More than 106, 000 viewers reveled in the exotic, interesting, unique, and independent films presented by Michael Moore and the Traverse City Film Festival in 2010! Besides such wonderful films as NOWHERE BOY (the story of John Lennon’s coming of age as a teenage rocker maverick); THE INFIDEL ( the hilarious comic presentation of a Muslim family man who discovers his biological Jewish roots from adoption records); and THE IRANIAN COOKBOOK ( a documentary which reveals the constant cooking of the Iranian mothers and wives for Ramadan), film viewers were transfixed by the magic of the filmmaking world, its directors, writers, and performers.

Beirut, Lebanon - Two young girls stood, as if frozen, starting below them at an ever vibrant Beirut. Their balcony, like the rest of their house and most of their refugee camp was of an indistinct color. It was dirty, as were their clothes. They, on the other hand, looked beautiful and bright, although their future didn't.

Here in Bourj el-Barajneh, one of a dozen Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, time seems to have stood still for years. Generation after generation, children grow up in the same desperate reality, punished for crimes they did not commit, injured by a history not of their making. They stand on dirty balconies, cracked beyond repair, watching Beirut and the world go by.

The city is abuzz with life, politics, rumors, anticipation and intrigue. It remains perpetually divided between many worlds and contradictions, in a way that seems almost impossible to reconcile or bridge.

"Truth lives a wretched life, but always survives a lie." --Anonymous

Last night, Bite Club of KC canvassed two heavily trafficked night spots in Kansas City, educating thousands of people about the University of Kansas Medical Center’s fraudulent waste of millions of our taxpayer dollars (which they attain via National Institute of Health grants) on fraudulent research AND about the abject cruelty (as evidence by the 160 violations of animal welfare laws for which the USDA cited them) that KU Med inflicts upon primates.

We distributed over 200 copies of this article by SAEN’s Michael Budkie which references publicly available summaries of animal abuse, as documented by KU Med’s own employees in federally required logs about their “patients.” A vast percentage of those members of the public who engaged us were outraged by the primate vivisection program at KU Med and stated they would help us shut them down any way they could.

Barack Obama comes home this week to celebrate his birthday, and to visit a Ford plant that has begun hiring again, aided by federal loan guarantees for clean energy production. Although Ford wasn't bailed out, it is part of an auto industry saved by the president's bold decision -- a decision that is paying off as the restructured companies are turning a profit and putting people back to work.

The auto company rescue was unpopular when President Bush first made the decision to intervene -- so that his successor could make his own choice. It was unpopular when Obama decided to rescue the companies, with an arranged bankruptcy for General Motors and Chrysler forcing restructuring. It is unpopular to this day. But it has worked. And it saved an estimated million jobs that would likely have been lost if the auto industry had been allowed to fail.

That success was the result of bold action. And now we need more bold action to help Chicago, Illinois and the nation -- which seem perilously close to turning back toward recession.

Most commentary on President Barack Obama either beats him up unfairly because he's not a Republican or cuts him extra slack because he's not a Republican. If, in the privacy of your own home, you want to pause and review the main events of the first year or more of this presidency, as recorded by someone who obviously doesn't care about partisan boosting, I recommend Paul Street's new book "The Empire's New Clothes: Barack Obama in the Real World of Power."

This is an excellent detailed analysis from a progressive writer willing to note the good, the bad, and the ugly, and to admit when the bad and the ugly seem to be dominating the scene. It's early, of course, for an overview of this presidency. And it's still early for a lot of potential readers to be able to handle the truth. But this book lays out the highlights and lowlights in a way that should advance readers' understanding.