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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/03/15/DI2007031501599.html
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https://web.archive.org/web/2007031819id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/03/15/DI2007031501599.html
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No Child Left Behind
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Post education reporter Amit Paley was online Friday, March 16 at 11 a.m. to take your questions about the brewing battle in Congress over the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Amit Paley: The battle over No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration's signature domestic achievement, is heating up with a Republican rebellion that broke into the open this week. I'm here to take questions about the political battle and its implications for parents, children and schools dealing with the effects of this landmark law.
Annapolis, Md.: Do these lawmakers actually believe that a child with a 70 IQ and one with an IQ of 130 are going to learn at the same rate, and achieve the same levels? It's time to face the reality that not everyone was meant to go to college. The world needs skilled labor, and the more we try to force mechanically talented children to become verbally or mathematically inclined, the more of a disservice we do to them and our country. We need to reinstate vocational and technical schools to give those who are not college-bound the skills to be successful. Just because our president was able to buy himself a diploma does not mean that everyone has that ability.
Amit Paley: Almost no one believes that the central goal of the law -- to have 100 percent of children read and do math on grade level by 2014 -- is achievable. Even architects of the law like Sen. Edward Kennedy admit that the goal is more aspirational than realistic. But supporters say it is important to set high goals to get the nation working to improve schools and that the standard has changed the national debate to focus attention on all children, particularly poor and minority students.
And then there is the political challenge of trying to lower that standard. How do you respond when your opponent says: So which children do you want to leave behind?
D.C.: How much of this statement is true? Teachers don't like No Child Left Behind because it actually puts standards on them to make sure they are good teachers and have their students do well? I mean, for years teachers have been getting more and more for working less and less while not being held to any standards.
Why shouldn't teachers be held accountable for their students? I say this by mentioning that both of my parents are now-retired teachers.
Amit Paley: Under the current law, teachers aren't formally penalized if their children do poorly on tests. But there is tremendous pressure on teachers from principals and superintendents to show results.
Of all the proposals to change the current law, perhaps the most contentious is one introduced by an Aspen Institute Commission that would essentially force out teachers if their students fail to show improvement on standardized tests for several years in a row.
The teachers unions -- who yield incredible influence in all educational policy debates on Capitol Hill -- are obviously strongly opposed to any proposal like that. So it doesn't appear likely to survive in Congress.
Washington, D.C.: What is your sense of where Republicans stand on the issue of NCLB at this time? Since its inception, Republicans have tended to be very loyal to the President and supportive of his law, but I was wondering if any of that has changed now that the President is less popular and now that the controversial law has been in effect for more than 4 years -- ample time for its weaknesses and flaws to be apparent. Thanks!
Amit Paley: Republican opposition to the law is definitely increasing. Just this week, 57 GOP lawmakers -- including the No. 2 Republican in the House and the national party chairman -- signed onto a bill that would undercut the proposal.
It's clear at this point that there will be considerably more Republican opposition to No Child Left Behind than there was five years ago. The president's basement-low approval ratings are definitely a factor -- remember that this law was passed in 2001 in Congress right after the Sept. 11 attacks when Bush was much more popular.
D.C.: In the five years since No Child Left Behind was enacted, I've heard USED officers and other supporters of the law say that it's unlikely that we'll ever get to 100 percent proficiency but that it's better to have such a goal.
Why did you decided to focus on that issue?
PS - one minor quibble with your first story. Singapore is NOT a homogeneous country. That's a misconception too common in the US. Google polyglot Singapore and you'll find it's a common adjective describing the island nation with four official languages.
Amit Paley: In interviews with U.S. Department of Education officials, none of them would publicly say that the 100 percent proficiency goal in unlikely to be reached. The administration's official position is that the goal is challenging, but that it can be reached with increased effort from schools and states and improvements to the law.
I focused on the issue because it is the central goal of the law, which is, after all, named No Child Left Behind (i.e. 100 percent of the children should be proficient).
But the debate isn't just theoretical -- it has incredible consequences since that goal is the basis for the entire system of yearly progress that schools are required to make. Schools that fail to meet those benchmarks face sanctions that could cost millions of dollars and result in school takeovers.
(And I take your point that Singapore is not completely homogeneous, though the story just said it was relatively more homogeneous than the U.S.)
Gaithersburg, Md.: What is the real likelihood that changes to NCLB will be made? Is the government finally coming to the realization that it's an unreasonable mandate?
Amit Paley: There is almost no doubt that there will be changes made to No Child Left Behind -- the question is how sweeping they will be. And also up for debate is whether the law will be renewed this year or be caught up in the already underway 2008 presidential race.
You have proposals like the one introduced by Republicans critics this week -- which would hugely undercut the law -- versus some supporters who only want to make minor changes.
But the mood in Congress, at least right now, is that No Child Left Behind, in some form, is here to stay.
D.C.: State legislatures across the country have been active at trying to change the law and there are also several cases in court over NCLB. How do you see Senators and Reps responding to the mounting pressure in their districts?
Amit Paley: Anger from parents and schools is one of the main reasons some lawmakers have turned against the law.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Michigan), a leading critic of No Child Left Behind, likes to say that the more congressmen get out of Washington and talk to their constituents, the more likely they are to oppose NCLB.
The flip side, of course, is that many parents and teachers -- particularly in urban school districts -- do like the law and feel like it is focusing attention on the major achievement gaps between white and poor students in this country.
Harrisburg, Pa.: I am not an education expert. Yet, I have asked this question on several education forums, and I have been amazed at the positive responses it has received, as if I am suggesting something so simple people are amazed they did not think of it first. I have also been told there are some schools that do this and find it works. Here is my simple solution to some of the problems of education:
Keep all students in home room according to age, i.e. everyone the same age is in the appropriate grade level, i.e first grade, second grade, third grade, etc. All basic courses are offered at the same time, i.e. all grade levels of English, Math, and Science courses all offered concurrently. Students go to the grade level in each course that is appropriate to them. Some students learn subjects at different rates, and may even excel at one subject while being delayed in learning at another. Thus, a 3rd grade student may be in 3rd grade English, 4th grade Math, and 2nd grade Science.
This recognizes that children learn different subjects at different rates. This has the benefits of lowering stigmatizing students for not being in their proper grade level, at least in home room. It avoids the problems of failing or promoting a student in all subjects, which is what many schools do: i.e. a student who fails 4th grade repeats all courses in 4th grade the following year, What it avoids is failing a student who may become bored repeating the subjects where the student excelled. It also allows a student who does well in a subject to move at a more appropriate faster pace.
Does this make sense to you and, if so, what do I need to do to get this idea better publicized?
Amit Paley: Interesting idea. Let's see what others think.
Collinsville, Va.: How can the federal government mandate equivalent academic performance standards nationwide and still maintain that it does not have responsibility for school district financial inequities?
Amit Paley: The federal government only pays for about nine percent of education spending in the country -- so the major burden is on the states and school districts.
But the disconnect you point to is one of the major criticisms of the law.
Falls Church, Va.: I don't think the rebellion has as much to do with the 33% approval rating - rather the fact that the constituents are taking to the streets and expressing their hatred for the law! Democracy in action!
And I think it is really unfair to say that teachers get more and more while doing less and less these days. They are dealing with children who increasingly have less parental guidance, larger classes, little pay and bureaucrats butting their noses in their curriculum.
Amit Paley: We're getting mostly anti-NCLB voices. Anyone reading who wants to write supporting the law?
Russell, Kan. : Do members of Congress really feel that there is going to be any way, at all, that students can accomplish 100 percent efficiency by 2014? If they don't, then what do they really feel they can do about it?
Amit Paley: Most don't feel the goal is realistic, but still support it as a goal to work towards and also because they could be politically slammed for suggesting that some children should be left behind. One lawmaker told me it would be "un-American" to set a goal lower than 100 percent.
San Diego: NCLB is a sanctions-based law. Is there any chance that its reauthorization will recognize the importance of rewards for good performance at the school, district and state levels?
Amit Paley: The main goal of the law is to address the lowest-performing schools -- the federal government doesn't think it needs to focus as much attention on the ones that already work well. That's why a lot of the opposition to the law comes from well-off suburbs and some of the strongest support comes from poor school districts.
Downtown D.C.: My biggest concern isn't that Congress reauthorizes NCLB; it's that they won't. Other than the Administration and their 99.44 percent pure estimates, both supporters and critics of the law say that changes need to be made. There are difference in the degree and nature of the overhaul, but all agree changes are needed. But if Congress doesn't get it done this year, I fear we'll be stuck with the existing law AS IS for some time (at least until 2010).
Amit Paley: If Congress doesn't get the law renewed by this fall, then it seems unlikely that it will get done at all before 2009 when we have a new president. And who knows what his (or her) priorities will be?
But Congressional Democrats are working incredibly hard to get the bill marked up by this summer and the Bush administration is also lobbying hard to get this done. No Child Left Behind is, after all, their signature domestic achievement and they don't want to see it get stymied.
Springfield, Va.: I must quickly say that a previous comment was way out of line saying that teachers keep getting more and more but work less. My wife works multiple hours EVERY weeknight grading students' work and preparing lesson plans. She also spends a majority of Sunday evenings doing the same. Do the rest of us have to do that? Most likely not.
Anyway, she has a class where more than 60 percent of the students do not speak English as a first language, and most of those parents do not speak English at all. Therefore, she gets virtually no support at home from the family. These children appear to be trying their best, but since their thought process usually works by translating what the teacher is saying into their native language, they are always a step or two behind. Her test scores are the lowest of her grade, but she has by far the largest percentage of students that did not grow up with English as the first language. Yet, administration at the school does not take this into account and holds her to a higher set of standards when it comes to the content of the lessons she teaches the students each work (which leads to more preparation at home during her "off-time").
It's only because the school administration is so driven by the "numbers" that they are supposed to achieve that they forget about the actual children involved and turn into slave drivers against their own staff. Something definitely is not right with this plan.
Amit Paley: Another defense of teachers
D.C.: Yes, I will support the law. Teachers salaries continue to rise, while they only work 9 months year and work less hours per-week than most private sector employees.
If they are complaining about NCLB, it is because it actually wants to hold them accountable. The NEA and the other teachers unions will do anything to say it isn't our fault, its the parents' fault. The parents say it is the teachers fault, so who looses? THE KIDS.
Obviously, 100 percent isn't possible....but you have got to have lofty goals if for nothing else than the kids.
Amit Paley: Here's a defender of No Child Left Behind, tapping into a common refrain among some politicians and others that the teachers unions are the major roadblock to educational reform. Ask teachers, of course, and they'll say that the unions are the only groups making sure public education doesn't collapse.
Arlington, Va.: Do the members of congress and staff you interview have a common picture of what 100 percent of students will know or be able to do?
Amit Paley: No. And in fact, the law allows states to define their own curriculum and tests. A student who is proficient on a state test in Mississippi, for instance, might flunk the test in Massachusetts.
New York City: What do you think about the "business" behind NCLB? In particular, IBM's contract with NYC to create an answer to NCLB through an $80 million computer system.
Amit Paley: There's no question that the business of education is booming --with the standardized testing mandates of No Child Left Behind and the tutoring companies used under provisions of the law.
Mauldin, S.C.: Why do you harp on NCLB as being a "Bush bill", when it was authored by Teddy Kennedy, sponsored by Liebermann, and is a clone of bills that Democrats have been trying to push through Congress since LBJ?
Amit Paley: This is definitely a bipartisan bill, which is being shepherded and defended in Congress by Kennedy and his House counterpart, George Miller.
But although it has bipartisan support, it is still President Bush's law. He proposed it, he named it and he pushed it through a Republican-controlled Congress that had serious ideological concerns about expanding the role of the federal government.
"Strongest support comes from poorest districts": Among parents, who in more affluent districts are more educated about what's going on in their schools, but not among teachers. I am an education writer who has been writing about these issues for a decade. Among educators, opposition to the law is strongest at the poorest schools, because they are under the greatest pressure and have been forced by higher-ups to make the most reforms, reforms they don't necessarily think are in the best interest of children. NCLB hasn't changed the daily operations of more affluent schools nearly as much as it has the low-income ones.
Amit Paley: A good point.
Quiet partial support for NCLB: Before I get stoned for adding a voice of support, I'd like to at least point out the basic premise for NCLB that has gotten lost.
Teaching practices, teaching skill, school administrative competence and expertise and student achievement should be assessed -- how else will we know what is working in our schools -- and the assessment used to point out the areas that are not working and where extra support, training, what have you will be needed to make improvements. End of story.
No one should be fired, pressured, squeezed or otherwise discriminated based on test scores. That's where things have gone so wrong.
Amit Paley: Another (qualified) supporter.
Fairfax, Va.: Don't you think it would be one thing if folks were complaining because they had 80-90 percent of their kids at grade level (which is different from expecting all kids to learn at the same rate), and is having difficulty reaching 100%, rather than the much lower rates you see around the country? If you don't like the pressure, set the goal up as the boogeyman that should invalidate the entire law.
Also, it is important to keep in the mind the the statute itself contemplates less than 100 percent proficiency. Only 95 percent have to participate for AYP, and a certain percentage of students with disabilities can be measured against a different standard of proficiency. Also, with "safe harbor" a school can keep making AYP and not be at 100 percent in 2014.
Amit Paley: Another good point. A lot of people say -- well, 100 percent proficiency might not be possible, but let's talk about that when we're at 70 or 80 percent (versus the current situation, which is down around 30 percent on NAEP, a national test administered by the US Dept. of Education.)
And Fairfax also raises a couple of the loopholes -- and there are others.
Palm Beach, Fla.: Seems like the government loves relying on standardized tests. So, how much education money goes to the test makers, and how many major test makers are there? Do the test makers heavily influence education policy?
Amit Paley: I don't have exact numbers on this at the moment -- but this is obviously a huge industry. Supporters of testing -- a movement that began more than a decade before No Child Left Behind -- say that there is no other way to measure how well kids are doing.
Washington, D.C.: Did you hear much about the media crafting some of the negative perception around the law? NCLB does not use the term failing school, yet it is the stigma of being humiliated that I hear teachers complain about, particularly in the paper and on local news.
Amit Paley: The law doesn't use the term failing school, it uses a host of other terms that wouldn't make much sense to an average reader. But when a school fails to meet required benchmarks, I think it is fair to say that it has failed to do so, even if the law uses other technical terms.
I'm not sure how much of the negativity is based on media coverage. I think a lot of it comes from teachers who pass on their discontent to parents and friends and relatives.
District of Columbia: I think you were right on with your comment that the loudest critics of the law are the suburban schools that have never been publicly accountable before. While flawed and in need of repair (through growth models), the accountability system of NCLB does not allow schools to mask the low achievement of any students by only reporting the average performance of the entire school. If ANY school is having trouble with ANY of its students - minority, disabled, non-English speakers, etc. - that school should be identified, whether they are rural, urban, or suburban.
Amit Paley: Almost everyone agrees that this is one of the most important contributions of the law: to allow parents and the public to finally see how all students are performing.
It has shone sunlight onto a dark corner of our education system: the yawning achievement gap between white and minority students that nearly everyone agrees is unacceptable.
Washington, D.C.: Two problems that seem to be important with No Child Left Behind. The problem of No Child gets ahead either. Schools and teachers are pressured to focus their energy on students at risk of not passing the test, abandoning programs to teach advanced students more challenging material because they will pass the test anyway. The second is dumbing down tests so states can put up better numbers. It is self evident that is the core strategy that some states have taken. In order for these tests to mean something they need to be nationally normed. I think this program has had some positive impact, but not as much as it supporters would like to claim.
Amit Paley: Another interesting comment before we run out of time
D.C.: Is there any evidence that proves that NCLB has had a positive impact on student performance? I remember that the gap between reading scores for 9-year-olds had narrowed slightly in the last year or two, but are there any other measures that show what effect (positive or negative) that NCLB has had on schools?
Amit Paley: It's hard to tell. There are test scores that show improvements for some grades in some subjects, but other results show minimal to no improvement. It will probably take a few more years before we have enough data to definitively say how things have worked.
Amit Paley: Well, we're out of time. Thanks for joining us!
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Post education reporter Amit Paley takes your questions about the brewing battle in Congress over the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act.
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Christians Who Won't Toe the Line
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Evangelical Protestantism in the United States is going through a New Reformation that is disentangling a great religious movement from a partisan political machine. This historic change will require liberals and conservatives alike to abandon their sometimes narrow views of who evangelicals are.
The reformers won an important victory this month when the board of the National Association of Evangelicals faced down right-wing partisans and reaffirmed its view that solving global warming was an important moral cause. In so doing, it also expressed confidence in the Rev. Rich Cizik, the NAE's vice president for governmental affairs.
Cizik, who combines opposition to abortion with a firm commitment to human rights, the poor and the environment, came under attack from a gang of ideologues who would freeze evangelicals on a political course set more than a quarter-century ago.
"This tussle over the issue of climate change is part of a bigger tussle over the definition of evangelicalism and who speaks for evangelicals," Cizik said in an interview.
Calling on evangelicals to "return to being people who are known for our love and care for our fellow human beings and the Earth," Cizik warned that "if you put the politics first and make it primary, I believe that is a tragic and fateful choice."
Since 1980, white evangelical Christians have been seen primarily as a Republican voting bloc. They delivered more than three-quarters of their ballots to President Bush in the 2004 election.
That is no accident. In 1979, a group of conservative activists led by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and Morton Blackwell, a Republican National Committee member from Virginia, went to the Rev. Jerry Falwell, urging him to organize what became the Moral Majority.
Their primary goal was not religious but political: to enlist evangelicals behind conservative Republican candidates. Blackwell candidly called evangelicals "the greatest track of virgin timber on the political landscape." The activists reaped a mighty load.
The Christian Coalition was equally political in its inspiration. Emerging from Pat Robertson's unsuccessful bid for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, it sought to advance his influence in the party.
The political maestros can't abide any serious evangelical Christian daring to broaden the agenda beyond the limited set of issues (notably, opposition to abortion and gay rights) that keep the faithful voting Republican. Cizik was a threat, so they attacked him in a March 1 letter to the NAE board. It was signed by such conservative luminaries as Weyrich; James Dobson of Focus on the Family; Don Wildmon of the American Family Association; Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; and Gary Bauer, who ran for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.
"Cizik and others," they said, "are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children."
Worse, they smeared Cizik because he had expressed concern about the size of world's population in a speech last year at the World Bank. "We ask," they wrote, "how is population control going to be achieved if not by promoting abortion, the distribution of condoms to the young, and, even by infanticide in China and elsewhere?"
To suggest that Cizik, given his record, favors abortion or infanticide was scandalous. ("My wife shows up in church," Cizik laments, "and people ask her, 'Is your husband pro-abortion and in favor of abortion as birth control?' ") It was also unpersuasive. The board of the NAE, with only a single dissenting vote, backed Cizik and the organization's earlier stand on the importance of "creation care" in dealing with climate change.
What makes this fight strange is that Cizik is no liberal. On the contrary, he supported Ronald Reagan twice and George W. Bush twice. He is still proud of his role in drafting the invitation to Reagan that led to the former president's 1983 speech before the NAE calling the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
Cizik simply rejects the idea that his environmental commitment runs contrary to his support for the antiabortion movement: "Tell the parents of children who are mentally disabled because of mercury poisoning -- tell them that the environment is not a sanctity-of-life issue," he says.
"We should be primarily concerned with what the Gospel says," Cizik insists, "not whether you're getting off some political train." Those are the words of a New Reformation. Many evangelicals are boarding a new train. It runs along tracks defined by the broad demands of their faith, not by some party's political agenda.
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Evangelical Protestantism in the United States is going through a New Reformation that is disentangling a great religious movement from a partisan political machine. This historic change will require liberals and conservatives alike to abandon their sometimes narrow views of who evangelicals are.
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Top Judge's Ouster Shakes Pakistan
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KABUL, March 16 -- Pakistani police fired rubber bullets at protesters, ransacked a television station and detained key opposition leaders Friday, as anger swelled over Gen. Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the nation's chief justice.
Opposition groups pledged to hold larger demonstrations against the government, and Pakistani political analysts said Musharraf faces the greatest challenge to his presidency since he took office in a bloodless coup in 1999.
"This has shaken the country. It has shaken the government," said Ayaz Amir, a columnist for the English-language newspaper Dawn. "It has all the potential of getting out of hand and turning into something bigger."
Musharraf last week suspended the Supreme Court's chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, citing unspecified abuses of authority. Since then, furor over the move has grown. Political opponents and journalists have speculated that Musharraf feared Chaudhry might try to force the president to step down as head of the army or might be planning to play a role in upcoming elections.
For much of the day Friday, thousands of protesters from across Pakistan's political spectrum jammed the area around the Supreme Court building in Islamabad, the capital. They threw rocks, called Musharraf "a dog" and chanted "Go, Musharraf, Go!" as they demanded the president's resignation.
The protesters had to break through barricades to reach the main site of the demonstration. Razor wire ringed key government buildings, and checkpoints prevented many vehicles from entering the city.
Witnesses at the scene said that police used tear gas, rubber bullets and baton charges in an attempt to disperse the crowd and that they arrested numerous opposition leaders. Dozens of opposition members, as well as lawyers from across the country, had also been detained overnight in advance of the rally.
Among those arrested were Qazi Hussain Ahmad, a leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, which is a coalition of far-right Islamic parties, and Rafiq Tarar, a former president of Pakistan who was detained during a rally in Lahore.
Information Minister Tariq Azim Khan defended the arrests, saying that demonstrators were blocking traffic and clashing with police.
"We have to ensure that nobody is above the law," he said. "It doesn't matter if they're political leaders. Anybody who takes the law into their own hands, they have to face the consequences."
Opposition leaders accused the government of attempting to crush democratic institutions, which have only gradually been taking hold in Pakistan in recent years.
"Today we've seen an assault on the judiciary and the media, and there's now a groundswell against the high-handedness of the regime," said Sherry Rehman, information secretary of the left-leaning Pakistan Peoples Party. "This is not something that will die out."
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Continuing coverage of the Supreme Court nomination and confirmation process from The Washington Post.
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Late Winter Storm Keeps Many Flights On Ground
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Airline passengers hoping to put the rough winter travel season behind them were dealt another blow yesterday when a snowstorm forced carriers to cancel hundreds of flights up and down the East Coast.
The storm, which delivered a combination of snow, ice and rain, hammered airports in the New York area, where airlines canceled many flights.
The weather also forced carriers to delay or cancel scores of flights to and from the Washington region's three major airports.
JetBlue Airlines, which is still recovering from the fallout of massive cancellations last month, scrubbed 400 flights, many at its hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The airline canceled seven flights out of Dulles International Airport, as well as all of the flights from JFK to Dulles, an airline spokeswoman said.
Other airlines, looking at forecasts that showed the storm continuing into the afternoon, followed suit: US Airways, Delta Air Lines, and American and Continental airlines all dropped hundreds of flights from their schedules.
US Airways and its regional carriers canceled more than 1,000 flights yesterday. The company was forced to halt most of its shuttle operations between Washington's Reagan National Airport and New York's LaGuardia Airport.
Delta and its regional carriers canceled 600 flights, most at New York area airports. It canceled a few flights at Dulles and at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport but scrubbed more than 50 flights at Reagan National, a spokeswoman said.
Airline representatives said they expected to return to normal operations late today or Sunday. They urged customers to call ahead to ensure their flights were on time.
Gina Laughlin, a Delta spokeswoman, said the carrier had been monitoring the weather and began working to cancel yesterday's flights a day in advance to avoid systemwide disruptions.
"The whole point of making this decision before a storm hits is that it allows you to re-position your airplanes and keep them out of New York so they aren't stuck there," Laughlin said.
A JetBlue spokeswoman, Jenny Dervin, said the airline canceled so many flights because the "weather forecast does not look promising."
The airline has canceled 28 flights for today but expects operations to be back to normal by noon "as long as Mother Nature doesn't throw a curve ball," Dervin said.
JetBlue ran into trouble on Valentine's Day when it stranded passengers on planes for hours on the JFK tarmac. The airline didn't cancel flights that day and struggled to recover over the next weekend. The problems have cost the airline about $30 million.
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Washington,DC,Virginia,Maryland business headlines,stock portfolio,markets,economy,mutual funds,personal finance,Dow Jones,S&P 500,NASDAQ quotes,company research tools. Federal Reserve,Bernanke,Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Two Senators Secretly Flew to Cuba for Alleged 9/11 Mastermind's Hearing
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Two key congressional leaders secretly flew to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Saturday to observe the closed military hearing for al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammed, according to Capitol Hill staff members and Pentagon officials.
Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a committee member, watched the proceedings over closed-circuit television from an adjacent room, said Tara Andringa, a spokeswoman for Levin. They were joined by a representative from the CIA, according to one U.S. government official. Lawyers from the Justice Department did not attend the hearing, a spokesman for the department said.
The official transcript of Mohammed's hearing, called to establish whether he qualifies as an "enemy combatant," acknowledged the presence of five unnamed military officers, a translator and an official tribunal reporter. It is unclear why the presence of two senators who helped write the law codifying the tribunals was not announced. Yesterday evening, Graham said he was not prepared to discuss the trip, citing an agreement with Levin. "We'll issue a joint statement tomorrow, but we were there together," Graham said.
Saturday's trip underscores congressional efforts to exert oversight of one of President Bush's most controversial programs in his fight against al-Qaeda. After recent criticism from the Justice Department's inspector general over its use of surveillance powers under the USA Patriot Act, the Bush administration is under pressure to demonstrate greater transparency than it has been willing to offer in the past.
Though there have been hundreds of status hearings for Guantanamo detainees, last week's hearings for Mohammed and two other al-Qaeda suspects marked the first time that Combatant Status Review Tribunals were closed to the media and the public. Pentagon officials argued that hearings for Mohammed and 13 others who were held inside the CIA's secret detention program, some for years, have to be secret for unspecified national security reasons.
Eager to assert his central role in al-Qaeda's war against the United States, Mohammed went far beyond claims of masterminding the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. According to the transcript from his hearing, portions of which were made public Wednesday, Mohammed took credit for more than 30 plots and attacks over the past 15 years, including many for which the government did not hold him responsible.
His statements, as quoted in the Pentagon transcript, paint a deeper portrait both of Mohammed, who comes across as a confident and large-egoed man fascinated with airline plots, and of the inner workings of al-Qaeda. The transcript is also revealing of the Bush administration's efforts to buttress the case for the secret detentions and the opaque legal process under which detainees such as Mohammed are being held.
Mohammed's description of his treatment while in CIA custody was redacted from the transcript. Allegations of abuse that he raised with the panel were forwarded to the CIA's inspector general for investigation, two officials said.
John Sifton of Human Rights Watch said the redactions and the secret nature of the tribunals raised concerns about the process. "There have been serious allegations of torture, and yesterday's transcripts are redacted in the precise portion of the hearing when torture allegations are made -- which further casts doubt on the legitimacy of these proceedings," he said.
Yesterday, the Pentagon released an additional portion of the transcript in which Mohammed, in gory detail and boastful prose, said he personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in February 2002. Four people, including a British citizen, Sheik Omar Saeed, were convicted in July 2002 for Pearl's murder. Saeed was sentenced to death for masterminding the abduction and murder. The other men were sentenced to life in prison.
"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Mohammed is quoted telling the military panel Saturday. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."
FBI and CIA officials who reviewed a videotape of the murder have long known that Mohammed took part in the killing. His orchestration of the Sept. 11 attacks -- detailed in the 9/11 commission report -- was also publicly known for several years. But some officials and terrorism experts yesterday cast doubt on other claims by Mohammed, suggesting that he was exaggerating.
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Get Washington DC,Virginia,Maryland and national news. Get the latest/breaking news,featuring national security,science and courts. Read news headlines from the nation and from The Washington Post. Visit www.washingtonpost.com/nation today.
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William C. Grant; Sports Editor For Washington Post's Web Site
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William C. Grant, 53, the indefatigable and innovative sports editor of washingtonpost.com, died of complications of melanoma March 15 at Georgetown University Hospital. He lived in Silver Spring.
Mr. Grant joined The Washington Post's Web site in 1996, bringing his experience at three newspapers, his sharp news judgment, his creative problem-solving and his sense of visuals to the Web.
Described by colleagues as dynamic and popular, Mr. Grant became the Web site's sports editor in 1997. He determined that the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, deserved comprehensive, in-depth online coverage that went beyond what was in the print version of The Washington Post. His work, which was then unusual in the new-media world, became the basis for washingtonpost.com's special reports on subsequent Olympics, the World Cup and politics.
Mr. Grant also directed the coverage of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City and 2004 Summer Games in Athens. From those cities, he wrote a daily column of musings and observations and invited readers to post comments -- becoming a blogger years before the term became popular.
"These efforts were typical of Bill's willingness to try all sorts of new ways to present journalism in this new medium," said Jim Brady, executive editor of the Web site, and Phil Bennett, the newspaper's managing editor, in a joint note to both staffs.
Brady called Mr. Grant "incredibly dedicated. Bill worked nine to whenever on weekdays, noon to whenever on weekends, and on Redskins game days, it was not uncommon for him to be here until four or five in the morning. He really loved this job."
Mr. Grant, who received his cancer diagnosis in August, worked until two weeks before his death.
He was born in Bethesda and grew up in Beltsville, where he graduated from High Point High School. At the University of South Carolina, he discovered a love of journalism, becoming editor of the college newspaper and a loyal alumnus of what he affectionately called "the real USC."
During his 30 years as a journalist, he worked at papers including the Wilmington News Journal in Delaware, the St. Petersburg Times in Florida and the Miami Herald. He spent most of those years as an editor and page designer, but occasionally he put his dry humor into writing, including a first-person account of his arrest for multiple parking tickets in Florida.
It was in Delaware that he met his wife, fellow journalist Tracy Grant, and they married in 1987. She is the editor of KidsPost in The Washington Post.
An enthusiastic photographer, Mr. Grant developed an archival system for family pictures that put the shoe-box system to shame. He loved golf and playing football, baseball and tennis with his wife and 11-year-old twin sons, Andrew and Christopher, at their cabin in West Virginia. But he didn't believe in letting the kids win to spare their feelings; his wife said he savored greatly his last big victory in a family poker game, winning $1.41.
In addition to his wife and sons, survivors include two sisters, Kathryn G. Mossy of Ijamsville and Anne G. Baugh of Greer, S.C.
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Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia obituaries, appreciations and death notices.
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Franti, Raising The Alarm
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With a concert tour to support a recent CD ("Yell Fire!") as well as a new book ("Food for the Masses: Michael Franti -- Portraits & Lyrics") and a documentary film ("I Know I'm Not Alone"), has Michael Franti become the King of All Media?
"I'm the underground Rupert Murdoch!" Franti says with a hearty laugh from his San Francisco studio, where he's preparing his next album and the launch of a Spearhead tour that lands at the 9:30 club Friday night.
Franti being Franti -- definitely not Murdoch -- "Yell Fire!" opens with a declamation: "A revolution never come with a warning / A revolution never sends you an omen / A revolution just arrive like the morning / Ring the alarm, we come to wake up the snoring."
Wake-up calls have been a constant in Franti's career, including in his mid-'80s quintet, the Beatnigs; his early '90s agit-hop ensemble, the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy; and Spearhead, which dates to the mid-'90s. The sound has evolved and expanded from the Beatnigs' noisy industrial sound and Disposable Heroes' mix of hip-hop, rock and jazz to Spearhead's danceable swirl of hip-hop, funk, reggae and rock. But the center has always held: sharply crafted, socially and politically conscious lyrics addressing a wide range of topics, such as racism, poverty, hunger, the death penalty, corporate globalization and media manipulation. Always, there is a message of peace and global unity.
"When you have something you want to say, you need to say it," the always outspoken Franti says.
Franti's best-known song, the scathing denunciation of "Television, the Drug of the Nation," first appeared on the Beatnigs' 1988 EP, though the Disposable Heroes' updated version is better known.
"I rewrote the lyrics to reflect how during the Gulf War, cable and CNN started bringing us 24-hour war coverage in new high-tech and 'sanitized' ways," Franti says, describing "a method where it appeared as though no one was actually being killed. I could probably write another version today, and if I did it, it would be about Fox."
Okay, he's definitely not Rupert Murdoch.
After watching coverage of the current war in Iraq on television -- Franti is a critic of the medium, not a Luddite -- the musician did what few other critics have: He grabbed his acoustic guitar and, with a ragtag crew of eight and three digital video cameras, headed to Baghdad for a firsthand look at the human cost of war. He also made a side trip to Israel, visiting the West Bank and Gaza Strip to examine the long-term costs of war and occupation.
"I Know I'm Not Alone," which Franti produced and directed, uses songs from "Yell Fire!" In fact, Franti worked on both projects concurrently (they were released in July) in his San Francisco home. With an editing studio on one floor, a recording studio on another, Franti found himself immersed in the projects.
"It was really a catharsis for me," he admits, "because when I came back, I was so filled with deep, deep sadness and intense anger and rage, and I was trying to find a way to communicate that to other people without them turning their heads away. As I watched all the footage, it became a way for me to purge all that and put it into my songs."
Not that all the songs rage against the machine, though Franti does declare that "those who start wars never fight them / And those who fight wars never like them" and insists it's "Time to Go Home." But the album also includes the reggae ballad "One Step Closer to You," "Tolerance," "Hello Bonjour's" multilingual plea for global unity and the anthemic "I Know I'm Not Alone."
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With a concert tour to support a recent CD ("Yell Fire!") as well as a new book ("Food for the Masses: Michael Franti -- Portraits & Lyrics") and a documentary film ("I Know I'm Not Alone"), has Michael Franti become the King of All Media?
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Tell Me About It
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Appearing every Wednesday and Friday in The Washington Post Style section and in Sunday Source, Tell Me About It offers readers advice based on the experiences of someone who's been there -- really recently. Carolyn Hax is an ex-repatriated New Englander with a liberal arts degree and a lot of opinions and that's about it, really, when you get right down to it. Oh, and the shoes. A lot of shoes.
You've got to be kidding: Nice way to end last week (and run away after) about equating a woman changing her name in marriage to slavery.
You've lost the respect of alot of people.
Carolyn Hax: You're kidding, right? I didn't "equat[e] a woman changing her name in marriage to slavery." I used slavery to illustrate that one's family name is not a throwaway; it carries emotional, political, historical significance. As people throughout history have known well, except when it serves them better not to.
Chips in bowls, not on shoulders, please.
Washington, D.C. - Online only please!: Carolyn,
I just returned to work after being on maternity leave for 9 months. After the first week of leaving my baby in daycare (a nice accredited daycare with lots of centers all over the country), I was told by his teacher "you should wean him from the breast so he isn't so attached to you. It will make the transition easier". Logically, I understand this. Emotionally, I don't feel this is best for my baby. I also feel like the daycare provider shouldn't be putting my parenting choices into question just to make their job easier. I was so taken aback that I didn't know how to react. Now that it's been a week or so (and i'm still breastfeeding on demand), I'm wondering if I should just ignore the comment and go on as I've been doing or if I should bring this up to the teacher. I sorta feel like I should explain to her that I have no intention whatsoever of weaning my baby at this time. On the other hand, I think I should just ignore her advice unless she brings it up again. I'm also feeling that because of this comment, maybe this isn't the best environment for him to be in. What do you think? Ignore it and stick it out or find alternate care?
Carolyn Hax: By all means, bring it up with the teacher. Make your beliefs clear. That way you'll either flush out any differences that would move you to seek another provider, or you'll better equip this teacher to care for your baby.
FWIW, I would frame it as a request for clarity--e.g., you'd like her to elaborate on something she said--so you don't put her on the defensive.
New York, N.Y.: I have no patience for my sister and I don't know what to do about it. She's my older sister and she drives me crazy. I have patience for most other people in my life, but not her. How do I fix this?
Carolyn Hax: Realistic (i.e., low) expectations, small doses, big slack. Also do a little introspection to see if the "differences" that make you impatient aren't in fact some uncomfortable similarities. I think that's why no one can drive you nuts like family.
I thought you'd like to know, in case hundreds of people haven't told you already, that washingtonpost.com is atrocious about posting your columns on time and consistently at the same places on the Web site. I'm sure most big fans of your column, like myself, don't miss a beat because they seek it out specifically on the days it's due out. If I were you, however, I'd be pretty disappointed at their lack of consistency.
In the last two weeks (was there even a chat last week?), this problem has spread from your columns to your chats as well. I had to click around the Web site for about 10 minutes to find a place to submit this comment, for instance.
You keep up the great work though!
washingtonpost.com: I can't speak for the columns, though I usually don't have a problem locating them at the link in the chat intro. As for the chat archive, you're right. We're having much trouble getting Carolyn's page to update and I'm assured the tech folks are looking into it right now. But in the meantime, you can always find Carolyn's upcoming chats (and many others) in the weekly Live Online schedule.
Carolyn Hax: Thanks. post.com has in fact been on the case, first with the AWOl columns and now with the AWOL transcripts. I do appreciate the extra effort you;re putting in to find everything, and I'm sorry you have to.
Kudos ...: on your advice in today's column. I'd make faces at that girl, too. I wonder though, when you get stuff like that, do you ever think it's fake??
Carolyn Hax: The more out there it is (or the less self-aware the writer) the more I wonder, yes. All I can do is ask myself, do I know someone who could have written that? And when the answer is yes, I go for it.
It's funny, I happened to read your post just after I read one that made me ask the can-this-be-real? question. I'll post it:
Washinton, D.C.: Last night at a St. Patrick's Day party I saw my girlfreind for the first time drunk -- very drunk. She was quite flirty with other guys and I found out later that she had a sexual relationship in the past with two of the guys at the party. Obviously, I broke up with her. It had been four months since we were dating exclusively. she seemed so innocent and sweet when we met. How can I tell if a girl is dirty, when she puts up a good front -- preppy, conservative attire, intelligent, and not a party girl at all?
Providence, R.I.: Six months ago I met a woman online. We went out twice but she wasn't interested -- she stopped returning my calls, to be honest. But I really liked her and called her again recently for the heck of it, suggesting that maybe we could be friendly, rather than worry about dating. Well, we had lunch, and I still think she's great. I guess you can't make someone like you, or even be friends with you, but I really want to spend more time with this gal. There's a question in here somewhere - what do you think?
Carolyn Hax: I think if she's amenable to seeing you as a friend, you jump on the chance to get each other slowly and see where it takes you. Remember, her falling for you or not falling for you aren't the only two possible outcomes. You could also lose interest in her yourself, or be grateful to have her as a friend, or fall hard for her roommate. Life makes stuff up as it goes along, so you should feel free to as well.
washingtonpost.com: For those who are asking: Last week's chat transcript
Washington, D.C.: Here's an akward one for you... I'm in the last month of cohabitating with a relationship gone wrong. It disintegrated several months ago, and I'm ready to move on. It's just taken a while to save up the money to move out. But the thing is, I have a date this weekend with a girl I'm getting along very well with. How would you suggest I approach the fact that my new date won't ever be coming to my place until I move? It seems like a simple enough conversation, but it's still early enough in the relationship that she could easily be turned off seeing someone who's living with thier ex.
Carolyn Hax: What can I tell you. If you and your circumstances are strange but make sense, that will show. If you and your circumstances are messed up, that will show, too. Don't try to sell or spin anything or cover it up or apologize for it. Just lay it out there when the right moment presents itself, and let her--and your suitability for each other--speak for themselves.
"Washinton": For some reason, I believe that question coming from someone in DC. And I say that as someone who was actually born here and has a grudging love for the city, but has seen some of what the Hill has to offer.
Real or not?: I loved the "Obviously, I broke up with her."
I'll bet it's real, though.
Carolyn Hax: real 2, fake 0
I know that girl!: I think it's real. I have a friend just like that. You would never know. ugh.
Carolyn Hax: Real 3, fake 0
I guess it wasn't as close a call as Pollyanna here thought.
Is-it-real-or-not: LOL. The correct answer to that post is, of course, to take her out early in the relationship and do your best to get her hammered. Then judge her on that one incident.
Just like trying to get your best friend to seduce your husband, in order to make sure that he's really faithful to you.
Carolyn Hax: And, the perfect answer. Thanks guys.
In your opinion, when is the best time to embark on couples counseling? My boyfriend and I are starting to have the big marriage talks, and think counseling might be a good idea (especially since this is my first serious relationship, and he's survived an abusive marriage -- we both could use help finding the right perspective on marriage, I think). Is it better to do this before we are engaged, or after? In other words, is talking with the counselor more helpful in determining whether two people ought to be considering marriage at all, or in giving an already committed couple ways to manage their differences and succeed as a pair?
Carolyn Hax: I don't think it matters, except if you're not getting along--then I'd definitely not add the pressure of an engagement (and in fact I'd think hard about why you're with each other when you struggle to get along).
If you're interested in exploring your own views of marriage and each other's; if you suspect you both have something to learn about communicating; if you;re not sure what questions you should be asking of yourselves and of each other, then those are all great reasons to talk to a qualified pro, who could act as a teacher for you. And in that case, too, I think the important commitment is to your understanding of relationships and intimacy and, ultimately, yourselves, and not necessarily your commitment to each other.
Portland, Maine: What would your advice have been to the writer in today's column if it turned out that the reason the two women didn't like her was for no other reason than she was pretty and a doctor? Hypothetical, I guess, since I also detected a pretty judging personality, but what if she'd been pretty, a doctor, and genuinely nice? Same advice, just different packaging?
Carolyn Hax: I'm not sure it could have been the same, since the element of her snapping at her boyfriend was such a huge part of the problem and the advice. I suppose, though, had the question just been about ways she could deal with women who were mean to her, then I would have come to the same sit-up-straight-and-be-nice advice--but in this case I'd skip the look-in-mirror element of it, and instead probably encourage her to make other plans when "Jeremy" sees these friends ... and now that I'm thinking of it, there'd also be a part were I question Jeremy's continuing to subject her to these people ...
So I guess, no, it would overlap but wouldn't be the same.
Doesn't it drive you nuts?: When people misunderstand you so completely that it HAS to be them slicing and dicing what you've said to fit their prejudices rather than you not having communicated clearly? I think we all deal with this funhouse-mirror reflection of ideas from time to time, but for you, Carolyn, it's so much more public. What's the best way to cope with this and not beat yourself up over the people who will never, ever "get" you?
Carolyn Hax: I'm not trying to be a martyr here, I swear--but I do think these misunderstandings are extremely useful and illuminating. If you think about what I do (or, depending on your camp, what I presume to do) for a living, seeing live examples of how people get caught up in their own prejudices has helped me spot other examples in people's letters.
I haven't actually done this, but I bet if I were to go through columns from my first year or two, I'd see dramatically fewer instances where my advice includes weighing other possible interpretations of events. For example, if I get a letter now like the one published today where the writer speculates as to others' motives, I think immediately that the way she sees it might be far from the way it really is. I was much more trusting of people's judgment before I got so many examples, many of them directly contradicting each other, of how people responded to my writing. It's one thing to be told that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it's one thing to watch "Rashoman"--it's quite another to have it play out in your work every day.
So, I really really get it now, we all see stuff through the filters of our own experience, and some of those filters are a lot more clogged than others.
Yes it drives me nuts, and sometimes upsets me, depending on my mood.
Alexandria, Va.: I dislike my job and commute and have for long time. My husband loves his job, drives maybe 15 minutes to work, has a two-hour long lunch and gets home two hours before I do most every night. I find myself just so irritated when I come home and find him playing video games or watching dumb videos on the computer. I get so jealous of his day that sometimes I snap and am (admittedly) a little mean (and I'm generally in a good mood previously). I'm not sure what I can do to fix this? It's not like I can ask him to work more when he just doesn't have to!
Carolyn Hax:1. What are you doing toward changing your job situation?
2. What is he doing to make his free time a benefit for both of you, and not just for him?
Silver Spring, Md.: How's your bracket?
Carolyn Hax: I'm ashamed. I didn't finish it on time.
New York, NY's complaint could've been my sister: And seriously, if it was written by her, I think I might have to cry. As if it wasn't already hard enough that she was the one who was taller, had more money, and had the hot boyfriend.
Carolyn Hax: Height and hotness are overrated. I guess cash is, too, but only if you have some. If you have 0, it is paramount.
I'm kinda glum about my birthday coming up next week. I'm only going to be 31 which is young, but I can't help but feel like I wasted my 20s. All that time should have been so carefree and now I'm married, homeowner, in debt and overweight. How do I get out of this pity party and become fabulous for my 30s?
Carolyn Hax: There's no "should have," there's no wasting. You needed your 20s to teach you not to take your 30s for granted. So, don't.
Re: husband with sweet job: Since she didn't mention it (and I'm presuming that given her attitude she would have if applicable) the husband is taking care of all his domestic responsibilities? I'm just guessing, because the list was "playing video games and watching stupid movies" rather than "playing video games, watching stupid movies, and the laundry is never folded, yada yada yada." In that case, she needs to, er, take a look in the mirror (it's a theme today!) Is she really mad at the hubby because he gets lots of leisure time, or does she just hate her job and take it out on him?
Carolyn Hax: I'm not sure I'd distinguish the two. She needs to start behaving like an adult, that's on her--but they both need to work together on the issue of their marriage. If one is thriving while the other founders--even if that's more perception than truth--then it's not his or her problem, it's both of theirs.
What kinds of things could the husband do, to make his free time work for both of them? Besides maybe doing some extra housework or cook dinner? I'm in his position, sort of, so just wondering.
Carolyn Hax: Those two you mentioned aren't throwaways, they're huge. Coming home to an organized house, a cooked dinner and a relaxed and attentive partner are three things I hope no one ever takes for granted. A spouse with more free time can also take the lead socially, making calls or plans or buying tickets; can do leg work on sending out resumes and cover letters; whatever the stressed-out spouse happens to need.
Colesville: Being married is a cause for self-pity?
If things aren't going well with your spouse, maybe your 30s are a golden opportunity to fix that, one way or another.
Sisterville: I irritate the heck out of my younger sister and I have no idea why. I could speculate, but as we have learned today it would only be an interpretation that would be to my benefit. I get no answer when I try to address it so I stopped and just try to live my life and let it go.
Please cut her a break and see her for the flawed human being we all are, and don't expect her to match your vision of what a sister should be. It makes me very sad that my own sister can't do this.
Carolyn Hax: Wait a sec--your speculation would only be as accurate as your filter, which means it could still be dead-on. please don't misread that, aaaaaah!
I'm sorry you and your sister aren't close. It may well be that she can't or won't cut you a break. It could also be, for lack of a better word, chemical--some people just don't do well in the same room together. I guess I'm trying to say, sometimes it really isn't personal. (Little comfort when you've effectively lost a sister, but it's something.)
Reston, Va.: What's the best way to get your mojo back after having a kid?
Mine is over a year and a half, we're talking about another, but I'm having trouble being interested in sex for any purpose. I want to be interested, but most nights I feel all touched out and just want to be left alone.
Carolyn Hax: Any way you can get some alone time during the day, so you;'re not starved for it at night?
Washington, D.C.: I'm becoming disillusioned with my work life. I've grown tired of working with people who are so competitive that they will put others around them down to elevate themselves. I am an extremely competitive person, but I won't put others down, I will just use others acheivements as motivation. The last two jobs I've had (one in DC, one in the midwest) there has been so much backstabbing I can barely put up with it. I've bought a lottery ticket, but in case that doesn't work out how do I get through the next 40 years of this?
Carolyn Hax: It's kind of a general question, so all I can do is speculate. Maybe it's your competitiveness that makes you internalize others' behavior, where someone else might be able to shake it off? And so maybe anticipating that people are going to do stuff to get ahead, not all of it pretty, can help you put it in perspective and not let it distract you so much?
Or, path 2: Maybe you need a new line of work?
Just resigned/speak my mind: I just resingned from my comapny and leave at the end of the month. I've started a new job and am much happier. My boss is going to be out the last 2 days of my final goodbye.
One of my current co workers I can't stand. I couldn't stand her from the day she started and she's one of the reason's I left. I really want to say something to her about the fact that she needs to grow up and stop being so immature.
I know I should be the "bigger" person. but want to say something
Carolyn Hax: DON'T. You can't guarantee that some bit of randomness won't put you two in the same office again. For the love of sanity, just take your winnings and leave the table.
Mojo: Ha. I have two kids (who are both sleeping currently) and I can't tear myself away from the chat to shower. Is she taking the pill? Because when I was on the pill I had ZERO interest in sex. We started using other forms and it doesn't matter what my day was like, I can be in the mood. I feel normal again.
Carolyn Hax: Thanks for throwing that out there--medications are a possibility that people often don't even consider. Now go--you can probably shower, dry your hair, file your nails and bake a loaf of bread before I post another answer.
Fairfax, Va.: I'm ready for kids, he's no longer against the idea. He makes googly faces at kids at the grocery store, which is new behavior for him. He talks about names, and is pleased that our new house is in a good school district. He talks about teaching a kid to ride a bike, and periodically raises his eyebrows at me, and says he'll be the one to have certain chats with our offspring given my wilder younger days. But when I ask him, are you 100% sure, he freaks and says no.
All my reading says "don't go ahead until you're BOTH sure." All the people I know say few men are ever that ready or that sure.
Can you break the tie for me? I'm terrified to move forward - the signs say yes, but his lips say no. I usually prefer listening to someone's stated preference, but we probably shouldn't wait much longer if we're going to do it at all.
Carolyn Hax: Run it by him this way: It's not like you flip a switch. If it happens on the first try, he still gets the better part of a year to process the idea. And while it can happen on the first try, it usually doesn't, which means you aren't in fact saying, "Okay, let's have a kid now"--you're saying, "Let's open the door to the possibility of kids and see what happens."
By the way--I wouldn't give an answer even remotely like this if you had described his reluctance in any other way. This is a guy who, by all appearances, plans to have kids but is freaked at the reality, which is not only a common male response, it's a common response. People who -have- kids are freaked by the reality of them. But if he were instead saying things that sounded like, "I may not want kids," then you can't just get started and see what happens. Just to be clear.
This has been bugging me for a while. The link to your column in the Style section of washingtonpost.com always reads "Tell Me About It?" Isn't the phrase "tell me about it" a command and not a question? Should the question mark be in the link?
I always read it as "Tell Me About It? Maybe this link leads to it. Maybe not." I'm not a grammar junkie, but it just looks wrong to me. Is it?
Carolyn Hax: I think in some parts of the site, the trademark symbol appears as a question mark. I like your interpretation, though.
RE: speaking her mind: I'm surprised you didn't call her on calling her nemesis "immature." I think it's pretty immature to wait until you're walking out the door to confront someone. (Not to mention quite chickenish).
Carolyn Hax: You're right. Clearly I am undercaffeinated. Thanks.
Washington, D.C.: Can you advise me on how I should respond to people who tell me that I need to quit smoking now that I'm pregnant? The best I've come up with so far is "you nagging me will have no affect on whether or not I quit."
washingtonpost.com: Speaking of unbelievable questions...
Carolyn Hax: One of the hardest lines to discern is the line between invasive meddling and warranted concern. I think we've had examples of both in recent transcripts--the people who judge mothers for feeding their babies formula instead of breast milk need a reminder of their proper place (nose out, mouth shut), while the person whose abusive father is now raising a much-younger half-sibling has a concern that could easily be called an imperative to act. But this one, wow--either it locates the line to within a nanometer, or proves there is no one line for all people.
It's your body, yes. But you;re lending it to a baby, and you;re risking that baby's health, so stop smoking. Get your doctor to help you get unhooked. Bonus: Not smoking while pregnant is guaranteed to stop people from nagging you to stop smoking while pregnant.
Carolyn Hax: By the way--maybe through all the nagging, no one has said this, but it's true: You are strong enough to stop. Just start asking the questions about how you can do it (from health professionals, not the naggers), and find a medically supported method, and I think you'll surprise yourself. I've seen someone do it in exactly your position (well, I think--I don't know how far along you are).
Nagging: It can be argued that formula feeding is more harmful to your baby than cigarette smoking is to the fetus.
Carolyn Hax: AAAAGH. YOU ARE NOT HELPING.
It can be argued that some people can't breastfeed and have to use formula. Adoption? Medication? Inadequate milk supply/support?
And so nagging is incredibly presumptuous, invasive, inappropriate.
It cannot be argued that some people have to smoke.
The Big Apple: Carolyn, here's a question being debated among friends - singles and marrieds alike: Do you and your readers think wedding rings (on both men and women) are perceived by "others" as stop signs or as invitations to a challenge to pursue someone unavailable-yet-appealing?
Do you think it is questionable if a person doesn't want to wear a wedding ring after s/he is married?
Carolyn Hax: If the "others" have a shred of decency, a wedding ring is a stop sign.
If the "others" lack even a shred of decency, they try to use other people's commitments as a source of amusement.
Some people don't want to wear wedding rings because they are, for whatever reason, less than committed to the marriage. Some people don't wear wedding rings because they hate the feel of jewelry.
A little keyboard to the forehead is looking good right now.
Carolyn Hax: Sorry, guys, I just finished a whole long answer and lost it. I will try to retype it aqap.
Re: Nagging: Adoption is really the only reason to not breastfeed. Even in some adoption cases, when the baby is still tiny, there can be some form of breastfeeding. The issues of "inadquate supply" and "medication" are non- issues. Please do your homework on this. It is almost impossible for a mom to not produce enough milk. It's a common misconception. Also, there are VERY FEW medications which enter the breastmilk enough to jeapoardize the baby. You really should not counsel people on this unless you know your facts. These reasons you mention are many excuses people use to stop breastfeeding and it's unfortunate. You aren't a lactation specialist.
Carolyn Hax: No, I'm not. I have done my homework and I do know a fair number of facts (raise your hands if you've read "Mothering Multiples"! And a few other equally gripping reads ...) though I don't pretend to be anything even approaching an expert. I also know that some people don't get the proper support; some people don't give birth in hospitals with active, nurturing, nonjudgmental lactation specialists helping them; some people actually have family in their faces about how they SHOULDN'T nurse, based on stupid wives tales from mid-20th-century; some people do give up when they technically don't "have" to--and I don't believe these mothers deserve to have strangers in their faces about the end result. What good does that do?
And then: Just because adoption is possible, and there is the occasional med that can't go to a baby, or some other detail a stranger can't know, it is presumptuous for a stranger to jump in and nag. Spread this word through the care network so it reaches the people who need it when they can use it, not through public confrontation, which reaches people who are past the point of being able to change back, tired, and trying to do their best.
General validation of parents and their choices--even if you personally may have made a different one--goes a whole lot farther in creating good parents who make good choices, than does criticizing a mother who makes the silly silly mistake of feeding her baby a bottle in public.
Carolyn Hax: I'm suprised no one has offered me a cigarette.
Re: sisters: Do you want to have a better relationship with your sister because she's a cool and interesting person whom you'd like to get to know better and spend more time with? Or do you want to have a better relationship with your sister because you think that's what sisters are supposed to do?
If it's the former, tell her so.
If it's the latter, remember that your sister is just some random person you were forced together with, not a friend you chose based on common interests and compatibility. Feeling bad because you're not better friends with her is like feeling bad because you're not best friends with the kid who sat next to you in kindergarten. Add to that years of sharing close quarters with no respite from each other, and it's a miracle that any siblings in the world can get along with each other.
Carolyn Hax: A little dark, but I like it, thanks.
Real or not: Why would someone submit fake questions, though? Maybe they're perverting details to disguise themselves and they go a little overboard with it, but then again I haven't seen your inbox.
Carolyn Hax: Cheap jollies, would be my guess.
I do have at least one identified serial faker, someone in dire need of a volunteer gig petting shelter dogs or something.
Carolyn Hax: Time to go. Sorry about the lost question (the mom with napping kids had enough time left over to groom the dog, too); I still can't figure out where it went. Anyway, bye, thanks, and type to you next week.
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John Kelly's Washington
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John Kelly writes five times a week about the joys and annoyances of living in Washington. He aims to show readers the Washington (and Silver Spring, Alexandria, Manassas, Bowie ...) that they know and take them places they don't know. He wants to make them see familiar things in unfamiliar ways and unfamiliar things in familiar ways. ("We may occasionally end up seeing unfamiliar things in unfamiliar ways," John says, "but such are the risks of the job.") His columns take a cockeyed view of the place the rest of the planet knows as the Capital of the Free World but that we all call home. John rides the Metro for fun and once kidnapped an Irishman to see what made him tick.
Fridays at 1 p.m. ET John is online to chat about his columns and mull over anything that's on your mind.
John Kelly: What a difference a week makes. If memory serves, last Friday was warm and lovely and the last place any of us wanted to be was at our desks. Today I froze on the Metro platform, got soaked on the sidewalk and am happy to bask in the warm glow of my CRT. Heck, what a difference a DAY makes. Frederick County schools, in cased you missed it, are getting out two hours early today.
This winter has been downright binary, all on or off, 0 or 1, black or white. There's been very little gray. It's either a balmy January or a frigid February. Tell me: How do you know when spring's really arrived? And what do you do to greet it?
Answer Man kicked off the week with the history of some weird houses houses that once stood in Falls Church. Then we got an an elevator with Tom Perez, Maryland's new elevator guru. Tuesday's column was the tale of a D.C. home improvement contractor who sued two customers for libel because they had the audacity to
complain about his work. Wednesday I
suggested how to pick a contractor. And yesterday I visited with some
injured vets who are getting around in a new fashion: on Segways. (Check out the video.)
Maryland is looking at a law that would require school districts to report unexcused absences to the MVA as a way of combating truancy. Take that kids! If you won't go to school because it's good for you, maybe you'll go to keep your license! What else can we threaten them with? Ban them from looking at MySpace or Facebook?
Let's put it in gear....
Washington, D.C.: Happy Friday John! Do you see our email addresses when reading our questions? I've seen other hosts begin a response to someone with a generic location (like "New York, NY") with "Hey! Good to see you back," or somesuch, so I'm assuming you all have more info about who's submitting questions than the readers do? And seeing as how we have to log in to participate in chats, that would make sense.
John Kelly: Rita, hey! How are you? Did that ointment work?
No, I don't see the e-mail addresses. I think some people may have recognizable identifiers, like "Mount Lebanon, Pa." But as for your e-mail, it's safe. From me, anyway.
Washington, D.C.: Do you think the shady contractor realizes that suing the people who criticized his work makes him look even worse? Now everyone's going to assume that he has something to hide.
Also: I'm adopting a cat tomorrow! I'm so excited!!
John Kelly: I think he realized that after my columns came out. He contacted me to say that he's going to try to come to some sort of agreement with those two customers that, he says, will make both sides happy. And if he's able to do that he would drop his libel suits. Which would be good for them but kind of sad for me, since I was looking forward to writing about it all.
Good luck with the cat. Keep him away from canaries.
Hi, I recently read your columns on contractors, and would like to put my two cents in about angieslist. I am a licensed contractor in the state of Maryland, and have been licensed for approximately 20 years, with no complaints ever with MHIC, BBB, or consumer affairs in the. Just thought you might like to know this: we were added to angieslist last year by a client, approximately one month later we were solicited by an angielist employee to pay a monthly fee to have our name at the "top" of the list as opposed to "just" being listed, this kept up for three months until I just stopped returning their phone calls. Ironically, they did the same thing to my plumber also.
John Kelly: Yes, Angie's List is definitely a for-profit concern. Members pay about $6 a month to access and post reviews. But just as The Post doesn't make its money through selling subscriptions but through selling ads, so Angie's List makes its real money (I believe) in ways other than that six bucks. Service providers can advertise in their magazine, or, more correctly, can put coupons in there. I believe only companies that get good ratings from members are invited to place coupons, but they do have to pay for the privilege.
Any chatters out there have any experience with Angie's List?
Van Ness, D.C.: Submitting early to zoom back home before the rain turns to snow and the stores deplete their TP stock. I saw an Internet rumor that both you and Sinbad had died. Sorry to hear that John. Do the Irish throw good wakes?
John Kelly: The chat just started so I suppose the rumor could still come true. But I'm pretty confident I can outlast the day. Like Dick Cheney I'm followed everywhere I go by a Cub Scout with a defibrillator, a tourniquet and a bottle of Bactine.
As for wakes, yes the Irish throw good ones. Not that we need an excuse to eat and drink and get emotional.
Rockville, Md.: Not certain if this question has been asked before, or not. How would you recommend a "mid-career change" woman go about entering the world of newspaper writing as a columnist, such as yourself? Any inside tips to offer?
John Kelly: I am the worst person to ask, since I had such an unlikely entry into newspapers. I didn't major in journalism (not necessarily a handicap). I didn't work on my college newspaper. (Not that that's a requirement; I mean, Jayson Blair DID.) I didn't ever work at another newspaper. I was a freelance writer hired for a temporary editing job in the Weekend section 17 years ago. Then I just dug in my heels and refused to be shifted. When the then-editor of the Metro section looked at my resume when posting the announcement that I was taking over this column, she said, "You know, if you'd come to me back then, I wouldn't have hired you." Thanks!
But as in so many professions, if you can show that you can do the work, you'll have a shot. Writing just involves doing lots of it, sending it lots of places, hoping it gets published and developing relationships with editors. And did I say doing lots of writing?
I've heard the intersection of Randolph and Veirs Mill Roads in MoCo referred to variously as Rockville, Silver Spring, Wheaton, and Kensington, all in news reports this past week (mostly about that unfortunate bus crash). How can this be? What do you think it is?
John Kelly: That really is a no man's land there. It's a kind of demilitarized border zone. I would cross Silver Spring off the list of possibilities, though. It's nowhere near there. And it's not Wheaton, either. I've always thought of Wheaton stopping at around Connecticut Avenue. Kensington is kinda weird and blobby, but, no, I'm not buying that either. Since I take Viers Mill Road TO Rockville, how about calling it that? Then again, traveling west on Viers Mill you still haven't reached Aspen Hill yet. So, I'm stumped.
You know what, let's just go with Silver Spring, since that covers anything.
mid-D.C.: Does Marion Barry teach any courses on Tax Avoidance for Dummies?
John Kelly: That's his 100-level class. The graduate level course is Jailtime Avoidance for Dummies. He seems to be good at that, too.
The U.S. Homeland: Is everyone in D.C. an amnesiac?
Bush removal ended Guam investigation (Boston Globe)
US attorney's demotion halted probe of lobbyist
Have you ever googled Jack Abramoff and Mohammed Atta? Weird huh?
John Kelly: Jack Abramoff and Mohammed Atta? What are you? High? My very quick reading of the sites that come up when you Google those names suggests a link because Atta may have visited cruiseship casinos associated with Abramoff when he was in Florida. If Atta ever ate at a McDonald's would you rope Ronald McDonald into the conspiracy?
But about those federal prosecutors: I think it's got to be adios, Gonzales, after this. But I also found it interesting in one article I read that it's pretty much standard procedure to dismiss the prosecutors after a change in Administration. What's weird here is the White House did it mid-term. I also wonder how much leeway people should have to TALK about things without doing them. That is, is there anything wrong with a Harriet Miers saying, "You know, we should get rid of ALL of them" if it's just part of some off-the-wall brainstorming that doesn't, in the end, come to pass?
Of course, the fact is, it looks like at least some of the prosectors were fired because they weren't supportive enough of the Bushies and that some GOP politicians stuck their snouts in when they shouldn't have. I wonder if the president is just going to get pecked to pieces over the next two years, as more of this stuff comes out.
Nosey: Were you ever on a family vacation and pulled out of gas station or convenience store and accidently left one of the kids behind?
John Kelly: No, but I only have two kids. I can see it might be a problem if I had four or five.
I do, however, usually end up crossing wires with My Lovely Wife once every vacation. We once came very close to divorce at Heathrow Airport when we each thought we were supposed to meet the other somewhere else after I returned a rental car. I remember thinking to myself, "Well, I guess I'll see her on the plane--or back in America."
Capitol Hill: I'm not sure if you've answered this question before, but can you please settle a debate for me .... why are there stairs on Ohio Drive by the Memorial Bridge (along the Rock Creek Parkway)? Someone told me they were previously used when concerts were held along the Potomac River (before the construction of the Kennedy Center). Is that fact or fiction?
John Kelly: That's a fact, Jack. (If that is your name. [And even if it isn't.])
washingtonpost.com: Answer Man: A Gate to Summers Past (Post, Dec. 13, 2004)
John Kelly: It was the original Watergate, though most of the references I found to it spelled it "Water Gate."
National Airport, D.C.: Hey John,
What's in the water over by National? I pass there morning and afternoon on the bike path and lately there is a distinct, nauseating rotting-onions smell emanating from the canal wedged between the runway and GW Pkwy. Is this some ploy to keep the geese away?
John Kelly: First I've learned of it. I don't think they use smell to keep birds away from airports. Usually it's noise and cannons and trained dogs and stuff. Could it just be rotting vegetation or brackish water?
Suitland, Md.: Hey John. Love your chats by the way do you think if we all did a tribal hula dance all this yucky rain would stop, 'cause if it would help I would be glad to get it started.
John Kelly: It couldn't hurt--except maybe your chances for promotion.
I just looked at the National Weather Service forecast from the Sterling office. The map they have up looks like a Preppy nightmare. It's all pink and green. All that's missing is a little embroidered alligator somewhere near Warrenton.
Washington, D.C.: It's Rita again...
The cat adopter made me think of a story I heard recently. When a friend (seriously, it wasn't me) was little, she had a pet canary. She was helping her grandmother clean the house, and Nana suggested that she clean the bottom of the bird cage with the vacuum cleaner. So she did. -SHWOOOP!- The canary got sucked into the vacuum.
I'm a horrible person - I couldn't stop laughing.
John Kelly: Didn't I see that in a Tom and Jerry cartoon once?
This is why you must be very clear when talkig to children. "Use the vacuum to clean the bottom of the bird cage" should have been followed by "AFTER you take the canary out."
I'm a survivor of the two consecutive red line breakdowns this week. I managed to get through both of those frustrations without getting all worked up, but I guess my nerves were on edge last night when I got on the train and I snapped at a teenage girl who was being really rude.
She and her 5 friends were being really inconsiderate and and in my best mommy-voice explained to her "You know, when you stand on the metro seat with your muddy shoes, it makes it dirty and others have to sit there with their nice clothes."
She was embarrassed and apologized, but I was embarrassed, too. I was confronting her before I even knew that it was coming out of my mouth! I consider myself to be assertive, but definitely not aggressive.
I usually keep pretty quiet on the train, but there are lots of times when someone should speak up - I've asked young guys to turn down radios, asked for seats when people are stretched out on crowded trains, etc.
I know I'm not their mom, but am I being really rude for (usually) politely asking others to be decent?
John Kelly: No, it sounds like you handled it perfectly. You were polite about it and she apologized. And maybe the next time she's in that situation she won't stand on the seat in muddy shoes. Or stand on the seat at all. (I mean, really....) I'm glad she didn't react in a bad way: "$%&@ off, lady!"
I think it's probably 50/50 if rude/clueless people will have the right reaction, but it doesn't hurt to try. But I think the key is to ask in a way that leaves you blameless in case they refuse or give you 'tude. If you're polite about it and they're rude, then they look like jerks.
Hash 101: John, why is corned beef hash called "corned" beef hash when it doesn't even have corn in it?
John Kelly: It's called corned beef hash because it's a hash--you know, a chopped up sorta thing--that's made out of corned beef. I used to think that corned beef was called that because the cows ate corn. I was wrong. Corned beef has that distinctive taste and texture because the meat has been brined, and in olden times it was rubbed with little pellets of salt about the size of kernels of...corn! Don't believe me? Well I hope you'll believe the USDA.
Cat Coincidence: So my kitten is getting neutered today. First time I've gone through this. This will make him calmer and less likely to chew my arms off during the middle of the night, right?
John Kelly: I am not a cat person so I don't know what the ol' snip-snip is supposed to do to them.
However, I did see this on Channel 5 last night. It's video from YouTube of a TV reporter being mauled by a house cat. It's within the first 20 seconds or so. The funny thing was, Channel 5 showed the grainy YouTube video and they were joking about it. Hey, it was on a Fox affiliate. You couldn't get a high-quality version?
This is why I fear cats more than dogs. They have those sharp teeth and claws.
Spring Arriving:: A friend who lived near the Four Ps on Connecticut Ave used to say she knew spring was here when the port-a-johns were set up on the sidewalk for St. Patrick's Day.
John Kelly: Oh lovely. Makes you wonder what the "Four Ps" really stands for. The frigid weather tomorrow at least ought to keep the odor down.
corned beef hash : OK Smart Guy, where do football field hash marks come from?
John Kelly: This wheeled machine that's filled with white paint. Really, sometimes you can be so dense.
Concrete Tower in NW, D.C.: Hi John,
There is a box-like concrete tower near Mass Ave and 4th St NW. It has a painting of the Capitol on it. It has no signs or windows or anything. Is it a missle silo? What the heck is that structure?
John Kelly: While there were missile silos around Washington (Nike sites, see "Answer Man," passim), that is not a missile silo. It's actually an exhaust fan for the highway that runs underneath there. Answer Man addressed in a previous column, which will magically appear in just a few seconds.
washingtonpost.com: On H Street NW, near Second Street and Massachusetts Avenue, there is an odd-looking building that is very skinny and tall. On one side is painted the Capitol dome. Everyone I ask says it is a missile silo. What is it really?
The strange structure is actually an airshaft, built in 1975 to vent vehicle exhaust from I-395, which runs underneath the city there.
The monolithic edifice got its unconventional look in 1988, after the city had a contest asking artists for proposals on how to decorate it.
"To my surprise, I actually won," said local artist Val Lewton.
Lewton calls his 60-by-100-foot work "The Airshaft Mural." It's a trompe l'oeil design that looks as if the concrete pylon is pierced by windows through which the U.S Capitol peeps.
"I sort of wanted to emphasize the concrete," said Lewton. "I thought if it looked like it had been penetrated, it would make it look even more solid than it was."
Lewton painted a one-third scale mockup of his design on foamcore panels in his studio, carefully matching the concrete's color. When it was time to paint the beast, Lewton hired a window-washing company in lieu of building a scaffold, so the painters could go up and down the face of the shaft freely.
One day, Lewton said, a homeless man announced that he could help. It turned out that Victor Korenev was an artist from Bulgaria.
"The guy could do anything," said Lewton. "I had amateurs working on it, but he was able to take a look at what I wanted and hit just the right notes."
The whole painting job took a month and cost $20,000.
To see other, smaller, examples of Lewton's work, visit the "Art & Eros" group show at the Parker Gallery (629 New York Ave. NW; 202-628-1734)through March 13.
As for the missile silo, it's hidden in the Washington Monument, naturally. John F. Kelly
Coincidentally, the artist who painted the design, Val Lewton, is the son of the Hollywood producer Val Lewton, who made the classic 1940s horror film "Cat People."
John Kelly: You know what's weird? That painted silo question came in before the chat started so I answered it early and saved it. And now there's been all these comments about cats. "Cat People." Cats. Spooky.
Washington, D.C.: Will Hopper here, thanks for the support of the Segs4Vets event this week
John Kelly: It was really cool. I got to ride a Segway for the first time. Thankfully, no video of that exists. I didn't fall off or anything, but I did have a grim, white-knuckled look about me.
Helena, Mont.: Re: Steps to the Potomac. You're right, John, I remember as a very young boy listening to the music there. The band/orchestra played on a floating barge and it really was kind of neat.
John Kelly: And people used to paddle up in canoes and rowboats to hear, too. Jets landing at National Airport kinda ended the whole thing. Too hard to hear.
dear Answer Man: What's that weird spot on the back of your neck just to the right of your spinal column?
John Kelly: My right or your right?
The one on my right is an unabsorbed twin. The one on your right is a hickey.
Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: Have you ever biked around what you would call Washington D.C.? A perimeter tour, if you will.
(since I don't live there I don't know what greater D.C. includes)
How long would that typically take, say, on a nice Spring day when big Government is on vacation?
Is there a bike path that's contiguous or do you have to use sidewalks and busy streets? Railroad and Metro right-of-ways? Private lanes around marinas and mansions?
And where's the best place/s to stop for lunch?
For the big picture, thanks much. HLB
John Kelly: There isn't a single trail that leads all around the perimeter of the city, thought that would be an interesting path to chart out. Washington isn't the most bike-friendly city, but nor is it the least. There are bike/jogging paths through Rock Creek Park that are nice, as is the C&O Canal and (outside the city) Capital Crescent and W&OD trails. I think I'd pack a lunch.
Didn't someone say Bike to Work Day is May 18? I'm game. Just hope it isn't a day like today.
Hyattsville, Md.: Answerman, given your recent column on the contractor, I hope you can help me out with this. There's a new (built about 6 months ago) parking garage at work that floods (at least on my level) every time it rains. There's about two inches of water in there now and the water is pouring in through the ceiling. Should I be concerned about the safety of this building? They are building an 8-story condo building on top (needlesstosay, I would not buy a condo built by these people), so I'm not even sure how the water is getting in.
John Kelly: Sure, I'd be concerned. The place might not fall down, but someone messed up something. Water's not supposed to fill parking garages or pour through ceilings. If I was the owner of the building I'd be on the phone with the builder, demanding they fix it.
Seg-no-way: I am able-bodied and I don't think I'd ride a Segway again. I was always afraid of falling in a turn or going down a sidewalk ramp. I'd spend my money on a good bike instead.
John Kelly: I learned a lot about Segways spending time with these guys. They pointed out that a lot of people who don't appear disabled but are use Segways. They said they get tired of the dirty looks they receive from able-bodied people who think they're lazy. Some hang disabled placards off the handlebars. (Some of the amputee vets had long pants on and so you wouldn't know they'd lost a leg.) They also said that Segway is sort of cool to the machine being marketed as something for the disabled. The company, they said, doesn't want that association, and doesn't want to be regulated in that way. Why not just use a wheelchair, I asked. The Segs4Vets guys said there are health benefits to standing up, and also the vets get tired of people looking down at them.
HAving said all that, I think it's an odd machine for the able bodied to have. Legs work just fine and, as you said, so do bikes.
Germantown, Md.: John, I had a dream about you two nights ago. What does that mean?
John Kelly: It depends. What was going on? Was I holding a broken cane? According to one online dream interpreter I looked at, that means lost hope. Was I holding an ax? That symbolizes destruction. Were we walking in mud? That means "Suffering, pain, bitterness, diseases." Was I chasing you through mud with an ax while you hobbled away on your broken cane? Whatever that means, it can't be good.
I couldn't find any symbolism for "John Kelly" or "writer." But there was this reference to "typewriter": "To see a typewriter in your dream, indicates that you need to open the lines of communication with someone in your life." So call your mother.
Or the dream could have just meant that you had spicy food for dinner that night. (Or that a home contractor did you wrong.)
Falls Church, Va.: Another Coincidence: So my husband is getting neutered today. First time I've gone through this. This will make him calmer and less likely to chew my ... um ... arms! off during the middle of the night, right?
John Kelly: Yes, he'll be just like a big fat kitten. He will need help with his grooming, however.
near some Giant on Conn. Ave: Do you think Rep. Jefferson will ever list his freezer on Craig's List?
John Kelly: I hope it will go to the National Archives or Smithsonian. Or maybe he could give it to the new Madame Tussaud's. That could be a great exhibit: Washington scandals in wax. Jefferson reaching into his freezer to get a Klondike bar and a wad of 20s. Wilbur Mills in the Tidal Basin with his stripper. Monica Lewinski delivering, um, pizza....
Silver Spring, Md.: Silver Spring often refers to about 40% of MoCo... With rockville covering another 20... Which is particularly strange, since there's actually IS an incorporated municipality of rockville which is notably smaller than what's generally refered to as rockville - everything north of NIH until gaithersburg on the pike I've heard called rockville. It seems to me that since very little of the county is incorporated, there are no legal boundaries to the most of the neighborhoods in the county, so people use whatever is convinient. Like the buildings around Grosvenor that have defined themselves as North Bethesda, so they pop up whenyou search for apartments in Bethesda. Who said they get to take part of rockville, which isn't necessarily rockville anyway, and call it North Bethesda?
John Kelly: Then there's "Potomac," which people are rather free with. It includes parts of Rockville and Gaithersburg.
Washington, D.C.: The Segs4Vets Program started out very small a few years ago and has now grown and is taking on a life of it's own.
It is great to get to work with these guys and help them with their mobility options.
John Kelly: The two men who started it, Jerry Kerr and Leonard Timm, are amazing. Leonard doesn't have any legs and when I saw him wasn't using prosthesis. His Segway had been modified so he just sat on it with his stumps but was still able to manipulate it quite deftly by leaning his body in various directions.
Mygraine VA: Even with a migraine headache at home, this chat so rules! Thanks John (and your assistant) because today I am not at work with all the interuptions and can enjoy your chat. Someday at home for this chat w/o headache is a goal of mine!
John Kelly: Sorry to hear about the migraine. Megadoses of pain reliever and Ben Gay on teh forehead. That's what I've heard,anyway.
Today is also a good day to have a fire, methinks. In the fireplace, of course.
Washington, D.C.: To the cat neuterer: Your kitten will still be a kitten, but he will mellow more with age. Un-fixed male cats remain agressive, which is harder to live with when they're 12 pounds and no longer adorable kittens. Fixed male gets grow up to be fatter and more relaxed. So don't expect any changes to his kitten behavior, but in the long run, he'll be a better roommate.
For the cat adopter: Yay for you! Someone should buy you a drink.
John Kelly: Whoops, I should have posted this one before I posted the vasectomy joke!
Tidbit of the Week in my community: John,
The main tidbit seems to be some cats are doing their thing in people's yards. Instead of concerning themselves with the 3 armed robberies we had last year. Go figure.
John Kelly: Again with the cats.... This chat has gone to the dogs, and by dogs I mean cats.
I think I'd be more concerned with armed robbers than litter box mayhem, too. But maybe they're trying to look on the bright side.
box-like concrete tower near Mass Ave and 4th St NW: Maybe THIS is the building that houses the art history and business majors who can't get real day jobs! You know, the ones secretly listening in to our phone calls, perusing our emails, installing public TC cameras, and monitoring our online chat sessions.
We need a CETA program to get those young people real jobs and.. real lives.
John Kelly: If the shoe phone fits....
Well, there is a difference between a real job and a real life, or there should be, anyway.
Tough luck John: You missed the Ides by one day. But beware anyway.
John Kelly: I never miss the Ides. It's My Lovely Wife's birthday. I hide all the knives, just in case.
Madame Tussaud's: Finally, a home for my ear wax collection!
I (heart) you John Kelly.
John Kelly: I can see it now: The Supreme Court, rendered in ear wax, next to the Stars and Stripes, made from belly button lint.
Red Line: Any word on whether the guy who left his bags on the train and caused all the problems this week was fined or ticketed. Surely it seems everyone over-reacted, but come on. In this day and age in this town to carelessly leave your bags behind on a train is just inconceivable. Perhaps a well publicized fine might serve as a deterrent to others who may be inclined to be so clueless. Just wondering.
John Kelly: Even better, they should bring back the stocks, like from Colonial times. If he had to sit in them for a few hours, on display in the middle of Union Station, I think the point would sink in.
TO: Hyattsville, Md. ATTN: Leaking Garage.....:1 word:
John Kelly: I'd at least be PO'd about the effect it was having on my shoes as I walked to and from my car.
from the desk of Miss Goody Two-Shoes: So what's the minimum age the brat pack can take the METRO w/o "adult" accompaniment?
Maybe they should stake truant officers on the trains.
Remember: children are reared, chickens are raised.
John Kelly: We checked with Metro and they told us there isn't a minimum age. It's up to the parents.
Bethesda, Md.: John, no question just a quick Happy St. Patrick's Day to you. Enjoy the corned beef, cabbage, and green beer.
John Kelly: Thank you. I think I'll skip the green beer, but I do like chewing through the occasional Guinness. I hope to accomplish that tomorrow.
My foolish hearth : John, do any restaurants still have old fashioned wood fireplaces?
John Kelly: Here's a list that Eve Zibart had in her Weekend dining column six years ago. I don't know how many remain:
IRON GATE INN -- 1734 N St. NW; 202/737-1370. Two fireplaces. Not wheelchair accessible.
MONOCLE -- 107 D St. NE; 202/546-4488. Double-faced fireplace.
MORRISON-CLARK INN -- 1015 L St. NW; 202/898-1200. Two fireplaces. Not wheelchair accessible.
THAT'S AMORE -- 1699 Rockville Pike (at Congressional Plaza); 301/881-7891. Two fireplaces.
John Kelly: All right, back to work.
Thanks for stopping by. Stay dry. Stay warm. Stay as sweet as you are. Buckle up. Drive carefully. Don't forget to tip your waitron.
I'll see you in the paper on Sunday, when Answer Man will have yet ANOTHER thrilling video presentation. Remember that if you see anything you think might find a home in my column, let me know: kellyj@washpost.com.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Post columnist John Kelly takes questions on his recent columns, life in the Washington area and more.
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What's All the Fuzz About? Status, of Course
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In the ongoing battle between the fashion industry and anti-fur activists, the last few weeks have been especially busy.
On Tuesday, the Humane Society of the United States accused various manufacturers and retailers of selling mislabeled fur, some of it derived from dogs, wolves and raccoon dogs. The group filed a legal petition with the Federal Trade Commission looking to get the merchandise off the racks and the stores and design houses fined.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also fired off a press release announcing that Tommy Hilfiger has decided to ban fur from future collections.
Two weeks earlier, fur protesters managed to sneak past security to interrupt the Valentino and Christian Lacroix runway shows in Paris, where they optimized their likelihood of capturing attention by stripping off their clothes before hoisting their anti-fur placards aloft. They were quickly tackled by security guards, but not before spectators got a full frontal eyeful.
All of this comes as design houses such as Christian Dior, Hermes, Gucci, Chado Ralph Rucci and Michael Kors, which was named in the Humane Society complaint, continue to put extravagant furs on the runway for fall 2007. Fur sales have been rising for seven years, according to the Fur Information Council of America, an industry trade association. It reports that year-to-year sales of fur coats and accessories were up by 9.1 percent in 2005, the last year for which numbers were available. That increase puts global fur sales at more than $12.7 billion -- and that's only counting sales through furriers, not through outlets such as department stores.
For all the legal wrangling and the runway streaking, an enormous number of consumers remain committed to wearing fur -- as well as crocodile, alligator, ostrich and a host of other exotic animal skins that do not get the same attention as fur.
Prying their stoles and chubbies from their warm hands will require a different strategy than another telling of the sad life and painful death of a mink. All consumers negotiate some sort of moral stance on animal life.
A few take the position that no animal should suffer in their name and they eat brown rice and broccoli, skip putting honey in their tea, wear canvas shoes and shun products that have been tested on animals.
These are people who refuse to swat flies but, rather, try to graciously usher them to the nearest open window.
Others are vegetarians but wear leather shoes. Many people eat meat, wear leather shoes and coats but refuse to wear fur. Perhaps those folks would be amenable to the rabbit fur used in the Maison Martin Margiela presentation in Paris. Show notes assured the audience that the rabbits' death resulted in Sunday dinner as well as a coat.
Some people wear only vintage fur. And then there are those who would wear a sable swimsuit if they could.
If the goal is to persuade people to stop wearing fur now -- but not deny them the right to a burger and a pair of cowboy boots -- it would be more expedient to address the reason they want to wear fur at all. For all of the talk about its beauty and warmth, the reality is that fur's popularity is based on status. It instantly conveys wealth and success. All those rappers who swaddle themselves in fur as soon as they sign their first record deals aren't doing it because mink is the only thing that can keep them warm in the winter. It's to acknowledge their accomplishment.
Those Blackglama fur ads featuring people such as Catherine Deneuve, Audrey Hepburn, Ray Charles and Bette Davis made the connection between fur and achievement clear: "What becomes a legend most?"
The best faux fur cannot do what even the cheapest mink can, which is bestow stature, even if it is only in the wearer's mind. So what if that mangy mink coat looks fake. The wearer knows it is not.
The wearer knows that it was her reward for a promotion or for running a marathon or putting the kid through college. It's not just a coat that's being purchased -- it's everything that the coat stands for. It doesn't matter if the fur is as garish as a Ferrari or as ostentatious as a Hummer. It doesn't matter if it marks the wearer as an arriviste. That, after all, is often the point.
Only a small minority of people can discern a sable from a mink at 50 paces. There is only a subtle difference in softness. But in a rarefied corner of the fashion world, people detect those distinctions. And they know that the difference in cost between mink and sable can be more than tenfold. Few things so quietly but succinctly announce wealth to a target audience.
Until anti-fur groups find a way to alter that message, the fur business will continue to thrive.
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In the ongoing battle between the fashion industry and anti-fur activists, the last few weeks have been especially busy.
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Labor Rights in Guatemala Aided Little by Trade Deal
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GUATEMALA CITY -- Day and night, workers at the port of Quetzal on Guatemala's Pacific coast load fruit from surrounding plantations and clothing stitched in local factories onto freighters bound for Long Beach, Calif., a flow of goods that has swelled since a Central American trade agreement with the United States took force last year.
Under a provision that was crucial to getting the deal through Congress, working conditions for the longshoremen, along with laborers throughout Central America, were supposed to improve. Governments promised to strengthen labor laws, and the Bush administration pledged money to help.
But on the evening of Jan. 15, the head of the port workers union became a symbol of the risks that still confront workers who press their rights in Guatemala.
Pedro Zamora, then in the midst of contentious negotiations with management, was driving on the dusty road through his village, his two sons at his side, when gunmen shot him at least 20 times, killing him, said prosecutors in Guatemala City. One boy was grazed in the knee by a bullet; the other was unharmed.
Nearly two years have passed since the countries of Central America vowed to strengthen worker rights as they sought votes in Congress for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. Yet there has been little if any progress, according to diplomats, labor inspectors, workers and managers.
"The situation is the same now as it was," said Homero Fuentes, director of the Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct, a Guatemalan group hired by multinational companies to inspect local factories and plantations. "The law hasn't been reformed, and people just don't obey the law. There's a culture of impunity."
The Bush administration is facing intense resistance in the Democratic Congress as it seeks approval for new trade deals with Peru, Colombia and Panama. The tense labor situation in Guatemala and other countries covered by such deals helps to explain why.
Democratic leaders negotiating terms of the new trade pacts with the administration are demanding stringent labor protections. They argue that previous deals such as CAFTA have been too weak on labor rights, expediting the shift of manufacturing to countries where goods are cheap because workers are exploited.
The Bush administration counters that trade deals have improved the lot of laborers by creating jobs and establishing basic standards, even as it signals willingness to insert stricter rules in the new agreements to gain the assent of the Democratic leadership.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab said last month on Capitol Hill that when countries negotiate free-trade deals with the United States, "the situation on the ground for workers in those countries is vastly improved."
As the administration portrays it, problems in Central America reflect a dearth of resources, not weak law. Over the past two years, Congress has allocated $60 million for programs aimed at boosting the ability of governments in the region to enforce labor and environmental laws, delivering computers and automobiles and helping to train judges and inspectors.
Schwab urged The Washington Post to seek details from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. There, four American officials, plus two who joined by videoconference from El Salvador, would speak only on condition that they not be named. They said they had no data showing increased compliance with labor laws in Central America, though they emphasized that the programs were new.
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Latest politics news headlines from Washington DC. Follow 2006 elections,campaigns,Democrats,Republicans,political cartoons,opinions from The Washington Post. Features government policy,government tech,political analysis and reports.
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Fannie, Freddie Wary of Controls
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The recent meltdown in unconventional home loans provided political ammunition for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just as House members are poised to move ahead on long-delayed legislation aimed at tightening controls on the federally chartered mortgage-funding companies.
Freddie Mac chief executive Richard F. Syron testified yesterday that the legislation could not only hurt the two companies but also damage the already weakened housing market.
"We support strengthening [government] oversight, but not at the cost of crippling our ability to compete in the marketplace," Syron said in the longer, written version of testimony delivered to the House Financial Services Committee.
Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd's criticisms of the bill were milder. After testifying, he called the bill "a positive step forward" compared with earlier proposals. But at a time when regulators, rivals and other critics question how much the public benefits from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Mudd said the companies can cushion shocks such as the trouble in the subprime mortgage market.
He said Fannie Mae is developing loans to rescue borrowers trapped in mortgages with sharply rising interest rates. Syron said Freddie Mac is developing safer alternatives to existing subprime loans.
But Judith A. Kennedy, president of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, testified that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have helped fuel the increase in subprime mortgages by purchasing securities backed by such loans and not doing enough to offer alternatives in the past.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were chartered by Congress to promote homeownership, help keep money flowing to lenders by investing in mortgages and packaging them into securities for sale to other investors. The standards they use in choosing loans help shape the mortgage market.
Many borrowers have been having difficulty making payments on subprime loans, which helped pump up the housing market in recent years, and many companies that specialized in issuing those loans have been foundering. The loans typically offered people with weaker credit ratings the ability to buy houses -- at the cost of high or potentially rising interest rates.
The debate over how the companies should be regulated reflects the often conflicting demands placed on them. Government officials want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do more to help low-income people buy homes -- even as they want the companies to avoid taking on too much risk.
The bill, which the committee is scheduled to mark up March 28, would create a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with the power to put them into receivership, limit their mortgage investments, block their offerings of new products and require them to hold additional capital as a cushion against financial trouble.
The bill would also require them to make contributions to a fund for affordable housing that would be administered by the new regulator in concert with state officials.
Mudd said that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be allowed to administer the funds, as called for in an earlier version of the bill. But Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he could not argue with other lawmakers who feared Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would use the money to cultivate political support, for example, by funding projects in the districts of influential politicians.
By taking the funds out of the companies' hands, he said, the latest version of the bill would protect them from being hit up by members of Congress.
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Executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac invoked the upheaval in the mortgage market yesterday as a reason for lawmakers to be cautious about subjecting them to stricter regulation.
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Feeling the Pinch of Higher Prices
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Inflation quickened last month as consumers paid higher prices at the gasoline pump, the grocery store, clothing shops and the doctor's office, while wages lagged, the Labor Department reported yesterday.
The report added to other recent signs that many Americans are struggling to pay their bills as prices rise, economic growth slows and interest rates jump on many adjustable-rate mortgages.
The department's consumer price index, a widely followed inflation gauge, rose 0.4 percent in February, twice as fast as in January.
Prices rose faster than wages in February, for a second consecutive month. Average weekly earnings fell 0.3 percent last month, after adjusting for inflation, as they did in January, the Labor Department said in a separate report.
"Consumers feel inflation is still a problem," said Gina Martin, an economist with Wachovia Corp. "Their daily expenses are higher."
Wall Street was rattled earlier in the week by news that more homeowners fell behind on their mortgage payments or lost their homes to foreclosure at the end of last year, largely those borrowers with adjustable-rate loans. With home construction, retail sales and business spending also declining, many investors raised their bets that the Federal Reserve might ride to the rescue by cutting interest rates soon.
The new inflation figures doused such hopes yesterday, making it likely that Fed policymakers would leave borrowing costs on hold when they meet next week. In recent months, the Fed has been more worried about inflation than the sluggish housing market or cooling economic growth.
The Fed is in a bit of a box. If policymakers raise interest rates to curb price increases, that would make it harder for borrowers to make their mortgage payments or refinance their loans. If the Fed cuts rates, that might spur inflation.
Many economists, including those at the Fed, still see most of the economy -- outside the housing and automobile industries -- as healthy, with the soft spots offset by low 4.5 percent unemployment and steady growth in health care, education, finance, travel and other service industries. A separate Fed report released yesterday showed the nation's industrial production, which is the output of factories, utilities and mines , jumped last month, another bright spot.
The economy's sources of strength, however, are enabling businesses to increase prices. Airline fares, hotel room rates, medical bills and tuition costs all rose briskly last month. Clothing prices increased with the introduction of spring and summer fashions, with women's apparel prices rising most sharply.
Consumers also paid more for fuel oil and natural gas to warm their homes during the colder weather last month, and swallowed higher prices for fruit and vegetables that had survived recent frosts. And higher crude oil prices pushed gasoline pump prices higher.
Economists seek a sense of underlying inflation by looking at "core" measures, which strip out volatile food and energy prices. The Labor Department's core consumer price index rose 0.2 percent last month, down from a 0.3 percent increase the month before.
Core prices were 2.7 percent higher in February than a year before, the same annual rate as in January. That was down from a recent peak of 2.9 percent in the year ended in September, but too high for the Fed's comfort.
"Inflation is not as bad as it was before, but not ideal," Martin said.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues have hoped the surge in inflation last year would prove temporary, the result of swings in oil prices and a passing surge in rental-housing prices. Demand for rentals shot up last year as many people found they could not afford to buy high-priced homes.
Rents play a major role in the Labor Department's calculation of the consumer price index, and rising rents were a significant cause of last year's higher inflation.
Bernanke told Congress last month that the contribution to inflation from rental prices should moderate this year. But two different rent measures rose quickly in February, providing no relief from other price increases.
"The Fed is probably not surprised, but they're disappointed" by inflation's persistence, said Peter E. Kretzmer, senior economist at Bank of America Securities. "They cannot feel as if they can relax at this point, and that things are moving in the right direction."
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Inflation quickened last month as consumers paid higher prices at the gasoline pump, the grocery store, clothing shops and the doctor's office, while wages lagged, the Labor Department reported yesterday.
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Bid Fails To Repeal Death Penalty
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A bid by lawmakers to repeal Maryland's death penalty collapsed yesterday by a single vote, presenting Gov. Martin O'Malley with an early political defeat but leaving questions about the future of capital punishment in the state in his hands.
Capping weeks of emotional appeals and soul-searching by lawmakers, a state Senate committee deadlocked 5 to 5 on legislation to end executions, preventing it from moving to the chamber's floor. O'Malley (D) strongly supported the bill, which was the subject of intense lobbying by the Catholic Church and other clergy.
The committee's tie vote followed two failed attempts at compromise, one that called for a year-long study of the death penalty and another that sought to limit eligibility for capital punishment to people who kill while in prison.
Maryland has had an effective moratorium on capital punishment since December, when a court ruled that the death penalty could not be carried out until new regulations on lethal injection are submitted by the administration.
O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese would not say yesterday when -- or if -- the administration will issue the regulations. The governor could effectively continue the moratorium by doing nothing as long as he is in office.
"We had hoped the legislature would repeal the death penalty," Abbruzzese said. "The governor will take the next few weeks to consider his options going forward."
Several death penalty opponents said they will urge O'Malley to establish a study commission by executive order, an option aides said would be considered. Other lawmakers floated the idea of putting the issue to voters in a referendum.
Supporters and opponents alike predicted that legislative wrangling over the issue would continue. Kirk Bloodsworth, a former death row inmate who has spent the last month lobbying legislators to approve the bill, said he was disappointed by yesterday's deadlock but committed to continuing to fight for a full repeal.
"As long as I'm breathing and living, I'm coming back," said Bloodsworth, who served eight years in prison, two of them on death row, for rape and murder charges that were later dismissed based on DNA evidence.
Five people have been put to death in Maryland since executions resumed in 1978, and there are six on death row.
O'Malley testified to a pair of legislative committees last month that he believes the death penalty is "inherently unjust" because of the risk of executing innocent people, and he argued that it is not an effective deterrent to murder.
Legislation to replace the death penalty with life without parole is still pending in a House committee, but the bill's sponsor said yesterday he does not plan to press for a vote before lawmakers adjourn April 9, given the outcome in the Senate.
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A bid by lawmakers to repeal Maryland's death penalty collapsed yesterday by a single vote, presenting Gov. Martin O'Malley with an early political defeat but leaving questions about the future of capital punishment in the state in his hands.
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A Tie That May Not Fit United
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Under normal circumstances, Luciano Emilio's goal in the waning moments of D.C. United's 1-1 draw with Mexican club Chivas last night would have been cause for hysterical celebration.
Make no mistake, United and its supporters rejoiced in the rain and cold at RFK Stadium after the late equalizer by its newly acquired Brazilian striker. But the harsh reality was that United had to work very hard just to salvage a tie at home and now faces the prospect of having to win the final leg of the two-game, total-goals series April 3 in Guadalajara to advance to the Champions' Cup finals.
VIDEO | D.C. United Signs Emilio
"Absolutely, we're disappointed," midfielder Ben Olsen said. "We needed to get a result, but we didn't. It's a 1-1 tie, so it's done. It's not the end of the world. We've got a tough challenge ahead of us in Mexico . . . but we know now we can play with this team."
United struggled to keep pace before a pro-Chivas crowd of 26,528. D.C. yielded Omar Bravo's deflected goal in the 63rd minute and seemed headed for defeat. But in the first minute of injury time, Emilio's five-yard header off Christian Gomez's free kick from just outside the penalty area provided United with a glimmer of hope heading into the finale. It should be noted, though, that an MLS team has never won a competitive match in Mexico.
"I don't think we played our best game, especially the first half, I don't think we were very good at all," midfielder Josh Gros said. "We were a little bit fortunate to get that goal, but it's not the worst result for us. But it's going to be even tougher than it was here."
This was United's home leg of the series, but you would not have known it from the reception the players received before and during the game. Chivas, Mexico's most popular and most decorated club, does not often play on the U.S. East Coast, so its appearance here drew supporters from long distances.
The Mexicans dictated play from the start, using their quickness and cohesion to stretch United and force it to chase the game. United labored to generate an attack, choked by Chivas's intense pressure in midfield.
"I was a little disappointed in the way we came out and our mentality toward the game," D.C. Coach Tom Soehn said. "We didn't handle the pressure well."
United absorbed the pressure and created the first serious chance in the 23rd minute when Emilio set up Gomez. A moment later, D.C. goalkeeper Troy Perkins touched Francisco Rodriguez's rising bid over the crossbar.
United played with greater urgency after the break and held more possession, but true scoring opportunities were difficult to come by. Just as United was gaining confidence, Chivas countered with several penetrating threats.
The pressure paid off when Bravo, a two-goal scorer for Mexico in last year's World Cup, calmly waited at the back post for Sergio Santana's bending cross and sent a 10-yard header off defender Bryan Namoff and past Perkins.
Luis Michel preserved the lead two minutes later, diving to slap aside Jaime Moreno's 24-yard bid, but in injury time, Emilio peeled away from his defender and scored his fourth goal in three matches.
Asked to look ahead to Game 2 and imagine what it's going to be like playing in front of a Mexican audience, Olsen responded: "Didn't we just do it?"
United Notes: Fred, the Brazilian midfielder-forward who is awaiting international clearance before officially joining the club, watched the game from the mezzanine level. . . . Midfielder Brian Carroll was among 24 players called up to the U.S. national team for the March 25 friendly vs. Ecuador in Tampa and the March 28 match vs. Guatemala in Frisco, Tex.
? DYNAMO 2, PACHUCA 0: Brian Ching and Chris Wondolowski scored second-half goals as host Houston defeated the Mexican club in the first leg of their semifinal. Game 2 is April 5 at Pachuca.
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Luciano Emilio scores a goal in the waning moments to give D.C. United a 1-1 draw with Mexican club Chivas on Thursday.
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He's in Need, but Too Proud to Beg
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Willie Wood sat up in his bed and used his hands to help lift and maneuver his legs so he could face his breakfast tray, which had been brought in for a second time after he rejected an earlier meal, joking he couldn't recognize the food. He has gout and has been unable to walk for the past four months, and he's about to undergo replacement surgery on his left knee to go with his previously replaced right knee and right hip.
"Everything is going to be artificial on me pretty soon," he said with a slight chuckle.
It was just after 10 a.m. yesterday in Room 50 of the assisted living facility on Riggs Road in Hyattsville where Wood has been staying since November. The room was dimly lit. The window was closed, leaving no hint of the spring-like weather outside. At about 12 feet by 25 feet, the room was a virtual presidential suite by the facility's standards. Even so, the furnishings were spartan. The tile floor was uncovered and the wallpaper was pale. There were four chairs, a wooden nightstand with a lamp and two modest armoires arranged around Wood's bed. A white cable ran from the ceiling to the small flat-screen TV that sat on a dresser facing Wood's bed.
The two Green Bay Packers pennants on the window and the 2006 Packers team picture taped to the side of one armoire were the only signs that the room's occupant is a football legend.
Wood, a D.C. native who was a Hall of Fame safety on the great Packers teams of the 1960s, would get dressed shortly after breakfast. There would be a physical therapy session later in the day and he was readying for a fundraiser at a Georgetown restaurant tonight that friends hope will raise about $25,000 to help pay his medical bills. His knee replacement surgery will come soon and Wood, 70, hopes to be up and about and back on the golf course not too long afterward.
"I'm going to get up," he said. "It's a question of when. It's not like this is permanent."
Wood's friends and supporters say he is like many other former star players who helped build the league into a $6 billion-a-year industry yet suffer from mounting medical and financial problems. There is a growing clamor from former players and their supporters that the league should do more.
Much of the ire has been aimed at current players and the NFL Players Association. But Bob Schmidt, a businessman who is Wood's former teammate at the University of Southern California and once was Wood's attorney, said he and Wood don't feel the need to add to the public discord.
"We're not going to beat up on them," said Schmidt, who is organizing tonight's dinner at Agraria restaurant. "We're not here to do that. But the proof is in the pudding. You have folks out there like Willie Wood who are hurting. There are others. More can be done. Nothing is done until you raise your hand and say you need help. But these are strong human beings. They have a lot of pride."
Gene Upshaw, the NFLPA executive director, said the league and union do more for former players than they're given credit for, and will continue to help. The league and the union increased pensions and benefits for former players in their collective bargaining agreement completed last year, and Upshaw said the league and union paid $126 million last year to fund pensions and benefits for former players.
"It's been unfortunate the way it's been portrayed, people out there making these claims," Upshaw said, adding that the union spent an additional $1.2 million last year to help former players and their families with expenses like mortgages, medication and funeral costs. "In the pension area, we've done way better than any sport has ever done. I was aware of Willie Wood's circumstances as fast as anyone and we will do everything we can to help."
Wood's only source of income is his $1,100 per month pension. Schmidt said Wood has received financial assistance from former NFL coach Mike Ditka's foundation and from league-affiliated sources and soon will seek more, including from the fund just established by the league and union -- called the "Number 88 Plan" after the jersey number of former Baltimore Colts tight end John Mackey -- to benefit former players with dementia. According to Schmidt, Wood has dementia and occasionally demonstrates signs of short-term memory loss. Wood also has diabetes and high blood pressure, said Schmidt, who estimated that the cost of Wood's care over the next year will be about $100,000.
"After that," Schmidt said, "who knows? It's a question mark."
Upshaw said Wood qualifies for benefits under the Number 88 Plan, which calls for a former player with dementia to receive as much as $88,000 per year for institutional care or as much as $50,000 per year for in-home nursing care.
Wood lives on 16th Street NW with one of his two sons and he said he plans to return to his home when possible. Wood's wife died close to 20 years ago.
He has been visited by a steady stream of former teammates and old friends from his D.C. neighborhood. Sportscaster James Brown visited and kept calling him "Mr. Wood." When Wood told Brown to call him Willie, Brown said, "You'll always be Mr. Wood to me."
Wood said he's convinced that many of his health problems stem from playing football. But even with that, he said, he doesn't regret the career choice.
"I wouldn't say that," he said. "I can't say that. It's like spitting on the thing you like the most."
He made less than $20,000 as a Packers rookie in 1960 and never made more than $98,000 in a year during a career that ended after the '71 season. His only mistake, he said, was his timing. He should have been born later. "If I had it to do all over again, I'd do it the same way," Wood said. "Of course, I'd like to make more money."
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Get sports news,schedules,rosters for Washington Redskins,Wizards,Orioles,United,Mystics,Nationals. Features Washington DC,Virginia,Maryland high school/college teams,Wilbon and Kornheiser from The Washington Post.
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The Ol' Bait and Click
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The eBay vendor had a glowing record -- more than 900 successful sales, with only a single complaint amid a long series of positive testimonials from customers. So when a Georgia bidder won the seller's auction for an Olympus digital camera in January, there seemed little reason to worry about dispatching almost $700 into cyberspace.
But the camera never arrived.
"I don't think I will ever buy anything over the Internet again," the conned bidder lamented in a posting on an eBay discussion board. "I am not a wealthy person, had saved long and hard for this camera for my business, and don't know when, or IF EVER I will see my $700 again."
Ever since the early days of the Internet, Web sites have struggled to find ways of reassuring users that a stranger could be as honest as a well-known local merchant, as knowledgeable as a respected teacher or as insightful as a wise grandparent. With Internet commerce now estimated to exceed $100 billion a year and greater numbers of people turning to the Internet for products, advice and love, Web sites are crafting more elaborate rating and feedback systems -- reputation monitors of sorts -- to help people evaluate whom they can trust. But the cheats have also noticed the unprecedented chance for ill-gotten gains. This has set off a high-stakes game of cat and mouse as Web sites spend more time and money to secure their systems against those trying to game them.
"We are increasingly living in a mobile, virtual world," said Chrysanthos Dellarocas, a professor of information systems at the University of Maryland business school. "To retain some form of social fabric in this world, we need some reputation mechanism."
One of the best-known reputation systems is the one used by Amazon.com, which provides user-written reviews of the books and it sells and then allows other users to rate the reviewers. Slashdot, a popular technology and current affairs Web site, developed what it calls a "karma" system for evaluating contributors. One of Yahoo's fast-growing features, Yahoo Answers, now boasts 75 million users who ask and answer each other's online questions about nearly any subject, with greater weight accorded to those who earn expert ratings from other users.
"Reputation is key to it all," said Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo's vice president of product strategy.
EBay established its position as the Web's premier auctioneer in part by pioneering a system to allow buyers and sellers to rate each other and comment on the quality of their transactions.
"It has been essential for eBay's success. It increased trust in the marketplace and created a community," eBay chief executive Meg Whitman said in an interview.
But users have repeatedly found ways to inflate or wholly fabricate their reputations. The online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, was thrown into turmoil late last month after users learned that one of the site's major editors was not a tenured university religion professor as he claimed in his online profile but a 24-year-old college dropout. At Amazon, a computer glitch three years ago inadvertently exposed the real names of reviewers writing under pseudonyms. Some turned out not to be disinterested literary judges but authors giving their own books glowing reviews to boost sales.
The scams take countless and ever more ingenious forms. These include intimidating other users who give negative ratings by threatening to retaliate with negative feedback of their own. Some con artists also create false secondary accounts, known as "sock puppets," that a cheat can use to give himself fake positive feedback. It also includes piling up legitimate positive reviews and then closing in for the kill as an eBay seller from New Jersey called "malkilots" did to nearly three dozen would-be camera buyers, including the bidder from Georgia.
That scheme -- according to feedback, discussion boards and auction descriptions on the eBay site -- went down like this: Malkilots built a sterling track record by selling memory cards for digital cameras for as little as $20 each. The vender sold them by the hundreds, delivering them as promised and accumulating page after page of positive feedback from satisfied customers.
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The eBay vendor had a glowing record -- more than 900 successful sales, with only a single complaint amid a long series of positive testimonials from customers. So when a Georgia bidder won the seller's auction for an Olympus digital camera in January, there seemed little reason to worry about dispatching almost $700 into cyberspace....
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April Repairs Vowed for New Orleans Canal Pumps
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The head of the Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday that vibration problems with pumps at three major drainage canals in New Orleans will be fixed within seven weeks, before the hurricane season opens.
"By the end of April, we will have those pumps operating effectively," Lt. Gen. Carl Strock told members of a Senate subcommittee. "We know what the problems are, and we have the solutions in place."
The Associated Press, citing an internal memo, reported Tuesday that the Corps went ahead with installation of the 34 pumps last year in a rush to fix the city's flood defenses before the 2006 hurricane season despite warnings from one of its experts that the machinery was defective and likely to fail in a storm.
Because of the pumps' size, there was no protocol for testing them in the factory, Strock told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development. "We chose to accept a calculated risk with something that would have an effect at the beginning of the hurricane season," he said.
The pumps have been plagued with other problems in tests, including overheated engines, broken hoses and blown gaskets, but have yet to be assessed in a storm.
"We experienced significant vibrations in the pumps," Strock said. "We know why that occurred. We're making fixes to that."
He said he was not aware of misgivings about the pumps voiced by a mechanical engineer with the Corps, Maria Garzino, but added that the concerns "were valid."
Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said news stories suggest the pumps were a waste of taxpayers' money and "an unwise decision in contracting."
John Paul Woodley Jr., the assistant Army secretary who oversees the Corps, said the challenge of installing the pumps should not be minimized.
"They were accomplished in time for the beginning of the 2006 hurricane season on a schedule of unprecedented speed and scope," he said. "I do know that a great deal of technical expertise and scrutiny has been given to this."
The 34 pumps for moving water from New Orleans to Lake Pontchartrain were added as a ring of flood protection after Hurricane Katrina.
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Complete Coverage on Hurricane Katrina and Rita including video,photos and blogs. Get up-to-date news on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita,news from New Orleans and more.
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Waiting and Watching, Hoping to Be Heard
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BEIJING On a recent Sunday night in an old neighborhood near the South Railway Station, not far from several government departments, a string of shacks and tents shielded hundreds of peasants who had recently arrived in the capital to see the authorities.
In theory, it was a day of rest, since the receiving hall of the Supreme Court and other government buildings were closed. But the peasants, who had traveled here from across China, were just beginning to prepare for the week. They had come to petition authorities over grievances in their home towns -- in some cases alleging official abuses that went back 30 years.
Wei Shougang, 61, of Shandong province, was rewriting an appeal for compensation on behalf of his father, a former soldier who was forced by illness to retire early and who died in poverty.
Yuan Jitang, 57, also of Shandong, was stuffing envelopes with letters and grisly photographs showing his son's corpse -- in hopes that the boy's murderer would receive the death penalty, rather than the prison sentence that had been meted out.
Zhu Xinshi, 55, of Henan province, was making himself dinner from cooked vegetables that he had found in the trash and a pack of instant noodles, girding himself for a continuing fight against a man who received $33,000 on a life insurance policy taken out on Zhu's son.
The path the three men were on has been well tread. It is common for villagers to seek recourse with authorities in Beijing, and just as common for them to be sent packing. They are routinely stopped by police from their home provinces who come to Beijing's government plazas, listen for accents like their own and round up the locals, lest villagers speak ill of officials back home and the number of complaints in Beijing rises.
On this evening, the men were speaking in loud whispers in Wei's tiny room, which had three beds, filthy curtains, two other tenants and no heat. They smoked tobacco leaf because a week's supply cost only 13 cents. They collected plastic bottles for recycling, hoping the money they earned would cover the expenses of their trip.
Each man had a different story; none sounded promising.
"I've never really heard of any successful cases actually," said Li Yuhai, an activist from Anhui province who rents the room from a landlord for $130 a month and in turn collects somewhat irregular rent from Wei and his roommates.
Any cases apart from his own, that is. Li was illegally detained in 1995 for 10 months after complaining about the heavy tax burden on farmers. After his release, he sued the police. China had just passed a compensation law and he was given $395.
"Because the Chinese government is trying to improve its legal system, step by step, this gives people hope," said Li, who was also briefly detained for allegedly working with Human Rights Watch, which he denied to authorities. "You won't see petitioner villages like this in other cities. You can say this idea of protecting their rights explains the hope these people have."
The men in Wei's room reminded one another to keep their voices down. They checked to see whether security guards were nearby. A few hundred yards away were cigarette stores, tailor shops and restaurants that advertised dishes for the equivalent of less than a dollar. Another sign offered letter-writing services for illiterate petitioners.
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World news headlines from the Washington Post,including international news and opinion from Africa,North/South America,Asia,Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather,news in Spanish,interactive maps,daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
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Christian Groups To Stage Protest
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Several thousand Christian peace activists plan to march on the White House tonight to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Iraq, organizers said yesterday.
The march, which is unrelated to tomorrow's antiwar rally at the Pentagon, will be preceded by a 7 p.m. service at the National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW. At 8:15 p.m., participants will proceed downtown on Massachusetts Avenue NW, then south on 16th Street NW to Lafayette Park, the organizers said.
The event is sponsored by the District-based Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a progressive religious group, along with the American Friends Service Committee, Lutheran Peace Fellowship, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and more than two dozen other Protestant and Catholic groups.
Organizers have said that although most marchers will adhere to the permit regulations for the demonstration, several hundred "volunteered" to stage actions of peaceful civil disobedience and face arrest.
U.S. Park Police said they will arrest demonstrators who violate rules covering protests in front of the White House. Marchers must keep moving, for example, and cannot hang signs on the White House fence, said Lt. Scott Fear, a Park Police spokesman. Buses will be on standby in case large numbers of protesters are taken into custody, Fear said.
The event is called Christian Peace Witness for Iraq. "These are pastors and lay people, Christian people, who want to express their faith," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, president and founder of Sojourners.
"A majority of Christians around the world were opposed to the war from the beginning," he said.
Among those scheduled to speak at the church service is Celeste Zappala, a Methodist peace activist from Philadelphia whose son, an Army National Guard sergeant, was killed in Iraq in 20o4.
"Since that time, I've been trying to do everything I can to bring an end to it," she said yesterday of the war. "My feeling has always been that people of faith have to live out that faith, and I believe that God calls us to be peacemakers and to try to do the hard work of ending violence."
Among march participants who have volunteered to be arrested is Taylor Branch, a Presbyterian elder and a Baltimore historian of the civil rights era. "This is not new for me," said Branch, who protested during the Vietnam War. "I've gone to other marches. It just seems to me we've been kind of complacent" about the war in Iraq.
Also yesterday, Capitol Police said 10 antiwar demonstrators were arrested at the House Rayburn Office Building on charges of unlawful assembly. Members of the organization Code Pink and other groups staged the protest as part of a variety of activities.
Staff writer Allison Klein contributed to this report.
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Several thousand Christian peace activists plan to march on the White House tonight to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Iraq, organizers said yesterday.
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To Hell and Back: In Search Of the Irish Underworld
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"How we are going to get out?" asked my daughter, the calm 15-year-old.
It was a good question, and timely. The two of us were scuttling on our haunches under a four-foot stone passageway, slowly surrendering to the pull of gravity in a small, uninviting cave paved in mud way out in the fields of County Roscommon, Ireland.
Perhaps a dozen or so feet up a steep incline behind us was a jagged opening offering a pinch of daylight, a place where moments earlier a few wandering cows had witnessed our arrival. Vinyl slip-on overalls and Wellingtons we'd bought at a hardware store up the road gave only small comfort in return for practically no traction in the oozing mud. It was cold, and water dripped from overhead.
"This doesn't look good," she said, pointing a flashlight over the jumble of rock and mud perhaps 30 feet downward to where the cave made a sharp left turn. The passageway in relief looked something like the open mouth of the monster shark in "Jaws."
"We'll take it slow," I offered, hopeful and reasonably sure of surviving as we paused there in the cave alone, father and daughter without a clue on a voyage of discovery in a strange place the locals call Oweynagat -- "Ireland's entrance to Hell."
Of course, we'd had no plans of going to hell when we set out for Ireland.
My daughter surprised us with a newfound interest in family history -- what she called the "inner Murphy" on her mother's side -- and I had a lot of unused frequent-flier miles. She surprised us again with the request that we visit Ireland during a school break.
Without a plan or itinerary, the two of us flew to Dublin, rented a car and by purest chance ended up in Roscommon, a prosperous town of about 5,000 in north-central Ireland. It is in a beautiful lush valley surrounded by hills, not unlike the Shenandoah Valley back home.
We stayed at an Irish schoolteacher's bed-and-breakfast on the town square and lazed about, watching the people passing by. Perhaps annoyed at our indolence, the schoolteacher teased that if my daughter really wanted to know Ireland, she should visit Cruachan Ai (CRU-ah-shan eye) Heritage Centre, up the road in a dot of a place called Tulsk.
"Every schoolgirl in Ireland knows Cruachan Ai," said Eamon Gleeson, with a broad smile and either a merry twinkle or sinister eye-pinch, depending on one's perspective. "Sure, you Americans have the green beer and think you're Irish. Here, history goes back thousands of years, but you have to look for it if you want to see it."
We fell for the teacher's challenge, suckers for the "inner Murphy" thing many American tourists can't seem to avoid once in Ireland. After a few minutes of driving, we made our way to the boxy but pleasant museum built over the River Ogulla, from which locals say St. Patrick blessed the first holy water in Ireland and began his ministry by converting the king's children.
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Behind the 10,000 years of myth and history of Ireland's Cruachan Ai remains the rectangular stone field walls, ancient roads and earthwork monuments.Â
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Divan Intervention
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Sure, there were cathedrals around every corner, interesting museums and hostels full of Australian backpackers keen to get their party on. But for University of Pennsylvania student Jim Goldblum, who spent the autumn of 2005 backpacking around Europe while studying abroad in Spain, something was missing.
"It gets a little monotonous, honestly," he said, referring to hostel life. "You're constantly meeting Australians. Sometimes I felt like I was more in Australia."
So when Goldblum, 22, decided to continue his European travels in 2006, he opted to change his tactic. He swapped bunk-hopping in hostels for CouchSurfing -- just about everywhere.
Goldblum is among a growing legion of independent young travelers turning to the CouchSurfing Project to stretch their budgets and to ensure that their travel experiences go beyond just ticking off the sights. The free Internet service, founded in 2004, connects travelers with hosts around the world offering floor space, a couch or sometimes an entire bedroom, all for the grand sum of nothing.
The average age of a CouchSurfing member is 25, with more than 44 percent of the site's 173,000-plus members falling between the ages of 18 and 24. Most CouchSurfers hail from Europe, home to more than 75,000 members, with North America's nearly 60,000 members making it the second-most-active CouchSurfing continent.
"It just completely changed things," Goldblum said, back home in Philadelphia. One time he had an entire wing to himself in a luxurious seaside apartment in Porto, Portugal. On another occasion, a University of Warsaw student acted as Goldblum's personal tour guide in Poland, taking him along with her everywhere -- from local markets to the underground club scene.
Divans are available in 213 countries, in places as diverse as Jamaica, Singapore and Ghana. One Florida member, "Captn Bob," offers travelers a private aft cabin on his sailboat. There are even a handful of couches on offer in Saudi Arabia (a member in Riyadh appears vaguely royal, pictured atop a stately white horse).
Here's how it works: You create a profile at http://www.couchsurfing.com/, choose your travel destination, then request accommodations by contacting potential hosts through e-mail that's routed through the site. If all goes well, you'll be welcomed to stay for a night or more. There's no obligation to host.
CouchSurfing is the brainchild of Casey Fenton, 28. Before he came up with the idea, Fenton had his fair share of what are commonly referred to as "real jobs," among them working as a computer programmer in New Hampshire and as a legislative aide in Alaska.
Preparing for a last-minute escape to Reykjavik, Iceland, Fenton went about looking for accommodations in a most unusual (some might say illegal) way: He hacked into the University of Iceland's student directory and e-mailed hundreds of female students, indicating a desire to experience the real Iceland with them.
More than 50 people responded, and Fenton proceeded to have the time of his life.
"When I got back from Iceland, I was like, 'Yeah, I get it now,' " Fenton said. "It all started clicking into place, and I started working on [the Web site]." Now, with more than 400 people joining every day, keeping up with CouchSurfing has become a full-time job.
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Find Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland travel information, including web fares, Washington DC tours, beach/ski guide, international and United States destinations. Featuring Mid-Atlantic travel, airport information, traffic/weather updates
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Home Front
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Built on years of reporting experience, Home Front is an online conversation between two longtime Washington Post Home writers and their readers about the best way to feather the nest. From bargain shopping to spot removal, antiques to armchairs, they invite all of you to submit questions and share you own great tips, ideas and, yes, the occasional complaint.
You may also browse an archive of previous Home Front discussions.
Annie Groer: Good morning all...Happy spring...and Happy green pet day.
Also check out the Corcoran's Modernism show. It's a knockout.
Williamsburg, Va: Several people have commented about buying sheets on Overstock.com but the selection is overwhelming. Do you have a specific recommendation for the thread count and finish? Is there really a difference between 600 and 800 thread count sheets? Also, I've seen high thread count sheets at Costco (I think under their private label). Has anybody bought them?
Annie Groer: Dear Sheets - As we often say, it's not just about the thread count. You can get a 300-thread count in a silky sateen finish that feels yummy. You don't even have to stick with cotton. Bamboo twill is really delicious, too.
Fairfax, Va: Good morning--my husband and I are getting our house ready to sell and every Realtor tells us to make the house as generic and neutral as possible. But, really, the houses we are all drawn to are ones with style and personality. I hate having to make my house all white and beige--and unmemorable, if you ask me! Thanks for letting me rant.
Annie Groer: Dear Fairfax - Rant away, but trust your Realtors. I refused to paint the turquoise outside trim on my 1957 rambler when we sold it, and I kept the dining room a deep eggplant color (yummy, but an acquired taste). I think that my instransigence probably cost us $25,000 or more. The new owners painted the turuqoise a yummy taupe and totally changed the look in tradational, Colonial-heavy Chevy Chase.
So pay attention to expert advice, and when you buy a place, paint it as vivid as you want.
Washington DC: Do you have thoughts about companies like Smith and Noble or Next Day Blinds? I'm too intimidated to try to measure my windows and put up my own blinds, so I'm considering calling in one of these companies to measure and install window treatments on my new home. Have you heard good or bad things about these services and/or the quality of the product? Thank you!
Annie Groer: Dear DC - I had good luck with Next Day Blinds. Like you, I was nervous about incorrect measurements, although it's not really rocket science. So I had someone come out an do it for me. Good product, good service. But neither Jura nor I have any Smith + Noble experience, except that we've checked out their catalogue and on-line offerings and they look pretty good. www.smithandnoble.com.
Anyone out there want to weigh in.
Rockville,Md.: Good morning ladies, Jura, your article about the 'green' pet movement is terrific.Thank you for this informative story. Everyone on this chat should read and learn. Jura, does your cat Gus approve of the greening of pet products?
Jura Koncius: Gus has been raised on a diet of Deli Cat crunchies and Fancy Feast Sliced Beef in Gravy. He particularly likes the Gravy. These are not GREEN foods, but at age 13, he has just been declared in perfect health by his vet Dr. Lynn Logan at Friendship Animal Hospital.
I was definitely intrigued by the natural products at Pet Essentials. I may spring for a hemp collar but I'm not going to go for the corn cob kitty litter.
Do any of you out there have any GREEN pet hints to share with us?
Arlington, Va: Is there an unwritten rule that one must have a chair in the bedroom? We took the chair out of our daughter's bedroom because she got "big girl" furniture, and in our bedroom we have a queen size bed, dresser, armoire, TV stand. It seems sufficient for us, but my mom constantly says the both rooms need sitting chairs. We have plenty of space in both rooms for lounge-type chairs, but we don't feel like we need them. What is your take? Thanks.
Annie Groer: Thank your mother and do what you want. If your daughter thinks she'd like seating for herself and friends, that would be the time to deal with the question. When I was a kid, the desk chair in my bedroom became a repository for un-hung-up clothing.
Alexandria, Va: Loved the TV or lack thereof story. It would have been nice to see their rooms. In this age, televisions are often the focal point. And with bigger and flatter tvs, sometimes they're treated as art. Thanks for a really interesting piece.
Annie Groer: Dear Alexandria - Good point. In fact, the TV has become such a focal point that some pricey frame shops now sell custom molding to go around the TV.
Kitchen dilemna - Washington, DC : How do you feel about white cabinets? I'm drawn to them, but don't know about resale b/c so many new apts have maple. I live in a condo (old building) and probably will be in the apt for several more years, maybe longer. I was thinking white cabinets with dark silestone or granite counters, black or stainless appliances.
Annie Groer: Dear KD - Go for it. It's a very clean look.
Hoboken, NJ - Uneven Floors!: I recently moved into fully renovated condo in a hundred year old brick building. In the bedroom, the hardwood floors are new but there is a noticeable slope. I am planning to put a Crate & Barrel open shelf, ladder-style leaning bookshelf in the corner where the slope is more pronounced. Although the instructions call for anchoring it with screws to the wall, any suggestions on how I would deal with the fact that there will be about a half-inch gap between the floor and one end of the bookshelf?
Jura Koncius: I think a handyman could put a little piece on the bottom of the shelving to help it along with the slanty floors.
New Carrollton, Md: I have a 1960's spit level. The Living room, dining room and kitchen all flow into one another. You can come in the front door and walk into the small kitchen. In the dinign room there is a half wall and a back door. My problem is this "What is a good color to blend all the areas?"
Annie Groer: Dear New Carrollton - Depending on your preference, but you can try a pale gray throughout -- Benjamin Moore's classic colors like Morning Dew or Sebring White, the very pale, sagey Silver Crest or even a wispy lavender called Violet Sparkle. In fact, Terri Sapienza is working on a story about how lavender is becoming a hot neutral.
Baltimore, Md: We are redoing our dining room as a library/dining room. Large, square room with only one small north facing window. Fireplace. Dark plush carpeting. My husband want dark red walls and 'tobacco-stained-cafe' walls. Should it be three red or one red? I am doing wallpaper because it is easier to change. Currently, it is bone white.
Annie Groer: Dear Baltimore - In one of those great moments when Jura and I agree, we say make all those walls red, and put the tobacco stain in the furniture. Lucky you to have a f/p in the dining room.
Arlington, Va: I've read about lowering foundation floors, in basements particularly, and am wondering how that works and what kind of costs are involved. I believe I read about it in a story a few weeks ago in the home section and I didn't know that it was even possible.
Annie Groer: Dear Arlington - It is possible, and it's very expensive. Essentially you take out the basement floor, excavate to give yourself an extra six inches, a foot or more. It's complicated and not all homes lend themselves to this drastic step.
Springfield Mo: My home has a 700 square foot add-on room that I affectionately refer to as the mancave. The room is on the main level of the home and has a bar, home theater area, a foosball table and will eventually house a pool table. The room is in an older home and is dominated with lots of woodwork including bead board, crown molding, a wood mantle for a gas log fireplace and the bar. The floor is a neutral ceramic tile. The problem that I have is the paint scheme. Currently it is a moss green and that really tends to darken the room. Since I lack imagination in this arena I need some ideas for something that will freshen and brighten the room without being boring.
Jura Koncius: Wow. We love the idea of a Man Cave. Send digital photos to us please. What about a khaki color - thats manly isn't it?
Something with some OOOMPH to it. What about C2 Trenchcoat or Burlap. Aim for the color of Dockers khaki pants...
Va Contempory Re.S&N blinds: We have celular shades from Smith & Noble throughout the house. They even made a 48" high 108" long one for us. Service was good; shipping cost reasonable; delivery fast. No problem with measuring or installing (chose the inside molding version) but I do have a handy husband! I'd buy from them again.
Jura Koncius: The handy husband is your best asset here. Thanks. And do you share?
Alexandria Va: Hiya ladies..I am one of the people who posted about overstock.com for sheets, and I have bought sheets there multiple times. I check the customer feedback reveiws for the sheets that I have purchased (extemely helpful for tips on comfort, wrinkles, how it fares in the washing machine, etc.) and have found that if I buy a set in the $49 - $59 range, and the customer feedback comments are glowing, I am one happy camper..
Jura Koncius: Happy camper in Alexandria...
Burke, Va: We are also trying to make our house more neutral to sell it (although we can keep the Benjamin Moore Big Country Blue in the kitchen, which is my favorite room). We have in our living room BM's Sherwood Tan and our realtor suggested using a couple shades lighter throughout the rest of the house where we need to go more neutral (stairwells, basement, bedrooms, bathrooms). Two shades lighter is BM's Sea Urchin, what do you think of that color? But with all those rooms to paint, I'd prefer to buy a cheaper brand of paint. Will we run into problems if we try to match the Sea Urchin in a Behr brand?
Annie Groer: Sea Urchin is a nice khaki color, but BM paint is pricey. You can probably get a pretty good, perhaps not perfect match.
Silver Spring, Md: Re: Green pets. I try my best to get "green" products for my cat, but I don't think I'm over the top. I tried the shredded newspaper/corncob/wheat litter and she wouldn't go near it. So, I found a great clay litter that does not have dyes or scents (that's really for the people anyway - I'm sure my kitty doesn't care about rose-scented litter and I certainly don't want her licking that stuff off herself). It's not perfectly green, but she's happy with it and it's very low dust. I also buy natural food for her (you can get it for not too much at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and PetSmart). Once I couldn't make it to those stores to get her some wet food, so I bought one of the national brands at the supermarket. She gobbled it up, but I read the ingredients and it's packed full of sugar and salt - junk food for kitties! I stick with my natural wet and dry and she's perfectly happy. People also always comment on her glossy coat. I don't think it's a big sacrifice since she is our "child" and you don't have to pay high prices to do that little bit.
Jura Koncius: Those are great suggestions. And it is true that we want the best for our pets and are willing to pay for it if we can afford it.
I can't imagine any cat liking corncobs over Glamour Kitty...
Gallery Place, Washington, DC: In my experience, Overstock is a DISASTER if you have to return something. I sent back a pair of damaged earrings after they assured me I would not be charged a restocking fee. Guess what? I was charged a restocking fee, and they wouldn't waive it after repeated phone calls, letters, etc.
I've heard that the sheets are really hit or miss. So I you're the unlucky one who gets horrible, pilly sheets and you need to return them, you'll end up wasting a lot of money.
I have had gotten some very good products from them, but after the return fiasco, I haven't bought anything from them.
Jura Koncius: A non-happy camper...
Alexandria, Va: My thermostat is in my dining room, not the most convenient of places. Do you have any suggestions where to look for something other than the standard round or square thermostat? Those types just don't blend in well in a dining room. I've searched all around (stores and online) and I can only find the white platic "computer control" type ones, or the old fashioned round dail ones. I'm actually looking for more a decorative one. Or just a nice, tasteful cover instead of that silly control panel looking thing. You'd think someone would have thought of this, but I can't find anything. Any ideas? Thanks!
Annie Groer: Dear Thermo -- Someone did think of it. Try www.realwoodgadgets.com. And you are right, thermostats can be uggg-ly.
Washington, DC: I have a question: why does it matter if your sheets wrinkle? It seems to me to a very uphill battle if you're trying to keep your sheets unwrinkled, but I'm curious...
Annie Groer: Dear DC - To some people, wrinkled sheets are not as comfy as ones that lay perfectly flat. Ann Landers once set off a firestorm when she said she believed in ironed sheets.
Washington, DC: A friend has asked me to help set up flower centerpieces for a party she's having this summer. Is there a place I can buy flowers wholesale the day before the event to make the arrangements?
Jura Koncius: The best place to go to a farmers market and buy armloads of fresh flowers and branches and flowering shrubs for very reasonable prices. The Bethesda Farm Women's Market www.farmwomensmarket.com is a great place. Can others suggest great farm markets.
Takoma Park Md: Hi Fairfax,
We bought a house last fall. We felt like the way you sense buyers would feel.
The realtors always advise for the typical because there are more typical shoppers than anyone else, so all else being equal, typical is a safe bet. But when we were home shopping, we found ourselves being totally turned off by house after house that had been "realtored-up." Money had been (from our point of view) wasted at the Home Depot to make all these houses look like all the other houses.
All those typical houses were so unpleasant to us. We wanted a house that felt friendly and welcoming, with its own character.
We ended up buying FSBO from a couple who had very similar preferences and priorities to ours.
So if you are feeling passionate enough to write into the Home Front about this, maybe the buyer Fate has in store for you will be someone like us who is passionate about the same things you are.
Jura Koncius: Wow. This is a great posting. It is true that people spend all this money preparing their houses for sale and sometimes its a total waste. Good ideas here.
Montgomery County, Md: re/ the question about smith and noble window treatments -- I have bought valences and panels from them. Excellent quality. Even my mom was impressed. Hardware is super nice, too.
Jura Koncius: Thanks. Glad mom liked it.
Smith+Noble: We spent a lot of money on when we moved into our brand new house. Smith+Noble products were great--very easy to install. We bought the solar shades, a roller shade, and some cellular shades. The solar shades are awesome. After such a great experience, I went back to order more celluar shades, this time on sale. When I got them, they turned out to be Kathy Ireland brand and not S+N. What a difference in quality and materials! I was very angry that they tried to pass off some other brand as S+N. Why are they selling another brand anyway??? Because of that, I will only buy full-price S+N products.
Annie Groer: Good point, and thanks for weighing in. Companies carry
"celebrity" designers because they think people want to buy them. You might want to tell S + N how you feel about their house-brand quality vs. Kathy's.
Sharing Litter: Can the unscented litter cat parent please share the brand of litter s/he uses? PetSage in Alexandria (off Duke, just before Old Town) has lots of natural foods, treats, and nutritional supplements. There's also a welcoming committee (three cats, one dog) who make shopping a lot of fun.
Jura Koncius: We love the welcoming committee. Please share your thoughts on kitty litter everyone.
Washington, DC: YAY for the no-television story! We just ditched ours and now have a much cozier living space and more time to read. They're really intrusive, when you think about it.
And to the person considering white cabinets/black counters, I had them installed four years ago--and still love the look.
Green Pets: I think it's great that people are starting to think about avoiding poisons, harsh chemicals, etc when it comes to products for their pets, but I find it truly sad that Councilman Jim Graham is bragging that his dogs have never eaten meat. DOGS ARE CARNIVORES for gosh sakes! They are designed/have evolved to be meat-eaters!! They may be able to exist on plant based foods, but they will not thrive on such an unnatural diet!
If people want to make the decision to be vegetarians for themselves, I'm all for it. (I have!) But please, people, don't inflict such a decision on your domesticated carnivores.
Jura Koncius: Thanks for your frank opinions here. Do others share this view?
Arlington, Va: I am having my bathroom re-done right now and I was tyring to go for the all white look - I picked out my white tiles at Home Depot, they are the standard 6 X 6 tiles and when the contractor put them on the walls, they now look grayish/dirty. Have you heard of/seen this before? Is there anything I can do, or am I stuck with grayish tiles? Thank you!
Annie Groer: Dear Arlington, As you have discovered, there are various shades of white. You might try matching the wall paint exactly to the tile, so it's a tiny bit gray and therefore everything looks white. Or perhaps go the other way, paint the walls a slightly darker gray so the tiles pop and look brighter. The darker your accessories, the whiter your tile will look.
Clinton, Md: The Eastern Market has great flowers at very reasonable prices, too!
Annie Groer: Thanks, we love the Eastern Market.
Smith and Noble: I have a handy husband, too, so take this as you will, but he said the roller shade we bought for the kitchen went in very easily. We like it a lot, and the reverse mount is nice--just looks more finished. We got it with a chain to raise and lower, since I pointed out that there was no way 5-foot tall me could lean over the sink and grab the shade if it rolled up too far.
Annie Groer: Dear S/N - Thanks. As someone only slightly taller than you are, I second the chain idea.
Washington DC: Hi! Thank you for these helpful chats. Do you have any inside scoop on when the new Mitchell Gold/Bob Williams store will be opening? Also, do you know if they will have designers on staff that will be able to assist with floor plans, etc.? Many thanks.
Jura Koncius: Hi. I have ELOISE from MGBW on the line. Eloise says the store is scheduled to open in April. They will have a staff of design consultants on hand and they will do in-home visits and help with floor plans. At most of their stores, design consultation fees go towards the purcase of furniture at the store. But details are still being worked out. The address of the store is 1526 14th St. NW. The store will feature a special order event soon after they open, which means you will get a percentage off of the any special order. In-stock items are usually shipped in two weeks. Stay tuned for more news as it gets closer.
Va Contemp - Re. shades & litter: Sharing handy husband? Very carefully with neighbor who watches house when we are away!
Re. "I found a great clay litter that does not have dyes or scents" WHAT'S THE NAME OF THIS STUFF? My silver Maine Coon, Abby, and shiny black "mutt" don't like ANY of the green stuff and litter box fille HAS to please the user -- or "the maid" will be very sorry!!
Jura Koncius: Hmmm. Lots of good info here.
Washington, DC: I'm in the process of renovating my condo and could really use your advice! I just purchased new maple kitchen cabinets in a honey/amber color. I'll also be putting new flooring throughout the unit, including the kitchen. I'm leaning towards a dark chocolate (not too dark) stained wood. Both the floor and cabinets are warm colors. Do you think a dark floor like this would look ok with light cabinets?? I was thinking of slightly darker (with warm browns and tans) countertops to help integrate the two.
Annie Groer: Sounds good. You might want a multi-hue stone that picks up all the shades of brown.
Alexa Hampton: I really enjoyed the brief interview Jura did with Alexa Hampton. I am interested in creating a home with nice furniture and antiques that my young son - who is about the age of her twins - can live in and appareciate. Do you suppose I could coerce one of you into writing such an article to help a mommy out? I'd really like to hear from people who have done this and were successful.
Jura Koncius: Thanks! Alexa is an amazing multi-tasker these days with her twin baby boys. And your idea of an article on how to raise kids to respect nice things is a good one. I'll talk to my editors.
Springfield, Mo: Thank you for the advice on my boyfriend's "mancave". He has said I am in charge of the paint color, but when I speak of going neutral he is politely hesitant.
My feeling is that it is much more classy to put the manly dramatics in the accents and keep the walls more neutral, especially with that much woodwork.
Honey...I promise I didn't pay them to say "khaki".
Jura Koncius: Love the Man Cave decorating angle. You tell your husband you are VERY good at decorating!
Silver Spring, Md: The kitty litter is Dr. Elsey's Ultra Precious (very fitting name, my husband thinks) - I've only found it at PetSmart. The line has a pine one too, but I like the unscented clay - it's medium, clumping, and very low-dust. I think I've tried all the unscented ones (there are suprisingly few), and like this one the best.
Jura Koncius: I will buy some and see if Gus likes it. Thanks.
Re: Dogs as Carnivores: I for one share the other poster's opinion. Actually, it's not really an opinion, but a fact. Dogs (Canine lupis familiaris) are classified by the Smithsonian Institution (-the- governing body on such matters) as carnivores. As are cats, too, btw.
If left to provide food for themselves, our dogs and cats would be hunting down & consuming prey animals, not foraging for wheat or corn or carrots. As the old commercials used to say: "it's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"
Jura Koncius: Whew. I'm so glad that Gus eats only BEEF. And he is healthy.
Washington DC : Hi there,
The office-soon-to-be-nursery is a very large room. Much bigger than one tiny baby needs. Can you think of a nice way to use one room for both functions? I don't think a normal-sized folding screen would be big enough to accomplish what I have in mind.
Jura Koncius: We have consulted with editor Liz for the answer to this. Her baby Charlie's room actually adjoings their home office. Liz says for the past 18 months, they have not set foot in that office.
So, she says it would be IMPOSSIBLE to have a dual purpose nursery/home office. I will quote her on babies, "They are smarter than that." They will never let you work while they are in the room. Try and find a corner of another room to park your computer and files in. Or maybe there is a closet somewhere you can empty out and turn into a tiny office.
Dogs Are Carnivores: Exactly Right! Our old hound dog is definitely a carnivore and I cringe every time I see bones or food made out of vegetables for dogs. What are people thinking? His food is Bil-Jak - if you read the label, the first ingredient is chicken. It was the only food he would even eat for a very long time, although we did convince him to eat a substitute when we moved and couldn't find the Bil-Jak for awhile.
Jura Koncius: My first cat Pumpkin only ate Ocean Whitefish. I wonder if eating only fish was okay? He did die of heart disease...
Bethesda, Md: I live in an old condo, 45 years old, I have the original parquet floors which are beautiful. I have some floor patch ups needed in 2 closets, I was wondering if you may know where I might be able to find these tiles/floors or something similiar? I have heard you refer to "home salvage locations"?
Thanks for all your assistance, love your chat.
Annie Groer: Dear Floors -- Try Community Forklift in Edmonston, Md. 301-985-5180, Governor's Antiques and Architectural Materials in Mechanicsville, Va. 804-746-1030, or Habitat for Humanity Restore in Alexandria, 703-360-6700 or Country Plank in Lisbon, Md. 410-489-2526.
When I renovated my 1941 condo, I actually had to use some of my parquet from closets because they no longer make it. So I carpeted the denuded closets and it looks right good.
Washington, DC: So, I have an odd question about changing the sheets on my bed. I really like to do it on a weekly basis, but my current setup makes it so difficult (I'm single and live alone). I have a queen-size, pillowtop bed that is in a bed that has a headboard and a box, as opposed to the metal bedframes. Trying to lift the corner of the bed so I can get the sheet under there is nearly impossible! Is there some trick I'm not thinking of/don't know about? Seriously, the last time a date brought me home, I thought about asking him in JUST to get him to help change the sheets.
Jura Koncius: Asking a date to change the sheets is a provocative move...
It sounds like a very complicated situation and I can see why you have had it! Does anyone have any ideas? We can't think of anything!!
re: Litter: Try Pestell kitty litter. We prefer the one with baking soda. All natural and clumps like a dream. We've never had an odor problems either, even with two kitties.
Jura Koncius: Clumps like a dream. Wow.
Washington DC: A question regarding putting up window treatments: any suggestions for how I might find a person to hang hardware and window treatments purchased from a store like Restoration Hardware or Crate & Barrel? I'm just not handy and would be willing to pay someone to do it for me, but don't know where to look. Thanks!
Jura Koncius: We called a couple of fabric places in town. They suggest looking in your neighborhood weekly newspaper (like the Northwest Current)or checking the bulletin board at your local fabric store. Designers all seem to have installers that work for them - if you know someone in the design business, ask them for a name.
San Mateo, Calif.: Hello. I live in a one-bedroom condo where the bedroom
has only one small window, facing north. This means it is
quite dark. The walls are currently "Navajo White" (a dingy
off-white, courtesy of the builder). I would like to make
this room brighter and prettier. Should I paint it a bright,
"pure" white, or some pale color that would harmonize
with my blue-and-white bed linens and furniture? (I am
drawn to pale, grayish blues, lavenders, and hyacinth
Also, the architecture is pure '70s -- plaster "cottage
cheese" ceilings, panel closet doors on tracks, rough
plaster walls. I'd love to make my bedroom look more
traditional, perhaps with crown molding and/or a chair
railing, but I worry this would clash with the drab "bones"
Annie Groer: Let's start with color. Love the direction you're thinking of going -- check out Pittsburgh Paint's Violet Shadow, Deja Vu and Violet Sachet. Should you make your bedroom a detailed sanctuary even if it doesn't work with the rest of the bare-bones look? Absolutely. Go for modest molding, a chair railing, fun window treatment.
PS on agents and paint: The "neutral" we ultimately went with was a soft yellow throughout, so it looked sunny and didn't strip the place of all personality. This went over well with the buyer.
Annie Groer: Great. Do you remember the brand and color?
Vienna, Va: I Second, WP writing an article about having adult furnishings in the world of small children. I hate to think that I must have throw away furniture just because I have small ones. Some of my pieces were inherited from relatives who bought sparingly, but of good quality.
Annie Groer: Dear Vienna - One of the first words that my best friend taught her little girls was "fragile." She wasn't a tyrant but made sure early that they understood the concept of breakable. Good parenting, I say.
EEP! CT: Hi Annie and Jura - I just bought a 2 bedroom condo and it is just lovely - EXCEPT...the faucets in the bathroom are a tarnished (not purposefully - from wear) gold. Replacing them would require smashing thru tile and wall. Short of closing the curtain and ignoring the hideous beating of the gold heart, I mean, faucet, is there anything I can do?
Also, one of the small bedrooms is Ralph L's stadium red. What do you think of painting the all white small adjouning bathroom (with no windows) Ralph's Kauai Jungle with either red or spring green accents?
Jura Koncius: We called Donetta George - at where else - The Brass Knob at 2311 18th St. NW. 202 332-3370. She says if your faucets are brass, there is probably still a lacquer on them and it has blotches on it Try using a brass polish like Wenol with a soft cloth. If none of it comes off, it's darkened under the lacquer and you should try cleaning it with acetone. Go down to bare metal and polish it. If these faucets are really new, says Donetta, they sometimes put a urethane coating on them and it's hard to remove. You might have to have a plumber dis-assemble the whole thing. Good luck. Like the paint idea. Fun.
Dupont Circle, Washington, DC: In my effort to be a greener homeowner, this query: Can HVAC unit filters be cleaned and reused? Seems difficult but maybe you know a secret trick.
Annie Groer: Dear Dupont - Can't find a single source who thinks this will work. Am willing to be educated, however.
Takoma Park, Md: I need to give out a shout to another great locally-owned pet store in Takoma Park called "The Big Bad Woof -- Products for the Socially Conscious Pet" They stock a lot of great natural foods and even have a freezer full of raw meat. The owners are wonderful and help out a number of animal welfare organization by hosting pet adoption days at their store. I do try green products when they come out. If they don't work though, I won't keep buying them. I've tried the recycled newspaper litter and the wheat litter. Both did not clump well and the urine odor was overwhelming. I switched back to unscented scoop away.
And, regarding the veggie dog, dogs, like people can live on meat and veggies, all meat, or all veggies. CATS, on the other hand, are true carnivores and can go blind if they are fed a strict vegetarian diet.
Jura Koncius: What horrible news about cats and blindness!!! Thanks for the tip about the Takoma Park store - it sounds wonderful.
Realtors and paint again: When we put our brightly-painted condo on the market we begged out agent to be honest with us about whether we needed to paint, and she kept saying "not yet, save the money, let's see how it goes." Two months on the market, we painted it, it sold in a week to a buyer who said the neutral finishes made all the difference. Agent then said the $40000 loss was our fault for not painting. We won't be using her again. I'm just sayin'...
Arlington, Va: Hello decorating divas,
Help please! I am in the early stages of planning to refinish my Cape Cod basement and need some contemporary ideas for decorating, storage and home entertainment space. I saw the article on the gentlemans basement remodel last week and saved that. Besides Home Depot Expo Center, can you suggest places, websites, books, magazines for me to peruse so I can put some ideas together in a binder. I would give myself a few months before meeting with a contractor, but at that time I would like to have some pictures to show him/her of what we are looking for. I would be greatful for any of your ideas or those of your followers. Thanks Annie and Jura
Annie Groer: Try these two websites for ideas -- www.finishedbasement.com and www.homerenopeople.com. There are some cool things being done underground.
New Haven Conn: My upstairs bathroom is a yucky cream with black and white subway tile, a big white cabinet sink, a huge flat mirror glued to the wall, high ceilings and an abundance of light from two skylights. I'm thinking of trying to tone down the shocking brightness with a nice soothing gray. Do you have one in mind? I'm thinking of accenting it with a black and white toile shower curtain and white towels/bathmats. Ok - or too funky. If it helps, the adjoining bedroom is RL Durango Blue.
Jura Koncius: Gray is a bit of a drab color for the bathroom. What about a very very pale blue? It would be nice with the black and white toile and give the space a slightly watery look. Try Jack Frost from Benjamin Moore - you can even cut it with a bit of white...to make it even paler.
Columbus, Ohio: Love these chats! Any word on when exactly Martha Stewart's new line of paint is going to be available at Lowe's? I've seen early March in several places, but the month is half over with no paint in sight... Thanks!
Jura Koncius: Our sources at Lowes say the paints are already rolling into the stores and should be at all Lowes by the end of May. We are asking them to send us a fandeck ASAP...
Soft yellow paint details: It was S-W's Sole, warm but still quite light to counter that ground-floor cave effect. We already had it in the halls so just took it through the rest of the place, painting over our pretty blues, greens, and gold.
Mt. Rainier, Md: As far as knob hardware goes, are they all pretty much the same size as far as the size of the screw goes? I had a built in dresser made, and of course it did not come with hardware or predrilled for hardware. I haven't even picked hardware yet. But my contractor has installed it, and I'd like to go ahead and have him drill the holes so that when I do get the knobs I only have to put them in. Can I have him match the new knobs I bought for my kitchen cabinets, or is this a nonstandard thing and I need to get the hardware now?
Annie Groer: Dear Knob Quandry - One variable is the thickness of the drawer front, which will dictate how long a screw you need.
If you don't want to, or cannot, match your kitchen knobs, try these very cool websites...www.bauerware.com and www.myknobs.com
TV Article??: Is this article in today's Post?? Do tell
washingtonpost.com: Channel Zero, (March 15, 2007)
Jura Koncius: here it is
Hyattsville, Md: The window in my mother's master bedroom has a radiator box directly below it. The box is too shallow to be able to turn into a padded reading bench, but it comes out far enough to obstruct curtains from falling freely to the floor.
As a non-traditional solution, I want to hang a set of long sheerish panels from a rod on the ceiling. This will double as the window dressing, hiding the radiator box, and I am going to turn the bed against it, so it can be a faux headboard.
My question is about the rod- would this be a regular window fixture rod, just hung upside down, instead of on its side? And do you think that I should limit the width of the fabric to that of the window, or go all the way in the fabric department and do the whole wall (basically creating an accent wall of fabric instead of paint color)? The window does take up most of the wall.
Annie Groer: Go for a whole wall of fabric, but hang the rods just under the ceiling and you won't have to worry about rightside up/upside down. But be very careful about putting the bed too close to the radiator. Leave enough space to avoid the risk of fire.
Annie Groer: Dear All - Great chat. And for those of you who live in the DC area, go outside immediately and enjoy the great weather today. Tomorrow they are predicting snow showers.
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The Perils and Promise of Government Transparency
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2007031519
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Veto Threats Hang Over House FOIA Bills (AP, March 14)
Fung is an associated professor of public policy at Harvard, and is also the author of "Empowered Participation: Reinventing Urban Democracy."
Weil is a professor of economics at Boston University. His other books include "A Stitch in Time: Lean Retailing and the Transformation of Manufacturing."
Denver, Colo.: Are there examples of "excess transparency" -- when the law requires so much reporting that the truth (i.e., the proscribed behavior) can be lost in the avalanche of data?
Archon Fung: Denver, good question. There are certainly many occasions on which there is too much transparency. Some would argue that Megan's Laws, which require convicted sexual offenders to register their addresses, requires too much disclosure.
Harrisburg, Pa.: Is it also a problem that not only that lots of government documents are delayed a while before they are made public, but that when they are made public, it's as a huge amount of documents released all at once that make it difficult to find anything?
David Weil: You have hit on an important issue for transparency: freshness of data. Transparency policies are only effective if they provide information that users find relevant to current decisions. If information is out of date or provided in a way that users find it difficult to use, it won't take long for users to view the policy as ineffective.
An example of this is the policy on drinking water disclosure. The idea is to provide the public with information about the quality of the water they drink. The reality is that the information is often a year old. So by the time that people receive their water quality report, it is telling them about conditions that may no longer exist.
Boston: What are the elements of a successful transparency policy?
Archon Fung: Thanks for your question, Boston.
In the book, we're interested in transparency policies that provide various kinds of information to help consumers, investors, citizens, and people acting in other capacities make better choices in their lives. Perhaps the most common example is nutritional labeling - pick up any package of food, and you will see all kinds of information that may (or may not) help you decide whether you want to eat it. There are many, many other examples of transparency policies.
For a transparency policy to be successful (in protecting public health or getting manufacturers to produce more healthy offerings, in the example above), it must have two main features.
First, it must be politically viable so that the regulation doesn't get hollowed out or undermined over time.
Second, it must provide information that is valuable to people and easily understood by them. Some transparency policies generate a lot of information that people can't get to, can't easily understand, or information that isn't relevant to choices that they actually face.
Melbourne, Australia: I have watched from afar the problems the U.S. has in a case like Iraq and keeping the American public informed. I also have experience from my own intelligence background in the dilemma faced with being forthright with the community. You guys truly are in a no-win situation, but should be comforted by the fact that we look up to you. Do you think too much media is detrimental to getting the job done?
David Weil: Your question gets at the many different applications of the word "transparency" (and why it means different things to different people). The transparency you are raising is about the right to know--what we consider first generation transparency. These are policies like the Freedom of Information Act that provide the public with information about government decision-making. The dilemma here is the tradeoff between democratic governance and the need to keep certain information off limits because of intelligence concerns. We are currently seeing this debate in so many ways in regards to the war on terror and I think a growing view that we have pushed things too much in the direction of secrecy.
A second application of transparency--what we call targeted transparency--is using information disclosure as a tool to achieve public goals. In fact, this type of transparency has mushroomed in use in recent years. For targeted transparency to work, the policy must be focused on users of information and on what they need to know in order to make better, more informed decisions. Everything from corporate financial disclosure to nutritional labeling to reporting on toxic chemical emissions fall into this group.
Princeton, N.J.: But surely even if you think the Bush administration is am aberration, on balance there is not enough transparency in all levels of government. Whether it's the mayor's brother-in-law with the contract for the new library or the governor's girlfriend with the low-interest state loan or the firing of federal prosecutors because they are going after your party, it's better to see it than hide it.
Archon Fung: I generally agree with the sentiment that more information is better than less, but we shouldn't be lulled into thinking that disclosure will be enough to solve many complex public problems.
In political campaigns and elections, for example, there is a large amount of disclosure around contributions, lobbying activities, and now earmarks in bills and laws. But the amount of money in politics has been on the rise for many years, and will continue to increase despite the publicity.
I think that it is important for politicians to disclosure their sources of revenues and activities, but it won't be enough to reduce the influence of money in lawmaking.
Arlington, Va.: It is easy to explain to the public open government issues that affect their daily lives (matters that affect the environment, safety, community issues). Much harder to explain are complicated issues related to historical materials and archival matters, issues that require some context.
Consider for example presidential records, which are much in the news these days, given the recent articles about the proposed Bush Presidential Library and open government legislation. Few people stop to consider the fact that the National Archives, which runs the statutorily-administered Presidential Libraries, does not represent itself in court. Lawyers working for the Department of Justice, in a reporting chain that goes up to the Attorney General, are the ones who speak for the National Archives in all litigation involving Presidential records.
Do you have any suggestions for how newspapers can provide the public context on such complicated issues, so that they have a better framework for understanding stories that pop up in newspapers or on the Web? A Washington Post employee once told a friend of mine who is a records expert, in rejecting his proposed op-ed, that archival issues are "boring." (I hope my saying this doesn't lead to my question being banned from this discussion.) So there are many barriers, some as simple as an otherwise well-meaning editor's gauging of reader interest.
David Weil: Excellent question--and we believe in transparency, so your question won't be banned! I think the issue in part is one of providing that information in a way that people will actually seek it out. The Web is an embarrassment of riches: there is so much information on it, the problem is finding how to parse it effectively.
In our research, we find that the key to effective use of disclosed information is thinking about how users make their choices or decisions. In the case you raise, it is thinking about how people seek information in understanding an issue or public debate. Archives will be drawn on if their is a conduit that a reader can use to quickly get to relevant information, and hone on in the kind of information that will help them think about the debate. That turns out to be a far harder thing to create than we often assume.
One of the most effective policies we have studied is a simple restaurant hygiene grading system used in Los Angeles County. It provides an "A", "B" or "C" grade right on the front window of restaurants. It is a wonderfully simple way to encapsulate complicated health inspection data into a form that a user can quickly use to make a decision. And it works! Food poisoning related to restaurant foods have been significantly reduced through the system.
We need to think about comparable ways to make information simple enough--but not too simple-so that it informs and helps people make decisions. That includes archival information.
Washington, D.C.: My agency routinely closes meetings that otherwise should be open, because under the Sunshine Act they say the discussion will involve internal procedures, budget, personnel issues and foreign policy issues. All of which may be true, but one has to suspect they also discuss other matters that should be done in open session -- yet the entire meeting is closed. Is this a common practice -- throwing in some restricted subjects to provide Sunshine Act cover?
David Weil: Every transparency policy creates incentives to game it. You certainly are citing a good example in regard to Sunshine Laws. Disclosers of information--be it government decision-makers or corporations--have interests to restrict information that they would not voluntarily disclose.
In some cases, the disclosers have been pretty successful at shutting down a transparency policy in this way. Some food manufacturers have done this with the "organic" label by making it very confusing to end users on what it actually means. Or in the area of workplace chemical hazard reporting, the system itself makes the information that is disclosed so complex that end users--workers--have trouble making use of it.
We see many cases, however, where users are well organized (sometimes with the help of organizations like consumer advocacy groups) and able to push for better or more clear disclosure. If there is not that pressure, a policy like the Sunshine act can be gamed in the way you suggest.
Boston: How can political will be influenced to require that information such as ingredients or health hazards of products be made available, when often corporations reserve this information under the guise of "trade secrets"?
Archon Fung: The issue of political will is a critical one. Often, corporations, government agencies, and others who are asked to release information to the public resist doing so. (just look at some of the questions that have come up in this chat regarding recent demands for the federal government to release all sorts of information).
So, expansions of disclosure and transparency often occur in wake of well publicized crises. Remember when SUV rollovers were in the news several years ago? That gave rise to a system of rollover ratings for cars. Expanded disclosure elements of the Sarbanes-Oxley law came in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom debacles.
But crisis is only one factor. Transparency and disclosure policies also need organized political advocates to survive and expand over time. Institutional investors, for example, have sought to maintain corporate disclosure requirements. Environmental groups have lobbied for policies like the Toxics Release Inventory which requires factories to disclose the amounts of pollutants that they emit. Community organizations and other fair lending advocates have sought to sustain and expand the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which requires banks to disclose loan information.
David Weil: Thank you so much for inviting us to participate. We hope we have shed some sunlight on this vital topic.
Archon Fung: I would like to thank the chatters and the Washington Post as well for this opportunity to participate in Sunshine Week!
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Need advice about how to handle your personal finances? Whether the struggle is saving for retirement, organizing your bank files, talking about money responsibility with your spouse or loved one, Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary offers her advice and answers your tough questions.
Read Michelle's latest columns, check out her Color of Money Book Club selection archive or sign up for her weekly e-mail newsletter.
Michelle Singletary: Good afternoon everyone. Hope you are doing well and still saving!
Bowie, Md.: Hi Michelle. Thanks for all of your no-nonsense advice. I am trying to decide if I should rent or buy. I currently rent space in a friend's house but I am ready to move out on my own. I have excellent credit but only a few thousand dollars saved. I am currently working with NACA to purchase a home with no money down, but I'm starting to think it would be smarter to rent for a year or two to save up more money for a down payment. Because rents and mortgages are comparable in this area, is it better to go into homeownership with little money down or to rent for a while in order to save up for a purchase? Thanks!
Michelle Singletary: I always side with saving more. Even if you decide not to put any money down thu the NACA program (which is a great program) as a homeowner you will quickly find that you will need lots of savings -- for furnishings, repairs, etc.
Plus you should definitely have at least three to six months of living expenses saved up (based on the new mortgage) just in case. So stay put and save more.
Orange County, Calif.: Thanks for your article on the disappearance of the check float today. Does this have any effect on how soon bank customers can have access to their money when they deposit checks into their account?
Currently, my husband receives checks in large amounts from an outside scholarship for his professional education program. If he deposits the check into our account, it is 10 business days before he can access the money to pay his program. One day, when he owed money to the program, he drove down the street to the bank that the checkwriter used and cashed the check. He then drove back to our bank with $15,000 in the car.
If money is going to be withdrawn from my account so quickly, why can't I deposit in at the same speed?
Michelle Singletary: Thanks. And you and the dozen other people who have e-mailed me already today are absolutely right. If the financial institutions can snatch out money quickly, they should clear our deposited checks just as fast.
So write to your representatives in Congress. The consumer advocacy groups such as Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of American have been complaining about this since Check 21 passes. But they can't do it without our help. So complain!
Wheaton, Md.: My wife and I enjoy your column.
We want your advice on a good problem to have:
- we have no kids and have about $50,000 parked in a savings account.
- We already max out our contributions to retirement accounts.
- We have no consumer debts.
We own a home and have paid in over 25 percent of the principal, which we are renting to a tenant and more than covering our mortgage. Right now we are renting, because I have accepted an overseas position for a 2 year assignment.
The Big Question: What do you think we should do with our savings? Our options seem to include mutual funds, buying another rental property, paying down the principal on our mortgage, buying CDs or what?
Your $0.02 would be appreciated!
Michelle Singletary: What a great problem to have. Whenever I get asked this question I ask, What do you want out of life?
By that I mean what are your financial priorities?
Right now because I have 3 rugrats mine is paying for their college education. So any extra money I have I stuff into their college funds. We also believe in helping other family members go to college so we've taken extra money and paid for a niece to go to college.
Next I want to be debt free. So extra money goes to paying off my home.
If all the other bases are covered -- retirment funding well, no consumer debt, emergency money -- yours might be getting rid of your home mortgage.
If other the other hand you want to go into business renting property you could use that money for a rental purchase BUT only if that is in your master life plan. Don't do it just for the money.
If I were going overseas I wouldn't want to take on another rental property. So if in your position being debt free is a life goal, pay down the mortgage further.
Thanks for the chats and columns. My wife and I are always asking ourselves WWMD (what would Michelle do?).
My question is this. We are moving in the next month to a bigger house to accomodate the recent arrival of twins. We are considering an interest only mortgage to lower our monthly payment by several hundred dollars. This would serve us in two ways, 1 - the lower monthly payment would be a psychological comfort, and 2 - as a part time realtor, I have irregular commission based income. I qualify for a conventional loan, but the interest only's lower payment would let me take commission checks and make lump payments towards the loans principal. With the conventional loan, I don't think we would be disciplined enough to pay down the loan this way.
I compared the amortization table of the conventional loan against the interest only with lump payments every 3 months, and I would pay less interest over the life of the loan with the interest only paid this way. Am I just rationalizing my decision?
Michelle Singletary: I LOVE that WWMD ... got to show that to my husband :)
Well, me, I would go conventional. Why? Because the best laid plans often go awry. In this market what if those commission checks get smaller and smaller.
You see I like to base my debt payments on the worst case. That way I really know if the debt I'm taking on is affordable.
Interest-only and teaser rates give you a false sense of security. Everyone says they will make extra payments but then stuff comes up -- babies need more than you think, daycare cost more than you think, someone wants to come home to stay with babies, business doesnt' go as you plan.
You even admit you don't think you would be disciplined enough to make the extra payments under a conventional. You either are disciplined or you're not. It's so easy to fool yourself.
So take the safe road in this market.
Bowie, Md.: Have you ever had to sell a house and buy a house at the same time, or heard of a situation? I'm selling soon, and will need to move across town, but will most likely rent before I buy. Reason is that I need the profits from the sale for the downpayment.
If this was a perfect world, one could probably settle on the same day, for both selling and buying a house. But, it's risky.
The sell could not go through, and you could be stuck with losing your deposit on the buy if you can't make the downpayment. Have you ever heard of instances where a buyer shows up at the settlement and comes up X dollars short and the seller sucks up the deficit just to get the rest of the money for their own downpayment on their buy? How can you prevent such a lowball tactic?
Michelle Singletary: Oh my, my my. Please, please read all the news of late about the mortgage mayhem out there. I had a dear, dear friend who was going to do that two house thing. Move and sell at the same time. The problem was she couldn't sell her home. Then the rates went up and she couldn't even afford the new house.
You my friend could quite possibly get stuck in this market paying two mortgages. And if you dont' have the money to do that I wouldn't buy until I sold -- unless you have a very good cash cushion.
Washington, D.C.: Hi, I love your newsletter and chats. I'm 28 and want to change careers. To do so I need to go to grad school. I already have a few acceptance letters. This is my problem, I have saved about $25K over the years. Should I put this money towards grad school, or invest it long term or short term. To me it seems like a waste to spend the money on grad school since I will be in debt any way and I can grow the money through investing. In the long term isn't better to have a cushion in case I have problems finding employment after school. How should I split my money?
Michelle Singletary: You won't be "wasting" $25,000. You will be preventing yourself from taking on massive loans with high interest rates in this market.
When you invest you put your money at risk. You can't afford to do that. You need that money. Debt is not good even when it's used to pay for a higher education.
And yes, before you go you should have a cushion on top of the money you saved to pay for your education.
My wife and I have finally taken the credit cards out of our wallets and are paying them off as fast as we can. We are both federal employees and put the max into our Thrift Savings Plans. Would it be better to temporarily reduce how much we put into our TSP in order to pay off our credit cards faster? I owe about 4K and my wife owes about 4.5K. Thanx!!!!
Michelle Singletary: If you think you can pay down the debt without interupting your retirement savings I wouldn't pull back.
However, if that debt is at high interest rates and you need the money because you've cut expenses to the bone then yes cut back on retirement savings (not enough to give up any match you get) and pay down your debt.
Washington, D.C.: Hi Michelle, I love your columns and chats. I've learned a lot. My only debt is the mortgage on my condo. In order to pay it off sooner, any extra check I get (reimbursements, mail in rebates, etc.) goes directly to pay off the mortgage principal. I've recently started doing rhia and I have set a goal of extra money I should put towards the principal per year (aside from the monthly payments). I want to pay it off as soon as I can and part of the reason is reading your column and chats! Thank you!
Michelle Singletary: You are welcome. And when you can shout "I'm debt free" give me holler!
I want to rejoice with you.
Arlington, Va.: Michelle, I know your anti-debt stance is well-known, but there are some people who still prefer to have a credit card to keep their credit score up or just because it's easier. (I for one don't like to carry too much cash and I only write checks for my mortgage.) So I got myself an American Express card, one that has to be paid off every month. It's a good reminder to not spend beyond my means while preserving my credit rating. What's your take on cards that don't let you carry a balance?
Michelle Singletary: It's hard to tell tone in these things but you say "anti-debt" like its a cuss word.
Credit is evil. We can't win at their game.
But I will give you that it's convenient and that's why so many of us use it (including me).
However, I think it doesn't matter what plastic you have the goal should be to pay the bill off every month. If you can't, you are in trouble.
Halo vs. Horns: The issue isn't good and bad debt. It's whether you want to be in a position to have to pay for something.
Why is it OK to have a mortgage? Because you have to have housing. It's OK to have a student loan, because you have to have an education. It's OK to have a car loan because either:
1. you have to have a car; OR
2. you can escape the debt by getting rid of the car
There are two point embedded here:
A. You only want to put yourself into must-paying for things you must-have (housing, medical care, insurance, food)
B. You don't have to pay for something IF you can get rid of the debt and item simutaneously (a second car)
What you never want to do is be in debt that you can't escape for something you don't need. Most things on your credit card fall into this category. So do things like health club memberships that are not month-to-month cancellable. (Careful on this one; they call it "monthly dues" but you're often committed for a couple of years.)
Citation: "All Your Worth" by the Warren-Tyagi team that wrote "The Two Income Trap"
Michelle Singletary: It's not OK to have a mortgage.
It's not OK to have a car loan.
It's not Ok to borrow to go to school.
We have been bambozzled. Debt makes you a slave to the lender. Watch what happens if you lose your job, get sick or disabled.
That mortage, car loan, student loan, credit card loan doesn not look OK then.
The only way to be OK is not be a slave to the lenders.
But most of us mere mortals can't buy a house outright. So we have to borrow.
But we don't have to borrow to own a car or go to school. We choose to do that because we can't wait to save for it. We can't take the bus (and yes, yes I know many of you couldn't get to your jobs without a car). We won't advise our kids to go to community college or stay local.
What I'm trying to do with my "anti-debt" message is to get people to stop and think about the debt we take on.
There is no good debt. The only good debt is no debt.
To the aspiring homebuyer: Michelle is absolutely right. You'll need at LEAST 6 months' living expenses saved -- you'll probably spend one month's worth on new curtains, furnishings, etc. Think about what the WORST thing is that could happen -- you need a new roof, new washer/dryer, etc. -- and make sure you have enough to cover it.
Love your chat and your show on TVOne! I have two questions for you. First, if you can only do one at a time, which is preferable -- use your extra income to build your emergency savings or pay off your debt? (Currently I have about 1 month's worth of expenses saved; however, I have five-digit consumer debt that won't be going anywhere anytime soon.)
Also, in career planning, how do you make a decision about following the money vs. following your passion? (I am especially interested in your opinion on this as you studied journalism in college -- would Big Mama have preferred you do study something more "practical" like accounting or business administration?)
Michelle Singletary: Why thank you very much. And you forget my segments on NPR's "Day to Day" show which you can hear online at www.npr.org and now they are putting them on podcast. Just imagine you can hear me preach about debt as you catch a plane, workout, eat :)
Ok, so the trick with paying off debt is that you have to save something otherwise when life happens -- car breaks down, kid got to take a school trip-- you end up using your credit card.
But with one month saved up I would aggressively tackle the debt with the extra money. If you can still keep savign something even if it's just $5 or $10.
And if you are in massive debt you might not be able to afford your "passion." Get out of debt than pursue your dreams unless the job is causing major mental or health problems.
And child my grandmother is jumping up in heaven cuz journalism been good to me financially.
I love your chats and try to follow your philosophy regarding debt. Here is my question. Between us, my fiance and I are getting back nice sum of money on our tax returns. We want to spend about $5,300 dollars to get married, but I am even having heartburn about doing that. It will small and nice and I think, very reasonable, (the $5,000 includes photography, reception, everything). Please tell me it's ok to use some our in tax returns for this wedding, all I keep thinking about is a 3 month savings. After the wedding, we have enough to put about 1 month away, but without the wedding, we could put away 2, almost 3. What is your advice, is it ok to spend for this special occassion?
Michelle Singletary: Now those of you who know me don't scream...but go have your wedding.
If you can spend $5,000 without incurring any debt and that includes the reception and photography go on to the chapel.
Having one-month is a good start to your marriage.
My prayers and best wishes on your nuptials
Columbia, Md.: I will miss the chat, but wanted to know how to get stuff off my credit report. I must have about 10 - 15 student loan companies because of their buy-sell efforts. My loans have been paid off for 13 months now (in 8 years, too). Some of the loan information is from when I first got them 12 years ago.
The same goes for credit cards that I don't use or have cancelled.
With all that said, my average score with all three was 805 and I "qualified" to purchase a home worh $350,000 (not that I would as that would leave me broke), so I have nothing to be ashamed off.
Some of the comments on the form was "too many" accounts, however. I only use one credit card and that's to get the 5% back (Discover), and I pay it off every month. I owe nothing else.
Michelle Singletary: To my knowledge there is no requirement that the bureaus have to remove positive information. Now if those loans had been paid late they yes you have some recourse. Negative information is required to be removed after 7 years.
But with scores above 800 go outside and play. Visit friends. Volunteer. Just stop worrying about this cuz you are credit golden.
Bowie, Md.: I have a credit score of 688, and I make $40,000. I pay myself first each paycheck. $10.00 is all I can afford. I pay my bills on time all the time. I am struggling to pay down credit card debt, personal loans, and student loans. Also a tax bill from the IRS. I am able to pay all my bills but have hardly any money left over. Any advice on things I could do to elimate debt?
Michelle Singletary: Well you have two options. Cut expenses. Increase your income.
If you are living alone, get a roommate. Cut out everything you can possibly cut. If you done all that, then you may need a second job at least temporarily to aggressively pay off the debt.
Philadelphia, Pa.: Hello lovely Michelle,
I bought a house last year and I hold down expenses by having two tenants who rent rooms from me. What level of liability insurance should I have? My insurance agent said $300K was enough with $5K in medical coverage for anyone injured on my property. I worry that it's not enough, but how much is enough? My house is worth about $150K and my salary is about $50K. Thanks!! I love your columns and chats.
Michelle Singletary:5k for medical coverage seems low. Go back to your agent and really discuss your living situation. I'm not sure but can't tell if you have an "umbrella" policy. For not much a year you can get $1 million coverage.
And if you aren't happy with your agent or he or she wont' really help you analyze this get another agent.
History Lesson: My father said credit cards did not exist until after the 1960s!!! He remembered the D.C. Shopping Plate (Garfinkels, Hechts, Woodies, and Kahn's) but they had to be paid off at the end of the month. Sears credit cards were used on appliances, primarily.
I remember when most stores had a 90 day layaway policy for clothes. This was about 16 years ago. On payday, you paid on your layaway. Then when it was paid off you got your clothes. Parents put winter coats and clothes on layaway in July and Christmas gifts too.
Not too long ago, debt was not king.
Michelle Singletary: It should have never been elevated to King.
And I remember lay-way too. That's how my grandmother, Big Mama, paid for our clothes.
Ah, the good old days!
Washington, D.C.: Hello Michelle --
Liked your Sunday piece on credit card hardball; what a cautionary tale. Just wanted to let you know the card issuers give you a hard time when you are trying to get out the door, too. On Sunday afternoon I called to cancel a credit card I rarely use. A series of customer service reps offered me airline miles, lengthening my billing cycle, etc. They did not want to take no for an answer. I can see why it is so hard for many folks to get out of the trap.
Thanks for all your great work.
washingtonpost.com: How They Rig The Credit Card Game
Michelle Singletary: You are welcome.
That's how slavery works. Who would want to get rid of people willing to pay interest on stuff they've long forget they bought.
Waldorf , Md.: I am a 21 year old year girl. I want to try and maintain good credit. I have constant worries about my credit. I want to try to establish good credit so the future will not be hard for me. What are somt steps that I can take to achieve this goal. Is it better to not have any high balance bills? What is a good credit score to maintain?
Michelle Singletary: It's better not to have a balance at ALL. The best way to have good credit is to pay your bills on time. If you are doing that you are well on your way to establishing a good credit history.
And if you can achieve credit scores (you have three from each credit bureau) of 700 or more, you are in good shape.
Arlington, Va.: For the person with a lot of extra money laying around, I am in the same boat. About $80K just sitting in the bank, no debts other than a mortgage that was taken out several years ago. My home is worth about 3x what I owe. I have a pretty good nestegg growing in my federal TSP, will have a FERS pension when I retire, and am socking away quite a bit of extra money every month. This is certainly a great problem to have. I was at a total loss though since I know nothing about investing. I made an appointment with a financial planner. I am paying him $650/year and that includes planning services and quarterly meetings to make sure that everything is going according to plan and make adjustments as necessary. I think it is money very well spent. Depending on how long you have until retirement (I have 20 year or so) and what you risk tolerance is your planner will make recommendations. Mine has me investing in 4 different mutual funds to cover large cap stocks, small/mid caps, and internationals. Of course since I just got started now with the market falling it is a little sad to see some money go away, but hopefully over the long term it will bounce back.
So, what I am trying to say is, if you don't know what to do hire a planner who works on a fee basis. I am very glad I did, and wish I had done it sooner.
And pay off that mortgage.
Orlando, FL: My 27-year old son will be graduating with his Masters in Counselling on May 11th and has asked me to help him choose between
https://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/appentry/appindex.html or www.cfsstudentloan.com to consolidate his student loans. Also, he plans to continue on for his doctorate.
I'm a single mother and we plan to evaluate these two options this weekend and would really appreciate your assistance and guidance in any possible way that you can offer. Thank you.
Michelle Singletary: A great site to visit is www.finaid.org
The thing with consolidation is you want to look at the perks -- do they give your son an interest rate break for on-time payments, etc. The bottom-lines rates are competitive so you should look at what they offer borrowers.
And perhaps you might advise your son to work a bit to pay down his debt before taking on more debt for his doctorate. Just a thought.
DC: Hi Michelle, do you know anything about borrowing against stocks to get loans for grad school? I'm just starting the process of figuring out how to finance a two-year masters program and am completely confused. Thanks for your help!
Michelle Singletary: How about selling the stocks to raise cash to avoid debt debt (obviously considering the tax implications)?
Arlington, Va.: Have you seen the film, 'Maxed Out' yet? If so is it worth seeing? Buying the book?
washingtonpost.com: Read this month's Color of Money Book Club column about this book and film: A Horror Movie For Our Times (March 4)
Michelle Singletary: Seen it. Read the book. Recommended both in a recent column.
Hamilton Square, N.J.: Thank you for your column. I find it very interesting, especially your anti-debt campaign. In principal, I agree with you.
Here is my situation: I have about $6000 in credit card debt. I have been using 0% interest offer credit cards for years. I transfer from one to the other, never getting one that is less than 1 year. The one I have now is for 18 months. I always pay more than the minimum. I have never paid any interest on my balance. My credit score is 790. I rent an apartment and paid cash for my car. I can afford to pay off the balance if another offer doesn't come my way before this one ends. (I usually have many more than I need.)
Please tell me where my logic is faulty.
Thanks again for your advice.
Michelle Singletary: I just have no idea why you would want to hang onto $6000 in credit card debt.
You seem proud that you are playing the game. And perhaps for right now it appears you are winning.
But life happens often and you could get tossed out of this game quickly and with some messy results.
Anonymous:"If he deposits the check into our account, it is 10 business days before he can access the money to pay his program."
If you think this might be wrong, talk to your financial insitution. The applicable rule of law is "Regulation CC" which governs how long a financial institution can hold your funds before making them available.
The above link is to a brochure by the Federal REserve RE: Reg CC.
You do have to keep in mind the definitions of things like of "local check" vs. "non-local check" - it has to do with the location of the financial institution on which the funds are drawn, not the location of the person writing the check.
Note - little things can affect the applicability -if you deposit into a savings account, that isn't covered int he same way. Always deposit into a checking account.
Michelle Singletary: Thanks. Passing this along.
New York, N.Y.: Michelle, Michelle! I finally paid off my credit card debt TODAY! It was $14,000 at one point (don't yell at me), so I'm proud. Now the question is what to do with my "surplus." I was paying off $1,000 a month, so I'd like to keep "paying" that $1,000 into something while I still have the discipline.
I have a 401(k), but I wonder about other ongoing savings plans. Should I do an IRA? Money market? A new $1,000 CD every month? I won't need immediate access to the money since I have technically "lived without it" -- it would be $1,000 of newfound cash each month.
Michelle Singletary: Ok EVERYONE ON THIS CHAT whereever you are let's shout out
AMEN! If you're at work just whisper it!
Bravo or Brava to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As I told someone else..the what now depends on your financial goals. If you don't have an emergency fund use the money for that. If you are funding your retirement at a good pace then pay off your car or pay down your morgtage.
But the thing is now you have choices!
Washington, D.C.: I just got a largish expense reimbursement check from work that is going to pay off my two lowest balance credit cards (I'm doing a snowball by balance - it's within a few dollars of doing it by interest rate and makes me feel more accomplishment).
That makes three that I have paid off since I started in December. I have more to go than I want to admit (bad choices, bad choices), but the path is becoming clearer.
Thanks for your advice. I don't always agree with you, but you still inspire me to do better with my finances.
washingtonpost.com: Make Wise Use of Windfalls (By Michelle Singletary, March 8)
Michelle Singletary: Why thank you. And you don't have to "always agree" as long as you recognize I'm almost always right :)
Washington, DC: Michelle, I really value your advice for saving, but am at a total crossroads.
I just got into grad school - planning on going part-time. I'm expecting to receive a good portion (about half of tuition) in fellowships. Yet I don't know what to do about the other half.
I thought about working for the school, but my annual salary is far more than what I'd be making there. I'm saving quite a bit - almost enough to pay off that other half.
But, I'm wary of putting all my savings into school. I've got my three months cushion, car is paid off, 10% of my salary is contributed to my 401k, and no other debt except for 10,000 from undergrad stafford loans, which I feel is managable. I just feel like I should be saving for an eventual home, etc.
I'm 23 if it matters.
Michelle Singletary: Child take that money and pay off those loans. You've got all the other bases covered so make this a home run.
Your savings grace is not having debt.
Washington, D.C.: I'm an undergrad student at the George Washington University. I currently hold an unpaid internship at Smith Barney Citigroup, and have not been working to subsidize my college expenses. I've been considering taking out a Fannie Mae student loan for about $10,000 in order to get by the rest of the academic year and possibly be able to get situated in NYC for a summer internship before starting to make money with that. I don't have the exact name of the loan or how much the interest rate is, but I'm wondering if this is a good idea or not? It seems like my only option at this point in time. Thoughts? Is there a better alternative? Thanks. -- Rob
Michelle Singletary: Get a paying job on the side.
Don't go the debt route.
Washington, DC: how do you feel about gifts to charity? I was able to dedicate a room to my parents at a local hospital where they live in FL.
Michelle Singletary: What a wonderful thing you did.
My husband and I tithe.
I believe charitable giving should be a great part of your budget.
Washington, D.C.: I have been unemployed since December, and am sick about hitting my savings. I'm wondering if my time is better spent looking for something full time, or getting a part-time gig that doesn't pay much to stop the hemmoraging. Thanks.
Michelle Singletary: Don't feel sick. That's why you saved. But perhaps you should get some kind of work while you look for the best employment so you don't completely run out of money
Michelle Singletary: Well folks that's it. So sorry if I didn't get to your question. But keep an eye out in my print column and e-leter, which I hope you subcribe to. I'll try to answer some in those forums.
Hope you have a wonderful day.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Join live discussions from the Washington Post. Feature topics include national, world and DC area news, politics, elections, campaigns, government policy, tech regulation, travel, entertainment, cars, and real estate.
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Terps Rally to Round 1 Victory
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BUFFALO, March 15 -- Maryland Coach Gary Williams spent Wednesday night watching memorable NCAA tournament upsets on a classic sports network. His team spent Thursday ensuring the Terrapins' first-round game this year would never appear on the channel.
Maryland, back in the tournament for the first time since 2004, avoided becoming the first high seed to be eliminated from the field by rallying from an eight-point second-half deficit to beat 13th-seeded Davidson, 82-70. The fourth-seeded Terrapins (25-8) advanced to play fifth-seeded Butler in Saturday's second round of the Midwest Region at HSBC Arena.
"You definitely feel pressure today," Williams said. "If you don't win today, it doesn't matter what you did during the season. People would want to know what's wrong."
Williams was not pleased when Maryland drew Davidson because he knew the Wildcats could have been seeded higher and featured more athleticism than many observers realized. Davidson had won 25 of its past 26 games because of an offense predicated on three-point shooting and a defense defined by rebounding.
But Maryland dominated the rebounding battle, 54-35, largely because of contributions from back-court players and held the Wildcats to 3-of-17 three-point shooting in the second half. Maryland's first NCAA tournament victory in three years left players exuberant yet relieved.
The entertaining, up-tempo game also left much of the crowd delivering a standing ovation for Davidson's Stephen Curry, the sensational freshman guard who was thought to be too small to play in the ACC. After fouling out in the closing seconds, Curry heard the salute but couldn't help thinking about what he could have done better.
The slender son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry scored 30 points, prompting Williams to tell him afterward that he could play anywhere. Maryland's best defender, D.J. Strawberry, covered Curry with mixed results most of the game and echoed that sentiment. But he added, "I'd still rather have Mike Jones."
Jones continued his hot play over the past month with a team-high 17 points. Davidson attempted 37 three-point shots, but a three-pointer by Jones with 2 minutes 11 seconds remaining proved the most critical.
Freshman point guard Greivis Vasquez penetrated on a set play and had the option to flip a pass to either side. Vasquez decided to go to his right, where he found Jones for a 20-foot shot. Jones converted for Maryland's final field goal of the game and a seven-point Terrapins advantage.
The Terrapins may not have been in position to win had it not been for the all-around play of reserve forward Bambale Osby during Maryland's rally from the eight-point hole.
During a six-minute stretch, Osby scored nine points, grabbed a rebound, blocked a shot, deflected a pass and collected an assist. He did everything but mimic his coach's foot stomping on the sideline.
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Maryland rallies from an eight-point second-half deficit Thursday to capture its first NACA tournament victory in three years.
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The Private Equity Boom
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Modern capitalism is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, it's dominated by massive enterprises that tend to become high-cost bureaucracies. On the other hand, these giant firms are increasingly policed by activist shareholders -- including private equity firms -- that focus single-mindedly on profits. To its champions, private equity forces companies to cut costs and improve efficiency, and profits are deserved. To critics, profits flow mainly from loading companies up with debt, and private equity is a sophisticated swindle that often cheats ordinary shareholders.
Let's start with the basics. Private equity refers to the practice of groups of investors -- private equity firms -- buying up all the publicly traded stock of target companies. These companies are then said to "go private." Usually, this is done with much borrowed money, explaining why the same deals in the 1980s were known as "leveraged buyouts" (the leverage referring to borrowing), or LBOs. By whatever name, the buyouts are booming again. In 2006, private equity firms bought 654 U.S. companies for a record $375 billion, says Thomson Financial. That was 18 times the level in 2003.
Nine of the 10 largest buyouts have occurred in the past year. The list includes some familiar corporate names: HCA, the hospital chain; and Univision, the Spanish-language TV network. The pace may pick up, because money has poured into private equity funds, managed by companies such as Blackstone, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and the Carlyle Group. Investors in private equity funds include wealthy individuals, insurance companies, college endowments and pension funds. The present boom stems from ample cheap credit and the prospect of big payoffs. Over the past 20 years, buyout firms have averaged annual returns of 13.2 percent, says Thomson. By contrast, the stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 index have averaged only 9.7 percent.
But how are these superior returns achieved? Are companies permanently improved -- a process that would ultimately lead to higher living standards? Or are gains short term, reflecting the magic of debt? The Carlyle Group provides some hypothetical and simplified cases that highlight the differences. In each example, the company "taken private" has $10 million in annual profits and is bought for 10 times that, or $100 million. The private equity firm puts up $30 million and borrows $70 million.
In case one, profits don't increase. Five years later, they're still $10 million annually. But the profits have been used to repay $30 million in debt. (Lower taxes help, because interest payments are tax-deductible.) The company is then resold for the same $100 million. But the private equity firm has doubled its original investment of $30 million. It uses $40 million to repay the remaining loan and is left with $60 million.
Next, suppose that profits increase to $15 million after five years. The private equity firm is an exacting owner. It eliminates the corporate jet, fires middle managers, shuts losing operations and invests in new products. The company is still sold for 10 times profits, but now that's $150 million. After repaying the $70 million loan, the private equity firm has $80 million -- almost triple its initial investment.
Private equity's social utility depends on whether better management overshadows the debt effect. Opinion is split. "On balance, private equity increases efficiency," says economist Steven Kaplan of the University of Chicago. "It certainly did in the 1980s." Then, LBOs helped break up unwieldy conglomerates. But today's skeptics are not just anti-business types. In a report called "The Great Wealth Transfer," strategist Henry McVey of Morgan Stanley argues that private equity firms mainly exploit corporate managers' aversion to debt. Companies that have too little debt, he writes, become buyout targets. Ordinary shareholders lose, because buyout prices are too low.
Capitalism has always had two faces: an exercise in personal greed and a collective effort in raising living standards. Private equity mirrors the confusion. The managers of private equity firms take lavish fees for themselves (typically 20 percent of profits and 1.5 to 2 percent of assets under management). These limit the returns to other investors. Meanwhile, the buyout boom so dwarfs anything in the past that its collective benefits are unclear. A few adverse events (higher interest rates, a deep recession) could sabotage many deals. If today's buyout bonanza becomes tomorrow's subprime mortgage bust, Wall Street's newest royalty may be dethroned.
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Pictured recently on the cover of Fortune, Steve Schwarzman is "the new king of Wall Street," says the magazine. Schwarzman heads the Blackstone Group, a big "private equity" firm. In capitalism's toolbox, private equity is the latest socket wrench. It's made many people rich. In 2006, Forbes put Schwarzman at 73 on its list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, with a fortune of $3.5 billion. The question is whether private equity is good for the country....
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Why This Primary Push?
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-- attributed to Albert Einstein
That is, however, a very good reason. And a reason that the emerging nature of the 2008 process for picking presidential nominees is regrettable.
With scant thought given to the national interest, particular states pursuing what they fancy is in their interest are propelling the nation into a delegate selection process so compressed that it will resemble a national primary. These states may exacerbate what they consider a problem -- the importance of early voting in small states.
It is, of course, a commandment graven on the heart of humanity by the finger of the Almighty that Iowa's caucuses shall come first and then New Hampshire shall have its say. Or at least it was so graven until Democrats decided that the Almighty's purposes would be better served by inserting between Iowa (population 3 million) and New Hampshire (population 1.3 million) some caucuses in Clark County, Nevada.
Technically, the caucuses are in all of Nevada (population 2.5 million), but outside of Clark County -- basically, Las Vegas -- where about 70 percent of Nevadans live, the state is mostly federally owned land (91 percent) and sheep and other quadrupeds. Were Nevada to try to have a primary before New Hampshire, that irritable state might move its primary up to May.
Anyway, until recently, nine states had primaries scheduled for Feb. 5. But soon perhaps 20 states, including California (population 36.5 million), will. If that many states do, this will increase the importance of Iowa, Clark County and New Hampshire.
Every campaign is shaped by two scarcities -- the candidate's time and money. No candidate will have enough of either to campaign intensely, in person or even on television, in perhaps 24 states across the continent in the 22 days from Iowa (Jan. 14) to Feb. 5. As political analyst Charlie Cook says, this will raise the stakes -- the free media attention and the momentum it imparts -- that will accrue to the winner or winners of the first four states (South Carolina Democrats and Republicans vote on Jan. 29 and Feb. 2, respectively). Indeed, if one person wins three or all four of those, the Feb. 5 primaries might be mere ratifying echoes rather than deciding events.
And if, say, California's Republican primary on Feb. 5 is not too late to matter, it will be too early to allow candidates to do the sophisticatedly targeted campaigning that the state party's rules require. Here is why:
Three delegates to the national convention will be awarded on a winner-take-all basis to the candidate who gets the most votes, even if only a plurality, in each of California's 53 congressional districts. That means three delegates will go to the candidate who gets the most Republican votes (independents probably will be excluded) in, say, the 49th District in a heavily Republican portion of San Diego County. And three will go to the winner who gets the most Republican votes in Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district -- where there may be only three Republicans, probably bused in to achieve "diversity."
A somewhat protracted delegate selection process minimizes the chance that voters will suffer buyers' remorse. This is because a protracted process tests truly presidential attributes -- physical stamina and the abilities to think strategically, to be tactically nimble, to select good staff members and use their advice and criticism, and to respond to surprises and setbacks.
The parties could create less helter-skelter processes. One proposed plan would divide the nation into four regions voting at monthly intervals, with the order of voting rotated every four years. Another plan, which would not provoke the Almighty, would preserve Iowa and New Hampshire's solitary grandeur as places where the least well-known and well-funded candidates find the lowest barriers to entry into contention. Then voting would occur over 10 two-week intervals, with the largest states coming last, or in some randomized or rotating clusters.
The mistakenly deplored fact that campaigning in the 2008 cycle has begun so early gives voters a sort of protracted process, particularly if voters mean what they say when they tell pollsters (73 percent in a Wall Street Journal-NBC poll) that they are paying close attention to the campaigning.
But people learn most when the debate intensifies and the process begins to winnow the field of candidates. Unfortunately, in 2008 all the winnowing might happen at once. If so, perhaps by 2012 the parties can concoct a better system. We live and, sometimes, learn.
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"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once."
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Panel Authorizes Subpoenas for Justice Dept. Officials
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The Senate Judiciary Committee today authorized the use of subpoenas to compel the testimony of five Justice Department officials as part of an investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, but the panel put off a vote on subpoenas for top White House aides, including senior political adviser Karl Rove.
Meeting in an executive session, the 19-member committee voted to authorize the issuing of 11 subpoenas -- five for Justice Department officials involved in the firings and six for U.S. attorneys who were dismissed last year in the controversial purge. The subpoena authority gives the panel a fall-back position in case any of the current and former officials refuse to testify voluntarily or Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales reconsiders his pledge to let his subordinates appear before the committee.
Some Democratic lawmakers and at least one Republican senator have called on Gonzales to resign over the firings, which critics have charged were politically motivated and carried out in a deceitful manner that involved false claims of poor performance and misleading statements to Congress.
The committee empowered its Democratic chairman, in consultation with its top Republican, to issue subpoenas for D. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales's former chief of staff; Michael J. Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty; Monica Goodling, the Justice Department's White House liaison; William W. Mercer, a nominee to become associate attorney general; and Michael A. Battle, who directed the office overseeing the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys and carried out the firings.
Sampson resigned Monday after acknowledging that he did not tell key Justice officials about the extent of his communications with the White House about the dismissals, leading the officials to provide incomplete information to Congress.
The committee also authorized subpoenas for six of the eight fired U.S. attorneys: Carol S. Lam of San Diego, Bud Cummins of Little Rock, Paul K. Charlton of Phoenix, John McKay of Seattle, Daniel G. Bogden of Las Vegas and David C. Iglesias of Albuquerque. All six testified under oath last week before the House Judiciary Committee. The other two fired U.S. attorneys, who were not included in today's subpoena authorization, are Margaret Chiara of Grand Rapids, Mich., and Kevin V. Ryan of San Francisco.
The Judiciary Committee stopped short of authorizing subpoenas for top White House officials when Republicans expressed reservations. The committee decided instead to postpone a vote on those subpoenas for a week. The panel is interested in questioning former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers and deputy White House counsel William K. Kelley, as well as Rove, who holds the title of deputy chief of staff to President Bush.
Cummins was fired to make way for the appointment of a former Rove aide as U.S. attorney in Little Rock.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said today he wants to obtain the "cooperation and all relevant information" from those whose testimony the committee is seeking.
"If I do not get the cooperation, I will subpoena," Leahy warned. "We will have testimony under oath before this committee. We'll have the chance for both Republicans and Democrats to ask questions, and we'll find out what happened."
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the top Republican on the committee, cautioned against acting too hastily in issuing subpoenas.
"I agree that this committee should get to the bottom of this issue," he said, adding, "I would hope that we would do so with at least a modicum of objectivity."
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The Senate Judiciary Committee today authorized the use of subpoenas to compel the testimony of five Justice Department officials as part of an investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, but the panel put off a vote on subpoenas for top White House aides, including senior political...
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The Reno Precedent
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THE LATEST they-do-it-too excuse for the undeniably botched and increasingly suspicious firings of U.S. attorneys involves the 1993 episode in which President Clinton's new attorney general, Janet Reno, unceremoniously dismissed the first Bush administration's holdover U.S. attorneys. By comparison with the Reno massacre, we are told, the Bush administration's canning of eight U.S. attorneys was positively restrained; if you suspect political motives in the current controversy, so the argument goes, consider that when he was ousted by Reno, the U.S. attorney in the District, Jay Stephens, was just weeks away from deciding whether to indict House Ways and Means Chairman Daniel Rostenkowski (D-Ill.). Inconveniently for these conspiracy theorists, Mr. Rostenkowski was in fact indicted and convicted -- and, yes, he ultimately was pardoned by President Clinton.
The Reno precedent is a red herring, not a useful comparison. The summary way she announced the move was, indeed, unusual if not unprecedented. But a turnover in the top prosecutorial jobs with a new administration taking power -- especially one of a different party -- was not. As we wrote at the time, "These are political appointees who owed their jobs to the last administration and have expected to be replaced ever since last November's election. It would likely have happened earlier had the Clinton administration not made such an adventure out of the appointment of an attorney general." And so President George W. Bush, properly and unsurprisingly, replaced all but a few U.S. attorneys during his first year in office. Indeed, while it would undoubtedly have been disruptive and unwise, it would not have been illegal or unethical for the president to follow the suggestion of his then-White House counsel, Harriet E. Miers, to replace all the prosecutors again in his second term.
The question, then, is what to make of the president's move to fire several of the prosecutors. This recent group firing, in the midst of a presidential term, is unprecedented; Mr. Bush was simply incorrect yesterday when he described it as "a customary practice by presidents." But unprecedented doesn't equal wrong: U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, and he is entitled to have in place prosecutors committed to his law enforcement priorities. (The potential for misusing the newly bestowed interim appointment authority to evade Senate confirmation is a separate, and troubling, concern.)
Internal administration e-mails released Tuesday offer some indications of those sorts of policy-related issues, from references to "woodshedding" the U.S. attorney in San Diego, Carol C. Lam, over immigration cases to complaints about whether Paul K. Charlton in Arizona and Daniel G. Bogden in Nevada were balking at obscenity prosecutions. But there are also ample grounds for suspicion about improper motives, including the involvement of White House political aides and telephone calls from lawmakers to prosecutors about politically sensitive cases. The dishonest conduct of the Justice Department has only served to deepen suspicions, to underscore the importance of figuring out exactly what transpired here and to distinguish this situation from the Reno precedent.
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THE LATEST they-do-it-too excuse for the undeniably botched and increasingly suspicious firings of U.S. attorneys involves the 1993 episode in which President Clinton's new attorney general, Janet Reno, unceremoniously dismissed the first Bush administration's holdover U.S. attorneys. By comparison with the Reno massacre, we are told, the Bush administration's canning of eight U.S. attorneys was positively restrained; if you suspect political motives in the current controversy, so the argument goes, consider that when he was ousted by Reno, the U.S. attorney in the District, Jay Stephens, was just weeks away from deciding whether to indict House Ways and Means Chairman Daniel Rostenkowski (D-Ill.). Inconveniently for these conspiracy theorists, Mr. Rostenkowski was in fact indicted and convicted -- and, yes, he ultimately was pardoned by President Clinton....
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Where the Wolf Comes Knocking
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The big question is: How bad will it get?
So far, the rising mortgage defaults that panicked markets this week have been concentrated in areas of the country already reeling from layoffs in the automobile industry and in hurricane-stricken states on the Gulf Coast.
In Mississippi and Louisiana, about 1 in 10 homeowners are failing to make their payments, fresh data show. Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, the nation's industrial heartland and the states suffering the country's highest unemployment, aren't far behind.
Yet the repayment of mortgages is holding up well on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in other parts of the country, including those that saw huge run-ups in property values in recent years.
Not only that, but there is scant evidence -- so far -- that the mortgage problems are causing wider economic damage. But the big worry, on Wall Street and on Main Street, is that the trouble will spread, worsening the downturn in the housing market and possibly tipping the economy into a painful recession.
"The question now is whether the pathology of the housing market is going to infect the rest of the economy," said Edward E. Leamer, director of the Anderson Forecast at the University of California at Los Angeles. "We're optimistic about the economy . . . [but] it's going to feel like a depression in the housing sector."
A few economic Cassandras have been warning for more than a year that the mortgage market was ripe for trouble that could take down the whole economy. They've not yet been proven right, but in recent weeks they have been looking a lot smarter.
"The tragedy of the current situation is that it was entirely predictable," said John H. Vogel Jr., a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, who wrote in 2005 about the dangers of mortgage-loan excesses. "What's surprising is how fast this is unraveling," he said. "Mortgage brokers pushed exotic mortgage products that allowed people to buy houses that only made sense if prices kept rising. Now that houses have stopped appreciating, people are going to lose their homes and their savings."
A major sign that broader trouble could be brewing emerged Tuesday after a national survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed a soaring number of homeowners failing to make their mortgage payments in the last three months of 2006. The group also reported that foreclosures on all homes leaped to the highest level in nearly four decades.
That news sent every major stock-market index plummeting as soon as it was released Tuesday.
A deeper look at the survey reveals a tale of two Americas.
In many parts of the country, including the Washington region, housing prices skyrocketed beyond income growth over the past few years. Millions of people, wanting to get a piece of the action, got risky types of mortgages to finance a home-buying splurge that was beyond their means.
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The big question is: How bad will it get? So far, the rising mortgage defaults that panicked markets this week have been concentrated in areas of the country already reeling from layoffs in the automobile industry and in hurricane-stricken states on the Gulf Coast. In Mississippi and Louisiana, about 1 in 10 homeowners are failing to make their payments, fresh data show. Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, the nation's industrial heartland and the states suffering the country's highest unemployment, aren't far behind. ...
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Celebritology Live
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When stars shave their heads, couch-jump, commit a fashion faux pas and commit random acts of tomfoolery, washingtonpost.com Celebritology blogger Liz Kelly shares the buzz, offers perspective and provides crucial links to juicy alternate news sources and, of course, takes your reaction in her daily blog.
Now join Liz each Thursday at 2 p.m. ET to gab about the latest celebrity pairings (and splittings), rising stars (and falling ones), "Lost," and get the scoop on the latest gossip making waves across the Web.
Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.
Before she started blogging about celebrities, Liz ran washingtonpost.com's Live Online section, where she enjoyed talking to really interesting people -- including some Post reporters -- on the phone. She still produces both Carolyn Hax's advice discussion and Gene Weingarten's Chatological Humor*, which is currently on hiatus.
Liz Kelly: While we've been taking long lunches to enjoy the unseasonably warm temps, a fine gossip week has been quietly unfolding. Britney Spears has a rehab romance going, Lindsay Lohan may have run over a photographer, Tori Spelling gave birth to a family-approved baby and Oprah's spiffy new South African girls school has taken some heat for being a little too strict. Not to mention the fact that, if we feel so inclined, there is a now a place where we can satiate our craving to bet on whether or not Heather Mills's leg will fly off during one of her "Dancing With the Stars" performances. As Martha Stewart would say, these are all good things. Yesterday, we had a really interesting exchange in the blog about Angelina Jolie's adoption of a three-year-old Vietnamese boy. At the end of the day, looks like the consensus was good on Angie for doing what she can to help a kid, but I'm open to continuing the discussion on this one. As mentioned above, "Dancing With the Stars" kicks off (hehe) next week and I plan to tune in for at least Monday night's premiere. If only to get a long delayed dose of Ian (that's eye-an) Ziering, who was one of my favorite parts of "90210." His nickname back then (at least among my "90210" drinking buddies) was "Hasselhoff" and his male pattern baldness, semi-mullet and misogynistic tendencies added a much-needed counterbalance to the cool factor of Dylan and Brandon. Back to "Dancing With the Stars," though -- how sad is it that Vincent Pastore bowed out because the dancing turned out to be too much exercise for him. What a [insert name of his "Sopranos" character here]. Howard Kurtz reported yesterday on TMZ.com's plans to stake a claim to inside-the-beltway gossip. Although the misdeeds of lobbyists and aspiring Jessica Cutler's aren't really my thing, what do you think -- is there room for another tabloidy D.C.-centric news product? I had planned on listening to my guilty pleasures playlist while chatting today (many thanks to everyone who contributed such outrageous cheese because, without you, how else would I have blown so much money on embarrassing iTunes purchases?), but I can't seem to get the Detroit Cobras and Amy Winehouse out of my system right now. And because there seems to be a critical mass of comments about last night's "Lost," we'll save the last 20 minutes (instead of the usual 15) for a discussion of the show. Let's do this...
Arlington, Va.: The news of Angelina Jolie's latest adoption got me to thinking. It's great that every adoption she makes puts a spotlight on the plight of so many children around the world who need a decent life, especially as she can have biological children. But wouldn't it be fantastic if she would set up a fund with some of her spare millions that would allow ordinary people do the same by defraying the enormous cost of overseas adoptions? Especially for infertile couples who may have already spend quite a bit on fertility treatments?
Liz Kelly: Yep, it sure would. And this is where being a Celebritologist enters tough territory. Sure, Angelina Jolie's got lots of money -- like many other stars -- and she could do lots of philanthropic things with her money. I can think of at least 10 worthy charities where the money would be crucial and used to make differences in the lives of many people right now. But, then, it's her money and like the rest of us who work for a living, she is ultimately the only one who can decide how to use it and I would argue that she's used both her money and her celebrity better than most of her peers. Compare, f'rinstance, her establishment of humanitarian efforts in the countries from which she's adopted compared to, oh, say Madonna's endowment of a Kabbalah center in Malawi (the country from which she's adopting little David Banda). Still, I think you're on the right track in hoping Angie will perhaps turn her attention to helping reform the adoption process. As I'm just finding out, it is a confusing maze of increasingly ridiculous hoops through which adoptive parents are asked to jump. (Not that the hoops are all bad -- both U.S. officials and foreign countries need to ensure that adoptive parents are stable, loving and have good intentions.) Still, the process probably isn't so easy to regularize considering that you're dealing with a diverse array of countries around the globe. We can't even coordinate the various branches of our own government, so imagine trying to wrangle several.
Mike Meyers: Can we cast the other parts?
Lessee, if Myers is Keith Moon, how about:
Daniel Craig as Roger Daltrey
Rupert Everett as Pete Townsend
Edward Norton as John Entwhistle
Liz Kelly: Ya know, I think Daniel Craig would make a fabulous Roger Daltrey. That is, if Mark Wahlberg is already attached to another project. Rupert Everett, eh? V. funny. One omission, though. I think Ricky Gervais needs to be involved in all projects we cast from this point forward. Maybe he could play some random hanger on?
Liz Kelly: Oh, this is in re to the fact that Mike Myers -- who has a shagadelic Brit accent, baby -- has apparently signed on to play Keith Moon in a Who biopic.
U Street NW, Washington, D.C.: Liz -- Posh Beckham is such a hot robot! Now that she's a U.S. resident, she should take up a pet cause and testify before Congress. That's the only way we'll get her to come to D.C. She'll bring bipartisan support with her robotic hotness!
Liz Kelly: You're on your own with the robotic hotness quotient. She looks like nothing so much as a rat in human form to me. As for pet causes, first she has to make a little bank from her reality show. Speaking of which, word on the street this week was that Tom Cruise has told Katie Holmes she may not appear on the reality show.
Rockville, Md.: What's your take on this whole Britney Spears' rehab romance buzz?
Liz Kelly: If it's true, I guess it fits into her M.O. right now, which is self-destructive/craving attention. There's a reason many recovery programs warn against becoming involved in a new relationship in the first six months to year of recovery.
Liz Kelly: Cuz, you know, Posh and Katie are bestest friends.
Fairfax, Va.: All this talk about Angelina and adopting a fourth kid, what about Brad? What do you think he has to say about this, if anything?
Liz Kelly: Ya, Brad has been conspicuously absent while this adoption has been unfolding. Maybe because Vietnam doesn't allow unmarried couples to adopt?
Pittsburgh, Pa.: As an adoptive mother myself, I applaud Ms. Jolie's desire to provide a loving home for a child who would otherwise not have one. However, I hope when she adopts again (and she has assured us she will), that she consider adopting a child from here in the U.S. There are so many children in foster care here who need good adoptive homes, particularly African American children. Maybe she should consider that when she thinks about a sibling for Zahara. Adoptive parents think nothing of spending thousands of dollars and flying halfway around the world to adopt a child, while ignoring the children available for adoption in their own state.
My rant for the day.
Liz Kelly: As some parents in the process I've talked to have pointed out, it is increasingly difficult to adopt domestically and we all have to go to sleep with our own consciences each night and I would guess that someone who adopts a child -- whether in or out of country -- sleeps pretty well.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: "but I can't seem to get the Detroit Cobras and Amy Winehouse out of my system right now"
Amy Winehouse -- I'm with you on that -- just LOVE her new album -- I listen to it every day at work. What a voice. Now if she could just stop drinking long enough to put on a coherent tour in the U.S.
Liz Kelly: I know. She's the very definition of a tortured artist.
Silver Spring, Md.: Say it ain't so. Comedian Sinbad dead! Died of a heart attack today.
Liz Kelly: I think not... all I was able to find was word of an Internet hoax declaring him dead.
Washington, D.C.: This is probably unfair, but does anyone else get the sense that Angelina is turning into a baby-hoarder? Like those old ladies you hear about on the news with 800 cats.
Liz Kelly: Well, she hasn't reached the Mia Farrow level of collecting yet and, aside from a skeevy ex-husband, she did alright raising her brood.
Oprah's School: I don't get it ... why can't these kids talk to/visit with their parents whenever they want to? I went to a strict boarding school for high school as well. We weren't allowed cell phones, but were able to purchase phone cards to talk to our family and friends. We could talk as much as we wanted, as long as it was during the designated hour (10-11 p.m.). We could also visit with our parents during any weekend with approval. I understand Oprah says it's about keeping the kids "safe", but how is limited their time with parents healthy at all?
Liz Kelly: Oprah's people claim the rules on visitation are standard for South African boarding schools. Anyone out there have more intel?
Just wondering: Do you and Mr. Liz have any children? I'm guessing not -- otherwise we'd be devoting more ink to such topics as which of the Wiggles is the hottest.
The answer, by the way, is Murray, who is kind of the Paul of the group. Jeff is Ringo. I haven't decided who is John and who is George. Perhaps I need to get out of the house more.
Liz Kelly: Nope, no kids at this point, though I do have a super-precocious seven-year-old niece who has already graduated from the Wiggles to "That's So Raven" and the very barfy "Suite Life with Zack and Cody." Mr. Liz and I do have a dog and a cat. And a group of goldfish in an outdoor pond that we call the Wu-Tang clan. And our ODB is still alive. But thank you for the insight.
Arlington, Va.: Ugh, with the whole Angelina thing. Good on her. She's actually helping kids. She's not running over paparazzi with her best friend's mother's uncle's BMW, she's not snorting coke in the back of some sleezy L.A. restaurant and she's not a member of some crazy cult, oops, I mean religion where she's not allowed to make noise during childbirth or appear on her robot friend's reality show. Angelina seems okay by my standards.
Liz Kelly: That's the same conclusion I arrived at a few days ago after thinking this through. Seriously, Angelina's not one of my favorite actors (Gia was a'ight, but she really doesn't have the best resume in the biz if you stop and look at it) and I think she tends to come off as cold and condescending in public (witness her steely refusal to even address Ryan Seacrest at the Golden Globes). Still, I can't argue with her parenting. She seems to have taken naturally to being a mom and despite the scandal surrounding the initial coupling up with Brad Pitt, the two seem to be a good match. At least it looks that way from my perch here in Virginia.
Alexandria, Va.: Sorry to be cranky, but if we're reduced to talking about the Wiggles, can we just move straight to the "Lost" discussion now?
Liz Kelly: We're not talking about the Wiggles. I deflected.
Washington, D.C.: Any thoughts on the site Television Without Pity being taken over by the folks who own Bravo TV? Seems like it'll take all the fun out of the snide commentary if a network is sponsoring the site ...
Liz Kelly: Remains to be seen. I'd imagine they are promising to leave the site intact and keep the same folks running it while Bravo can just beef up the back end and use all that space to advertise their shows. But the proof will be in the pudding. Will it be snide pudding or vanilla pudding? And remember, if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding. I should be hit upside the head for this answer.
I am sure this has been said before: but I'd like to see Angie adopt some older kids. and why is it so hard to adopt domestically?
Liz Kelly: She is adopting an older kid -- the child she just adopted in Vietnam is almost four.
Washington, D.C>: I've been going around in circles trying to find last week's chat. Each time I chase down a link, it takes me back to the Live Online home page. Can you provide a working link? Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: Celebritology Live (washingtonpost.com, March 8)
Liz Kelly: Thanks Mr. Fisch.
Frederick, Md.: I know that in the world of celebrities, Weingarten doesn't carry the import of the latest adoptions and meltdowns. But in "post.com world," Gene pretty much tops the list. Could you please give us an update on exactly when Gene plans on resuming his chat? It's mid-March and he said April. I'd like to set up my Weingarten countdown clock. Also, will you be back in the producer's chair?
Liz Kelly: I'm reliably informed that himself will return to regular chatting mid- to late-April, tho he will be doing an April 9th chat on a Post Mag cover which he describes as "super secret."
Washington, D.C.: You have koi fish? How do you keep them from being eaten by the neighborhood cats?
Liz Kelly: Technically, they are goldfish. Koi need a pond much deeper than what we've got. But the biggest one is about eight inches long and really fat. We also have a bullfrog who is the bizzomb.
Washington, D.C.; : How long can Becks and Posh stay together? They've already outlived pretty much everyone's expectations.
I get the feeling they're so dim they don't even know their supposed to have affairs.
He could do much better.
Liz Kelly: Well, honey, I'm sure they could both do much better, but they could also do worse. After all, he's an aging soccer star with a penchant for wearing cheesy clothes and she's a former Spice Girl, which is about on par with being Tiffany or Debbi Gibson. In fact, I'd argue that their status as a couple keeps them both much more interesting than either one would currently be alone. I mean, Scary Spice is even pregnant with (possibly) Eddie Murphy's baby and we don't really care. And what other English soccer stars do Minnesotans know by name?
Angelina Jolie's money: She does do a lot of worthy things with it -- she's given millions to the U.N. High Commission on Refugees.
I realize that people all have opinions on this, but good Lord, what does she have to do, give a pound of flesh? Geez -- it's her money and it's her life.
Liz Kelly: I hear ya.
Washington, D.C.: I feel great shame in the fact that I not only know all of the words to the Thong Song, I can storyboard the video as well. I place the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of a coworker who has an alias in our iTunes share folder. I guess he/she feels great shame as well.
Liz Kelly: See, we're all about sharing here. Thank you brother/sister for sharing. We absolve you.
Lohandia: What's the story about Lovely Lohan running over a photographer. Are we supposed to feel bad for the guy? I don't.
Liz Kelly: I had a link to the video of the alleged incident in the blog this morning. Looks to me kind of like the photog jumped in front of the car then proceeded to act like he'd been hit. A non-event, I'd say. The interesting part is that La Lohan, freshly out of rehab, was out partying at 3 a.m. and -- according to some reports -- seemed to have a little bit of a buzz going.
Washington, D.C.: Maybe I'm way off here but I think TMZ will go into overload with all of the stuff that goes down in D.C. Hollywood's got it's nuts but I think D.C. hands down has more than enough behind the scenes mess.
By the way I saw a video of that paparazzi that got hit by LiLo. My 2-year-old cousin can take a better fall. He should really study Chevy Chase before trying it out.
Liz Kelly: See, I'm not the only one that thought the pap fall was a faker. Interesting re: TMZ. I'm curious to see if there really is an appetite for 24/7 coverage of non-beautiful people.
Angie again: I was thinking kids older than 6.
Liz Kelly: I hear you, but 3 and 4 is actually considered an older child in the adoption community. Correct me if I'm wrong, but kids over the age of two have an exponentially harder time getting adopted.
Weingarten: C'mon everybody, get a life. We all love his chat but as Steven Stills famously said, "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"
Liz Kelly: Speaking of Steven Stills, did anyone else catch Monday's Rock Hall of Fame induction ceremony? It was broadcast live for the first (and hopefully last) time. Stills looked, well... he's seen better days. I was only able to watch a few minutes of the whole thing because Paul Shaeffer, who forces me to instantly change the channel, was part of the constantly on-stage band.
Spice Girls -- For What Its Worth: I read on the Anglophenia blog that the Spice Girls are going on tour again soon ...
Liz Kelly: Ooooh. I"m so there.
Washington, D.C.: I know you are getting lots of comments like this, but Angie is actually doing some serious human rights work around the world that often goes unnoticed by the tabs. Also, as a couple, they at least appear to be doing more for NOLA than the entire U.S. government. Just because they still have expensive clothes and big houses does not mean they are not also giving lots of money to meaningful causes.
Liz Kelly: Just putting this out there.
New York, N.Y.: Am I going to have to be the one to say it? Fine. Hasn't it occurred to anyone that these adoptions by rich celebs are a lot easier on their figure and looks than giving birth?
These are the same people who shoot poison into their skin to kill the wrinkles.
Liz Kelly: Well, that'd be an interesting theory if Angie hadn't just given birth to a baby.
Bethesda, Md.: Sorry, but Weingarten doesn't belong at the top of the Post chat list. I'd put Liz, Desson, Dana P, Carolyn, Amy/Roxanne, Lisa, Michael, the Travel guys, Adrian, and Josh Freedom way above him.
Liz Kelly: I love Adrian Higgins. Seize any opportunity you can to chat with him or listen to him on the radio, in post.com videos, etc. Gush over.
Ricky Gervais: I'd see him as maybe Elton John.
Liz Kelly: But would Elton be a part of the Who story?
McLean, Va.: Re the Beckhams, I thought he DID get caught stepping out her. There were all sorts of tabloid stories several years ago, but things seem to have quieted down.
Liz Kelly: Ya, a couple years back a former assistant claimed to have had a four-month affair with Becks. He denied it.
Gene's Super-Secret article: Do you know what Gene's mystery topic is? Is it about, say, fighting global terrorism, or is it about fighting VPL? Does it really need to be a secret, or is Gene in his usual delusional state?
The "Usual Delusionals" would be a good name for a rock band.
Liz Kelly: Erring on the cautious side, I would assume he's delusional, as per usual. I miss him, though. My life is far too even-keeled without him around.
Top Post chat directors: and I forgot Warren.
New York City: Hey Liz, do you know any people out in L.A.? I do. Not to condone this, but EVERYONE drinks and drives out there. It's appalling, but it's a way of life.
The only shocking thing is that people like Mel Gibson and Lohan drive when they can afford drivers or cabs. If I were rich I'd never drive a car.
Liz Kelly: I do know people in L.A. and I don't know that I'd agree with this characterization.
Elton and The Who: Pinball Wizard!
Liz Kelly: Oh my god. I am an idiot. I knew that. I am going to turn in my classic rock club membership card now. I have seen that movie about a zillion times... the first time in Naples, Italy as a child. I was flipping channels and it was the only thing on TV at 2 p.m. that wasn't porn and was in English.
Mike Myers: He just doesn't fit Keith Moon, in my mind. There is a physical resemblance, but Moon had violent, self-destructive vibe that Myers doesn't project. I love Keith Moon, by the way.
Carry the bloody baggage out!
Liz Kelly: I love Keith Moon, too. But then self-destruction is such an attractive thing in a guy. I think Myers can pull it off. Anyone seen the trailers for this new Adam Sandler movie? Two observations: He looks like he's doing a fine job of transitioning into a serious role and, I'm sorry, but he looks like Bob Dylan.
Liz Kelly: Ack! It's "Lost" time. Here we go... Spoilers Ahead. Beware.
Rock On: Stills doesn't look that bad considering that Crosby looks more and more like Captain Kangaroo each day.
David Crosby Picture (Rolling Stone)
Arlington, Va.: On "LOST" ...
Thank the lord Jake and Claire never hooked up! That would have been uber scandalous!
15th and L, Washington, D.C.: How did we know (before) that Jack and Claire were related? When the "big reveal" happened, I felt like I already knew this, but couldn't think back as to when I found out ... I don't know if it was from reading speculation/discussion on the Internet or if it was mentioned on the show itself.
Liz Kelly: We had a pretty big clue that they were related last season when Jack's dad turned up drunk at some random suburban home in Australia and demanded to see some blond waif who seemed to be lurking just inside the door.
Washington, D.C.: Why do you think Locke is so secretive about his former paralysis? If I had been in a wheelchair and didn't need it anymore I'd be doing jumping jacks and yelling about it to the world! I guess we'll find out next week!
Liz Kelly: I don't know that he's been secretive particularly about his time in a wheelchair as much as he's just a secretive guy over all. Even in Locke's flashbacks we can see the struggle he has to share his feelings and issues with his father with his love interest (whose name escapes me but is played by Katey Sagal). At the beginning of the show, yes, he may have been secretive. But he was one of the first Losties to know there was something supernatural going on on the island and I might've held my piece, too, not wanting to make a target of myself for being the freak who got on the plane in a wheelchair and suddenly didn't need it. By the way, can someone please send out an APB for Rose and Barnard?
Arlington, Va.: They had porn when you were a child?
Liz Kelly: In Italy they sure did.
K Street: Calling Posh Spice a "hot robot" is right on! Or maybe a Hot Android? She's definitely not human, Liz.
Liz Kelly: True. But is she hot? Wait a minute -- is she one of those chicks that looks hideous to other women, but attractive to men? Quick, let me know. We can do this and discuss Lost.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but kids over the age of two have an exponentially harder time getting adopted: ANY kid beyond infancy is very difficult to place.
Jacob, Jacob, Jacob:: Jacob is an important Bibical figure, but one of the interesting "Lost"-related factoids is that he has a son named Benjamin.
Liz Kelly: Oooh, curiouser and curiouser. My fellow "Lost" analyzer Jen will love this factoid. Thanks.
Bethesda, Md.: I think you were being unnecessarily harsh on what was a pretty well-written episode. I think that Javier Grillo-Marxuach was the writer that gave the show the human vitality it had in the first two seasons -- I think you're lamenting his lack of involvement, but this episode did include:
1. Many answers, such as the Claire Sister question, the List question, the question of how much the Others know about the Losties, the Otherville location and security.
2. More mysteries such as Locke's behavior, Claire's aunt's behavior, Dr. Christian's position in this whole mystery, and furthering of the Desmond storyline, and if one of Jack's tattoos was from Thailand, did Claire maybe do the other one?
3. Lots of outdoor beach action and the idea that the birds could help them.
4. The amazing Matthew Fox football scene at the end of the episode that was very smoothly written to surprise us. His facial reactions were pricelessly confusing and everyone who saw it is going to want to tune in next week.
5. Claire's Breakfast Club-like transition from goth to happy blonde. How perfectly John Hughes.
I don't know what you're looking for if the last three episodes disappointed. Jorge Garcia is back and dudier than ever. The show is far away from the convoluted mess of the first four episodes of this season. Give them some credit.
Liz Kelly: This just goes to show that we each of us get something different out of the shows. I look for answers to pre-existing questions (and I don't mean gimmes like Claire being Jack's sister) and you look for "lots of outdoor beach action." To each her own.
Washington, D.C.: I have followed "LOST" from the beginning, but only recently started reading about it online for all the smaller things I miss. I feel kind of dumb because everyone seemed to already know Claire and Jack were related ... something which completely slipped by me. Can you tell me what hints were given about this before last night's episode?
Liz Kelly: Dude, there is no reason at all to feel dumb about not knowing every single detail about all the characters on the show. You are what is known as a normal, healthy person who probably does neat things like go outside the house, read books and hold conversations with people about varied topics including art and politics. Whereas I am a freak who freeze-frames "Lost" to see what Sawyer's reading, spends way too much time reading fan blogs and -- and this is the most embarassing to admit -- take notes while watching each week. That said, if you want to catch up on some of the subtler details, you can read more about this year's fall and spring season here in the blog archive and maybe bone up on each character at the Lostpedia.
Kensington, Md.: I met Angelina Jolie at a UNHCR reception. She is the real deal -- she is really that beautiful in person, really that nice, and really that compassionate. What she has done for that agency has helped hundreds of thousands of lives of women and children.
Liz Kelly: Thanks for sharing this, Kensington. It can't be easy to live one's life in the public eye and she's managed to do it pretty well so far, despite a few PR setbacks here and there.
Just to point out something you probably already know: Ewan Mcgregor (obviously one of my faves) and his wife adopted a little girl from Mongolia. Neither she nor their other two daughters are allowed to be photographed or ever appear on television. He is also a UNICEF ambassador. Maybe they see and hear more about them in the U.K., but the family seems good at keeping a low profile.
Liz Kelly: Thanks for sharing, Trinidad. I didn't realize this, but will definitely find out more. Not that I needed another reason to like Ewan McGregor, but this'll do nicely.
New York, N.Y.: Just a little correction -- Mia Farrow was never married to Woody Allen, but she was married to Frank Sinatra.
Thanks Liz, love the chats!
Liz Kelly: True, thanks for the correction.
Washington, D.C.: I looooooved that episode, I think it had the character development we've all been looking for ... the plot development, and how great was the ending!? My heart just melted and it took me back to the old days of "Lost"! Well done! Hope next week is as good!
Liz Kelly: Yet another fan of last night's episode. Maybe my TV showed a different version?
Alexandria, Va.: I've never thought Victoria Beckham was particularly good-looking. Now that she's so skeletal, she absolutely does look every bit as ratlike as you said.
And another thing, Posh she ain't. But I guess Common Spice doesn't have the same ring to it.
(Two cents from a woman. We'll have to see what the men think.)
Washington, D.C.: That's DEBORAH Gibson to you, Ms. Liz. And I understand she appears in Broadway shows these days, thus the updated moniker. (Snicker.)
Liz Kelly: Ya, I've heard she's all growed up now and a serious artist.
Sleeping at night: Someone adopts internationally, they're questioned about not adopting domestically. People who adopt then probably hear from someone else saying "but what about the environment, don't we need to save the planet for future generations?" Someone else will say the most important issue is child abuse. Someone else that the arts deserve the money. Others actively campaign for animals. The bottom line, people, is that there are more needs than there are people willing to address them. We each need to do what resonates personally with us. That's how you sleep at night.
Liz Kelly: Very nicely said, thank you for sharing. We all have to do what we can and hope it's enough. It never is, but we're none of us superhuman.
Liz Kelly: Well, except for Tom Cruise, who is superthetan.
Washington, D.C.: Am I the only one so over the whole Britney Spears thing? There are only so many times you can feel sorry for a person and only so many excuses that can be used.
On a side note: Who is this Gene person people keeping going on about? And none of the Wiggles are attractive. I'm hoping none of the kids in my life get hooked on them. I had a hard time stomaching Barney.
Liz Kelly: Gene has nothing to do with either Britney or the Wiggles, so maybe you'll like him.
Lost Q: How come Sawyer isn't along on this expedition to rescue Jack? I thought he, Kate and Jack were a team. Was he left at the beach camp to liven things up?
Liz Kelly: Well, remember he and Kate had a falling out about whether or not to go back and rescue Jack. Kate promised Jack they would forget about him. Sawyer wanted to honor that. Kate, being Kate, did not. So she set off with Sayid, Locke and Danielle.
Posh: Nasty to chicks, hot to dumb men. Definitely.
Liz Kelly: And to which category do you belong?
Washington, D.C.: Hey, a little more respect for Bob Keeshan aka Captain Kangaroo. He had a full head of hair up until death. Remember those bangs? Crosby hadn't had bangs since he was 12.
Liz Kelly: Captain Kangaroo scared me. As did Mr. Greenjeans. 70s-era PBS programming was an enigma.
16 and V, D.C.: Did you see Garrison Keillor's homophobic salon.com article? What is going on THERE?
He was one of my favorite storytellers but not anymore.
(I know he's like a d-list celebrity but still it was pretty shocking.)
washingtonpost.com: Stating the obvious (salon.com, March 14)
Liz Kelly: I did hear about that. I don't quite think he's reached Peter Pace territory, but I think it was Us Weekly who said Keillor's contact with gay life is apparently limited to a DVD of the "Birdcage." Hoo, that's funny.
Paula/Simon: Just finished reading the Post's article about Paula and Simon's playful relationship.
To which I say: I had NO idea she could use a big word like antagonistic! I am oddly impressed.
Liz Kelly: Paula/Simon Paul Simon. Dismissed as coincidence.
Penn Qtr., Washington, D.C.: Posh Spice is the Pam Anderson for the new millennium: Plastic, phony, and -- yes -- HOT!
Liz Kelly: Really? But she's not even pin-up curvy like Pam. I'm confounded.
Baltimore, Md.: My South African girlfriend says that there is no reason that they shouldn't be allowed to speak to their parents, in her experience. She also pointed out that during the prime-time special, the little girl who missed the ceremony and didn't know she'd been accepted was already wearing the uniform of a very posh private school, and had a British-educated accent, not a provincial one.
Liz Kelly: Thanks for the inside info.
Washington, D.C.: I'll bet Frank Sinatra did some skeevy things in his days. No correction needed.
Liz Kelly: But he was such a smooth skeever.
Washington, D.C.: Why has Rosie been silent as of late about "A.I.", especially with Simon recently making a comment about Ryan needing to come out of the closet, and about poor, delicate, sweet Sanjaya and his hair styles!
Liz Kelly: I don't know, but are you seriously distressed because Rosie O'Donnell isn't weighing in on yet another issue largely unrelated to her?
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: Liz, you didn't like Mr. Rogers?
I never did until I had a kid. Boy did that show keep that crazy kid quiet! And he also sent my son a personally signed Xmas card every year.
Liz Kelly: No. I did not like Mr. Rogers. I seem to have been born with an innate sense of who may or may not be a serial killer and even at four I could pick him out as a potential friend of Hannibal Lecter. I did like Romper Room, though. That Good Do-Bee, what a guy.
BIG QUESTION: Liz, What do u think happened to Jack's dad body? Do you think Jack has a picture of his father that he will eventually show to Claire somehow
Liz Kelly: I'm sure Jack's dad's body will somehow resurface (much like Mr. Eko's brother) in a future episode.
Washington, D.C.: Turn the question around. Who is a guy who guys can't understand why women like him.
Jennifer Anniston's ex comes to mind. The forgettable guy from Dodge Ball.
Liz Kelly: Hmmm, interesting. You mean the casually hot Vince Vaughn?
Washington, D.C.: I'm having a hard time figuring out your beat here. Obviously you cover celebrity gossip. But you also discuss TV? Or just one show -- "Lost"?
Liz Kelly: Celebrity gossip and "Lost" is a pet project. I'm an avid watcher and can't seem to keep it to myself.
Paul Simon: The singer or senator?
Liz Kelly: The plot thickens. And on that note, I must run. I have a golden retriever and a Bernese Mountain dog currently crossing their legs waiting for Aunt Liz to let them out. See you for tomorrow's supersecret (I'm taking a lesson from Weingarten) Friday List.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Join live discussions from the Washington Post. Feature topics include national, world and DC area news, politics, elections, campaigns, government policy, tech regulation, travel, entertainment, cars, and real estate.
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A Signal From Above
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At first it sounds like classic morning-zoo radio: A host plays ringleader, telling stories and jokes, while a couple of sidekicks chime in and laugh a lot. The banter is peppered with sound effects, like the noise of a guy vomiting. There are snappy jingles and lots of running gags.
The format of "Johnny Stone in the Morning," heard weekdays here on WAWZ, "Star" 99.1 FM, is familiar. The content -- to anyone accustomed to radio shows like "Don and Mike" or "Opie and Anthony" -- is not.
"I've got five phrases here, and you've got to tell us whether they're Bible or not," says Stone one recent morning, talking to a caller named Stephanie. She knows the rules and she's ready to play.
"The tree is known by its fruit," Stone reads aloud.
A you-are-correct ding is heard, then a surprising amount of joy in the studio.
"B-I-B-L-E," sings Stacey Stone, Johnny's wife and the show's news reader, "yes, that's the book for me!"
"I stand alone on the word of God!" shouts David Dein, the show's self-described wisenheimer, who for the moment sounds like a very earnest cheerleader. "B-I-B-L-E, Bible!"
Once calm is restored, Stone reads another sentence.
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ZAREPHATH, N.J. At first it sounds like classic morning-zoo radio: A host plays ringleader, telling stories and jokes, while a couple of sidekicks chime in and laugh a lot. The banter is peppered with sound effects, like the noise of a guy vomiting. There are snappy jingles and lots of running gags. ...
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A Pet Cause Celebre
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Pet Essentials opened eight years ago in a small space on 14th Street NW, with the pledge to sell only natural and holistic products for the dogs, cats, ferrets and tropical fish of the U Street corridor: fewer chemicals, no dyes, no animal testing. At first business was tough, because it was hard to find a lot of environmentally friendly or certified organic products, and prices were significantly higher.
Little did the owner know that the green tide of ecological awareness and sustainable living would come sloshing into the world of pets, creating a national hunger for corncob-based cat litter and paw-friendly biodegradable ice melters.
These days, regular customers include officers from the D.C. Police Canine Patrol unit who stop by and spend their own money to get their dogs additive-free food. D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) picks up veggie chews for his dogs Roger, Dodger and Guapo. "They have never eaten meat in their whole lives," Graham said. "They are about as green as you can be for white Westies."
Next month, a new sign is going up, changing the name of the store from Pet Essentials to GreenPets. Owner Linda Welch plans to open six new GreenPets in the Washington area in the next 18 months. "There has been a huge upsurge in the market," said Welch, who also has an online business, GreenPets.com. "My customers understand that if they feed their pets healthier, they will live longer."
Green is one of the hottest buzzwords in business today. Industry estimates of the total spent on environmentally conscious goods and services in the United States are upward of $209 billion. Manufacturers are racing to slap green labels on every conceivable product, whether floor cleaners, cars, foods or fleece jackets. (Figuring out all the greenspeak and eco-certifications can be confusing, so beware of dubious claims.) With high-profile spokesmen such as Al Gore and no end to high energy prices, a saving-the-earth designation is as much a part of a purchasing decision as color and price.
Politically correct pets all over America are embracing the green lifestyle, thanks to concerns about global warming, health, wellness and safety, and thanks to the largess of owners.
"It's a relatively new trend, and something that pet parents will see increasingly more of in the next 12 to 18 months," said Michelle Friedman, a spokeswoman for PetSmart, a chain of 900 stores that is adding regularly to its stock of natural products.
No, there is not yet a cat litter claiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But consumers who have already gone green in houses, garages and gardens are buying Planet Dog collars made of hemp (a renewable resource) and Newman's Own Organics dog food, produced without herbicides or pesticides. Catnip toys for Fluffy can be all-organic, and Labradors can be groomed with a shampoo that uses green tea extracts. Chinchillas can be treated to "dust-free" chinchilla bath sand. And rabbit bedding is available in a recycled-newspaper version, thanks to a product called Yesterday's News.
"Products that promise to create healthier pets and, sometimes, a healthier planet are hot," said Quincy Yu, president of SeaYu Enterprises in California, maker of Petrotech Odor Eliminator, a biodegradable nontoxic product made primarily of plant extracts. It's available in 24 versions to remove stains and such odors as skunk, vomit and urine. "When we started out in 2001, nobody cared about all-natural. Now the all-natural aspect of it is finally coming to fruition," Yu said.
"Some of the products are silly, but then, anytime you talk about Americans dealing with their pets, they will go overboard in some area," said Jim Motavalli, editor of E/The Environmental Magazine. (He admits to buying calming, all-natural, pheromone-dispensing diffusers for his Siamese cats.)
Motavalli said the words "all natural" mean as much on a pet food can as they do on a can of human food: "It has no legal meaning; only the term organic does." He said chemicals used in flea and tick collars, shampoos and cleaning products are often sources of concern for pet owners, who look for natural alternatives.
At Dogs By Day & Nite, a cageless day-care center for pets next door to Pet Essentials, which has the same owners, 85 dogs hang out on a daily basis. The center buys gallons of Ecologic Solutions from Washington's Eco-Green Living store, a product billed as nontoxic and nonhazardous to pets or humans. Scipio Garling, administrative manager at Dogs By Day & Nite, said, "Dogs' noses are very sensitive, and you can't use overriding chemicals."
"Whatever is popular with humans is going to be popular for their pets," says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. According to the association, Americans spent $38.4 billion on pets in 2006. "It finally dawned on everyone that the same purchaser who is buying all the green products for humans will also buy them for their dogs."
Still, not every pet owner is willing to scrutinize labels or pay more for eco-conscious features.
Daniel Giglio of Mount Pleasant was wading through racks of "all natural" bird treats for his sun conure parrot at the Cleveland Park Petco last week. "All this is way too much for my bird," said Giglio, who is from Argentina, where he says pets are treated as pets and not "put on a pedestal."
"I love my pet and take care of it, but I'm not going to pay extra for something organic. I don't think it's going to make a huge difference for my bird," Giglio said. "Although for myself, I do like to buy organic milk."
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Pet Essentials opened eight years ago in a small space on 14th Street NW, with the pledge to sell only natural and holistic products for the dogs, cats, ferrets and tropical fish of the U Street corridor: fewer chemicals, no dyes, no animal testing. At first business was tough, because it was hard...
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The March of The Men Begins
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Brandon Rogers is the first "American Idol" finalist to get the old heave-ho on this round of the Fox singing competition.
Ironically, Rogers, 28, who got the bad news last night, was one of two professional backup singers to make it to the top 12 on this year's edition of the country's most watched TV show.
Rogers choked and forgot the words to his song -- the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love."
Brandon of the unbreakable smile wasn't the only contestant to forget lyrics during Tuesday's performance show; Haley Scarnato did, too, when she tried to sing Diana Ross's "Missing You." But Haley kept on driving till she regained consciousness, whereas Brandon completely took his hands off the wheel -- forgetting Paula Abdul's First Rule of Faking It Onstage: The audience doesn't know the lyrics, so just keep on singing and they'll never know the difference.
And for that, "Idol" fans could not forgive him.
Speaking of forgetting the lyrics, Ross, this week's guest coach, seemed to flub a word or two as she diva-ed her way through a performance of "More Today Than Yesterday" during last night's results show.
Ross also was, to borrow the words of judges Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and Abdul (not directed at Ross, of course, because that would be rude) pitchy, shouted in the loud parts and, overall, sounded like a singer at a wedding on a Disney cruise ship bound for a bar in Majorca.
On the other hand, she looked fabulous.
But the night wasn't a total loss. The second-lowest vote-getter was Sanjaya Malakar and the Hair of a Thousand Dos. At this rate, he should be gone next week.
The singer to receive the third-fewest votes this week was Nosferatu, a.k.a. Phil Stacey, though he didn't have to stand on the Stage of Shame for long. He was quickly declared safe by show host Ryan Seacrest and sent back to his seat -- safe until the next full moon.
Notice how the bottom-three vote-getters this week were all guys? This is as it should be. The guys are very weak this season. At this rate, we'll have them cleared out by late April.
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Brandon Rogers is the first "American Idol" finalist to get the old heave-ho on this round of the Fox singing competition.
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NBC's 'Andy Barker P.I.': A Nose for Laughs
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"Andy Barker P.I.," a new NBC series about an accidental detective, abounds in qualities that aren't common to contemporary sitcoms: sweet, lovable, good-natured. Maybe even "adorable as a puppy."
Even though (or because) we're only seven years in, it's safe to call it "one of the best comedies of the 21st century!" What it lacks in edge, it makes up for in charm.
For Andy Richter, who plays Andy Barker, the show marks a reunion with series co-creator and exec-producer Conan O'Brien, the brilliant nut who used to employ Richter as his sidekick on NBC's "Late Night" show. It's obvious that all those involved in a major way look at the world through, oh, maybe puce-colored glasses.
Richter plays a young, eager and very mild-mannered accountant who, in the show's premiere tonight, opens his own office in one of those anonymous mini-malls that freckle America's suburbs. What the likable schmo doesn't realize is that the place was formerly occupied by Lew Staziak, a seedy private eye, and that one day, when the wind blows down Andy's shingle, it also blows in a mysterious damsel in distress, just like in the movies. Old movies, anyway.
Since the damsel's of the seductive sort -- actually, more like bossy -- and private eyedom has begun to seem slightly more glamorous than accounting, Andy goes along with the mistake, at least to the point of helping the woman find her missing husband. Downstairs in the mini-mall, however, is a video store run by a wild-eyed goofball named Simon (Tony Hale, perfect in the part) who wants his life to be more like the movies; he encourages Andy to take on this case and, as you can guess, others in weeks to come.
Richter is an implosive presence who works well when surrounded by the weird and wacky. Barker has to keep his bearings as well as solve the latest mystery -- and continue to ply his chosen trade. Barker likes being an accountant, and he's not some thwarted Walter Mitty type who daydreams desperately about being chased down alleys by hoodlums.
Soon enough, though, Andy is being chased down alleys by hoodlums. He's cautious by nature, so that when the chase progresses to cars, Andy thinks he's being a wild man when he exceeds the 40 mph speed limit -- by about four miles. He'd have an easier time escaping the pursuers, Simon points out, if he'd stop signaling his turns.
When riled, Andy utters such ersatz epithets as "Oh, Mother Hubbard."
The supporting cast, which does more than merely support, includes Marshall Manesch as Wally, a super-patriotic immigrant who runs a kebab restaurant in the mini-mall; Harve Presnell (immensely memorable as the father of a kidnapped housewife in "Fargo") as grumbling Lew Staziack; and Clea Lewis as Jen, Andy's vanilla-wafer wife, who doesn't appreciate her husband and his cohorts turning her backyard barbecue into bedlam as they search for suspicious chickens in the third episode.
"Andy Barker P.I." sails along on an admirably even keel, brightened by moments that are convulsively funny -- visual gags and subtler forms of slapstick. It's the kind of comedy that sneaks up on you. Sneaks up on you and threatens to steal your heart.
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"Andy Barker P.I.," a new NBC series about an accidental detective, abounds in qualities that aren't common to contemporary sitcoms: sweet, lovable, good-natured. Maybe even "adorable as a puppy."
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Automakers Tell House to Lay Off On Fuel Economy
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Auto industry leaders and the United Auto Workers yesterday put up a united front in opposition to congressionally mandated improvements in vehicle fuel economy, potentially complicating the ambitions of Democrats seeking the most extensive changes in the rules since the 1970s.
Auto executives appearing at a House hearing not only rejected tough rules sought by Democrats and environmentalists, but also opposed a Bush administration proposal to improve mileage by 4 percent a year over the next 10 years.
"It's time to move away from proposals that don't solve the problem," said G. Richard Wagoner Jr., chief executive of General Motors.
Wagoner questioned the role of fuel-economy rules in reducing greenhouse gases or oil consumption since mandates were implemented in the mid-1970s.
The automakers favor allowing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to oversee creation of any new vehicle mileage rules, which would effectively take authority away from Congress. Some Democrats and environmental groups fear that NHTSA's rulemaking process, which includes taking into account the impact of regulations on industry, could give automakers an opportunity to water down any changes. Democrats want a law to bind automakers to higher standards.
The auto executives said they supported a "cap-and-trade" system to curb carbon dioxide emissions that would apply to every sector of the economy.
Wagoner was joined at the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on energy and air quality hearing by Alan R. Mulally of Ford, Tom LaSorda of DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group, James E. Press of Toyota and Ronald A. Gettelfinger of the United Auto Workers.
The auto industry is prepared to fight over fuel-economy regulation. Its lobbyists include veterans of past fuel-economy fights. The industry also has thousands of dealers around the country who can be called upon to contact members of Congress or visit Capitol Hill. The UAW can unleash its members to press the industry's case.
Gettelfinger said stringent increases in fuel-economy standards could lead to a "calamitous result" of factory closings, tens of thousands of layoffs and the loss of retiree health care, already a primary target of industry cost-cutters. Improving vehicle gas mileage could cost as much as $44 billion at GM alone, Wagoner said.
Union workers have mobilized in the past to help kill fuel-economy proposals. UAW leaders hope for help from the Congressional Black Caucus, which is headed by Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, a Democrat who represents a Detroit district.
At yesterday's hearing, the reach of the auto companies was clear. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who spoke last week of the urgency to "push the envelope" and press the auto executives "beyond their comfort area," talked yesterday about GM's truck plant in Janesville, Wis. The Janesville assembly plant is not in Baldwin's district, but it is "just next door," and she said many of its 2,600 employees live in her district.
She questioned automakers on how to curb carbon emissions at production facilities rather than from vehicle tailpipes. Environmentalists say tailpipe emissions account for the vast majority of the global warming emissions attributable to the auto industry.
Industry officials in Washington also noted the presence of Press, the Toyota executive, at the hearing. The fast-growing Japanese automaker is popular with many lawmakers. Last month, Toyota decided to build a $1.3 billion plant near Tupelo, Miss. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) promised to be a "warrior" on Toyota's behalf. At yesterday's hearing, Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R-Miss.) referred to Press as "Tupelo honey."
Toyota is seen by many as the automaker most successful in creating an image of environmental sensitivity and social responsibility. Press said Toyota accepted the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that the industry has a responsibility help solve the problem. He said Toyota supported giving NHTSA the authority to set new fuel-economy rules.
The hearing came as other lawmakers were signing on to support tougher fuel-economy rules. Sens. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) and Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) introduced a bill to improve fuel efficiency and increase oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. They said polls indicate that 75 percent of Americans support legislation that includes improved fuel-economy rules and more drilling.
David Friedman, research director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said auto executives were trying to shift responsibility from their products to the oil industry.
"What we learned today is that auto industry is very good at coming up with creative ways to avoid increasing the fuel economy of their cars and trucks," Friedman said. "They are trying to play the game at pointing the finger at someone else. And yet the fuel economy of cars and trucks is a disgrace."
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Auto industry leaders and the United Auto Workers yesterday put up a united front in opposition to congressionally mandated improvements in vehicle fuel economy, potentially complicating the ambitions of Democrats seeking the most extensive changes in the rules since the 1970s.
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Eco-Friendly Initiative Proposed For Fairfax
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Fairfax plans to become a "cool" county, where wind power, hybrid vehicles and environmentally friendly building techniques would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to combat global warming, Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly will announce today.
Connolly (D) said that he is developing the program with the Sierra Club and a few other large counties across the nation and that he wants it to be a model for communities everywhere.
Connolly, who will outline the multimillion-dollar initiative in his televised State of the County address at 6:30 p.m., said his plan has the support of the Board of Supervisors. The board is dominated by Democrats.
For Fairfax's 1 million residents, Connolly's proposal would mean rides on ethanol-burning buses, tax breaks for owning hybrid cars and new neighborhoods with more trees and green space. Residents might also grow accustomed to seeing green on public buildings -- vegetation planted on the roofs of schools and firehouses to consume carbon dioxide, Connolly said.
Such measures are in place in Montgomery and Arlington counties, which are generally supportive of progressive environmental policies. In business-friendly Fairfax, Connolly's plan would not impose regulations, but it would establish incentives for private-sector energy conservation.
If the Board of Supervisors carries out Connolly's initiative, it could place Fairfax in the vanguard of U.S. efforts to curtail emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases widely believed to contribute to global warming. But it will take millions of dollars -- to plant trees, buy parkland and vehicles and construct or retrofit "green" buildings to be more energy-efficient and less polluting.
"There are over 3,000 counties, and this could have an enormous impact across the nation," said Connolly, who is scheduled to announce his bid for reelection tomorrow. "We've got an administration that until very recently has denied the reality of global warming, denied the science that is overwhelming and compelling. So what we're trying to do here is lead by example."
That is something many other jurisdictions are already doing -- without the fanfare.
Last year, Montgomery became one of only two jurisdictions in the nation requiring private and public buildings to meet strict energy-conserving criteria promoted by a nonprofit group. Also, Montgomery obtains 10 percent of its energy from wind power and is committed to increasing the number to 20 percent in the next five years.
Arlington is considering a higher tax on electricity and natural gas bills next year to help pay for $1.5 million in energy-saving initiatives such as solar-powered projects and energy audits for homes.
Arlington Board Chairman Paul Ferguson (D) praised Connolly for putting forward a "positive environmental agenda" for the region and the nation. But Ferguson noted that establishing precise, measurable goals for reducing emissions is the key to a successful program.
"Otherwise, you know you're doing positive things, but you don't know how far you're going in the right direction," he said.
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Fairfax plans to become a "cool" county, where wind power, hybrid vehicles and environmentally friendly building techniques would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to combat global warming, Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly will announce today.
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Md. Naval Hospital Staff Reports 'Fatigue'
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A doctor at the National Naval Medical Center yesterday warned a Pentagon review panel that medical staff at the Bethesda hospital are overworked and suffering from "compassion fatigue."
Even as relatives of injured Marines universally praised the medical care and treatment of families in Bethesda, the doctor and several other current and former employees spoke of problems with the workload, maintenance and facilities at the sprawling complex.
The testimony came at a hearing before the Pentagon's independent review group, appointed last month by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to look into rehabilitative care for injured service members. Although the focus has largely been on Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Gates ordered the naval hospital be included in the review to fully gauge treatment in the Washington region.
Lt. Cmdr. Brandt E. Rice, a family medicine practitioner at the naval hospital, testified that doctors are saddled with too many administrative duties, lack enough time to devote to patients and face bureaucratic hassles. "My vocalness about this need has been met by some degree of resistance and also retaliation," Rice said.
Ursula Henry, a former Navy worker at the hospital, said some staff members have been "so frustrated with the whole scenario that they left to go across the street" to work at the National Institutes of Health.
Karen Piles, who has worked in the facilities management department at the hospital for 28 years, testified that maintenance has grown dramatically worse in the two years since the Navy switched from public employees to a private contractor, a decision she described as a "disaster."
Piles said there are operating rooms where temperatures are too hot or too cold, in addition to plumbing problems, floods and leaks. "We have struggled for two years with a contractor who can't keep up," she said.
Sandra Bonifant, a research coordinator for a private foundation that works with Vietnam War veterans, complained of an effort to get a handrail installed to help disabled veterans go up steps into a building on the hospital campus. "We were strong-armed into letting it drop," she testified. A hospital spokesman said the handrail was not installed because the building is used for administrative purposes.
After the hearing, panel members said they were struck by contrasts with the testimony heard the previous day at Walter Reed.
A number of speakers at the Army hospital praised the medical care, but many witnesses told of problems with outpatient care and lack of support given to family members. No such complaints were heard at Bethesda.
"It's been harder at Walter Reed, and we think it's a major issue of resources, where the institution has been literally overwhelmed," said panel member James Bacchus, a former Democratic congressman from Florida.
No Walter Reed staff members volunteered to testify during Tuesday's hearing. "We really need to understand that difference," Charles Roadman, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and panel member, said of the contrast to the Bethesda hospital hearing.
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A doctor at the National Naval Medical Center yesterday warned a Pentagon review panel that medical staff at the Bethesda hospital are overworked and suffering from "compassion fatigue."
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Beating Mexico Hasn't Reached Club Level
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For the last decade, American soccer largely has measured international progress by its accomplishments against Mexico, the region's long-dominant program. But while the national team has made a habit of beating its counterparts in the World Cup and friendlies alike, club encounters have been heavily tilted in the Mexicans' favor with gory scorelines such as 6-1 and 5-0.
It's a grim fact not lost on D.C. United, which will attempt to reverse that trend when it faces Chivas of Guadalajara in a CONCACAF Champions' Cup semifinal series beginning tonight at RFK Stadium.
"Any time you match yourself against anybody outside your country, you are always going to gauge where you are in relation to them," United Coach Tom Soehn said. "And the rest of the world is going to gauge where we are."
United did enjoy some success against Mexican clubs in the early years of MLS. It won this 45-year-old tournament in 1998, but in its most recent matchup two years ago, D.C. was trounced by Pumas, 5-0, in Mexico City following a 1-1 tie in Washington. United's MLS brethren have not fared particularly well against Mexico's finest either -- a stark contrast to the U.S. national team's 8-2-1 record against El Tri the last seven years, including a 2-0 victory last month in suburban Phoenix.
"Things have changed in North American soccer, and the playing field has leveled out more," said midfielder Ben Olsen, who has been involved in U.S.-Mexico games on various levels. "They used to be very dominant in both the national team and with their club teams, and now you're seeing more teams around North America develop very good teams that can compete.
"The main thing, whether it's a Mexican team or a Honduran team, is for us to keep pushing forward and doing well in these competitions. They are so important for this league and for this team to do well and increase the brand."
In this two-game, total-goals series, which will conclude April 3 in Guadalajara, there is more at stake than national pride. The survivor will move a step closer to winning the regional club championship and earning an automatic berth in the Club World Cup in Japan later this year.
In the quarterfinals, United overpowered Olimpia (Honduras) by a 7-3 aggregate score while Chivas overcame a first-leg defeat to subdue W Connection of Trinidad and Tobago, 4-2.
As pleased as United was with its efforts against Olimpia, particularly at such an early stage of preseason training, the club is well aware of Chivas's capabilities. United presented a formidable attack in the earlier round, keyed by Argentine playmaker Christian Gomez and Brazilian forward Luciano Emilio, but its defense will have to tighten against a more lethal opponent.
"As a team, we let up a couple goals we should not have let up and allowed some opportunities that they did not capitalize on," midfielder Josh Gros said of the Olimpia series. "Other than that, we can take a lot of positives out of it, so hopefully that continues. We have a lot of confidence in our offense; we just have to make sure we don't bleed any goals."
Beyond the tournament significance, United is well aware of the broader impact.
"I don't care if it's the national team or club sides, when Mexico and the U.S. play each other, it's always a rivalry," Olsen said. "They want to beat us pretty bad and we always want to continue pushing U.S. soccer, whether that's the club game or the national team.
"It's going to be a huge challenge for us to get a good result."
United Notes: Fred, the Brazilian midfielder-forward who recently signed a multiyear contract, was scheduled to arrive in Washington today to meet his new teammates. The club is hoping he will be eligible to play in the second leg of the series. . . . English midfielder Kasali Yinka Casal, who signed several weeks ago, was added to the senior roster. . . . Goalkeeper Troy Perkins, recovering from a quadriceps injury, participated in regular workouts again and is almost certain to start tonight. . . . Ticket sales surpassed 18,000 last night and club officials are expecting between 22,000 and 25,000. . . . The other semifinal first leg, between defending MLS champion Houston and visiting Pachuca of Mexico, was postponed last night because of a power outage.
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D.C. United will attempt to reverse the good fortune Mexico has had in club encounters when it faces Chivas of Guadalajara in a CONCACAF Champions' Cup semifinal series.
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Charges Dropped Against HP's Dunn
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Three others who were also accused of breaking laws to obtain such personal information as phone records will have their misdemeanor charges dropped if they complete 96 hours of community service, their attorneys said.
The rulings marked an abrupt and somewhat anticlimactic turn in a once-dramatic case that captivated the public and shed light on a shadowy world of spies for hire. In turning investigators against its own board members -- ostensibly to plug leaks to the media -- the venerated Silicon Valley company tainted its corporate image and incurred the wrath of government officials.
Dunn became HP's chairman in 2005 as the company's concerns about damaging disclosures of such sensitive corporate information as proposed acquisitions escalated. Under Carly Fiorina's reign as chairman and chief executive, and continuing under Dunn's direction as chairman, the company quietly hired investigators who lied about their identities to obtain phone records and conducted extensive background checks of reporters and company directors and their spouses and children. It also planned to put spies in newsrooms and to trick a reporter into revealing her source by planting a tracer in an e-mail sent by a fictitious HP tipster.
The investigation later prompted one board member -- George A. Keyworth II -- to say that he had spoken on one occasion to one of the reporters in 2006 but that he did not disclose any sensitive information.
In December, Bill Lockyer, then California's attorney general, announced a $14.5 million civil settlement with HP. Yesterday, the lingering misdemeanor charges were essentially settled by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Ray Cunningham in a San Jose courtroom with none of the defendants present.
Jerry Brown, the former governor and presidential candidate, who succeeded Lockyer in January, felt the decision to drop all charges against Dunn was appropriate in light of her health problems and her degree of participation in the spying, said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for Brown. Dunn is battling a recurrence of advanced ovarian cancer.
Dunn, who stepped down as chairman in September, said in a statement: "I am pleased that this matter has been resolved fairly. . . . I have always had faith that the truth would win out and justice would be served."
Three other defendants -- Kevin Hunsaker, Ronald DeLia and Matthew Depante -- sought to plead no contest to a state misdemeanor count of fraudulent wire communications. Cunningham rejected the pleas and agreed to drop the charges in six months if the men perform the community service, said John L. Williams, DeLia's attorney.
Hunsaker was HP's ethics director during the search for leaks. DeLia and Depante were private investigators hired by the company.
Federal investigators at one point were looking into the HP spying matter. Williams said he was unaware of any federal probe involving his client, and a Justice Department spokesman did not return a call seeking comment.
One of Dunn's fiercest critics during the spying controversy -- Thomas Perkins, then a board member -- called the case's resolution "most appropriate," adding, "My thoughts and hopes continue to be with Pattie Dunn in her courageous battle against cancer."
In the wake of the HP scandal, President Bush signed a bill making it a federal crime to obtain private phone records by "making false or fraudulent statements" to a phone company employee, by "obtaining false or fraudulent documents to access accounts," or by unauthorized access to accounts through the Internet.
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Patricia C. Dunn, the woman at the center of the scandal involving Hewlett-Packard's aggressive search for corporate leaks, had all state charges against her dropped yesterday by a California court.
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Zimbabwe Lawmaker Describes Beatings of Activists
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JOHANNESBURG, March 14 -- Zimbabwean police ordered opposition lawmaker Nelson Chamisa to lie on the ground Sunday afternoon and then kicked, punched and whipped him and beat him with batons, he said.
But the brutality Chamisa suffered, he said, was mild compared with what he saw meted out to party leader Morgan Tsvangirai in an incident that has sparked outrage in Zimbabwe and around the world.
Police had broken up a major opposition rally in Highfield, a township west of the capital, Harare, and began attacking Chamisa and other opposition figures at a police station. When Tsvangirai arrived, more than 20 officers -- some in uniform, others not -- directed their fury at him, Chamisa said.
Over the next 20 minutes, police attacked Tsvangirai with such ferocity that he collapsed on three occasions, apparently unconscious, Chamisa recounted in an interview from Harare on Wednesday. At one point, police dumped water on Tsvangirai to revive him, then resumed beating him. They also hurled Tsvangirai, 55, a beefy former union activist, against the wall, Chamisa said.
"You are a traitor!" the police shouted at Tsvangirai, according to Chamisa. "We are going to kill you today!"
Tsvangirai did not respond, nor did he shout out from the pain, Chamisa said. "He's a strong man."
The beatings have fueled anger that activists are working to fashion into a sustained anti-government campaign against President Robert Mugabe, 83. The outrage, both domestically and from international leaders, has developed into the most serious threat in several years to his almost 27-year-old rule.
The police attacks began as leaders of Zimbabwe's fractured opposition gathered to launch a new "Save Zimbabwe" campaign. One activist was shot dead and about 50 were arrested. Riot police used water cannons and tear gas to restore order and have increased patrols across Harare in the days since.
Those arrested appeared in court Tuesday looking battered and bloodied. Shortly before midnight, police freed them without filing charges. Several with the most severe injuries ended up in intensive care; others were treated by doctors and released.
Doctors admitted Tsvangirai to intensive care Tuesday night and scanned his head Wednesday for evidence of a possible skull fracture and other internal injuries that may explain why he seemed, according to several reports, dazed and unable to speak clearly after the attack Sunday. He also had a deep gash on his head that was stitched up and a badly swollen right eye.
Opposition leaders spoke confidently of rallies to come, despite a ban on demonstrations. A long-planned national strike has been scheduled for April 5, though the next major action could come sooner.
Government officials have vowed to meet any new protests with force. "Those who incite violence, or actually cause and participate in unleashing it, are set to pay a very heavy price, regardless of who they are," Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said in a statement.
Late Wednesday, police surrounded the Harare headquarters of Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change, and arrested two executives from the party's offices in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, the Reuters news service reported.
Raymond Majongwe, head of the Zimbabwe Progressive Teachers Union, met with Tsvangirai and another injured activist, Lovemore Madhuku, head of the National Constitutional Assembly, in the intensive care ward Wednesday.
"They are in very high spirits and are exuberant," Majongwe said from Harare. "They are ready to continue where they left off."
Chamisa said: "Zimbabweans are ready to fight. They are definitely ready to fight. The regime's days are numbered."
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JOHANNESBURG, March 14 -- Zimbabwean police ordered opposition lawmaker Nelson Chamisa to lie on the ground Sunday afternoon and then kicked, punched and whipped him and beat him with batons, he said.
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Medical Marijuana Use Dealt Setback
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SAN FRANCISCO, March 14 -- A woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive can face federal prosecution on drug charges, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The ruling was the latest legal defeat for Angel Raich, a mother of two from Oakland suffering from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments who sued the government preemptively to avoid being arrested for using the drug. On her doctor's advice, Raich eats or smokes marijuana every two hours to ease her pain.
The Supreme Court ruled against Raich in June 2005, saying medical marijuana users and their suppliers could be prosecuted for breaching federal drug laws even if they lived in a state such as California, where medical use of the drug is legal.
When told of the decision, Raich, 41, began sobbing. "I'm sure not going to let them kill me," she said.
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SAN FRANCISCO, March 14 -- A woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive can face federal prosecution on drug charges, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
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A 'Doubt' to Believe In: Cherry Jones at the National
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The sturdy "Doubt" could be fueled by almost any accomplished actor, but it seems to run most efficiently on a premium-grade additive called Cherry Jones.
In New York, Jones originated the part of Sister Aloysius, the Bronx Catholic school principal who harbors dark suspicions about a popular priest and the interest he takes in one of his male students. She rightly received a Tony for the performance -- playwright John Patrick Shanley also won a Tony, and a Pulitzer, to boot -- and the production had one of the longer Broadway runs in recent years for a straight play.
That's usually it for a superb stage actress and a great role. (Meryl Streep has -- what a surprise -- been announced for the movie version.) Jones, however, has taken the step -- extremely rare these days -- of re-upping with the play for the road, a circumstance that's both highly fortunate for theatergoers and revelatory about Shanley's drama. Now more than ever, "Doubt" looks like a star vehicle that is shaped to the supple contours of a single actress.
What becomes clear in a visit to this touring "Doubt," now at the National Theatre for two weeks, is how essential it is that an audience be won over by Sister Aloysius, that it believe unequivocally in her goodness. Her facade can't fool us: In the frumpy eyeglasses and conservative habit of a nun in a teaching order in 1964, she looks grim, forbidding. And her resistance to change at St. Nicholas Church School -- why, the very idea of trying to make a history lesson fun! -- is meant to stamp her as crankily, even risibly, old school. But we must see through the intimidating crust and fall in love, because she, in a sense, is us. Cassandra-like, she intuits what four decades later we know: that there's an insidious, child-abusing rot in the foundations of the church, spread by smiling, clean-cut priests and a hierarchy that's deaf and, maybe worse, indifferent to the warning signs.
Jones's wonderful contribution is warmth. Although Shanley gives us clues to Sister Aloysius's interior life (she entered the order after being widowed by World War II), it is the actress who gives us a whole person. The nun's vulnerability is also her most admirable quality: her passion for justice. The duality is conveyed in the anguished eyes that stare out of Jones's "Revenge of the Nerds" glasses. And so the rage that Sister Aloysius feels, as her conviction deepens that jocular, magnetic Father Flynn (Chris McGarry) has corrupted a 12-year-old boy, easily becomes our rage, too.
The playwright, however, offers some sly curveballs and, as a result, "Doubt" is dogged as much by the question of fallibility as by the intimation of pedophilia: Is it possible Sister Aloysius's suspicions arise from jealousy of a priest who has the kid-friendly skills she lacks? Could it be that she is simply reading the signs all wrong?
The crux of the play is in the idea of trusting your gut, in believing in your personal lie detector no matter what. In this regard, "Doubt" is a whistle-blower play. Whether or not Father Flynn is guilty of Sister Aloysius's accusations -- and she makes them known to him in a terrific confrontation scene -- we know that her underlying instinct is the right one.
"Doubt" doesn't shilly-shally much. In a crisp 90 minutes, it lays out the steps Sister Aloysius takes in a campaign to root out Father Flynn. She is virtually alone in her crusade, assisted only reluctantly by a younger nun (Lisa Joyce) who resents the principal's rigid adherence to tradition and sees the priest as much more her fellow traveler.
And Sister Aloysius can't even count on the family of the boy she believes has been molested. The principal suspects that Father Flynn targets him in part because, as the only African American student in the school, the child is lonely and desperate for companionship. Still, in yet another well-played encounter, the mother (Caroline Stefanie Clay) explains with a poignant vehemence, precisely and convincingly, why she's in no position to back the nun.
Director Doug Hughes has assembled a strong touring version of the play, although the actors still seemed to be adjusting to the National's acoustics on opening night; too many lines were getting swallowed. Even so, Joyce and Clay are pleasing inheritors of their roles.
And McGarry makes for an especially worthy adversary. He is a more persuasively outer-borough type than the figure conjured in the original production by Brian F. O'Byrne. And although he has the burden of the play's least compelling scenes -- a pair of sermons he delivers directly to us -- McGarry manages at other times to provide the impression of a good guy unfairly persecuted.
We watch him closely for the telltale evidence that will give him away, some tiny acknowledgment that would confirm Sister Aloysius's belief. The effort is in vain -- unless you imagine you've come up with something. In the end, it seems, it's all a matter of what feeling you're left with in your own gut.
Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley. Directed by Doug Hughes. Sets, John Lee Beatty; costumes, Catherine Zuber; lighting, Pat Collins; original music and sound, David Van Tieghem. About 90 minutes. Through March 25 at National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Call 800-447-7400 or visit http://www.telecharge.com.
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The sturdy "Doubt" could be fueled by almost any accomplished actor, but it seems to run most efficiently on a premium-grade additive called Cherry Jones.
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Life at Work Live
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An archive of Amy's Life at Work columns is available online.
Find more career-related news and advice in our Jobs section.
Amy Joyce: Good morning, all. It's Tuesday, which means it's time to talk about your life at work. Lots of questions await, so let's get started, shall we? Jump in, as always, with your own advice and stories to share. You're always a great help here. Onward...
D.C.: I'm newly pregnant and was wondering if you or anyone out there had any advice for how to deal with morning sickness at work. I'm so worried that I'll get sick while I'm working and people will freak out!
Amy Joyce: You may get sick at work. It happens. So be prepared. Know the signs, have your route to the bathroom mapped out and stock up on anything that might keep that sickness at bay. Sour candies, ginger candies, snacks that you can nibble on throughout the day.
And remember: As horrible as you feel, most people don't notice. Just do what you need to do to get through. Personally, I think those first 12 weeks are when we *really* need some sort of leave! It can be very hard to function normally.
Alexandria, Va.: Hi, Amy. Submitting early because I won't be able to join the chat. I am starting a new job on Monday after being laid off for a little over a month. Any suggestions on how I should be preparing this week? Advice on what to wear those first few days (it's a business casual environment). Thanks!
Amy Joyce: Play it safe and dress one step up from what some might think of as biz casual. Then when you're there, look around and get a sense for what you should be wearing. (ie: Start with pants suits. If it's way more casual than that, take the jacket off.)
Get your outside life in order this week. The more relaxed you feel about your home, health, car, family, the easier it will be to jump in on Monday.
Think about the job: What you want to do with it, what is expected of you, how you can shine. Make sure you get there early Monday. And don't be afraid to ask questions! Your co-workers, though they may not become your best friends from day one, will likely want to help you.
Washington, D.C.: If I recall correctly, you worked your way through grad school. I will be starting an MA program in the fall, with classes meeting at night and my full-time job during the day. Any suggestions on maintaining my sanity over the next two years?
Amy Joyce: I think you're thinking of Mary Ellen Slayter. I skipped the grad school thing (thus far), but have many friends/family members who did go through it.
For you: Remember that the madness *will* end. Pick a couple things you do now that you should continue to do to keep yourself grounded when you're feeling overwhelmed. That might be making sure to still make time to go to the gym, or cook, or carve out enough hours for your family/friends.
I also think it helps to keep a very strict schedule so you aren't cramming in studying at the last minute or between meetings at work.
Make sure to be as organized as possible. Lists/schedules will be your friend.
Now to the masses: What did you do to remain sane during those grad school/work years?
Alexandria, Va.: Hi, Amy. After a decade in the workforce I'm going back to school to pursue a graduate degree. To keep some money coming in, I plan to take some evening and weekend work. I've never worked an hourly job before. What the heck do you wear to the interview?
Amy Joyce: Pretty much the same thing as a non-hourly job. Look put together and professional. A suit is still nice, particularly if you're looking for a job in retail, where they sell suits.
Lehigh Valley, Pa.: Hi, Amy. Thanks for taking my question! I work for a relatively large publishing company as an events coordinator. I began working at the company as a department secretary. When I was promoted to events coordinator, I was only given a title change, but no change in salary. I've done some research using salary tracking tools, and I'm substantially underpaid ($28,000/year). Salary calculators put me in the $35,000-$40,000 range. I've gone to my supervisor with this information and have asked for a raise, but was told there was not enough money in the budget. Since then, I applied for another position internally (superior to my own, in a related department). I "got" the position (that is, I'm now working on projects for the new position) , but my salary and title remains the same. I've taken on many additional responsibilities, but the company still has not offered me a new pay package. I've addressed this with my supervisor and have been told that it's "in the pipeline".
I'm having a hard time staying motivated, especially since I keep receiving new assignments. I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. What is the usual waiting period for things like this? Is there any advice you can give me for addressing this to my superiors? I don't want to be pushy, but I feel like they're blowing me off, or are not taking me seriously. Also: I need this job, and am uncomfortable with offering an ultimatum. Thank you.
Amy Joyce: Ultimatums are bad news, so I'm glad you already decided not to do that.
But the fact is you've been promoted twice, taken on many more duties, and not been given a raise in salary.
You're not being pushy to ask for something you've earned. Explain to your boss just what you did here: two promotions, much new work, yet a salary that is the same as when you were hired as a secretary. Pin her down and ask what can be done and what is being done to rectify this. You might even ask if you should check with human resources (or whatever department handles salaries) yourself.
They obviously like you and like the work you're doing. You don't have to give them an ultimatum. If ask her directly what is being done, she will (or should) understand that something needs to be done quickly.
McLean, Va.: I gave my notice a week an a half ago and am now finishing up my last week at my job. I really want to leave on a good note, but my boss has been giving me the silent treatment. I've asked him if I'm doing everything to his satisfaction (training my replacements, finishing my projects) but he just gives one-word answers ("yes"). Any idea of how to improve this or should I just let it lie since I leave Friday?
Amy Joyce: Not much you can do to make your boss less of an immature person. (My take since I don't know his side of the story.) Just make sure you do everything you should. Leave a memo about how to do your job for your replacement. Thank people on the way out. Then go enjoy your new gig.
Raleigh, N.C.: For pregnant at work: Lemon drop hard candies also work amazing well at combating the woozy tummy. Another suggestion, keep high-protein snacks at your desk, and make sure you are eating more often, smaller meals than normal, especially if you're normally a three-meals-a-day type. "Morning" sickness generally occurs because your stomach is getting completely empty, which can happen any time of day. I kept lemon drops, mixed nuts, soy crisps, wasabi peas (I craved spicy...), and soy milk boxes at my desk my first full trimester. It helped more than I can say.
Of course, if you can find a way to combat that three-in-the-afternoon, and I-can-no-longer-function syndrome, then let me know!
Amy Joyce: Good tips. I find everyone has different snacks/tricks. It's good to try them all. (Though I can tell you if I ate wasabi peas during those first 12 weeks, as much as I normally love them, I would have been much worse off!)
Also, we have a nurse's office here at work. Though I haven't used it, there is a little nap room that many of our newly pregnant women have gone to for a quick 15 minutes. Check to see if your office has something similar. It's amazing what a nice little power nap can do.
Morning sickness: Try Sea Bands. They are for motion sickness and morning sickness. You can get them at a drug store and they saved me during those first 12 weeks. Just be discreet with them one co-worker noticed them on me and quickly realized why I was wearing them. She kept my secret -- I was lucky. Also, good excuses for being sick are: the stomach flu that's going around hubby's office that he must have brought home, bad sushi from dinner last night, and particularly bad cramps from PMS (for your close female office friends). If you plant the idea that you're not pregnant, even if other signs are there, they won't leap to the obvious conclusion. Good luck and congrats!
Amy Joyce: I tried those, too. And they gave me away pretty early on to two of my coworkers. They kept quiet, though, and it was nice to actually have someone to whine to at the worst of times.
Rockville, Md.: I agree that ultimatums can be bad, especially if you can't back them up. A long time ago, I worked for a company where I felt I was underpaid. But it was a first job, so I took it and learned. I did as much as I could and gained as much responsibility as they were willing to give me. I actually loved my job, except for the pay. When it became clear that they were just not going to give me a raise, I went out and found another job that paid significantly more. When I had an offer in hand, I let them know that unless they were willing to give me a certain raise, that I had another job offer which I would take. I gave them 24 hours to decide. I had my raise the next day.
Amy Joyce: Right. It can work. But for each of those stories I've heard, I know of an equal number of people who were told to take it. So just be prepared to go if you want to go the ultimatum route.
But for Pa., that's another point: Go ahead and keep your eye out for other opportunities. There might come a point where you have no choice, unfortunately.
New York, N.Y.: Help! Last year my mom was diagnosed with cancer. I had to take a lot of time off. After her death at the end of January, I requested a month off (unpaid) and came back to work several weeks ago. The tension between my boss and I is palpable. Her e-mails to this department seem meant to exclude me from any decision making process that I had once been involved in. We used to meet once a week and that hasn't happened since I returned. I feel this is her back-handed way of letting me know how all that time off upset her. I am so ready to walk out the door. Any advice?
Amy Joyce: First, I'm so sorry about your situation.
Now... Try talking to her. Lay it all on the line. "I feel like I'm being excluded and I'm wondering if we could talk about this. What can I do to get back on track?" etc. It might not be the most pleasant conversation, but nothing will happen if you do, well, nothing. And you're not happy with that. So try plan B. Good luck.
McLean, Va.: Amy, I think you have the most fertile chat on washingtonpost.com.
Amy Joyce: You think this is bad? You should check out the Business section at the Washington Post. More on that in my column the week after next...
RE: Work and grad school at night: I did this. I worked full-time and went to school at night/weekends for software engineering. I used to do my class reading on the treadmill at the gym so I knew I had a focused 45 minutes where I couldn't move off the treadmill and I had to read. My bosses knew I was in school, and they were great about it, since they got a direct benefit, and I used that to my advantage in asking for a flexible schedule around exams where I'd work fewer hours on exam days.
If your school is related to your work, don't be afraid to let your work know where you got these new great skills so they can see the direct benefit to them - and if they're paying for your school, as my company did, they want you to do well and keep that knowledge in the company.
Amy Joyce: Great points. Thanks.
Falls Church, Va.: I was in the same boat as McLean. When I left my last job, one of my bosses completely ignored me for my last four days. I just tried to do everything I could to appease everyone else around me and him and left my work in as good order as possible.
Amy Joyce: That's the best you can do in that situation. Thanks, FC.
Reston, Va.: To the person who's had two promotions and taken on more work but not seen the commensurate increase, I'd also ask if the pay increase that's "in the pipeline" will be retroactive to the dates of your promotions (at least the most recent one). Worth a try, anyway.
Amy Joyce: True, might want to check on that, Pa.
Falls Church, Va.: Amy: I'm a fan of yours and read your column every week. Also, I think you give some good advice during the weekly chats. However, your column on Sunday really fell short. Yes, the programs you reported on focus on women. Understood. But, why not dig deeper and ask if any of the programs have considered broadening the program to men? People need time to focus on the home front for a variety of reasons (small children, aging or ailing parents) and it's not just women. I was disappointed the article didn't at least touch on this. And, did the programs you mention only cater to women with small children? What about people who need a couple of years to aid to a sick parent?
Amy Joyce: Thanks, Falls Church.
These programs all are open men to men as well, and are expanded to other life issues that you mentioned. But the main impetus for these programs was women who were expecting or had small children. The reasoning was/is strong: More women are entering the workforce now than ever. More women than men are graduating from college now. And though most came back to work after maternity leave, these companies found that it was the year after that the women started dropping out.
So you make good points that yes, there are other issues out there that make it very difficult to work. But women with children were the driving force behind the creation of these programs. And because of that, perhaps more of these programs will be started for people in many tough life/work situations.
washingtonpost.com: Developing Boomerang Mothers, (Post, March 11)
Anonymous: I did two semesters of one grad school program while working full-time, and I'm starting a new grad school program this summer still working part-time. I actually handled this much better than I did my undergrad years ... working full-time pretty much forced me to be more organized with my schoolwork. I tried to get as much done on weeknights so I could enjoy my weekends more. And the biggest, most disappointing change for me: a whole lot less TV watching.
Amy Joyce: Ah, yes. Perhaps this is when TiVo gets installed...
Reston, Va.: For New York, I'm not trying to be insensitive to your position and your grief, but taking a month off to deal with the death of a parent is a lot of time. You should be thankful that your employer let you do that at all. Most wouldn't. Before you lay it on the line, give it a little time with your boss. Show her you are committed to being there and that you are back and ready to go. If that doesn't work, then lay it out there. A couple weeks is nothing. Give it some time.
Amy Joyce: Reston has a point here. I skipped over the fact that this person had only been back to work for a couple weeks. You're right that it might take some time to settle back in and let the boss settle back in to the idea that you've returned. I'm glad your company let you take so much time off, but don't expect too much from them right away. Give it a little more time, and when you still feel like you're being marginalized, talk to your boss and ask what you can do to make things better.
When I said lay it on the line, I don't mean tell your boss she's being a boor. You need to listen to what she says to you about your work. Then take that knowledge and use it to improve, if that's in order.
To newly pregnant: I'm sure this depends on your workplace and your personal preference, but with both pregnancies I told everyone really early on that was pregnant. When people know what's going on (and that they aren't going to catch whatever you have) they are really good about it. I've left meetings to go to the bathroom or even to eat. I also travel A LOT, and told my clients what was up. I even told deponents and opposing counsel (I'm a big-firm litigation). Not only were they cool that I had food in my briefcase and let me eat it during the meetings, but it just made the time more human and friendly -- I ended up with better information from the deponent and we even got more work from the client after those meetings. Just my two cents.
Amy Joyce: Good two cents. I'm glad it worked for you. But to others: think about your workplace culture before you tell everyone. It may be that this approach is perfect and smart. Others might realize it would be more difficult for people to know early. (For one thing, there is a high chance of miscarriage before the 12 week point, so you might want to consider whether you want people to know if that happens.)
Sanity in grad school: Regarding grad school sanity, I think the opposite is true: clear your plate of anything that can be put on hold.
It is tough to do more than two or three things well at one time (school, work, family time), so perhaps that means taking a break from travel, or rec sports, or music classes, or tutoring, etc.
Yes, do the things that are important, but be prepared to 'shelve' some of the routine activities and fun stuff for some time.
Amy Joyce: Definitely be prepared to shelve some things. I was just saying it might help keep folks going if they have an hour a day filled with something their mind/body needs.
Happy Valley, Pa.: Amy: Thanks for your advice. What's your advice for realizing during a job interview process that you don't want the job? Is it poor form to cut an interview short by saying that you don't think this is a good fit? I once heard "never turn down a job that hasn't been offered yet," but it seems like it may be a waste of time on both sides to go through the process if ultimately you know that it's not something you want.
Amy Joyce: Finish the interview that day. If they call you back, you can tell them that you're not interested. But please be sure that you're not. Even if you don't want this particular job, you might want or need to work for this company in the future. By cutting the interview process short before you know this, you might be burning future bridges.
Not sure what to do: I am very unhappy in my work situation. It is just not a good fit. I dread going to work every day and am tempted to quit. Is it better to stick it out until I find a new job, or quit and start temping while I look for something new?
Amy Joyce: Start looking now, while you're working. You might be surprised how that makes your day seem a little easier. Why? Because you can sense that there is something ahead. If you stick where you are, you can keep your health insurance, pay and a steady job on your resume. But all of these things are negotiable if work is so bad it's making you sick and depressed. Especially if you have money saved and can cover your own health care. But please do the research before you jump without a job. You might be more miserable if you are living paycheck to paycheck and worried about what might happen if you break your arm.
Durham, N.C.: Hi, Amy. Thanks for doing these chats. Sometimes, women write you about pregnancy/maternity. When do they tell the office? How do they tell prospective employers? I'm expecting -- but not pregnant. Because we're adopting a child, there's no "due date." Maybe we'll become parents this summer or maybe 18 months from now. It all depends on when we're matched with a birthmother. But when that happens, we'll have about one month before becoming parents.
When/how do I tell people at work? I've been invited to apply for another job. When/how do I tell them?
Amy Joyce: Would you get the same leave as a new mom who gave birth to her child? If not (and unfortunately, you probably don't), then I'd say it's fine to hold off until you've been matched with a birth mother. The company won't need to find someone to fill in for you as long as they might for someone who physically gave birth. So even a month is a good amount of notice for you. Unless you plan to take a fair amount of leave. In which case, you might want to clue in your direct manager.
But since this might still be a long way off (I hope it's not for your sake!), you should still apply for another job if interested.
Washington, D.C.: Any job ideas for someone interested in politics (both policy and campaigns)? My friend has been struggling to find a job on the Hill for the past three months and has no such luck. He has work experience with both campaigns and PACs, but can't seem to land an entry-level position. I want to help him start looking beyond the Hill (and DNC-type jobs) ... any ideas? Thanks for your help ... things are getting desperate.
Amy Joyce: Hill jobs take time, unfortunately. And it helps to know people. It helps to be incredibly persistent. There are some temp and placement agencies related directly to Hill work, like PoliTemps. There are listservs for open jobs and many happy hour networking events (formal and informal) on the Hill that your friend might want to check out. I did a story on the ins and outs of Hill work on 1/1. I'll see if we can quickly post it.
Bethesda, Md.: Why do so many employers interview people (sometimes as many as three times, then never tell you that you didn't get the position)? I know this has been talked about before, but I notice that employers never address this. They answer this question by saying how they can't answer every resume that is sent to them. I just want them to give job seekers the common courtesy of a letter or phone call after going in for a sit down interview, not every time they get a resume. Anybody have the courage to answer this?
Amy Joyce: I just wrote about this one, too. Let me see if we can get it posted before the hour's up. I hope it helps.
washingtonpost.com: Help Wanted on the Hill, (Post, Jan. 1)
washingtonpost.com: Persistence Can Help Rescue a Resume That's Lost in the Ether, (Post, Jan. 7)
Amy Joyce: Okay, gang. Wonderful Andrea posted those two stories, and I'm going to sign off. Thanks for the lively and helpful chat, as always.
Don't forget to check out Sunday's Life at Work column in the Business section and join me again here next week, same time, same place.
And, hey, have a great week.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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The Garden Plot - washingtonpost.com
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Catch up on previous transcripts of The Garden Plot.
Higgins is the author of two books, "The Secret Gardens of Georgetown: Behind the Walls of Washington's Most Historic Neighborhood" and "The Washington Post Garden Book: The Ultimate Guide to Gardening in Greater Washington and the Mid-Atlantic Region."
Privacy Screen: Our side porch is relatively close to the (currently unoccupied) house on the other side. We probably have about 5' of yard between our porch and the property line. The soil is fairly good, moist, but not swampy. We'd like to plant something that would provide the porch with some privacy (probably 8' tall or so) but wouldn't take over the entire 5' of width, as we're planning a flower bed there. The fence is only about 4 feet, so it wouldn't provide enough height support for a taller vine. Do you have any suggestions for plants that might work?
Adrian Higgins: I saw a wonderful boxwood recently called Fastigiata, which grows at about 8 inches a year. Another, more slender upright boxwood is Dee Runk. Both would work, as long as the soil is not flooded and you don't plant them too deeply.
First, I'm so happy about DST, since I have an hour of daylight when I get home from work.
Second, I started peas and kale some weeks ago. Do I need to harden them off, or can I just put them in the ground this week? Which other vegetables can I start now?
Adrian Higgins: Both peas and kale are extremely hardy, and are best started directly in the ground. If you have stated them in little pots, yes I would harden them off a bit by keeping them outdoors for a week in a sheltered, shady spot (bringing them in during nights of frosts) and then planting them directly in a bed that has been worked. The peas will need some netting or trellising to get them off the ground.
Del Ray, Va: We have a few areas in our back yard where the drainage is poor and water tends to stand longer than the other areas in our yard. I have heard that adding sand to those areas will help with the drainage? Is this true? If so, will the sand kill the grass?
Adrian Higgins: It is possible to fill hollows in the lawn with sand, and then sow fresh grass seed. Sand, however, is not an amendment that fixes clay soil because you can never supply enough of it to counter the effects of the clay. However, other amendments are useful. There is a mineral product called Stalite that will improve the soil structure. The best approach is to add organic matter on a continuing basis. The worms will do the rest.
Elmhurst, Ill: Save an oak! Maybe five years ago, an attractive oak self-seeded in my shrub border. I live in a semi-urban Chicago suburb with smallish lots, but the tree's location between my neighbor's house and ours was OK, so I decided to keep the oaklet. The top whip quickly reached 15 ft; caliper at bottom is about 4". But now the sapling leaning noticeably westward by about one foot. Is it too late to stake the oak or otherwise correct the lean? Thank you for any information you can offer!
Adrian Higgins: You could stake it for a couple of years, to see if that will help. Make sure the guy wire is threaded through hose to protect the bark, and don't forget to remove it. It may be leaning because of the light conditions and short of taking down surrounding trees, there may not be an easy fix. I think the tree is too old for this to be a problem with the rootball shifting.
Aquasco, Md: I really want to begin my vegetable garden this spring. I have been searching for a magazine that focuses mainly on vegetable gardening but haven't been able to find anything other than flower-type gardening. Any suggestions? Thanks!!!
Adrian Higgins: Organic Gardening, published by Rodale, is still pretty committed to us dying band of veggie growers.
Bethesda, Md: Good morning. I apologize in advance if this question is too basic. My backyard is small & looks like it needs new grass. Someone suggested Kentucky Blue grass, similar to that of baseball & football fields. What is the most generic grass to use and can I get to work on this project immediately, timewise, for decent results, this year? Thanks.
Adrian Higgins: There is no basic question, just a noble quest to succeed. Kentucky blue grass is sort of the Ferrari of grasses, beautiful but high maintenance. You need the Chevy, i.e. turf type tall fescues. Varieties have been developed that will do well in our hot, humid conditions, so look for these. Don't use generic varieties and stay away from Kentucky 31. Rebel is a good series for our climate. You can sow it now, and, better, again in September.
Linden, Va: I'm new to the cool season vegetable crop game. What should I be planting now?
Adrian Higgins: Many of these are better sown in August for a fall crop here, but you can certainly try them and harvest them as baby vegetables if needed. Lettuce would be fine now for crops in May and June. I would wait a little to sow the carrots, the soil is still too cold for rapid germination. Do the carrots in early April.
Alexandria, Va: I am planning my new backyard landscaping and was wondering if any of the plants I'm picking are particularly bad idea. I've got a section that currently has ivy for ground cover, I want to rip that out and put in periwinkle instead, day lilies lining the sunny back fence of the area, oak leaf hydrangeas for the partly shady spots (I'm concerned they will get a bit big for the space however); lirirope borders along the sunny walk; a crape myrtle; hostas in the shady area; tuberous begonias in the planters. I like all these plants because they are relatively low maintenance and low in allergy issues. Any thoughts? Thanks, your advice is helpful for this novice.
Adrian Higgins: All of these sound good, except, the tuberous begonia does suffer in our hot, humid summers. I would make sure you only water the roots, not the stems or leaves, and keep it in a spot that gets afternoon shade. In time, i.e. 10 years, oakleaf hydrangeas will grow 8 feet high and 6 feet wide. But you can always trim them back.
Novice rose grower:: Last month you said to wait until 'bud break' to prune roses
back. Well, ok - what's a bud break? How far back do I
Adrian Higgins: Bud break is when the bud bursts open to reveal the nascent leaves. The winter was so mild, in spite of the cold snap, that I had roses that broke bud early. Rose bushes should be pruned now, remove diseased and damaged canes entirely. Remaining ones (four to five in number) should be well spaced and free from rubbing with neighbors. These are cut back to about 18 inches. Wear thick gloves or risk death by lockjaw. Climbers are pruned differently, you can trim them now but don't remove last year's canes entirely, or risk flower loss.
Washington DC: I really want to plant some Bamboo, I'm pretty sure I first read about it in a Post article a few weeks ago. I have since done some research and think the Black or Blue Bamboo would be best for my purposes and this climate. I want to use it for privacy in the front yard of my townhouse.
The problem, is I cannot find anywhere here that sells it. Do you know of anywhere in the DC metro area that I could go and talk to a knowledgeable sales staff? Or where I could find out more information?
Adrian Higgins: Some of the popular bamboos are readily available from Internet sources. Google the latin names and you will no doubt find sources. Phyllostachys and fargesia are a couple of magic words.
Silver Spring, Md: Last year I planted bunching onion seeds, but they never got very big and I ended up pulling them midsummer. I think I planted them too late and too close together. When should they go in, and what should the spacing be?
Adrian Higgins: Onion are tricky, because they are heavy feeders, hate weed competition and uneven watering, and take months to develop. The best onions here are seed sown in early fall and grown through the winter for harvest the following early summer. However, you will have fun and success with onion sets put in now.
Ashburn, Va: Is it too early to plant an Arborvitae along the west side of my house?
Adrian Higgins: No, any woody plants being planted this spring should go in earlier rather than later so that they have overcome transplant shock before the heat of summer.
Falls Church, Va: I was doing some pruning this weekend and I have a problem with my pruning tool. It will cut through a branch 99% of the way, but it won't cut the bark on the opposite end of the cut.
Is there something I can do about this? I don't think it's a sharpening issue because it easily cuts through the branch. Do I need to tighten the nuts holding the blades together or do I just get a new one?
Adrian Higgins: You need a new blade. Replacement blades are available for quality pruners. I use Felco No. 2.
Chevy Chase, Washington, DC: Good Morning Professor Higgins:
I wanted to know if now is a good time to prune Camelia and Privet Bushes? If so, how much?
Adrian Higgins: These are two different animals. The camellia is a lovely specimen, or should be, and the privet is sort of like a workhorse. Unless you are growing a camellia as an espalier, it won't need much pruning except perhaps to correct crossing or inward growing branches. This is best done in spring after flowering. Privet is often grown as a sheared hedge. Over several years the bottom gets very thin. If this is the case, cut it back to about six inches and give it two or three years to regrow. When it does revegetate, clip the hedge so that it has a slight taper toward the top. This will allow sunlight to reach the lower branches and keep the hedge thick.
Washington, DC: How easy is it to grow chives from seed in a pot? I'm new to all of this, but am thinking of planting shives this weekend..
Adrian Higgins: As long as you can maintain even moisture, they should germinate fine. But this is another onion, so it will take several months to attain a stem size worth harvesting. I would sow the seeds in a pot with a couple of sticks as stakes and then build a tent of polythene. This will provide the humid condition needed for the seeds to germinate and develop. Take the plastic off once the seedlings are two or three inches high.
Not Dead Yet: Just a hello from another veggie grower who was out at 8:30 last night finishing the trellis for the peas.... Welcome spring and DST!
Your advice is spot on!
My wife would like a fig tree. I've seen them at Home Depot and Lowes. Do they grow well in this area? Do they need full sun? What about pomegranate trees?
Adrian Higgins: Huzzah for global warming. We once were limited to the hardiest variety of fig, now we can venture into more Zone 7 and even 8 varieties. As ever, Edible Landscaping in Afton, Va. has a good selection. Now would be a great time to plant a fig. They prefer full sun, fruiting will diminish or not ripen well in shadier locations, and figs insist on pretty well drained soil. Pomegranates are a little more borderline, but certainly worth growing, especially a dwarf form, Nana.
Manassas Va: I hate weeding and besides that, I have a slightly bad back. I love to plant lots of pansies, impatients, daffodils and tuplips come up every year.
What is the easiest way for me to take care of the weeds? I have weed cloth down but it is such a pain when adding new flowers. Please help!
Adrian Higgins: A weed cloth will help, you plant through it by make an X with a sharp blade. Then use a thin layer of mulch. I use a kneeling pad, which I find saves the back for weeding. It also looks from a distance as if I am in prayer and saintly.
South Hamilton, Mass: Dear Adrian,
I removed the vegetable debris from my garden last fall but didn't get to mulching my leaves to put in the garden. Nor did I put in any manure or compost. What can I do this spring to help make up for my negligence last fall?
Adrian Higgins: Composting is a continuous enterprise. Autumn leaves, obviously, are a great starting point, but you can start a pile at any time. Having brown material such as straw or leaves would be really handy, though, to mix with all those spring grass clippings.
Any easy-peasy pretty flowers you'd recommend this witless gardener try to plant? Both in ground and in pots (in pots is where I tend to kill them the most, so it's more of a challenge).
Adrian Higgins: For the spring, I love violas, which are somewhere in size between pansies and Johnny Jump Ups. They won't last beyond mid June, but really look fresh in the spring. Plant them again in September.
Houston, Tex: I've recently discovered that I really enjoy pot gardening. I live in an apartment, so that's pretty much all I can handle. Might you be able to suggest plants well suited to the humid heat of SE Texas?
Adrian Higgins: I thought for a minute you were talking about something else. In your heat and humidity, go nuts with tropicals, such as bananas, gingers, passionflowers, cannas, coleus and taros. Check out a nursery named Glasshouseworks.
Washington DC: Do you know a good variety of Dwarf pears that will do well in the DC area?
Adrian Higgins: Dwarfing is a product of the rootstock, just make sure you get a variety grafted onto dwarf stock. I am told that Magnus is a fabulous variety for our area, you may need another variety for cross pollination.
Rockville, Md: I had someone come out last October to fill my dead front garden with foundation plants. It's a 3-level garden plot, but fairly small. On the bottom level, there's a japanese maple, and my parents are convinced this is in the absolute worst place.
My question: are they correct? There is only about a foot radius around the maple, with one edge by the walkway and another by the 2 ft. wall leading to the next level.
Second question: if I must move it, when is the best time to do it without killing it, and what special precautions do I need to take? Where is an ideal place for such a tree?
Adrian Higgins: Listen to your parents! Weeping Japanese maples, in time, will grow eight feet high and 10 feet across. It will prefer a space with at least six feet around it, anyway. It also does best in an east or north facing bed with some afternoon shade. Move it now, while it is still dormant. Hurry and don't set it too deeply. Give it a light mulch of leaf mold. Feed it with a seaweed, kelp fertilizer. This will help it get over the move.
Annandale, Va: Hello. When is the best time to apply the type of weed control that inhibits seed germination for crabgrass, etc? Thanks.
Adrian Higgins: When the soil temperature climbs into the 50s, usually around mid April.
I inherited a raspberry bush in my community garden plot. It's done well the past couple of years, but last year produced fewer, smaller berries than before. I don't know much about raspberry bushes, so I'm not sure what I'm doing, and I'm worried my ignorance has led to lower yield. I prune the thing occasionally, but that just means I cut out the dead branches. I've heard that the branches produce only once, then you should cut them, but I never have the nerve to cut them unless they're clearly dead.
So, should I hack away? Also, I think I should fertilize (I've heard you feed if you want fruit or flowers), so is now a good time, or is it too early? Should I be feeding throughout the year?
Help! My son is almost two, and his greedy little mouth wants more raspberries!
Adrian Higgins: There are two basic types of raspberry, a summer fruiting one and a fall fruiting type. YOu will probably have to assume yours is the former for pruning purposes. Remove all the old canes, thin out the stand and leave a few of last year's canes, which can be trimmed back. Your raspberry will flower and fruit from buds on these canes. The second type fruits on the same season's growth, so it can be cut to the ground during the winter months. I would invest in two or three more raspberries, get fall bloomers, and plant them in the next month.
Thanks for all your questions and I'm sorry I couldn't get to them all. But I am back now on a weekly schedule, so we'll see you here again next Tuesday. I'm on Washington Post radio tomorrow at 2:20 p.m. and Friday at 6:20 a.m., as well as in the Home section on Thursdays.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Join live discussions from the Washington Post. Feature topics include national, world and DC area news, politics, elections, campaigns, government policy, tech regulation, travel, entertainment, cars, and real estate.
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Men's Health - washingtonpost.com
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American Journal of Men's Health editor Demetrius Porche takes your questions about the health risks of being male, and how to reduce them.
Porche was online Tuesday, March 13, at 12:15 p.m. ET
Arlington, Va.: I have a family history of arteriosclerosis. I've tried to reduce my overall cholesterol level as well as increase the HDL/LDL ratio. My current primary care physician wanted to put me on a drug to reduce my cholesterol immediately, even though I was only at the high end of the healthy range. He didn't even attempt to get me to change my eating habits or exercise regimen, he just wanted to push a new drug onto me. I know that studies have shown a strong and direct relationship between physician age and quality of care. Generally, a doctor is at her best about 5 years after finishing her residency. Her medical knowledge is still up to date and her skills are still sharp. This doctor seems to jibe with the study's results. According to a friend of mine, who's a much younger doctor, another remedy he suggested for a different condition is out of date by about 10 years.
I need to find a new doctor because my insurance has changed. I'm always hesitant to take recommendations from friends or family because it seems that the information they use to judge the quality of care they receive is skimpy at best. How much weight should I place on age when selecting a new doctor? What other information should I look at and where can I find useful information to help me make an informed choice?
Demetrius Porche: Thanks for you question. I would definitely suggest that you discuss with your health care provider their philosophy about including patients in their treatment recommendations. I would suggest that you select a provider that includes you in the decision making. This will provide an open conversation to permit you to ask questions and explore other options such as weight loss and exercise. The age of the provider is probably not as relevant as their knowledge level, competence and patient relationships. I suggest always securing recommendations about the selection of your health care provider. This includes interviewing the provider and asking critical questions before committing to a long-term provider.
Annapolis, Md.: Do you support men using holistic medicine? If so, why do men fear or have a misunderstanding of using a holistic or natural medicine to rebuild the body?
Demetrius Porche: I think the use of holistic medicine is a positive complement to any regimen. I believe there is a lack of awareness and knowledge regarding this practice. I do support using holistic medicine that does have some evidence to support it's utilization. In addition, the utilization of holistic medicine should be disclosed and shared with your provider.
Juneau, Alaska: Submitting a few minutes early...I'm a 39-year-old male who's had an extremely severe case of bulimia for several years. Because I'm fairly well off, I binge on $200-$300 worth of food on almost a daily basis. So beyond the obvious health concerns are the guilt and worries of ruining my financial security. The cause of it was primarily my marriage, involving a wonderful woman whose personality was so strong it dominated the relationship and I ended up feeling like I'd lost all control of my life.
That recently ended, on good terms thankfully, but there's one more huge problem with seeking help. I went through a lot of therapy as a youth in foster homes and, having read many of the same textbooks as them, have a lot of distrust for therapists. Also, some kind of lock-down in-patient treatment would likely just aggravate the feeling of having no control and feels like it wouldn't be a long-range solution. So the question I'm asking constantly is how do I get help under these circumstances?
Demetrius Porche: I think given your history, your best solution is developing a long-term relationship with a counselor. This relationship will provide support and serve as a network for you to utilize. You will need to consider a counselor or therapist that has experience with both behavioral, emotional, and social support.
Charleston, S.C.: What foods should men older than 50 absolutely avoid?
Demetrius Porche: A balanced diet is the best selection. Persons over 50 should especially pay attention to ensuring that they daily vitamin amounts are consumed along with appropriate amounts of fiber. Food tolerance is individualistic and dependent on the individual. Well balanced meals consumed throughout the day are best.
My husband has recently (within last year) been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and is taking metformin and attempting to watch what he eats. He's cut out a lot of the "white items" (sugar, potatoes, rice, bread) but he is not the least bit interested in exercising. I have done research and found that walking, even for just 30 minutes a day, can significantly help his diabetes. How do I get him to work out?
Demetrius Porche: Studies have demonstrated that motivation can be stimulated by a man's partner participating in an exercise regimen with him. You can focus the event on spending time together and discussing issues while walking and enjoying the community. This takes the emphasis off of exercise and on spending time together.
Southern Maryland: Decades ago, I asked my husband when did he last go to a doctor. The answer "Not too long ago." Well at this point, we had been married 2-plus years, dated 2-plus years prior and he had never been to a doctor since I knew him. We discussed that he had not seen a doctor in YEARS. He insisted he had. So I asked him the doctor's name. He gave me a blank deer in the headlights look. So he had not seen a doctor in 5-plus years, at least. I found and spoke to a family practitioner who became his physician for many years. Today, he sees the doctor, annually.
I tell wives to make sure they have plenty of life insurance on their spouses if their hubbies don't go to the doctor.
Demetrius Porche: Great. Men should be encouraged to routinely have a physical and annual examination.
Why is federal government spending on women's health issues so much greater than that devoted to men's health?
Why is there no dept. of men's health?
Finally, are feminist politics preventing a more equitable distribution of federal health dollars as well as stopping the establishment of a dept. of men's health?
Demetrius Porche: Unfortunately, I cannot definitely answer your question. However, there have been bills introduced in Congress to establish an Office of Men's Health. Some of the major barriers are a lack of awareness of need, a misunderstanding about what constitutes men's health, and concern that men's health will replace the focus or emphasis on women's health, and concern with having definitive outcomes.
D.C.: Is the reason why women generally outlive men is because traditionally speaking, men have much more stress and responsibilities as the breadwinner, is it biological, or is it because they just want to die earlier?
Demetrius Porche: We are still exploring the answer to these questions. There may be a genetic and biological determinant, but it is definitely influenced by environmental factors. Men generally enter the health care system later with more advanced stages of an illness.
Washington, D.C.: When and how often should men be going to see doctors? Which doctors? And at which ages? Like many men his age, my husband is 30 and hasn't been to see a doctor since high school, and only then for treatment of problems (broken bones, etc.) and not for preventative care. Now that we have the money, should he make one "big" visit to a doctor and then get on the once-a-year routine?
Demetrius Porche: I believe that men should routinely visit a health care provider for an annual examination, regardless of age. There are certain screening tests and preventive treatments that the health care provider will implement that are age dependent.
El Dorado, Ark.: My 49-year-old husband will not take care of himself. He is quite overweight, has a family history of diabetes, and has just been diagnosed with high blood pressure. His doctor told him to lose weight and exercise, but he won't. We try to eat right, but even when we do, he eats too much. I think he likes being heavy. What can I do? Any books he would pay attention to? Another doctor or dietitian?
Demetrius Porche: I think you have a point that needs further exploration. He needs someone to help him identify what he values. Does he value health? Everyone does not value health. Understanding his beliefs and thoughts regarding his health may identify why he is not changing his behavior.
Vienna, Va.: Advising men 40 and younger to get regular medical checkups sounds like a good policy for individuals. But is it a good policy for society as a whole?
Should we spend our medical resources testing a large group of people, most of whom are healthy?
Providing coverage for the millions of uninsured Americans seems a better use of our resources.
Demetrius Porche: Both are important. I believe we need to definitely ensure that all persons receive access to health care. However, this is a controversial issue. I do believe that if individuals do not remain healthy by seeking regular examinations at defined age points, this will also eventually impact society through many means.
Thanks to everyone for your interest in men's health and stimulating questions.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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American Journal of Men's Health editor Demetrius Porche takes your questions about the health risks of being male, and how to reduce them.
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Belmont: Long Shots Say It All
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Georgetown's players may not have known much about Belmont when the NCAA tournament bracket was revealed on Sunday evening, but they knew one thing about their first-round opponent: "They have some good shooters out there," junior center Roy Hibbert said.
Belmont, a 4,500-student university in Nashville, is known for its music and music business programs, which have produced country music stars Brad Paisley and Trisha Yearwood. Its basketball program, making its second straight NCAA appearance as the Atlantic Sun tournament champion, is known for its three-point shooting.
"It's a big part of our game and our philosophy," said junior guard Justin Hare, who is one of four Bruins who has attempted at least 120 three-pointers this season. "We've got a lot of good shooters on our team, and usually we try to get one through four guys who can really step out and shoot the three."
The 15th-seeded Bruins (23-9), who will play second-seeded Georgetown (26-6) in the first round of the East region on Thursday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C., are 22nd in the country in made three-point shots per game (8.8). It is the eighth straight season they have ranked among the top 25 teams in the country.
In its 94-67 rout of East Tennessee State in the conference tournament final, Belmont made 12 three pointers in the first half. The Bruins have made 88 three-pointers in their current seven-game winning streak (an average of 12.6 per game). Against Gardner-Webb on Feb. 15, the Bruins were 17 of 29 from long range, with sophomore guard Andy Wicke hitting 10 of 12 three-point shots. Wicke, who has taken only 33 shots inside the arc this season, is shooting 45.7 percent from beyond it (75 of 164), the 10th-best percentage in Division I.
"They can put five shooters on the floor," said Georgetown Coach John Thompson III, whose team already has faced four of the most prolific three-point shooting teams in the country (West Virginia, Oregon, Vanderbilt and Notre Dame).
"They spread you out and they make shots. . . . It's one of those teams where you have to stay focused on each individual person."
Belmont turned to the three-point shot out of necessity when it made the jump from NAIA to NCAA Division I during the 1996-97 season. The Bruins had success in the NAIA under Coach Rick Byrd, advancing to five NAIA tournaments and making the national semifinals twice (1995 and '96). But it was a challenge going to Division I, especially since the school was not eligible for the NCAA tournament in its first five seasons. That made recruiting difficult -- "You're not going to out-recruit people that are going to the tournament," Byrd said -- so he and his staff had to come up with a different approach.
"We felt like the most overlooked good basketball players were those with good skills that were maybe a touch less athletic or weren't as quick, yet they could shoot it and knew how to play," said Byrd, who has won more than 500 games in 21 seasons at Belmont. "We just felt that was our best chance to get as good as we could at that time. . . . I think it turned out to be an effective way for us to make the move. We certainly didn't defend well in the early years for that reason, but we had pretty good records."
The Bruins -- who finished second in the nation in three-pointers behind national champion Duke in 2000-01 -- are still able to attract good shooters. But now that they're in a conference and have a gleaming, four-year-old arena, it's been easier for Byrd to attract more athletic players. As a result, Belmont has posted some of its best defensive numbers ever, ranking ninth in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.387).
Byrd knows that the Bruins are going to have to play well on offense and defense to avoid the same fate they had in their first-ever NCAA trip; last year, they lost to second-seeded UCLA, 78-44, in San Diego.
"It's just easy to not have real high expectations the first time around," Byrd said. "After watching Georgetown, it's hard to have high expectations this time around. But I think it does help to get your team ready to do more than just show up and wear a big smile."
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Hagel's Waiting Game
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For Republicans, 2008 promises to be a disconcerting if exciting year because for the first time since the 1964 Goldwater insurgency, the party is struggling over its philosophical direction. The old conservatism is in crisis, Bush Republicanism (of the son's variety but not the father's) is a tainted brand, and no candidate has emerged as the Next New Thing that the party wants or needs.
That's why Hagel, the Nebraska senator and Iraq war critic, suggested yesterday that he might seek the presidency. It's why Thompson, the actor and former senator from Tennessee, said on Fox News the day before that he was "giving some thought" to joining the race. And who knows whether Newt Gingrich will get in?
Hagel was onto something when he spoke of the country "experiencing a political reorientation, a redefining and moving toward a new political center of gravity" and of our current problems "overtaking the ideological debates of the last three decades." And he hinted that he might seek the White House as an independent. "This movement is bigger than both parties," he said, tantalizingly.
The Hagel Hint and the Thompson Tease are disturbing news for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, the front-runner in the polls. Giuliani's strength is as the remainder candidate. He is drawing support from Republicans who can't bring themselves to back the previous front-runner, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, or former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who has a lot of party establishment support but hasn't made the sale because of too much obvious flip-flopping.
This should be an opening for the conservative dark horses, former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. But they have been unable to fill the void on the right, perhaps because even traditionalist conservatives reluctantly sense, as Hagel does, that the old formulas aren't working.
Giuliani, effectively our stand-in leader early in the week of Sept. 11, 2001, while President Bush was finding his footing, provides a safe parking place for Republican seekers. But Giuliani's core weakness may not be any of those most widely discussed: the fact that he supports legal abortion and gay rights, his divorces, his strained relations with his children. His real problem is that his discourse is still rooted in the immediate post-Sept. 11 period, even as the country has moved on.
No, the country has not forgotten that day, and it still wants to fight terrorism. But a lot has happened since Sept. 11, notably the Bush administration's use of our collective anger at terrorists to inveigle us into a war in Iraq that most Americans now view as a terrible mistake.
The president's low approval ratings signal the electorate's belief that tough-guy rhetoric and a go-it-alone, multiple-war approach are inadequate to the battle we're in.
Giuliani's candidacy is premised on reminding us of one terrible day over and over, when the country is looking for more than the stern reassurance it needed during that frightening moment. A war that has weakened McCain, one of its strongest supporters, could eventually undercut Giuliani's sales pitch.
That gives Thompson every incentive to hang around and wait, in the meantime clocking more face time as the district attorney on "Law & Order." Republicans could be sick of their field by the time the fall season comes around, and in desperate search for a new cast.
But could Hagel successfully play as a GOP presidential candidate? In truth, his Senate voting record, according to the most recent National Journal ratings, is more conservative than either McCain's or Brownback's. Yet Hagel's foreign policy views are far closer to those of the first President Bush and Colin Powell's than to the current president's, and that's why he can't stand what's happened in Iraq.
Even within the Republican rank and file, there's disillusionment with the war. A Pew Research Center survey last month found that only 51 percent of Republicans thought things were going "very" or "fairly" well in Iraq, down 26 percentage points in a year.
But disillusionment is not the same as rebellion. Republicans, usually not a band of rebels, still pray that Bush can succeed in Iraq. Thus Hagel waits, hyping a non-announcement to say he's around if the world and the party move his way. What he really wants is to overturn the foreign policy of Bush 43 and restore the old-fashioned Republican approach of Bush 41. He may have to split his party and run as an independent to do it.
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For Republicans, 2008 promises to be a disconcerting if exciting year because for the first time in decades the party is struggling over its philosophical direction.
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Firings Had Genesis in White House
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The White House suggested two years ago that the Justice Department fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, a proposal that eventually resulted in the dismissals of eight prosecutors last year, according to e-mails and internal documents that the administration will provide to Congress today.
The dismissals took place after President Bush told Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in October that he had received complaints that some prosecutors had not energetically pursued voter-fraud investigations, according to a White House spokeswoman.
Gonzales approved the idea of firing a smaller group of U.S. attorneys shortly after taking office in February 2005. The aide in charge of the dismissals -- his chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson -- resigned yesterday, officials said, after acknowledging that he did not tell key Justice officials about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information to Congress.
Lawmakers requested the documents as part of an investigation into whether the firings were politically motivated. While it is unclear whether the documents, which were reviewed yesterday by The Washington Post, will answer Congress's questions, they show that the White House and other administration officials were more closely involved in the dismissals, and at a much earlier date, than they have previously acknowledged.
Seven U.S. attorneys were fired on Dec. 7 and another was fired months earlier, with little explanation from the Justice Department. Several former prosecutors have since alleged intimidation, including improper telephone calls from GOP lawmakers or their aides, and have alleged threats of retaliation by a Justice Department official.
Administration officials have portrayed the firings as a routine personnel matter, designed primarily to rid the department of a handful of poor performers.
But the documents and interviews indicate that the idea for the firings originated at least two years ago, when then-White House counsel Harriet E. Miers suggested to Sampson in February 2005 that all prosecutors be dismissed and replaced.
Gonzales rejected that idea as impractical and disruptive, Justice officials said, but over the next 22 months Sampson orchestrated more limited dismissals.
"I recommend that the Department of Justice and the Office of the Counsel to the President work together to seek the replacement of a limited number of U.S. Attorneys," Sampson wrote to Miers in January 2006. A "limited number of U.S. attorneys could be targeted for removal and replacement, mitigating the shock to the system that would result from an across the board firing."
Administration officials say they are braced for a new round of criticism today from lawmakers who may feel misled by recent testimony from Gonzales, Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty and William E. Moschella, principal associate deputy attorney general. Several Democrats have called in recent days for Gonzales to resign.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that "it doesn't appear the president was told about a list nor shown a list" of U.S. attorneys at any point in the discussions. She said White House political adviser Karl Rove had an early conversation with Miers about the idea of firing all chief prosecutors and did not think it was wise.
Bush mentioned complaints about voter-fraud investigations to Gonzales in a conversation in October 2006, Perino said. Gonzales does not recall the conversation, Justice Department officials said.
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The White House suggested two years ago that the Justice Department fire all 93 U.S. attorneys, a proposal that eventually resulted in the dismissals of eight prosecutors last year, according to e-mails and internal documents that the administration will provide to Congress today.
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Gonzales Rejects Calls for Resignation
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WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rejected growing calls for his resignation Tuesday as scores of newly released documents detailed a two-year campaign by the Justice Department and White House to purge federal prosecutors.
Gonzales acknowledged his department mishandled the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys and misled Congress about how they were fired. He said he was ultimately to blame for those "mistakes" but stood by the firings.
"I acknowledge that mistakes were made here," Gonzales told reporters at a news briefing after he canceled an out-of-town trip. "I accept that responsibility." He promised changes "so that the mistakes that occurred in this instance do not occur again in the future."
He focused on his department's dealings with Congress concerning the firings rather than the actual dismissals _ which Democrats have suggested were politically motivated _ and the planning behind them.
"I believe very strongly in our obligation to ensure that when I provide information to the Congress that it's accurate and that it's complete. And I am very dismayed that that may not have occurred here," he said.
Gonzales also accepted the resignation of his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. The aide, along with then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, had begun discussing possible firings of U.S. attorneys in early 2005, according to e-mails released Tuesday.
It was the second time in as many weeks that Gonzales was under fire. Last week, the attorney general and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller admitted the FBI improperly, and at times illegally, used the USA Patriot Act to secretly pry out personal information about Americans in terrorism investigations.
Gonzales, himself a former White House counsel, has been friends with President Bush for years, going back to when he served as Bush's secretary of state in Texas. Bush retains full confidence in the attorney general, said spokesman Dan Bartlett, traveling with Bush in Mexico.
"He's a standup guy," Bartlett said of Gonzales.
As for the firings, Bartlett said White House officials had heard complaints from members of Congress regarding prosecutors and Bush had raised the subject during an October 2006 meeting with Gonzales. He described the exchange as "offhand" and said Bush did not name any specific prosecutors but did identify their states.
"This briefly came up and the president said, 'I've been hearing about this election fraud issue from members of Congress and want to be sure you're on top of it as well,'" Bartlett said.
Bartlett said Gonzales responded, "I know and we're looking at those issues."
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WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rejected growing calls for his resignation Tuesday as scores of newly released documents detailed a two-year campaign by the Justice Department and White House to purge federal prosecutors.
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Gonzales: 'Mistakes Were Made'
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Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales took responsibility yesterday for "mistakes" related to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year but rejected calls for his resignation from Democrats who accuse him of misleading Congress.
"I acknowledge that mistakes were made here. I accept that responsibility," Gonzales said. He said he did not know the details of the plan to fire the prosecutors, but he defended the dismissals: "I stand by the decision, and I think it was a right decision."
The remarks came after the Justice Department released e-mails and other documents showing that, despite months of administration statements to the contrary, the White House more than two years ago initiated the process that led to the dismissals, and that the decisions were heavily influenced by assessments of the prosecutors' political loyalty. President Bush and senior White House adviser Karl Rove also separately passed along complaints to Gonzales that prosecutors were not aggressively pursuing voter-fraud cases, officials said.
The revelations prompted another outcry on Capitol Hill over the firings and new demands for Gonzales's resignation from key Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.). "It appears he's over his head in this job," Reid said.
Even Republicans who have supported the ousters sharply criticized the attorney general.
But Gonzales said he is "here not because I give up," and White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Bush has "all the confidence in the world" in Gonzales, who has served Bush for more than 12 years in Texas and Washington.
Democrats also renewed calls for testimony from Rove and Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel who first suggested in February 2005 that all 93 U.S. attorneys be removed and whose office was provided with evolving lists of at least a dozen prosecutors targeted for ouster. The White House signaled that it would resist the demands.
E-mails released yesterday show that White House deputy political director J. Scott Jennings communicated with Justice officials about the appointment of Tim Griffin, a former Rove aide, to be the U.S. attorney in Little Rock. Jennings used an e-mail account registered to the Republican National Committee, where Griffin had worked as an opposition researcher.
Democratic congressional aides said they will investigate whether using the private address for government business violated laws against using taxpayer resources for political work or signaled that White House officials considered the firing of U.S. attorneys to be primarily a political issue. Jennings did not return a call to his office seeking a comment.
"As a matter of course, the RNC provides server space and equipment to certain White House personnel in order to assist them with their political efforts," RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said.
Seven U.S. attorneys were fired on Dec. 7, and another was let go months earlier, with little explanation from Justice Department officials, who later told Congress that the dismissals were related to their performance in office. Several former prosecutors have since alleged intimidation, including improper telephone calls from GOP lawmakers or their aides, and have alleged threats of retaliation by a Justice Department official.
Although Bush and President Bill Clinton each dismissed nearly all U.S. attorneys upon taking office, legal experts and former prosecutors say the firing of a large number of prosecutors in the middle of a term appears to be unprecedented and threatens the independence of prosecutors.
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Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales took responsibility yesterday for "mistakes" related to the firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year but rejected calls for his resignation from Democrats who accuse him of misleading Congress.
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U.S. Battalion Moved Out of Baghdad
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On Tuesday, the fresh troops from the Army's 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment _ equipped with Stryker armored vehicles _ joined 3,500 U.S. and 20,000 Iraqi soldiers already in Diyala province, where insurgents have stepped up attacks as violence appears to be ebbing in Baghdad.
U.S. commanders said they had been planning to fan out from Baghdad into communities around the capital, such as Baqouba 35 miles to the northeast, to go after insurgents and clandestine workshops that rig car bombs used in attacks in the capital.
"This is not a haphazard fire drill to save the house from burning," Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told The Associated Press. "We began looking at this several months ago in support of the Baghdad plan. We knew the surrounding provinces would be in play."
The 5th Battalion's move occurred as more than 20,000 U.S. troops are pouring into Baghdad seeking to end the bombings, kidnappings and execution-style killings that paralyzed the Iraqi government and threatened the nation with all-out sectarian war.
As U.S. troops pressed the crackdown in the capital, two roadside bombs killed two American soldiers and wounded four others Tuesday, the military reported.
With sectarian bloodshed ebbing in Baghdad, attacks on U.S. troops in Diyala have risen 70 percent since summer, according to U.S. figures.
Over the weekend, gunmen believed to be Sunni extremists raided a farming community outside the Diyala city of Muqdadiyah, setting fire to at least 15 houses, slaughtering livestock and driving off the residents, the U.S. military said Tuesday. It quoted residents as saying they tried to defend their homes but fled after they ran out of ammunition.
U.S. officials attribute the rise to Sunni insurgents who fled the capital to areas where they have support from al-Qaida and loyalists of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.
The former al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baqouba last June. Since then, the Islamic State of Iraq, another group with links to al-Qaida, has claimed Baqouba as capital of its self-proclaimed shadow government.
For the soldiers of the 5th Battalion, the journey to Baqouba was another stage in a series of missions away from their home at Fort Lewis, Washington state.
"We embark on another journey, boys!" Sgt. William Rose told his platoon as their Stryker combat vehicle rumbled out of Baghdad at sunrise, one of about 100 vehicles making the journey.
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BAQOUBA, Iraq -- Some 700 American soldiers rolled into Baqouba, shifted out of Baghdad to help carry the security campaign against sectarian violence to a nearby volatile province where Sunni Arab insurgents fled ahead of the crackdown in the capital.
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Shrine Bombing as War's Turning Point Debated
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Feb. 22, 2006, is the day the Bush administration says everything in Iraq changed.
Before that day, military and administration officials frequently explain, Iraq was moving in the right direction: National elections had been held, and a government was forming. But then the bombing of the golden dome shrine in Samarra derailed that positive momentum and unleashed a wave of brutal sectarian violence.
Even now, more than a year later, the president and other administration officials cite Samarra as a turning point -- "a tragic escalation of sectarian rage and reprisal," President Bush called it in a March 6 news conference. "One of the key changes in Iraq last year," White House spokesman Tony Snow said in January.
Many Iraq specialists and defense analysts contend that this narrative of the mosque bombing is misleading, yet also revealing of how U.S. strategy in Iraq has evolved. Experts say the attack did not begin a civil war but rather confirmed the ongoing deterioration and violence in Iraq -- conditions the White House and the generals had resisted recognizing. In that sense, the bombing destroyed much more than the shrine: It also demolished the positive view of progress in Iraq, leading military and administration officials to a more pessimistic perspective, and eventually to a new U.S. strategy.
Samarra was not a major turning point in the war, said James Miller, a former Pentagon policy official. "The evidence on the record makes that not credible," he said. "The mosque bombing was just gasoline on a fire that already was burning pretty well."
No one was killed in the dawn bombing, which shattered the gilded roof of one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, about 65 miles north of Baghdad. But in the following days, a wave of sectarian violence swept across central Iraq, killing hundreds.
The U.S. military had planned to begin drawing down its combat force in Iraq sometime in 2006, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before a congressional committee last month. "We did not because in February of last year, the golden mosque bombing and all the sectarian violence that ensued from that, we realized by around June that we were not going to be able to come down," he said.
Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency specialist in Middle Eastern security issues, said, "I do not think things were going well before the bombing." White, now an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, added: "The insurgency was not controlled. Incident levels were rising."
Since 2003, violence in Iraq has increased at a steady pace, with some slight dips each winter. The increase continued last year, reaching an average of about 5,000 acts of violence a month. By the time of the shrine bombing, about 2,287 U.S. troops had died in Iraq; since then, that number has increased by 903.
What the official narrative does not consider, said Ahmed Hashim, a professor of strategy at the Naval War College, is that civil war was well underway before February 2006. The mosque bombing should be seen as "a reflection of that, not a cause," he said.
Asad Abu Khalil, a political scientist at California State University at Stanislaus, said it is characteristic of foreign occupiers to seize upon one episode and point to it as the moment that undercut all their good efforts. "The golden dome merely focused and intensified a conflict that was already taking place," he said. "If the bombing of the golden dome did not take place, some other bombing would have occurred."
The view that U.S. strategy was working before the bombing in Samarra leans on the assumption that the elections at the end of 2005 were a sign of progress, noted Carter Malkasian, who has served three tours in Iraq advising the Marines on counterinsurgency techniques. At the same time, he observed, the country was fracturing -- with growing support for insurgents, an increasing number of attacks on U.S. forces and deepening Sunni unhappiness with the Iraqi government.
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Feb. 22, 2006, is the day the Bush administration says everything in Iraq changed.
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Calderón Admonishes Bush on Thorny Issues
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MERIDA, Mexico, March 13 -- Mexican President Felipe Calderón chided President Bush on Tuesday for trying to build a wall between their two countries and lamented that the American leader never made Mexico the priority he once promised it would become during his presidency.
As he welcomed Bush for their first meeting since taking office in December, Calderón set a polite but firm tone, raising some of the toughest issues in U.S.-Mexican relations. The comments at a ceremony for Bush's arrival underscored the difficulties that lie ahead in two days of talks between the leaders.
VIDEO | President Bush, in Mexico Tuesday, said he would do his best to get U.S. Congress to change American immigration policies.
Among the top issues was U.S. legislation, signed by Bush last year, authorizing 700 miles of fencing and other barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexicans respect Americans' right to decide their security, Calderón said. "But at the same time, we do consider in a respectful way that it would be better to stop the migration by building a kilometer of highway in Michoacan or Zacatecas than 10 kilometers of walls in the border."
In another pointed remark, Calderón recalled how Bush had promised as a candidate in 2000 to put Mexico at the top of his foreign policy agenda. "Unfortunately, the terrible happenings against the United States people made that -- in a very understandable way, the priorities changed," he said, referring to Sept. 11, 2001. "Nevertheless, I believe that it is now time to retake the spirit of those words and to direct our relationship toward a path of mutual prosperity."
While vowing to fight drug-running in his country, Calderón also pointed out the U.S. responsibility for stopping the demand because "while there is no reduction in demand in your territory, it will be very difficult to reduce the supply in ours."
Bush did not directly rebut Calderón during their short ceremony at the Hacienda Temoezon , a 350-year-old farm-turned-hotel in Temozon Sur, 28 miles from here, but promised to push for immigration legislation at home that would address their mutual problems.
"I respect your views on migration," Bush said. "Because we're working together, I believe we will make good progress on this important issue." He added: "My pledge to you and your government -- but, more importantly, the people of Mexico -- is I will work as hard as I possibly can to pass comprehensive immigration reform."
The scratchy opening encounter surprised Bush aides and foreshadowed a challenging relationship between the leaders. Bush developed a rapport with Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox, but many Mexicans say Fox got little out of it and Calderón has taken a more practical, cautious approach.
The meeting came on the last stop of Bush's six-day, five-country tour through Latin America, which will end Wednesday after a joint news conference with the two leaders here. Following the arrival ceremony Tuesday, Bush and Calderón and their wives toured the ancient Uxmal ruins and posed for pictures in the shadow of the towering Pyramid of the Magician, then later had dinner at Hacienda Xcanatun, a restored luxury hotel with marble terraces and lush tropical gardens.
The time gave them a chance to get to know each other better. "The chemistry was good," said White House press secretary Tony Snow.
Dan Fisk, the president's top Latin America adviser, said Bush found Calderón's bluntness refreshing. "They can be very direct with each other in terms of the issues that are on their mind and they can talk with equal frankness about how to move forward," Fisk said.
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MERIDA, Mexico, March 13 -- Mexican President Felipe Calderón chided President Bush on Tuesday for trying to build a wall between their two countries and lamented that the American leader never made Mexico the priority he once promised it would become during his presidency.
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Pace Expresses Regret Over Gay Remark
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WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's top general expressed regret Tuesday that he called homosexuality immoral, a remark that drew a harsh condemnation from members of Congress and gay advocacy groups.
In a newspaper interview Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.
In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about gays _ and "less on my personal moral views."
He did not offer an apology, something that had been demanded by gay rights groups.
"General Pace's comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces," the advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in a statement on its Web site.
The group, which has represented some of the thousands dismissed from the military for their sexual orientation, demanded an apology.
Pace's senior staff members said earlier that the general was expressing his personal opinion and did not intend to apologize. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak on the record.
Rep. Martin Meehan, who has introduced legislation to repeal the current policy, criticized Pace's comments.
"General Pace's statements aren't in line with either the majority of the public or the military," said the Massachusetts Democrat. "He needs to recognize that support for overturning (the policy) is strong and growing" and that the military is "turning away good troops to enforce a costly policy of discrimination."
In an interview Monday with the Chicago Tribune, Pace was asked about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve if they keep their sexual orientation private and don't engage in homosexual acts.
Pace said he supports the policy, which became law in 1994 and prohibits commanders from asking about a person's sexual orientation.
"I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts," Pace said in the audio recording of the interview posted on the Tribune's Web site. "I do not believe that the armed forces of the United States are well served by a saying through our policies that it's OK to be immoral in any way."
Pace, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, said he based his views on his upbringing.
"As an individual, I would not want (acceptance of gay behavior) to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else's wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior," he said, according to the audio and a transcript released by his staff.
The newspaper said Pace did not address concerns raised by a 2005 government audit that showed some 10,000 troops, including more than 50 specialists in Arabic, have been discharged because of the policy.
Louis Vizcaino, spokesman for the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said Pace's comments were "insulting and offensive to the men and women ... who are serving in the military honorably."
"Right now there are men and women that are in the battle lines, that are in the trenches, they're serving their country," Vizcaino said. "Their sexual orientation has nothing to do with their capability to serve in the U.S. military."
"Don't ask, don't tell" was passed by Congress in 1993 after a firestorm of debate in which advocates argued that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would hurt troop morale and recruitment and undermine the cohesion of combat units.
John Shalikashvili, the retired Army general who was Joint Chiefs chairman when the policy was adopted, said in January that he has changed his mind on the issue since meeting with gay servicemen.
"These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers," Shalikashvili wrote in a newspaper opinion piece.
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network http://www.sldn.org
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WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's top general expressed regret Tuesday that he called homosexuality immoral, a remark that drew a harsh condemnation from members of Congress and gay advocacy groups.
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The Seven Wonders Reconsidered
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PARIS, March 12 -- Maybe it simply feeds modern society's obsession with lists and rankings, but more than 2,000 years after ancient Greeks identified the Seven Wonders of the World, millions of people around the globe are casting Internet ballots to update the list.
Whether motivated by nationalism, conservation, curiosity or sheer boredom, more than 4 million Chinese, Indians, Mexicans, Brazilians, Americans and others have cast 28 million votes, organizers say. They have generated 21 wonder finalists, including the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Acropolis in Athens, Jordan's ancient city of Petra and the pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
Also in the running are Britain's Stonehenge and the statues of Easter Island in Chile. A few finalists -- notably the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Sydney Opera House -- have left experts and neophytes alike wondering.
"It is comparing apples and oranges, and that's why it is a subjective thing, but a wonder is something that moves you and makes you wonder why they built it and how they built it," said Tia Viering, a spokeswoman for the organizers, the New7Wonders Foundation.
The seven winners will be announced on July 7, or 07/07/07.
The new list would join the roster of the seven ancient wonders, only one of which, the pyramids, still exists. There is scant physical evidence that some, such as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, ever existed.
In recent times, more than a few panels of experts have compiled Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The American Society of Civil Engineers, for instance, drew up a list that includes the Empire State Building and the English Channel tunnel. A list in the Reader's Digest Book of Facts honors the space shuttle and Chartres Cathedral in France, among others.
The new campaign has generated controversy in Egypt, where Culture Minister Farouk Hosni called it "absurd." Zahi Hawass, head of the country's Supreme Council of Antiquities, demanded that the 4,500-year-old pyramids at Giza be removed from the competition, saying they "don't need a vote to be among the world's wonders," according to the state-run Middle East News Agency.
Viering said the pyramids could not be removed because the competition is a purely democratic process, driven by Internet voting (and to a lesser extent phone balloting). "It's the people of the world who are making this list. It's not our decision," she said.
The idea for the campaign came from Swiss Canadian filmmaker Bernard Weber, who, according to the group's Web site, formed the nonprofit foundation in Zurich in 2001 "to protect humankind's heritage across the globe" and alert people "to the destruction of nature and the decay of our man-made heritage."
Weber, who clearly has a knack for self-promotion, has spent recent months touring the finalists with a massive blimp, ginning up publicity and filming and photographing the sites for a forthcoming movie and book about the project. Organizers promise that half the proceeds will go toward efforts to protect and restore threatened sites.
Voting began in 2001. Nominated monuments swelled to 177, were culled to 77, then winnowed in late 2005 by a group of experts to the current 21 finalists, each from a different country. Among the experts was Federico Mayor, who served for 12 years as head of UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural heritage agency. He is now head of the New7Wonders panel of experts.
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World news headlines from the Washington Post,including international news and opinion from Africa,North/South America,Asia,Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather,news in Spanish,interactive maps,daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
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'Forever' Stamps Save Time, Not Money
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Okay, you're sitting around dealing with Big Financial Questions. Where's the stock market going? Will your 401(k) be fat enough for you to retire on caviar rather than cat food? How are you going to pay your kids' college tuition? Forget all that small stuff. Your new Big Economic Challenge for 2007 comes down to this: Should you speculate in U.S. postage stamps?
Stamp speculation usually means buying collector-quality issues and seeing whether they rise in price. But starting this spring, the U.S. Postal Service will offer you a new way to play the stamp market: the Forever Stamp. It's a stamp that will forever be good for mailing up to one ounce of first-class mail, no matter how high the cost of stamps rises. These new issues are scheduled for an initial public offering at about the same time the price of a first-class stamp is scheduled to rise to 41 or 42 cents -- the price hasn't yet been determined -- from 39 cents. "You just can't lick this stamp," quips Postal Service spokesman Mark Saunders.
(Yes, you can groan now.) Horrible puns aside, this stamp offers you an opportunity to beat the system -- maybe. It's like loading up on train tickets or toll-road tokens to beat future price increases. You not only save a few bucks, but you also feel good about yourself (as long as you don't do what I did: switch to E-Z Pass electronic toll payments before discovering a roll of Garden State Parkway tokens that I bought back in the day but now never remember to use).
Yes, people correspond more and more by computer every day, but to judge from the mail that piles up on my desk, everyone still needs stamps. So, should you trot down to the post office and stock up on Forever Stamps when they go on sale, probably in April or May? Buy a few hundred -- or a few thousand, though your post office won't sell you that many at once -- and you'll have locked in your cost of mailing checks or birthday cards or whatever else you entrust to the Postal Service. What's more, with the Forever Stamp, you won't have to stand in endless post office lines every few years when the next two- or three-cent rate increase comes along.
The Postal Service says this is designed as a customer service to reduce post office trips and lines -- not as a way to get interest-free loans from customers trying to beat the system. But if you're into finance, you can't help but think of the cost-benefit ratio of buying these stamps. Assuming, of course, that you don't misplace them in a drawer or leave them someplace where your dog can eat them.
If you could buy Forever Stamps at 39 cents now, it would be a can't-miss speculation -- like buying subway tokens (in systems that still take tokens) just before a fare increase. But the Postal Service will sell these stamps at the new, higher price, not today's price. That cancels your chances for an immediate windfall.
Hoarding Forever Stamps makes financial sense if you think postal costs will rise at a higher rate than your after-tax earnings on a money-market mutual fund -- currently about 3.5 percent a year for someone in the 30 percent tax bracket.
For you to make the same kind of return on Forever Stamps, stamp prices would need to increase another three cents in just two years, and keep increasing a few pennies every couple of years after that. (Based on my estimate, money funds have been a better deal in recent decades.)
I'm using after-tax numbers because stamps are an after-tax expense, unless you're a business, in which case you've probably got a postage meter -- and there's no Forever Stamp deal for postage meters.
Buying Forever Stamps when they first come out will reduce your ultimate annual return because you won't make money on them until the next rate increase, at which time the price of the Forever Stamp will go up to the then-prevailing rate. To maximize your return, you should buy them when the next postal-rate increase is on its way. Indeed, the Postal Service's Saunders says that's when sales of such stamps peaked in two markets the service studied: England and Canada.
Terrance Odean, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in behavioral finance, doesn't think much of Forever Stamps as a financial play. You can't buy enough of them to make any serious money, he says, and you can't sell them at a profit.
However, Odean says, "There is some psychological benefit you feel if you think you're being clever and getting a good deal." But then, he hastens to add, "You'll feel less than clever if you're the last person left using postage stamps to mail in your utility bills when everyone else is paying them online, postage-free." Killjoy.
The bottom line: Unless you time your purchases right, Forever Stamps aren't a good financial speculation. But you can't lose money, either -- you can always use them to mail letters. Besides, in a world where so many things seem to come and go, isn't it nice to contemplate something that's Forever?
Sloan is Newsweek's Wall Street editor. His e-mail address issloan@panix.com.
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Okay, you're sitting around dealing with Big Financial Questions. Where's the stock market going? Will your 401(k) be fat enough for you to retire on caviar rather than cat food? How are you going to pay your kids' college tuition? Forget all that small stuff. Your new Big Economic Challenge for...
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Podesta, Livingston Look for Balance, Brawn in New Partnership
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Two of K Street's best-known names -- Anthony T. Podesta and Robert L. Livingston-- are combining forces to attract some of Washington's largest lobbying campaigns.
They have formed an alliance that will bring together the resources of their lobbying companies to better compete against bigger firms for the business of industries, nonprofit groups and countries involved in high-stakes clashes.
Former congressman Toby Moffett (D-Conn.), a colleague of Livingston's, will chair the joint venture, called PLM Group.
"We will work together to go after some of the big issues and big clients, both domestically and internationally," said Podesta, a top Democratic fundraiser and election-year strategist.
Podesta and Livingston, a Republican, each head their own prominent mid-size lobbying firm. The Podesta Group had $12.1 million in lobbying revenue in 2006; the Livingston Group had $11.7 million in revenue.
But both firms are dwarfed by the major powerhouses of K Street, especially the law firms Patton Boggs and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, each of which posted more than $25 million in lobbying income last year.
The Podesta-Livingston alliance is designed to allow the two firms to offer both brains and brawn comparable to these behemoths. The joint venture will also balance their partisan proclivities. The Podesta Group tilts Democratic, and the Livingston Group leans Republican.
"There are a whole plethora of large corporations that, as a knee jerk, go to the big firms for representation," Livingston said. The alliance "gives us the presence of a big firm, though with a different business model."
Podesta and Livingston plan to market themselves as strategists who can devise broad legislative efforts and who have at their disposal the manpower required to carry out their plans. Each firm has about 20 lobbyists on staff; Livingston also has more than 40 consultants.
This full-service concept is a recognition that most significant lobbying campaigns are handled by coalitions controlled by ad hoc managers. It's rare for a single interest group or corporation to run such multifaceted crusades on its own. Podesta and Livingston said they envision both firms keeping their individual clients while sharing a small number of domestic-issue campaigns and foreign governments.
The principals have not yet tested their strategy. Although they have 30 "prime targets," they have not begun to solicit them. The two firms have big clients on their own -- and sometimes together. Livingston represents Verizon and the nation of Turkey. Podesta lobbies for Wal-Mart and Google. They have shared Lockheed Martin and the Investment Company Institute.
The joint venture can be seen as a way for each firm to shore up weaknesses. Livingston, an ex-chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has been moving his business away from lobbying for so-called earmarks -- narrow interest amendments that are being cut in half this year in reaction to past excesses. Podesta is eager to make up ground he lost when his former partner, Daniel J. Mattoon, a Republican, split from the firm Jan. 1. Some major clients such as Altria, the U.S. Telecom Association and United Airlines are now with Mattoon & Associates.
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Two of K Street's best-known names -- Anthony T. Podesta and Robert L. Livingston-- are combining forces to attract some of Washington's largest lobbying campaigns.
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K Street - washingtonpost.com
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K Street columnist Jeffrey Birnbaum was online to discuss the intersection of business, politics and government on Tuesday, March 13, at 1 p.m. ET.
Read and respond to Birnbaum's latest columns, Podesta, Livingston Look for Balance, Brawn in New Partnership (March 13) and Lobbying Bill Sparks Populist Uprising -- on Both Sides (March 6), and an article in the Business section on the the Democrats' new pay-as-you-go budget regimen.
I see we have some very good questions, but please send more.
We have on our plate a new joint venture between two of the big names on K Street, Tony Podesta and Bob Livingston.
We also (in another section of the paper) have the new math of congressional legislation--the "pay for." In a pay-as-you go world, fiscal legislating is a zero sum game.
What do you think? Are either of these things a good idea?
Write in. Sound off. Let's get started.
Washington, D.C.: As an attorney who spent over a decade working on Capitol Hill, I think Rep. Waxman's proposal to require executive branch officials to disclose with whom they meet is pretty misguided.
I notice that he doesn't think Members of Congress should need to list everyone who meets with them (current lobbying disclosure only covers registered lobbyists to report and doesn't require disclosure of which exact Member the lobbyist actually met with). Such a proposal would also be a bad idea.
The reason that both proposals would be a bad idea is that policy makers in both branches need to be able to privately consult with experts on very complicated issues. Some experts will be more neutral, but most people with expertise have a vested interest on one side or the other. Its up the policy maker to understand someone's motivations and separate out useful facts from self serving arguments.
Replacing those who prove themselves unable to carry out their duties honestly (beg Duke Cunningham, William Jefferson) is the Constitution's answer to this dilemma - not a total bar on all private consultation.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: This disclosure requirement was a subject in my column last week.
But I don't quite understand your argument. If you are saying that disclosure would scare away experts from consulting with top executive branch officials, that is a point that many opponents of the provision make.
I, for one, don't know how that might happen. I can see sources of information that would like to remain secret staying away because of disclosure, but experts in general . . . I just don't buy it.
Anyone else think otherwise. Please click and type.
Detroit: What was that all about with Hagel? Has he lost it?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: You are referring, of course, the Sen. Chuck Hagel's bizarre news conference yesterday.
He announced in advance, long in advance, that he would go before the cameras and tell the waiting world about his political future--read: his intention of running for president, or not.
Instead, he went before the cameras and and said that he would go before the cameras again some time this year to make an announcement.
In other words, he said, never mind.
That's as strange a political event as I have ever seen. It is, however, a sign that the Republican side of the presidential contest is still full or ferment.
Hagel has made sounds that indicate he's even thinking of running as an independent--a move he might be wise to take as long as he remains part of so small a minority, of Republicans opposed to the war in Iraq.
Scranton: What ever happened to that lobbying bill that was supposed to pass in Congress? I bet it just died like last year.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Well, I wouldn't go that far yet.
The Senate passed an ethics and lobbying bill earlier this year. And the House passed some rules changes that, among other things, partially ban private-paid travel for members of the House by lobby groups. The House said it plans to pass its own more sweeping lobby legislation later this month or next month.
You are correct that despite multiple promises last year, almost nothing happened on the ethics and lobbying front. I will wait a little while before declaring that the same is happening this year.
It is true, however, that the House is taking longer than its leaders at first predicted for the bill to move. A finished and reconciled bill between the House and Senate is needed, of course, before the legislation can become law and that is still a long way off.
Washington, D.C.: Thanks for your piece on isupportthismessage.com. I'm a little dubious about sites like this. I think the reason people's messages sometimes don't get through is because they aren't personal, not because they're delivered via e-mail. A form letter is a form letter whether it's on a piece of paper or delivered via electrons. What do you think about that?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I think you're right. Lawmakers don't want cookie-cutter messages whatever form they come from.
But there are so many electronic versions of that kind of message that there's been an arms race among congressional offices to alter the forms that must be used to send e-mails in order to stanch the flow of them.
There are millions of e-messages a year that go to congressional offices, many of them ginned up by interest groups, and that is just too many to be handled and digested.
They also are often considered suspect (as are other types of so-called Astroturf communications) and for good reason. Clever and well-financed interests can compel their members to deluge Congress with messages, electronic or otherwise, often giving lawmakers a completely skewed impression of what the public really thinks.
Nonetheless, e-lobbying has become a gigantic and ever-growing business. You figure it out.
Washington, D.C.: I was intrigued by the merger. It's interesting to see traditional lobbying firms beginning to realize that they need to have ALL the pieces in place, not just a strong professional lobbying team.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: The alliance of Podesta and Livingston is not a merger. It is a joint venture.
The two men explained to me that they didn't want to sell their businesses. They just want to expand them by using this third vehicle, the PLM Group, which is named for Podesta, Livingston and Toby Moffett, the Livingston Group person who will head up the venture.
The concept of having all the pieces has been tried before and has not worked all that well, by the way. As I remember it, companies like Hill & Knowlton tried the supermarket approach to lobbying, offering every aspect of the persuasion game under one roof, and didn't gain much traction. Lobbying clients need lots of different professions at their disposal to lobby well--lawyers, access lobbyists, pollsters, advertising execs, PR experts, researchers, fundraisers, telemarketers, to name just some. But the a la carte method of choosing those services seems to have worked best over the years.
Podesta and Livingston would not be offering all of those services in a one-stop shop and probably would be wise not to try.
Washington, D.C.: Do Podesta and Livingston have something there? Will their joint venture work and what does it say about how lobbying works these days?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Taking off from the previous question, it's hard to see why the Podesta-Livingston alliance wouldn't work, at least to some degree. If they get a joint client or two that's money in the bank for them. Extra money that they would not have gotten had they not tried the joint venture.
Does it produce better service and outcomes for the people who hire the group? On that I must be silent because I really wouldn't know.
Maybe I'll revisit that question later on. Anyone out there want to venture an opinion?
Los Angeles: Is there any way that Congress will stick to its pay-as-you-go idea or is it just another ruse?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I think for a while Congress will.
The minimum wage increase bill, for instance, has some small business tax breaks that I believe will be paid for, at least within the budget window.
But as the price tags go up on later legislation, my guess is that a new fact will become more prominent: the House can waive its pay-as-you-go requirement with a simple majority vote.
That's right. If the House has enough votes to pass an expensive new program or tax cut, it has enough votes to get rid of the requirement that the new benefit be paid for.
What's more, the waiver can be stuck in secret into the "rule" that must be passed every time a bill is debated in the House. In other words, the pay-go requirement can be eliminated without the public really knowing about it.
The closer we get to election day 2008, the more tempting that kind of release probably will get.
Washington, D.C.: Frankly, I think disclosure would be a logistical nightmare, especially this time of year when literally hundreds of people come in to a Congressional office every week to discuss thousands of issues. If these types of disclosure requirements are going to be put in place, they'll need the staff to make it happen. And yet no one is willing to give Congress more staff!!
Jeffrey Birnbaum: An excellent argument. Thank you for making it.
I have been contacted by more than one software maker, however, who say that that kind of record keeping can be done with a few clicks and few type strokes. So easy and so cheap, they say.
Then again, they are also trying to sell a product I suppose.
Any other opinions about more disclosure?
Washington, D.C.: Re: the isupportthismessage question: I think e-lobbying will only continue to thrive as a medium if the companies figure out ways to truly engage both advocates and Members in a meaningful way. That's difficult, but it sets the stage for a more purposeful dialog. In Congress' defense on the e-mail front (and it goes back to another point I was making on the disclosure issue), it's hard to deal with the millions of e-mails when you have the same amount of staff you had 20 years ago...
One reason that lobbyists have so much swat these days is that congressional staffs have no choice but to rely on them to do some of the most basic legislative tasks, from research to legislative language development.
Without lobbyists, most congressional offices could barely operate at all.
Is that provocative enough for you? Am I right?
Falls Church, Va.: What is your opinion of the practice of earmarking? In my old-fashioned view, I find it unethical and counter to good government and checks and balances. In fact, some years back I worked for a "boutique" lobbying firm (a competitor of Cassidy) whose main business was earmarking - and found the whole process unappealing. These young appropriations staffers had incredible freedom to make significant spending decisions, essentially on their own.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: The idea of bringing home the bacon is time honored and it used to be considered a perk of seniority on Capitol Hill.
But I think there is now a consensus that the process had gotten out of hand. Too much room for "corruption" in the sense of paying off members and staff using thousands of dollars in order to garner millions of dollars in earmarks.
This year will be the test to see if promises of more disclosure and more rigor in assessing whether earmarked legislation is meritorious will actually happen.
PAYGO Reality ... LBC, CA:"Pay-Go"... YES deficits DO matter. Anytime I hear someone parrot a blabber head from TV or radio about deficits not mattering I ask them if they keep their credit cards maxed out. "Of course not!" is always the answer with indignation thrown in for good measure about the interest charges. EXACTLY.
The reason interest rates fell to 6 percent in 1996 from nine percent in 1992-ish was because CLINTON was educated that government should not compete with industry for the available finite amount of money in the system, and he started reducing our debt burden. When we stopped issuing 30 year bonds we no longer owed that credit card interest and rates began to fall. The reduced competition for dollars in the system allowed rates to fall further and business boomed. As we bought back more and more gov't bonds we got a booming economy and a surplus.
Of course the neo-cons spent the surplus and re-issued 30 year bonds and ran up the debt to all time record heights on the advice of Grover Norquist that if the government is buried in debt it can't afford social programs and might be "drowned in a bathtub"
so "YES Virginia"... deficits DO matter
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Well now, don't hold back.
I think there's enough blame to go 'round for the federal budget deficit. Democrats and Republicans shared the wealth that led to all that red ink.
Sacramento, Calif.: So I see you had something nice to say about lobbying with the Norwood bill last week and the way it helped kidney transplants. Do you think lobbying has a place then?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Lobbying has a place absolutely.
As in the case of the Norwood bill that helped live donors give their kidneys to very sick people, lobbying often produces "good" results. I even hate to use the words "special interests" --though an editor included them in my feature today about pay-as-you-go legislating--because that makes lobbying sound dirty.
It is a constitutional right that we are lucky to have. Sometimes lobbying does get out of hand, however, and that needs to be written about, too.
Fair is fair in my view. Do you disagree?
Washington, DC: re: whether Congressional offices could survive without lobbyists: Well, there is the House and Senate legislative counsel offices, which actually do most of the drafting of legislative language. So while lobbyists might make suggestions, it's these neutral third parties that put together the actual language that gets introduced. During appropriations time, however, lobbyists are essential for tracking down all the exact information needed for appropriations requests (line item, previous funding, etc.). On the flip side, while lobbyists help deal with some of the legislative leg work, they're also the one's pushing some of the agenda (I won't say ALL or even most), so it might be kind of a wash if there were no lobbyists, i.e., there wouldn't be as much help to get the work done, but, then again, there wouldn't be as much work!
I think it is indisputable that the more lobbyists there are, the more complex legislation becomes. Lots of lines means lots of work.
So yes, lobbyists have some very big impacts on the laws we live by.
Washington, D.C.: Re: the question of having the staff available to disclose all meetings: It may be that there is software that would make it possible to coordinate the meetings of one member of Congress and nine staff (including all the "impromptu" meetings that happen while walking back and forth from the Capitol). However, I don't see anyone willing to boost the technology budgets of Congressional offices to make that possible. These things aren't free!
Jeffrey Birnbaum: You would make an excellent lobbyist for an increase in congressional budgets. Sadly, voters take a dim view of that kind of self-appropriation, hence the reluctance to add many more dollars.
Long Beach, Calif.: That aids are not smart enough, not agile enough to write legislation or find facts in the age of the Internet and computerized productivity, is NOT a good reason to validate third-party mercenaries, or let them to create legislation that our representatives then rubber stamp.
Third party mercenary lobbying should be against the law and isn't needed at all in America.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Need? Maybe not. A reality, it is. Like it or not. I feel like Yoda.
Dallas, Tex.: What's this about e-mails to Congress. They don't want to hear from their voters anymore?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I don't think lawmakers want to silence their constituents. I think they believe that their constituents are being manipulated in an effort to manipulate them.
And, you know, to a large extent they are correct.
But is the answer making it harder for all constituents to e-mail congressional offices? That's a tougher issue.
Sagamore Hills, Ohio: Speaking of K Street. What did you make of Delay's evil plan to flood K Street with hand picked republicans? Smacks of Oligarchy to me.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I was never a big fan of the K Street Project in the sense you describe it. Nor was the House Ethics Committee. Nor was anyone else who heard about it, other than maybe DeLay and his aides.
The question now is whether more subtle means are being used by the Democrats in charge to place their own former aides into high paying high power jobs on K Street. If anyone out there has heard of any such pressure, please let me know.
Or write in right now!
Fairfax, Va.: One of my credit card companies sent info on the CCF settlement on foreign transaction fees, and I have information I can submit. Would it be better to wait until the settlement is reached? Is it prudent to send information on an active credit card? Thank you for anything you can tell me about this.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I don't know much about this, but I would wait. Giving out credit card information can be dangerous unless you are sure you are dealing with the credit card company alone.
Alexandria, Va.: Who is the best lobbyist in Washington?
First, I try not to use the word "best" when referring to lobbyists. That's too freighted a word. It gives the idea of good versus bad, which I try to avoid in lobbying battles. Who is to say who is right and who is wrong in most of these things? Lobbying is mostly about winners and losers, not good and evil.
So I would re-ask the question, Who is the most effective lobbyist? And to that there is no single answer. There are many very accomplished and effective advocates in town, too many to name. There are far more, however, who are make-work experts who do little or nothing for the money they are paid.
The bright lights among lobbyists are too numerous to delineate but there are far far fewer than those who do their job well enough and then go home.
I guess, then, that makes lobbyists a lot like every other profession--including journalists, of course.
Washington, D.C.: Re: the Waxman proposal - you seriously underestimate the reticence that many companies would show in being on some list of those who spoke to an official. You state that experts generally wouldn't object. In fact, on many issues there are only a handful of real experts and they're all players within an industry. Those niche issues, e.g. hedge fund regulations, can have a real impact. It's vital that policy makers have access to all sources of information.
Again, notice that Waxman isn't proposing Congressmen's meeting be listed? Ask yourself why.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I did notice that and mentioned it myself in print.
I don't think you'll need to worry overmuch about the extra disclosure, by the way.
I am told by staffers on the Hill that the chances of the Waxman disclosure bill passing and becoming law this year is not very strong.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Gosh, that was fun.
Lots of very good questions.
I hope you enjoyed it too, and return in a couple weeks when I will do this again.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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K Street columnist Jeffrey Birnbaum will be online to discuss what happens when business, politics and government collide.
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When No News Is Strange News
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The 19th-century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a giant in the field of logic. The 21st-century philosopher Chuck Hagel? Not so much.
The Republican senator from Nebraska, flirting with a 2008 presidential run, scheduled "an announcement on my political future" for yesterday morning in Omaha. Media types flew in from across the country. The state's governor and attorney general, along with 15 television cameras, crowded the room. Cable networks carried the event live while pundits went wild: Would Hagel jump into the race? Run for reelection? Become an independent? Quit politics entirely?
"I'm here today to announce that my family and I will make a decision on my political future later this year," Hagel declared in front of a presidential-blue curtain.
That was the announcement? The cable networks quickly broke away. The reporters in Omaha were feeling had.
"Senator, at least one Republican political analyst called your announcement today bizarre just now," NBC's Michelle Kosinski pointed out in the question-and-answer session that followed. "Tell us why you felt this was important to announce right now."
Hagel cited the promise he had made to announce a decision after Jan. 1. "It is after the first of the year, before St. Patrick's Day, and that's the first responsibility I have," the philosopher reasoned.
Another questioner asked: "Can we expect another one of these conferences to be called? And any idea when that would be?"
"Before St. Patrick's Day of next year," Hagel offered.
The writers at the Hotline political Web site judged the announcement "the biggest letdown since 'Joey' spun off from 'Friends.' " The site had chronicled the speculation in the days before Hagel's announcement, including the Hill newspaper's "Sen. Hagel's retirement is a 'distinct possibility' " and the Washington Times's "Hagel expected to declare '08 bid."
Hagel caused much of the hype, teasing reporters last week and scheduling the event at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska. Prospective rivals welcomed Hagel to the presidential race. "I'll look forward to being with him out on the campaign trail," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) told the New York Times. Speculation even crossed the Atlantic. Hagel "is expected to announce this morning that he is planning to seek the Republican nomination," Britain's Guardian reported.
Hagel's plan to delay a decision on a presidential run has its precedents. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said he'll postpone a decision until late September (he has kept his name in the news by confessing to having had an adulterous affair during the Monica Lewinsky scandal). Actor and former senator Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) said on Sunday that he will "wait and see" about a candidacy (he seems more rooted in Hollywood than Washington lately, introducing himself to a passenger on a cross-country flight Saturday as "Fred Thompson from 'Law and Order' ").
Neither is it uncommon for a presidential candidate to have a news-free news conference. Just yesterday, Rudy Giuliani called reporters to the Mayflower Hotel to announce that he was being endorsed by a lone first-term senator, Louisiana's David Vitter. Reporters tried, unsuccessfully, to use the event to pin down Giuliani on his position on gun control ("I have no idea what I would veto") and the party's abortion policy ("Planks on a platform you leave up to the committee that puts together the platform").
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The 19th-century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a giant in the field of logic. The 21st-century philosopher Chuck Hagel? Not so much.
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Music Spotlight - washingtonpost.com
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Katharine McPhee, "American Idol" runner-up in Season 5, was online Tuesday, March 13, at 3 p.m. ET to talk about life since the "Idol" competition, her new self-titled debut album (which sold 116,000 in its first week) and current single, "Over It," and her numerous personal appearances on TV and in many other venues.
Katharine McPhee: What's up everybody. I'm live here ready to chat with you.
Washington, D.C.: Maybe a little bit of a silly question, but how was it working on the set of "Ugly Betty"?
Katharine McPhee: It was such a great experience. Everybody there was so nice. I was a little nervous at first, but especially America Ferrara made me feel comfortable. It was a fun day for me because I was a fan of the show.
Tamaqua, Pa.: What else would you like to do besides singing and acting?
Katharine McPhee: I really like the business side of things so maybe a long time from now I'll get into producing, behind the scenes kind of stuff.
Toronto, Canada: I heard that you'll do the Canadian anthem for the Blue Jays, is it true?
Katharine McPhee: This is the first time I've heard that so I guess no is the answer.
Vienna, Va.: Ms. McPhee, your "Over the Rainbow" rendition clearly drew some of its inspiration from our late local songbird Eva Cassidy. Are you familiar with the rest of Eva's work -- are you a fan?
Katharine McPhee: I'm not familiar with the rest of her work but I did hear of that version of the song but she (Eva) and Jane Monheit were my inspiration.
I love your new song!
Question: I recently saw you in a magazine as a model in The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection Fashion Show ... what is your connection to heart disease? Was the show fun to walk in, and did you like the Swarovski dress you were wearing?
Katharine McPhee: Yes, I did like the dress I was wearing. I was representing Swarovski so they asked me to be a part of it. I have my own connection to heart disease because my dad's mother died from it.
Katharine McPhee: It was really fun doing something different like a fashion show.
Camden, N.J.: Will you be promoting your album in Europe this year?
Katharine McPhee: I don't know about this year but there's definitely going be some promoting in Europe but I don't know when.
Cupertino, Calif.: Have you met all the songwriters who contributed to your album and discussed the songs or do you sing them based solely on your own interpretation of the lyrics?
Katharine McPhee: Every song that I sing on the record I was either there when they were writing them or I was contributing to them as well. I knew every songwriter on the record. Sometimes the challenge of working with writers is that they have their own interpretation but ultimately you have to stick with your own interpretation because it's you whose name is on the record.
Congrats on all your success and wish you much more. What are your thoughts on the success achieved by Jennifer Hudson? "A.I." has been instrumental for her but who would have thought one would go from "A.I." to Golden Globe, to Screen Actors Guild, to Oscar? Do you feel that your experience on "A.I." has prepared you for the great future ahead of you?
Katharine McPhee: Thank you. First of all, I think that "American Idol" gave Jennifer Hudson a great opportunity but I think that she continued to work hard after the show was over. And I think that made all the difference for her. So ultimately I think it's all about what you do with your newfound fame and opportunity. And I think "American Idol" does do a great job of preparing you for what's to come. But, you have make some hard decisions.
Washington, D.C.: So, How is the life after "Idol"?
Katharine McPhee: I'm just really busy. I don't think I would've had these opportunities. I would have just been struggling to find a job in the entertainment but now everyday I wake up and feel so blessed that I have so many things to do in the entertainment business.
Philadelphia, Pa.: Is there any chance of you doing a solo tour or will you be an opening act for someone anytime in the near future? Inquiring minds are yearning for an answer! Thanks!
Katharine McPhee: Just as much as you're yearning for an answer, so am I. I don't think I'll be doing a major solo tour on this first record. I am hoping and waiting to hear from a major artist to be on their tour. So keep your fingers crossed. If that doesn't happen then I'll definitely be on a small mini-tour of my own. Hope to see you there.
Fairfax, Va.: Do you think the beginning of this "Idol" season was particularly cruel to some of the tryouts? There was a lot of criticism in the news. How did you feel about it? Did you watch the early parts?
Katharine McPhee: I actually didn't watch any of the beginning but I did see clips of some of the crueler moments. I'll agree that it can be cruel but everybody knows it's part of the show and I do think that it's sad that we like to see people being mean to each other.
Alexandria, Va.: How pleased are you with your sales and place on the charts today?
Katharine McPhee: I'm very pleased with my debut and I'm not very concerned with how I do on the charts right now. Most important, we have so many singles to come on this record and I was so thrilled about TRL and thanks to all of you guys for voting. Actually I think I'll be dropping by TRL next week.
Bethesda, Md.: Who do you consider your major musical influences? And who in your life has influenced you most profoundly (other than your parents)?
Katharine McPhee: Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.
All of the dogs that I've had throughout my life. Hee Hee Hee.
Anonymous: Have you met any other Idol winners that you're now friends with?
Katharine McPhee: There hasn't been a whole lot of time to hang out with the other Idol winners but I have met most of them and I like them all.
Washington, D.C.: Katharine - Your version of "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree" on AI was so amazing. I'd never heard the song before but after hearing and seeing you perform it, I was mesmerized. To this day, I can't get enough of that song - and actually like your version better than the original! Do you have a favorite moment from when you were on Idol?
Katharine McPhee: Yeah, meeting Stevie Wonder when he walked into the room and that moment when we all felt overwhelmed.
Baltimore, Md.: Katharine- You look absolutely wonderful and happy! Do you have any time -- or make any time -- to distance yourself from being a celebrity and all that that life entails? Like reading, cooking, relaxing, pursuing other hobbies other that singing / writing?
Katharine McPhee: Yes, definitely. In the last couple of weeks I've really been able to wind down. I have been able to go grocery shopping, start cooking again, hang out with my friends, family and boyfriend.
Washington, D.C: Are you aware of how many Gay/Bi/Lesbian fans you have? I think it's amazing how diverse your fan base is.
Katharine McPhee: I love having a diverse fan base. I think I have just recently learned to realize that kind of fan base.
Katharine McPhee: I'm sorry I have to leave now but I have to go get my teeth cleaned at the dentist. I love you all and talk to you soon.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Katharine McPhee, "American Idol" runner-up from Season 5, talks about life since the show, including her new album and single and her upcoming appearances.
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America Helps Itself to the Bard
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The Folger Shakespeare Library's new exhibition, "Shakespeare in American Life," is part of the citywide Shakespeare in Washington festival -- though the Folger would do well to play down the connection. The larger festival, spearheaded by the Kennedy Center, suffers from the same faults as the center's 2005 festival devoted to the arts of the 1940s. It is a jumble of events, often with rather dubious connection to Shakespeare, unified by few common themes, and no argument or intellectual point of view. It's branding, not thinking.
It's hard to walk through the Folger's exhibition, which at best makes only a strong case for the obvious -- that Shakespeare has influenced American life -- and not be reminded of the problems of the larger festival, which began in January and continues through June. There are lots of interesting asides, nuggets of data and fascinating curiosities. But there's no center; no larger claims are made. You leave with lots of questions, but not the right kind. The Folger, which usually focuses tightly on smaller themes, has undertaken a huge subject, but the exhibition doesn't set one to productive pondering, just a lot of frustrated skepticism about the basic premise.
Maybe his influence was a mile wide and an inch deep. It's amusing to learn that references to Falstaff graced both a cardboard tub of Brussels sprouts (from 1928) and an advertisement for cigars (from 1868). And that Trader Joe's sells candied popcorn inspired by "Hamlet" (Rosencrunch & Guildenpop). But often these Shakespeare sightings in the popular culture don't seem to add up to much more than a label. Consider how the playwright appears in political cartoons included in the show. A 1940 drawing of Franklin D. Roosevelt depicts the president as Hamlet, uncertain about whether to run for another term. Another one, also aimed Roosevelt, shows the president indecisive as to whether he needs to purge his Cabinet -- again, he appears as Hamlet.
Falstaff sells food. Wavering political leaders are like Hamlet. Schemers are like Iago. People with blood on their hands are like Macbeth. None of this suggests any particularly deep engagement with Shakespeare.
More likely they are part of a shallow vernacular of cultural reference. What conclusions should be drawn from a series of burlesque plays from the 1870s that travesty works such as "Othello" in the language of minstrel shows ("When first I Desdemona saw, I thought her very fine /And by the way she treated me, I thought she'd soon be mine")?
Yes, perhaps that proves a lot of Americans in the 19th century knew a little Shakespeare. But if you're willing to sit through a show that reduces Othello to a Stepin Fetchit character, maybe you need to go back and do a little rereading. Although the show attempts to deal with the "Americanizing" of Shakespeare (mostly through discussion of how his works influenced theater history and famous actors), one wonders if in fact the real story is an entrenched American resistance to Shakespeare?
Like many exhibitions based mostly on documents, books and clippings, "Shakespeare in American Life" is better at tracing the presence of its subject than its absence. We learn that the first televised production of an entire Shakespeare play in America was by NBC in 1949. But more important, given the state of American cultural life, and the abysmal level of family and educational programming offered by the major networks, would be to learn when was the last time a major commercial broadcaster presented an entire Elizabethan drama?
So, too, we learn about the proliferation of Shakespeare societies in the 19th and 20th centuries. How many of them still exist? And how many of those that have survived have shifted their function from social and intellectual companionship to remedial Shakespeare education?
And where are copies of those abominable "modern language" Shakespeare plays, which "translate" the text into contemporary English -- to better facilitate the ignorance of lazy American students? If one is going to tackle the subject of Shakespeare in American Life, certainly some notice should be given to the astonishing lengths people will go to keep themselves in the dark about the Bard.
If the larger Shakespeare in Washington festival proves anything (and it will only do so by accident), it is that Shakespeare is a safe place to bank your cultural dollars. It is great art, to be sure, but it is also consensus art that ruffles no feathers. Rather like the many deeply traditional and not very engaging productions of Shakespeare that grace Washington cultural life every season, this show suggests that America engages with Shakespeare rather the way dogs watch scenery go by through the car window -- glassy-eyed, quiet, mesmerized almost to stupefaction.
Not surprisingly, the Folger exhibition is best when it deals with Shakespeare at his most hidden. One of the show's more powerful objects is from 1848 -- a handwritten notice for a performance, at sea on a whaling ship, of scenes from "Othello" -- "Wind, Weather, and Whales permitting." So Shakespeare once functioned as a cherished link to civilized life, at least when you weren't busy at the flensing knives and blubber caldrons. But is that still the case?
By the 20th century, the sense of Shakespeare as broad but not particularly well-digested common property begins to yield to something else. Consider another fascinating item, made in the 1930s, by a young woman named Elizabeth McKie, who drew her own extensive Shakespeare atlas, filled with amateurish, brightly colored maps of the unlikely and often preposterous landscapes referenced in Shakespeare's plays. There is a strange, sad, obsessional quality to this labor of love, which speaks volumes about how elite cultural knowledge is often more isolating, in American life, than it is a means of engagement with the broader society.
A more extensive show might ask more sobering questions. If American cultural life really is based on two books (the Bible and the collected works of Shakespeare), has that been a good thing? Has American cultural life been any more deeply influenced by Shakespeare than, say, German cultural life was influenced by Schiller and Goethe, or French cultural life by Racine? Or has Shakespeare sucked all the air out of the American theatrical pantheon?
Perhaps there's no way to answer these particular questions. But a different kind of exhibition might, at least, ask them.
Shakespeare in American Life is on view through Aug. 18 at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol St.SE, Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Call 202-544-4600 or visit http://www.folger.edu
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Search Washington, DC area theater/dance events and venues from the Washington Post. Features DC, Virginia and Maryland entertainment listings for theater, dance, opera, musicals, and childrens theater.
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Stocks With a Shtick
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For someone who clowns around so much, Jim Cramer can be very serious.
Within 10 minutes of sitting down for an interview, he grabbed a pen and paper and started describing a complex economics formula.
"Just stay with me here," he said, as he jotted down a dizzying array of numbers and graph lines. Cramer, delighted that my eyes started to glaze over, made his point: This is why he engages in theatrics -- wearing costumes, using sound effects, throwing things -- to get viewers' attention and keep them interested in what otherwise could be pretty dull stuff.
Cramer hosts CNBC's "Mad Money," which marks its second anniversary this week. On the show, he talks about stocks, economics and investment strategies, frequently saying, "Other people want to make friends . . . I just want to make you money. My job is not just to entertain you but to educate you."
He cautions viewers to use only "mad money" -- cash they can afford to lose -- not their retirement nest eggs. And he stresses that viewers should not buy a stock, especially in after-hours trading, just because he mentions it. They should wait a few days, he says, and do their homework (he recommends about an hour a week per stock) before investing.
Cramer "has such a big following that there is a considerable pop in the price of any stock he recommends," said Burton G. Malkiel, an economics professor at Princeton University and author of the recently revised "A Random Walk Down Wall Street." "I applaud him for calling the show 'Mad Money' because if you want to have some fun with some extra money, it's perfectly okay -- but never with serious money."
Wednesday's episode of "Mad Money" will look at highlights of the past year, including clips of guests Cramer has interviewed on the show. Typically, he begins "Mad Money" with musings on particular aspects of investing. He also takes calls about specific stocks from viewers -- who often greet him with variations of "boo-yah," a phrase that hearkens back to an enthusiastic caller from New Orleans. Other segments might include callers asking "Am I Diversified?" or Cramer interviewing chief executives or experts in person or by phone.
The hour-long show usually is taped at CNBC's studios in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., one to two hours before it airs. That barely gives the staff time to prepare on-screen stock charts, factoids and other graphics.
Regina Gilgan, now "Mad Money" executive producer, has been with the show since it first aired on March 14, 2005. "There's never a dull moment," she said.
Cramer is the editorial director of the show, Gilgan said, and weighs in on what stocks he will discuss and what trends he wants to explain.
"Jim puts things in terms that people can understand," Gilgan said. "He's almost an idiot savant of stocks. It's almost frightening how much he knows, especially during the 'lightning round' when he talks about individual stocks."
Independent Web sites such as www.cramerwatch.org and www.yourmoneywatch.com have sprung up to track, and sometimes challenge, his recommendations.
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Search Washington, DC area TV schedules and reviews from the Washington Post. Features DC, Virginia and Maryland entertainment listings for television programs. Visit http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/partners/zipcode.asp?partner_id=wpc today.
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Sagging Capitals Hoping for Help
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ATLANTA, March 12 -- When the NHL's free agency period begins July 1, players hoping to cash in won't be the only ones paying close attention to the Washington Capitals' spending. So will Alex Ovechkin, who before Monday night's 4-2 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers was unusually blunt about his expectations for the offseason.
"It's not important for me, it's important for our team," said the all-star left wing, who scored his 40th and 41st goals in the defeat, the Capitals' eighth straight. "We need players. We need help. We are young, that's why we need guys who have experience, guys who [have played in the] playoffs. Sometimes experience wins the game."
Ovechkin may have stated the obvious, but his comments were further proof of the growing sentiment in the Capitals' locker room -- particularly among core players -- that a significant infusion of talent is necessary for the struggling club to reverse its fortunes.
"We need some players who are going to make an impact," said injured goaltender Olie Kolzig, nodding in agreement with Ovechkin's assessment. "We just have to trust that ownership and management will get the players who will help us get to the next level."
The Capitals' deficiencies on defense were painfully apparent once again at Philips Arena, where they out-shot the Thrashers, 33-21, but were unable to overcome a pair of turnovers that Atlanta forwards Bobby Holik and Keith Tkachuk buried behind goaltender Brent Johnson, who left after the second period with a right knee injury.
"That was pretty much it," Coach Glen Hanlon said of the costly miscues by youthful defensemen Mike Green and Steve Eminger.
"I try to do what I can do," Ovechkin said, shrugging his shoulders.
But he can't do it alone, a fact recognized by majority owner Ted Leonsis, who recently acknowledged plans to upgrade the roster. Leonsis's words heartened Ovechkin -- for now.
"Our bosses know what they do," he said. "This summer [General Manager George McPhee] will sign somebody. Not just players, real good players. Because we need it."
But until those reinforcements arrive, the Capitals, who have the fourth-worst record in the league, will have more nights like they had against the Thrashers, who handed them their 13th loss in 14 games.
Meantime, Atlanta, which bolstered its roster at the trade deadline, adding Tkachuk and Alexei Zhitnik, among others, to a lineup that already featured Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa, moved into first place in the Southeast Division with the victory, their sixth in seven games.
After Thrashers winger Vyacheslav Kozlov fired a long rebound past Johnson at 11 minutes 26 seconds of the first period, Holik scored a goal that's destined for the highlights. Holik was knocked down by Green, but, from his stomach, was able to extend his stick and redirect Eric Boulton's pass into the net. A turnover by Green at the blueline led to the opportunity.
Ovechkin cut the Thrashers' lead to 2-1 at 5:27 of the second period, when his shot deflected off defenseman Niclas Havelid and past Kari Lehtonen. But Tkachuk restored Atlanta's two-goal lead about 10 minutes later after finishing off another setup pass by Boulton, who doubled his assist total.
Johnson hurt himself while sprawling to stop Tkachuk's shot and was replaced by Frederic Cassivi at the start of the third period. Johnson will be reevaluated Tuesday. The Capitals don't play again until Thursday in Boston, where Kolzig hopes to return from a sprained left knee.
Ovechkin's second goal deflected into the net off Thrashers defenseman Andy Sutton's skate at 1:26 of the third period and made it 3-2. But Kovalchuk squashed the Capitals' comeback by beating Cassivi between the pads with 10:25 left to play.
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Alex Ovechkin scores his 40th and 41st goals on Monday night, but the Capitals drop their 8th straight game, 4-2, to the Atlanta Thrashers.
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Surgeon General Of Army Steps Down
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Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, agreed to step down from his position after weeks of intense public criticism stemming from revelations about poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, defense officials said yesterday.
Though there had been repeated calls for Kiley to resign as the Army's top doctor during hearings on Capitol Hill, he refused to step aside even as he was grilled about horrid living conditions and a tangled bureaucracy at the Army's flagship hospital. Kiley at first played down reports of problems at Walter Reed-- where he had served as commander from 2002 to 2004 -- but later was far more contrite.
Kiley submitted his retirement request on Sunday, according to an Army news release. Defense officials said Pete Geren, the acting secretary of the Army, had sought Kiley's removal in recent days. Geren has been in his new role only since last week, when he was tapped to replace Francis Harvey, who resigned as Army Secretary as the scandal began to unfold.
The Army's inspector general reported yesterday that the service is lacking in critical staff and formalized training in caring for soldiers. The inspector general also found that the Army's system for determining disability benefits is overwhelmed by the number of wounded.
Army officials quickly named a temporary replacement for Kiley -- his current deputy, Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock. She will serve until an advisory board recommends a new surgeon general.
Pollock, in an e-mail sent to colleagues and staff in the Army Medical Command on Friday, had also sought to minimize reports about conditions at Walter Reed and attacked the media's handling of the issue.
"I know everyone is extremely pained and angry about the media assaults on Walter Reed and our senior leaders," Pollock wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Washington Post. She added that she "articulated our displeasure at the misinformation about the quality of care" to a Post reporter after a congressional hearing last week but also acknowledged that she believes the stories could create momentum for changes that would better serve the Army.
She also wrote: "I know that your families and loved ones are affected by this event as well -- please reassure them that the media makes money on negative stories not by articulating the positive in life -- though that is something I will never understand."
Cynthia Vaughan, a spokeswoman for Pollock, said last night that the message, which also included words of encouragement for the Army medical community, was "intended to lift the spirits and reinforce confidence in her colleagues and her staff."
Senior Army officials, including Gen. Richard A. Cody, the vice Chief of Staff, have said the stories have sparked an important dialogue about the state of the service's medical care. Cody is leading efforts to find and fix problems at Army installations around the world, hoping to remedy the problem of soldiers having to battle a medical bureaucracy after they return from fighting the nation's enemies.
The Army's initial playing down of reports of rodent infestation, mold and bureaucratic delays at Walter Reed angered senior officials at the Pentagon and drew concern from top administration officials -- including President Bush. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was quick to seek accountability at the highest levels, forcing Harvey to resign days after firing the commander of Walter Reed, Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, two weeks ago.
Ongoing probes could lead to more firings, two defense officials said yesterday.
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Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, agreed to step down from his position after weeks of intense public criticism stemming from revelations about poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, defense officials said yesterday.
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Ethanol Undergoes Evolution as Political Issue
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What's the closest thing in politics to a religious experience? The ethanol conversion.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) experienced one in May of last year. Long opposed to federal support for the corn-based biofuel, she reversed herself and endorsed even bigger ethanol incentives than she previously voted against. Now running for president, Clinton is promoting a $50 billion strategic energy fund, laden with more ethanol perks.
Political opponents depict Clinton's about-face as pandering to Iowa Democrats, who will cast the first votes of the 2008 nominating season. When the senator made her first trip to Iowa in January, the Republican National Committee circulated a synopsis of her ethanol record, awash with "no" votes. "A Calculating Clinton Flips on Ethanol to Score a Run with Iowa Voters," the headline read.
Although the timing of Clinton's shift tracks neatly with the primary calendar, it also coincides with an ethanol boomlet in New York state, along with a nationwide surge in alternative fuel demand. For years, ethanol was disparaged beyond the Corn Belt as a farm subsidy disguised as an environmental cause. Now it is accepted as a mainstream solution to global warming and oil imports. Even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an ethanol foe so fierce that he skipped the Iowa caucuses in 2000, says he is willing to give it another look.
As ethanol becomes more accepted, it appears to be losing its potency as a presidential campaign issue. That means Clinton's reversal may not translate into much of an advantage for, say, Sen. Barack Obama (D), whose Illinois political roots have made him a natural ethanol crusader. A senior Clinton aide explained that the senator's views shifted as the industry took hold in her own back yard and as the nation's energy demands changed.
Iowa voters understand those evolving circumstances, said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). "Nowadays, I think they kind of expect people to be for ethanol -- whether they're newly born-again ethanol people, or old-fashioned, long-term ethanol people."
Ethanol became a political cause in the early 1970s, when the Arab oil embargo raised voter concerns about U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and it got its first federal assistance in a 1978 energy tax bill. It took a while to catch on. A 1986 Department of Agriculture study predicted ethanol could not survive long-term without "massive government subsidies."
Candidates campaigning in Iowa faced a simple choice: pander to caucus-goers by vowing to lavishly fund ethanol, or reject it and hope to be rewarded for fiscal integrity. It was an especially tricky choice for GOP politicians, because Iowa farmers lean Republican.
But starting in the 2004 presidential cycle, public and internal campaign polls have showed that Democratic caucus-goers in particular rate agricultural issues lower than other concerns, including the economy, the Iraq war, health care and education.
"It's the lore that if you come to Iowa and you want to campaign here, you want to understand that ethanol is vital to the state," said Des Moines-based pollster J. Ann Selzer, whose January survey found 92 percent of Iowa voters rated ethanol as important to the state's economic future. "But it's perfectly reasonable for someone's opinion to shift as the world has shifted."
McCain's reversal has been almost as dramatic as Clinton's. In a 1999 Des Moines debate, the senator bluntly said: "Ethanol is not worth it. It does not help the consumer. Those ethanol subsidies should be phased out."
Campaigning in Iowa last month, where he is trailing GOP candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, McCain told voters: "We need energy independence. We need it for a whole variety of reasons, and obviously ethanol is a big part of that equation."
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Latest politics news headlines from Washington DC. Follow 2006 elections,campaigns,Democrats,Republicans,political cartoons,opinions from The Washington Post. Features government policy,government tech,political analysis and reports.
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Eating Disorders: Not Just for Women
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They exercise for hours, devise rigid rituals surrounding food, obsessively monitor their weight and yearn to resemble the taut-bodied celebrities whose images grace magazine covers. But the models and actors this group typically emulates are not the skeletal Kate Moss or wispy Nicole Kidman but the chiseled muscularity of soccer superstar David Beckham and actor Daniel Craig, the latest screen incarnation of James Bond.
The reason: These eating disorder sufferers are male.
Long regarded as a women's problem, the trio of serious eating disorders -- the self-starvation of anorexia, the gorging and purging that characterize bulimia and the uncontrolled consumption of large amounts of food that is binge eating -- are increasingly affecting males.
Last month, Harvard researchers reported the results of the first national study of eating disorders in a population of nearly 3,000 adults and found that 25 percent of those with anorexia or bulimia and 40 percent of binge eaters were men.
The authors called the rate "surprisingly high" because earlier studies had estimated that males accounted for about 10 percent of the cases of bulimia and anorexia, which can be fatal. Binge eating is not officially recognized as a psychiatric disorder and is not considered life-threatening, but its prevalence among men surprised some eating disorders specialists.
Although disordered eating is well-known among teenage girls and young women, experts say the problem among boys and young men is frequently overlooked by parents and coaches and under-treated by doctors. Males, they now believe, appear to be vulnerable to social pressures to achieve the perfect body similar to those that have long plagued women. But unlike the female ideal, which tends to focus on a "goal weight" or overall skinniness, men's focus is nearly always on achieving "six-pack" abs.
"Men are more reluctant to admit losing control" about food, said James I. Hudson, lead author of the study, which estimated that about 9 million Americans suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their lives. The research was published last month in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Stigma, Hudson added, remains a major barrier: Many men are loath to admit having a problem that is so strongly associated with women, fearing they will seem unmanly. Even if they do, they may have trouble finding treatment: Some eating disorder programs admit only women.
And in sharp contrast to the parade of female celebrities who have publicly discussed their eating disorders, few well-known men have come forward.
The most notable exception is actor Dennis Quaid, who has talked about his battle with what he termed "manorexia," for which he sought treatment. Quaid said his problem started when he lost 40 pounds to play Doc Holliday in the 1994 movie "Wyatt Earp." Actor Billy Bob Thornton has said he, too, has battled anorexia, at one point losing 59 pounds, and singer Elton John has said he suffered from bulimia. Former male model Ron Saxen has written a new book describing his ordeal with binge eating.
Some men have suffered from all three. Among them is Matt Gaebel, 22, who was hospitalized for anorexia during his sophomore year at North Carolina State University after his weight plummeted from 155 to 106 pounds. Gabel, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall, said he subsequently developed bulimia to cope with the weight he gained during treatment for anorexia, then turned to binge eating out of concern that self-induced vomiting would ruin his teeth.
Binge eating, said Gaebel, who lives with his parents in Cary, N.C., "calms me down." It has also left him feeling fat as well as "very isolated and depressed"; he now weighs 225 pounds.
Isolation is not a new feeling. Gaebel said he was the only male eating disorder patient most of the months he was hospitalized at the University of North Carolina. The only male he met there, he said, was a very young boy struggling with his homosexuality. Gaebel said he worried that people might erroneously think he was gay, because male homosexuality is associated with the development of eating disorders. (Experts say the increased risk is not intrinsic, but stems from the emphasis on weight and appearance among gay men.)
"I really didn't have anyone to talk to," Gaebel recalled. Although not overweight when he developed anorexia, he had been teased in middle school for his "baby fat" and "love handles." Such experiences are common among men with eating disorders, said psychologist Cynthia Bulik, director of UNC's eating disorders program.
Psychiatrist Arnold Andersen, director of the eating disorders program at the University of Iowa and a widely recognized expert on male eating problems, said he has treated teenagers who developed bulimia or anorexia after failing to make a sports team where weight is paramount, such as wrestling.
Other patients include men who began dieting to meet job requirements -- and couldn't stop. "We've had a number of military people like colonels," said Andersen, who was formerly on the staffs of Johns Hopkins Hospital and the National Institutes of Health. "The military is very strict, and they're afraid they're going to get chucked out" or fail to win a promotion if they don't lose weight to meet certain requirements.
Adelaide Robb, associate professor of psychiatry at George Washington University School of Medicine, said that many of the risk factors for males are the same as for females, although boys are more likely to be overweight and are typically older than girls when they develop an eating disorder.
In both sexes there is often a family history of eating disorders -- Gaebel said that is true in his family -- as well as perfectionist and obsessive behaviors and a history of dieting.
Treatment for males and females involves cognitive therapy to overcome a distorted body image, which is at the core of eating disorders. Depression and substance abuse may also be present.
Parents of boys, Robb said, are much less likely to recognize the problem and more apt to deny it. Pediatricians, she said, often don't suspect it, either.
"Boys say, 'I'm getting into shape,' " Robb said, "not, 'I'm fat and gross and need to go on a diet,' " as do girls. Initially, she added, many parents are thrilled that their teenage son who could polish off huge quantities of food in short order has sworn off junk food, carbohydrates or pizza in favor of turkey sandwiches, broiled salmon and fruit. "They often think he's adopted healthy eating habits."
"A teenage boy shouldn't be eating what his 110-pound, dieting mother would eat," Robb cautioned. "It's normal for a half-gallon of milk and a loaf of bread to disappear every 48 hours if there's a teenage boy in the house." A notable change in eating habits, she noted, should prompt a call to a physician or nutritionist.
Parents, Robb said, should model healthy behavior and avoid lamenting how chubby they are or trying to run a "fat-free" household. "When parents are hung up on their own weight issues, their kids are at higher risk," she said. "Boys can be as susceptible as girls."
Eating disorders, Robb and other experts say, appear to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
"Genes load the gun, and environment pulls the trigger," said North Carolina's Bulik. "But one of the problems I see for male eating disorder patients is just being taken seriously." ·
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They exercise for hours, devise rigid rituals surrounding food, obsessively monitor their weight and yearn to resemble the taut-bodied celebrities whose images grace magazine covers. But the models and actors this group typically emulates are not the skeletal Kate Moss or wispy Nicole Kidman but the chiseled muscularity of soccer superstar David Beckham and actor Daniel Craig, the latest screen incarnation of James Bond....
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New Tricks for Old Drugs
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Before you flush your old medications down the toilet, read this: That's not a method generally recommended as safe -- for people or the environment -- according to new federal guidelines.
The guidelines, issued last month by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, advise consumers to "take unused, unneeded or expired prescription drugs out of their original containers and throw them in the trash."
Even better, they advise, mix the medications with kitty litter or used coffee grounds and put them in "impermeable, nondescript containers, such as empty cans or sealable bags" before tossing them, to help prevent accidental ingestion by children or pets. The Harvard Heart Letter, a publication of Harvard Medical School, offers another tip: Add "some water to pills, and put some flour in liquids" before throwing medications away.
Water Safety Don't flush old medications down the toilet unless the drug's label specifically says to do so. "Drugs can kill helpful bacteria in septic systems and pass largely untouched through sewage treatment plants," according to Harvard. And, "once in landfills, drugs can trickle into groundwater."
Community Programs Some pharmacies, health providers and city and state governments will dispose of your medications for you. Call those in your area to see what's available.
If you choose to take part, protect sensitive information, advises Shirley Reitz, associate director of clinical pharmacy services at Group Health Cooperative, a Seattle-based health maintenance organization that runs a medication disposal program. "I would encourage patients . . . not to throw the [medication] container that has their name information on it into a waste container" at a public facility. "They need to cross out their name and other identifying information for their own privacy." Also scratch out your name on medication bottles before disposing of them at home, Harvard advises.
Find Them Read the federal drug disposal guidelines at http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/drugfact/factsht/proper_disposal.html .
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Before you flush your old medications down the toilet, read this: That's not a method generally recommended as safe -- for people or the environment -- according to new federal guidelines.
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And the Winner Is . . . Well, Nobody
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Put down your steak knife and stop salivating over the butter.
Just because a new study finds that the high-protein Atkins diet doesn't appear to cause the heart disease once feared is no reason to celebrate by loading up on high-fat fare.
Whether you're trying to shed pounds or just eat healthily, the take-home message shouldn't be to "eat the steaks and the whipped cream, but the fish and the fiber," says Christopher Gardner, assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and lead author of the comparative study of popular diets that was published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In case you missed the recent headlines, Gardner and his colleagues reported on a year-long trial in overweight and obese women that compared four weight-loss regimens: the very-low-carbohydrate Atkins approach; the Zone diet, a reduced-carbohydrate regimen created by author Barry Sears; the very-low-fat, mostly vegetarian plan by physician Dean Ornish; and a conventional reduced-calorie-and-fat approach developed by Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
Women in the Atkins group had shed an average of 10 pounds at the end of the year-long study, which was funded by the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan and the National Institutes of Health. Statistically speaking, that's not significantly more than the six pounds lost by the conventional-diet group, the five pounds for the Ornish plan and the four pounds for the Zone. As Gardner notes, all represent "just a modest amount of weight," and far less than most of the dieters had hoped to shed. (Women in the study needed to lose 15 to 100 pounds to reach a healthy weight. Only a few women in each group lost substantial amounts of weight.)
Also lost in many of the news reports of the results was the difficulty that all four groups had in sticking with their plans. The 331 participants received much more help than most dieters get. Each read a book about their particular plan. For the first two months of the study, they attended a weekly session with a registered dietitian. They also had regular phone and e-mail reminders to return for weigh-ins and blood tests. But the sweetest part is that they were paid up to $75 per session for their participation.
Despite these incentives, the groups struggled. After the first two months, the Atkins group didn't adhere strictly to eating only very few carbohydrates. The Ornish group couldn't stick with the very-low-fat approach. And if all the women really ate as few calories as they reported, "they would have lost a lot more weight," notes Bonnie Brehm, professor of nutrition at the University of Cincinnati School of Nursing and co-author of two other studies of the Atkins diet.
Why the Atkins group shed weight a little faster and managed to lose a few more pounds may be due to the higher amount of protein they consumed. Protein is more satiating than carbohydrates or fat. But in any case, Gardner -- who has been a vegetarian for 25 years -- says the findings don't point to the Atkins diet "as the solution to the obesity epidemic."
What the results do underscore are the benefits of cutting back on processed carbohydrates, the kind found in white bread and in popular foods and beverages with added sugar, such as sweetened breakfast cereals and soft drinks. The Atkins group ate the fewest processed carbohydrates and reaped some of the best benefits from improved blood sugar and insulin levels. So it's best to get your carbohydrates from fruit, vegetables and whole grains -- advice that is consistent with all four diet books and with the U.S. Dietary Guidelines.
Just how important that can be is illustrated by a new report drawn from the Iowa Women's Health Study, a 10-year research project of nearly 42,000 women age 55 to 69 that was begun in 1986. New findings published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by a team of scientists from the University of Minnesota, the University of Oslo and Exponent, a Washington-based research group, find benefits from eating foods rich in flavonoids: Women who regularly ate bran, apples, pears, grapefruit, strawberries and chocolate and who sipped a little red wine had the lowest risks of heart disease, heart attacks and death from all causes.
As for the small amounts of weight lost in the Stanford study, that need not be seen as failure, experts say. The results suggest that shedding less than 5 percent of total body weight produced significant improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and insulin levels. "Even a little bit of weight loss can have some positive effects," Brehm notes.
If you plan to try a low-carbohydrate diet, advises Walter Willett, professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, choose foods that will make a difference in your long-term risk for heart disease and diabetes. So reach for fish, beans, the leanest cuts of red meat and poultry without the skin as well as for small amounts of nuts and healthy oil, such as olive, canola or safflower.
Finally, social support can be key. One woman in the Ornish group of the Stanford study followed the program with her husband. "They made it a contest," Gardner says. "She managed to lose 40 pounds."
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Vatican Watchdog Eyes Spanish Jesuit
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VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican office that safeguards doctrinal correctness is examining a Spanish Jesuit who is a prominent champion of liberation theology, a Vatican official said Monday.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi declined to give any details about the probe by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith into the work of the Rev. Jon Sobrino, a renowned theologian.
He said the congregation would report its conclusions soon, and this would lay out the case.
Spanish daily El Mundo reported last week that Sobrino would be banned from teaching in Catholic institutions and would not be allowed to publish. The newspaper said the Vatican accuses Sobrino of distorting the name and history of Jesus Christ.
The Vatican has objected to liberation theology, citing its basis in Marxist analysis of society _ particularly the idea of class struggle and the promotion of social, political and economic justice for the poor.
Before becoming pontiff two years ago, Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, led the congregation's crackdown on theologians the Vatican judged to be perilously straying from church doctrine.
During his two-decade tenure at the congregation's helm, Ratzinger, who is a theologian, worked to cripple support for the "liberation theology" movement that is especially popular in Latin America.
Sobrino has been based in El Salvador for decades and was close to the Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, an insistent critic of human rights abuses in the country. The churchman was slain in 1980 while celebrating Mass.
Jesuit headquarters in Rome declined to comment on the case until the Vatican issues its findings, possibly later this week. Its press office described the newspaper report as being "mistaken" on several points, but declined to be specific.
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VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican office that safeguards doctrinal correctness is examining a Spanish Jesuit who is a prominent champion of liberation theology, a Vatican official said Monday.
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Broder on Politics
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Broder has written extensively about primaries, elections, special interests and the business of politics. His books include "Democracy Derailed: The Initiative Movement & the Power of Money," "Behind the Front Page: A Candid Look at How the News Is Made" and "The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point."
washingtonpost.com: 'Common Ground' Caucus: Four Leaders Seek Ideas -- and Civility (Post, March 8)
Rockville, Md.: More of a lighthearted question here: I'm currently reading "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" and am just curious as to whether or not you ever payed off the bet you lost with Mr. Thompson? [ed.: "1972: Broder bets Hunter Thompson $100 that Hubert Humphrey would win a crucial Democratic primary." ( link)]
David S. Broder: Good morning to all. Lighthearted or not, the question you asked keeps coming up. As I have said before, Dr. Thompson was in one of his drug-induced fantasyland trips when he imagined the $100 bet. I have never ever had $100 to bet with him or anyone else on politics. I save that folly for the race track, and then only with the wise counsel of my adviser, Jack Germond, and I always insist that he puts up half the money. He will confirm that WE made no such bet with Hunter, and I certainly would never do it on my own. Further than that, deponent sayeth not.
New York: I would argue that the key moment of courage is not the passing of a firm timetable for pulling out of Iraq, it's what they do after Bush vetoes. The safest vote in the world is voting yes to something you know isn't going to be enacted, in this case because of a veto. Isn't the response after Bush's veto of the Iraq timetable the real test for the Democratic congress?
David S. Broder: It would be a real test if the measure ever got that far. But as it stands, nothing is likely to clear the Senate.
Arlington, Va.: Hello David. Is the fact that Hillary Clinton is deadly boring reason enough not to vote for her?
David S. Broder: I doubt it. The country has had many boring presidents, and maybe people would be happy to have four years or eight years with no alarm bells going off.
Kensington, Md.: It seems that among other insults, our wounded soldiers at Walter Reed are feeling the effects of Mr. Bush's Free Lunch Tax Act of 2003. Is anyone asking fervent Republican cheerleaders for both the war and the cut how they reconcile these two things?
David S. Broder: I missed the news of the Free Lunch Tax Act. Are you by any chance referring to the Economic Growth and Recovery Acts which have produced the 4.5 percent low unemployment rate and rapid revenue growths we're seeing now? I have heard a lot about them from the letters I get from my friends at the Republican National Committee.
Arlington, Va.: In the Wall Street Journal the Assistant Secretary of State for Europe says the President opposes limitations some NATO countries place on what their troops can do in Afghanistan, saying that those caveats are detrimental to our collective effort and that he wants them dropped. This is the same President that files "signing statements" (about one for every 10 bills he signs), dictating which laws he believes he can disobey. That would seem to me to be detrimental to the Executive/Judicial collective effort. Is there an Administration hypocrisy in what the Administration wants to do versus what it wants others to do?
David S. Broder: In my present generous mood, trying not to be critical of the president while he is on a delicate diplomatic mission in Latin America, I would hesitate to use the term hypocrisy. Let's just say that there is room for reconciliation of the two principles.
Rockville, Md.:"deadly boring..." I see that Arlington is busy this morning. But I agree, boring can be comfortable.
David S. Broder: I believe I sense a theme or campaign slogan being developed. "Vote for Hillary. Boring is Better"
Washington: It seems that many states are jockeying for positions in the early presidential primaries. Where is the best place to find the current confirmed dates for primaries? Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: 2008 Primary Dates: Changes and Proposals (Post, March 9)
David S. Broder: You can find an up-to-date calendar on WashingtonPost.com, but remember that it changes almost daily. And don't forget to move your clock forward one hour tomorrow night. A full-service operation here.
Seattle: I just got back from Europe and virtually every European I met wanted to talk about American politics. Basically they thought 2000 was a aberration (everyone can make a mistake) but were stunned that Bush was reelected by a greater margin, when most Europeans think he should be tried for war crimes (illegal invasion, Guantanamo, condoning torture). So while the U.S. perforce must lead on issues that may require force (say, Sudan) Europeans think Americans are too stupid and ignorant to be followed. Can any of the current candidates inspire trust in Europe?
David S. Broder: I treasure questions that include the word "perforce," because I try to use it in my own reporting for the Post, and some damn editor always eliminates it. Perforce, I have to say I don't know which candidate or candidates could meet the expectations of our European friends. Dennis Kucinich perhaps has the closest ethnic ties with some of them, but he may be a little too conservative for their tastes. John Kerry had relatives in France, but it didn't seem to help him much.
Minneapolis: During the 2000 campaign, you lauded the selection of Cheney as Bush's running mate. I'm wondering if and how your appraisal of Cheney has changed since that time?
David S. Broder: Cheney has surprised and disappointed me. But not as much as the man who picked him.
Crystal City, Va.: With the nominations for both parties likely decided by early February, what will candidates do to keep our interest for the next five months until the boring and meaningless conventions occur?
David S. Broder: I thought we had established that by 2008, Americans may want to elect a REALLY BORING president. That being the case, the candidates will spend those five months delivering exactly the same speeches as they have for the previous 15 months. And you'll be surprised how fast the time will fly.
Princeton, N.J.: If you remember, Cheney picked Cheney. So your answer is a wonderful paradox!
David S. Broder: You got it. Wonderful paradoxes are my specialty -- especially when I don't have a good excuse for past misjudgments.
Washington: What are your thoughts on Sen. Edwards' skipping the Fox presidential debate? Isn't part of governing dealing with people that you don't necessarily agree with?
washingtonpost.com: Edwards to Skip Nevada Debate Hosted by Fox (Post, March 7)
David S. Broder: I am surprised at his decision, but I understand that the sponsors are having trouble lining up other candidates for these ridiculously early debates.
Oxford, Miss.: So I've been flipping between your chat and Lyndsey Layton's chat and have noticed something disturbing. For a few minutes you answer a handful of questions and then it's all radio silence for a few minutes while Layton answers question. Back and forth, the pattern continues. So I see one of two reasons for this:
1. The Post has cut back on spending and you two have been forced to share a computer
2. You're the same person.
David S. Broder: You guessed it. Lyndsey and I are the same person, or people, because The Post is economizing and giving every reporter two names and two beats to cover. Please do not tell too many people our secret -- or my secret, if you prefer. Lyndsey/David
Washington: You seem to know the political landscape so well. What book(s) are you reading?
David S. Broder: I just finished two books -- a biography of Gerald R. Ford by Douglas Brinkley and (in manuscript) a memoir by Rep. David Obey that will be published this fall.
Madison, Wis.: In reference to your column yesterday, I have been reading through the years how Republican Congress members have become more conservative and that moderates like Robert Dole have become increasingly rare. The roundtable you discuss sounds like it eventually may become a place where liberal and centrist Democrats amicably can settle their differences, but I don't see a rush of Republicans intending to join in. Is there really a future for more civility in Congress?
David S. Broder: I hope so, and the leadership of people like Senators Dole and Baker will encourage more Republicans to join the dialogue.
Boston: Why does The Washington Post care about the FBI issue today? President Bush has a specific signing statement that permits the FBI the freedom to do as it did. Only Charlie Savage of The Boston Globe seemed to care about it at the time it was written. The President has spent six years setting up a system where he has the power to go above the law. You and The Post did not care while he was creating the culture of lawlessness. I would strongly suggest you look the other way now.
washingtonpost.com: Frequent Errors In FBI's Secret Records Requests (Post, March 9)
David S. Broder: I admire Charlie Savage's leading the way on coverage of the signing statements, but the story was also extensively reported in the Post and other papers. The news from the Justice Department yesterday was significant, I thought, and should have been reported.
Granger, Ind.: Not a question but a statement: I am not interested in Hillary's candidacy because I do not think the presidency of the United States should be passed back and forth between two families (especially these two).
David S. Broder: Yes, but what about the national need for a REALLY BORING president? If she proves to be, as some say, the most boring candidate out there, doesn't that override every other consideration, including your anti-Whiggery sentiments?
Washington: Figure I'm too late, but what the heck ... I know that the "layoffs" of U.S. Attorneys is unprecedented. However, there is history that, while not at all similar in import, is relevant: Nixon's firing of Archibald Cox. Certainly by the letter of the law, Nixon was allowed to fire Cox -- but nobody, not his own AG or deputy AG, not Congressional members of his own party and certainly not the American people, thought that it was a kosher move. How do you like the comparison?
David S. Broder: I like the comparison. I remember the Saturday Night Massacre very well, and it certainly was not Kosher. The only nonpolitical Justice Department I know was run by Ed Kevi for President Ford -- and the voters made the mistake of ending that administration prematurely,
And now, prematurely or not, I must end this chat. I think it has been historic in setting a goal of making sure the next president and presidential campaign are both really boring.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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Join live discussions from the Washington Post. Feature topics include national, world and DC area news, politics, elections, campaigns, government policy, tech regulation, travel, entertainment, cars, and real estate.
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Appearing every Wednesday and Friday in The Washington Post Style section and in Sunday Source, Tell Me About It offers readers advice based on the experiences of someone who's been there -- really recently. Carolyn Hax is an ex-repatriated New Englander with a liberal arts degree and a lot of opinions and that's about it, really, when you get right down to it. Oh, and the shoes. A lot of shoes.
Anonymous: Any advice on how to stay on track with an overly booked life right now? I'm working six days a week for a while, I'm taking a couple night classes and am trying to have a social life in-between. I feel like I wake up and every moment is dedicated to someone else and that I'm just going through the daily motions (though I need the money and want the degree).
Carolyn Hax: Give yourself small breaks, even if they're just for 15 minutes; go easy on the social life, unless isolation makes the pressure feel worse; if you start to scare yourself, don't rule out cutting back. Otherwise, do what the rest of us do. Chant "this is temporary this is temporary" and keep a chocolate bar in your desk.
Sunny Florida: Any suggestions for coping skills for an adult whose still married parents' favorite phrase is "Don't tell your mother/father..." They say this about everything -- things I tell them about me, my job, my relationship, their jobs, their HEALTH, etc.
Carolyn Hax:"You know I can't promise that, Ma"; "You know I can't promise that, Dad"; "You know I can't promise that, Ma"; "You know I can't promise that, Dad"; and keep a chocolate bar in your desk.
Online only, please!: What's your opinion of dating a person who is separated and whose divorce is moving forward? I was completely against it until I met this person. The chemistry and connection are undeniable, but I'm very wary (as well I should probably be, right?).
Carolyn Hax: Actually, no. You should be wary of ignoring your instincts and believing what you're "supposed" to believe. Obviously there are times when facts should speak louder than your gut--say, when the person you're dating has 17 ex-spouses who all look suspiciously like you--and I'd be wary of tuning out your judgment in favor of "connection and chemistry."
But if your judgment tells you this marriage is over except for the ink on the paper, and if there's a transparency to the proceedings (and the guy) that allows you to believe there are no lurking secrets, then I think it's okay to let yourself be an adult and decide for yourself.
Portland, Ore.: I just ate the chocolate bar in my desk. Now what?!
washingtonpost.com: Same. Thanks a lot, C.
25 and doomed: Is it bad to begrudge an elderly in-law who will be moving in when you're only 25? I feel like such a selfish meanie, but gee, I had really hoped for my husband and I to have a life of our own a little while more.
Carolyn Hax: Actually, I think it's wrong to let the in-law move in while you have all this unresolved resentment. Bad for you, but also bad for the in-law, who deserves to move into a place free of unexploded emotional ordnance.
Talk to your husband. Be honest with him, be honest with yourself. If you're telling yourself it's a done deal, you have no choice, then you aren't being honest with yourself. There is always a choice--even if it's just, "I let this relative move in or I leave my marriage." Drastic, sure, but it's still a choice, which means you've made the actual calculation that you'd rather be married and living with this relative than not married. And when you treat it as your calculation, vs. treating it as something forced on you, you're going to deal with it better.
Not great, mind you, just better--you can still be angry at someone for forcing such a nasty choice on you. But talking about it can help you understand the choice forced on the person forcing you, and the choice forced on the person forcing him, and on down the chain of rotten choices. That kind of perspective can help.
And when even that doesn't help, it can be useful to have someone objective to talk to--amateur or pro. Good luck.
To Tell or Not to Tell?: Dear Carolyn,
I'm all for telling a friend that you've developed romantic feelings for them.
What about telling that to a friend who is in a rocky relationship, and now and then talks about getting out?
Carolyn Hax:"I can't advise you objectively because I have feelings for you of my own." That way you're saying only what you need to say, and only when it's necessary to say it.
Eating the, Chocolate: That's why I keep several chocolate bars in my desk...
The Elementary School conspiracy.....: The first generation of Feminists had it completely wrong......you don't lose your identity when you get married - you lose it when your kids go to school.
For the woman in today's column: Your sister-in-law is actually doing you a favor by helping to prepare you for the total loss of personal identity that comes when you have school-aged children. Frankly, it doesn't matter what your name is -- because at your kid's school you'll always be known by Mrs. (insert child's surname here) or as (name of child)'s Mom.
Carolyn Hax: I think Mrs. somebody needs a nap.
On the move, USA: My boyfriend and I (dating four years) are talking about moving in together after a lot of time spent long-distance. Any advice for the transition? We both know it's going to be quite a change.
Carolyn Hax: Have you considered taking it slowly and not moving in together?
I know you have, but have you given your reasons for ruling it out a legitimate challenge? It's good that you're not going in to this with a bunch of naive hopes, but when you're going into it with trepidation, it does beg the question.
Drying Ink: It's not just about the formal divorce proceedings being final, though--as I painfully learned, it's also about whether the emotional bond has been severed in a healthy way.
Carolyn Hax: Actually, that's exactly what I meant--if it's just a metter of signatures, and there isn't a lingering emotional element to it. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't, and the status of the legal procedings is not a reliable measure of that. It can be done, signed and over and there still could be emotional fallout. Or there can be a legal separation and no fallout, except for some toe-tapping while the paperwork runs its course. Pay attention, ask questions and be honest with yourself--a lot more effective than listening to someone who lumps everyone into one category, and says, "I'd never date someone whose divorce wasn't final."
First Breakup: Back in November I (finally) met my first boyfriend. However, he has lately been saying some hurtful things about my job (too low-status) and my figure (too plump)with the caveat that these things don't matter to him. And he still doesn't want to be monogamous. Thus, we're not going to last much longer and I'm nervously contemplating my first breakup. Even if it's the right thing to do, I'm afraid it'll be painful and depressing and make me feel as though I'll always be alone. Any advice?
Carolyn Hax: It'll be painful and quite possibly exhilarating--taking command of your own well-being does have its charms--and if you're alone, that'll be an improvement over someone who treats you badly. I know it's easy to connect the dots between being alone and thinking it's because there's no one out there who likes you enough to treat you well, but don't start down that path. There are 3 billion people out there of your preferred sex, and a good precentage of them would be honored to know you; it's being in the right part of the globe at the right time in the right frame of mind that can get in the way, since we 6 billion people have managed to come up with, let's think for a second ... exactly two non-cringeworthy ways of meeting each other. And so, if you're not inclined to roam the earth wearing a "date me" shirt, you make a happy life for yourself, right where you want that life to be.
This guy is the first pancake. You can throw it away without dwelling on it.
Washington, D.C.: Help! I gave up chocolate for Lent....
Carolyn Hax: Lemon bars, date-nut bars, peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, shortbread, vanilla ice cream with caramel, apple pie with vanilla ice cream and caramel, pecan piiiiie (said a la Billy Crystal in "When Harry Met Sally ..."
I have never felt so evil.
for the Overly Booked Life: It might help if, when she feels like every waking minute is dedicated to someone else, she reminds herself that those minutes are actually dedicated to HERSELF. Because at the end of it all, she'll have a degree she wants, the means to pay for the things she wants and needs, and (if she doesn't have to completely curtail social life) plans to out with her best pal.
In other words, look at what she's getting out of it, not what she's putting out to get it. Works for me, anyway.
Carolyn Hax: Works for me, too. Thanks.
Beautiful Silver Spring, Md.: What are the two non-cringeworthy ways of meeting someone of my preferred sex? All the ways I know cause cringing.
Carolyn Hax:1. Natural proximity (neighbor, coworker, classmate, friend-of-friend), or 2. accidentally spilling your wine on his or her lap.
Alexandria, Va.: My brother died in his sleep a little over a week ago. He was 36 and although he had lots of serious health problems, this was unexpected. Because we were so close, I'm having a hard time. I managed to come back to work today, but my ability to concentrate isn't nearly up to 100 percent and I feel totally up and down. One minute I'm laughing, remembering something funny he said, and the next minute tears start welling up because I realize that I'm going to spend every day for the rest of my life without my brother. Is this normal? Any advice? I can see that I'm making progress each day and I have lots of support from friends, family, and co-workers, and will see a therapist if I need it. I've lost other relatives, my father who I wasn't close to, and a grandfather who I was close to, but this makes me feel as close to devasted as I can get without completely falling apart.
Carolyn Hax: I am so sorry. It is devastating, and you're doing everything you can possibly do, which is, as you're discovering, not even remotely up to the task. The only thing that can fix an absence is a presence, and he's not coming back, so there's no fixing it.
But there are things that will make the pain more bearable, and they are, fortunately, built in. One is time. The other is your humanity. We are not wired to feel intense things for long periods of time. This can be comforting especially when you're in one of those scary times when you're feeling just so -much- that you think you're going to break. You won't, and the sheer volume of emotion will recede, a little and then a little more and then a little more, and you'll start to feel little spots of near-normalcy. You might already be close. You'll still get intensely emotional, but with growing spans in between.
And another thing is memory. Just as someone you love is alive for you for the days or weeks between phone calls, your brother is alive for you in your memory. You were so lucky to have had him; that's what your intense grief is telling you.
And finally you have what you learned from your brother. You have an emotional memory to carry with you as a known source of comfort, and if and when something like it comes your way again, you'll know it and appreciate it, as you appreciated him.
Even this won't feel like much. But everyone who has felt what you're feeling is rooting for you now. Hang in there.
RE: Drying Ink: : In the state of Virginia it is considered adultery until the divorce is final. I have a friend who is trying to date my pre-divorce friend. It's not worth the risk right now.
Carolyn Hax: I respect what you're saying and a law's a law, but the state of Virginia seems to have a lot to say about people's personal lives, and I really think it should mind its own business.
Weary: For all practical purposes, our marriage is over, but we're staying in it for the kids. We don't fight, but we also don't talk, hold hands, kiss, or sleep in the same bed. Our kids have asked why we don't sleep together and whether we still love each other.
Is it possible we're doing our children more harm by staying together?
Carolyn Hax: It's possible. Or, not. Stable home, or healthy example? People argue themselves purple on behalf of both of these. All you can do is judge, to the best of your ability, what best serves your children given your situation. You can also talk to trusted friends and/or reputable professionals, and take a good hard look at the emotional health of your children, if you're having trouble sorting it out.
I mean, duh. Of course you;re having trouble. It's a hellish choice. But I'm guessing you know what I mean.
Two days: I know this is an impossible question, but I am now halfway through my third sober day in a row -- after being a very heavy, very secret drinker for a very long time. How am I ever going to keep this up for the rest of my life? I can't imagine joining AA -- or going to some kind of treatment center. How do I do this on my own?
Carolyn Hax: You can get into private counseling with someone who treats alcoholism and other addictions. You can also use some AA strategies, even if you don't go--you don't think "rest of my life," you think today, and then, tomorrow, you think today again. You can go to http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/ and have yourself a read; and, finally, you can let yourself feel good for getting this far, and project how good you'll feel if you stick with it long enough to get past the times when you feel really really bad.
Re: divorce/adultery: I think the point about it being adultery until the divorce is final was that it could hurt the divorcing person in the settlement.
Carolyn Hax: Yes, absolutely. But then you aren't talking about people who've resolved it all and are just waiting for the signatures. When one is out looking for proof that the other is dating so they can rework the settlement, you have to have some heavy unresolved stuff going on.
You probably won't post this but...: Your point is EXACTLY why I moved from the state of Virginia. I'd rather have taxation without representation before I gave another cent to that backward state. Good for you for putting it out there, more people should be outraged on what that state tolerates (or more aptly, doesn't tolerate).
Carolyn Hax: No, I'm disgusted, so I'll post it. Unfortunately it's not just Virginia.
Atlanta, Ga.: I was just rejected from a graduate program in a form e-mail. I'm trying not to take it personally, but it is an ego blow. Any suggestions for processing?
Carolyn Hax: It's an opportunity for whatever it is you end up doing in lieu of this program.
Show of hands if you're grateful for being dinged from a grad program or four? (My hand is up.)
Carolyn Hax: Okay I lied. I didn't raise my hand, I was still typing with it. But I am sincerely grateful to several American studies programs.
Washington, D.C.: Heavy drinker, sober three days -- congratulations. Please get some medical advice -- see your own physician. Abrupt withdrawal from alcohol addition can have serious health consequences. I'm not suggesting you take a drink, just that you take care.
Carolyn Hax: Righto, thanks. If I'm not mistaken, it can trigger major depression, among other things.
Secret drinker, please also, at some point, start considering what it would be like to shine some light on your secret. Maybe try an AA meeting, just to find out what it's like to be in a non-judgmental atmosphere for a short while. It seems there is so much shame bottled up inside of you. That's probably just me and my experience of finding out that the shame is worse than the disease.
Carolyn Hax: It's a good point, thanks.
Late Bloomer: Carolyn, I'm a 26-year-old woman who's never been in a relationship. In fact, I've never even been kissed. I'm not completely repulsive, just really shy. Realizing that I wasn't meeting people at work/gym/church I posted a profile on an internet dating site, and got lots of responses. I'm considering meeting a couple of these guys (in a public place, obviously). But I feel kind of handicapped. In terms of dating experience, I'm behind your average 13-year-old. Any advice?
Carolyn Hax: Realize the 13-year-olds eventually figure it out--either in high school, as you think they do, or in their own time (18, 27, 35, 49) as they really do. Just move at your pace and don't apologize for it. In other words, the "normal" people aren't all hanging out together laughing at the "abnormal" ones. Though maybe they are and I just wasn't invited.
Still Married Parents: Hi Carolyn, et al;
To the parent who wonders whether to stay together for the kids - it sounds like both of them know it's over, and the kids are asking questions - how can this be setting a good example? It seems so sad a place to grow up.
Carolyn Hax: Now I want to cry. Yes, it does seem sad--and for some kids separate households are sad, especially if one parent takes a big economic hit and visibly struggles, and so it comes back to the same thing: How is your arrangement working for the kids, and is it possible this one could be improved or a better one can be made (that isn't based in fiction, like "Mommy and Daddy will love each other again")?
Rockville, Md.: I have a friend getting married this summer. This is her second marriage, and I hope she will be truly happy. But she never misses an opportunity to mention that she got involved with someone too soon after her first marriage ended and it was an awful terrible mistake blah blah blah ad nauseum.
Whenever ANYONE mentions a new relationship after a long-term one has ended, she brings up this failed romance. Whenver anyone mentions a new relationship with someone who has recently had a long-term relationship end, she brings up this failed romance.
This failed romance lasted about two months, and ended 2 years ago. Her bitterness and anger about this guy -- and her constant bringing it up -- make me wonder about the future of her coming marriage. We're reasonably close... not best buddies, but more than passing friends. Would it be appropriate for me to say anything to her? Or not? If so, what?
Carolyn Hax: Since she's giving you ample opportunities to weigh in, how about, "Maybe that relationship was a mistake, but maybe in a way you needed it, to get some stuff out of your system." Divorces bring on grief, too, and all the big emotions it entails. She probably doesn't want to hear it though.
Arlington, Va.: I started crying last night and I can't stop. Why? I don't know. A minor thing happened last night that set me bawling. I don't know what's wrong... even my boyfriend was practically in tears because he didn't know what to do. I'm getting through the day by telling everyone I have a cold and keeping the door shut. What's wrong with me?
Carolyn Hax: Is the minor thing really minor? Is there something else going on that you've tried to minimize or brush off? Are you in withdrawal from anything, on any new medications, PMSing, overtired? In denial?
Do you have a good regular doctor who would take your call, or an Employee Assistance Program at work?
Thanks for taking my question. I have a preschool-age half sister who lives with my father and step-mother. They live pretty far away (not in the US) and I don't get to see them very often, but I do love my sister very much. The problem is my father.
My parents divorced when I was a baby, and I lived with my mother. My father moved out of the country, and I would visit him in the summers. From when I was age 7 to about 10, my father sexually abused me. I never told anyone about it when I was a kid, and I am not sure why he stopped.
Needless to say, it messed me up. I felt dead inside for a long time. It wasn't until I started therapy when I was in college that I was able to deal with it. Several years later, I feel as though I have been able to move on, although I have never been able to either tell my mother about it or confront my father about it.
Now that I have a little sister, I know I need to do all I can to make sure she is safe. My thought is to talk to my step-mother about what happened to me, so that she can be aware of the danger. I think I should also talk to my father, although I dread doing it. My fear is that my father will deny it, and my step-mother won't believe me, and that they will cut me out of my sister's life. I just don't know what to do. I feel like nothing is a good option, and that there is so much to lose.
Carolyn Hax: There is, and so I agree you have to do all you can. But since the stakes are so high, I think you need to make moves that are as well-thought out and effective as possible, so as to anticipate any problems. Do you have a therapist still where you are now? And if not, what are the chances you can get in touch with the person who treated you when you were in college? I say that so you cut through the process of telling your story and developing trust, and go straight to a plan of action. Many counselors will consult by phone with an established patient.
If that's not possible, RAINN (Rape Abuse & Incest National Network) at 1-800-656-HOPE might be able to connect you to a local practitioner with experience handling these cases.
Add to that list of questions: Pregnant?
Washington, D.C.: I'm curious, does Liz ever have a conflict of interest trying to produce your chat while monitoring her Friday list developments at the same time? I know I have to keep two screens going at once....
washingtonpost.com: I manage quite handily.
Carolyn Hax: Liz is actually a team of clever, technically adept, nausea resistant people. I don't think it's possible for any one person to monitor problems, celebrities and problem celebrities without adverse health consequences.
Ashland, Ore.: I need alone time, but I share a one bedroom apartment with my partner. My work days are filled with tension (the kind that makes you feel like you're going to start lashing out at your boss and her ridiculous assistant)(yes, I am in therapy about that and will be leaving the job in the next few months). Getting to chill out alone quietly for a while (an hour or two) at home sometimes feels so nice and really necessary. But again, one bedroom with a partner. The tv in the main room is always -- ALWAYS -- on when he's home. If I go to our room, I get bombarded by questions about why I'm not paying attention or am I mad at him, etc. Sometimes I'll spend a little extra time in the bathroom because it's quiet and solitary, and then he starts looking for me and asking what I'm doing. I don't always need this time, but when I do and I can't have it, then all the tension from my day comes bubbling over and I become admittedly awful to be around.
How can I convey that sometimes, while I adore him and think he's wonderful, I really need some peace and quiet when he's around and that it has nothing to do with him?
Carolyn Hax: Well, actually, ahem. It sounds like you can share 5500 sf spread over 12 rooms with this guy and still not have any space. You need to explain to him, nicely, when you aren't in a state of immediate privacy need, that it is part of your personality to need time alone to regroup. Give it a name, like "introvert," if you have to, though if he can't grasp the concept without a whiteboard and a marker, I'm nor sure he's teachable.
Anyway, point this out to him, and then give him a chance to process this highly normal and legitimate request. If he just can't be with you without always BEING with you, then I don't think you're it for each other, no matter how much stress you manage to counsel or transfer or resign out of your life.
Re: Crying gal: Possibly pregnant.
Good news is, her boyfriend seems concerned and solicitous, which is a good start on fatherhood.
Carolyn Hax: So, crying person in office--any of this helping? If I say, "cheesecake," is that now the only thought in your mind?
Carolyn Hax: I can't be stopped today. Sorry.
Whoville: Who is pregnant? Carolyn is?
Carolyn Hax: No no no (no no no), the person with the sudden-onset, uncontrollable crying jag.
First Pancake?: Please tell me you got that from Gilmore Girls!!!
Carolyn Hax: I think the Gilmore Girls writer(s) got that from ... Idunno, around. That's an expression I've used and heard for years.
Re still married parents: One thing that stuck out to me is the original poster said she and her husband don't talk. If they really want to stay together for the kids, maybe they should talk about how to be able to talk to one another enough that the kids feel things are normal. They're asking questions because they know something is up. (I have married friends who sleep in separate rooms and the kids don't ask.)
So even if you don't want to be married, if you want to raise your kids together, you need to find a way to do that positively, cooperatively, collaboratively and respectfully.
Carolyn Hax: Thanks. I've got a whole lot of posts weighing in on this. Anyone? Or have we said what needs to be said?
Carolyn Hax: I've also got a bunch underscoring the importance of medical supervision for the suddenly former heavy drinker. So, suddenly former heavy drinker, please make an appointment ASAP. And not for a checkup two months from now. Thanks.
Anonymous: About 4-5 months ago a girl who I hung out with a lot and who I thought was a good friend suddenly started declining or ignoring all of my invitations to do stuff, hang out, etc. Thinking she was just busy, it took me awhile to figure out she was shutting me out. I tried to discuss this with her, but couldn't get anything resembling a clear answer, so I have no idea what happned. I've accepted that we're probably just not friends anymore, but she's still part of my larger circle of friends and it's getting awkward. I'm getting ready to throw a bridal shower for another girl in our group and of course will invite the girl who has cut me off, but I'm not sure how to act once she shows up at my house. I want to be polite and welcoming because she will be a guest, but I have no desire to be especially warm. What do you suggest?
Carolyn Hax: Polite and welcoming but not especially warm. I think some recently ostracized cavepeople came up with this at the dawn of man, and there's been no need to improve upon it since.
Crying in the office for no reason!: Me too, but mine has been all week. (Maybe we should talk, wouldn't it be great if we work just down the hall from each other!) Let's just say that I am so lucky I have a door to close. I'm unlucky in that my boyfriend gets angry when he can't make me feel better/ understand what is wrong, so he is no good at consoling me. Anyway, good luck! Its almost the weekend!
Carolyn Hax: Maybe you;re crying because you have a boyfriend who gets mad at you when you cry.
Washington, D.C.: Hi Carolyn --
I'm 28 and single. The majority of my friends are married or getting married this summer. It means I have been invited to countless weddings, showers, bachelorettes, etc. I am saying no to a lot of events, but am starting to feel like I'm the last single person on earth! How can I make it through Wedding Season without having weekly crying episodes and becoming overly bitter about the entire summer? I've already gracefully declined several events, but damn, brides sure are good at guilt trips. I realize this is the only thing going on in their lives, but I'm a little tired of being the token single and moping my way through every weekend. (One bride even told me that because I wasn't dating anyone I couldn't bring a guest, but to be prepared because everyone else going to her wedding is dating someone so Iw ill be the only single person there). I think I'll just say no and take all the money I was going to spend on gifts, travel, and dresses, and go to the beach.
Carolyn Hax: Sounds like a plan. I know this is hard to see right now, but this is a blip, the real-life consequence of that (double-bell) graph of ages of marriage. Once you get over the peak, wedding culture slides into your past and takes its funhouse mirror with it. You're fine. Your friends are fine (except that one bride). If you're not throwing them, weddings are just parties, which are fine. Go to the ones you don't have to travel to attend, eat the food, drink the wine, dance gamely, and remind yourself you're there because you like (or liked) the person who is getting married.
And if you mope, I'm sticking toilet paper to your shoe.
Maryland: Do we get to play "Find The Column" again today? So far, I'm failing...
washingtonpost.com: Here it is. We've been having some publishing system problems this morning and, trust me, are just as frustrated as you.
Carolyn Hax: I missed this earlier. Sorry!
Identity Lost?: Against my wishes, my wife kept her last name since it was her identity.
What floors me is that the feminists don't realize that unless the woman plans on dying early, is really old upon marriage, or plans on it failing, they will spend MORE time married then they were single.
And how different is this than when you were younger, you were known as "(Parents' name) daughter". That identity disappeared.
Carolyn Hax: Easy for you to say, you who have never been in a position of being asked (or, in your wife's case, pressured) to surrender your surname. One of the dehumanizing tactics used against slaves in America was to take away their surnames of birth, and either refer to them by first names only or assign them the names of their masters. You are willfully dismissing this as a legitimate -human- issue, one at least worthy of discussion and respect, by dismissing it as "feminist." How proud you must be to be you.
Richmond, Va.: Do you ever read the comments that are attached to your columns?
Carolyn Hax: I've looked a couple of times, but my mail, columns, chats and chat outtakes have dibs 1 through 4 on my time (so people who post comments assuming I'll get them would be better served by emailing them to tellme@washpost.com).
Carolyn Hax: That's it. Thanks everybody, and type to you next week.
Depressing chat: Carolyn, this chat is getting too depressing. It makes me want to start kicking cute puppies and small children. Can we end on a happy note? I've eaten all of the chocolate hidden in my desk.
Carolyn Hax: Two words: vending machine. Maybe this will help, too:
Crying in Office too: I was crying today too. Broke up with my boyfriend. I don't have a door (I work in a laboratory with 8 other people). Bonus for me: everything I order comes with ice packs. They've been really helpful today. Would love to share these to with the others but then I couldn't deliver them and finish working all at the same time.
Carolyn, don't you think there should some sort of restaurant only for people who are crying and hungry (I'm starving but the ice pack hasn't finished working yet.)
Carolyn Hax: See? Funny breakup story. Don't hurt any puppies or children.
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Fitzgerald's Folly
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Scooter Libby has just been convicted of four felonies that could theoretically give him 25 years in jail for . . . what? Misstating when he first heard a certain piece of information, namely the identity of Joe Wilson's wife.
Think about that. Can you remember when you first heard the name Joe Wilson or Valerie Plame? Okay, so it is not a preoccupation of yours. But it was a preoccupation of many Washington journalists and government officials called to testify at the Libby trial, and their memories were all over the lot. Former presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer testified under oath that he had not told Post reporter Walter Pincus about Mrs. Wilson. Pincus testified under oath that Fleischer definitely had.
Obviously, one is not telling the truth. But there is no reason to believe that either one is deliberately lying. Pincus and Fleischer are as fallible as any of us. They spend their days receiving and giving information. They can't possibly be expected to remember not only every piece but precisely when they received every piece.
Should Scooter Libby? He was famously multitasking a large number of national security and domestic issues, receiving hundreds of pieces of information every day from dozens of sources. Yet special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald chose to make Libby's misstatements about the timing of the receipt of one piece of information -- Mrs. Wilson's identity -- the great white whale of his multimillion-dollar prosecutorial juggernaut.
Why? Because on his essential charge as special prosecutor -- find and punish who had leaked Valerie Plame's name -- he had nothing. No conspiracy, no felony, no crime, not even the claim that she was a covert agent covered by the nondisclosure law. Fitzgerald knew the leaker from the very beginning. It was not Libby but Richard Armitage. He also knew that the "leak" by the State Department's No. 2 official -- a fierce bureaucratic opponent of the White House, especially the vice president's office -- was an innocent offhand disclosure made to explain how the CIA had improbably chosen Wilson for a WMD mission. (He was recommended by his CIA wife.) Everyone agrees that Fitzgerald's perjury case against Libby hung on the testimony of NBC's Tim Russert. Libby said that he heard about Plame from Russert. Russert said he had never discussed it. The jury members who have spoken said they believed Russert.
And why should they not? Russert is a perfectly honest man who would not lie. He was undoubtedly giving his best recollection.
But he is not the pope. Given that so many journalists and administration figures were shown to have extremely fallible memories, is it possible that Russert's memory could have been faulty?
I have no idea. But we do know that Russert once denied calling up a Buffalo News reporter to complain about a story. Russert later apologized for the error when he was shown the evidence of a call he had genuinely and completely forgotten.
There is a second instance of Russert innocently misremembering. He stated under oath that he did not know that one may not be accompanied by a lawyer to a grand jury hearing. This fact, in and of itself, is irrelevant to the case, except that, as former prosecutor Victoria Toensing points out, the defense had tapes showing Russert saying on television three times that lawyers are barred from grand jury proceedings.
This demonstration of Russert's fallibility was never shown to the jury. The judge did not allow it. He was upset with the defense because it would not put Libby on the stand -- his perfect Fifth Amendment right -- after hinting in the opening statement that it might. He therefore denied the defense a straightforward demonstration of the fallibility of the witness whose testimony was most decisive.
Toensing thinks this might be the basis for overturning the verdict upon appeal. I hope so. This is a case that never should have been brought, originating in the scandal that never was, in search of a crime -- violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act -- that even the prosecutor never alleged. That's the basis for a presidential pardon. It should have been granted long before this egregious case came to trial. It should be granted now without any further delay.
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A pardon for Scooter Libby should be granted without further delay.
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In the Wheelbarrow With Libby
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"I think there has been an attempt to try to use this as a great big wheelbarrow in which to dump a whole series of unrelated issues and say, 'Aha,' " press secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday. "And it is what it is; it's a case involving Scooter Libby and his recollections, and we're just not going to comment further on it."
All right, then, dump everything out of the wheelbarrow except one rather weighty question: Did George W. Bush and his Cabinet lead the nation into war on false pretenses? Specifically, did Bush and the others know full well -- or, at a bare minimum, should they have known -- that the rhetoric they used to convince Americans of imminent peril from Saddam Hussein's purported weapons of mass destruction was based on sketchy, disputed and even fraudulent evidence?
That historical question was the context for Libby's trial. Maybe it's unfair that Libby faces possible prison time as the "fall guy" for others, as one juror called him -- although I would ask those who are calling for a presidential pardon to remind us how they stood on impeaching Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton's lies had to do with sex. Libby's were about the selling of a war.
The back story is that an insider source (former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for those following the dramatis personae) was claiming he had told the administration that one of its most vivid pieces of evidence showing that Hussein was reconstituting his nuclear weapons program -- an alleged attempt to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger -- was bogus. Yet the president cited the supposed Niger connection anyway in his 2003 State of the Union speech.
Before we head off down the convoluted path that led to Libby's conviction -- before we get distracted by Valerie Plame, Judy Miller, Tim Russert, Bob Novak, Bob Woodward and the rest of the boldfaced names-- we should note that all the supposed evidence that Iraq had an active nuclear program, or that it had any weapons of mass destruction at all, turned out to be wrong.
The usual retort is that, at the time, "everyone" believed Iraq had WMD -- even Clinton, even the perfidious French. It's true that most observers overestimated Iraq's weapons programs. But accepting some of the WMD intelligence, or even all of it, was not the same as believing that Iraq posed a threat urgent enough to justify an invasion. Iraq was already under the thumb of punishing sanctions and restrictive no-fly zones. No link with al-Qaeda and Sept. 11 existed, except perhaps in Dick Cheney's mind. In terms of any threat to the United States, Saddam Hussein was quite adequately contained.
It's possible that Bush, Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and the others let the shock of the 2001 attacks cloud their judgment -- that they were hypersensitive to any possible menace, that they read more into shaky intelligence reports than was really there. If this is what happened, they committed a grievous error.
It's also possible that Bush and the others saw the facts clearly but recognized an opportunity to do something they had been itching to do all along -- reshape the Middle East, the whole looks-good-on-paper masterstroke that Paul Wolfowitz and the neocons had been trying to sell for years. The administration couldn't persuade Americans to support an elective war by saying, in effect, "Hey, look at this neat article in the Weekly Standard, this is what we want to send your sons and daughters to do." But raising the specter of a nuclear attack would scare everyone into acquiescence, and besides, the whole thing was going to be a cakewalk. Start painting the "Mission Accomplished" signs.
If this indeed happened, what George W. Bush and his aides did should be a crime.
So, back to Libby: He lied about who said what to whom as part of a campaign of leaks and whispers to discredit Wilson -- and thus refute Wilson's contention that the administration had made claims about Iraq that it knew to be false.
Someday we'll know the full story of Iraq -- and also the full story of the kidnappings, the secret CIA-run prisons, the domestic surveillance. Someday we'll know all the secrets of the so-called war on terrorism. History is patient, and it is relentless.
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The White House would like to strip the guilty verdicts against Lewis 'Scooter' Libby of any larger meaning.
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Granting Al-Qaeda's Wish
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Al-Qaeda sees a war between America and Iran as its fondest dream come true. For the terrorists who attacked America on 9/11 and have been waging war against our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan ever since, a war between the United States and Iran would be a tremendous strategic victory since two of their most deadly enemies would bleed each other. The Sunni Arab jihadist community would kill two birds with one stone.
In February, the new head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the self proclaimed Amir of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, issued a statement welcoming the surge of more American troops into Iraq and looking forward eagerly to an American nuclear attack on Iran. For al-Qaeda, the American occupation of Iraq has been an opportunity to attack U.S. forces in territory sympathetic to the terrorists. Osama bin Laden welcomed the U.S. invasion four years ago, and his lieutenants have openly called the occupation the best opportunity they have had since 9/11 to strike at Americans. As Omar put it "in order to kill the beast, we must get it to leave its den ... the idiot Bush sent his army to where we laid ambushes."
But for al-Qaeda, the downside of the American occupation of Iraq has been the increase in Iran's influence in the region. Last November another al Qaeda leader in Iraq complained that "the stupid Bush revived the glory of the old Persian Empire in a very short period of time." The Sunni terrorists have deliberately sought to provoke a civil war between Iraqi Sunni and Shiite Muslims to create the quagmire they hope will bleed America to defeat. However, they have been alarmed at the consequent growth in Tehran's influence in the country.
Thus, war between the Crusaders and the Safavids, as they call it, will only benefit the jihad against both. Al-Qaeda would best be served by a full scale invasion and occupation, similar to that in Iraq, which would expand the battlefield available to work against the U.S. all the way from Anbar province in the west to the Khyber Pass in the east. However, they seem to understand the American military is too over stretched already to offer such an opening. Thus, they expect us to use nuclear weapons on Iran and have told Sunnis in Iran to evacuate towns close to Iranian nuclear installations.
The United States should do its utmost to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons -- and from fomenting violence and supporting terror in the Middle East. Tough diplomacy matched with targeted economic and financial sanctions is the right way to do so. A military operation is not; it will only play into the hands of our worst enemies. That is why they want it so much.
Bruce Riedel is a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Studies at the Brookings Institution and teaches at Georgetown University. He is a 30 year veteran of the CIA and advised the last three Presidents on Iran in the National Security Council.
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AÂ war between the United States and Iran would be a tremendous strategic victory for al-Qaeda.
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Gonzales Yields On Hiring Interim U.S. Attorneys
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Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales agreed yesterday to change the way U.S. attorneys can be replaced, a reversal in administration policy that came after he was browbeaten by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee still angry over the controversial firings of eight federal prosecutors.
Gonzales told Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and other senior members of the committee that the administration will no longer oppose legislation limiting the attorney general's power to appoint interim prosecutors. Gonzales also agreed to allow the committee to interview five top-level Justice Department officials as part of an ongoing Democratic-led probe into the firings, senators said after a tense, hour-long meeting in Leahy's office suite.
The concessions represent a turnaround by the White House and the Justice Department, which have argued for three months that Gonzales must have unfettered power to appoint interim federal prosecutors and have resisted disclosing details about the firings.
But the administration has been battered by mounting allegations that several of the fired prosecutors -- six of whom testified before Congress on Tuesday -- had been the subject of intimidation, including improper telephone calls from GOP lawmakers or their aides, and alleged threats of retaliation by Justice Department officials. One prosecutor told lawmakers this week that he felt "leaned on" by a senior Republican senator, and Senate Democrats have readied subpoenas for five key members of Gonzales' inner circle of advisers.
The capitulation came just hours after several leading Senate Republicans sharply criticized Gonzales for his handling of the issue. Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, seemed to suggest that Gonzales's tenure may not last through the remainder of President Bush's term.
"One day there will be a new attorney general, maybe sooner rather than later," Specter said sharply. In an interview with Reuters after the meeting with Gonzales, Specter said his comments did not imply he thought the attorney general should be replaced.
Even two of the administration's strongest defenders on the issue openly questioned the Justice Department's handling of the dismissals. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) called the lack of explanation for the firings "unhealthy," and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said the department's public criticisms of the ousted prosecutors were unwarranted.
"Some people's reputations are going to suffer needlessly," Kyl said.
The firings, most of which happened Dec. 7, became a flashpoint for Democrats in part because they were accompanied by a little-noticed change in federal law in 2006 that allowed Gonzales to appoint interim federal prosecutors to indefinite terms. Under the previous system, the local federal district court would appoint a temporary replacement after 120 days until a permanent candidate was named and confirmed by the Senate.
Democrats and some Republicans said they were concerned the Justice Department was attempting to use the new provision to appoint political cronies without Senate oversight and that the firings were a means to that end. Gonzales and other Justice officials have argued that the old replacement system was inefficient and unconstitutional.
Democrats have attempted to attach to several pieces of legislation language to remove the provision, but they have been blocked repeatedly by Kyl. Senate aides cautioned that Gonzales's assertion that the administration will stand down did not guarantee passage, as Senate Republicans could still block the measure.
But after their meeting, Leahy said Gonzales assured him Bush will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. "My understanding is the president would," Leahy said.
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Latest politics news headlines from Washington DC. Follow 2006 elections,campaigns,Democrats,Republicans,political cartoons,opinions from The Washington Post. Features government policy,government tech,political analysis and reports.
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Candidate Clinton, Embracing the Trite and the True
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Are you in it to win? Would you regard civil rights as the gift that keeps on giving? Do you believe in the American Dream, stupid?
If you answered yes to any of the above, you might consider supporting Hillary Clinton, the person to send to the White House when you care enough to send the very best. More than any other candidate, Clinton has brought the sensibility of Hallmark greeting cards to the 2008 presidential race.
Yesterday, the Democratic front-runner took a number of provocative stands as she spoke about soldiers and veterans at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank:
"If you serve your country, your country should serve you."
"I'm here to say that the buck does stop with this president."
"Let us work . . . to take care of those who are taking care of us."
The controversy didn't end there. She also offered her view that American soldiers are simultaneously "giving their all," "holding their breath" and "stretched to the breaking point." Candidate Cliche continued: "Who's on their side? Who's standing up for them? . . . We owe these young men and women the very best."
We do not owe them the very best rhetoric, however. Abraham Lincoln gave the last full measure of devotion to support-the-troops language 142 years ago, when he called on the nation "to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan." Yesterday, Clinton had this to say of the troops: "They don't have the luxury of passing the buck to somebody else. They step forward and they step up."
In fairness, the current occupant of the White House has left future generations little to work with, should they ever decide to etch his words in marble. Bring 'em on? Smoke 'em out? With us or against us? But Clinton's platitudes are deliberate, not innate. As the Democrats' front-runner, she needs to be as anodyne as possible if she is to overcome her polarizing reputation.
"I come to share the memories of a troubled past and a hope for a better tomorrow," Clinton said in Selma, Ala., on Sunday. "Our future matters, and it is up to us to take it back, put it into our hands, start marching toward a better tomorrow." Any objections?
Clinton reserved her loftiest words for the "blood, sweat and tears" put into the Voting Rights Act, which "gave more Americans from every corner of our nation the chance to live out their dreams," she said. "And it is the gift that keeps on giving." Clinton kept giving, too: "Let us join together and complete that march for freedom, justice, opportunity and everything America should be," she said.
A month earlier, she appeared before a Democratic National Committee crowd. "I'm in, and I'm in to win, because we have to take our country back!" she announced. She mixed metaphors like a Cuisinart: "Take our country back and put it on the right track. . . . I am not running for president to put Band-Aids on our problems. . . . Let's plow ahead."
On the Senate floor, Clinton's observations have been sharp and trenchant. On national security: "Keeping our nation strong and our people safe requires that we employ the best and smartest strategies available." On Iraq: "Standing on the sidelines is no way to stand up for the troops." On civil rights: "The endurance of our democracy requires constant vigilance."
But it is on the campaign trail where Clinton's language really soars. According to The Post's Anne Kornblut, a veteran Clinton watcher, the candidate's greatest moment on the stump came last summer in Denver, when she gave an updated version of "It's the economy, stupid," an unofficial slogan of her husband's 1992 campaign. "It's the American Dream, stupid," she proposed. A few weeks earlier, Clinton laid out her legislative agenda, including: "I believe in the chance for every person to pursue his or her dreams"; "we are safer and stronger when we work together"; "we are a resilient people"; and "we care deeply about the future."
Excerpts in advance of Clinton's speech yesterday hinted at similarly courageous stands. She promised the troops that "your country will have your back" and pledged: "They've given their all, and so must we."
In the flesh, Clinton didn't disappoint. "When the injured soldiers return home," she told the crowd of 200, "they should be greeted with open arms, not a wall of bureaucratic red tape." If there was dissent in the room, it was not audible. "Our soldiers are facing some very difficult challenges," she allowed, but she vowed to "put in place a system to get everybody to the front of the line."
Don't understand the logistics of getting everybody to the front of the line? It's the American Dream, stupid.
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Upsets Galore in Conference Tournaments
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-- In Los Angeles, fourth-ranked UCLA was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament by California. Ayinde Ubaka scored eight of his career-high 29 points in overtime for the Golden Bears, who are a mere 16-16 after springing the surprise.
Across the country in St. Petersburg, Fla., all four of the higher seeds fell in the opening round of the Atlantic Coast Conference event. Most notable was No. 21 Duke, which rarely even plays on the first day of the ACC tourney, losing to North Carolina State 85-80 in overtime.
Other first-round losers in the ACC were No. 17 Maryland, 67-62 to Miami; Clemson, 67-66 to Florida State; and Georgia Tech, 114-112 to Wake Forest in double OT.
Another of the elite that couldn't escape an upset was Tennessee. The Volunteers were beaten by LSU 76-67 in overtime in the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers, who made the Final Four last year but need to win the SEC to make the tourney this season, were joined in the quarterfinals by Kentucky, Arkansas and Georgia.
Some ranked teams had more success, although several were pushed to the limit.
No. 12 Louisville needed two overtimes to beat West Virginia 82-71 in the Big East, where No. 20 Notre Dame was tested by Syracuse before winning 89-83. Georgetown, ranked ninth, took Villanova 62-57, and No. 13 Pittsburgh took out No. 18 Marquette 89-79.
Advancing in the Pac-10 were No. 11 Washington State, 74-64 over Washington; No. 16 Oregon, which romped over Arizona 69-50; and Southern Cal, which needed overtime to knock out Stanford 83-79.
Fifth-ranked Memphis had no problem in Conference USA, with a quarterfinals victory over Marshall 92-71. Rice, Houston and Tulane also moved into the semifinals.
Nevada, ranked 10th, routed Idaho 88-56 and advanced in the Western Athletic tourney, along with Utah State, Boise State and New Mexico State.
In the Mountain West, No. 23 BYU and No. 25 Nevada-Las Vegas moved on, along with Wyoming and Colorado State.
UCLA's second straight loss dealt a serious blow to its hopes of being a No. 1 seed in next week's NCAA tournament.
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-- In Los Angeles, fourth-ranked UCLA was knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament by California. Ayinde Ubaka scored eight of his career-high 29 points in overtime for the Golden Bears, who are a mere 16-16 after springing the surprise.
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Bush Threatens to Veto Democrats' Iraq Plan
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Bush administration officials escalated the fight over a new spending package for the Iraq war yesterday, saying for the first time that the president will veto a House Democratic plan because it includes a timetable to start bringing troops home within a year and would undermine military efforts.
The veto threat came as House and Senate Democrats announced aggressive new measures to narrow U.S. involvement in Iraq, although party leaders acknowledged that their members are far from united on the efforts. Liberals want to start troop withdrawals immediately, but more conservative members worry that they are micromanaging the war, and House leaders have been struggling to come up with a compromise.
The House spending bill could lead to troop withdrawals before the end of the year and would end combat duties by Aug. 31, 2008. To help win votes in both parties, Democratic leaders have included billions of dollars in new spending for military health care and would redirect some money to the fight in Afghanistan.
In the Senate, Democratic leaders proposed a joint resolution, intended for consideration in the House as well, that would limit the authority Congress gave President Bush in 2002 to invade Iraq. It would require that troops start returning home within four months of passage and sets March 31, 2008, as a goal for withdrawing most troops. But it would require Republican votes to overcome parliamentary obstacles from GOP leaders.
That has left the fate of both measures far from certain. What is more, although public support for the war has plummeted, Republicans have remained remarkably united behind Bush and an open-ended Iraq commitment.
White House counselor Dan Barlett told reporters aboard Air Force One, as the president left for a six-day trip to Latin America, that the House's $105 billion spending package is tailored more to solving infighting among Democrats over how to proceed on the war than in helping troops on the ground.
"It's safe to say it's a nonstarter for the president," Bartlett said.
But Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been in negotiations with divergent House factions all week, was dismissive of Bush's threat. "Never confine your best work, your hopes, your dreams, the aspirations of the American people to what will be signed by George W. Bush, because that is too limiting a factor," she said.
In the Senate, the challenge will be to overcome Republican parliamentary obstacles that will force Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to find 60 votes in a chamber he controls by a 51 to 49 margin. When Reid went to the floor yesterday evening to introduce the resolution, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was ready with an objection, to slow the debate before if starts.
Democrats hope to thwart the GOP strategy by granting votes on three Republican alternative measures. "We sincerely hope, this time, when we are offering the amendments, which they have asked for before, that they will join us in a bipartisan debate, one that America is ready for," Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said.
Despite the obstacles ahead, both Democratic efforts represent an unprecedented attempt to change the course of the conflict, entering its fifth year. Democratic unity is not absolute, especially in the House, where the antiwar left wants to take tougher steps, and conservative Democrats would prefer to tread more carefully. But when Reid unveiled the resolution yesterday, he was flanked by colleagues from both the left and right in his party.
"I look forward to even stronger steps," said Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.), a leading antiwar Democrat. "But this is a major moment in the history of ending the Iraq war."
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Bush administration officials escalated the fight over a new spending package for the Iraq war yesterday, saying for the first time that the president will veto a House Democratic plan because it includes a timetable to start bringing troops home within a year and would undermine military efforts.
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'Planet Killer' Not in the Stars, Asteroid Research Indicates
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The risk that an asteroid capable of wiping out humanity will crash into Earth is minuscule, new calculations suggest, but the chances of a smaller one destroying a city or setting off a catastrophic tsunami remain unclear and may be higher than previous estimates.
The calculations were presented at a four-day meeting in Washington this week, leading scores of scientists present to conclude that NASA needs to move aggressively to meet a congressional deadline for identifying most of the potentially hazardous smaller asteroids and to develop ways to deflect them if they home in on Earth.
But in a report released to Congress yesterday, the space agency said it does not have the funds to do the precautionary work, called for in its 2005 authorization bill.
The agency said it is technically feasible to meet the congressional goal of identifying most small "near Earth objects" by 2020, but it said it would have to rely on telescopes built for other purposes and on spacecraft being developed by other agencies. It did not address who would fund research on ways to destroy or divert an asteroid before it became a danger.
"Due to current budget constraints, NASA cannot initiate a new program at this time," said the report, obtained by The Washington Post.
The NASA document was immediately criticized by the chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.).
"We are still reviewing the report, but it's clear that NASA's recommended approach isn't a credible plan to achieve the goal specified in the NASA Authorization Act," he said in a statement. "The Committee will continue to pursue this issue in the coming year with the goal of obtaining a more responsive approach."
The chairman of this week's Planetary Defense Conference, William Ailor of the Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit established by Congress to support the Air Force's space defense program, said scientists generally agree that the risk to Earth from large asteroids is small. Researchers have identified more than 700 of these potential "planet killers" -- out of an estimated 1,000 -- and found that not one is on a collision course with Earth.
"But with the smaller ones, the asteroids in the [150-yard] range, we're finding more and more," Ailor said yesterday. "They're hard to detect, and it's hard to predict where they are headed, but they can do a great deal of damage." NASA estimates that there are as many as 100,000 of the smaller asteroids in near-Earth orbit and that about 20 are "potentially hazardous."
The most recent significant asteroid to crash into Earth hit Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908. It exploded , with the force of a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and created a blast area 62 miles across.
Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center and keynote speaker of the conference at George Washington University, said a similar asteroid landing on Washington would destroy the city and most of its suburbs. He said researchers have calculated the risk of "death by asteroid" to be about the same as dying in an airplane crash if you fly once a year. That calculation includes both the likelihood that the event will happen and the number of people who would be killed if it did.
Worden said it would probably cost about $1 billion to meet the congressional goal of identifying by 2020 90 percent of near-Earth asteroids 150 yards or more in diameter. "We know how to find objects most likely to be a problem," he said. "But we do not yet have congressional funding to move ahead."
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Science news from The Washington Post. Read about the latest breakthroughs in technology,medicine and communications.
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Outrunning Hitler
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Houghton Mifflin. 272 pp. $24
Jesse Owens captured the nation's attention in a single afternoon. On May 25, 1935, at a track meet in Ann Arbor, Mich., he set or tied four world records in less than an hour and instantly became one of the two greatest African American sports heroes of the time, along with boxer Joe Louis. Both were born in Alabama, within eight months of each other, and moved as children to the industrial North -- Louis to Detroit, Owens to Cleveland.
In June 1936, a year before Louis won the world heavyweight title, he was temporarily derailed in his championship march by German fighter Max Schmeling. It then fell to Owens to redeem American athletic pride in the upcoming Olympic Games in Berlin.
As Jeremy Schaap points out in his evocative new study of Owens and the Berlin Olympics, writers and human rights advocates debated whether the United States should even participate in the games, which were a calculated showcase for Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. Owens himself tepidly endorsed an Olympic boycott, but as "the greatest running and jumping talent the world had ever seen," he also knew the Olympics would be his ultimate international stage.
When the games began in August 1936, the 22-year-old Owens was seen as the living repudiation of Hitler's credo of Aryan supremacy. He was, Schaap writes, "a true revolutionary, fighting against the ugliest regime on the planet, embarrassing Hitler . . . simply by being at his best."
If that seemed a heavy responsibility for a 160-pound sprinter, Owens proved equal to the task. Like the sportswriters who covered the games, Schaap, an ESPN reporter, keeps one eye on the track and another on Hitler's official box, gauging the effect of Owens's triumphs and those of America's other black athletes on the Nazi brass. After congratulating several German and European victors on the first day of competition, Hitler decided to head for home rather than greet the two African American high jumpers who won gold and silver medals.
Owens never met Hitler, but his victories were recorded by the Fuhrer's favorite filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, in her remarkable documentary about the games, "Olympia." (While cajoling Nazi leaders, Riefenstahl carried on an affair with the American athlete Glenn Morris, who later played Tarzan in the movies. After winning the gold medal in the decathlon, Morris ripped open Riefenstahl's blouse and kissed her breasts in full view of 100,000 spectators.)
Day by day, as Owens's achievements mounted, the cheers grew louder. Running on a muddy track, he equaled the world record of 10.3 seconds in the 100-meter dash. He dramatically bested a German competitor, Luz Long, in the broad jump, setting an Olympic record that stood for 24 years. Afterward, Long saluted Owens by holding his hand aloft for all the crowd to see.
The next day, against a headwind, Owens set a world record in the 200-meter dash. He was not expected to run any more races, but -- in the "untold story" part of the book -- Schaap reveals that Owens quietly campaigned for a spot on the 400-meter relay team. He was able to win his fourth gold medal only by replacing a Jewish sprinter, who was left on the sidelines of the Hitler games.
For the next 45 years until his death in 1980, Owens relived the glory of his Olympic victories on the banquet circuit and in three unreliable autobiographies. Schaap, the author of Cinderella Man, about boxer James J. Braddock, brings fresh luster to Owens's fading legend, but his narrowly focused book is neither a full biography nor a comprehensive history of the 1936 Olympics. And for all his diligence in the archives, Schaap has resorted to the dubious ploy of inventing long conversations and interior monologues, which undercut his book's authority and give it the foul odor of docudrama.
He also leaves unexamined the pathos of Owens's later years, as the world's most celebrated athlete -- "the man who was standing in for all minorities everywhere" -- returned to a segregated America. When the civil rights movement finally gained momentum a generation later, Owens was all but forgotten. The man who outran Hitler, you might say, was just too fast for his time. ·
Matt Schudel is a Washington Post staff writer.
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The 'Zodiac' Writer
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A Killer Obsession: Robert Graysmith Was a Cartoonist Until the Zodiac Case Drew Him In
Robert Graysmith: Hi. I'm Robert Graysmith. I'm in San Francisco working out of the same studio where I wrote Zodiac over a ten year period back in the 1970s and early 1980s. It's a thrill to be interviewed by readers of the Washington Post, my favorite of all newspapers.
Los Angeles, Calif.: As a prime suspect, why was Leigh Allen's photo never shown in a line-up to the surviving July 4 victim (until decades later) or the lady with the baby whose car the Zodiac burned, or the witnesses at the party above the Stine crime scene, or the cops who stopped and released him near the Presidio after the Stine killing?
Robert Graysmith: That is a terrific question and the first most people ask about the case. It seems the most obvious course to obtain a conviction. Mike Mageau, the surviving victim from the July 4, 1969 shooting at Blue Rock Springs, was hospitalized with pins in his legs and wounds to his face and neck. He gave three interviewss with police and a public defender, then vanished from Vallejo after dying his hair and becoming a street person. For years we searched for him, convinced that Mike knew who Zodiac was. I received letters from health care workers who had crossed his path briefly and heard he was having a tough time.It was not until 1991 when Vallejo Det. George Bawart, a close friend of mind, tracked down Mike to a LA airport and was able for the first time show him a photo line up of five driver's license pictures of two suspects and fillers. "I gave Mageau the lineup admonishment," Bawart told me. "He looks at them 20, 30 seconds. Points to Arthur Leigh Allen and says, 'That's the man! That's the man who shot me at Blue Rock Springs!" Kathleen Johns, the woman who was kidnapped with her baby, was in hiding for ten years and I found her through a postmark on a Christmas card. I interviewed the babysitters but they were never shown a photo of any of the suspects since they saw only an owl-faced man in a car from a distance.
McLean, Va.: Do you believe the case will ever be solved to everyone's satisfaction? Or is "Zodiacology" doomed to be like "Ripperology", where books and theories will be spun for decades or centuries without any solid conclusion?
Robert Graysmith: I certainly hope so. I think with the attention of the new movie, new evidence might be uncovered. I am satisfied that Dave Toschi, Bawart, Capt. Conway and Lt. Jim Husted of Vallejo PD were right and that the Zodiac was Arthur Leigh Allen. But there is obviously much more to the case and this is what David Fincher the director and his team of detectives in Hollywood have been working toward for three years. Even though their new findings are not in the movie Zodiac, they are preparing a time line and still interviewing witnesses and unearthing documents. I think the fact that Allen was at Lake Berryesssa the day of the stabbings (there were only about ten people that day including Zodiac) is compelling. He admitted to being there a hour before in letters and to his fellow workers at the Sonoma Auto Parts store. He was already a suspect in the other Zodiac crimes and to get himself up to that remote lake the same time as Zodiac has to be more than coincidence.
Anonymous: The movie grabbed and held my attention for its (rather long) running length. SPOILER ALERT. However, I felt extremely unfulfilled at the end of the movie when the narrative revealed that the Zodiac killer was never found.
In hindsight and with the benefit of DNA testing (which the movie did not deal with), who do you think the Zodiac killer was? The DNA evidence seems to have ruled out Leigh, one of the main suspects, does it not?
Robert Graysmith: I would love to have viable DNA evidence, but the chain of custody was broken. It came about this way. The Zodiac letters, inside a cardboard box, were driven to Sacramento California by SFPD Homicide Inspector Jim Deasy in 1978 where they lay in Fred Shirasago's office for years and endured the sweltering heat of Sacramento summers. The letters were later returned to SFPD, having never been refrigerated, and taken from headquarters and into private hands, breaking the chain of custody. The television show who organized the testing obtained them from there. Who knows what DNA was picked up during that time. The DNA fragmentary print was obtained by a trace on the back on one envelope, on the front of the other, and the seal on the last. They were mixed and the result was tested to obtain the partial fingerprint. Still even if the DNA rules out Allen, even though he knew the victims and was near or at the crime scenes, it still not rule him out. In 1969 we did not have DNA, but we did have ABO-PGM which was a saliva test that could tell us the race, sex and bloodtype of the mailer, including whether he was secretor and so on. Leigh Allen was in the habit of mailing unsealed, unstamped letters from Prison inside envelopes he had stamped and sealed to have his friends stamp and seal the enclosed letter outside prison.
Benicia, Calif.: Why are they just now testing for DNA on some of the letters sent? Have they done any other DNA testing?
Robert Graysmith: Some DNA testing was done in 1988. Vallejo PD has just sent three letters to Sacramento for testing.
Arlington, Va.: What about the man who wrote the movie posters and who had almost identical handwriting to Zodiac (except for his K's)? Was he not pursued as a suspect any further?
Robert Graysmith: Bob Vaughn, though I have never used his name in print. Ken Narlow of Napa Sheriff's Office considered him completely innocent.
Seattle: How much of Avery's spiral (that is, the drinking, the drugs, the loss of job) was a result of his own obsesession with the Zodiac? That is, do you think he would've (or already had?) developed the same addictions?
Robert Graysmith: Avery was a former war correspondent and I think that the stress of that experience and the strain of the daily deadlines at the Chonicle made for a very addictive personality and more than a few reporters there sufferred similarly. He had an honest fear of Zodaic which I saw in many of his letters in which he said, "Zode is going to get me."
Raleigh, N.C.: What do you think motivates a human being to become a serial killer? What are the factors that go into the making of such a phenomenon?
Robert Graysmith: My guess is that they are missing something in their genetic makeup. Some serial killers think that a conscience is something others have made up to make them feel inferior. They most certainly have crossed wiring in dealing with love and violence. They replace one with the other.
Fairfax, Va.: How can you be so confident that you have the right killer? Do you ever worry that you're slandering an innocent man posthumously, especially in light of recent DNA information?
Robert Graysmith: In my previous answer I laid out the chronology of the path of the tested letters which were in private hands and outside the chain of police custody. And of course we handled them at the Chronicle. Every letter was handled by a photoengraver and made into a velox. The best detectives I know consider him the main suspect. I respect their opinion. As far a slander the late Leigh Allen was a child molester and I don't know how much lower you can fall than that. When Detective Bawart went into his basement in 1991 he found Allen's tapes of children screaming. My job was to keep the case alive, to make it vivid and to make certain that someone reading the book might have the answer to the puzzle.
Minneapolis, Minn.: I was impressed by the weight given to handwriting analysis. In contemporary TV crime fiction I don't recall it getting much attention. Is it still an important tool?
Robert Graysmith: David Fincher has hired handwriting experts and in their findings they looked at not the handwriting but the spaces between the letters, the misspellings and where the words were broken at odd places. These match the 150 receipe cards that the director found. It is an important clue, but also the great mystery of the Zodiac case. I worked with Sherwood Morrill and found him to be diligent. I though at first that Zodiac might be two men. This is why it is such a great mystery.
Arlington, Va.: Why wasn't the sister of the first woman murdered, who I believe you found in prison, shown a photographic lineup? She said she saw a man at her sister's party wearing a suit and sitting in the corner of the room and she rememberd his name was "Leigh."
Robert Graysmith: She and her sister Pam, long before San Francisco knew of Leigh Allen, were interviewed in San Jose by VPD. Sgt Lynch and put together a composite drawing. Yes you are right, the logical seemed to have been overlooked because so many of the 2500 suspects had been cleared by handwiting. Leigh Allen was on a typewritten guest list of I think 14 people that the police hand. I turned this over to David Fincher while he was conducting his own private investigation.
Fairfax, Va.: Were you with the filmmakers when they were making the movie?
Robert Graysmith: I was with them from the first day, while writing the script, considering casting and trying to get the movie made. I photographed and made hundreds of hours of audio tapes of Fincher, screenwriter Jamie Vanderbilt and producer Brad Fischer as they attempted over nearly two years to get their film green lighted. I compiled this in a book called SHOOTING ZODIAC, which ends where most Hollywood books begin. I might publish this someday, but I have another book in progress. But in the process of building their film all three became crackerjack detectives, finding new evidence such as a map of Lake Berryessa showing paved and gravel roads in and out of the area, the site of the murder and signed Arthur Leigh Allen.
Nashville, Tenn.: Don't mean to betray my own ignornance, but if his notes said solving the cryptograms would reveal his name, has anything come up as far as a key if you try to solve backwards using known suspects' names?
Robert Graysmith: There are still unsolved cryptograms. They are all printed in Zodiac (1986) and Zodiac Unmasked (2002). Give it a try. There is still so much to learn. Yes all the top ten suspects have been applied to the codes. Several work very well.
Washington, D.C.: Do you think the unsolved cryptograms mean anything?
Robert Graysmith: Yes. Writing the letters and ciphers eventually became Zodiac's true motive.
Freising, Germany: Was any thought ever given to a connection between the Zodiac killings and Charles Manson's group of hippies?
Robert Graysmith: Yes. Very seriously, as well as Anton LeVey's Church of Satan.
Phoenix, Ariz.: Any parts of the movie (or book) that ended up on the cutting room floor you would've liked to make it in? Not as a stab at Mr. Fincher, of course, who did a fabulous job, merely something there wasn't room for.
Robert Graysmith: I did like a scene I watched filmed in front of the Chronicle with Avery sleeping his car. It was funny and sarcastic and added much to Avery's character. Downey did a fantastic job. I was in AUTOFOCUS, a movie starring Greg Kinnear about Hogan's Heroes' star Bob Crane made from my book, but that ended up on the cutting room floor. I would like that back, but as far as Zodiac goes, it was near perfect and I promise you exactly like being there.
Reston, Va.: I recall that the movie says the fingerprints and DNA found at one or more crime scenes did not match that of Leigh Allen. Any thoughts?
Robert Graysmith: Yes, there are palm prints and the partials on Stine's cab that don't match anybody. Has there ever been a mystery like this? My best friend, Inspector Dave Toschi who lives nearby, and I have been going over that for nearly thirty years. The case has a million angles and I am glad to have left it behind to work on other projects. It will suck you in.
Los Angeles, Calif.: The film, and the people portrayed, seem very aware of the role media can play in generating "copy cat" killers. Did you have any of those concerns regarding the production and influence of this film? If not, why?
Robert Graysmith: Not too many. It has been nearly 40 years. I can't speak for the filmmakers who worked with the original officers and with the surviving victims and witnesses to make the best film possible. I waited until 1986 to publish my book Zodiac, about crimes in 1968-69, precisely for that reason. I waited until 2002 to do the follow up. None of us take this case lightly. I think the possibility that we might learn something new is important and outweighs the danger of an imitator. Long after I published my first book, we had Zodiac copycats in New York and Japan. The book was not widely available then so that was not why they became copycats. The visual and arcane aspects of the Zodiac appeal to a certain type of mind.
Washington, D.C.: Where does "Zodiac" end and where does "Zodiac Unmasked" pick up?
Robert Graysmith: I spent three years editing Zodiac, after 13 drafts of 1200 pages to 317, to be certain we were on safe legal grounds. I changed some dates and the names of the three suspects. That book ends in 1983. Zodiac Unmasked takes up with the actual name of Allen, new information, and brings us to the death of Paul Avery and Det. George Bawart finally finding the missing witness, Mike Mageau. David Fincher has carried the case forward by locating statements by the Washington and Stine witness and the officer who passed Zodiac who identified Allen as the man they saw. I located witnesses at Berryessa who identified Allen as being at the lake that day--the son of the now deceased dentist and one of the college women.
One more question. You certainly became all consumed by this case. How do we know that YOU are not the Zodiac!?
Robert Graysmith: In those days I weighed 145 (mainly from the stress of the search) was shorter and had much bigger feet. I have none of the killers skills--chemistry, sewing, cryptography, criminology, bombmaking, electronics, but, and I just thought of this the other day, I think Zodiac may have been a cartoonist. Look at the skeleton death threat card to Avery. The pumpkin on the front covering the pelvis of the printed skeleton and the brushwork and skeleton on the interior were drawn by Zodiac, cut out with an X-acto knife and other lettering done with brush. This is not a skill that is taught. You are a cartoonist or not. I have over my desk as I type this five cartoons drawn and signed by a suspect in the Zodiac case--Arthur Leigh Allen. Recall the neatness of the 312 word cipher. Zodiac needed a T-square, lighttable, triangle and other drafting tools to draw that. Whoever Zodiac is he is a skillful artist. Perhaps police should enlist an art critic to find similarities in the art styles and that of the suspect. Allen is the only one of 2500 suspects who is also a cartoonist.
Bradenton, Fla.: Wow! What a great movie!
Robert Graysmith: God bless you. I saw how hard those guys worked on that film. I am still getting calls at midnight from them about documents and dates--I have boxes to the ceiling of my studio filling one entire wall two layers deep, and I say, " Guys, the movie is done. You don't need more files." They have the bug. Fincher has 3100 pounds of photos, records and audio tapes, many of which I provided. I loaned them everything I had because I believed they were going to do it right.
Arlington, Va.: If you could find one person in the world (apart from Zodiac himself) that you believe is a critical material witness who has yet to be found (and might still be alive), who would that be? What would be the question you would ask?
Robert Graysmith: Yes. A young man named Leigh (who I did find down south) who knew Darlene and saw her with an older man. He also drove a white chevy 58-59. He looks nothing like Zodiac but I have never been able to shake the feeling that he knows more than he realizes. That is why it so important to keep the story alive.
Bethesda, Md.: Are you done with this case now or might you do another book about it? Nevertheless, what are your future plans/projects?
Robert Graysmith: Thanks for asking. I have published 7 true crime books, 3 have been movies. I have completed 23, yes 23, which I have illustrated with drawings, foldout maps, long bibliographies and put in my library. Someday I will offer these books, all on different subjects, for publication but the sheer joy of doing them make these the best days of my life. My interest and passion about Zodiac actually has been turned onto a beneficial path. My latest is THE LAUGHING GORILLA a 1935 story set in San Francisco about police corruption, and the completed SHOOTING ZODIAC, the story of three Hollywood detectives who try to greenlight a film. I just never wanted to do another Zodiac book, but this story is really about three good guys who take on an obstacle. It is the ultimate behind the scenes Hollywood book. They kept me in the loop at every stage of their quest over 3 years.
I read your book with great interest ... this is the Zodia ... ah. Just kidding.
I was wondering why the sister of his victim was never shown a picture of Leigh?
Wouldn't that have cleared a few things up?
Robert Graysmith: Absolutely. That is why I have always thought the American public should be enlisted to solve difficult crimes. We are great problem solvers and go to the heart of the matter. I guess since handwriting cleared so many back then, they were not viable suspects by the time they got around to asking. Toschi didn't know of Leigh Allen until 1971. The boy at Lake Berryessa, Sept. 27, 1969, told me when I found him, "Man, I thought they caught that dude. Nobody ever questioned me after that day." He picked out Allen as being there that day. "I thought he was so young to be bald," he said. I think VPD Det. Bawart did just that with the Stine killing and Blue Rocks Springs over thirty years after the crimes.
Annandale, Va.: The suspect's name is Leigh but it's pronounced Lee, right? That's been confusing to me. And they show the name written as Leigh on a piece of identification. Please explain the different name pronunciation.
Robert Graysmith: Leigh Allen told my friend who went in to buy hardware from him before I came in eyeballed him that last day, that Ace Hardware printed his nametag as LEE because it would have cost more to have the name LEIGH sewn on his smock. His parole officer also told me the story. Check out Zodiac for ther verbatim accounts.
Minneapolis, Minn.: How did your relationship with your wife and children proceed from where the film narrative ends?
Robert Graysmith: Melanie and hang around together all the time, laugh, go to art shows and attend the movies just to see the Zodiac trailer. My best friends in the whole world are my sons David, an accountant, Aaron (one of the five CI directors at a major studio whos credits include both Stuart Little films, Castaway and so on) and my daughter Margot who is also with a film studio in Hollywood.
Washyington, D.C.: Was there any concern on the part of you or the filmmakers that this story takes place back when it does and that modern day science (DNA, forensics) have come along to make your story and crime solving a little bit retro and not hi-tech?
Robert Graysmith: Zodiac as a film had to be of its time. Back then police departments were not sharing info. Det. Bawart told me that if they had a cell phone they would have had Zodiac. He said that the cipher killer would not have lasted ten minutes today. A task force would have been formed and the superior forensics would have ended his career before it began. A good example would be the calls to KGO-TV which could not be traced unless they had 15 minutes.
So, you really : went into the hardware store to see him? I loved that scene!
Robert Graysmith: One hunded percent accurate. After ten years of trying to find Zodiac I walked into that store and saw him face to face. It was if someone had struck a tuning fork, the room just vibrated and time stood still. At that moment I was free. I was satisified that I had found MY solution. With the publication of the book Allen and the other two suspects were watched and we had no more letters, no more killings. The book ended the reign of Zodiac. The day after going into the hardware store I stood in line at the post office and wrote the last page in pencil and put it in with my typed manuscript and sent it to my editor at St. Martin's Press, Richard Marek, James Baldwin's former editor.
Nashville, Tenn.: Was a videotape found by the VPD in Allen's residence after he died?
Robert Graysmith: Yes. It said Zodaic on label, but Bawart told me that it only showed Allen mooning the police. By the way David Fincher and his investigator, Max Daly, found a survivalist catalog taken from that basement that had pictures of a bomb disposal costume you could buy--a square black hood coming down over the chest. Bryan Hartnell, the survivor from Berryessa, did tell me the hood was very neatly sewn. Police also found articles about Mel Belli and the Zodiac case. They also found guns of every caliber and live pipe bombs, Zodiac did tell us that he had bombs in his basement.
Washington, D.C.: What was Jake Gyllenhaal like? Did he talk to you much about him playing you in the movie? How inquisitve was he? Were you satisfied with his portrayal of you, of the other characters?
Robert Graysmith: Until I saw Jake's performance I didn't know how deferential I was or how consumed by Zodiac. When you are in the grip of it you don't know. Jake simply observed me and I saw in the film he caught every mannerism, even wore my awful 1970s clothes. How he knew I had been a boy scout in Tachikawa, Japan I don't know, but it's in the movie. I never told anyone. I am the luckiest guy in the world. Who doesn't love Jake Gyllenhaal. He got it just right. Mark Ruffallo simple became Toschi. He visited Dave in San Francisco and came back as him. He is the most accessible of all the actors, a regular guy and if you have a chance to see him on Broadway please go. It was as a perfect a cast as one could want. And as I said David Fincher is the only director who could have made this film and he made it as a newspaper film along the lines of ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN. How appropriate that this is the Washington Post site.
Providence, R.I.: What about the physical disparity between the killer seen leaving the Stine cab and Leigh Allen?
Was Leigh Allen "too tall and too bald" to be this killer? Did he ever wear glasses?
Robert Graysmith: No glasses and he did not smoke. We know Zodiac was 6 feet tall, weighed about 230 and was balding from descriptions and physical evidence. He wore size 7 gloves and size 10 1/2 shoes. The movie got that right. I saw Allen in person often after my meeting him at Ace Hardware, but this was tailing and at night. He looked about right to me. Allen was smart and physically formidable.
Baltimore, Md.: The first guy who was murdered in the movie, the one with the girl who were on a hillside ... What's happened to him? Was his life somewhat ruined by the murder of his girlfriend and his personal injury?
Robert Graysmith: If you mean Mike, who turns up at the airport at the end, yes Zodiac ruined his life. Whereas, Bryan Hartnell, the stabbing victim, survived and prospered. He ended up representing Mike in court in one of those ironic path crossings of the only two surviving victims.
Robert Graysmith: Thank you for having me. I was a bit slow at the beginning because I have only recently gone on line and gotten email. This is the first time I have answered questions in a forum like this. It was a lot of fun. Please support the movie Zodiac. These guys worked their hearts out to create a film of the 1970s with many layers and the support of ALL of us who worked to capture Zodiac.
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House leaders have added legislation raising the federal minimum wage to an emergency spending bill for the Iraq war. They hope to break a logjam with the Senate over the wage bill, a top Democratic priority that was once seen on Capitol Hill as a relatively easy compromise.
House leaders also hope the addition of the wage provisions will induce House liberals to vote for the $105 billion war package, which authorizes funds for Iraq while setting a timeline for withdrawal that would require combat operations to end by August 2008.
House Democrats unveiled the plan yesterday but did not release a draft of the legislation, saying that details were being worked out. According to Democratic aides, the proposal would increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 over two years and grant $1.3 billion in tax breaks for restaurants and other affected businesses.
Those provisions have already passed the House. The Senate also approved the wage increase, but added $8.3 billion in business tax breaks to placate Republicans in that chamber. House leaders oppose such a large tax package and hope to force a smaller one through the Senate by tying the minimum-wage increase to the Iraq bill.
Negotiations over the minimum wage bill have been stalled since mid-February, when the House overwhelmingly approved the smaller tax package. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), one of the chief architects of the Senate package, complained that the Senate proposal amounts to "peanuts" in comparison with previous minimum-wage deals, but that the House was offering only a "peanut shell."
Senate Republicans have since prevented Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) from bringing the House tax package bill to a vote in the Senate so the issue can proceed to a conference committee, where the two chambers would attempt to resolve their differences.
It was unclear yesterday whether the Iraq bill would help forge progress on the wage issue. The Iraq measure's prospects are uncertain even in the House, where Democratic leaders acknowledge they are still trying to round up votes.
Whatever happens to the Iraq bill, Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said he had little doubt Congress would give final approval to a minimum-wage increase before the spring is out.
"We've been working on it steadily," Stewart said. "This is a bill that's going to pass and be on the president's desk."
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Brother's Departure for Iraq Weighs On Church's Family
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VIERA, Fla., March 8 -- Thursday afternoon was officially Armed Forces Appreciation day at Space Coast Stadium, and the Washington Nationals marked the occasion by wearing blue camouflage hats in their 12-5 victory over the Houston Astros. When it was over, Ryan Church arrived in the home clubhouse, took off that homage to the military, sat on a stool at his locker and thought about his little brother.
"It's tough," Church said. "It's tough not to get caught up in it and worry about that stuff. But you know what? The man upstairs has got a plan, and if something happens to him, he'll be taken care of."
VIDEO | Nationals Spring Training
Matthew Church is a member of the Army's Special Forces unit. On Sunday he will leave behind his baby boy -- just a few days shy of his first birthday -- and deploy to Tikrit, Iraq. He is not due to return until October, the entire expanse of the baseball season.
Ryan Church came here last month to prove that he deserved the job Nationals Manager Manny Acta bestowed upon him: starting left fielder. To this point, he has just two hits in 13 at-bats. He said Thursday, when he had the day off, that he is searching to find his timing. Acta, though, won't waver. Even with Chris Snelling, Alex Escobar and Kory Casto potential left fielders in waiting, Acta reiterated that his starting outfield will be Church in left, Nook Logan in center and Austin Kearns in right.
"They could go 0 for the rest of the games in spring training," Acta said. "Those are the guys who are going to start the year here."
In a way, that has put Church's mind at ease, though he wants to guard against any level of comfort. "Nothing against Manny," Church said. "But I can't afford to think of it that way."
Most springs, this would be the central story line for the Church family of Lompoc, Calif., because the second of Karen and Gary Church's three sons has been battling to get to -- and then stick in -- the majors since 2000, his first year out of the University of Nevada. Would Ryan make the team, as he did in 2005? Or would he be sent down, as he was in 2006?
This year, their thoughts are about to be transported from this planned community on the side of Interstate 95 to the town where Saddam Hussein was born, nearly 6,900 miles farther away. It is the moment Karen Church has dreaded since that day in the summer of 2003 when she and her husband were watching Ryan play Class AA ball in Akron, Ohio, and Matthew called to tell them the news: The paperwork was signed. He was enlisting in the Army.
"I cried," Karen Church said by phone Thursday.
In some ways, Matthew's choice was predictable. Karen and Ryan said the Church's youngest child grew up playing with toy guns, painting his face in camouflage and storming around the neighborhood at night, enlisting the other kids in war games. As he grew older, he became addicted to paintball. For a time, after high school, Karen thought Matthew might become a police officer.
Instead, he chose the Army.
"We don't have many military people in our family," Karen Church said. "This is all kind of new for us. But he knows what he wants. He's very bright. He's been trained by the best. That's what we keep telling ourselves, that he's been trained by the best."
That, Ryan Church said, offers even the smallest bit of comfort. But even in a short conversation, it is clear that the 28-year-old is prepared for the worst, because he knows it is not safe, "especially with what's going on daily over there," he said.
"A day doesn't go by when you're not thinking about it," Church said. "This is what he's been trained to do and this is what he wants to do. All I can do is just hope and pray and everything's going to be fine and he's back alive."
The Churches will be able to keep in touch with Matthew by phone and e-mail, and Matthew's wife, Courtney, and their son Matthew II will move from Colorado Springs, where Matthew has been training, to Lompoc. And Karen Church will suck in a deep breath, and perhaps not exhale until October.
"I'm not going to lie," Karen Church said. "I'm going to worry every day. But I'll pray, too. I'll do that every day."
As he sat Thursday morning in front of his locker discussing his place on the Nationals and in the majors, Ryan Church's locker stood in front of him. In it was a small coin given to him by his brother, the coin representing his unit, one often used to determine who buys drinks at a bar. The last member of the unit to pull the coin from his pocket, Church said, might be stuck buying a round.
When he gets to Washington, Ryan intends to bring the coin to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, to show it to some of the troops there, to lift some spirits.
With the coin, though, Matthew sent his older brother a letter. Ryan said Matthew wrote: "This might be the last thing you get from me."
"You never know," Ryan Church said. On Friday he will travel down I-95 to Fort Lauderdale for an exhibition game, a road trip. On Sunday his brother will leave for what, right now, is the only trip that matters to the Church family.
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As the Nationals celebrate Armed Forces Appreciation day, outfielder Ryan Church can't help but think of his brother who will be deployed to serve in Iraq on Sunday.
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Vonage Ordered To Pay Verizon In Patent Case
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A federal jury in Alexandria yesterday ordered Vonage Holdings, an Internet telephone company, to pay $58 million to Verizon Communications for infringing its patents in a case that raised the possibility that Vonage could be barred from conducting much of its business.
Verizon asked the court yesterday to issue a permanent injunction preventing Vonage from using the technology for connecting its Internet network to the public telephone system. If the order is granted, Vonage's 2.2 million customers could be limited to using the service to communicate only with one another. A federal judge has scheduled a March 23 hearing on Verizon's request.
Vonage's phone calls run over high-speed Internet lines and are marketed as a cheap substitute for traditional local phone service, which is a large part of Verizon's business. Vonage argued that Verizon filed the suit in an attempt to stifle competition.
"We are proud of our inventors and pleased the jury stood up for the legal protections they deserve," said John Thorne, Verizon's senior vice president and deputy general counsel.
In ruling against Vonage, the jury found that the New Jersey company had violated three patents, most notably one for the technology linking the Internet telephone network with ordinary telephones. The jury also ruled that Vonage had infringed Verizon patents related to call forwarding and wireless handsets.
In addition to the award for past damages, the jury ordered Vonage to pay future royalties of 5.5 percent for the patented technologies if the company is allowed to continue using them.
Rebecca Arbogast, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said an injunction against Vonage was likely, though a Supreme Court ruling last year gave judges in patent cases more latitude not to impose such severe measures. She predicted that the jury's verdict would have little effect on companies other than Vonage but that the ruling might offer an opportunity to smaller Internet competitors if Vonage is forced from the market.
Verizon sued last year, alleging that the Internet challenger had violated five patents, including two related to billing, and asked the court to award triple damages on the grounds that the infringement was willful. The jury ruled that the violation was not willful and awarded Verizon far less than the $197 million it had sought.
In a written statement, Vonage spokeswoman Brooke Schulz said the company was "delighted" that the jury had found no violation of the two billing patents and would appeal the rest of the verdict.
"If the trial court does impose an injunction, we will seek an immediate stay from the Federal Court of Appeals," she said. Schulz said Vonage customers could expect their service to remain unaffected.
The company's stock fell to a record low close after the verdict. Vonage, which went public last year at $17, closed at $4.86 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, down nearly 4 percent.
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A federal jury in Alexandria yesterday ordered Vonage Holdings, an Internet telephone company, to pay $58 million to Verizon Communications for infringing its patents in a case that raised the possibility that Vonage could be barred from conducting much of its business.
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Music Industry Tightens Squeeze On Students
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The recording industry is dusting off an old tactic in its never-ending effort to crack down on pirated music: Target the college kids.
So far this year, the music industry's trade group has sent out hundreds of complaints to students, pressured school administrators to take tougher anti-piracy measures and tried shaming colleges into doing better by putting out a list of the top offending schools.
Yesterday, the recording industry trade group took its complaints about illegal music downloading to the Hill, saying progress at U.S. campuses has been too slow.
"Music has never been more popular with fans than it is right now," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, in a hearing before the House Judiciary subcommittee on courts, the Internet and intellectual property. Yet fewer people, particularly college students, are paying for it, he said.
More than half of college students acquire music illegally, said Sherman, citing studies conducted at the University of Richmond. According to the research firm NPD, students accounted for 1.3 billion illegal music downloads in 2006.
The trade group said it plans to go after colleges in a big way this year, including efforts to pressure school administrators to shut down computer network access to online services where pirated music is illegally traded.
The RIAA recently released a list of schools where it has tracked heavy file-trading traffic. Ohio and Purdue universities were the two schools at the top of the list. Howard University, which is in the District, was No. 8.
UCLA, by comparison, is regarded by the recording industry as a school that has effectively discouraged music piracy on campus. The school has suspended two students who repeatedly broke the school's policies against illegal downloading, a UCLA official testified yesterday.
At schools that don't institute or enforce such policies, some students might be getting mail from the trade group. Last week, the RIAA sent 400 letters to students at 13 colleges warning them that they will either have to pay up for illegally downloading music or face a lawsuit.
An official at Purdue was scheduled to testify yesterday before the committee but canceled.
The trade group has sent 572 complaints to Howard students this year, compared with 604 last year. The group says it plans to send out 400 similar letters every month to people around the country it suspects of illegally downloading songs.
In response to the complaints, Howard recently installed software designed to keep students from using file-sharing services, according to a report in the school's newspaper, the Hilltop. Instead of using file-trading services, the school suggested that students ask for gift certificates at online music stores such as Apple's iTunes.
A spokesman for the school was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Sherman told lawmakers that he thinks the lawsuits have been effective in discouraging illegal downloading. He said that fear of lawsuits has been the No. 1 or No. 2 reason cited by students who do not use file-trading networks to acquire music.
John Vaughn, executive vice president of the Association of American Universities, told the subcommittee that software-filtering tools designed to shut down music file-trading can be problematic. Some colleges use file-trading programs similar to those used for music for legitimate research purposes.
Sherman, of the RIAA, disputed that point. "Nobody's using [file-trading services] for Shakespeare's sonnets," he said.
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The recording industry is dusting off an old tactic in its never-ending effort to crack down on pirated music: Target the college kids.
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Democrats Forge Single Voice on Iraq
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The new Senate Iraq resolution, unveiled yesterday afternoon, is the latest handiwork yet of Congress's newest "it club": the Senate Democratic war council. The inaugural meeting was called last June by Harry M. Reid (Nev.), then the minority leader. The midterm elections were nearing, and Democrats wanted to answer voters' growing concerns about the war.
The result was a nonbinding resolution offered by Sens. Jack Reed (R.I.) and Carl M. Levin (Mich.) that called for troop reductions to begin by the end of the year. It failed 60 to 39 but represented the Democrats' first major challenge to President Bush's Iraq policy since the war began.
The vote also launched a new effort, spearheaded by the council, to minimize public squabbling over Iraq by instituting a internal process for integrating the caucus's wide range of war-related views.
The move was long overdue. Six Democrats, including Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), who later was reelected as an independent, voted against the Reed-Levin measure. The Senate also voted 86 to 13 to kill a resolution by Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), calling for a troop withdrawal by July 2007. After the votes, Reid acknowledged that Democrats disagreed on certain fundamentals, including when and how they could try to bring the Iraq war to an end.
He did assert that senators were duty-bound to express their discontent. "It's long past time to change course in Iraq and start to end the president's open-ended commitment," Reid said.
Sometimes the council gathers in Reid's office; on other occasions, in a nearby conference room. There is no formal schedule. Nor do all invitees show up. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), for instance, was asked to attend at least two recent meetings but sent her regrets.
In January, when Democrats assumed control of both chambers of Congress, they decided to answer Bush's troop escalation proposal with a nonbinding statement of opposition. Reid, as the new majority leader, convened his council at least once before the Senate vote on the measure. This time, every Democrat rallied in support of the resolution, although Lieberman voted against it. Republican procedural objections prevented it from going forward.
The council met again the next week. Biden pitched a new idea: replacing the 2002 authorization with a narrower authority that limited future military engagement. Some members, including antiwar Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.), weighed in with specific concerns, which are now being incorporated. Their final version was unveiled yesterday, with debate starting on the Senate floor as early as next week.
Democratic leaders are cautious about discussing the council, not wanting to single out lawmakers. "It's a fluid group," Reid said.
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The new Senate Iraq resolution, unveiled yesterday afternoon, is the latest handiwork yet of Congress's newest "it club": the Senate Democratic war council. The inaugural meeting was called last June by Harry M. Reid (Nev.), then the minority leader. The midterm elections were nearing, and Democrats wanted to answer voters' growing concerns about the war....
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Speculation About Hagel Announcement Begins
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Hagel's options include a bid for the 2008 presidential nomination as either a Republican or an independent, a re-election race to the seat he has held since 1996 or retirement from elected office.
Most Republican observers believe that Hagel will announce a bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Monday in Omaha, but warn that he largely keeps his own counsel, making it difficult to predict his plans.
Mike Buttry, a spokesman for Hagel, was tight-lipped about the senator's forthcoming announcement, saying only, "He will hold a news conference Monday regarding his future plans."
Hagel has risen to political prominence in part because of his increasingly vitriolic criticism of President Bush's approach to the war in Iraq, but his record is reliably conservative on other matters -- a profile that may be appealing to a broad cross-section of potential voters.
"He is a movement conservative with lots of liberal support because of his public criticism of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war," said former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1992 and, like Hagel, is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War.
A major problem for Hagel is that while he may be some Democrats' favorite Republican, it remains unclear whether he could seriously compete for the Republican presidential nomination given his ardent opposition to the Bush Administration's Iraq strategy.
Some have speculated that knowing the challenge that he would face in a Republican primary, largely as a result of his positioning on the war, Hagel would consider a run as an independent -- perhaps linking himself to Unity 08, a bipartisan group of political professionals attempting to organize a viable third party candidacy.
The other major stumbling block for Hagel is financial. Unlike many of his potential rivals for the nomination, Hagel has done little spadework to build a national fundraising organization that would provide the financial foundation of a candidacy. Hagel ended 2006 with just $141,000 in his Senate campaign account -- a paltry sum in a primary fight that independent observers estimate could cost between $50 million and $100 million.
"Obviously he has thought out the policies on which he will base his candidacy," said Bob Stevenson, a Republican political consultant and past adviser to former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). "But will he have the organization and the money he will need to make a serious run?"
Since arriving in the Senate in 1996, Hagel has been the subject of rumors regarding a national candidacy due to his biography -- decorated Vietnam veteran, successful businessman, senator -- and personal charisma. That ambition was temporarily set aside in 2000 as Hagel was one of only a handful of senators who supported the upstart presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
McCain's decision to run for the White House in 2008 seemed to again foreclose Hagel's chances, as the two had long been allies and friends. Butthe two men have parted ways dramatically in their views of the proper way forward in Iraq, a fissure that some believe has created an opening for Hagel.
"Perception has always been that he wasn't viable because he couldn't 'out McCain John McCain,'" said Alex Vogel a Republican lobbyist not affiliated with any of the 2008 candidates. "Now that [Hagel] and McCain have split over the war, he's betting there's a road from Omaha to Des Moines."
Asked yesterday about a potential Hagel candidacy, McCain told CNN: "He's an American hero and a person I love dearly."
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Latest politics news headlines from Washington DC. Follow 2006 elections,campaigns,Democrats,Republicans,political cartoons,opinions from The Washington Post. Features government policy,government tech,political analysis and reports.
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Georgia public schools move towards teaching Bible
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ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgia is poised to introduce two literature classes on the Bible in public schools next year, a move analysts say would make the state the first to take an explicit stance endorsing -- and funding -- biblical teachings.
The Bible already is incorporated into some classes in Georgia and other states, but some critics say the board's move, which makes the Bible the classes' main text, treads into dangerous turf.
On a list of classes approved Thursday by the Georgia Board of Education are Literature and History of the Old Testament Era, and Literature and History of the New Testament Era. The classes, approved last year by the Legislature, will not be required, and the state's 180 school systems can decide for themselves whether to offer them.
The school board's unanimous vote set up a 30-day public comment period, after which it is expected to give final approval.
Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams, the Republican who sponsored the plan, said the Bible plays a major role in history and is important in understanding many classic literary works.
"It's not just 'The Good Book,'" Williams said. "It's a good book."
Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center, a nonpartisan civil liberties group, has said the Georgia policy is the nation's first to endorse and fund Bible classes on a statewide level.
The bill approved overwhelmingly in the Legislature was tailored to make it clear the courses would not stray into religious teaching, Williams said.
The measure calls for the courses to be taught "in an objective and nondevotional manner with no attempt made to indoctrinate students."
But critics say that while the language may pass constitutional muster, that could change in the classroom if instructors stray.
Maggie Garrett, legislative counsel for the Georgia branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the curriculum approved Tuesday -- like the Legislation itself -- is vague.
"They didn't put in any outlines describing what they can and can't do constitutionally," she said. "The same traps are there for teachers who decide to teach the class."
Some teachers might seek to include their own beliefs or be pushed by students into conversations that include religious proselytizing, Garrett said.
During last year's campaign-period legislative session, Democrats surprised majority Republicans by introducing a plan to teach the Bible in public schools. Republicans, who control both chambers, quickly responded with their own version, which passed and was signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
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ATLANTA (AP) -- Georgia is poised to introduce two literature classes on the Bible in public schools next year, a move analysts say would make the state the first to take an explicit stance endorsing -- and funding -- biblical teachings.
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Postcard From Tom: Los Angeles
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I saw stars, plenty of them, in a recent taste test of new restaurants in Los Angeles. Some stars were seated, others were on the menu.
CUT (9500 Wilshire Blvd., 310-276-8500)
Lucky me. The night I drop by, Bruce Willis, Sandra Oh and -- ohmygawd! -- TomKat are all gathered in the sleek new steakhouse tucked inside the Beverly Wilshire hotel. (He's really short, she's really tall and they're both really easy on the eyes.) Still, the star of this show is super-chef Wolfgang Puck, whose latest production celebrates aged corn-fed Midwestern beef and the much dearer Wagyu beef from Japan. Almost as good as the swiveling Eames chairs are the creamed spinach (garnished with a fried organic egg) and potato "tarte Tatin." Entrees $34-$160.
HATFIELD'S (7458 Beverly Blvd., 323-935-2977)
Named for the couple who cook and greet here, Quinn and Karen Hatfield, this 50-seater unfolds in what begins with a porch and segues into a snug, spare, candlelit dining room. The American menu bows to the season and changes frequently, but the chefs' experience, together and separately, at some of the best restaurants on the right and left coasts reveals itself in every plate. Three-course market menu $42.
PIZZERIA MOZZA (641 N. Highland Ave., 323-297-0101)
From the woman who launched the excellent Campanile restaurant and La Brea Bakery come pies of distinction: chewy, yeasty and beautifully charred from their minutes in an oven aglow with almond wood. (The top-shelf toppings run to white anchovies with hot chilies and fennel sausage with red onion.) Nancy Silverton infuses her delightful pizzeria with more than the obvious. Mozza's antipasti are great, as are its Italian wines by the glass. Be sure to save space for dessert. Butterscotch budino translates to pudding heaven. Pizzas $9-$17.
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CUT (9500 Wilshire Blvd., 310-276-8500 ) Lucky me. The night I drop by, Bruce Willis, Sandra Oh and -- ohmygawd! -- TomKat are all gathered in the sleek new steakhouse tucked inside the Beverly Wilshire hotel. (He's really short, she's really tall and they're both really easy on the eyes.) Still,...
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Why You Can't Buy This Car
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GENEVA, March 6 The Opel Corsa OPC is a little sports coupe that looks sharp, runs fast and gets 30 miles per gallon. It can be parked in the tightest of parking spots. It proves beyond any reasonable doubt that fuel-efficient cars don't have to be boring. And even at the stiff price of 34,664 Swiss francs -- about 22,000 euros in most of Europe -- Opel, the European subsidiary of General Motors, expects the Corsa OPC to be a big and profitable seller.
But Opel has no plans to bring that hot little number to the United States, where the Corsa OPC would list for about $30,000.
The reason: "Europe and the United States are two different worlds," says Robert Lutz, GM's vice chairman for global product development.
Consider the matter of gasoline prices.
At a fuel station near Geneva's Exhibition Palace (Palexpo), Tuesday's price of regular unleaded gasoline was 1.61 Swiss francs per liter. That works out to about $5 a gallon -- a bargain by European standards.
Prices for unleaded regular in bordering countries -- France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Liechtenstein -- run as high as $7.50 a gallon. Compare that with an average price of $2.48 a gallon in the United States.
"We could sell the OPC here and make money because gasoline is near $6 a gallon," Lutz said. "If we had $6 gasoline in the United States, we could sell it there at a profit, too," he said. But he said it is unlikely that Americans would buy a little car at $30,000 "when they're paying $2.50 for gasoline." "We need $6 gasoline" in America to make sense of the Corsa OPC in that market, Lutz said.
Even at Switzerland's lower gasoline costs, consumers say fueling their vehicles takes a big bite out of their operating budgets. So they behave accordingly. They drive when they must drive, as opposed to hitting the road for no particular reason. Carpooling is not a concept here. It is an economic necessity. Bicycles, petroleum-powered scooters and motorbikes, and small cars of all sorts are plentiful here. And they can be sold at a profit for their manufacturers because consumers recognize their value in reducing fuel costs.
What is happening this week and next at the Geneva International Motor Show, taking place at Palexpo, is instructive. The stars of the show are not the super-slick Ferrari and Lamborghini automobiles, though those cars, surrounded by exquisitely beautiful female models, are attracting their fair share of attention.
The real stars are the cars ordinary European consumers actually buy. They are micro cars, subcompacts and mid-size automobiles. Gasoline engines in the 1-liter range are commonplace. Diesel engines, generally about 35 percent more fuel-efficient than gasoline models, are everywhere. There are a few sport-utility vehicles on display, including a version of GM's Hummer. But most of the SUVs here are small by American standards. And full-size pickup trucks at the show, or on the streets of Geneva, are few and far between.
There isn't as much fuss here as there is in the United States over gasoline-electric hybrids, though there are a number of hybrid samples available for viewing. The problem is price. Gas-electric hybrids often cost substantially more than their traditional gasoline-powered rivals. And many European consumers, who already get high mileage from diesel-powered and smaller gasoline models, don't see an advantage in paying more for a technology that does not deliver a dramatic increase in fuel efficiency.
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GENEVA, March 6 The Opel Corsa OPC is a little sports coupe that looks sharp, runs fast and gets 30 miles per gallon. It can be parked in the tightest of parking spots. It proves beyond any reasonable doubt that fuel-efficient cars don't have to be boring. And even at the stiff price of 34,664 Swiss francs -- about 22,000 euros in most of Europe -- Opel, the European subsidiary of General Motors, expects the Corsa OPC to be a big and profitable seller....
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An Answer for Hugo Chávez
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MEXICO CITY -- Each stop on President Bush's upcoming swing through Latin America has its own mini-agenda: ethanol and the Doha round with Brazil; a Trade Framework Agreement in Uruguay; Plan Colombia and drug enforcement in Bogotá; immigration and security with Mexico and Guatemala. But there is an overall agenda for which this trip may well represent too little, too late: Chávez containment.
The balance of forces in the region has shifted. Not only has the leftward tilt persisted -- with electoral victories in Nicaragua and Ecuador, unprecedented near-misses in Mexico and Peru, unexpected advances in Colombia -- but the Venezuelan president's influence has expanded. Hugo Chávez has found his sea legs and assembled an impressive array of tools to seduce the region. His "21st-century socialism" is a strange blend of a state-run economy, blanket social subsidies, a perpetual presidency, government by decree, and authoritarian theory and practices, as well as endless quarrels with Washington.
Thanks to unlimited oil revenue (for now) and an endless stream of Cuban doctors, educators and security personnel -- and soon, bountiful supplies of Russian arms made in Venezuela -- the new Caribbean caudillo is on a roll. Chávez has skillfully exploited the disappointment of the region's poor with the economic reforms of the past two decades; he is (for now) delivering the goods: bare-bones health care, literacy campaigns, price controls on food staples. Chávez has extended his reach to Bolivia, where Evo Morales worships him; to Argentina, where he and his populist colleague Néstor Kirchner are preparing a massive anti-Bush rally to coincide with the American president's arrival across the bay in Montevideo; and increasingly to Ecuador and Nicaragua, through generous handouts. Guatemala and Paraguay could be next.
While much of Chávez's socialism is either rhetorical or rooted in economic policy, it entails serious backsliding on human rights and representative democracy. Ultimately, if Chávez wants to wreck Venezuela's economy, that is the Venezuelan people's business; but if he seeks to extend his concentration of power in Venezuela or elsewhere, that is everybody's business. It is time for others to say so and to undertake the necessary ideological and political struggle to check Chávez and Havana, both rebutting their populist fallacies and failures and vaunting the merits of the democratic alternative, a globalized market economy, imperfect as it may be.
George W. Bush is the least appropriate person on Earth for this mission; he is immensely unpopular in Latin America -- not since Richard Nixon's trip to Caracas in 1959 have so many protests been likely -- and since Sept. 11, 2001, he has neglected the hemisphere. Many snicker that if he defends democracy in Latin America as well as he has in Iraq, only God can help Latin American democrats.
The good news is that there is someone who can do the job, if he receives political cover and international financial support for the task. Mexico's Felipe Calderón is ideally suited to engage Chávez and the Castro brothers in the inevitable ideological fisticuffs. He believes in human rights and democracy, and he understands macroeconomic policy and the need for effective anti-poverty programs. He also knows he has to get along with his northern neighbor.
Calderón, young and a forceful debater, is a better option than Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, which shares a border with Venezuela. Brazil's left wing would not allow Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to take on Chávez, even if Lula wanted to. Chile is a splendid example of the success of sensible, socially minded policies, but President Michele Bachelet has proved unwilling to sing their praises. And while Oscar Arias of Costa Rica has the personal prestige and experience, his country does not.
Yet, even Calderón has a problem. His predecessors' public debates with Castro, Chávez and Kirchner played well with some Mexicans but went down terribly with the country's traditional establishment: the pro-Cuban PRD and the nationalist PRI old guard. Declared an illegitimate leader by his rival for the presidency and elected with only 35 percent of the vote, Calderón is understandably reluctant to brave the chattering classes without some guarantee that Bush will not leave him hanging on immigration, as he did Vicente Fox. Some believe that Calderón is thinking of throwing in the towel on the ideological debate and mending fences with Caracas, Havana and Buenos Aires, democracy and human rights violations notwithstanding.
But if Bush finally brings with him to Mexico a firm commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, and the bipartisan backing of House and Senate leaders to approve it promptly, Calderón would enjoy the necessary leeway to wage the battle of ideas with the region's populist tide. That would be the best way to contain it: with the ideas of Mexico and its friends, not with Washington's attempts at force.
The writer was Mexico's foreign minister from 2000 to 2003, under President Vicente Fox, and is now a professor of politics and Latin American and Caribbean studies at New York University.
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There is an overall agenda for which Bush's Latin America tour may well represent too little, too late: Chávez containment.
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Can Rudy Get Past the First Date?
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Does America's Mayor want to be America's President?
Poll after poll suggests that Rudy Giuliani has a serious shot at winning his party's nomination, and therefore the presidency, despite his abortion rights/gay rights/gun control baggage.
But listening to Giuliani's lackluster speech to a conservative group last week, I was not convinced that he craves the job -- or that he has a particular vision of what he'd do if he got it.
For the party of orderly succession, this is an odd presidential season. Not only is there no Republican heir apparent, none of the three leading contenders presents anywhere near a perfect fit with his party's base voters.
They are a political Goldilocks story, except that for many Republican voters, none of these three bears feels just right: Mitt Romney is too flip-floppy; Giuliani too liberal; John McCain too much of a maverick, simultaneously mistrusted for his previous deviations (campaign finance, immigration) and saddled with his embrace of an unpopular war.
As former Arkansas governor and long-shot presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee told the Conservative Political Action Conference about the 2008 campaign, "The theme might be 'Dude, Where's My Candidate?' "
Given the unsettled nature of the race, given his recent surge in the polls, given the suspicion with which many conservatives view him -- given all of that, you might have thought that Giuliani would have viewed the CPAC event as an important marketing opportunity. You might have thought he'd have put some effort into his speech -- maybe, even, have written a new one.
Indeed, the crowd packed into the Omni Shoreham ballroom and gathered around the television monitors outside seemed to be waiting to be wowed. But Giuliani didn't so much seize the opportunity as amble through it. He neither tossed the crowd red meat (conservative judges, maybe?) nor took on his vulnerabilities (the closest he came was to quote Ronald Reagan, "My 80 percent ally is not my 20 percent enemy") nor offered them much in the way of substance.
"Americans want to sell you something," Giuliani told the crowd. "That's what we want to do. We want to sell you a product." If so, Giuliani is no Ron Popeil.
Instead, he served up a pedestrian address padded with Reagan references (15, by my count) and platitudes. "The most important lesson that I learned from Ronald Reagan was the importance of optimistic leadership. I believe Ronald Reagan was able to achieve the things he was able to achieve because Ronald Reagan was a leader, which is a combination of being a visionary and a practical person who can achieve results."
Or, "We're not a country of one ethnic group. . . . We're all different religions. And we're all different races. Since we're not identified that way, what identifies us as Americans? The thing that identifies us as American are our ideas. And our ideas are wonderful ideas. And they're ideas that the world is moving toward."
And that was in just the first five minutes. Read the whole thing for yourself, at http://www.cpac.org/speeches/Giuliani.doc, and decide if I'm being unfair.
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Listening to Rudy Giuliani's lackluster speech to a conservative group last week, I was not convinced that he craves the Presidency.
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After the Rock, Diplomacy
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A caustic former U.S. ambassador named Chas Freeman compiled a volume he called "The Diplomat's Dictionary." It included several memorable definitions, including "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock," and "Diplomacy is letting someone else have your way."
The Bush administration, which has generally favored the "find a rock" strategy, seems to be bending toward the subtler "have your way" approach. This conversion is long overdue. But it will require the administration to do what it has sometimes found hardest, which is to prioritize its foreign policy goals and go all-out on the ones it decides are most important.
The clearest example of the administration's new outreach is its turnabout on discussions with Iran and Syria about how to stabilize Iraq. A year ago, the Iranians (responding to what they thought was an American overture) announced that they were ready for such talks -- whereupon the administration pulled back. That was a mistake that made the Iraq mess even worse.
Now, Bush is altering course slightly, with last week's announcement that the United States will join a regional conference in Baghdad. But the administration shouldn't go into these talks holding its nose. If the administration is serious, it should use the initial meeting to set up regular U.S.-Iranian discussions about Iraq. The administration should also start a real dialogue with Syria -- and in the process shelve any half-baked ideas about regime change that may be lurking in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The Syrians pose a deadly threat in Lebanon, which is all the more reason to be talking with them. The obvious person to begin this conversation is James A. Baker III, who knows the Syrians well from his days as secretary of state.
Speaking of Baker, the administration seems to be tacking back toward the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which Bush appeared to dismiss back in December. Bush's top aides have concluded that they made a mistake in seeming to reject the Baker-Hamilton report and announcing their troop surge a month later as if it were an alternative. In the process, they set back hopes for a bipartisan policy on Iraq -- something officials now regret.
One senior administration official explained: "We think our Iraq strategy is consistent with Baker-Hamilton. We want to get to the same place, but not on the same timeline. Baker-Hamilton said our strategy is underpowered in terms of diplomacy. What we're saying today is: We heard you. We are picking up the pace on regional and international diplomacy." I can't buy the claim that the administration has supported Baker-Hamilton all along, but this is certainly a welcome change of tone.
Making hard diplomatic choices will be especially necessary if the administration is serious about brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sometimes acts as if she can merely dangle a toe in this whirlpool, but to make progress she will have to jump in. And as a mediator, she is bound to make some Israelis and Palestinians angry.
The final areas in which the administration is rediscovering diplomacy are its dealings with China and Russia. Bush played the China card effectively in the six-party talks with North Korea, and the administration sensibly decided to cut an imperfect deal with Pyongyang, even if it brought brickbats from the right wing.
The Russia diplomacy may prove the most delicate of all. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the essential ally in U.S. efforts to stop the Iranian nuclear program, but Putin made clear in a speech in Munich last month that there will be a price for Russia's help. After the speech, Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, traveled to Moscow to visit Putin in what one official describes as a "meeting of mutual respect and dialogue." A senior official explains the Russian message this way: "We want to be your partner. We have common interests. You have to treat us with respect -- talk to us early and take us into account."
After a slow start, the Russians are indeed becoming a reliable partner on Iran. They informed State Department officials this week that they will support a quick new U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Iran. And they have even voiced a willingness to halt work on the nuclear reactor they're building for the Iranians at Bushehr.
And what will we offer the Russians, in return for their cooperation on Iran? Well, that's the art of diplomacy.
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The administration may slowly be learing the art of deplomacy.
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Before I left Islam I studies many of the hadith collections. That Muhammad had sex with children is mentioned again and again in the hadiths.
Muslims accept the sahih(true) hadiths by Bokhari, Muslim etc as genuine. These hadiths that mention that Aisha was 9-year old when she consumated her marriage to Mohammed, a 56-YEAR OLD MAN, prove that Muhammad was a pedophile. He had married her when she was six.
He also sexually molested Saffiya (15), Rayhana(15), Juwariya(17) and his Christian concubine Maria whom he impregnated when he was 60 and she was 16 years old. He liked Maria because she had a white skin.
Sahih Muslim Book 008, Number 3310: 'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported: Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house when I was nine years old.
Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64 Narrated 'Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).
Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 65 Narrated 'Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old. Hisham said: I have been informed that 'Aisha remained with the Prophet for nine years (i.e. till his death)." what you know of the Quran (by heart)'
Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 88 Narrated 'Ursa: The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).
Sahih Bukhari 7.18 Narrated 'Ursa: The Prophet asked Abu Bakr for 'Aisha's hand in marriage. Abu Bakr said "But I am your brother." The Prophet said, "You are my brother in Allah's religion and His Book, but she (Aisha) is lawful for me to marry."
Sahih Bukhari V.7, B62, N. 37 Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: It was said to the Prophet, "Won't you marry the daughter of Hamza?" He said, "She is my foster niece (brother's daughter). "
Sahih Bukhari 9.140 Narrated 'Aisha: Allah's Apostle said to me, "You were shown to me twice (in my dream) before I married you. I saw an angel carrying you in a silken piece of cloth, and I said to him, 'Uncover (her),' and behold, it was you. I said (to myself), 'If this is from Allah, then it must happen.' Then you were shown to me, the angel carrying you in a silken piece of cloth, and I said (to him), 'Uncover (her), and behold, it was you. I said (to myself), 'If this is from Allah, then it must happen.' "
Sahih Bukhari 5.236. Narrated Hisham's father: Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married 'Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed that marriage when she was nine years old.
Sahih Bukhari 5.234 Narrated Aisha: The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, "Best wishes and Allah's Blessing and a good luck." Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah's Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.
Sunan Abu-Dawud Book 41, Number 4915, also Number 4916 and Number 4917 Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) married me when I was seven or six. When we came to Medina, some women came. according to Bishr's version: Umm Ruman came to me when I was swinging. They took me, made me prepared and decorated me. I was then brought to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him), and he took up cohabitation with me when I was nine. She halted me at the door, and I burst into laughter.
Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 90 Narrated Aisha: When the Prophet married me, my mother came to me and made me enter the house (of the Prophet) and nothing surprised me but the coming of Allah's Apostle to me in the forenoon.
Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 73, Number 151 Narrated 'Aisha: I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet, and my girl friends also used to play with me. When Allah's Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves, but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me. (The playing with the dolls and similar images is forbidden, but it was allowed for 'Aisha at that time, as she was a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty.) (Fateh-al-Bari page 143, Vol.13)
Sahih Muslim Book 008, Number 3311 'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and he was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.
Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 73, Number 33 Narrated 'Aisha: I never felt so jealous of any woman as I did of Khadija, though she had died three years before the Prophet married me when I was six , and that was because I heard him mentioning her too often, and because his Lord had ordered him to give her the glad tidings that she would have a palace in Paradise, made of Qasab and because he used to slaughter a sheep and distribute its meat among her friends.
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Endy Bayuni on PostGlobal; blog of politics and current events on washingtonpost.com. Visit http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/endy_bayuni/
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Libby 'Pilloried' For Leak, Panel Members Believed
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The jurors who huddled around two pushed-together conference tables for 10 days, meticulously filling 34 pages of facts from the trial on a large flip chart, believed that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff had been "pilloried" for a CIA leak that other top White House aides had committed along with him, according to one member of the panel.
Still, the juror said yesterday, the jury concluded that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby had lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury that investigated the leak. Sifting through mounds of evidence convinced the panel that Libby's memory of conversations with colleagues and journalists was not as faulty as the defense contended.
VIDEO | Denis Collins, a member of the Lewis Libby jury, said Tuesday that the alleged conversations between Libby and Tim Russert played a primary role in the decision to find a guilty verdict in the case.
"We're not saying that we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of," said the juror, Denis Collins. "But it seemed like he was . . . the fall guy."
Collins, an author and ex-Washington Post reporter, was the only one of the seven women and four men on the jury to provide an inside glimpse into the method and thought process that the panel used to find Cheney's former top aide guilty of four felony counts.
Libby's conviction on two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements and one count of obstructing justice stemmed from what he told investigators about his role in disclosing the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. Her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a retired ambassador, was sent by the CIA to Africa to assess reports that Iraq had sought to buy nuclear material there.
In the spring and early summer of 2003, Wilson infuriated Cheney and other White House officials by accusing President Bush of twisting his findings to justify the Iraq war. The prosecution contended Libby told reporters that Plame worked at the agency to insinuate that her husband was chosen for the CIA mission because of nepotism.
Collins's detailed description of the jury's deliberations, in public comments and interviews yesterday, suggests that Libby's attorneys made headway with one of the themes they emphasized throughout the case: that the defendant, as lead defense attorney Theodore V. Wells Jr. described it, was made a scapegoat by the White House to protect other presidential aides who were complicit in disclosing Plame's identity to reporters.
During the jury's days of methodical deliberations, "it was said a number of times, 'What are we doing with this guy here?' " Collins told reporters on the steps outside the federal courthouse. "Where's Rove, where's -- you know, where are these other guys?" Collins said, referring to Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, and Richard L. Armitage, a former deputy chief of staff who testimony showed had been the first person to leak Plame's name.
Moreover, Collins said, jurors believed that Libby had been carrying out a directive by his immediate boss, Cheney, to "go out and talk to reporters" to tarnish Wilson's reputation. But Collins said jurors stopped short of discussing whether the vice president specifically urged Libby to tell journalists about Plame's CIA job.
Nevertheless, the jury, by Collins's telling, was more strongly persuaded by the prosecution's central contention: It was implausible that Libby could have forgotten his role in finding out and telling reporters about Plame when he met with federal investigators. In particular, Collins said, jurors were struck by the juxtaposition of testimony from former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer and eight hours of audiotapes they heard of Libby's grand jury testimony.
A prosecution witness, Fleischer testified that Libby had told him "hush hush" about Plame over lunch on July 8, 2003 -- a Tuesday. In his grand jury testimony from March 2004, Libby said that Tim Russert, Washington bureau chief of NBC News, told him about Plame during a conversation two or three days later, and that Libby had the impression he was learning about her for the first time. "It was just very hard not to believe how he could remember it on a Tuesday and then forget it on a Thursday," Collins said.
He said jurors thought it was especially implausible that Libby forgot when and how he learned about Plame, given that he repeated that information to other people. "If I tell it to someone else, it's even more unlikely that I would forget it," Collins said.
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The jurors who huddled around two pushed-together conference tables for 10 days, meticulously filling 34 pages of facts from the trial on a large flip chart, believed that Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff had been "pilloried" for a CIA leak that other top White House aides had committed along with him, according to one member of the panel....
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Prosecutors Say They Felt Pressured, Threatened
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Six fired U.S. attorneys testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that they had separately been the target of complaints, improper telephone calls and thinly veiled threats from a high-ranking Justice Department 8official or members of Congress, both before and after they were abruptly removed from their jobs.
In back-to-back hearings in the Senate and House, former U.S. 8attorney David C. Iglesias of New Mexico and five other former prosecutors recounted specific instances in which some said they felt pressured by Republicans on corruption cases and one said a Justice Department official warned him to keep quiet or face retaliation.
Iglesias's allegations of congressional interference have prompted a Senate ethics committee inquiry. Yesterday he offered new details about telephone calls he received in October from Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.), saying he felt "leaned on" and "sickened" by the contacts seeking information about an investigation of a local Democrat.
Another former prosecutor, John McKay of Seattle, alleged for the first time that he received a call from the chief of staff to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), asking about an inquiry into vote-fraud charges in the state's hotly contested 2004 guber8natorial election. McKay said he cut the call short.
Ed Cassidy, a former Hastings aide who now works for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said yesterday that the call was routine and did not violate "permissible limits" on contact with federal prosecutors. Hastings, the ranking Republican on the House ethics committee, also said that the exchange was "entirely appropriate."
In remarks after the hearings, McKay said that officials in the White House counsel's office, including then-counsel Harriet E. Miers, asked him to explain why he had "mishandled" the governor's race during an interview for a federal judgeship in September 2006. McKay was informed after his dismissal that he also was not a finalist for the federal bench.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel declined last night to respond to McKay's comments.
Yesterday's testimony featured new allegations of threatened overt retaliation against the prosecutors, as former U.S. attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock said a senior Justice Department official warned him on Feb. 20 that the fired prosecutors should remain quiet about their dismissals. Cummins recounted in an 8e-mail made public yesterday that the 8official cautioned that administration officials would "pull their gloves off and offer public criticisms to defend their actions more fully."
"It seemed clear that they would see that as a major escalation of the conflict meriting some kind of unspecified form of retaliation," Cummins wrote in the 8e-mail, which he sent as a cautionary note to fellow prosecutors.
The senior official, Michael J. Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, wrote in a letter to the Senate that he never intended to send a threatening message in his talks with Cummins. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said that "a private and collegial conversation" was "being twisted into a perceived threat by former disgruntled employees grandstanding before Congress."
The six U.S. attorneys who appeared yesterday had declined to testify voluntarily. They were subpoenaed by a House Judiciary subcommittee and threatened with subpoenas in the Senate. Their testimony marked the latest twist in the U.S. attorneys saga, which began quietly on Dec. 7 with a spate of firings, but has prompted concern among current and former federal prosecutors that the firings -- and the Justice Department's evasive and shifting explanations -- threaten to permanently damage the credibility of U.S. attorney's offices nationwide.
"The whole series of events has been remarkable and unprecedented," said Mary Jo White, who served for nine years as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York during the Clinton and Bush administrations. "It's not a matter of whether they have the power to do it; it's a matter of the wisdom of the 8actions taken. It shows a total disregard for the institution of the U.S. attorney's offices and what they stand for."
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Six fired U.S. attorneys testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that they had separately been the target of complaints, improper telephone calls and thinly veiled threats from a high-ranking Justice Department 8official or members of Congress, both before and after they were abruptly removed from...
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Justice Admits U.S. Attorney Was Forced Out
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The Justice Department acknowledged yesterday that Thomas M. DiBiagio, the Maryland U.S. attorney who stepped down early in 2005, was forced from office and did not, as he said at the time, decide on his own to leave for personal reasons.
But the department official who asked for his resignation dismissed DiBiagio's claim in a New York Times article yesterday that he was ousted because of political pressure over public corruption investigations into the administration of then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
In fact, the Republican governor's chief legal counsel, Jervis Finney, twice contacted the Justice Department to argue in DiBiagio's behalf, said David Margolis, an associate deputy attorney general. Finney contacted the department in fall 2004, not long after DiBiagio drew a rebuke for ordering his subordinates to produce "front-page" indictments, Margolis said.
Finney, he said, "called me during this process, claiming that I was being too harsh on Tom and that Tom was being railroaded by a bunch of Democrats in the U.S. attorney's office."
Margolis said that he asked DiBiagio for his resignation because he had "lost confidence in his abilities" and that he was not aware at the time of any investigations involving the Ehrlich administration. "There were absolutely no political shenanigans," said Margolis, a 42-year department employee who oversees ethics matters.
DiBiagio, who did not return repeated calls for comment yesterday, said in 2004 that his decision to leave was driven by financial and family considerations. He told the Times that he was speaking out now because he saw similarities between his departure and the recent firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
The Bush administration has said the eight prosecutors were told to leave, all but one for performance-related reasons. However, Democrats and others have suggested evermore pointedly that politics was behind many of the dismissals.
DiBiagio said several prominent Maryland Republicans -- the Times did not name them -- had pressed him to back away from inquiries on whether associates of the governor were improperly using money from gambling interests to promote the legalization of slot machines. He said he had reported one of those conversations to an FBI official as a threat.
DiBiagio said the Justice Department offered so little support that it became "impossible for me to stay."
"I believe it was that investigation that played an integral role in what was done to me," DiBiagio told the newspaper. "I clearly got the message that I had alienated my political sponsor and I would not have any political support to stay another term. Clearly, they wanted me to leave."
The claim is extraordinary in part because of the friendship that DiBiagio and Ehrlich once shared and because Ehrlich, while he was a Republican congressman, had played a key role in securing the prosecutor's post for him. In an interview yesterday, Ehrlich said DiBiagio's comments "really came out of left field."
The former governor denied trying to influence DiBiagio's investigations or seeking his removal. "To try to tie this to slots is just crazy," Ehrlich said, and he expressed amusement over the idea that he would have held enough sway with officials in Washington to have the federal prosecutor removed.
Ehrlich also noted that he was nearly alone in publicly defending DiBiagio in summer 2004, when Democrats were calling for his resignation and editorial boards were questioning his fitness for office. "I've known him for a long time, and I think he should be given the benefit of the doubt," Ehrlich told the Baltimore Sun at the time.
Yesterday, Ehrlich acknowledged that he was dissatisfied with DiBiagio's handling, before that, of a corruption case involving Edward Norris, who was then Ehrlich's state police superintendent. But, he added, "there was nothing we could or would do about it."
Of the gambling investigation, which was closed without producing charges, Ehrlich said he recalled that one of his aides received two federal grand jury subpoenas in summer 2004. Ehrlich said he was not concerned about the investigation, and that Finney produced documents in response. "Jervy handled it, and we literally never heard anything more about it -- that was it," he said.
The public confirmation that DiBiagio was forced out adds an important coda to a turbulent period for the office. Although DiBiagio frequently declared his credo to be "justice without fear or favor," critics accused him of partisanship. Democrats, in particular, cited an investigation by DiBiagio's office that focused on then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) at the height of a tight 2002 gubernatorial contest that she lost to Ehrlich, and a federal probe of the Baltimore City Council, whose members are Democrats.
He was rebuked in July 2004 for sending a memo urging his prosecutors to obtain "Three 'Front-Page' White Collar/Public Corruption Indictments" before Nov. 6, four days after the presidential election. Although DiBiagio has said the memo was taken out of context, he was told after it was publicized that he could bring no public corruption cases without high-level approval.
Yesterday, Margolis said the memo was damaging. "A reasonable person could have concluded that he was trying to affect the outcome of an election, and we just can't have that," he said.
Margolis said DiBiagio was asked to resign after a performance evaluation of his office conducted late that year. He said the review concluded that there were "management and morale issues" in the U.S attorney's office that were related to DiBiagio's "judgment and candor" as well as his temperament.
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The Justice Department acknowledged yesterday that Thomas M. DiBiagio, the Maryland U.S. attorney who stepped down early in 2005, was forced from office and did not, as he said at the time, decide on his own to leave for personal reasons.
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Shiite Bloc in Parliament Diminished by Defection
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BAGHDAD, March 7 -- A small Shiite political party on Wednesday pulled out of the governing Shiite parliamentary bloc that put Iraq's prime minister in power.
The move could lead to more squabbling in a parliament widely seen as paralyzed by sectarian and political differences. Some interpreted the pullout of the Fadhila Party, which holds 15 of the 275 seats, as a sign of growing dissatisfaction with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Fadhila leaders said their withdrawal from the United Iraqi Alliance reflected a desire to defuse sectarian influences in the country's politics.
"The first step to save Iraq from its present crisis is to dismantle this bloc and not to allow the formation of any sectarian blocs in the future," Nadim al-Jabiri, a senior party official, said at a news conference Wednesday.
Violence continued in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country on Wednesday.
Nearly 40 Shiite pilgrims heading to the revered city of Karbala were killed and at least 58 were wounded, according to Brig. Raad al-Tamimi, an Interior Ministry spokesman. The attacks came a day after more than 160 Shiite pilgrims were killed in bombings and other attacks.
In Balad Ruz, in Diyala province in eastern Iraq, a suicide bomber killed at least 25 people at a cafe, Tamimi said.
A car bomb at a checkpoint in southern Baghdad killed 12 Iraqi policemen and 10 civilians, the U.S. military said.
Northwest of Baghdad, three U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb, the military said in a statement. The soldiers were looking for improvised explosives along a busy road when the bomb exploded, the military said.
The Fadhila party, also known as the Islamic Virtue Party, draws its support largely from poor Shiites in the south. The party's most prominent member outside parliament is the governor of Basra, Mohammed al-Waeli.
The party has clashed with other Shiite parties over Fadhila's perception of excessive U.S. interference in Iraqi affairs.
Shiite parties under the umbrella of the United Iraqi Alliance now hold 113 seats. Kurdish parties have 53 seats and Sunni groups have 44. The remaining 50 members are independent or do not belong to sectarian groupings.
Some Shiite politicians played down the significance of Fadhila's retreat.
Ridha Jawad Taqi, a senior member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said Fadhila lawmakers were dissatisfied because no party leader had been assigned to head a ministry. In the protracted discussions that led to the formation of the cabinet in early 2006, party members sought to head the Oil Ministry. Leading a ministry offers a political party the opportunity to exercise power and patronage.
"We will try to start a dialogue to bring them back," Taqi said, later adding: "I find it hard to believe that they will withdraw from the alliance for good."
In November, 30 members of the bloc loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr withdrew from parliament and the government after failing to dissuade Maliki from traveling to Jordan for a meeting with President Bush. They returned in January.
One possible scenario in coming weeks would be an alliance between Fadhila and the Iraqi National List, a group led by secular Shiite and former prime minister Ayad Allawi, which has 25 seats.
"We have had talks with Fadhila and they have indicated that they are interested in cooperating with us," said Adnan Pachachi, a senior member of the National List.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, said he interpreted the move as evidence of growing disapproval of Maliki and the ruling alliance.
"These changes show that neither the Shiite coalition nor the government has been able to improve things and that they are gradually growing weaker," Othman said.
Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni parliament member, said it is too early to tell how the party's withdrawal will alter Iraq's political landscape. But he said the development should be seen as evidence that democracy has taken root in Iraq.
"I still believe that this is a healthy situation in any government -- to have political movement here and there," he said. "With all of the bad situations, this is a positive signal."
Special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim and Naseer Mehdawi contributed to this report.
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Washington Post coverage of the American occupation of Iraq, the country's path to democracy and tensions between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
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