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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/12/05/DI2006120501030.html
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https://web.archive.org/web/2006120619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/12/05/DI2006120501030.html
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State of the Episcopal Church
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2006120619
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A dispute with national leadership about the installation of a gay bishop has congregations across the country voting to leave the Episcopal Church.
Historian Diana Butler Bass was online Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. to discuss the reasons behind the split and the possible outcomes for the church.
Butler Bass holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of six books on American religious practice. Her latest book is "Christianity for the Rest of Us" (Harper, 2006), and she is currently working on "Episcopalians in America" (Columbia University Press, 2007). She was a senior research fellow at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va., and is now a senior fellow at the Cathedral College of the Washington National Cathedral.
Diana Butler Bass: As an introduction to the chat, it may help folks to know that I am both a church historian and an independent researcher in contemporary American religion. My Ph.D. is from Duke University, where I wrote a prize-winning dissertation (published by Oxford University Press) about evangelical religion in the Episcopal Church in 19th-century America. My most recent book, "Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith," was a Lilly Endowment-funded study of mainline Protestant vitality and it was just named one of the best books of the year by Publishers' Weekly.
I am not an Episcopal priest, nor do I work for the Episcopal Church in any official capacity at the present time. I am an active lay-person -- my family and I are members of the Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C.
So, my answers to questions posed come from both my historical knowledge and contemporary expertise -- and they are my own opinions, not that of any institution, congregation or diocese.
Sykesville, Md.: As an Episcopalian, I am appalled to hear that anyone wants to join forces with someone who advocates jailing people simply for being gay or bisexual.
That is Orwellian in my view. As in, "All animals are equal. Some are more equal than others."
Maybe that is because I am female, and women have historically been the scapegoat for religions anyway. Now that it's being grudgingly acknowledged that we are human beings too, its sad to see the hunt continuing for a smaller community to bully.
Diana Butler Bass: As a Christian, I equally worry about scapegoating. Scapegoating tends to occur in history when people fear change and when communities think the world is chaotic and needs to be re-ordered by eliminating the source of sin.
Your comments bring to mind the story about St. Paul and the boat. Paul was on a missionary journey when the ship in which he was traveling encountered a storm at sea. The terrified crew blamed Paul and his "foreign god" for the storm. To appease their own gods, they tossed Paul and his party overboard!
Too often Christians toss overboard those whom they think have a "foreign god," in order to calm the storm of change when they real response in the storm should be "all hands on deck"!
University Park, Md.: Are the physical plants and real estate occupied by Episcopal churches all owned by the diocese to which they belong, or does this vary by parish? What can we look forward to as far as litigation over these valuable assets?
Diana Butler Bass: I'm not a lawyer or historian of cannon law. My understanding is that both Virginia and Maryland have upheld the contention that the Episcopal Church holds the property of congregations -- and congregations bear property in trust for the larger body. Most court cases, in all mainline denominations, have resulted in the larger body retaining property rights in the case of schism.
Capitol Hill: As an Episcopalian who empathizes with the position of the conservatives in the Church, but who attends a socially liberal parish, I am disgusted with the leadership on both sides. But perhaps more so with the liberal leadership since they hold such a majority in the General Convention body, and have been thumbing their noses at conservatives for quite some time. It is the seeming lack of accommodation for conservative parishes on a National level which I think is hardheaded and hypocritical. I hear a great deal of rhetoric about appeals for healing, but when push comes to shove, I think many Church leaders would be happy to show conservatives the door (as long as they leave their property behind). I find it fascinating that my Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Chane, who has been very forward on where he stands in this matter, has found a way to accommodate one of the richest parishes in his Diocese - All Saints Chevy Chase - to keep them happy. He is allowing another more conservative retired bishop to provide pastoral oversight for them. I wonder what Bp. Chane would do if a smaller, poorer parish asked for the same benefits. Is the All Saints case a sign of hope for accommodation, or just another rich squeaky wheel getting the oil?
Diana Butler Bass: Your comments are interesting to me. I do not believe that there are only two sides in this dispute -- I can identify five distinct groups of Episcopalians.
Yes, there are two parties in tension: Old-line liberals and radicalized conservatives. This is the fight we most often read about in the media. However, you point out a third possibility, a centrist party that is trying to navigate between the two extremes (Bishop Peter Lee in Virginia would represent the centrists). From my own research, you are right. The extremes aren't the whole story.
However, there are two additional groups, and these two are far less noticed. I refer to these groups (they don't have a clear "party" identity) as "progressive pilgrims" and "emergent conservatives." These two groups tend to see "issues" like this one as secondary concerns to the practice of Christian faith and are more concerned with things like the practice of hospitality, living forgiveness, practicing reconciliation, learning to pray, feeding the hungry, caring for the environment, and maintaining the Anglican practice of comprehensiveness (being a church of the "middle way"). They may lean slightly left or slightly right on "issues," but reject partisan solutions to theological problems. Both progressive pilgrims and emergent conservatives are far more interested in unity than uniformity; and they appreciate diversity in their congregations as a sign of God's dream for humanity to live in peace.
From observing (and knowing him a bit), I think Bp. Chane is more of a progressive pilgrims than an old-line liberal. And I think he is trying very hard to embody this alternative position in the diocese of Washington.
If the centrists, the progressive pilgrims, and emergent conservatives can come together and offer their distinctive spiritual gifts in the midst of this conflict, I think the Episcopal Church may be able to move forward.
Mayfield, Ky.: Ms. Bass: Do you have an idea of why the Episcopal parishes and/or dioceses leaving the Episcopal Church are leaning towards going to a bishop outside the U.S.? There are groups in the U.S. who adhere to the Biblical teachings of the traditional Episcopal Church, such as the ACC, ACA, and the APCK. Thanks for taking my question.
Diana Butler Bass: I actually don't! You would think it would be easier to join one of these groups (or the Reformed Episcopal Church) than going to all the trouble of reaching to Africa.
Poolesville: I will start out by explicitly saying I am an evangelical Anglican, who has left his local parish and now attend a small, independent Anglo-Catholic parish in Montgomery County, Md., but still feel brokenhearted, lost and adrift by the movement of the Church away from "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."
I'm interested in further explanation of the current strife being "politics, not theology..." as quoted in the article.
From the politics standpoint, the "liberals" do certainly control the levers, but consider the issues of Woman's Ordinations and now acceptance of homosexuality as Holy Spirit inspired new revelation. So it seems that even the political victors won't generally apply political language.
Either way, I suspect they will be Pyrrhic victories, leaving trust funds (e.g., Trinity Wall St) and beautiful cathedrals, but ever smaller memberships, and rejection by orthodox Christian bodies.
I have to say it is a -painful, sorrowful- thing to finally have to decide between one's soul and the local parish, but there is only one choice to make.
Diana Butler Bass: To quote the former president, I feel your pain. A lot of people are in pain right now. Including me, even though I love my local parish; I love the Episcopal Church; and I love Anglicanism. It is painful when Christians have a public fight like this.
My argument relates to my answer to "Capitol Hill." I think that two parties in the Episcopal Church, the Old-line liberals and the Radicalized Conservatives have politicized their particular visions of Christianity into a winner-takes-all strategy of making all Episcopalians agree with their views. From a historical perspective, since 1945, there has been a well-documented, increasing politicization of all of American religion into hardened positions. It is those two groups that are involved right now in political hardball and are trying to drag the rest of us into their argument.
I do, however, think there are some significant groups of Episcopalians -- the centrists, the progressive pilgrims, and the emergent conservatives -- who are attempting to resist politicization in the church and are trying to reground the church on spiritual practice and Christian (and Anglican) traditions. I think this middling-groups (not exactly parties) are working very hard to have a genuine theological discussion (or even argument...arguments are okay in theology...without arguing in the right ways, theology wouldn't even exist!) in the din. So, while some people are concerned about Christian life and theological vision, most of the loudest voices are from partisan combatants. Politics is drowning out theology.
Washington, D.C.: Could you please explain the relevance of a schism within the Episcopalian Church. I understand why this would be a big deal in the Catholic church because it purports to be the one true single and universal church. My understanding is that protestant religions are based on the idea that people should follow the dictates of their consciences and not the dictates of church hierarchy. Is the Episcopal religion different from other protestant religions in a way that makes a schism more significant?
Diana Butler Bass: The history of Anglicanism (the older tradition of which the Episcopal Church is a part) is a long attempt to avoid schism. Throughout Anglicanism's first century, in the 1500s, England raged between extremes of Roman Catholicism and extreme Protestantism in a violent series of religious and political reversals that left the nation -- and the nation's church -- exhausted.
Richard Hooker, the Anglican theologian who is credited with ending this theological strife, helped the English Church envision itself as a "middle way" between Catholic and Protestant, a church that would be Catholic in its worship and sensibilities and Protestant in its theology. This is known as the Anglican via media and this vision undergirds and defines Anglican piety and spiritual temperament.
Only a few times in Anglican history has this spirit been badly violated (one time being during the 1600s with the Puritan victory in the English Civil Wars); otherwise, Anglicans and Episcopalians go A LONG WAY to avoid schism on the basis of their devotion to the church as a via media.
Capitol Hill: Hi Diana -- Many of the U.S. dioceses and congregations that are threatening to split off from the U.S. Episcopal church are citing the Gene Robinson's installation as bishop as the precipitating factor, followed by Kathryn Schori's selection as presiding bishop. But isn't it true that for many of these detractors, the real issue goes back to unresolved tensions over the ordination of women, and that Schori's selection is perhaps even more deeply offensive to them than Robinson?
Diana Butler Bass: Capitol Hill, you pay attention to historical trends! The exact same parishes and dioceses who are stressed by Gene's election were also extremely upset about the ordination of women in the 1970s. I believe that your analysis is largely correct. The current cry for schism has been around for some thirty years and found new traction with the New Hampshire election and around the arguments regarding gay and lesbian persons in the church.
However, there exists a small number of conservative women priests who insist that the two issues are separate.
If the radicalized conservatives form a separate denomination, I wonder if they will allow women clergy? I think they might divide into pro-women's ordination and anti-women's ordination conservative factions.
Without the spiritual vision of the via media, how can they hope to create a stable, spiritually sustaining institution?
Do those who might place themselves under the authority of African bishops understand the profound cultural differences they may encounter? It seems that an impulsive move could have unintended consequences.
Diana Butler Bass: I think not.
Carrboro, N.C.: I strongly disagree with your claim that the "old-line liberals" are using a "winner-takes-all strategy" to force their views on everyone in a way that is comparable to the "Radicalized Conservatives." This is a false equivalence.
There's a big difference between seeking to limit who New Hampshire can select as a bishop (a "winner takes all" approach) and allowing New Hampshire to make its own choice (a "live and let live" approach).
The liberals are willing to let people make up their minds. The conservatives insist on everyone agreeing with them.
Diana Butler Bass: Thanks, Carrboro (I used to live in your area!). I know that it may well be difficult for "old line liberals" to see that their views have had a hardening effect on the church. But, and I say this as someone who is deeply sympathetic with their position, I think that some policies and attitudes of my liberal friends have helped to make this situation worse than it may otherwise have been.
Liberalism does have the fundamental position that individuals should make up their own minds. But, on occasion, liberal enthusiasm (hubris, perhaps?) seems to others that people are free mostly to agree with liberals...
I think liberals need to examine this shortfall in their own spirituality honestly.
Fairfax, Va.: Maybe this isn't a popular position to take, but I for one am looking forward to a split. I do not want to be a member of a church that discriminates against the gay community, or any community. I want to go to church with people who think that way too.
Diana Butler Bass: Fairfax, a lot of conservatives think that the slight decrease in church attendance this year is the result of people like themselves protesting Gene Robinson's election. I suspect that a fair percentage comes from folks like yourself who are protesting the other side, too.
Thanks for posting. Yours is an important voice.
Baltimore: What is your take on the election of Katherine Jefferts Schiori to Presiding Bishop? I do believe she is the best person and would have been delighted at any other time. However, her election seems to be a slap in the face to those who want to take the church on a conservative/traditionalist path. How did she get elected? Is it the death knell for acceptance by the conservative/traditional diocese worldwide? Is it salt in the wound?
Diana Butler Bass: From conversations with friends of mine in the House of Bishops, they elected KJS because the Holy Spirit directed them to do so.
I wish that some of the conservatives would talk with her. She is a very spiritual person with a profound sense of mission, one who is open to all sorts of innovative ideas regarding church structure, evangelism, and social justice. She's one of those progressive pilgrim types--if only the politicized extremes could give her a chance to live into her call and very distinctive gifts.
To Workingham UK: I think Rowan Williams is one of the most creative post-modern theologians in the world and one of the most authentically spiritual Christian leaders today. I wonder if the old structures of the Church of England--and the global Anglican Communion--can change to accept his leadership? Rather than expecting RW to conform to a dying set of institution structures?
Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me that Jesus covered all of this with one simple command: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." When I saw other denominations using theology to justify their bigotry, I was disgusted. Now when I see Episcopal churches doing the same I am truly saddened. It amazes me that there are Christians who really believe that if Jesus reappeared today and gave a sermon where he listed all the things that are wrong with our society, that gay bishops and priests would be No. 1 on his list. Forget thousands of children dying of preventable diseases every day, hundreds of thousands of human beings erased by genocide and starvation in Africa, poverty and lack of health care for people in this country. I certainly respect everyone's right to an opinion. I just don't understand how a person could feel this way and call themselves a Christian. But then again, who am I to judge.
Diana Butler Bass: Thank you. I replied to Poolesville by talking about pain. You articulate my pain very well. I joined the Episcopal Church in 1980 for the exact reasons you articulate here. My heart is breaking that the church that taught me so much about loving my neighbor is devolving (in certain quarters at least) into partisan politics, hate mongering, scapegoating, spiritual and verbal violence.
I'm having trouble seeing Jesus these days. And for that, especially this Christmas, I'm very sad.
Diana Butler Bass: Thank you to everyone who participated today. I wish you a blessed Advent. And remember: Advent is about waiting, waiting to see God, waiting for the blessedness of peace.
Perhaps the Episcopal Church must be, for the time being, an Advent Church.
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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Nats' Risky Business
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The Nationals live in the future, not the present. They wish you would, too. It'd make their lives much easier. And cheaper, too.
After losing 21 percent of their attendance last season, their second in Washington, the Nats now want to roll the dice with the affections of their paying public. It's a big gamble, one that may be more dangerous than they seem to suspect.
At the same time the District is spending $611 million on a new ballpark, due to open in '08, the Nats plan to field a low-budget team next season, with a payroll of perhaps $45 million, or less than three-quarters of the one in '06. Even though they lost Alfonso Soriano, who made $10 million last season, to the Cubs, the Nats do not plan to use his salary slot. They will spend top dollar, they say, on every aspect of player development. That's judicious, both in a baseball and a business sense. But it's also conveniently economical because, each week, major league salaries obliterate all previous standards for profligacy.
This week in Florida at the winter meetings, the Nats are wallflowers. More important, between now and Opening Day, it is unlikely the team will spend -- or in their view, waste -- a dime on the kind of humble pitchers who prevent a vulnerable franchise from suddenly dissolving into a 50-games-under-.500 joke. Every season, low-rent veteran pitchers such as Esteban Loaiza, Ramon Ortiz, Brian Lawrence and Pedro Astacio are available. All have baggage. Some pan out. Some blow out.
For the past two winters, when the Nats were run by Major League Baseball, such stopgap pitchers were bought, not as part of any long-term plan to be contenders, but simply to give Washington fans a major league product. And it worked. Last year, at 71-91, the Nats were a poor team, not a lousy one. They were better than five others, including the Orioles.
But what will the Nationals be next year? Livan Hernandez was traded for pitching prospects in August. Ortiz and Tony Armas, the team leaders in innings, were not offered arbitration; there's almost no chance they'll return. Of the returning Nats pitchers, Mike O'Connor got the most work -- 105 innings, three wins. John Patterson, if he's healthy, is the ace. After that, you hand the ball to an assortment including Beltran Perez, Shawn Hill and Tim Redding until their arms fall off. At least they'll be able to tell their grandchildren they got an honest shot at the big leagues. But what do you tell the fans?
"I don't think the Tigers are crying about '03," team president Stan Kasten said yesterday, referring to the Detroit team that went 43-119, the second most losses in history, as they rebuilt before reaching the World Series this season.
"Clearly, we are concerned. We are very mindful that people who paid their money are mostly concerned with what they're going to see that night, even the ones who appreciate that there is good stuff happening beneath the surface," Kasten said. However, he also knows attendance will be helped by fans who look on '07 as little more than reserving a place in line to buy tickets for the new park. Season ticket sales are already up. Is that best business practices or cynicism?
General Manager Jim Bowden has also dropped references to 100 or more losses in '07 and the supposed benefit of the high draft picks that go with very bad records. However, when we've discussed his examples, from the recent Twins and A's back to the '80s Mets, the case for being Absolutely Awful isn't compelling to me. If you're rebuilding, it helps to lose 90. Worse than that serves no purpose. And, once you've made your peace with such losing, it's hard to calibrate how low you'll fall. It's a dangerous game.
The Nats' new owners may not fully appreciate the risk they are taking. Baseball has many levels of "bad." How lousy can a Nats team be, and for how long, before the potential fan base, which seemed huge when 33,708-a-game turned out in '05, starts to dwindle? Can that shrinkage become permanent? For that matter, does Kasten understand the depth of ill will that Washington harbors toward baseball after 33 years of being played for suckers? By August there might be more people watching the stadium construction than are watching the Nationals.
The Nats' brass seems too confident by half. A winning team in a beautiful park in a market as big and rich as Washington will solve everything, they believe. Only that ultimate prize -- a contending team in '09 or '10 -- matters a whit. Everything else will quickly be forgiven and forgotten. So why waste an extra $5 million to $10 million now just to avoid being an eyesore in '07? Does anybody really care if the Nats replace Ortiz and Armas with pitchers like the Orioles' Jaret Wright?
Few in baseball have more experience or a better track record than Kasten. He's probably right to believe that if you win and provide a good "fan experience," tons of people will come. And if you don't, they won't. In either case, '07 won't matter.
But what if he's wrong? The proper analysis of any plan includes focus on worst-case possibilities. Never assume victory.
So far, the new owners have kept faith with their new fans. Improvements at RFK, especially in food quality, were promised and delivered. When trade offers for Soriano at the July 31 deadline were unpromising, the Nats grasped that their fans would appreciate watching him play out his amazing season. Manny Acta made a fine first impression as the new manager.
Few in Washington blame the Nats for not competing on Soriano's $136 million contract. However, for one-twentieth that amount, the Nats could shore up their pitching. If they don't, the Nats are playing a high-stakes game in which they bet that Washington fans are sophisticated or patient enough -- or gullible enough -- to embrace a horrible team that didn't have to be bad. The Nats have a respectable everyday lineup and a solid bullpen. If the Nats go 56-106, it was a war of choice.
In the long view, would such signings be a one-season-only waste of millions? Yes, you might as well build a cash bonfire. On the other hand, would a town that is spending $611 million appreciate such an act of civic good behavior? Absolutely. Would Nats fans grasp that the Lerner family pumped money into the '07 team even though the new park virtually ensured massive attendance in '08? Without a doubt.
The Nationals should rethink what now appears to be their plan for radical inactivity in '07. You don't damage a team's fundamental morale or ruin your relationship with your fans by losing 91 games. But there is some number of defeats -- and it's a lot less than 119 -- that may cause the Nats far more damage than they imagine possible. When you're building -- long-term or short -- penny-wise is almost always pound-foolish.
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At the same time the District is spending $611 million on a ballpark, the Nationals want to roll the dice with the affections of their fans by fielding a low-budget team.
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Intrepid Escapes N.Y. Harbor Mud and Heads for Repairs
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NEW YORK, Dec. 5 -- The tugboats pulled. The Hudson River churned. And in the second attempt, the legendary World War II aircraft carrier USS Intrepid broke out of its Manhattan berth to travel to New Jersey for needed repairs after being stuck in the mud for a month.
"It feels great," said Felix Novelli, 81, an Intrepid veteran, as the ship moved silently and slowly Tuesday into the Hudson River's channel.
The first attempt to move the floating military museum on the five-mile trip across the Hudson to Bayonne, N.J., came Nov. 6. A crowd of 500 well-wishers, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and several former New York City mayors, gathered to send it off. But after settling for 24 years into the silt at a pier on Manhattan's West Side, the 27,000-ton ship got stuck fast. Its four massive propellers had screwed themselves into the sediment that had collected for decades.
So for the second attempt, planners reverted to that military adage: When all else fails, dig a trench.
This trench was 30 feet deep along the ship's starboard side to provide a passageway out of the silty berth and an escape for sediment scraped from the bottom of the ship.
Workers under Navy supervision also dredged around the clock for three weeks, using a crane to gather silt in buckets from the river's depths and deposit it in barges -- a total of 39,000 cubic yards of sediment, or the equivalent of 4,000 dump trucks, said Col. Nello L. Tortora, commander of the New York District Army Corps of Engineers.
Tuesday's move began under the light of a nearly full moon, as tugboats gathered at Pier 86. Shortly after 5 a.m., about 20 of the ship's veterans, including Novelli, boarded it anew and began wandering the icy flight deck dotted with fighter planes wrapped in plastic.
Inside, the Intrepid -- gunmetal gray and 17 stories tall at the top of the mainmast -- had the eerie feel of a place twice defunct, as a war vessel and as a museum. There are half-lit cavernous hangars and narrow passageways that echo and smell of rust and fuel. Those who remembered it from active duty told how Intrepid was launched in 1943 and spearheaded the naval defeat of Japan in the Pacific.
Novelli, a brash and wiry white-haired man who served on the ship from 1944 to 1946, recalled similar, though warmer, full-moon nights. He would start his day as a machinist mate 2nd class at 4 a.m. on the flight deck, smelling the gunfire and fuel. He recalled a kamikaze attack in which he took shelter in the ship's island on its starboard side.
"They would drop metal in the air to jam the radar screen," he said. "Then they would drop parachutes with flares that light up the ocean. Then the kamikazes would come." The sailors shot down four planes, but a fifth got through and came in toward the stern, killing one of Novelli's friends.
The stories continued as dawn broke, and talk shifted to whether this time the vessel would move. The highest tide of the month was expected about 9 a.m., giving the ship extra lift, so it would be important to dislodge the vessel then. By 8:30, five tugboats were hitched to the stern with foot-thick chains, pulling and pushing, to force the Intrepid to exit backward. But at first the ship barely budged.
"If it doesn't move, we'll get the World War II guys and pull it," said Winston S. Goodloe, 84, who served on the Intrepid from 1943 to 1946. "I think we did know more about what we're doing in those days," he said.
Up on the flight deck, facing New Jersey, Novelli stared into the water, both hands gripping the rail. "Come on, baby, give!" he yelled.
"It moved, it stalled, it wiggled, then it moved again, and then it stopped," said Capt. Brian Fournier, of McAllister Towing, who radioed commands from the Intrepid to the tugboats during the operation.
Fournier said that the Intrepid's main pilot, Capt. Jeffrey McAllister, was about to give up a second time -- but then decided to reposition one tugboat from pushing the carrier to pulling it. Slowly the hulking vessel began to move.
And the ship began her silent, motorless voyage, traveling about 2 knots, with pauses for a change of tide. The cost of the move is estimated at $3 million. It will cost $50,000 a day at the New Jersey dry dock for paint and other refurbishments while Pier 86 is reconstructed. The total cost of the project is about $60 million.
By the time Intrepid docked in Bayonne around 4 p.m., the veteran seamen were cold and tired. It had been a long voyage, said Bob Dougherty, 72, who worked in the ship's boiler room in the 1950s. "My sea duty is over for a while," he said.
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NEW YORK, Dec. 5 -- The tugboats pulled. The Hudson River churned. And in the second attempt, the legendary World War II aircraft carrier USS Intrepid broke out of its Manhattan berth to travel to New Jersey for needed repairs after being stuck in the mud for a month.
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GOP House Leaders Choose to Let Bill Die
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Republican congressional leaders decided yesterday not to bring to the floor a bill giving the District a full voting member of the House, dooming the measure's chances in this legislative session.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), the bill's author, had appealed to his party's leadership to cram in a vote during Congress's lame-duck session, which could end as soon as Thursday. But in a closed-door meeting, House leaders rejected the request.
"There was a certain level of resistance because there were a number of constitutional concerns from members," said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), the House majority leader. He did not elaborate.
The bill had faced long odds for approval this week, given the time constraints. Even if it got through the House, it would have needed to clear the Senate. But proponents had taken heart from the bipartisan support it had attracted. The bill would have balanced the new seat for the mostly Democratic District with an additional one for heavily Republican Utah.
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) criticized lawmakers for not moving ahead this week. "I'm disappointed because District residents have waited long enough for basic voting rights, and we shouldn't have to wait one day longer," Williams said in a statement.
Questions about the bill's legal merits have persisted, as it worked its way through Congress this year. Some scholars have testified that the Constitution limits full membership in Congress to states; others have argued that Congress has the authority to treat the District as a state for the purposes of representation.
Davis, working with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and other voting-rights advocates, had built a wide-ranging coalition to support the bill, and had won the backing of some prominent legal scholars. He and Norton expressed dismay at the decision.
"It's tough to take after we, along with D.C. residents, had created so much momentum for this bipartisan bill," Davis and Norton said in a statement. "We got it farther than anyone anticipated."
They pledged to reintroduce the bill "as our first order of business in the 110th Congress."
Norton has represented the city in the House for eight terms, introducing legislation and serving on committees. But she is not allowed to vote on the floor. Advocates have sought to give the District a vote in Congress for decades, and backers are not giving up.
Some supporters are optimistic that it can win approval next year when Democrats take control of Congress. The House speaker-elect, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), is a co-sponsor of the measure, and Democrats have generally been more amenable to the issue.
In his statement, Williams said he hoped that the new Congress will revisit the issue next month.
Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty, who met with Norton and Pelosi last week, echoed that view. "I look forward to working with all stakeholders to ensure passage of the bill and enfranchisement for District residents," he said.
But Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, an advocacy group that had been promoting the bill, said he worries that lawmakers will be too busy with budget bills and other priorities to consider the measure early in 2007.
"We're very skeptical about what might happen next year," he said.
District officials were jubilant after the voting measure was approved last May by the House Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Davis. The bill then moved to the Judiciary Committee, where it was held up over its plan to make Utah's new seat at-large, an arrangement some legislators considered unconstitutional.
To resolve that concern, the Utah legislature met in special session Monday to approve a redistricting map that would include a fourth congressional seat for the state. But the move came too late to propel the bill to a full House vote.
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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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A Public Servant to the Last
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2006120619
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In 1961, Ed McGaffigan Jr. was a seventh-grader from Boston watching the inauguration on television when a president told him to ask what he could do for his country.
The son of an Irish immigrant laborer, McGaffigan had a ready answer, as did many of his generation: He could work for his country.
That inspired a three-decade career that included stints at the State Department, the White House, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Capitol Hill and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where last month McGaffigan became the agency's longest-serving commissioner.
McGaffigan, who turns 58 on Friday, would normally have many more years of service ahead. Instead, he is fighting an illness that threatens to vanquish him, and he is taking on one last assignment: closing his career in a way that inspires others to consider public service.
"I do what I do out of a deep sense of appreciation for the opportunities that this country gives people like my father and me," he said. "I'm proud to have been there, and proud to serve with a bunch of people as dedicated as I am.
"I hope there's another generation."
One recent rainy morning, McGaffigan, a physicist with thick gray hair and a runner's build, took his place at the front of the NRC's conference room for a celebration of his career. A line of masking tape on the carpet showed him where to stand, and he placed the toes of his shoes precisely on it.
There were jokes, gifts and tributes. "He can quote the most obscure regulations and give exact details on how they were written," said fellow commissioner Pete Lyons. He presented McGaffigan, a serial marathoner, with a specially produced audiobook to listen to while he runs: a recitation of 10 CFR 3240, "tests required for tritium-powered auto lock illuminators," a reg so obscure it stumped even McGaffigan.
Then it was McGaffigan's turn. "As long as I'm here," he said, "I'm going to be dedicated to making you all improve."
He wept a little. But he did not take his shoes off the tape.
McGaffigan was the first in his family to attend college, earning a physics degree, with honors, from Harvard, and master's degrees from the California Institute of Technology and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Since his education was underwritten by taxpayers, he decided, he said, to give them the benefit of the technical expertise they paid for.
While at Cal Tech, he took the foreign service exam, and in 1976 he joined the State Department. During that time, he served in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, overseeing international scientific programs, and worked for two years in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, reporting on science, technology and atomic energy.
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Latest news on the US federal government. Information and analysis of federal legislation, government contracts and regulations. Search for government job openings, career information and federal employee benefits news.
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A Familiar Mystery
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2006120519
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In the 10 days that have passed since Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent, died of radiation poisoning in London, we have learned a lot about his death -- haven't we?
Well, we have learned that Litvinenko died after somehow ingesting polonium-210, a relatively rare radioactive substance. We have learned that a mysterious Italian, Mario Scaramella-- a self-employed "security expert" who last year claimed that he'd found ex-KGB men selling nuclear material in the postage-stamp republic of San Marino -- has been poisoned too. We have learned that various other ex-KGB agents floating around London also have tested positive for polonium-210, as have a Piccadilly sushi restaurant, a London hotel room and a few airplanes.
We have seen a photograph of Litvinenko flaunting KGB gauntlets, a Chechen sword and a Union Jack. We have also seen a photograph of Litvinenko with tubes in his body, on his deathbed.
We have learned that Litvinenko may or may not have known who murdered the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya earlier this year (and that the same people may have killed him too); that he may or may not have been involved in a scam to blackmail various prominent Russians (unless that's just information planted in the British press); that he may or may not have possessed a dossier proving that the Kremlin framed the imprisoned billionaire boss of the Yukos oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky (unless that's what Khodorkovsky's people, or some other people, want us to think); that he may or may not have possessed proof that Vladimir Putin -- another ex-KGB officer, now president of Russia -- ordered his goons to blow up some apartment buildings in Moscow several years ago, a terrorist act that launched the current Chechen war.
In other words: Though we don't know who killed Litvinenko, we have learned that London is a more exciting place than we thought it was. We have learned that the complex plots of Dostoevsky novels merely reflect Russian reality. And we have learned that the old KGB lives on in new guises.
Or rather -- we have been reminded that the old KGB lives on in new guises, because in fact we have known this for some time. True, the old employees no longer belong to a single all-powerful institution. Some ("the stupidest," according to Oleg Gordievsky, the former double agent) have stayed with the agency, joining either the domestic service (FSB) or the foreign intelligence bureau (SVR). Others went into business, some joining the security entourages of new Russian millionaires, some becoming Russian millionaires in their own right. Still others, to put it bluntly, went into organized crime. And some -- President Putin is the shining example here -- went into politics.
Despite their widely varying fates, it has long been perfectly clear that many of these old comrades continue to work together in mutually profitable ways. As far back as 1999, for example, a group of Russian-born bankers was caught laundering money through a New York bank, probably using information obtained, one way or another, by Russian intelligence. Since then it has become clear that a number of Russia's largest companies were launched with money from mysterious sources, and a number of former KGB officers have shown up at the helm of businesses and banks, too.
Of course this same mutually profitable relationship will also make it extremely difficult to find Litvinenko's real killer. After all, this set of post-KGB relationships is nothing if not complex: There are conspiracies within conspiracies, agents of agents of agents, people who pretend to be acting on behalf of a particular oligarch or Chechen insurgent who are actually acting on behalf of someone quite different. It is possible that Litvinenko was murdered by "rogue secret policemen," as the British press suspects. It is also possible that the "rogue secret policemen" were working for someone who worked for the Kremlin, or someone who worked for a Russian oligarch, or who worked for a Russian oligarch who worked for the Kremlin.
As the investigation progresses, I'm sure many more wonderfully shady characters will emerge, along with many theories about who was trying to discredit whom. But though it's doubtful that he ever gave an actual order to an actual thug, Putin is certainly responsible for Litvinenko's death in this deeper sense: He presides over this web of old intelligence operatives, indeed, sits at its center. And he approves of their methods.
One of his first acts as prime minister in 1999 was the unveiling of a plaque to Yuri Andropov, the former KGB boss best known for his harsh treatment of dissidents. Last year Russians built a statue to Andropov. No one should have been surprised that the former KGB's harassment of modern "dissidents" grew harsher with every passing year -- or that it culminated in this strange murder.
That we were surprised, are surprised, is both tragic and ironic: After all, for the better part of a decade now, we've been desperately looking for weapons of mass destruction and for the strange new enemies, the Islamic radicals who might be planning to use them. And now we've discovered that there really is nuclear material for sale and that it really is being used, in the West, to kill people. And that the killers aren't strange, or new, or even Islamic.
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Despite their widely varying fates, it has long been perfectly clear that many old KGB comrades continue to work together in mutually profitable ways.
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Richard Cohen - How's Your War? - washingtonpost.com
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2006120519
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I am of two minds about what Virginia Sen.-elect James Webb did at a White House reception for new members of Congress. After first trying to avoid speaking to George W. Bush altogether, he was forced to respond when the president approached him and asked, "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President." (Webb's son is a Marine serving there.) "That's not what I asked you," Bush said. "How's your boy?"
"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President," Webb said, ending the conversation right there. Bad manners? Yes. Understandable? Yes, again.
For this act of consummate rudeness, Webb was roundly reprimanded. George F. Will offered him a magisterial rebuke, and so, less magisterially, did some editorial pages. (Why did Webb go to the White House in the first place?) Not only is such behavior rude, but it is usually counterproductive. We don't want to get where we were in the late 1960s, when Lyndon Johnson became a virtual prisoner in the White House, avoiding antiwar demonstrators by simply staying home.
Even that sometimes does not work. Eartha Kitt confronted Lady Bird Johnson at a White House reception, telling her, "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed." The next day's Post reported that the first lady went pale. Still, the war ended no sooner -- and not, I should note, before an impassioned opponent of the Vietnam War tried to throw Robert McNamara, the Don Rumsfeld of his day, off the Martha's Vineyard ferry. Much as he did while at the Pentagon, McNamara hung on.
Yet the dastardly act, aside from being oh-so-satisfying to the perp, can have its uses. In this case, it might have jarred Bush into appreciating the fact that many of his critics actually feel keenly about the war in Iraq -- that they are not mere political opponents but people who are morally appalled by a war that continues for no apparent reason. Maybe also the incident made him wonder about Webb, who, after all, hardly fits the demagogic antiwar stereotype constructed by Bush, Karl Rove and Fox News. Webb is a pugnacious sort, a former college boxer, Marine officer in Vietnam and secretary of the Navy under, of all people, Ronald Reagan. I would not, to his face, impeach his patriotism or suggest a dreamy liberalism.
Washington is a bad marriage with monuments. Just to get through the day, it's necessary to lower voices, modulate tempers, eschew insults, voice soft lies -- compromise, compromise, compromise. Quaint parliamentary rules have their utility -- no name-calling, please, and lots of grandiloquence about the "eminent gentleman" who in actuality is a skirt chaser who needs to trim his nasal hair. It is all necessary, like the rules of war or journalistic ethics. Sans manners, nothing would get done. Even with them, precious little is accomplished.
Still, there is accumulating evidence that Bush is talking to mirrors and taking instruction from his dog. He makes no sense, saying he's amenable to change one day and digging in his heels the next. "I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," he said recently. Yes. Absolutely. But what is the mission? Please, ask the dog. Lives are being wasted.
That, of course, is the whole point. This imbroglio about Webb and manners is, at bottom, about the (very) premature deaths of young people in Iraq -- the sons and daughters of people much like Webb. Their only hope is that Bush is a liar rather than a fool. There is ample evidence for both propositions. He vowed enduring loyalty to Rumsfeld while interviewing his replacement, and he has overseen the administration of the war with an incompetence that will earn him a special place in American history.
Maybe the president has a plan for disengaging in Iraq. Maybe, though, he is disengaged himself. If that is the case, the thought occurs that it would take a polite version of a Cagneyesque grapefruit in the face to get his attention. If Webb did that, then a medal, not a rebuke, is in order.
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This imbroglio about Jim Webb and manners is, at bottom, about the (very) premature deaths of young people in Iraq -- the sons and daughters of people much like Webb.
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Cuba's Future Is Already Here
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2006120519
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Fiercely implacable exiles in Miami, perennially outfoxed bureaucrats in Washington and salivating real estate developers around the world have spent years trying to predict what will happen in Cuba the day after Fidel Castro dies. Now I think everyone knows the answer: nada.
That chuckling you hear is Fidel, in his hospital room, having the last laugh.
The 80-year-old revolutionary icon, evidently at death's door, appears to have engineered a seamless transition to the post-Fidel era. Brother Ra?l presided over last week's 50th-anniversary shindig with none of Fidel's charisma but all of his authority. If any lingering doubts about the de facto succession needed to be dispelled, Havana's biggest military parade in years on Saturday reminded everyone that Ra?l has been running the Cuban armed forces since Day One.
Fidel's absence from the festivities marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution pretty much ended any uncertainty about his health. Government officials say he's recovering like a champ and will be back on the job any day, and they sound so sincerely optimistic that you could almost look past the images of a gaunt, frail old man that were released a few weeks ago. But I doubt that anything except the looming hand of death could have kept Fidel Castro away from a cheering, flag-waving crowd of millions -- Fidel's people, filling the vast plaza named for Fidel's revolution, hoping for a last glimpse of the only leader most Cubans have ever known.
We have to assume that Fidel is not long for this world. We also have to assume that a day, a month or even a year after he dies, Cuba will be essentially unaltered.
A year isn't forever, and some kind of change will eventually come. But the Bush administration has been even more idiotic than its predecessors in its policies toward Cuba, which means that the United States is perfectly positioned to have little or no influence over what kind of Cuba finally evolves.
About all this administration can do is make things worse. Julia E. Sweig of the Council on Foreign Relations, a leading Cuba expert, writes in the current issue of the journal Foreign Affairs that by "continuing the current course and making threats about what kind of change is and is not acceptable after Fidel, Washington will only slow the pace of liberalization and political reform in Cuba and guarantee many more years of hostility between the two countries."
In the article, Sweig points out what any visitor to Cuba who is not wearing ideological blinkers quickly realizes: that the Cuban government's hold on power does not derive from repression alone. In my visits to the island, I've been struck by how Cubans can be bitterly critical of the hard-line restrictions the regime imposes on speech, assembly, movement, commerce and other activities, and in the next breath speak with pride of the government's achievements in providing free health care and education.
In Washington and Miami, the prediction was that when the Soviet Union and the East Bloc dissolved, Fidel Castro's regime would soon follow. But Ra?l Castro and a group of pragmatic-minded young officials -- basically, the people who are running the country now -- opened the spigot and allowed just enough economic reform to keep the place going. Now, with Ra?l's armed forces functioning essentially as the island's biggest business conglomerate, and with Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez shipping his mentor Fidel all the oil he needs, the government seems increasingly secure.
That security hardly looks permanent. Many Cubans are indeed restless for change. There are focal points around which a kind of civil society has started to coalesce -- the black-market economy, the Catholic Church, the Afro-Cuban faiths, the arts -- and the government has had little success in co-opting these independent movements.
Ra?l Castro is 75, so his time in the driver's seat will be brief. Maybe he will try to move Cuba toward the Chinese model of continued one-party rule in exchange for free-market liberalization of the economy -- something Fidel would never abide. Lacking his older brother's presence and oratorical skills, maybe Ra?l will have to be oppressively heavy-handed in using the army he built to maintain order.
For now, though, the Cuban regime has accomplished something that the Bush administration had pledged to thwart: an uneventful transition that leaves the Cuban Communist Party still comfortably in charge. The handover of power took place in August, when Fidel's illness was announced and power was transferred "temporarily" to Ra?l and other party leaders.
Fidel's revolution won't survive forever -- the tide of history is flowing in the opposite direction. But surely it will survive the old man's death.
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That chuckling you hear is Fidel, in his hospital room, having the last laugh.
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America's Moral Duty in Iraq
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2006120519
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When the poker-faced co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group heard a commentator who had been invited to advise the group say that America's aim must be "victory," Baker's stony visage betrayed the bitter amusement that the word "victory" now occasions. Not even the word "success" seems elastic enough to cover any attainable outcome. Remember the "demonstration effect" that Iraq's self-governance was to have in transforming the region? Although America's vice president calls Iraq "a fellow democracy," it lacks a government whose writ runs beyond Baghdad's Green Zone.
Weeks ago, he had been with a proud father of a Marine who was then in Iraq. Recently McCain had heard that the son's legs had been blown off. "At the hips," McCain said, intensely, several times, with a clenched-jaw fury born of frustration. Fifteen minutes later, on ABC's "This Week," McCain brought a steely clarity to the Iraq debate.
For three years he has been saying, correctly, that there are far too few U.S. troops in Iraq. For months he has said we cannot win without many more troops. That, too, is correct -- if it does not imply that some surge of troops can now guarantee winning. He has also said: Absent a commitment to send significantly more troops to Iraq, it would be "immoral" to keep asking the same number of troops "to risk life and limb so that we might delay our defeat for a few months or a year."
George Stephanopoulos: "President Bush has said he doesn't want to send more troops now. So by your own standards isn't it currently immoral to keep Marines and soldiers, other service people in Iraq?"
Moments later, Stephanopoulos asked: "At what point do you say, I am not going to be complicit with an immoral policy?"
McCain: "When I think we've exhausted every possibility to do what is necessary to succeed and not until then, because the consequences of failure are catastrophic. . . . We left Vietnam, it was over, we just had to heal the wounds of war. We leave this place, chaos in the region and they'll follow us home. So there's a great deal more at stake here in this conflict in my view. A lot more."
Stephanopoulos: If the Iraq Study Group does not call for an increase in troops as you've advocated, "will you call for American troops to come home?"
McCain: "I will if at the point I think that we have exhausted every option and that we are doomed to failure."
At long last, rigor. McCain applies two principles of moral reasoning. There can be no moral duty to attempt what cannot be done. And: If you will an end, you must will the means to that end.
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The word "success" -- forget "victory" -- doesn't seems elastic enough to cover any attainable outcome in Iraq.
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Robert M. Gates Profile
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2006120519
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Watch a video or read a full transcript of the announcement.
Watch a video or read a full transcript of Gates's remarks following the nomination.
Robert M. Gates is a veteran intelligence operative with close ties to the Bush family. The 63-year-old joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 after a brief stint in the Air Force, rising through the ranks to eventually run the agency in the last years of President George H.W. Bush's term in office. He was deputy national security adviser from 1989 to 1991, and deputy CIA director from 1986 until 1989.
A Kansas native with a doctorate in Russian studies, he served on the staff of the National Security Office in the 1970s during a break in his CIA career. The current President Bush had approached him before about returning to government, asking him to become the new director of national intelligence -- a job he declined and which eventually went to veteran diplomat John D. Negroponte.
Gates was a close adviser to President Ronald Reagan and to George H.W. Bush as they dealt with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, though he was criticized for molding intelligence reports to suit Reagan's hard-line stance toward what had been dubbed the "Evil Empire."
Gates's role in the Iran-Contra affair in the late 1980s also came under close scrutiny, particularly when he was nominated by the elder Bush to run the CIA in 1991. His nomination was cleared, but on a divided vote with even some supporters saying they would exercise close oversight of his tenure. Similar questions had scuttled an earlier nomination by Reagan to make him director of the CIA. Like other members of the elder Bush's national security team, Gates was not consulted closely about the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
-- By Washington Post Staff Writer William Branigin
Find further coverage of Gates's nomination here:
Senate Committee Unanimously Approves Gates, (The Post, Dec. 5, 2006)
For Defense Nominee, Echoes of Old Questions, (The Post, Dec. 4, 2006)
Gates Warns Against Leaving Iraq 'in Chaos', (The Post, Nov. 29, 2006)
Rumsfeld to Step Down as Defense Secretary, (The Post, Nov. 8, 2006)
Robert Gates And the Neverending Story, (The Post, Sept. 19, 1991)
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Full coverage of the White House and Bush administration from The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com, including a guide to the members of President George W. Bush's Cabinet.
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A Precarious Shelter in Afghanistan
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2006120519
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KABUL -- The room was carpeted and cozy, warm from the wood stove and filled with the chatter of children. But the tales their mothers and older sisters told recently, speaking hesitantly even in the safety of a guarded private shelter, were bone-chilling.
Sahara, an angelic-looking young woman, said she was forcibly married at 11, widowed at 12 and kept as a virtual slave by her in-laws for the next eight years. Unable to endure more beatings, she slipped away early one morning, walked for two days and nights and finally ventured into a police station to ask for help.
Gulshan, a mother of three with a permanently worried look, said she was falsely accused of murdering her husband after he had an affair with her sister. She was sentenced to five years in jail, and her husband's brothers vowed to kill her upon her release. Under the law, they may also take custody of her small children, who are hidden with her at the shelter.
"They said I killed my husband, but I am very sad he died, even though he had a bad friendship with my sister," Gulshan said. "I need him, because of the children. Now I am alone in life, and in this society a woman alone is less than nothing."
Until recently, most of the 20 women at the shelter would probably have been either dead or in prison, hunted down by male relatives seeking revenge or hit with criminal charges for actions that would not be illegal in the West, such as eloping with a boyfriend or fleeing an abusive husband. Some might have committed suicide by burning themselves, as hundreds of desperate Afghan girls and women have done in the past several years.
Afghan society still considers such women "bad" and deserving of punishment. According to the country's conservative Muslim and tribal traditions, arranged marriages are both a cultural cornerstone and a business contract, sometimes with two sisters marrying two brothers. Wives are expected to endure beatings, unfaithfulness or years of separation in obedient silence.
But Afghanistan is also officially a democracy now, with a ministry of women's affairs, human rights organizations and constitutional protections against abuse. In the years since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, a network of civic groups has begun promoting women's legal rights and opening shelters.
Still, despite increasing cooperation from police and referrals from the women's ministry, the shelters remain controversial and in permanent danger of attack by angry husbands and fathers. Some Afghans view groups that advocate women's emancipation as the real danger to society and blame foreign influence for provoking the widely reported phenomenon of self-immolation by unhappy brides or daughters-in-law.
"In our society, it is still unacceptable for a woman to leave home or go to court to solve her problems," said Mari Akrami, who directs the Afghan Women's Skills Development Center. She recently made a documentary film about a girl named Mujahida, who was betrothed to a man at age 4 and later murdered by her family for running away from him.
"Now some people call me a bad woman, too," Akrami said with a rueful laugh.
Women's activists said Afghan courts still tend to side with men in cases of domestic abuse or marital conflict and are often swayed by influential families rather than the law. Two years ago, Akrami's group was given custody of a 10-year-old girl whose family had been arrested for selling her as a bride four years earlier.
"In court she told how she had been made to wear a white dress and a lot of people were invited to a feast. She had no idea it was her wedding," Akrami said. A senior justice official, under heavy pressure from the girl's family, wrote Akrami a letter asking that the girl be sent back to her husband. "He said I must respect Afghan culture and customs," she said.
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KABUL -- The room was carpeted and cozy, warm from the wood stove and filled with the chatter of children. But the tales their mothers and older sisters told recently, speaking hesitantly even in the safety of a guarded private shelter, were bone-chilling.
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Moscow Restricts British Police Investigating Ex-Spy's Death
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2006120519
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Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said his subordinates, not the British, would conduct any interrogations. He ruled out the extradition of possible suspects who are Russian citizens and said British investigators could not meet an imprisoned lawyer and former officer in the FSB, a successor agency of the KGB, who claims to have vital information.
A key witness checked into a hospital Tuesday, raising questions about when, and whether, investigators from Scotland Yard would be able to see him.
Some British politicians quickly criticized the restrictions. "If they don't allow access, the world at large will wonder, why not?" lawmaker David Davis, a leading member of the opposition Conservative Party, said in an interview. But he cautioned that it was too early to know exactly how much cooperation British investigators would get.
At a news conference in Moscow, Chaika smacked down any notion that the British police could go wherever their investigation leads them, as British Home Secretary John Reid put it in London on Sunday. Even allowing for the normal sensitivities in any country about allowing foreign police on home turf, Chaika was unequivocal in mapping out the secondary function of his British counterparts.
"They may participate with our consent, and we might also withhold our consent," said Chaika, whose position is equivalent to that of attorney general.
Several British detectives flew into Moscow on Monday night to probe any Russian connection to the Nov. 1 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210. The radioactive isotope brought on the former domestic security officer's death Nov. 23 after a slow and gruesome deterioration in his condition.
Litvinenko, 43, was part of a London circle of Russian exiles fiercely critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a deathbed statement, Litvinenko accused the Kremlin of ordering his killing, a charge that authorities here labeled baseless and absurd.
Among those the British had planned to interview is Andrei Lugovoy, a Russian entrepreneur and former KGB officer who met with Litvinenko in a bar at the Millennium Hotel in London the day of the poisoning.
Lugovoy spoke to officials at the British Embassy in Moscow and denied any involvement in the poisoning. His attorney, Andrei Romashov, said he was tested last week for radiation contamination and got a clean bill of health at a Moscow clinic. But the Russian newspaper Kommersant, quoting the attorney, said Lugovoy had checked into a hospital with his wife and three children, who were with him in London, for fresh tests.
"I cannot say if he's ready to meet with the British investigators," Romashov said.
British police are also interested in meeting with Dmitry Kovtun, a business consultant, and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, who heads an association of security agencies. Both men also met Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel with Lugovoy.
The British also want to meet with Mikhail Trepashkin, a former FSB officer who is serving a four-year sentence on charges of divulging state secrets. Trepashkin, like Litvinenko, had investigated a series of apartment bombings in Russia in 1999 that were among the triggers for a second war between Russian forces and separatists in the southern republic of Chechnya.
Trepashkin accused his former colleagues in the security services of organizing the bombings. Human rights groups including Amnesty International have expressed concern that he was prosecuted to stop his unsanctioned inquiry.
Trepashkin's lawyers released a letter in which the prisoner asserted that the FSB had created a list of people, including Litvinenko, who should be assassinated, and he requested a meeting with the British, saying he had relevant information about the case.
A spokesman for the Russian prison system told the Russian news agency Interfax that such a meeting would not happen. "The Federal Penitentiary Service will not allow a person convicted for divulging state secrets to remain a source of information for representatives of foreign special services," the spokesman said.
Chaika ridiculed the idea. "Seven hundred thousand people are prisoners as Trepashkin is, let's interrogate 400,000 of them, what if they tell something," he said.
A prison administrator filed a request with a Russian court Tuesday asking that Trepashkin be transferred to a more secure prison, Interfax reported.
Lynne Featherstone, a member of the British Parliament who said Litvinenko was one of her constituents, said there is so much speculation in the case that Russia should fully cooperate to "lift the cloud."
"Nothing is solved by leaving it in the dark," she said.
Chaika also said any suspects would be tried in Russia. Extradition has long been a touchy subject between London and Moscow. British courts have refused to hand over Boris Berezovsky, an exiled Russian tycoon who clashed with Putin, and Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen separatist who received asylum in Britain. Both men were close associates of Litvinenko.
"The British side will sooner or later be forced to extradite them, because every day there is more and more evidence that they have committed crimes," Chaika said. "This is actually a case where there are political motives for their non-extradition."
Chris Bryant, a Labor Party member of the British Parliament, said in an interview that "I think there is a feeling in Russia that we are behaving outrageously" by not extraditing Berezovsky and others wanted by Russia, but that a judge had ruled those prosecutions were politically motivated.
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MOSCOW, Dec. 5 -- British detectives visiting Russia to investigate the poisoning death of a former Russian intelligence officer in London will face broad restrictions in their work here, a senior Russian official said Tuesday.
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A Virtual Chalkboard For Budding NFL Fans
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2006120519
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T.J. Won was not born into football. He did not grow up the son of a coach. He did not play the game in high school. In fact, the sum of his playing experience consists of throwing the ball with friends in his home town of Milpitas, Calif., after watching San Francisco 49ers games on television.
But in front of his television now, he notices the kinds of details coaches pick up.
"I used to see people lining up and blocking people," said Won, a junior accounting major at Georgetown University. "Now I see players blocking in the flats, helping protection. You know where the quarterbacks want to throw."
He arrived at this knowledge not by hanging around coaches' offices or studying game tapes. He learned it all from a video game -- Madden NFL.
This is a phenomenon the National Football League never could have anticipated. In a world in which 53 million copies of the game have been sold in the last 17 years -- the latest version sold an unprecedented two million copies in its first weekend of release last summer -- Madden has provided the league a perfect conduit to its next generation of fans. And all because of attention to arcane details that has demystified the complexities of football to a population that never before understood them.
"How else would I ever know what Cover-2 was?" Won said, referring to the widely used pass-defense alignment.
Professional sports leagues -- concerned that young people were turning to pro wrestling or action sports such as skateboarding or motocross -- have spent millions trying to find the soul of the 15-to-25 year-old fan. They have invested in youth programs, TV shows and even cartoons, figuring one would be the magic elixir that will make their game the next hot thing. Who knew that for the NFL it would be something the league had little to do with creating?
There are no statistics that conclusively link Madden to the NFL's next generation of fans. But a poll taken last year for the NFL said 22 percent of 12-to-17 year olds in the United States consider the NFL their favorite sport. The next closest, baseball, was at 13 percent. And given that NFL video games sold 6.2 million copies last year -- almost double that of the next most popular sport -- the NFL is sure there is a solid connection.
Kids' "use of technology is different than a generation ago," said Lisa Baird, the NFL's senior vice president for marketing. "They are programmed differently than we are. They are wired differently than we are. We are getting increasingly smarter about the way kids act."
But the popularity of the Madden game, named after Hall of Fame coach and NBC Sports analyst John Madden, has done more than broaden the game's reach to younger people. It has achieved something that for years was considered impossible. Because it has managed to replicate the actual offenses and defenses used in the NFL today, it has in essence demystified the game.
"There's no question it's the video game that's bringing in teenagers," said Marc Ganis, the president of Sportscorp Ltd., a sports consulting firm based in Chicago. "It's educating young fans on the NFL terminologies and making them more sophisticated about the plays on the field.
"But it's also bringing more fans into this very arcane, jargon-driven environment. If you watch the game on TV nowadays, the announcers -- especially the color men -- are using these very technical football terms. They expect the fans to understand it."
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In a world in which 53 million copies of Madden NFL have been sold in the last 17 years, the game has provided the league a perfect conduit to its next generation of fans.
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House to Consider Abortion Anesthesia Bill
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2006120519
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In a parting gesture by social conservatives before Republicans relinquish control, House leaders plan to bring up a bill tomorrow that would declare that fetuses feel pain and require abortion providers to offer pregnant patients anesthesia for their unborn child.
The scheduled vote may be the last on abortion-related legislation for years. That's because Democratic leaders hope to avoid confrontations over hot-button social issues that divide their caucus, and focus instead on military and pocketbook issues.
But Republicans and antiabortion activists signaled yesterday that they intend to press hard on social issues, even those that failed to gain traction during GOP control, to separate moderate-to-conservative Democrats from their more liberal leaders.
"The Democrats are facing an interesting situation because they ran to the right in this election," said Wendy Wright, president of the conservative group Concerned Women for America. "They promised one thing to America with their campaigning. The question is, will they live up to that image? Running and hiding is not a solution."
Democrats are shying from the fight. Party leaders in the House have declared tomorrow's decision "a vote of conscience" and will not try to sway the outcome. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) does not plan to speak on the bill, a rarity for her.
The fetal pain bill is coming up nearly as an afterthought, in the final week of a lame-duck session of Congress. House Republican leaders are using expedited procedures to bring it to a vote, meaning it will take a two-thirds vote of the chamber to pass. Its supporters are setting expectations low.
"Hopefully, we get a majority," said Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), the bill's author. "Two-thirds is hard on anything, except if it's a post office."
Even if the bill can muster a two-thirds vote, it cannot pass the Senate before Congress adjourns.
But social conservatives see an opportunity to test Democrats' evolving position on abortion, a position that has become more amenable to incremental curbs on ending pregnancies and more vocal about reducing the number of abortions. Under Republican control, Congress passed a ban on the late-term abortion method called "partial birth" abortion by its foes and passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which increased penalties for crimes that harm a fetus.
At first blush, the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act would seem to be anathema to abortion rights groups. It requires abortion providers to tell a woman whose pregnacy is 20 weeks past fertilization "there is substantial evidence" that the fetus will feel pain during the procedure -- a point hotly debated among physicians and pain specialists.
The woman would then have to sign a form accepting or declining anesthesia for her fetus. Some medical groups interpret the language to mean that the fetus would have to have an application of anesthesia separate from the mother's, a procedure that many abortion clinics are not capable of providing.
Even the bill's definition of pregnancy -- beginning at the moment of fertilization, rather than at implantation in the uterus -- is problematic to some abortion rights groups, since it would legislatively establish that some forms of birth control induce abortion by blocking implantation after fertilization.
Backers of the bill have framed it as a common-sense extension of existing state laws that mandate that patients receive information about abortion procedures before giving their consent.
"This is just a compassion piece of legislation to take informed consent to the level it should be at," said Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), an obstetrician and antiabortion conservative.
While the measure has provoked strong opposition from Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, NARAL Pro-Choice America, perhaps the nation's leading abortion rights group, has stayed neutral.
"Pro-choice Americans have always believed that women deserve access to all the information relevant to their reproductive health decisions. For some women, that includes information related to fetal anesthesia options," Nancy Keenan, NARAL's president, has said in a statement on the bill.
Democratic leaders cited NARAL's position when they decided against trying to influence the vote. Democratic leadership aides said yesterday that they are leery of Republicans charging that they are already out of touch with mainstream values, even before they assume power.
Citing those divisions, the National Right to Life Committee's Douglas Johnson dared Democrats to vote against the bill. If it passes the House, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) will try to pass it in the Senate by a unanimous voice vote.
"Somebody will object," Johnson said. "We want to know who that person is."
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In a parting gesture by social conservatives before Republicans relinquish control, House leaders plan to bring up a bill tomorrow that would declare that fetuses feel pain and require abortion providers to offer pregnant patients anesthesia for their unborn child.
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School Boundaries, Money and Race
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2006120519
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Most education reporters think school boundary fights are boring. There are so many of them every year, and they all sound the same: Why does my kid have to take that long bus ride? What are you doing to our neighborhood school? Don't you know this will hurt the quality of education?
Of course if we could write about these disputes honestly, they would not be boring at all. The most intriguing issues of class and race are imbedded in many of them. But it is difficult to get anyone to admit that on the record, so we ignore the stories or bury them on page C11 and move on.
Occasionally however, particularly at Christmas time, gifts drop into my lap. Below is a remarkable account of one boundary dispute in suburban Atlanta sent to me by Shauna Grice, author of the novel "The Memoirs of Sara Harvey" and two more books soon to be published. We were exchanging e-mails about a homework column I did recently when she mentioned the fight over her local school boundary, and I urged her to write about it.
Grice is my guest columnist today. This is a big risk for me since it is clear she is a much better writer, and much braver about getting to the heart of the issue -- how much our school boundaries depend on the skin color and the size of the paychecks of the families involved. Nonetheless, this is a must read:
When the proposed attendance zoning maps for three new schools were released to parents of school-age children in Henry County just south of Atlanta, residents from the county's well-to-do Union Grove community threw back their heads and howled.
In a process to ease over-crowding, facilitated by Dr. Jack Parish, Superintendent of Schools for Henry County, the proposed boundary lines for the new schools had been drawn to include a small portion of the Fairview community. Others in Fairview would remain at the older schools. Fairview is a modest neighborhood made up of children who are predominately African-American and whose parents are less affluent than those who reside in Union Grove, a fact which has sent Union Grove residents reeling.
As a resident of the Fairview community with a child in middle school, I had my concerns. Our streets aren't made of gold, and the neighborhood certainly doesn't boast lavishly decorated Home and Garden-type vacation cottages; but it's not the ghetto either. Homes are modest and well-kept. Homeowners are comprised mostly of middle-aged baby-boomers, preparing for retirement and saving for their kids' college funds all at the same time.
Most of the children I know from Fairview come from good homes with loving parents who teach them to be well-behaved. I couldn't see much difference between families in our neighborhood and those in Union Grove. For days I had debated whether to attend a meeting where parents from both neighborhoods would come together to vent their concerns.
On the night of the meeting, after downloading a copy of the proposed maps off the Internet, I'd finally decided against going. We lived so far north of the zoning boundaries that our son was not likely to be in line to attend any of the new schools, elementary, middle or high schools. Besides, I was in no mood for an emotionally charged discussion where race is the key factor and everybody in the room is trying to act like it's not a factor. I'd had a long day, my feet hurt, and I just wanted to be left out of it.
I resigned myself to let others handle it and walked toward my bedroom for a hot bath. My husband followed me.
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Most education reporters think school boundary fights are boring. There are so many of them every year, and they all sound the same: Why does my kid have to take that long bus ride? What are you doing to our neighborhood school? Don't you know this will hurt the quality of education?
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A Flock of Frocks and One Weepy Warbler
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2006120519
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So it went at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, not just for Jessica Simpson -- who broke down onstage over some imperceptible flaw in her tribute to Dolly Parton -- but also for Laura Bush, who mysteriously changed dresses right before the gala.
Why? Turns out that earlier in the evening, the first lady walked into the super-exclusive White House reception for the honorees, wearing the exact same red Oscar de la Renta embroidered tulle jacket and floor-length trumpet skirt as three other party guests, including local philanthropist Vicki Sant.
"Evidently Oscar is very popular this season," press secretary Susan Whitson said of the $8,400 ensemble from the designer's fall 2006 collection. "It just goes to show that no one can resist a beautiful red gown."
The first couple laughed about it. "But she didn't want her guests to feel uncomfortable," Whitson said, so FLOTUS dashed upstairs and slipped into a black lace gown before heading to the KenCen.
It was harder to figure out what was going on with Simpson. The 26-year-old pop starlet kept one arm clutched to her midsection while singing "9 to 5." At the end, she blurted, "Dolly, you make me so nervous, I can't even sing the words right," then scuttled awkwardly off the stage.
Witnesses told us she was a wreck before she went on, weeping while the video tribute to Parton played and pacing anxiously during performances by Carrie Underwood, Kenny Rogers, Alison Krauss and Shania Twain.
"She was overcome with emotion performing the song for Dolly because she has idolized Dolly Parton her entire life and she wanted the song to be perfect," her publicist
said yesterday. "When it wasn't, she was upset with herself."
We didn't hear any mistakes. Said Berger: "She did."
Producer George Stevens told us, "She was very upset, so we said, 'Would you like to have another shot at it?' " Simpson then redid the song for the TV cameras (the show will air on CBS Dec. 26) once the audience had left the Opera House.
But it was all smiles and hugs in the Grand Foyer, as the stars filtered out to be seated for dinner. "What a photo op!" Parton exclaimed. There she was with Simpson, Twain, Krauss, Reese Witherspoon and Reba McEntire, arms wrapped around each other in a Country Girl Power lineup for every digicam and Nokia in the vicinity.
"Everybody, look this way now!" chirped McEntire.
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Can we just start the evening over? Come back out, do it all over again but this time, you know, differently ? Engaged: Capital City Symphony violinist Kara Breissinger, 27, to boyfriend Brandon Snesko, 26, after he surprised her with an onstage proposal. The private investigator popped the... Dave...
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From Gwen Stefani, A Madcap Mash-Up
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2006120519
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It takes a certain amount of nerve to open a contemporary pop album with a quote from "The Sound of Music" -- more specifically "The Lonely Goatherd."
But Gwen Stefani is nothing if not audacious. And so we find the pop star channeling Maria von Trapp at the beginning of her remarkably uneven new album, "The Sweet Escape," on a song called "Wind It Up" -- yodeling like she's Julie Andrews or something.
"High on a hill with a lonely goatherd," Stefani sings. " Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo."
It's quite possible that Stefani quoted Rodgers and Hammerstein just to give copy editors fits, because "The Lonely Goatherd" doesn't seem to have any real relationship whatsoever with the rest of "Wind It Up." A playful tune about sassy girls and the boys who adore them, it's all pa-rum-pa-pum-pum drum lines, video-game bass lines, symphonic synth swells and mindless adolescent lyrics. ("They like the way we dance, they like the way we work, they like the way that 'L.A.M.B.' is going 'cross my shirt.")
It's even more silly than it looks in print, but it's also sort of brilliant -- a lightweight state-of-the-art pop confection that's the perfect combination of crazy and craft -- yet another masterly solo stroke by Stefani, who has become an absurdist mass-appeal pop specialist during her extended hiatus from the popular Orange County band No Doubt.
This is, after all, the same woman whose 2004 solo debut, "Love.Angel.Music.Baby," included a playground chant in which Stefani was compelled to spell out "bananas," and another track that interpolated "Fiddler on the Roof." (What's next, a sample of Sondheim's "Send In the Clowns"?) Anyway, Stefani scored hits with both songs, "Hollaback Girl" and "Rich Girl," and the electro-pop album succeeded both critically and commercially.
Stefani's terrifically frivolous charm offensive continues on "Sweet Escape's" more adventurous entries, including "Don't Get It Twisted," a pregnancy song that matches circus music with a lurching, reggaeton-inspired beat, and "Yummy," which is about . . . well, nothing, really. The track's nonsensical lyrics have all the nutritional value of a Necco wafer, and it's delicious -- thanks to Stefani's playful spirit and, especially, the production flourishes of the Neptunes, the state-of-the-art studio team behind "Hollaback Girl" and "Wind It Up."
For "Yummy," Chad Hugo and partner Pharrell Williams, who makes a rap cameo, built an irresistible, almost tribal rhythm track that Stefani herself celebrates in the droning lyrics: "Sex and sugar is the flavor / Ovens and beaters and graters / Beats made of bongos and shakers / It's time to make you sweat." (Later she observes, "This sounds like disco Tetris." Though upon closer inspection, it actually sounds like another Neptunes production, the great Kelis tune "Milkshake.")
While the album is incredibly accessible, as is most everything Stefani touches, it's also a stylistic mess; it's almost as if the fashionista reached into her closet and plucked pieces at random, then decided it was, in fact, a sensible, stylish outfit. It most certainly is not. Completely directionless, "The Sweet Escape" sounds like an iPod shuffle gone mad. Show-tune references collide with pulsating rock ballads ("Early Winter"), skittering and buzzing hip-hop songs ("Now That You Got It," "Breakin' Up"), plus multiple Madonnaisms: The title track, "Wonderful Life," "4 in the Morning."
"I'm lying here in the dark," Stefani sings on the latter.
"I'm watching you sleep, it hurts a lot."
After recording "L.A.M.B.," which she described as "a stupid dance record," Stefani has decided to try to get at least somewhat serious. Her efforts aren't exactly Dylanesque, but one does not listen to a Gwen Stefani album for its lyrical poetry and Deep Meaning. Her music is not a place to search for high art and philosophical musings, and that's exactly the point: At its best, it's fluffy escapist pop.
But sometimes, Stefani completely misfires. Consider "Orange County Girl," an autobiographical number on which she raps about how she's the same as she ever was -- you know, still just Gwennie from the block. Insofar as she's never been much of a rapper, that's probably true: The song is abysmal, dragged down not just by Stefani's flow, which makes you long for Fergie, but also by the Neptunes' drab and uninspired production.
And "Early Winter," written with Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley, is one of the album's smarter songs, a serious track that sounds gorgeous, but it's emotionally unconvincing, with Stefani sounding robotic and detached while she works through the bereft lyrics. Where's the lonely goatherd when you need him?
DOWNLOAD THESE: "Yummy," "Don't Get It Twisted," "Wind It Up"
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Search Washington, DC area music events and venues from the Washington Post. Features DC, Virginia and Maryland entertainment listings for music news, events, reviews, clubs, and concerts. Visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/eg/section/music/ today.
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Laser Eye Surgery
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2006120519
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Dr. Roy Rubinfeld has performed more than 15,000 laser eye surgeries since 1990. He was online Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 1 p.m. to answer your questions about the latest procedures and how laser eye surgery has changed over the years.
Read more: Maturity Becomes Lasik.
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Thank you for inviting me onto WashingtonPost.com to follow up on today's excellent Health Section article. I'm glad to answer questions now. Answers to many common questions can be found on http://www.washingtoneye.com/.
Baltimore: Dr. Rubinfeld -- I'm planning on getting Lasik in the next few months and am currently trying to navigate through the myriad of different Lasik providers and technologies. A friend who is also getting the procedure said that her doctor told her that he prefers to use a blade rather than Intralase to make the incision, because he is concerned about reports of complications about Intralase. Is there any merit to this? It's confusing to me, since it seems like everyone is touting the superiority of the Intralase method. Thanks!
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: You are absolutely correct that it is difficult to navigate between the hype and reality of different technologies and methods. It seems to make sense that a laser would be better for making a flap prior to Lasik than a conventional microkeratome.
I, too, have not had as good results with the Intralase device for creating a flap as compared to mechanical techniques. The key to navigating this maze is finding a doctor you can trust.
Silver Spring, Md.: What is known about the long-term effects of the procedure? 20 years? 30 years? More?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Lasik is a laser and computer refinement of a procedure that has been performed since the 1960s. Several recent studies internationally have reported on the long term results of Lasik and PRK.
I had my vision corrected in 1995 and still see well. I performed my wife's vision correction in 1998 and we are still married.
Arlington, Va.: If corrective surgery does not produce 20/20 vision, can one still wear contacts post-operatively?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: In general, the answer to that question is yes.
Olney, Md.: I am in front of a computer for at least eight hours a day; is Lasik right for me?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: In general most people can have Lasik who work in front of a computer. Sometimes, however, computers can cause temporarily dry eyes and this can usually be treated easily with artificial tears.
Washington, D.C.: Is pupil size still a limiting factor for people wanting Lasik? Is the likelihood of suffering an adverse side effect higher for those with large pupils? Thanks!
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: One of the major advances in Lasik over the last several years is the ability to safely treat people who may not have been good candidates in the past, such as those with large pupils or thin corneas. In general most patients find that Lasik (as it is currently performed) can often improve as opposed to degrade night vision even in patients with larger pupils. However, only a Lasik surgeon can determine whether you are a candidate and what your risks are.
Washington, D.C.: I am noticing rapid loss of vision as I approach my mid-20s, however I still have neglected to get glasses. Do you feel glasses are the best first remedy or should I pursue laser surgery right off the bat?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: I think the first step is seeing an eye doctor to determine why your vision is changing. If it's simply nearsightedness and your prescription is relatively stable then Lasik might be a reasonable option. This is a good question to ask your eye doctor when you make your appointment.
McLean, Va.: I'm interested in obtaining Lasik surgery, but my prescription keeps changing every year and therefore, I was told I'm not a good candidate. Is this true?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: If your prescription is changing only a little bit Lasik may be a good option. If, however, it is truly unstable then glasses and contacts may be a better option.
Washington, D.C.: Is LASIK available and appropriate for extreme near-sightedness? My contact lenses are -9 and -10, and since I turned 30 a few years ago, my vision has finally stabilized. Does this make me a better candidate for surgery?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Your prescription is within the FDA guidelines and results are generally very good for patients with similar prescriptions, but you must be carefully evaluated to determine if you really are a good candidate.
Southern Maryland: I am very nearsighted (20/400) with astigmatism. I heard years ago Lasik eye surgery couldn't help me. Has it improved enough to correct my problem? I'm tired of wearing glasses and don't want to bother with the solutions and fiddling around with contacts -- you know the drill.
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: With the availability of new custom Lasik technologies we can now treat more patients more safely than ever before. I often see patients now and find they are good candidates even though I told them not to have Lasik years ago.
Johannesburg, South Africa: What is the prudent, youngest-age for Lasik? In other words, when does the eye finish growing/changing enough for the surgery to be most effective?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Everyone's eyes are different but in general 18 is a reasonable time to start thinking about Lasik. As I noted above if the prescription is rapidly changing then it's best to wait until it's relatively stable.
Washington, D.C.: My main concern is the possibility of being permanently blinded. I don't mind the procedure or the cost, but how likely is it to have worse vision than before the surgery?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: One way to answer this question is to refer to the most recent FDA trials for the new lasers. In general the majority of patients saw better after Lasik than they did in their contact lenses or glasses. Temporary dryness and irritation for a few weeks after Lasik is not uncommon and serious problems are rare and often can be resolved.
Washington, D.C.: What is the best option for someone who wears one contact for distance and no contact for reading in the other eye?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: It sounds like Lasik in one eye to provide the same vision as you have with your contact might be a good option, but of course you would need to be examined and evaluated. Be sure you will have the opportunity to ask your surgeon any questions you may have. Answers to our FAQ's can be found at www. washingtoneye.com.
Only a Lasik surgeon can make the final decision as to whether this would be a good option in your case.
Amman, Jordan: Could you comment on opening a flap in the cornea versus the original method of completely opening the cornea, please? Is there a difference in the post-op strength of the cornea between the two methods?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Very good question. When I perform vision correction on active duty military personnel I generally offer them a surface procedure such as Epi-Lasik or PRK instead of Lasik. For most people Lasik is a good choice and provides very rapid vision correction so that they can return to work the next day. Surface procedures which do not make a flap require longer recovery time such as four or five days. If your risk of serious eye trauma is high then surface procedures can be safer.
Washington, D.C.: I've been thinking about getting this surgery for at least 15 years. I would love to be able to see the alarm clock in the morning. But I'm not willing to go under the knife (or laser) until I have more data. Are there any large studies tracking the long-term effects? And are doctors reporting their results? I know there are several possible problems with the surgery, but I can't find information on how likely they are.
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: I had laser vision correction in 1995 after working with laser patients for nearly five years and doing my own research. We now have performed over 10 million procedures in the U.S. starting in early 1990s. A recent study by Jorge Alio was the subject of a press release from the American Academy of Ophthalmology describing good long term results and safety of Lasik.
Arlington, Va.: What should I look for in a lasik eye surgeon? What are the important questions to ask before I go under the proverbial knife?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: This is the hard part of vision correction in my opinion. Finding a surgeon should not be based on discount or advertising but on reputation in the community, recommendations from friends and doing your homework. The Internet is a good place to start as well and don't be afraid of getting a second opinion.
Asking about the surgeon's experience and getting to meet them will often help determine whether you feel comfortable under their care.
McLean, Va.:"In general the majority of patients saw better after Lasik than they did in their contact lenses or glasses." Could you be more specific here? For someone thinking about spending $4k on laser eye surgery, this isn't a comforting thought...How many of your 15,000 patients still wear contacts or glasses after the surgery?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: With a single procedure, in recent trials, more than 95 percent of the patients who had custom Lasik with new technology saw well enough to drive without contacts. A second procedure (included in the fee) may be required in about 5 percent of patients. Wearing contacts with astigmatism in them can cost roughly $5,000 over 10 years. Lasik is generally a permanent correction and makes economic sense.
We do no advertising and rely on word of mouth. Of those tens of thousands of patients the overwhelming majority would have the procedure again and would recommend it to their friends. Recommendations from other patients is the number one way that patients come to Washington Eye Physicians & Surgeons.
Hope that helps answer your question.
Rockville, Md.: In researching and selecting a doctor to perform Lasik surgery, what do you consider to be the top five qualifications a surgeon should possess?
The ability to handle any potential post-operative problems.
Does the doctor routinely lecture to other doctors about these procedures?
Does the doctor provide several different procedures or do they only do Lasik? The doctor needs to be able to find the best procedure for your eyes and your needs. Trying to put a square peg into a round hole is not a good idea.
Where do I fall in terms of being a candidate from one to five, with five being the most difficult patient the surgeon would still consider performing surgery on and one being the most plain vanilla patient around.
Arlington, Va.: Is it a problem to perform Lasik on someone who is very squeamish touching his or her eye? I'd like to have the surgery done, but I can't even wear contact lenses because I can't touch my eye to insert or remove them.
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: This is why g-d invented Valium.
We have many patients who are squeamish and do our best to make what is a potentially scary procedure comfortable and easy. Sedation and reassurance help a lot. We also play music of your preference in the laser suite.
Washington, D.C.: Would it be possible to have the procedure done in the morning and be able to be active and see reasonably well later that afternoon or evening?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Most of our patients are able to watch television the night of the surgery. Most return to work the next day.
Pricing: I know there are a variety of different procedures and therefore prices, but what is a reasonable price range for lasik (with a fairly "normal" candidate with no complications)? I never know if these deals I hear on the radio are too good to be true.
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: In general if something sounds too good to be true it often is. The FTC has investigated several of these offers and ads. Some of these links are on our Web site.
When choosing a brain surgeon or heart surgeon would you look for the one with a coupon?
Seattle: Hi, I need glasses for distance not reading, but I understand that corrective surgery means I would then need glasses for reading but not distance. Is this correct?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: In general people with good distance vision start to need reading glasses in their forties. Lasik generally can provide freedom from glasses or contacts for most patients until they enter their fifth decade.
For people over forty monovision Lasik can be a good option to reduce or eliminate the need for distance or reading glasses.
For patients in their sixties the new advanced technology lens implants can often provide distance and near vision (see Restore, Rezoom/Crystalens tab at www.washingtoneye.com).
Washington, D.C.: Hi Dr. Rubinfeld, thanks for chatting. I know you're one of the best cornea specialists in the business. I have a question on cataract surgery, it seems that many different ophthalmologists will do this surgery, but who is the best? Cornea specialist? Retina specialist? Glaucoma specialist? What should a potential patient look for in a surgeon?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Thank you for your kind words.
I think my partners at Washington Eye are terrific and I sent my father to them but I am biased.
washingtonpost.com: LASIK Surgery Boosts Vision Long Term (WebMD.com)
Lynchburg, Va.: What are the key factors in determining if someone's eyesight can be restored to perfect via laser surgery? And what's the "poorest" level of eyesight that can be restored? (in terms of a prescription). Thanks.
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Even patients with extremely high prescriptions (up to
-15.00 and +5.00) can often now be treated. Lasik is the most popular procedure but for some people the ICL may be a better option for those with extremely high corrections.
Falls Church, Va.: Can you explain the difference between LASIK and LASEK?
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: LASEK is very similar to Epi-Lasik or PRK and is a surface procedure. Lasik involves a flap and provides rapid vision correction.
Dr. Roy Rubinfeld: Thank you all for your excellent questions and thank you to the Washington Post for their continued excellent coverage of developments in medicine and for inviting me onto Washingtonpost.com. Roy S. Rubinfeld, MD.
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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Dr. Roy Rubinfeld has performed more than 15,000 laser eye surgeries since 1990. He'll be online to answer your questions about the latest procedures and how laser eye surgery has changed.
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A 99-Tuba Salute
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2006120519
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LOS ANGELES In the back pages of the Los Angeles Times, they ran an obituary for a guy named Tommy Johnson, who died in October at 71 of complications from cancer and kidney failure. Accompanying the obit was a picture of a big, beefy lug grinning in a loud sports jacket. If you looked closely, you could see the man had lips.
You have likely never heard of Tommy Johnson, but it turns out that Johnson was, and still is, according to everyone who would know, "the most heard tubist on the planet."
A first-chair studio musician in Hollywood for 50 years, Johnson played on thousands of recordings -- jingles, commercials, television shows like "The Flintstones," and films. His tuba can be heard on hundreds of movie soundtracks, including "The Godfather" and "Titanic" and, most memorably, the John Williams scores for Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," the "Indiana Jones" trilogy and "Jaws."
Many ears that listen to the predatory bum-bum-bum-bum of the marauding shark -- and then those braying squeals of the feeding frenzy -- would swear they are listening to a French horn. But what they are hearing is Johnson. He is Jaws. Swim for your lives! The shark is a tuba.
On Sunday afternoon at Bovard Auditorium on the campus of the University of Southern California, a selection of the country's finest tuba players gathered for a memorial concert for Tommy Johnson. When the conductor promised the full house this was a performance never attempted before, "and something you may never see again," he wasn't kidding.
It is not every day that 99 tubas take the stage. One could almost hear the floorboards groan with anticipatory pleasure.
They came to honor their fallen tuba king. Before the concert, at the stage door, there were many large men lumbering with heavy burdens. Admittedly, there is a kind of "Sopranos" look to the players. Wiseguys packing oversize black cases. Made men. They seemed like they might like to spend an occasional afternoon at the track.
The tuba is a bighearted instrument that takes a lot of breath, a lot of cheek to play (uncurled, the contrabass tuba is 16 feet long), and though some tiny people play tuba very well (take Carol Jantsch, 21, the youngest member of the Philadelphia Orchestra), the stereotype holds.
"A lot of tuba players look like linemen, okay?" says Terry Cravens, professor of winds and percussion at USC Thornton School of Music, where Johnson also taught. "They're big guys, just like Tommy," who, according to one anecdote, liked to fire up an electric hot-dog griller during a long session to keep himself supplied with wieners during breaks.
Regardless, many people who think they are familiar with the tuba are not. The wraparound instrument in marching bands is actually a sousaphone, a kissing cousin to the tuba (and designed by the march composer John Philip Sousa). And when many people think of tuba music (if they think of tuba at all), they think: oompah! The music of merrymaking Tirolean taverngoers in lederhosen playing Bavarian beer-bonging songs.
But there is more. Is not the tuba the Jackie Gleason, the John Belushi, of instruments? The biggest-boned of the brass, true, but not without grace.
Johnson's nephew, Stephen James Taylor, a successful Los Angeles composer, told the audience that "Tommy reinvented the tuba." For example, Johnson is believed to have been the first tubist to perform Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee," the super-fast, frantic, uninterrupted run of sixteenth notes. Only a madman would attempt it on a tuba! But Johnson did.
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Get style news headlines from The Washington Post, including entertainment news, comics, horoscopes, crossword, TV, Dear Abby. arts/theater, Sunday Source and weekend section. Washington Post columnists, movie/book reviews, Carolyn Hax, Tom Shales.
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Wild Cards and Jokers
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2006120519
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Last year an executive for a major slot-machine manufacturer gave me a tour of his Las Vegas headquarters. Don't be misled by the dozens of flashing, clanging slots in the showroom off the lobby, he told me. His wasn't a gambling company. "We're an entertainment company," he said.
Unlikely as it may sound, slots, with their bright video screens and realistic sound systems, have become curiously sophisticated mini-movies, complete with engaging characters (sly geishas, say, or crafty penguins) and plot twists (an unexpected game within a game), all built upon a deep understanding of the human-machine interface. Slot designers are forever searching for the precise combinations of sight, sound and potential payoff that will keep a player handing over cash, all the while ensuring the experience is not so intense that it induces seizures. Is that really so different from Hollywood?
This collusion of advanced mathematical modeling, Pavlovian conditioning and multiplex smarts is intriguing. But what's even more fascinating is how this whole enterprise can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamians rolling sheep hucklebones to see which of the four sides would come up.
That's the tale told in "Roll the Bones" by David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Studies at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Schwartz starts in the foggy borderlands between augury and chance, when prognosticators looking for clues about the future would roll the bones and interpret the results. It wasn't a huge step to start wagering on the outcome of these rolls.
And it may be that humans are genetically hard-wired for such behavior: Dice arose independently in various civilizations. The first dice in India were fashioned of brown nuts; Native American dice often were made from shells or beaver teeth. Among the many telling facts Schwartz touches upon: Dice carved with symbols actually predate the use of numerals.
From dice, it's onward to playing cards and wagering on the outcome of everything from insect fights to basketball games, from lottery drawings to wheels of fortune.
This tour takes the reader from ancient ages of superstition through to the Enlightenment, which gave rise to the science of probability; from seedy Western saloons to the gilded gambling halls of Monaco; and inexorably onward, as you might have guessed, to a patch of scrappy desert in southern Nevada.
It's an epic story with an engaging cast. You'll learn a bit about Denmark Vesey, a Charleston, S.C., slave who won a lottery and used his earnings to purchase his freedom (successfully) and fund an insurrection of some 9,000 slaves and freemen (unsuccessfully). And there's John Morrissey, the bare-knuckle fighter turned gambling baron turned nearly respectable congressman, who was a major figure behind the rise of Saratoga Springs as a mid-19th-century gambling resort.
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Search Washington, DC area books events, reviews and bookstores from the Washington Post. Features DC, Virginia and Maryland entertainment listings for bookstores and books events. Visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/print/bookworld today.
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Census Counts 100,000 Contractors in Iraq
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2006120519
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There are about 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the U.S. military force there, according to the military's first census of the growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield.
The survey finding, which includes Americans, Iraqis and third-party nationals hired by companies operating under U.S. government contracts, is significantly higher and wider in scope than the Pentagon's only previous estimate, which said there were 25,000 security contractors in the country.
It is also 10 times the estimated number of contractors that deployed during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, reflecting the Pentagon's growing post-Cold War reliance on contractors for such jobs as providing security, interrogating prisoners, cooking meals, fixing equipment and constructing bases that were once reserved for soldiers.
Official numbers are difficult to find, said Deborah D. Avant, author of the 2005 book "The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security," but an estimated 9,200 contractors deployed during the Gulf War, a far shorter conflict without reconstruction projects. "This is the largest deployment of U.S. contractors in a military operation," said Avant, an associate professor at George Washington University.
In addition to about 140,000 U.S. troops, Iraq is now filled with a hodgepodge of contractors. DynCorp International has about 1,500 employees in Iraq, including about 700 helping train the police force. Blackwater USA has more than 1,000 employees in the country, most of them providing private security. Kellogg, Brown and Root, one of the largest contractors in Iraq, said it does not delineate its workforce by country but that it has more than 50,000 employees and subcontractors working in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. MPRI, a unit of L-3 Communications, has about 500 employees working on 12 contracts, including providing mentors to the Iraqi Defense Ministry for strategic planning, budgeting and establishing its public affairs office. Titan, another L-3 division, has 6,500 linguists in the country.
The Pentagon's latest estimate "further demonstrates the need for Congress to finally engage in responsible, serious and aggressive oversight over the questionable and growing U.S. practice of private military contracting," said Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who has been critical of the military's reliance on contractors.
About 650 contractors have died in Iraq since 2003, according to Labor Department statistics.
Central Command, which conducted the census, said a breakdown by nationality or job description was not immediately available because the project is still in its early stages. "This is the first time we have initiated a census of this robustness," Lt. Col. Julie Wittkoff, chief of the contracting branch at Central Command, said in an interview. Those figures do not include subcontractors, which could substantially grow the figure.
In June, government agencies were asked to provide data about contractors working for them in Iraq, including their nationality, a description of their work and locations where they were working. The information was provided by more than a dozen entities within the Pentagon and a dozen outside agencies, including the departments of State and Interior, Wittkoff said. The count increased about 15 percent from about 87,000 since Central Command began keeping a tally this summer, she said, though the increase may reflect ongoing data collection efforts. The census will be updated quarterly, Wittkoff said.
Three years into the war, the headcount represents one of the Pentagon's most concrete efforts so far toward addressing the complexities and questions raised by the large numbers of civilians who have flooded into Iraq to work. With few industry standards, the military and contractors have sometimes lacked coordination, resulting in friendly fire incidents, according to a Government Accountability Office report last year.
"It takes a great deal of vigilance on the part of the military commander to ensure contractor compliance," said William L. Nash, a retired Army general and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "If you're trying to win hearts and minds and the contractor is driving 90 miles per hour through the streets and running over kids, that's not helping the image of the American army. The Iraqis aren't going to distinguish between a contractor and a soldier."
The census gives military commanders insight into the contractors operating in their region and the type of work they are doing, Wittkoff said. "It helps the combatant commanders have a better idea of . . . food and medical requirements they may need to provide to support the contractors," she said.
Staff writer Griff Witte contributed to this report.
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There are about 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the U.S. military force there, according to the military's first census of the growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield.
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Higher Fares Are Proposed To Offset Budget Shortfall
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2006120519
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Virginia Railway Express should raise fares, reduce station security and slash rider discounts to cover a nearly $8 million budget deficit created by plunging ridership, Fairfax County officials said yesterday.
Their recommendations to the board of the Northern Virginia commuter line also would eliminate a longtime program promoting free ride certificates to passengers if a train arrives late and would increase the surcharge for boarding Amtrak trains. Rail cars would be washed less frequently, and ticket prices would climb by 2 percent, the fifth fare increase in as many years. Marketing expenses would be reduced, and a program started two years ago to ensure that conductors collect tickets on trains would be scrapped.
Fairfax and Prince William counties, Manassas and the other localities that help subsidize operating costs are scheduled this week to sign off on similar recommendations to cover the projected budget shortfall for the next fiscal year, one of the system's largest. Ridership and on-time performance have improved in recent months, but the system hit a low point in performance last summer as track construction and heat-related delays siphoned riders.
"You cut into people using the system, and that creates a vacuum in revenue," VRE spokesman Mark Roeber said yesterday. He declined to comment on the recommended cuts before the operations board takes them up next month.
Fairfax supervisors who serve on one of the two commissions that govern VRE said yesterday that they have reservations about the cuts, which were suggested by county staff. They said they worry that scrimping on marketing and other services could hamper their efforts to win back customers and draw fresh riders.
"It's one of those double-edged swords," said Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee). "You need to spend money to attract riders. An issue as simple as a dirty rail car can make a difference. It's basic customer service." The railroad has cut service at midday and on some holidays.
Supervisor Sharon S. Bulova (D-Braddock) said reducing the marketing budget might worsen the slippage in riders. County transportation officials said the suggested cuts would make the best of a bad situation.
The loss in riders came after four years of growth for VRE. But the railroad recorded 120,000 fewer trips from July 2005 through June compared with the previous year. One of every two trains was delayed last summer.
Roeber blamed the poor performance on new summer heat restrictions that led to bottlenecks, particularly on the Fredericksburg line. Construction of rail ties on the line, which is owned by freight company CSX Corp. and leased to VRE, also created delays. Service was held up this year by a derailment in January and heavy rains in June that led to full-scale cancellations. Each mishap sends commuters back to their cars. So VRE needs to work that much harder to bring them back, officials said.
Bulova said the construction is almost finished, and heat is no longer a factor. The railroad averaged 14,350 daily riders last month, up from 13,600 in July, Roeber said. But ridership is still short of its peak of 14,700 in recent years.
The lost ticket sales are projected to cost VRE $3.4 million in revenue for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Higher fuel costs, insurance premiums and debt on new rail cars account for the rest of the shortfall.
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Virginia Railway Express should raise fares, reduce station security and slash rider discounts to cover a nearly $8 million budget deficit created by plunging ridership, Fairfax County officials said yesterday.
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Hoyas Aim to Turn the Page
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The Georgetown men's basketball team has completed what Coach John Thompson III referred to as "the first phase of our pre-league schedule." It has not been smooth for the Hoyas, who have looked uncertain on offense and have lost three games, including two at home to unranked opponents.
Following back-to-back losses to Oregon and Duke, the Hoyas (4-3) dropped out of both national polls yesterday; they received only five points in the coaches' poll, a week after getting 179 (good for 23rd). Georgetown was ranked eighth in the Associated Press preseason poll.
"We have to keep improving and keep working toward conference play," Thompson said after the 61-52 loss at Duke on Saturday. "We haven't had the easiest schedule, and we haven't had as much success as we would've liked, but as long as we keep improving moving toward league play, we'll be okay."
Georgetown has completed the meaty part of its nonconference schedule, save for a trip to Michigan on Dec. 30. Over the next three weeks, the Hoyas play five games at home against teams that are a combined 16-22. Tonight, Georgetown will host James Madison (2-4) at Verizon Center.
The Hoyas have stayed relatively healthy during Thompson's three seasons as head coach. But freshman guard Jeremiah Rivers severely sprained his right ankle with 2 minutes 16 seconds left in Saturday's game when he landed awkwardly on teammate Jonathan Wallace's leg after trying to block a shot. Rivers was unable to put any pressure on his foot as he was helped off the floor. Thompson said on Monday night that Rivers is "day-to-day."
Rivers's role had been slowly growing over the past four games, and he had one of his best performances at Duke, scoring six points in 21 minutes -- both career highs. He gave the Hoyas another capable ballhandler, as well as a bigger (6 feet 4, 205 pounds), more physical perimeter defender.
An extended absence by Rivers would put extra pressure on an already thin back court. Wallace and sophomore Jessie Sapp are among the team leaders in minutes played, and they, along with Rivers, are the only true guards on the roster. Junior Tyler Crawford, a 6-3 swingman, is still recovering from a bout of strep throat that caused him to be hospitalized briefly. He lost nearly 25 pounds while sick, according to Thompson, and is still trying to rebuild his strength and stamina. Crawford started the season opener but has played only one minute since then.
At the start of the season, most of the questions surrounding the Hoyas centered on their guard play and their overall three-point shooting. But Wallace (11.4 points) and Sapp (10 points, 3.1 assists) have been the Hoyas' most consistent performers so far. Wallace essentially kept Georgetown in the game against Oregon with his drives to the basket, and Sapp was one of the catalysts behind the Hoyas' sharp first half against the Blue Devils.
"He's confident in himself and talented," Thompson said of Sapp, who led the Hoyas with 13 points against Duke. "Once we can take that confidence and couple it with experience, and then knowing when to do what he does and when not to do what he does -- I think that kid plays with a lot of heart. . . . He's growing and he's learning, and we all are."
Three-point shooting remains a concern. In Thompson's first two seasons at Georgetown, the Hoyas made an average of 7.3 three-point shots a game (on 36 percent shooting); this season, they are averaging 4.9 three-pointers per game (on 30.6 percent shooting). In their past two losses, Georgetown is shooting just 13 percent (3 for 23) from beyond the three-point line. Wallace, the Hoyas' best long-range shooter, has made just two of his past 10 three-point attempts.
"We hate to lose. Losing is not a good thing for us," junior forward Jeff Green said after scoring eight points against Duke. "We just have to look back at this game and take the mistakes that we made and try not to make them again."
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The Georgetown men's basketball team has completed what Coach John Thompson III referred to as "the first phase of our pre-league schedule." It has not been smooth for the Hoyas, who have looked uncertain on offense and have lost three games, including two at home to unranked opponents.
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FBI Computer Funding Is Uncertain
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2006120519
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The Justice Department's inspector general warned yesterday that funding for the FBI's new Sentinel computer system is uncertain and that the program's final price tag could exceed its $425 million budget.
A 112-page audit by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that a current White House budget request includes only $100 million for Sentinel in fiscal 2007, although the FBI says it needs $57 million more to keep it going.
The FBI plans to make up the difference with leftover funds from other areas, but the audit warns that moving too much money "could erode the FBI's mission capability in counterterrorism, cybercrime and other important operational areas." Congress has yet to act on a budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
Sentinel is designed to give agents the ability to manage case files from computers at their desks. The audit is the second in a series of planned reviews by Fine's office; it warned in March that the FBI was at risk of repeating many of the same mistakes with Sentinel that it made with a failed attempt to build a computerized case management system, the Virtual Case File (VCF), to replace the FBI's antiquated paper-based system. VCF was abandoned in 2005 after costing the government $170 million.
Previous audits and reviews found that the FBI did a poor job of overseeing and managing VCF, and that the main contractor delivered a product that was incomplete and unusable.
In contrast to VCF, which was built from scratch, Sentinel will rely primarily on off-the-shelf commercial software adapted for the FBI. Lockheed Martin Corp. is slated to receive $305 million as the main contractor on the project, which is supposed to be begin operating by 2009.
Yesterday's audit also raised questions about the assumptions underlying the FBI's overall cost estimate, which is based on rough calculations and does not include $25 million in related improvements.
The FBI said in a statement that the extra money needed for the current fiscal year "has long been identified from existing FBI balances and will not impact operational programs." The bureau played down concerns about Sentinel's cost, saying the project "is within cost and schedule."
The newest report says the FBI has made "significant progress" in several key areas, including improving management controls and finding ways to ensure that the software will work as intended.
Fine made five specific recommendations to overcome various problems. FBI officials said they agreed with the ideas and had begun implementing them.
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Latest news on the US federal government. Information and analysis of federal legislation, government contracts and regulations. Search for government job openings, career information and federal employee benefits news.
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Congress Not in a Spending Mood as the Holidays Near
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2006120519
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A pile of unfinished business awaits the Republican-led Congress when it returns today, and a pile of unfinished business is likely to remain when lawmakers adjourn for the year, presumably on Friday.
Lawmakers have all but given up on completing any of the nine remaining spending bills and will instead leave it to the new Democratic leaders to work out the new government spending levels when they take charge in January.
Republican leaders will try, however, to pass a package of tax breaks, including several provisions that have expired or are scheduled to die Dec. 31. The list includes a research-and-development credit that is popular with manufacturing companies, individual deductions that benefit parents of college students and teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies, and a sales-tax deduction for people who reside in states with no income taxes.
One urgent task before the Senate this week is confirming President Bush's choice of Robert M. Gates as the new defense secretary. Gates, a former CIA director, would succeed Donald H. Rumsfeld, who resigned Nov. 8, the day after Republicans lost control of Congress. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said he expects Gates to be approved no later than Friday.
Frist also announced yesterday that final House-Senate negotiations would begin immediately on the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation bill, hailed as a cornerstone of a broader strategic initiative between the two countries. The bill would allow American companies to export nuclear technology, equipment and fuel to India, which is vastly expanding its nuclear energy program.
But the Senate version of the bill contains restrictions that reflect an unease among some lawmakers that the India agreement would weaken international nuclear nonproliferation rules. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged that the Senate language be removed, warning that it could jeopardize support for the bill by the Indian government. Supporters believe chances for passage would plummet in a Democratic-led Congress, with lawmakers likely to insist on tougher nonproliferation terms.
Republicans hope to deliver a long-promised expansion of domestic oil and gas drilling, and the House will attempt today to pass an offshore-drilling bill allowing limited increases in oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. The House had sought new access to waters along the East and West coasts, but Senate Democratic Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) warned that Democrats will filibuster a final bill unless expansion is restricted to the relatively small slice of the eastern Gulf that the Senate bill identified.
The future of a Vietnam trade-liberalization bill looks bleak. One possibility is attaching it to the tax-break package, but that high-priority measure has become a magnet for all sorts of straggler provisions. One is a Frist favorite that would block a scheduled Jan. 1 reduction in Medicare physician payments.
Another is a Medicaid provision backed by a coalition of long-term health-care providers and state government officials. They want to force Bush to rescind an August order that would reduce the amount of Medicaid funding available to public hospitals and nursing homes. Currently, state governments can charge providers a 6 percent tax, which is matched by federal funds and then returned to hospitals and nursing homes as government payments. The administration said the federal matching grants were too costly and ordered the maximum tax cut in half. Congress had earlier rejected such a plan.
The Vietnam legislation, which would establish permanent normal trade relations with the Asian country, ran into unexpected trouble last month in the House from lawmakers concerned that it would further damage the U.S. textile industry. Frist said the Senate would consider the bill "if the House can act," but House leadership aides said yesterday that the bill is a long shot.
Democrats have lambasted the GOP Congress for months about its skimpy list of accomplishments this year, including its failure to complete work on most of the annual spending bills to operate the government. Just two of the 11 fiscal 2006 appropriation bills have been completed. The nine remaining measures would fund about $460 billion of government programs and have been hung up by internal Republican feuds, in addition to the usual partisan squabbling.
Incoming House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) said that if Republicans, as expected, seek to pass a resolution that would continue current funding levels through Feb. 15, Democrats will face two choices. They may seek to pass the remaining bills when they take over in January -- a daunting exercise that would coincide with the writing of next year's budget -- or pass a long-term continuing funding resolution.
"Either of those scenarios would represent lousy outcomes, but they would have been made unavoidable by Republican inaction today," Obey said.
Staff writer Charles Babington contributed to this report.
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A pile of unfinished business awaits the Republican-led Congress when it returns today, and a pile of unfinished business is likely to remain when lawmakers adjourn for the year, presumably on Friday.
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House to Vote on Senate's Offshore Drilling Plan
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The House is scheduled to vote today on a Senate plan for offshore oil and gas drilling that would open up new acreage in the Gulf of Mexico but that falls far short of an offshore drilling bill the House adopted earlier this year.
House Democratic leaders have decided not to take a position on the bill in order to avoid having to choose between different constituencies within the party's own ranks. Environmental groups oppose the drilling measure; the Sierra Club issued a statement saying that "it's time for Congress to stop appeasing Big Oil" and that "drilling is a bad deal for Americans."
Yet in the face of high energy prices, many Democrats support wider drilling to increase domestic natural gas supplies. And Louisiana Democrats avidly support the Senate bill because it would divert 37.5 percent of federal royalties to Gulf states for coastal restoration projects. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has been pushing especially hard for its passage.
House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) opposes offshore drilling and is concerned about the loss of federal royalties, said spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. But Pelosi will not try to rally the Democratic caucus against the Senate bill.
Earlier this year, the House voted for an offshore drilling plan that would have opened the Atlantic and Pacific coastal waters to oil and gas drilling for the first time in a quarter-century. Senate leaders told House negotiators that there was no chance that approach could pass the Senate and that the House would have to go along with the Senate's version. House negotiators, led by outgoing House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.), resisted that compromise, but now key Republicans say they will accept the Senate version.
"What concerns me is that a month from now, when natural gas finds its way past $12 again, folks out there will be scratching their heads as to why we didn't pass a more comprehensive bill," Rep. John E. Peterson (R-Pa.) said in a statement.
The bill, which will be considered on an expedited basis, cannot be amended and requires the support of a two-thirds majority of the House.
Separately, the White House confirmed on Saturday that President Bush is considering lifting a 17-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling near Alaska's Aleutian Islands. The area was put off limits to drilling after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill in 1989.
The area, which includes Bristol Bay, is home to the world's largest wild salmon run along with commercial fisheries for red king crab, pollock and cod. According to the Sierra Club, commercial, sport and sustenance fishing in the region harvests more than 25 million fish a year and contributes $300 million to the local economy.
In 2003, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) persuaded Congress to remove protections for Bristol Bay, but it has remained off limits to drilling until 2012 under a directive by President Bill Clinton.
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said, "As the Republican Party prepares to relinquish control of the House and Senate, they are attempting a last-minute giveaway of public lands as an early Christmas present to the big oil companies."
Drew Malcomb, a Minerals Management Service spokesman, said, "The north Aleutian Basin area is currently part of the five-year oil and gas leasing plan, but no drilling could occur there unless the presidential withdrawal was removed."
A few dozen environmental and tribal groups active in Alaska wrote an "open letter" to Bush on Friday, urging him to protect Bristol Bay.
Eric Siy, executive director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, an advocacy group, said that many tribal communities depend on the area for subsistence fishing. For them, Siy said, drilling in Bristol Bay "is like burning the pews to heat the church."
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The House is scheduled to vote today on a Senate plan for offshore oil and gas drilling that would open up new acreage in the Gulf of Mexico but that falls far short of an offshore drilling bill the House adopted earlier this year.
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Johns Hopkins Provost Chosen To Lead GWU
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Steven Knapp, a scholar and highly regarded academic administrator who is provost of Johns Hopkins University, has been named the new president of George Washington University.
Knapp, 55, will succeed Stephen J. Trachtenberg, 68, who is credited with raising the university to national stature since he assumed the presidency in 1988. He announced in April that he would step down.
"It's extremely exciting and a great opportunity," said Knapp, who will take over Aug. 1.
Both men have been described as strong leaders, but with different styles. Trachtenberg has been a colorful, charming, but sometimes abrasive figure at GWU. In contrast, Knapp, a specialist in English literature, is said to be quiet, a listener who has exerted authority largely from behind the scenes.
W. Russell Ramsey, vice chairman of GWU's board, said the presidential search committee, which he headed, was trying to "really think big" and find someone to boost the university's standing another notch into the highest academic ranks. Knapp, he said, fits that description.
In particular, he cited what he called Knapp's demonstrated ability to expand research and find funding for it, as GWU seeks to do. "He's just got all the right stuff," Ramsey said. "We're really, really excited."
Hopkins President William R. Brody praised Knapp highly.
"He is without a doubt the most able academic administrator I've ever dealt with," Brody said in an interview. "He's extremely smart, very quick. He has great judgment. He understands finance and numbers -- which is rare in academics."
He noted that while managing to remain a scholar and teacher, Knapp has proved an invaluable leader over the long term and in crises. "Steve is our go-to guy," Brody said.
As for his performance at GWU, "Watch for great things," Brody said in a statement.
Speaking rapidly and with evident enthusiasm in an interview last night, Knapp indicated his intention to advance GWU to the top level of research universities while increasing its economic base, stepping up its contributions to the nation's intellectual and political life, and working with its faculty, students and neighbors.
Citing Washington's growing concentration of cultural, intellectual and governmental resources, Knapp said he "can't imagine a more exciting place" to teach, study or do research.
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Get Washington DC,Maryland,Virginia news. Includes news headlines from The Washington Post. Get info/values for Washington DC,Maryland,Virginia homes. Features schools,crime,government,traffic,lottery,religion,obituaries.
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In French-Speaking Canada, the Sacred Is Also Profane
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2006120519
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MONTREAL -- "Oh, tabernacle!" The man swore in French as a car splashed through a puddle, sending water onto his pants. He could never be quoted in the papers here. It is too profane.
So are other angry oaths that sound innocuous in English: chalice, host, baptism. In French-speaking Quebec, swearing sounds like an inventory being taken at a church.
English-speaking Canadians use profanities that would be well understood in the United States, many of them scatological or sexual terms. But the Quebecois prefer to turn to religion when they are mad. They adopt commonplace Catholic terms -- and often creative permutations of them -- for swearing.
In doing so, their oaths speak volumes about the history of this French province.
"When you get mad, you look for words that attack what represses you," said Louise Lamarre, a Montreal cinematographer who must tread lightly around the language, depending on whether her films are in French or English. "In America, you are so Puritan that the swearing is mostly about sex. Here, since we were repressed so long by the church, people use religious terms."
And the words that are shocking in English -- including the slang for intercourse -- are so mild in Quebecois French they appear routinely in the media. But not church terms.
"You swear about things that are taboo," said André Lapierre, a professor of linguistics at the University of Ottawa. In the United States, "it is not appropriate to talk about sex or scatological subjects, so that is what you use in your curse words. The f-word is a perfect example.
"In Canadian French, you have none of the sexual aspects. So what do you replace it with? You replace it with religion. If you are going to use a taboo word, it would be anything related to the cult, to Christ, the Communion wafer, Jesus Christ, vestments, and elements of the altar like tabernacle. There's quite a few of them."
Visitors from France are dumbfounded at that use of French, said Lamarre. "But that's because they got away from domination of the church a long time ago. They cut off the head of the king really early. We didn't do that."
The Catholic Church was overwhelmingly dominant in Quebec from early in the province's history -- England's King George III gave the French Catholic clergy enormous power in 1774, in part to counter the growing American insurgency to the south. In the "Quiet Revolution" of the 1960s, Quebecers rebelled. They "just stopped going to church one Sunday," as Lamarre put it.
The swearwords have persisted even though church attendance has plummeted in the past 40 years. Because of that drop, "when the young kids on the street are swearing, they don't even know what they are swearing about," mused Monsignor Francis Coyle, pastor of St. Patrick's Basilica in Montreal. "They're baptized in church, and that's about it."
Last spring, the Montreal Archdiocese commissioned an advertising campaign that erected large billboards in the city intended to shock and educate. Each billboard featured a word like "tabernacle" or "chalice" -- startling swearwords on the street -- and offered the correct dictionary definition for the religious term. Such as: "Tabernacle -- small cupboard locked by key in the middle of the altar" containing the sacred goblet.
"The point was to try to get people not to use the terms too glibly," Coyle said.
The campaign ended, but Lapierre said Quebecers continue to use the words in highly inventive ways -- as expletives, interjections, verbs, adverbs and nouns. One could say, for example, "You Christ that guy," to mean throwing a person violently. "I don't know any other language that does that so well," he said.
The French here also modify the oaths into non-words, depending on the level of politeness desired. The word "bapteme" -- baptism -- is used as a strong oath, but a modification, "bateche," is milder. The sacramental wafer, a "host" in English and "hostie" in French, can be watered down to just the sound "sst" in polite company. "Tabernacle" can become just "tabar" to avoid too much offense.
The oaths are so ingrained that one cannot converse fluently without them, said Lapierre. "I teach them in my class."
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MONTREAL -- "Oh, tabernacle!" The man swore in French as a car splashed through a puddle, sending water onto his pants. He could never be quoted in the papers here. It is too profane.
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Critiquing the Press - washingtonpost.com
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2006120419
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Howard Kurtz has been The Washington Post's media reporter since 1990. He is also the host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" and the author of "Media Circus," "Hot Air," "Spin Cycle" and "The Fortune Tellers: Inside Wall Street's Game of Money, Media and Manipulation." Kurtz talks about the press and the stories of the day in "Media Backtalk."
Couric's Journey, ( Post, Dec. 4)
Washington, D.C.: Good article on Katie Couric, this morning. Regardless of who is at an anchor desk, there is still only 26 minutes of time for actual news. It appears that even though CBS is trying different styles for the news and that McManus stated that Couric's mega salary is more than made up for; isn't this business all about ratings? Where do you suggest she will be in, say, one year's time?
Howard Kurtz: Honest answer: I don't know. I suppose the battle is ultimately about ratings in that the Nielsen numbers are what determines advertising revenue. But isn't it also about journalistic quality? In other words, even if a year from now Katie Couric is third with 8 million viewers and Brian Williams is first with 9.5 million viewers, isn't 8 million viewers still a pretty big deal? And therefore isn't it important what goes in the newscast? I think the tendency to judge success or failure SOLELY by ratings is a bit short-sighted.
San Francisco, Calif.: Hello, Mr. Kurtz, thanks for chatting today. Do you think The Washington Post has a special responsibility to avoid sexist characterizations of the incoming Speaker of the House, her decisions and personnel choices, and her rivalries with fellow lawmakers, especially other women? There's been quite a bit of "misogyny creep" in the Beltway Media lately, and I think The Post should take the lead in policing it. Your thoughts, sir?
Howard Kurtz: Yes. I'll go out on a limb and say we must be fair to all female lawmakers, executives and other babes in important positions.
Washington, D.C.: Your article today about the evolution of the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" was interesting. But just who is making the decision to put more hard news in the program? (And who decided to insert now-jettisoned features like "Free Speech" and "Snapshots" in the first pace.) Couric herself? Sean McManus and other top CBS news executives? The chief producers of the program?
Howard Kurtz: It's a collaborative process. Couric, her executive producer and other top producers, and the president of CBS News all have a great deal of input.
Windsor Mill, Md.: I noticed yesterday that Fox News Sunday labeled an interview with Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer an "exclusive". Since he has been interviewed previously on numerous programs including Sunday morning shows, how can they call this an exclusive? It seems that Fox labels things anyway they wish. Or is this just a trend overall? What is The Washington Post standard for labeling something an exclusive? One further not, how come CNN doesn't repeat your Sunday show like it does others? My Tivo can only record two at a time and I'm sorry but you lose out to ABC and NBC.
Howard Kurtz: On cable these days, "exclusive" seems to mean the interview subject hasn't talked to anyone else for at least a couple of hours and isn't hopping in a taxi right afterwards to do another show. It's quite overused.
I wish we had a replay time for Reliable Sources. But if I'm losing out in the VCR wars, there's always the newly available video podcast!
Gaithersburg, Md.: What is your thought on the coverage of Danny DeVito's drunken appearance on The View? I realize this is a bit more low brow that most questions you get, but it occurs to me that if a woman appeared drunk on that show, the media would be incredibly ruthless and negative (as would most people, to be fair). But somehow, I think people treated this much more casually because he is a man.
Is this a double standard by the media or society in general?
Howard Kurtz: I think he's been kicked around a bit, and deservedly so. Both the New York Post and Daily News labeled him "DANNY DEVINO." But I don't see a gender issue here. Lindsay Lohan is taking AA classes and no one seems to be beating up on her (though one of my guests noted yesterday that it's fair to point out she's 20 years old, meaning not of legal drinking age).
Boston, Mass.: Hadley said yesterday on MTP that the leak of the memo doubting Maliki's competence was not an authorized leak. What does your gut say?
Howard Kurtz: I am fairly certain that Hadley did not want that memo out, not during the president's trip, but that someone else in the administration, perhaps not a fan of the current policy, did.
Re: The leak to the press of national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley's report on the Iraqi government.
The are two stories here: (1) The substance of the report and (2) the leak itself. In my opinion, the larger story is the leak itself. However, in situations like this, the press rarely tackles the story of the leak itself, and this case is no exception. Nevertheless, people everywhere (and particularly in Washington) are talking more about the leak and what it means, and less about the substance.
Why does the press consistently ignore this larger story?
Howard Kurtz: Here's the problem. I can speculate, which is fun, but neither I nor anyone else have any way of knowing who was the source who provided the memo to the New York Times. It's the same issue that came up in the CIA leak investigation: As long as reporters protect their confidential sources, as they should, outsiders have little way of judging the motivation behind these leaks. In this case, the Times said only that it was an administration official, but did not address why said official would have shared this classified document.
Which version of dictionary is currently in use in the White House? I wonder only because Dana Perino's statement about John Bolton's resignation focused on "the Democratic filibuster" as the reason.
They must live in an alternate universe! There was NO democratic filibuster of the recess appointed ambassador. Do you think the "media" will ask for clarification from the White House podium?
Howard Kurtz: The Democrats made clear that Bolton (who was a recess appointee because he could not win approval last time) was not going to get a vote. But yes, that is not the same as a filibuster.
Albany, N.Y.: Howard, thank you for your good work.
On the issue of should the media call Iraq a "civil war", I agree it is a politically loaded term, but the media uses loaded terminology all the time, "detainee" instead of prisoner, "incursion" instead of invasion, "occupation" instead of liberation. what is so wrong about calling it a civil war if that is what it appears to be
Howard Kurtz: There's nothing wrong with making that judgment. We in the news business make judgments all the time, and words matter (as in anti-abortion vs. pro-life, or pro-abortion vs. pro-choice). What I have questioned is whether NBC engaged in a bit of grandstanding in having Matt Lauer make a big announcement about it, rather than simply start using the term, as the Los Angeles Times and others have done.
Quite an interesting article in this morning's Post by Walter Pincus about the influence in the new congress of some anti-war voices. He also lays out a pretty damning picture of how correct some members of Congress were in their condemnation of the war process, and how poor a job The Post and other media did of reporting on the dissenting voices.
Howard Kurtz: He's right. It was extremely difficult for the media to prove that Saddam had no WMD. It was not difficult at all to give a fair hearing to those who opposed the war and raised arguments about securing the country post-invasion that now, four years later, turn out to be have been valid concerns.
Raleigh, N.C.: The Post article today brought to mind a question I've had for a while...in your view, have the Talking Head shows specifically, and Big Media in general, given proper credit to those who were (in retrospect) right about the war, and treated the pronouncements of those for the war with enough skepticism?
Howard Kurtz: No and no. Especially in 2002 and 2003.
Helena, Mont.: I like Reliable Sources, but was disappointed that yesterday's show had on two defenders of the media on the topic of media coverage of Iraq. One reason I like your show is that you often have on guests who are willing to do critiques of media coverage of different topics. It is less enlightening, and more boring, when your guests are just there to make excuses for the media.
Howard Kurtz: I would suggest that it is hard these days (as opposed to a couple of years ago) to find people who contend that things are going much better in Iraq than is generally believed and that the problem is overly negative media coverage. In one of our segments, David Gergen, who worked for Nixon, Ford and Reagan (and was later brought in as a Republican adviser to Clinton), agreed with the NYT's Nick Kristof that the correspondents in Iraq turned out to be right and were unfairly denigrated by administration officials. Gergen did say that the press served as "cheerleaders" in the run up to the war and later turned on the administration in part because journalists felt they'd been had.
Ashland, Mo.: Given the many recent court cases finding no first amendment privilege to not disclose a source, is the media simply lying to people when they promise confidentiality? Particularly in an age when corporations will find it economically infeasible to contest subpoenas and other discovery devices that do not rely on a reporter's testimony? Moreover, is there any real evidence that sources have dried up given all the supposed confidential material that is still appearing in the New York Times and Washington Post?
Howard Kurtz: No, reporters are not simply lying. What they are saying to sources is that, if there's a legal case, they will go to jail rather than disclose the source's identity. Judith Miller went to jail for 85 days until getting Scooter Libby's permission to testify about their discussions. Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters are facing jail right now for refusing to name their sources in the Barry Bonds steroids case. We can't control what the courts may do; we can only make promises about our own conduct.
Baltimore, Md.: re: the President's trip to Jordan. Media was full of talk of Maliki's slight and the Hadley memo. What I didn't see was an analysis of what a total waste of time this 2 hour breakfast meeting was. This is the same administration that wouldn't send Dr. Rice to Israel in July until there was something on the table. I think it was illustrative of what a miserable failure Bush's Mideast policy has been. But the media didn't seem to want to go there.
Howard Kurtz: Really? I read a lot of analysis of the fact that the summit accomplished very little, other than a restatement of Bush's support for Maliki. It's not like the two leaders agreed on any new strategy or policy, and the most newsworthy thing to have happened was when the prime minister canceled his dinner with the president. The stories and analyses may not have used the phrase "waste of time," but they certainly made clear that little or nothing was accomplished.
D.C.: Why hasn't the Post issued a correction to George Will's column on Jim Webb? Is misrepresentation by omission acceptable for columnists? How about for reporters?
Howard Kurtz: Here's what Will wrote:
Wednesday's Post reported that at a White House reception for newly elected members of Congress, Webb "tried to avoid President Bush," refusing to pass through the reception line or have his picture taken with the president. When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq, "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "I'd like to get them [sic] out of Iraq." When the president again asked "How's your boy?" Webb replied, "That's between me and my boy."
It seems to me there was a key omission in which Bush preceded his response to Webb's get-them-out-of-Iraq comment by saying, "I didn't ask you that." That does make clear that both men, not just Webb, were being snippy.
Centreville, Va.: It's a bit of a straw-man to say you can't find anyone who thinks the media is "overly negative" about Iraq. There are plenty of conservatives (even media critics) who think that Russert and Co. are very, very political in using the war to pummel Bush. Russert on Imus even said Democrats aren't responsible for the war. They were just voted in as a protest. don't they have to govern now?
Howard Kurtz: The Democrats do have to govern now, but Bush is still the commander-in-chief. Not only are the number of conservative commentators who blame the media over Iraq dwindling, the number of conservative commentators who defend the administration's handling of the war has dwindled, as I have shown with excerpts on my blog all year.
Howard Dean: In your 2008 crystal ball, do you think Howard Dean is going to take another shot at a Presidential run?
Howard Kurtz: My ball has been known to be cloudy, but I don't think so. Dean promised to forego a 2008 run when he ran for DNC chairman, and has made no noises whatsoever about going back on his word.
Princeton, N.J.: On the front page of the NY Times today is an article replete with pictures of the Bush administration's treatment of Joseph Padilla, an American citizen. Do you think the pictures will have a similar effect on the U.S. public as did the pictures of torture in Iraq?
Howard Kurtz: I don't know. It depends on whether you believe that someone accused of plotting a dirty-bomb attack should have to wear blacked-out goggles and have his legs shackled when he is taken outside solitary confinement for a dentist's appointment.
New Hope, Va.: You said, "What they are saying to sources is that, if there's a legal case, they will go to jail rather than disclose the source's identity." Is this actually written somewhere? When I was a reporter and single mother, I'm ashamed to say I wouldn't have spent a day in jail unless I thought the truth would cause irreversible harm to my source. I don't remember taking an oath before I went to work at my small town paper. Do you take an oath at The Post?
Howard Kurtz: There's no oath, and it's not written down. It's simply an understanding between reporter and source when sensitive matters are involved. Nor is the possibility of jail always explicitly discussed; it may be only implicit. That is, if I promise Person X that I will never reveal his identity, am I not bound by that promise even if a prosecutor tries to haul me before a grand jury?
RE: Katie Couric Article: Couric stated that war fatigue was the reason that she juggled the order of stories on on of her newscasts. Shouldn't the most pressing news issue of the day take priority?
Howard Kurtz: But all the newscasts (and newspapers as well) engage in this kind of editorial process, otherwise they would be leading with Iraq five days a week. On the day that she led with the Alabama school bus accident -- and I question whether that was a strong enough lead for a national broadcast -- the Iraq news was that Iran had invited Iraq and Syria to a summit meeting, and a follow-up to a Washington Post scoop about Pentagon contingency planning on Iraq ("Go Big," "Go Long," "Go Home"). These are the judgment calls for which anchors and producers get paid. Last Friday, they all led with the big snowstorms in the Midwest. Was that more important in the long run than Iraq?
Washington, D.C.: Will Robin Ghivan be restrained or will she be allowed to savage Nancy Pelosi's clothing and makeup choices?
Howard Kurtz: Well, let's go to the videotape:
The California Democrat was dressed in a blue-gray pantsuit with a blouse in a similar but slightly deeper hue. She wore a necklace that was a complementary mix of colors. Nowhere on her person did there appear to be a flag, an eagle or any other booming statement of patriotism that can so quickly transform a workday ensemble into a Fourth of July costume. Holding a news conference in front of flags was plenty; she did not feel compelled to drape herself in one.
Pelosi's suit was by Giorgio Armani -- the Italian master of neutral tones and modern power dressing -- and she wore it well. She looked polished and tasteful in front of the cameras. It is tempting to even go so far as to say that she looked chic, which in the world beyond Washington would be considered a compliment, but in the context of politics is an observation fraught with insinuations of partisanship and condescension.
Crofton, Md.: Who decides the placement of news stories in the A section of The Post? I ask this because whenever I see mention of Walter Pincus, I remember that a lot of his articles discussing concerns about the Iraq War hardly ever made it to the front page during the runup to the War. And, although I like Dana Milbank's wit, I can think of better subject matter for A2.
Howard Kurtz: Editor Len Downie, or if he's not around, Managing Editor Phil Bennett. Other top editors push for stories they like but don't make the final call.
Arlington, Va.: Hi Howard. I appreciate your work. Just wanted to comment on the Couric story you wrote this morning -- specifically, her assertion that people who criticized her "newscast" for lacking news were clearly not watching. Not only was I watching, but I was rooting for her to be great. I was really disappointed (and I'm a woman excited about the first female anchor). I never watch her. Brian Williams gets my vote.
Howard Kurtz: Hey, it's a democracy and you get to vote with your remote control. Brian Williams puts on a very fine newscast. One of the things I was trying to point out was that the "CBS Evening News" today is not the same broadcast as when Couric started in September.
Wilmington, N.C.:"It depends on whether you believe that someone accused of plotting a dirty-bomb attack should have to wear blacked-out goggles and have his legs shackled when he is taken outside solitary confinement for a dentist's appointment."
None of the allegations against Mr. Padilla mention a dirty-bomb attack. Have I missed something?
Howard Kurtz: Well, the second graph of the NYT story says, "Mr. Padilla, a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert whom the Bush administration had accused of plotting a dirty bomb attack and had detained without charges..."
Reston, Va.: Regarding the new Post radio, 1500 on your AM dial, it seems to me on the morning drive that the talk reminds me of C-SPAN radio (heard locally in the D.C. area) with a -little- personality or even a Bloomberg-like channel for politicos -- wonkish chatter for those that are involved in the business of beltway and any other folks willing to spend valuable car time getting educated on current events.
Yesterday was a replay of MTP, but I can get that on C-SPAN radio also.
Are these observations at all in line with the mission of the station?
Howard Kurtz: Check me out at 8:05 and 4:05. I am DEFINITELY not wonkish.
Arianna: Wondering what you thought of Arianna's very recent post blasting the NYT's 'Hillary's dropping hints' article as not telling people the real story. It does seem at times as though reporters write pro forma stuff rather than what they know to be the case. Your thoughts?
Howard Kurtz: Arianna didn't say the Times wasn't telling people the real story. She was saying it was SO BLOODY OBVIOUS that Hillary is running that the story was a big fat snooze. I disagree. While most of humanity has assumed the senator is planning her White House bid, the Times was the first to report an overt action on her part--that is, consulting with leading New York Democrats about her plans. Sometimes, you know, what EVERYONE KNOWS turns out to be wrong. Everyone knew Mark Warner was running for president until, suddenly, he wasn't.
In the Post Politics Q and A, Dan Balz responded to an Iraq Study Group question with the comment: "Expectations for the impact of the Iraq Study Group may have gotten out of hand...."
Considering the ISG leaks, MSM, 24/7 cable and bloggers, was there any doubt that this would occur? I realize the bloggers are hard to control, but how much does MSM try "to apply the brakes" and not let expectations get out of hand?
Howard Kurtz: We don't. We LIKE when expectations get out of hand. Then we come along and say such-and-such didn't live up to the hype.
In the Post Politics Q&A, Dan Balz responded to an Iraq Study Group question with the comment: "Expectations for the impact of the Iraq Study Group may have gotten out of hand...."
Considering the ISG leaks, MSM, 24/7 cable and bloggers, was there any doubt that this would occur? I realize the bloggers are hard to control, but how much does MSM try "to apply the brakes" and not let expectations get out of hand?
Howard Kurtz: This was the question to which my previous answer was intended.
Minneapolis, Minn.: Hadley confirmed yesterday that the leak of his memo right before the President's meeting with Maliki was unauthorized. Yet it comes from someone within the administration - and all signs point toward the top of the Pentagon, which also seems to have leaked Rumsfeld's memo to the same Pentagon reporter at the New York Times for publication a couple of days later. That is just extraordinary. What do you make of the idea that Rumsfeld's folks - whom we know, along with other neoconservatives, are not fans of Maliki - leaked Hadley's memo in an effort to undermine Bush's meeting with Maliki, as Hadley suggested? And given how simpatico on all these matters Rumsfeld is with Cheney, don't we have to contemplate the possibility that the Vice President of the United States is condoning, if not actually participating in, action directly undermining the current policy of the President of the United States?
Howard Kurtz: A Pentagon source may well have been leaking the memo to undermine the Bush-Maliki summit, though I sincerely doubt Cheney was involved. Or it may have been someone who just really, really doesn't like Steve Hadley, or who owed the reporter a favor, or whatever. That's the problem with leaks when the news organization doesn't address the question of motivation -- the only thing the rest of us can do is speculate.
Marietta, Ga.: Did NBC's David Gregory dye his eyebrows? My Mom thinks so, and she will hardly talk about anything else.
Howard Kurtz: My condolences. I will put that at the absolute top of my list of investigative projects.
Thanks for the chat, folks.
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 media columnist Howard Kurtz discusses the press.
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Post Magazine: Post Magazine's 20th Anniversary
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The Washington Post Magazine is 20 years old, and this week's issue is a tribute to two decades of great writing that has made the people, trends and institutions of our time come vividly alive.
Tom Shroder, editor of the Washington Post Magazine, will be online fielding questions and comments.
Tom Shroder: Thanks for looking in on this chat about the Magazine. I had a great time putting together the 20th anniversary issue, and I hope it was as much fun to read as it was to collect. I'll answer as many of your questions as I can.
Washington, D.C.: I hope David Finkel makes buckets of money. His writing is absolutely incredible, every time. Thanks for some amazing reads ...
Tom Shroder: Finkel and I have known each other for more than 30 years. We both worked on the student paper at the University of Florida (Go Gators!) in the early 70s. It's really weird to consider that the kid I hung out with in college would turn out to be one of the greatest journalists of his generation, one who manages to write about reality with the kind of impact usually reserved for fine fiction.
For all of that, he's not making Tiger Woods money, though if it were my universe, he would be.
Washington, D.C.: I'm not "in" on how magazines work, but very curious: do you solicit for pieces or just take freelance pieces as they're pitched? What about for special "theme" issues -- do you put the word out to the writing community that something's coming up or do you work from what you have by chance? How much of Post Magazine is staff-written and how much is freelance-written?
Tom Shroder: You know, we do all the above. We're kind of a guerilla army. We try to stay fast on our feet and keep adjusting our tactics. We just want to put out as good a magazine as we can each week, doing whatever we can think of to pull it off with the resources at hand.
Alexandria, Va: Bring back the page 3 girl!
Tom Shroder: You think that would work in Washington?
Washington, D.C.: Tom -- who edited the Magazine before you? How did you get the job?
Tom Shroder: Before me was Glenn Frankel. Before Frankel Steve Coll. Talk about your tough acts to follow. I came to the Post from Miami, where I edited Tropic magazine for the Miami Herald (a job I inherited from Gene Weingarten, believe it or not). I came to the Post in 1999 as Sunday Style editor, then became Frankel's no. 2 at the Magazine, until Frankel went back to be the London-based correspondent. I still had to compete for the job, and I got very lucky.
Gene...Ge,NE: You are, I am sure, receiving many posts regarding Weingarten. I hope very few of them are accusatory as we don't blame you for his hiatus. Not really. It's just that we pretty much see you through Gene's eyes. For the Weingarten chatters, you are, and will always be, Tom the Butcher. But we also know that Gene kids because he loves. Just go easy on him for awhile because he sounds like ready to snap.
Gene's stories in the magazine have been as memorable and heart-felt as any that have appeared. The Great Zucchini may be one for the ages. Could you, as his editor (and one-time underling), give us some insight into working with Gene? How would you characterize your working relationship with him, compared to other Magazine writers? What was YOUR favorite Weingarten story?
Oh, and what's he working on next?
Tom Shroder: Weingarten, ready to snap? Didn't Gene snap years ago? Possibly in the womb?
Gene hired me as his assistant editor at Tropic in 1985 when I didn't have a day of professional editing experience. I had been a writer and only a writer my entire career. We had an epic time over the next five years or so until Gene left for the Post, and we stayed in close touch until I followed nine years later. We give each other mega-crap all the time, most of it in fun, some of it with a tint of heat, but we're secure in our friendship and respect for each other's work, so it's not a problem. Mostly it's hugely fun. Just imagine a late-night bull session in the dorm with the smartest/nuttiest friend you've ever had.
Gene's now at work on something really groundbreaking. But it's a secret.
Laurel, Md: What, exactly, was "Planet Washington"?
Tom Shroder: Great question!!!!!! I never did understand what that title was supposed to mean. It was a generic label supposed to encompass the shorter features at the beginning of the magazine. We ended up renaming the front section First Things First, which was at least a little clearer in meaning.
Arlington, Va.: Did you give any thought to mentioning in the anniversary issue some of the difficulties the Magazine faced in its early going (most notably the charges of racial insensitivity)?
Tom Shroder: I did, right at the very top of the introduction. I put it in the context of what kind of odds you could have gotten if you had been willing to bet, after the first issue when a huge parade of demonstrators was tossing thousands of magazines back on the Post's steps, that the magazine would last another 20 years. I wish I could travel back in time with a huge wad of hundreds and place that bet.
Frederick, Md: So did you inherit TWO jobs from Weingarten?
Tom Shroder: I did indeed. A fact Gene is not shy of pushing in my face whenever he's trying to wheedle another poop reference in one of his columns.
UpMo, MD: Question about the WaPo magazine: Did the first article in the retrospective really have to be the one where the author takes a rip at GHW Bush for being a child of privilege? Is that old canard as offensive as Ms. Pelosi's skirt length on the front page? There have been hundreds of nearly Pulitzer Prize winning articles in the Magazine. Why that one?
Tom Shroder: I was trying to make this a time capsule, and this rare moment of intimacy in one of the very first issues with not only the first President Bush, but the person identified as "his 40-year-old son, George Bush Jr." seemed to fit the bill.
Laurel, Md: The Sunday Mag crossword is my favorite. Is it syndicated in other papers?
Tom Shroder: It is done specifically for us. I'm glad you like it. Does that mean you can actually complete the whole thing? If so, I am not worthy.
Washington, DC: I loved reading all of the excerpts. Any way we can get links to the full original articles, maybe all together at the end of the chat? There are many that I want to read fully, that was too young to catch in the early years of the magazine.
If those links are already there and I missed them - well, always a bit dense on a Monday.
Great issue--really showcases the breadth and depth of your writers.
washingtonpost.com: The online version contains links to the excerpts, by the way. See link at the top of this page.
Tom Shroder: Here's the link. I could spend the rest of the day reading these. They are amazing.
Alexandria Va: Why didn't you include an essay pertaining to 9/11/01?
Tom Shroder: I had one excerpt -- From Henry Allen -- in until the very last minute. Truth is, I had about twice as many great excerpts as I could fit, and it was agony deciding which to cut.
Washington, D.C.: Wow, I always wondered if anybody actually liked the Sunday Magazine crossword. I think it's impossible!
Tom Shroder: I've never been able to complete it, personally, but we get a lot of good feedback on it.
Washington DC: Are Magazine features syndicated? If so, do many other papers pick them up? Which articles (or types of articles) get reprinted the most?
Tom Shroder: All our staff articles go out on the Post wire, and many get reprinted elsewhere, often in condensed form. Weingarten's column is regulary syndicated in, I believe, a couple dozen large papers around the country.
Seattle, Wash: Excuse me for not asking a more relevant question ... but in your life's journalistic experience what has made you communicate to your audience (i.e. readers) unhesitationally? (I made up the word myself but if you know what I mean - it gets my message across).
Tom Shroder: At Tropic, Weingarten and I always used to tell writers who came to us with story ideas the same thing. We'd say: "This is a great idea to take a job as a pizza delivery man for a couple months and write about what you learn handing out pies door to door. It should be about the meaning of life." And we were only half joking. What I always want from the best writing, and the best stories, is to put one more little of glimmer of unserstanding about just what it is that's happening here, on this weird planet where we woke up one day to find ourselves.
Rockville, Md: I know this is business, not editorial, but why so many ads for furniture?
Tom Shroder: Over the years, the Mag has become what the folks on biz-side call a "home furnishings marketplace" -- a place that those advertisers know they want to be seen, where readers will be looking when they're thinking of furniture. I think the color and glossy paper is important when showing off beautifule sofas and settees and all. Anyone know what a settee is? Not me.
Washington, D.C.:"Tom Shroder: I could spend the rest of the day reading these. They are amazing. "
Agreed! and I HAVE spent most of the day reading them -- when I get fired for not doing any work here, can you give me a job?
Tom Shroder: I'm just glad I could do my part in improving productivity in the federal workforce.
Frederick, Md: How would you compare the WaPo Magazine with the NY Times Magazine, as far as mission, content, etc? Would you consider the NY Times the standard for Sunday magazines?
Tom Shroder: The NYT magazine is aimed at a thin slice of elite readers across the nation. Our magazine is aimed at the broadest possible audience in our Washington circulation area. We aim at the broadest possible audience here, but we don't do it by going for the lowest common denominator, but rather by trying to engage that thing in all of us across demographic boundaries who are curious about the strange workings of the world, and the ways in which we are all so different, and yet so much the same. We tend to do more pure story-telling than the Times magazine, a little stronger on the narative/analysis ratio.
Settee:"Anyone know what a settee is? Not me."
It's what a setter sets on. Duh.
Tom Shroder: But what if you have a Lab?
Re: Crossword: I love the Post's Sunday Crossword as well. Even manage to finish it once in a while!
Yesterday, however, I noticed in it what may be the first instance of product placement: Slate, e.g.? I suppose the Post didn't want to miss a marketing opportunity and say "Salon"?
Tom Shroder: Salon? Never heard of it.
Falls Church Va: With the Dwindling readerships of newspaper and most of material available on the internet, do you see any need for having a sunday magazine section that fondly covers trivial subjects about a star hockey player or a famous chef etc. After all this is available electronically. Can your writers do a more productive work. Thanks
Tom Shroder: As I've tried to say in some earlier posts, I think that subjects such as Alex Ovechkin and Michel Richard, when reported and written the right way, can be far from trivial. In both these cases, as it turns out, it is the story of how genius emerged out of extraordinary hardship and powerful reactions to family relationships, ie: the meaning of life. Though the decline of readership of the print newspaper is a big concern, these stories also go out on the web, and in total are read by an ever expanding audience.
Have you thought about a version of Date Lab where the participants are dog owners, so that both the dogs and the owners are on blind dates? Obviously, one of the dogs would have to be a Lab.
Tom Shroder: Wait. Are you prepared to swear that you really live in a place called Woof, Ore., and that you are asking a dog-related question. Please let this be true. In any case, that is a fabulous idea. The dog owners/dogs double date. I'm on it.
For Liz, if you are producing: You know what Chat I'd like to see before Christmas? Another one of those "chat with the producers" hours so we can all tell you what we really think. Do it before Christmas -- we're not allowed to send you fruit baskets at the WP.
washingtonpost.com: Sorry to disappoint, it's Kim, not Liz, at the producer panel today.
Tom Shroder: Maybe we should do a tag team steel death cage match, me and Kim vs. Gene and Liz!
Washington, D.C.: Good afternoon, Mr. Shroder!
One of the things I used to look forward to in the Magazine were the letters to the editor. Were those fazed out due to readers being able to respond instantaneously over the Internet? Also, I could care less about the date lab and some of the other features that have taken up space in the Magazine.
Tom Shroder: Yeah. It got a little silly running letters about stories that had run months earlier. We send letters now to the main letters page in the Post, which can run much sooner.
Arlington, Va: Speaking of the brilliant David Finkel - is there any way to post the second part of the "For Better or for Worse" story? I was riveted until the "Part of I of II" tag at the end.
I loved reading these articles.
Interestingly, I noticed that many of the earlier stories tried to use an individual to illuminate a greater social trend. But with the benefit of hindsight, most of the writers' analyses of social trends seems limited, dated or wrong. It's a great time capsule to see what worried people in 1995 or 1986, though. The reporting and individual stories are totally vibrant and fascinating.
Tom Shroder: I love looking at daily journalism years later. It's funny, and humbling, to see how myopic we all are, and how unimaginable the future, any future, always is. Even if someone gets a lot of it right, there's going to be a context that's completely off.
Not sure what you mean about part II. That was all one article. I'll look into it.
Tom Shroder: Hey, thanks for participating in this chat. The copy desk is about to storm my office demanding copy. So I better be off.
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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Tom Shroder fields questions and comments about the Post Magazine's 20th Anniversary issue.
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A Newspaper Chain Sees Its Future, And It's Online and Hyper-Local
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FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Could this be the future of newspapering?
Darkness falls on a chilly Winn-Dixie parking lot in a dodgy part of North Fort Myers just before Thanksgiving. Chuck Myron sits in his little gray Nissan and types on an IBM ThinkPad laptop plugged into the car's cigarette lighter. The glow of the screen illuminates his face.
Myron, 27, is a reporter for the Fort Myers News-Press and one of its fleet of mobile journalists, or "mojos." The mojos have high-tech tools -- ThinkPads, digital audio recorders, digital still and video cameras -- but no desk, no chair, no nameplate, no land line, no office. They spend their time on the road looking for stories, filing several a day for the newspaper's Web site, and often for the print edition, too. Their guiding principle: A constantly updated stream of intensely local, fresh Web content -- regardless of its traditional news value -- is key to building online and newspaper readership.
Myron and his colleagues are part of a great experiment being conducted by their corporate parent, McLean-based newspaper giant Gannett, which is trying to remake the very definition of a newspaper. Losing readers and revenue to the Internet and other media, newspapers are struggling to stay relevant and even afloat. Gannett's answer is radical.
The chain's papers are redirecting their newsrooms to focus on the Web first, paper second. Papers are slashing national and foreign coverage and beefing up "hyper-local," street-by-street news. They are creating reader-searchable databases on traffic flows and school class sizes. Web sites are fed with reader-generated content, such as pictures of their kids with Santa. In short, Gannett -- at its 90 papers, including USA Today -- is trying everything it can think of to create Web sites that will attract more readers.
"Whatever you spend your time and money doing," said News-Press managing editor Mackenzie Warren, "is news."
So Myron sits in the parking lot, hunched over, keeping one eye out for threatening vagrants, and peers through his steering wheel to file a story on his laptop, perched on his knees. The workplace is, at best, ergonomically challenging.
The event he just covered? The signing of a fundraising calendar for the local chamber of commerce featuring the Hunks of North Fort Myers. The event was held inside a gym beside a Winn-Dixie in a strip shopping center.
It had been looking dim -- just three hunks and half a dozen seemingly uninterested middle-aged ladies working out nearby -- when Myron arrived at the gym with his ThinkPad under one arm and a digital camera peeking out of a pocket of his khakis.
Twenty minutes passed before one senior citizen and her husband walked in with two calendars to be signed by the hunks. She agreed to be interviewed and have her picture taken by Myron. He took notes on the screen of his ThinkPad, using an electronic stylus.
Thirty minutes later, sitting in his car with a sense of relief, he has written a short story, cropped one digital picture, written a caption, uploaded it all to the Web and linked to a previous story he'd written on the calendar fundraiser. Traditionally, such a story would barely rise to the level of a newspaper's weekly community insert. Yet this is the third story Myron has written on the calendar.
In the dark, Myron refreshed his browser and pulled up his fresh dispatch on the News-Press's Cape Coral "micro-site," one of several sites-within-a-site focusing on individual communities.
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A Split in the GOP Tent
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Republicans are good at reinvention. They have appealed to voters' dark side (Nixon's Southern strategy) as well as to their sunny side (Reagan's "Morning in America"). They have skipped from anti-government populism (Newt Gingrich and the leave-us-alone coalition) to big-government machine politics (the alliance with corporate lobbyists known as the K Street Project). Through all these transformations, the GOP has sustained its big-tent coalition. The question in the wake of its election thumpin' is whether the tent will split.
You can see this possibility in " Liberaltarians," an essay in the New Republic by Brink Lindsey, the director of research at the libertarian Cato Institute. Lindsey is not merely joining the large crowd of disenchanted conservatives who believe that the Republican Party has betrayed its principles -- spraying money at farmers, building bridges to nowhere and presiding over the fastest ramp-up in federal spending since Lyndon Johnson. Rather, Lindsey is taking a step further, arguing that libertarians should ditch the Republican Party in favor of the Democrats.
Why react to the temporary corruption of a party by abandoning it outright? Lindsey's answer is that Republicans are not merely failing to live up to their principles; the principles have altered. The party has been virtually cleaned out of the Northeast; it has suffered setbacks in the Mountain West; it increasingly reflects the values of its stronghold in the South. As a result, it has lost its libertarian tinge and grown more religious and traditionalist.
There has always been a tension between Republican libertarians, who believe that individual choices should be unconstrained by received wisdom, and Republican traditionalists, who believe pretty much the opposite. In their history of the conservative movement, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge recall that Barry Goldwater believed Jerry Falwell deserved "a swift kick in the ass;" and Goldwater's wife, Peggy, helped to found Planned Parenthood in Arizona. But for a long time the two wings of the party could paper over these differences. Christian conservatives and libertarians agreed that misconceived government programs were harming traditional values. Schools forced sex education on children. The tax system and the welfare system penalized marriage.
Conservatives have grown less able to bridge these divisions because of their success. Welfare has been reformed, and the tax system now supports families with the expanded child tax credit. Having ticked off the first things on their to-do list, Christian conservatives now press for affirmative state action on behalf of traditional values: amendments to the constitution to bar gay marriage, government efforts to teach abstinence, federal payments to faith-based groups. All these policies appall libertarians.
It's not just the values of the South that pose a problem. It is the region's appetite for government. The most solidly red states in the nation tend also to be the most reliant on federal handouts -- farm subsidies, water projects and sundry other earmarks. It's hard to be the party of small government when you represent the communities that benefit most from big government. George W. Bush tried to straddle this divide by pleasing libertarians with tax cuts and traditionalists with spending. The result is a huge deficit.
Would libertarians be more comfortable in the company of Democrats? On moral questions -- abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research -- clearly they would. But on economic issues, the answer is less obvious. For just as Republicans want government to restore traditional values, so Democrats want government to bring back the economic order that existed before globalization. As Lindsey puts it in his New Republic essay, Republicans want to go home to the United States of the 1950s while Democrats want to work there.
If Democrats can get over this nostalgia, there's a chance that liberaltarianism could work. For the time has passed when libertarians could seriously hope to cut government: Much of what could be deregulated has been, and the combination of demographics, defense costs and medical inflation leaves no scope for tax cuts. As Lindsey himself says, the ambition of realistic libertarians is not to shrink government but to contain it: to cut senseless spending such as the farm program and oil subsidies to make room for the inevitable expansion in areas such as health.
As it happens, this also describes a plausible agenda for the Democratic Party -- at least if it can shed the back-to-the-1950s yearnings of its reactionary left. Precisely because Democrats want government to provide social insurance against the volatility of globalization, the party has an interest in cutting unneeded federal spending. Precisely because entitlements are expanding so expensively, the party needs cost-saving ideas from anyone who has them -- including libertarians.
The era of big government is far from over, and liberals and libertarians gain nothing from fighting over its inevitable growth. But precisely because government is on a trajectory of unsustainable expansion, liberals and libertarians have a common interest in reinventing it.
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Bush's Shrinking Options
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George W. Bush passed through seven time zones from Amman, Jordan, on Thursday to land in Washington at 4 p.m., resting briefly before embarking on the annual round of White House Christmas parties. The nightly six-hour chore of handshaking and posing for photos was followed by sitting through the endless annual honors presentation at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night. This regimen, for a president who likes to fine-tune and limit his schedule, fits his loss of control over Iraq.
The notion bruited about Washington that James A. Baker is a deus ex machina imposed by President Bush to resolve the entangled Iraqi plot is nonsense. The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former secretary of state Baker and former representative Lee Hamilton, is out of the White House sphere of influence. The White House certainly did not ask Congress for help by creating this commission. Baker has made sure that the report, though leaked in part to the press, has not gone to the White House.
As a creature of Congress (an institution that Bush dislikes), Baker's group spells trouble for Bush when it releases its report Wednesday. It will propose, however muted its tone, gradual withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq before the president is ready for it. The hope is that Baker will nuance the report's words sufficiently and hedge calls for withdrawal in such a way that Bush can say that is what he has been doing anyway.
Bush has not stepped back from the decisions he has made on Iraq. At the core of Bush's Iraq dilemma is the fact, still denied at the White House, that the president has lost his political base on the overriding issue of the war. In contact mainly with fawning campaign contributors, Bush may not appreciate the steady decline in support of his war policy that I have seen deepening among Republicans in the past year.
This undercurrent of GOP protest roared to the surface with the party's election debacle Nov. 7. At the Republican grass roots, there is no question that Iraq lost the election. State officials and party leaders who are no specialists on foreign policy tell me the Republican Party simply cannot go into the 2008 campaign with troops still fighting in Iraq.
As a lame-duck president, Bush seems oblivious to the grass-roots sentiment that will be seconded in part by the Baker-Hamilton recommendations. Baker clearly is not doing the president's bidding. On the contrary, Bush aides have suggested that two forthcoming government reports on Iraq (especially one by the Pentagon) are more important than Baker's and should be given more attention.
The president's position is difficult. He does not want to be seen as ignoring a congressional study group. But he has not yet reached the point of accepting unconditional troop withdrawal. If he seems to differ from Baker-Hamilton recommendations, he can expect heavy scolding by the group's members on television.
Increasingly, Republicans on Capitol Hill see no viable alternative to combat troop withdrawal. While Bush's plight is compared to Abraham Lincoln's after his mid-term elections, there is no capture of Atlanta to guarantee an ultimate military victory. This is not that kind of war.
If not able to secure an Atlanta-style victory, could Bush stabilize the situation in Iraq by sending in more troops? Sen. John McCain, the putative front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, once again has gone against the body of opinion in the party by calling for more U.S. troops in Iraq. Sen. Chuck Hagel, second-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a McCain supporter in 2000, wrote in The Post on Nov. 26: "The time for more U.S. troops in Iraq has passed. We do not have more troops to send and, even if we did, they would not bring a resolution to Iraq."
Bush agrees with that, but not with Hagel's call for a phased troop withdrawal likely to be included in a Baker-Hamilton group recommendation. Hagel sees the report as a last chance to avert "impending disaster in Iraq." While its release is anticipated at the White House as no less annoying than sitting through the Kennedy Center honors, the president faces an opportunity as well as a dilemma.
? 2006 Creators Syndicate Inc.
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As a creature of Congress, James A. Baker's group spells trouble for Bush when it releases its report Wednesday.
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Move Over, Hoover
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Shortly after Thanksgiving I had dinner in California with Ronald Reagan's best biographer, Lou Cannon. Like many historians these days, we discussed whether George W. Bush is, conceivably, the worst U.S. president ever. Cannon bristled at the idea.
Bush has two more years to leave his mark, he argued. What if there is a news flash that U.S. Special Forces have killed Osama bin Laden or that North Korea has renounced its nuclear program? What if a decade from now Iraq is a democracy and a statue of Bush is erected on Firdaus Square where that famously toppled one of Saddam Hussein once stood?
There is wisdom in Cannon's prudence. Clearly it's dangerous for historians to wield the "worst president" label like a scalp-hungry tomahawk simply because they object to Bush's record. But we live in speedy times and, the truth is, after six years in power and barring a couple of miracles, it's safe to bet that Bush will be forever handcuffed to the bottom rungs of the presidential ladder. The reason: Iraq.
Some presidents, such as Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy, are political sailors -- they tack with the wind, reaching difficult policy objectives through bipartisan maneuvering and pulse-taking. Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example, was deemed a "chameleon on plaid," changing colors regularly to control the zeitgeist of the moment. Other presidents are submariners, refusing to zigzag in rough waters, preferring to go from Point A to Point B with directional certitude. Harry S. Truman and Reagan are exemplars of this modus operandi, and they are the two presidents Bush has tried to emulate.
The problem for Bush is that certitude is only a virtue if the policy enacted is proven correct. Most Americans applaud Truman's dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because they achieved the desired effect: Japan surrendered. Reagan's anti-communist zeal -- including increased defense budgets and Star Wars -- is only now perceived as positive because the Soviet Union started to unravel on his watch.
Nobody has accused Bush of flinching. After 9/11, he decided to circumvent the United Nations and declare war on Iraq. The principal pretext was that Baghdad supposedly was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. From the get-go, the Iraq war was a matter of choice. Call it Mr. Bush's War. Like a high-stakes poker player pushing in all his chips on one hand, he bet the credibility of the United States on the notion that Sunnis and Shiites wanted democracy, just like the Poles and the Czechs during the Cold War.
Bush wasn't operating in a historical bubble. Other presidents had gambled on wars of choice and won. James K. Polk, for example, begged Gen. Zachary Taylor to start a border war with Mexico along the Rio Grande. An ardent expansionist, he wanted to annex land in what are now Arizona, California and New Mexico. Nearly half of the American population in 1846 screamed foul, including Henry David Thoreau, who refused to pay taxes for an unjust war. Yet in short order, Polk achieved his land-grab objective with a string of stunning military successes. Mr. Polk's War was a success, even if the pretext was immoral. On virtually every presidential rating poll, Polk is deemed a "near great" president.
Half a century later, William McKinley also launched a war of choice based on the bogus notion that the USS Maine, anchored in Cuba, had been sabotaged by Spain. The Maine, in truth, was crippled by a boiler explosion. An imperialist, McKinley used the Maine as a pretext to fight Spain in the Caribbean and in the Philippines. A group of anti-imperialists led by Mark Twain and William James, among others, vehemently objected, rightfully accusing McKinley of warmongering. But McKinley had the last word in what his secretary of state, John Hay, deemed "a splendid little war." In just six months, McKinley had achieved his objectives. History chalks up Mr. McKinley's War as a U.S. win, and he also polls favorably as a "near great" president.
Mr. Bush's War, by contrast, has not gone well. When you don't achieve a stealth-like victory in a war of choice, then you're seen as being stuck in a quagmire. Already the United States has fought longer in the Iraq war than in World War II. As the death toll continues to rise, more and more Americans are objecting. The pending Democratic takeover of Congress is only one manifestation of the spiraling disapproval of Bush.
At first, you'd want to compare Bush's Iraq predicament to that of Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam War. But LBJ had major domestic accomplishments to boast about when leaving the White House, such as the Civil Rights Act and Medicare/Medicaid. Bush has virtually none. Look at how he dealt with the biggest post-9/11 domestic crisis of his tenure. He didn't rush to help the Gulf region after Hurricane Katrina because the country was overextended in Iraq and had a massive budget deficit. Texas conservatives always say that LBJ's biggest mistake was thinking that he could fund both the Great Society and Vietnam. They believe he had to choose one or the other. They call Johnson fiscally irresponsible. Bush learned this lesson: He chose Iraq over New Orleans.
So Bush's legacy hinges on Iraq, which is an unmitigated disaster. Instead of being forgiven, like Polk and McKinley, for his phony pretext for war (WMD and al-Qaeda operatives in Baghdad), he stands to be lambasted by future scholars. What once were his two best sound bites -- "Wanted dead or alive" and "Mission accomplished" -- will be used like billy clubs to shatter his legacy every time it gets a revisionist lift. The left will keep battering him for warmongering while the right will remember its outrage that he didn't send enough battalions to Iraq.
There isn't much that Bush can do now to salvage his reputation. His presidential library will someday be built around two accomplishments: that after 9/11, the U.S. homeland wasn't again attacked by terrorists (knock on wood) and that he won two presidential elections, allowing him to appoint conservatives to key judicial posts. I also believe that he is an honest man and that his administration has been largely void of widespread corruption. This will help him from being portrayed as a true villain.
This last point is crucial. Though Bush may be viewed as a laughingstock, he won't have the zero-integrity factors that have kept Nixon and Harding at the bottom in the presidential sweepstakes. Oddly, the president whom Bush most reminds me of is Herbert Hoover, whose name is synonymous with failure to respond to the Great Depression. When the stock market collapsed, Hoover, for ideological reasons, did too little. When 9/11 happened, Bush did too much, attacking the wrong country at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. He has joined Hoover as a case study on how not to be president.
Douglas Brinkley is director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University.
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Shortly after Thanksgiving I had dinner with Reagan biographer Lou Cannon. We discussed whether George W. Bush is the worst U.S. president ever.
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He's The Worst Ever
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2006120419
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Ever since 1948, when Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger Sr. asked 55 historians to rank U.S. presidents on a scale from "great" to "failure," such polls have been a favorite pastime for those of us who study the American past.
Changes in presidential rankings reflect shifts in how we view history. When the first poll was taken, the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War was regarded as a time of corruption and misgovernment caused by granting black men the right to vote. As a result, President Andrew Johnson, a fervent white supremacist who opposed efforts to extend basic rights to former slaves, was rated "near great." Today, by contrast, scholars consider Reconstruction a flawed but noble attempt to build an interracial democracy from the ashes of slavery -- and Johnson a flat failure.
More often, however, the rankings display a remarkable year-to-year uniformity. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt always figure in the "great" category. Most presidents are ranked "average" or, to put it less charitably, mediocre. Johnson, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Richard M. Nixon occupy the bottom rung, and now President Bush is a leading contender to join them. A look at history, as well as Bush's policies, explains why.
At a time of national crisis, Pierce and Buchanan, who served in the eight years preceding the Civil War, and Johnson, who followed it, were simply not up to the job. Stubborn, narrow-minded, unwilling to listen to criticism or to consider alternatives to disastrous mistakes, they surrounded themselves with sycophants and shaped their policies to appeal to retrogressive political forces (in that era, pro-slavery and racist ideologues). Even after being repudiated in the midterm elections of 1854, 1858 and 1866, respectively, they ignored major currents of public opinion and clung to flawed policies. Bush's presidency certainly brings theirs to mind.
Harding and Coolidge are best remembered for the corruption of their years in office (1921-23 and 1923-29, respectively) and for channeling money and favors to big business. They slashed income and corporate taxes and supported employers' campaigns to eliminate unions. Members of their administrations received kickbacks and bribes from lobbyists and businessmen. "Never before, here or anywhere else," declared the Wall Street Journal, "has a government been so completely fused with business." The Journal could hardly have anticipated the even worse cronyism, corruption and pro-business bias of the Bush administration.
Despite some notable accomplishments in domestic and foreign policy, Nixon is mostly associated today with disdain for the Constitution and abuse of presidential power. Obsessed with secrecy and media leaks, he viewed every critic as a threat to national security and illegally spied on U.S. citizens. Nixon considered himself above the law.
Bush has taken this disdain for law even further. He has sought to strip people accused of crimes of rights that date as far back as the Magna Carta in Anglo-American jurisprudence: trial by impartial jury, access to lawyers and knowledge of evidence against them. In dozens of statements when signing legislation, he has asserted the right to ignore the parts of laws with which he disagrees. His administration has adopted policies regarding the treatment of prisoners of war that have disgraced the nation and alienated virtually the entire world. Usually, during wartime, the Supreme Court has refrained from passing judgment on presidential actions related to national defense. The court's unprecedented rebukes of Bush's policies on detainees indicate how far the administration has strayed from the rule of law.
One other president bears comparison to Bush: James K. Polk. Some historians admire him, in part because he made their job easier by keeping a detailed diary during his administration, which spanned the years of the Mexican-American War. But Polk should be remembered primarily for launching that unprovoked attack on Mexico and seizing one-third of its territory for the United States.
Lincoln, then a member of Congress from Illinois, condemned Polk for misleading Congress and the public about the cause of the war -- an alleged Mexican incursion into the United States. Accepting the president's right to attack another country "whenever he shall deem it necessary," Lincoln observed, would make it impossible to "fix any limit" to his power to make war. Today, one wishes that the country had heeded Lincoln's warning.
Historians are loath to predict the future. It is impossible to say with certainty how Bush will be ranked in, say, 2050. But somehow, in his first six years in office he has managed to combine the lapses of leadership, misguided policies and abuse of power of his failed predecessors. I think there is no alternative but to rank him as the worst president in U.S. history.
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton professor
of history at Columbia University.
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Ever since 1948, when Harvard professor Arthur Schlesinger Sr. asked 55 historians to rank U.S. presidents on a scale from "great" to "failure," such polls have been a favorite pastime for those of us who study the American past.
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Time's On His Side
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2006120419
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After the 2004 election, a number of terribly depressed people at my university told me what a shame it was that President Bush had been reelected. If only people knew history, they lamented, they would never have voted for him.
It must be a comforting thought that this abstract thing called "history" can give us the wisdom to choose the right president, as if history books were Ouija boards and historians were modern-day oracles.
Certainly, some historians see themselves that way. In early 2004, just three years into the Bush administration, an "informal, unscientific survey of historians" by the History News Network found that more than 80 percent believed that the president was already a failure. And a miserable one at that.
Earlier this year, Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz took to the pages of Rolling Stone to ponder whether Bush is the "worst president in history" and concluded that he "appears headed for colossal historical disgrace."
So, case closed? Not yet. I long ago learned to look with suspicion when members of the left-leaning historical profession delve into contemporary politics or profess near unanimity. Today's pronouncements that Bush is the "worst president ever" are too often ideology masquerading as history.
Historical and popular judgments about presidents are always in flux. Dwight D. Eisenhower used to be considered a banal and lazy chief executive who embodied the "conformist" 1950s. Today, his reputation has improved because of more positive appraisals of his Cold War stewardship. Ronald Reagan, whom many historians dismissed as an amiable dunce, has also had his stock rise. On the flip side, Bill Clinton's presidency looks somewhat different after Monica Lewinsky, the bursting of the dot-com bubble and 9/11 than it did in 1997.
Perhaps Bush can take solace in the case of Harry S. Truman, who was reviled at the end of his presidency, with approval numbers hovering around 30 percent. Too liberal for conservatives and too conservative for liberals, Truman was saddled with an unpopular stalemate in the Korean War and accusations of corruption at home. Many saw him as a belligerent rube, too unsophisticated for the White House.
Today, however, many historians have revised their estimate of his presidency upward. There certainly are echoes of Truman in the current carping about Bush.
Most clearly, the Iraq war colors every judgment about Bush these days -- and increasingly, that color is dark. Weakened by the conflict, the administration is now stymied on challenges such as North Korea and Iran. And while focusing most of its energies on terrorism and Iraq, the Bush administration -- for which I worked briefly as a speechwriter in 2001 -- has been less energetic on the domestic front. Attempts at entitlement reform and tax reform have stalled, as has immigration reform. But there have been domestic policy successes: tax cuts, the No Child Left Behind Act, the prescription drug plan and housing policies that have expanded home ownership. All have their critics, but they represent some semblance of a domestic policy.
Any appraisal of Bush's record must consider that he took over in difficult times. By most objective measures, the economy is doing well: Inflation, interest rates and unemployment are low, economic growth is steady, and the stock market is climbing. Complaints about income inequality are legitimate, but the issue has long-term structural roots, and neither party has done much to address it.
What is disheartening is the tendency of many historians to rate presidents based on their support for liberal social policies. Just as frustrating is the inability to acknowledge the deep debates over law enforcement measures, such as the USA Patriot Act, enacted after 9/11. Rather than acknowledge the tough tradeoffs between security and privacy, we are left with the hyperbole that this administration is "trampling on civil liberties." Sometimes wisely and sometimes rashly, Bush has steered the nation through the post-9/11 world. It has been an uneven trip so far, but the country has not suffered another attack in more than five years.
Much of Bush's legacy will rest on the future trajectory of the fight against terrorism, the nation's continued security and the evolving direction of the Middle East. Things may look grim today, but that doesn't ensure a grim future.
No one expects historians to be perfectly objective. But history should at least teach us humility. Time will cool today's political passions. As years pass, more documents will be released, more insights gleaned and the broader picture of this era will be painted. Only then will we begin to see how George W. Bush fares in the pantheon of U.S. presidents.
I don't know how history will judge him. My guess is that, like most presidents, he will bequeath a mixed record. We can debate policies and actions now, but honesty should force us to acknowledge that real judgments will have to wait.
Vincent J. Cannato teaches history at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
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After the 2004 election, a number of terribly depressed people at my university told me what a shame it was that President Bush had been reelected. If only people knew history, they lamented, they would never have voted for him.
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For Defense Nominee, Echoes of Old Questions
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2006120419
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When President George H.W. Bush nominated him to lead the CIA in 1991, Robert M. Gates was at 47 the youngest intelligence professional to achieve that distinction.
But during his Senate confirmation hearings, Gates -- a brilliant, smooth-operating Soviet specialist -- lost some of his luster. CIA colleagues came forward to testify that he had kowtowed to the wishes of his superiors and had manipulated intelligence to suit White House policy. Questions also arose about his involvement in the Reagan-era Iran-contra scandal.
Gates eventually won confirmation and held the CIA director's job for 14 months; even his critics describe it as a reasonably successful, modernizing tenure. Now another President Bush has picked Gates to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, citing Gates's deep Washington experience, his knowledge of the Middle East and his recent work as a reformist university president in Texas as ideal preparation for the task of leading U.S. troops out of trouble in Iraq.
With bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for quickly putting the war under new command, Gates's controversial history is by all accounts highly unlikely to derail his confirmation after a single hearing, which is scheduled for Tuesday. Moreover, Gates and others say he learned from the searing, 10-day hearings that scrutinized his record 15 years ago and has since adopted a less officious style.
At the same time, the concerns expressed about Gates then have echoes in the contemporary debate over the alleged tailoring of intelligence analysis to serve political ends, an issue at the heart of criticism of the war in Iraq. The Senate intelligence committee concluded in 2004, for example, that the CIA -- under a different director -- overstated the threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction programs and that the Bush administration shaped its depiction of intelligence to bolster the case for the U.S. intervention there.
Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), incoming chairman of the Armed Services Committee and a foe of Gates's confirmation 15 years ago, cited the old charges of skewing intelligence in telling reporters he will seek assurances at the upcoming hearing that Gates will be independent-minded in his new job, which includes supervising a large military intelligence bureaucracy. Alluding to the Bush administration's record on Iraq, Levin said, "We've had enough [of] manipulating intelligence . . . in order to give the policymakers what they wanted to hear."
The Trip to the Top
Gates's rise through the CIA bureaucracy was so swift, it sparked controversy. "He was recognized in the agency as being an exceptionally gifted analyst and an exceptionally gifted operator," said Alan Fiers, who chaired the agency's Central America task force in the mid-1980s. He was widely seen as a guy "on the make," Fiers testified in 1991.
A Wichita native who had spent a summer working as a grain inspector, Gates evidently itched to leave that life. He signed up with a CIA recruiter in 1965 because, he wrote in his memoirs, "I thought I could get a free trip to the capital." With CIA backing, he then jumped feet first into the Cold War as an Air Force intelligence officer at a Minuteman missile wing, where he recalls being "the only person in our unit who could pronounce the names of our targets."
As a CIA analyst back in Washington, he participated in one demonstration against the Vietnam War, in 1970. But the agency's obsession with the Soviet Union quickly became his own, and in 1974, at age 31, he joined the National Security Council staff for the first time as a Soviet specialist.
Gates did not lack self-confidence in the role. On a 1975 trip to Romania, where his passport was confiscated without explanation, he stood at the door of a White House plane and extended his middle finger to security police shortly before takeoff. It was a "regrettable but immensely satisfying display of pique and immaturity," he wrote later. Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, nonetheless called the young Gates "the epitome of discretion and good judgment."
In 1980, Gates became the national intelligence officer for the Soviet Union, although he did not visit the country until nine years later. When William J. Casey took the CIA's reins in 1981 after being Ronald Reagan's campaign manager, Gates took an instant liking to him. Both favored a large U.S. military buildup. Although he considered Casey a "zealot" on Central America, Gates concluded that the two had similar views about the Soviet Union, including a conviction that Moscow was orchestrating rebel movements and terrorism in the Third World.
That belief was disputed by others at the agency, but the intelligence estimates prepared under Casey and Gates about the Soviet threat -- now declassified -- were mostly unequivocal, though later they were shown to be largely wrong. Four years before the Soviet Union dissolved, for example, Gates warned in a memo that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was after power and not reform, leaving a "long competition and struggle ahead."
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When President George H.W. Bush nominated him to lead the CIA in 1991, Robert M. Gates was at 47 the youngest intelligence professional to achieve that distinction.
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Iraq and the Danger of Psychological Entrapment
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2006120419
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As Robert M. Gates appears this week at his Senate confirmation hearings for defense secretary, Wesleyan University psychologist Scott Plous sees a hidden trap. To understand it, take a little test.
Let's say your elderly dad has a beloved car. Its reliability was legendary, but it has started to have problems. He gets one thing fixed, and something else goes wrong. Each fix doesn't cost much, but they add up, and then the problems start to get bigger. Your dad is convinced the next repair will get the car as good as new. Would you advise him to pull the plug and get rid of the car?
Or consider this. A friend invests some money after getting a tip about a stock. The price soars, and your friend gains 10 percent overnight. He immediately doubles his investment. A week later, the thing tanks, and he is in the red. A month later, it dives again, and he has lost a quarter of his investment. Should he cut his losses and sell?
One more, and yes, these are all trick questions. A woman you care about falls in love. After many years of a happy relationship, the person she is with develops a vicious streak, starts smashing things and occasionally gives her a black eye. Would you tell her to walk out of the relationship?
The trick in all these questions is that when presented with such scenarios, it is easy for us to answer yes. Your dad should sell that car, your friend should save what money he can, and the person you care about should dump that abuser.
Every day, of course, when it comes to such decisions in our own lives, millions of people answer no.
The difference is because of a widespread phenomenon in human behavior known as entrapment. When you invest yourself in something, it is exceedingly difficult to discard your investment. What is devilish about entrapment is not just that it can result in ever greater losses, but that those losses get you ever more entrapped, because now you have even more invested.
Plous, a social psychologist and author of "The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making," said experiments show that psychological entrapment comes in at least four guises: the investment trap, in which we try to recover sunk costs by throwing good money after bad; the time delay trap, in which a short-term benefit carries the seed of long-term problems; the deterioration trap, in which things that started out well slowly get worse; and the ignorance trap, in which hidden risks surface suddenly.
What does this have to do with the Gates confirmation? Plous sees the U.S. dilemma about what military course to take in Iraq as a perfect example of psychological entrapment -- on a national scale.
"What is remarkable is that the war in Iraq is a kind of super trap that has all these elements," Plous said. "Some weeks things look better, and then they look worse and then there is a setback. What we need is to take a step back and ask, 'If we were faced with the choice today without sunk costs, what decision would we make?' "
Plous is talking about the quick military victory followed by the zigzag decline into nightmare: the lack of intelligence on the ground about Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction; the hundreds of billions of dollars invested to fight the war; and above all, the lives of thousands of Americans that have been lost.
Plous said his alarm bells went off when he realized that President Bush was explicitly using the language of entrapment in speeches to rally support for the war. "Retreating from Iraq would dishonor the service of our brave men and women who have sacrificed in that country and have given their lives in that country, which would mean their sacrifice would be in vain," the president said recently.
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As Robert M. Gates appears this week at his Senate confirmation hearings for defense secretary, Wesleyan University psychologist Scott Plous sees a hidden trap. To understand it, take a little test.
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The CIA and The Militant Who Eluded It in Norway
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2006120419
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OSLO -- Two months after he helped kidnap a Muslim cleric in Italy, records show, an undercover CIA officer boarded a flight to Norway on another secret mission. Two other U.S. spies followed a few weeks later and checked into the same hotel.
Shortly after the agents arrived in the spring of 2003, an Islamic militant living in Oslo known as Mullah Krekar received a warning from an anonymous Norwegian official, according to Krekar's lawyer. The message: Krekar, then head of a Kurdish insurgent group, was a CIA target and should watch his back.
The spies left Norway by the end of the summer, according to records of their travels compiled by European investigators. If the CIA was planning to abduct Krekar, like other Islamic radicals it had secretly apprehended in Europe after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, those plans were quietly abandoned.
But it would not be the first or last time that the U.S. government had sought to push Krekar out of Norway. For more than a decade, the Kurdish cleric had enjoyed protection in the Nordic country as a political refugee, even as he frequently slipped back into his homeland in northern Iraq to lead an armed separatist movement called Ansar al-Islam, which has carried out attacks on civilians and U.S. troops.
The case shows how the United States has struggled to deal with Islamic militants who are allowed to live freely in Europe despite being labeled serious security risks. Others have included radical clerics in London and supporters of the Hamburg cell responsible for the Sept. 11 hijackings.
But the pursuit of Krekar also demonstrates how U.S. tactics in confronting those militants have sometimes backfired, giving ammunition to critics who accuse the Bush administration of skirting the law or relying on questionable evidence.
Before the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. government publicly portrayed Krekar and his network as an organizational link between al-Qaeda and the government of Saddam Hussein. Under pressure to prove that connection, the United States tried a variety of tactics to forcibly remove Krekar from Norway and hand him over to friendly security services in the Middle East.
Each attempt failed. Today, although the Norwegian government has declared Krekar a security threat and ordered him deported, the mullah is still in Oslo.
Most evidence against him remains classified. But other charges have been refuted in court or publicly discredited, including allegations by U.S. and Iraqi officials that Krekar ordered followers to carry out suicide bombings and that Ansar controlled a chemical weapons factory.
"At first, I didn't think I had done anything that was a threat to the Americans," Krekar said in an interview. "Later, some people told me I had become a target, but I didn't think the Americans would come for me themselves. They wanted to use me, to show that there was a link between Saddam and al-Qaeda."
The intense U.S. interest in Krekar came at a time when the CIA was targeting other Islamic radicals in Europe for "extraordinary rendition," the clandestine practice of seizing terrorism suspects and transferring them to allied nations that sometimes practice torture. Among suspects grabbed by the CIA: a Muslim cleric in Milan, two Arabs living in Stockholm and two others from Germany.
The CIA and the U.S. Embassy in Norway declined to comment on whether Krekar was a rendition target. In a prepared statement for this article, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said, "The United States continues to consider Krekar to be a threat to national security, and we think the same with respect to Ansar al-Islam."
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OSLO -- Two months after he helped kidnap a Muslim cleric in Italy, records show, an undercover CIA officer boarded a flight to Norway on another secret mission. Two other U.S. spies followed a few weeks later and checked into the same hotel.
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Venezuela's Chávez Wins Decisive Victory
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2006120419
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CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 3 -- By an overwhelming margin, Venezuelans reelected President Hugo Chávez on Sunday, further extending a presidency that began when the former paratrooper was swept into power eight years ago, intent on overturning Venezuela's old social order. Chávez will receive another six years in office to broaden his leftist revolution and contest American initiatives across Latin America.
"Today is a new era," the fiery populist leader told screaming supporters. "Venezuela is red, very red."
VIDEO | President Hugo Chavez won re-election Sunday, giving him six more years to press his campaign to counter U.S. influence in Latin America and beyond.
With 78 percent of the votes counted by 10 p.m., electoral authorities announced that Chávez, 52, had secured 61.3 percent of the vote to 38.4 percent for Manuel Rosales, whose candidacy united a fractured opposition that included former guerrillas, industrialists and right-wing radicals, but had only four months to gather momentum. Minutes after the National Electoral Council announced that Chávez had garnered 5.9 million votes to 3.7 million for Rosales, the president appeared at the balcony of the presidential palace.
Euphoric supporters, ignoring a downpour, burst into the streets, waving flags, shooting off fireworks and chanting pro-Chávez slogans.
"Everything has been completed, the great victory of the Bolivarian revolution," Chávez said as rain soaked him and close aides on the balcony. "It's another great victory: a victory of love, a victory of peace, a victory of hope. It's a victory for all Venezuela. May Venezuela be victorious always."
With the win, Chávez's Bolivarian revolution will last until at least 2013, although Chávez told reporters on Thursday that a change to the constitution could permit him to rule even longer.
"I'm not planning to say in the constitution, 'Hugo Chávez will remain in the presidency until he dies,' because that would be perverse," said Chávez, who under the law can serve only one more term. "It's very different to study the possibility of indefinite reelection. It will always be the will of the people."
Rosales, 53, later conceded defeat without declaring fraud, as opponents had done in the last major election they lost to Chávez, a recall referendum two years ago. Rosales did, however, say that his campaign believed the electoral council's figures were off and that the final results were tighter.
"The truth is that though the margin is closer, we recognize that today we were defeated. But we continue to fight. We will remain in the street," he said. "It's not time to give up."
Earlier in the evening, an aide close to Rosales, Julio Montoya, called early voting estimates "false and manipulated," without offering proof. Other officials in the Rosales campaign said voting equipment malfunctioned at several polling sites and that there were delays in pro-Rosales districts.
Authorities with the five-member National Electoral Council said they had not found serious discrepancies.
"Everything is perfectly normal in the country," Vicente DÃaz, who is considered partial to the opposition, told reporters Sunday night. Observers from the European Union, the Atlanta-based Carter Center and the Organization of American States monitored the vote and reported only isolated incidents by early Sunday night.
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CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 3 -- By an overwhelming margin, Venezuelans reelected President Hugo Chávez on Sunday, further extending a presidency that began when the former paratrooper was swept into power eight years ago, intent on overturning Venezuela's old social order. Chávez will receive another six years in office to broaden his leftist revolution and contest American initiatives across Latin America....
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Bush Is Weighing Options for New Strategy in Iraq, Aide Says
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2006120419
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Nearly four years after invading Iraq, President Bush is sorting through an array of options -- none of them easy -- for a way out, including a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from violence-plagued cities and a redeployment near Iraq's borders with Iran and Syria, his top security aide said yesterday.
Bush is open to several previously rejected possibilities because he realizes "things are not proceeding well enough or fast enough in Iraq," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley told ABC News's "This Week." "We have to make some changes."
Hadley said the president is considering a "laundry list of ideas" from a Nov. 6 memo by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who announced his resignation two days later -- just after Republicans lost control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections. The options include the redeployment of substantial U.S. forces to areas near the Iranian and Syrian borders, withdrawing U.S. troops from especially vulnerable positions and starting modest drawdowns of American forces to encourage Iraqis, as Rumsfeld wrote, "to pull up their socks, step up and take responsibility for their country."
"Of course they're being considered," Hadley said of the suggestions. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, he said, "made very clear to the president that he and his unity government want to take more responsibility. That's what we've been seeking for three years."
"They're not there yet," he added. "They don't have all the tools that they need."
The Rumsfeld memo suggests that in the days leading up to the Nov. 7 elections, the administration was torn between staying on course in Iraq and considering options it repeatedly had rejected. Three days before Rumsfeld wrote the memo, Vice President Cheney said in an interview that the administration would continue "full speed ahead" with its policy in Iraq, regardless of the elections' outcome. Even if the policy proved unpopular, Cheney said, "it doesn't matter, in the sense that we have to continue what we think is right."
Rumsfeld's resignation on Nov. 8 was widely seen as a nod to voter anger over the war and discontent within GOP ranks.
Hadley said Bush will weigh recommendations from Rumsfeld, congressional Democrats and Republicans, military leaders, Iraqi officials, and a soon-to-be-published report by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. "He is going to then take all of those things and come together with a way forward," Hadley said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "His hope is that it is a way forward that the American people can support."
Some senior Democratic senators, who will be in the majority when Congress convenes next month, said yesterday that the administration continues to move too slowly in pressing Iraqis to assume control of their security and future.
"I'd do the opposite of what the president did a month ago, when he picked up the phone and called Prime Minister Maliki and said, 'Don't worry, we're staying,' " Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who is considering a presidential bid, told ABC. "I'd pick up the phone and say, 'You know what, we're not staying forever. You need to start getting your act together.' "
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), another possible presidential candidate and the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told "Fox News Sunday" that the Rumsfeld memo shows "there was a clear disconnect between what the administration has been saying the last year and what's been going on on the ground." He said no one, including Rumsfeld, "thought the policy the president continues to pursue makes any sense."
Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), who will chair the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NBC that Bush is "not capable of admitting mistakes." Levin said the United States should begin withdrawing its troops in four to six months. "I know the president has rejected that," he said. "He's rejected everything that reflects on his policy or that suggests that his policy is wrong or that we've got to change course."
Republican Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) took a different tack, saying the United States should send more troops to Iraq to quell the sectarian violence and stabilize the nation. He said Bush "needs to tell the American public a failed state in Iraq is a dramatic loss in the war on terror. . . . We must stay, fight and win in Iraq. I reject timetables" for troop withdrawals.
"And any strategy that unites the country and we lose, I'm against," Graham told "Fox News Sunday." "I'd rather be divided as a nation and win than united and lose."
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Nearly four years after invading Iraq, President Bush is sorting through an array of options -- none of them easy -- for a way out, including a partial withdrawal of U.S. troops from violence-plagued cities and a redeployment near Iraq's borders with Iran and Syria, his top security aide said...
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Shiite Protester Shot Dead In Beirut as Tensions Rise
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BEIRUT, Dec. 3 -- Sunni residents and Shiite protesters clashed in the capital Sunday, leaving one man dead and raising tension across Lebanon on a third day of demonstrations aimed at toppling the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
The shooting death of the Shiite protester was the first reported since Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim movement, and its allies launched their anti-government campaign Friday, sending hundreds of thousands of followers to downtown Beirut, where armor, barricades and troops guarded the government headquarters where the prime minister has taken up residence. Thousands have camped there since, housed in canvas tents spread across downtown; tens of thousands more joined them Sunday.
Lebanese television stations and Hezbollah officials reported several clashes in Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley, and rumors swirled about the extent of the violence in a city and country riven by divisions of politics, personal loyalties and sect. The worst clash was at the edge of the Sunni neighborhood of Tariq Jdideh, for weeks one of the city's tensest fault lines. Television stations said Sunni residents threw stones at a van carrying Shiite protesters from downtown after nightfall. Passengers got out and, in the ensuing melee, a few cars were damaged before the army stepped in and broke up the crowd.
Accounts differed on the death of the protester, whom Hezbollah officials identified as a 26-year-old. Some said he was shot during the melee, others after it was broken up. Lebanese security officials said they were still trying to confirm the details of the death. News agencies reported that as many as 12 people were hurt in all in the clashes.
There is a deep worry here that the mobilization of supporters by Hezbollah and its allies -- as well as another demonstration by Hezbollah's foes during a funeral last month -- will worsen clashes along the city's many fault lines: pro- and anti-government, Christian allies and opponents of Hezbollah, and the sectarian divisions among Christians, Shiites and Sunnis. Several fights have already broken out in Tariq Jdideh. On Thursday, dozens of Sunni and Shiite residents fought in the streets there.
In downtown, the biggest crowds gathered since the protests began Friday, giving rise to scenes that took on a surreal air. The crisis could decide the fate of the government and Lebanese politics for years to come.
Organizers said 20,000 runners took part in the Fourth International Beirut Marathon, scheduled long before the demonstration. One of its advertisements read, "Run for life." The routes were redrawn to skirt parts of the protest, but at one intersection near downtown, the marathon's posters and flags mixed with green and orange banners carried by demonstrators.
"This is democracy," said Helena Shaar, a little winded from the race. "Some demonstrate. Some go to a marathon.
"This is the puzzle of Lebanon," she added.
Near the protest itself, within eyeshot of the government headquarters known as the Serail, there were dueling Masses. One was organized by supporters of Michel Aoun, a Christian leader allied with Hezbollah, at the St. George Cathedral. Up the street, another was held inside the Serail itself, in memory of Pierre Gemayel, a Christian government minister assassinated last month. It drew Siniora, some of his government supporters and Gemayel's relatives, in what amounted to a show of solidarity.
"A solution to any problem does not come through the streets," Siniora told reporters afterward.
But there appears to be almost no attempt to reach a compromise in a crisis that erupted with Hezbollah's demand in October for a greater share of power in the cabinet and that, since Friday, has become part waiting game, part test of wills. Hezbollah has promised to keep the protests open-ended; government officials speak privately about a fear that demonstrators might try to storm the Serail, which Hezbollah and its allies denied.
After the Mass, Siniora appealed for parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah whose movement backs the protest, to restart dialogue between the two camps. They are divided by ideology, priorities for the country and alliances -- backing for the government comes from the United States and France, while support for Hezbollah comes from Iran and Syria. Both bring different views, as well, of the summer's 33-day war with Israel. Hezbollah considers it a victory; the government blames Hezbollah for starting it. Siniora seemed to suggest counter-protests were possible, but a key ally said government supporters would simply wait. The protesters said they would, too.
"The war went for 33 days, but the protests can go on for a year," said Mohammed Zeinati, a 26-year-old protester.
Around him, tents had multiplied, some going up along the barbed wire and barricades guarding the Serail.
He smiled. "I don't think it will take that long," he said, pointing at the Serail. "I'm hoping tomorrow they all leave."
Special correspondent Alia Ibrahim contributed to this report.
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BEIRUT, Dec. 3 -- Sunni residents and Shiite protesters clashed in the capital Sunday, leaving one man dead and raising tension across Lebanon on a third day of demonstrations aimed at toppling the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
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Dr. Gridlock
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2006120419
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He was online Monday, Dec. 4, at 1 p.m. ET to address all your traffic and transit issues.
The Dr. Gridlock column receives hundreds of letters each month from motorists and transit riders throughout the Washington region. They ask questions and make complaints about getting around a region plagued with some of the worst traffic in the nation. The doctor diagnoses problems and tries to bring relief.
Dr. Gridlock appears in The Post's Metro section on Sunday and in the Extra section on Thursday. His comments also appear on the Web site's Get There blog. You can send e-mails for the newspaper column to drgridlock@washpost.com or write to Dr. Gridlock at 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.
Dr. Gridlock: Hello, travelers. There have been a few developments in transportation lately that should please some of you. One was the Army's decision, announced last week, to build its museum at Fort Belvoir rather than on a nearby site that our local officials thought would make an already severe traffic problem worse. Also, a couple of new ramps opened at the Sterling interchange on Route 28 as Virginia continues to convert that busy road into a limited access highway. And Metro has stopped its weekend track work for December, so there will be much less of the single tracking that has disrupted service in previous months. But many of us are thinking of the upcoming holidays. This morning on our Get There blog, I posted some suggestions for staying sane while holiday shopping and invited readers to submit their own.
Germantown, Md.: RE: Today's Blog...
Go with friends. Have a few of your friends meet at the persons house closest to the mall. Take one car and set your watches to meet back at a designated time. One car, one space, lots of people.
Also, in Europe people will drive to the entrance and look for someone with a lot of bags and then offer them a ride to their car in trade for their space. I have done this before at Tysons. Just look for the weary, person with too many bags. But word to the wise...don't pick up the weirdoes.
Dr. Gridlock: Carpooling for holiday shopping sounds like a good idea. Maybe the driver deserves a present, too. On parking, some readers have suggested that at malls with garages, you go for the levels that don't have direct access to the mall. Those levels tend to be less crowded, so you can park closer to the stairs or elevator and have a shorter walk.
Washington, D.C.: Any idea what time the malls are opening on weekends during December (specifically Tysons Corner and Pentagon City)? I wouldn't mind getting there when the doors open and leaving before it becomes overcrowded.
washingtonpost.com: Tysons Holiday HoursPentagon City Holiday Hours
Dr. Gridlock: A couple of links provided by our Live Online producer. Thank you. Reminds me that online shopping can save your sanity and cut down on overall traffic, too. Tele-shopping can be as helpful as teleworking at this season.
Downtown, D.C.: What is the process for deciding when and how to close down lanes for construction? The Newseum construction has caused enormous backups on Penn Ave. during morning rush hour as they close down lanes without signage; construction on 15th St. means that buses and cars are all frantically moving across multiple lanes, again at rush hour...I could go on and on. It seems that especially at rush hour the city should be working to keep more lanes open, but right now it appears that construction sites set their own rules. Who is in charge?
Dr. Gridlock: That's one of many sites in the District where lanes are taken for construction projects. It's always annoying. Post staff writer Steven Ginsberg did a story about this. The District's Department of Transportation makes the decisions and says it tries to balance the needs of travelers and the need to get construction projects done. Here's what Steven said: The District has pages of guidelines that developers must follow once site plans are approved, but city officials retain wide latitude in what they allow. Rather than enforcing general standards on every project, District officials said they prefer a case-by-case approach that allows them to weigh developer needs against traffic and parking concerns at a site.
Rough Ride on the T.R. Bridge: I rode over the new surface on the Roosevelt Bridge yesterday and was surprised at how wavy, bumpy and cracked it is. In my book, it is unacceptable.
Any chance that the concrete will be smoothed out before the project wraps up?
Dr. Gridlock: I've heard the same from other drivers, including several Virginians who work at The Post's downtown newsroom, and will give it a test drive myself and ask the District Department of Transportation about it. The bridge project is scheduled to be finished this month. It's a $6.9 million rehabilitation job that included a concrete deck overlay and other upgrades.
Bowie, Md.: I'll be starting a new job in Chantilly, Va., next month, and will be commuting from Bowie until I find a new house. Anybody out there making the same type of commute and have any suggestions on the best times to leave/return to lessen the pain until new living arrangements can be made? Also, better going on the Beltway or Wilson Bridge?
Dr. Gridlock: Wow, what a trip -- one side of the region to the other. I hope you can find that new house very soon. I'm thinking Wilson Bridge and around the south side of the Beltway, rather than over the top. What do you all think? It's always tough to give advice on timing about the long-distance commutes through the heart of the region. Every day can be different. There's a lot of room for trouble in such a congested region.
Washington, D.C.: A car with Florida plates has been left on my street in the same spot for almost three weeks. The street does not have residential parking permit restrictions, but is there some limit to how long someone can hog a street parking spot?
If so, what's my recourse?
Dr. Gridlock: You could start by calling the Mayor's Citywide Call Center at 202-727-1000. Here's what's supposed to happen next: After receiving a service request from the Citywide Call Center, a Department of Public Works investigator may post a warning notice on the vehicle, if it is abandoned, stating that the owner must remove it within the next 24 hours. Should the vehicle remain after 24 hours, DPW will dispatch a contract towing company to remove and tow it to the storage and auction facility.
Fairfax, Va.: I ride the Blue Line every day; I am really tired of those four-car trains that Metro seems to think are appropriate for rush hour commutes. I think they forget why they are in business, and about customer service. I am continually packed in like a sardine, and they say the rider-ship does not justify larger trains. Where is the customer service?
Dr. Gridlock: The lack of cars on the Blue Line is a constant complaint among riders and is completely understandable. The new batch of cars entering service now, the 6000 Series cars, will end the four-car trains on the Blue Line. This topic came up yet again at Metro's town hall meeting last week in Rosslyn. Many of the Blue Line riders think they're getting stiffed in favor of the Orange Line riders, but I don't believe that's the case. Still, those new cars can't arrive too soon.
20005: We're contemplating a trip up to Philly and back on New Year's Day. I thought that might not be such a bad travel day (believing most people would choose to travel on Tuesday). Am I crazy? Any good alternate routes besides 95? Would be leaving from the College Park area.
Dr. Gridlock: New Year's Day 2007 will be a Monday, the end of a three-day weekend for some and the end of a long Christmas holiday for others. I'm guessing the trip up to Philadelphia will be fine, but I'm worried for you on the way back. Most of us who head north for holidays wind up in despair in the state of Delaware, even though the construction that had narrowed the highway near the Maryland line is over. Alternatives to I-95 through Delaware include a trip along Routes 40, 301 and 50. That might help on the way back if you hear traffic is stopped on I-95. But there are plenty of lights on Route 40, and generally I recommend people take the biggest highway they can find with the fewest lights. Many readers tell me there are no undiscovered shortcuts.
From Rosslyn to Chinatown, which is faster at 9 a.m.: Independence Ave. or Constitution Ave.?
Dr. Gridlock: Thought I'd throw that open for group discussion. (I'm assuming you can't take Metrorail from Rosslyn to Metro Center and then switch to the Red Line to Gallery Place, which would be the least stressful thing.)
American Legion or Wilson Bridge?: I would advise the commuter from Bowie to Chantilly against the Wilson Bridge...it is a nightmare. As bad as the top side of the beltway is, the Wilson bridge is ALWAYS a guaranteed 6 mile backup in the morning and 5-6 mile backup in the afternoons back to Maryland. It's consistently slow and heavily congested. The top side of the beltway is tough going, but I believe it moves better than the slower-than-walking-crawl across the Wilson twice per day. This will change significantly once the new span opens in '08, but until then, you'll want to stay away during rush hours.
Dr. Gridlock: Some advice for the traveler going from Bowie to Chantilly. (But I just hate that crawl along the northern side, which can extend from Silver Spring across the Legion Bridge in the morning, and then that ghastly stretch from the Legion Bridge through the merge with I-270 in the afternoon.)
"Abandoned" car: Wow, really? You only have 24 hours to prove that you haven't abandoned your car before it's AUCTIONED OFF???
That's nuts. If there are no restrictions on street parking, I'm assuming that means no restrictions. Why would someone expose another person to the loss of their car, over a parking space? Much better to lobby the city for resident-restricted parking. My neighborhood commission is working on this now, and it seems do-able.
Dr. Gridlock: Another thought on the car problem the D.C. resident reported earlier in the chat.
Arlington, Va.: The Ballston station and the orange train I got on this morning smelled like rotting garbage. I have encountered this in the past as well at this station and others. Any idea what the cause might be?
Dr. Gridlock: I know that many Metrorail passengers have reported an odor in the underground stations. Many said they thought the odor was from dead rats. Metro says it's aware of an odor problem stemming from new brake pads on some of the rail cars. It's not a safety problem, but definitely something that needs to be dealt with and Metro says the manufacturer is trying to fix it. I can't say for sure that that's what you're experiencing at Ballston.
Towing after 24 hours!!!: I leave my car (with D.C. tags and residential parking sticker) parked on the street during the week, and I wouldn't necessarily see a notice to move it within the next 24 hours. Can they really tow it with only 24-hours notice? Yikes!
Dr. Gridlock: I didn't mean to send our D.C. readers racing to their parked cars by describing the city's rules on dealing with abandoned cars. The questioner was talking about a "car with Florida plates has been left on my street in the same spot for almost three weeks," not a car with D.C. tags and a residential sticker.
Baltimore: Suppose you woke up tomorrow morning and had $50 billion in your bank account with a mandate to fix traffic in the region. Where would you start?
Dr. Gridlock: That's a great question, and I'd love to hear from our readers on that. If my mandate is to fix congestion, I'd spend most of that money on road improvements, to have the maximum impact on congestion since most people drive. But I'd spend some on improving the reliability of the region's bus systems, buying more buses and improving the electronic systems that give some predictability to the schedules. But what do the rest of you think?
Arlington, Va.: Couldn't the Bowie to Chantilly person go across town, more or less, instead of around. Take 50 to 295 to 395 to 110 to 66 to 28?
Dr. Gridlock: When we have these questions about long-distance trip planning, many folks suggest routes through the core. Does that work, or is it putting drivers in the maximum congestion zone?
Rockville, Md.: Is there still construction on 95 near Delaware? I'm driving to New Jersey Sunday morning and am curious what to expect (need to arrive at a surprise party before the guest of honor, can't have too much traffic make me late!).
Dr. Gridlock: The construction that had been vexing so many travelers lately was a highway bridge project on I-95 in Delaware, pretty close to the Maryland line. That was finished during Thanksgiving week and you should have all lanes open. So I'd stick with 95 for that portion of your trip.
Arlington, Va.: re: "From Rosslyn to Chinatown, which is faster at 9 a.m.: Independence Ave. or Constitution Ave.?"
I'd vote for, "neither," and give the nod to Key Bridge to the Whitehurst Fwy. which turns into K St. Just stay on K to the right turn on 9th St. and you're in Chinatown (much easier, methinks -- as long as you're starting in Rosslyn -- than the lights and lefthand turns from Independence or Constitution).
Dr. Gridlock: By the way, the District Department of Transportation is still studying the future of the Whitehurst Freeway. It should have a final version of its consultant's report soon on options for doing away with the Whitehurst.
re: $50 billion: I would improve public transportation: make buses more widely available in the suburbs, extend metro farther out 66. I believe the answer to our horrible congestion is public transportation, not more roads.
Dr. Gridlock: I'm a big fan of public transportation and to get to The Post's newsroom downtown, I almost always take the Red Line. In Washington, we have one of the nation's best transit systems, yet we still are among the national leaders in traffic congestion. I think solving this problem -- and we can solve it -- will require a huge investment, and I think we've under-invested in roads in recent years. That doesn't necessarily mean a lot of brand new highways. There are many ways of improving existing roads.
$50B: But what road improvements would really have that much of an impact. Even if you could expand the Beltway, I-95, I-66 and all of that to 20 lanes, would it actually solve the traffic problem? Seems awfully unlikely.
Dr. Gridlock: No, it wouldn't solve the traffic problem, but I'm very hopeful for the current plans to expand the Beltway, 95 and 66. (Not to 20 lanes.) That's part of the solution, though far from the whole story.
DC: The $50 billion thing would be a GREAT topic for your blog (and would give us more time to think on it, too).
Dr. Gridlock: Yep. We'll do some more of that on the Get There blog this week.
T.R. Bridge: I concur with the other poster. The deck surface is actually worse than before. The only "improvement" has been the disappearance (for now) of the frame-bending potholes. The good folks at DDOT need to cap the concrete deck with asphalt to smooth out the ride, as has been done on a very short stretch at the west end of the bridge.
Dr. Gridlock: Do they really need to use asphalt? I thought the idea of concrete is that it's supposed to last longer than asphalt, though it's more expensive. Haven't heard any complaints about the concrete surface on the new Wilson Bridge.
Bowie to Chantilly: If you can leave -really- early in the morning (be on the road 5:30 - 6:00 a.m.), go through the District on U.S. 50 and hook up with I-66 to the Dulles Toll Rd. in Virginia. Going home -- as we say in New York, fuhgeddaboudit. It doesn't matter when you leave.
Maybe rent an apartment in Chantilly and drive to/from Bowie on weekends?
Dr. Gridlock: As usual, plenty of people are offering suggestions to help another traveler. Got a couple more I'll try to post momentarily.
Re: Bowie-to-Chantilly commuter: The person commuting from Bowie to Chantilly should also learn how to make the transit from the B-W parkway to the SE-SW Freeway to 395 to 66. It's less complicated than it sounds and will save time on those mornings when the bridges are jammed.
Silver Spring, Md.: Can Metro tell us why there so many stations that don't have system maps on the train platform?
It's NUTS! I get questions from tourists, and, without a system map to point to, I can't answer them.
Silver Spring and Braddock Road are among the many stations affected.
Dr. Gridlock: I asked Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel if he could address this question. Here's what he said in an e-mail just now: Every Metrorail station platform is supposed to have a Metrorail system map. On occasion the rail system maps disappear, and sometimes our advertising vendor removes a map by accident. Our Marketing and Advertising Department and the Department of Plant Maintenance will check all stations to make sure the rail system maps are where they are supposed to be. Finally, thanks to the reader for bringing this to our attention and for mentioning the specific train stations.
22201: Individuals in the military who have been stationed in Florida are not required to get new license plates when they move. That "abandoned car" could belong to someone right across the street.
Dr. Gridlock: Another thought on that D.C. car.
$50 Billion??: Give $100,000 to each person that agrees to work from home. That will open up the roads.
Dr. Gridlock: Wouldn't even take that much. Government and private industry could do a lot more to boost telecommuting.
Arlington, Va.: The four-car blue line trains would bother me slightly less if they didn't run two six-car Orange line trains for every one four-car blue train. The second orange line train is always virtually empty. Why can't they make that second orange train a blue-car train and give the blue line trains the extra two cars?
Dr. Gridlock: Is the Orange Crush an urban legend?
Alexandria, Va.: Thanks for taking my question. How is work going on the second span of the Woodrow Wilson bridge? Are the contractors on time and when is the target date for the opening of the second span of the bridge?
Dr. Gridlock: Work on the second span seems to be going fine. Crews have been taking down the old span while building the new one, which is scheduled to open in 2008. That's when we should really see the impact on traffic from this important project.
Kingstowne, Va.: I'm wondering if you might know what's up in Springfield today. Last week it was reported that the new ramp from the Outer Loop to I-95 South would open Dec. 6 and that traffic intending to exit in Springfield would also use the new ramp for a few months. The project's Web site now says the ramp was to open this morning and that Springfield traffic will NOT use it. I haven't seen anything in the local media today, and the WTOP traffic reports haven't mentioned it. Do you have any idea what the status is over there? Did the ramp open today? I am trying to anticipate whether to put off errands in Springfield to later this week if I should expect to encounter baffled drivers who won't read signs tonight.
Dr. Gridlock: I'll check on this. We said the ramp would open this Wednesday, weather permitting, but the project's Web site, www.springfieldinterchange.com, does indeed refer to an opening this morning.
Franconia-Springfield: Do you know why there is no "Next Train in X Minutes" information on the signs at the Franconia-Springfield station? And when there is a train at the platform, there is rarely departure information on the screens. Is it like this at all other terminal stations and can it be changed?
Dr. Gridlock: Interesting question about the electronic signs at the ends of the Metrorail lines. I'll try to answer that one on the Get There blog this week.
McLean, Va.: Dear Mr. Gridlock,
I moved three miles from work because the commute was getting to me. Unfortunately, I live and work on opposite sides of Tysons Corner. Last Tuesday it took over one hour to get three miles. I was in tears by the time I reached home.
Getting to work isn't an issue, it's getting home that is tough.
Please help! Leaving work earlier isn't an option. And I have to get to daycare by 6, so I can't leave much later than I do now.
Dr. Gridlock: I don't have a solution for this complaint that is becoming more and more common. The only thing that's really clear now is that the congestion is a good argument for better road design and transit use in what is emerging as one of the region's main urban centers.
Stafford, Va.: Do you know of any plans for bringing HOV farther south?
Dr. Gridlock: The proposal I know of involves a public-private partnership that would place new lanes on I-95 for the use of motorists who carpool or are willing to pay tolls that vary with the degree of congestion. That project is still years away.
Fairfax, Va.: It just amazes me that just about every day I see cars driving at dusk and at night without headlights. Some have parking lights on, most don't even have that. This seems to have increased dramatically in the last couple of years. Are the authorities not enforcing the laws in this regard?
Dr. Gridlock: I feel like I see this quite often as the days grow shorter. Maybe some people have this fixed idea of what time the lights should come on? Some sort of mental timer switch? During December, I'll be driving with my lights on all the time. I'm worried about distracted drivers thinking of their holiday shopping lists and not the oncoming traffic. Well, I think we'd better shut down for today. Thanks for all the good questions and comments. I'll try to extend some of today's topics through the week on the Get There blog, at http://blog.washingtonpost.com/getthere. Also, I've got a few questions still left here I'll see if I can answer on the blog after a little research. Travel safely.
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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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The Chat House
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2006120419
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Virginia Beach, Va.: Hey Wilbon! My Redskins are terrible. Could they turn it around with two simple changes? Hire a GM and get rid of Al Saunders. Gibbs is fine when he calls the plays. Keep it simple. What do you think?
Michael Wilbon: The Redskins are terrible. I've been saying for seven years -- and you can check the archives if you want -- the Redskins need a real GM who is not the coach. And the Al Saunders experiment is a disaster. The playcalling was dumb beyond words yesterday. To ask a kid QB making his third start to throw the ball 38 times is stupid. There's no other word for it. You're up 14-0 and your primary back -- Betts -- is en route to a 155-yard day or whatever it was...It should have been 255 and Duckett should have been given 20 carries, too. I don't know what I'm more surprised by, the arrogance of it or the stupidity...or both.
Poconos, Pa.: I haven't seen much of Campbell, being out of D.C. and not having the NFL package on DirecTV. Give an honest, no-bones assessment of his play thus far.
Michael Wilbon: He's been pretty good for a rookie. That's about it. He had two real good games to start and a bad game yesterday. But if you can get your rookie quarterback to be decent 2/3 of the time, that's pretty good. It's better than Rex Grossman, I'll tell you that. Look, any quarterback is going to experience growing pains. So Campbell isn't going to light it up every week. He's going to have peaks and valleys. But for the coaching staff to ask him to win the game after getting a 14-point lead yesterday is dumb beyond belief. It's almost treason. Whoever called those plays ought to walk over to that kid in the locker room and apologize. It was that stupid.
D.C.: Speaking of Duckett...will we re-sign him and let Betts go this summer? I'm guessing Betts will want more coin then he deserves? If not, where will Duckett go? If I'm him I am getting OUTTA TOWN the second the season is over...the Redskins have KILLED him in a contract year!
Michael Wilbon: Duckett is a valuable player...for a team that has the sense to use him. But he's not a lead back. Betts is. Now, you're not going to see Betts and Portis here next year...well, you wouldn't for a team that has any idea of what it's doing in terms of personnel. But you shouldn't see all three of them. And if I'm Duckett, why would I want to stay here and play for people who don't think anything of me even though I'm averaging about 5 yards per carry.
Maryland: Did you ever have any hatred when you were younger (teen age/twenties) towards other teams or players?
I love the 'Skins and Orioles. I hate the Red Sox with passion as well as Dallas. And now can't stand Romo.
Michael Wilbon: It's sorta well chronicled. And Tony won't let it die even when I try to move away from it. I hated Notre Dame and Michigan football. Talk about a great week for me last week: When USC beat Notre Dame and moved ahead of Michigan in the BCS poll. That was one of the great two-for-ones in my life! I hated Carlton Fisk as a kid, when he was with the Red Sox...told him years ago...and have had the great fortune of getting to know him and spend some time with him and his wife as a grown man...He's a wonderful guy...it was a thrill to spend a couple of hours with him one day a couple of summers ago after a golf tournament. Who else did I hate? All the Packers. But I got out of that silliness by the time I was 15 because I started to then appreciate sports and great competitors for what they were...And my dad simply wouldn't allow stupid "I hate him" statements in the house. My brother Don and I had to argue our positions persuasively and logically...so "I hate him" couldn't hold up for long.
Rockville, Md.: Mike, Wizards make the playoffs -- yes or no?
Michael Wilbon: Hmmmm. It's so early. Right now it looks like no. But we're not even five weeks into a 24-week season. They'd better make up their minds to play some kind of defense between now and the All-Star break. They talked a good game in the preseason then came out and did the same old junk. You can't let Charlotte shoot 50 percent against you in your own gym. That's dreadful. And then the Bulls, who must be in the bottom-third of the league in field goal percentage, shot 50 percent against the Wizards a couple of nights later. I don't know whose defense is worse, the Redskins or the Wizards. And the Wizards problem is Orlando is much better. The Bulls, after that dreadful start, have won four or five straight and are starting to get it together. Cleveland, Detroit and Indiana are better than they are...The Wiz should still make it, but what's the point of finishing 7th or 8th...You just get swept out by the No. 1 or No. 2 seed. The Wizards have to have more ambition than just getting into the playoffs.
Washington, D.C.: The Saints were a good team anyway, but how good do they become now that Reggie Bush is starting to look like the USC version of himself? Can they go to the Super Bowl? In the AFC you wouldn't give them much of a shot, but in the NFC, they're legit contenders aren't they?
Michael Wilbon: Yes, yes, yes the Saints are Super Bowl contenders. Look, we're talking four teams in the NFC that can really contend: Bears, Cowboys, Saints, Seahawks. That's it, that's the list. And not one of those teams is so much better than any of the others. They're all pretty equal. The Bears have the biggest upside, but also are the most vulnerable because of Rex Grossman's dreadful play...If the Saints can have Joe Horn, Deuce, rookie Colston, that new receiver who took his place (Henderson?) and Reggie Bush all in the lineup? Drew Brees knows exactly how to utilize a bunch of weapons. I can't wait to see this Saints-Cowboys game...Isn't that this coming Sunday in Dallas? I root for the Saints every single game...I think a lot of us do because of what the Gulf region has had to endure since Katrina.
The Shoe: Will you be covering the BCS Championship game? And what are the repercussions of Tressel not voting in the Coaches Poll? Thanks Michael!
Michael Wilbon: Yes, I will be covering the BCS game. And Tressel, to me, did the classy thing. He had a major conflict of interest and instead of voting in a manipulative way (which would have been understandable) he said, "No, that's not ethical." Tressel went way, way up in my estimation. And Lloyd Carr (remember, I just admitted to hating Michigan football) sounds like a Neanderthal questioning Tressel for, essentially, not voting for Michigan. As if Tressel owes Michigan anything. Lloyd Carr is a very good coach...and also capable of such buffoonery.
Atlantic City, N.J.: Is there a tougher sports city than Philadelphia? After all, its the same city that boo'ed Santa, pelted Jimmy Johnson with snowballs (which was started by now-governor Ed Rendell), and boo'ed the selection of the classy and great Donovan McNabb...My all-time favorite quote about Philadelphia comes from Mike Schmidt when he said where else can you "experience the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day."
Michael Wilbon: That is one of my all-time favorite quotes, too. I love covering games here in Philly, which is where I am now...in the photographers room of The Linc, just outside the locker rooms...It's so passionate, so loud. The cheers and the booing here is so from-the-gut. You can feel what it is people feel. I wouldn't want to work or live here for any price. But they love sports here. No discussion of the great sports cities in America could leave Philly out of the top five.
Dan from your hometown: Hey Mike: Just a dumb question, unrelated to anything . . .
When I see coaches on the sidelines talking into their clipboards, I wonder if there really are spies out there actively reading the coaches lips and reporting back to the opposing sidelines. The whole idea seems implausible to me, and I feel coaches are being overly paranoid. Or am I just being naive, and incognito lip-readers are a team's 12th man?
Michael Wilbon: If you had a person you paid to watch TV and was also on the phone with the coaches on the sideline and in the booth...well, it could work. But my first inclination is to say that it looks unbelievably stupid.
Bethesda, Md.: Cure for the Wizards' ills:
Kevin Garnett for Antwan Jamison, a big man and draft picks?
Michael Wilbon: So, you think the Timberwolves people are simply retards?
Baltimore: Grossman not only looked lost on the field yesterday, he looked REALLY shaky talking to the press. The guy looks like his confidence is simply shot. Do you sit him?
Michael Wilbon: I should have said, "Do you think the Timberwolves people are morons." I regret my previous word choice and apologize. Grossman is beyond shaky. That's why I like Lovie Smith standing there and saying, "Rex is my quarterback." I wouldn't sit Rex; I'd start him. But I'd bring Griese into the game sometime in the second half. The Bears simply are not going to win the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman playing the way he is now. I'd get Griese ready and try to coach Grossman out of this. The thing I was encouraged about, as a lifelong Bears fan, is that the kid stood there and said something to the effect of, "My game stinks, and I'm going to find it." I liked that about him yesterday.
Washington, D.C. - hate: I hate LeBron, but only because as a Wizards fan I have this recurring nightmare of his teams knocking the Wizards out of the playoffs for the next 10 years. (I'm kidding about the "hate" of course)
Michael Wilbon: Well, that could happen. LeBron could be to the Wizards what Michael Jordan was to the Cavaliers in the 1980s and 1990s. On the other hand, if the Wizards don't pull themselves together they could be so far back in LeBron's rear-view mirror he might not even see them.
Reggie Bush: Even though Marques Colston missed yesterday's game, he still is the Rookie of the Year for the Saints with Reggie Bush a distant second.
The comparisons to Gale Sayers baffle me. In size, speed and career, I think Bush will have a career more similar to Eric Metcalf. What do you think, Mike.
Michael Wilbon: Bush is spectacular, and I think he'll be more of an impact player for longer than Metcalf, who (you're right) was a sight to behold with the ball. Sayers? Bush isn't close to Sayers and the comparison doesn't hold. But there are still four weeks to go...Colston was the rook-of-the-year for the Saints. But Bush could pass him by. And by the way, as good as Colston, Indy's Joseph Addai and the Patriots' Maroney are, the rookie of the year in the NFL is Vince Young. Backs don't have to run a team. And those two can simply be plugged into offenses that were great before they arrived. Vince Young has to run a team, which was nothing when he took over and is 5-4 in his nine starts, 5-2 in his last seven. How silly, by the way, do the Houston Texans look now?
D.C.: Finally saw some clips of Greg Oden in a college game. Man, he was impressive, but looks like he's Shawn Kemp's older brother.
Michael Wilbon: I know. He doesn't have the youngest face in the world, does he? (Good Shawn Kemp comparison, by the way). Did you see the results of his first game. Still wearing that brace on his right wrist, the kid scored 14 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked five shots. Did you see him swish the free throws with his left hand? He shoots better free throws with his left hand that Shaq does with his right. Whoever wins the lottery and drafts this kid is going to win the NBA Championship within three years. My GOODNESS, did you see the blocked shots? He blocks with either hand, doesn't foul, and directs the blocks to himself or teammates. Are you kidding me?
Baltimore: Re: sports fans in Philadelphia: As great as that Mike Schmidt quote is, I prefer one from the late, acerbic sportswriter Jim Murray: "Philadelphia would boo a cure for cancer."
Michael Wilbon: Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times was one of my three all-time favorite sports columnists (Shirley Povich, Sam Lacy and Jim) and anybody who can sit and read a collection of his columns should do so. It's a shame we've lost them all, but they live on through their words and ideas.
Washington, D.C.: You used to be my favorite sports columnist, and then I just read this line:
"So, you think the Timberwolves people are simply retards?"
Wow. One of the best sports writers in the country goes to "retards." Oh well. Guess I'll stick with Wise.
Michael Wilbon: I apologized once, if you kept reading, and I'll apologize again. And you can be unforgiving if you're perfect. And I doubt it. I apologize again, because it was a stupid word choice and I know better...No excuses. It was beyond dumb.
Silver Spring, Md.: Hey Michael, thanks for the candid points about the 'Skins, whom I love, I (sadly) agree with you wholeheartedly. Here's my question for you: What's your take on Michael Irvin's rant regarding Tony Romo and his, um, lineage? I don't know if I've missed the coverage of this, but I haven't seen it brought up at all. Thanks Michael!
Michael Wilbon: Michael Irvin's rant was even more regrettable that my word choice a few minutes ago. It involved all kinds of stereotyping and...well, I'm not going to recount it. I cringed when I heard it, and I might talk to Michael about it tonight...I might not. I haven't decided yet what, if anything, I should or will do. And Michael and I have a great relationship...I don't think there should have been any punishment because I believe people can say insensitive things about their own and others cannot. That's simply the way I feel. I can say the "N" word 100 times a day and often do when I'm with my friends who are black. That doesn't mean someone of another race can use it. Similarly, if people of other races want to use certain phrases or words about themselves, fine. But that doesn't mean I can jump in and use that word or phrase. It's off limits to me. I'm sure others don't feel as I do, but that's my approach to dealing with it. Tony can crack jokes about Jews. I do not...not ever. I can say certain things that he cannot...not ever.
Best Jim Murray Line Ever:" John Wooden is so square, he is divisible by four."
Michael Wilbon: Murray has probably 100 "best lines ever."
Did my long answer on Michael Irvin get published? Did you guys see that yet or did it disappear from the page or never show up? Anybody who could answer...it would be appreciated.
Rob---Philadelphia, Pa.: Is either of tonight's MNF teams good enough to make a run in the playoffs?
Michael Wilbon: Yeah, Carolina is. But it's getting more and more difficult to trust the Panthers. Every time it seems as if they've righted themselves, they stumble again. And Jake Delhomme is playing pretty poorly right now. He needs to have a good game tonight against the Eagles. I don't believe the Eagles are good enough. Yeah, I know the NFC is dreadful after those four division leaders. But without Donovan McNabb it's going to be very difficult because the Eagles are constructed absolutely around Donovan's talents. They don't have a real every-down back. They throw the ball too much for my tastes. The Eagles need to spend some money and get some players in the offseason, even if Donovan comes back whole from his knee injury.
Coaches and Clipboards: I always thought that they were trying to block out any excess sound that might make it harder for those on the other end to understand what the coach was trying to communicate.
Michael Wilbon: Okay, that makes sense. And I hope that's the reason...I really do.
Washington, D.C.: I read a comment by Jason Whitlock last week where he said that Dick Vermeil looks more and more like an offensive genius every time leaves a job. Martz got exposed after he left St. Louis and Saunders is a disaster now with the 'Skins, but both of them were thought of as offensive gurus when they worked under Vermeil.
Would you agree with this?
Michael Wilbon: That's a very thoughtful point by Mr. Whitlock. Jason played college football and he knows football, period. I should call him and have a long listen about Saunders.
Cape Coral, Fla.: After yesterdays game should the Packers admit the Bret Favre era is over and make the hard decision to start preparing for next year by letting someone else play?
Michael Wilbon: You know, the people who started waxing poetically (are you listening Tony?) three weeks ago about how Favre can play five more years need to just hush up now. Favre has been one of the great quarterbacks in NFL history, period. And he's been as great a showman as he has been a quarterback. He's been worth the price of a ticket his entire career, by himself. But it's over. If the Packers want to contend again, they've got to get started with the program of ushering in a new quarterback. It's just the way of the world and I'm sure Favre understands better than almost anyone. His days of carrying a franchise on his back to the playoffs is over and done. Canton waits him, but not the playoffs.
Anonymous: We saw the Irvin thing.
First off, I'm so happy you mentioned Judy Pace the other day on PTI! You and I are the exact same age, and the exact same race, and apparently we were carrying the same torch for Judy Pace as youngsters. Unlike you, though, I'd somehow forgotten about her -- and she roared back into my head as soon as you said her name. So thank for that.
My question is something of an "inside baseball" question: Why is it that you seem to have a different clothing aesthetic for NBA Nation as you do for PTI? Is there some sort of network mandate on ABC? Or do you perceive the two viewing audiences differently and therefore adjust accordingly? I prefer your PTI clothes, personally, but I am curious about the difference.
Michael Wilbon: First, thanks for mentioning the Judy Pace thing from PTI. I LOVED Judy Pace. About three or four years ago, after mentioning the late great Curt Flood on PTI, I got a phone call from Judy Pace. I nearly fainted. I always thought she was THE most beautiful woman I'd ever seen...Anyway, the clothing: I said going into PTI I wouldn't wear ties, and rarely do. I wanted a somewhat more relaxed feeling, but not T-shirts or anything stupid like that. I love clothes. Well, I'm addicted to clothes. But PTI is my show. NBA Nation is not. Redskins Report and Full Court Press are not MY shows. So, it's more the audiance than what the code is for those shows. And I'm happy to wear ties and dress shirts, but thankful I don't have to do it every day.
Silver Spring, Md.: I don't want to hear any whining from Michigan on this one. They had a chance to be national champion and lost to Ohio State. Now someone else should get a chance. I think the BCS worked this year ... you?
Michael Wilbon: I'm okay with Florida. I'm not wild about it. It's short of a playoff, so it's inadequate for me. But Michigan did have a chance (albeit on the road). Florida played a difficult schedule, won the toughest conference in the nation...I've got no problem with selecting the Gators. But I do sorta feel for Michigan...and that's a lot for me to go there for the Wolverines.
How 'bout them 'Boys?: Okay, the 'Skins are dead for this year. Time to move on. What's your thought on the NFC playoffs? Dallas looks good, but against Chicago or Seattle? And will the AFC (Pats or Colts) beat whoever comes out of the NFC?
Michael Wilbon: Right now, my Super Bowl pick of Indy vs. Giants ain't lookin' too good, is it? If I had to pick off of what I'm watching now, these last three or four weeks, I'd have my final four in the AFC consist of Indy/Chargers/Patriots/Ravens...and I'd have an NFC final four of Bears/Cowboys/Saints/Seahawks.
If we stretch this out (and I don't know that the seedings will hold) I'd go Bears vs. Cowboys in the NFC and Patriots vs. Chargers in the AFC...but luckily, we've got a long way to go. The Bengals, by the way, might be back to where they were in January of last year before Carson Palmer got hurt. That would make for hellacious first and second rounds of the AFC playoffs.
D.C.: Michael, I feel you're missing a point on the Irvin/Romo issue; you said: "I don't think there should have been any punishment because I believe people can say insensitive things about their own and others cannot." But what about Mr. Romo in this? Irvin's implication is that only blacks can be impressive athletes, and that an extramarital, backyard affair is what separates Romo from having Bledsoe's lead feet. Maybe I'm more sensitive having been a white ballplayer in college who used to have to hear this in locker rooms constantly, but it's an offensive stereotype.
Michael Wilbon: It is offensive, the notion that white people can't be athletic. I agree with that. I write about that occasionally. But the brotha-in-the-barn imagery is something I see as stereotyping blacks...I could be wrong. We see all these things with our own sensitivities and bias...I admit that going in...As I said, I cringed when I heard it. Maybe it offends a wider range of people than I initially thought.
DC: Are you aching right now with the emergence of Tyson Chandler and the funk of Ben Wallace? I don't recall Tyson every complaining about headbands.
Michael Wilbon: Yeah, the Ben Wallace start has been rocky. Luckily, since the head band drama, the Bulls are 4-0...though they beat the Knicks twice and the Wizards once so I'm hardly throwing a parade. Tyson Chandler starts off every season a house afire when it comes to rebounding. But he fouls, he gets hurt because he plays so hard yet is so skinny...I hated parting with Chandler and thought the Ben trade was going to be a good one for the Bulls. I've backed off on my optimism lately.
Kalamazoo, Mich.: Since you are already in D.C....how about a Wilbon/Kornheiser 2008 run?
Or would it have to be Kornheiser/Wilbon 2008 ?
Michael Wilbon: Wilbon/Kornheiser run to what, the golf course? Or the buffet?
Knoxville, Tenn.: Any chance this will convince the Big Ten it is now time to add another team (Notre Dame)(hint hint) and finally add a championship game like the other conferences have so they will still be playing at the first of December ?
Michael Wilbon: Notre Dame has been invited and has turned down the Big Ten's advances more than once, as I recall. The Irish make too much money from NBC to join anybody.
Bowie, Md: Judy Pace? Help the rest of us ...
Michael Wilbon: You got Internet? Google Judy Pace. She was an actress in the 1960s and 1970s, probably into the 1980s...a very brown-skinned African-American woman with a smile to die for amd curly black hair...a dream for guys in their early 40s and older. She was never a lead because she was of an age (I'm guessing late 50s now, maybe 60) when black women weren't cast a leads (not that they are now, for that matter). She appeared in all manner of sit-coms. I bet she must have 100 credits from appearing in sit-coms over the years. I think (and my memory may be failing me) that she played Gayle Sayers' wife in "Brian's Song." Can somebody help me out here? Anyway, if television was inclusive and black women were rewarded with TV jobs as beautiful white women are, Judy Pace would have been, say, one of Charley's Angels. Or 10 years later in a slightly more welcoming climate...perhaps Claire Huxtable. Now, I'm curious about her work. I have to Google her and go back and see what she was in...Anyway, Curt Flood endured a lot of garbage in his life, but wasn't he rewarded when he got home...just to have Judy Pace open the door.
Arlington, Va.: I admit it, I am a die-hard Wolverines fan, so I am completely biased in my feelings over the latest BCS debacle. Nonetheless, let me say that I am taking some solace in the fact that the voters will get what they wanted in the championship game -- an OSU rout that you can turn off after the first quarter. Much better than a rematch of one of the best games of the decade on a neutral cite. Way to think it through, voters.
Michael Wilbon: I seriously, seriously doubt Ohio State is going to rout Florida. The Buckeyes won't have played in 52 days. Florida has played twice since Thanksgiving. And as we've seen so many times in the Rose Bowl, the Big Ten team is at a disadvantage going out to play in relatively warm weather (should be in the 60s all that week in Arizona, maybe 70) while the Florida kids are accustomed to the weather. And more important, Florida and California schools always always always have a big advantage in speed. Ohio State has closed that gap more than other Midwestern schools as we saw when they won the championship four years ago. Still, Florida's speed on defense is something to behold. I see it as a pick' em game.
Bowie, Md.: Pretty bleak assessment by Bos of how far Campbell has to go to become a first-rate NFL QB. What has he been doing while waiting his turn, reading comic books? I thought the whole point of his apprenticeship was to have him well prepared before handing him the ball.
Michael Wilbon: I disagree mostly with Tom Boswell's take on Jason Campbell. If Bos thinks Campbell was supposed to have three straight really good games to start his career, he's crazy. Who does that? Elway? No. Aikman? No. Bradshaw? No. Okay, maybe Marino. But the list is a short one. Romo is 5-1 but he's been around for four years. One bad game where the coaches called plays like morons means Jason Campbell is somehow tragically flawed. That's Bos's logic, not mine. I think we still, mostly, have no idea what Campbell can do. Just as the Giants still don't know about Eli Manning and he's been starting since midway his rookie season.
Okay, gotta run and prepare for PTI...Jaws and Tony are heading to makeup so I'd better jump, too. Thanks for chatting. We'll see if the Redskins bounce back next Sunday against the Eagles...Boy, did that game lose it's luster. How many of you had the Eagles and Redskins making the playoffs this season? I had the Redskins as a wild-card team! How off base was I? Have a great week everybody. MW
Judy Pace: Yep - she played Linda Sayers in "Brian's Song"
Michael Wilbon: Thanks for confirming...My memory isn't totally gone just yet! MW
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Personal Tech - washingtonpost.com
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2006120419
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The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online Monday, Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. ET to answer your personal tech questions, discuss recent columns, and provide advice for finding the right gadget for the holidays.
For more advice on holiday tech giving, check out this year's Holiday Tech Gift Guide.
Want to know what upcoming topics are being covered? Sign up for the Fast Forward e-letter-- get updated information on personal technology news and product demos.
Past editions of Rob's e-letter are online here.
Rob Pegoraro: I'm back. What can I tell you about today?
Ashburn, Va.: Rob - How come you didn't include the Motorola "Q" in your review yesterday? Thanks, Russ
Rob Pegoraro: Because I reviewed it about six months ago. (I didn't like it all that much; it has all the limitations of the Dash's Smartphone software, but also costs a lot more to use--$80/month.
Reston, Va.: Hi Rob. Soon to be the owner of two Macs, and wonder if you can help direct me to the best alternative for a program that will "trick" made-for-Windows apps (I'm talking mainly about games for my young kids) into thinking they're being run on a PC. If it doesn't break the bank, then so much the better. Thanks...
Rob Pegoraro: You have three choices.
1) Apple's Boot Camp software, which will set up a separate partition for Windows on your Mac; install a new copy of XP, and you've got a 100-percent-compatible Windows machine, albeit one that you can't use simultaneously with Mac OS X.
2) Parallels's $80 Parallels Workstation, which will set up a "virtual machine" for Windows--any version will do--that runs inside of OS X. Not 100 percent compatible, although kids' games shouldn't be a problem.
3) CodeWeavers' still-in-beta CrossOver for Mac OS X, which may be closest to your request: It makes Windows apps think they're running in Windows--but without needing a copy of Windows anywhere near your Mac. But: This is at a pretty early stage of development compared to the others, and its compatibility is much less than 100 percent. It is, however, free to try (www.codeweavers.com).
HD DVD: Is it correct to assume that HD-DVD players and Blu-Ray players are also backward compatible with existing DVDs? How about the MS HD player sold as an XBOX 360 accessory?
Rob Pegoraro: Corret, HD DVD and Blu-Ray players can play existing DVDs as well as CDs.
While we're on this subject: Has anybody in this chat bought either type of player yet? (Buying a PlayStation3 as a game machine doesn't really count; you have to want to use the thing to watch high-def movies.)
Falls Church, Va.: I'm considering an HDTV this winter as a present to myself. Will HDTV prices come down far enough in the next few months to justify waiting? I'd hate to pay $2,000 today for what will be 500 in February.
Rob Pegoraro: I can promise that you won't see a $2,000-$500 drop; you might, at worst, see a $2,000 set drop to $1,700 in February.
Brooklyn, N.Y.: I'm interested in speakers to attach to an iPod. The obvious choice is the Bose SoundDock - a tad expensive but I expect good quality from Bose. Do you have any experience with the SoundDock? Do you have any suggestions for similar products to look at, or perhaps a set of wireless speakers that can be connected with an iPod at the base? Thanks and happy holidays.
Rob Pegoraro: There are a lot of choices in this department--the Apple Store near my home had most of a wall taken up with them on Sunday. Take a look at playlistmag.com for reviews of most of them.
Arlington, Va.: Rob, last week someone asked about options for converting records to mp3 format. My mom has a huge record collection, and she spotted a USB turntable (in Reader's Digest, no less--go figure). I checked it out and it seems legit--it comes with recording software and you can plug it right into a Mac or PC's USB port. Instant ripping of records! It's made by Ion (never heard of them before). Here's the Amazon page for it: http://www.amazon.com/Ion-iTTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/dp/B000BUEMOO
Rob Pegoraro: I think I saw an ad for this in the SkyMall catalogue over Thanksgiving weekend. Don't know anything about it myself, but if you have a large collection of vinyl it seems like it could save you a lot of trouble.
Washington, D.C.: Hi Rob, is it worth it to repair the power jack on my HP laptop or should I just start saving for a new computer? Thanks
Rob Pegoraro: I can't tell. Did you buy the thing four months ago, or four years?
Plymouth Meeting, Pa.: we bought a Maxima rather than a Toyota Avalon because the latter had no bluetooth for our Treo or an ipod connection. we were told the Camry has both but that auto makers don't retool computers/electronics more than every 3 years. is this true of American car makers also? thank you. Teresa
Rob Pegoraro: Yes. Ever notice how long it took these guys to start adding a simple line-in jack to their car stereos?
Hallandale, Fla.: I read both the Washington Post and NY Times. I am an avid crossword puzzle fan. I use both IE and Mozilla Firefox. Why can't I open the puzzle in either paper using Firefox?
Rob Pegoraro: I can't speak for that other paper, but I just started filling out our online crossword in this copy of Firefox 2.0. No problem at all. Are you using an up-to-date version of Firefox? How about the latest version of the Flash player plug-in (www.adobe.com/flashplayer/)?
HP Laptop with back Power Jack: I bought it three years ago.
Rob Pegoraro: Tough call... how well was it suiting your needs before the power adapter died? Three years is a long time for a laptop.
In any case--I have another question on this topic--can anybody suggest some laptop-repair places that have served them well? Doesn't hurt to call and ask for a quote. (But if the quote exceeds, say, $200, $300 tops, you should think seriously about just buying a new computer.)
Alex, Va.: Hi, Rob. I'm searching for an inexpensive mp3 flash drive for the gym for around $50 - 70, and a corresponding music download service where I pay by the song to own?
Rob Pegoraro: An iPod shuffle and the iTunes Store should work pretty well for you.
Towson, Md.: Has anyone figured out that making "cell phone" almost universally synonymous with "camera" creates problems for folks who work in areas where cameras are forbidden? Those of us who work in high security areas cannot legally drive through the gate with a camera -- including camera phones. In effect this means that I could not carry such a cell phone with me on work days. I'm still using a 5-year old phone because it galls me to pay extra for a phone without this unwelcome "feature". I'm sure there are many others who either pay up or just take the chance that their car won't be searched. Hello -- is any cell phone company listening??
Rob Pegoraro: Don't know what to say here, Towson. Some carriers do offer camera-less versions of phones (Verizon, for instance), but often that isn't an option.
In simple economics, though, people who aren't allowed to bring cameras to work constitute a tiny niche market. Most carriers and manufacturers aren't going to bother selling to it. That's not good or bad; it's just business.
Bethesda, Md.: Rob-- I read your criteria for point-and-shoot cameras-- they sound reasonable, but the P&S I own (a Fujifilm f30) violates just about every one of them. The f30 has only a 3x zoom, no image stabilization, an unusual xD memory card, a proprietary battery, and 'only' 6.2 megapixels. But I think (and reviewers generally agree) that the f30 is a terrific little camera. It's responsive (no shutter lag!), takes good indoor or low-light shots without a flash because its sensor is larger and more sensitive than any other P&S in its class and it gets over 500 shots on a single battery charge. It all depends on what you want in a camera-- the f30 doesn't have all the gizmos, but it's designed to get good shots over a set of conditions that's a lot wider than the typical P and S.
Rob Pegoraro: Fair enough, but if you could get the bigger image sensor in a camera that had the features I recommended, wouldn't you prefer that? (The Fuji f31d does add image stabilization.)
Rockville, Md.: Just want to reiterate the importance of using multiple anti-spyware software. My father called me on Sunday. He was getting a pop-up from his Windows toolbar saying he had spyware and that if he clicked on the popup, he would download anti-spyware software. Turns out he had Spysherrif - a rogue anti-spyware application that uses fake alerts and false positives as a goad into scaring you into purchasing their software. He had Norton Internet Professional and scanned using definitions downloaded on Friday - it said he was clear. I had him download Ad Aware and it found and cleaned it. I used to think one program was necessary and two was great but overkill. I now believe one is insufficient and two is necessary.
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks--although I think the real message of this story is DON'T INSTALL RANDOM JUNK FROM THE INTERNET IN THE FIRST PLACE.
If your dad had called you earlier to say "is it OK to load this new program?" you both would have been able to spend Sunday watching football instead of tinkering with computers.
(Actually, if you're a Redskins fan that's a poor example. Never mind...)
Alex, Va.: I am going to donate an old computer ("old" = 3 1/2 years) but want to sanitize it first (without spending any $$). Do you have suggestions?
Rob Pegoraro: Please see this Help File column of two weekends ago.
Fairfax, Va.: Hi Rob, I've been looking at cameras lately in anticipation of an Alaskan cruise next summer. Canon's Elph line has been recommended and I also took note of your pick of Canon's A710. My online research has warned me, though, of a fault in Canon's retractable lenses, yielding an E18 lens error that renders the camera unusable. There's even been a class action lawsuit regarding this, although it failed. Reports are that Canon will charge $150-ish to fix this. Do you know anything about this?
Rob Pegoraro: Nope--never had any such issue in the three weeks or so I had to test the A710 IS.
Hendersonville, N.C.: Can you rank digital cameras by shutter lag times?
Rob Pegoraro: I can't--I've only personally tested a tiny subset of them. I can tell you that this has gotten much better in recent models, especially if you prefocus the camera--or, in a camera with manual focus, lock it on infinity. If you want to see hard data on cameras' performance, you'll do best at some of the enthusiast-oriented sites. I'm a fan of the Digital Camera Resource Page (www.dcresource.com), Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com) and the Imaging Resource Page (www.imaging-resource.com)
Tina in Falls Church: I settled on a Nikon Coolpix L6 for hubby's first digital camera, kinda entry level, kinda easy and if he really uses it I will get a more fully featured one for him next Christmas. The market is a shoppers delight...177-179 from all the big stores but....Ritz has the HP photoprinter for free (after 100 rebate) and gives you scads of promos and coupons for free prints and stuff. Seems like if you want to get a mainstream digital camera the stores are using this segment as a loss leader and sweetening the pie to boot.
Rob Pegoraro: That's not an unreasonable strategy if you happen to be a store that sells printing services...
Silver Spring, Md.: emusic is a good choice for the shuffle person - yeah, you pay a monthly fee but it can be as low as $10 for a lot of downloads. You own the songs as mp3s and there are no stupid DRM restrictions. Not as many tunes as iTunes, but a better deal for the money.
Rob Pegoraro: I like eMusic--but the ongoing unwillingness of the major labels to provide their music as DRM-free downloads means that eMusic's catalogue features a *lot* less than iTunes'.
You'd think that if an indie label, with much shallower pockets and fewer marketing resources, can do fine by selling music without copying restrictions, a major label should be able to do even better. But maybe that's just me...
Arlington, Va.: Tired of being tethered to my Dell desktop while computing at home, I want to buy a laptop to run off a wireless router. Part of me figures it's just best to cave and get a Windows laptop, but the other part of me has had enough of various Windows frustrations and wants to buy a Mac Book. I've never used a Mac but I'm intrigued by some of the Apple software and by the Mac advantages that you have written about.
However, a Mac Book would be about $250 more than a Dell PC that I would have built, and while the $250 isn't a show stopper, I want to make sure that, after installing Boot Camp on a Mac, that I can run some MS Office programs by installing the XP software I have with my Dell. I have in my possession reinstallation versions of the XP Home Edition, which includes Service Pack 1a, and a copy of MS Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003, which still has one legal installation left on it.
Will these XP and MS Office disks work a new Mac Book and, once installed, will I be able to download Service Pack 2 to the Mac OR, will I have to buy newer versions of XP and MS Office to work on the Mac? While the $250 base price difference isn't a show stopper, buying new XP and Office on top of that might be. Thanks so much for your informative articles and chats. You've helped me a lot as I've made various media-buying decisions over the past couple of years.
Rob Pegoraro: I'm told that you can "slipstream" a new XP disc--basically, adding SP2 to your existing copy, thereby turning it into something that will install without complaint in Boot Camp (Apple's software requires XP SP2). But the one time I tried this, the CD didn't work.
Wash, D.C.: I saw your discussion in Monday's transcript about HD small televisions. I just bought the ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI Card which includes HD capabilities. For $130.00, I now receive 20 HD stations on my computer using an indoor antenna. (That includes Baltimore HD stations). I have a Viewsonic 19 inch monitor. The HD looks pretty good for the price.
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the report. Hadn't heard that the ATI had such good reception--getting Balto. digital broadcasts with an indoor antenna from D.C. can be a non-trivial achievement.
Arlington, Va.: Hi Rob, great information. 18 yr old daughter wants digital camera. Friend has Kodak EasyShare V530 which my daughter likes (I think it's because it comes in pretty colors). Saw Kodak V570 - your thoughts on that? I know you like the Canon A710 IS which is where I am leaning. She'll be basically taking pics of friends and scenery. Thanks! Alice
Rob Pegoraro: The V570 is the one with two lenses--one regular, one for wide-angle photography. I tried that one back in January and found a lot to like: Formerly Bulky Features Fit Nicely in Two New Cameras
Fairfax, Va.: Rob - I have a dilemma; one that my wife and I brought upon ourselves (I am admitting that now so you can not scold me later). For some reason, we promised two of our three children an iPod if they brought home report cards that do not have any negative marks. They were ecstatic (as we were also pleased) when they came home with all As and Bs or Os and Ss (the Os and Ss are because they are in the 4th grade and 2nd grade respectively).
Now we are not ones to recant on promises that we made but with all the new technology that is coming out lately I have to wonder if the iPod is truly the best music/media player solution for these young, albeit terrific, kids. For instance, the MS Zune just came out and promises to be a trend setter - but will probably not satisfy with this most recent release. If the iPod had built in WiFi there wouldn't be a question. There are also all kinds of MP3 players out there that I know are 'better' than the one from Apple but that does not always matter (especially in the eyes of the young). So without making us 'terrible' parents (kinda' hard in this situation depending on which side of the argument fence some people will be on), can you make any recommendation as to which device will be the best one for them considering their age, opinions of their peers, and the all-important never-ending quest to be cool? Thanks for some help - FROM: Mr. and Mrs. Tricky Situation
Rob Pegoraro: Go with the iPod. The Zune is not what I'd call, well... "good": Microsoft's Zune Only Looks Simple - washingtonpost.com
Silver Spring: Don't buy Parallels/BootCamp and XP to run MS office on a laptop. Just buy the Mac student/teacher version for $125 or so. Total. And no risk of MS "catching" you running the same copy of Office on more than one computer.
Rob Pegoraro:[smacks self in head] Right, why didn't I mention that? Office for Mac is better than Office for Windows--the interface is less of a mess and you don't have to dig as hard to find some features.
Harvard, Mass.: Why aren't you including power consumption in the equation of choices? In general I've found a 32" LCD TV is a fair (sometimes better) trade up in terms of power consumption over any 32" or 36" CRT TV. The current technology behind 40" to 50" LCDs and plasmas yield consumers problematic energy draw requirements (some 50" plasmas draw up to 3x the power of a 36" CRT in active mode).
I wholly believe the future for TV power consumption is bright...LED-based LCDs promise to drastically lower power draw in active mode in the next few years. But for 2006, you really should be warning consumers that today's power-hungry big-screen TV boxes are going to lock consumers into higher monthly bills. It's just not right to gloss over such information. tom
Rob Pegoraro: I did! I plugged a power meter into all of the flat-panel TVs I tested; I just didn't see any significant differences among three of the four models.
(Here are the exact details: When tuned into an over-the-air HD signal for one hour, the Panasonic plasma drew .18 kilowatt hours; the Sony LCD, .17 kWh; the Samsung LCD, .2 kWh; the Philips plasma, .26 kWh.)
Dover, N.H.: Hi Rob, thanks for the chats. I am looking to get my wife on IPod for Christmas. What are the advantage-disadvantages between the Nano and regular IPod. The 8 gb Nano and 30 gb Ipod are about the same price. Will only be using this for music. No pictures or videos.
Rob Pegoraro: Get the nano. It's smaller and lighter, and the flash memory it uses should be sturdier over the long term than a regular iPod's hard drive.
Anaheim, Calif.: Rob, I've been hearing (or reading in this day and age) about "laser" TV sets. Will they be better and cheaper, and should I put off buying one of those old-fashiond plasma sets until these new "laser" sets are released next year. I would hate to spend a bunch of money now on plasma when the Jones's will be one-up on me soon!
Rob Pegoraro: Ain't no such thing. The only "upcoming" HDTV technology is something called SED, which is now at least a year from arriving at what will probably be a steep price.
Ashburn Va. : Rob Pegoraro: I'm told that you can "slipstream" a new XP disc--basically, adding SP2 to your existing copy, thereby turning it into something that will install without complaint in Boot Camp (Apple's software requires XP SP2). But the one time I tried this, the CD didn't work. He stated that he had his reinstall cd from dell for XP. These are keyed to the machines that they are sold with and will not activate online with the Mac as this is a licensing violation.
Rob Pegoraro: Right - another reason to just buy Office for Mac OS X.
Re: Laptop Repair: Richards Computer in Fairfax. Granted, my Toshiba was under warranty so it didn't cost, but everything was either replaced right then or the next day.
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the suggestion!
Buji, guangdong China: Hi Rob. Thanks for your entertaining and sensible articles. I noticed a comment re Audacity. I run that on my little eMac, (OSX 10.4.8) It can easily import and export to MP3. In your article you say you have to download a separate encoder. True, but you make it sound as if you have to use this encoder in an extra step, such as an application. Not so... Audacity uses the free downloaded encoder/decoder library transparently. Once the library file is downloaded, and you point Audacity to it once it asks, you need not think about it again. If I recall correctly it was called LAMELib in OSX. The links to OSX, Win (lame_enc.dll) and Linux MP3 encoders/decoders are on the Audacity site. I am not sure how easy it is to install on Win boxes. In OSX, you just download the library into the Audacity folder. ;-D Jon
Rob Pegoraro: Or you could just drag the .wav files Audacity records into iTunes, then select use iTunes' convert-selection-to-MP3 command to compress them.
Gilbert, Ariz.: Regarding HDTV's - What about DLP's?
Rob Pegoraro: DLP stands for digital light processing; it's one of a few "microdisplay" projection technologies, in which a small flat-panel display takes the place of a cathode-ray tube inside a projection display; as a result, the set is only 1 or so feet thick, not three or four.
Microdisplay sets are a lot cheaper than plasma or LCD screens, but most also have viewing-angle limits. If you don't have most people sitting on a straight line in front of the TV, some viewers are likely to see a notably darker picture.
Arlington, Va.: Mac or PC for Christmas?: A person who is completely new to computers but wants a laptop. Macs are generally easier to use for people new to computers, but the rest of the family knows Windows, so it'd be hard to get Mac computer help from them. Wants computer for e-mail and photos.
Rob Pegoraro: The availability of in-family tech support isn't something to discount completely, but a Mac should also need less support in the first place. Is there one relative who does speak Mac? Does this person live near an Apple Store?
Vienna, Va.: Rob: I considering a new TV purchase in the coming months and would like to get one with a CableCard insert, so that I won't need a separate cable box. My understanding is that the current CableCards available are not "interactive" in that they will not enable you to use PPV, OnDemand, etc, but that newer CableCards will be coming out sometime in the future that will be interactive and allow such features to be used. Do you know when such cards will be available in new TVs? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: I don't. Interactive, or "two-way" CableCards were supposed to have arrived by now. The cable industry, which seems inexplicably attached to cable boxes, is doing a very good job of ensuring that CableCard 2.0 arrives as late as possible, and then some.
Los Angeles, Calif.: I want to replace my 2003 Dell desk top for a flat screen and a not so big, clumsy computer(I really hate towers), but am afraid of all in ones or laptops, such as the monitor going out you have to take in the whole thing for repair. I have checked name brand web sights but have not seen anything that is a separate monitor and small computer. Any suggestions! P.S. From a born and raised D.C. and diehard Redskin fan I love your column.
Rob Pegoraro: LCDs can and do break, but that happens a lot less often if the LCD isn't being moved anywhere--i.e., if you get a desktop all-in-one (Gateway Profile, for instance) or if you buy a laptop but never take it out of the house, you're not running much of a risk.
Athens, Ga.: Rob, have you tried either the Linksys Music Bridge or the Logitech Wireless Music System for PC? I'm looking for a solution to send music from a PC in one room to a stereo in the other, and I'm wondering if either of these is worth the price. Thanks!
Rob Pegoraro: My favorites among what's out so far: The SlimDevices Squeezebox if you're *not* listening to music downloaded from stores like iTunes or Napster, the Roku SoundBridge if you *are* listening to music from stores that use Windows Media. If you buy at iTunes, Apple's AirPort Express is the only real option, at least until the "iTV" set-top box transitions from vaporware to a real, on-sale product (should be Q1 next year).
Washington, D.C.: Rob, The best gadget to get the guy who has everything? (And I mean everything -- satellite radio, top-of-the-line laptop, Blackberry, all the fancy travel chargers, can't even name them all!) Thanks!!!
Rob Pegoraro: A good book? One of those inflatable neck pillows?
Windsor, Calif.: Hi Rob, Some questions regarding my quest to make the leap to high def... How much danger is there of burn in the newer plasma TV's? How long does it take for a still image to "burn in"? Do you have any recommendations for a 42" HDTV? Thanks for any guidance. Bruce
Rob Pegoraro: I tested two different plasma TVs for weeks on end before I wrote last month's piece, and I never saw any lasting "burn-in." The only effects I saw were temporary, lasting no more than an hour, and only occurred after I went out of my way to keep an image fixed on the screen--like using the plasma as a computer monitor.
So if you use a plasma TV *as a TV,* you shouldn't have anything to fear. But I wouldn't use one as a computer monitor or video-game console display.
Arlington, Va.: I'm thinking of buying a new stereo, but really only want a tuner and reasonably good speakers that can stream either my ipod or itunes library. Do the ipod docks have high quality speakers? What would you recommend?
Rob Pegoraro: Some receivers now include iPod docks or some other way to attach an iPod--I think I've seen this on some Onkyo models, for instance.
Bonifay, Fla.: Does anyone make a Senior Cell Phone? Features (1) 12 key basic key board with keys the size of those on your desktop (2) Easily marked OFF ON SEND and BACKSPACE or DELETE buttons (3) Display that shows number being input in large text, perhaps even on 2 or 3 lines? Ease of use is much more important than the ability take pictures or watch TV.
Rob Pegoraro: Any suggestions for Bonifay?
Pioneer Plasma: Rob, We've done the research and we want to buy a 50 inch plasma hi def tv from Pioneer. How can we get the best deal? Should we buy now or wait until after Christmas??
Rob Pegoraro: Well, Pioneer is not exactly the cheapest brand out there. It's one of the most expensive, actually... I'd look around on sites like pricegrabber.com to see who's offering the best deals--then I'd see if the store(s) I normally shop at can match those prices.
Orlando, Fla.: re: Harvard and Anaheim - the power draw for LED back-lit LCD panels will actually increase over the fluorescent back lights of today; not drastically, but they'll provide a 100% improvement in color-gamut. LED "engines" to replace lamps in microdisplay rear-projection sets (MDTVs)WILL run cooler and with less power - with longer life (and possibly no color wheels!) LED lasers ARE being developed for MDTVs, but we won't see them till closer to the end of the decade. 3-CRT RPTVs can draw a bit of power, too. The most "green" technology right now is flat-panel.
Rob Pegoraro: More detail on HDTV technology. Color "gamut" is a term of art for how many colors a display can, er, display. It's always something less than reality; the standard color gamut for broadcast TV falls below what some of these improved backlights will be able to deliver.
Columbia, Md.: I have been using a Palm or many different Palms for years. In sales it is great as a data base and to store customer info, so is the calender and to-do etc. I also use a program on it called Agendus. Can I beam all my info from my current Palm T2 and does the batery last when used as a phone and a Palm? Jim
Rob Pegoraro: You're talking about a Treo, right? You shouldn't have any trouble migrating your data from your existing handheld to a Treo--the new software you load should bring over all your old data and programs. (This is the bright side of Palm failing to ship a meaningful update to its operating system over the last four years: no compatibility issues!)
Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dear Rob, I have a tricky problem: I need to reinstall Windows (XP)but cannot do it, because my floppy disk drive's become corrupted and doesn't see an inserted disk. I'm almost sure that a reinstalled operating system will cure the floppy drive's pathology, yet cannot reinstall Windows without a functioning floppy drive (a floppy disk carries REID drivers). What would you suggest, Rob? Cordially, Alexander
Rob Pegoraro: Copy those drivers to a USB flash drive or burn them to a CD? You don't need a floppy drive--at all--to install XP itself.
Warrenton, Va.: So the Blackberry Pearl really isn't worth it? I know several people who really like them. I am in the market for a Smartphone and your article is making me think twice about getting the Pearl.
Rob Pegoraro: I wouldn't buy it. The thing looks terrific, but the software gets pretty ugly once you go past the home screen. (Note that I place a high value on a smartphone's utility as a handheld organizer, a task that BlackBerry devices don't do well.)
Berne, Minn.: CRT-Lifer here: Will the laser TVs be delivered on-time next year, and will they live up to the hype? Or should I get a Plasma/LCD now?
Rob Pegoraro: The laser TVs will arrive in late spring, seeking out old CRTs to annihilate in a flash of light. Beware!
(Please see my earlier, non-joking response.)
Washington, D.C.: Senior phones: Jitterbugphones.com - Just like the phones for kids, but not as colorful.
Rob Pegoraro: Never heard of this company, so am passing this tip along "as is"...
Potomac: What about the Blackjack from Cingular??
Rob Pegoraro: It's a pretty close equivalent of the Dash; no WiFi, but it works over a faster wireless network (Cingular's "Media Max," aka HSDPA, which is about 3-5 times faster than T-Mobile's EDGE service).
Orlando, Fla.: Rob - last week, you argued for not "investing" in an HDTV with more than 720p. Sound advice, since studies show that viewing from 9 ft. the viewer can't discern any higher resolution unless the screen is larger than 54". There is one caveat, however. Although ATSC is broadcast no higher than 1080i, a 720p set has to downconvert to match the display (loss of quality) where a 1080p set merely de-interlaces the signal and can provide a 1-for-1 pixel count (no loss.)
Rob Pegoraro: But: Half the major networks broadcast in 720p (ABC and Fox) as do many cable/sat broadcasters (ESPN and all its sub-brands). Having watched many hours of 1080i broadcasts on a 720p set, I can't say that I ever noticed any degraded quality from that conversion.
Old Towne Alexandria: Hi Rob--I recently purchased a laptop for the home. I'd like to go wireless and have done a bit of research. I plan to go with my cable provider to get broadband high-speed Internet, but want to buy my own modem. My laptop is WiFI ready, so don't need an adapter/network card. Three questions: Do I need to buy a router? If yes, any recommendations for small condo? What do you think of the Motorola SB5120 cable modem?
Rob Pegoraro: There are some cable modems that include wireless routers, but I haven't tried any of them. Recommendations?
(It is past 3, but I'll stick around for another 15-20 minutes.)
Smatphone Vs. Blackberry: In your opinion which device do you think its better? Cingular 8125 Vs. Blackberry
Rob Pegoraro: Haven't tried the 8125. That device runs the "full" version of Windows Mobile and, as you can see from the picture on Cingular's site, is built to be an organizer and Web/e-mail terminal first, a phone second.
Fairfax: I have an HP8450 printer networked to my home computers. One laptop is connected wirelessly and the desktop is connected to the printer via the router (both in the same room). I have my virus program (PC-Cillin) adjusted so that it recognizes the printer port as reliable. Recently, when I print from a web site and from some other programs, I'll get a message that the file failed to print. If I wait long enough (5-15 minutes) or restart the machine, the file will eventually printout. One other thing, after sending a file to the printer I often get a server not found message which resolves soon after the print succeeds. I never encounter these problems when printing from the wireless laptop to the same printer. Any ideas on what I can do to get an more immediate print or on what might be going on. Or are there any other networkable printers you'd recommend that might solve this problem? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: This is a tough one... my own experience with HP's driver software has, shall we say, not given me much reason to appreciate the quality of HP's software. It's weird that you say you have no troubles on the WiFi laptop, only on the computer directly connected to the printer--I'd expect the opposite situation. Try plugging the printer into the laptop instead; if things work fine from that end, you probably have a glitch in the HP software on the desktop. Which would entail the same old routine: uninstall, then reinstall. good luck...
Sterling, Va.: Sorry Rob, but you're wrong about the floppy drive. Any hard drive that uses SATA (in a RAID or otherwise) will not be detected by the XP install, and the install will only accept drivers on a floppy. Hooray for Microsoft being on top of new technology. (The other option is the slipstream you mentioned earlier -- not only can you slipstream SP2, but you can add in SATA drivers. It's a complicated process but can be done.)
Rob Pegoraro: Then how have I been able to install XP on Intel-based Macs with SATA ("Serial ATA") drives? I just ran Boot Camp, popped in the XP disc and things proceeded as usual.
Fairfax: I heard a rumor that the new itunes 7.0 can crash or erase your entire disk. Is this another one of those internet hoaxes or have folks had problems with itunes 7.0 and above?
Rob Pegoraro: It's a rumor. iTunes 7 has not been Apple's finest release, and I have heard stories about it deleting some music--but erasing entire hard drives? Never heard of that.
Clearlake, Calif.: I want to get an LCD hdtv. We are not able to get off air signals very good. I subscribe to satellite and I was wondering if I get a Lcd hdtv with built in turner, it I will still get a good digital picture? I don't want to subscribe to HDTV as yet. Thank you, Bill
Rob Pegoraro: You might have better results with a new HDTV's digital tuner, but in your location you might need a rooftop antenna, and you might need to spend some time pointing it in the right direction. See antennaweb.org for guidance on that.
Detroit, Mich.: Do you have any sense for how much longer software for the Macintosh (such as Apple system software and Microsoft Office) will be supported for G4 systems, now that Apple has switched to Intel processors? I have a top of the line G4 system and this more than satisfies my needs for a computer and wanted to buy another one used.
Rob Pegoraro: I can only think of one new Mac program that doesn't run on both Intel and PowerPC machines--Adobe's Soundbooth beta, a music-recording/editing app that is Intel-only. Everybody else is either still shipping PowerPC-only software or has moved on to "Universal" programs that are at home on both types of chip.
Re: Laser TV: Did a quick search on Google for laser TV, supposedly the first one should hit the market late next year. Here is one of the links http://www.i4u.com/article5383.html
Rob Pegoraro: Well, I coulda used that link earlier :)
What we're talking about here is a technology that apparently only one manufacturer, Mitsubishi, is using in one type of set--large-screen microdisplay projection TVs--and at a price that is still undetermined. If you're shopping for anything under 50 inches, it's irrelevant to your purchase decision.
Clifton, Va.: Re the 1080i 720p thing, you may have noticed that Direct TV is advertizing that they broadcast in 1080i. You've said that there is no 1080i broadcast and that it would not be worth the extra bucks anyway. We have a 2 yr old 42" plasma ED and get HD channels on cable and see the better quality compared with standard, but some channels seem better than others, is there a variations in the quality of 720p broadcasts?
Rob Pegoraro: I said there are no 1080p broadcasts. P, not i.
In Clifton's case, the distinction doesn't matter--ED, or Enhanced Definition, means 480p resolution, or 480 progressive-scan lines. That, I'm afraid, is not high-definition at all.
Quick stupid iMac question: I recently bought my first Mac, an iMac without a wireless keyboard. The wire for the keyboard is so short I cannot use my desk's pullout keyboard shelf. Apple told me first to buy a wireless keyboard and then to buy a USB hub. I bought the hub, but it only gave me an additional inch as the hub sits quite close to the USB plug. Is there any other item that could work like an extension cord so I can use the pullout shelf? Thanks!
Rob Pegoraro: Sure--Apple steered you wrong by not suggesting you get one in the first place. Go into any electronics store and look for a USB extender cable.
Rockville, Md.: Probably a dumb question, but will the Microsoft Office for Mac that I bought two years ago for my G4 iBook work on a new Intel-based Macbook? Or will I need a new Intel-based version of this software?
Rob Pegoraro: It'll work fine on a new Mac.
Minneapolis, Minn.: If you were going to buy a LCD TV, would you buy it without the CableCard slot to save some $$$, or get it with it?
Rob Pegoraro: Me, I would do without. I don't subscribe to cable right now anyway. If I ever did, I'd want a DVR of some sort; if I didn't just get the cable-company DVR, I'd need the CableCard slot in whatever third-party recorder I'd be buying.
Virus, DC: Any advice on the virus I commented on earlier today? Is there any place where I can check out the latest virus reported? PLEASE HELP!
Rob Pegoraro: Here's one resource: Threat Explorer - Symantec Corp.
aRLINGTON, VA: Can I do better than comcast digital cable for the internet (cost $45/month?) It is fast, but I get angry whenever I see the monthly tag. DSL?? thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: DSL or Verizon Fios will be much cheaper than Comcast.
Columbia, Md.: Me again. Yes I am talking about a Treo. Will all the info on my PC transfer to the Treo when I do the 1st Hot Sync? Agendus is a data base program that has way more options than the address book however when I enter info into my T-2 it goes to both just so you know what this Agendus is if you have noy heard of it. But the current info I have, will it be transferred after I install the CD from Treo to the Tro duing 1st Hot Sync. And does using a phone in combo with a Palm make for short time between charges?
Rob Pegoraro: I don't use Agendus, but if it's a normal Palm OS app I can't imagine that you'd have trouble. But don't take my word for it: Ask the developers. You paid good money for that app and you're entitled to an answer to this pretty straightforward question. (Whereas you paid nothing for this chat, which makes my answers worth... um, time for the next question!)
Washington, D.C.: iTunes 7 erased everything from my iPod. I will say this, it was -mostly- user error. While I can't tell you what I clicked on, I do remember that it asked me to perform some function and I said Yes/OK without realizing it would clear out my 5G iPod. My advice is that you check the help menu before you do anything to insure that an operation will not result in your iPod being empty. This was the initial version, there may be more warnings now.
Rob Pegoraro: What I think you saw is the same dialog iTunes has presented since the iPod's arrival--if you plug somebody else's iPod into your copy of iTunes, the software will ask you if you want to have the contents of the iPod erased and replaced by your own music. I'm not sure what the default action is in that case... as this post notes, it *is* a good idea to read the prompts you see on screen before hitting the Enter key.
Arlington, VA: You asked at the beginning of the chat whether anyone had purchased an HD DVD (or Blu-Ray) player. I bought the first HD DVD model and have been quite pleased with it -- the video quality (and audio quality) is truly astonishing on a nice big HDTV. If you have a big HDTV, and $400 burning a hole in your pocket, it's a fun purchase. (It's not the most user-friendly machine, admittedly -- and the boot time is so slow that I left my old DVD player hooked up for watching regular DVDs.) I'm hedging my bets against the format war by only renting movies from Netflix, rather than buying them.
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks, Arlington. E-mail me sometime (robp@washpost.com); I'd like to hear more about your HD DVD experience.
NJ: Help! I did something stupid...I disconnected my ipod even when it said "Do not disconnect". Now it won't sync with itunes and it shows no songs on the drive. I have a 5G 30GB unit. Are there any second chances for people like me?
Rob Pegoraro: First, the songs on the iPod had to come from somewhere--they should all be right on your computer, in iTunes like before. Second, if the thing has gotten scrambled you can usually unscramble it by using the "restore" command in iTunes 7 (or, if you're running an earlier version, the iPod Software Updater).
Stupid iMac answer:: Had the same problem with my eMac. Drilled a 1/4" x 1/2" hole in the desktop right under where the computer sits, ran the keyboard cord through it.
Rob Pegoraro: There are few problems that can't be solved with the judicious application of power tools...
Rockville, MD: For the person looking for speakers for an iPod - Logitech's latest model (about $300) works great and got the highest rating from iPod lounge, including a better rating than the Bose offering. And it is available at BestBuy.
Bethesda, Md.: Will any of the smartphones you just reviewed (or any smartphones) sync with Mozilla Thunderbird as we are not even allowed to open Outlook on our computers here in the office. Also how do Verizon smartphones compare with the ones from Cingular and TMobile? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: The Treo 680 could be synced, but you'd have to tinker with the right Thunderbird add-on and install either the Lightning extension or the separate Sunbird calendar app... except I don't know if either supports Palm sync anyway... which is why I must conclude every Tbird review by saying that it's not ready to replace Outlook, only Outlook Express.
Alexandria, Va.: Can you please give some advice about which Smart Phones you recommend that are compatible (as PDA's) with Macs?
Rob Pegoraro: The Treo is theoretically Mac-compatible, but Palm Desktop and Hot Sync for Mac are so badly obsolete, they're an insult to Mac users. Instead, budget $40 for Mark/Space's Missing Sync for Palm OS (www.markpace.com). The same company also makes a version of this utility for Windows Mobile devices.
With a BlackBerry, meanwhile, you can download a free Mac-sync tool at pocketmac.net.
Ion Vinyl-to-MP3Turntable: I bought one recently. It works well, but the software it comes with will be challenging for a non-tech user, especially if you want to do any kind of editing or noise reduction. The setup is also processor-intensive, requiring a lot of overhead to make the convertion to MP3. If you have a large vinyl collection, you're looking at a major time investment.
Rob Pegoraro: Following up on an earlier post... thanks!
Silver Spring, Md.: I always value reading your reviews - especially in the area of smart phones. I had an interesting experience recently when I purchased my first one - Verizon 6700. I have long carried a cell and separate PDA and was thrived with the opportunity to combine the two. My problem was that the buttons on the smart phones were always too small. When I was sharing these complaint with a Verizon salesman at the Kiosk inside Circuit City, he reached under the counter and showed me the 6700 which has a slide keyboard with good size buttons. When I asked him why this brand of phone was not displayed on top along with the Treo and Blackberry's, he told me that management has told them to push the Treo's and must therefore keep the 6700 out of the way. My question is having missed your review of this phone from the past, I would be curious what you think of the, 6700 , what comments have you heard, how would you compare to what's available on the marketplace, particularly is there another smartphone that you would recommend more and had equal or better user friendly keys? also my major complaint with the 6700 is that it sometimes get slow shifting or pulling up some programs (esp. NOTES). Do you know this might be so and is there anything I can do about it without replacing the phone?
Rob Pegoraro: I tried the Sprint version of this out some time ago. The Notes program has been sluggish in just about every Windows Mobile device that I've tried, and I have no idea why.
Washington, D.C.: I have two questions I desperately need answered before I will comfortable making a laptop purchase this month. (I'm looking for something under $1,000 for standard home use.) 1. How vital is Bluetooth? It's not standard on the models I'm finding in stores and I'm wondering if I should go through the trouble of customizing one online. I have visions of using it to gain access to the Internet through my Treo 650. Practical enough to warrant the effort?
2. You've generally dismissed the idea of worrying about the kind or speed of processor. Do you still feel that way in light of Vista? Would you recommend getting a dual core processor just to ensure being able to run Home Premium (when otherwise it wouldn't be relevant)? Thank you!
Rob Pegoraro:1) Bluetooth is not essential. It's convenient--certainly if you need to be able to get online by using your cell phone as a modem--but you can get by without it.
2) Nah, memory and graphics chipset matter a lot more to Vista than processor speed. Put aside the money you'd spend on upgrading to the next fastest processor and sink that into more memory instead.
Cars: How about a joint chat or article w/ Warren Brown about the convergence of tech and autos? All in favor, say Aye!
Rob Pegoraro: I fear my esteemed colleague would write circles around me :)
Rob Pegoraro: And with that, I've gotta check out. But I'll be back here in a week. See you all then...
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 Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online to answer your personal tech questions, discuss recent reviews and give advice for finding the right gadget for the holidays.
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Big Easy Recreates Capote's Masked Ball
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2006120419
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NEW ORLEANS -- Maybe it should be called the Resurrection Party of the Century. In a bid to raise money for writers and poets displaced by Hurricane Katrina, a fledgling group of writers ladled up some haute couture in the Crescent City by staging a re-enactment of Truman Capote's 1966 extravaganza, the Black and White Ball.
There have been other attempts at re-creating the Party of the Century, as the "Tiny Terror's" 1966 masked ball at the Plaza Hotel in New York City has been called, but this one was particularly unusual, and eerie, because it brought the celebrated writer's life full circle.
The setting was the Queen Anne Ballroom of the Hotel Monteleone, a faded 19th-century hotel one block away from Bourbon Street where, 82 years ago, Capote's mother lay pregnant in Room 950 overlooking the Mississippi River; she went into labor with her unborn child, the boy she'd name Truman, and never accept because he failed to be the virile man she so selfishly wanted. Instead, the openly gay Truman was nasally in his speech and flamboyant in his dress.
On that day in September 1924, hotel staff got Lillie Mae Faulk Persons into a car and took her to Touro Infirmary where the future author of "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was born.
"He was probably conceived at the hotel," said Andrea Thornton, a hotel manager. His parents lived at the hotel for more than two years, before and after he was born.
The date and time for this year's ball was 8 p.m., Nov. 28, 2006, 40 years to the day and nearly the hour of Capote's blowout to celebrate the publication of his masterpiece, "In Cold Blood," which had vaulted him into the heavens of the rich and famous.
An annual Black and White Ball "belongs here," Robert Smallwood, the writer responsible for organizing the inaugural New Orleans ball, said at the end of the long, boozy and burnished night.
"He's probably looking over, and, and, uh," Smallwood searched his thoughts. What would Capote have said about Smallwood's attempt at this re-creation?
"... just grinning as much as he could because he always wanted to be famous for a long time and I think he's achieved that," Smallwood offered. "And the sign of a true artist is one that gets more popular as time goes on and it looks like he has done that."
And Capote's flame is burning strong these days, 22 years after he died in 1984. In March, the biopic "Capote" was nominated for five Academy Awards, and won the best actor prize for Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of the author. Now, "Infamous," starring Toby Jones as Capote, is winning critical acclaim. Both films focus on the author's dark quest to create the true-crime novel "In Cold Blood."
But there has never been an attempt at reinventing the Black and White Ball with so much attention paid to authenticity, Smallwood said.
Men wore black ties and tuxedos, women white gowns and flashy jewelry. Pearly black and white masks stayed on until the "unmasking" at 10 p.m., just like Capote had choreographed it at the Plaza.
And the mimeographed ball went a step further, copying Capote's late-night buffet menu down to the egg: spaghetti Bolognese, chicken hash ("heavy cream sauce with cream sauce, and hollandaise," as Smallwood insisted, a caterer recalled), breakfast sausage, scrambled eggs and coffee.
"There was something so decadent to be eating scrambled eggs at midnight," Arin Black, a party guest and writer gushed as the night wound down.
Beyond that, though, the affinities became more tenuous. After all, hurricane-hit New Orleans is no Manhattan in 1966, and the air in the Queen Anne Ballroom had the feel of an attempt at a soiree in bombed-out, post-World World II Europe. New Orleans, long in decline as an economic hub and center for the arts, is like a washed-up celebrity trying to make the great comeback.
With tickets selling for $150 a head, or $250 a couple, the crowd was thin at about 70. "This is about half the people in town," the droll Andrei Codrescu, the Romanian writer who's made New Orleans the leitmotif of his work, said as he scanned the audience over the brim of his bourbon glass.
There was no red carpet, few flashing bulbs, and no Frank Sinatra, Gloria Vanderbilt or Norman Mailer to ogle.
Instead, the whiff of celebrity came from Verita Thompson, an 88-year-old firecracker of a woman and Humphrey Bogart's clandestine lover for 15 years. In a gay sparkling dress, she commanded attention and, over the sounds of the brass quintet, demanded: "Always have fun! Sometimes people will try to knock you in the head, but don't let 'em."
And there were street artists _ "artistes" _ and pub poets, self-made businessmen with foreign wives, aspiring writers, French Quarter shopkeepers and nightclub workers.
Instead of the Vanderbilts, there were old New Orleans families, who were at ease with the late-night buffet. In New Orleans, Carnival balls traditionally end with grits and grillades 'round about midnight.
And dinner talk was punctuated by sighs as talk returned time and again to the tired subject of rebuilding and recovery. The speakers on the night, Codrescu among them, encouraged all to not lose heart.
"Thank you for believing in the gifts we have in this community, not giving up even though this little Katrina blew through, to understand that we as a community can make things great again," said Angela Hill, a New Orleans TV anchor, her feathered mask bobbing.
Once, things were grand in this city, which boasted opera houses and one of the biggest populations in the country. That was a long time ago, though, in the days when Liberace played the piano in the Hotel Monteleone's bar, the Carousel, and William Faulkner _ and later Capote himself _ could be found writing over drinks at the Carousel.
But Louisiana's poet laureate, Brenda Marie Osbey, reminded the audience that "without the arts, there really is no New Orleans, and without New Orleans there is no such thing as the arts in the United States."
Codrescu seemed to sum it up: "This is a complicated and complex place, and a complicated time."
But that's OK, he said, because "a writer has no other reward than complexity _ you don't get money, you don't get attention, you don't get time, you don't get anyone to do anything for you, except you do get the pleasure of infinite complexity."
So, he said, "the muse was always in New Orleans, and the muse is in New Orleans, and if one has the sense as a writer, or the deep sense of what it is to be a writer, one would come to New Orleans."
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NEW ORLEANS -- Maybe it should be called the Resurrection Party of the Century. In a bid to raise money for writers and poets displaced by Hurricane Katrina, a fledgling group of writers ladled up some haute couture in the Crescent City by staging a re-enactment of Truman Capote's 1966 extravaganza,...
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Who's Afraid of a Higher Minimum Wage?
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2006120419
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Nomey Druskin, manager of the Rainbow Hair Designers at the White Flint Mall, employs six shampooers. Mostly Hispanic immigrants, they are paid at the low end of the wage scale. Druskin should be particularly interested in the Democrats' intention to raise the minimum wage when they take over Congress, right?
She's not. Druskin pays her shampooers at the North Bethesda salon a base rate of more than $8 an hour. That's higher than the federal minimum wage ($5.15), higher than Maryland's minimum wage ($6.15) and higher than what the Democrats are proposing federally ($7.25). In fact, the median hourly rate for all shampooers in the Bethesda-Gaithersburg area, according to federal statistics, is $7.48 -- above all mandated minimums.
Druskin said the shampooers at her 30-year-old salon earn what they earn -- plus tips -- for a few reasons. First and foremost, it would be inhumane to pay them less, she said, given the cost of living in the Washington region. And if she didn't pay them a decent salary, she couldn't attract good, stable help. The shampooers wouldn't smile as easily at their customers. The hair wouldn't be washed just right, and the business, which serves a high-end clientele, would suffer.
"We have to pay them enough to make them happy and for them to live happily," Druskin said. "It's a domino effect from the bottom up. We want the clients to be happy."
Druskin's experience suggests that increasing the federal minimum wage might be irrelevant for many of this region's workers and employers, given the extent to which market forces -- high demand for labor, low unemployment and the lofty cost of living -- have already raised the floor for hourly salaries. According to federal data, the median hourly pay for all workers in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria area is $19.14 -- about 72 percent higher than Lubbock, Tex., where it is $11.13.
Dressing-room attendants make about $8.41 an hour here. Photographic processing machine operators: $10.29. Dishwashers: $8.05. Lifeguards: $7.98.
"Raising the minimum wage won't really matter for us," Druskin said. "We are already above that."
So are most other big job centers around the country, with only about 520,000 people nationwide making the federal minimum of $5.15 an hour, a rate that hasn't gone up in a decade and has led some 28 states and the District to pass their own increases.
"When you let the minimum wage fall as low as it's fallen, it becomes almost irrelevant," said Harry J. Holzer, professor of public policy at Georgetown University and a former chief economist for the Labor Department. "This is an attempt to make it somewhat more meaningful, but not so meaningful that it destroys a lot of jobs."
While the number who make the federal minimum wage is minuscule compared with the total workforce of 132 million, economists think that several million workers would be affected by a change in the law. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, estimates that the number of workers making at least $5.15 an hour but less than the Democrat-proposed $7.25 will be 5.6 million by 2009 -- when the proposed increase would be fully phased in.
Then there are the workers who already make $7.25 an hour, or a little more. Liana Fox, an economic analyst for the institute, thinks these workers would also see a small bump in wages to keep the pecking order. The institute puts about 7.4 million workers in that category. That means 13 million people, or about 10 percent of the workforce, could be affected by an increase.
Of those workers, about 79 percent are 20 or older, the institute estimates. Forty-six percent work in sales or service. About 61 percent are white; 59 percent are women.
Locally, about 450,000 workers in Virginia -- 13 percent of the state's workforce -- could be affected, according to an EPI analysis. The total in Maryland is 116,000 workers, 4.4 percent of the workforce. An analysis for the District was not possible; the sample size was too small.
Economists and analysts for years have argued about the possible negative effects on the workforce of raising the minimum wage. Some, like Fox and Holzer, think those would be negligible, given that the dollar amount of the increase is not great. Also, Fox said, "this is such a small fraction of the total labor force."
But other economists say that raising the minimum wage would lead employers to reduce their staffs, eliminating jobs for the least-skilled employees. The National Restaurant Association recently released a poll in which 41 percent of family dining and casual restaurant operators said they would cut jobs because of increases in the minimum wage.
Jim Wordsworth, who owns the steakhouse J.R.'s Stockyards Inn in Tysons Corner, starts his dishwashers at $7.20 an hour, and some make more than that. He said he wouldn't cut jobs if the minimum wage went up, but he wouldn't add any.
Would he increase salaries for those already making more than the new minimum?
"If I'm forced to by the market," he said. "I respond to market conditions."
Carlos Castro is another area employer who said he won't cut workers if the minimum wage goes up. As the owner of Todos Supermarkets in Alexandria and Woodbridge, he pays a starting wage of $7 an hour for cashiers, stockers, meat cutters and cooks -- well above the $5.15 minimum in Virginia.
"You just can't get by on minimum wage these days, and I don't want to force my employees to have to get a second job to support themselves," Castro said.
Castro said that if Congress increases the federal minimum wage, he will probably raise his pay to keep it above that -- precisely what the EPI anticipates happening around the country.
"My philosophy is to pay a little more than at other places to make sure we get better workers," he said.
Staff writers Cecilia Kang and Amy Joyce contributed to this report.
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Nomey Druskin, manager of the Rainbow Hair Designers at the White Flint Mall, employs six shampooers. Mostly Hispanic immigrants, they are paid at the low end of the wage scale. Druskin should be particularly interested in the Democrats' intention to raise the minimum wage when they take over Congress, right?...
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Inquiry Turns To Humans On Pollutant, Hormone Tie
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2006120419
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Growing evidence that chemicals in the environment can interfere with animals' hormone systems -- including the discovery that male Potomac River fish are growing eggs -- has focused the attention of environmentalists and scientists on a new question: Are humans also at risk?
A decade ago, the very idea that pollutants could interfere with a body's chemical messages was near the fringes of science. But now, it is an urgent topic for lawmakers and researchers around the world, and especially in the Washington area.
In recent years, researchers have linked some common chemicals to troubling changes in laboratory rodents and wild animals, including reproductive defects, immune-system alterations and obesity.
For now, no connections to human ailments have been proved. But some studies have provided hints that people might be affected by crossed hormones, and activists wonder if this kind of pollution could contribute to diabetes, birth defects and infertility.
"There's a lot of concern that a lot of chemicals to which we are exposed routinely, and without our knowledge, are interfering with the way hormones work," said R. Thomas Zoeller, a professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments is planning to host a public forum about hormone-disrupting pollution this spring. U.S. Reps. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) have said they plan to press the Environmental Protection Agency about its failure to develop a program to test chemicals for hormonelike effects, as ordered by Congress in 1996.
The idea that natural hormone messages can be tampered with is not new; for decades, women using birth-control pills have been counting on a man-made chemical to do just that.
But the current concern is much wider: Some fear that modern chemistry might have unwittingly created other compounds with hormonelike effects and that they might have spread widely around the globe.
In the past few years, scientists working with animals have found potential problems with several pollutants, among them rocket-fuel components, pesticides and additives to soap. Among the most heavily researched:
· Phthalates, a family of additives used to make vinyl plastic flexible and prevent perfume from evaporating, have been linked to lower sperm counts and other sexual problems in male rats, as well as to heightened allergic reactions in the animals. Chemical industry officials have said that these tests used unrealistically high doses and that the results are not likely to translate to humans.
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Growing evidence that chemicals in the environment can interfere with animals' hormone systems -- including the discovery that male Potomac River fish are growing eggs -- has focused the attention of environmentalists and scientists on a new question: Are humans also at risk?
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Herndon Warned of Accused Pedophile
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2006120419
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An afternoon of football watching and holiday decorating took a strange detour yesterday for some Herndon residents when they opened their doors to find strangers confronting them with troubling information: One of their neighbors is an accused pedophile.
Members of two groups representing victims of abusive Catholic priests went door-to-door in the neighborhood, distributing packets of information accusing a former Catholic priest who has lived there for 10 years.
"Community notification: Protect your children from a credibly accused serial sex offender," the packet's cover reads.
The 38-page sheaf of material contained information about Edward F. Dudzinski, 56, who last month was among 20 former priests accused by the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Del., of sexually abusing children. He served in the priesthood in the 1970s and 1980s.
The diocese disclosed the names in its weekly newspaper, saying that it had found "credible or substantiated complaints of sexual abuse of minors" against the priests. It said eight, including Dudzinski, are living. Dudzinski has not been convicted of -- or charged in -- any sex-abuse crime.
In a letter accompanying the list, Bishop Michael Saltarelli of the Diocese of Wilmington said he released the names at the recommendation of a diocesan review board. A spokesman for the diocese did not return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment.
Yesterday, Dudzinski did not return calls to numbers listed for his address. Two of his roommates, who said the former priest was not at home, defended him and denounced the groups' tactics.
"He's in recovery from his issue. He's not a danger to the community," said one roommate, who would identify himself only as Peter. "All they've done is create a hysteria in the neighborhood for no reason."
As the man spoke to journalists on the front lawn of the two-story, mint-green house where he said Dudzinski lives with several roommates, organizers of the leafleting campaign -- who said they were victims of other abusive priests -- interrupted.
"We are not talking about shoplifting here," called out Paul Steidler, a Reston consultant and a member of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "We are talking about the sexual abuse of children."
As Steidler spoke, a woman emerged from the house, carrying blue gift bags and frosted cupcakes to a worn station wagon at the curb.
"Do you see what they're doing?" she said to the roommate, brushing aside SNAP members and journalists. "They're putting these things in people's mailboxes in our neighborhood."
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An afternoon of football watching and holiday decorating took a strange detour yesterday for some Herndon residents when they opened their doors to find strangers confronting them with troubling information: One of their neighbors is an accused pedophile.
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Ovechkin Won't Face Further Discipline
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2006120419
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Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin is not expected to face further disciplinary action for his controversial hit on Buffalo Sabres captain Daniel Briere, Capitals General Manager George McPhee said yesterday.
Ovechkin checked Briere from behind as the center headed to the bench for a line change in the second period of the Capitals' 7-4 victory on Saturday over the Eastern Conference leaders at Verizon Center. Ovechkin -- a physical player, but with no reputation for dirty play -- was assessed a five-minute boarding major and a game misconduct, ejecting him from the contest.
Afterward, Sabres Coach Lindy Ruff called for Ovechkin to receive additional punishment from the NHL, saying: "We don't want those hits in the game. If [the Capitals] looked at it through their eyes, they wouldn't want to see Ovechkin run from behind after a couple of seconds. . . . There should be some type of disciplinary action for that."
It won't be forthcoming. The Capitals aren't expecting their star, who drew an automatic $100 fine, to face any additional penalties.
Briere called the hit "gutless" while his teammate, Paul Gaustad, described it as a "dirty hit" in yesterday's Buffalo News.
Ovechkin, speaking after the game, said the hit was anything but. "I don't want to give him some injury," he said. "It was accident. I don't try to hurt him."
Regardless, the teams' next meeting, Dec. 26th in Buffalo, is sure to be an interesting one.
Briere had dumped the puck into the Capitals' zone when Ovechkin arrived a split-second later, hitting Briere between the shoulder blades. The force sent the much smaller Briere headfirst into the dasher boards and his helmet flying. Although he appeared to be injured, lying face down for several moments, he returned for his next shift.
Gaustad immediately came to Briere's defense, throwing several punches at Ovechkin, who did not retaliate during a fracas that resulted in 79 total penalty minutes. Gaustad and another Sabre, Adam Mair, were also given game misconducts.
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Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin is not expected to face further disciplinary action for his controversial hit on Buffalo Sabres captain Daniel Briere, according to Caps GM George McPhee.
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Jordan Links Positive Attitudes to Positive Results
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2006120419
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With his team four games below .500 and about to enter a stretch of the season that could sink the Washington Wizards deeper into their self-inflicted funk, Coach Eddie Jordan isn't spending too much time focusing on the box score. He's looking to see which players are willing to fight through these difficult times; the ones who will block out minor aches and pains or questionable officiating and keep playing; the ones who will cover for a teammate's mistake or box-out, scrap and claw for a rebound.
"People look at the numbers," Jordan said yesterday at the Wizards' practice facility, "Right now, because we're down, I'm looking at attitude, I'm looking at behavior. Those are the things that get you wins. With some of that, we've been on shaky ground."
A humiliating 112-94 loss in Chicago set a franchise record for road futility (losing the first eight games away from home), continued some perplexing trends for the Wizards (poor shooting by Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler; practically nonexistent rebounding) and wasn't nearly as close as the score would suggest (the Wizards trailed by 30 late in the third quarter).
A return to Verizon Center would appear to be like Chicken Soup for the Dampened Hoop Soul -- except for one thing: Tonight's opponent is the Dallas Mavericks, the hottest team in the NBA with 12 straight wins. The Mavericks also handed the Wizards (6-10) their worst loss of the season -- a 107-80 spanking -- less than two weeks ago.
"This will be a good opportunity for us to get on track," reserve guard Antonio Daniels said. "There is a lot of season left. There is no need to hit the panic button right now. It will come. It's disappointing that its taken so long to happen, but it'll come."
Despite their shortcomings on the road, the Wizards are 6-2 at home and they have won two in a row. Jordan was reminded that the Mavericks started the season 0-4 before their latest run to the top of the Southwest Division.
"Leadership within the team brings you out," Jordan said. "Obviously, it's game plans and stuff, but it's in the guts of your team. When you hit bad times, that's when you tell if you have character, because you'll play up to your abilities. That's why Dallas can come out of it."
Can the Wizards break out of their rut?
"Opportunity presents itself every night -- especially Monday night," Jordan said. "We should feel good about ourselves. It's an opportunity to play well against the best team in the league."
After the Mavericks, the Wizards will go on the road to face New York and Philadelphia, then enter a difficult patch of 10 games in which seven of their opponents have winning records, including division leaders Orlando and the Los Angeles Lakers. The other three games are against Charlotte (on the road), the Memphis Grizzlies, who defeated the Washington by 15 points last month, and the defending champion Miami Heat, which has won 16 consecutive games against the Wizards.
If there is one saving grace for the Wizards, it's that the rest of the Eastern Conference is treading water, at best, as well. The Wizards are tied with Milwaukee for the 10th-best record in the conference, but they are only one game from being tied for sixth.
"Normally, you've really dug yourself a hole, but you can't have a sigh of relief and think, 'We're not playing well, but we still have a chance,' " Jamison said. "You have to say this trend is not going to last for long, so we can't continue this and really put ourselves behind the eight ball and wait until the last week of the season to find out where we're going to play in the playoffs or even if we're going to be in the playoffs.
"We've already [wasted] a good opportunity to take advantage of the way things have been going in the East. Now it's a great sense of urgency that we have to turn things around very quickly."
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With an upcoming pivotal stretch of the season capable of making or breaking the Wizards, Coach Eddie Jordan is searching for players willing to fight through adversity.
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With a Hefty Education Grant Come Equally Great Expectations
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2006120419
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Irasema Salcido's heart raced when she pulled the letter from a stack of mail in her Capitol Hill office. She tore open the envelope.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is pleased to award the Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools a grant in the amount of $1,570,000. . . .
Salcido rocketed into her staff's offices to share the news. She had landed what thousands of other nonprofit organizations are chasing: a Gates grant. One of the world's largest charitable foundations, the most important sponsor of efforts to improve U.S. schools after the government, believed in her seven-year-old educational experiment.
That moment in September 2005 marked the launch of a partnership between a Harvard-educated daughter of migrant farm workers and a charity built on the fortune of a billionaire Harvard dropout.
If all went as planned, two Cesar Chavez schools would become four. Then four might become more. With that jackpot letter, the Chavez school motto -- "SÃ, se puede! Yes, it can be done!" -- seemed to have become "Yes, it will be done!"
"I thought, 'Well, Gates, they're probably going to give us the money, and we're very thankful, and that's that,' " Salcido recalled.
But Gates money doesn't just come with dreams. It also comes with demands.
With nearly $32 billion in assets and more coming from investment guru Warren Buffett, the Gates Foundation is a leading sponsor of global health and economic development initiatives. In the United States, the foundation focuses on upgrading libraries and public education. In the school arena, it seeks to raise high school graduation rates and prepare more students, particularly minorities, to go to college.
"America's high schools are obsolete," Bill Gates argued in a speech last year in Washington. "Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting -- even ruining -- the lives of millions of Americans each year."
The Microsoft founder has the means to do more than complain.
Overhauling schools is all the rage among the entrepreneurial nouveau mega-rich, such as personal computer pioneer Michael Dell, Netscape founder James Barksdale and home builder Eli Broad. But the Gates Foundation is lavishing unprecedented sums of money on the effort. So far, it has awarded $1.5 billion in grants to improve secondary education, including $285 million last year. Richard Colvin, director of Columbia University's Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, called the foundation an "unparalleled force" in U.S. schools. "They are going to change the high school experience for tens of thousands of kids," he said.
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Get Washington DC,Maryland,Virginia news. Includes news headlines from The Washington Post. Get info/values for Washington DC,Maryland,Virginia homes. Features schools,crime,government,traffic,lottery,religion,obituaries.
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Slain Nevada Soldier at Last Gets Wiccan Plaque
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2006120419
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RENO, Nev. -- The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan saw a Wiccan symbol placed on a memorial plaque for her husband Saturday, after fighting the federal government for more than a year over the emblem.
Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, and Wiccan leaders said it was the first government-issued memorial plaque with a Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle.
Government gurus and IT experts needed to fill positions in the D.C. area.
More than 50 friends and family dedicated the plaque at Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, Nev., about 45 miles east of Reno.
They praised Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) for his role in getting the Nevada Office of Veterans Services to issue the plaque in September. The agency cited its jurisdiction over the state veterans' cemetery.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has approved the symbols of 38 other faiths for use in national veterans' cemeteries; about half are versions of the Christian cross.
The Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel, the Mormon angel, the nine-pointed star of Bahai and an atomic whirl for atheists are also permitted, but not the pentacle.
VA officials have said they are rewriting rules for approving emblems, but the process requires a public comment period.
About 1,800 active-duty service members identify themselves as Wiccans, according to 2005 Defense Department statistics, and Wicca is one of the fastest-growing faiths in the country. Its adherents worship the Earth and believe they must give to the community. Some consider themselves "white" or good witches, pagans or neo-pagans.
Patrick Stewart and four other soldiers died Sept. 25, 2005, when their Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. He was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
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RENO, Nev. -- The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan saw a Wiccan symbol placed on a memorial plaque for her husband Saturday, after fighting the federal government for more than a year over the emblem.
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Chiapas, Without Reservations
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2006120419
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"Go! Go like a bullet!" the man yelled as I stepped out of the taxi and into the heavy Mexican air.
This insistently gesticulating stranger had approached as we pulled into a tiny bus stop. I had just asked him about the next bus south, and he'd started yelling and jabbing his finger down the dusty road.
It took a moment to understand: The last bus had just left! Our taxi could still catch it! It was cheaper than a hotel!
I dived back into the cab and told the driver to hit it.
For nearly a week, my new wife, Laura, and I had been traveling Mexico's Carretera Fronteriza del Sur -- the Southern Border Highway -- a 262-mile route that hugs the border between Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. We had climbed the Maya pyramids at Palenque, studied the ancient frescoes at Bonampak and taken a sunrise boat to the riverside ruins of Yaxchilan, where howler monkeys roared from the treetops.
Between ruins, we visited a shaman, forded a jungle river and hitched a ride with a cool 43-year-old Mexican hippie and his hot 24-year-old Swedish girlfriend.
Everything had been lovely and serendipitous and surprising. But now we were facing a night in Benemerito de las Américas, where stray dogs sniffed at heaps of old tires and the smell of burning garbage hung in the air. The cool mountain lakes at Lagos de Montebello National Park -- our final destination -- were only a bus ride away.
But to get there that night, our driver now needed to speed. He needed to ignore the maddeningly frequent speed bumps. He needed to recklessly disregard the norms of highway safety. In short, he needed to act like every other cab driver I've had in Mexico.
But we had found the nation's most cautious cabbie for our first car chase as a married couple. When we crested a small rise outside town, there was nothing to see but heat shimmering on the asphalt.
"It's gone," he said dully.
For pretty much its entire length, the Southern Border Highway is a two-lane blacktop, constructed mainly in the 1990s. An upgrade from earlier dirt tracks, it provides easy access to several compelling sights, as well to vast swaths of ugly, deforested jungle and tiny, nowhere villages.
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One couple wanted to see the Mexico's Southern Border Highway on an unscripted journey open to chance encounters and random weirdness and that meant public transportation.
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Would You Like Art With That Bungee Jump?
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2006120419
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Jet boating, bungee jumping, kite boarding, heli-skiing, sport fishing -- that's what a trip to New Zealand is all about, right? Kiwis have thrill-seeking down to an art, and the greatest of the great outdoors to seek them in. But visitors often overlook the thrills to be had within four walls -- art gallery walls, to be specific.
New Zealand's contemporary-art scene offers plenty of kicks for connoisseurs and museum-phobes alike, with innovative materials, bold new takes on old traditions and wow-factor displays. The works may be housed in buildings with edgy architecture or set among natural wonders (with no admission fees), and all comers will be welcomed with an unpretentiousness not usually found in such venues.
Stuffing some of these works in the overhead bin might be a bit of a challenge, but there are plenty of travel-friendly objects if shopping's your bag. They can also be more budget-friendly than you'd expect: Though Kiwi artists are gaining worldwide acclaim, their relative obscurity generally prevents them from commanding top dollar. Exchange rates, the economy and the notoriously tight Kiwis keep prices down as well.
Geographical isolation sends many islanders off for an "OE," Kiwispeak for overseas experience. That may explain the artists' sophisticated grasp of so many schools of art. While there's nothing new in marrying Old and New World elements, the country's long tradition of abstraction produces styles strikingly unlike those usually associated with ethnic imagery or folk art.
Many Pakeha (whites of European origin) artists have embraced Maori traditions, but best known is Gordon Walters, one of New Zealand's most revered painters. His vast series using the elegant Maori koru motif (also Air New Zealand's logo) is the result of years of working on an abstraction of that design. The sharp, precise lines of an almost machine-made quality create a dazzling 3-D positive-negative effect. Even those who find abstract art inaccessible will marvel at the simple beauty of Walters's works.
The country's unparalleled natural beauty is another muse for its artists. Colin McCahon can encompass an entire vista in almost a single brush stroke, while Maori artist Simon Kaan draws on his origins as well as those of the Chinese and Europeans for his gorgeous minimalist seascapes. John Edgar uses his background as a research chemist and prospector to capture nature in exquisite stone sculptures.
These are the leading lights to look for, and most major contemporary galleries will carry at least a few of their works. Such masters can command prices heading into the tens of thousands, but a bit of hunting can unearth some of their smaller works for a bargain. Overall, be prepared to be unprepared for what awaits you.
Take Auckland's Sue Crockford Gallery (2 Queen St., 011-64-9-309-5127, http://www.suecrockford.com/), tucked in the corner of a stately old office building. The soaring ceilings and huge picture windows with panoramic views of the city's shimmering harbor recently offered the perfect backdrop for a collection of . . . garbage. The vast white walls were hung with Bill Culbert's surprisingly beautiful work, basically old plastic bottles skewered on fluorescent tubes.
One of the country's senior artists, Culbert dumpster-dives for detergent bottles and other mundane vessels, paints them vivid colors (or leaves them au naturel) and illuminates them to remarkably lovely effect. Items at the gallery start at $3,000.
Elsewhere in Auckland, head to the Ponsonby Road strip, where hundreds of Victorian houses drip with elaborate wrought-iron verandas and cornices. It's also home to the quirky new Objectspace (8 Ponsonby Rd., 011-64-9-376-6216, http://www.objectspace.org.nz/) and the well-established Masterworks (77 Ponsonby Rd., 011-64-9-378-1256, http://www.masterworksgallery.com/).
Another prime location for art seekers is the chic Parnell shopping district, whose galleries include Artis (280 Parnell Rd., 011-64-9-303-1090, http://www.artisgallery.biz/) and Ferner (367 Parnell Rd., 011-64-9-309-0107, http://www.ferner.co.nz/).
The setting is the draw for the Parnell and Ponsonby spaces, which are mostly small and architecturally unremarkable. But you'll find some big names displayed to their best advantage, and the tony locations don't necessarily translate into higher prices. Artists' pieces are rotated frequently, so ask for those not shown. The galleries are sure to have a few in the back, or the staff will have contacts for where to get them.
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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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'Reeling Redskins'
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2006113019
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ESPN senior writer Tom Friend was online Thursday, Nov. 30, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss his article about unrest on the Redskins.
Tom Friend: Good to be back at the old alma mater. I was once a copy boy at The Post and a Redskins beat writer at The Post. Miss it sometimes, so it's a real throwback to be here. Let's get going.
Potomac, Md.: In Wilbon's chat on Monday, he called you "one of the five biggest Redskins fans I know." Did you have any second thoughts about writing such a damning article about your favorite team?
Tom Friend: Let me try to clarify the "fan'' situation. Mike's right. I am a huge fan of the Redskins, just as he's a huge fan of the Bears. And that's why we have such passion when writing about them. When I got hired to help cover the Redskins with Christine Brennan early in the 1987 season (before covering them alone in 1988 and 1989), I was overwhelmed. I'd begun going to games in 1967, and I'd cry when they lost, even cried in college after Staubach's miracle comeback in '79 knocked them out of the playoffs. But that first week at Redskins Park, I approached Dexter Manley for an interview and he said someone in the PR office told him not to talk to me, because I was from The Post. Talk about a wakeup call. You stop being a fan right that second. After I got off the beat, it took me about five years to be a fan again. But I did catch the bug again. Haven't missed a play in over 15 years. That being said, as this season began to unfold, and I saw the defense collapse week after week, and could find no explanation for it, I began to look into writing this story. I didn't consider it a damning story, I considered it an informative story. It's funny, and I'm sure Mike will admit this, you can somehow put on your journalist hat (and put down the fan hat) when the time comes and seek the truth. That's all I tried to do.
Springfield, Va.: You probably are not going to answer my question but I am going to ask anyway.
Name the player who made those claims in your article.
If you don't, you are a liar. And we will never read your articles ever!
Tom Friend: I will not name the player, and I'd be a liar IF I DID. There was an agreement, and I'll honor that agreement.
I've read your article and listened to you twice on the Riggins show. Another guest on that show, Omar Stoutmire, stated that the safeties met with Steve Jackson separately from the corners last year as well. This seems to cast some doubt on the events that transpired over the last year with the defensive staff as describe in your article. Any thoughts?... Thanks for your time.
Tom Friend: They may have met separately with Jackson last year, and it's true, he did have some power last year. Ryan Clark has complained that Jackson berated him and pulled him in and out of the lineup at times. But, ultimately, it was DeWayne Walker's secondary last year. This year, Jackson was given more power, and that made those separate safety-cornerback meetings dangerous. I'm told that recently Jerry Gray ran a meeting for the entire secondary, a meeting Jackson missed, and then Jackson went into a separate safety meeting later and coached them to do some of the opposite things that Gray was talking about. This staff needs to get on the same page, and I believe they need to let Gray run the full secondary.
I truly appreciate your candid article on the Redskins. It is not your fault there's turmoil within.
Secondly, I heard you on the John Riggins show (the second night you were on) and while I don't know Joe Gibbs personally, given his character, I don't believe his comments about your article were meant to mean you made the story up. I honestly think he prefers to keep issues in-house and what he said was the best way for that to happen.
Tom Friend: I agree. Gibbs knows there was a player. That's why at the team meeting last Saturday night, he addressed this player anonymously. He said he felt sorry for him, tried to lay a guilt trip on him. Gibbs has never had a player come out and be this honest about his team and staff before. It galls him, I'm sure. But he's in full damage control now.
Great article. If you were still working closely covering the 'Skins, would you still write that article?
Tom Friend: Absolutely, and I've been down that road before. In 1989, Gibbs had yelled at his players for getting a ton of personal foul penalties, and the players called a player-only meeting, where they essentially said: "#@#%$# Gibbs.'' I was told this by an anonymous player, and wrote it, and Gibbs was livid. I survived. You got to remember, Jack Kent Cooke wouldn't even talk to The Post in those days. You survive. You do your job. You get the pulse of the team.
Seattle: Hi Tom, do you personally believe that Sean Taylor's play this year has regressed due to the addition of the new safeties coach, as it was presented in your article? Who was the safeties coach the last two years before Jackson came onboard?
Tom Friend: I believe, before last Sunday, Sean Taylor felt like a "robot'' on the field. In fact, that's what he was telling his teammates. Jackson wants him to be aggressive on the run, and to read the receiver instead of the QB. It's had Taylor thinking too much, and he also became very surly. He's a difficult guy to play with, because he doesn't communicate well on the field...But I believe he turned a corner last week and was no longer over-thinking...
Boston: Do you think this money culture at Redskins Park can ever be changed without a change in ownership? Snyder is living his childhood dream, and, love him or hate him, he's not selling the team anytime soon.
Tom Friend: I think Snyder has totally taken a step back this year. The Six Flags deal, the movie deal with Tom Cruise. I don't think he's as hands on as he's been. Essentially, he's turned it over to Gibbs, completely, except when it comes to the pursuit of free agents. But he's only pursuing the free agents Gibbs and Gibbs' staff want him to pursue. Gregg Williams wanted Andre Carter, not Darren Howard. Gregg Williams begged Archuleta to come. That's not on Snyder. If Gibbs tells Snyder no big spending this year, then he won't spend.
Chevy Chase, Md.: Why do you think Gibbs continues to coach the Skins when it appears that he has ceded control of the team to his coordinators? He appears to have lost the passion to coach. Are there any rumblings that this year will be it for Coach Gibbs?
Tom Friend: As I've watched this year, I've wondered what the future holds. I think he wore himself out last year, when his amazing and tireless coaching job got them to the playoffs. By hiring Saunders and by letting Williams have autonomy on defense, he took a step back -- but the Redskins appeared leader-less. After losses, there wasn't apparent anger, and let me tell you, in the '80s, he was inconsolable after defeats. Will he be gone next year? I doubt it. But I do believe Snyder may get involved with the defensive staff, and I think that would be smart. Who would take over for Gibbs? I can almost guarantee you now it won't be Gregg Williams. Snyder will have to eat the million bucks he promised he'd pay him if he wasn't eventually head coach. I believe if Gibbs steps down that Gibbs should become team CEO (which he basically is now, the way he's coaching) and hire Russ Grimm. Grimm has done a tremendous job in Pittsburgh.
Washington, D.C.: Tom, what is your personal opinion of Joe Gibbs? I know that you have been a Redskins fan, but are you a Gibbs fan?
Tom Friend: I am a huge Gibbs fan, but he's not the hands-on, maniacal coach he used to be. He was such a micromanager the first time around, he and Bobby Beathard couldn't co-exist. But now he's the grandpa around there. What really gets me is that at ESPN, when they discuss the great coaches today, it's Belichick, Parcells, Cowher, Reid, Holmgren...You never hear Gibbs's name anymore, and he's a Hall of Famer. It's sad.
Washington, D.C.: It appears that Adam Archuleta is being made the scapegoat for the poor secondary performance so far this year. Your article suggests that it was more a breakdown in communication and an unchecked ego or two on the defensive coaching side of things.
Is AA that bad, or are the coaches covering up their own ineptness?
Tom Friend: With Archuleta, it doesn't appear they ever gave him a chance.
If not for Prioleau's injury, he would've been benched for the season opener.
You exposed a huge lack of continuity on defense in your article last week. In turn, the D put up perhaps their best performance of the year the ensuing Sunday. As a fan and a journalist, were surprised or maybe even empowered by the possibility that your work could potentially affect the play of this team?
Tom Friend: Like Wilbon said, if it took an article to inspire the team, they got problems.
Hogshaven.com: Can't say I was all that convinced by your article -- too many unnamed sources for my taste. Adam Archuleta might be that angry, but who cares?
My bigger question about sources concerns this quote from your article: "Snyder, according to sources, knows all about this, and, there is a sense the front office will push to replace Jackson and perhaps even Williams next season. At the same time, Williams still has supporters in the organization, too. They say the players ripping him have axes to grind, that Williams isn't the one whiffing on tackles and botching coverages."
I know you won't quote the sources themselves, but could you at least comment on the authority of the sources? Are they people within this organization? Are they members of the coaching staff? Are they players? Janitors? Your friends? The way this claim is worded suggests that you aren't very confident in the source. It doesn't take much time to add "someone close to the organization" or "someone knowledgeable about the situation" or "the alleged cry-baby I quoted throughout this article". Your omitance of any kind of credibility qualifier raised my eyebrow as much as your claim that Gregg Williams was leaving. What gives?
Tom Friend: I'm very confident in the people I spoke with, and stand behind the story, and it's accuracy.
Seattle: Do you have any insight about Russ Grimm or are you just guessing? Do you envision the Redskins doing anything to prevent him from becoming the Steelers head coach if Bill Cowher leaves?
Tom Friend: Grimm is just my speculation. Nothing inside on that one. But it would be bringing someone in who shares Gibbs's philosophy, who has great people skills and who loves the Redskins.
Rockville, Md.: Hi Tom -- very interesting and well-written piece. A couple quick questions:
To what extent do you think the sentiments of the "anonymous player" are shared by others in the locker room? I've read articles that try to minimize your reported state of disrepair. Do you think that discontent is truly systemic?
Also - some Monday morning quarterbacking - is the Redskins locker room really in a state of disrepair? In other words, your article gives the sense that things are simply too bad to be salvaged, yet the 'Skins D gave an inspired performance against Carolina. How do you think the highs and lows will ultimately settle in the locker room?
Tom Friend: That player said what the others were thinking. The morale was bad before last week, but if the coaches continue to simplify the defense, and not overcoach, the defense will continue to play well and the players will be content. Sometimes I wonder if Gregg Williams is trying to justify his salary, with all these stunts on the d-line and Cover 2 gimmicks. They let Shawn Springs cover Steve Smith one on one, and didn't blitz and expose Rogers, and got a rush with just straight pass rush. You saw an enthusiastic group. It can be fixed.
Washington, D.C.: You write: "With Archuleta, it doesn't appear they ever gave him a chance.
If not for Prioleau's injury, he would've benched for the season opener."
So in other words, he DID get a chance... and stunk so bad that he got replaced by journeyman special teams guy (Vernon Fox).
Tom Friend: I guess what I'm saying is, they kind of made their decision in preseason...and they all stunk. Including Sean Taylor. When Archuleta got benched, after Dallas, did it get any better in Philly or Tampa? Archuleta was bad, but they all were. He wanted to sign in Chicago, and Williams told his agent that he and Marcus Washington would be blitzing endlessly. Archuleta, over the last five years, has more sacks than any safety in the NFL, or pretty close. And they simply put him in coverage from Day 1. That's coaching.
Naperville, Ill.: Your article placed a lot of blame on the coaching staff, especially Gregg Williams. Do you think that there is also an issue with the players and how they respond to the coaching?
Tom Friend: Of course the players deserve blame, too. But Williams, I'm told, has ticked off the players for never taking blame himself. I think the consensus is that players know that in Buffalo, Williams wore out his welcome, and over these last five games, we'll find out if he wore it out here, too. These last five games, I believe, will tell a lot about what happens this offseason. I think Williams, who thought Pierce and Smoot and Clark, etc., were replaceable, won't have as much freedom to pick and choose his players.
Washington, D.C.: Tom, there was a recurring theme in your article of Gregg Williams's belief that players are expendable, and it does sound like a bad thing, but it also sounds strikingly similar to what New England and Philly believe, and their formulas seem to work. What's the difference?
NE and Philly consistently cut loyal players they think are no longer valuable -- from Lawyer Milloy to Willie McGinest to Corey Simon to Jeremiah Trotter. You would think that this type of management would demoralize those teams as it seems to have done to the 'Skins, but the results say otherwise.
Tom Friend: There are a core of great players that New England keeps around. The Bruschis, etc. Philly, too. And they replenish through the draft. The Redskins draft a McIntosh, and don't play him! And I think maybe those other teams buy into their coaches a little better than in D.C. Belichick once told his team, if you buy in and we lose, than okay. But if you buy in and we win, then you've got to trust me. Guess what? He won.
Is there any hope some type of GM will be hired after this season? It seems to me the downfall of the defense can be directly attributed to poor personnel decisions over the last several years.
Tom Friend: This must be said. If Gibbs doesn't blow out Coles, there might've been cap room to keep a Pierce and a Smoot. That's what I was told. So some of these poor decisions were salary cap related. When it was borderline whether to keep Pierce or not, Williams told the front office he was replaceable. So, they let him go...This is a total organizational problem.
Kensington, Md.: Is your article an indictment of the regular beat reporters that follow this team, specifically LaCanfora and Bryant from The Washington Post? Why did it take a guy from ESPN to come in here and tell us what was REALLY going on? Sports radio hosts like Steve Czaben have been begging the beat media to start asking tougher questions. Why couldn't these reporters see this coming??
Tom Friend: I'm sure Jason and Howard are asking the right questions, but I've been in their shoes, and when you're in that building every day, and trying to get behind the so-called Berlin Wall there, it's tough to sort through the spin and also tough to get the players away from the building where they feel comfortable talking. What I was able to do was get a player away from the building. It's so hard to do. I've been in their shoes. They're doing a fine job. It's just one of those things...
Alexandria, Va.: So Gregg Williams seemed like he was next in line to be the head coach after Gibbs. What now -- is he going to get fired after this season?
Tom Friend: I don't think Williams will be fired, but I don't think he's ever gonna be head coach here. Just an educated guess. Educated.
Thanks for the article. I hope it shakes up the team for the better. Your "source" should be given a medal. Question: Would you go to jail to protect a source like the San Fran/BALCO reporters?
Tom Friend: I'd have to. It's the nature of the beast. When someone gives you information, as long as they're protected, you have to honor it.
Maryland: You mention how Gregg Williams feels that players don't make the defense, his scheme makes the defense. Why did he push so hard for Archuleta, Carter, and McIntosh then?
Tom Friend: Well, he's no dummy, either. He's not gonna take you and I and go play the Falcons. But he believed guys like Pierce and Arrington were replaceable. Ask the Giants if Pierce is replaceable? They're bad now, but without him, they're Lions bad.
Rockville, Md.: Can the Redskins still make the playoffs?
Tom Friend: Last year, even when they were 5-6, there was a sense they could run the table. Just by how they were playing and who was on their schedule and where the games were played. This year, you have to say, if they play like they did against Carolina, they can beat the Falcons and Eagles and Giants at home and the Rams in St. Louis. It's the Saints game that could ruin them. But they need a lot of help and need Jason Campbell to be unbelievable.
Rochester, N.Y.: Do you think the loss of Clark has hurt Taylor? And what's up with Duckett?
Tom Friend: Yes, losing Clark hurt Taylor. Taylor is in a zone on the field, doesn't take criticism well. And Clark apparently had chemistry with the kid. As for Duckett, you fans better hope the Broncos start winning and the Redskins lose a couple, otherwise that trade will mean the team has to flip-flop first rounders with Denver. The trade called for a high third round pick, and by a points system, that may mean flip-flopping those picks...This team needs to draft a he-man on the d-line. They need as high a pick as they can get.
Washington, D.C.: What do you make of Joe Bugel's comments about the Redskins renewed commitment to the run, and this being "still Joe's team. He'll do what he wants to do. He wants to run the ball."
Is this a shot at Saunders?
Tom Friend: Oh, I think that's got to be a shot. You've got to remember, Buges used to be a head coach, used to carry a lot of weight around Redskin Park. He was there the first time around, and he loved it last year when Portis strapped the team on his back. That being said, I believe Saunders will get it together, when he has a healthy Portis and a more experienced Campbell. They will be balanced. I don't think offense is this team's problem.
Washington, D.C.: Didn't Gregg Williams have similar problems relating to players in Buffalo that resulted in his being fired? Did the Redskins ignore this? What's in the future for underperforming Andre Carter, Warrick Holdman, and Lemar Marshall?
Tom Friend: People in Buffalo laugh at the mere mention of Gregg Williams. I was doing a story on Joe Mesi for the magazine a couple years back and heard the talk radio up there, and they thought Williams was a bum. At the time, he was turning the Redskins defense around, so I ignored it. But...
20010: Arrington was and is replaceable. Is that even up for debate?
Tom Friend: Agree. But the players in the locker room don't feel that way. LaVar was not the player he used to be, but he was at least physical. And this team has not played physical at all. Marshall, who must still not be over his shoulder injury, is not hitting people. They need to be physical again, and that's the one thing LaVar brought. If LaVar wasn't just a diva, he might still be there. He wanted out, Williams wanted him out. But the defense misses him, and it hurt morale.
Arlington, Tex.: Do you think your article disrespected Joe Gibbs or the 'Skins organization in any way?
It looks like it might motivate the 'Skins...
Tom Friend: This wasn't intended to disrespect Gibbs at all. I'm a Washingtonian, I have a passion for the team, and I wanted to find out what was going on with the most underachieving team in the league this year. What I learned opened my eyes and hopefully some others.
Ballston, Va.: I'm sure you'll get a lot of questions about your expose on the 'Skins, but I'd like to ask a question about Art Monk. Is the selection committee finally going to do the right thing this year and put him in the Hall?
Tom Friend: Let's end it on an '80s question, that seems appropriate. I guess, since Peter King has changed his mind, Art has a shot. But he needed to be in anyway. He retired as the NFL's all time leader in receptions, he set the standard with 100-plus receptions in a single year. He was the third down go-to guy who got all the coverage. He was the quiet leader who, along with Don Warren and Monte Coleman and others, showed the other Redskins how important hard work was. He was all class, and he personified the '80s Gibbs Redskins. I think you can all question the class of this year's team. Was it classy of this player to open up? I can't answer that. But it appears Williams needed to be taken down a notch, at least this player and his teammates felt that way. So maybe you thank this player. After Sunday's game, I heard Gregg Williams actually praising his players. Honestly, you don't hear that too much. Maybe a message got through, maybe not. Check back in 5 weeks, and in the offseason.
Hey, it was great to be home (even if it was for only 75 minutes). Gotta run and prepare for "Jim Rome Is Burning." Take care!
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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ESPN senior writer Tom Friend will be online to discuss his behind-the-scenes article about unrest on the Redskins.
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Frist Says He Does Not Intend To Run for President in 2008
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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced yesterday that he will not run for president in 2008, saying that he plans to "take a sabbatical from public life" and return to his Tennessee home and professional roots as a doctor.
Long viewed as a potentially formidable candidate for the GOP nomination, Frist seemed to be positioning himself for a presidential run earlier this year. He traveled to the early primary states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina to test the waters, and he used his political action committee to spread campaign contributions -- and sow goodwill -- among GOP candidates around the country. Meanwhile, he worked to cultivate an image as a staunch and thoughtful conservative.
But bruised by a series of political stumbles, Frist, 54, decided that now is not the time to run for higher office. "In the Bible, God tells us for everything there is a season, and for me, for now, this season of being an elected official has come to a close," he said in a written statement. "I do not intend to run for president in 2008."
Frist's decision creates an opening on the right flank of the GOP political spectrum, while still leaving a broad field of potential presidential candidates for 2008, which will mark the first time since 1952 that an incumbent president or vice president will not be vying for the nation's highest office.
His decision comes as part of an early winnowing of the field of potential presidential contenders. Former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner (D) said recently that he will not run, and two potential GOP candidates, Sens. George Allen (Va.) and Rick Santorum (Pa.), were defeated in their reelection bids earlier this month.
Frist, a pioneering heart-lung-transplant surgeon, never voted until age 36 and had no previous political experience when he was elected to the Senate in an upset in 1994. At the time, he promised to serve no longer than two terms, a vow he fulfilled when he decided not to run for reelection this year.
"I said I'd come to the Senate with 20 years' experience in healing, spend 12 years serving in Washington, then go right back to Tennessee to live where I grew up," stated Frist, who was said by his staff to be unavailable for interviews. "I've never deviated from that commitment."
Frist's background as a surgeon, his frequent work in Washington health clinics and his repeated travels to Africa to care for needy patients seemed to give him an image that added an unusual dimension to his conservative politics.
"What facilitated his rapid rise among the ranks was the fact that he was and is a conservative but came across as a very common-sense, reasonable conservative," said Jim Dyke, a communications consultant who has worked for VOLPAC, Frist's political action committee. "People think differently about him than the trademark conservative."
But Frist began to lose some of that aura after a series of politically damaging events, including an on-going investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into allegations of insider trading in his sale of shares in HCA Inc., a hospital chain founded by his father and his brother. The sale was completed just weeks before the company issued an earnings estimate that fell short of analysts' expectations, causing a drop in HCA's stock price.
Frist has also faced questions about his role on the board of a charitable foundation that paid consulting fees to some of his close political allies.
Last year, Frist injected himself into the legislative drama over Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged and bedridden Florida woman who died after her husband decided to have her feeding tube removed, despite congressional efforts to reverse his decision.
After viewing a videotape of the woman, Frist, a surgeon, publicly questioned the diagnosis that said Schiavo would never recover. That action was widely viewed as a sop to religious conservatives. An autopsy later proved Frist wrong.
Also, Frist has been drawn into caustic confrontations with Senate Democrats since being elevated to majority leader in 2002, reinforcing the view of him as an intense partisan. Although friends and colleagues say he never violated his principles, they note that the job of majority leader obscured what they say is Frist's true character. Moreover, he was politically weakened when Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections earlier this month.
"Being majority leader, you become defined more by the job than by who you are," Dyke said.
Frist was not specific about his future plans other than to say that he wants to return to Tennessee and "refocus my creative energies on innovative solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges Americans face." In the short term, he said, he plans to resume his trips to impoverished corners of the world to "serve those in poverty, in famine and in civil war" as a doctor. He also said that he plans to advocate reforming the nation's health-care system.
"He is intellectually curious and has a lot of ideas that he wants to pursue, and that is hard to do if you are running for president," said Amy Call, a Frist spokeswoman. "He needed to reconnect with himself and his vision and ideas before going forward with a presidential race."
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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced yesterday that he will not run for president in 2008, saying that he plans to "take a sabbatical from public life" and return to his Tennessee home and professional roots as a doctor.
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Hastings, Harman Rejected for Chairmanship
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House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), the panel's No. 2 Democrat, to chair the pivotal committee next year.
The decisions came despite lobbying by conservative Democrats on Harman's behalf and a full-throttled campaign by Hastings to overcome the stigma of the 1988 impeachment that drove him from his federal judgeship.
The fight over the top spot on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has exposed the kind of factional politics that bedeviled House Democrats before they were swept from control in 1994. Harman, a moderate, strong-on-defense "Blue Dog" Democrat, had angered liberals with her reluctance to challenge the Bush administration's use of intelligence. Hastings, an African American, was strongly backed by the Congressional Black Caucus but was ardently opposed by the Blue Dogs, who said his removal from the bench disqualifies him from such a sensitive post.
Complicating the matter was Pelosi's relationship with black Democrats. Earlier this year, she enraged the Black Caucus by removing one of its members, Rep. William J. Jefferson (La.), from the Ways and Means Committee after court documents revealed that federal investigators looking into allegations of bribery had found $90,000 in cash neatly bundled in his freezer.
Instead of picking Harman or Hastings, Pelosi will look for a compromise candidate, probably Rep. Silvestre Reyes (Tex.), but possibly Rep. Norman D. Dicks (Wash.), a hawkish member of the Appropriations defense subcommittee, or Rep. Sanford Bishop (Ga.), a conservative African American with experience on the intelligence committee. To entice Harman to run in 2000 for a House seat she had vacated for an unsuccessful bid for the California governorship, the Democratic leadership shunted Bishop off the committee -- another perceived slap at black lawmakers.
In announcing her decision, Pelosi praised Hastings. "Alcee Hastings has always placed national security as his highest priority," she said. "He has served our country well, and I have full confidence that he will continue to do so."
Hastings took a shot at conservatives and media voices who have come out strongly against his appointment. "Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet," he wrote.
Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, voiced disappointment, saying in a statement that Hastings "would have made an outstanding Intelligence Chairman." Privately, caucus aides said they had dismissed reports that Hastings would not get the post and were taken aback that Pelosi had cut out an ally such as Hastings. Hastings himself suggested that a decision against him would be a victory for "Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Michael Barone, Drudge, anonymous bloggers, and other assorted misinformed fools."
In the end, Pelosi's pledge to clean up Congress after two years of scandal made Hastings's appointment impossible, Democrats said.
Likewise, Pelosi was not willing to bend the committee's unique term-limit rules for Harman, who she believes had violated a promise to step aside, according to Democrats. Harman had angered some Democrats with a tough management style that helped drive away longtime Democratic staffers.
In recent days, Hastings and his allies had launched a spirited campaign to clear his name from the stigma of his impeachment. Hastings distributed to Democratic colleagues six documents totaling 70 pages, including court testimony, letters from Republican and Democratic senators questioning his treatment, and a five-page letter from Hastings excoriating "the noise and misleading, poorly informed, misinformed, and sometimes venomous attacks on my integrity and character by pundits, politicians, and editors screaming the word 'impeachment.' "
He pointed repeatedly to his 1983 acquittal by a Miami jury and wrote that it is "amazing how little importance" his critics give that verdict. The events that followed that trial, he said, "are so convoluted, voluminous, complex and mundane that it would boggle the mind."
In fact, there is a certain simplicity in the conclusion drawn by an investigating committee of five eminent federal judges, each with strong civil rights credentials. Those judges, and later more than three dozen others, concluded that Hastings lied to the Miami jury as many as 15 times to win acquittal.
The original case against Florida's first black federal trial judge was circumstantial. A federal grand jury charged Hastings with conspiring with Washington lawyer William A. Borders Jr. to sell a lenient sentence to two convicted Florida racketeers for $150,000.
A sequence of meetings, telephone calls, judicial actions and taped conversations in 1981 convinced federal investigators that Hastings was on the take. But after 17 1/2 hours of deliberations at the end of a three-week trial, jurors voted not guilty.
Two federal judges soon filed an administrative complaint, accusing Hastings of conduct prejudicial to the courts, which led to the judicial investigation. John Doar, the chief House Watergate counsel, and a panel of judges investigating the matter said they uncovered substantial new evidence that convinced them that Hastings joined the bribery conspiracy and then fabricated a defense to hoodwink the jury.
In one example, they focused on Hastings's testimony about telephone calls. The issue was a taped conversation with Borders that prosecutors considered coded talk about a bribe. Hastings said it was an innocent discussion about helping a friend, Hemphill Pride, regain his law license.
Pride said that he knew of no such effort, that he would have rejected one and that he was not even eligible for reinstatement. He told the panel that Hastings, while under indictment, had urged him to remember details that, as far as Pride recalled, had never happened.
On the witness stand in Miami, however, Hastings showed the jury records of several telephone calls and confidently declared that he had made them to Pride. In fact, the Doar investigation revealed, the numbers called belonged to other people with no connection to Pride.
"Judge Hastings' conduct was premeditated, deliberate and contrived," wrote the committee, whose most prominent member was U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr., famous for rulings integrating Alabama's public institutions.
When the Hastings case reached the House, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), skeptical about the evidence, investigated further. In time, Conyers, an African American, became so certain of Hastings's guilt that he delivered an impassioned speech about race and justice -- and made an opening statement during the Senate proceedings, which ended with Hastings's conviction on 11 counts, including seven counts of making false statements.
"We did not wage that civil rights battle merely to replace one form of judicial corruption for another," Conyers said in the House, which voted 413 to 3 to impeach Hastings.
Staff researcher Rena Kirsch contributed to this report.
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House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), the panel's No. 2 Democrat, to chair the pivotal committee next year.
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Pope's Comments on Islam Understandable and Clear
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Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey is a major media event.The backdrop is the question of how Muslims will respond to the Pope's message.The more pressing questions will remain long after the Pope has returned to the Vatican.
As an evangelical Christian, the question of Pope Benedict XVI's statements about Islam at Regensburg and his current visit to Turkey poses unique complications. As a matter of fact, this question raises issues that are already now centuries old. How should an evangelical answer this question?
In context, the Pope's statements about Islam at Regensburg were understandable and clear. He was citing a historical source in the context of a call for reason and understanding among persons of good will. At another level, the Pope was affirming the basic fact that Christianity and Islam offer very different understandings of reality. We may find common ground on some issues, but the Muslim worldview and the Christian worldview differ radically.
No informed person should be unaware of the basic incompatibility of Christianity and Islam. Of course, liberal Christians and liberal Muslims may find much commonality and little divergence, other than respective affinities for tradition. Yet in that case it is the shared commitment to a liberal approach to religion that binds them together, not the basic compatibility of Islam and Christianity. In the elite worlds of academia and global culture, a common commitment to the ethos of modernity causes this incompatibility to disappear. Speaking candidly about these differences and contending for a classic interpretation of either Islam or Christianity is not the route to tenure on the modern university campus.
Added to this, the postmodern worldview tends to collapse all differences into the category of cultural and social constructions. Who wants to get into an exhausting argument over what are seen as nothing more than socially constructed realities?
What should the Pope say in Turkey? Again, this is a very hard question for an evangelical Christian to answer. In the first place, this raises once again the issue of the papacy. The evangelical rejection of the papacy is not just a rejection of historic papal abuses. To the contrary, evangelicals oppose the papacy as an institution. It is an unbiblical office that, even in its current form, seeks to claim both a spiritual and a temporal authority. Both are rejected by evangelical Christians. The Pope is received in Turkey as a head of state. The papacy's response to the furor over the Regensburg remarks was typical of the practices of state diplomacy. By the time the Vatican was finished clarifying (without apologizing) the message was not clear at all.
Put simply, the Pope's visit to Turkey--along with the media attention and hype--is further evidence that the mixing of temporal and spiritual authority will not work. A minister of Christ should speak clearly about the Gospel and about the reality of Islam. The central Christian concern about Islam should not be the undeniable threat of Islamic violence but the fact that Islam is incompatible with the Gospel of Christ. Islam explicitly denies what Christians centrally affirm--that Jesus Christ is the incarnate Son of God who came to save his people from their sins. Thus, the most significant challenge posed by Islam is not geopolitical (though this is real) but spiritual. I do not expect Benedict XVI to say this in Turkey.
Would he state this case in private? Probably so, but the Vatican is also responsible for confusing that issue. In the aftermath of Vatican II and documents such as Lumen Gentium, it is no longer clear that Roman Catholicism would call for the urgent evangelization of Muslims. When the Vatican speaks constantly of respect for other religions, it does so without being very clear about what this respect means. Does Benedict XVI see Islam as another legitimate way to approach God? A way that explicitly denies the deity of Christ and the centrality of the cross? I would not expect much clarity on this question while the Pope is in Turkey. Indeed, I do not expect much clarity on this issue while the Pope is in the Vatican.
The problems here involve both diplomacy and theology. I do not believe that the Christian church can do much to influence the Islamic world through diplomacy. We can hope for more extreme elements to transform themselves into something less violent, but this is not likely to come without more significant changes in Islam.
This Pope is a remarkable man--perhaps the most significant theologian elected to the papacy in centuries. I have studied his thought and his writings carefully for years and I am involved in serious academic conversations with Roman Catholic theologians about this Pope and his theological works. His indictment of Western secularism is brilliant and his defense of the reality of truth is stellar. His defense of the Culture of Life is courageous and his insight on so many moral issues is keen and clear. The problem is the papacy itself, and the fact that the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church has so confused the Gospel.
So what to advise the Pope to say in Turkey? An evangelical Christian cannot offer sagacious advice in this case. Evangelicals do not make state visits.
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A conversation on religion with Jon Meacham, Sally Quinn and R. Albert Mohler Jr.. Visit http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/r_albert_mohler_jr/
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Whose Reason? Whose Violence?
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With all due respect, it is my understanding that in East Africa, Balck Africans of Musilm/ Islamic faith are treated as second class musilms in many
regions by their lighter skin counterparts more "Arabic looking counterparts". Which makes it odd for you to be defending such a religion in strict
terms. Becuase on faith alone Islam is indefensible and driect sponsor of violence, hatred, and venegence. Or perhaps you may share the view that
religion is separate from culture, in which case you would be justified to desire to stick up for Isalmic religion. However, you must than conceede to
the notion that culture and regilion are a mutually exclusive non-interdependent system of beliefs. And this "could" be true only under a strict analysis
of specific and controled circumstances. Enviromental influences are always factors and can not be discounted in the real world. As well,
envirnomental factors of cultural are not a function of religion or religous doctrine, but the religous doctrine can be distorted by the culture. This is
Islam's great issue and the one that puts it at odds with the West, be it right or wrong. The desert hostile enviroment has given birth to many more
people than it can comfortable support and this creates a cultural of violence and hostile envy that is separate from religion and specific to
environmental factors. This cultural feeling is then interperated by the relgious machine and a new system of thinking is spawned. Islam and Arab
desert cultural has saddly spawned of vicious culutre of revenage and deadly envy. When was the last time a black American blow up a group of
whites as a payback for salvery? The enviroment does not support this thought pattern therefor it has not happened.
The logical deduction is that the term "Musilm" represents of those of a particular religious faith and not necessarily their cultural beliefs is both true
and false. It is this matter of cultural beliefs which are at the crux of the issue that divides the West and the Middle East in terms of identity and
Islam and the religion on paper is not where the problem lies, the culture and its contextual subtext is where the issue lies as it always does in human
pyschology. The human pschye is where the problem reside and that cannot be found on paper. This interpreation is an amalgamation of truth and
belifs based on infrences and real world experiences. On both societal and individual preception levels.
The Pope is correct that violence, vengence, and vendetta are central endemic themes to the belief system that comprises subconscious and
subesequent concious thought in the culture of the Middle East. This is not a phenomen cause by Islam or being Musilm rather, I postulate that this
way of life and thinking is derived from the nature of living in the harsh environment of the desert. There few resources in the desert which makes
people like their surroundings, consistently harsh and unchanging. While coming the defense of Islam as a religion is acceptable discounting the real cultural basis for the thought process of desert arab peopples is not. Their specific lack of environmental resources has yeilded them their thought process and cultural belif system that is mutally exclusive of religion as it appears on paper.
Posted November 29, 2006 3:43 PM
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A conversation on religion with Jon Meacham, Sally Quinn and Sherman Jackson. Visit http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/sherman_jackson/
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Fence-Mending Still Needed
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How many times after I made an utterance I wished I had not spoken quite so quickly and wanted to bite my tongue out. Too late.
The utterance was frequently a quick sound bite and often off-the-cuff and unrehearsed. I donât think that particular rubric applies to the Popeâs remarks. They happened in a formal lecture and were I think considered and made with deliberation.
There were times too when I did make prepared and considered statements but on reflection afterwards came to the conclusion that I could have made the same point but perhaps less stridently, in a less up-your-nose kind of way. I forgot on those occasions that you were likely to catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
It seems to me that his Holiness might have made whatever point he sought to make less provocatively and given the heightened tensions already abroad -- what with controversies over cartoons, the wearing of veils, etc. -- all, especially high profile people, require the wisdom of a Solomon not to exacerbate already fraught situations.
It seems too from the Popeâs pointed apology--not for the offending quotation but for the reaction it provoked--that we will require some fence-mending. I take my hat off to him for venturing as it were into the lionâs den by visiting Turkey.
Of course all leaders, religious and otherwise, would want to urge their counterparts to tackle [interfaith tensions]. BUT and this is an important caveat,Christians should not be hoity-toity as if speaking from an exalted superior position. We should be suitably humble knowing certain facts about the adherents of our faith.
We should be hanging our heads in shame for the bloody wars of religion that have been waged in the name of the Prince of Peace; we should speak as those whose faith has produced those who were responsible for the Holocaust, who supported apartheid enthusiastically as consonant with the Christian scriptures, as those who have as fellow Christians the Ku Klux Klan, and those who have spewed forth so much homophobic hate, and those who thought God would be pleased if they killed doctors who performed abortions, who were driven by a religious zeal to let off the bombs of Oklahoma, who had a Christian President approve the use of weapons of mass destruction on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, remembering that it is Christians responsible for the atrocities in Northern Ireland and who were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda.
Yes they should speak with profound humility knowing that it is not the faith that is responsible but the faithful...that there are good Muslims as there are good Christians and there are Christians who are violent terrorists as there are Muslims who are violent terrorists; that no faith sanctions violence, cruelty, abuse of others etc. Rather, that all faiths propagate love, compassion, gentleness and caring.
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A conversation on religion with Jon Meacham, Sally Quinn and Desmond Tutu. Visit http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/desmond_tutu/
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Building a Democracy
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Two years ago an authoritarian regime's attempt to hijack the presidential election in Ukraine failed. As official results were announced, disbelief provoked millions of citizens to pour into the streets in protest. They took a stand against those discredited officials who hid behind law enforcement bodies in an attempt to prolong their corrupt hold on power. Those days and weeks are known as Ukraine's Orange Revolution.
In the time since, my main goal as president has been to institutionalize democracy and guarantee that it is irreversible. Many of the wrongs in my country have been corrected. We are maintaining our unwavering commitment to the principles of freedom. We agreed to shift constitutional powers from an authoritarian presidency to a coalition government formed by parliament to end the country's political impasse. And we abolished state censorship of the media, while also forbidding interference in news reporting.
This year free and fair elections were held at national, regional and local levels. Overseeing the peaceful and democratic transition of power was my unique test, as it brought back to office my former political opponents.
But along with our national successes and economic achievements under two "orange" prime ministers, there have been disappointments and miscalculations. Infighting among my political allies has been the biggest disappointment. Some "orange" politicians have ignored their fundamental duty to deliver results for the public good. Instead, gaining political power and seeking the limelight have become their goal. As our country's democracy continues to mature, I am convinced that a young cadre of leaders will rise through the ranks of Ukraine's democratic parties to create a political renewal.
On my watch, the corruption that has historically emanated from the president's office ceased. Thousands of election officials, tax collectors, foot patrols, road police and customs agents were brought to justice for petty corruption. Yet the biggest abusers of public office remain at large because of unreformed prosecutors and corruption in the courts. I have recently initiated a number of anti-corruption bills to reform the criminal justice system and the courts, and I will continue to press parliament for speedy action.
Because we were preoccupied with domestic political reforms this year, we failed to communicate effectively with our international partners. I want to explain where Ukraine stands and where we are heading. Democracy and stability -- two interdependent principles -- form the basis of my agenda. To this end, I will continue constitutional reforms that facilitate the effective work of government and prevent a return to authoritarianism or the usurpation of power.
Today there is a balance of political power between two directly elected democratic bodies: the president and parliament. The prime minister, although not directly elected, represents a majority of the parliamentarians. Bills specifying the role of the governing coalition and the opposition have yet to be passed. But let there be no mistake: Together we share responsibility for shaping, executing and controlling laws and state policies.
Second, constitutional reforms are incomplete, and as a result there is a political asymmetry. We will continue refining a reliable system of checks and balances between the presidency, parliament and coalition government to expedite policy decision making. To meet these objectives, I have commissioned a group of constitutional experts to recommend amendments to strengthen our nascent democratic institutions.
Third, our law on national security promotes participation and membership in pan-European and regional systems of collective security. Membership in the European Union and NATO, as well as good relations and strategic partnerships with Russia and other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States, are not romantic ideas of the Orange Revolution -- they are founded in Ukrainian law. The president, coalition government and parliament determine the speed with which these goals are reached.
Most important, the democratic debates in Kiev's halls of power are now centered on ideas about competing economic theories, values and worldviews. Our current system of checks and balances requires policy coordination, party coexistence and political compromise for us to move forward. Not everyone likes the new rules of the game, and some are having trouble playing in this new reality -- but Ukraine's democracy is here to stay.
As president, my historic mission is to guarantee that Ukraine's national goals are reached not through political dictates but through an institutionalized democratic process that brings together governing bodies and citizen groups. I am convinced an inclusive democracy is one of the most significant and lasting achievements of the Orange Revolution.
The writer is president of Ukraine.
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The president of Ukraine explains where his country stands and where it is heading.
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PostGlobal: PostGlobal on washingtonpost.com
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Lawmakers and cabinet members allied with Shiite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr pulled out of the Iraqi government this morning. But in truth, Sadr was never really in this supposed "government of national unity" in the first place -- except to grab off the spoils of power. His reported departure will have the useful effect of clarifying choices for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush as they sit down for a summit meeting today in Amman, Jordan.
Sadr's move will surely take Iraq deeper into its civil war. Indeed, one of the markers that senior U.S. commanders have been using to argue that we weren't yet quite all the way to civil war was that sectarian leaders such as Sadr had not bolted from the government. So now, if he's really gone, we need to stop the semantic games. This is a a civil war. By leaving the government, Sadr forces his Shia Muslim followers -- and Prime Minister Maliki himself -- to answer the gut question: "Which side are you on?" The United States has been pressing Maliki and other Iraqis for clarity on this issue. Will they stand up for Iraq? Will they disband sectarian militias? Will they work with U.S. troops to end the violence? Here is a loud, blunt answer from a man who unfortunately probably has the greatest "street credibility" in Iraq -- "No!" Sadr has been the biggest winner in the power vacuum of Iraq. A senior U.S. intelligence analyst told me this week that Sadr's forces are eight times larger than they were in August, 2004. If provincial elections were held today, the intelligence official said, Sadr's party would win in every Shiite province of Iraq but one. And Sadr for sure has been the most powerful political muscle behind Maliki's fragile coalition.
Sadr's game has been to play it both ways -- to oppose the U.S. presence in Iraq even as he uses the U.S.-backed government to advance his interests. Members of his militia have formed death squads that have tortured and killed Sunnis. Now he is making a choice. There will doubtless be efforts to woo and cajole him back into the government. That's what usually happens in Arab political crises -- there is an effort to patch together a solution that allows everyone to save face. The price of such solutions is always the same, political immobilism. That's precisely what Iraq does not need.
Please e-mail PostGlobal if you'd like to receive an email notification when PostGlobal sends out a new question.
Posted by David Ignatius on November 29, 2006 10:04 AM
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Need to Know - PostGlobal on PostGlobal; blog of politics and current events on washingtonpost.com. Visit http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/needtoknow/
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Iranian President Makes Direct Appeal to Americans
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In an unusual letter to the American people, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday called for the pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq and charged that Bush administration policy is based on "coercion, force and injustice."
The five-page letter, which was both conciliatory in references to "Noble Americans" and scathing in lambasting Jewish influence in the United States, said there is an urgent need for dialogue between Iranians and Americans because of the "tragic consequences" of U.S. intervention abroad.
In Iraq, he wrote, hundreds of thousands have been killed, maimed or displaced, while terrorism has grown "exponentially" and daily life has become a challenge. "With the presence of the US military in Iraq, nothing has been done to rebuild the ruins, to restore the infrastructure or to alleviate poverty," he wrote. ". . . I consider it extremely unlikely that you, the American people, consent to the billions of dollars . . . from your treasury for this military misadventure."
U.S. resources would be better spent at home, he added, to alleviate poverty and help the "many victims" of Hurricane Katrina.
Ahmadinejad also questioned whether terrorism can be defeated by traditional warfare. "If that were possible, then why has the problem not been resolved?" he wrote. "The sad experience of invading Iraq is before us all."
But the toughest language was reserved for Israel, which Ahmadinejad referred to as the "Zionist regime." The hard-line Iranian leader, who won an upset election last year, charged that Washington's "blind support" for Israel has allowed the nation to pursue policies against Palestinians without constraints. "No day goes by without a new crime," he said.
"What have the Zionists done for the American people that the US administration considers itself obliged to blindly support these infamous aggressors? Is it not because they have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural and media sectors?" he wrote. The letter was released by the Iranian mission to the United Nations.
The Bush administration dismissed the letter as a public relations stunt that included nothing new. "Actions speak louder than words, and I think if you look at the record of Iranian action, we, unfortunately, haven't seen any change in behavior that would indicate that they've got a new approach to things," said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.
The State Department also rejected calls for withdrawing U.S. troops, noting that the letter came one day after the United Nations, at Iraq's request, had renewed the mandate of the U.S.-led coalition force for another 12 months.
Casey told reporters that Iran has no credibility on Iraq, given Tehran's support for violence and the Shiite militias. "That includes its support for terrorism in Iraq. It includes its support for Hezbollah. It includes its support for Palestinianist rejection groups. It includes its continued defiance of the international community's efforts to deal with the Iranian nuclear program. . . . And that's why Iran finds itself in a very isolated place right now," Casey said.
In his letter, Ahmadinejad issued a warning to Democrats taking over the House and Senate that they would be "held to account" by history for their decisions.
"If the US Government meets the current domestic and external challenges with an approach based on truth and Justice, it can remedy some of the past afflictions and alleviate some of the global resentment and hatred of America," he wrote.
Iran's current positions on regional issues have taken on new importance in light of the debate over whether to include Iran and Syria in efforts to stabilize Iraq. The idea has been discussed within the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former representative Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) that wrapped up deliberations yesterday on its policy recommendations for the White House.
This is not the first letter from the Iranian leader to the United States. In May, Ahmadinejad wrote a rambling 18-page letter to President Bush that reflected on common values between Christianity and Islam, then questioned how a "follower of Jesus Christ" could order countries to be attacked, lives destroyed and cities set ablaze. The White House did not respond.
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In an unusual letter to the American people, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday called for the pullout of U.S. forces from Iraq and charged that Bush administration policy is based on "coercion, force and injustice."
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The Wronged Man - washingtonpost.com
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Khaled al-Masri was supposed to have been disappeared by black-hooded CIA paramilitaries in the dead of night. One minute he was riding a bus in Macedonia, the next -- poof -- gone. Grabbed by Macedonian agents, handed off to junior CIA operatives in Skopje and then secretly flown to a prison in Afghanistan that didn't officially exist, to be interrogated with rough measures that weren't officially on the books. And then never to be heard from again -- one fewer terrorist in the post-9/11 world.
Instead, on Tuesday, Masri finds himself sitting in an American courtroom so elegant that even his experienced lawyers are commenting on its beautiful dark wood and graceful chandeliers. Dressed in white shirt sleeves and a modest maroon vest, Masri is waiting to see if the judges will allow the CIA to disappear him again.
This time, it's not the physical, flesh-and-blood, burly, ponytailed German citizen with six kids whom the U.S. government wants to make vanish from the face of the Earth. It's his legal case, his very right to have his argument heard in open court, that the CIA is seeking to have disappeared. They argue, citing the state-secrets privilege, that to proceed with the case would damage national security and that this damage outweighs any legal rights Masri may have.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District agreed with the government in May.
If they have their way this time, the pale Justice Department lawyers swaying back in their chairs before the three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit would prohibit any judge and any jury anywhere from ever hearing the arguments in Masri's six legal pleadings and 40 exhibits, more than 1,000 pages in all. Much of the evidence was unearthed by German prosecutors and European Parliament investigators.
There are also the eight U.S. officials who confirmed to at least one American reporter that Masri spent months in a dank Afghan cell because a couple of CIA officials in Washington had a hunch he was someone he was not and that they just didn't move fast enough when they found out he wasn't. Countless other reporters in the United States and Europe have been told the same by unnamed government officials.
So basically, "the entire world can discuss this case . . . but not the U.S. courts?" Masri's lawyer Ben Wizner will momentarily ask the panel.
But for now, the first Invisible Man to appear on U.S. soil is listening intently to the other cases the judges have to consider before his, including one about an Internet user's First Amendment free-speech rights. Masri's translator, Ulrike Wiesner, whispers in his ear: "They can even burn the American flag here." Burning a German flag is illegal in Germany. Those crazy Americans.
Masri whispers back: "Well, let's see if that applies to us Indians." They laugh quietly.
Much of Masri's ordeal has been confirmed by the German government. He fled the civil war in Lebanon in 1985 when he was 21 and married a German woman. He was divorced 10 years later and then married a Lebanese woman. He worked as a carpenter, then truck driver, then car salesman. Since 2004 he has been unemployed and living with his children and wife in a one-room apartment.
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RICHMOND, Nov. 28 Khaled al-Masri was supposed to have been disappeared by black-hooded CIA paramilitaries in the dead of night. One minute he was riding a bus in Macedonia, the next -- poof -- gone. Grabbed by Macedonian agents, handed off to junior CIA operatives in Skopje and then secretly flown...
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Washington Week
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Ifill was online Thursday, Nov. 30, at Noon ET to take questions and comments.
Ifill is moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" and senior correspondent for "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." Ifill spent several years as a "Washington Week" panelist before taking over the moderator's chair in October 1999. Before coming to PBS, she spent five years at NBC News as chief congressional and political correspondent. Her reports appeared on "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw," "Today," "Meet the Press" and MSNBC. Ifill joined NBC News from The New York Times where she covered the White House and politics. She also covered national and local affairs for The Washington Post, Baltimore Evening Sun, and Boston Herald American.
" Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal," airs on WETA/Channel 26, Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. ( check local listings).
Gwen Ifill: Hello everybody. Happy to be back!
Rochester, N.Y.: I saw Jim Lehrer on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" the other night (where Lehrer promised that his show would cover Britney Spears' and F-Fed's divorce!). Are you planning to go on Colbert's show?
Gwen Ifill: As quietly as it is kept, Jim is much funnier than the rest of us.
Fairfax, Va.: Will you be calling the fighting in Iraq a Civil War on your show or will you be sticking with the Bush line that the violence is not a Civil War but just a "new phase"? In other words now that the election results are providing "cover" for NBC and others in the media to reposition themselves and start telling it like it is, will you reposition yourself or will you continue to let Bush define reality for you?
Gwen Ifill: I don't see any neeed to characterize the news. As you know if you watch out program, we rely on reporters to bring us the best information they have based on the events of the week.
If the debate has been about terminology, we will address that. But it remains a mystery to me why calling this one thing or the other changes the facts on the ground either way. I suspect my old friends and colleagues at NBC would agree with that.
Raleigh, N.C.: To what extent do you see you show as a "follower" that catches people up on the past week's news, and to what extent do you see it as a "leader," informing viewers of what is about to become a key issue?
Gwen Ifill: Interesting question -- and one we talk about a lot at Washington Week.
If you are a longtime viewer, you know the program used to be called "Washington Week in Review." I dropped "In Review," in part because I wanted to signal that the show would spend more time looking forward.
Past being prologue, it is important to provide analysis of the events of the week in order to provide the kind of context we like. But we also like to have each of our segments reflect the impact of what has happened, what is happening, and what might happen next. To the extent we can, however, we try to avoid speculating on outcomes we have no way of predicting.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: Do you see NBC's use of the term "civil war" for the situation in Iraq as the moral equivalent of Walter Cronkite's change of view on the Vietnam War? At least LBJ had the smarts to realize what it meant to lose Cronkite.
Gwen Ifill: No I don't. Walter Cronkite's footprint in the information universe was much larger during Vietnam than any single anchorperson's is now. We relied on network newscasts for the bulk of our information, and certainly for all of our moving pictures of events on the ground.
That is certainly no longer true. We can download war video with a few keystrokes, and the web has made it impossible for anyone to say "I don't know." If you want to know, the information is there.
So I am one of those who thinks that the "civil war" moniker means only what we let it mean. The facts on the ground -- political upheaval, rising casualty numbers, the faces of dead U.S. soldiers and Iraqis -- are far more damning.
Sarasota, Fla.: Do you think Speaker designate Nancy Pelosi will be as media prominent as say Newt Gingrich was or do you think she'll take an approach more like Denny Hastert or Harry Reid, and kind of stay behind the scenes.
Gwen Ifill: I cannot imagine Nancy Pelosi staying behind the scenes. And I would be shocked if anyone every confused her with Speaker Hastert.
Part of this is personality...part of this is political style and inclination...and part of it is that it is impossible for the "first" of anything (first woman, first Italian American), to stay underground.
That said, it remains to be seen (one of my least favorite terms, but hey) whether she will be able to transform the Democrats' victory into the ideological juggernaut that Gingrich created.
Silver Spring, Md.: I was shocked but thrilled yesterday to read of Jim Webb's frank and pointed comments to the president yesterday at the White House social function. The public has stood by now for years haplessly watching as the media (and the rest of official Washington) genuflected and gushed in response to Mr. Bush's chummy slap-em-on-the-back water cooler act.
George Will's predictably prickly reaction aside, do you think the media might take Webb's cue and actually press him on issues instead of just cherishing their newly- coined presidential nicknames with starry-eyed shivers? Thanks.
Gwen Ifill: Let me pose the question this way. If a Republican Senator who had yet to be sworn in, had walked up to President Clinton in 1994 and slapped him down (rhetorically, of course) in HIS house, at HIS reception...would you think "Bravo?" Or would you think that the senator-elect was showing disrespect for the Presidency -- if not the man holding the job?
re: Civil War in Iraq: I understand your and others' reluctance to get dragged into this, but names matter. Note: Civil rights movement vs. States Rights. Pro-choice vs. pro-abortion. By not calling it a civil war, you have actually made a choice, not an absence of a choice. You have picked one of the realities and not chosen another one.
Gwen Ifill: I get your point about how terminology matters (see: No Child Left Behind). But I also have amazing faith in readers and viewers to make decisions for themselves when facts are staring them in the face (see: food security vs. hunger.)
Philadelphia, Pa.: Will the legacy of the Bush Presidency be Iraq? Do you think there is anything the President can do to change that or is he as lame as a duck can be?
Gwen Ifill: Since I am not a historian, I try to avoid predicting legacies. Who knew so many people would be sobbing at Richard Nixon's funeral?
San Francisco, Calif.: Do you find friendship makes reporting difficult for you personally? I speak of your well-documented friendship with the Secretary of State, of course, and whether you feel you can be objective when speaking about her many foreign policy failures.
Gwen Ifill: What "well-documented friendship?" I respect the Secretary of State as much as any reporter who has covered her, but rumors of our friendship (peddled pervasively, I am advised, on the web by people who have never spoken to me)are not accurate.
I am fortunate to have a lot of true friends, so I have absolutely no trouble differentiating among friends, acquaintances and professional contacts.
Seattle, Wash.: No question, really, just thanks for putting on a great, informative show.
I've been a fan since the days of Paul Duke and the blob-shaped table and "WWR" before "WW". Keep up the good work.
Gwen Ifill: The blob shaped table!
You are a true WW-head!
Ann Arbor, Mich.: Gwen, do you understand the FEMA suit in federal court? Was FEMA simply denying aid to people who were still eligible?
Gwen Ifill: From what I know (which I assure you, comes strictly from Spencer Hsu's excellent reporting in this morning's Washington Post), the judge in the case felt the government had made the application process for Katrina housing so onerous...that deserving people were kicked off the rolls.
The term he used was "Kafkaesque."
San Francisco, Calif.: Do you believe, as George Will does, that Jim Webb is a "pompous poseur"? Do you believe, as I do, that George Will is uniquely qualified to so appellate the Senator-elect?
Gwen Ifill: I know neither Jim Webb nor George Will well enough to reach such harsh conclusions.
And if I did know them that well, I am convinced I would opt for my usual shades of gray.
Marietta, Ga.: Do you think this election season dispels the stuff about a hidden white vote against a black candidate? Ford lost, but actually by margins in the polls. I think perhaps in some of the GOP cases, some black voters sort of flirted with the idea of voting with them, but decided to stick with Dems largely because of all the stuff this year.
Gwen Ifill: I am not sure you can dispel a hidden notion in one election cycle, although I agree that it seems Harold Ford lost his election for a lot of reasons besides race.
Boca Raton, Fla.: Ms. Ifill,
My compliments to you for being one of the most measured voices that fill the airwaves these days.
So, I don't know if you are the right person to ask this question. But let me ask anyway. Why did George Will get on Senator-Elect Webb's case in his column today?
Gwen Ifill: Hey, if I were writing a column, that seems to me it would be a perfectly good topic to take on.
Re your response to Silver Spring: If Bill Clinton was a routinely rude and condescending as the current president, I'd be thrilled to see someone Republican or Democrat do like Jim Webb. You forget that it was Bush who injected the first rhetorical insult.
Gwen Ifill: I wasn't there, so who knows?
I do know that apparently only two people were there...and someone managed to get the contents of a private discussion into the newspaper. Which one do you think?
Germantown, Md.: Re: Funny Jim Lehrer
Anyone who heard Lehrer's speech at the Marine Memorial dedication knows that he is a very funny man!
Gwen Ifill: And I know so much more...but if I told you, I'd have to kill you.
(see? I can be funny!)
Washington, D.C.: While I generally agree that the "civil" war debate is semantics, and not worthy of too much time and worry, I do want to make a comment on it. You say that "the "civil war" moniker means only what we let it mean." But I guess that makes me wonder. I mean, isn't it sort of similar to using "terrorist" attack or "hate" crime? That it further defines a situation? And that by further defining it, people have a deeper opinion, at times? I mean this isn't a term that was just recently invented (such as flip-flop), there is a real history and definition.
Gwen Ifill: All true. I didn't mean to say that it has no meaning... only that Americans aren't waiting on NBC or the LATimes, or me to tell them what they ought to think about this war.
Milwaukee, Wis.: Ms. Ifill, last week Bush said he still considered al Qaeda a primary threat in Iraq. Then this week, the Pentagon announced that we will be pulling out of Anbar Province. I hope you will urge your collegues in the White House Press Corps to ask Tony (it's just a number) Snow about this contradiction. Anbar Province would be the most likely place to find al-queda, because it is Sunni controlled.
OT, how about renaming the Iraq Study Group, the Iraq SLOW-LEARNER'S Group? Iraq is gone. The "deer-in-the-headlights" question is if Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Turkey and other neighbors carve up the carcas without a regional war. Such a war might, interrupt oil exports that could easily cause a world-wide depression.
Gwen Ifill: I must have missed the Pentagon's "announcement" about Anbar. They have not conceded that point, although of course we have been reading of bleak assessments contained in classified reports.
As for the rest of your comments, I'll just let them stand.
Re: Civil War: Your earlier response used the example of hunger vs. food security. So if you were doing a report on people in the US who were not securing enough food to maintain good nutrition, what words would you use to report it?
Gwen Ifill: clever, but I won't bite.
Gwen Ifill:...except to say this. My point, as I'm sure you took, was that no matter what the terminology...folks can usually reach their own conclusions based on the facts they have.
And the facts about Iraq are daunting. I don't need to be the one to tell folks what they think.
Bowie, Md.: Gwen, last week there was a major story about six men who had been attending a Muslim religious conference being taken off a plane in Minneapolis for supposed looking too Islamic.
The Washington Times reported Tuesday that they had engaged in behviors that fit terrorist profiles: changing seats to sit near the exits, walking up and down the plane, and talking in a foreing language about Osama bin Laden.
Is this the kind of story that the mainstream news will under-report, because it's not as good a story as the allegations of ethnic profiling was?
Gwen Ifill: Well, now, you've just undercut my last point.
It turns out everyone has their own facts.
What I head is that the imams were on their way home from a conference on religious tolerance, and made people nervous because they knelt to pray in the boarding area.
Seattle, Wash.: Do you think 2006 becomes a metric for future "waves"? For example, a lot of the time people would look at Democrats' numbers in the present and compare them with GOP numbers in '94.
Gwen Ifill: Sure. 2006 is the best, recent example of a dramatic political outcome. And you know how politicians like to fight the last war. So we will definitely be hearing comparisons ad nauseum...until the next round of elections create a new set of metrics.
New Hampshire: re: Webb's "smackdown".
Please, Gwen-- the President sought the Senator out, not the other way around and just an FYI-- the White House is OUR house, thank you very much.
Gwen Ifill: Yes, it is our house. So everyone, including George Will, gets to have an opinion about what happens there.
College Park, Md.: Isn't WETA moving to DC soon? And will your staff be mixing/dining with the Hill/K St. Penn Ave. crowd more as a result?
Gwen Ifill: Baby, we aren't moving anywhere. Why? Do you know a cool restaurant I should try for all my intimate, friendly meetings with Administration officials??
(see! 2 funnies in one chat!)
Helena, Mont.: Thank you for doing these chats. One thing I have noticed - you don't ever criticize President Bush. If one of the chatters do, you manage to bring Clinton doing the same or similar. I know you pride yourself on being neutral, but aren't there some things about the President that can be criticized? Katrina? Iraq?
Gwen Ifill: You can criticize as much as you like, but that's not what I'm paid to do. If I'd been doing these chats during a Democratic administration I like to think you'd have noticed the same thing.
"On the other hand --" That's my middle name.
Gwen Ifill: Thanks everybody. That was stimulating as usual.
If you can stand a little more stimulation, tune in tomorrow night on your local PBS station. We'll have a panel that includes Martha Raddatz of ABC -- just back from Jordan with the President; David Sanger of the New York Times -- who's been writing about the Iraq Study Group, and Karen Tumulty of Time Magazine -- who will fill us in on how much things are changing post-election on Capitol Hill.
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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Color of Money Book Club
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Michelle Singletary hosted authors Kalman Chany and Mark Kantrowitz for a discussion about November's Color of Money Book Club selections:
* "FastWeb College Gold: The Step-by-Step Guide to Paying for College," by Mark Kantrowitz with Doug Hardy (Collins, $21.95).
* The 2007 edition of "Paying for College Without Going Broke" by Kalman A. Chany with Geoff Martz (Random House and Princeton Review, $20).
Read Michelle's column about the books here: A Crash Course In How to Pay For College (Nov. 5).
Read Michelle's past Color of Money columns.
Michelle Singletary: Good afternoon all. Thanks so much for joining me today. We have quite a number of questions so let's get started.
Annapolis, Md.: I was thrilled to find your advice re: moving my kids' money from their custodial accounts into the 529 before we apply for financial aid, as then FAFSA will consider the funds as part of the parent's assets. All my nieces and nephews have similar accounts, so I advised my siblings to do the same.
This summer I will quit my full time job to attend school full-time, so we will have one income and 3 in college (husband will support 2 kids at out of state universities and I will be at the community college for 26 months).
I plan on applying for scholarships, FAFSA aid (and loans if I have to) for my own tuition and living expenses. QUESTION: How do I protect my assets and show financial need at the same time. I will have about $50,000 from a 401K, about $100,000 in stocks and funds, home equity, limited savings and my husband's salary. We will not be able to support ourselves on one income but I hesitate to dip into my retirement fund and nestegg accounts.
NEXT QUESTION:Does FAFSA consider my assets as "parental" or "students". Can an adult student shelter her funds in a 529?
(Fotunately the kid's accounts will carry them thru til they finish their undergraduate degrees)
Mark Kantrowitz: You are an independent student because you are over age 24, married, and have dependents other than a spouse. (Any one of these is sufficient for independent student status.)
Any reportable assets (e.g., investments, cash in the bank) owned by you or your husband will need to be reported as a student asset on your FAFSA. But since you have dependents other than a spouse, this will be at a maximum rate of 5.64% (this year), dropping to 3.29% next year. Plus, the asset protection allowance will shelter about $45,000 in your assets.
The money in your 401(k) is not a reportable asset on the FAFSA. The prior tax year's contributions to your 401(k) will, however, count as untaxed income, but there's nothing you can do about that.
The stocks and funds are reportable assets.
The net market value of your primary residence is not a reportable asset.
You can put money in a 529 college savings plan with yourself named as the beneficiary. This will not affect the treatment of this money as an asset, since it will get the same assessment rate (as described above) either way. But it will have some tax advantages that are worth considering even on a short-term basis.
Raleigh, N.C.: This Christmas and upcoming birthdays, I want to start giving financial gifts to my neices and nephews instead of toys which they never play with, I am only looking at 25.00 a pop for each occasion. I have 1 4yr old , 2 2yr olds, and 1 6month old. What would you suggest and if you can provide links if appropiate for more info.
Michelle Singletary: How nice of you. Check to see if the parents have set up a 529 plan? If not you can and that's what I would recommend.
Go to www.savingforcollege.com to find out more about 529 plans.
Besides they are so little you can get away with contributing to their college fund without them rolling their eyes at you :)
Frederick, Md.: Our son (only child) will be attending college as a freshman next year, so we are beginning the process of applying for financial aid. He's been accepted to the 2 schools of his choice -- one public and one private. Surprise! We just found out that his grandmother has about $15,000 saved for him in a custodial account which bears his name. A lovely, generous gesture, but one that hurts our hopes and plans for aid. Should we use the entire amount towards his freshman year tuition in order to put us in a better position to reapply for aid for the following year? Thanks! Mark G.
Mark Kantrowitz: Liquidate the custodial account and move the money into a 529 college savings account, prepaid tuition plan account, or Coverdell Education Savings Account. (The latter has a $2,000 annual contribution limit, so it is probably less useful to you than the others, which have higher contribution limits.)
Contributions to these accounts must be in cash, and the account will have to be titled the same as the original custodial account (e.g., a custodial 529 college savings plan account), where the student is both the beneficiary and the account owner.
Due to a legislative drafting error in legislation enacted in February of this year, money in the custodial versions of these three accounts is disregarded on the FAFSA.
It is expected that Congress will correct the drafting error next year. However, even after they correct the error, it is expected that money in such accounts will be treated as though it were a parent asset, not a student asset, and as such will have much more favorable financial aid treatment (i.e., maximum rate of 5.64% vs the 35% rate for student assets; the 35% rate changes to 20% on 7/1/2007, but 5.64% is still better than that).
Washington, D.C.: I have a question about saving for our child's college vs. paying off our school loans.
We still owe about $20K for our school loans and should have them paid off by the end of 08. We are currently putting $200 per month in a 529 for our 1 year old. We don't have a savings cushion but have stable jobs.
Is it OK that we have started saving for college while we pay off the school debt? We thought it would be good to start early and get the compounding interest going. We'd like her to not have to pay off the debt the way we have had to.
Kalman Chany: The answer depends on what interest rate you are paying on your student loans. If the rate exceeds the rate of return you are getting on the 529, you would be better off paying down the debt first since you indicate that will happen very soon and your child is quite young.
Michelle Singletary: If it were me (and you asked me too) I would stop contributing to the 529 plan and pay off your own loan first. I would also build up an emergency fund AND begin savng in my own retirement fund BEFORE saving for college.
You very much need a cash cushion. Yes, college is expensive but you have some time. So get rid of your debt, which will free up some money and free you from a burden.
N.J.: The best advice here is to get good grades and be desirable to colleges.
If you apply to a college and are over the 75th percentile for their SAT scores, then you are more likely to be offered more financial aid at private schools, and possible free tuition at public schools.
Of course, cost is the last determinent, since there is no sense appyling to scholls that don't offer your major, share your values, and numerouse other qualitites.
NJ offers a STARS program, with free tuition and fees to county college to the top 20 percent of the high scholl graduating class. Keeping a B average, after graduation, gets you free tuition and fees for the remaining 2 years at a state institution (4 year turition and fees are now getting close to $40K).
Michelle Singletary: The better advice is to get good grades AND SAVE.
Grades alone no matter how good doesn't guarantee you free money.
Silver Spring, Md.: My husband and I are newlyweds, and have spent the last 6 months paying off our debts. We are now down to 1 credit card with a permanent 2% interest rate, my car loan at 0% and his car loan at 6%. In all likelihood, we can have everything but my car paid off by next summer.
My question is this: Does it make sense to apply more money to his car payment until its paid off while making just over the minimum payment on the credit card? In general I think it's makes sense to pay higher interest rate debt first, but having a manageable sized car loan doesn't seem as bad to me as having credit card debt.
Mark Kantrowitz: The general rule of thumb is to prepay the most expensive debt (highest interest rate after taxes) first. So I'd recommend paying off the 6% loan first. This assumes that you're making the required payments on the other debt, and that the 2% rate you specified on the credit card debt isn't a typo (that's a pretty good rate).
Michelle Singletary: If you can make more than the minimum on the credit card do that as well, even at 2 percent. No use in giving the bank money.
Not a college question but hope you have time to respond.
My husband and I live in an apartment, and wish to put a down payment on a house. We hav no credit card debt, but he has a car loan for about 5,000. We are saving as much as we can out of every paycheck for the down payment, and getting 4.75% interest in a money market account. The car loan is at 4.9%. Should we forego any more saving and just pay the car loan off first?
Michelle Singletary: If you are not in a rush and want to begin devoting every dollar to saving for a house, pay off the car.
Middletown, Md.: Our two kids are now in grades 2 and 4. When the kids finished preschool and started attending the local public school we took the amount we had been spending on preschool tuition and put it into the Maryland 529 plan.
It has amazed me how this small monthly amount has grown. The key is to just start setting aside what you can.
Mark Kantrowitz: Congratulations on starting to save for college. Time is your greatest asset.
Definitely keep on saving regularly. Try to make the savings automatic, such as having an automatic monthly transfer from your checking/savings accounts to the 529 plan. Also do extra transfers any time you have a windfall (e.g., income tax refunds). Once a year evaluate whether you can increase the amount you are saving. This makes it easier to save.
Michelle Singletary: A testimony to how little money adds up to big dollars.
Washington, D.C.: Is it a good policy to start talking to potential colleges now regarding potential finacial aid offers for my son who will enter college in Fall 2007?
As you know, the application process has started but the Offcial Financial Aid Process will start January 1 (with Submission of FAFSA).
Kalman Chany: Before you complete the forms or talk to the aid officers, you should first get an estimate of your Expected Family Contribution and then see if there are any strategies that can employ to lower than number (assuming that you demonstrate need in the formula). It is difficult to give specific advice since I don't know enough about your circumstances, but my book that in much detail.
Michelle Singletary: Just so you know both books by Mark and Kalman have worksheets to help you figure out your EFC.
Dear Michelle, Kalman, Mark -
I have two teenage daughters (11th and 9th grades), too much debt, and too many sleepless nights worrying about paying for college. I wonder if we'll ever get out of this hole.
Briefly, my question is this: Should I cash out my retirement account to pay off our credit card debt?
When I married my second husband three years ago, I also took on a burden he was bearing thanks to years of financial neglect: $10,000 at 9% interest on an already-consolidated student loan, $14,000 in back support for a child he didn't know existed for her first eleven years, and nearly $40,000 in high-interest credit card debt. Our salaries were each around $60,000 which covered our expenses but did not leave anything for savings. We were making more than the minimum credit card payments. I took advantage of those low-interest introductory rate offers; our highest credit card interest rate is now 7% (the majority are 0-2%), spread out over eight different accounts.
I receive $3000 per year in child support from my former husband until the children graduate high school; we do not expect that he will contribute to the costs of college. I have $65,000 in my retirement account through my job, where I have good job security and my employer matches my $200 monthly contributions. I also have a $8000 IRA.
Due to budget cut-backs, my husband was laid off from his public relations job at a non-profit association last year. After 6 months without a job offer, he cashed in his $50,000 retirement plan, using the balance (after penalty and tax) to pay off the lease on his car, half the balance on his student loan, and to hire a professional job-search agency. He has progressed to several second interviews, but still no offers. A three-month temporary job ended earlier this month. He is actively seeking work but there are not many white-collar jobs available in the area for a 50-something man in his area of expertise.
My salary (now up to $80,000) just covers our monthly expenses, despite cutting most of the fat out of our budget. Grocery and car-repair bills now go on the credit card. Despite our best efforts, our total balance has crept up to almost $50,000 and the monthly minimun payments are nearly $1000.
Our oldest daughter graduates in June 2008 and we will be completing the college financial aid form (FAFSA) in just over one year. I understand that my expected contribution will be based on my salary and that I won't get any "credit" for the huge debt I married into. The on-line calculators show that I should be able to contribute $8000+ per year toward each daughter's college expenses. She plans to get a job after taking her AP exams in May and knows that she will be expected to take out student loans.
Supporting arguments for cashing in: This would free up $1000/month in credit-card payments which I would use to buy a Roth IRA and to resume payments to our state's college savings plan (which I stopped during the fat-trimming). I would still contribute the maximum to my work-sponsored retirement plan and I expect to work for another 20 years. I know I would sleep better.
Opposing arguments: I would essentially have nothing saved for retirement.
I appreciate your consideration of my question and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Kalman Chany: I would try to avoid withdrawing funds from your retirement plan if at all possible. Most likely, there would be penalties and taxes involved However, if you feel you that have no other choice, then you should consider doing it so that the withdrawal occurs in 2006. Since 2007 will be the first income year that affects your older child's aid eligibility, should a withdrawal in 2007 or beyond could significantly reduce your aid eligiblity.
Mark Kantrowitz: I agree with Kalman. If cashing out your retirement occurs during the base year (the tax year prior to applying for financial aid), it will negatively impact aid eligibility. The net result will be pennies on the dollar.
I'd recommend continuing to contribute to your retirement plans sufficient to maximize the employer match. That's free money.
I'd also recommend taking another serious look at your expenses and seeing where you can cut back. For example, do you really need a second car?
Michelle Singletary: Listen to the fellas. Please don't cash out your retirement fund. I agree that you need to really sit down with your husband and come up with a plan. And going forward your daughter may have to make some hard decisions about where she goes to school. Have her apply to her choices (in state, out of state, private whatever) Then see what mone you get. If it's not enough then you all have to do with you can afford. That may mean she stays in-state and lives at home.But you can't keep bleeding money and you should encourage her to take on a lot of student loan debt either.
I love your take on financial responsibility-- probably because I agree with you!
My husband's employer offers a very generous retirement savings match: 7 percent. So since he started, we've been putting in the maximum that the employer will match.
Our mortgage is about 45 precent of our total after-tax income (our only systematic savings is that 7 percent, though we have a cushion in some investments we made several years ago), and it feels really high to me.
Do you think it would be smart to put that 7% towards the mortgage, instead of retirement? We're in our early 30s.
Michelle Singletary: Oh no. Get that match! Free money.
But I do worry that you have devoted so much of your take home pay to one expense category, even if it is your home. It's generally recommended you not spend more than 25 to 30 percent of your net on housing.
That means you really have to be tight everywhere else.
Glastonbury, Ct.: We have 2 kids who are 2 years apart in elementary school now. We have 529s set up for both. My husband thinks it may be a good idea to put more money into the younger kid's account since it will improve our older's chance of getting financial aid. He assumes the colleges cannot consider the younger's savings in our older's financial aid review. Do you have any thoughts on how you disperse your savings between 2 kids' 529s to maximize our opportunity at college financial aid support?
Mark Kantrowitz: For federal student aid purposes, funds in a sibling's 529 college savings plan account is not reported on the FAFSA.
The CSS Financial Aid PROFILE, however, does consider sibling assets. But the PROFILE is only used by about 300 private colleges.
While putting the money in the younger child's 529 will increase the older child's eligibility, it will decrease the younger child's eligibility by the same amount. Likewise if you put the extra money in the older child's 529. It's a wash either way. Dividing the money equally is more likely to have more of the total under the asset protection allowance, so I'd suggest contributing to both children's accounts at the same rate.
Arlington, Va.: Dear Mr. Chany and Kantrowitz:
I am a 29 year old MA student who will pursue my doctorate in three years and am interested in opening a 529 plan to increase my savings. How do I go about this especially when I might relocate from Virginia to another state to attend school?
Kalman Chany: Virtually all 529 savings plan allow you to use the funds out-of-state, provided the school attended participates in federal student aid programs (even though you might not yourself be eligible or want any federal aid.).
However, if you have any student loans from your prior schooling or other loans outstanding: you may want to consider paying those off first. If school is only a few years off, it is risky to invest funds in a 529 asset allocation that is tied to the stock market. The 529s often have choices tied to only bonds or money market rates, but those returns would most likley be less than what you are paying in interest on any debt. (Tip: you should pay off any Subsidized Stafford Loan or Perkins Loan debt last, as the government will again pay all the interest when you are back in school, so long as you are at least a half-time student.
Finally, when you apply for aid for your doctorate, any assets in yoru 529 could reduce aid eligibility, while the debt would not be recognized.
Fairfax, Va.: Thank you so much for the article, "Tie Up Some Loose Ends." You are always timely with information that is a must read. When I am so busy at this time of the year, you help me remember the details that I need to do before the year is out. Your information is so practical and useable. Just what I need!!
washingtonpost.com: Before the New Year, Tie Up Some Loose Ends (Nov. 30).
Michelle Singletary: Oh thank you so very much. I do try.
However, I must point out that I make a boo boo. I wrote: "Although it's not quite time to file your 2005 tax return , there are some things you can do to improve your tax situation before year-end."
Of course I meant to write 2006.
Greenville, S.C.: How many credit cards is too many? I have 5 (3 store cards and 2 major VISAs) that I racked up in college. Only one carries a balance that I'm working to eliminate. My credit score is good (mid-700s) since I have never been late and I don't want to lower it by closing some cards. I know the store cards should probably go (high interest rates), but I have had them the longest. The major VISAs both have 7% rates so I don't want to close those either.
In addition to the credit cards, I also have a small student loan ($2000) and a paid off car loan. So I think my credit mix is good (revolving and installment credit). Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Michelle Singletary: Don't worry about closing the open accounts if you don't have a balance. A mid 700 score is GREAT.
Now pay off that $2,000 student loan and that one credit card.
I have a friend that recently approached me about help for paying for graduate school. She is an undocumented immigrant. What can she do?
Mark Kantrowitz: As an undocumented immigrant, she's ineligible for federal student aid. She might be eligible for in-state tuition at the public colleges in the state where she resides, depending on the state. See www.finaid.org/otheraid/undocumented.phtml
for more information on this topic.
Boston, Mass.: Hi Michelle ! I've been wanting to ask you this question for ages, but am never on the Internet when your discussion is on - please please please consider this question!
What do you do if you have a house, made the downpayment yourself, mortgage for years, and it's tripled in value at least over the last 8 years. You've beem dating a great man and things are getting serious and now you are thinking how you would deal with a situation later on living together, house payments, ownership etc? He does not have a house or enough savings and it would be ridiculous to "by out half" as the value has gone up so much. I don't want to just hand over my house to someone, but am I supposed to if we get married? If he pays half the mortgage, is that fair, when it's still in my name? What about upgrades etc?
How to deal with this fairly?
Michelle Singletary: Oh, you are about to get me in trouble AGAIN. Singletary devotees will tell you I say if you get married the house belongs to the TWO of you. But before putting him on the title I would refinance so that you are BOTH obligated for the mortgage. If you just put him in the title then he get's half the house but isn't responsible for paying for the loan.
And I would not do anything -- shack up, move him in, be roommates, etc. until you get married.
Marriage for me solves your problem. You become one sharing in all that you have -- income, expenses, debts and yes, house.
Alexandria, Va.: I have a comment and question. When I was in college, I found one of the most underutilized areas of financial support was work study. I was able to pick up some extra cash by picking up a couple of work study shifts. Also, it is a great networking opportunity because you meet all types of people.
I am going to get $10K for the holidays. This will be used to eliminate my credit card debt almost completely. I have been able to get my spending habits more or less under control. But I'm concerned about relapses. I would like to cancel one of my credit cards. This would reduce my credit line to about $7K. I know closing an account may hurt my credit score but frankly, in the long run, I would rather make sure that I don't get myself in this position again. I'm working hard to be frugal but I think the less money I have available at this point, the better. Your input would be great!
Mark Kantrowitz: If you're going to cancel a card, cancel the one you obtained most recently, all else being equal. That will have the least impact on your FICO score. But rather than cancel it, I'd suggest simply cutting up the card. You won't be able to spend money on the card if it is cut up, and a card with a $0 balance contributes to your FICO score more than an account cancelled at the cardholder's request.
Michelle Singletary: Good for you for trying to get your finances straight. Mark is right, right now just cut the card up. If you cancel it you hurt your score and if you plan on getting credit in the near future it might be more expensive.
Besides you can always open a new card. So use this as a way to find the discipline not to spend.
I have not saved a lot for my son to attend college; however I have saved for a new home and expect that I will have to use some of those funds to finance college. My new house money is liquid, sitting in a saving account. How will that affect my expected contribution. Should I expect to have to exhaust all of my house money to fund his college?
Mark Kantrowitz: Money in a bank account is counted as an asset on the FAFSA. After the asset protection allowance shelters some of the money (about $45,000 right now for parents of college age children, median age 48), the rest is assessed at a bracketed scale with a top bracket of 5.64%. So if you have $55,000 in assets, only the $10,000 above the asset protection allowance will be assessed, and the maximum impact of that money on reducing aid eligibility will be $564. That's a relatively minimal impact on aid eligibility.
If you buy a home, the net market value of your primary residence is disregarded. This is a useful way of increasing his aid eligibility.
Middletown, Md.: How much of financial aid is "free"?
If someone qualifies for financial aid does that mean the aid is in the form of grants or does that just mean the student qualifies for loans?
Michelle Singletary: It can mean grants, scholarships, workstudy AND for a lot of folks mostly loans.
Uncle Helping with College: Hi Michelle, Kalman and Mark:
My niece and nephew are in junior high school. I plan to help them out with their college educations. Would you recommend (generally) that I write a check to their colleges in each of the four years of their attendance (presuming that it takes them just 4 yrs), or that I give the money to them after they have graduated?
I'm hesitant to give the money during their college careers but I also know that I need to be sensitive to tax rules on gifts if I give the money directly. I guess I don't know whether writing a check directly to the college constitutes a gift, and whether it will affect their eligibility for financial aid.
Thanks for considering my question.
Mark Kantrowitz: Give the money to them after they graduate. That will help them pay off their loans and has no impact on aid eligibility.
Some colleges will treat payments directly to the school (i.e., payments taking advantage of the gift tax exclusion for direct payments to educational and medical establishments) as either a resource (100% reduction in aid eligibility) or untaxed income to the student (50% reduction in aid eligibility) instead of as a payment on account (0% reduction).
So you're better off waiting until after the students graduate to give them the gifts.
Cville, Va.: My three kids are 2, 4,and 6. What am I losing by keeping their college money in investments (mut funds) in my name rather than a 529 plan?
Michelle Singletary: A HUGE tax advantage. 529 money is not taxed while it grows (if it grows) and it's not taxed once you withdraw it to pay for qualifying expenses.
Alexandria: Getting good grades is like money in the bank, and I wish you would stress more the student's responsibility to study hard and get those grades up there. Plus the student, not just the parent, can be working and saving, too, with summer jobs during the high school years.
I grew up in Michigan where there was a state program whereby if you scored high enough on a state-given test senior year in h.s., you could get free tuition at any university (private or public) in the state. I did that, plus worked, plus had a scholarship direction from my university (Go Green!). After four years of school, my mom added up how much she had to give me - it came to a grand total of $2,000, about $500 a year.
Paying for college shouldn't be totally the parents' responsibility. The student needs to do his or her part too.
Michelle Singletary: First, I don't think any of us are discounting good grades. But far too often parents say, "Oh my kid is smart, he or she will get a scholarhip." And then they don't.
So yes if I must yell it GET GOOD GRADES.
But save too. Invest too. Do whatever you can to make sure your kid doesn't have to take out loans.
And personally, since this is my chat and they pay me for my opinion college is the parent's responsibility when they can afford it. And I mean that "if." I chose to have my kids and I know full well that getting a college education for most people is the way to do well in our society.
So since I chose to bring them into this world I'm going to do what I can to give them the best start. Will I make my kids help. Yes. But not if I have saved enough. I want them to study and participate in college activies and go to poetry readings and study aboard and do all the things we working folks can't anymore.
Listen, if you are just getting by, living paycheck to paycheck I'm not fussing if you can't save enough for college for your kids. Then it is up to them.
But hey if you aren't managing your money well. If you rather have a new car every 4 years then save for your kids college education, or think they need Xboxes and playstaions or whatever then shame on you.
Don't burden them with loans and HAVING to work while taking classes (they sure should work during breaks and summers).
D.C.: Daughter has a boyfriend (34 yrs) who has been in the U.S. on a Green Card for 15 yrs. He never registered with the Selective Service, so apparently he is unable to apply for Federal financial aid. He does receive Pell Grants. Any other options?
Mark Kantrowitz: If a student's failure to register with Selective Service was not knowing and willful (as determined by the college), then the student will be eligible for federal student aid.
Federal student aid includes the Pell Grant. Since he's receiving the Pell Grant, that suggests that his school did determine that his failure to register was not knowing and willful and therefore he is eligible for federal student aid.
Note that the determination is on a per-college basis, so one school's decision will not necessarily transfer to another college.
Rochester, N.Y.: My daughter is a sophomore in High School. I don't think she will qualify for finiancial aid because are hard working middle class parents who have saved (as Michelle advises). We have two other children who will be going to college about 5-7 years after the first. I would like my daughter to take some loans for college so that she can feel some responsibility and I can also reduce the amount I pay up front. I can decide to help her with loans later depending on our situation and my approval of her efforts/behaviour. What types of loans would you suggest she pursue.
Mark Kantrowitz: I recommend that all students consider the Perkins and Stafford Loans, as these loans have very low interest rates. The Perkins Loan has a 5% interest rate and the Stafford Loan has a 6.8% interest rate. The Perkins Loan is subsidized, meaning the federal government pays the interest while the student is in school. The Stafford Loan comes in two flavors, subsidized and unsubsidized. Both the Perkins and the subsidized Stafford are based on financial need. The unsubsidized Stafford Loan, and the Parent PLUS loan, are not based on financial need. Any amount not borrowed as a subsidized Stafford Loan (up to the annual limits) can be borrowed as an unsubsidized Stafford Loan.
The Stafford Loan limits, starting July 1, 2007, will be:
The cumulative Stafford Loan limit is $23,000. The PLUS loan
does not have a cumulative loan limit, and the annual loan limit is cost of attendance (minus other aid received).
Thus my overall advice is to borrow according to the cost of the loan, from lowest cost to highest cost. Ranking the loans according to cost from lowest cost to highest, the loans are:
Note that up to $2,500 a year in interest paid on education loans is deductible. Mixed-use loans like credit cards are not deductible.
As a middle class family, don't forget about the education tax benefits such as the Hope Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. These can help you defray the cost of college.
I love your comments and the understanding of what "Big-Mamma" truly meant to you!
My wife and I have a Freshman Daughter whose attending a private college with an annual price tag of: $43,850.
(However, the good-news is; I had eighteen years to plan for the expense).
Here's my question: Is any of this college cost tax deductible. Our combined annual income is over 200K.
Take care and keep up with the PMI (Positive Mental Attitude)
Michelle Singletary: Interest on students loans is deductible up to $2,500 depending on income. But college costs you pay as a parent, not to my knowledge.
Sorry. I feel your pain!
Kalman Chany: I wanted to reply to a question that was previously asked and answered.
Regarding "student-owned" 529 plans (which are sometimes called "Custodial 529 plans"): I do not know why the reader stated that these are to reported as parental assets on the aid forms.
The recent HERA legislation -and subsequent guidelines issued by the US Depertment of Education - are quite clear in stating that student-owned 529 plans (both pre-paid and the savings plans) as well as Coverdell Education Savings Accounts need not be reported as an asset on the FAFSA provided the student must provide parental information on the FAFSA. The instructions for the 2007-2008 FAFSA state this as well.
Parent-owned 529 plans or Coverdells in which the student and/or other individuals (which could be the parent himself or herself)are the beneficiaries, are considered as part of the parent's assets on the FAFSA.
Students who DO NOT have to provide parental information on the FAFSA form DO need to include the value of any 529 plan or Coverdell they own as part of their assets they own on the FAFSA
Since these rules apply starting with the current 2006-2007 school year, any student who reported any "student-owned" 529s or Coverdells as part of student assets on a previosly submitted 2006-2007 FAFSA should make corrections and alert the college aid office about this. You may get more aid. (Note: since the assets you report are the asset values on the day you completed the form, you should not correct the 2006-2007 form if you moved any student assets into a student-owned 529 or Coverdell after you submitted your FAFSA data. However, you may want to consider doing that before you submit the 2007-2008 FAFSA - though you should read my warning about this strategy below in the last paragraph of my response.)
Please be aware that many financial aid officers are not aware of these changes. Yesterday, I randomly called 5 aid offices and not one of them answered my question correctly when I asked them how to report student-owned 529s on the FAFSA. They also did not answers questions correctly as to how to handle net worth of a business, since there are new rules affecting many business owners as well) So you may need to "educate" them about these new rules by telling them to read the 2007-2008 FAFSA instructions carefully.
Warning: even though the 2007-2008 FAFSA does not require reporting of "student-owned" 529 plans and "student-owned" Coverdells, Congress may well change how these are handled in subsequent years. In addition, more and more schools are asking more detailed questions about 529 plans and Coverdells, so they may still consider such accounts as student assets when awarding their own funds. Finally, if you must complete the CSS PROFILE form: students who report parental information on the PROFILE should include student-owned 529s and Coverdells as part of the parents assets.
I'm sorry this isn't a question about college loans (fortunately I'm already paid up!) but I have a question about a car loan. I bought a new car this year and financed $18K at 4.9%. After using one of the online calculators I realized that my overpayments each month will literally only save me a couple hundred bucks over the length of my loan. Do you think it would be better for me to invest that extra money ($100) each month in some sort of mutual fund or keep paying off my loan faster? I have all the basics already covered, 401K, savings etc.
Michelle Singletary: I'm the queen of being debt free so I say keep paying off the loan. That's what I used to do when I had a car loan. I never felt bad about paying off my loan early.
Washington, D.C.: As a former Financial Aid officer for a private college, I wonder if I may air a grudge on this subject. Pretty soon, virtually every financial aid magazine (Money, Smartmoney,etc.) will start featuring articles with titles like "How To Get a Better Financial Aid Package!" While some of these articles may feature the good advice given so far, pretty much all will have something to the extent of "Dont take no for an answer- keep harassing the school, point out other schools offers, etc." While it's a good idea to make sure your offer was based on correct info, in my experience financial aid packages are pretty much as big as they can be, depending on the wealth of the school, etc. and that complaining to everyone up to the president, being a nuisance, acting like you're "entitled" to a full scholarship, etc., does NOT bring extra $$$. Thanks
Kalman Chany: It is possible to appeal the awards. My experience as a private consultant, is that more and more schools are not giving their best offer in the initial package.
However, parents should use tact when dealing with the aid office. You don't want to re-enact the scene for "Jerry McGuire and start screaming "Show me the money".
I agree. Being nice always helps.
Cambridge, Mass.: I've been to the site you've recommended,
www.savingforcollege.com, but can't find the answer to one very (to me) important question:
can I move from one 529 to another?
Or, if I am dissatisfied with the performance of the fund (or move to another state), am I stuck with leaving the money in the fund, and just investing new money in a new account?
Thanks for the chats; Michelle, you are a wonder!
Mark Kantrowitz: You can move from one 529 to another once a year.
Bethesda, Md.: We have $36K in savings bonds (that's the face value) in the name of my 12 year old daughter that will mature before she reaches college age. How best should we place this money once we have it in hand - a 529 account?
Mark Kantrowitz: The interest on certain savings bonds is tax free when the proceeds are used to pay for qualified higher education expenses or to fund a section 529 college savings plan. So I would definitely recommend rolling the money over into a 529 college savings plan.
I read your columns and I have a question. I am in default on a student loan (7,000) and they are looking to garnish my check, I have the money in my 401K, should I use the money in my 401K to pay it off? I have a secure job but the money I make barely pays my bills each month and I can't cut back any further, I don't have a car, or a phone I am just paying the absolute necessities, no credit cards. What should I do?
Michelle Singletary: Oh you poor dear. Have you tried calling the lender to work out a plan? Just try everything before you pull that money out. Because keep in mind you have to pull out almost double to net the money you need (due to penalties and taxes).
If however that's it. That you have but to the bone, then yes under this circumstance (and I say this with a heavy heart) use the 401 money.
D.C.: How much difference does the age of the parents matter? My husband will be 66 and 71 when our children enter college.
Mark Kantrowitz: Age of the older parent affects the asset protection allowance in the federal formula. Since you will both be over age 65, you'll get the maximum asset protection allowance, currently about $75,000.
Baltimore, Md.: Hi, I have two questions. First, I have heard that the age of the parents is used as a consideration when determing EFC, especially if older and close to retirement age. Is this true?
Second, how much consideration is given to having 2 children in college at the same time? We intentionally spaced our children by four years, partly to avoid two tuitions at the same time. It seems that the number of children still at home was not considered for us, but my friend with two children in school has the same EFC as she did last year when her youngest was still in high school.
Kalman Chany: In the federal formula, the age of the oldest parent (stepparent) in the student's household is considered. The older the oldest parent (stepparent), the more assets are sheltered from assetment.
The federal formula also divides the parental contribution by the number of dependents in college on at least a half-time basis when calculating the EFC.
Silver Spring, Md.: Can you comment on the pros and cons of 529 plans vs. prepaid tuition plans? Would you recommend one over another? Also, what do you think of prepaid tuition plans where you spread out your payments over time?
Mark Kantrowitz: The Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (passed 2/8/2006) changed the financial aid treatment of prepaid tuition plans, so they now have the same treatment as 529 college savings plans.
So the main decision between the two has to do with the differences:
1. Prepaid tuition plans are mainly tenable at
public colleges, while 529 plans are tenable
elsewhere. (You can use most prepaid tuition
plans anywhere, just not with the best return
2. Prepaid tuition plans give you peace of mind,
that you have saved a specific percentage of
the cost of a college education. 529 plans are
riskier, but also offer the possibility of
greater appreciation. (Prepaid tuition plans
can be a useful hedge against tuition inflation
during recessions, when public college tuition
rates skyrocket due to cuts in state support of
If you are certain that your children will attend state colleges, you might consider a prepaid tuition plan. Otherwise I'd advise against it. With a 529 college savings plan I tend to recommend putting the money into a broad index fund, like a S&P 500 fund or a Total Stock Market index fund.
With regard to which state 529 plan to use, I recommend using your own state's plan if you can deduct contributions on your state income taxes. Otherwise, I recommend looking for a state plan which has the lowest initial and ongoing fees (i.e., less than 1% a year). The plans run by Vanguard and TIAA-CREF tend to have the lowest fees.
Leroy, N.Y.: With the recent change that allows UTMA 529's to not be counted at all, do you forsee this as a loophole that will be caught, and if so, what do you think the final assessment on these accounts will be? At the parent rate, or the child's?
Mark Kantrowitz: The loophole will be closed, probably in 2007.
After it is closed, such accounts will be given the financial aid treatment of parent assets, still a pretty good deal.
Baltimore, Md.: I know it's late, but HAD to respond to Alexandria. It's great that he/she had a state program for good students, but a lot of people DON'T. I was a great student, even got a National Merit Scholarship, so I should have been in like Flynn, right? Except what they don't tell you is, even when you get aid, the FIRST aid they give you is LOANS!! You have to take out the maximum federal loans allowed; then you have to do work study for a certain amount; and THEN, if you're a good student, they'll make up the rest with scholarships. My National Merit Scholarship gave me $2K/yr grant instead of parental loans, but that's about all it got me. Luckily, back then, the federal loan max was $2500; don't know what it is today, but I'm sure it's a lot higher.
So even if you do have a reasonable shot at a scholarship (unless it's something like a full athletic scholarship), realize that your kid will likely still have loans and work study to deal with -- if you don't want to burden them with that, you need to PLAN for it, NOW!!
Michelle Singletary: Never too late for a good testimony!
I won a full scholarship to college. I know it can happen. But still I'm saving like a mad woman for my kids. Just in case.
Michelle Singletary: Oh my, so many questions. So little time. So we all have to go now but both Mark and Kalman have agreed some of the leftover questions. So please look for my print column or weekly e-letter (sign up if you haven't already) for answers to some of your questions.
As always, thanks so much for joining me today. Your questions and comments were right on the money.
And I did see the questions about my tithing column. Couldn't get to them but I will at a later time (perhaps in the e-letter or a follow up column).
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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Authors Kalman Chany and Mark Kantrowitz joined Michelle Singletary for a discussion about how to pay for college.
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African Continuum Founder Exiting At Season's End
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Jennifer L. Nelson, the founding artistic director of African Continuum Theatre Company, announced yesterday that she is stepping down from the top job at the city's most visible black theater group.
With the theater moving into a new phase with a permanent home, Nelson says its stability and visibility are giving her a chance to pursue her own creative interests.
"Now I can stand back with pride and see that it is ready to go to the prom with somebody else," she says.
Sustainability has been an elusive goal for many minority theater groups in Washington and nationwide. "When I took the job in 1996, I accepted the mission to create a company. My personal mission was to build one that would last," she says.
Rubie Coles, the company's board chairman, said Nelson's "determined leadership" has brought the group stability, and the board plans a national search for someone with the same passion about a professional African American company in Washington. "That is part of what kept her going; she didn't want to see that die," Coles says.
African Continuum, having completed a residency at the Kennedy Center, became a resident company at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Northeast Washington in 2005. Four productions are scheduled this season, which opens this week with "A Raisin in the Sun," one of the most important works in the black literary canon. In the spring, the company is staging August Wilson's "Jitney" at Ford's Theatre.
"This is the universe I had always imagined for this company -- to have something always in the pipeline," Nelson says, taking a break from rehearsals of "Raisin," which she is directing.
It is an established part of the theater world, with a track record of 30 productions and 13 Helen Hayes Award nominations.
Nelson, who won a Hayes Award for her play "Torn From the Headlines," plans to step down at the end of this season, and says a new producing artistic director should be selected by next summer.
"It has been a wonderful adventure, and it has worn me out," said Nelson, shaking a head full of long dreadlocks.
African Continuum grew out of the African American Theatre Coalition, a membership organization that became a producing theater company. For years the company never had a permanent home. Nelson describes the frustration of doing a successful play not knowing when or where the next production would be. "The step to getting in the Atlas makes a nice completion for me," says Nelson, 58.
The company has an annual budget of $500,000 -- tiny compared with the Kennedy Center or Arena Stage. But it's in the black and has no deficit. Nelson remembers a low point, when the funding dried up after the 9/11 terror attacks. Nelson had to lay off her entire four-person staff and work alone.
In her 33 years in the theater, Nelson has been an actor, playwright, director and producer. Now, stepping away from administration, she can dedicate her time to her favorite outlets, directing and writing.
"I can't write because running the company is too consuming. I go home and dream about a bookkeeping issue or where are we going to get that set piece from. Now I can clear my creative brain," she says.
Her family instilled the love of words and theater in Nelson and her siblings. Her father, one of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, and her mother, a musician, performed in the theater all their lives. Her sister, Marilyn Nelson, is a noted poet, and her brother, Melvin Nelson Jr., is a composer. Nelson studied political science at the University of California, Davis, dreaming about working for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She got to Washington in 1972 but as an actress and associate artistic director with the Living Stage Theater Company at Arena. She stayed there for 17 years.
When she moved to African Continuum, the company searched for its niche. "The Hip Hop Nightmares of Jujube Brown," one of the first hip-hop plays done in Washington, found an audience of young people, but the core subscribers wanted something more familiar -- "Jitney" as opposed to a hip-hop "As You Like It." Nelson explains: "The African American audience wants familiar things -- and this is a generalization -- but they want well-done productions that confirm who we are."
When the company did its residency at the Kennedy Center, where it tried avant-garde productions, its visibility shot up, but Nelson considered it a mixed success because -- again -- people wanted more graspable work. "Just being there conferred a level of legitimacy," she says.
She wants to direct one play a season for the company, work with its BobCo education/outreach program and help develop with Fresh Flavas, a new-play initiative in Washington backed by the Ford Foundation. "I would like to stay connected," Nelson says.
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Executive Pleads Guilty to Racketeering, Agrees to Testify Against Ex-Senator
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2006113019
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A construction executive at the center of Maryland's largest public corruption investigation in years pleaded guilty yesterday to racketeering and other offenses, agreeing to testify against his codefendant, former state senator Thomas L. Bromwell.
As part of his plea agreement, W. David Stoffregen certified as accurate a document that outlines secret payments to Bromwell and free or steeply discounted contracting work at the lawmaker's home in exchange for Bromwell's steering of state contracts to Stoffregen's firm, commercial contractor Poole and Kent Corp.
The guilty plea is by far the most significant of the six such pleas that federal prosecutors have netted in their investigation of Bromwell, a Baltimore County Democrat who was one of the most powerful figures in Annapolis before he left office in 2002.
Allegations of the improper exchange of cash and favors between the two men are at the heart of the prosecution's case, and with his plea, Stoffregen immediately becomes the star witness in a trial scheduled to begin in March.
The summary, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, largely mirrors assertions made in the original racketeering indictment and in related cases involving other defendants.
Bromwell and his wife, Mary Pat, who was also charged in the racketeering indictment, have pleaded not guilty. Joshua Treem, one of Bromwell's attorneys, did not respond to a message seeking comment on the plea agreement. Stoffregen's attorneys and U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein declined to comment.
According to the summary, Stoffregen paid more than $190,000 to Bromwell, arranged the contracting work at his house and gave the lawmaker an ownership stake in International Partners Construction, a company that Stoffregen formed in 2000 to do business in Russia.
In exchange, it says, Bromwell saw to it that Poole and Kent was awarded a $13 million contract with the University of Maryland Medical System and arranged for expedited payments for work that the company performed on a state juvenile justice center project.
Bromwell's influence in the state Senate was considered so valuable, the summary says, that when he considered leaving the legislature for financial reasons, Stoffregen told him that if he agreed to stay, his wife would be given a job -- with an annual salary of $80,000 and no requirement to show up. Bromwell agreed, it says, and received payments of $192,000 disguised as salary from Namco, a company that Stoffregen controlled.
Stoffregen, 53, of Towson, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud and filing a false tax return. Under the terms of the agreement, he will probably be sentenced to six to 18 years in prison. Stoffregen also agreed to forfeit more than $5.6 million, including his residence and a number of bank and other accounts.
The plea agreement is all but certain to complicate efforts to defend Bromwell, who was one of the most colorful figures in the legislature and who has been the head of a state agency, the Injured Workers' Insurance Fund, for three years.
Bromwell, a former tavern owner, was elected to the Senate in 1983. He rose to the powerful position of Finance Committee chairman and staged a daring but failed campaign to dislodge the Senate's longtime president, Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), in the final days of 2000.
In the summary filed, Stoffregen also acknowledged orchestrating a minority contracting fraud scheme involving Namco, a front company that was certified as female-owned and whose presence on a job allowed Pool and Kent to appear to meet minority contracting goals or requirements. The company, for example, enabled Poole and Kent to meet such requirements on a 2003 terminal expansion at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, it says.
The summary says that Stoffregen and others went to elaborate lengths to make the front company appear legitimate when inspectors from the Maryland Aviation Administration, which oversaw the project, announced that they wanted to visit Namco offices.
Stoffregen ordered that furniture, computers and documents be delivered to the largely empty space listed as the company address, the summary states. He directed Poole and Kent employees to create a company brochure. And on the day of the visit, it says, Mary Pat Bromwell posed as a receptionist.
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A construction executive at the center of Maryland's largest public corruption investigation in years pleaded guilty yesterday to racketeering and other offenses, agreeing to testify against his codefendant, former state senator Thomas L. Bromwell.
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Incoming Executive Fires Officials, Including County's Top Administrator
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Signaling his intention to set a new course at the highest levels of government, Montgomery County Executive-elect Isiah "Ike" Leggett fired the county's top administrator yesterday and asked at least 10 other department directors or deputies appointed by outgoing Executive Douglas M. Duncan to step down.
Sources from the Duncan administration said that most of the officials received letters or phone calls Monday and yesterday.
Leggett (D), who takes over from Duncan next week, told Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Romer of his plans yesterday, according to sources familiar with the conversation.
As Leggett prepares to take office, he has discretion to hire and fire 40 agency heads and some deputies. He and a close circle of advisers have conducted a series of interviews with Duncan's appointees.
After Duncan was elected in 1994, he abruptly fired more than half of the appointed officials.
Leggett would not discuss his plans yesterday, saying: "We're not in a position to make any announcement about it. We'll have an announcement in another day or so."
Romer also declined to comment. He has served by Duncan's side throughout his 12-year tenure. He is known as the low-key, behind-the-scenes balance to Duncan's high-profile public persona. Duncan first recruited Romer in 1998 from Davenport, Iowa, to serve as city manager in Rockville.
Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) consoled Romer at a gathering of Duncan aides last night.
"Bruce has been a tremendous resource and a beacon of consistency," she said. But "it is Ike's right to put his own imprint on the county."
Leggett has also asked three of Duncan's four special assistants -- Jerry Pasternak, Saralee Todd and Deborah Goodwin -- to step down.
Among the other political appointees who received dismissal notifications were Health and Human Services Director Carolyn W. Colvin, her chief operating officer, Kenneth Rumsey, and the chief of behavioral health and crisis services, Daryl Plevy.
Staff writers Matthew Mosk and Miranda S. Spivack contributed to this report.
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Signaling his intention to set a new course at the highest levels of government, Montgomery County Executive-elect Isiah "Ike" Leggett fired the county's top administrator yesterday and asked at least 10 other department directors or deputies appointed by outgoing Executive Douglas M. Duncan to...
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Citizenship Agency Lost 111,000 Files
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has lost track of 111,000 files in 14 of the agency's busiest district offices and processed as many as 30,000 citizenship applications last year without the necessary files, congressional investigators reported yesterday.
The Government Accountability Office, Congress's audit arm, conducted the review at the request of Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) after U.S. authorities granted citizenship in 2002 to a man without checking his primary file. The file, which was lost, indicated ties to the militant Islamic group Hezbollah.
"It only takes one missing file of somebody with links to a terrorist organization to become an American citizen," said Grassley, who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "We can't afford to be handing out citizenship with blinders on."
Collins, head of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, noted that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers entered the U.S. legally, disappearing until the terrorist attacks. She called it "unthinkable" that the U.S. immigration system could still grant citizenship to a potential terrorist "simply because they can't find the person's file."
An agency official said workers probably checked most of the files but failed to make note of it.
The GAO report, dated Oct. 27 and released by the senators yesterday, underscored long-standing problems at the agency, which was created out of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and is expected to bear the brunt of administering new rules if Congress overhauls immigration policy.
The $1.8 billion agency handled 7.5 million applications for immigration benefits in 2005 but relies on paper files. The agency awarded a five-year, $150 million contract in August to begin digitizing 55 million "alien files," or A-files, but for now it still relies on paper files.
The GAO found that the agency's workers failed to record A-file use in processing 30,000 of 715,000 naturalization cases last year, or 4 percent of cases. The GAO also found that as of July 27, Citizenship and Immigration Services' electronic tracking system reported that 111,000 A-files were lost in the 14 offices that manage two-thirds of naturalization cases.
Steven J. Pecinovsky, an agency liaison to the GAO, said workers are not required to note that they have checked A-files but will be in the future. A 2005 internal audit found a much lower incidence of unchecked A-files than the GAO cited -- about 0.5 percent.
The GAO also cited internal audits that found that 21 percent of files were not where they were supposed to be in Immigration Services' San Diego office in 2005 and that 6 percent of files could not be found in the Los Angeles office earlier this year.
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has lost track of 111,000 files in 14 of the agency's busiest district offices and processed as many as 30,000 citizenship applications last year without the necessary files, congressional investigators reported yesterday.
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McConnell Pledges Cooperation
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Sounding a conciliatory note, the new Senate Republican leader vowed yesterday to work with Democrats to pass a minimum-wage increase and a strong ethics reform package shortly after the new Democratic-controlled Congress begins work next year.
Senate Minority Leader-elect Mitch McConnell (Ky.) described as "easy stuff" much of the Democrats' opening agenda, including a proposal to boost the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour and a congressional ethics package that would ban gifts, meals and travel from lobbyists, as well as impose new controls on the budget deficit. These issues, however, have not proved to be easy before.
McConnell said he is urging bolder action. He challenged House Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to push for a long-term solution to financing the Social Security system and for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. Democrats in the current Congress blocked President Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security, while an impasse between House and Senate Republicans over approaches to immigration changes thwarted a deal.
"One thing I hope we can do, now that we have the election out of the way, is see if we can quit kicking the can down the road on a number of significant issues," McConnell told a meeting of Washington Post editors and reporters. "Left over from last year, I would put immigration at the top of the list. But I also share the view . . . that this would be the perfect time to tackle Social Security."
While some fear that the new Congress will become a political battleground in the run-up to the 2008 presidential campaign -- with at least eight Democratic and Republican senators considering bids for the White House -- McConnell asserted that a grand deal on Social Security is still possible, even with a Democratic-controlled House and Senate and a Republican White House. He noted that divided government did not prevent President Ronald Reagan and a Democratic Congress in 1983 from striking a landmark deal ensuring the long-term solvency of Social Security.
McConnell said the two parties should be open to a wide range of approaches -- "I don't think we should rule anything in or out."
In recent days, Bush and senior administration officials have revived talk of reaching an accord on an overhaul of Social Security that would maintain the program's solvency beyond the baby boom generation's retirement. In an interview with The Washington Post last week, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., the president's point man on Social Security, promised that the White House will enter talks with Democrats with "no preconditions." That is a significant shift for Bush, who had previously said that any Social Security legislation would have to include private accounts that would allow workers to divert some of their payroll taxes to investments in stocks or bonds.
McConnell added another concession yesterday, saying that Social Security legislation should "solve the problem as far into the future as possible" -- a standard that is far more flexible than Bush's insistence on nothing short of a "permanent" fix.
McConnell, 64, will succeed Sen. Bill Frist (Tenn.) as the Senate Republican leader in January, when Frist steps down to explore a possible bid for the GOP presidential nomination.
The Kentucky lawmaker, like Reid, is a consummate dealmaker whose top priority is legislative achievement. They both rose through the Senate ranks by mastering the rules and building strong relationships with colleagues. Both are combative lawyer-politicians who overcame childhood challenges and are now in their mid-60s. Unlike Frist, a surgeon, McConnell and Reid are veteran practitioners of the Senate's opaque, clubby brand of politics, with no apparent desire to become president or grab television time to espouse their parties' goals.
Yesterday, McConnell said he and Reid "have a good relationship" and talk practically every day that the Senate is in session. He said that he and the new majority leader are determined to avoid legislative gridlock in the coming Congress.
In a wide-ranging session, McConnell said that although a majority of voters voiced their discontent with the administration's Iraq war policies, he doubts the Democrats can muster support for a resolution setting a timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. troops. He said that Republicans would back a boost in the minimum wage, but that it would have to be linked to a GOP priority, such as a tax cut for small businesses to ease the impact.
Staff writer Jonathan Weisman contributed to this report.
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For Fiscal Conservatives, Losing May Be Liberating
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2006113019
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All Republicans had a lousy November. For fiscal conservatives, the gloom only started on Election Day, when the GOP lost control of Congress.
Conservative candidates suffered humiliating losses in the House GOP leadership elections. Democrats threatened to govern from the center, turning conservatives into a minority of the minority. Milton Friedman, the patron saint of free-market economics, died on Nov. 16. Just yesterday, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared to the New York Daily News editorial board that "Reaganomics is dead."
Government gurus and IT experts needed to fill positions in the D.C. area.
But does that make the glass half empty, or half full?
In Congress, the minority life is mostly talk and little action, and yet for advocates of minimal spending and low taxes, that may not turn out to be so bad. It's easier to promote fiscal discipline in theory than to practice it as a party leader or committee chairman. Remember that $200 million-plus "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska? It still makes conservatives cringe.
"Now that Republicans are in the opposition, they're going to be the most saintly budget hawks you can imagine," said American Enterprise Institute economist Kevin A. Hassett. With the absence of power, he notes, comes the absence of accountability and blame. As Hassett put it, "being in the minority means never having to say you're sorry."
Fiscal conservatives started to agitate days after the election, when the Republican-led 109th Congress reconvened to wrap up unfinished business. At the top of the to-do list: nine remaining spending bills for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.
Few Republicans returned to Washington expecting to complete all the outstanding bills. But many wanted to pass at least a few, if only to show that the GOP wasn't abrogating its governing duties. But several fiscal conservatives in the Senate saw an opportunity to take a stand against "earmarks," the special projects that members from both parties had tucked inside the bills. The rebels announced their intention to block all spending bills from advancing -- even one that financed veterans benefits and military housing.
"We need to examine the bills in the light of the last election, in which I think the American people were unhappy with our spending habits," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) explained to reporters. He and his allies, including Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), want Congress to pass a "continuing resolution" to extend funding from the previous fiscal year. "We'd save the taxpayers a lot of money," Sessions said.
Their quest has reinvigorated fiscal conservative groups such as the Club for Growth, which suffered several major election defeats this year. "The Senate showdown on earmarks is next week," the club's blog reported yesterday. "The good guys, Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint, are battling the appropriators and the big spenders." The article warned, though, that the continuing resolution "isn't a done deal."
A chief target of the budget hawks is a group of Democratic House freshmen who won seats in conservative districts, including the Florida seat that was held by disgraced Rep. Mark Foley, and Tom DeLay's former seat in Texas. Republicans call these "rented seats" and hope to win them back in 2008.
"Democrats aren't going to want to make massive cuts," said Stuart Roy, a longtime senior Republican House aide who works as a public-affairs consultant. Back in the GOP-minority days of the 1980s, House Republicans sought to force Democrats to vote against small spending reductions, often fractions of a percent. But as Roy pointed out, these little-noticed maneuvers helped Republicans build a case that Democrats' spending habits had spiraled out of control.
"Spending cuts resonate in a macro sense, especially if you can show they are tied specifically to waste," he said.
The trick, Roy added, is to avoid programs that happen to be popular, such as public television funding. "There will be a substantial number of people who will want to go out and do that." That impulse should be resisted: "This is not a governing strategy, it is a minority strategy."
Another enticing realm is taxes. In the 110th Congress, fiscal conservatives will act as chief defenders of the numerous temporary tax cuts that Republicans have passed since President Bush took office. Breaks that benefit wealthy individuals are particularly unpopular with Democrats, but particularly cherished by fiscal conservatives, who believe low tax rates at the top of the economic ladder fuel growth.
The first showdown will come over the alternative minimum tax, which Democrats have vowed to address early in their tenure. Adjusting the tax so that it will not envelop another 20 million or so middle-class families will cost $50 billion-plus per year, official estimates show. The incoming House Ways and Means chairman, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), has vowed to pay for the fix, but that could be politically difficult.
"Rangel is going to need a really large tax increase to keep his promise," wrote Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist, anticipating the Democratic dilemma with glee.
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All Republicans had a lousy November. For fiscal conservatives, the gloom only started on Election Day, when the GOP lost control of Congress.
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U.S. Peacekeeping Plan for Somalia Criticized
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UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 28 -- The United States has finalized a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would authorize a force of East African peacekeepers to intervene in Somalia to prevent the overthrow of the country's struggling government at the hands of Islamic militias. But some European diplomats and other critics expressed concern that the initiative could trigger a wider war in the region.
The U.S. proposal comes as an alliance of militias, known as the Conservative Council of Islamic Courts, is extending its military and political control over Somalia and threatening the country's weak interim government. Ethiopia has sent thousands of troops to help prop up the government while its rival, Eritrea, has deployed thousands of troops to fight alongside the militias, according to a recent U.N. report.
The U.S. text, which is backed by China, Russia and key African states, would permit an East African protection force to provide security for Somalia's transitional federal government, based in Baidoa. It would partly lift a 14-year arms embargo so East African troops could train a Somali security force and import weapons to fulfill their mandate. And it would also commit the Security Council to "consider taking measures" against states that try to "overthrow" the interim government, threaten regional stability or "seek to prevent or block" peace talks.
An alliance of seven East African governments, known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, first proposed such a regional force to protect Somalia's interim government more than 1 1/2 years ago, before the Islamic militias emerged as a major power. The troops probably would be drawn primarily from Uganda, council diplomats said, but Ethiopia and Kenya have also expressed an interest in participating.
The African Union subsequently backed the proposal, but it then languished at the United Nations.
The case for an intervention force became more urgent this past summer, after the militias seized control of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, from a loose alliance of Somali warlords. U.S. and African diplomats, along with others at the United Nations, are worried that the militias are poised to drive out the government. They have encouraged the interim government and the Islamic Courts Union to negotiate a political settlement to end the fighting.
European and U.N. officials have privately voiced concern that the establishment of the force, which the militias oppose, could provoke a new military offensive against the government. They have also expressed fears that the conflict could reignite fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which ended their border war in 2000.
"We need to . . . encourage the Somali parties to continue the dialogue," said U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. "What is also important is we need to make sure that neighboring countries do not get drawn in, because there is a tendency for some of the neighboring countries to get drawn in."
The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, issued a warning Monday that the U.S. resolution "could trigger all-out war in Somalia" and destabilize the Horn of Africa.
"You don't win in Somalia by picking one side and support it and funneling arms to it," said Nick Grono, an expert on Africa at the organization. He said the Islamic militias have warned that they would respond to foreign intervention with the declaration of a holy war. "That is a recipe for jihad," he said.
France and other European governments have asked the United States to consider amendments designed to assure the Islamic militias that they are not taking sides in the war. For instance, they are calling for the exclusion of the countries bordering Somalia -- Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya -- from participating in the force.
A U.S. spokesman said the United States probably will present its draft resolution to the 15-nation council on Wednesday. Other council diplomats suggested that the U.N. dispute may delay that.
John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States is "trying to move as fast as we can" to call for a vote on the resolution. But he said he is still "seeking agreement from a number of countries on some critical points."
"We need to do something as opposed to just watching the situation deteriorate," he added. "But we want to get it right."
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UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 28 -- The United States has finalized a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would authorize a force of East African peacekeepers to intervene in Somalia to prevent the overthrow of the country's struggling government at the hands of Islamic militias. But some European...
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Janey Asks for Time to Turn Around Schools
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In a major address designed to help him keep his job, D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey delivered a robust defense last night of his two-year record as leader of the city's beleaguered school system and urged city leaders to allow him to finish the work he has started to move schools forward.
Janey called for laying "a new foundation" for schools that includes higher academic standards, more rigorous student assessment and modernized facilities. It was his first-ever "State of the Schools" speech, as well as his first formal public statement since his future came into question when Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty said in September that he might seek to take over the schools.
Fenty has been calling for a dramatic shake-up in the school system, saying that reform is moving too slowly. Janey has been walking a fine line attempting to cooperate with Fenty while asserting his position as the city's chief education leader.
In the sweeping 43-minute address to an enthusiastic audience of about 1,000 school staff, parents, students and city leaders at McKinley Technology High School in Eckington, Janey cast himself as a change agent who was moving quickly to restore the rich legacy of a school system that educated leading African American scientists and historians. He responded to criticism that he lacks urgency by using a metaphor of running a race.
"Like training for a marathon, turning our schools around will require that we build a strong foundation, develop an iron will and maintain the confidence that working together we can achieve the required change," Janey said.
Janey made an unmistakable reference to the mayor-elect, saying his own changes have been made with "fleet feet" -- the name of a running store owned by Fenty's parents in Adams Morgan.
Fenty said after the speech that he was "encouraged by Janey's words" but did not think Janey was addressing him directly. "He was speaking to the people of the District of Columbia," Fenty said. Janey has agreed to accompany Fenty on his next trip to New York City early next month as he continues his cross-country exploration of mayoral control of schools.
Last night, Janey outlined several accomplishments: hiring a record 85 principals, rehabilitating more than half of the 90 elementary school libraries and establishing dozens of family literacy centers at schools in Southeast. To several rounds of sustained applause, Janey promised to involve more parents, announcing that a new parent center would open next month and two more would follow.
He also outlined a plan to address failing schools. With 118 of 146 schools identified in the spring as having failed to make academic progress, Janey said that six schools would be overhauled. He said he will intervene next fall in three senior highs, two middle schools and one elementary school, which he did not identify, by replacing the principals and teachers. The intervention, called "reconstitution" or "restructuring," is a remedy under the federal No Child Left Behind law for schools that have failed to make adequate yearly progress on standardized tests for at least four years.
Janey said those schools will have "partial or full replacement of staffs" and will receive more training and funding. The school system is already working with a private contractor to train teachers and tutor students at numerous other low-performing schools.
The District has used that method with various names under various superintendents with little success, said Mary Levy, director of the Public Education Reform Project for the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, who has studied the system. In fact, 11 of the 28 schools eligible for reconstitution -- including Stanton Elementary in Southeast, Lincoln Middle School in Northwest and Woodson Senior High in Northeast -- have been through similar intervention programs, she said.
"The new staff they brought in had not been better than the old staff," Levy said in an interview. "They tend to get new teachers [for the reconstituted schools]. You shouldn't give new teachers the toughest assignments." She added that systemwide disruptions were caused by the dispersal of bad teachers from the reconstituted schools to other city schools.
Janey previously said he would not support a plan calling for stripping the school board's autonomy but would welcome a takeover if it involved removing obstacles that impede his attempts to improve the schools.
School board member Victor A. Reinoso, Fenty's choice for the newly created position of deputy mayor for education, has been a harsh critic of Janey. But last night he said he believed that progress had been made under Janey.
"We want to do everything we can to support that direction [from Janey], but move it along faster," Reinoso said. "We want to strengthen the partnership with him."
The speech was preceded by an upbeat video presentation that included testimonials from city leaders and principals, clips of students conducting science experiments and a bouncy soundtrack of Patti LaBelle's "New Day." The final image was Janey, who said: "You're going to feel so good to dispel the contempt people have for Washington, D.C., schools." When the video ended, Janey emerged from the wings, approached a podium on the stage and smiled as the audience gave him a standing ovation.
"Janey is a seasoned educator," Cherita Whiting, vice president of the citywide PTA, said after the address. "If you're not as seasoned as he is, then how can you come in and take over?"
Staff writer David Nakamura contributed to this report.
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In a major address designed to help him keep his job, D.C. School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey delivered a robust defense last night of his two-year record as leader of the city's beleaguered school system and urged city leaders to allow him to finish the work he has started to move schools...
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China to Install Bishop Without Papal Approval
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BEIJING, Nov. 28 -- China's state-sanctioned Catholic church said Tuesday that it plans to ordain another bishop without approval from the pope, despite renewed diplomatic efforts to end long-standing hostility between China and the Vatican.
The ascension of Wang Renlei, vicar general of Xuzhou diocese in southern China, will mark the third time in seven months that a bishop has been installed by the government's Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association without Vatican approval. According to the association, he will be consecrated Thursday in a ceremony presided over by several bishops loyal to the government-sanctioned church.
Liu Bainian, the association's deputy chairman, said that the imminent retirement of Xuzhou's present bishop, Qian Yurong, 94, made choosing a replacement urgent and that there was no time to go through the procedure for Vatican approval. "I believe Rome will understand what we did," he said in a telephone interview.
But Wang's ordination appeared likely to complicate already difficult efforts underway by Vatican and Chinese diplomats to restart a dialogue designed to restore relations after a long history of enmity that began almost as soon as the Communist Party took power in 1949.
The dialogue appeared to be heading for success earlier this year after the Vatican let it be known it was willing to break relations with Taiwan as part of an overall agreement on church-state relations with China. That was seen as a major concession by Pope Benedict XVI, leading to predictions that relations would be restored soon.
Discord remained on the nomination of bishops for the approximately 10 million Catholics in China, about a third of whom recognize the association's authority. But church authorities and academics close to the Chinese government said the remaining problems could be overcome with relative ease as soon as a political decision was made by the Chinese government.
The optimism flowed from a growing practice under which the state-sanctioned association was generally naming bishops already quietly vetted by the Vatican, according to Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong, the senior Roman Catholic cleric in China. In addition, Chinese authorities have displayed increasing flexibility as Catholic worshipers and their priests have frequently moved among sanctioned and unsanctioned churches.
But last spring's ordinations of the two other bishops -- Joseph Ma Yinglin in Yunnan province and Liu Xinhong in Anhui province -- disrupted the trend toward accommodation. The Vatican condemned the ordinations as illicit and in a statement qualified them as "a grave wound to the unity of the church" that caused "profound displeasure" to Pope Benedict.
The diplomatic contacts stalled and hopes for a swift resumption of relations were dashed. More recently, however, diplomats had renewed their meetings in a fresh attempt at dialogue -- an attempt that appeared to be threatened anew with Wang's ordination.
The Rev. Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman in Rome, said the Holy See would have no comment until the ordination took place. But the Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, director of AsiaNews, a service reporting on Middle Eastern and Asian affairs from the Vatican's point of view, said the Holy See was surprised and saddened by news of the upcoming ordination.
He said a Vatican delegation that visited Beijing in June came away with the impression that President Hu Jintao's government was eager to put the negotiations back on track. But the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, he suggested, appeared intent on building up a "hard core" of bishops loyal to the association instead of to the pope.
Special correspondent Sarah Delaney in Rome contributed to this report.
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BEIJING, Nov. 28 -- China's state-sanctioned Catholic church said Tuesday that it plans to ordain another bishop without approval from the pope, despite renewed diplomatic efforts to end long-standing hostility between China and the Vatican.
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Have Yourself a Merry Little Festivus
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Have your Festivus pole ready?
On Dec. 18, 1997, the mistletoe-less alternative to the holidays was unleashed upon an unsuspecting public in a "Seinfeld" episode titled "The Strike." Somehow, it stuck. Today many celebrate Festivus, basically whenever they want to. The recent racist outburst by Michael Richards (Kramer) and its attendant uproar apparently haven't affected the faux fete.
During the episode, Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller) relates that the holiday -- replete with "feats of strength" and the "airing of grievances" -- was born after his Christmas Eve tug of war with another man over the last doll in a department store. "As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way," he says. The doll? "It was destroyed. But out of that, a new holiday was born."
Reached by phone a few weeks ago, Stiller -- Father Festivus to the faithful -- said a stranger stopped him recently to ask if he's getting ready for Festivus. "I'd like to put a clamp on all this stuff," he said, "the commercialization that takes over our lives and makes us feel guilty." Sounds just like his fictional character, though he has no party planned (he does own a six-inch Festivus pole, however).
THE BACK STORY: Seinfeld writer Daniel O'Keefe, author of "The Real Festivus" (Penguin Books, $12.95), said his father -- who "was disillusioned by the commercialization of Christmas" -- started it, and he adapted it. Initially, O'Keefe said, "Festivus was a celebration of my parents' first date."
"The real holiday was a floating holiday," O'Keefe said, adding that the kids would come home from school to find odd ethnic music playing. There was always a clock in a bag, though O'Keefe said he never figured out the significance. After the three boys wrestled and Dad recited odd poems, joke gifts would be exchanged.
WATCH . . . "The Strike" on Dec. 14 at 9 p.m. on the TBS cable network, or read the script at http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheStrike.htm.
WHERE TO CELEBRATE: Here's a sampling of Festivus events from coast to coast. The Richards controversy notwithstanding, events were still scheduled to go forward at press time.
* Washington. On Dec. 21 from 8 p.m. until closing, Tonic Restaurant Bar & Grill (3155 Mount Pleasant St., 202-986-7661) patrons will be invited to air their grievances -- "Hopefully after a few [$2] Festivus shooters," says co-owner Jeremy Pollok -- around a Festivus pole.
* New York. Guests can sample the chocolate salami pole and nail-impaled shrimp in the party room at the Pink Pony (178 Ludlow St., 212-253-1922) on Dec. 7 at 8 p.m., but the main event is the first-ever Festivus-Chrismukkah smack-down.
Allen Salkin, author of "Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us" (Warner Books, $14.95), told us he's been bodybuilding to wrestle Gersh Kuntzman, author of "Chrismukkah: The Official Guide to the World's Most-Beloved Holiday" (Sasquatch Books, $14.95). For the uninitiated, Chrismukkah is a mix of Christmas and Hanukkah traditions.
Says Kuntzman: "My body will be slicked down with olive oil, a Chrismukkah tradition."
* Springfield, Ill. Wade Ebert says he's celebrated Festivus the past 14 years because it's "whatever the heck you want to make it." Though his party started as a semiprivate affair for friends, last year's fundraiser at a Hilton attracted 700. (The mechanical bulls and inflatable Sumo wrestling suits for the feats of strength got a little out of hand, he says.)
This year, he expects about 400 participants Dec. 23 at his 8 p.m. bash at the Capital City Bar & Grill (3149 S. Dirksen Pkwy., 217-529-8580). Tickets are $6. For more info, call Ebert at 217-280-0790.
* New Orleans. Gifts aren't a big part of Festivus, but the fourth annual Festivus market has a twist: a re-gifting booth -- bring something you hate, take what you like. Then attach your grievances to the pole at the "Office of Homeland Serenity." Shoppers can check out the creations of 40 thrifty artisans on Dec. 3, 10 and 17 from noon to 4 p.m. at 700 Magazine St. (William B. Reily parking lot). Info: 504-861-5898, http://www.festivusmarket.org/.
* Okemah, Okla. At the Festivus celebration Dec. 16 at Grape Ranch (Interstate 40, 918-623-2250), the feats of strength could be unique. "We have the only two regulation boccie courts in Oklahoma," says winery co-owner Jack Whiteman.
The free party begins at noon on the ranch/vineyard, and the "red-dirt" music (an Oklahoma-Texas blend of Southern rock, country, folk and honky-tonk) should warm things up in Woody Guthrie's home town. "In December it could be 75 degrees or 20 degrees," Whiteman says.
Grape Ranch is the home of the Festivus wine label, which features a longhorn skull, partly fashioned in grapes, atop an aluminum pole. Info: http://www.graperanch.com/ or http://www.festivuswine.com/.
* Adair, Ore. The Festivus Sixth Annual Disc Golf Tournament starts at noon Jan. 27 at Adair County Park, an hour from the coast. In disc golf -- "Folf" in Seinfeld lingo, tournament director Greg Johnson reminds us -- metal baskets are mounted on galvanized steel poles. As in ball-and-club golf, the idea is to get the disc into the basket with as few throws as possible.
The Willamette Disc Golf Club will provide chili and suds from local Calapooia Brewing Co., and warmer-uppers may be welcome: "It's common to have rain in January, but it doesn't snow often," Johnson says. "It could be in the 30s to the 50s."
Registration is required; the tournament is limited to 88 players. Entry fees range from $20 for a recreational player to $35 for a professional one (some people take Folf very seriously). Register at http://www.titledisc.com/ (it should be set up by mid-December). For more info, contact Johnson at discgolfgreg@yahoo.com or 541-760-2372.
INFORMATION: Go to http://www.festivusbook.com/ for a Festivus primer and http://www.seinfeld-fan.net/ for trivia and video clips.
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Across the country, "Seinfeld" fans are enjoying a new type of floating holiday: Festivus.
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Ask Tom
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In a city loaded with diverse restaurants, from New American chic and upscale Italian to sandwich shops and burritos on the run, finding the best places to eat can be a real puzzle. Where's the best restaurant for a first date or an anniversary? Father's Day? What's the best burger joint? Who has the best service?
Ask Tom. Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post's food critic, is on hand Wednesdays at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions, listen to your suggestions and even entertain your complaints about Washington dining. Sietsema, a veteran food writer, has sampled the wares and worked as a critic in Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Milwaukee, and can talk restaurants with the best of 'em. You can access his Postcards from Tom to read his recommendations for other cities, read his dining column and the Weekly Dish or read transcripts of previous "Ask Tom" chats. Tom's Sunday magazine reviews, as well as his "Ask Tom" column, are available early on the Web.
What would you say is the best steakhouse in town? To add a twist to this question, every Christmas season my wife and I would go out to dinner at this wonderful steakhouse in Richmond, Va. What made it great was it was completely decorated for the holidays. I'm looking for a similar place now that we leave here in D.C. What would you say is the best steakhouse in town to visit during the holidays.
Tom Sietsema: For the sake of nostalgia, nothing beats the venerable Prime Rib in my book.
Good morning, everyone. Glad to "see" everyone back.
washingtonpost.com: Review of Prime Rib.
Washington, D.C.: A friend and I tried Mandu, the new Korean place on 18th Street near Dupont Circle. The server was very friendly and other personnel checked in on us during our visit to make sure that we were having a pleasurable experience.
The food was tasty and attractively presented. My friend and I shared the Mandu appetizers, which were enjoyable (though better fried than steamed). I had the Dolsot Bibim Bap (which the waitress thoroughly explained to me prior to my order) and my friend had a spicy beef soup. Our waitress was very willing to explain the little side dishes that she was bringing.
I liked the decor of the restaurant -- although it seemed that the food and the customers were using the same stairs when going between the first and second floors. Not sure that is the best idea given the potentially high traffic.
All in all, a great experience that I am looking forward to repeating.
Tom Sietsema: I'm thrilled to hear that. Washington needs a really good Korean restaurant.
washingtonpost.com: The Weekly Dish on Mandu.
Petworth, D.C.: Tom--Do you ever get invited to dinner parties at friends' houses? I could see even the most confident home chef being intimidated enough to leave the Post food critic off the guest list.
Tom Sietsema: Actually, my friends are really great about inviting me to dinner. And most of them are very good home cooks. In the last month alone, I've been to three dinner parties, including one where we drank Champagne throughout the meal and another where we made our own pizzas and cooked them on the grill. (Thanks, Jay, Brad, Lizzie and Jerry). Next month, I'm going to my first Shabbat.
New trend: Monday night dinner parties.
Arlington, Va.: Hi Tom - I love cheap, simple, authentic Mexican/Tex-Mex/Southwestern food! I hate the cheese covered heart-attack chain purveyors and shops of their ilk. One of my favs locally is Taqueria Poblano. Can you suggest some others?
U St, Washington, D.C.: Tom, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
I've just moved to U St. and I'm looking forward to all the area has to offer, in particular, the food. Can you point me in the right direction for some delicious bargains in the area?
Tom Sietsema: My Thanksgiving was ... interesting, thanks.
Cheap eats you shouldn't miss on or around U St.: soul food at Oohs and Ahhs, tropical drinks and roti at Islander Caribbean, a bowl of chicken soup at Creme Cafe, Ethiopian food at Dukem.
washingtonpost.com: Reviews of Oohhs and Aahhs, Islander Caribbean, Creme Cafe and Dukem.
Washington, D.C.: I work around Dupont Circle and like to try new places. I've visited the usual suspects, bemoan the loss of Johnny's Half Shell in the neighborhood, and enjoyed my recent visit to Montsouris. My problem? I'm looking for a new place in the area for after work drinks with a couple of my friends. One of my friends is always coming up with the latest places to try and I want to suggest a great new place and beat her to the punch! Please help me by telling me of a great new place to go for drinks that will impress her...
Thanks a million times over,
Tom Sietsema: Have you been to the bars at Urbana and 21P, both on P St and both quite nice?
16th and U: Christmas dinner dining out difficulties: I really hope you can help! Practically no-where seems open on Christmas day for dinner - for example Vidalia isn't open. My boyfriend ... fiance (I don't what's going on with us) will be coming into town for the holidays from the Bay Area. This is a really important time for us to try to get our relationship back on track. The right place for Christmas dinner would really help - I'm a veggie and he's not so dining out seems the best option. Citronelle is open but that's really stretching my budget to breaking point at about $100 per person. I was hoping for $50- $70 per person. We're open to funky and atmospheric as well as high end. Oh where oh where can we go?
Tom Sietsema: Your best bet is a hotel. Think Park-Hyatt (Blue Duck Tavern), Four Points by Sheraton (Corduroy) or the Monaco (Poste).
Chicago, Il.: Tom: Eating tonight in Chicago. I was thinking of Green Zebra but was wondering what else you would recommend for a late, casual dinner for a solo diner. I don't want anything as structured or time-consuming as an Alinea or Moto, although I would enjoy some place on the inventive side. I've also heard good things about Blackbird but have the sense that may be too formal.
Tom Sietsema: My vote goes to the swank Custom House.
McLean, Va.: Hi Tom! We had my sister's birthday at L'Auberge Chez Francois, and I had the fantastic bouillabaisse. Is there any where I can get a similar soup without having to sit for a full dinner? Thanks so much!
Tom Sietsema: Head to the bar at Blacksalt for one of the best seafood stews around.
Washington, D.C.: PLEASE, GOD: No more steakhouse questions!!! AAAAAARRRRRGHHHH.
Tom Sietsema: But I see a lot of 'em waiting for me!
Washington, D.C.: Hey Tom! When's your review of Bebo coming out? I've been there a couple times myself and am curious to see what you think about it.
Tom Sietsema: Bebo is a baby. I have yet to schedule a review.
Old Town, Alexandria, Va.: If you had to list the most formal dining rooms in D.C., what would you say? (The decor as well as the normative attire of patrons.) I'm thinking the Prime Rib, 1789 and Taberna del Alabardero. But I'd like some more picks for fancy dinners in the city.
Tom Sietsema: I'd add to the list Le Paradou, CityZen and Charlie Palmer Steak.
White House eating?: Tom -
Have you ever eaten at the White House or some other high powered political diner? How was the food?
Tom Sietsema: I've only eaten buffet food at the White House. It was fine, nothing spectacular. "Everything's political here," an insider at the mansion once told me. "Even the wine selections."
On the other hand, dinners at the British, Chilean, Japanese, Lebanese and French embassies have been real showcases of the different countries' cuisines.
Washington, D.C.: Tom, I have an etiquette question. My husband and I went out for dessert, and were completely ignored by our waiter. After sitting for about 15 min without receiving any service, the hostess finally ended up taking (and serving) our order. The waiter stopped by once -- to drop off the check. We had no problem paying for the food (it was fine), but had a question about the tip. We wanted to leave one for the hostess (and the bussers), but didn't want it to go to the waiter. How were we to ensure such a thing? Is it appropriate to tip the hostess directly?
BTW, we ended up leaving the tip with the check and thanking the hostess on our way out.
Tom Sietsema: Gosh, that's a tricky one. I think I would have tipped the hostess (and the busboy) on the way out and left a note for the absent waiter: "We tipped the people who actually gave us service." It's extra work for you, but at least the server knows why he wasn't left anything!
Arlington, Va.: Hi Tom, Have you tried Restaurant Vero on Lee Hwy in Arlington? My husband and I drive by it frequently but haven't tried it. Worth a visit?
Tom Sietsema: Hang tight. My Food section colleague Walter Nicholls reviews the place this Sunday in the Magazine.
Silver Spring, Md.: Hi Tom,
Thanks for the chats. I recently ordered a risotto dish at a Bethesda restaurant that was so delightful that when my wife and I returned to the same restaurant several weeks later I couldn't resist ordering it again. The second time around I found the dish so disappointing--underflavored, overcooked, etc.--that
I couldn't believe it was the same kitchen. My wife, who sampled both dishes and has much better food sense than I do, agreed with me so it can't be all me.
This experience led me to wonder how often you experience such inconsistency. On your multiple visits to a restaurant do you routinely re-sample dishes?
If so, how much variability do you find--or tolerate?
Tom Sietsema: I have the great luxury of visiting restaurants three or more times before sitting down to write, and very often I will use later visits to re-order dishes for the sake of consistency.
In the best places, the execution is pretty uniform and the chef has trained his or her staff to cook as he or she does. All sorts of things can happen to make a dish taste different from visit to visit,however. Maybe the person preparing your risotto was new. Maybe he added or subtracted an ingredient. Maybe he got distracted. Without being there to witness the process, who knows?
Two weeks back, my girlfriend and I attended a Smithsonian talk called "Three Chefs," with Chefs Richard, Andres, and Bourdain. A fantastic experience. One question posed to the chefs was what one ingredient they would never use. Chef Richard was pretty vocal in his hatred for cilantro. So, Tom, I pose the question (slightly modified) to you: what ingredient do you despise most?
Tom Sietsema: Black licorice. Which means I'm not a huge lover of fennel!
Washington, D.C.: In reference to the question about Bebo being a baby to review, how early then is too early to place a review for a newly opened restaurant? It seems lately chatters have been anxious to criticize your coming in too early for reviews, namely a few over the last couple months where you gave a not so glowing reviews shortly after they opened.
Tom Sietsema: With new places, my general rule is to wait about a month before visiting for a formal review. I've honored that with the new Johnny's, PS 7's, Montsouris, etc. I'll treat Bebo not differently.
Arlington, Va.: Your review of Montsouris left me wondering, what are the best places in the DC area to get charcuterie? I love nothing more than a grazing on a good plate of charcuterie and drinking beer or wine, but a lot of offerings leave something to be desired. What area restaurants are doing it right? Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: The new BLT Steak does a great charcuterie -- and it's currently offered free, at least in its opening weeks!
washingtonpost.com: The Weekly Dish on BLT Steak.
Houston, Tex.: On a recent visit to Washington my wife and I dined at the Ardeo restaurant. We enjoyed the atmosphere and found the food delicious.
We were treated to a very special drink at the bar. The bartender presented his own warm butternut squash apple cider. It was GREAT! We realized as we finished up at the bar that the aroma off the cider pot was very much apart of the dining experience we had enjoyed.
Kudos to Ardeo and Dave the bartender for a great seasonal treat. We are certain your readers in Washington would enjoy Ardeo for its food, atmosphere and a taste of warm cider.
Tom Sietsema: Butternut squash apple cider. That's a new one. I'm trying to imagine how the concoction would taste -- in a glass, with alcohol (I presume).
Baked, AK: Tom, the in-laws are coming to town for the holidays and my mother-in-law is craving Baked Alaska. Can you recommend a nice DC or No. VA restaurant that serves this dessert? Thanks a mil!
Tom Sietsema: This very question was addressed in a recent "Ask Tom" column in the Sunday Magazine.
washingtonpost.com: Ask Tom: Baked Alaska.
Please remind me which room(s) at 1789 you recommend, and which are to be avoided. Thank you!
Tom Sietsema: I prefer to sit anywhere downstairs. The formal John Carroll Room and the cozy Manassas Room are favorite destinations.
Lake Ridge, Va.: Tom, I'm supposed to find a restaurant in Georgetown for Saturday night that would be less than $20/person for dinner. All I've been able to come up with is Pizzeria Paradiso. Any better suggestions for me? It's for a group of girls coming in from Atlanta, and I'd like to show them something a little bit more exciting.
Tom Sietsema: Is this with or without booze? If you sup on the early side, Bistro Francais has a nice fixed price menu. Nearby, consider the Indian-themed Amma Vegetarian Kitchen.
washingtonpost.com: Reviews: Bistro Francais and Amma Vegetarian Kitchen.
Guajillo is Great, Va.: Hi Tom, I wanted to second your recommendation for Guajillo. You steered me there a couple years back and it's been a favorite ever since. Besides the great food (dig the cheese enchiladas and ceviche), the service is quick and fun, and I love spending time in the warm, colorful restaurant on a cold winter's night. Plus, the chairs are extremely comfortable. Always a plus.
Tom Sietsema: The margaritas aren't bad, either!
No Black Licorice?: What kind of Dutchman doesn't like black licorice? Especially that yummy, salty stuff you can get in Holland? You are of Dutch extraction, are you not?
Tom Sietsema: I am, I am. But my distaste for the stuff goes back to childhood, when I consumed an entire pound bag of black licorice candies during a long, hot drive through the Black Hills of South Dakota. I was crowded next to my siblings and my Dad was smoking up front. Smoke, heat, hills, confinement .... you can imagine what happened.
Washington, D.C.: Went to PS 7's and it was pretty horrible. I was pulling for the chef, whom I loved at Vidalia. How long will it be before the restaurant's demise?
I think Peter Smith is a talented guy. I really liked his food during his long run at Vidalia. While I wasn't thrilled with everything he's doing in his new place, I certainly wouldn't call it a disaster or bet on a date for its closing. What SPECIFICALLY didn't you care for?
washingtonpost.com: Review of PS 7's.
What's your favorite cocktail? one that you might order wherever you might be? What is your favorite specialty cocktail - only to be found at one or two places in the area?
Tom Sietsema: Depending on my mood and the weather -- well, a bunch of factors really -- I'm inclined to drink Gray Goose and tonic, a gimlet, a margarita or a sidecar.
Close to home, I love much of what Todd Thrasher does at Restaurant Eve and the new PX. In particular, his margarita made with cucumber ice cubes and a rim of smoked chipotle, cayenne and ground citrus rind is first-rate.
Re: Ardeo:"We are certain your readers in Washington would enjoy Ardeo for its food, atmosphere and a taste of warm cider."
Wow, that would sound GREAT in a commercial or on an advertisement. Almost sounds like a publicist wrote it!
Black Licorice: As another of Dutch origin, I will defend you, Tom. My grandfather used to bring those salty licorice drops back from Holland, and whenever we were sick he would tell us to suck on them. He was convinced they would make us feel better. I will forever associate them with being sick, and I think that's part of why I continue to dislike black licorice.
Tom Sietsema: Whew! To my rescue! Thanks. ;)
black licorice: Did you get that at Wall Drug or did you just have the free ice water?
Ah the memories of summertime cross country vacations with the family...
Tom Sietsema: Wall Drug! You know it? What a hoot.
Baked Alaska: Another place to get Baked Alaska is The Crossing at Casey Jones in La Plata, MD. Their chocolate baked Alaska is one of my favorite desserts: individual servings of brownie with coffee chip ice cream under a spiky-looking meringue for $7. Very good! They also do a strawberry version.
Tom Sietsema: I'm getting hungry ...
Washington, D.C.: Oh Tom, two stars for Johnny's Half Shell? That wasn't a two-star review, and it's not yet a two-star restaurant. Why not 1 1/2 stars?
Maybe in six months or a year they'll get it right, and earn a full 2, but they're not there yet.
Tom Sietsema: Two stars = good. And good is mostly what I experienced at Johnny's over the course of multiple meals.
I look at my rating for the relocated restaurant another way: the original got three stars, an "excellent" rating. So the two-star ranking is in essence a demotion of sorts.
washingtonpost.com: Review: Johnny's Half Shell
Arlington, Va.: I'm planning on buying some friends a gift certificate to Citronelle, but have never eaten there myself. I have no idea how much to buy it for. How much would two people spend on dinner there, approximately? Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: Plan on a minimum of $375 for two people.
Love your chats - they keep me going on Wednesdays!
I am hoping you can help me. As a Christmas gift, I am surprising my husband with a trip to NYC. We are both big foodies and I am hoping to book dinner reservations at some wonderful restaurants. I was thinking of Per Se, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, or Babbo. I am pretty unfamiliar with NYC's dining scene and know that new, great restaurants are popping up all the time. My biggest fear is having dinner somewhere that is "famous" or well known only to be disappointed by the food. Are any of these restaurants good picks? Do you have any better suggestions? The restaurants don't have to be fancy but price is not an issue. We're just looking for unbelievable food and good wine. Thanks for your advice!
Tom Sietsema: Those are all good options; some, like Per Se and Babbo, are also incredibly hard to reserve. One idea: Follow an afternoon tour of MoMa with dinner at The Modern, which is right next door and pretty wonderful.
Arlington, Va.: I don't see a Postcard from Anchorage - so do you or any chatters have recommendations for places to eat there? Yes, I'm traveling there in winter.
Tom Sietsema: I've never been. Chatters?
Washington, D.C.: Tom: I want to get my aunt and uncle a gift card for a meal as a Christmas present. What are you liking out in the Urbana/Frederick MD or Montgomery Co, MD area for a pair of not especially adventurous eaters? My sister and I want to spend about 70 dollars or so. I always love your advice! Thank you!
Tom Sietsema: Send your relatives to The Tasting Room in Frederick, where the lures include a fine filet mignon, good roast chicken and an inviting, glass-wrapped interior. The number is 240-379-7772.
Re: Tipping the hostess: I had to chime in. In college, I worked at a steakhouse in SC as a hostess that did double duty as the bus "boy." One Saturday night, a table asked me to get them some water and a few other items that they had repeatedly asked their server for. I brought them because simply put, they are the customer and they come first. The man was so grateful that he gave me half of the $10 tip. At the end of the night, the waiter chewed me out and told me it was completely unacceptable of me to take a part of his tip and that I should have given it to him. (The restaurant did share a small percentage of tips (VERY small!) with the hostesses/busboys.) I was so offended by his attitude toward me that I gave the $5 back and told him that it must mean more to him than it does to me for it wasn't worth getting my panties in a twist.
Just a personal perspective on tipping the hostess vs. the waiter. Even though in the dessert peoples case, the hostess totally deserved it.
Tom Sietsema: Hey, the five bucks was given to YOU, right? Sounds as if you deserved more than that.
Falls Church, Va.: What do I have to do to convince PX to serve snacks/sweets/anything other than trail mix??!!??
Tom Sietsema: I think PX prefers to concentrate solely on liquids, but I hear you. It would be fun to be able to nibble on a savory or three, wouldn't it?
Silver Spring, Md.: My wife and I tried the new sushi place on Fenton Street in downtown Silver Spring last weekend - Sushi Jin. After we're seated the server took our drink order, I asked for a large iced tea as I was extremely parched from a long day of walking around Silver Spring. Anyway, the server brings the iced tea over and as soon as she sat it down, I took 3 huge gulps. I noticed a sharp and pungent taste and asked the sever what they put in their iced tea. She said "nothing". "Uh oh." "Why don't you pour yourself a glass and taste it," I said. She did, and as it turned out the iced tea was totally rancid. I mean mold growing inside the tea container! Things floating in it! It was disgusting, so I proceeded to the restroom and purged my system. It was the nastiest thing I've ever tasted. Anyway, after my bathroom visit, I ordered a Coke and continued with on our sushi dinner. I have to say that I've eaten from every single sushi restaurant in the District and this sushi was by far the worst I've had. Maybe the iced tea incident turned me off, but my wife eats sushi often and she also agreed. Anyway, If you go to Sushi Jin do not get the iced tea (or have the server taste it before you do!)
Tom Sietsema: Gosh, now I'm not inclined to step foot in the place ... (and happy I'm not much of an iced tea drinker).
OK, I'll bite: So do tell about your "interesting" Thanksgiving....
Tom Sietsema: I had goose head and ducks' tongues instead of turkey and trimmings this year. (I went to Shanghai for a few days.)
Old Town Alexandria, Va.: Tom,
What is that Japanese place you always suggest that has the Chef's choice? Mom's going through a tough divorce and a night of good food may lift her spirits.
Tom Sietsema:"Omakase" is something you can request at any number of Japanese establishments. I've had particularly good luck at Sushi-Ko, Makoto and Kaz Sushi Bistro.
washingtonpost.com: A Word for the Wise.
Laurel, Md.: After reading an article in today's Post Express about a tour of local movie sites, I want to go to Georgetown myself some Saturday with my husband and find the Exorcist steps. Where's a good place to get lunch, not too pricey? We like ethnic food.
Tom Sietsema: I adore the serene Ching Ching Cha off the corner of Wisconsin and M streets. It's a Chinese tea salon where diners sit on pillows and snack on delicate soups, spiced nuts, mustardy salmon and other small plates.
washingtonpost.com: Review of Ching Ching Cha.
Washington, D..C: Following up on the question about good eats on U Street, I had dinner last night at Simply Home, and thought the food was remarkably good --- fresh, beautifully presented, interesting, very tasty. The tuna tartare was amazing, the mushroom salad fabulous, and even the miso soup was above ordinary. Granted, that's all I had, but I am definitely inclined to go back based on those tastes. Have you eaten there yet? Share my views?
Tom Sietsema: I have! And for the most part, I do (share your favorable impressions).
washingtonpost.com: Review of Simply Home.
How are you? What is the latest gossip in town? Anything interesting coming up in the food scene?
Just bored... of the same old....
Tom Sietsema: Well, I'm sitting on a VERY JUICY piece of gossip, but I can't confirm it right now. All I'm getting from the owner of the Big Deal Restaurant is a "no comment."
So. Which beloved restaurant would YOU hate to see close?
Arlington, Va.: Hi Tom, love these chats even though I usually read them after the fact.
This is in response to the reader who wrote that restaurants scrape the bottom of the barrel for brunch staff. I, too, am "in the biz", and this statement most assuredly does NOT apply to restaurants that are truly committed to giving good service. I mean, how stupid is it to staff one of your busiest shifts with your weakest staff? Don't you want your customers to want to come back? And why do you have these "bottom of the barrel" servers anyway? Professional managers train and supervise servers to ensure that customers are taken care of, and they schedule them to cover expected business.
On the topic of the Tabard Inn, I'm afraid I have to agree with the original poster. This is a place I wanted to like so badly when I went there just last week. But the food and ambience were so totally marred for me by neglectful and ignorant service that I won't return. This, by the way, was during a weekday dinner and not a brunch. If you've experienced otherwise there, then do you think maybe they know who you are?
Tom Sietsema: I don't believe that all restaurants use only their newest or less-adept servers for the brunch shift. But I bet most professional waiters prefer the evening hours, if only because the money is better then.
As for the Tabard Inn, I guess I need to pay the place a return visit. You were not the only reader to detail uneven service.
Black & White Cookies: A few weeks ago, a chatter asked about finding black & white cookies in DC.
Dean & Deluca in Georgetown makes them, and they're fantastic!
Tom Sietsema: Thanks for helping out our cookie lover.
Conn Ave, D.C.: Hi Tom
We tried Greenwood's new Comet Ping Pong pizza place. We loved the atmosphere and it's a great addition to the neighborhood. The pizza was quite good...But very sloppy. Toppings just sort of piled in one corner and not spread out evenly, making sharing quite difficult. Everything was served on aluminum baking trays, with silverware wrapped up in napkins in a sort of help yourself manner on all the tables.
What's your prediction for this place? Will people put up with this nonsense? Will they clean up their act and be a wild success? Or will they flop?
Tom Sietsema: The neighborhood desperately wants Comet to succeed. So far, I'm not getting great feedback about either the food or the service. When you're just doing one thing, though, you really ought to do it well, right?
On that inconclusive note, I wish you all a Happy Hump Day. See you back next Wednesday.
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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Newly appointed D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier was online Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 1 p.m. to discuss her plans for the city's police department.
Boston: Are there plans to beef up patrols in Adams Morgan during peak hours (late night and weekends), and will that pull resources away from east of the Anacostia?
Cathy Lanier: Beefing up patrols in Adams Morgan during peak hours is already happening. In order to accomplish this, resources are not being pulled away from areas east of the Anacostia. Commander McCoy, the 3D Commander has already aligned his personnel to add to the number of officers in Adams Morgan during peak hours. That personnel comes from the officers already assigned to the Third District and does not impact any other area.
Washington, D.C.: Good afternoon. I just wanted to say "congratulations" to you on your selection. As a female member of the MPD, it is very gratifying to see a woman at the helm of a great police department.
Cathy Lanier: Thank you! The support I have been getting from inside of the agency has been wonderful. Thanks for taking the time.
Arlington, Va.: My son is a D.C. police officer in 4D and he always complains that they have too many chiefs and not enough braves. What are are you going to do to fix it?
Cathy Lanier: I will be assessing the MPD's organization and, if I find that there is a disproportionate amount of executive/command ratio to the rank and file, I will stream-line the organization accordingly.
Cathy Lanier: Of course I will need some time to look at current deployment and assignments; however, I do believe in an efficient organization. That said, I will not come into office and make sweeping changes without first taking the time to make a good assessment of what we have and how that may be changed to IMPROVE operations.
And your son is in a great District - that is where I started.
Logan Circle: First of all, congratulations on your promotion. What are you going to do to get more officers on foot patrol? From the looks of many of them, they could use the exercise.
Cathy Lanier: Thanks for the congrats! As far as foot patrols are concerned, I will be working with the officers, commanders and communities to determine which areas will benefit most from the use of footbeats.
Washington, D.C.: Do you plan on visiting all of the districts and divisions within the department to get feedback from your personnel? If so, when will you begin?
Cathy Lanier: Of course -- and I started last week. I have already been to the 7th District and the First District. My staff is working to schedule the remaining District's and Units over the upcoming weeks. So far, the reception and input has been great!
U Street, D.C.: Good morning,
One item that has been on my mind for some time, and which you are now bringing up as an initiative, regards targeted food patrols. Both putting more officers out on the streets (and out of their patrol cars), and increasing police presence at times and in places where high incidences of crime are prevalent (such as the U Street, Columbia Heights area from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m.) seem intuitively simple. Why is this an idea that has taken so long to gain traction, and what are the hurtles to seeing action on the issue?
Cathy Lanier: My plan to implement precision patrolling will incorporate both vehicular and foot patrols. This approach worked well when I was a Commander at the Fourth District, and I believe that I can achieve similar results on a city-wide level. As with anything else, with system-wide change, there can be some challenges (i.e. attributed to staffing levels, resources, etc.) but change, nevertheless, will prevail.
Clinton, Md.: What is your position on civilianization? Will you continue the trend of hiring civilian employees to replace sworn members in administrative positions so that these sworn officers can be reassigned to patrol or other operational areas?
Cathy Lanier: Civilians in the Metropolitan Police Department contribute significantly to the agency's operational effectiveness and success. Civilianization allows sworn members to perform patrol functions, and thereby allows for more police presence on the streets. Overall, it's beneficial.
Odenton, Md.: Chief -- Will you and the Federal police agencies (Capitol Police, Secret Service Uniformed Division, FPS, etc.) create a comprehensive plan for policing the District that allows the Federal agencies to take more responsibility in their areas of control, in order to free up District Officers for targeted patrols or other assignments?
Cathy Lanier: The concept of inter-agency cooperation has been explored before with favorable results. Cooperation between federal and local agencies is critical to urban law enforcement because, let's face it, criminals know no boundaries when it comes to committing crimes.
SW D.C.: All I can say is good luck Cathy! I'm sure you'll do a great job but realize that many before you have tried and failed. I hope you have that secret weapon in your back pocket to decrease crime, clean up the streets, etc. Again, good luck!
Cathy Lanier: Thank you. My secret weapon is simply my strong belief that the citizens, the police officers, the community, and all stake holders have a fundamental desire to live in an environment that is vibrant and safe from crime and the fear of crime. I think we are well on our way and don't intend on doing this alone... I am going to engage every member of this organization (and the community) in the problem solving process -- my job is just to pull it all together and make it happen.
Washington, D.C.: Do you believe the redeployment of some of the senior police officers has made a major impact in decreasing crime? And do you plan on continuing this policy?
Cathy Lanier: Like everything else, I really need to look at all of our activities before making changes. As far as the impact on crime -- you can't argue with statistics. The larger issue is what are the other ways we can accomplish crime decreases, increase visibility and keep officers engaged and supportive of the process -- big challenge -- but I am up to it.
D.C.: Gang activity seems to be a top-order item in Montgomery and NOVA jurisdictions. How high is this issue a priority for you?
Cathy Lanier: Criminal activity is my first priority; however, I believe that gang involvement is one of many "facilitators" of criminal behavior that needs to be addressed. That being said, I would prefer to go one step further and intervene BEFORE young people are tempted to get involved in gangs rather than trying to arrest them out of it later.
Washington: Congratulations on your appointment. I have lived on the 4700 block of Jay St NE for a little over three years now. Almost every evening however we have drug dealers on the corner. A month ago my wife narrowly avoided an armed robbery as youths with guns approached her cab. Many cab drivers still refuse to go to that region of D.C. and conveniently "forget" where that part of the city is.
Got any plans in place for my part of town?
Cathy Lanier: I am very familiar with Jay Street -- I was assigned to the Sixth District as a sergeant and a Captain. I will be looking to Commander Hoey and his team to provide me with their recommendations first -- and those recommendations should include input from the community.
Bottom line, all of us need to work on issues like this together, not independently. There may be others that we need to engage in this process as well. We will do our best
Washington, D.C.: You've been at the command level within the department for several years now, which has given you the opportunity to see first hand who has been an effective executive and who hasn't. That being said, are you planning any personnel changes with regards to your cabinet positions and if so, how soon?
Cathy Lanier: Despite my being a member of the Command Staff for nearly eight years, I will expect very different things from the command staff once I take office. Some will do well -- others may not. All will have a chance. Then we go from there. I do believe in being fair and once I set the goals and the pace, everyone will have a chance to keep up.
Washington, D.C.: Crime and quality-of-life issues continue to plague areas "East of the River." How do you plan on attacking these problems?
Cathy Lanier: As a team and with the community. Once again, I have a District Commander and a team of officers, sergeants and lieutenants that know the area and the problems. I will expect them to engage the community and come up with solutions. I hope you will be willing to work with them.
D.C.: How will you work to promote healthy relations between the department and minority communities?
Cathy Lanier: I think that all communities should be treated the same -- with dignity and respect.
Washington, D.C.: Congratulations, Chief Lanier. First, do you consider yourself a trailblazer for women in law enforcement? Also, how do you plan to re-energize the PD's community policing efforts?
Cathy Lanier: I don't consider myself a trailblazer (although my mother does). There are a lot of women who have gone through an awful lot before me so that I would even have the opportunity to be considered for this position.
As far as re-energizing our efforts, I think engagement is the key. Everyone needs to be engaged and feel like they are essential to the success of our policing efforts.
Columbia Heights, D.C.: I appreciate your emphasis on innovative ways for the police to combat crime in our neighborhoods. I would love to know what I can do to make my street safer. I think you can start asking citizens to step up and help out. We just need some direction...
Cathy Lanier: That is great! And in line with what I have in mind for taking our efforts to the next level. District Commanders and their teams will be expected to work closely with the community to establish APPROPRIATE crime control strategies together.
I would encourage you to go to the MPD Web site and look up the name of your PSA representative. They will be happy to work with you and get you involved.
Chief Ramsey, was strong supporter of new technology policing: red-light cameras, speed camera and now crime-location cameras.
Do you differ from this position?
Do you believe the new technology is more effective human policing?
Cathy Lanier: I think technology is good for improving our efficiency, however, nothing can replace the critical "human" decision making that is needed for law enforcement officers across the board.
Columbia Heights, D.C.: Chief Lanier,
I've heard a lot of enthusiastic talk about increasing police presence in D.C. communities. In the context of the mistakes that lead to the shooting death of Mr. Bell in New York City, how can the people of this city be assured that the community police plan for D.C. won't result in the use of unnecessary force in communities perceived to be "sketchy"?
Cathy Lanier: Since the inception of the Department of Justice/ Memorandum of Agreement regarding uses of force by police officers, officers are better trained and equipped to use a continuum of force when dealing with perceived or actual threats. An officer's use of force is not determined by any subjective perception of what a "sketchy" community is. This pejorative will never be tolerated.
Cathy Lanier: I will not comment on police shootings I don't know all of the facts on; however, MPD officers are well trained and equipped to use a variety of tactics when dealing with perceived or actual threats.
Washington, D.C.: What are you going to do to recruit more officers. The department clearly needs more people to deliver the results that the residents are expecting
Cathy Lanier: I think we do a pretty good job recruiting... the big problem for law enforcement nationwide is retention. We have a hard time competing with private sector and federal agencies that offer higher salaries. I will try to emphasize improved job satisfaction for our officers.
Cathy Lanier: Thank you all for the opportunity to engage in conversation and hear your concerns. I am looking forward to the challenge!
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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Newly appointed D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier will be online to discuss her plans for the city's police department.
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An Opening on Abortion?
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If both parties combine wisdom with shrewdness, the election of a new congressional majority should open the way for a better approach to the abortion question.
The bitter political brawling of the past three decades has created an unproductive stalemate that leaves abortion opponents frustrated, abortion rights supporters in a constant state of worry and the many Americans who hold middle-ground positions feeling that there is no one who speaks for them.
But the politics of abortion began to change even before this month's elections. In September, a group of 23 pro-choice and pro-life Democratic House members introduced what they called the Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act.
Okay, it's not the catchiest title, but you get the point. The bill -- its sponsor is Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), an abortion opponent, with Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), an abortion rights supporter, a leading co-sponsor -- took a lot of negotiation. Supporters of abortion rights tend to favor programs that encourage effective contraception, which some in the right-to-life movement oppose. Opponents of abortion emphasize helping women who want to carry their children to term.
The Ryan bill, one of several congressional initiatives to reduce the abortion rate, does both. It includes a remarkably broad set of programs aimed at reducing teen pregnancy, promoting contraception and encouraging parental responsibility. But it also includes strong measures to offer new mothers full access to health coverage, child care and nutrition assistance.
The public debate usually ignores the fact that abortion rates are closely tied to income. As the Guttmacher Institute has reported, "the abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty level . . . is more than four times that of women above 300 percent of the poverty level." The numbers are stark: 44 abortions per 1,000 women in the lower income group, 10 abortions per 1,000 women in the higher income group.
In other words: If you truly care about reducing the number of abortions, you have to care about the well-being of poor women.
There are moral and practical reasons for members of both parties, and combatants on both sides of the abortion question, to embrace this approach.
Liberal supporters of abortion rights should be eager to promote a measure that does not make abortion illegal but does embrace goals, including help for the poor, that liberals have long advocated.
In the meantime, the victories that opponents of abortion rights have won do little to reduce the number of abortions. As Rachel Laser, director of the Third Way Culture Project, points out, even those who would ban late-term or "partial-birth" abortions need to acknowledge that very few are performed, meaning that these laws do little to reduce the overall abortion rate. According to one study cited by Laser, only 0.08 percent of abortions are performed in the third trimester.
Parental consent laws affect fewer than a fifth of all abortions, those obtained by teenagers 17 or younger, and it is not clear how many abortions these measures stop, since studies suggest that many parents favor rather than oppose abortion in such circumstances.
Why shouldn't both sides embrace broader steps that, without coercion, could cut the abortion rate by much larger numbers? We know this is possible because it has already happened: Between 1994 and 2000, the abortion rate fell by 11 percent. An ambitious national effort could do more.
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If both parties combine wisdom with shrewdness, the election of a new congressional majority should open the way for a better approach to the abortion question.
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Bush to Pursue Fresh NATO Commitments
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RIGA, Latvia, Nov. 28 -- President Bush called on NATO countries Tuesday to boost their ability and willingness to battle Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and across the Middle East, arguing that the post-World War II alliance has a modern role in helping democracy take root there.
Bush called the ongoing fight in Afghanistan against a resurgent Taliban militia "NATO's most important military operation," and he tied it directly to the future security of the group's core European member states.
"We're in a long struggle against terrorists and extremists who follow a hateful ideology and seek to establish a totalitarian empire from Spain to Indonesia," Bush said in a speech at Latvia University as part of a meeting of the NATO members.
In Afghanistan, Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, as well as drug traffickers, criminal elements and local warlords, are "committed to destroying democracy," he said. "Defeating them will require the full commitment of our alliance. For NATO to succeed, its commanders on the ground must have the resources and flexibility they need to do their jobs. . . . By standing together in Afghanistan, we'll protect our people, defend our freedom, and send a clear message to the extremists."
The call for fresh troops and equipment in Afghanistan, and fewer restrictions on how they can be used, was a main aim of Bush this week as he sat down with NATO allies to review the state of the dangerous mission there, according to senior U.S. officials.
U.S. officials said they hope allies will renew their commitments in Afghanistan, where a stepped-up Taliban insurgency is posing stiff new challenges for some 33,000 NATO troops, about a third of them American.
The mission loomed as the major issue for discussion among Bush and the leaders of the 25 other NATO member countries, who gathered for the first time in two years. A failed operation in Afghanistan would threaten NATO's ambition to one day play a more robust role in helping address the world's crises.
In his speech, Bush put the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq into that broader context, urging NATO members to view their mission expansively and make the necessary investments in defense spending. Speaking on the doorstep of Russia, he said it was important that nascent democracies in places such as Georgia and Ukraine also be considered for NATO membership.
"The most basic responsibility of this alliance is to defend our people against the threats of a new century," Bush said.
Some key NATO countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, have placed sharp limits on how their troops can be used, to the growing consternation of the United States and other countries whose forces are involved in fierce battles with the Taliban in southern parts of Afghanistan. Only the United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have combat troops in the south.
Meanwhile, calls for more troops from NATO commanders have faced resistance from member countries, some of which have seen public support for the mission wane as casualties have increased. On Monday, a suicide bomber attacked a Canadian armored vehicle in the south, killing two soldiers. The deaths brought to 44 the number of Canadian troops killed in the country.
"Events in Afghanistan are reaching a critical juncture, and European politics and perceptions, as well as U.S. commitments in Iraq, may prevent NATO from getting the assets necessary to ensure victory," said retired Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, the former U.S. supreme allied commander in Europe, at a briefing held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
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RIGA, Latvia, Nov. 28 -- President Bush called on NATO countries Tuesday to boost their ability and willingness to battle Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and across the Middle East, arguing that the post-World War II alliance has a modern role in helping democracy take root there.
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Bernanke: Economy Growing Moderately
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Outside of the housing market, most of the economy appears healthy and likely to continue growing at "a moderate rate" over the next year or so, causing price pressures to gradually ebb, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said today.
Bernanke's comments in a speech in New York outlined the Fed's growing confidence that the economy is headed for a "soft landing," in which a gentle slowdown in growth causes inflation to decline without tipping the nation into a recession.
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The primary risk to the Fed's benign forecast is the possibility that the tight labor market pushes inflation higher than expected, which could prompt the Fed to raise interest rates, Bernanke said, according to a text of his prepared remarks.
Inflation "has been somewhat better behaved of late," but also remains "uncomfortably high," Bernanke told the National Italian American Foundation in New York, in his most extensive remarks on the economy since July.
Bernanke delivered his speech just a few hours after two economic reports fanned concerns that the economy may be weakening further. They showed that new orders for long-lasting durable goods, like automobiles and appliances, fell sharply in October and that consumer confidence dipped lower in November.
In contrast, the Fed chief sounded upbeat, saying, "to date, there is little evidence that the weakness in housing markets is spilling over more broadly to consumer spending" or the labor market.
Stock prices showed little reaction to the speech. But Bernanke's comments reinforced financial-market expectations that Fed policymakers will leave their benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged at 5.25 percent when they meet in two weeks, and are likely to hold it steady in the months ahead.
"The Fed is firmly on hold," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group. He said Bernanke's remarks show the Fed thinks "the economy is not snowballing down a slope toward a hard landing or a recession. There are plenty of cushions along the way."
Bernanke said the recent economic slowdown "primarily reflects a cooling of the housing market."
The economy expanded at a sluggish 1.6 percent annual rate in the three months ending in September, down from a 2.6 percent pace in the three months ending in June. Bernanke said it is likely the economy will grow at a pace somewhere in that range during the last three months of the year.
Fed economists generally believe the economy can grow at a rate of a little less than 3 percent a year over time without causing inflationary pressures to build. If the economy is growing more slowly than that "potential" rate, the slack should cause inflationary pressures to decline, the thinking goes.
The slower pace of home construction "is likely to be a drag on economic growth into next year," Bernanke said. But he also pointed to signs that home sales may be stabilizing. Sales of new homes rose in August and September. Sales of previously owned homes rose 0.5 percent in October, the National Association of Realtors said today. And mortgage applications for home purchases have been moving higher since July.
Bernanke said most of the economy outside of the housing market "appears to be expanding at a solid rate." Many factories are churning out more goods for export to meet rising demand from growing economies overseas. U.S. businesses are spending more on non-residential construction, equipment and software.
And consumer spending has continued to rise, buoyed by low unemployment, rising wages and falling fuel prices.
Rather than sound concerned about a slowdown, Bernanke suggested it is just what the Fed expected when it raised interest rates steadily over two years through June to keep the economy from overheating and driving inflation higher.
The speech sounded "sort of like a check-up by Dr. Bernanke, saying the economy's health is pretty much along the lines they diagnosed" a few months ago, Hoffman said. And, he added, Bernanke seems to be saying, "that's fine."
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Outside of the housing market, most of the economy appears healthy and likely to continue growing at "a moderate rate" over the next year or so, causing price pressures to gradually ebb, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said today.
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The Honorable Gentleman From Orleans And New York
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PEEKSKILL, N.Y. -- With any luck, the most embarrassing photograph taken of you in the 1970s is stashed away in a box that nobody will ever find. John Hall, the newly elected Democratic congressman from the 19th District of New York, is not that lucky.
There he is, standing shirtless and smushed against his equally shirtless band, Orleans, for the cover of their fourth album, "Waking and Dreaming." In the pre-gay-awareness days of 1976, the fellas just sort of seemed, you know, chummy -- perhaps on the way to a group sauna or something like that. But even then, at age 28, Hall found the image a little cheesy.
"The photographer had us take off our shirts for about two minutes during that shoot," Hall recalls, sitting at a cafe here last week. "And the record company said, 'This is a really striking image.' "
Fortunately for Hall, "Waking and Dreaming" featured not just several cubic feet of frisky man-flesh, but also "Still the One," a hit that sparked more anniversary-party conga lines than any other song in history. It even turned up as an ABC promotional jingle for a couple of years, and it -- along with Orleans's other wussy-rock classic, "Dance With Me" -- has ka-chinged in Hall's bank account for some three decades now. He wrote both tunes with his former wife, Johanna, and the pair get paid every time the songs are played on the radio.
Once we forgive Hall for penning such excruciatingly unshakable couplets as "You're still the one who can scratch my itch / You're still the one and I wouldn't switch," let us acknowledge his singular place in American history: He is the first professional rock musician elected to Congress.
No, we're not counting Sonny Bono, because he didn't play an instrument, at least not onstage. And before you start complaining that "Dance With Me" isn't "rock" enough to count, note that before Orleans was founded in 1972, Hall was a sought-after session guitarist who played with Taj Mahal and Little Feat and was once summoned to Bob Dylan's SoHo loft for two weeks of improvised jamming.
"I was in awe of him," says Hall, who was barely out of his teens at the time. "I'd been listening to 'Just Like a Woman' for years -- there I was, playing my guitar over it."
It's hard to believe that the bearded and topless Hall of 1976 and the Hall wearing a suit and tie today are the same man. It's not just that he would blend in at a board meeting of any Fortune 500 company -- he is tall and serious and pretty formal. He actually sounds like a politician, too: He can speechify in that earnest and somewhat tedious way that only politicians can.
No offense, but you've never met anyone who toggles so quickly between gripping anecdote and soporific spiel. With little prodding, Hall will talk about the time in 1974 that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band opened for Orleans at a high school in Maine. ("He was supposed to play for 45 minutes. He played for 2 hours and 45 minutes.") And he is happy to describe the time he rode in a limo with Janis Joplin to her last show at Madison Square Garden. ("There was no way she could walk down a street and not be recognized.")
But frankly, he'd rather talk up his slate of left-leaning goals, such as raising the minimum wage, weaning the nation off fossil fuels or pushing for universal health care.
The surprising thing is that he has always been this way. His Orleans band mates say that in the '70s, Hall would launch into a politically charged monologue in the middle of a concert, grinding the festivities to a temporary halt.
"It was one of the hallmarks of our shows," says Larry Hoppen, who sang both of Orleans's hits. "We'd be playing, and inevitably John would start going off on the issue of the day. It's one thing to make a passing comment. It's another to do a five-minute, detail-oriented diatribe about nuclear power."
The progressive-minded geek and the virtuoso musician have coexisted in Hall for as long as he can remember. He was raised in Upstate New York, the son of a Westinghouse engineer, and started playing piano at the age of 4. A stellar student, he entered Notre Dame at 16, though he quit after a year, deciding that music was his calling. He wound up in New York, where he and Springsteen -- then leading his first band, the Castiles -- took turns onstage at Cafe Wha? in the West Village.
"We'd play six sets per night," Hall remembers. "It was $6 per guy in the band, plus all the potato chips and ice cream we could eat."
After a few years of session and solo work, he helped start Orleans, naming after the New Orleans rhythms the band members loved. But not long after the group's hits slid off the charts, Hall split for a solo career, which never quite took off. Along with Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash, he formed Musicians United for Safe Energy to fight nuclear power, and he helped organize a series of benefit concerts, eventually packaged in a film and a rather extravagant triple album, "No Nukes/The MUSE Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future."
Hall returned to Orleans in 1984 and he has recorded and toured with the band off and on ever since. (The group released the widely ignored "Dancin' in the Moonlight" earlier this year.) His only experience with elective politics was a two-year stint as an Ulster County legislator, and the noisy protests he made when the Bush entourage used "Still the One" at campaign stops in 2004. (The song was quickly dropped.)
Nobody took his campaign very seriously, even he after he won the primary. The 19th District is largely made of New York City suburbs that tilt Republican, and for six terms the congressional seat there belonged to Sue Kelly, who in 2004 won 60 percent of the vote. She had $900,000 on hand for the general election; Hall had $57,000.
As with nearly every campaign this year, things got ugly. A few weeks before Election Day, the Kelly campaign jump-started a direct-mail attack, accusing Hall of radical left-wing views and charging that he wanted to raise taxes and socialize medicine. For an added measure of humiliation, one mailing included a reprint of the cover of "Waking and Dreaming."
"The point," says Jay Townsend, Kelly's campaign spokesman, "was basically to say, this guy isn't serious enough to send to Washington."
Hall kept harping on Iraq, and when the Mark Foley page scandal broke, Kelly was sideswiped by questions from Hall and the media about her tenure several years ago on the House Page Board. Meanwhile, late-night satirist Stephen Colbert showed up in the district to interview Hall, and the pair performed an impromptu a cappella duet of "Dance With Me."
Hall won by 4,300 votes.
"I don't quote George Bush very often, but I think I will here," says Hall. "They misunderestimated me."
In a way, Hall's new job has simply broadened the audience for his lectures, from the Orleans crowd to the C-SPAN crowd. Not that this will change his message. Asked if he will keep sticking it to the Man now that he is the Man, Hall responds with a quick story.
"I already met a couple lobbyists from Raytheon during orientation in Washington, and I just told them what I think is wrong with their missile system. Maybe they'll write checks to my next opponent. I don't care. I got into this race because my wife told me to stop yelling at the TV."
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Get style news headlines from The Washington Post, including entertainment news, comics, horoscopes, crossword, TV, Dear Abby. arts/theater, Sunday Source and weekend section. Washington Post columnists, movie/book reviews, Carolyn Hax, Tom Shales.
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First There Was 'Nine,' and Then None
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ABC came in under cover of the holiday weekend to yank from its schedule the serialized drama "The Nine," about a bunch of people who survived a bungled bank stickup in which they were held hostage for 52 hours.
"Please note 'The Nine' is on hiatus and will return later in the season," ABC told the Reporters Who Cover Television in an e-mail issued Saturday when, presumably, most of them did not see it.
"The Nine" has been replaced by a "20/20" broadcast, "Cheap in America," in which John Stossel will report, just in time for the holidays, whether liberals give more money to charity than conservatives do.
After this week, the Wednesday time slot will be filled by a five-part series called "Primetime: Basic Instinct," in which ABC News will explore whether you can trust your basic instincts to find an unknown person, do the right thing in life-and-death situations, get rich, search for a missing person and other hypotheticals.
Press loved "The Nine"; viewers, not so much. With a "Lost" lead-in, "The Nine" was averaging just under 9 million viewers. Take away "Lost," and "The Nine" last week plunged to an audience of only 4 million viewers on the night before Thanksgiving.
Which, we'd like to mention here, is just slightly smaller than the audience that same night for Madonna's "Confessions Tour" concert minus the crucifixion song-and-dance number.
Even so, ABC decided it had no choice but to pull "The Nine" from the lineup.
In fact, the time period, hailed at the start of the season as one of the great serialized-drama showdowns, between "The Nine" and NBC's "Kidnapped," is now a face-off time slot for NBC's "Dateline" vs. "Primetime."
Notice how, what with one serialized drama after another biting the dust, newsmagazines have become "break glass in case of emergency" programs. That's because they can be slapped into a slot quickly without a lot of promotion, and they're cost effective.
Like that other shelved ABC serialized drama, "Six Degrees," "The Nine" had not received an order for additional episodes beyond its original 13.
Meanwhile, CBS's Wednesday 10 p.m. drama, "CSI: NY," continues to plug along nicely, this season averaging just under 17 million viewers, compared with about 15 million at this point last season.
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ABC came in under cover of the holiday weekend to yank from its schedule the serialized drama "The Nine," about a bunch of people who survived a bungled bank stickup in which they were held hostage for 52 hours.
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Game of The Week: What If?
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In Atlanta, the Falcons lost their fourth straight game Sunday, and the New York Giants blew a 21-point lead in the final 10 minutes in Tennessee, losing their third straight game. Philadelphia, which is without quarterback Donovan McNabb for the rest of the season, lost for the fifth time in six games and Minnesota and St. Louis, once prime wild-card candidates, have combined to lose nine times in their last 11 games.
If they didn't know it before, the Washington Redskins now have a good idea about how much their weak performance this season has cost them. If not for the 25-22 loss at home to the previously winless Tennessee Titans, the Redskins would be 5-6 and in the thick of the wild-card race in the mediocre NFC.
The Redskins, who Coach Joe Gibbs intimated could be evaluating place kickers today with Nick Novak struggling, showed more spirit and determination in Sunday's 17-13 victory over Carolina, but have admittedly allowed much of the schedule to slip away. And the horrendous run by NFC contenders shows the Redskins how they could have been in a completely different position this week.
A year ago the Redskins rallied from a 5-6 start to win five straight games and reach the playoffs for the first time since 1999, but no one would compare this team to that one -- the offense and defense were both producing at a far better rate in 2005. At least the Redskins face only teams ahead of them in the NFC -- Atlanta (5-6), Philadelphia (5-6), New Orleans (7-4), St. Louis (5-6) and New York (6-5) -- and if nothing else can muddle everyone else's record even more.
Why, it's even enough to keep some Redskins players thinking that they can get into the playoffs.
"That's what's so fun about the NFL, you never know what can happen week in and week out," quarterback Jason Campbell said. "Right now we can't count ourselves out of it and we've still got a lot to play for. That's how we have to approach each game. As long as we continue to stick together, it's all about getting hot at the right moment."
Of course, the Redskins would have to maintain a high caliber of play for a prolonged stretch, a departure for them this year. "We haven't really put together two games, period," Gibbs said.
Tailback Clinton Portis -- whose running keyed much of last season's playoff run -- is out for the season following hand surgery, and the defense is ranked 28th in the league. Running the ball, stopping the run and outmuscling opponents at the line of scrimmage are what Gibbs is emphasizing.
"That game [Sunday], if I had to say this is what we believe in, that is what we believe in," Gibbs said. "It was very physical all the way around."
Last season, the Redskins were 10-2 against the NFC, a vital tiebreaker that brought them a wild card; this season, Washington is 2-5 against the conference and 1-3 in the NFC East. Eleven NFC teams have 5-6 records or better and, of those, only Atlanta (3-4) is not 4-4 or better within the conference. That gap might prove the most difficult for the Redskins to bridge.
For as much guarded optimism as there was around Redskins Park yesterday, there is uncertainty as well. With the team unable to carry momentum from game to game -- their emotional, last-second win over Dallas was followed by a blowout loss to Philadelphia, for instance -- no one is speaking brashly about playoff chances. Just putting two straight quality games together is far from a sure thing, and there is no feasible explanation for the Redskins' inconsistency.
"You kind of say, 'Man, I wish we had played like that the whole year,' " linebacker Marcus Washington said of the effort against Carolina. "But I was glad to see it [Sunday] and we know we can do it, so I guess it gives us more confidence. So we'll just try to do it again next week."
The Redskins have a chance to pull ahead of one team solely by winning Sunday. Atlanta has not scored more than 14 points in a game since last month and ranks 31st in passing offense, with Michael Vick completing just 51 percent of his passes. Still, the Falcons lead the NFL with 198 rushing yards per game, running an average of 35 times per game, most in the league. Vick himself rushed for 166 yards Sunday.
"It can go either way," Redskins rookie linebacker Rocky McIntosh said. "They're down and we could go ahead and put the dagger in them . . . or they could come out really hungry, ready to get a win just like us. So we need to go out there and stop number seven [Vick] and take care of business."
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Info on Washington Redskins including the 2005 NFL Preview. Get the latest game schedule and statistics for the Redskins. Follow the Washington Redskins under the direction of Coach Joe Gibbs.
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Hello, Cellphone? YouTube Calling
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Internet video service YouTube is going mobile for the first time, launching a television-like channel featuring its most popular videos on Verizon Wireless cellphones.
Verizon Wireless is hoping to parlay YouTube's reputation as the premiere Web site for posting and sharing homemade videos into success for its own mobile-video service by delivering YouTube clips to subscribers of its premium V Cast service starting next month.
The deal, to be announced today, is one of many initiatives in the past two years that try to make the mobile phone a more appealing entertainment device -- and to gin up excitement around mobile video services, for which carriers typically charge at least $15 a month.
The relatively expensive premium for mobile video service has limited its appeal to a small but growing minority, analysts say. Yet what began as an obscure technical experiment has become a bigger test of whether mainstream consumers want portable video enough to pay extra for it.
Three years ago, when Sprint (now Sprint Nextel) launched the first mobile television service on its phones, it looked more like a color slide show than a miniature facsimile of the tube -- and sales of the service were virtually nonexistent. Since then, carriers have sped up their networks, phonemakers have developed devices with bigger, better screens, and people are starting to watch short clips of news, sports and even TV shows on the go.
Although mobile television has made big strides in technology and quality, it remains an open question whether the service will ever become standard the way custom ring tones and text messaging have, said David Joyce, an analyst with Miller Tabak, an investment firm.
"It's not a replacement for regular television viewing; it's a convenience thing," and it's unclear how many people will care enough to pay for that, he said. As monthly bills for various entertainment and communications services stack up, many consumers might start opting out of additional premium services, he said.
The industry has already chalked up one failure. ESPN Mobile, which was launched in January as a premium service offering sports video clips and a television-like experience, announced in September that it would shut down after too few subscribers were willing to pay for the fancy phone and a monthly premium ranging from $35 to $250.
But that hasn't dampened the enthusiasm of carriers and content providers, who announced a flurry of other cellphone-video deals this year.
HBO reformatted entire episodes of shows such as "Sex and the City" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" for cellphones, while creating made-for-mobile spinoffs of "Entourage" and other shows. Sprint Nextel launched a deal with the National Football League to rebroadcast video highlights of games, as well as a pay-per-view deal to stream full-length movies over the air. Amp'd Mobile, a cellphone service targeting a young, edgy demographic, produces sports and comedy clips, including a political cartoon called "Lil' Bush."
Now, about 2 percent of the country's 220 million cellphone subscribers pay to receive video on their phones, said Roger Entner, an analyst with the research firm Ovum.
Believers in mobile television say much of the market remains untapped.
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Internet video service YouTube is going mobile for the first time, launching a television-like channel featuring its most popular videos on Verizon Wireless cellphones.
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Nicaragua's Total Ban On Abortion Spurs Critics
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MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Jazmina Bojorge arrived at Managua's Fernando Vélez Paiz Hospital on a Tuesday evening, nearly five months pregnant and racked with fever and abdominal pain. By the following Thursday morning, both the pretty 18-year-old and the female fetus in her womb were dead.
The mystery of what happened during the intervening 36 hours might not ordinarily have catapulted Bojorge into the headlines of a nation with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the Western Hemisphere.
But a week before her death on Nov. 2, Nicaragua's legislature had voted to ban all abortions, eliminating long-standing exceptions for rape, malformation of the fetus and risk to the life or health of the mother. Now, outraged opponents of the legislation have declared Bojorge its first victim.
"It's clear that fear of punishment kept the doctors from doing what they needed to do to save her -- which was to abort the pregnancy immediately," said Juanita Jiménez of the Women's Autonomous Movement, an advocacy group that is leading the campaign to reverse the ban. "This is exactly what we warned would happen if this law was passed. We've been taken back to the Middle Ages."
Julio César Flores, director of the hospital, countered that the new legislation, which took effect Nov. 19, hadn't even been signed into law when Bojorge arrived for treatment. Her death, which remains under investigation by Nicaraguan medical authorities, "has nothing to do with the abortion law," he said. "These charges are being made by people who are taking advantage of what happened."
The controversy is the latest twist in a debate over the proper limits on abortion that is raging not just in Nicaragua but across Latin America.
With the exception of Cuba, every nation in this predominantly Catholic region either totally prohibits abortion or limits it to extreme circumstances. And while the global trend over the past decade has been to liberalize abortion laws, efforts to do so in Latin America have been met by an equally determined campaign to strengthen them further.
So far, the anti-abortion camp's greatest triumph has been in El Salvador, where in 1998, at the public urging of San Salvador's Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle, lawmakers removed all exceptions to the nation's ban on abortion and increased penalties to up to 50 years' imprisonment.
Here in Nicaragua, the church has also long played an influential role in politics. Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, who is retired but remains a public figure, is still respected by many for standing up to both U.S.-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza during the 1970s and Daniel Ortega, the Marxist-leaning revolutionary who replaced him in the 1980s.
Soon after El Salvador passed its new law, Obando and his successor, Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes, turned their attention to pressing for a similar measure in Nicaragua.
Abortion had been illegal in Nicaragua for more than a century, punishable by prison terms of up to four years for women undergoing the procedure and 10 years for doctors who performed it.
However, the penal code made an exception for "therapeutic abortion" if three doctors determined it was needed. According to Health Ministry regulations, this covered abortions of pregnancies lasting 20 weeks or less that posed a threat to the life or health of the mother or in which the fetus was malformed. In practice, rape victims were also permitted legal abortions.
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MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Jazmina Bojorge arrived at Managua's Fernando Vélez Paiz Hospital on a Tuesday evening, nearly five months pregnant and racked with fever and abdominal pain. By the following Thursday morning, both the pretty 18-year-old and the female fetus in her womb were dead.
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Childless: Some by Chance, Some by Choice
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"No, no, sorry. I don't have any . . ."
Why does this always seem to be the first thing I'm asked? It takes my breath away, yet why do I feel the need to apologize for my reply? Looking vague and embarrassed, my questioner glances over my shoulder for someone else to talk to: someone with whom he or she has more in common, someone with children.
We can help you find the right work environment with competitive benefits.
I never thought I'd be childless. Thirteen years ago, my husband and I were expecting our first child. I was a healthy 37-year-old when I went into labor one chilly November morning. We raced to the hospital, the atmosphere between us full of anticipation and anxiety.
The delivery was normal; almost everything was normal. Except that our daughter was dead.
I began groping for ways to create the ordinary out of what felt to me extraordinary. A tiny percentage of births are stillbirths, I told my husband. Nothing's certain, but it is widely accepted that the death of a child can put huge strain on a marriage, I discovered. Three years later my husband and I were divorced.
I then became aware of some striking statistics. According to 2004 U.S. Census Bureau data, the proportion of childless women 15 to 44 years old was 44.6 percent, up from 35 percent in 1976. The higher a woman's income, I learned from another study, the less likely she is to have children: Nearly half of women with annual incomes over $100,000 are childless.
I chose not to seek medical help or look for a sperm donor. Nor have I made myself a mother through adoption. Instead, I've come to see myself as part of a growing phenomenon -- one to which people often don't know how to respond.
Those of us who are not mothers do not fit into any of society's convenient boxes: We're not slaves to carpools or homework. At the same time, we are not necessarily obsessed about our careers or even ourselves; nor are we anti-family. Our days are simply lived according to a different rhythm: Children don't tug at my clothes and beg for attention; I don't leave my cellphone on during films or dinner parties in case the babysitter needs me; I travel; I read books -- lots of them -- as well as the newspaper.
I am also a filmmaker, and a few years ago I began to work on a documentary about childless women -- not only those of us who have lost or can't have children, but the growing number who don't want to have them. Their reasons vary. In the most devastated areas of Baltimore, I found women who told me they had chosen to be childless because there were simply too many children in their families or neighborhoods who needed looking after. An immigration lawyer told me she had done motherhood when she was a teenager, helping her mother with her younger sibling. Many reflected the attitudes of an academic who told me that her decision to remain childless made her feel like "an outlaw."
Some of the most telling comments come from the women I first talked with -- three friends, all like me now in their 50s. Dyann, a lawyer from Boston, recalls a moment at her local pizza joint when the owner asked how many of the children she came in with were hers. "None of them; I chose not to have kids," she said. "That's okay," she remembers him replying. "You still have time; maybe you'll change your mind."
Having grown up as an oldest child, Dyann felt she should be free to choose a career instead of motherhood. With a wry smile, she told me: "Just because I've chosen not to have children, doesn't mean I'm some sort of W.C. Fields character who hates kids, doesn't have patience for them."
The other point Dyann makes to me is that, in her view, raising children is "a job, which calls on the depths of your soul to give to another person. And because I respect that, I didn't want to call forth a life and raise a child when I wasn't 110 percent passionately committed to the idea."
Just as some women talk of a visceral urge that propels them to have children, others speak of an equally visceral urge that propels them not to. Laurie, a transplanted southerner who teaches history in New York, began to realize at an early age that she didn't want children, as she watched wealthy mothers in Richmond hire other women to care for their children. "These people compelled to have trophy babies in certain socioeconomic echelons don't want to face the realities of raising a child." She is now infuriated by what she calls "that Mother Right" -- the assumption that everyone will make way for a woman with a stroller or a child in tow. She goes on to challenge me: "If we believe that this is the hardest thing that anyone can do, then why should it be assumed we should all be doing it?"
This has been a more painful journey for my friend Lori from Tennessee, who, though quick to find humor in things, was devastated by a miscarriage. Her husband, who had two children from a previous marriage, was reluctant to try again. She's irritated by the signs in parking lots reserving spaces for parents with children: "I park in those spots sometimes just out of sheer defiance -- I'm a peri-menopausal woman under stress -- and I need a sign!" Lori argues that "if you don't have children you've . . . thrown a brick in your path that you're going to spend your entire life trying to crawl over. It would have been a lot easier having had children."
Make generalizations, though, and I've learned that I'll be surprised. I spent a recent morning at one of the food markets in downtown Baltimore, talking with women who worked there. Many were black; many said all their friends had children. Then I met Rochelle, who said, "I know a lot of women who don't have kids and don't want any -- married, not married, working, not working. And they don't feel like they're missing out at all."
But almost all the women I've talked with describe feeling acutely aware of what they see as our national obsession with motherhood: "The Bump Watch" hounding Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lopez; "Celebrity Babies" like the elusive Suri Cruise; and "The Ultimate Hollywood Accessory: A New Baby," popularized by Brangelina. Some use the term "child-free" to differentiate those who choose not to have children from those who had been unable to have them.
It's hard to find accurate data on the percentage of women who choose to be childless, but the National Center for Health Statistics confirms that 6.6 percent of women in 1995 declared themselves voluntarily childless, up from 2.4 percent in 1982. These days, at least in industrialized countries, we no longer need to "go forth and multiply" to provide children to work our farms. Although the United States has the highest birthrate in the developed world, it hovers around the natural population replacement level of 2.1 births per woman.
In the end, everyone turns the questions back on me. When I'm asked what happened after that November day in 1993, I say that we named our daughter Frances -- after my mother -- and that she is buried at a church near where we were in graduate school. I tell them I take tiny white roses and rosemary to her grave when I can.
I also tell them that I love my friends' children and my nieces and nephews and spend as much time with them as I can. Family gatherings become more bearable every year, and Christmas will be easier than it used to be. And these days, I can almost bring myself to hold an infant. So my life is hardly childless. ·
Nancy Rome is a freelance documentary filmmaker who lives in Baltimore.
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"No, no, sorry. I don't have any . . ." Why does this always seem to be the first thing I'm asked? It takes my breath away, yet why do I feel the need to apologize for my reply? Looking vague and embarrassed, my questioner glances over my shoulder for someone else to talk to: someone with whom he or she has more in common, someone with children. ...
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Selling Parents On Public School
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In the D.C. public schools, where declining student enrollment has long been the rule, Strong John Thomson Elementary in downtown Washington has defied the odds and increased its student population by 20 percent.
It helps that Thomson has some assets to boast that most city schools don't: a renovated building completed in January with a gymnasium and two indoor playgrounds, Chinese language classes and a school culture that emphasizes such values as tolerance and personal responsibility.
But Thomson is different in another way. The school's principal and parents formed a marketing committee to aggressively recruit students. The team worked feverishly this spring, sending out fliers to Chinese nonprofit and business organizations, posting glowing messages on e-mail discussion groups and holding several open houses. All the promotion was done in three languages: English, Spanish and Chinese.
"We really made a conscious effort," said Principal Gladys Camp, who saw enrollment grow from 287 students to about 345 this year. "We wanted to make sure that our enrollment didn't drop."
One of the new enrollees is 5-year-old Hunter, the son of Kathleen Finn, an independent financial consultant. Finn considered private school, but her son was wait-listed, and he wasn't selected for two public school lotteries. She eventually selected Thomson after learning about it through an e-mail promoting the school's open house.
"I didn't know about it," Finn said. "And then I came. The building is gorgeous, and I met the principal, and she seemed to really care about what was going on here."
In the numbers game of student enrollment, where teachers are assigned to schools or cut from them based largely on the number of students, the Thomson team decided to compete for students who might otherwise choose to attend schools outside the traditional system.
In doing so, the school took a page from its charter and private school counterparts, an approach endorsed by Superintendent Clifford B. Janey, who admits that the competitive landscape has pushed the traditional system to do things differently.
"It's increasingly important for principals to see how they can effectively reach out to other markets," Janey said.
Charlotte Bensaada, 34, who spent two years researching D.C. public schools for her 4-year-old daughter Dahbia, said Thomson stood out because of the principal. Camp was known to spend hours with parents of potential students, and she is hands-on with the children, even teaching a guitar class.
"The number one thing she did was flat-out make herself available," said Bensaada, who lives in Brookland. "If I said I want to come and see the school, she said, 'Okay, I can be available at this time -- when do you want to come?' "
Francisco Millet, a regional superintendent, encouraged Camp and other principals to go after students instead of waiting to see who comes in the door. "I think we're learning lessons from the charter schools," Millet said. "They'll literally stand outside our schools and hand out brochures on back-to-school night. We're starting to use some of their methods for getting the word out on our schools."
Despite those efforts, overall enrollment in traditional public schools could decline again this year. The initial 2006 enrollment reported by the school system is 56,787 students, compared with the 2005 verified enrollment of 57,486. The preliminary figure, a one-day snapshot in early October, is being audited by a firm working for the State Education Office. A final report will be released in January.
Meanwhile, charter school enrollment appears to have increased this school year, according to initial figures. Compared with the 2005 verified charter school enrollment of 17,419 students, the city's 55 charter schools reported having 20,058 students this year. The verified numbers for charter schools will also be released in January.
Efforts by such schools as Thomson might buck the downward trend, but the overall enrollment figures are one signal that many parents lack faith in the city's traditional public school system.
The amount of city funds each charter school receives during the year depends on its enrollment. Traditional public school officials use the number of students in each school as a guide to reassigning teachers. Since September, 161 teachers have been transferred, according to school system spokesman John C. White. Thomson started the school year without a permanent first-grade teacher because the slots were based on last year's enrollment, but the school eventually gained five positions because of its growth, officials said.
Named after a 19th-century educator who taught at a private school at the same site, at 12th and L streets NW, Thomson is ethnically diverse, with about an equal number of black and Hispanic students, 139 and 130, respectively, and 69 Asian students. In a reflection of the school's growth, the school's Chinese teacher, Qinghua Wong, now works full time and teaches pre-kindergarten through second grade. Last year, she was part time and taught only second grade.
In a lesson last week, Wong led her class of 24 kindergarten students in a song about body parts as they pointed to their heads and eyes and shoulders. Her brightly colored first-floor classroom has posters of letters and numbers, and every child has a wooden cubby that looks like a mini-locker.
In addition to bringing in new students, the marketing campaign also won involved parents for the school. Thomson doesn't have a school Web site, so Bensaada, the Brookland parent, volunteered to work on one in addition to creating a parent survey so the school can tap parent strengths for volunteer work.
LaDonna Pavetti, a Capitol Hill parent who led the marketing committee in the spring, first saw Thomson when it was temporarily located on G Street in Northeast for 3 1/2 years before moving into the new building this year.
She remembered thinking that the temporary location was dingy, but "there was something about the students," she said -- things like the children saying hello to her as she walked in the hallways.
She also was impressed that Camp spent hours with her and her partner, Mary Fran Miklitsch, on a tour of the school. The couple adopted two children from China, Catherine and ZhenHua, both 7, who are now in second grade at Thomson.
Pavetti said that when she tells friends about all the programs Thomson offers, "Is it a charter school?" is their first question.
"I think a lot of people look at D.C. public schools as a blanket and assume there's lots of problems -- and there are," Pavetti said. "But I felt like this was an undiscovered gem."
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Outlook: Iraq's WMD--AK-47s
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Larry Kahaner, author of "AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War," was online Monday, Nov. 27, at noon ET to discuss his Sunday Outlook article on how this dangerous weapon is adding to the violence in Iraq. Born out of World War II, the AK-47 was disseminated from the Soviet Union around the world, altering Cold War era conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan. In Iraq, it is costing U.S. lives in the hands of insurgents.
Weapon Of Mass Destruction, ( Post, Nov. 26)
Wharton, N.J.: As I understand it the AK-47 is a reliable rifle but not a very accurate one. OK for engagements up to 150 yards maybe. The American M-16 by contrast is just the opposite, not that reliable, very accurate. The AK-47 is better for close quarters battle where its heavier bullet allows it to more easily pass through walls but in open battle the M-16 is a far superior weapon.
Larry Kahaner: This is ostensibly true. The heavier bullet AK does tend to penetrate wood or stucco for example which is a plus during house to house fighting. The M-16 round will not do that. The AK's heavier bullet is also better suited to areas with large amounts of foliage.
Lyme, Conn.: What were the most popular paths that these AK 47s took to reach Iraq? Who profited from these sales?
Larry Kahaner: It's never certain how AKs reach their final destination because of the secretive nature of illegal arms trade. We do know that when the US bought AKs for the Iraqi army they bought them from a dealer in Jordan who in turn bought them from Germany.
Washington, D.C.: Mr. Larry Kahaner, have you ever fired an AK-47? It was reported that Janet Reno's top gun expert never fired a weapon...
Larry Kahaner: I have fired at the NRA range in Fairfax, VA several types of AKs as well as the M-16. I am also able to break down and reassemble both guns.
The AK sometimes feels like it will shake apart but it does not. The M-16, on the other hand, is a sleek, well engineered weapon.
Great Falls, Va.: Which county manufactures the most AK-47s for export? And to what countries are they exporting them?
Larry Kahaner: China currently produces more AKs than any other country. They have a popular version dubbed type 81. Interestingly, there are so many AKs in the world that the profit margin is low and it's believed that they sometimes use the weapons as a loss leader to promote more expensive weapons.
Arlington, Va.: I still remember an interview with Tarik Aziz just before the war in which he said that Iraq has imported several containers filled with AK-47 and that if the U.S. invades Iraq every Iraqi will be armed with one of these guns. Was that fact ever taken into consideration when we went to war?
Larry Kahaner: I was unaware of this interview but it certainly supports the notion that US military planners were not taking the threat of large numbers of small arms in Iraq very seriously.
Why do you think the United States has been incapable of building an automatic machine gun as simple and effective as the AK-47?
Also, my apologies for not having read your book yet, but I'd like more background the following quote about the M-16's poor performance:
"The culprit, it turns out, wasn't the gun, but the ammunition. M-16s jammed because authorities had insisted on changing the cartridge propellant, and residue clogged the mechanism after repeated firing."
Do you know why "the authorities" insisted on the propellant change that so damaged the M-16's reputation? Was it due to pork-barrel politics or some other short-sighted political decision?
Larry Kahaner: Eugene Stoner, the M-16's inventor specified that stick powder be used in his weapon, and it is not fully understood why Army Ordnance insisted on changing his recommendation. The Ichord subcommittee that later investigated the issue noted that the Army had a cozy relationship with Olin Mathieson, the ball powder manufacturer, which may have influenced the decision to change powders. The subcommittee also noted that because of the powder change, mechanical modifications had to be made to the M-16, and these last-minute changes may have also hurt its performance.
Gaithersburg, Md.: Why doesn't the US make its own low-cost, easily-assembled weapon, for use by our troops and/or for sale to other nations?
Larry Kahaner: The US military will never adopt the AK for two reasons. One, it's the weapon of the enemy, the anti-Western icon. Second, US military doctrine is that our soldiers are marksmen. They don't waste bullets and they don't shoot indiscriminately. It's a matter of pride and training. The AK is not suited to such an attitude.
Here's a piece I wrote about this that you might find interesting and will more fully address your question.
Arlington, Va.: In analyzing violence around the world, it seems to me that it's a bit unhelpful to focus on the particular type of gun. The AK-47 is just a tool, and if it hadn't been invented, something else would be used in its place. The gun doesn't make armed conflict more widespread; it simply reflects the fact that armed conflict is sufficiently widespread as to make such a gun profitable and desirable. What do we really learn by focusing on the AK-47 rather than the man using it?
Larry Kahaner: What matters most, I believe, is focusing on both the person and weapon. You need both for warfare. Having said that, I believe that if you limit the amount of cheap weapons you cut down the chances of someone using it in a moment of anger.
Piscataway, N.J.: What country makes the best AK-47's? Is it Russia or China?
Larry Kahaner: Ironically, Russia no longer makes military AKs but they have plenty in stockpiles - which is how Hugo Chavez is buying his country's AKs.
China is the world's largest producer of AKs
Shirlington, Va.: What do you think is the "weakest link" in the supply chain of AK-47s to insurgents and criminals where collective action or new agreements by the international community could have the most success?
Larry Kahaner: That is a very interesting question and one that the United Nations studies because so far efforts at stemming illegal arms trading have been less than spectacular.
I am not sanguine about being able to stem illegal arms trades; greed is too strong an incentive.
One area that might bear fruit, however, is marking weapons. This way when they used illegally, they can be traced to their point of origin. This system, too, is full of loopholes and side alleys.
Ocala, Fla.:"...Discuss his Sunday Outlook article on how this dangerous weapon is adding to the violence in Iraq."
Well, all weapons are dangerous in the right hands. I own an AK derivative (semi-auto only, no selector switch for full auto) and it provides fun at the range and an easy-to-maintain weapon. Let's not demonize guns, instead focus on those who misuse them.
Larry Kahaner: I am not pro or anti-gun. And I don't worry about people like you owning guns. What the article talks about is cheap, automatic military weapons that are in the hands of untrained, undisciplined people or rogue paramilitary forces.
McLean, Va.: I've been reading some pro-gun people on Amazon comment the book is anti-gun. Is the book pro gun or anti gun?
Larry Kahaner: As I mentioned, I am neither pro gun or anti gun. Interestingly enough, some of the pro-gun factions charge that my book demonizes the AK and blames it for all the world's ills.
Some of the anti-gun groups suggest that my book glorifies the weapon.
Can they both be correct?
People who 'get' the book understand that it is about the social history of this weapon and it's place in modern culture and doesn't take a pro or anti gun stance.
My only bias is against international arms dealers who illegally sell large numbers of military style automatic weapons to obvious rogue players like Liberia's past president Charles Taylor or Al-Qaeda operatives.
Bowie, Md.: What are the major differences between the AK-47 and the Uzi?
Larry Kahaner: The AK-47 is an assault rifle which uses larger rounds than an Uzi which is a submachine gun. Submachine guns usually use handgun-sized rounds, often 9 mm.
Submachine guns don't shoot very far and are designed for personal protective work - like being body guard.
Detroit, Mich.: Some technical questions I did not see addressed in your article:
(1) How many rounds a minute does the AK-47 fire?
(2) Have there been any modifications to it since its debut in the 40's?
(3) How does its range and accuracy compare with those guns carried by our troops in Iraq? (Also, what do our troops now carry?)
Larry Kahaner: The AK fires between 600 and 700 rounds per minute depending upon the model. There have been few modifications since the 1940s except in manufacturing and cosmetic changes like changing the wooden stock and hand grip (called furniture) to modern plastics.
Note that most gun historians use the term AK to refer to all variants. The most popular AK is the AKM which stands for AK Modified and it's the one you see most of the time in photos and on TV. But we all know the term AK-47 so I use it or AK even if I'm talking about an AKM or the newer AK-100 series.
The AK is not a very accurate rifle compared to the M-16. Some people say that an AK is best for the untrained or poorly trained soldier while the M-16 works best in the hands of highly trained soldiers. While some legitimate armies that use AKs may disagree there is some merit to the statement.
Washington, D.C.: If money and troop training were not an issue, which is superior? The AK or M-16?
Larry Kahaner: This is a frequent question and one that is important for the future of the US military.
I don't believe that either weapon is ideal for US troops. As you may know, the US tried to build a new infantry rifle beginning in the early 1990s to replace the M-16 but the program was scuttled after the weapon became too complicated and political interests started to intrude. It's was called the XM-8.
What US troops need more than anything else is a simple weapon that is accurate, rarely jams and can handle the type of wars that the US will be facing in coming years.
I have written a piece on these 'small wars' that you may find interesting and will further answer your question:
Cleveland, Ohio: You mention the rise of a "Kalashnikov culture." Is there an American equivalent?
Larry Kahaner: The Kalashnikov Culture is the name given to an economic and social order that relies on the AK-47. It was first used to describe conditions in Pakistan and Afghanistan after it was awash in AKs mainly distributed by the CIA to help the Mujahadeen.
Everyday people not only carried the AK for protection but sold, bought, bartered, built and repaired them and it was source of revenue for an area that sometimes had little else.
I don't see an equivalent in the US.
Larry Kahaner: What's quite amazing about the AK is how it has found it's way into popular culture. We see it in movies, graffiti, TV shows, anime and even design. Even commercial high-end artists and designers joined the AK design movement, mainly for shock value and to titillate Western consumers. At the Milan Furniture Fair in 2005, world renown designer Philippe Starck revealed high-end table lamps fashioned from replicas of AKs, M-16s and Beretta pistols. Black shades lined with crosses sat atop the lamps.
There is even a company in England that makes an AK magazine/MP3 player. The music player was built into an banana-shaped magazine of the rifle and could be attached to the Kalashnikov rifle instead of the regular magazine or played on its own. It can hold up to 9,000 songs or 3,000 hours of audio books.
You can see more about the popular culture aspect of the AK at my Web site www.AK-47book.com
I don't want to forget to mention that Kalashnikov has a brand of vodka which is a hit in Europe and the Middle East and will come to the states in 2007. He's trying to make up for lost time. He did not make any money off his invention is playing catch-up.
Ogden, Utah: Seems to me all the commenters so far have missed the real point of your article (or at least the point I saw). Cheap guns were part of the equation that allowed political decisions to spread weapons all over Afghanistan -- the CIA funded program to support Osama bin Laden and his cronies was able to do so very efficiently because the weapons were cheap. Those weapons, in turn, built up a culture in which everyone has a weapon or could get one cheap, leading to the mess our own troops now face today.
Larry Kahaner: Thanks for getting the point. As a nation, we tend to be more fearful of high tech weapons than low tech ones despite the damage they can cause.
washingtonpost.com: Thank you all for joining us today.
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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Larry Kahaner, author of "AK-47: The Weapon that Changed the Face of War," discusses his Sunday Outlook article on how this dangerous weapon is adding to the violence in Iraq.
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The Chat House - washingtonpost.com
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Tommy , Charlotte, N.C.: Hey Mike, Jason Campbell is the first QB for the Redskins since your boy Theismann to show he may stick around. What's your take?
I know its early, but he looks poised.
Michael Wilbon: Whenever you get ready to make a grand declaration about a quarterback after two starts remember the name Gus Frerotte...I bet you had him here for a dozen years, too, didn't you? Look, Campbell has been good. Actually, he's been better than good. And the poise he's demonstrated has been the coolest thing, I think. His whole demeanor is what I'd want from a quarterback. Remember, I was pushing for this kid to get some snaps in real games more than a month ago...But it's two games. Two. 2. Dos. Let's not get chesty.
Washington, D.C.: Mike, your thoughts on the article on ESPN.com written by tom friend. Do you buy some players' comments that the article spurred them on to play harder? If so, can you have him write an article on the Wiz and Caps? They could use the help.
Michael Wilbon: I haven't read the entire piece, but Tom Friend is a very, very good reporter who once covered the Redskins for The Washington Post. He's a Washingtonian and one of the five biggest Redskins fans I know. So, I'm going to read the complete piece later today...If players get fired up more by a story than when left to their own devices, there's a bigger problem lurking.
Sausalito, Calif.: Now that Peter King of Sports Illustrated has switched course and is pushing for Art Monk's induction into the Hall of Fame, do you think Monk will finally be enshrined next year?
Michael Wilbon: I talked to Peter about this at length last week. I've known Peter King for my entire career; we started the same year. He's a pro's pro and as thorough when it comes to gathering information on pro football as anybody anywhere at any time. Peter and I have disagreed all along on the Art Monk candidacy, but I respect Peter's knowledge and I respected his position before now, and I respect his change of heart. Will that help Monk over the hump? I don't know. For starters, one person who has supported Monk's candidacy -- me -- won't be in that room any longer. My career has taken its own twists and turns and I'm going to be doing more basketball, particularly starting on Christmas Day on ABC, and less football. So, I will no longer be a Hall of Fame voter...I loved it for 10 years...loved it. But my new duties aren't going to allow for me to continue. I'll be more than an interested bystander when the HOF Class of 2007 is announced.
Does anyone else agree that The Post's coverage of the Redskins' win yesterday is excessive? It's not just the nearly five pages of coverage; it's also the positively nauseating fawning over Campbell, the team, etc. The team has NOT found its direction. This was ONE win out of four in an otherwise dismal and embarrassing season. The team is unlikely to win out. It's not even likely to reach .500. Why can't anyone in this area -- and that includes The Post -- accept the notion that this is a fundamentally unsound team with unrealistic expectations from its management and the public?
Michael Wilbon: Is the coverage better now that we've heard your opinion?
Guy from Philly: Do you think Andy Reid will be back next year to coach the Eagles?
Michael Wilbon: Good question. I think it's going to depend largely on how the Eagles finish this season's final five games.
Washington, D.C.: What is wrong with the Wizards? Are they worse than last year?
Michael Wilbon: They're the same as last year, which isn't going to be good enough. The NBA season is so, so long I'm reluctant to make judgments in November...even in December. But the Wizards still aren't mentally or physically tough enough yet to contend. They don't play enough games like they're crusades, which the really successful teams do. But, it's early. There's no reason for the Wizards to be trailing Orlando in that division. The Wizards should not lose to the Knicks by 20. And they should have come back home and defended their home court much more aggressively against the Pistons than they did. But...it's early.
Transported New Yorker here. Where does the Giants debacle rank in great collapses, at least in regular season history? Is there anyway they can recover? It looks like Coughlin is stunned and between the lack of effort by Plex to tackle Pacman on that interception and the sack that wasn't, I'm not optimistic.
Michael Wilbon: You'll have to forgive me for not think the Giants' loss is the end of the world. I know the New York tabloids think so. There've been worse losses this season. Two weeks ago, the Bengals had an almost identical meltdown against the Chargers, and that loss came at home, in Cincy. The Giants are injured and flawed. Eli Manning ain't his big brother. Eli does seem to have a twin, though...and his name is Rex Grossman. They make too many bad decisions and too many poor throws. The Bears can at least look at Brian Griese. What do the Giants do? They have no proven veteran QB to turn to, unless you want to hand it to Tim Hasselbeck?
Eastern Market: Personally, I find parity very frustrating when a team like the Giants can go from so clearly being the only team to have a chance of beating the Bears, to Dallas being the hot hand now while the Giants crumble and the Bears hold their breath that their QB can get them past one round of the playoffs.
I actually miss the dominance of some teams like the 49ers, Cowboys, Redskins in the '80s when you KNEW what you'd get out of a squad from week to week. The "Any Given Sunday" stuff can be fun, but it is infuriating! And I don't even gamble, I just want to watch a consistent product. I guess there is consistency in inconsistency though.
Michael Wilbon: I hear your point and don't entirely disagree with you. But consider that the Colts are 10-1, the Chargers, Bears and Ravens 9-2. It's not often you have three teams with those records. Now, if your problem is those teams aren't in the NFC East, that's specifically your problem. Go get a dish. Use the clicker. There's plenty of good football out there. The Patriots are still good and last I checked have three Super Bowl rings. The NFL is truly a national sport. Try to sample some of it.
Goleta, Calif.: Did you watch the ND-USC game? And what's your feeling about a BCS game with Ohio State and the Trojans? It would seem to be a better matchup than Michigan or Florida (especially after Meyer's sniveling on the subject).
Michael Wilbon: I like Urban Meyer's point, BUT it's so self-serving. I like a playoff. It's inexcusably to not have one. But where has Meyer been before now that it's apparently his team which is going to suffer. I'd like to see Ohio State vs. Southern Cal, personally.
Washington, D.C.: Does LeBron need his own Pippen or Shaq to win a championship? LeBron's got, what, Larry Hughes? Drew Gooden? Not bad, but wondering if you think the Cavs' arsenal is deep enough.
Michael Wilbon: I don't think the Cavs are good enough yet. I don't. I think there are a half-dozen teams out west (Utah, San Antonio, Dallas, the Lakers, the Sun, probably Houston) who are better than the Cavs. Luckily for LeBron, he plays in the Eastern Conference where nobody is any good yet.
Cape Coral, Fla.: Reports out of Chicago say that Big Ben Wallace and coach Skiles are having differences over music, taped ankles, and head bands. Shouldn't the Bulls be concerned with matters on the court??
Michael Wilbon: Oh, yes. And the fights they're having off the court are brought on by what's not happening on the court. Wallace has been terrible. His skills don't fit what the Bulls do offensively (which John Paxon and Scott Skiles should have known). He's not even playing great defense. The Bulls played better and finally won a game when Wallace was on the bench...It's crazy...I'll say this, when the season began the Bulls and Suns were the two teams that had a HUGE task ahead of them, in terms of incorporating new centers (Stoudemire was returning to play with seven or eight players he'd never played with because he was hurt last year). The Suns, having now won six of seven, seem to be figuring that out. The Bulls appear to be a million miles away.
LeBron and Shaq?: Whoa whoa whoa... Shaq is the not support player that Pippen was.
Michael Wilbon: No. Shaq is past his prime. He's not even on the court for chunks of the season. Pippen, in his time with Jordan, was in his prime. Pippen, in fact, is two or three years younger than Jordan. Shaq is, what, 36? That's 15 years of wear and tear. Pippen was NEVER what Shaq was when Shaq was is prime. But as we saw last year, Shaq's prime is in his rear-view mirror.
New York, N.Y.: The Colts look impressive, and this could finally be their year. Just wondering though, how is Dungy holding up after his son's suicide? I would imagine that's the hardest thing anyone could go through, and he's doing so well this year.
Michael Wilbon: Tony Dungy seems to be doing as well as he could be, under the circumstances. And it is the hardest thing he and his wife have ever been through; they'll quickly tell you that. I've known Tony Dungy my entire career and think the world of the man. I do root for him and for Peyton Manning to at least lead the Colts to the Super Bowl.
Rockville, Md.: Mike, who will Kevin Garnett end up playing for and when? Everyone knows his days in Minnesota are numbered.
Michael Wilbon: Well, there was talk Chicago was going to trade for him and bring him back home, and that talk came even after the Ben Wallace signing...Now, I'm wondering again. Should the Lakers trade for him? I don't think so. It's tricky...Needs to be a team that's fairly close that has a lot of draft picks and players...Again, Chicago fits because the Bulls have two first-round picks this year (including the Knicks' pick) their own pick next year, and a lot of young, talented bodies...I don't know...Does it sound like I'm leaning?
Washington, D.C.: When the Monday night game is a bit of a stinker, like tonight, do you hang around after PTI to watch the game or are you on the flight back to D.C. at about 4 p.m.?
Michael Wilbon: Ahhhh, good "inside baseball" question. First, I'm not in Seattle today. I'm in the D.C. PTI studio as we speak. We didn't go because it's the Monday after Thanksgiving, and I didn't want my producer (one kid, another on the way) to be away from home on Thanksgiving Sunday. Having covered the NFL for 20 years, either as a columnist or beat writer, I didn't want to be away from home on Thanksgiving Sunday. This was the first Thanksgiving Sunday I've ever spent with my family, and the first time I spent all four days in one place...Not that anybody should weep for me; I love going to games. But Seattle vs. Green Bay ain't exactly marquee. Usually, after we tape PTI, I sit and watch the game in the writers' press box and on several occasions I've written columns for The Post, or gathered info afterward for a mid-week column...I like to watch the games in person and have access to scouts and players and other club or NFL executives who might be on hand. Watching the game is sometimes the least important thing a reporter does. Being able to talk in-person with people that might include the NFL commissioner or an assistant trainer is where the information value is. I will be back on location for next week's game in Philly (vs. Carolina), the following week in St. Louis (Bears), the following week in Indy (Bengals). Christmas Night the game is in Miami, but I'll be at another game in Miami that day, Lakers vs. Heat, Christmas afternoon for the ABC telecast.
And as for the earlier question, I would have been holding Tony's hand tonight to get him on that red-eye after the game, except I'm not there. Our very capable assistant Amy (God Bless Amy!) is now responsible for Mr. Tony. No assistant is paid enough to cover THAT!
38 ain't 28, Bruh: As Shaq said of MJ's time as a Wizard.
Michael Wilbon: Bingo! That's it! Yes, that was one of the greatest lines EVER. I was in San Antonio, and asked him what he thought about Michael coming back at 39 (the news was just leaking out) and Shaq said, "Bruh, 39...it ain't 29." Shaq LOVES MJ, but Shaq could see what was coming.
D.C.: Have you ever seen anyone so out of touch with pop culture as your man TK when Jay-Z was sitting next to him on MNF last week?
Actually, I'll answer my own question: Joe Theismann. To see those two guys trying to look even slightly hip was pretty funny.
Michael Wilbon: Ha! Yes, I think you're right. Better you say it than me.
Naples, Fla.: How about the beat down the Ravens put on the Steelers? Does that make this Thursday's game a must-see?
Michael Wilbon: Boy, you can certainly make the case that the Ravens are the best team in the NFL. They KILLED the Steelers. Look, I picked the Ravens in my pool to win, but I didn't think they'd just throw the Steelers around like a rag doll. Goodness. But McNair seems comfortable in the offense now. The defense is 2000-level nasty. The Steelers are going to be hard to beat. How about this for an AFC Final Four: Patriots vs. Colts, Chargers vs. Ravens. Oooooooh! That's something to hope for.
Washington, D.C.: What do you think of Jerry Colangelo's interest in buying your Cubbies?
Michael Wilbon: I'm on me knees begging for it to happen. Begging...literally.
Fort Washington, Md.: I can't stand the Skins and I don't think The Post's coverage is excessive or fawning. I think that poster must have missed the weeks and weeks of pointing out how bad this team by Bryant, LaCanfora, Wilbon, Boswell and others. At the very beginning of the season Wilbon asked pointedly whether the team was worth all the super bowl hub bub coming out of training camp. Campbell showed promise and the team won buy doing what they haven't really done all season against a team with legitimate playoff hopes. Looks to me like the coverage reflects that. Read other sports sites that are essentially saying the same things The Post is.
Michael Wilbon: THANK YOU in Fort Washington.
Did you catch Thursday night's game on NFL Network? What's your opinion of its coverage?
Michael Wilbon: I love Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth, so that will tell you mostly what I think. I watch the games and rarely get involved in assessing the coverage. But that's just me. I don't tune in for the show; I watch the game. So as long as they have a full compliment of cameras, I'm fine. I know this was Gumbel's first attempt at play-by-play in 20-plus years, but he seemed fine to me. Again, I'm not about to be objective. Gumbel, as I've written many times, is my idol.
Houston: Just to get an opinion from an objective observer - Yao Ming - this year, his play seems to be magnitudes of order better then any previous year - can he be a dominant center like Hakeem, Shaq or Kareem? Does he have that level of talent?
Michael Wilbon: He won't be dominant like those guys, but how many are? He's the best low-post center. Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan and Dirk are forwards and do some of the things a center does (less for Dirk). But Yao is the best low-post center in the world, period. Will it be good enough to get Houston to the conference finals? Perhaps. But if Amare Stoudemire is back to 100 percent (and it looks like he's starting to move in that direction) then it's hard to see Houston being any better than the fifth best team in the west, behind the Spurs, Mavs, Suns and Jazz...
Indianapolis, Ind.: All the local papers here are all over Harrison for leaving the sidelines before halftime and not trying to tackle the guy who took the ball from him in the second half. Is this much ado about nothing or is my boy Marvin starting to act like a spoiled WR diva?
Michael Wilbon: Sounds like the spoiled diva disease is infecting even Marvin. Let's hope this was a once-in-a-career thing, a blip on the radar...
College Park, Md.: Have you had a chance to see the Terps men's basketball team in person yet this season? Any predictions for how far they'll go this season? They seem to have a pretty deep bench this year.
Michael Wilbon: No, and I won't see any college basketball in person until after the Super Bowl is over. The window is so small for college hoops now. For mass consumption (meaning, beyond the zealots in places where there are no professional teams) college hoops is now a February/March proposition. The bowl games and NFL playoffs consume January. I won't see any locals play in person until after February 5. I'll catch snippets on TV every single night...but it's too early in the new overlapping sports landscape we have now.
Starkville, Miss.: When the Alabama AD calls me to discuss the coaching job, I'm thinking I should choke down the urge to slam the phone in his ear, and listen to what he has to say. What do you think I should do?
Michael Wilbon: If that call comes through, say yes. Yes.
Baltimore: Random question: Do Hall of Famers have a halo that non-Hall guys don't? Is there a big difference talking to a guy like Jurgenson or Riggo versus, say, Jaworski? (who was a good player and who's a great analyst, but doesn't have a bust in Canton).
Michael Wilbon: No, sometimes Sonny and Jaws are so alike on things, which I tell them all the time, it's scary. Jaws won't go to the Hall of Fame, but he played 18 years and studies this stuff like NOBODY else. Plus, Sonny and Jaws both played in Philly and have a really, really great perspective on football and real life. There's no way (other than tithing) that I can appropriately thank Sonny or Jaws for allowing me into their heads to grasp some of what they know. And there's nobody ever like Riggo. And there will never be another. Players who lasted double-digit years in the NFL weren't just great physically, they were even better mentally. I'm lucky to have access to all three of them every week, all the time.
Washington, D.C.: Did the legend of Vince Young begin yesterday? The man needed only the last 9:35 of the game to get 24 points and beat the giants. WOW!
Michael Wilbon: It might have. Great point. It's really cool to get in on the ground floor of a great career. I don't want to move too quickly on Vince. But I was there at the Rose Bowl last year...And after the game I spent some time with him and his demeanor and sense of himself are (it seems to me) exactly what a QB ought to be. Perhaps you didn't know this, but twice at least yesterday he quietly pulled some teammates close and got in their grills about what they ought to be doing and what he wouldn't tolerate. I think Vince Young is going to be HUGE. Houston not drafting him? Oh my.
Okay, gotta run and prepare for PTI. Jaws is out guest today so we'll have plenty to pepper him with. Next week, I'll be in Philly...Maybe I'll ask my man Donovan F. McNabb to sit in for a couple of questions. Have a good week everybody. Enjoy this holiday season.
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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Start-Ups Try to Plot A Complete Picture
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Sean Gorman can plot a map of New York bars located in neighborhoods where single, college-educated women live. He can see how bad traffic is on different parts of the Capital Beltway and, if he wanted to, he could find out if killer bees are known to swarm near his Georgetown office.
Gorman's company, FortiusOne, collects hundreds of data sets and combines them with maps available online to create what are known as mash-ups -- a new breed of application formed by mixing data from different online sources.
In the year since Google, Microsoft and others made their mapping programs available for free, thousands of Web developers have used them as digital canvases to display information. Some of these online geographers are ready to take the next step and try to commercialize their work.
"There's a huge appetite to manipulate data in ways that are relevant to making everyday decisions," Gorman said. "This puts geographical analysis in the hands of people who have never had a way to use it before."
FortiusOne at first specialized in using maps to help government agencies improve security and prepare for emergencies. When Gorman saw how easy it was to visually represent data through maps, his team last month launched GeoIQ, a Web site that lets people manipulate Census data and local listings to create "heat" maps, color-coded displays similar to weather maps, of the entire nation or a single street.
Another local start-up, Spadac, is selling its mash-ups to retail companies that need to find new store sites or conduct targeted advertising campaigns. The McLean company created an algorithm that overlays demographic and real estate information on top of images from Google Maps to pinpoint potential business growth areas.
"People resonate with it," said chief executive Mark Dumas. Google's free maps have allowed Spadac to operate with relatively little funding, he said. "Otherwise we'd be spending thousands of dollars buying expensive satellite pictures."
Building a business on the back of another company's intellectual property can be tricky. Google and Microsoft allow other companies to use the mapping tools free as long as the resulting mash-ups are publicly available. If the companies charge for access to the material, they have to pay a fee.
Those fees could grow as the mash-up business matures. And some experts warn that the combinations could lead to privacy concerns if, say, a database of names was overlaid on satellite images of people's homes.
Also, there are limitations in the mapping data itself. The images are usually too outdated and inaccurate to use for projects that require precision, such as locating buried gas lines or predicting the path of a forest fire, said Robert M. Samborski, executive director of the Geospatial Information and Technology Association. Google and Microsoft refresh their images only every 18 to 24 months.
Even so, "Google's done more to raise the awareness of using maps than the industry's been able to do in the past 25 years," Samborski said.
The proliferation of mapping mash-ups began almost immediately after Google Maps went live in February 2005. In less than a month, a Web site layering Craigslist housing listings over city maps caught the attention of apartment-hunters. It also caught the eye of Google's mapping director, John Hanke.
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Sean Gorman can plot a map of New York bars located in neighborhoods where single, college-educated women live. He can see how bad traffic is on different parts of the Capital Beltway and, if he wanted to, he could find out if killer bees are known to swarm near his Georgetown office.
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A Fix for Social Security?
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The next six months could be a productive time for economic policy. After a wasted 2005-06 cycle, in which the Bush administration approached entitlement reform too confidently and Democrats refused to talk, both sides may return to the table. The administration, now led by a practical Treasury secretary with the heft to sideline ideologues, may be willing to make concessions. The Democrats, faced with the challenge of living up to their unexpectedly clear election victory, may decide it's time to make policy rather than just block it.
The most interesting debate will revolve around retirement. This will start with a rerun of the Social Security argument of 2005; but it could easily blossom into a discussion about the inequality and income volatility that's grown with globalization.
Top administration officials have already signaled that they want to return to the question of Social Security. They no longer regard "privatization" -- the diversion of payroll taxes into personal accounts -- as the starting point for negotiation. The solvency of Social Security, not a desire to promote an "ownership society," is their main concern.
A solvency fix will involve some cuts in future benefits. Democrats won't love this, but there are ways to do it progressively. During the 2005 debate, President Bush endorsed an idea that would inflict no cuts whatsoever on low-income workers and would allow the value of middle-class retirees' benefits to rise, albeit less quickly than now scheduled. Because this formula (devised by a Democrat named Robert Pozen) spreads the burden fairly, Democrats who worry about rising inequality should be open to it.
The solvency fix will also require increases in revenue. Again, during the last Social Security debate Bush left open the possibility of doing this in an extremely progressive way -- by lifting the cap on the payroll tax, which currently exempts income above $90,000. This reform would raise revenue exclusively from the richest 6 percent of taxpayers. It's hard to see how Democrats could object to that.
The next question is where to put the extra revenue: into the notional Social Security trust fund or into personal accounts. The administration will prefer private accounts, partly because it would like a face-saving link to the president's 2005 proposal but also because personal accounts provide a way of walling the revenue off from the general budget and so reduce the government's tendency to spend it. Meanwhile, Democrats will prefer to put the money into the trust fund. They reason that any personal account created as part of a reform that cuts Social Security benefits is headed the wrong way: toward replacing the security of the traditional guaranteed benefit with the uncertainty of 401(k)-type investments.
Judging from the hints flying around Washington, the administration sees how to bridge this divide. Democrats may be allergic to personal Social Security accounts, but they are enthusiastic about other ideas for personal retirement accounts that just don't have "Social Security" in the title. For example, Gene Sperling, a former Clinton adviser, has called for a "Universal 401(k)" that would extend the benefits of 401(k) saving to workers whose companies don't offer such accounts. In Sperling's vision, everyone would get the chance to contribute to an account and receive a government contribution as a match, with the most generous match going to low-income workers. To pay for this program, the government could prune the existing $150 billion patchwork of tax breaks for saving. This patchwork is extraordinarily, scandalously regressive: 90 percent of the tax breaks go to the richest 40 percent of taxpayers.
Sperling is motivated by a desire to help low-income people. As he writes in his book, "The Pro-Growth Progressive," 85 percent of workers in the bottom fifth of the labor force have no access to a company 401(k), nor do 75 percent of Hispanic workers or 60 percent of black workers. Globalization, which has boosted the volatility of family incomes, makes it especially important to help workers build assets that can cushion them against job loss, illness or the financial fallout from divorce. Although the Universal 401(k) would be primarily aimed at retirement security, there could be limited earlier withdrawals at times of misfortune.
So while Republicans have been pushing personal retirement accounts as part of an entitlement fix, Democrats have been pushing personal retirement accounts because they worry about worker insecurity. By enlarging the debate so that it's about savings in the era of globalization rather than just Social Security, negotiators can conjure up the common ground that was missing during the 2005 train wreck. Personal accounts need not be merely the alternative to the traditional Social Security benefit. They can simultaneously be the alternative to the nation's outrageously regressive system of tax breaks for saving and a way to help ordinary people build nest eggs. When personal accounts become both of these things, perhaps Republicans and Democrats alike will back them.
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The next six months could be a productive time for economic policy. After a wasted 2005-06 cycle, in which the Bush administration approached entitlement reform too confidently and Democrats refused to talk, both sides may return to the table. The administration, now led by a practical Treasury secretary with the heft to sideline ideologues, may be willing to make concessions. The Democrats, faced with the challenge of living up to their unexpectedly clear election victory, may decide it's time to make policy rather than just block it....
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Weapon Of Mass Destruction
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In the grand narrative of World War II, the Battle of Bryansk is a minor conflict, barely deserving of a footnote. But Bryansk has another place in history. It was there that a then-unknown tank commander named Mikhail Kalashnikov decided that his Russian comrades would never again be defeated. In the years following the Great Patriotic War, as Soviet propagandists dubbed it, he was to conceive and fabricate a weapon so simple, and yet so revolutionary, that it would change the way wars were fought and won. It was the AK-47 assault rifle.
The AK-47 has become the world's most prolific and effective combat weapon, a device so cheap and simple that it can be bought in many countries for less than the cost of a live chicken. Depicted on the flag and currency of several countries, waved by guerrillas and rebels everywhere, the AK is responsible for about a quarter-million deaths every year. It is the firearm of choice for at least 50 legitimate standing armies and countless fighting forces from Africa and the Middle East to Central America and Los Angeles. It has become a cultural icon, its signature form -- that banana-shaped magazine -- defining in our consciousness the contours of a deadly weapon.
This week, the U.S. military's presence in Iraq will surpass the length of time that American forces were engaged in World War II. And the AK-47 will forever link the two conflicts. The story of the gun itself, from inspiration in Bryansk to bloody insurgency in Iraq, is also the story of the transformation of modern warfare. The AK blew away old battlefield calculations of military superiority, of tactics and strategy, of who could be a soldier, of whose technology would triumph.
Ironically, the weapon that helped end World War II, the atomic bomb, paved the way for the rise of the lower-tech but deadlier AK-47. The A-bomb's guarantee of mass destruction compelled the two Cold War superpowers to wage proxy wars in poor countries, with ill-trained combatants exchanging fire -- usually with cheap, lightweight and durable AKs.
When one war ended, arms brokers gathered up the AKs and sold them to fighters in the next hot spot. The weapon's spread helps explain why, since World War II, so many "small wars" have lingered far beyond the months and years one might expect. Indeed, for all of the billions of dollars Washington has spent on space-age weapons and military technology, the AK still remains the most devastating weapon on the planet, transforming conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq. With these assault rifles, well-armed fighters can dominate a country, terrorize citizens, grab the spoils -- and even keep superpowers at bay.
When German forces employed the lightning war, or blitzkrieg, in World War II, it was a marked change from how wars had been fought. Instead of static fighting -- hunkering down in trenches for weeks or months at a time as in World War I -- the blitzkrieg concentrated forces at one point in an enemy's defensive line, broke a hole and then thrust deep into enemy territory, catching opponents off guard and subjecting them to waves of brutally efficient invaders.
In late September 1941, the German juggernaut reached the outskirts of Bryansk, hard against the Desna River southwest of Moscow. In the battle, the Nazis destroyed about 80 percent of the town and killed more than 80,000 people. Kalashnikov, who was 21, was wounded in his left shoulder when his tank came under artillery fire. He eventually made it to a hospital on foot after a harrowing two-day trip. He suffered nightmares about the Germans slaughtering his comrades.
Kalashnikov became obsessed with creating a submachine gun that would drive the Germans from his homeland. In his hospital bed, he sketched out the simplest automatic weapon possible. His obsession would later lead him to a metal shop, where he developed a prototype submachine gun; later to a technical school, where he invented a carbine; and finally, to the creation of the Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947 (AK-47) , approved for production that year. It combined the best characteristics of a submachine gun (light weight and durability) and a machine gun (killing power). By the end of 1949, arms plants had turned out about 80,000 AKs.
Although the AK came too late to see action in World War II, the Soviets knew their assault rifle could become the most important weapon of the modern era, and they worked hard to keep it hidden from the West. Soviet soldiers carried their AKs in special pouches that disguised their shape; they picked up spent cartridges to keep the newly sized ammunition a secret.
The 1956 uprising in Hungary compelled Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to dispatch the Red Army to Budapest. The episode required the first large-scale public use of the AK, and it performed well in an urban environment where tanks became bogged down in narrow streets against crowds wielding Molotov cocktails. The protests were squelched, and as many as 50,000 Hungarians were killed compared with about 7,000 Soviet soldiers.
By the late 1950s, the Soviet Union had begun using the AK to spread communism. In the early years of the Cold War, both Moscow and Washington tried to curry favor with uncommitted countries through sales and gifts of arms. Compared with the United States's offering of the M-1 and later the M-14, the AK proved vastly superior; its ruggedness was well suited to severe environmental conditions and the lack of gun repair facilities in poorer countries. The Soviets also distributed free licenses to produce the AK-47 to "fraternal countries," including Bulgaria, China, East Germany, Hungary, North Korea, Poland and Yugoslavia.
U.S. weapons experts did not embrace the superiority of the AK, clinging instead to old notions of warfare embodied in the M-1. The rifle had performed flawlessly during World War II, prompting Gen. George S. Patton to call it "the greatest battle implement ever devised." But it was heavy, clunky and held only eight rounds in its magazine, and was not an automatic weapon. Warfare was changing, and the M-1 was falling behind.
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The AK-47 has become the world's most prolific and effective combat weapon, a device so cheap and simple that it can be bought in many countries for less than the cost of a live chicken.
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Bush to Pursue Fresh NATO Commitments
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TALLINN, Estonia, Nov. 27 -- President Bush will seek fresh troops and equipment for the fight in Afghanistan, and fewer restrictions on how they can be used, when he sits down this week with NATO allies to review the state of the dangerous mission there, according to senior U.S. officials.
Bush flew Monday to this scenic capital, on his way to a summit of NATO's leaders in Riga, Latvia, that begins Tuesday. There, U.S. officials say, they are hoping allies will renew their commitments in Afghanistan, where a stepped-up Taliban insurgency is posing stiff new challenges for some 33,000 NATO troops, about a third of them American.
The mission is shaping up as the major issue for discussion among Bush and the leaders of the 25 other NATO member countries, who are gathering for the first time in two years. A failed operation in Afghanistan would threaten NATO's ambition to one day play a more robust role in helping address the world's crises.
Briefing reporters on Air Force One on the way to Estonia, national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley cited "an increasing awareness at how important this is for the war on terror, how important it is for Afghanistan and how important it is for NATO not to fail."
Some key NATO countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, have placed sharp limits on how their troops can be used, to the growing consternation of the United States and other countries whose forces are involved in fierce battles with the Taliban in southern parts of Afghanistan. Only the United States, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have combat troops in the south.
Meanwhile, calls for more troops from NATO commanders have faced resistance from member countries, some of which have seen public support for the mission wane as casualties have increased. On Monday, a suicide bomber attacked a Canadian armored vehicle in the south, killing two soldiers and bringing to 44 the number of Canadian troops killed in the country.
"Events in Afghanistan are reaching a critical juncture, and European politics and perceptions, as well as U.S. commitments in Iraq, may prevent NATO from getting the assets necessary to ensure victory," said retired Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, the former U.S. supreme allied commander in Europe, at a briefing held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
U.S. officials say they hope the summit will help focus attention on the needs of the mission in Afghanistan, which they say include not only greater military assistance but also economic and political reconstruction efforts.
NATO military spokesmen in Kabul said they will seek to review the issue of troop restrictions, or "caveats," in the hopes that some personnel already stationed in Afghanistan might take on broader roles or be able to shift from one sector to another if needed. "If the caveats can be reduced, that is essentially the same as adding new troops, because it frees up troops that are here," said Maj. Luke Knittig, chief NATO spokesman in the Afghan capital.
Daniel Fried, the assistant secretary of state in charge of European and Eurasian affairs, told reporters of the "hard price" being paid by Canada as he sought to explain the need for more flexibility for NATO commanders.
"A country like Canada, and the Netherlands, has every right to expect that their allies are at their back, which means if they get into trouble, they can count on support from all of NATO," Fried said last week.
Privately, U.S. officials are playing down the prospects of any breakthrough this week. In Germany, where public opinion seems strong against lifting restrictions that keep troops in the safer northern areas, Chancellor Angela Merkel last week reiterated her determination to keep them from moving south. U.S. officials remained hopeful, however, that Merkel could continue to frame the debate to allow for some loosening of restrictions in the future.
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TALLINN, Estonia, Nov. 27 -- President Bush will seek fresh troops and equipment for the fight in Afghanistan, and fewer restrictions on how they can be used, when he sits down this week with NATO allies to review the state of the dangerous mission there, according to senior U.S. officials.
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Britain to Downgrade Commitment to Iraq
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LONDON -- Thousands of British soldiers will leave Iraq over the next year, significantly downgrading the country's commitment in the region, the defense secretary said Monday. Poland and Italy also announced the impending withdrawal of their remaining troops.
The reduction of British troops will occur as control of two southern provinces is transferred to Iraqi forces, although Defense Secretary Des Browne insisted that "handover does not mean withdrawal."
"Even when all the provinces are handed over, we will still be providing a force to mentor and back up the Iraqi army and police, and to protect coalition supply routes," he said. "But I can tell you that by the end of next year I expect numbers of British forces in Iraq to be significantly lower _ by a matter of thousands."
Britain has more than 7,000 British troops in Iraq, primarily in the south; At the height of the conflict, there were about 46,000. Browne said the British military presence in Iraq would be determined by officials in London and Baghdad.
Also on Monday Polish President Lech Kaczynski said his country, a U.S. ally in Iraq and Afghanistan, would pull its remaining 900 soldiers out of Iraq by the end of 2007. And Italian Premier Romano Prodi said the last of Italy's soldiers in Iraq _ some 60-70 troops _ will return home this week, ending the Italian contingent's presence in the south of the country after more than three years.
In a speech to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a foreign policy think-tank, Browne also warned Iran that it faces increasing isolation if it does not use its influence in Iraq constructively, but he spared Syria from similar criticism.
"Its foreign minister _ the first senior-ranking Syrian official to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein's fall _ has re-established diplomatic ties and stated that Damascus is ready to engage in dialogue, and work for stability in Iraq and the region," he said. "But, as ever, we need to see actions to match the words."
Browne, singling out Iran, said the Islamic republic's support of insurgents is unacceptable and counterproductive.
"Iran must start seeing Iraq not as a tool in a wider confrontation with the West, but as a vital interest in its own right," Browne said. "Iran's interest is in a stable, non-aggressive Iraq. So the message to Iran is simple; Be a constructive partner, help yourself as well as the wider region, or face increasing isolation."
Last week, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Britain may be able to hand over security responsibility in the southern port city of Basra by the spring of next year. Britain also hopes to hand security control over to the Iraqis in the province of Maysan, on the Iranian border, in January.
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LONDON -- Thousands of British soldiers will leave Iraq over the next year, significantly downgrading the country's commitment in the region, the defense secretary said Monday. Poland and Italy also announced the impending withdrawal of their remaining troops.
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Turks Protest Pope's Coming Visit
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ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 26 -- Thousands of chanting, flag-waving protesters on Sunday denounced Pope Benedict XVI as anti-Islamic, demanding that he cancel a trip to Turkey this week that the Vatican hopes will help mend relations between the pontiff and Muslims.
An estimated 25,000 protesters jammed a large square in Istanbul in one of the largest public demonstrations against the visit so far in this predominantly Muslim country, where secular voices are battling growing Islamic forces at a critical moment in Turkey's relations with the West.
The pope's visit has infuriated many Muslims because of remarks he made 2 1/2 months ago in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor equating some of the prophet Muhammad's teachings with violence and evil. The pope has not apologized for making the remarks but has said he regretted the pain they may have caused Muslims.
In a last-minute change of plans that indicates a new receptiveness to the pontiff's visit, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now expected to meet with Benedict XVI on Tuesday for 20 minutes at Ankara's airport after the pontiff flies in from Italy, the Associated Press reported from Vatican City.
Erdogan had originally said he could not meet the pope because he would be attending a NATO summit in Latvia, prompting Italian newspapers to dub it a snub to the pontiff. The Vatican insisted at the time that it was a result of a scheduling conflict.
Erdogan will now squeeze in an airport meeting before leaving for Latvia, according to a Vatican spokesman, the AP reported. The Vatican announced the meeting, which Erdogan's spokesman then confirmed.
Protesters waved signs declaring "Go home, pope" and shouted, "No to the pope!" as about 4,000 police, many in riot gear, ringed the square and helicopters monitored the crowd from overhead.
"We don't want the pope here," said Mustafa Demir, 50, as he gripped the hands of his two elementary-school-age daughters. "He insulted our prophet."
Although many Turks oppose the papal visit, some government authorities and business leaders see it as a chance to promote Turkey's efforts to join the European Union and to highlight the country's secular political system.
Turkish officials attempted to play down the protest. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said at a news conference that the pope's visit could help "remove some misunderstandings" between Christians and Muslims and that his messages would "be very important."
During his regular Sunday address at the Vatican, Benedict told the crowd beneath his window, "Starting right now, I want to send a cordial greeting to the dear Turkish people, rich in history and culture."
He added, "To these people and their representatives, I express feelings of esteem and sincere friendship."
The Vatican also confirmed Sunday that the pope will visit Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque, the Sultanahmet, in his first visit to a mosque as pope.
Turkish authorities said security will be extremely tight during the papal trip, which begins in the capital, Ankara, includes a visit to the shrine near Ephesus, where many Catholics believe the Virgin Mary lived her final days, and ends in Istanbul.
Although Vatican-Muslim relations have dominated the headlines about it, the trip was originally scheduled to help repair a centuries-old divide between the Vatican and Orthodox Christian churches. The pope will have two meetings with the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is based in Istanbul and has waged his own religious battles with the Turkish government.
Many of the protesters at the rally Sunday in Istanbul were just as distressed by the pope's planned meeting with the Orthodox patriarch as they were by what they see as his attitude toward Muslims.
"We are here to prevent the visit of the pope," said Gulnihal Yildirim, 38, who wore a head scarf and was accompanied by her two daughters, ages 6 and 11, each sporting green headbands reading, "The pope should not come."
"He will be the guest of the state for one day and of the patriarch for three days," added Yildirim, who said she opposed the pope's efforts to enhance the status of the patriarch in this Muslim country.
Special correspondent Yonca Poyraz-Dogan in Istanbul contributed to this report.
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ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 26 -- Thousands of chanting, flag-waving protesters on Sunday denounced Pope Benedict XVI as anti-Islamic, demanding that he cancel a trip to Turkey this week that the Vatican hopes will help mend relations between the pontiff and Muslims.
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Wal-Mart's Forecast, Weakening Dollar Send Stock Indexes Tumbling
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U.S. stock markets dropped sharply yesterday, spurred by higher oil prices, a weakening dollar and an unexpectedly glum sales forecast from Wal-Mart.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 158.46 points, to 12,121.71 -- a 1.3 percent loss. Twenty-seven of the 30 Dow stocks traded lower.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 19.05 points, to 1381.90, a drop of 1.4 percent. The Nasdaq composite index tumbled 54.34 points, to 2405.92, a 2.2 percent loss.
Investors weren't encouraged by the dollar's performance against the euro, which reached $1.3128 late yesterday in New York. Earlier, the euro traded at $1.3172, a 20-month high against the dollar. The dollar has been falling in recent days on concern about potential economic weakness in the United States and about the country's huge trade deficit and other global imbalances.
The stock pullback came on what retailers called Cyber Monday, a day they hoped would bring in colossal sales on their Internet sites.
Wal-Mart had already been trying to boost sales by cutting prices on items such as the Amazing Amanda Doll (to $69 from $99.97) and a Panasonic 61-inch TV (to $2,297 from $2,597). The retailer's Web site also offered 97-cent shipping on some products.
But Wal-Mart disappointed investors over the weekend when it announced that it expected sales at stores open at least a year to decline 0.1 percent this month. That would represent the retailer's first monthly drop in same-store sales since 1996.
Yesterday's stock sell-off also was driven by a 1.8 percent jump in crude-oil futures, fueled by reports that Saudi Arabia's oil minister may support a cutback in production at the next meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Light sweet crude for January delivery gained $1.08 to settle at $60.32 a barrel.
Wal-Mart fell $1.29, to $46.61.
Lowe's rose 40 cents, to $1.33.
J. Crew fell $3.07, to $40.21.
Ford fell 36 cents, to $8.16.
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U.S. stock markets dropped sharply yesterday, spurred by higher oil prices, a weakening dollar and an unexpectedly glum sales forecast from Wal-Mart.
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Jordan Fears Three Middle East Civil Wars
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Jordan's King Abdullah, who will host President Bush this week during emergency talks on Iraq, said yesterday that the Middle East faces the prospect of three simultaneous civil wars erupting.
"We're juggling with the strong potential of three civil wars in the region, whether it's the Palestinians, that of Lebanon, or of Iraq," the Jordanian king said on ABC's "This Week."
He said that as a result, "something dramatic" had to come out of this week's Amman meetings between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "I don't think we're in a position where we can come back and revisit the problem in early 2007," he told interviewer George Stephanopoulos.
However dire the situation in Iraq, Abdullah said he's more worried about the escalating violence in Lebanon and the battles between the Israelis and Palestinians.
"When it comes to things exploding out of control, I would put today, as we stand, Palestine and probably a close tie with Lebanon," he said. "Iraq, funny enough, although as concerned as I am with Iraq and the major problems that might bring to us, is in third position."
The United States, he said, needs to look at the "total picture" and be ready to talk with all parties in the area -- including Syria and Iran -- about a wide range of issues.
"We can possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands," Abdullah said. "And therefore, it is time that we really take a strong step forward as part of the international community and make sure we avert the Middle East from a tremendous crisis that I fear."
With parts of Iraq approaching, or already in, a state of anarchy or civil war, the Bush administration is reaching out to traditional Arab allies in an effort to help stem the violence. Vice President Cheney flew to Saudi Arabia this weekend for three hours of talks with its King Abdullah. Bush was briefed yesterday by Cheney about his trip to Saudi Arabia and by other administration officials about the status of their Iraq policy initiatives. Aides said the meeting was not intended to be a decision-making session. Bush is to leave today for a NATO summit before flying to Jordan to meet with Maliki for crisis talks Wednesday and Thursday.
Meanwhile, the 10-member Iraq Study Group will meet today and Tuesday in Washington. A discussion about regional diplomacy is expected to be on the agenda.
Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Sunni Arab nations with close ties to the United States have voiced concern about Shiite Iran's growing influence and its involvement in the three regional conflicts. Many Iraqi leaders, as well as Shiite militants there, have close ties with Iran, which also provides funds and support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
The rising power of Iran has the governments especially concerned about any possible U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, a development that some think could lead to a regional war between Sunnis and Shiites.
Also on "This Week," Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) voiced frustration with Iraq's leaders. Durbin said that the United States should tell Maliki to disband the largely Shiite militias and death squads, and to govern the country "in a responsible fashion" or face an eventual U.S. withdrawal. Brownback said that he opposes setting a timetable for withdrawing troops, but that "I think what we've got to do is go around the Maliki government in certain situations."
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Jordan's King Abdullah, who will host President Bush this week during emergency talks on Iraq, said yesterday that the Middle East faces the prospect of three simultaneous civil wars erupting.
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Ford Uses Assets For First Time To Secure Loans
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Ford said yesterday that it arranged $18 billion in bank loans, for the first time using company assets such as its U.S. assembly plants and its Swedish luxury brand Volvo as collateral.
Analysts said Ford had to seek some secured financing because its deep losses and junk ratings on Wall Street made other borrowing avenues nearly impossible.
"I think this is the last shot to maintain the company at its current level," said Gerald C. Meyers, a former auto executive who teaches at the University of Michigan. "It's do-or-die time for Ford as the company we know."
The borrowing would bolster Ford's cash position. Automakers have enormous cash demands from suppliers and creditors, Meyers said. The automakers also have cash-intensive costs for new vehicle programs, including equipment to assemble engines and manufacture body panels. "It takes a huge amount of cash to change those," Meyers said. "Those bills go on no matter what's happening to sales."
Ford spokeswoman Becky Sanch said the company was not facing a cash crisis. She said the 103-year-old company was using the new debt financing to address near- or medium-term operating losses, including paying for restructuring moves and providing a cash cushion in case of unforeseen events, such as a U.S. recession. She said Ford expected to end the year with $20 billion in cash.
The three new loans are a $3 billion unsecured loan, a $7 billion secured loan and a secured revolving line of credit for $8 billion, which replaces an existing $6.3 billion unsecured credit line. Ford's loans, arranged by Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase, are expected to close by the end of the year. A Ford spokeswoman said final terms have not been set, including what interest rates Ford would pay.
Among the other assets Ford was using as collateral are its intellectual property, such as patents or significant trademarks; real estate; and its automotive financing unit, Ford Motor Credit.
As part of Ford's restructuring, Alan Mulally, the company's new chief executive, is trying to refashion the automotive lineup, partly with more fuel-efficient vehicles. Jim Sanfilippo, senior industry analyst at AMCI, an automotive consulting firm in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., said the reorganization of Ford's finances was the first step in charting a business plan for the automaker and rebuilding credibility on Wall Street.
Ford has idled plants around the country to reduce dealer inventory as consumer demand has continued to slide for Detroit's big trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Company officials, including Mulally, gave analysts hints about the borrowing plan last month but did not outline the scale, which analysts said was larger than expected. Ford did not make top executives available for comments yesterday.
In the third quarter, Ford spent $3 billion, or $250 million per week. It lost $5.8 billion during the period, its largest quarterly loss in 14 years, and executives signaled that more dreary results were coming. The automaker's losses this year have totaled $7 billion.
David Healy, auto analyst for Burnham Securities, said he expected Ford to spend $14 billion to $15 billion a year in 2006 and 2007. "Short of government-guaranteed loans, they had to do this," he said. "Otherwise the numbers come out to Chapter 11."
In their latest struggles, the Detroit automakers have ruled out asking the federal government for loan guarantees, as Chrysler did in the late 1970s as it was running out of cash. Two weeks ago, after a long-delayed meeting with President Bush, the chief executives of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler were asked by reporters if the automakers were seeking a bailout. "Absolutely not," Mulally responded.
GM, which has sought secured loans, announced last month that it received a $1.5 billion loan for seven years backed by machinery, equipment and tools at its U.S. manufacturing facilities. In July, GM completed a $4.48 billion line of credit secured by inventory, accounts receivable, plants, property and equipment of GM of Canada and 65 percent of the stock of GM of Mexico. Previously, the credit was unsecured.
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Ford said yesterday that it arranged $18 billion in bank loans, for the first time using company assets such as its U.S. assembly plants and its Swedish luxury brand Volvo as collateral.
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