunteers — not her — do most of the hoeing and weeding.

The first lady plans to donate all the proceeds to the National Park Foundation. for programs that promote gardening and healthy eating, and to help care for the White House garden.

Kelly Clarkson 'hated life' after winning 'American Idol'

Singer Kelly Clarkson was so miserable after shooting to fame on “American Idol” that she contemplated quitting music.

The singer was catapulted into the spotlight after she won the inaugural series of the TV talent show in 2002, but admits her career got off to a shaky start because she didn’t have a mentor to guide her.

She tells Redbook magazine, “I’m going to be completely honest – I had no one looking out for me.

“They were looking out for the show, and it was horrible. I was 19 years old. I was smart enough to know that it wasn’t about me, but that didn’t make it any easier. I’m all cried out about it, but my first four years, I hated my life; I almost quit a dozen times.”

The pop star is now happier than ever, thanks to her boyfriend Brandon Blackstock, but insists she is still waiting for the relationship to fall apart.

Clarkson adds, “Where’s the kick in the ass? I told my assistant that today. I said, ‘I’m just waiting for something to blow up.’ She said, ‘No, that’s what happiness is.’ I’m like, maybe I’ve never been happy! Because Brandon does, he makes me happy.

Examining America's have and have-not divide

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Occupiers succeeded in creating a national dialogue on the haves and the have-nots in this country—or the 99% vs. the 1%.

The Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz explained today on Morning Joe how income inequality in the United States continues to grow unabated. Here are a few of the depressing statistics he shared.

• The share of income going to the top 1% is twice as much as it was 30 years ago
• Incomes adjusted for inflation are lower than they were in 1997
• The median income of a full-time male worker is lower today than it was in 1968—almost a half century ago

“The United States now is the most unequal of all advanced industrialized countries,” he said. “Even more disturbing is we think of ourselves as the land of opportunity…but in terms of statistics – what are the chances, the likelihood of somebody at the bottom making it to the middle or the top?—we are the worst of any of the advanced industrial countries.”

Stiglitz, author of The Price of Inequality and Columbia University professor, noted there’s not “a single cause” for America’s troubling income divide, but he did cite predatory practices in the financial sector, outsized CEO pay packages, as well as some government policies, such as a lack of negotiation on drug prices.

“At the heart of this is inevitably politics,” Stiglitz added. “The problem is that our system has been shifting from what you might call one person, one vote, more to a system that is like one dollar, one vote.

Stiglitz suggested there were two possible ways to break the cycle: (1) The people at the top begin to realize “we’re all in the same boat,” which leads to infrastructure, education, and technology investment. (2) The average American begins to understand they’ve “been sold a bill of goods”—of bad ideas.

The State of the Union: The View from America's Front Porch

"Are you satisfied with the city or area where you live?" Nearly every American seems to like their hometown. Currently 85.7 percent are satisfied with their community. During the depths of the Great Recession this declined slightly to 83.9 percent, a difference within the statistical margin of error. In addition, the number of Americans thinking their hometown is getting better is the highest it's been since before the financial meltdown. According to Gallup:

The 58.7 percent of Americans who said their city or area where they live is "getting better" in April is the highest since the 59.0 percent measured in January 2008, and has surpassed pre-financial crisis levels.

This is the day-to-day experience that I sense on the street, and through routine social and professional interaction. The majority of Americans are happy with the world they experience at home and in their neighborhood. The America they experience through the lens of the media is another story entirely.

As Gallup reports:

Americans were much more satisfied with their local situation than they were with the national situation. In a May 3-6 Gallup poll, 24 percent of Americans were satisfied with the way things are going in the country, compared with the current 85.7 percent who say they are satisfied with their city or area. This reflects Americans' tendency to be more positive about local situations than about national conditions.

I think that in some sense the "local community" is the America you live in and directly experience and "the nation" is a sort of abstraction you hear about from others.

America's economy creates profound challenges for many people. In some cases the impact is dire. For the majority, our weak economy affects our sense of security, opportunity and mobility. But for the most part, Americans remain an optimistic and pragmatic people working to build communities and homes that provide them with great satisfaction and joy. Politics comes into play most intensely when people feel their communities and homes are under real threat. Despite the noise from the media, most Americans in 2012 do not feel that threat.

Nevertheless, in 2012, both presidential campaigns will work hard to convince us that this is a make or break year for the USA. Romney will try to tell us that Obama isn't up for the job and that the nation is in decline. Obama will remind us of all the right wing positions Romney adopted during the primary season to win over the extremists in the Republican base. While there are certainly important differences in both candidates, most of those differences will have little impact on the daily lives of Americans in their communities and in their homes.

There are major issues and crises confronting America and the world, but neither candidate is really speaking to those issues in this campaign. There is the issue of global sustainability and the need to transform our economy to one based on renewable resources. There is the issue of extreme poverty that persists in the shadow of the planet's growing wealth. There is the issue of the advancing technology of mass destruction and the threat posed by terrorists and dictators should they be armed with that technology. Many Americans sense the growing importance of these issues and they understand that our national leaders are doing little to address them. All of us respond to these issues in much the same way: We retreat to the lives we enjoy in our communities and homes and focus our attention on people and places that bring us joy and satisfaction.

Chasing the American Dream...

Hello everyone,

Im new to this forum stuff so please excuse any errors!

Im Simon, 24 from Derby UK, married with 2 children. Im a fully qualified Plumbing & Heating Engineer with over 5 years experience in this field behind me. Ive been Gas Safe registered with the company i currently work at for 2 years, and have qualifications in Unvented Direct Hot Water systems, and UK Water Regulations.

Im looking to take my family to the US to potentially give my kids the best possible life i can. We have holidayed to Florida twice in the past and have loved the place from minute one. Its not the parks, its not the rides, its not the attractions that we love, its the lifestyle, the beautiful friendly people that we love, its the gorgeous weather that hangs around most of the time. i love the face that driving down the I4 from Orlando is actually enjoyable because everyone drives sensibly! Not like in the UK. And let me please stress that our hearts are not just drawn to Florida, we are open to anywhere in the US as we have heard that most US cities asre similar in their trends.

Anyway, you get the picture.

Please, anyone who can offer me help, advice or even a job offer, I would be most grateful to hear from you.

Thank you for your time.

-S

A window on 'forgotten America': More fascinating images of country's poorest communities from Google Street View 

Lined with stores closed down long ago, sad-looking homes and deserted properties they are America's 'forgotten streets'.

But one artist is forcing people to take a closer look at the often ignored places hit with financial struggles over the years.

Using Google Street View, Doug Rickard was able to capture images from states all over the U.S including Michigan, California, Arkansas and New Jersey - without ever leaving his own home. 

Using the internet tool, California-born Rickard roamed America's streets for snapshots of run-down neighbourhoods.

The thought-provoking images paint a stark picture of the places stuggling to get by following the economic recession.  
 

The detached nature of the camera gives a feeling of alienation throughout the series of coloured photographs, entitled A New American Picture.

 

The collection contains images from areas battered by recent crises including Detroit, Michigan and New Orleans, Louisiana.

The pictures show loan figures skulking past shabby buildings and through empty parking lots.

In others, people are pictured loitering outside closed-down shops in the middle of the day, while children play on grey, abandoned streets.

Rickard describes the eerie images as having an 'apocalyptic-like brokenness'.

It is a modern approach to the tradition of street photographers concerned with American life...

Cannibalizing America 

On Saturday May 26^th, a homeless man was attacked by a naked man in Miami just off the Causeway’s ramp. The victim, 65 year old Ronald Poppo, had 75% of his face eaten away by 31 year old Rudy Eugene who authorities suspect was on a new designer drug called bath salts. The drug itself is said to cause its users to overheat thus causing them to strip nude and enter a psychosis state which drives them into mental irrationality. After getting statements from family and friends of Eugene, one might think he was a pretty stand up guy. Sure, he made a few mistakes here and there but who hasn’t. Well, then again… you haven’t gnawed someone’s fucking face off.
 
Immediately following the incident, the news went viral along with security camera footage from the nearby Miami Herald building which shows two pairs of legs moving about wildly. Police were called to the scene and the suspect had to be shot four times before falling down dead. Did we mention that the first shot only caused him to continue eating the guy’s face? Just thought we’d throw that disturbing detail at you, too.

Along with the video footage, a new Twitter account opened up purporting to be the Miami Zombie who, after finishing his meal off the Causeway, was in search of more victims. The gallows humor in all of this is the continued talk on social media sites of a “zombie apocalypse.”

 To me, I see it as media hype. Seriously. After Saturday’s fiasco in Miami and judging public reaction to such a story, why wouldn’t every media outlet jump on the bandwagon to find as many cannibal/zombie stories as possible? We are a nation of 300 million + citizens. A lot more disturbing events happen every day that go unreported. It’s just the “flavor of the week.” (Pun totally intended.)