Who is Saul Alinsky, and why is Newt Gingrich so obsessed with him?

Wherever Newt Gingrich goes these days – stumping in Florida, arguing on televised debates with fellow Republican presidential hopefuls, jotting down notes for his umpteenth book – he carries with him a scary but useful ghost: Saul Alinsky.

The radical community organizer (gone now these 40 years) is the specter on which Barack Obama has modeled his life, Gingrich warns. It’s no coincidence, he says, that both Alinsky and Obama were from Chicago or that the President passed up far more lucrative possibilities to become … a community organizer.

“The centerpiece of this campaign, I believe, is American exceptionalism versus the radicalism of Saul Alinsky,” Gingrich said in his South Carolina primary victory speech, a charge he finds constant ways to repeat. "Saul Alinsky radicalism is at the heart of Obama,” he said on CNN.

Election 101: Ten questions about Newt Gingrich as a presidential candidate

So who was Saul Alinsky?

Born in Chicago in 1909 to Russian immigrant parents, Alinsky worked his way through the University of Chicago, then dropped out of grad school to organize the poor in the city’s slums, demanding better working and living conditions. He went on to do the same thing in other US cities.

Published the year before he died in 1972, Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals” has been compared to the writing of Thomas Paine, and it inspired many young idealists (including, apparently, Hillary Clinton, who wrote her Wellesley College senior thesis on Alinsky).

"What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be,” Alinsky begins his book. “The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away."

Some compare Alinsky’s activities and goals to a more recent American political insurgency.

Roy Oswalt to play for St. Louis Cardinals ... or some other team

Roy Oswalt likely is heading to the St. Louis Cardinals -- that's if you believe an unnamed source on ESPNBoston.com rather than the Cardinals' general manager.

The source said late Friday night that the free-agent pitcher likely will sign with the defending World Series champions "soon." But with Oswalt's history of back problems, the source added that the deal is "not yet 100 percent."

St. Louis General Manager John Mozeliak responded Saturday morning in an email to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. "These are just rumors, and nothing more," he wrote about the Oswalt reports.

Other teams hoping to remain in the hunt for Oswalt are said to include the Boston Red Sox, Washington Nationals and Texas Rangers.

CBS.com reported Friday night that Oswalt had turned down a one-year offer for around $10 million from the Detroit Tigers, who landed another big-name free agent in first baseman Prince Fielder earlier in the week.

Oswalt, an 11-year veteran, made 23 starts for the Philadelphia Phillies last season, posting a 9-10 record and 3.69 earned-run average.

Soap Opera Actor Nick Santino Commits Suicide

 NewsCore) - A down-on-his-luck soap-opera actor took his own life this week after he was forced to put his beloved dog to sleep under pressure from his New York City condo, friends said.
Nick Santino euthanized his dog, Rocco, on Tuesday, on Santino's 47th birthday. That night, his guilt over the gut-wrenching decision became too much to bear.
"Today [Tuesday], I betrayed my best friend and put down my best friend," he wrote in a suicide note, according to close friend Stuart Sarnoff. "Rocco trusted me, and I failed him. He didn't deserve this."
Santino -- a struggling actor whose TV credits include "All My Children" and "Guiding Light" -- adopted pit bull Rocco from a shelter several years ago.
The Brooklyn-born performer, who was raised in an orphanage and foster homes, soon began to write about his pet on Facebook, saying, "I did not rescue Rocco, Rocco rescued me."
But in 2010, his building at 1 Lincoln Plaza announced strict new dog regulations, including a ban on pit bulls. The ban did not apply to pit bulls already in the building, but friends and neighbors said Santino began to feel harassed.
"People were complaining about his dog," according to neighbor Kevan Cleary, 63, an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School. "It was open season on him."
Rocco could not ride in the main elevators and was not allowed to be left in the apartment alone for more than nine hours.
Santino then was threatened with a $250 fine for having a barking dog, neighbors said.
The building's management refused to comment Friday.
After months of increasing anguish, Santino had the healthy dog put to sleep Tuesday.
Dog owner James Steven Grant said Santino left two rawhide bones on his doorstep and earlier was seen tearfully giving away Rocco's fluffy bed.
A veterinarian told Santino that Rocco was becoming aggressive -- and Santino blamed it on his own depression.
He spent Tuesday in agony over what he did to the dog. The last phone call he made was to a former girlfriend at 2:00am local time Wednesday. Later that day, police found his body in his bedroom. He had overdosed on pills.
Rocco was cremated, and friends said Santino's remains will be, too, and they will be reunited.
"One way or another, their ashes will be together forever," Sarnoff said.

Santorum cancels events after admitting daughter to hospital

(CNN) - Rick Santorum's three-year-old daughter Isabella, who suffers from a chromosomal condition called Trisomy 18, was admitted to a Philadelphia hospital Saturday.In a statement, Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said the GOP presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania senator would cancel campaign events on Sunday morning.

"Rick and his wife Karen are admitting their daughter Bella to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia this evening," Gidley said. "The campaign will cancel Rick's upcoming Sunday morning Florida campaign schedule. However, Rick intends to return to Florida and resume the campaign schedule as soon as is possible."

Santorum had been slated to appear on NBC's "Meet the Press," as well as make a stop at King Jesus International Ministry in Miami. Santorum has been campaigning in Florida ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday.
Trisomy 18 is caused by extra material from chromosome 18, and is three times more common in girls than boys. Half of patients born with the condition do not survive past the first week of life, according to the National Institutes of Health. Patients who do survive past the first week experience serious medical and developmental problems.
On his campaign website, Santorum has a page devoted to his daughter, including a video in which the candidate describes the girl as the "center of the universe for our family."
"Our youngest daughter Isabella Maria, who we call Bella, is a very special girl who needs lot of care," Santorum says in the video. "When she was born we knew something was wrong but we didn't know what it was. It wasn't until five days later that they came back and told Karen and me that she had a disorder called Trisomy 18, which is similar to Down's syndrome."
Santorum describes feeling angry after doctors told him and his wife to prepare for Bella's death in the first days of her life.
"We're going to not focus on her dying; we're going to focus on her living," Santorum says in the video.

Demi Moore 911 call is public information, for better or worse

Demi Moore

When the dramatic recording of the 911 call leading to Demi Moore’s Monday night hospitalization was released to the public today, it begged the question: Does Moore have the legal right to have that call kept private?

Not according to officials. “911 calls are public information,” says Tina Haro, the public information officer for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Community Liaison Office, which reviewed the tape for release alongside the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Though the LAFD was legally required to redact personal and medical information about Moore (her history, treatment Monday, phone number, gate code), when the media made a request for that public information, LAFD was legally required to release it. ”Everything we [released] is public record, so we have to give it to [journalists] according to the California Public Records Act,” Haro says.

The only exception, Haro says, would be if there were a pending criminal trial or legal issue. Then the courts (as opposed to Moore’s lawyers) could embargo the release. (As of press time, Haro was unaware of any attempt by Moore’s legal team to halt or follow up on the tape’s release, and Moore’s reps would not specifically comment on the 911 call or its release today.)

Still, legality aside, the other question being asked in the wake of Moore’s call going public is whether it’s morally sound to share a recording of a 911 emergency phone call on the Web for millions to see and hear.

Los Angeles area privacy attorney Jeffrey S. Kravitz says that Moore’s celebrity status means she “is a public figure, so she has very limited protection.”

But Tony Stuart, the LA attorney who argued for privacy rights in the landmark Shulman v. Group W Productions, believes Moore should have a right to privacy because of the nature that 911 call. “It seems to me that a call for medical assistance ought to just be private, period,” he says.

Stuart also acknowledges the possible snowball effect of releasing a 911 call: “How can a person feel free to give important info over the telephone to a 911 dispatch if they’re worried that something they say might be broadcast to the public?” Agreed Kravitz, ”You could make a good argument that it is in the public’s interest not to reveal these [tapes], because, otherwise, people would not call [911], to their detriment.”

Stuart argues that the courts should make it clear to average citizens that authorities will not “chill their ability to freely give important information — which may mean the difference between life and death — because the public has some prurient interest in what Demi Moore has to say.”

But unless the public’s interest in that type of private information wanes considerably, the celebrities themselves should expect to see their 911 calls continue to release to the media.

Says Stuart, “There’s always this push-pull with the media and with privacy, especially a celebrity’s privacy.”