CNN.com contributor LZ Granderson says the president is trying to be practical in handling gay rights issues.

Kevin Bales of Free The Slaves says slavery still exists in the U.S., particularly in the sex and agriculture trades, as part of The CNN Freedom Project.

CLICK HERE to read our fascinating OFF SET interview with Marlene Carson, founder of Rahab’s Hideaway, a reach and rescue organization in Columbus, Ohio, established for those who have fallen prey to human trafficking/prostitution.

Actor Tommy Chong and former White House drug czar advisor Paul Chabot debate a federal bill that would leave states to regulate pot.

Check out our recent (and fascinating!) OFF SET interviews on the debate to legalize drugs, first with Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and then with Rafael Lemaitre, Associate Director for Public Affairs at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

CNN's David Gergen says President Obama defied his top military advisors to accelerate the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

CLICK HERE to read Gergen's commentary, "Why didn't Obama listen to Petraeus?"

WBUR senior reporter David Boeri says Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, captured Wednesday in California, "liked to kill."

CLICK HERE to read our OFF-SET blog interview with Dick Lehr, co-author with Gerard O’Neill of “Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance between the FBI and the Irish Mob.”

CNN's Fareed Zakaria discusses his interview with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Pres. Obama's troop drawdown plan. FULL POST

Today’s Number of the Day is 30 million.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced it’s releasing 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic National Reserve. This is to address the disruption due to the civil war in Libya, where U.S. and NATO forces are trying to keep the Libyan people and rebel forces safe from the regime of Moammar Gadhafi. Libya used to export some 1.3 million barrels of oil a day.

The U.S. is one of 28 members in the International Energy Agency and that agency is releasing an additional 30 million barrels from strategic reserves, hoping to drive down oil prices.

According to The Los Angeles Times, “It is the third time the IEA has coordinated the use of emergency stockpiles since the agency was founded in 1974. The first was during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the second when Hurricane Katrina damaged oil rigs and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005.”

So what does that mean for the price of gas at the pump? FULL POST

IN THE ARENA on Thursday, June 23, 2011, guest anchor Tom Foreman speaks with CNN GPS anchor Fareed Zakaria about his interview today with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai on Thursday welcomed U.S. President Barack Obama's plans for a U.S. troops drawdown and said it's a sign that Afghanistan is ready to take control of security in the war-torn nation.

"The number of troops that he has announced to be withdrawn is a sign that Afghanistan is taking over its own security and is trying to defend its territory by its own means," Karzai said. "So we are happy about the announcement."

As the United States pulls back, Karzai painted a picture of a more stable Afghanistan, despite the fact that May was the bloodiest month for Afghan civilians since 2007. He told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview set to air Sunday that Afghans were ready to take the reins of their own country.

"It is the responsibility of the Afghan people to protect their country and to provide security for the citizens of the country," Karzai said. "If you fail in fulfilling our most important responsibility with regard to our country and our people, then somebody else should take over."

Obama announced Wednesday night that 10,000 U.S. troops would leave Afghanistan this year and all 33,000 forces sent as part of a 2009 surge would return home by the summer of 2012. FULL POST

This year, CNN is joining the fight to end modern-day slavery and shine a spotlight on the horrors slavery today, amplify the voices of victims, highlight success stories and help unravel the complicated tangle of criminal enterprises trading in human life.

It’s called The CNN Freedom Project, and on Sunday, June 26, 2011 is the world premiere of the documentary, "Nepal’s Stolen Children." In the program, actress Demi Moore, a passionate advocate for victims of human trafficking herself, Moore travels to Nepal to meet 2010 CNN Hero of the Year Anuradha Koirala and some of the thousands of women and girls Koirala’s organization has rescued from forced prostitution. How were they taken and where were they sent?

In The Arena on Thursday, June 23, 2011: We meet Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves, a group dedicated to liberating slaves around the world.  He is author of "Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy."

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Marlene Carson, founder of Rahab’s Hideaway, a reach and rescue organization in Columbus, Ohio, established for those who have fallen prey to human trafficking/prostitution. Her success story is just one example of what can be done to combat human trafficking in the United States.

You spent 20 years running an escort service, as you have said, selling everything but your own soul. For those who may not understand, why is that life considered modern-day slavery?

To understand, let me tell you my story first. There was a pimp in Columbus. I was 15 years old. There was this guy who moved into his neighborhood with his wife–who we later found out was his first victim.

They courted our neighborhood for a year and one half. They knew the parents. They went to the PTA meetings. Their house was the hang-out house for the kids in the neighborhood. They gained our trust.

They asked four girls if they could take us to New York for Labor Day weekend. They took us to New York and we get there and we found out, instead of going to a Broadway show, we were being sold. FULL POST

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Corey Saylor, National Legislative Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

On Thursday, June 23, 2011 CAIR and the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender is releasing the first-of-its-kind annual report on the growth of Islamophobia in the United States during 2009 – 2010. The report is titled, “Same Hate, New Target.”

How do CAIR and the Berkeley Center for Race and Gender define “Islamophobia?”

Islamophobia is close-minded prejudice against or hatred of Islam and Muslims.

It is not appropriate to label all, or even the majority of those, who question Islam and Muslims as Islamophobes. Most are simply misinformed about the Islamic faith.

When I talk about Islamophobes, I am speaking about people whose words or actions indicate that they rigidly view Islam as monolithic, static, authoritarian and primitive compared with the West. Such people view all Muslims as manipulative and devious. It is the kind of classic intolerant attitudes we have seen directed at any number of minorities in the past. FULL POST