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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091201642.html
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In Flash of Chaos, a Glimpse Into Iraq's Woes
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BAGHDAD, Sept. 12 -- As an angry crowd gathered Tuesday morning, the young man stepped out of a gray Mercedes poised for battle. Across Abu Nawas Street, his tin-roofed shop lay crumpled like a run-over trash can. He knew whom to blame.
He glared at some policemen and said: "Today, I'm going to kill one of you. You will never stop until I kill one of you."
"Stop," a policeman yelled as the man got back in his car and sped away. Another policeman fired a shot in his direction. Moments later, white pickup trucks brimming with men in blue police uniforms and black bulletproof vests sped up the street and screeched to a halt in front of a small kiosk. Some wore black masks.
They jumped out and began firing AK-47 assault rifles. Bullets flew toward the sky and down the street, sending dozens of bystanders, including women and children, scrambling for cover. The gunfire reached a jackhammer pitch.
Crouched behind a white car, Razak Haider, whose relatives were watching their shops get leveled, voiced a question on many minds: "How can we accept this shooting? There are families and children here."
It was a quintessential Baghdad moment, the sort that happens to hundreds of people here every week. And each moment opens a window onto the forces that plague Iraq.
Whether one is driving on a quiet street or stuck in a traffic jam, chaos can erupt in nanoseconds. One day it may be a suicide bomber; another day, a roadside explosive. It could even be a mortar shell, a missile -- or an army of policemen with guns blazing.
The events leading to Tuesday's moment began to unfold in the morning, when a large yellow bulldozer rolled into Baghdad's upscale Karrada neighborhood. Its driver was on a mission to crush kiosks nestled along Abu Nawas Street, one of Baghdad's best-known thoroughfares. The street, once dotted with fish restaurants and nightclubs, follows the curves of the Tigris River.
Shortly after the U.S.-led invasion toppled President Saddam Hussein in 2003, the businesses closed down and squatters arrived. They built a cluster of roadside cafes and food stalls. Three years later, the municipality of Karrada wanted the property back.
"This is a violation of state land," said Abdul Rudha Mohammad, a municipal official, watching with satisfaction as the bulldozer mowed into one kiosk. "These cafes don't have permits. They are not registered."
"After Baghdad fell, there was chaos," he continued. "Everyone started doing their own thing, building structures. We have to go back to law and order as it was before and make it better. We want to bring respect to the government and to the rule of law."
"This is a good decision," said Baha al-Rubai, another Karrada council member who had driven up in a brown sport-utility vehicle to see the progress of the demolition.
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World news headlines from the Washington Post,including international news and opinion from Africa,North/South America,Asia,Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather,news in Spanish,interactive maps,daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
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Cuomo Wins N.Y. Attorney Gen. Nomination
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NEW YORK -- Former Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo easily won the Democratic nomination for New York attorney general Tuesday, defeating a former New York City public advocate in the race to succeed incumbent Eliot Spitzer.
Cuomo, the elder son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, beat Mark Green 53 percent to 32 percent. The third candidate, Sean Patrick Maloney, a former aide to President Clinton, had 10 percent of the vote.
Cuomo, 48, will face Republican Jeanine Pirro, the former Westchester County district attorney, in the general election in November.
Green, 61, challenged Cuomo's record as head of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1997 to 2001. He faulted Cuomo for his oversight of a low-income housing program, for subsidizing Indian tribe businesses selling cigarettes and for failing to enforce a law aimed at reducing pesticide use.
Cuomo largely ignored Green's attacks, insisting negative campaigns turn voters away. He pointed to his record running HUD and fighting the death penalty as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan.
Also on Tuesday's ballot was the name of former Clinton administration housing official Charlie King, who quit the race a week ago and endorsed Cuomo. It was too late for King to get his name off the ballot. He had 5 percent.
Spitzer is leaving the attorney general's office to run for governor.
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NEW YORK -- Former Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo easily won the Democratic nomination for New York attorney general Tuesday, defeating a former New York City public advocate in the race to succeed incumbent Eliot Spitzer.
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Decades of Service May End With Primary
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In the end, the very characteristics that made William Donald Schaefer one of the dominant figures in Maryland political history were the same that brought about his downfall in Tuesday's election.
Schaefer conceded defeat yesterday to Del. Peter Franchot (D-Montgomery) in the tight three-way race for the Democratic nomination to be Maryland comptroller. The contest focused on remarks by Schaefer that were typically blunt, eccentric and unfiltered.
With 96 percent of the vote tallied, Franchot had received more than 36 percent, edging out Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens, who had close to 34 percent. Schaefer finished third, with 30 percent.
Schaefer's loss may -- or may not -- have brought an end to a career that began in 1955 with the Baltimore City Council, extended through four terms as the city's mayor, continued through two terms as governor and then two as comptroller.
"It's a tough one to lose," Schaefer told reporters yesterday in a conference room at his Annapolis office, his piercing blue eyes looking down at the table. "I'm surprised. I didn't think he was going to win."
During the rollicking news conference, Schaefer was by turns cranky, downcast and upbeat, exhibiting the style and antics that endeared him to voters for years but appeared to wear thin in this campaign.
"You can call bologna sausage, but it's still bologna," he said. "I'm me. If you think I'm ever going to change and keep my mouth shut and be politically correct, I'm not going to do that."
That may have cost him votes. "It was his failure to control his tongue and mouth that beat him," said Matthew A. Crenson, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University.
Franchot said he benefited from voters who had tired of the insults tossed in the race, culminating last week when Schaefer dubbed Owens "Mother Hubbard."
"People said . . . 'Let's vote on the issues, not on nursery rhymes," said Franchot, who portrayed himself as being above the Schaefer-Owens fray. He claimed victory before a crowd of 40 cheering supporters at the Takoma Park City Hall yesterday afternoon.
Much of the rancor seemed to dissipate yesterday, replaced with reflection about Schaefer's place in Maryland history.
Even Franchot, who leveled harsh words at Schaefer during the campaign, was deferential about his opponent.
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In the end, the very characteristics that made William Donald Schaefer one of the dominant figures in Maryland political history were the same that brought about his downfall in Tuesday's election.
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Fresh From Victory, Fenty Sets Top Priorities for Transition
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A day after capturing the D.C. Democratic mayoral nomination in a landslide, Adrian M. Fenty laid out an ambitious pre-transition agenda yesterday, saying he will examine city agencies and develop programs so that he is ready to take office in January.
Fenty, 35, who defeated D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp on Tuesday, stressed that he was not ignoring the Nov. 7 general election. But he acknowledged what is commonly accepted in the majority Democratic city: He and the other primary winners are almost assured of victory.
"If we waited until the inauguration or after the general election, we'd be doing the residents a disservice," Fenty (Ward 4) said in an interview. "Every minute we spend now means we'll hit the ground running that much better."
He said a top priority is to work with Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and influence the planning of the District's $7 billion-plus budget for fiscal 2008. Fenty also said he will identify potential members of his mayoral team, including a new city administrator, and study problems in the school system, police department and other troubled agencies. Fenty spoke again yesterday about running the District like a business, with prompt service delivery and improved efficiency.
The six Democratic nominees for the council also made plans yesterday. Vincent C. Gray (Ward 7), who beat colleague Kathy Patterson (Ward 3) for the nomination to replace Cropp, contacted Fenty to arrange a meeting. The overhaul of the council could include five new members within months -- including ward replacements for Fenty and Gray -- in what could be one of the most dramatic turnovers in city history.
At 7 a.m., after celebrating into the early hours yesterday, Fenty stood at North Capitol Street and Florida Avenue NW waving to motorists and greeting passersby, thanking them for his victory. People honked their horns and shouted congratulations in an increasingly cacophonous scene. Some leaned out of their car windows to shout to Fenty or catch a glimpse of him.
Throughout the day, well-wishers approached Fenty. He said he received congratulatory calls from U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and an aide to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
In the afternoon, Fenty knocked on doors at Woodland Terrace, a public housing complex in Southeast Washington, where residents rushed to meet him and ask for jobs.
Mykia Walton, 15, shook Fenty's hand and said, "Please don't be like the other mayors and forget about us."
Discussing the visit to Woodland Terrace, Fenty recalled a key concern voiced during the campaign: a sense in the electorate that the city is divided between a class of richer residents, whose standard of living has soared under the Williams administration, and another, which has been increasingly left out of the economic recovery.
Fenty won every precinct in the city and received 57 percent of the vote, compared with 31 percent for Cropp -- a margin that was twice what he had expected. About 35 percent of the city's registered Democrats voted, roughly the same percentage that voted in 1998, when Williams was nominated the first time.
"One of the constant refrains I heard from people when I was campaigning is: 'Are you going to come out after the election?' " Fenty said. "I wanted to go to Woodland Terrace, an area that needs help, to show them they are important to me."
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A day after capturing the D.C. Democratic mayoral nomination in a landslide, Adrian M. Fenty laid out an ambitious pre-transition agenda yesterday, saying he will examine city agencies and develop programs so that he is ready to take office in January.
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Freedom Rock
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washingtonpost.com: No Longer the Loneliest Number; On the Billboard Charts These Days, It's Crowded at the Top
washingtonpost.com: Mariah's Entrances; At Verizon, an On-and-Off Concert
J. Freedom du Lac: So, looking at a 40th anniversary vinyl copy of "Pet Sounds" that's on my desk -- and I'm wondering if there's ever been a better album with worse cover art. The Beach Boys! Feeding goats on a farm! Get it?! Ehhhhh.
Washington, D.C.: Billy Ray Cyrus's "Some Gave All" spent 17 consecutive weeks at No. 1 in 1992? No it didn't. You're lying. It COULDN'T have. I don't live in that kind of world and would refuse to if you tried to move me there.
No one is impressed with your lies, so stop lying, you liar.
J. Freedom du Lac: Face the facts, my friend. He of the The Achy Breaky Big Mistakey was on top of the world in '92. He and Garth Brooks, who also had 17 weeks at #1 that year (though with two different albums). Thank gawd for Nirvana.
washingtonpost.com: Justin Timberlake, More Purr Than Growl
Philadelphia, Pa.: I was curious as to whether you saw Man Man when they passed through DC as the opening act for the Fiery Furnaces a couple months ago. I saw them for the first time a few nights earlier in Philly and they've quickly become one my favorite bands. Two good albums to their credit and an extraordinary spectacle of sight and sound when seen live.
Also any thoughts on Magic Potion, the new release from the Black Keys? I was thinking about picking it up on my way home from work.
J. Freedom du Lac: Man Man are great, though I'm not sure I'd need to see them more than, say, twice in my lifetime. I've only seen 'em once (at South by Southwest), and I thought the whole thing insanely fun. But it was about the spectacle more than anything. Then again, just about the entire Pitchfork editorial staff was at the bar, and most of those guys had seen Man Man a ton. And they insisted that they're always worth seeing. So....
Meanwhile, my new favorite album: "Notes from the Underworld" by Persephone's Bees. It's absurd, and great, and it makes me giddy. Take THAT, Fiery Furnaces!
Re: Justin Timberlake: It has been my experience that FutureSex is much less fulfilling than RightNowSex. My religious fiancee might disagree, tho.
J. Freedom du Lac: I'm no Dr. Ruth, but I'd have to agree with you.
Curiously, nobody asked Timberlake for his take during the conference call he did with a bunch of us hacks on Monday. But about 96 people did ask him some variation on the question of "where did sexy go, and how do you plan on bringing it back?"
Sed Justin (and I quote, directly from the transcript): "It was the first line that I came up with on the song. I - it -originally I wasn't even planning on calling the song 'SexyBack.' I was going to call it, you know, something like, I don't know what we were going to call it. We weren't originally going to call it 'SexyBack, but it was never - I definitely didn't think it would become the most worn-out joke of 2006 or phrase, I mean. It - I definitely didn't know it was going to start what it started. It just sounded like a nice opening to the song."
Aren't transcripts great? I. It. Er. Ah.
And no, there's no N Sync reunion in the works. I know, I know -- heartbreaking news.
Oxford Town, Miss.: How crazy was Apple to close their iTunes store all day Tuesday for that gimmicky "It's Showtime!" garbage??
Do it Sunday night, man.
J. Freedom du Lac: They did it just to spite Chris Richards, who was trying to wrap up the latest edition of the Singles File.
I was in San Fran last week and caught a band called Centro-Matic at Bottom of the Hill. Are they really that good or was I just euphoric from the Grand Marnier? Do you know anything about these guys? Have you checked out their latest CD "Fort Recovery"? I recommend it to fans of smart, smooth southern rock.
J. Freedom du Lac: Not familiar with them. Anybody?
In lieu of informed opinions, let's just chalk it up to you being three sheets. Love Bottom of the Hill, by the way.
Washington, D.C.: Freedom, if you love JT so much, how come you didn't get to do the review? Also, do you love JT as much as Allison Stewart does? Finally, do you agree with Allison that Care Bears are sexy? Cause frankly, that's weird.
J. Freedom du Lac: After having reviewed JT's show last month, I felt like it would have been too much for me to review the CD, too. So I farmed it out to the great Allison Stewart. Loved her review. And yes, I (Heart) JT as much as she does. I have no opinion about Care Bears. Monchichis, on the other hand -- they're so soft and cuddly.
Arizona Bay, Ariz.: How broken up are you over Tool's canceling of their show tomorrow because Maynard is sick?
J. Freedom du Lac: So broken up that I plan to listen to some of those lachrymose Nick Lachey songs just to make myself feel better.
Silver Spring, Md.: VHS or Beta will be at the R&R Hotel soon...are they actually performing, or just DJ'ing?
J. Freedom du Lac: My sources ("sources" = Producer David, who has multiple personalities) say they're DJing. And that it's the Virgin Festival afterparty. My sources also say that they have some Persephone's Bees song on their iPod, and that they came across one of the tunes very early this morning and had to change to something more depressing. Because it was just too perky for that hour. My sources need help, I think.
Washington, D.C.: Getting this in while I'm thinking of it. Read the review of Justin Timberlake's new album by your colleague Allison Stewart -- by far the best sentence in the whole thing was "Timberlake is still no Prince, and lines such as "Back up some more / And let me take it off" have the same sexual charge as a proposition from a Care Bear." Priceless.
Anyway -- should I buy the whole thing on iTunes or just cherry pick my way through?
J. Freedom du Lac: That was a really great review. Our thoughts on the album synch up almost perfectly. I do think it's worth getting the full album, as you sort of need to hear the interludes and preludes and intros and outros as they unfold. Timberlake and Timbaland clearly put a lot of thought into them. Now, not all of the songs on the album are great (the track with Three 6 Mafia is a big dud, eg). But I think it's a pretty excellent pop album. Timbaland's production is on point, too. He's at the top of his game right now. The new single, 'My Love,' is completely absurd. It was fun listening to Timberlake talk about how that song came together.
Silver Spring, Md.: In your article on the Billboard Charts today, you mentioned that Bob Dylan's return to No. 1 was partly a gift of scheduling and partly a result of the artist availing himself to his fans through a memoir, the radio show and "No Direction Home." Also the commercial for Apple.
Dylan's last album, Love and Theft sold over 133,000 copies in the first week of release. Considering the album came out on September 11, 2001, I would consider that first week's sales of 130,000 to be his core audience that either pre-ordered the CD on Amazon or braved a trip to a record store during that horrible week to buy the new Dylan CD.
The "Chronicles" book was released in Fall 2004 and the "No Direction Home" Scorcese film was released on DVD this time in 2005. He's also toured the US six times since the release of the Chronicles book. A two-year ramp-up for a new album? I guess it's the "Never Ending Marketing Campaign." Including the radio show, the pre-sale tie-in with Apple, and the iPod commercial, for a guy who doesn't acknowledge his audience during concerts (to the dismay of Chris Richards), that's quite an elaborate scheme to avail himself to fans for an additional 60,000 + copies of "Modern Times." If like Nelly Furtado, all that Dylan cared about was a number one record, he would have had the number one album with just the sales to his core audience. I'm not sure the so-called Never Ending Marketing Campaign is in support of getting a number one record than Dylan building up his core audience and keeping those younger fans. That his album hit number one last week fit in nicely with your Wednesday feature and gave Washington Post writers yet another chance to call Dylan craggy or cookie monster with a cold, or say that he's seen better days. I think the real story here might be the steep drop in sales for younger stars who seem to be everywhere like Jessica Simpson, Young Dro, and Christina Aguilara. Dylan is down to #3 this week - 128,000 copies, but nothing like the drops those artists took.
I didn't even see Dylan's iPod commercial on television until this past Monday, the end of the sales week. I don't care about Dylan's motivations for doing the commercial, I was just glad to see a guitar in Dylan's hands again. I was also thankful that it wasn't a Beyonce L'Oreal, Pepsi, Dreamgirls or Wal-Mart commercial or a Justin Timberlake McDonald's commercial.
J. Freedom du Lac: You still in that defensive crouch, or are you standing up now?
If Sony releases the Dylan album on the same week that a Xtina Aguilera or Beyonce or Timberlake or even Danity Kane or OutKast drops, he doesn't bow at #1. So yes, it was a gift of scheduling. Sony had a lot of say there, since they're behind many of the biggest albums of August and September.
The iPod commercial was hugely important because it alerted many of Dylan's fans to the arrival of the new album. Older music consumers aren't really programmed to care about release dates the way younger music fans are. That's fact, per industry research. As such, you generally don't see fans of older artists like Zimmy rushing to the stores right away. In this case, though, people were acutely aware of the album's arrival and responded accordingly.
You act as if I dislike the album. I gave it a rave review upon its release and even referred to it today as marvelous. Why the outrage? And by the way, what's wrong with being craggy? Some of my best friends are craggy.
Arizona Bay, Ariz.: Tool isn't really about lachrymology. Thanks for playing though.
J. Freedom du Lac: Is there a cure for that?
My Vote: J. Freedom, why didn't you run for a political office? You would make a slammin mayor - lighten the district up a little.
J. Freedom du Lac: Fenty's got the mid-30s bald guy vote on lock. I wouldn't stand a chance. Plus, I'd hate to see what the opposition research might unearth. Photos of a much younger version of me in tights and a leotard and a blonde wig, for instance.
Put up your fist if all you want is J. Freedom: So, what do you think of the new Los Lobos? I like what I hear so far, but haven't gotten to spend much time with it yet.
J. Freedom du Lac: Sad to say that I've yet to listen to it, in spite of my well-documented soft spot for the styling sounds of Whittier's finest. Part of the blame goes to my horrible 'filing system': I didn't even know where the album was until I started digging through the various CD bins around my desk today. Doing some spring cleaning, about a half-year late. I should do that more often, really. I'm sure the janitorial staff would appreciate it. Plus, I might actually know where things are.
Severna Park, Md.: So what you're saying is that the Achy Breaky record is 17 times better than the new Bob Dylan record? I wouldn't have thought so, but them's hard numbers you're talking about. Who am I to argue with science?
J. Freedom du Lac: Yes, and "Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em" is 21x as good. Yo, Zimmy -- u can't touch this.
Birmingham, Ala.: There's a guy in my office who doesn't listen to music at all, has never bought a record album. I think this is the creepiest thing ever. Nice guy generally, but jeez....
J. Freedom du Lac: You should make him a mixtape that tells him as much. Gnarls B's "Crazy," Radiohead's "Creep," New Order's "Weirdo," etc. Speaking of "Crazy," Trey Lorenz - one of Mariah's backup singers - did a falsetto version of that song during her show last week. Somebody -- Cee-Lo, eg -- needs to issue a phatwa against cover versions of that song. They're ruining it for me.
Washington, D.C.: There sure has been a lot about Dylan, Beyonce and JT in the Style section lately. At least two big articles on each. But only one small review of Slayer. Shame...
J. Freedom du Lac: Hey, it's DC. We like our front-runners. Seriously, though, what would the secondary story on Slayer be about? They don't seem to be crossing any sort of major career intersection at the moment. They're just kind of doing their thing. Whereas Dylan is continuing his remarkable, decade-long resurgence, Justin Timberlake is further establishing himself as one of the more surprisingly credible pop artists around, and Beyonce is trying to ... well, I'm not sure what it is she's trying to do. But she sure has a lot of people talking.
The District: I'm going to Burger King for lunch - want anything???
J. Freedom du Lac: If they have any of those taking Pikachus left over from that late-90s giveaway, I'll take one of those. And a medium Diet Coke (TM). Thanks.
Takoma Park, Md.: So Scarlett Johansson stars in the new Dylan video, and Dylan shouts out Alicia Keys on his new album. Alicia Keys will be starring opposite Scarlett Johansson in The Nanny Diaries. Coincidence? Is Bob Dylan just really excited for the Nanny Diaries or what??
J. Freedom du Lac: Hopefully, he'll address this pressing issue soon on his radio show.
El Paso, Tex.: Best/Worst album cover of all time? "We Can't Be Stopped" by the Geto Boys . Bushwick Bill on a hospital gurney after being shot in the eye? Can't beat it with any petting zoo on the world.
Not actually a fan of the record, though.
J. Freedom du Lac: That was a horrible cover. Just awful. I should have asked Bushwick about it when I saw him at a Grammys after-party last year.
Meccamputechsubterranea, whatever: New Mars Volta out yesterday!
It hasn't hit me as hard as the last two albums did. Less rockin', more guitar wigginess. Less glass shattering wails, more falsetto.
Still, unlike anything out there.
J. Freedom du Lac: It didn't really excite me. I loved our reviewer's take on the CD and the band itself. It's true that they're a tough, tough opening act -- even for fans of groups that are kinda out there, like System of a Down. The System fans were stupefied when I saw Mars Volta open for 'em in Balmer last year.
A boring building in Rockville: What's the word on Tamar's solo album? I've read that she was dropped from her label and the record shelved and was wondering if there was any truth to it. And that it might get released in the future as part of another Prince project...
Any thoughts on the new Alice Smith record? I streamed and will probably get it, but was curious to see what others thought. She's got DC roots and could be lumped in the Neo Soul category.
J. Freedom du Lac: I don't know what's going on with this album. It was supposed to come out Aug. 29, I think. Dunno if it ever did. But Tamar hasn't blogged on her MySpace page since early August. And somebody on the page posted this note: "So here's the long awaited question that nobody has asked. Where's the album? 8/29 has passed." Big hmmmm. I'll see if I can get an answer from the label.
No Los Lobos review?: I was counting on you. More importantly, Los Lobos was counting on you. Just because David Hildalgo is a big guy doesn't mean that he can't get his feelings hurt. Strong men also cry. Strong men also cry.
J. Freedom du Lac: Asleep at the wheel. (Speaking of which ... Ray Benson is TALL. Wonder if he could dunk on Guy Clark?)
Dress Co, DE: JF: Tights and a blond wig?? I SAW you last week on the Metro!
J. Freedom du Lac: Wasn't me. I've changed wig colors.
San Diego, Calif.: This isn't really a question, I just wanted to publicly thank my friend Adam for blowing out the speakers in my car on the way back from Matisyahu last night. Driving to work this morning was almost painful. Friends don't let friends mess with their stereo.
J. Freedom du Lac: That's rough. But, then, that's what you get for letting him crank the new Whitest Boy Alive album. (Great name, by the way. Dig the music, too. Take THAT, Phoenix.) Anyway, how was the show? He's much better live than on CD.
Glen Ellyn, Ill.: Mr. Free,
Pollstar sez George Jones will be in your neighborhood on 9/23 at the Great Frederick Fair. Are you going?
J. Freedom du Lac: I can't, alas. I'll be at Pimlico for V-Fest (and some satellite betting; wonder if I can expense that?). Anyway, you're assuming George will actually show up. Give me decent odds on that and I'll bet against it.
RE: Cover Songs: For Mr. Tool: Tool's cover of Led Zeppelin's 'No Quarter' is terrible and should have never been done. What a bunch of punks.
J. Freedom du Lac: Just passing this along. (Mostly because I like seeing our friend from Arizona Bay antagonized. But also because it's easier to pass things along then actually type thoughtful responses out to interesting questions.)
Riverdale, Md.: Speaking of what Beyonce is trying to do, I've had her album for a few weeks now and I hated it from the beginning. But then after reading some positive reviews about it (mostly from reviewers in the UK) I relistened and relistened again. I think if anyone else released this album it wouldn't chart at all. Now I'm REALLY worried about Janet.
J. Freedom du Lac: Not sure. Maybe she was completely distracted by her boyfriend, who is apparently working on a new album of his own. I listened to the Beyonce CD again yesterday, and I like it even less than I did the first time through. It's a mess.
Speakin' O' Xtina: How's her album doing? Since the flurry of publicity, I haven't heard much from it. I grant that there may be a huge rock over my house that I'm unaware of.
J. Freedom du Lac: It's doing aight. The first-week sales weren't great vis-a-vis Beyonce's, but it's been hanging around in the Top 10 for a month now. #1, then #3, #4 and, now, #6. Second single isn't generating a ton of heat. But, then, it had a tough act to follow. I lurved "Ain't No Other Man."
Re: George Jones: The famed George Jones drunken traffic stop is NOT on the YouTubes! How can this be? I thought everything was on the YouTubes.
J. Freedom du Lac: Everything IS on YouTube...until the cease-and-desist letters start flying. I was chatting with somebody last week about Sam Cooke, and she directed me to YouTube to check out a performance clip of Sam with Jackie Wilson on some TV show back in the day. But the link had been removed -- and her best guess was that Cooke's estate had ordered the thing to come down. (And she'd know, since she's managed various soul greats and still runs in those circles.)
Arlington, Va.: Album sales are down all over the place, but doesn't this seem to be hitting rap particularly hard lately? Any reason why?
J. Freedom du Lac: Hip-hop sales are down sharply -- I think by about 15% this year. And TI's King is the only rap album that's gone platinum in '06. Not sure why this is exactly, but I'm sure ringtone and digital track sales are really dragging down album sales in the genre. Also, it could be that there just haven't been a lot of big-name releases out this year. No 50 Cent (who had the #1 selling album across all genres last year), no Eminem, no Jay-Z. There was an OutKast album, of course, but it's performed more like a soundtrack than a proper album, in terms of consumer response. So say the people who use phrases like "consumer response."
RE: YouTube: But if I see Sam crooning with Jackie Wilson, aren't I more likely to buy some of his tunes? A bit short-sighted on his estate's part, wouldn't you think?
But the picture of you in the wig and tights - gotta go.
J. Freedom du Lac: Yeah, you'd think. Some estates are just more protective than others.
And sorry, but coming soon to a YouTube near, well, you: J. Freedom, 8, in "The Ice Maiden." Get over it. (And yes, I just third-personed myself. How lame.)
Alabama: One more crappy album cover that defied logic was The Rolling Stones
Dirty Work. These guys appeared to be well-enough off that they did not have to take a joy ride on South Beach and kill several Cuban drug lords and take their clothes. During the same car ride, Mick Jagger's pants challenged Vanilla Ice's pants to a scream-off.
J. Freedom du Lac: Definitely a regrettable cover. I hope they burned those outfits.
Decatur, Ga.: I met this girl recently, and she has the individual albums (not just greatest hits) by Journey on CD. I was more surprised than upset. I didn't dream they were still in print. Who needs that much Journey?
J. Freedom du Lac: I don't know, but you might need relationship counseling if this goes anywhere. Maybe she just wants to be as close to Randy Jackson as possible.
Speaking of Journey, ask Richard Harrington his great story about Steve Perry and the telephone call one of these days. It's priceless.
Silver Spring, Md.: No defensive crouch here, maybe a more than slightly concerned slouch. If Modern Times is released the same week, with the same slate of weak new releases, it's number one with just Dylan's core audience - no new campaign to avail himself to fans, no iPod commercial, nothing. Danity Kane sold 101,000 records last week - a 50% drop in sales. I'm sure Dylan appreciates the top spot as much as anyone would. I'm just not sure that the bevy of activity and product generated by him in the last two years was all to get a number 1 record.
J. Freedom du Lac: Nor did I suggest that it was all to reach #1. Dylan probably doesn't care where his albums chart. But it was an awfully interesting thing to see him at #1, and it had many, many people scratching their heads, wondering how that happened, what it all meant, etc. If you don't think it's news, then please explain why BBC-TV had me on live during one of their evening newscasts last week to talk about it. Couldn't possibly have been a slow news day since Tony Blair had just announced that his clock was ticking. (And the BBC ain't exactly "Access Hollywood.")
I know, no one asked...: Country music hasn't been any good since Ronnie Milsap and Charlie Pride.
J. Freedom du Lac: Listen to the great new Eric Church album, "Sinners Like Me," and tell me if you still agree with yourself.
Falls Church, Va.: I read in Rolling Stone that Tower Records is so out-of-money broke that record companies will not supply them with new product. A sign of the times for sure...I remember when going to Tower was the coolest thing - I could spend hours there...
J. Freedom du Lac: Pretty sad. But I think Tower did itself in years ago, when it expanded like crazy all over the world. The company got too big, too fast and seemed like it lost its soul.
Washington, D.C.: Runner-up Worst Album Cover: David Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember My Name."
The album cover is beautiful in the way that drug-induced brain hemorrhages are beautiful
J. Freedom du Lac: At least they didn't synch up the sun with his eye. But yeah.
Arlington, Va.: J Free-This may sound like an odd question, but I hope you'll bear with me. My 15 year old son wants to start seeing shows in DC, with his friends, but I'm concerned. How easy is it to find parking at The Black Cat, DC9, 9:30 Club? Are there any venues you'd say are definitely not safe to go to after dark, or that are particularly good?
J. Freedom du Lac: Well, I walk home after shows at all of those places. But I wouldn't necessarily recommend that to a 15-yr-old. There's a small parking lot at the 9:30 club. I think you can buy tickets for the lot online. Plenty of people around the club, too, before and after shows. The Black Cat is a tougher place for parking, but 14th is a busy street. Of the three clubs, DC9 is on the sketchiest block. But not a worry for your son, since DC9 is also 21+. So he won't be getting in there anytime soon.
Re: Tower Records: If you rearrange "Tower" you get "We Rot".
J. Freedom du Lac: Thank you.
Washington, D.C.: Where's your head at today J. Free? Your name-dropping seems a little half-hearted today.
J. Freedom du Lac: Yeah, this is a pretty weak week. Well, what if I were to tell you that I met Skunk Baxter at a party the other night? Is that something you might be interested in? (I asked him about the whole CIA thing. To which he said: "No comment.") Also met Mary Wells.
That's still lame, though. Um....Randy Jackson called on Monday. Better? No?
Try me again next week. I'll see what I can come up with.
A Little Bit Country: The Eric Church album "Sinners Like Me" will make country music lovers find a fourth leg for their dogs, abandon rail travel as an option, and drink adult beverages out of heavy earthen-ware jugs. It is unbelievable good--like Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" good.
J. Freedom du Lac: It really is.
And on that note of praise, I'm out. Thanks for stopping by. Watch for me on YouTube.
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The Tech Sector's New Job Prospects
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Skill, effort and luck can take you to the top of any field -- but it never hurts to get a little help. In our Helping Hands special feature, we've got plenty of assistance on tap: articles, tools and live discussions that will help you learn more about how to get ahead in the area's top industries or your career in general.
Declan McCullagh is a journalist with his finger on the tech industry's pulse. Adept at recognizing industry shifts and analyzing the economic and political results, Declan's writing, and his Politech mailing list, explores the intertwining of law, culture, technology and politics.
He was online taking questions about job trends in the tech sector.
Find more career-related news and advice in our Jobs section.
Fairfax County, Va.: I am a recent computer information systems graduate employed in the information assurance sector.
Looking at 2007 and beyond, do you see there being a higher demand for information assurance or database management?
Also, what technology do you see being the most critical in regards to the intelligence community?
Declan McCullagh: Thanks for your question and congrats on choosing a career in this area. In the last few years, information assurance has enjoyed considerably bigger growth and has been more of a high-profile area. It's too early to tell whether that's going to continue but given current government-spending trends (and private sector awareness of security breaches) it seems a fair bet. So that might be a better career path especially if you're going to stay in the Washington, D.C. area. For intelligence community purposes, I'd look into things like computer security, natural language processing, automated translation, and data-mining. The automated translation area seems like it's going strong and it's not as crowded as others.
Washington, D.C.: Companies like Google seem to be established institutions, on the one hand, but are also incorporating a lot of the new capabilities developed at more cutting-edge firms. Is google the new tech industry monolith that Microsoft became? Or is there hope for employees of smaller or medium-sized tech companies that do more than fix PCs and create programs for Google?
Declan McCullagh: Maybe the best way to think of it is that Google would like to be the next Microsoft but isn't there yet. One difference is that Microsoft spun off or led to the creation of lots of smaller companies and has been pretty good about supporting them, providing developer assistance, etc. Google hasn't done that yet, and its business model (as I see it) doesn't make the creation of such an ecosystem as obvious. But to answer your question: We may not be in the late 1990s anymore with venture capital slushing around so readily, but it's still possible to see a market opportunity and create a company to fill it. In fact, given the advance in programming tools, it's probably easier than in 1990/2000. Look at what YouTube and MySpace did in just a few years.
Washington, D.C.: For someone with online news experience, but not a software developer, what opportunities are there out there in Silicon Valley?
Declan McCullagh: Now this is a question close to my heart. In college I always planned to be a computer programmer but Wired was hiring in Washington, D.C., and instead I went into the technology journalism world and I've been there for over a decade. I moved from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco a year ago and I'm happy to say the Silicon Valley area is thriving with a good number of jobs available in the online news world. My own employer, CNET Networks, is hiring and CNET News.com has expanded its staff by hiring a bunch of video folks in the last six months to a year. We've also been hiring general assignment tech reporters. Ziff Davis and IDG have bureaus out here, and of course the traditional media organizations like AP and the San Jose Mercury News are well-established. Wired News and Wired Magazine are a few blocks from CNET in the south of market area in San Francisco. Blogs like SFist are making a run of it too. To be honest there are more news jobs overall in the Washington, D.C. area but there are more than enough tech jobs in the Silicon Valley area to make it worthwhile.
Web development certifications: I am looking to make a move from helpdesking to web development. Certifications are big in helpdesking and I was wondering if there are any web-related certs that would help me in a future career?
Declan McCullagh: It depends on what you're talking about in web development -- are you talking about care and feeding of a back end database or the more artistic work that goes into designing a Web site? If you're talking about web design (rather than the back end stuff, which is going to be database- and platform-specific) there are a number of certifications available. Here's a good list: http://certification.about.com/od/webinternet/
Silver Spring, Md.: What is your take on the real cutting edge high tech electronics jobs finding their way back to the N.Y./N.J. area? I moved down to this area after finding that the telecom jobs that existed when I started school had disappeared post-tech-bust when I graduated, so defense it was. I've been keeping my eyes open, but there seems to be VERY little real interesting high tech work back up that way. Enough up in New England, and even some in Eastern Penn., but N.J. is still looking like a relative desert compared to the telecom days when Lucent hired more than just Ph.D.s with 15 years experience. Do you see that industry ever picking back up in the N.Y. area?
Declan McCullagh: I lived in the New Jersey area (Princeton-New Brunswick corridor) for a year or two in the late 1980s when there was still a thriving tech presence there. I haven't lived there since and may be a bit off-base, but my hunch is that it's not going to return. Part of this is a general population shift out west, and part of this is a pretty hostile business climate in that area. Check out the Tax Foundation's 2006 report, which ranks New Jersey and New York as the 'worst places in the country' to run a business: http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/78.html California isn't at the top of the list (not at the bottom either) but Silicon Valley has a unique mix of universities, talent, legal help, and venture capital that will keep a lot of jobs here for a while. But companies like to go where the business climate is favorable. Here's an interview I did with the CEO of Cypress Semiconductor (which does very cutting edge electronics), who recounted a telling story about how welcoming Texas officials were: http://news.com.com/Chip+off+the+block/2008-1006_3-5215272.html
Silver Spring, Md.: What percentage of high tech jobs do you see going off shore in the next few years? Does it make any sense for someone in this country to study computer science?
Declan McCullagh: YES! It does. There are plenty of jobs for computer scientists in this country, and there will be for the foreseeable future. But it's true that you need to differentiate yourself from offshore programmers who are, essentially, competing for the same job at a much lower price. So that might mean specializing and being an expert on a specific area (building device drivers, securing MySQL databases in a production system, etc.). Or it might mean bridging disciplines and taking classes in cognitive science as well. That lends itself to knowing not just how to program something, but how to program something that humans will want to use. Interface is key. Cognitive science also lends itself to innovations we'll see in the next few years (I hope) such as better and more reliable speech understanding, speech translation, and moving our operating systems and GUIs beyond what was state-of-the-art in the 1970s!
Silver Spring, Md.: Just looking for some insight on what's going on in general in the IT field. I, as well as several associates, am looking to make a change in the field of testing or software quality assurance. It seems like a lot of positions went offshore and the pickings are slim. What is your assessment?
Declan McCullagh: I think your instincts are right. Testing and software quality assurance are two areas that a CEO or CTO are likely to send offshore. Neither would be my first choice for a career in the IT field.
Bowie, Md.: It was reported yesterday that there's been a slowdown in growth in government contracting with the primary reason being monies channeled into the Middle East situation. It may sound impossible, but do you think there will be a downturn in the future for cleared jobs, and the hype over the lack of cleared people finally dying down with a saturation of cleared and unemployed people hitting the unemployment lines?
Declan McCullagh: I think there's bound to be a slowdown in the growth in government contracting, if only because its rapid growth in the last few years has been unsustainable. If it's not the war in Iraq (and Afghanistan, and Lebanon) diverting federal attention and taxpayer dollars, soon enough it's going to be looming entitlements costing us money as well. As for security clearances, I remember reading a bunch of GAO reports recently that bemoaned the slow pace of approving security clearances. As spending growth slows down it seems like the backlog (sometimes huge) can be cleared out. But it still seems that if you've got an active security clearance, you're probably in good shape and far less likely to hit the unemployment lines than the average worker.
Toledo, Ohio: What about IP telephony as a career field? Where do you see that field in the next few years?
Declan McCullagh: The switch to IP telephony is huge and happening right now. It's difficult to understate. But whether it's wise for you depends on what you want to do -- what's your specialty? Marketing, engineering? I'd check out the resources on pulver.com and maybe see if you can get to their VON December conference in Atlanta for networking and job hunting tips.
Falls Church, Va.: I have been a programmer for 12 years and I would like to get a new job that is still in the software industry but that requires travel (I like traveling). What do you recommend and what skills should I prepare in order to achieve it? Thanks.
Declan McCullagh: Thanks for the question. It depends mostly on what industry you're in and what type of programming you've been doing. But from my perspective, most programmers don't travel that much for work except for industry conferences. (They might be able to telecommute if their company's flexible enough, but that's not what you're asking.) It sounds like you need a career switch. Taking a job at McKinsey or Booz Allen or IBM Global Services could mean a lot of travel for client visits -- maybe even more than you want! So would getting into the training business and teaching customers how to use a company's product.
Vienna, Va.: My son started college this year majoring in CS. Are there any particular electives in the field that you would recommend that would give him an advantage for corporate recruiters?
Declan McCullagh: Congratulations to your son on choosing computer science. For the first year or two he's going to be going through the basic CS core curriculum (data structures, graphics, algorithms, etc.) It's hard to know what's going to give an advantage nearly four years out. I'd stay away from spending too much time on theory and AI. Many CS departments are heavy on math and theory, which of course has its place in academia, but employers are focused on the bottom line. Someone who can design good user interfaces will always be employable. So will someone who has an excellent grasp of computer security. Fault-tolerant computing, multimedia databases and servers, multiprocessor scheduling also seem like areas that'll be good in a few years.
Arlington, Va.: Would you describe how you are a journalist, gadfly and a photographer? How do these roles intermingle in your life?
Declan McCullagh: Thanks for the question! Once you're a journalist writing about the foibles of corporate America and politicians, being a gadfly comes naturally. I became a photographer about six years ago and (through luck or skill) have had some success at it. Journalism is in part about telling stories, and being able to do it in writing or in photos gives me more options. I went to Burning Man last month in the Nevada desert, for instance, and ended up posting a photo gallery on News.com instead of writing an article: http://news.com.com/2300-1026_3-6112476-1.html, http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/burning-man-2006-highlights.html Being a gadfly, though, is a lifelong occupation. I've already been subpoenaed by the Justice Department, received death threats for writing articles critical of UFO fans, and threatened with more lawsuits than I can count on my fingers. (Not one ever came to fruition.) It helps to work for a good company that'll back me up and to be married to a lawyer, I guess.
Arlington, Va.: I have a master's degree in genetics. For the past six years, I've worked in online services for a nonprofit as a project manager, and another nonprofit managing and developing their Web site, and now my job is expanding into managing IT. In each of these positions, I've also been managed their research programs as well.
I'm looking to focus my career in genetics and computers. I've taken a graduate bioinformatics class and java class, have intermediate level of php programming and MySQL/SQL and html.
Can you provide some insight into what type of job I would qualify for especially in bioinformatics? I've seen most advertised jobs ask for higher level degree and/or many years of programming experience.
How should I begin my job search? Should I go back to school or take more programming classes?
Declan McCullagh: I've been at this over an hour and don't want to tax the patience of the good folks at washingtonpost.com so should probably wrap this up. To be really competitive in the bioinformatics space you'll need a degree. I'd check out the University of Manchester (UK) which offers an online program: http://octette.cs.man.ac.uk/bioinformatics/ There are probably others that are as solid but I've heard good things about Manchester's. Also I've learned that you can always pick up programming as you go but the theory (and classes in proteomics, molecular modeling, etc.) it really really helps to go to school for. Thanks, everyone, for the questions, and thanks to washingtonpost.com for the invitation to join you here today!
Silver Spring, Md.: Someone studying computer science SHOULD take the theory courses. If I take a course in operating systems I can apply my knowledge to ZOS, UNIX and Windows. If I study windows server 2003 my skills are outdated when windows servers 2007 comes out. One can go to a trade school and study a particular application or operating systems just be prepared to be laid off when new products come out an the company can hire someone just out of trade school with that particular knowledge.
Declan McCullagh: One last one: You're right that someone should understand the theory behind CS. That's the difference between CS and a trade school. What I tried to say (and probably failed) is that if you specialize in theoretical computer science and neglect your real-world skills, you may not be that employable. I mean, there are computer science professors out there who barely know how to work a computer, let alone program one.
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Justin Timberlake, More Purr Than Growl
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Justin Timberlake obviously envisioned "FutureSex/LoveSounds," his terrific new album, as a one-man (and a lot of machines) dissertation on carnal knowledge. But the "sex" part of the title requires a suspension of disbelief. Timberlake, the most cornfed and harmless of pop stars, is about as likely to project an air of dangerous sexuality as he is to knock over a convenience store with Screech from "Saved by the Bell."
The album is divided into two inexact parts. The "FutureSex" tracks are mostly electro-pop and R&B club songs with a hypermodern feel (which figures, since they come from, you know, the future). Most of the "LoveSounds" tracks are romantic ballads that require Timberlake to transform from a club-haunting, champagne-swilling layer-downer of beats and admirer of butts to a besotted lover, ring in hand. It's a tricky transition, from lothario to boyfriend, that Timberlake doesn't always quite manage. (Prince couldn't pull it off, either.)
Timberlake is more convincing as a boyfriend, but more entertaining as a cad: The first five "Future" tracks may be the best 25 minutes of music released this year. They're a riot of undulating bass lines and over-the-top effects: the beat box that underpins "SexyBack" and "Love Stoned/I Think She Knows"; the languid beats, carnival keyboards and harmonies of the T.I. collaboration "My Love."
Timberlake manages not to be swallowed whole by the never-ending parade of producers -- most notably "Promiscuous" architect Timbaland -- guest stars and enough special effects to humble George Lucas, but he tries harder than he should have to. Along with fellow former Mouseketeer Christina Aguilera, Timberlake is currently the brightest star in an indifferent universe, with a pretty great blue-eyed soul voice that's too often swaddled in layers of fuzz or wasted in an overused, Michael-Jackson-but-higher falsetto.
The ballads put him to slightly wiser use. "Losing My Way" is a high-fiber number about a small-town crystal meth addict that sounds like what would happen if, say, Timbaland produced an episode of "Dateline." The comparatively spartan "(Another Song) All Over Again" finds Timberlake channeling Donny Hathaway, accompanied by a tentative piano. It's so plainly geared toward quieting the few remaining Timberlake deniers that it might as well come with an Ask Me About My Impressive Range sticker attached. "What Goes Around Comes Around," bristly and ungallant and irresistible, aggressively evokes "Cry Me a River," the superlative exercise in Britney evisceration that was the high point of his solo debut, "Justified."
With the exception of the clunky Will.I.Am collaboration "Damn Girl," it's hard to imagine how "FutureSex/LoveSounds" could have been any better, though when it comes to, um, randiness, Timberlake is still no Prince, and lines such as "Back up some more / And let me take it off" have the same sexual charge as a proposition from a Care Bear. Someone might want to remind Timberlake that sexiness is like humility, or executive privilege. The more you assert it, the less it means.
DOWNLOAD THESE : "My Love," "What Goes Around Comes Around," "Love Stoned/I Think She Knows," "FutureSex/LoveSound"
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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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High Fidelity - washingtonpost.com
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Watching a radio show recorded before a live studio audience feels like tuning into an earlier decade. In an MP3, song-downloading world, there's still a red-lighted "On the Air" box up on the stage, the tech of the earliest radio days.
Public radio's venerable two-hour "Mountain Stage" is recorded live about 26 times a year, most of the time in Charleston, but sometimes in other West Virginia cities or even out of state. It's produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and runs on Public Radio International stations in about 100 markets nationwide, from Anchorage to Boston.
To hear it in this area, you often have to stream it from its Web site, listen on XM Radio or buy one of the popular compilation CDs of past broadcasts. Or you can drive to West Virginia and not just hear it, but see it.
The show is recorded live, usually on Sundays, at various campus and art center auditoriums around the Mountain State and elsewhere. (Next up: Sept. 24 in Bluefield, W.Va.) But its home stage is in the West Virginia Cultural Center, on the grounds of the state Capitol in Charleston, about a 5 1/2 -hour drive from Washington. That's the trip I made in August for a glimpse at authentic radio and the beauty of the mountains in which it is made.
The scenery is great, but the music was the star of the weekend. Some big names have graced the Mountain Stage, both before and after they made it -- Norah Jones, R.E.M., the Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, k.d. lang. But more often, the acts are out of the mainstream. It's a good show for hearing the lesser-knowns who have a shot at becoming the better-knowns.
At the August show, it was Mystery Music Night, with five performers unknown to me. They played tunes ranging from pop to rock to world music, with a little bit of country thrown in.
Walking through glass doors and onto the marble floors of the high-ceilinged Cultural Center, I ended up in a red upholstered seat two rows from the stage. It's general admission, so be sure to arrive early, before the doors open at 5:30. Behind me in line were Paul and Darla Kuryla, both in their mid-forties. They live down the road in Hurricane, about 30 minutes away, and have been ardent fans for about 15 years.
"You hear artists you want to hear and artists you wished you'd heard before," Paul said. "And sometimes those you hope you never hear again." The name that attracted the couple to this particular show was Edwin McCain, a self-acknowledged Meat Loaf look-alike who blends folk, soul and rock.
They hadn't heard of some of the other performers that night: Vienna Teng, a young former software engineer trained in classical piano who sings pop with a sweet voice; Duncan Sheik, a pop singer with gold records and a Grammy nomination under his belt; Chris Smither, a finger-picking acoustic guitarist whose lyrics center on questions of life, death and politics; and Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited. Mapfumo is a 61-year-old Zimbabwean protest singer whose music has a lively Afro-pop beat and politically charged lyrics.
In another day, this might have been called a variety show. "Mountain Stage's" Web site describes it as "the most stylistically varied of any national radio or television performance program." I buy that completely, having heard just one two-hour lineup. (The unedited version ran 2 hours 45 minutes, all for a $15 ticket.)
At 6 o'clock, everyone was seated and the executive producer, Andy Ridenour, came out wearing a plaid button-down shirt and a "Mountain Stage" baseball cap. He explained that the host, Larry Groce, was going to rehearse the theme song and that we, the audience, were going to practice clapping real loud.
Ridenour continued with some standard warm-up banter. Anyone from out of state? People responded that they were from New York City, Louisville and Athens, Ga., and as far away as San Diego and China.
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USinternetworking Agrees to $300 Million Acquisition by AT& T
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USinternetworking Inc. of Annapolis, a software management company whose fortunes rose and fell with the Internet boom, was acquired yesterday by AT&T Corp.
As part of the $300 million deal, the company is to remain an independent subsidiary of AT&T, with its management team intact.
The deal gives USinternetworking, which already serves clients such as Sunoco Inc., Visa USA Inc. and Yankee Candle Co., more resources to sell and market Web-based software applications, said Andrew Stern, chairman and chief executive.
The acquisition comes as part of an effort to improve the way AT&T remotely monitors and manages software applications for clients.
USinternetworking, as an applications services provider, sets up and manages companies' software via the Internet. This gives companies the option to farm out technical staff work for software products by providers that include PeopleSoft Inc., Oracle Corp. and Microsoft Corp.
AT&T has 30 Internet data centers around the world where clients can store software, said Mike Antieri, the company's senior vice president of business and marketing. What was missing were employees with the expertise to monitor the software. AT&T looked at developing the technology on their own, he said, but realized acquiring USinternetworking would be easier.
"Clients not only want us to provide a highly reliable global infrastructure for their software, they wanted us to actually manage it," he said.
USinternetworking , a highflier during the technology bubble, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002 after many of its clients -- dot-com and e-commerce companies -- went out of business. It reemerged later in 2002 as a private company, with significant funding from a private-equity firm.
Demand for remotely managed software is growing because companies do not want to waste money on software that may not be right for them, Stern said.
"It is a much better way for them to get business value out of the technology they buy," Stern said of the companies, adding that USinternetworking needs to "make sure that what we do is in line with their business models of today, tomorrow and the year after. If it doesn't, they're going to stop paying us."
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USinternetworking Inc. of Annapolis, a software management company whose fortunes rose and fell with the Internet boom, was acquired yesterday by AT&T Corp.
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Environmentalists, GOP at Odds Over Hunting on Calif. Island
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A House GOP bid to continue big-game hunting in a national park on a California island is angering environmentalists and parks officials, who say preserving the nonnative deer and elk herds for hunters will further damage the delicate habitat.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) is seeking to maintain the hunting preserve as part of a defense authorization bill, arguing that disabled and paralyzed veterans should be able to hunt there. That would overturn a legal agreement, signed by the National Park Service eight years ago, to eliminate deer and elk from Santa Rosa Island by 2011.
Hunter, who came up with the idea while driving down the California coast with a group of Iraq veterans, said it could "provide wonderful outdoor activities for those American veterans who have protected our freedom." The House has adopted the language, but the Senate passed a resolution opposing it. Lawmakers must reconcile if they hope to pass the defense bill before adjourning for the election.
The dispute over Santa Rosa, part of the Channel Islands chain, reflects the obstacles to restoring native ecosystems.
Game animals that ranchers introduced to the 54,000-acre island more than a century ago, along with cattle and pigs, have consumed local plants and encroached on native animals. The deer and elk have attracted golden eagles, which in turn prey on the endangered island foxes. Parks officials are now trying to save the foxes, whose population has dwindled from several thousand to a few hundred, along with eight threatened or endangered plant species.
When federal officials bought the islands in 1986 for $29.5 million from the last private landowners, Vail & Vickers Ltd., they banished the cattle and pigs but allowed the former owners to conduct regular hunts in an effort to gradually rid Santa Rosa of the deer and elk.
As a result, Santa Rosa is mostly closed to the public more than four months a year so a few dozen hunters can shoot deer and elk. Hunters pay the Vail family up to $17,000 each.
Hunter's measure would require the interior and defense secretaries to make hunting available to paralyzed and disabled veterans and block the herds' impending extermination. Hunter's spokesman, Joe Kasper, said the congressman hopes to allow veterans "to hunt on Santa Rosa at little or no cost." There are currently about 1,100 deer and elk on Santa Rosa, said Jim Youngson, a spokesman for Vail & Vickers.
Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), who represents Santa Rosa, called the proposal "outrageous."
"This is not about veterans," she said. "It's about letting a private enterprise continue on a national park at a cost to the taxpayers."
In a recent letter to Capps, Hunter wrote that "hikers, bikers and others can enjoy their activities while disabled veterans hunt." But Capps said the provision amounts to "kicking the public out of public land."
House and Senate negotiators are set to begin negotiations over the defense bill this week.
Paralyzed Veterans of America also opposes the measure. In late July, its chief lobbyist, Douglas K. Vollmer, wrote to Congress highlighting several obstacles to Hunter's proposal, including the cost of hunting and the logistics of getting to and from the island.
"While PVA applauds the efforts of Chairman Duncan Hunter to open hunting and outdoor venues for our members, other disabled veterans and current service members," Vollmer wrote, "we have come to the conclusion that the Santa Rosa Island initiative is not viable."
National Park Service Deputy Director Stephen P. Martin testified before the Senate in May that the deer and elk must be removed for "native plants and animals to flourish on Santa Rosa Island."
"There's no question when you introduce large herbivores to a place . . . they have an array of impacts," he said in an interview. "It's really important to move forward on the course we're on."
Youngson said the former owners have not taken a position on Hunter's proposal but would like the herds to remain.
"They're not advocating for commercial hunting to continue after 2011," Youngson said. "They don't want to see the animals, and this is their word, 'slaughtered.' In the ranching families' opinion, this is their home. They don't believe they damage the environment."
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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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Democrats Answer Cheney
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Perhaps Vice President Cheney should quit his current job and work within a political system more to his liking, the kind in which those in charge can protect national security by telling everyone what not to say and what not to think.
Cheney seemed terribly impatient with democracy Sunday on "Meet the Press" when he suggested that those who oppose President Bush's Iraq policies are helping -- excuse me, validating -- the terrorists.
Our allies in the war on terror, Cheney said, "want to know whether or not if they stick their heads up, the United States, in fact, is going to be there to complete the mission."
Then the punch: "And those doubts are encouraged, obviously, when they see the kind of debate that we've had in the United States. Suggestions, for example, that we should withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq, simply feed into that whole notion, validates the strategy of the terrorists."
Meaning what, exactly? If Cheney doesn't like "the kind of debate that we've had in the United States," is there any other "kind," short of a lock-step endorsement of all of Bush's choices, he'd endorse?
It's no wonder that Cheney isn't happy with the spread of democracy to the American foreign policy debate. Not only did Cheney have to answer Tim Russert for a whole series of spurious prewar claims and badly mistaken predictions. He must also be distressed with how different the political world is now from what it was four years ago, when he and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld began building their case for the Iraq war.
Back then, Democrats were petrified. They desperately wanted to change the subject from foreign policy to . . . well, anything else. Cheney loved it when tormented Democrats failed to see that they could never win the electorate's confidence if they left national security to the other party.
Yes, there were honorable exceptions proposing alternatives to the administration's approach, including (from somewhat different points of view) Sens. Joe Biden, Carl Levin, Richard Durbin and the late Paul Wellstone. But far more than was healthy, the foreign policy debate back then was largely a Republican and conservative affair.
That's changed. As the administration's failures have become obvious to an American majority, Democrats have begun to play the opposition's essential role of offering alternatives. Voters trying to get beneath slogans such as "cut and run" might usefully consult two speeches given in the past week, one by Biden, the other by Sen. John Kerry. These days Biden is seen as a bit more "hawkish" than Kerry, but what's striking is that both speeches focused on ending the impasse Bush's policies have created.
Both emphasized what should be a central element in the debate, the potential disaster looming in Afghanistan. The administration, Biden said last Thursday, "has picked the wrong fights at the wrong times, failing to finish the job in Afghanistan, which the world agreed was the central front in the war on radical fundamentalism, and instead rushing to war in Iraq, which was not a central front in that struggle."
On Saturday, Kerry condemned the administration's "stand-still-and-lose strategy" and called on the administration to send 5,000 more troops to
Afghanistan to quell the Taliban insurgency.
Biden made an important point in arguing that elections alone, absent efforts to "build democratic institutions and bolster moderates," do not guarantee democracy.
Biden also pushed his proposal for radically decentralizing Iraq's government so that Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds can find "breathing room in their own regions" and create a circumstance in which most American troops could be home "by the end of 2007, without leaving chaos behind."
Kerry's speech put greater emphasis on the need to "redeploy" from Iraq, but even the Democrats' 2004 nominee argued for leaving a "residual force to complete the training" of Iraqi troops and "deter foreign intervention."
These speeches reflect a growing consensus within a broad swath of Democratic opinion: First, that Iraq is a blind alley, a distraction from the war on terrorism, not its "central front." Second, that the United States needs a responsible way to disengage from Iraq, reengage in Afghanistan and prepare itself to deal with the rising power of Iran, so far a real winner from Bush's Iraq policies.
The administration, in the meantime, is offering -- stasis. It seems to define victory as maintaining our troops in Iraq through the end of Bush's term without telling us exactly why doing so will make the situation there any better.
A debate about alternative futures is what the country needs. Who can be surprised that Vice President Cheney doesn't want it to happen?
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Perhaps Vice President Cheney should quit his current job and work within a political system more to his liking, the kind in which those in charge can protect national security by telling everyone what not to say and what not to think.
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Four Armed Men Attack U.S. Embassy in Damascus
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DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 12 -- Four armed men attacked the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday, killing one Syrian security guard and wounding several people in what authorities said was an attempt by Islamic guerrillas to storm the diplomatic compound.
Just after 10 a.m., gunmen yelling " Allahu akbar " -- "God is great" -- opened fire on the Syrian security officers who guard the outside of the embassy in Damascus's Rawda district, witnesses said. The attackers threw grenades at the compound, according to witnesses, and shot at the guards with assault rifles during the 15- to 20-minute clash, which left three of the gunmen dead and the fourth reportedly wounded.
In addition to the slain security officer, another guard was wounded, along with a Chinese diplomat and several civilians, including seven Syrian workers and two Iraqis. No Americans were wounded, the embassy said in a statement.
Syria's interior minister, Gen. Bassam Abdel Maguid, said on state television that the attack was a "terrorist operation" carried out by Islamic militants who tried to detonate two cars filled with explosives in front of the embassy.
Syrian authorities said they disarmed a small truck that had been rigged with gas canisters and pipe bombs but had failed to detonate. The charred remains of a car could also be seen in front of the embassy, but witnesses said the relatively small explosion that destroyed it appeared to have been caused by grenades rather than a car bomb.
There were no immediate assertions of responsibility for the attack, and Syrian officials did not blame a specific group, though in the past they have attributed similar strikes to a little-known group called Jund al-Sham, or the Soldiers of the Levant. Reports about the group on Syrian television have shown images of seized weapons, but no information on its goals, makeup, whereabouts or popularity has ever been made available by the government.
U.S. officials praised the Syrian guards who battled the assailants. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, after talks with Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay, said that "the Syrians reacted to this attack in a way that helped to secure our people, and we very much appreciate that."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: "We're appreciative of their professional response in this effort."
The Syrian Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying: "In accordance with the Geneva Convention, Syria performed its duties in the best possible manner to protect the U.S. Embassy. . . . Syrian security forces took the full brunt of the attack."
The statement added: "It is regrettable that U.S. policies in the Middle East have fueled extremism, terrorism and anti-U.S. sentiment. . . . The U.S. should take this opportunity to review its policies in the Middle East and start looking at the root causes of terrorism and broker a comprehensive peace in the Middle East."
Relations between the United States and Syria have been tense for years, with the Bush administration denouncing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for its support of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and for harboring leaders of Palestinian factions that the United States has designated as terrorist groups.
In the months following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Syria shared information related to terrorism with the United States, but after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, President Bush blamed Syria for failing to close its border with Iraq to insurgents. Bush recalled U.S. Ambassador Margaret Scobey from Damascus after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri in February 2005. Many accuse Syria of orchestrating the attack.
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DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 12 -- Four armed men attacked the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday, killing one Syrian security guard and wounding several people in what authorities said was an attempt by Islamic guerrillas to storm the diplomatic compound.
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Bristol-Myers Ousts Its Chief at Monitor's Urging
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Bristol's board announced the departure of Dolan, its chief executive since 2001, and general counsel Richard K. Willard one day after the company's independent directors met with the monitor, Frederick B. Lacey, and Christopher J. Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
The New York firm has been operating since last year under a deferred prosecution agreement with Christie that resolved an earlier, unrelated accounting scandal by requiring it to stay out of trouble for two years and allowing Lacey, a former judge, to call for management changes, as he did Monday night.
Bristol Chairman James D. Robinson III said in a conference call that the board unanimously agreed that Dolan had to go. Neither he, Lacey nor Christie would describe specifically what concerned Lacey enough to recommend Dolan's termination.
Although Bristol could have tried to negotiate to keep Dolan, the board chose not to because the Plavix situation and other "failures have caused a loss of confidence," Robinson said. "It was time for a change."
The board temporarily replaced Dolan with James M. Cornelius, a Bristol director and a former chief executive of medical-equipment manufacturer Guidant Corp., where he served in a similar capacity after a scandal there in 2004.
Dolan's ouster is one of the highest-profile management changes at a company operating under a deferred prosecution agreement. Prosecutors often seek new management as part of such settlements -- Bristol named an independent chairman as part of its initial deal -- but subsequent changes are far less common.
Christie's spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said that the U.S. attorney "was fully supportive of Judge Lacey's recommendations" for management change but noted that "there was no finding of a violation of the [agreement] or criminal wrongdoing."
The Plavix issue arose earlier this year after Bristol attempted to strike a deal with Apotex Inc. to keep its competing generic version of the blood-thinning drug off the market until 2011. State attorneys general rejected the deal as anti-competitive, and the Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation separate from Christie's probe.
Apotex put its product on sale this summer, and it quickly captured 75 percent of the market; Bristol sued for patent infringement and won a preliminary injunction halting further production, but the judge declined to recall the generic medicine already on the market. The case is to be heard in January.
Robinson, Bristol's chairman, said the firm's outside counsel had assured the board Monday night that it had "no reason to believe there was anything unlawful done by anyone at Bristol-Myers Squibb" in connection with the Apotex agreement.
The Plavix dispute is not related to the accounting problems that first got Bristol in trouble. In that case, Bristol was accused of pushing an excess amount of its products on its distributors, a process known as "channel-stuffing." The firm paid $300 million in restitution and agreed to two years of monitoring by Lacey, who has attended board meetings and made quarterly reports to Christie.
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NEW YORK, Sept. 12 -- Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. pushed out its chief executive, Peter R. Dolan, on Tuesday at the urging of a federal monitor who was looking into how top management dealt with generic competition for Plavix, its top-selling heart drug.
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Potomac Confidential: Election Special
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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, folks. What a day. No results yet, but lots to chew over as we consider the impact of today's voting mess in Montgomery County. Voting hours have been extended to 9 p.m. in MoCo, so if you were unsuccessful in your effort to vote there this morning, there's still time to hurry out and cast your ballot.
We are expecting to get some meaningful results in the District in the 9 p.m. hour, but Maryland results will likely be delayed, at least in Montgomery and Baltimore city. I'll be with you through 8:30, and again at 9 p.m. and every hour through the evening as this unusual Election Night progresses.
Come ahead with your questions and comments, and please let us hear about your experiences at the polls today, good or bad.
Bethesda, Md.: This morning in Bethesda my precinct didn't have the cards necessary to use the electronic voting machines, so we had to fill out applications and submit provisional ballots? Was this widespread across Montgomery County? Did the cards finally reach the polling places, and at what time?
Marc Fisher: The cards were sent out starting after 6 a.m., after elections officials realized their error. Some polling places got the cards in time to open at 7 a.m., some didn't get rolling at full strength for a couple of hours.
Chevy Chase, Md.: I was effectively disenfranchised today. I've just been to the polls for the second time in Chevy Chase and they wouldn't let me vote. I am very angry and cannot understand how this can happen. Given the amount of taxes I pay to this county, it's a disgrace. Heads need to roll for this.
Marc Fisher: Why wouldn't they let you vote this evening? Were you recorded as having voted this morning?
Bethesda, Md.: In forty years of voting, I have never been denied a ballot before today. Like thousands of others, we were turned away from the polls this morning due to the lack of electronic cards. We waited at Bethesda Elementary School for the cards which were "on their way" but never materialized, only to have to leave for work. They had already run out of provisional ballots.
We are not looking forward to the scrum of voters tonight, especially if hours are not extended. Won't this severely disadvantage Montgomery County candidates running statewide?
Marc Fisher: That's exactly the fear that Doug Gansler (attorney general), Peter Franchot (comptroller) and Senate candidate Ben Cardin (even though he's from Baltimore) have -- they were counting on big margins in Montgomery and they fear that many of those who were turned away this morning won't return tonight. It's a legitimate fear and it's not clear that one hour of extra polling time makes up for what happened. On the other hand, what other remedy would be more fair?
Voting Problems: Marc, you're a smart guy, I'm wondering what you think of this...I have an idea for fixing our voting methods, but I can't get anyone to listen. We already have the technology to do this, so I don't understand why we can't. Here's how it should work: A voter makes his/her selections electronically, and then the machine counts the votes and prints out a paper receipt that is coded (either bar codes or scantron type). The paper receipt is then inserted into another machine, which counts the votes again. At the end of the day, the electronic votes have to match the scanned paper votes. Obviously different companies have to control the two different machines, and if we need to recount, we have all of the paper votes available. (And they don't have chads!)
Clearly, of course, the government would need to pour a lot of money into getting enough machines to each district, but you'd only need one of the scanning machines for each voting location. And it seems like it'd be worth the money to make sure that our voting system is reliable, given that we're supposed to be setting an example for the rest of the world.
Marc Fisher: Your suggestion has merit, but in the end, the details of the counting and verification systems are not as important as being certain that Election Day runs smoothly and in a transparent fashion. We all learned in 2000 that while we want every vote to be counted, there is always going to be a bit of blur around the edges of a vote count. This is not a 100 percent verifiable process. What's most essential is that there be public trust in the process, and that is accomplished only by making the process open to all--lots of witnesses from all campaigns--and by making sure the day runs smoothly. That's where MoCo fell down today.
Stanton Park, D.C.: How was turnout in the District? When I went to vote around 9 a.m., my precinct was unusually quiet. Who would low turnout hurt?
Marc Fisher: We have been hearing all day in both the District and Maryland that turnout is light. But take that with a small pile of salt because midday predictions about turnout often turn out to be way off the mark. Light turnout generally favors incumbents and favorites. Challengers such as Scott Bolden in the D.C. council at large race or Donna Edwards in the Al Wynn congressional race in Maryland need a big turnout.
Silver Spring, Md.: As a Republican who didn't need to vote today (I live in horrid District 18 so I had no primary to worry about), I can't help but find some enjoyment in today's voting fiasco.
I know I'm supposed to feel bad that one basic American right was put at risk today, but it's mainly Democrats it affected, and it was with a system that we have warned for some time was prone to flaws.
I wonder if Democrat activists will now take a serious look at the electronic voting in our state and realize there's a problem.
Again, I know I'm SUPPOSED to feel bad but I really can't.
Marc Fisher: Ah, the milk of human kindness. Well, your schadenfreude is rescued a bit by your plea for this to be seen as reason for a policy change, but still, no one should celebrate when any fellow citizen is disenfranchised.
Anonymous: I'd just like to comment on something. Today, I voted in Washington, D.C. It felt good to participate in democracy until I realized that NOT ONE of the people for whom I voted for Senator, Representative, and Delegate, has a vote in Congress. This country is preaching to so many countries to embrace democracy, yet right here in D.C., we are truly disenfranchised. Taxation without representation. An Iraqi with an ink-stained thumb has more of a say in his/her federal government than we do here in D.C. It's not right.
Marc Fisher: It's not right at all. In fact, it is a dark stain on our democracy. It's simply unjustifiable to accept federal taxes from D.C. residents and send D.C. kids off to war when the city's residents have no recourse to appeal to Congress on the basic issues in their lives.
Washington, D.C.: Where can you see the D.C. Primary Election results?
Marc Fisher: No returns as yet--we're hoping to see some in the 9 p.m. hour, and if you'd like to follow along, you can check www.dcboee.org through the evening.
Quick question about your Cropp column from the other day. I agreed with everything in it, but isn't it slightly unfair to bad mouth a particular candidate in a column without also at least discussing the other candidates (whether you support them or pointing out their flaws)? Seemed like one of those despicable 527c ads that attack a candidate without adding anything positive to the discussion. Love the column. Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: Cropp's Familiar Refrain (Post, Sept. 7, 2006)
Marc Fisher: Thanks very much. I've written several columns and numerous blog items on the mayoral race and have over time written on almost all of the candidates, so in the limited space of one column, I don't see the need to check in on all the opponents of whomever I'm focusing on that day.
D.C.: How is the Post able to effectively cover the election given the number of reporters and editors who were eliminated in the newspaper's buyout?
Marc Fisher: While we did sadly say farewell to several dozen of our colleagues earlier this year, I don't think there's been any reduction in the number of reporters and editors we have covering today's election or politics and government in general. The paper has reassigned other people and made some hires to pick up many of the beats that were covered by those who accepted the buyouts.
Washington, D.C.: This was my first time voting in DC -- why are we not asked for identification when we get our ballots? I only had to give my name and sign -- it seems difficult to control voter fraud when voters are not asked to provide a driver's license, voter registration card or some other form of ID.
Marc Fisher: It is rather amazing after all the country has been through on the voting security front that when you and I went to vote in Washington today, no one asked us for any ID of any kind. In fact, I could easily have named any one of my neighbors and voted as many times as I wanted to. That's a sharp contrast from Maryland, where voters today for the first time faced much tougher ID checks.
Rockville, Md.: I voted about 11:30 am at Julius West Middle School in Rockville. I entered a darkened school with NO signage pointing me to the voting location. I had to roam the halls to find the room to vote. There was only one person checking in voters. There was no line at the time, but with only one person I suspect lines will form. I was asked to verbalize by name, date of birth and home address for anyone standing nearby to overhear. After I voted there was nobody to give my card back to. Finally a woman approached me and took it from me, but I wonder how many just went in the trash or in pockets. Additionally, for the past five days, including today, I have been spammed with electronic phone calls. Two from Ben Cardin's camp alone today. Any thoughts on how to get my phone number removed from the calling banks?
Marc Fisher: I don't think you'd have much luck getting your name off the phone lists--by the time you got off one, you'd be on several others. And political candidates, unfortunately, are exempted from the federal Do Not Call program. Only pressure from voters will change this. I for one make it a policy not to vote for candidates who engage in robocalling.
Washington, D.C.: Marc, is there a URL/Web address - page specific - for results in the Maryland elections today? I've been hunting around the Board of Elections Web site (it leaves a lot to be desired, to say the least), and they don't appear to have anything set up that will take you to a results page as they come in.
Marc Fisher: There you go--but it will likely be a long wait for Maryland results, at least from Montgomery and probably statewide too. Might have better luck in Prince George's.
Washington, D.C.: (Note: this question has been submitted prior to having the election results.)
Assuming that Fenty wins the primary, will you continue to bring awareness to the Sinclair Skinner issue and pressure Fenty to not appoint him to a prominent position in the administration? Unfortunately, the only recourse is through the press at this point.
Marc Fisher: I certainly would want to keep a close eye on that as a test case of a Mayor Fenty's approach to political appointments and as an indicator of his judgment of character. See www.dumpskinner.com for details of this controversy.
D.C.: In the mayoral race in D.C., do you think that the media tried to pick the top two candidates as front-runners, or were Fenty and Cropp just polling far ahead of everyone in the first few polls, then the stories started to run that way? I always wonder about this in big elections with more than two candidates. It's a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg question.
Marc Fisher: Well, sure, there is some chicken and egg to that question, but the bottom line is that political reporters rely on whatever metrics are available to decide how to focus their reporting, and the metrics that are out there during a campaign are polling results, fundraising totals, anecdotal interviews with voters, interviews with political strategists and our sense of the organizational effectiveness of the various campaigns. In every one of those measures, the Cropp and Fenty campaigns were clearly well ahead of the other candidates from early on straight through to the end. To ignore that would be to miss the story. Nonetheless, we have an obligation to present voters with stories on other candidates and we did, with extensive profiles as well as coverage of their campaigning.
Washington, D.C.: I would be interested to know who you think will run for mayor in 2010/2014 (I know it's a ways away) in either of two scenarios: Fenty is a successful mayor or Fenty is a terrible mayor.
Marc Fisher: Man, how time flies.
Ok, I'll play. Whether or not a Mayor Fenty were to bomb out, watch for council members Jack Evans, David Catania and Vincent Gray to look toward the mayor's office. If Scott Bolden wins tonight, it's easy to imagine him wanting to move on up. And if Robert Bobb becomes the next school board president and has any success at all in that job, he'd be a natural candidate as well.
SWDC: Just a comment for the person in D.C. whose ID wasn't checked.
I voted this morning in D.C. too, and I had to present identification. So it looks as though enforcement is not uniform in D.C.
Marc Fisher: And truth be told, little is consistent in a system that relies entirely on volunteers and very poorly paid poll workers, many of them quite elderly and ill versed in the voting technology. At my polling station this morning, the woman taking down names of voters was extremely hard of hearing and did not respond at all to questions from four different voters.
Reston, Va.: Hi Marc -- any word on Jamie Raskin's Maryland State Senate race in Takoma Park/Silver Spring?
Marc Fisher: Not yet, but that's one we'll be watching closely tonight--the American University law professor's challenge of longtime state Sen. Ida Ruben is one of the tightest races of the night and could produce one of the few ousters of an incumbent. I'll keep you up to date on it as the numbers come in later.
Mount Vernon Square, D.C.: "I for one make it a policy not to vote for candidates who engage in robocalling."
Then who do you vote for? Over the last week, I think I've heard from every candidate for mayor, and both several candidates, often more than once. Do you vote for the one who calls you the least?
Marc Fisher: I've been blessedly free of robocalls this go-round. Maybe it's just that my answering machine is way less than reliable these days.
Silver Spring, Md.: In this modern world, a 13-consecutive hour window to vote feels antiquated and far too short. I often am required to travel out of state at a moment's notice and today was no different. Luckily the extension in MoCo actually helped me vote as I returned from Detroit with an hour plus to spare. What limits us to one day? Constitution? Seems like it would help turnout substantially to open to multi-day.
Marc Fisher: Or at least 24 hours. There's an argument to be made for online voting, but I think the social aspect of having citizens physically go to a voting place has enormous meaning.
Marc Fisher: I have to shift over to Post Radio for a bit and then check on the returns--I'll rejoin you at 9 and pick up with some of your questions. Keep 'em coming.
Marc Fisher: Welcome back--still no numbers coming in from either Maryland or the District, but we'll be optimistic and hope for some returns at least from Washington in the coming minutes. Adrian Fenty just appeared before supporters at his headquarters in the District and the Post's Linton Weeks reports that the crowd erupted in cheers of "Fenty, Fenty" as the council member walked through the room. He's not saying anything quite yet, but he's looking confident.
Silver Spring, Md.: Who is in charge of the Board of Elections in Montgomery County? I believe heads need to roll on this fiasco.
Marc Fisher: The head of the Montgomery Board of Elections is Nancy Dacek, a former member of the County Council from upcounty and a progressive Republican who was appointed to this job by Gov. Bob Ehrlich.
Upper Marlboro, Md.: Marc, Any news on if Rushern Baker has upset Jack Johnson in Prince Georges? This news is quite anticipated. Are a percentage of precincts reporting yet?
Marc Fisher: I just checked the Prince George's elections board and no numbers yet.
University Park, Md.: My young adult son, voting for the first time in person instead of by absentee ballot in a primary, was distressed to be turned away from the University Park Elementary School voting site at 7:10 this morning because the lists of registered voters hadn't turned up. He went to his job in Gaithersburg, for which he was late due to the Beltway accident rubbernecking, it will be difficult for him to commit the three hours of travel time to get back to UPES and vote and go back to work. He was basically disenfranchised in a Prince George's primary where the outcome virtually governs the election, all because the person bringing the lists was a half an hour late. The Board of Elections has known the primary date for months. There's no excuse for not getting those materials to the sites the night before if they can't trust their staff to get out of bed sufficiently early.
Marc Fisher: That's a most unfortunate story. People keep asking me what they and we can do to prevent such fiascos in the future and other than hoping and pressing for elected officials to appoint better managers to run the elections, there is one thing anyone can do: Volunteer to work the polls at your local polling place. Don't just assume that someone will do it, because as many of you saw today, some of those folks just don't show up and other probably shouldn't show up. If you're involved enough to be upset by what's happened, you should be able to consider devoting one day of your life to helping assure a smooth election for everyone.
Washington, D.C.: What about changing our voting day? My dry cleaner - from Mongolia - was surprised that I had to go to work today. In Mongolia, Election Day is a national holiday, and its on Saturday!
How about doing at least one of those here in the United States?
I'm always amazed at how little we do to drive up voter participation here where we are supposed be such grand backers of democracy (oh wait, D.C. doesn't have true democracy, never mind!)
Marc Fisher: Weekend voting is a great idea and it works well in many countries. There are logistical issues--many polling places are in schools that are normally locked tight on weekends or in churches that are in heavy use on weekends. And inevitably some folks would whine about interfering with the day of rest, no matter which weekend day you picked. But there's no doubt that turnout would improve.
Who the winner!: Marc, look into your crystal ball and tell us who won!
Marc Fisher: I asked readers that question today on the big blog and you can check out your fellow voters' predictions at washingtonpost.com/rawfisher
I'll announce the winners of that contest as soon as we get final results tomorrow.
Kensington, Md.: I voted at Kensington-Parkwood Elementary School today along with my daughter and neither one of us got a receipt for our vote. Why? What record do we have of our vote?
Marc Fisher: I don't know of any local jurisdiction that gives out receipts for voting. But the voter roll you sign at the polling station is a public document and you should be able to examine it anytime you wish. In addition, you can check at any local board of elections and see which elections you--or anyone who know--has voted in. That's all public record, except of course who you voted for.
Anxiously Awaiting: If provisional (written) ballots are cast, are they tallied right away or after the polls are closed?
Marc Fisher: The elections board says the provisional ballots--the paper ballots that were handed out to many voters who were not able to use a machine today--will not be counted tonight, but rather in the coming days. So any results that are very close at the end of tonight cannot be considered final until those provisionals are counted by hand.
Silver Spring, Md.: I was able to vote in Mont. Co. without problem around 7:30 p.m. but read with horror the accounts of early morning voters. Please tell me that those responsible for this screw up will be publicly identified and fired. This is a "heckuva job" Brownie level of incompetence, and, although the consequences are fortunately not so disastrous, at another level something very important has been lost.
Marc Fisher: The state board of elections has already asked the state attorney general to look into who was responsible for the mess and to recommend a course of action from here.
Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst in Rockville, Md.: Some of my acquaintances are so angry about the voting mess-ups in MoCo that they're saying it was a conspiracy. My husband says that we should never ascribe to malice what can be attributed to stupidity (don't know original quote source). What do you think? Was this just a colossal case of incompetence? Or... actually, I don't even want to think about the alternative.
Marc Fisher: I'm with your husband. There's no evidence of any foul play here, and as so often is the case in politics, human error and poor planning generally accounts for vastly more bad news than any evil intent.
Rockville, Md.: I called the Montgomery Board of Elections (240-777-8500) to suggest that they put on staff to count the provisional ballots today rather than wait until Monday. That would make it appear the Board cares. The Voter Service rep said that the law requires a waiting period, absentees are counted first, etc. My Q: Can't the Board go to the judge and get an OK to count the provisional votes that are marked "other" as if they were paper ballots, and count ASAP? That would help restore voter confidence a bit.
Marc Fisher: There's the question of the law and then on top of that there's the more pressing issue of manpower. Elections boards tend to be very small offices; after all, for most of the year, there's not a lot of heavy lifting. That's why elections depend so heavily on volunteers and short-term employees. Maryland has 1900 polling places but far, far fewer elections workers, so the whole system rests on the capacity of the elections board to recruit and train the people who actually run those polling places.
I'm sick and tired of all these people that think the only important thing going on in D.C. are elections. When are your chats going to touch on the fact that we have baseball in D.C. now?
Marc Fisher: Ha! The game's just getting under way. So what do you think: Which will come first, the end of tonight's contest in Arizona or the final returns on today's vote?
Washington, D.C.: Why didn't the Post endorse in the D.C. Board of Education races. Education is the number one issue for many voters and no matter who is Mayor and who is on the new Council, the Board of Education will have a profound affect on our schools.
Marc Fisher: No Post endorsement in the Board of Education races because they are not on today's ballot. The school board in the District is a nonpartisan office and as such the elections are held with the general election in November. Our coverage of those races in the news pages--and our editorial board's endorsements on their page--will come later in the fall.
Silver Spring, Md.: I must say that I wonder why I'm paying so much in taxes in Montgomery County. First, I am irritated that we still don't get paper records with the electronic machines and, now this morning, I was one of those handed a provisional ballot. Not to mention the fact that the polling judges basically announced mine and everyone's political affiliation at the polling place. And, now to hear that some Marylanders were told to come back and vote?!
This is one crucial, fundamental right in America -- the right to vote. If there is one area of government that should be efficient, well-run, uncorrupted and as professional as possible, it should be the area that handles elections.
Why don't we hear about glitches in government/county systems that keep track of collecting money for parking tickets or moving violations?
Marc Fisher: Probably because those offices are year-round, fully staffed operations, while elections are, as I said above, one-shots heavily dependent on temporary labor. But if you're of a certain political inclination, you might argue that the parking tickets and red light camera functions are run more efficiently because they've been outsourced to private companies. In the District, at least, that argument doesn't hold water, because the government-run moving violations operation is every bit as ruthlessly efficient as the privately-run red light and speeding camera enforcement.
No comparison: News Channel (number withheld) is trying to compare Ida Ruben to William Donald Schaefer. Common! There is no comparison. Ida is sensible and while she may be somewhat "old school", she is an effective leader.
Marc Fisher: Well, they are both longtime veterans of public office and both are being criticized for being past their prime. And both face really serious challenges tonight.
Silver Spring, Md.: I wish I could agree with you about the MoCo voting disaster being the result of error as opposed to conspiracy. But the theft of the 2000 presidential election and the ruthless disenfranchisement of voters in Florida and Ohio in 2004 taught me that the modern Republican Party simply cannot be trusted to hold an honest election.
The head of the MoCo Board of Elections is a Republican appointed by Gov. Ehrlich. The legacy of 2000 and 2004 is this: huge numbers of American no longer trust the Republican Party to hold an honest election.
Marc Fisher: Ah, but the elections board is one of last bastions of bipartisanship in our system and it is generally a rigorously enforced, even split of duties and supervisory functions. I've watched Nancy Dacek in Montgomery work with the Democrats on the board of elections and theirs is a close and generally effective relationship.
VA interloper weighs in...: Marc, at the polling place I was working at today for Mark Panetta, voters who got paper ballots got a little tear off section from the top of their ballots. Maybe that's the receipt the earlier poster was referring to? Most voters just threw it away, along with the mountain of campaign lit they collected on the way in.
Marc Fisher: Yes, you do get to keep the tear-off portion of your paper ballot, and it does have an identifying number at the top of it. It's not as clearly a receipt as the District used to provide some years back and from my observation, almost everyone tosses it in the trash on the way out.
Columbia Heights, D.C.: Do you think Marie Johns has a chance to break double digits? If the number of people I heard from who wanted to vote for her did, I'd be surprised if she didn't.
Marc Fisher: She was showing at just under 10 percent in the most recent polls and I've not seen anything that makes me think that's off by any significant degree.
Sensible?: There ain't nothing sensible about that hair!
Marc Fisher: Ida Ruben has the best hair in the Maryland legislature, bar none. I can certainly respect those who believe it would be wrong to let that hair disappear from the halls of power in Annapolis.
Now, wait a *&#@ minute: You stated that you would announce the winner of your blog poll tomorrow but two chat answers later, you state that paper ballots would be counted in the coming days. Therefore, the winners won't be known until all ballots are counted. Ergo, you can't pick a blog winner tomorrow! What's up with that?
Marc Fisher: You may be right. It depends on how close the results are after the machine-counted votes are in. In the event of races that are too close to call, the winners of the prediction contest will have to wait till the paper ballots are counted. Sorry.
Eastern Market: How worried should we be about the Sinclair Skinner issue with Fenty? Can he really influence policy that much?
Marc Fisher: Depends on what kind of position Fenty would give Skinner. I would hope that any mayor who has such a controversial staffer on his campaign would see how divisive it would be to include that person in a position of importance. Whatever decision Fenty would make would be highly revealing of the kind of quality he would seek on his mayoral staff.
U Street: Any word in the news room on the Rhode Island Senate primary? That one could have a big impact nationally.
Marc Fisher: I just checked the Rhode Island board of elections and no numbers are in as yet.
Washington, D.C.: Where are the Linda Cropp and Adrian Fenty victory parties?
And why did Linda Cropp run such a lackluster campaign?
Marc Fisher: Cropp's party is at the Capital Hilton on 16th Street NW and Fenty's party is at his campaign headquarters on Florida Avenue NW.
If Cropp loses, it will be in large part because she failed to give voters a positive sense of where she wanted to take the city. She devoted so much of her time to tearing down Fenty that the only take home message about herself was that she is experienced--the adult in the race. But that only raised further questions about why the city is in the condition it's in after her 26 years in office. She never made the sale that she had a different vision and the ability to bring it to fruition.
Mark in Adams Morgan: The polls have been closed for 47 minutes and no results. Any idea when they'll start rolling in?
Marc Fisher: The city has been telling us they expect to see numbers start coming in around now. Nothing quite yet, but we are now seeing the very first numbers from Maryland--just a handful of precincts, so nothing in any way useful as yet.
Marc Fisher: I'll be offline for about 15 minutes to collect some info and will be back with you by the top of the hour. Stay tuned--there are lots of questions and comments in the queue and I welcome your additions.
Alexandria, Va.: Did anyone foresee that Montgomery Co. could have had a problem today?
Marc Fisher: So far, there's no indication that anyone had any forewarning of a problem. Elections officials say they learned of the problem about an hour before polls opened and they rushed to get the missing authorization cards out to the polls immediately. Given the size of the county and morning traffic, some polling places got the cards in time to open at 7 and others had to punt, using paper ballots for a couple of hours.
Fort Washington, Md.: Can he really do it? I see the early returns and Rushern Baker is up slightly -- do you think he can pull the upset and why or why not?
Marc Fisher: The first few precincts are in from Prince George's and they show challenger Rushern Baker with a slight lead over county executive Jack Johnson. But these are very, very slim returns--don't count on them holding up. Still, Baker does seem to have emerged as a serious challenger in the past week and the endorsement by former county executive Curry was a big boost.
Glenn Dale (PG), Md.: A Silver Spring, Republican told you "I can't help but find some enjoyment in today's voting fiasco..." and went on to blame the Democrats. Perhaps that's unfair if the director of MoCo elections is a Republican appointee of Governor Ehrlich.
Marc Fisher: Oh, I've got comments here from folks blaming every which party. Here, you want one blaming the Dems? Here goes...
Bethesda, Md.: As a registered Republican in liberal Montgomery County, I find humor in the fact that the polls are not working. If it was a 50-50 county, I could only imagine what the leftist conspiracy theory pundits would be saying today. Democrats from Ted Kennedy to Nancy Pelosi would be blaming it on the Republicans and how "we use scare tactics to keep voters away." Well, the joke is on you Dems. You guys cant even blame George Bush for this one...but I'm sure you'll find a way. Hilarious.
Marc Fisher: Now, on to some more timely questions--by the way, still no numbers from the District, but some of the campaign staffers are giving us a look at the few precincts where they were able to get tallies, and the Fenty campaign is touting a couple of precincts where they show almost twice the votes that Cropp received. Is that an indicator of things to come? Who knows.
Because Marylanders cannot run an election, they should not have any voting voice in the House or Senate.
Give D.C. voting representation now.
Marc Fisher: You read my mind -- or maybe you read my column appearing in tomorrow's paper.
Northwest D.C.: I work for Montgomery County, and in past years I've been involved with voting machine support at different precincts. I'm sorry to say that the system has had problems for years; it was a fiasco just waiting to happen. Technical flaws aside, the precinct judges, mostly old-timers, simply have not absorbed the training in the procedures needed to use the new voting machines, even after several go-rounds, and as a tech support person I usually wasn't trained in the procedures either.
Someone should have checked for the cards long before this morning rolled around; there are two layers of double-checking that failed in order to create this fiasco. Sad, sad, sad.
I'm just glad I wasn't working support this time around. If this leads them to scrap the infernal Diebold system it will be a great thing.
Marc Fisher: It's all about the training. Think about your own observations of poll workers and then think about the complexity of the new voting technologies. Does that equation compute?
Northwest D.C.: It has been almost two hours since the polls closed in D.C. When can we expect results? This seems like quite a long wait.
Marc Fisher: This is pretty much par for the course in the District. Usually DC numbers start rolling in around 9:30 or 10, so we're still within range.
It's the Maryland numbers that are unusually late tonight.
Takoma Park, Md.: I just left my voting place in Takoma Park at 9:45 p.m. They ran out of Democratic provisional ballots and ran out of provisional forms and envelopes. We were told to write our candidates on scrap paper and put them in a white envelope from CVS.
Marc Fisher: You have got to be kidding. That's appalling. I'll ask our reporters on the story to check it out.
The Hill: Hey Marc, thanks for hanging out with us tonight. Any idea who was leading the polls in the race for D.C. Council Chair?
Marc Fisher: The strategists for the candidates in other races have been saying for some weeks that Gray has it, that Patterson couldn't get enough of the black vote to beat him. But then this past week, there were some indications from polling by candidates that the race had tightened and that Patterson was in a virtual tie with Gray. So I would expect it to be close and to be very much dependent on who turns out and where.
Kingman Park : Tell the truth, Fisher. The reason you won't have the results of your blog poll tonight is that you forgot the cards to make the voting machines work.
Marc Fisher: You found me out. Dang.
Silver Spring, Md.: "If you're involved enough to be upset by what's happened, you should be able to consider devoting one day of your life to helping assure a smooth election for everyone."
I totally agree. I had this epiphany at my polling location tonight, as I was being vaguely annoyed with the very, very old volunteers who didn't really get the technology of the voting card. And I realized: I (age 30) could do that about 50 times faster and with rather more accuracy. I'm just not sure it's worth giving up a day of vacation time...and I don't know if I could have handled being yelled at by all those angry voters this morning.
Marc Fisher: Well, you probably would have done better at it than some of the folks who, while enormously good hearted, were really beyond the point when they could effectively do this job. Who knows, your employer might be willing to treat poll watching as if it were jury duty.
Baltimore: Do some of the delays in counting the Maryland vote stem from all the people who wrote in "Mother Hubbard" for comptroller?
Marc Fisher: You'd have to ask Father Time, who is doing quite a number on us tonight.
Hey, if Schaefer wins, maybe that's his new name.
Marc Fisher: When the District numbers come in, they pour in: Fenty 57, Cropp 32, Johns 8 with two thirds of precincts reporting. You can put this one in the bank.
Marc Fisher: Shocker: Mendelson 65, Bolden 35 in DC Council at large. That may be an indication that areas west of the park had powerfully higher turnout than the rest of the city.
Takoma Park: Marc, I'm going crazy any numbers yet???
Marc Fisher: Vincent Gray 58, Kathy Patterson 42 for council chairman.
Mark in Adams Morgan: Why is Kojo Nnamdi reporting results with 75 percent of precincts reporting and the Post's got NOTHING?
Marc Fisher: We've got plenty--
DC Ward 3 council, with 11 of 17 precincts reporting:
An easy, dominating win for Mary Cheh, with 46 percent of the vote so far in a nine-way race. That's a powerful endorsement by the silent, pro-development majority against the NIMBYs and suburban wannabes who have fought against transit-oriented development around Metro stations.
Second place--Paul Strauss at 13 percent, then Eric Gaull and Sam Brooks with 8 percent.
Ward 1 resident (12-year D.C. resident): I think Linda lost because she never thought of Fenty as a credible mayor. I lived somewhere else for a long time and as a result I am not blown away by his constituent service like others seem to be. Constituent service and GOTV is not going to take the city to the next level. Agree?
Marc Fisher: We shall see. As Fenty often says, what a lot of people in the city want is just to be able to depend on basic services. And if he can accomplish that, he'd be setting a standard that could help improve some of the more troubled parts of the bureaucracy. But you're right that governing is very different from campaigning--the real challenge lies ahead.
Marc Fisher: Other DC Council races--
Ward 6--No surprise, school board member Tommy Wells trounces his two opponents, picking up 70 percent of the vote with all but three precincts reporting.
Ward 5--In what was expected to be a wildly splintered vote, Tommy Thomas, son of longtime council member Harry Thomas, wins handily, with 43 percent of the vote with 14 of 18 precincts reporting. Next highest total went to Frank Wilds with only 14 percent.
Georgetown: Marc...are those percentages or actual votes
Marc Fisher: Those are percentages.
Marc Fisher: Maryland now has about 10 percent of the vote counted, and the comptroller race looks like a nail-biter--at this early stage, it's Schaefer with 36 percent, Janet Owens with 35 and Peter Franchot with 29. Long way to go there.
In attorney general, Doug Gansler is up over Stuart Simms by 57 percent to 42 percent but we have no idea what that means because it's only 10 percent of the vote and we don't know where in the state those votes are coming from.
The Senate race is very, very close, with about 12 percent of precincts reporting, it's Ben Cardin 41 percent and Kweisi Mfume at 39 percent.
Washington, D.C.: I see Jim Graham on the Fenty podium. He's known for trying to play it safe, and didn't endorse a candidate for mayor. How do you see his relationship with a Mayor Fenty and will Graham seek higher office?
Marc Fisher: Graham did indeed support Fenty, if a bit reluctantly. I fully expect to see council members jumping aboard the Fenty train even at this late hour, but Graham's not one of them.
D.C.: God I am so disappointed. Fenty sounds like Bush. An empty suit. All the economic development and the improvement in city services (yes -- have you been to the DMV?) are down the drain. How did this lightweight win?
Marc Fisher: The jury is of course out on Fenty as a manager, but don't write him off as a lightweight--he is smarter than he sounds, and I don't mean that to sound condescending. He has immature rhetoric and diction--his sentences are filled with "stuff" and "thing," and that hides the fact that he knows his, ahem, stuff. Whenever I've interviewed him on city issues, I've found him to be well-informed, if not always capable of expressing his positions in clear and concise language.
Doug in Rockville, Md.: Marc,
My wife and I walked to our polling place at Twinbrook Elementary in Rockville about 10 this morning -- voting was fast and easy. Voting always makes us feel especially proud to be an American ... and I think going to a polling place is an enormous part of the experience. I would be reluctant to change any part of our voting process in a way that undercuts connectedness to our community. Between the walk and the short waiting line at the polls, we bonded with 25-30 neighbors this morning.
Any prediction for who will emerge victorious among the Dist. 17 hopefuls? Barve and Simmons are obviously heading back to Annapolis, Speigel got the Post endorsement (and my vote), but I'm having trouble calling this race. Whaddya think, Marc?
Marc Fisher: No returns yet in that race, or any of the Montgomery contests, but my guess would be that Ryan Spiegel would join the two incumbents in victory.
Washington, D.C.: Fenty really should have waited for Cropp to concede. It's just tacky. Did Skinner make that call?
Marc Fisher: Ouch. He really has to do something about that issue, as soon as possible.
Florida Ave., D.C.: Where can I find the raw numbers by precinct/Ward for D.C.?
Marc Fisher: If you look way up the trail on this chat, you'll find links to results pages for both DC and Maryland. Or maybe Paul can repost them here.
Takoma Park, Md.: Any numbers on my man Raskin yet?
Marc Fisher: Not a single vote there yet, but over in the other fascinating state Senate race in Prince George's County, challenger Jim Rosapepe is slamming incumbent John Giannetti by 61 percent to 37 percent with about one fifth of precincts reporting.
Mark in Adams Morgan: Be honest -- where are you getting your numbers? WAMU?
Marc Fisher: I don't have a radio here--our numbers come directly from the Board of Elections computer links in each jurisdiction and from phone reports collected by our own tally desk in the Post newsroom.
D.C.: I'm 21, and live in D.C.. I know absolutely nothing about politics but I voted anyway, and I voted for Fenty.
Seeing what Williams did for the city (and I've lived here my entire life), Fenty has some big shoes to fill. That being said, will Fenty continue Williams' dedication to development or will he go a different route?
Marc Fisher: Fenty will surely try to maintain the city's growth while taking a more neighborhood-friendly focus than Williams did. The great untold story of the Williams years is the astonishing change he helped happen in some of the city's most depressed areas. But his administration did far too little to sell the good side of that story while easing the pain for those who were displaced or felt threatened by the pace of economic change. Fenty is much more attuned to those feelings of hurt, but he says he's also willing to stand up to neighborhood opposition to the kind of development the city desperately needs.
Northwest, D.C.: In response to the question about Cropp conceding, Cropp started her speech before Fenty did and it sure sounded like a concession speech to me.
Marc Fisher: I didn't see the speech, but that sure sounds right to me--she's a class act when it comes to that sort of thing.
Cap Hill: Hey Marc: Is the Post going to report on D.C. returns tonight? What's going on over there?
Marc Fisher: I'm feeding them as fast as I can....
New Here: What's "transit-oriented development"?
Marc Fisher: Development that seeks to build high density around transit stations, increasing the portion of the population that can make it to work and errands without getting in a car. It's the greatest payoff any place can get from its investment in public transit infrastructure, but we sadly have too many wealthy neighborhoods where a vocal minority has been allowed to stomp all over the rights of others and the ability of the city to expand its tax base so it can take care of those most in need.
washingtonpost.com: Numbers should be updated soon: D.C. Results
Washington, D.C.: Any word on the Edwards/Wynn race? I would LOVE it if Edwards wins.
Marc Fisher: With about 20 percent of the vote in, Rep. Al Wynn is winning rather handily, with 56 percent of the vote to challenger Donna Edwards' 40 percent. But be careful here: Those votes are almost certainly all from Prince George's precincts--a significant chunk of that district is in Montgomery County, which is where Edwards expected to do much better. So this too will be a late one.
Marc Fisher: Back with more in about 15 minutes.
Marc Fisher: Ok, it's Mayor Fenty. Looks like Ben Cardin is opening a solid lead over Kweisi Mfume in the Maryland Senate race, even without the boost he expects to get from Montgomery voters. And in Prince George's, the county executive race is neck and neck. Just a few weeks ago, the experts were scoffing at Rushern Baker's challenge to Jack Johnson, calling it a repeat of last election, when Baker was trounced. But this one is thisclose.
Petworth, D.C.: Is Cropp going to run as independent in the general election or was this just too convincing of a defeat?
Marc Fisher: She conceded gracefully. She's out.
Ward 4: What happens to Ward 4 with Fenty running for mayor? Why isn't Ward 4 electing a new council member this year?
Marc Fisher: Fenty would have held on to his Ward 4 seat had he not won tonight. Ward 4 does not normally elect a council member in this election cycle, but rather in the presidential year. So now there will have to be a special election to fill Fenty's seat. There will also have to be a special election in Ward 7 to fill Vincent Gray's seat now that he will move up to become council chairman.
Silver Spring, Md.: One additional voting glitch that I haven't seen much on is that in my ballot (at Silver Spring International Middle school, MD district 18), Tom Perez was on the electronic ballot for Attorney General. He was not on my paper sample ballot, and I understood that he had been disqualified. There were no instructions given not to vote for him, and I wondered if his disqualification had been overturned at the last minute. Assuming that some people voted for him, what will happen to those votes? If they could fix the sample ballots, why couldn't they fix the electronic ballots? Unless there is a very clear winner, I think loser will be able to claim that the ballot error distorted the results. Won't this election inevitably be tied up in lawsuits?
Marc Fisher: That's not a glitch. Perez was disqualified by the court too close to election day for his name to be removed from the ballots. Any votes cast for him simply are not counted.
D.C.: What a story this election is... Patterson loses but Mendelson wins. Have we turned the corner in D.C.? Who the heck in, say, Ward 8, voted for Phil Mendelson?
Marc Fisher: A lot of people, apparently. We won't have ward by ward breakdowns till the morning, but for Mendelson to have won this convincingly, he had to have citywide support. This, along with apparent citywide support for Gray over Patterson, is a very heartening sign of Washingtonians of both races crossing over to vote for the candidate they thought would do the better job, rather than the candidate of their race.
MoCo: Marc, Please, please, please have an entire team of reporters investigate what Takoma Park just told us about "voting" by writing candidate names on scraps of paper and putting them in a CVS bag. There are not enough synonyms for "appalling" to begin to describe that!
What would it take for MoCo to have a new election???
Marc Fisher: Astonishingly, our reporters have confirmed that the "please write your choice on blank white paper" incident really did happen. This is not a pretty picture. Much more to come in tomorrow's Post.
Bethesda, Md.: "It's all about the training. Think about your own observations of poll workers and then think about the complexity of the new voting technologies. Does that equation compute?"
Really Marc, with all the snafus going on today, do you have to throw age stereotypes into the mix? If the polls were not equipped with the correct cards and a sufficient number of paper provisional ballots, that is hardly the fault of older election judges. And, the voting machines, at least the part that the voters and judges are involved with, are ridiculously simple to use. Don't buy into the stereotype that just because someone has white hair and a task involves a machine the two are incompatible.
(And I'm not even white-haired yet, just bothered by blanket generalizations!)
Marc Fisher: Fair comment, and I don't mean to condemn the many old folks who do great service as pollwatchers and clerks, but there are also some who are just not up to the job.
Takoma Park: What about for the Raskin vs. Ruben race?
Marc Fisher: With about three-fifths of precincts reporting, Raskin the challenger is up by 57 percent to 43 percent over longtime senator Ruben. But Montgomery still has a lot of counting to do.
Bethesda, Md.: Does the Cardin campaign regard the voting problems in Montgomery County as a serious threat to his nomination?
Marc Fisher: If they did earlier today, they don't anymore--looks like Cardin has it. He's up by 45 percent to 36 percent with about a third of the precincts reporting.
Re: volunteering at the polls: Marc, I'd be happy to, after today's fiasco, but have no idea how to do that. How about doing a public service and writing a how-to and exhortation column the next time there's a chance to sign up? Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: Maryland County Election Offices
Marc Fisher: Terrific idea--I'll put it on my list. Thanks.
washingtonpost.com: Owens 35 percent; Franchot 33; Schaefer 32
Lancelot Link: "Sensible?: There ain't nothing sensible about that hair!"
William Donald, are you posting in Fisher's chat?
Marc Fisher: He may have more time to join us here on the big board. It's still a very tight race, but at the moment, Schaefer is trailing his two challengers. With about 30 percent of precincts reporting, it's Janet Owens 35 percent, Peter Franchot 33 percent and the old man himself at 31 percent. Note that this is without many votes counted in Montgomery, where Franchot could be expected to dominate.
Va.: Marc, I am amazed as to why Jack Johnson still is seen as a serious contender for re-election as Prince George's County Executive. I have seen him duck debates (literally and figuratively), deflect responsibility to others, ignore the outrageous crime problem in the county, and basically pretend that all his job requires is to attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies. The man is a complete failure, and it is pretty obvious that the county needs real leadership. Prince George's is the most affluent majority-black county in the nation, so why does Johnson still have a good chance of winning re-election against the much better and articulate Rushern Baker?
Marc Fisher: This race remains extremely tight. With about 35 percent of precincts reporting, Johnson is up by 51 percent to Baker's 49 percent. Even if Johnson pulls it out, it's a remarkable challenge. But your question remains a good one--what exactly is his appeal? After all the scandals, after all the complaints about the police and the school system, how does Johnson do it? He's a master of working the Sunday church circuit, and he has stolen a page from Gov. Bobby Haircut's playbook, using attacks on the news media as a way of deflecting criticism and rallying emotional support for the image of himself as embattled black leader fighting against slanted white institutions.
It's relatively easy to volunteer: And don't forget that you can also get training to register voters or simply distribute forms. We own a business near the University of Maryland and offer the forms to students and at events.
Marc Fisher: Great--do you get good response from students?
Glover Park: I'm all for concerned citizens running for public office, but don't you think it's interesting that for all the people posting in community message boards, forums and blogs in support of Jonathan Rees in DC's Ward 3, right now he only has FIFTEEN votes?
It's almost as though he was posting all those messages himself! I, for one, am utterly embarrassed that the city gave him $500 to run the campaign he did. Goodnight Jonathan Rees.
Marc Fisher: Thanks, Mr. Rees.
Voted without a problem this morning about 8 a.m. at Lake Seneca Elementary in Germantown. Very light volume, which is fortunate because our older poll workers were not handling the computerized voter rolls very well. As far as the previous poster on the Tom Perez issue, poll workers were handing out a slip of paper that explained that any votes for Perez would be thrown out due to the court decision. This looked to be something official that was printed up. Wonder if it was forgotten along with the Authorization Cards this morning at other precincts.
Perez is not finished, though. Watch for him to run again for an office near you. He's a formidable candidate and has been a strong county council member.
Silver Spring, Md.: I saw and heard from far too many people not able to vote today in Montgomery county. I'm not one to get bent out of shape very easily, but I think this election isn't a valid one. I think the results should be overturned and done over again. Any chance this could happen?
Marc Fisher: Hard to imagine--those candidates who protested got the relief they sought, an extension of voting hours.
Petworth, D.C.: Any early predictions on who runs and/or wins in Ward 4 in the special election?
Marc Fisher: Not Linda Cropp.
Alexandria, Va.: What happens to Cropp now? Is she off the council entirely? Or has she just given up the chairmanship? And if she is off the council, do you think she'll try to win her old job back in the next election?
Marc Fisher: Her term as chairman expires at the end of this year and that will mark the end of her career in D.C. politics. She has talked for some time about wanting to retire to her vacation home in Ocean City and she's given every indication that that's what she'll do.
I didn't vote for Mary Cheh, but I'm glad that she got a near-majority (46 percent reported right now). Ditto for Tommy Wells and Tommy Thomas. D.C.'s practically-one-party political system means that incumbents are nearly impossible to dislodge, and that the only turnover on the council comes when Council members decide to move on. What usually follows is a crowded field, with the new incumbent picked by a very small number of voters. I guess this year was different.
I know a lot of incumbents in a lot of places are undefeatable, but D.C. seems to have a structural problem. Do you see any change forthcoming to make our races more competitive?
I'm getting results from WTOP.com. I can't find them on either The Post or the DCBOEE Web sites.
Marc Fisher: These were highly competitive races and in at least a couple of the contests, there were some very good candidates. It's true that some incumbents seem deeply entrenched, but I'd argue that that's less true in the District than in most places, certainly less true than in almost all congressional races around the country.
Seems to me D.C. voters were very discerning today. They sensed a difference in style and approach between Kathy Patterson and Vincent Gray, and they saw through Scott Bolden's racially-tinged populism and held their noses and voted for the underwhelming but straightforward Phil Mendelson.
Ward 3: A "victory for the silent, pro-development majority"? Never thought you were a Nixon man, Marc.
Marc Fisher: How often in life do you get to use that phrase and mean it? Gotta grab the opportunities when they come along.
Comptroller race...: Seeing the results, I now regret this, but as one of the 2/3 of Maryland Democrats casting their vote primarily to get Schaefer out, I voted for Owens, even though I like Franchot better, because most polls had Owens leading, and I felt like a vote for Franchot would be dividing the vote the wrong way.
Everyone has mentioned MoCo being open an extra hour having an effect on the early results, but would Baltimore City (also extended an hour) not skew towards Schaefer?
Marc Fisher: Yes, probably, but Montgomery is likely to skew even more so for Franchot. So the fat lady has not yet sung in this one. And I don't mean Mother Hubbard.
Washington, D.C.: You are mistaken. Jim Graham endorsed Fenty.
Marc Fisher: That's what I said. And that's what he did.
Franchot domination?: Gotta tell you, Marc, I wouldn't be so sure that the MoCo vote will seal the deal for Peter Franchot. For seven years (until late 2005) I lived right down the street from the guy, and the people in the neighborhood -hated- him. The whole time I lived there he might have said hello to me once; he never spoke to anyone unless it was reelection time (with the exception of his complaints about the bright light in his elderly neighbor's back yard). In his races for state legislature, he probably got fewer votes on his own block in Tacky Park than anywhere else in the state.
Marc Fisher: There are a number of folks in the Maryland legislature who very much share your view and it's by no means a lock that Franchot can come back tonight based just on the MoCo results. It looks like anyone can win this.
Alexandria, Va.: This remark will give away my age, because a young person wouldn't find it remarkable, but anyway . . .
Even though she lost and even though she might not have been a great mayor, it's pretty cool that a black woman was a credible candidate for mayor. (Atlanta's excellent mayor, Shirley Franklin, is another.)
Wouldn't have happened 50 years ago. Sometimes things really do get better.
Marc Fisher: True enough. It's also notable that Fenty is the first District-born and -raised mayor this city has had in the home rule era.
Old Dominion: I live in Virginia and I always look forward to the baseball questions in your regular chat, so I don't know what I'm doing here tonight... but thanks for spending a few extra hours with us.
Marc Fisher: And thank you--I've been so deep in electionland, I don't even know if the Nats won or lost. Though I could guess.
Marc Fisher: Well, we're going to wrap up this here chatorama for the evening and resume with you on Washington Post Radio in a few hours. We'll have analysis all morning long, including an in-depth discussion of the results at 10:30 a.m. And there's a ton of info coming your way in the morning paper. Back here with you on Potomac Confidential Thursday at noon, where we can glean all the meaning you want.
Thanks for staying up with me. Get some sleep--or if you're like me, stay at the machine till this Schaefer thing and those Prince George's and Montgomery county executive races settle.
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Book World Live
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Alexandra Robbins , author of The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids" will be online to field questions and comments about her book and the three semesters she spent with eight students at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md.
Journalist Alexandra Robbins is also the author of "Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, The Ivy League and Hidden Paths of Power" and "Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis."
Join Book World Live each Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET for a discussion based on a story or review in each Sunday's Book World section.
Alexandra Robbins: Hi and thanks for joining us! I'm going to try to answer as many questions as I can, but in case I don't get to yours, I should mention that I'll be answering questions and discussing The Overachievers this Friday, Sept. 15th, 7:30 pm, at the Bethesda Barnes & Noble. Okay, on to the questions...
New York, NY: How are the issues in The Overachievers similar to the issues in other books you've written?
Alexandra Robbins: I tend to focus on young people, and on giving a voice to groups of people who don't normally get their voices heard. In the case of "The Overachievers," many people simply assume that if you're a top-tier student, then you must be just fine. But a significant percentage of these students who look perfect on paper are dealing with identity issues that can emotionally cripple them.
Charlottesville, Va: I was top in my class at a private school, taking 4 AP courses my senior year (which was actually less than the administration wanted me to take). I was also pretty miserable: every night, I would wake up, seemingly paralysed and in terror until sleep returned. During the day I had palpitations. I didn't tell anyone; I was too embarrassed by my own weakness. It was only when I went to college (a top state school--thankfully I had enough sense not to try the Ivies) and these fits stopped that I realized they were panic attacks, not something wrong with my heart. I had been willing to put my health on jeopardy to maintain everyone's expectations. No one ever talked to me about stress management. They just assumed a teenager could handle it.
Alexandra Robbins: Exactly. People just assume if you're a "smart kid," then you must be fine. Too many kids told me about having panic attacks for the same reasons as you describe.
Incidentally, the year I began the reporting for The Overachievers, Whitman parents and administrators founded a group called StressBusters in order to teach kids - and parents! - about stress management and to increase awareness of the problem. I'm starting to hear that other schools around the country are beginning to incorporate similar measures, which I think is incredibly important in this era.
Washington DC: As someone who also read Newsweek's article last week about first grade, I find it appalling that so many parents are placing so much pressure on their children at such an early age and continue this until they graduate, Overachievers. What happened to actually having fun when you are young? I went to a great college, and I actually had fun while in high school.
Alexandra Robbins: That's a good point: overachiever culture is affecting students at increasingly younger ages. Somewhere along the line, society forgot to let kids be kids. Kids now are more like adults-in-training, overtested and overloaded. I heard 4-year-olds talk about the multiple private kindergarten interviews they had in one day. Six-year-olds complain of stress, eight-year-olds have day-planners, and at some elementary schools, students are so worried about standardized tests that on testing days up to two dozen students vomit on their test booklets.
Alexandra Robbins: I remember an afternoon when Frank was telling me about an old children's book he read in which a mother told her child to go outside and play. Frank was incredulous when he read that. He asked me, "Do parents actually tell their kids to go outside and play?"
Haddon Heights, NJ: In general, do you think the kids are self-motivated, or do you think there's alot of pressure from their parents? How much of the pressure parents place on a kid is driven by an unfulfilled desire of their own and how much is just a genuine effort to try and get their kid to understand that the world is a performance-oriented place? Shouldn't a parent pressure their kid a little bit, if they're not reaching?
Alexandra Robbins: Great question. It really depends on the family. I'd say most of the students whom I followed were self-motivated, though of the students around the country whom I interviewed, plenty told me stories about parental pressure. In many cases, parents don't realize they are pressuring their kids.
Regarding your last question, here's my analogy. If a parent has a child on a sports team, it's important to cheer for the child (and the rest of the team), and it's great to be in the stands and show support, simply by going to watch the game. If the child truly enjoys the sport, it's wonderful to give positive feedback and encourage him/her to develop skills. But there's a line that can be crossed. If a parent is barking instructions or criticism from the sidelines, that crosses a line. If a parent tries to persuade the kid to move up a level or to get extra training or to go to camps *when the child doesn't necessarily want to*, that crosses a line.
There's "Hey, I heard about this math competition that I thought you might be interested in," and then there's "I signed you up for a math competition and expect you to study every afternoon this week so that you win a medal." (And then, as readers of The Overachievers know, there's also, sadly, You didn't place in the top 15; therefore you deserve a beating. But that was an extreme case.)
San Francisco, Calif: Hi Alex,
Like the students in your book and yourself, I, too graduated from Walt Whitman High School. I know first-hand how much pressure Whitman parents place on their children. However, in my experience and based on my conversations with non-Whitman grads, I've concluded that Whitman is unlike any other high school in the country. Whitman is an abberation - a perfect storm of pressure-inducing factors - that is the exception, not the rule. Most American high school students are in fact underachieving, if you look at national testing trends. Do you think your research was broad enough to justify your conclusions?
Alexandra Robbins: Tim . . I think I was in your art class! Anyway, hi, and good question. I spent a lot of time talking with students and teachers outside of what some of the Whitman kids called "the Bethesda bubble" for precisely the reason you mention: I wanted to know if students in other areas of the country were experiencing the same issues. In addition to hundreds of individual interviews, I met with groups of students in states as varied as Vermont, Kentucky, and Texas. It turns out that these issues are indeed universal. In chapter 2, for instance, I have a scene from a group interview I did with students in a rural, impoverished town in New Mexico. Those kids were just as overwhelmed (stressed, panicked. . .) by overachiever culture as the students in Bethesda. Whitman, it turns out, isn't an exception at all. (The only reason I chose to follow students from Whitman was because, as my alma mater, it was the only school in the country where I would personally be able to observe what had changed in ten years.)
Also, I should make a point clear. The book isn't about overachieving students, exclusively. It's about how what I call "overachiever culture" is affecting various levels of students. For example, I believe overachiever culture has changed the school environment so that it is a two-tiered system: you're either a high-achieving student, or you're not. There's no middle ground anymore, and "average" students tend to get overlooked and slip through the cracks.
Washington, DC: Hi, I haven't read your book so I'm not sure if you address this, but I think it's important to talk about overachievers who push themselves harder than anyone else. When I was in high school, my parents used to tell me to relax and stop pulling all nighters, but I wouldn't accept anything less for myself than taking all AP classes and being (and generally having a leadership position) in 5 or 6 extracurriculars. It's only now, after 4 decent years of college (at a state school, luckily, not at an Ivy) and 3 miserable years of law school that I'm starting to realize that I don't have to push myself to the limit all the time. Even in college, having friends in all honors classes, we all used to "compete" for who was getting the least sleep. Parents aside, I think a lot of kids need lessons in balance.
Alexandra Robbins: I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Columbia, Md: The StressBusters groups sound good, but do they actually encourage kids to stop doing things and cut down on activities? At a certain point there's no way to manage over-scheduling. As an adult, I find that it's just an important to create a "to-not-do" list as it is to have a "to-do" list. The first step to realistic goals is realizing that you can't do it all.
Alexandra Robbins: To-not-do list! I love that! I need to start one of those for myself.
I believe StressBusters is indeed trying to get the message across that students don't have to do as much as they think they do; for example, you don't need a full load of AP courses. One interesting strategy they've worked on is providing less competitive and no-cut alternatives to things like the annual musical, varsity sports, etc. By offering outlets where students can get involved without the kind of commitment that's comparable to a part-time job, students can enjoy activities without feeling overwhelmed by them.
Washington, DC: Alex -- I read the book last Sunday -- it was very eye-opening and brought back some memories of my high school experience, both the academic and social dynamics. I grew up in an affluent area in northern New Jersey and went to a public high school in Northern New Jersey not dissimilar to Whitman (though, much smaller). I was valedictorian and remember a lot of the pressures I felt during my senior year as I juggled activities and had to make what at the time seemed like the most agonizing decision as far as college, which of course, with perspective, seems silly because it ended up being the only choice and worked out wonderfully. I hoped, from your opening chapter, that you would spend more time comparing and contrasting your own experience in the early 90s (and that of your peers) to the experiences of those you profiled. I could sense some differences on the margins through the book's details (such as, IM and cell phones allow the various characters of your book to communicate more rapidly and frequently than I ever did with friends and acquaintances). But, from my view, notwithstanding the higher selectivity rates of colleges and changing demographics, the question seems to be one of degree and not kind insofar as what has changed in the past 10 years. Would a similar book have not been written 10 years ago?
Alexandra Robbins: I found that the experience is much more intense and much more competitive than it was when I went to high school (which I guess is twelve years ago now). When I was in high school, I didn't feel like I had to pile on the APs in order to look good to colleges. High-achieving classmates didn't use private tutors. I had no qualms taking a few courses (like home ec, gym, art) that weren't offered as honors, and so didn't give the GPA an extra boost. Was it overwhleming at times to be a high school student? Sure. But was it at the frenzied level it is now? Definitely not. That's partly because of the increase in numbers: in only five years the number of students applying to college rose by 1.2 million.
Washington, DC: I was a high acheiver in a very competitive high school, a National Merit Scholar and entered college with sophomore standing from the 8 AP classes I'd taken- 6 in my senior year. I was also anorexic, and later had problems with depression, anxiety, and drug use. There were certain "perks" (like a full ride to college) but when I look back I am not convinced it was worth it.
Alexandra Robbins: You're not alone. The book has a section for which I interviewed many twentysomethings and thirtysomethings who had similar experiences and feel the same way as you do. The perfectionist workaholism that seems to characterize many students' lives is also a detriment once they exit the academic realm.
By the way, I learned something interesting while researching this book. A model student I interviewed in Kentucky told me about how she used anorexia and bulimia to cope with her school-induced stress. When I spoke to doctors about this, they told me that a high percentage of students with eating disorders are straight-A students.
Orono, Maine: How does the No Child Left Behind law fit in with your analysis of "overachiever culture"? Does it contribute to the culture? If so, is there anything positive about it?
Alexandra Robbins: Oh it certainly contributes to the culture. I'm glad you asked this. The emphasis on high-stakes testing is turning the classroom experience into one that is about teaching to the test. It's partly why so many schools have had to eliminate recess (which, by the way, has been shown to *increase* children's ability to focus and to learn in the classroom), not to mention other subjects that aren't tested, such as art, music, P.E. and even languages and social studies. It sends creativity and innovation out the window, as teachers often don't have time to address current events, or interesting tangents that students bring up in class. It has led to a rash of teacher and administrator cheating, because they are held directly accountable for student scores. I'll save the full rant for now (it's in the book), but I am not in favor of No Child Left Behind or the high-stakes testing culture that is, in my opinion, hurting our education system rather then helping it.
Memphis, Tenn: What are you working on now? And/or what Alexandra Robbins book will come out next?
Alexandra Robbins: I've decided to put book-writing on hold because I think it's so important to calm students and parents down about high school and the private school and college admissions processes. So I'm spending the school year lecturing at schools, conferences, etc. to get the word out. (You can email me through alexandrarobbins.com if you'd like me to let you know when I'm appearing in your area. I'll be in Memphis next month, actually.)
Baltimore, Md.: I, too, write about kids for a living and can't tell you how many times parents say "S/he has straight A's" when they are explaining why they don't have to worry about drugs, car accidents, etc. My friends in high school were the best in school, sure -- but they were also the best at drug-dealing, the best at bulimia, etc.
Alexandra Robbins: An important point.
Rockville, Md.: What do you think colleges and universities can do to remain competitive while reducing some of the stress that the process causes overachieving students?
Alexandra Robbins: Good question. The Overachievers has a long list of suggestions for parents, students, colleges, other schools, counselors, etc., but two of the biggest things I think colleges can do are to stop requiring SAT/ACT scores with applications and to put more resources into the nemtal health services departments.
Also, Harvard made an announcement just today that I think will begin to help: it is eliminating its early admissions program. Many students, Julie in particular, lamented the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't dilemma to applying early, which I believe also is unfair to students who need to be able to compare financial aid packages. I hope more schools will follow Harvard's lead.
College Park, Md: Hi Alex,
Do you talk at all about the schools and classmates
putting pressure on kids? I attended a private high school
in Montgomery County that focuses on college prep, and
every year they had us attend the senior awards ceremony
where they announced how much money the class had
been offered in scholarships, among other things. It
seemed like the whole focus of high school was "get into
college." There wasn't any learning for its own sake.
Alexandra Robbins: Yes, I do discuss that, and great point! You're so right, school isn't so much about learning for learning's sake. For many people, it's about getting into college, it's a race to get ahead. I compare it to the television show Survivor, where many students often feel like they have to outwit, outlast, and outplay their peers. A student in Virginia pointed out to me that the moment she stepped onto her high school grounds as a freshman, her entire experience was about the college admissions results four years down the road.
Washington, DC: Are you still in touch with the students you profiled? How do they feel about the book?
Alexandra Robbins: I'm still close with all of the students I followed, yes, and I'm incredibly proud of them. (Now that they're all away at college, I really miss them!) They all liked the book, and I got some eye-misting notes from a few of them who told me how much it meant to them.
After the book was published, I interviewed each of them again to ask them things such as what it was like to read about themselves, how they felt about the book, whether they would have done anything differently, the advice they have for other students, what they wish they had known in high school, etc. After reading The Overachievers (please not before! I don't want to spoil anything), you can go to alexandrarobbins.com to see these updates.
Washington, DC: I just wanted to say that this is an excellent topic. I have an older sister with a 9 year old son. The other day she told me that she makes him read the dictionary and will not allow him to get anything less then an A. I was upset by this because I felt this was too much pressure to be placing on a 9 year old. I want him to excel in school also but to me I thought this was over the limit. Our parents rarely encouraged good grades. By the time high school rolled around we stopped showing them our report cards. I understand she wants him to do better then her but I still think reading the dictionary daily is out of control.
Alexandra Robbins: To the person who wrote the question (which I haven't gotten to yet) about how else to know when the parental pressure line is crossed: This would be crossing that line.
Unfortunately, I've heard many stories like this. A Detroit tutor told me about parents who asked him to begin tutoring their son for the MCATs (the test that college students take for their med school applications). The boy was 10.
Washington, DC: In your research, did you find that guidance counselors are being taught to help kids with trying to do too much? Coaching them ti better balance and maybe even deal with pressuring parents (I know that last one seems like a sensitive issue, for teachers to tell students how to deal with their parents).
Alexandra Robbins: Frank and his brother were certainly grateful for their counselor's intervention, as was Ryland. I know that many counselors are trying their best to help students with these issues, but the ratio of counselors to students is woefully inadequate in many states. I think the US average is something like 1:250, and at least 1:1000 in California. As an aside, there has been research done that has shown that when counselors have to spend so much time administering and proctoring standardized tests (such as the No Child Left Behind exams), fewer students at their school go on to college.
Alexandra Robbins: Unfortunately, the hour's up and I've hit the end of the grace period. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in. I hope you enjoy the book, and I hope to meet you on Friday. take care!
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The buzz about Katie Couric has an oddly familiar ring to me. And to Barbara Walters, Connie Chung, Lynn Sherr and Judy Woodruff -- all of us women who have sat in a news anchor chair.
Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson, recent successors to the anchor chairs on NBC and ABC, didn't have anywhere near the same buildup or scrutiny. Nobody mentioned their clothes or hair, and nobody made anything of the fact that Gibson had been on a morning show, but Couric was criticized for not coming from prime-time news. Nobody mentioned the word gravitas. (Couric was accused of not having it.) Nobody made a fuss about Williams and Gibson's salaries, but much was made of Couric's $15 million.
Walters, who is writing her memoirs and has been reliving her TV news days, remembers that when she left NBC in 1976 for the co-anchor evening news job at ABC, she was offered half a million dollars for the anchor job and half a million for four specials a year. She was roundly criticized for making so much money. "I was vilified," said Walters.
At a time of turmoil in the Middle East, she landed interviews with Anwar Sadat and Golda Meir. It was a big coup. "I was killed for it," she said. People asked, "Why is she doing interviews on the evening news?"
Woodruff, who anchored the news on CNN with Bernard Shaw, recalls interviewing the mayor of Atlanta when she was a local anchor there, only to be told her skirt was too short.
"It hasn't changed that much," says Woodruff. "It does represent society to some degree. You try to take on the serious professional news and you're still female. And you can't look too good. When I was in Atlanta they told me to cut my hair. And I did. It comes with the turf. You know you will be judged by your appearance if you're a woman. I've lived it so long it's funny. But if you don't like to worry about hair and makeup and clothes, you should go into radio or print. "
One week ago today, Couric debuted with much ado as the first solo female anchor of a network evening news broadcast. Thirty-three years ago I became the country's first network anchorwoman, co-anchoring the "CBS Morning News" with Hughes Rudd. I was hired to "knock Barbara Walters off the air." Ha! (At the time, Walters was the "hostess" of the "Today" show. She and her co-host, Frank McGee, did not read the news and therefore were not considered anchors.)
Couric's publicity machine has drawn much attention. On a smaller scale, I had the same experience. My picture was on the covers of magazines, on the sides of buses, there were profiles of me in every paper, I did a promo tour around the country with Hughes, I was wildly overpromoted.
In a book I wrote later, "We're Going to Make You a Star," I recounted a conversation I had with Warren Beatty. I had visited with him on my promotional tour and he warned me that the overpromotion had set me up for failure, that people would be gunning for me. Just then there was a knock on the door. It was Paul Simon, the singer. "This is my friend Sally Quinn," said Warren, "Yeccchhhhh," said Simon. Beatty just looked at me and shrugged.
Walters, who nicely survived my brief stint as her competition, noted that when she later joined Harry Reasoner on ABC, "nobody wanted women at night. Harry thought it was demeaning and that women could not do news." She calls her time as anchor "the worst professional experience of my life."
But even then there were bright spots. "I began to get letters from women saying, 'Hang in there; if you can do it, we can do it,' " Walters said. Sometimes support came from unexpected places. Her favorite was a telegram saying "Don't let the bastards get you down." It was signed by John Wayne.
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The buzz about Katie Couric has an oddly familiar ring to me. And to Barbara Walters, Connie Chung, Lynn Sherr and Judy Woodruff -- all of us women who have sat in a news anchor chair.
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'Men in Trees': Definitely a Hazard
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This year's hands-down winner of the "What Were They Thinking?" Award is "Men in Trees," a halfhearted, feebleminded attempt at a situation comedy about that eternal and ever-fascinating struggle, the battle of the sexes. The creators of ABC's "Men in Trees," though, do seemingly everything they can think of to quash that fascination and declare the battle null and dull.
Brandishing all the wild, inventive wit of an encyclopedia entry on rock formations, the comedy stars Anne Heche as Marin Frist, a "relationship coach" who tosses off best-selling books with titles like "I'm Dating and So Can You." She also dispenses such dispensable counsel as, regarding desirable partners, "You can't always get the one you want." (You can't? What a shock! It might explain, though, why my letters to Granny Clampett always came back unopened.)
Anyway, in a baldly unlikely turn of events, Ms. Frist gets booked on a lecture tour of one small town in Alaska, a hamlet obviously patterned after the quaint and quirky setting of "Northern Exposure," to continue our tour among the ghosts of television past. Why would a publisher go to the expense of sending an author all that way to address an audience numbering about two dozen? So as to set up the premise for those laffs-aplenty we keep imagining, naively enough, are right around the corner.
Frist gets bad news soon after her arrival. Having brought her fiance's laptop along by mistake, she discovers photographic evidence that he has pretty much lost interest in her, as who wouldn't? Although supposedly an expert on handling such discomforting situations, the young woman -- whose parents named her after that county near San Francisco -- responds by getting drunk, making a fool of herself and walking on thin ice, literally. The ice gives way and a local hunk foolishly dives in to save her.
It's a nearly all-male town, so once Frist's broken heart has done a little mending, she realizes that her prospects might not be so gloomy after all. She knows the marriage is definitely off when a raccoon inexplicably breaks into her hotel room, steals her $10,000 wedding dress and drags it down the muddy main street of town. Why would she bring the dress to Alaska? Please. It might be explained in the script, but then your world-weary critic would have to go back and watch the thing all over again.
I'd sooner relive my pimpliest week of puberty.
Among other supposedly colorful local folk is a blabbery oaf who runs a radio talk show (shades of "Northern Exposure" yet again) and greets Frist with a hearty "Hey ho," quickly explaining that he was being friendly and not calling her a prostitute. She reacts by stepping into a puddle and getting her feet wet -- ha ha ha! -- thereby setting the tone for what writer Jenny Bicks tries to pass off as hilarity.
Even ignoring Heche's somewhat sleazy public past, she's not an actress who projects warmth or lovability on the screen. Sitcom veteran and reliable pro John Amos tries to help as an entrepreneur who operates a small airline, but he can only do so much. Heck, not even Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, were they with us today, could overcome the limitations of this awful show's premise, setting and slack, soggy dialogue.
The title, "Men in Trees," is seen on a warning sign meant to alert people below that pruning and trimming are going on above. "Beware 'Men in Trees' " would be even more appropriate. Please consider yourself warned.
Men in Trees (60 minutes) debuts with a special airing tonight at 10:02 (really) on Channel 7, then moves to Friday nights at 9.
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This year's hands-down winner of the "What Were They Thinking?" Award is "Men in Trees," a halfhearted, feebleminded attempt at a situation comedy about that eternal and ever-fascinating struggle, the battle of the sexes. The creators of ABC's "Men in Trees," though, do seemingly everything they can...
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Dog Shot, Killed After Charging Officer, Police Say
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A homeless Texan named Joe often preached about the Lord and hung out in Dupont Circle with his white dog, Precious. People say she was harmless. The same for Joe.
But a U.S. Park Police officer shot and killed Precious yesterday after the unleashed, 6-year-old pit bull charged him shortly before 6 p.m. about 35 feet from the circle's fountain, police said. Witnesses said the park was filled with people.
"When I . . . saw it, I was shocked," said Carolyn Stromberg, 27, who was sitting by the fountain with her brother. "I started crying. We hadn't heard any dogs attacking."
She said the dog's owner ran toward the animal, asking: "Why did you shoot my dog? He was just chasing squirrels."
Stromberg said she didn't witness the events leading up to the shooting but insisted that when she saw the officer aim his gun, the dog was not moving.
Park Police Lt. Art Jacobsen said an officer patrolling the area had told the owner to put the dog on a leash, as is required by law. The dog then "aggressively ran toward the officer," who fired a shot, Jacobsen said.
Later, the dog's owner, who declined to give his last name, lay in front of the dog's body, which was covered with a blue blanket, until the Humane Society took the dog away.
"She's gone now, she's dead, she's dead,'' Joe said, sobbing. He refrained from blaming police, saying, "It's got to be a misunderstanding."
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A homeless Texan named Joe often preached about the Lord and hung out in Dupont Circle with his white dog, Precious. People say she was harmless. The same for Joe.
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Mountain Mania Awaits Terrapins
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As Maryland prepares to enter a hostile environment at No. 5 West Virginia on Thursday, the team's veterans have been quick to dish out advice to the younger players on how to handle the situation.
Take, for instance, running back Lance Ball, who plans on counteracting the West Virginia fans' penchant for throwing objects at opposing players by wearing his helmet wherever he goes -- "on the bus, in the locker room, while going to the bathroom."
"I've been to Morgantown," Ball said. "It's pretty ugly down there."
Linebacker Wesley Jefferson paints a similar, though somewhat more optimistic, picture.
"It's really going to be an electrifying feeling, just to know all those people are going to be there screaming and hating our guts," he said.
Despite differences in perception, the Terrapins know that they'll be facing a strong 12th man presence when they visit Milan Puskar Stadium in a nationally televised game.
In response, Maryland Coach Ralph Friedgen pumped electronic crowd noise into the Terps' practice field yesterday, a tactic typically reserved just for two-minute drills at Friday practices.
"I personally like to play in that environment," Friedgen said. "I think it's what college football is all about."
Aside from the noise and the players' musings, there were plenty of signs around College Park yesterday of the upcoming matchup, including the annual playing of John Denver's rendition of "Country Roads" at the start of practice.
"It's not only playing in that environment, it's playing the hype," Friedgen said. "There's a certain feeling or atmosphere on a Thursday night game."
Friedgen compared the Thursday night game environment to the feeling of Monday night games in the NFL, an experience he had as offensive coordinator of the San Diego Chargers.
"Chester McGlockton, we couldn't block the guy," said Friedgen, remembering Monday night games against the former Raiders defensive lineman. "Sunday we could block him. Monday night, no way."
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As Maryland prepares to enter a hostile environment at No. 5 West Virginia, the team's veterans have been quick to dish out advice to the younger players.
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Busy Day At Polls Likely in Md., D.C.
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A bumper crop of candidates -- and the deluge of TV and radio ads, mail and phone calls promoting them -- is expected to yield healthy primary election turnouts today in Maryland and the District, according to election officials and political analysts.
Polls will open in both jurisdictions at 7 a.m. to what forecasters say will be mild, dry weather. By the time the precincts close at 8 p.m., Democratic voters in the District will have picked their choices for a new mayor, a new D.C. Council chairman and for three open council seats. That, combined with a highly contested race for an at-large spot, could radically change the composition of the city's leadership. "This is a watershed election for D.C.," Democratic pollster Ron Lester said.
Ronald Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, said turnout could exceed 45 percent in the heavily Democratic city, where primaries are often the equivalent of a general election.
In Maryland, state election officials expect about 33 percent of the roughly 3 million registered voters to trek to the polls, a greater percentage than in 2002 and 1998 but still shy of 1994, when 40 percent voted in the primaries.
"There is a higher degree of political saturation than we've seen in a long time," said Matthew A. Crenson, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University. "A tremendous amount of money has been invested in these campaigns. There's been lots of mail, lots of candidates up on television."
The eight suburban Maryland counties surrounding Washington have produced about 770 candidates for the primary, including those running for the U.S. Senate and other offices. The District has more than 50.
In Maryland, turnout could vary considerably by party and somewhat by region. Derek Walker, executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party, said he expects turnout for his party's primaries to be "quite robust," perhaps as high as half of the 1.7 million registered Democrats statewide.
Audra Miller, a Maryland GOP spokeswoman said turnout among the 900,000 or so GOP voters would probably be modest by comparison, given what she described as "unity" behind the party's leading statewide candidates.
In the District, Lester said, the spirited nature of the mayoral race has energized voters, particularly in areas such as Ward 4, home to council member Adrian M. Fenty and council Chairman Linda W. Cropp, the leading candidates.
The negative tone of the mayor's race also has had an impact. "People get fired up when you attack their candidate in D.C.," Lester said.
In 1998, when Anthony A. Williams was first elected mayor, 34 percent of Democratic voters went to the polls. But turnout was far higher in 1994 -- 52 percent of Democratic voters -- when Marion Barry signed up thousands of new voters to stage his comeback to the mayor's office.
In Maryland, interest on the Democratic side is being driven by several hotly contested statewide primaries, including a U.S. Senate race that includes Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin and former congressman and NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume; a race for comptroller that could end the 50-year career of political legend William Donald Schaefer; and a competitive attorney general's contest.
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A bumper crop of candidates -- and the deluge of TV and radio ads, mail and phone calls promoting them -- is expected to yield healthy primary election turnouts today in Maryland and the District, according to election officials and political analysts.
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Americans May Be More Religious Than They Realize
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A survey released yesterday posits the idea that the United States -- already one of the most religious nations in the developed world -- may be even less secular than previously suspected.
The Baylor University survey looked carefully at people who checked "none" when asked their religion in polls. Sociologists have watched this group closely since 1990, when their numbers doubled, from 7 percent of the population to 14 percent. Some sociologists said the jump reflects increasing secularization at the same time that American society is becoming more religious.
But the Baylor survey, considered one of the most detailed ever conducted about religion in the United States, found that one in 10 people who picked "no religion" out of 40 choices did something interesting when asked later where they worship: They named a place.
Considering that, Baylor researchers say, the percentage of people who are truly unaffiliated is more like 10.8 percent. The difference between 10.8 percent and 14 percent is about 10 million Americans.
"People might not have a denomination, but they have a congregation. They have a sense of religious connection that is formative to who they are," said Kevin D. Dougherty, a sociologist at Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion and one of the survey's authors. Baylor is a leading Baptist university, located in Waco, Tex.
The finding reflects the new challenges involved in trying to categorize religiosity in the United States, where people increasingly blend religions, shop for churches and worship in independent communities. Classic labels such as mainline, evangelical and unaffiliated no longer have the same meaning.
For example, 33 percent of Americans worship at evangelical congregations, which sociologists say are places that espouse an inerrant Bible, the importance of evangelizing and the requirement of having a personal relationship with Jesus. But only 15 percent of respondents to the Baylor survey said the term "evangelical" describes their religious identity.
Scholars have been saying for some time that the relevance of denomination is decreasing. But the Baylor survey, which asks about such subjects as God's "personality" and what people pray about, adds to a debate about what that means. It reveals the complex ways Americans describe their religiosity, and the minefield for today's scholars in trying to measure it. Is someone religious if they attend church? If they believe in God? If they identify with a particular religious group? What if they do one but not the others? Which gets more weight?
Academics who study religious demographics disagree about the "nones," and the Baylor study won't end that debate. Some say they are mostly secular -- those who aren't atheist but don't consider religion important. Some say they are in interfaith families and have mixed identities.
Some say they are new immigrants, including many from China, and second-generation Hispanics.
One thing the experts agree on: "Nones" tend to vote liberal but tend not to identify with a political party.
"What is most associated with 'no religion' from a political point of view is independence," said Barry Kosmin, principal investigator of a telephone survey that queried tens of thousands of respondents. His American Religious Identification Survey found that the number of "no religion" Americans jumped from 14.3 million in 1990 to 29.4 million in 2001. "If you don't belong religiously, you don't belong politically," he said.
Among the most innovative aspects of the Baylor survey, say scholars who know about it, are questions about how Americans describe God's personality. Respondents were offered 26 attributes ranging from "absolute" to "wrathful," and were asked whether God is directly involved in and angered by their lives and what happens in the world.
The researchers separated God's attributes into four categories: wrathful, involved, benevolent and uninvolved. They found that the largest category of people -- 31 percent -- was made up of those who said they believe God is both wrathful and highly involved in human affairs.
Beliefs about God's personality are powerful predictors, according to the survey. Those who considered God engaged and punishing were likely to have lower incomes and less education, to come from the South and to be white evangelicals or black Protestants. Those who believed God to be distant and nonjudgmental were more likely to support increased business regulation, environmental protection and the even distribution of wealth.
The changing demographics of the United States demand different polls as well, religion pollsters say. For example, approximately 3 percent of Americans observe faiths other than Christianity and Judaism. While still small, this group is growing rapidly, and scholars say that if current trends continue, that number could reach 10 percent in coming decades.
According to Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg, who focuses on religion, that is already the figure for Americans younger than 25.
Questions about the frequency of attending religious services aren't as relevant to Hindus and Buddhists, who often have worship spaces in their homes. Questions about weekly prayer services aren't as relevant to Muslims, who pray five times a day, she said.
John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life focusing on religion and politics, said: "The broader point is that this country that's always been religiously diverse is becoming religiously diverse in a new way."
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A survey released yesterday posits the idea that the United States -- already one of the most religious nations in the developed world -- may be even less secular than previously suspected.
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In Canada, All of Stratford's a Stage
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The words "endless summer" and "Canada" don't usually appear in the same sentence. But while other summer theaters are folding up their tents, the Stratford Festival of Canada in south-central Ontario is still going strong. In August the company premiered half a dozen plays, almost an entire second season. They, and others that opened as long ago as April, will run through mid-November.
Though the weather after Labor Day is hardly the stuff of Beach Boys songs, Stratford is a perfect destination for an autumn getaway. The crowds ebb, leaving room at the toniest restaurants and choicest bed-and-breakfasts. Ticket prices drop, and fall colors have their way with the omnipresent maples.
Ontario is Anglophone Canada, but few places in the province -- or the continent, for that matter -- give English greater pride of place than Stratford, where Shakespeare is big business. For seven months each year, the town -- 90 miles west of Toronto on, yes, the Avon River -- is Lourdes for North American lovers of the Bard. The festival ensemble performs new works as well as classics, but the draw is clearly the man who either did or didn't write all those plays while Elizabeth was queen.
Stratford is that rarity, a charming destination for couples and families that's also a perfect place to go when traveling alone. Any local B&B -- and there are dozens -- forms an instant social circle, because you're all there for the same reason: to see plays and talk about them. Even on the occasion when every other room at the inn was occupied by several generations of a big family, I was swept into conversations about the virtues of a bare-stage "Hamlet," anti-Semitism in "The Merchant of Venice" (was it the production or the play?) and whether an "Othello" set during World War II was faithful to the original. Someone has always just seen the play you have tickets for that afternoon, and strongly worded opinions are easy to come by.
Likewise, you may find yourself conversing between dinner tables or at a bar with someone who introduces herself by saying, as one woman did to me, "You've been at every play with me this week -- what did you think of 'Don Juan'?" In Stratford, "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" is not a pickup line but the likely truth.
This could, and sometimes does, get to be a bit much. Those who attend the festival year after year insist on the superiority of their particular B&B (or of the 1978 production of "Titus Andronicus") with an energy disproportionate to the subject's importance. And, in Stratford as in Washington, people are apt to claim acquaintance with stars of the primary industry, or at least refer to them in a confidential manner: Don't be surprised if someone asks whether you thought "Brian" was really up to snuff as Malvolio.
A bookseller approved my selection of Moss Hart's show-biz autobiography "Act One" with the observation, "That's what [festival artistic director] Richard Monette always buys as a gift." But if you love going to the theater, these affectations are a small price to pay for the pleasure of being surrounded by others who don't regard your passion as a quaint remnant of the days before DVDs.
The festival now operates on four stages. Right on the swan-laden river is the Festival Theatre, whose projecting roof beams make it look like a solid version of the tent in which the company's first performances took place. Downtown, the proscenium-style stage Avon shares a building with the tiny Studio Theatre, where productions may spill into the aisles between its steeply raked seats. And an old warehouse halfway between the two contains the Tom Patterson, named for the man who in 1953 decided that a backwater with a Ford factory and a printing plant for Harlequin romances should also become a tourist destination.
The multiplicity of venues assures that there's more theater in any given week than a sane human being can possibly take in, so pace yourself. If you attend a matinee and an evening performance every day of your visit, by the end you'll be hard-pressed to remember whether you saw "As You Like It" or "Much Ado About Nothing."
Innumerable activities supplement the plays. During the summer, choose from scholarly lectures, "table talks" with the actors and creative staff, and courses (for children and adults) on everything from Shakespearean text to prop manufacture. By now the hectic pace has subsided, but there are still backstage tours, costume and prop shop tours, and even mock dress rehearsals for "Twelfth Night."
Take some time just to stroll around town, whose modest pleasures are the perfect counterpoint to intense theatergoing. There's nothing you have to see, so you can check out the exhibit of actor caricatures at the Gallery Stratford -- or not; go paddle-boating on the Avon -- or not; browse in used-book stores, Inuit art galleries and collectibles shops -- or not. The town square boasts a florid neo-Gothic Revival city hall, now converted to a visitors center, and the main drag of Ontario Street is anchored by another crenellated Victorian-century castle, which turns out to be the Perth County Courthouse. Near the courthouse, the city maintains a riverside Shakespearean garden ("There's rosemary, that's for remembrance . . ."), while in front of the Festival Theatre bloom lush floral beds designed and maintained by the festival staff.
It's a pretty place to take one's ease, unassuming midwestern Canada straight out of Alice Munro, that somehow manages not to be precious despite a riot of Bardic allusions (the natural foods store is called Gentle Rain, as in "The quality of mercy is not strain'd/It droppeth as the gentle rain . . . "). But plan to shop in the morning: Many stores close at 5 and all but a few by 6, meaning that once you've taken in a matinee, there's no time left to spend money.
Except in the restaurants, of which Stratford has a plenitude. A culinary school nearby produces a bumper crop of chefs to vie for the tourist trade.
So pack a sweater and go. For Autumn's lease hath all too short a date.
Kelly Kleiman last wrote for Travel about a Chicago cheese bar.
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Though the weather after Labor Day is hardly the stuff of Beach Boys songs, the Stratford Festival of Canada is a perfect destination for an autumn getaway.
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Kicking Themselves
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The glitz was worthy of a Super Bowl, with 90,608 fans waving flags on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, a national television audience tuning into the first Monday night game of the regular season, and Redskins owner Daniel Snyder hobnobbing at FedEx Field with his new Hollywood pals, actors Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx. That pageantry was the backdrop for the Washington Redskins' grand unveiling of another record-setting offseason splurge -- from associate head coach Al Saunders to a bevy of prized free agents -- and the start to a season of great expectations.
From an entertainment standpoint, America was not disappointed, but to the Redskins, the evening was a failure. They lost, 19-16, to the Minnesota Vikings last night, distinguishing themselves neither on offense nor defense, with Vikings place kicker Ryan Longwell connecting from 31 yards in the final minute, and beleaguered place kicker John Hall missing wide left from 48 yards, with much improvement required when the Redskins open their grueling NFC East schedule Sunday night at Dallas.
Washington, with Coach Joe Gibbs no longer running the offense and coming off its first playoff appearance since 1999, moved the ball at times, and received a lift when tailback Clinton Portis returned from injury to assume a prominent role. Yet the Redskins faltered in the red zone, settling twice for field goals with the ball inside the 10. The defense continued its preseason hangover, when the team went 0-4 and opposing offenses plundered on third down. The Vikings repeatedly converted on third and long, and were 9 for 17 overall in third-down situations.
"They were just a little better than we were tonight," said quarterback Mark Brunell (17 of 28 for 163 yards without a touchdown or interception).
What had been a nip and tuck game began unraveling for the Redskins late in the fourth quarter. The Vikings began a drive at their 33, and running back Chester Taylor (who managed 31 carries despite his small frame) took over. He squirted free for 10 yards, and, with the Vikings facing third and nine from around midfield, the Redskins' defense again wilted. Quarterback Brad Johnson, a former Redskin, hit wide receiver Troy Williamson near the first-down marker, but cornerback Carlos Rogers could not bring him down, continuing the drive and what was an ugly night for the second-year defender.
"One of our major things is getting off the field on third down," Rogers said. "We didn't do that good at all tonight."
Safety Sean Taylor picked up a 15-yard face-mask penalty on the play as well, putting Minnesota in range for Longwell, one of its big free agent signings, to convert his game-winning kick.
"I didn't pull his [face mask], but they called it," Taylor said. "That's how it is." The Redskins, out of timeouts, scrambled for a possible tie, getting Hall, injured much of the last two seasons and erratic in the preseason, an opportunity from 48 yards, but his attempt was not close.
"It was kind of into a crosswind," said Longwell, watching Hall's kick from the other sideline. "I knew he'd have to hit it perfect."
The Redskins' defense opened the game in preseason form as well, its summer hangover bleeding into the first series of the regular season. The Vikings carved up 80 yards for the opening score, converting three straight times on third and long. Johnson attacked the secondary all evening, a strategy made all the more inviting with top corner Shawn Springs injured and safety Pierson Prioleau, who serves as Washington's nickel back, suffering what might be a season-ending knee injury on the opening kickoff.
Prioleau's replacement, Mike Rumph, a free agent signed midway through camp, was an immediate target, and Williamson burned him on a 46-yard reception before Taylor scored easily from four yards (a botched exchange on the extra point left the Vikings with a 6-0 lead). Minnesota did not score another touchdown in the half, but that had as much to do with mental errors as Gregg Williams's defense. Twice Williamson beat Rogers downfield -- once for a sure touchdown -- but he muffed both passes, while penalties stalled other drives, and pricey free agents Adam Archuleta (safety) and Andre Carter (end) languished and the pass rush was null.
The Redskins' offense countered Minnesota's opening drive with a precise march of its own, but had to settle for a field goal, a theme throughout the night. Portis followed a hefty block from fullback Mike Sellers to score on a sweep from five yards in the second quarter, but two drives later the Redskins stalled at the 9, with Brunell's fumble wasting one play; Hall hit from 27 yards for a 13-6 lead at a time when a touchdown might have put the Vikings, in their debut under Coach Brad Childress, away.
Another drive died at the 4, when safety Darren Sharper dislodged a touchdown reception from Santana Moss with a vicious hit.
"We left too many points on the field," tackle Jon Jansen said. "We've got to learn to capitalize on those."
Longwell nailed a 46-yard field goal as the first half expired, and the Vikings sliced into the defense again to start the third quarter, benefiting from strong field position again on another inconsistent night from punter Derrick Frost. Washington's safeties and corners were vulnerable throughout the drive; Billy McMullen beat Archuleta over the middle for a 22-yard gain and Rogers was fooled by Johnson's three-step drop, expecting a short pass and not the 20-yard lob to Marcus Robinson, who had a few steps on the defensive back for the touchdown. Minnesota led 16-13, and the Redskins, who finished with only 266 total yards on offense, could not dent the end zone again.
"It was just a matter of us not getting it done as an offense," said wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, by far the most productive of the 2006 free agent class last night and a dervish on punt returns. "That was the bottom line."
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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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Eugene Robinson - A War of Words - washingtonpost.com
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There was a time, not so long ago, when no one ever spoke of an American "homeland." During World War II there was a home front, and of course there has always been a heartland between the two heartless coasts, but no one thought of our big-shouldered cities, traffic-choked suburbs, purple mountains' majesties and amber waves of grain as anything called a homeland.
The United States was always a place for people who had left their homelands behind, a polyglot, rainbow-colored nation whose defining characteristics were vitality, mobility, dynamism and the restless urge to push toward the next frontier. But now we inhabit an official homeland, with an official Department of Homeland Security to
"Homeland" is one of the burdens left to us by the trauma of Sept. 11, 2001. Words are all we have to give shape to reality, and because we had no words for what happened five years ago -- by definition, language falls short of the unimaginable -- a new lexicon had to be developed. I am convinced that much of this new language, by accident or design, has the effect of clouding our view of our enemies and ourselves. We need to begin choosing our words more carefully, and we need to discard the ones that do not serve us well.
The word homeland is a vivid but relatively inconsequential example -- less a distortion than an infelicitous choice that makes us sound as if we had quaint harvest rituals and a colorful national costume. It strikes an odd note, with its vague connotations of ethnic solidarity and ancient nationalism, and it gives off more than a whiff of us-vs.-them. This nation does have enemies from whom we need vigilant protection, but something more like "domestic security" would have done just fine, with less baggage.
At the other end of the scale, by far the most fateful post-Sept. 11 coinage is "war on terrorism." The phrase that has come to define our era is entirely suspect, except perhaps the "on."
President Bush wasted little time in declaring that the Sept. 11 attacks were acts of war that could be met only with a military response -- a war on terrorism. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq certainly fit the rubric of "war," but the most effective ongoing action against al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups has been a worldwide exercise in law enforcement -- surveillance, arrests, detentions, interrogations, prosecutions.
Witness the recent arrests of would-be airline bombers in London, or the fact that so many of the high-value terror suspects held until recently in secret CIA prisons were captured in Pakistan, an ostensible ally. We should call this police work what it is, although that might make it harder to ignore such principles as habeas corpus and due process.
As for the rest of the phrase, terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy. All terrorists are alike in only one regard -- they practice terrorism. Stubbornly refusing to acknowledge important distinctions among them strikes me as insanely self-defeating.
George W. Bush certainly is no great orator, but the White House does understand how language can be used to shape reality. So when the National Security Agency's unprecedented program of electronic eavesdropping was revealed, it was quickly dubbed a "terrorist surveillance program" -- as if somehow, magically, the NSA's computers could deduce who was unquestionably a terrorist without ever happening to overhear a single conversation involving someone who is innocent.
Then there's the matter of what is and is not a "civil war." By laying down this yardstick to judge the war in Iraq, the White House has focused its critics' attention on an irrelevancy. What difference does it make whether unrelenting bloody chaos meets the dictionary definition of a civil war? No difference at all to the next Iraqi civilian killed, or the next American soldier.
People whom it's inconvenient to call criminal suspects or prisoners of war are instead "detainees," as if they've been forced to stay an hour after school. Torture, as spelled out in international agreements, is merely an "alternative" method of questioning. And the steady climb in the death toll in Iraq is "real progress."
On Sunday, Dick Cheney said the reason there have been no attacks in five years is that the administration has done a good job on "homeland security, in terms of the terrorist surveillance program we've put in place, in terms of the financial tracking we put in place, and because of our detainee policy."
There was a time, not so long ago, when people would have scratched their heads and wondered what on earth the vice president was talking about.
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There was a time, not so long ago, when no one ever spoke of an American "homeland." During World War II there was a home front, and of course there has always been a heartland between the two heartless coasts, but no one thought of our big-shouldered cities, traffic-choked suburbs, purple...
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President Tries to Win Over a War-Weary Nation
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President Bush's Oval Office speech last night was the culmination of two weeks of efforts to rally the nation behind his policies and presidency by summoning the memory of Sept. 11, 2001. Five years after that indelible day, however, this president's capacity to move the public is severely diminished.
There were echoes of the language and logic Bush invoked five years ago when he united a stricken nation looking to him for both comfort and leadership. But he was speaking to a different nation last night.
VIDEO | President Bush addressed the nation on Monday evening, the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Setbacks in Iraq have soured a majority of Americans on that mission. Falsely optimistic predictions of progress have undermined the administration's credibility. A majority of Americans question fundamental elements of the president's argument, including his contention that Iraq is the central front in the campaign against terrorism.
Cumulatively, it leaves decidedly uncertain whether this week's flood of rhetoric and remembrance can alter Bush's perilous circumstances -- at a critical moment for the future of the Iraq mission and the president's own domestic standing 56 days before the midterm elections.
"The power of his rhetoric is in marked decline, and that's no reflection on the quality of what he says, which is still very high," said Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a neoconservative scholar who has been sympathetic to Bush's anti-terrorism policies. "There's a desire in the country for more deeds, not more words. . . . We are losing a war right now, and there is no way to get around that."
Three previous times in the past 18 months, as public opinion has slipped, White House officials have announced that Bush would embark on a renewed effort to explain and defend his Iraq and anti-terrorism policies. None produced a lasting positive effect on how Americans view either the president or his policies.
The events of Sept. 11, 2001, provided Bush with many of the rhetorical high notes of his administration, from his bullhorn exhortation atop the rubble of Ground Zero three days after the attacks to the stern eloquence of his speech to Congress six days later in which he put the nation on the road to war.
With his five speeches in the past two weeks, including last night's, Bush has sought to use the fifth anniversary of those attacks to put the war in Iraq in a broader and more politically viable context while offering his interpretation of where the country stands in its long-term confrontation with terrorism.
White House officials are hopeful that the round of speeches will have some impact on moving public opinion. They said that Bush has presented an enormous amount of information and background about Iraq and terrorism, much of which they believe will come as news to many Americans with only a general impression of events.
"I am not so sure that the views [about the Iraq war and terrorism] are chiseled in stone," said White House press secretary Tony Snow. "There's been a lot of debate -- one side that may not have been fully represented in ours. . . . It seems that on a lot of things, people may not have fully understood the approach the president took and his thinking."
Both Snow and White House counselor Dan Bartlett singled out the effort to quote the terrorists' own words as a tactic they hope will break through to ordinary Americans who may not be aware of the terrorists' aims. "We may be having a debate in this country about whether Iraq is part of the war on terrorism, but our enemies believe it is," Bartlett said. "We were trying to transcend the political debate in Washington by letting the words of the enemies speak for themselves."
Polls show how the political ground has shifted over time. The Pew Research Center began charting early in Bush's presidency public confidence in his leadership. Bush enjoyed a solid majority until the summer of 2005, when the public was roughly divided. In February 2001, 60 percent of Americans said they saw Bush as trustworthy, compared with just 28 percent who did not. By last month, a majority, 52 percent, said they did not believe he was trustworthy.
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President Bush's Oval Office speech last night was the culmination of two weeks of efforts to rally the nation behind his policies and presidency by summoning the memory of Sept. 11, 2001. Five years after that indelible day, however, this president's capacity to move the public is severely...
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America Marks a Grim Anniversary
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In three wounded communities yesterday, the nation commemorated the worst terrorist attack in American history, as bells sounded, thousands murmured prayers and the families of victims once again read the names of their lost loved ones.
On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 hijackings, there was an aching familiarity to the rituals. In New York, family members recited 2,749 names, punctuated by violins and the wail of bagpipes, to the drawn and tearful faces of the families of the victims.
President Bush joined the commemoration in New York, journeying to Ground Zero on Sunday night to lay a wreath and then sharing Monday breakfast with 75 firefighters at a firehouse, nicknamed Fort Pitt, on the Lower East Side. He later flew to Pennsylvania to lay a wreath in the Shanksville farm field where United Airlines Flight 93 hurtled to Earth, and then he traveled on to the Pentagon.
Families and firefighters and cops in New York filed slowly down ramps into the three-story-deep pit that is Ground Zero, gray slurry walls rising around them. Bells sounded at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m. -- the moments when the hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers. On the podium, Carmen Suarez glanced skyward as she finished reading 10 names of those who died.
Her husband, police officer Ramon Suarez, died in those towers.
"If I could build a staircase to heaven I would," Suarez said, "just so I could quickly run up there to have you back in my arms."
Rain fell in Shanksville and cool and clouds cloaked Washington, but in New York it was one of those eerie carbon-copy days: a slight chill of autumn, a cloudless sky, wind tugging at flags, just like five years ago. Except that yesterday, every flag in the city was at half-staff.
Bush and Vice President Cheney paid homage to the dead. And as during the past few weeks, they did not hesitate to try to draw a connection between the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq.
New York Battalion Chief Jim Savastano, who knew 100 of the 343 firefighters who died at Ground Zero, sat next to Bush at the breakfast of scrambled eggs and French toast; he recalls talk of war. "He talked about how he's going to continue the war on terrorism," Savastano said. "He's not going to give up the fight."
Cheney observed the day at the Pentagon, where five years ago American Airlines Flight 77 rocketed into the facade, burrowing its way through the building's outer rings and killing 184 people. Five hundred family and friends of the lost sat in a cold drizzle, listening as speakers mixed soft talk of empathy with blunt calls to support the nation on its two war fronts: Iraq and Afghanistan.
Heads turned as one commercial jet after another streamed over the Pentagon's Mall Terrace, the roar of engines drowning out the voices below and sending a chill of remembrance through the audience.
"There are no words that can soothe your pain and no way that we can truly understand all the sacrifices that you have made," Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the audience.
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Get Washington DC,Virginia,Maryland and national news. Get the latest/breaking news,featuring national security,science and courts. Read news headlines from the nation and from The Washington Post. Visit www.washingtonpost.com/nation today.
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Even Dating Is Perilous In Polarized Baghdad
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BAGHDAD -- He was a dashing young computer engineer. She was a shy student at his alma mater. They fell in love over lunch last year in the university cafeteria and promptly became engaged.
As they prepared for a future together, the couple barely discussed a subject that, under Saddam Hussein's rule, amounted to a footnote in matters of the heart: He was a Shiite Muslim; she was a Sunni Kurd.
But now those labels are tearing the couple apart. Barred by their families from marrying anyone of the opposite sect, the couple has erased one another's cellphone numbers and stopped speaking.
"There is no hope in this country anymore for Sunnis and Shiites to fall in love," said Husham al-Gizzy, a 25-year-old engineer, as he buried his face in his hands and recounted the story.
For decades, marriages between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq were as ordinary as the daily call to prayer. But the sectarian warfare gripping the country has created a powerful barrier to Sunni-Shiite romances.
Married couples have filed for divorce rather than face the scorn of their neighbors. Fiances have split up as a result of death threats. And, increasingly, young single Iraqis have concluded that it is simply easier to stick to their own kind when it comes to love and family.
In a country where intermarriage was long considered the glue that held a fragile multi-ethnic society together, the romantic segregation of Sunnis and Shiites is more than just a reflection of the ever more hate-filled chasm between the two groups. It is also a grim foreboding of the future.
"Everyone is just taking sides to prepare for a big civil war," said Adnan Abdul Kareem Enad, manager of Sot al-Jamayaa, a radio station that has aired tales of star-crossed Sunni and Shiite lovers. "You can see the polarization of Iraq in the tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in marriage and dating."
The new taboo on Sunni-Shiite romances is only one of many impediments to love in this war-ravaged country. Religious authorities have forbidden casual dating. Women fearful of the bloodshed have become prisoners in their own homes. Couples have shunned posh restaurants once filled with lovebirds because they fear suicide bombers or kidnappers.
"This is the age of cellphone love," said Omar al-Azzawi, 33, an Internet cafe owner who has a Sunni father and a Shiite mother. "If I marry someone, we'll have to get married on the phone. We'll probably have to make love on the phone, too."
Still, the burgeoning obstacles to Sunni-Shiite romances remain among the most ominous signs of the rapidly deteriorating relationship between the two sects. Although underlying tensions always simmered between Hussein's Sunni government and the country's oppressed Shiite minority, few expected them to flare so violently and so quickly after his government collapsed.
For Hameed Ayad, a 24-year-old Sunni, the disintegration of his engagement to a Shiite classmate came swiftly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. His betrothed shocked him by expressing newfound pride in once-suppressed Shiite customs such as public self-flagellation and pilgrimages to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
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BAGHDAD -- He was a dashing young computer engineer. She was a shy student at his alma mater. They fell in love over lunch last year in the university cafeteria and promptly became engaged.
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Glaxo To Pay IRS $3.4 Billion
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Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline Holdings Inc. has agreed to pay the Internal Revenue Service $3.4 billion to settle claims that it underpaid U.S. taxes since 1989 by in effect shifting profits abroad.
The payment will be the largest the IRS has received to settle a tax dispute, the agency said yesterday.
Glaxo estimated that the matter could have cost it as much as $15 billion.
"We really felt that we paid sufficient taxes throughout the period, but the settlement is in the best interest of shareholders given the risk and uncertainty of the litigation," said Patricia Seif, a Glaxo spokeswoman.
The case, which began with an IRS audit in the early 1990s, involved the way Glaxo paid taxes on U.S. profits from such popular drugs as Zantac, a stomach remedy, Imitrex, for treatment of migraines, and Ceftin, an antibiotic.
At issue was one of the thorniest concerns facing tax collectors -- how multinational corporations apportion profits and expenses among units in different countries. The IRS has said that companies often manipulate cross-border transactions to minimize taxes.
The Glaxo settlement "sends a strong message of our resolve to continue to deal with this issue going forward," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a written statement. Everson said the IRS was committed to resolving such controversies "without litigation, provided that our ultimate goal of compliance is not compromised."
Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), a former state tax commissioner, said that the broader problem has cost the U.S. Treasury tens of billions of dollars and that the government has taken "precious little effective action" to address it.
"One of the messages" from the Glaxo settlement "might be that you can settle for substantially less than you allegedly owe," Dorgan said. "On the other hand, at least the Internal Revenue Service is suggesting that they're taking action here."
Though Glaxo was paying only a fraction of the potential cost, "that's such a large amount they couldn't possibly have felt confident in their position," said Robert Willens, a Lehman Brothers tax analyst.
"It can't be good news for all the other multinationals that have this issue," Willens added.
The IRS had alleged that Glaxo's parent company, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, based in Britain, had allotted too little of its profits from worldwide drug sales to its U.S. subsidiary. Determining the proper split in what are known as "transfer pricing" cases can involve apportioning such intangible items as the value of trademarks and brand names.
The settlement, which includes interest, covers the years 1989 through 2005. The dispute over Glaxo's taxes for 1989 through 2000 had become the subject of litigation in U.S. Tax Court and was scheduled to go to trial in February. As part of the deal, Glaxo abandoned its claim that it was owed a refund of $1.8 billion.
Glaxo said it had previously set aside money to cover the settlement, adding that the payment will not have "any significant impact" on the company's earnings. The net cost of the settlement will be about $3.1 billion after taking into account such items as the effect on the company's state and local taxes, Glaxo said.
Shares of Glaxo's parent rose 17 cents yesterday, to $55.25, on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline Holdings Inc. has agreed to pay the Internal Revenue Service $3.4 billion to settle claims that it underpaid U.S. taxes since 1989 by in effect shifting profits abroad.
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Brief Nuclear Halt May Lead to Talks With Iran
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signaled yesterday that a temporary suspension of Iran's nuclear programs might be enough to pave the way for the first direct negotiations involving the United States and Iran in more than a quarter-century.
Speaking to reporters as she flew to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Rice said Iran needs to suspend uranium-enrichment activities before talks can begin, but she did not rule out something less than a permanent suspension. In talks over the weekend between Iranian and European officials, the chief Iranian negotiator offered a two-month freeze at the start of the talks.
"The point is, there would have to be a suspension," Rice said when asked about Iran's proposal. "If there is a suspension, we can have discussions, but there has to be a suspension. As far as I know, the Iranians have not yet said that they would suspend prior to negotiations."
Rice said she has not "heard any Iranian offer, so I don't know what to make of that," adding: "But the question is: Are they prepared to suspend, verifiably, so that negotiations can begin? That's the issue."
Rice's comments followed a round of private calls she had in the past day with European counterparts and came after positive meetings between European and Iranian officials. Two days of talks in Vienna between Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, and Javier Solana of the European Union went well, and both sides said they will meet again Thursday, according to diplomats from both sides who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
"First of all, it's suspension, verified suspension -- that's the condition," Rice said. "Secondly, it's suspension for suspension," she said, meaning that if Iran freezes its program, then the United States and its allies would halt a push for U.N. sanctions.
France, Britain and Germany have committed to push for sanctions against Iran if it does not halt its uranium-enrichment program, but the Europeans are also eager to find a route to negotiations. Other members of the European Union have strongly supported talks, rather than punitive measures, noting that Iran's technical progress on its nuclear program has been marginal while its position as a major oil exporter leaves it with significant leverage to batter European economies. Japan, which has billions of dollars' worth of investments in Iran's oil and gas industry, has been reluctant to back sanctions.
But all parties, including Russia and China -- two of Iran's closest economic partners -- have publicly said that Tehran must suspend its nuclear program for talks to begin.
Iran quit negotiations with the Europeans a year ago and restarted its nuclear program. In an effort to coax Iran back to the negotiating table, Rice announced in May that the United States would join the talks if Iran suspended its program again. The United States and its partners offered Iran the prospect of economic incentives if negotiations are successful -- or an escalating series of sanctions if the talks fail.
The Institute for Science and International Security, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, yesterday posted a copy of Iran's confidential 21-page response to the offer of incentives that was officially conveyed in June.
David Albright, president of ISIS, said the document is tough to grasp and sometimes contradictory, but that there are positive elements, including a willingness to discuss suspension of uranium enrichment, even as Iran rejected the right of the U.N. Security Council to order a halt to enrichment activities. "This is not a hollow offer by the Iranians," he said -- adding, however, that "you just get mad reading this thing."
Iran, in its response, indicated willingness to comply with a Security Council obligation to freeze the program as long as it is not a precondition for talks. The Vienna meetings are aimed at finding face-saving ways out of the staunch positions all sides have taken while facilitating a path toward negotiations, officials said.
Rice spoke by telephone with Solana and with Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency overseeing a probe of Iran's nuclear program. Agency inspectors, in their fourth year of investigation, have not found proof of a weapons program but have also been unable to verify Iran's assertion that the enrichment program is strictly for energy production.
Rice reiterated yesterday that if the talks do not materialize, the United States will push for sanctions. "Our clock would be running, too," she said. "Nobody is going to become accustomed to a nuclear-armed Iran. That's why we're on this course."
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signaled yesterday that a temporary suspension of Iran's nuclear programs might be enough to pave the way for the first direct negotiations involving the United States and Iran in more than a quarter-century.
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Movie Downloads, Coming Soon to An IPod Near You
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It is not a stretch to say that the iPod changed, and helped save, the music business. One in five Americans has owned one of Apple Computer Inc.'s sleek little iPods. Consumers have filled their iPods with more than 1 billion songs from Apple's Internet music store, where tunes go for 99 cents each. In the five years since the iPod's rollout, Apple has locked down the online music business.
Now, Apple founder Steve Jobs may try to revolutionize another industry: motion pictures. Today Apple plans to debut an online store for movies. The company has cloaked the event in secrecy, but a number of Hollywood sources have confirmed that Apple will begin selling movies from the Walt Disney Co. and Lionsgate Films for play on iPods, computers and perhaps televisions. Financial analysts expect the films to cost from $9.99 to $14.99 each.
Selling full-length movies over the Web has been an industry grail for half a decade -- the profit margins would be high, as there are no manufacturing costs -- but the effort has been thwarted by slow Internet connections, software glitches, studio concerns about piracy, a limited library of films and a collective yawn from consumers, who remain perfectly happy to drive to Blockbuster or open an envelope from Netflix containing an easy-to-use DVD at an affordable rental price.
Five years ago, only a few executives and designers inside Apple had heard of an iPod. Five years from now, will one-fifth -- or more -- of Americans buy their movies from Apple?
"If anybody could pull this off with movies, it has to be Apple," said Tim Bajarin, president of technology research and consulting firm Creative Strategies Inc.
Apple's key to success is the creation of an easy-to-use "ecosystem," Bajarin says, that lets users find, buy and listen to music on a cool-looking device with just a couple of clicks.
But if Apple is to extend that success to motion pictures, the Cupertino, Calif., company faces a number of hurdles not present when it entered the digital music market:
· Who wants to watch a two-hour movie on a 2.5-inch screen, currently the largest available on an iPod?
If there is one thing that technology analysts agree on, it is that despite the explosion of video cellphones, hand-held game devices, laptops of all stripes, consumers still and will continue to prefer their television for watching video of more than a few minutes. Many Mac users say they buy television shows from iTunes for $1.99 but watch them on their computers, not their iPods.
"I have been wracking my brain thinking when I would use" the new Apple movie-download service, said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents 2,000 technology companies, including Apple. "If you're going to watch a movie and pay for a movie experience, unless you're stuck in an airplane . . . you would prefer to watch it on a bigger screen with surround sound. If you can't transfer that experience easily to your TV set, then it's going to be challenging."
As usual, Apple has declined to discuss the nature of its announcement, but the company may seek to anticipate the small-screen problem by introducing a new iPod today with a bigger screen or a wireless device for the home to let consumers easily beam movies from their computers to their televisions, much like a WiFi system. Such a device would differentiate Apple's service from the online movie store launched last week by Amazon.com, called Amazon Unbox, and would be key to consumer acceptance, as more households buy high-definition televisions and speaker systems to create home theaters.
Shapiro's research shows that about 30 percent of consumers with portable entertainment devices are interested in buying movies online. But even with high-speed Internet connections -- present in 45 percent of homes with Internet access -- downloading a feature film will still take about an hour, analysts say.
· Is there anything to watch? So far, Apple has agreements to sell movies only from Disney (where Jobs sits on the board of directors) and Vancouver, B.C.,-based independent studio Lionsgate Films, which needs the distribution. And it's not clear which of all of Disney's studios -- which include Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films -- will make their films available for sale. This means that films from the other major studios -- Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Universal Studios Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Studios -- will not appear on Apple's new service.
When Apple launched iTunes, it had noticeable gaps in its catalogue -- no Beatles, for instance -- but all of the major labels were represented. When iTunes began selling television shows, only programs from ABC -- also owned by Disney -- were available. Now, shows from many networks are for sale, even though the catalogue remains thin.
· Whither Wal-Mart? Unlike the music industry in 2001, which was being hammered by illegal downloading, the movie industry is healthier. Much of the health comes from DVD sales, which now provide more studio dollars than box office revenue. And the big seller of DVDs is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which uses DVDs and CDs as loss leaders to lure shoppers into the store to buy bigger-ticket items.
Wal-Mart is leery of any enterprise -- say, an Apple online movie store -- that could bleed away its DVD revenue, especially when the retail giant has acknowledged it is considering launching its own online movie store.
The tension -- Wal-Mart on one side, Apple on the other -- has created an "emotional" time in Hollywood, one studio executive said on condition of anonymity because negotiations are ongoing. Studios recognize that DVDs sales have flattened and are eager to get a foothold with a proven seller of online content. But they fear angering Wal-Mart, the No. 1 customer of most studios' wholesale DVD sales.
· Finally, consumers use movies differently than music. Parents of small children often know their kids can watch the same movie dozens and dozens of times. For them, it makes sense to spend $14.99 for "Finding Nemo" on the new Apple service. But will grown-ups want to watch other Disney offerings, such as "Bridget Jones's Diary" or "Gangs of New York," the way they listen and re-listen to "Born to Run" or "Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back"?
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This is your source for news on personal technology. Find info and reviews on the newest technology that affects your life. Read our latest features on new tech gadgets.
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Muslim Candidate Plays Defense
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MINNEAPOLIS -- Keith Ellison is a Democrat running for an open House seat in a heavily Democratic district. But what once looked like a cakewalk has turned into a bruising campaign in which many facts are disputed but a central one is not: If he wins, he will be the first Muslim elected to Congress.
Before he can make history, Ellison must capture Tuesday's hotly contested Democratic primary in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, which consists of the Minneapolis side of the Twin Cities and an inner ring of suburbs. Whoever gets the Democratic nomination is expected to sweep to victory in November to succeed Rep. Martin O. Sabo (D), who is retiring after 28 years in the House.
Ellison, 43, is a two-term state legislator. He prays toward Mecca five times a day and says he has not eaten pork or had a drink of alcohol since he converted to Islam as a 19-year-old student at Wayne State University in Detroit. When speaking at mosques or to members of Minneapolis's large Somali immigrant population, he opens with "Salaam aleikum," Arabic for "Peace be with you."
Other than that, he seldom refers to his religion on the campaign trail, unless asked.
"I'm a Muslim. I'm proud to be a Muslim. But I'm not running as a Muslim candidate," Ellison said during a break between a commemoration of Hurricane Katrina and an appearance at a public housing project. "I'm running as a candidate who believes in peace and bringing the troops out of Iraq now. I'm running as a candidate who believes in universal, single-payer health care coverage and an increase in the minimum wage."
Despite Ellison's desire to focus on the war and the economy, questions about his faith and character have kept him on the defensive.
The most damaging accusations, says Christopher Gilbert, professor of political science at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., concern Ellison's past associations with the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan.
Although four Democrats are seeking the nomination, Ellison became the candidate to beat in May, when the state's Democratic-Farmer-Labor organization endorsed him.Within days, Michael Brodkorb, author of a Republican blog called MinnesotaDemocratsExposed.com, dug up two articles that Ellison had written under the name of Keith Hakim for the University of Minnesota student newspaper when he was in law school there in 1989 and 1990.
The first article defended Farrakhan against accusations of anti-Semitism. The second called affirmative action a "sneaky" form of compensation for slavery, suggesting instead that white Americans pay reparations to blacks.
Another conservative blog, PowerLineBlog.com, subsequently revealed that the candidate had used the names Keith X Ellison and Keith Ellison-Muhammed during his student days. In more than 20 Web postings titled "Who Is Keith Ellison?" PowerLine asserted that he had been a "local leader" of the Nation of Islam and accused him of "involvement" in anti-Semitism.
Badly stung, Ellison responded quickly. He met privately with key Jewish supporters, spoke publicly at a synagogue in the suburb of St. Louis Park and repudiated Farrakhan in a May 28 letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council in Minneapolis.
While denying that he had ever joined -- much less led -- the Nation of Islam, he acknowledged that he had worked with the group for about 18 months to organize the Minnesota contingent to Farrakhan's 1995 Million Man March in Washington.
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MINNEAPOLIS -- Keith Ellison is a Democrat running for an open House seat in a heavily Democratic district. But what once looked like a cakewalk has turned into a bruising campaign in which many facts are disputed but a central one is not: If he wins, he will be the first Muslim elected to Congress.
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Critiquing the Press
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Howard Kurtz was online Monday, Sept. 11, at Noon ET to discuss the press and his latest columns.
Katie in the Evening , ( Post, Sept. 11, 2006 )
College Park, Md.: Mr. Kurtz,
CNN.com is replaying the station's 9/11 coverage in real-time today, five years after the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. Is re-living the minute-by-minute chaos of that morning really something many people are going to want to do? Thanks.
Howard Kurtz: They're all doing it. Just watched MSNBC replaying 9/11/01 coverage as well. I find it hard to watch for more than a couple of minutes. I don't know whether many in the audience will have a similar reaction.
Arlington, Va.: I'm trying to remember: Among the many ways that the 9/11 attacks changed the news business, was this the beginning of the news ticker scrolling across the bottom of the screen? Five years later, what's the assessment of this technique? Is it really necessary, on a typical news day, to have your attention divided two or three ways between the audio and various texts, which often have nothing to do with each other?
Howard Kurtz: As best I can recall, cable networks added the crawl in the period after 9/11, when there were so many developments going on. As time went on I found it distracting, and I think most of the time now I just ignore it. What's particularly annoying is that the crawl will include silly celebrity news or sports scores or promos for upcoming shows at a time when you might be trying to concentrate on what's on the screen.
Kansas City, Mo.: If all the people polled for the purpose of determining the percent of viewers for each of the news programs of the three major networks also had access to cable news programs do you think cable would come out ahead? As I understand it, many who view the major network news programs do not have cable access.
Howard Kurtz: I don't think that's right, because about 70 percent of the country now has cable. But some of those who like the idea of a nightly news summary at 6:30 have jobs -- maybe in schools or hospitals or where they're moving around -- in which they're not near a television screen all day, and so are seeing little cable news.
Baltimore, Md.: Re why people watch one evening newscast over another: It's a fitting day to ask that question, Howard. I only know that on 9/11/01 I was sharing a house in the Outer Banks with a group of people. When we first heard the news about the WTC and the Pentagon, we flipped around from news channel to news channel, but we finally settled on ABC and stayed with it through the day.
And the sole reason was Peter Jennings: somber, calm, handling constant updates with ease and grace. I had always preferred Jennings before, but after 9-11, I watched no other evening news until his death, and now I have no preference.
Howard Kurtz: There's no question that major news events -- a terror attack, a war, a space shuttle disaster, a killer hurricane -- really test the mettle of anchors and can forge a permanent connection to the audience. The awful events of Sept. 11 and the aftermath were in some ways television's finest hour as Jennings, Rather and Brokaw tried to get the country through the trauma. Now, of course, there will be three new anchors on duty for the next big story.
Oxford, Miss.: I hope this question doesn't sound accusatory or conspiratorial because I certainly don't mean it either way.
Was is a deliberate choice to run the piece on the one Muslim running for Congress on the 9/11 anniversary? Seems like it adds a little extra oomph to the "BUT he's a Muslim!" element of the story.
Howard Kurtz: I would say a bigger factor is that tomorrow is the primary in that candidate's district.
Chapel Hill, N.C.: How much input does the anchor (Katie, Brian, etc.) have on what stories are presented? It would seem that the day's events would set the agenda for the newscast and that the producer would have the lead in sequencing, allocating time, etc.
Howard Kurtz: A huge amount. They are both managing editors of their broadcasts.
Ft Belvoir: In both your broadcast and today's column, you said this about the firing of the Miami Herald reporters:
"The journalists were compensated for appearances on Radio Marti and TV Marti, the broadcasting services beamed into Cuba."
No where do you say that Radio and TV Marti are sponsored by the US Government. After all, these folks were fired because they took government money. You could have said "...the US Government sponsored Radio Marti..." and right away a reader or viewer would know the exact nature of the controversy. You can't assume that everyone knows who Radio and TV Marti is sponsored by.
Howard Kurtz: The first sentence of the item says "accepting money from the federal government." Can't get much more explicit than that.
Baltimore, Md.: Do you expect to hear more on the news from Brigadier General Mark Scheid that there was no planning for an occupation of Iraq and that Rumsfeld refused to even discuss such a phase when planning for the war? Frankly, based on past experience, I expect Rumsfeld will deny Scheid's account, and I also wouldn't be surprised if Scheid is asked to take an early retirement.
Howard Kurtz: I certainly would like to see more reporting on his account.
Burke, Va.: I'm really really tired of all the overdoing of 9-11. I hate the way it's used for politics and I hate the way the media is overdoing it. I'd like just a moment of silence, no politician's speeches being carried for a day - and no more. I can't stand turning on the TV - and I don't want to read The Post special. I just want to be left alone.
Howard Kurtz: I wouldn't be surprised if there are others who share your view. I am not a big fan of anniversary stories myself. Today, of course, is like a national day of mourning, and you have all these ceremonies going on and the president visiting all three sites (he's in Shanksville, Pa. as I type). So it's hardly surprising that the media would shift into high gear. At least it's about a serious subject and not just the latest missing white woman.
You have an interesting column this morning, I especially like the juxtaposition of the article on the news industry folks being fired by Miami Herald for taking Radio Marti money and the announcement the Michael Gerson has been hired by Fred Hiatt to join The Washington Post op-ed staff.
I guess it's ok to take money for opinions before you sign up with the newspaper, but not during the time you are paid by the paper. (And yes, I agree, there is some difference between the editorial and the news staff. But it still seems like "pay it forward" to me on the Gerson hiring.)
Can you get Fred Hiatt to explain how Gerson will be "a different kind of conservative from the other conservatives on our page. . . . He's been part of this White House, but I expect he will be an independent voice."
How will he be different from Krauthammer, Novak, Ignatius, Hiatt, Samuelson and Malaby? Maybe it is explained in the ellipsis in the memo?
What is your count of the "independent voiced conservatives" vs. the "independent voiced centrist" vs. "liberals" on The Post's op-ed.
Was the hire run by Donald Graham?
Howard Kurtz: I don't know the answer to the last question. But it seems to me that liberals are pretty well represented on the Post op-ed page through Gene Robinson, E.J. Dionne, Richard Cohen, Harold Meyerson and (until his recent surgery) Michael Kinsley. I think it's fair to raise questions about Gerson's independence, as I did, but we also should reserve judgment until we see what he actually writes.
Seward, Neb.: Does anyone really care that the evening "news" on network TV has degenerated into nothing much more than supermarket checkstand tabloids? I consider myself to be pretty well informed on current affairs and I don't think I have watched network news in five years. What is their viewership compared to say 25 or 30 years ago?
Howard Kurtz: If you haven't watched in five years, how can you make a judgment about the newscasts? I have plenty of criticisms of network news, but they remain a bastion of fairly serious reporting and rarely deal with tabloid subjects. Viewership has been declining for 25 years, and the networks bear some of the responsibility, but they have also been hurt by the growth of cable news and online news and talk radio and all the other choices Americans have, compared to the days when there were basically just three national channels and PBS.
Carrboro, N.C.: On "Reliable Sources" yesterday Emily Rooney made a statement that drove me nuts. In your discussion of "Path to 9/11" she stated (paraphrasing here) that it was just entertainment and no one should take it seriously. It is talk like this that drives the left blogosphere nuts about the mainstream media. This is not just entertainment! Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are not just putting on a dog and pony show that no one really takes seriously. They have a strong influence on a significant chunk of people in this country. They are allowed to make a series of outrageous and inflammatory statements and when called on it they claim people have no sense of humor and the MSM just rolls their eyes as if they couldn't even be bothered to respond. With 36% of the country believing in conspiracy theories about 9/11 and another significant chunk still convinced Saddam was involved, isn't it time that the MSM took starting taking these commentators as major contributors to the political dialog in this country?
Howard Kurtz: Here's what Emily Rooney actually said. She did not say that no one should take it seriously.
Q. My question to you, Emily Rooney, should ABC be embarrassed at put on a $40 million movie on this still very painful subject of 9/11, with a number of made-up scenes and made-up dialogue, that only in recent days has the network been scrambling to fix?
ROONEY: Well, there's no such thing as being embarrassed anymore. The only people who should be embarrassed are the ones who tune in to watch this. My feeling is it's like an Oliver Stone movie, you get what you deserve if you tune in and watch this.
It's fiction. It's a novel. I can't even believe it's engendered the kind of acrimony that it has. I mean, I'm so uninterested in this, I force myself to read the articles about it.
Little Rock, Ark.: Your piece on Ms Couric made me think about how the media (I know that is a big community) sees itself. I come to rely on the media to bring perspective to stories not because they are smarter than me but they are offered an access to information that I just do not have. They know the back stories and the ins and outs and I think too often it appears reporters are more interested in maintaining that access than providing me that perspective. I know that making general statements can be too broad but just wanted to share that thought with you.
Howard Kurtz: Thanks for that. I think this whole business about "interested in maintaining access" is overblown. Sometimes we do a good job and sometimes a not-so-good job, and we struggle to be fair, but by and large, government officials have to deal with us whether they like what we write or not.
Silver Spring, Md.: What's the verdict on Couric? How have ratings been after the initial debut. I can tell you one thing, our family used to be CBS News people -- not anymore. We can't take the fluff.
Howard Kurtz: The ratings went down about 25 percent from the first to the third night, but that was entirely expected. No one, including the folks at CBS, expected Couric to keep pulling in the huge audience she got the first night, with its huge curiosity factor. NBC's top-rated newscast had been pulling a little under 9 million viewers; Katie got more than 13.5 million for her debut. The real test, in my view, comes this week.
Raleigh, N.C.: Howard. Thanks for what you do. What do you think of the changes in script for the ABC movie showing last night and again tonight.
The media outlets (AP) are saying that the changes were not substantial. Yet, Clinton's lawyers are still writing letters.
Much ado about nothing? Or, a major political issue ignored by ABC?
Howard Kurtz: The script changes seemed fairly minor to me. But I do have to credit ABC News for jumping on the controversy involving the network's entertainment division.
RE: Katie Couric: The ratings show a decline since last week. I suggest that the first night will be the spike and that her ratings will drop and level ff, still leaving CBS in third place for a long while. What are your thoughts on her long road to climbing to the top of the ratings heap?
Howard Kurtz: I've always assumed that after an initial spike, the CBS Evening News would still face a difficult climb out of third place. It takes months and sometimes years to change people's viewing habits. Couric & Co. face the additional hurdle of trying to draw new viewers to a revamped broadcast without alienating the existing core of viewers who enjoyed watching Bob Schieffer.
New York, N.Y.: One thing that drives me crazy about most of the articles on ABC's mockudrama, is the he-said, she-said framing of the fictitious scenes. It's always something like, "Madeleine Albright disputes the accuracy" or "Sandy Berger claims that never happened."
Why can't the reporters just say that the scenes in questions were fabrications instead of simply quoting Albright and Berger, leaving the reader to wonder where the truth is?
Howard Kurtz: I believe I've pointed out the instances where the 9/11 commission report does not support the scenes in question, and ABC did not defend those scenes as factual, although the network said we should all wait for the final version that aired last night.
Washington, D.C.: Couldn't it be argued that ABC News hyping the controversy has the effect of pumping up ABC Entertainment's ratings?
Howard Kurtz: Sure. The same could be said for all the media coverage. I have no doubt that more people tuned in as a result of all the criticism, which amounted to free publicity. That's the nature of these things.
Rockville, Md.: I was with the Fox News Channel when it launched- a couple years before 9/11. (Out of news now, thank you.) Fox had crawls and "Fox facts" from the beginning. Not sure if he should get the "credit," but I see the non-stop facts and crawls and updates flying all over the screen as Roger Ailes' invention. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Howard Kurtz: I was only relying on memory.
New Hampshire: With regard to your statement about access and "but by and large, government officials have to deal with us whether they like what we write or not."
Ask Helen Thomas about this...
Howard Kurtz: There's a misconception about Helen Thomas. When she worked for UPI, she always got the second question at presidential news conferences. Now that she's an opinion columnist for Hearst, she is rarely called on (although Bush did recognize her at his last session) and it's no secret the White House doesn't like her liberal views. But columnists are not generally called upon at presidential news conferences, period.
Alexandria, Va.: How does a newspaper get classified as "liberal" vs. "conservative"? Who decides on the classification? Do you know of any newspaper that has been re-classified? Is there a similar classification system for web sites that provide news (MSNBC, CNN for example)?
Howard Kurtz: Newspapers are often tagged based on their editorial pages, which is unfair to the news operation. For instance, the Wall Street Journal edit page is conservative and the New York Times edit page is liberal, so the label is applied to the entire publication. There is no classification system for media outlets, really, except in the eyes of the audience, who can make their own judgments.
Rochester, N.Y.: You say that the whole access angle with journalism is overblown. Do you think, though, that is troubling when a journalist is given the kind of access that results in a bestselling book after having given his sources favorable treatment? I guess the examples of Bob Woodward and Elisabeth Bumiller (who is reportedly getting wide access to write a bio of Condi Rice after having given the White House flattering treatment at the Times for years) come to mind here.
Howard Kurtz: I guess I would quarrel with your description of Woodward's and Bumiller's work.
Crofton, Md.: Tim Russert is taking a beating today on the blogs, especially Huffington Post, about his interview with Cheney. Why is it that Russert seems to take a different tone with those in power? He can be a pit bull when someone like Howard Dean comes on the program. But, when it is a member of the Administration, especially Cheney, Russert seems more soft-spoken and deferential.
Given that Russert/Cheney is always viewed critically the day after, maybe someone else should be assigned to the Cheney interviews from now on. Maybe Brian Williams or David Gregory could do a better job.
Howard Kurtz: Russert is one of the best interviewers in television. And I just reviewed the transcript and he pressed Cheney on all kinds of issues involving Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror. Leaving aside that Russert was once a Democratic operative, I think some Bush critics are not satisfied by any interview in which the journalist doesn't yell at Cheney and call him a liar.
Bethesda, Md.: To what extent do you believe that media endorsements, such as those by The Post, will influence the electorate in the D.C. and Maryland primaries?
Howard Kurtz: The Post endorsement will have a huge influence in D.C. (as opposed to its presidential endorsements, for example). In the past, Post endorsements greatly contributed to the election of Marion Barry and Sharon Pratt Kelly.
Washington, D.C.: I don't make it home in time to see network evening news, but I did catch Katie Couric on 60 Minutes last night. I thought she was surprisingly good. Do you think that eventually people will stop talking about her clothes and her legs, and actually pay attention to the content of her reports?
Howard Kurtz: Not entirely, but I hope so. That's what I tried to do in this morning's column, to deal with the substance of the journalism on that newscast rather than all the superficial and gossipy stuff.
Re: Media: I'm curious: Since you work in both print and TV, which do you find more informative/objective?
And although I am sure you enjoy working in both, which do you personally prefer?
Howard Kurtz: Print allows more room for complexity, context and nuance. Television is more immediate and has more impact, particularly with stories that rely on pictures, but struggles when a story involves lots of facts and figures or has no visuals. I enjoy each one for different reasons.
New York, N.Y.: Odd that there are no questions or comments about ABC's "Path to 9/11" today. Are you not getting questioned about it, or are you not taking questions about it?
If you are, I'm wondering if you know whether ABC is libel for presenting as "the official story" outright lies about the Clinton administration. Can Sandy Berger sue, and if so, can he win?
Howard Kurtz: Haven't gotten that many. I do not expect Sandy Berger to sue, and I doubt he'd have much of a legal case because of the disclaimer at the beginning of the film saying that some scenes were fictionalized. The court of public opinion, however, is a different story.
Washington, D.C.: I also believe that network news has deteriorated over the years until we are left with stories that neither Brinkley nor Cronkite would even recognize as news. I find very little "news" gets reported, and interest stories are the rule on each of the network TV news programs. I think it is going to take someone with immense wealth and resources like a Bill Gates or a George Soros or similar to have a network that simply reports news stories and is not a video tabloid. It will likely not be a money-maker, but instead would be a public service. Citizens would become informed if they tuned in. They would know the difference between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. They would be able to find Syria on a map. An informed citizenry is the prerequisite for a strong democracy. Do you see a call for something so revolutionary?
Howard Kurtz: I am all for better and broader and more comprehensive news, although I don't share your opinion that the nightly newscasts are as soft as you seem to think. But there is also the question of public appetite. If much of the country wanted the kind of television news you describe, then the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" would have much bigger ratings than it currently enjoys.
You just said that the WSJ editorial page is conservative and the New York Times is liberal. That is true, but it is not an apples to apples comparison. The Times editorial page is definitely liberal, but they have at least two conservative columnists on the op-ed page. Since, Al Hunt left, the Journal has zero liberal op-ed columnists. The Times would be ridiculed if they decided to have an entirely liberal op-ed page. Why does no one in media criticism explore why the Journal completely disregards liberal opinion?
Howard Kurtz: Because it's their playground and they can run it any way they want. You are right, as far as the op-ed pages are concerned. I was thinking in my previous answer of the editorial pages and their positions, not the columnists they run.
Carrboro, N.C.: Sorry to go on about this, but the final quote from Emily Rooney is the one that disturbs me: "It's fiction. It's a novel. I can't even believe it's engendered the kind of acrimony that it has. I mean, I'm so uninterested in this, I force myself to read the articles about it."
She may be uninterested in it, but there are millions of Americans who will accept it as the truth while media insiders just shrug their shoulders.
Howard Kurtz: Well, that's why I have multiple guests on Reliable Sources, so you can get a variety of viewpoints. It would be pretty boring if every guest said the same thing and you agreed with every single opinion offered.
New York, N.Y.: ABC tells the whole world that Sandy Berger is personally responsible for 9/11 and he doesn't have a case?
Howard Kurtz: He has a case that he has been unfairly maligned. But if he brings a libel suit, ABC's legal defense is that it told viewers that part of the movie was fiction.
Dunn Loring, Va.: The huge orchestrated hoopla for the 5th anniversary of 9-11--would it be as intense if it wasn't a major election year?
Howard Kurtz: Probably. Although I question why the 5-year anniversary is so much bigger than the third or fourth anniversary.
Washington, D.C.: "In the past, Post endorsements greatly contributed to the election of Marion Barry..."
Yeah, um, good call with that one.
Howard Kurtz: The editorial page later came to see the folly of its ways.
Green Bay, Wis.: Regarding your answer to Crofton, Md.: the important point is that Dick Cheney, our Vice-President, IS a liar, and a consistent one at that. This is big time important, and we the people rely on Russert, you, and other media types to give us the truth; the facts. You have to call a lie a lie, and insist on the facts. Your refusal to hold these people accountable to the truth is a big reason why you are losing your audience to the blogs and the Internet sites.
Howard Kurtz: Then you don't want news coverage, you want sheer opinion. If Cheney says X and Russert says, Hold on, Mr. Vice President, the facts don't support X and what's more, two years ago you said Y, and then Cheney is forced to justify his position if he can, the audience gets it and he has done his job.
Thanks for the chat, folks.
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Post Magazine: Meet Cartoonist Richard Thompson
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Every Sunday, Richard Thompson's local comic strip "Cul de Sac," starring Alice, Petey and the rest of the Otterloop family, appears in The Washington Post Magazine . Every Saturday, his "Richard's Poor Almanac" cartoon is a fixture in the newspaper's Style section.
He was online Monday, Sept. 11, fielding questions and comments about "Cul de Sac, Richard's Poor Almanac and the art and craft of cartooning.
Richard Thompson: Hi, this is Richard Thompson. I'm delighted to be a guest of Washpost online, even while not leaving the comfort of my own home. I look forward to your questions, and I hope they're reasonably simple and don't involve math or grammar.
Arlington, Va: Hi Richard, this is a comment: Your work is some of the funniest, wittiest cartoon comedy I've ever seen. Please, stay with the Post, keep doing "Cul de Sac." I raised two kids in northern Virginia in the '70s and '80s and what you do rings true even as kids and customs have changed. After an hour of grim world and national news you make my coming day spin in a positive direction with a really full laugh. John P
Richard Thompson: I thought I'd start with this question because it's not a question and because it's deeply flattering. Thank you, John P. I'm raising two kids in Northern Virginia and all that's likely to have changed is the price of housing. And I'll keep doing "Cul de Sac," because as I mentioned I'm raising two kids in Northern Virginia and I need all the freelance work I can get.
Philadelphia: Are there any family members or friends who may find themselves, or think they find themselves, represented in your comic, and do you deny any resemblance as purely coincidental?
Richard Thompson: They're all there in various mutated and combined forms, with a thin layer of me on top, I guess. I told a neighbor that it was all based on his family, kiddingly, and he looked at me with horror. His house is now for sale, not kidding.
Arlington, Va.: Your Sunday Post Magazine comic strip, "Cul de Sac," runs weekly. Do you think you could handle the demands of a daily comic strip? Would you want to be locked into that sort of job?
Richard Thompson: Ask me again in about a year and a month. Actually, the question could be moot by then. I hope I used that word correctly.
Gaithersburg, Md.: I just love "Cul de Sac," especially the preschool story line. Any chance that you'll eventually publish a collection of all the cartoons?
Richard Thompson: This may happen. After I've sold every single copy of my first book. No, someday in some form I certainly hope to. Though I'd likely sit down and redraw every single strip because I'm a perfectionist idiot.
Washington, D.C.: Did you know you've got a page on Wikipedia? I think it's what they call a stub.
Richard Thompson: Yes I do know this. I tried to add something to it a while back, about how since breaking my toe in a dance-related accident I've been forced to draw with my hands, but it didn't stay up on the page.
Arlington, Va.: What tools does a beginning cartoonist need? I mean mental and psychological tools as well as physical, technological ones.
Richard Thompson: A willingness to steal from others as long as you can cover your tracks sufficiently. And a sense of humor and some keenness of perception, and a little bit of fearlessness about trying something that might not work. This isn't helpfull, is it? The list is long, but mostly you need to figure out which hand to draw with.
Whetstone, Md.: When are you going to do another baby or comics roundtable? Those almost make me spray my morning cereal laughing. (Although the the adventures of Mr. Danders comes close..)
And "Moot" sounds like a great word to dissect in the Almanac...
Richard Thompson: The baby roundtable cartoons were the basis of "Cul de Sac"; something about writing for small children appeals to me. Probably the non sequiturs you can get away with. Tangential thinking seems to be my kinda thinking. And, yeah, I've got a soft spot for Mr. Danders, too. He's so teeny weeny and pompous.
Maryland: Any chance you'll take over for Jim Davis after he makes his third million?
Richard Thompson: He's well past his third; probably coming into his 12th or so. I'll wait till his 13th before I take over. Though I'll have to learn to draw flattened spiders.
Rockville, Md.: Is your "Almanac" book still in print and available? Do you ever do signings or gallery shows? Or should I look on eBay for RT originals?
Richard Thompson: Yes! Plenty of copies in pristine form are right now available! Try that Amazon place, or they also have them at Politics and Prose. I never got around to doing any signings, but I used to do gallery shows of mostly caricature work that I'd done for US News and the New Yorker. (That kind of sounds like one magazine.) But the gallery closed some years ago and I haven't pursued it. It's a lotta work to hang a show and I'm bad with hammers and nails.
Washington, D.C.: Where did the guinea pig storyline come from? It evoked memories of a disastrous month spent babysitting my class's rabbit during the summer.
Richard Thompson: We had a guinea pig for about a year. It was ejected from a kindergarten class because of allergy issues (on the kindergartners' part, not the pig). My daughters eventually got fed up with it and we found a new home. H was so inert yet cute yet (as I said) pompous that I couldn't help but put him in somewhere. He's one of my favorites.
Rockville, Md.: I have always wondered how the main "actors" of a cartoon look the same? I mean if I were to draw the same face/body over and over again, after a while the nth copy does not look like the first. Do you just copy/paste?
Richard Thompson: I don't copy and paste, but I do use a light box. I have a terrible time making characters look the same, but they tend to slowly change over time anyway. Alice's hair is shorter and Petey's head is larger, though they're both rather ratty-looking still.
Baltimore: Hello, typing while picking apart leftover crabs for lunch. Anyway, let me add to the "dittoes" of "more Richard Thompson!" but ask, as I do so, do you have it in you to crank out a daily strip, and if you did, how would the appearance, subject, etc. differ when condensed to a tiny three-panel or four-panel strip instead of your relatively larger Sunday space?
Richard Thompson: Mmm, crabs in Baltimore. All I got's a bagel in Arlington.
And thanks for the ditto. The answer to your question is "Yes I think I do." And, as I said, ask me again in about a year. Keep watching the comic page, somewhere between the bridge column and the soduko. Sudoku.
I imagine it would change quite a bit; I'd strengthen the drawing, more blacks, darker lines, and spread the jokes around differently. Not thinner, I hope. The Sunday ones in the Post let me get pretty dense with the humor, a lot of cross-jokes and tangents. My editor likes a laff-a-panel, if possible. I try.
Falls Church, Va.: How often do people confuse you with the alternative guitarist, Richard Thompson? And have you ever been able to capitalize on that confusion to get dates or free drinks for yourself?
Richard Thompson: All the time, until I pick up a guitar and sing. Then they take the free drinks away and the dates all leave.
Bethesda, Md.: Why does the Post always have to run that little box that says "Richard Thompson is away..." Can't you fax one in from wherever you are? Or don't you have a backlog? You're not one of those last-minute cartoon guys are you? Not that I'm complaining (much) I just hate opening the Post on the weekends and seeing text where I expect to see a splendid offering from your hands.
Richard Thompson: Yes, I'm a last-minute cartoon guy; I keep drawing until the courier shows up. Then the courier shows up and we have to wrestle with the drawing in my front yard. He's bigger than me so he always wins. The neighbors have gotten used to it, or moved away.
Baltimore: So to steal some impact from Gene Weingarten during his absence from chat world, what in your opinion are the best comic strips we're not seeing in the Post? I'm partial towards "9 Chickweed Lane" and "Heart of the City" and also Tatulli's other strip "Lio", which Gene plugged a few weeks ago.
Richard Thompson: I like Lio a lot, and I really enjoyed Agnes. The Post has a good selection, but there are too many I don't see often enough. Tom the Dancing Bug's my favorite, and the Post kindly provides that in the Weekend section. You ever read Maakies? That won't make it into the Post, most likely.
Mt. Pleasant, Washington, D.C.: Mr. Thompson,
You are a genius and my hero. We are not worthy. The "Cul de Sac" episode where the family goes to the theater to see the movie version of their favorite children's book and get blown away by the sound track and violence was out of this world fantastic!
You rule dude. Keep up the great work!
Richard Thompson: Bless your heart. That one was fun to draw, because of the special effects, and because of Mrs. Otterloop's hair. And Petey's suddenly reduced facial features. Poor Petey.
Washington, D.C.: What are you doing besides "Cul de Sac"? Are other papers and media venues beating a path to your door?
Richard Thompson: I freelance a lotta stuff, mostly for magazines. I'm lucky for a freelancer because I have three drawings a week due for the Post and a lot of return customers, some of them nice big shiny glossy magazines, like the New Yorker. For about nine years I did a caricature every week for US News until I burned out. It was a weekly all-nighter.
They're not exactly all beating a path to my door, but they do find it often enough to knock. Partly it's because the shrubbery in front is obscuring the house number, I believe.
McLean, Va: The "Cul de Sac" is brilliant, but I really want to give you kudos for are your "sky-watch" cartoons where you give us all those wonderful new constellations. My brother is an astronomer, and he has a standing request for me to send him copies all of those strips when they run -- he and his colleagues love them!
Richard Thompson: Thanks, those sky watch ones are fun. It's mostly black ink with a little bit of white paint, and how hard can that be? I'm always afraid of overdoing those, so I tend to spread them out, but I'll keep your brother in mind.
I also love doing the Restaurant Closing cartoons, but again, I don't want to do it to surfeit. I hope I used that word correctly, too. Moot.
Arlington, Va.: I'm 39, female, unmarried with no kids, but I now hear my married w/kids friends going through the "Cul de Sac" stories with frightening similarities. These are friends who were very different before the kids came along and with their concerns about the kids going on field trips, and the school lunches, etc., it sounds as though they have been taken over by aliens. I recall not having seatbelts in the car when I was a child, playing on rusty monkey bars, etc. What have been your primary observations from your childhood to the current state of affairs, which, in my opinion, borders on paranoia? Great cartooning---please stay for a long time!
Richard Thompson: Enough things haven't changed since my childhood. A few years ago I was walking down the street with my daughter and I realized how much differently she viewed the neighborhood from me; there was a good stick, there was a neighbor's faucet where you could sneak a drink, there was the house with that dog, there was an excellent place to hide and jump out. The world spins differently for kids, even in these antsy times. I did one a few years ago about a field trip to the National Gallery and seeing the painting with the shark in it there (have you seen it? you'd remember it if you'd seen it as a kid) I got a string of comments from people who did remember it. A small thing, but I like small things.
Washington Grove, Md.: Will Petey and Alice age? Or will they stay in stasis like some morbid Peanuts cartoon? Some cartoons seem to mirror the development of the artists children -- others have the same preschool Christmas party every December for 35 years... creepy...
Richard Thompson: They're frozen in time, doomed to repeat preschool and the third grade over and over. I hope it doesn't get too morbid. Though Petey relearning the History of Egypt every year may get a little creepy.
Arlington, Va.: I suspect that Gene Weingarten is somewhat influencing the answers in your chat. You DO know that he only reads your comic strip because someday you might draw Mrs. Otterloop naked, don't you?
Richard Thompson: Have you been looking through my sketchbook?
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.: Okay, okay, I don't have a question, but if you feel the need for more flattery: I love your work! I want more! The Post should devote an entire section to you! Perhaps a third section of the comics!
Richard Thompson: Please, I need my sleep. But thank you, Mr. or Ms. Not A Relative.
Washington DC: Your "Eight Planets" was BRILLIANT.
But the venerated experts remind me of "Manny, Moe and Jack" You didn't draw them did you?
Richard Thompson: Shucks, I should've, shouldn't I? I'll wait a year and do it over again. Nobody ever notices.
Maryland: What I wouldn't give for a genuine Thompson cartoon.
Richard Thompson: No! They're all mine! I'm going to hoard them, along with old newspapers, gum wrappers, soup cans, etc, etc, until the authorities come and clear out my house because of the stench.
bridge too far: Have you memorialized the old Wilson Bridge? What are your fondest memories of it?
Richard Thompson: I was so sorry to miss the official demolition. We were out of town.
freelance pants: Rumor has it that you will draw the new Bazooka Joe strips. Is that true?
Richard Thompson: Yes, and I'm going to yank that little creep's turtleneck down, too.
Gaithersburg, Md.: I'm not sure how to phrase this, but are you Petey?
Richard Thompson: Alas, mostly, yes.
I think of Alice as the irresistible force and Petey as the immovable object. And I'm pretty inert. See guinea pigs, below.
Richard Thompson: Thank you all for your mostly easy questions and unfailingly kind comments. If you'll excuse me, I've got another deadline, and you people should probably all get back to work, too,
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Helping Hands Careers in Government
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Skill, effort and luck can take you to the top of any field -- but it never hurts to get a little help. In our Helping Hands special feature, we've got plenty of assistance on tap: articles, tools and live discussions that will help you learn more about how to get ahead in the area's top industries or your career in general.
Kathryn K. Troutman is president of The Resume Place Inc. She was online to discuss trends facing workers in goverment -- and those who'd like to join the federal workforce.
An expert on searching for and obtaining government work, Troutman has published several books on the topic, including "Ten Steps to a Federal Job: Navigating the Federal Job System, Writing Federal Resumes, KSAs and Cover Letters with a Mission" (The Resume Place, 2002).
Submit questions and comments before and during the discussion.
Alexandria, Va.: I know it takes a long time to hear from government agencies about your application. Is there any way to check on the status of your application when no contact person is listed? Is it advisable to call the service centers listed on the USA Jobs form? Do you have any advice on what to do in the meantime? I have heard from others that it took some agencies a year to respond to their application.
Kathryn K. Troutman: LENGTH OF TIME TO GET HIRED! Yes, it takes some time, but now with the on-line application systems, you can see results, such as "referred" or "not referred" online. This works for www.usajobs.gov and www.cpol.army.mil and AF Civilian jobs. It's great to see the results on-line. Calling USAJOBS office? You can try. If there's a phone. Be sure to check out any online or e-mail results. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
East Chatham, N.Y.: I am a RN with a BS in Nursing. I have 22 years of clinical experience and would like to now focus on health care and policy change specifically bridging a gap between health and national education reform. What would you recommend as the best degree, in a Masters Program, to enhance this focus?
Kathryn K. Troutman: BS IN NURSING, MASTER'S DEGREE TOWARD HEALTHCARE AND POLICY. I would recommend that you look at job announcements at www.hhs.gov. Especially Center for Medicare & Medicaid. www.cms.gov. And look at the Health Insurance Specialist job title. This could be a target job that would be of great interest to you. The MS could be in Health Care policy. A MS in Policy is great for government work. So many policies to write, analyze, improve, change and recommend, especially using your clinical knowledge. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
McLean, Va.: How should I approach KSAs that are over-simpified? (i.e. "Ability to communicate orally and in writing")
Kathryn K. Troutman: SIMPLIFIED KSAS -- GIVE A GOOD EXAMPLE. The Human Resources Specialist would like to see an example of how you communicate with employees, customers, co-workers and team members. You should give one or two examples of your highest level of communication. Negotiations, problem-solving, giving instruction, analyzing information and interpreting the information, interpreting a policy. For instance, I resolved a major problem with a customer last week who ... Just give an example, tell a story about how well you communicate orally. This will impress the supervisor. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Hyattsville, Md.: I'm the one with the BBA in marketing and BS in education with the 15+ years of NPO experience... I forgot to mention one thing. I have used MANY of the tips in Ms. Troutman's third edition "Federal Resume Guidebook" especially the "Private-Industry Resume Converted to a Federal Resume" section in part 1.
Kathryn K. Troutman: 15 YEARS OF NPO EXPERIENCE - TRY FOR APPLES TO APPLES. Thanks for reading the books. I'm glad they are helping you! The challenge is finding the right job announcement, and that takes time. Just remember that your resume and the announcement should ideally be APPLES TO APPLES. It's best if you can find positions where you can use your experience ... or, if not the specific experience, your technical skills. This is always the challenge for a career change federal resume. Thanks, Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Alexandria, Va.: I had to take some time off between graduation and am now applying for jobs a year later. Do I need an explanation for personal reasons or does that suffice?
Will this hurt my chances?
Kathryn K. Troutman: TOOK A YEAR OF AFTER GRADUATION. The recommendations for the federal resume, according to OPMs of 510 -- the instructions for the federal resume -- are that they require recent and relevant experience. So, you can just leave the year off. Or you canadd something about travel or any kind of statement -- I suppose, just using common sense, the HR specialist might wonder what you were doing. And then of course, you should be impressive with your education. The samples on the Student's Federal Career Guide CD-ROM are awesome if you want to get the book. A great Federal Resume for a new graduate can help a lot. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Bowie, Md. : Is submitting a hard copy of your resume the best way to be considered by the government for employment?
Kathryn K. Troutman: HARD COPY SUBMISSIONS? PROBABLY NOT. Most agencies are requiring you to copy and paste your resume into their resume builder. And if you do submit to the resume builder, you should not send a paper set as well. You really should go to USAJOBS and submit to their resume builder. Many agencies are using that system for resume collection. It's not a bad system. There are only a few agencies accepting paper applications now -- VA, FEMA, some TSA positions. Most are electronic. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Elkridge, Md.: How can I return to the federal government after being a stay-at-home mom for over five years?
Kathryn K. Troutman: RETURN TO GOVERNMENT AFTER FIVE YEARS OFF. Yes, you can return to government. Just write a good federal resume describing your positions, skills and qualifications. Find announcements for those positions. You can add something into the USAJOBS Resume builder for the last five years if you want. Family management. That's about all. Unless you were active with some volunteer services. You could add those. They could be good for communications skills, etc. Go right on back and apply for jobs, as though it was last year.
Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Reston, Va.: Is the government really in the process of overhauling its hiring/application practice from the months without end length and pace to a more private-sector-like time cycle?
Kathryn K. Troutman: IS THE GOVERNMENT REALLY OVERHAULING APPLICATION PROCESS? Yes, they really are trying hard to respond faster after a closing date. And they are working toward using the USAJOBS Resume Builder for more announcement applications. And the on-line application submission results are very good. I like the USAJOBS application results page and the www.cpol.army.mil Answer page. You can see what happened to your resume on-line. Not all agencies have this, but it is getting better. I do seem improvement. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Alexandria, Va.: I understand that it can take a long time before you hear back from an agency. It took one agency over a year to get back to me. Do you recommend contacting the agency? What if there is no direct contact given, only a service desk listed in the USA Jobs form?
Do you have any advice on what to do job wise in the meantime?
Kathryn K. Troutman: APPLY FOR FEDERAL, THEN GET A TEMPORARY JOB. If you are very serious about a federal job, then you should apply for these jobs diligently, every week. And then also look for a temporary position so you can pay your bills and be under less pressure. The Federal job search really could take six months, so it's best for you to just get a job, and then have a part-time job submitting for federal positions. But I hope that you will apply for the right job titles and right grade level. Good luck, and be persevering. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Washington, D.C.: I recently applied for two librarian positions at the Library of Congress in the CRS. I tried contacting the employment specialist assigned to these positions to obtain feedback about my application. No response. The following week, I read an article in the Washington Post Express about a recent MLS graduate landing a plum job with the Congressional Research Service. I have over 15 years of experience as a reference librarian in the private sector. What do I need to do to get considered for one of these positions? Know someone or turn out a better application?
Kathryn K. Troutman: KNOW SOMEONE OR WRITE A BETTER APPLICATION? Both would be great probably. It's very possible that the resume could get better. I am sure you are very well-qualified. You could try to contact the HR Specialist on the announcement for the LOC positions. You could ask about the announcements and try to get feedback. Tell the HR Specialist about your background, that you are an expert, 15 years experience. Determined to work at LOC or CRS. This is very specialized, as you know. Maybe the resume is not standing out enough. You can still do this, you should work on it more. But get some information if you can. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Rockville, Md.: We hear a lot about the effects of future baby boomer retirements. Well, I wish some of them would hurry up. I was born in 1961 (toward the end of the boom) so the positions that represent my promotion potential are occupied by co-workers too old to want mobility and too young to retire. They were mostly at least one grade up from where I am now when they were my age.
What are usually the best options in my position -- wait for a parallel opening and see if my own unit will match? Let them know I feel stuck and that if they want me to stay they need to create a new position? Just enjoy low expectations?
Kathryn K. Troutman: STUCK: Options: low expectations; parallel move; ask the office to create a new job.
I like those choices. If I were you, I'd go for parallel move. At least that's the one where you can control your future. Why don't you start looking around and submitting. You could talk to your boss about your concerns and need for more challenge (and money), but I'm not sure I'd bank on that. Take charge ... Something else could happen along the way also. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Elkridge, Md.: How far back should my resume go -- how many years?
Kathryn K. Troutman: HOW FAR BACK FOR THE FEDERAL RESUME? Well, the supervisors really want to read the details for five years. And they want to see the job history for 10 years for sure. But ... if you want to add shorter versions of descriptions before 10 years, that's good too. Stop at 1986. Twenty years is enough.
Summary: Five years is most important. Next five years is second most important.
Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Elkridge, Md.: I would like to apply for jobs that have the Superior Academic Provision. How to address KSAs? Should I give the classes that gave me the knowledge skill or abilities?
Kathryn K. Troutman: NEW GRADUATE KSAS ABOUT COURSE PROJECTS. Yes, write your KSAs about your relevant course projects. My daughter, Emily Troutman, graduated with her MPP last year. She co-authored the Student Federal Career Guide with me. Her KSA chapter in the book is based on her projects from her Master's program. I would recommend that you read the KSA chapter. It is awesome. (Even if I do say so myself.)
Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Arlington, Va.: DOD has started, as of Sept. 1, to use new adjudicative guidelines. This will slow down the ability of the various DOD CAFs to make clearance and employment suitability determinations since there are changes to the guidelines. Also realize the currrent state of OPM investigations, especially for DOD, is the worst it has been in the last 30 years. OPM has no clue about DOD requirements and the contractors are trying to maximize profit rather than resolve issues.
Kathryn K. Troutman: SLOW DOD EMPLOYMENT SECURITY BACKGROUND CHECKS. Right, I am seeing that the security clearances are slow. I know someone who was hired by State two months ago. And I guess it will be awhile before he actually starts the position. He is waiting and working part-time, temporary positions. It can be discouraging. But I do recommend that people be patient and stay in touch with the HR specialist to make sure the clearance is still in the queue. But get another job, temporarily, so that you can stay patient and pay the bills. Thanks for your note. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Business must be booming since the Bureau of Economic Analysis released their report showing that the average compensation for the 1.8 million federal civilian workers in 2005 was twice the average compensation paid in the U.S. private sector along with the report of the top three counties in the U.S. with the highest incomes also have the highest concentration of federal employees. Private industry needs to make a profit so if you want an inflation proof pension you have to work for the Feds. Time off must be part of that compensation too since my federal civilian neighbors haven't worked a five day week this year! So tell us, where do we sign-up?
Kathryn K. Troutman: BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS REPORT -- AVERAGE COMPENSATION IS TWICE THE AVERAGE OF PRIVATE SECTOR -- IN SOME AREAS. Yes, Isn't that amazing? I was really surprised. I KNEW that the Federal job benefits were good, but that was some report.
You can sign up by starting your federal job search at www.usajobs.gov. Look for jobs in your geographic region. Or consider moving, since the jobs are so good! And then you need a good Federal resume. There are several good books on that topic that I know very well about.
Yes, I agree, you should sign up, or at least begin your search. Good luck with the campaign. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Marriottsville, Md.: I have two questions: (1) I was told by federal employees that in order to land a government job, you have to apply for lower level positions. Is this true, and if so, how does one decide how many levels to go down on the GS scale? (2) Many of the job descriptions are written specifically for federal employees and some of the postings are only open for only five days (a clear indicator that the posting is a promotion). So how do you decide when you should apply for a position -- for example, a posting for two weeks or less is a promotion, so do not attempt to apply for this position?
Kathryn K. Troutman: START A LOWER LEVEL? Yes, people do say that you should start at the lowest grade level that is reasonable for you. But I do NOT agree, that you should start at a GS 5 or 7, if you have 10 years or so of experience, or specialized experience. There are so many job openings now, that you should target the correct grade level, based on your experience, education and salary expectations. And then you could consider one or two grades below this. If you start your government career way below your real career level, it can be discouraging and hard to move up.
JOB DESCRIPTIONS WRITTEN FOR CURRENT FEDS. Yes, I know that it seems like the announcements are written for people who already work there. The KSAs and Essays are very specific to the agency's mission and programs/policies. But if you find announcements that are OPEN TO EVERYONE, you should try to apply. Try to answer, even the technical ones. But if you do not have experience for two or three of the essay questions, you should probably not apply. Good luck, Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Herndon, Va.: Is it realistic to expect to be hired in as a GS-15 when coming from private industry without ever having been a Federal employee, or are those positions usually filled from within? I have been a Federal IT consultant for 27 years and am looking forward to working for one employer with a well-defined mission, as opposed to continuing to do contract consulting. I do have an extensive Federal consulting resume.
Kathryn K. Troutman: REALISTIC TO START AS A 15 WITH EXPERT FEDERAL IT EXPERIENCE? Yes, it's realistic. But I would probably recommend that you apply for jobs from the 13 through 15 level. If you are expert with Federal IT projects with several different agencies. And the projects are still current, then it is possible you could start as a 15. The 15 level is usually supervisory/management, so you would need the management-level experience. Just read the announcement, Specialized experience and the KSAs/Essays. You should match your resume to their narratives. And be specific with your project accomplishments. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career coach
Alexandria, Va: I have had to take some time off due to health-related issues. Is this something I should explain since there is a gap in my resume for the last year?
Kathryn K. Troutman: EXPLAIN TIME OFF FOR HEALTH REASONS FOR ONE YEAR? I would recommend that you skip it in the resume. Just write your federal resume about your experiences, education and specialized skills. if it was only one year, it should be okay. The official statement from the OPM's OF-510 -- What to include in your resume says that: include recent and relevant positions for work experience. Your year off was not relevant to your job objective now. Good luck, Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
On some of the positions I've applied for, the KSA had room to include 8,000 characters. My explanations fell far short of that but I could have added more detail. Do you feel that we should add excessive detail in the KSAs?
Kathryn K. Troutman: 8,000 CHARACTER ESSAYS- - REALLY? I have seen many of these announcements with Questions and Essays allowing for 8,000 characters. That's equal to two full pages of typing. I am recommending that people write one good example for the essays. Maybe about 400 to 650 words. And the announcements on occasion ask for as many as 12 essays. So, if you WERE to write 8,000 characters for 10 essays, that would be alot of reading for the HR specialists. Be sure to give a good example with details (or even twoexamples). You do not have to fill up the 8,000 character statement. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Gov't Contractor in Alexandria: Does the Federal Government realize how much its month long, antiquated hiring practices impact their pool of applicants?
I've applied for a handful of Fed jobs that I was qualified for -- never received so much as a notice that my paperwork was even received. I'll never bother to waste my time to apply again.
Kathryn K. Troutman: NEVER RECEIVED A WORD FROM THE GOVERNMENT. I understand your frustration. People do have to apply to many jobs to make it work. And the resume has to be just right, focused toward the job. I think that the HR specialists know that their response to applications is not great. They are trying with the on-line application results pages. Good luck with your job search -- other than government, Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Gaithersburg, Md.: I've read all your books and they're excellent. I have followed all your tips. I've been applying for federal jobs since 1996. I have yet to get anywhere. Oh, once I did get seven different rejection letters from seven different people, all for an IPO job at the Post Office. HELP.
Kathryn K. Troutman: READ THE BOOKS, NO LUCK SINCE 1996. Okay, then you need expert help. I am a Federal Career Coach, as well as a book author. www.resume-place.com You really need to re-look at your resume, announcements, target job series, grade, everything. Something is wrong. If you are qualified, then something would be happening -- referrals, e-mails, etc. Time for a new approach. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Washington, D.C.: Ms. Troutman, I need your help. Since Sept '05, I have had 11 interviews with Dept. of Energy, HHS, NRC, FCC, etc. But the response is always the same -- "We decided to hire the internal candidate." I have dressed appropriately, thoroughly answered their Performance Based Interview queries, etc. I have even brought along a laptop to do a PowerPoint presentation as part of my interview -- yet I just CAN'T land a job. Any advise will be MOST appreciated.
Kathryn K. Troutman: INTERNAL HIRES INSTEAD OF YOU -- 11 TIMES??? That is some serious bad luck. Sounds like you are really doing well, until they hire someone else. You are preparing for the behavior based interviews, and you are being referred. The only thing I can think is that you might need interview training. Maybe you could do better. PPT and all? You are serious, I can see that. Federal Career Coaching -- Strategies -- might be needed for this situation. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Elkridge, Md.: In reference to your answer "... want to read the details for fiveyears." The past five years I was a homemaker and student. Now I am looking at position that have the superior academic provision for GS-07. How can I show this on my resume?
Kathryn K. Troutman: HOMEMAKER AND STUDENT FOR FIVE YEARS. Okay, That's great. I'm glad you were going to school too. So Job No. 1 will be the name of your university or college. Job Title: Student.
Description of "work" will be your courses, projects and papers. On your resume, the first "job" is your education. Yes, you will still list the education -- college in the official "education" section. But the education will fill up the five years. That should work very well. For samples of this format, the Student's Federal Career Guide would work. Because all samples have Education first. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Reston, Va.: You mentioned finding the "right pay grade/level" as being a goal in a Federal job search. Is there a good/accurate tool in order for a mostly private-sector candidate to measure this for themselves? Thank you!
Kathryn K. Troutman: RIGHT PAY GRADE / LEVEL. The best is to read the vacancy announcements. REad the duties and see if the work would be within your qualifications. Read the Specialized Experience. Read the Qualifications to see what is required for the job. This is self-study. We provide a Qualifications Analysis service at www.resume-place.com to make sure. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Alexandria, Va: Should I mention the illness if they ask what I have been doing for the past year? I do not want them to think I am sick and unable to work.
Kathryn K. Troutman: SICK FOR AYEAR? If they ask you in an interview, tell the truth. But be positive, you are better, recuperated, able to work, with doctor's orders. Be energetic and positive. Be thankful and happy. You can convince them that you are good to go! Just be honest (without too many details on the medical side). Kathryn Troutman
Atlanta, Ga.: I am earning a master's in Public Administration with a concentration in Publc Health while working full-time for a global energy company in community and media relations. I'd like to develop health communications plans and public health strategies for global corporations or agencies such as the CDC. I'm not sure if this is an option or even how to get started. Is this an emerging field?
I currently have nine years of public affairs experiences (managing budgets and community relations mostly).
Can you direct me to a website or resource? Thanks for your help!
Kathryn K. Troutman: PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST. Just do a search for that job title on www.usajobs.gov. You will read jobs in government that will be of interest to you. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach
Virginia: Hello. How do I match my series # with CIA jobs? CIA jobs are not advertised at usajobs.opm.gov. Thanks.
Kathryn K. Troutman: CIA AND JOB SERIES -- Just go to www.cia.gov and study the job titles and descriptions. And the qualifications. They have the information there. And then apply for the job that seems right. Kathryn Troutman
Arlington, Va.: I am looking to change career directions. I have a new BS degree and administrative work experience. If I am looking for a carrer in analysis can I expect any of my previous experience to be useful? Will it help me gain a higher pay level than recent grads with no serious work experience?
Kathryn K. Troutman: CAREER CHANGE. YES, your previous experience can be useful. But play up the most relevant experience and education. I would sure need to know more about your career change situation.
SIGNING OFF -- THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR WRITING TODAY. I hope you will continue your federal job search. Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Coach and President, www.resume-place.com and www.tenstepsforstudents.org
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He was online Monday, Sept. 11, at 1 p.m. ET to address all your traffic and transit issues. A transcript follows.
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, fellow commuters and travelers. Since we were last together in this forum, the heat of summer has eased, along with at least some of the stresses transit riders. On the other hand, we're in the September Shock phase on both roads and rails, in which we all get that unpleasant reminder of how difficult it can be to get around this region when everyone's in town.
Wilson Bridge Woes: I thought, with all of the fanfare and ceremony, that the Wilson Bridge was finished. Surprised me last night to find extremely rough road surfaces and extremely confusing signage. We got thoroughly confused about where lanes began and ended, or where ramps were actually going. After seeing traffic still slow on 95/495 approaching the bridge, I now see why. Any idea on when the roads will really be completed?
Dr. Gridlock: We celebrated this summer when the first of the two new spans opened. It was a significant achievement in a region beset with traffic problems.
But this is one of the biggest public works projects in the nation and it has a long way to go before it's done. Another six lane span is scheduled to open in 2008. That will be the end of the bridge work. But there are two major intersections in Maryland and two in Virginia that are under reconstruction as part of the project. That work should extend to 2012.
Alexandria, Va.: Traveling through the Pentagon City Metro station yesterday, I noticed a series of what appear to be speaker boxes being installed at regular (10 foot) intervals along the platform. Are these part of Metro's efforts to improve communications? Will they be installed throughout the system? And most importantly, will they help to create sounds and announcements that are not only audible, but also INTELLIGIBLE?
Dr. Gridlock: I posted this question in hope that someone from Metro might be joining us today and would know what's up with those speakers at Pentagon City.
The clarity of train announcements -- both on the platforms and in rail cars -- has been an issue for years. Not all train operators speak clearly, while other times the problem appears to be with the equipment. Some operators have very distinctive voices and styles, and they can be a pleasure to listen to.
The other complaint I hear about is the new "doors closing" voice. It's a much sharper warning than the old one, and the chimes are more insistent. But that was part of the idea of using the new message.
Metrorail: For me, it boils down to this: why are we so rude to each other on Metro? Why are you standing in the operating doorway? Why are you using football footwork to get on the train ahead of me (and then standing in the doorway!) Why does your bag sit on the seat instead of the floor? The trains are not that crowded when I ride, but the behavior is unbelievable.
Dr. Gridlock: I posted this message as a follow-up to the previous one. It's a big region, and there are some people who behave badly, whether it's on transit or on the roads. One of the reasons for that new "doors closing" message was to get people's attention with a more commanding voice.
On Metro, the basics of behavior seem so simple: Don't block passengers from getting on and off. Don't eat or drink, don't play music others can hear. Don't litter.
Vienna, Va.: Dr. G. - Regarding the Tysons Metro controversy, why is an elevated track such an impediment to reconfiguring/revitalizing Tysons Corner? I agree it would be aesthetically better to have a tunnel, but how does an elevated track prevent these grand dreams of making Tysons some kind of town center? Downtown Chicago has elevated trains; traffic and pedestrians coexist just fine with the tracks. Last time I looked, the Loop wasn't cutoff from the rest for the city even though it's surrounded by elevated track. Not that I believe that Tysons will ever be approved -- too many special interests.
Dr. Gridlock: I thought Gov. Tim Kaine did the right thing last week in approving the elevated rail track through Tysons. It's better to have this new Metro line, complicated and expensive as it is, than to blow the chance by risking the federal funds.
Tysons was poorly planned. It's becoming a city supported by roads. That's dysfunctional. It needs sidewalks and a subway.
I grew up in New York and know what elevated tracks look like. It was easier on those of us who didn't live in those neighborhoods than on those who did. People tend to move away from them, not toward them.
16th Street, Washington: I beg you to remind city drivers that they MUST stop if a pedestrian is in a crosswalk. I live near the non-profit Green Door, which helps mentally challenged people learn to live on their own, at 16th and Corcoran. I can't tell you how many of those folks are scared to cross 16th Street because the cars don't stop. The city installed those metal signs in the middle of the street a while ago, but once they got smashed up a few times, they got rid of them.
It's to the point where I just walk out into the street, and make traffic stop for me. Stupid, I know, but how else can I cross?
However, I must say, I find that the cars that do obey this law the most are taxi drivers. Who knew!
Dr. Gridlock: This note about the situation in Columbia Heights/Mount Pleasant in the District
Dr. Gridlock: It reminds me of the situation in Tysons, which is divided by Routes 7 and 123 and someday by an elevated train track. We need these big commuter routes. But we should be able to plan and adapt our transportation network to take neighborhood concerns into account.
I think the writer is quite correct. The 16th Street corridor can be like the Grand Canyon for walkers. I remember seeing the signs marking crosswalks. It was frightening to see them pulverized over the course of a couple of weeks. It was like jousters had used them for practice.
Middle Lane Squatters: While driving I-66 this weekend, I noticed a common type of driver -- the one who "parks" in the middle of the three lanes and stays there. Slightly below the speed of traffic, refusing to move to the right lane. Theoretically, shouldn't any slower driver cede the lane and move over?
Dr. Gridlock: In Virginia, I believe, a driver must move to the right for an overtaking car that indicates a desire to pass. Rest of the region has no such laws.
But look, you're talking about a driver in the middle lane, which we consider the travel lane on a three lane road? Why not just pass on the left? It's not that hard. A vehicle does have the right to proceed below the speed limit, as long as it hasn't fallen below the highway's minimum speed.
Laurel, Md.: I was appalled to read that DC does not recognize handicap placards issued by other jurisdictions. Do you know if the same is true for Metro stations located in DC? I routinely drive to the Rhode Island or Fort Totten Metro stations, park there and proceed into downtown DC. It would make things much more difficult if I couldn't use the handicap spaces.
It would make things much easier if they could ever get most of their escalators working, but that's another story.
Dr. Gridlock: Here's another question that I was hoping Metro officials might be able to respond to if they're looking in. The writer is referring to a column item in which we said that DC is in the process of changing it's law so that out of state handicapped tags are accepted for parking in spaces for the disabled.
UpMo, Md.: I am a new returnee to Metro, having not ridden it in about five years. I work in Rosslyn and get on at the Largo Town Center, right where the Redskins fans (and I wish I was part of the galloping horde) will be getting off to walk to the stadium. Should I leave work now?
Dr. Gridlock: Wouldn't hurt to cut out a bit early today -- and you've got a good excuse. Yes, I do think Largo bound trains will be crowded this evening because of the 7 p.m. season opener at FedEx Field.
Largo isn't the best place on the Blue Line for riders to get off, though. The closest station and the one with the best access to FedEx is Morgan Boulevard. That's nine-tenths of a mile.
Alexandria, Va.: The point the other poster made about yielding to pedestrians is interesting because when I was walking back from getting lunch I was thinking just the opposite: Many D.C.-area pedestrians need to remember that when the "Don't Walk" hand lights up on the sign, it is time for the pedestrians to yield to the drivers. I never cease to be amazed by how many pedestrians seem to want to challenge the cars by crossing against the light and staring at the drivers while doing so. At an uncontrolled crosswalk, shame on the drivers. When the sign says "Don't Walk," though, a pedestrian has no business expecting any driver to slow down or yield.
Dr. Gridlock: I know what you mean. Certainly this happens and it's truly annoying. But most of us don't want to hit a pedestrian to make a point. I'm sure you don't.
There needs to be education on both sides. Pedestrians need to know the rules and so do drivers. We need to know what to expect of each other -- and still need to be conservative about our behavior.
Dumfries, Va.: Good afternoon, do you happen to know the status of the MAGLEV system that was supposed to be built between DC and Baltimore? I haven't heard anything about it in quite a while. Thanks!
Dr. Gridlock: I think this is a pipe dream on the part of some government officials. The advanced technology for this high speed train system is challenging and expensive. How practical is it to build an expensive, super high speed line between DC and Baltimore. We need improvements in that commuter corridor. That's certain. I hear lots from MARC train riders.
But isn't taking a MAGLEV the equivalent of taking a 747 from Reagan National to BWI?
Fort Belvoir: The previous poster about stopping for pedestrians brings up a question -- what is the difference between stopping for pedestrians in a crosswalk, as in D.C., and yielding to a pedestrian, as in Va.?
Dr. Gridlock: Not sure there is a legal difference. We usually have to defer to pedestrians in crosswalks in any jurisdiction. Local governments have made efforts over the past couple of years to step up their enforcement of those laws, sometimes using decoy officers at the crosswalks to see if drivers yield and then ticketing those who don't.
But we're not just trying to avoid tickets. We're trying to keep each other alive.
washingtonpost.com: D.C. to Make Meters More Accessible (Post, July 27, 2006)
Arlington, Va.: Is the T.R. Bridge rebuild on schedule yet? I have to say, the delays westbound in the evening have not been bad (though I hope that doesn't jinx it). When will it all be done? Oh, and will they pave asphalt over the concrete or leave it as it is?
Dr. Gridlock: Many of you are writing in to ask me about the work at the Roosevelt Bridge and around the Lincoln Memorial. I've got some checking to do on this and will report back on the results.
If you've got further thoughts or information on the situation in that area, please e-mail them to me at drgridlock@washpost.com.
Memorial Bridge commuter: Dr. G.,
Forgive my blunt manner, but who is the IDIOT responsible for the the new traffic lights and patterns around the Lincoln Memorial circle and Henry Bacon Drive? It's a nightmare to get to the bridge from Constitution any time around rush hour because of the two new lights that have been installed there. Anyone who's taken that route over the last two years of construction has felt the pain of it, but is this really the payoff? Please tell me it's going to get better!
Dr. Gridlock: Here's another note asking about the situation in that area, and again, I'll be checking into that. I haven't been there in a while and will go down and take a look.
Welcome to cyberspace. Yesterday I had the opportunity to drive on the Whitehurst Freeway because of road closings for the 9/11 Freedom Walk. What a wonderfully smooth concrete deck the contractors built during the last renovation. The surface provides a quiet and bump-free ride.
Compare that to the new concrete deck recently installed on the inbound Roosevelt Bridge and it is like night and day. What a jolting ride! Granted my aging Ford Explorer no longer handles the roads like it used to, but this concrete work is abominable. I also noticed that there is no construction on the outbound roadway. Do you know what's going on here? Many thanks. Dan in Arlington.
Dr. Gridlock: Same on this. Another thought about the work at the TR Bridge.
Reston, Va.: The Vienna Metro station has a dangerous road crossing between the North Parking Kiss and Ride exit and the neighboring condos on Virginia Center Blvd. There is no traffic light there and many pedestrians are crossing in the dark. This lack of a traffic light is dangerous as well as for cars trying to cross Virginia Center Blvd. The nearest traffic light is at Vaden Drive which does not help with the safe flow of traffic at the station.
A map of these roads is available at:
Is there any way that we can get a traffic light for this area of Vienna Metro station?
Thank you for your help with this dangerous situation.
Dr. Gridlock: I'll check on this situation at Vienna. I'm not sure whether Metro or VDOT has jurisdiction on the traffic light issue.
It's interesting how many of you write in to ask about pedestrian issues. I've been learning what an important component that is of our regional transportation scene.
Baltimore (Red Light Central): "I know what you mean. Certainly this happens and it's truly annoying. But most of us don't want to hit a pedestrian to make a point. I'm sure you don't."
I wouldn't count on it anymore. I've actually started to rev up and inch or lurch forward at them to make a point. Not to the elderly or those running to get out of our way, but the defiant ones taking advantage of the laws that make pedestrians omnipotent and fearless.
"There needs to be education on both sides. Pedestrians need to know the rules and so do drivers."
And when was the last time you saw a pedestrian ticketed for obstructing traffic? I'll bet you all the money in my wallet that the cops will bust the driver every time.
Dr. Gridlock: The two issues in our chat today that I'm getting the most responses on are pedestrians vs. cars and on passing the middle lane driver.
This is pretty typical of the types of letters to Dr. Gridlock that we've gotten over the years.
I love the debates in forums like this, but I just don't believe that getting angry at each other on the road is a winning strategy.
And I feel certain that people who have enough concern about transportation issues in our region to read and comment on forums like this aren't picking off pedestrians and crunching the bumpers of slower drivers.
Kingstowne, Va.: Dr. G., do you perchance know why VDOT has banned trucks on VA-123 going into Tysons from the Beltway? I was out of town for most of August and was surprised to see big "NO TRUCKS" stickers on the big green signs at the 123 exit when I went to Tysons the week before Labor Day.
It doesn't affect me since I don't drive a truck, but I was just curious.
Dr. Gridlock: Thanks, I hadn't noticed that sign, though I've been out on 123 in that area a couple of times lately. I'll check with VDOT and respond on our "Get There" blog or in an upcoming Dr. Gridlock column.
Alexandria, Va.: While we're talking about people who need to pay attention to the rules of the road, can we talk about the menace that is a good chunk of the bicycle-riding population. People, you NEED to stop for red lights and stop signs. Don't care if that slows down your momentum -- if you can't handle it, pick another mode of transport. Also, STOP riding on the sidewalk. I can't tell you how many times I've nearly been run down by bicyclists.
Bicyclists can pat themselves on the back for reducing the amount of pollutants and all that, but they need to remember that they are bound to follow the rules of the road, same as cars.
Dr. Gridlock: How could I have forgotten about this other great divide among our region's travelers? The motorists vs. bikers issue has been another constant source of letters to Dr. Gridlock.
My sister is the great bicyclist in our family. She does some long routes out in Napa County, CA. I'm afraid I've slacked off in recent years. But since I've been doing the Dr. Gridlock column, I've had a chance to talk to many bikers in our area.
I'm impressed with the ones who tell me that bikers need to be part of the traffic flow. (You can't follow the rules for drivers one minute and the rules for pedestrians the next. Consistency contributes to safety. We need to know what to expect of each other.)
Arlington, Va.: Could you suggest the fastest route between Ballston and the North Bethesda/Rockville area during rush hour traffic? This will be my new commute starting next week, and the thought of sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on 66 sounds horrible.
Thanks in advance for responding!
Dr. Gridlock: That is a pretty gruesome route, with I-66 likely to be the worst of it. So I'm wondering if transit is an option for you? That's Metro's Orange Line from Ballston, with a transfer at Metro Center to the Red Line to Rockville, I believe. If you live or work a long way from the stations, how about the ART buses in Arlington and the Ride Ons in Montgomery to get to and from the trains?
Vienna, Va.: Aloha new Dr. G,
Where do you think that residents new to the area should live?
Why I ask is that I am relatively new to the area, and have gotten the feeling from reading this column/blog/chat that the answer has been, "anywhere you like, as long as you don't drive on MY roads, or ride on MY Metro".
There has been a lot of bashing any development at all, be it near a Metro Station (Vienna) or out along any commuting corridor. So what is the deal, should people stop moving here so that current residents are not inconvenienced?
Dr. Gridlock: Aloha. (When I was a kid, I lived in Honolulu. Used to get lost routinely on Army school buses. MPs were always driving me home.)
I don't like telling people where to live. It's a free country. And individual needs vary. I like living in Silver Spring, two miles from Metro's Red Line. But my wife works in Baltimore, so she's always trying to decide whether Route 29 or I-95 is the best bet for a drive of more than 30 miles each way.
My only advice is that people should know what they're getting into when they pick a spot to live. Don't test the commute on Sunday morning.
Montgomery Village, Md.: So just how bad will the commute be this evening with an early 'Skins game, rush hour and Yankees in Baltimore? Can we say "Snow Day"? >Please people , let's all be a little more courteous tonight.
Dr. Gridlock: Yes, the eastern side of our region should be jammed in the hours around the games at FedEx and Camden Yards. The Beltway and I-95 should be particularly troublesome.
Woodbridge, Va.: Has the Post ever thought about splitting the commuter column and having one person write about highways, parking, HOV, etc., and another focused on mass transit? Lately, your column and this chat have become so Metro-centric that it hardly worth my time to read either.
Dr. Gridlock: I'm a transit advocate and if I can think of ways to help drivers by suggesting transit alternatives, I'll do that. A million riders take transit each day across our region. That's a pretty big constituency.
But I'm not out to stiff drivers. I've put quite a few new miles on my car in the past two months, since taking on the column, and will continue to do so.
Washington, D.C.: Oh, Dr. Gridlock, why are the orange/red lines getting some eight-car trains before all lines have six-car trains? I know the old refrain of ridership, and I am with them on that. But perhaps they should consider that by making the commute for people on these lines better, they continue to make service on the yellow and blue lines terrible. I regularly take the blue line towards Largo and reboard at Metro center so I have at least a chance of fitting on one of the blue car trains.
Also, the announcements about the bus situation at the Pentagon last week were awful. My train operator did not make one mention of it, nor did anyone at the Pentagon until we had already exited the station.
Dr. Gridlock: Metro's board last week allocated the first 50 of the new cars on their way to Washington. Many people are sure their own line is getting shortchanged by Metro. I've been trying to ride all lines to get a better idea of conditions throughout the system.
Looks to me like everything is more crowded than it should be. Many days this summer were unpleasant for riders.
Bottom line is that we shouldn't be pitted against each other, but rather united in seeking more resources for the region's transit systems.
Georgetown: I pretty much always use the middle lane, because the right lane is a pain with people entering and exiting. And I don't drive all that fast. (I consider 5 to 10 over the speed limit to be plenty speedy, thankyouverymuch, although this seems to be a minority opinion.) It drives me BATTY when people either drive angrily on my bumper or pass me on the right. Hello! There's an entire left lane there! Use it!
Dr. Gridlock: Thought I'd finish off by showing you two more comments on the middle lane issue. This was the first.
Md. middle lane parker: What's the problem with using the middle lane? You can get around us easily. Those of us who "park" in the middle lane do so because we don't want to block the nutcases zooming past us at a million miles an hour in the left lane or passing lane, but we also don't want to block or be blocked by those exiting and entering the interstate.
Please stay cool out there. I want you all to live to join me for our next chat.
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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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Iraq: A Civil War We Can Still Win
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As the Democrats turn themselves into the antiwar party, as popular support for the war continues to sink, as some who initially signed on to the war now heap scorn on the entire Iraqi project, the question of immediate withdrawal must be confronted.
There are two rationales for withdrawing from -- let's be honest, abandoning -- Iraq: (a) Iraq is not worth it, and (b) worth it or not, the cause is lost.
The first rationale was articulated most recently by John Kerry: "Iraq is not the center of the war on terror. The president keeps saying it is. The president keeps trying to push that down America's throat. It's wrong, it's a mistake and it's losing us the ability to do what we need to do in the region." This is absurd. If the United States leaves, the central government in Iraq will collapse, and the beneficiaries will be Iran, Syria and al-Qaeda, the three major terrorist actors in the world today. It would not just be a psychological victory but also a territorial one. Al-Qaeda would gain a base in Mesopotamia; Syria and Iran would share spheres of influence in what's left of the Iraqi state.
We might come out of this with an independent Kurdistan that could be a base for U.S. military power, but it would be a shrunken presence in a roiling area, a tragically small consolation prize.
One can argue that we should therefore have left Saddam Hussein in place. That assumes a stable and benign status quo ante . Both assumptions are false. But assume for a moment that the critics are right. That's the argument that should have been made -- that Kerry should have made -- four years ago, before he voted yes, before he voted no, before he voted yes on the war. At this point, it is simply indisputable that the collapse of Iraq's constitutional government would represent an enormous gain for the forces of terror.
The other rationale for withdrawal is that the war is lost and therefore it is unconscionable to make one more American soldier die for a cause that cannot be salvaged.
It is a serious argument from which we have been distracted during the past several months by the increasingly absurd debate over the meaning of the term "civil war," and whether Iraq is in one.
Of course it is. It began when the Sunni minority, unwilling to accept the finality of the Baathist defeat, began making indiscriminate war on the Kurdish-Shiite majority that had inherited the country as a result of the U.S. invasion.
Iraq is not Spain in the 1930s or America in the 1860s, but whether the phrase "civil war" is to be used is irrelevant. The relevant question is, can we still win, meaning can we leave behind a functioning, self-sustaining, Western-friendly constitutional government?
And that depends on whether the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki can face up to its two potentially mortal threats: the Sunni insurgency and the challenge from Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The vast majority of Sunnis are fighting not for ideology but for a share of power and (oil) money. A deal with them is eminently possible and could co-opt enough Sunnis to greatly shrink the insurgency. Even now, the insurgents have the capacity to massacre civilians and kill coalition soldiers with roadside bombs, but they have never demonstrated the capacity for the kind of sustained unit action that ultimately overthrows governments and wins civil wars. (See Castro, Mao, North Vietnam.) Our ambassador in Baghdad has been urging the Maliki government to make the bargain. He has also been urging it to get serious about the growing internal threat of Sadr's Mahdi Army, which is responsible for much of the recent sectarian violence and threatens to either marginalize or supplant the central government.
The only positive element in Sadr's rise has been a fracturing of the united Shiite front that can now allow some cross-sectarian (Sunni-Shiite) deals and alliances. But that requires a Maliki government decisively willing to deal with the Sunnis and take on Sadr.
Yesterday Maliki took over operational control of the Iraqi armed forces, the one national security institution that works. He needs to demonstrate the will to use it. The American people will support a cause that is noble and necessary, but not one that is unwinnable. And without a central Iraqi government willing to act in its own self-defense, this war will be unwinnable.
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As the Democrats turn themselves into the antiwar party, as popular support for the war continues to sink, as some who initially signed on to the war now heap scorn on the entire Iraqi project, the question of immediate withdrawal must be confronted.
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Iraq's Alleged Al-Qaeda Ties Were Disputed Before War
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A declassified report released yesterday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence revealed that U.S. intelligence analysts were strongly disputing the alleged links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda while senior Bush administration officials were publicly asserting those links to justify invading Iraq.
Far from aligning himself with al-Qaeda and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Hussein repeatedly rebuffed al-Qaeda's overtures and tried to capture Zarqawi, the report said. Tariq Aziz, the detained former deputy prime minister, has told the FBI that Hussein "only expressed negative sentiments about [Osama] bin Laden."
The report also said exiles from the Iraqi National Congress (INC) tried to influence U.S. policy by providing, through defectors, false information on Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities. After skeptical analysts warned that the group had been penetrated by hostile intelligence services, including Iran's, a 2002 White House directive ordered that U.S. funding for the INC be continued.
The newly declassified intelligence report provided administration critics with fresh ammunition, less than two months before midterm elections and in the middle of President Bush's campaign to refocus the public's attention away from Iraq and toward the threat of terrorism. Senior Senate Democrats immediately seized on the findings, using some of their strongest language yet to say the president continues to willfully and falsely connect Hussein to al-Qaeda.
As recently as Aug. 21, Bush suggested a link between Hussein and Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, who was killed by U.S. forces this summer. But a CIA assessment in October 2005 concluded that Hussein's government "did not have a relationship, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates," according to the report.
"The president is still distorting. He's still making statements which are false," said Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), an intelligence committee member.
The partial release of the report came after nearly three years of partisan wrangling over what is to be a five-chapter analysis of the use of prewar intelligence in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The heart of the report -- a detailed comparison of administration statements with the intelligence then available -- is far from release. But the committee voted Thursday to release two chapters, one on the role that Iraqi exiles played in shaping prewar intelligence, the other on the accuracy of the prewar analyses of Hussein's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities and his suspected links to al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
White House spokesman Tony Snow dismissed the findings as old news. "If we have people who want to re-litigate that, that's fine," he said.
But Republican attempts to paint the findings as a partisan rehash were undercut by intelligence committee members from the GOP. The committee report's conclusions are based on the Democrats' findings because two Republicans -- Sens. Olympia J. Snowe (Maine) and Chuck Hagel (Neb.) -- supported those findings.
"After reviewing thousands of pages of evidence, I voted for the conclusions that most closely reflect the facts in the report," Snowe said in a written statement. "Policy-makers seemingly discounted or dismissed warnings about the veracity of critical intelligence reports that may have served as a basis for going to war."
Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) was emphatic this week that Iraqi exiles did not fundamentally shape the critical assessment of the Iraqi threat in the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate.
But, as Snowe emphasized in her statement, the report concluded that information provided by an INC source was cited in that estimate and in Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's February 2003 speech to the United Nations as corroborating evidence about Iraq's mobile biological weapons program. Those citations came despite two April 2002 CIA assessments, a May 2002 Defense Intelligence Agency fabrication notice and a July 2002 National Intelligence Council warning -- all saying the INC source may have been coached by the exile group into fabricating the information.
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Report Details Errors Before War
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The long-awaited Senate Intelligence Committee report released yesterday sheds new light on why U.S. intelligence agencies provided inaccurate prewar information about Saddam Hussein and his weapons programs, including details on how Iraqi exiles who fabricated or exaggerated their stories were accepted as truthful because they passed Pentagon lie detector tests.
The two newly declassified chapters of the report fueled political accusations yesterday that the Bush administration lied to justify invading Iraq, but the documents' nearly 400 pages contain several examples of how bad information wound up accepted as truthful in intelligence assessments at the time.
A section includes the results of an evaluation by the CIA of its performance, which concludes that, despite repeated prewar assessments that the Iraqis were practicing deceit and deception to hide their weapons, there actually were no such efforts because there were no weapons.
The CIA concludes: "There comes a point where the absence of evidence does indeed become the evidence of absence." That statement is a play on a remark Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made frequently in the months before the war -- after U.N. inspectors in late 2002 and early 2003 could find no weapons -- that "the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
One 208-page chapter from the Senate committee report covers the use of intelligence provided by the Iraqi National Congress and its leader, Ahmed Chalabi. The panel wrote that three Iraqi exiles gave the Pentagon inaccurate information about Hussein's alleged training of al-Qaeda terrorists, as well as about the existence of mobile biological weapons factories and an alleged meeting between the Iraqi leader and Osama bin Laden. All three exiles passed lie detector tests given by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), adding credibility to their stories.
In each case, the information proved to be questionable, if not inaccurate. But in the case of the mobile labs, the source's information was used to corroborate data in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq even after the informant had been tagged as a fabricator.
The report notes that a DIA official who knew that the source was unreliable sat in on two meetings in which the mobile labs information was incorporated into the speech Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered in February 2003 to the U.N. Security Council, but that the official did not realize the information was based solely on the word of the untrustworthy source.
According to the Senate panel's report, another Iraqi National Congress source, recommended to the DIA by Chalabi through a high-ranking Defense Department official, passed two lie detector tests after "claiming to have seen Saddam meeting with a man, who Uday Hussein [Saddam's son] identified as bin Laden." The source said Uday Hussein told him that bin Laden was there "to discuss training of some of his people in Iraq."
The DIA subsequently distributed the information but pointed out that the source was connected with the Iraqi opposition and that the information "may have been intended to influence as well as inform decision makers." The CIA later noted in its assessment of the information that the meeting between Hussein and bin Laden had "not been corroborated" and that "other sensitive reporting . . . provides no indication that Saddam and bin Laden have met each other."
Although the Senate report raises questions about the reliability of the information provided by Iraqi exiles, it notes that the information had little direct impact on the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq produced in October 2002. Many of the Iraqi National Congress claims, however, were passed on to the White House and the office of Vice President Cheney through reports by a separate intelligence analysis group established by then-Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith.
The Senate committee's inquiry into the Feith group's activities, another part of the prewar intelligence study, has been delayed by committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who is awaiting the completion of a Pentagon inspector general inquiry into the same matter.
One surprising conclusion from the CIA retrospective is that the agency now believes that aggressive U.N. inspections in Iraq in 1991 after the Persian Gulf War led Hussein to what it describes as a "fateful decision." He covertly dismantled and destroyed the undeclared nuclear, chemical and biological facilities, materials and actual weapons he had put together in the preceding decade -- along with "the records that could have verified that unilateral destruction."
As a result, there was no proof in 2002 and 2003 when the Iraqis claimed they had no weapons of mass destruction, and Hussein could not demonstrate he was in basic, if not complete, compliance with U.N. resolutions. Noncompliance with the Security Council's October resolution was the main U.S. public rationale for the invasion of Iraq.
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The long-awaited Senate Intelligence Committee report released yesterday sheds new light on why U.S. intelligence agencies provided inaccurate prewar information about Saddam Hussein and his weapons programs, including details on how Iraqi exiles who fabricated or exaggerated their stories were...
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Businessman Gets 7 Years for Bribing Legislator
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Louisville businessman Vernon L. Jackson was sentenced yesterday to seven years and three months in federal prison for bribing Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) with more than $400,000 and company stock to promote his Kentucky firm's high-tech business ventures.
During sentencing, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria told Jackson, 54, owner of iGate Inc., that he made a "very bad decision" that corrupted the political process.
Jackson said nothing during the proceeding. His attorney, Michael S. Nachmanoff, said he was pleased the judge gave a sentence that was at the low end of the federal guideline.
Jackson is the second person to be sentenced in the 18-month public corruption probe that has targeted Jefferson and cast a dark cloud over the eight-term congressman's political future. Jefferson, 59, has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing, but sources have said an indictment appears assured.
Jackson pleaded guilty in May to bribing Jefferson to promote iGate's broadband technology for Internet and cable television in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon. In January, Brett M. Pfeffer, a former Jefferson aide, pleaded guilty to bribing the congressman and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Both men, under their plea agreements, could get their sentences reduced for their cooperation with the FBI.
Jefferson attorney Robert Trout, who attended yesterday's sentencing, issued a statement afterward saying: "Congressman Jefferson knows well the pressure that the Department of Justice can apply once it targets someone for criminal prosecution. As Jackson's plea bargain makes clear, the government has offered powerful inducements to cause Jackson to plead guilty."
Jefferson, the statement added, has repeatedly said he never took payment in any form to perform "any act or duty."
Jefferson is running for reelection in his Hurricane Katrina-damaged district against 12 opponents.
The corruption probe has been slowed by the political uproar and legal battle over the FBI's raid in May on Jefferson's Capitol Hill office. Jefferson has argued that the raid violated the Constitution, and investigators have been prevented from looking at the seized materials while the matter works its way through court.
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Louisville businessman Vernon L. Jackson was sentenced yesterday to seven years and three months in federal prison for bribing Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) with more than $400,000 and company stock to promote his Kentucky firm's high-tech business ventures.
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Telecom Mogul Guilty of Tax Scam
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A former telecommunications tycoon accused by prosecutors of being the biggest tax cheat in U.S. history pleaded guilty yesterday in a deal that calls for him to serve no more than 10 years in prison.
Walter C. Anderson, a Washington-based businessman who amassed a fortune during the tech boom of the 1980s and 1990s, admitted to hiding $365 million in income by using aliases, shell companies, offshore tax havens, secret accounts and drop boxes in the Netherlands. He was so wealthy that he talked at one point about leasing the Russian space station Mir -- all the while dodging his taxes, officials said.
Prosecutors said Anderson avoided paying $200 million in taxes from 1995 through 1999 in what they say is the largest personal income tax evasion case brought in the United States. As part of his plea deal, Anderson agreed that the court could order restitution. But how much the government can collect is a big question: The onetime mogul, 52, who had a multimillion-dollar art collection and other trappings of success, has filed for bankruptcy.
Anderson pleaded guilty at the federal courthouse in Washington to three felony charges -- two for evading federal taxes and one for defrauding the D.C. government with a phony tax return. Among other things, Anderson admitted earning more than $126 million in 1998, a year that he claimed an income of $67,939 on his federal tax return. He paid $495 in taxes that year, authorities said.
"This case sends a strong signal to anyone thinking about going offshore to avoid taxes," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a statement. "We have stepped up our efforts to pursue high-income tax cheating, whether it takes place in the United States or overseas."
In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped nine felony charges. According to the agreement, Anderson and prosecutors have settled on a maximum sentence of 10 years. In court yesterday, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman indicated that he will go along with the agreement at sentencing Jan. 16.
Anderson, rail-thin with a thinning crown of silver hair, has been jailed without bond since his arrest Feb. 26, 2005, at Dulles International Airport, where he was returning from a trip to London.
His attorneys -- including a federal public defender -- have repeatedly sought to have Anderson released on bond. They urged the judge yesterday to cut him loose until sentencing, saying Anderson needed the time to, among other tasks, clean up his aging parents' garage and file his taxes.
Prosecutors said Anderson should be kept behind bars, saying they think he still has plenty of money socked away and homes, contacts and girlfriends around the world. In searches of Anderson's Georgetown apartment during their criminal investigation, authorities found fake documents and books titled "Poof!" and "Disappear Without a Trace."
Friedman turned down Anderson's request to be freed pending sentencing.
Anderson's admission of guilt was a turnaround for a defendant who maintained his innocence and was openly scornful of the prosecutors' case. At one early hearing, he defiantly stood up to complain about the government's case.
In an interview with Washington Post reporters at the D.C. jail soon after his arrest, Anderson denied any wrongdoing and mocked the prosecution. "I don't need to steal money from the U.S. government to be successful," he said.
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Superman, Without The X-Ray Vision
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Look! Down in the bed! Faster than nothing, more powerful than nothing, able to leap nothing. It's Superman! He's dead!
And so it was, at least on the night of June 16, 1959, when George Reeves, the handsome, affable, seemingly simple and decent star of the TV hit "The Adventures of Superman" and an icon to an entire generation, was found with a bullet hole through his brain (the bullet itself was in the ceiling) in his house in Beverly Hills.
Where were you when Superman died? Not yet born? I was in the eighth grade, and even if a tad old for the building-leaper, I wept a little for him anyway, as did so many fellow boomers. He stood so foursquare for truth, justice and the American way. Later, when I learned that his interpretation of that code turned out to mean two martinis at lunch and let's get laid as often as possible, I wept again. Who among us could not embrace those goals?
"Hollywoodland," with Ben Affleck, the great Diane Lane and hangdog Adrien Brody, investigates his death, penetrating the "mystery" that has surrounded it since the big bang. The event appears indeed to boast some genuine mystery. Some facts: Though Reeves was said to be depressed because he couldn't get any roles other than Superman, the series had just been renewed. He was engaged to a young, beautiful New York actress; he had finally broken off with the married woman with whom he had been having an affair. He was filming "Psycho" for Alfred Hitchcock in the role of the detective, Arbogast (played ultimately by Martin Balsam), his biggest non-Supe role in years. These circumstances don't sound much like they'd lead a man to an appointment with a Luger.
Some other facts: He had been hanging out with his fiancee and some friends, drinking a bit, playing the guitar, seemingly happy. He'd been upstairs but a minute when the fatal shot rang out. Nobody called the cops for 45 minutes. He was found lying on top of the ejected cartridge casing, while the Luger itself was on the floor. He'd just had two suspicious car accidents that may have been caused by tampering. His rejected lover had been making death threats. Her husband was a famous studio exec, known as MGM's enforcer and said to have mob ties.
Hmmm. Allen Coulter's film explores these conundrums faithfully and fairly; it reaches no conclusions but speculates on the possibilities in an evenhanded way and lets us wonder while not beating us over the head. (The facts support no solution, only interpretations.)
It's almost a good movie.
But though brilliantly acted, it's not. For some reason, the director and the writer (Paul Bernbaum) have chosen an exceedingly awkward path into the material. They break the narrative into two strands, and play them off each other in cheap and easy ways for insubstantial effect. The first is a biographical account of the big lug who flew through the air, bumbled into iconhood and then tried to continue a serious career knowing that too much of Hollywood thought he was a joke. That's moving, if never heroic; it shows manliness, gumption, guts and grit.
The second strand is far less interesting. Really, what's the point? It takes off from the fact that Reeves's mother -- bitter over his death at 45 -- hired famous Hollywood private detective Jerry Geisler to investigate the circumstances of the shooting and challenge the police and district attorney's hasty, but not necessarily wrong, conclusion that it was suicide. But the filmmakers don't "fictionalize" the Geisler initiative in substantive or satisfactory ways; instead, they invent a dick named Louis Simo and play out almost a pastiche of private-eye cliches, down to long dark nights of the soul, a broken marriage, veiled warnings from the big boys -- tin-plate versions of the tropes that Raymond Chandler alone was able to make real and fundamentally American.
Meanwhile, Affleck gives his best performance in years as Reeves, and the material is fascinating, as most star bios tend to be. Reeves, handsome and athletic, made it to Hollywood in the late '30s and, hair dyed red, spoke some of the first lines in "Gone With the Wind" as one of the Tarleton twins before being shunted aside by folks named Gable, Leigh and Howard. He struggled throughout the early '40s in poverty-row westerns, where his symmetrical features, pearly-white smile, bulk and grace made him a natural B staple, if never quite the guy who got the gal or sang the songs. After the war -- during which he made training films for the Air Corps -- he began an affair with a beautiful, slightly older married woman, Toni Mannix, who appeared to have an arrangement with her forgiving, even older husband, Eddie. These less than charming people are played by Diane Lane -- who, rather than let vanity rule, has the guts to show her age and her character's aging process -- and Bob Hoskins. Lane, especially, is dynamic: Smarter than George, more manipulative, she was also generous (she bought him his house) and genuinely in love. They seemed to live together quite openly, with Eddie content to be the little man behind the curtain. But he was, it was said, a very tough guy, with possible mob connex, as Variety might put it, and when Reeves finally dumps her, the movie (and a book) argue that it's possible Eddie set up a little payback for the hurt done his wife.
In professional matters, Reeves made a movie in the "Superman" role in 1950, thinking very little of it; and the film evidently never got wide release. A little later, however, it was the basis for a TV series that was picked up with Kellogg's cereals as its sponsor and became one of the reigning phenomena of early tube culture, with its campy beginning soon etched into the American consciousness forever. Reeves was fine for the limited ambitions of the thing: square of jaw, broad of shoulder, steely of glare, yet softened and humanized by the horn-rimmed glasses. (Am I alone in liking him more as Clark than as Superman?)
He was utterly unprepared for what us millions of kids unloaded on him: idolization and weirdness. The movie dramatizes a famous episode in which a small boy approached him with a loaded pistol, meaning to shoot and see whether the bullets would bounce off. But it also repeats a canard: Reeves's one late claim to respectability was a small role in Fred Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity." Myth has it that when Reeves came on screen as one of Burt Lancaster's sergeant buddies and confessed to an affair with the captain's wife (played by Deborah Kerr), preview audiences hooted. The film shows its version of Zinnemann turning to a producer and brutally making a snipping motion with his fingers. But comparisons of the script and the film show that all of Reeves's lines remained intact; possibly he'd exaggerated in his own mind the importance of what was, after all, just a bit part.
Covering this incident, "Hollywoodland" gives us a digitally inserted Affleck sharing the black-and-white screen with Burt Lancaster. I concede that it works, particularly if you know nothing; but if you have an abiding fondness for George Reeves, Fred Zinnemann, Burt Lancaster and "From Here to Eternity" (admittedly, about six of us) the sequence will seem a desecration.
The movie is at its best in its evocation of Hollywood at the dawn of the television era, when the town was reinventing itself and people were scrambling to find a place in the new structure. Maybe Reeves was too one-dimensional to play anybody but a comic book character, though now and then he showed a kind of charming irony even in the simplistic scripts and against the backdrop of clumsy special effects. Maybe he was too handsome in a boring, character-free way. Maybe he liked drinking and partying a bit too much.
Whatever, the film is all but mesmerizing when it evokes the old rogue with charm and affection as it studies his last, doomed, Icarus-like fall to earth.
Hollywoodland (126 minutes, at area theaters) is rated R for profanity, violence and sexual innuendo.
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Search movie listings, reviews and locations from the Washington Post. Features national listings for movies and movie guide. Visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/movies today.
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Helping Hands: Careers in Healthcare
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Skill, effort and luck can take you to the top of any field -- but it never hurts to get a little help. In our Helping Hands special feature, we've got plenty of assistance on tap: articles, tools and live discussions that will help you learn more about how to get ahead in the area's top industries or your career in general.
Healthcare is one of the Washington area's hottest career fields. Two experts from Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System -- Dr. Karen Haller , vice president for nursing, and Pamela Paulk , vice president of HR -- took questions on the trends and opportunities.
Karen Haller: Hello, I am the chief nursing officer at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and welcome your questions this afternoon. I am pleased to be here. Let's get started!
Washington, D.C.: I've heard that qualified nurses can essentially find work just about anywhere (geographically) that they want in the U.S. Is this true, or close to true? Or are there regions that I shouldn't bother trying to move to because of high supply of graduates?
Karen Haller: There is a national nursing shortage, affecting all regions of the country and providing opportunities for employment across the 50 states. Having said that, there is some variability by area of the country. New England has the highest concentration of employed RNs in relation to the area's population; and the Pacific Coast has the lowest concentration.
Washington, D.C.: What nursing specialties are likely to see the most growth in demand over the next 10 years?
Karen Haller: Growth in demand for nursing services in all specialties (not shrinking supply of RNs) is fueling the nursing shortage. I anticipate most growth in specialties that serve our aging population, such as gerontology and cardiology; but we are also hiring in pediatrics and other fields.
There is high demand in emergency departments, critical care units, and operating rooms.
In addition to hospitals, nurses are hired to work in ambulatory care, community health, the armed services, research, etc. All of these areas have been growing as well.
Washington, D.C.: I am in my mid 30s and have completed a master's degree in a field which I work, but I am seriously considering going back to school to become a hospital nurse. What are the education requirements for RNs? What about LPN? Is it unusual to have second-career nurses?
Karen Haller: Education requirements for entry into practice as an RN include both an Associate Degree and a Baccalaureate Degree, with more opportunity available to those who have earned the Baccalaureate.
For someone like you, who holds an advanced degree in another field and has work experience, there are also accelerated degree programs in nursing. To locate programs in your area, check www.allnursingschools.com or the American Association of Colleges of Nursing at www.aacn.nche.edu.
You might be interested to know that two-thirds of the students entering Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing already hold a bachelor's degree in another field and a substantial number have previously pursued other careers before choosing nursing. Among those in our Accelerated Class of 2007, who started in June, 12 percent of the 165 students hold advanced degrees, including two who had previously earned a PhD.
I am currently working on my MPH/MBA and am trying to get a position that is related to my degree. I am anxious to find a position that will allow me to utilize my degree. I also need to do a internship and I am having problems finding sources or anyone that will give me a chance since I have no previous experience in this field.
Pamela Paulk: Check with your school for organizations that they have relationships with. Many MHA prgrams have one-year residency programs with them. The residency will give you a year of experience as an extension of your education. It is a great way to get started in your field. Employers love residents.
Alexandria, Va.: I have been working in rhe communications field with an emphasis on public and environmental health.
Would pursuing a masters degree in public health degree qualify me for more senior jobs in public health communications? I am wondering whether to invest the time or money or simply seek out positions with more responsibility and learn on the job.
Pamela Paulk: A Masters degree in Public Health is a great general degree to have. It will open plenty of doors. You will have to demonstrate your specific knowledge and skills through your work.
Washington, D.C.: After the baby boomer generation subsides, will there be a glut in health care providers?
Karen Haller: The shortage of healthcare workers is projected to continue until 2020! Remember that many of us who work in health care are boomers, so we need to replace our numbers as well as staff the increase in demand. The increase in demand is not just attributable to an aging population, but also to increased technology, a rise in infectious diseases, and the need to serve as "first responders" in disasters.
Washington, D.C.: What degrees are desireable to: formulate healthcare policy, run a hospital, work at CDC as an epidemiologist? Thanks!
Pamela Paulk: Well, epidemiology is a very specific field. School of Public Health offer concentrations in that which will make you well qualified. Many degrees are useful in running a hospital or formulating health policy. I have a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Business Administration, so I have both bases covered! The MHS or MHA is a great general degree as well.
Washington, DC: How well are online degrees regarded opposed to traditional learning?
Karen Haller: In nursing, online courses are regarded well and recognized. However, nursing programs also teach clinical skills in simulation labs and with real patients. Clinical practicums on-site are required to do this.
Baltimore, Md.: Can you make a career in interior design or interior decorating in the healthcare industry at Hopkins?
Pamela Paulk: Most people with that expertise work for consulting companies or architech or design firms that specialize in hospital interior design. Most hospitals don't have enough internal work to have that as a full-time position. Hahaha, if you saw some of our old buildings you would say that we need one here!!
Rochester, N.Y.: I have a NY state nursing license (RN). Is it transferrable to other states? How do I go about getting licensed elsewhere?
Karen Haller: As you know, nursing practice is regulated by the States. The Board of Nursing in each State issues nursing licenses. Some States are known as "compact" States, because they recognize the licenses of other States in the compact. Other nurses moving from State to State need to apply for a license in the State to which they are relocating. Call your State Board of Nursing, or check their web site, to determine the procedure that applies to your particular situation.
Washington, D.C.: Would you both describe your trajectories. What led you to your respective positions?
Pamela Paulk: I started with an MSW and worked for many years in the mental health and substance abuse field. I ran a non-profit and was the administrator of a psychiatric hospital. I also was an internal consultant for a psychiatric company and then moved to external consulting for healthcare in general. I came to Hopkins in 1998 in a role much like a consultant, working on projects for the organization at large. Luckily for me, Hopkins decided to try something different with Human Resources and choose someone who came from the operations side. So in 2000 I became the VP of HR. I don't know why I didn't do this years ago. HR is a great place to be.
Washington D.C. : I am a C.P.C -A (certified professional coder-apprentice) , and I would like to know what would be the best way to get my foot in the door in the industry? Most companies want three to five years experience.
Pamela Paulk: Most organizations do require an appenticeship first to get you to a defined quality and productivity level. Those levels usually only come with experience. Consider contacting the larger healthcare providers and ask them if they have apprenticeship positions open. We do here, but we use them mostly for our own employees who are in our incumbent worker program to learn a new skill and profession.
Washington, D.C.: What sort of hours, and how many, should a "new" RN expect to work?
Karen Haller: Newly minted RNs working in a Hospital should expect to do some shift work (evenings or nights), a fair share of the weekends, and some holidays during the year (but not all of them!). The specifics about working hours should be discussed, negotiated, and understood before accepting a position.
Some nurses negotiate schedules that accommodate child care, school schedules, etc. There is usually a trade-off to be made, for example, picking up more weekend shifts. Again, these should be negotiated during the interview process.
A full-time position in nursing is 40 hours per week, but there are many part-time opportunities available.
Annapolis, MD: HELP! I'm currently at the tail end of completing my Masters in Healthcare and currently employed as an office manager for an major pharmaceutical firm. What jobs can you suggest for someone like me who would to utilize what they've learned? I'm currently applying for various managments jobs now; however, I'm getting a little frustrated.
Pamela Paulk: I would need a little more information about years of experience and type of jobs held to really help you. The Masters opens doors for you that may not have been open before as some jobs will say "Masters required." Consider looking at jobs with "project" in the title -- project analyst, project administrator, project manager. That might be a way to get in the door without the supervisory piece. These jobs will use more of your academic training as well. Good luck to you.
Washington, D.C: My friend has a MSW and will be applying for hospital positions this spring. What are the benefits to working in a hospital, rather than in private counseling, in your opinion?
Pamela Paulk: I would not characterize it as an advantage of one over the other. I would say that your friend should consider the work environment he/she prefers. A private practice is usually one-on-one or small group work. You usually work alone or with a co-therapist. So it is suited for someone who likes a smaller workgroup. The hospital environment is more fast paced, a large multi-disciplinary team. Usually, the work is done at the bedside not in an office. So it is suited for someone who likes a bigger team environment and less structured workday.
Washington, D.C. : What are the reasons for pursuing an MD over an RN degree? And what have you both found most rewarding about your work? Finally, do you have liveable hours? Can you find life-work balance?
Karen Haller: The role of a RN is different from a MD, and it is a matter of what the best fit might be for each individual. The educational path is shorter for an RN, and the rewards are high. We recently polled students who were enrolling in our nursing programs, and asked them "Why did you choose nursing?" Nearly half of the respondents indicated that they made the decision to help and care for others; many others identified an interest in health sciences and the wide range of career options available in the field. Only a few cited the salary potential and job security created by the nursing shortage.
And, yes, I've always had liveable hours. I've balanced a marriage, child, exercise regimen, and outside interests with my career in nursing. It's not always been easy, but it has been deeply satisfying to serve patients and never ever dull!
Arlington, Va.: How have either of you used mentors, who were they? How did they help you?
Pamela Paulk: I think mentors are invaluable. Most people use secondary mentors that they go to for advise on specific topics. Career mentoring is the most common.
It is rare to find, but I value the primary mentor who is someone who knows you and tells you the truth and guides you through many aspects of work and life. I was fortunate early in my career to have a gentleman who did that for me. He was a fireman and I was directing a mental health agency, but he was able to tell me stories that always hit home for me. He helped me mature exactly when I needed it. He died a few years ago, I hope knowing how much he meant to me.
College Park, Md.: I have applied jobs of Data Analyst etc by submitting online at JHH. Is this the best way to apply? Do you have any other suggestions for me?
Pamela Paulk: Yes, even if you came into the office, you would have to go on line to apply. But if you want to make contact with a recruiter for advise on if you are applying for the right things, call and ask to meet with a recruiter for general advise.
Washington, D.C.: My mother often complained about her nursing positions since she felt that she spent much of her time with aides that weren't very well educated. Her advice to me was: find a field you love and then make sure the job has you surrounded by smart and interesting people.
Karen Haller: Your mother gave you good advice! Do find a field you love and surround yourself with smart people.
The demand for RNs continues to increase in part because the nursing care needs of patients have become more complex. Yesterday's nursing aides cannot meet the needs of today's hospitalized patients, so the number of aides has declined. We have to ensure that the right type of nursing personnel are at the bedside to meet the nursing care needs of our patients.
Gainesville, Fla.: Hello, I am in my last phase of my graduate study here at the University of Florida. I plan to relocate to the D.C. area upon graduation. In pursuit of a position in the healthcare communications field, am I less likely to be chosen for an interview if I am not in the D.C. area. I currently work in the Office of Public Relations and Communications at the College of Nursing and would love to continue in the healthcare field. Do you have any advice on the best way for me to obtain a position. Thank you!
Pamela Paulk: Hi, I am a Florida State graduate (1974 and 1978). You should not be at a disadvantage, but you should plan a trip up and make the rounds so that people can meet you. Networking can certainly help support your resume. Don't be shy about getting the names of all the Communications department heads and calling and ask for an appointment or send your resume to them. You only need one to get through. Follow all the traditional means of applying on line as well. Even if you don't see an opening that fits exactly, send your resume to get it in the system. Good luck to you.
Washington, D.C.: Do nurses specialize? Is it worthwhile for them to do that if they have niche interests? Also, a relative of mine is a Physician's Assistant, what are the benefits of that degree besides the ability to perscribe drugs?
Karen Haller: Yes, nurses do specialize. Many pursue advanced graduate degrees (Master's degree or doctorate) in a specialized area. Nurses with interests in "niche areas," as you call them, should specialize and build depth of knowledge in that area. At the end of the day, nurses are "knowledge workers." The more knowledge they develop, the more valuable they are to institutions . . . and to patients!
A physician's assistant (PA) is an extender for the physician's practice. They support medical practice and care for patients in many areas (e.g., operating rooms, intensive care units, procedure areas, etc.). They may prescibe drugs.
Similarly, nurse practitioners (NP) are nurses with advanced preparation. They may also prescribe drugs, and manage a case load of patients.
Washington, D.C.: It seems that teaching hospitals (at least in the District) are increasingly privately run (GWU, GU and Howard all are) does this make a difference as far as how it is administered? From an HR perspective, what changes have you seen?
Pamela Paulk: From an HR perspective, I see great public and private hospitals. I think the difference comes more from if they see employees as the invaluable asset that they are. That comes from leadership, not funding source or organizational structure.
Washington, D.C.: Does the shift away from aides to RNs mean that the quality of care is improving?
Karen Haller: There is a growing body of literature which shows that a higher proportion of RNs, and greater autonomy for nurses in the work environment, improves patient care outcomes. Both the quantity and the quality of nurses make a difference.
Washington, DC: What employment opportunties are available for a PhD in nursing other than teaching and research?
Karen Haller: We have nurses with PhDs in a variety of administrative positions, and also some who choose to remain in practice at the bedside.
Falls Church, Va.: I have a mental health background and worked in a variety of addiction treatment settings. Over the last several years I have done case management for cancer patients that are friends. I am very good at it. Is there a place for someone like me, without being a Registered Nurse, to do professional case management for oncology patients? Most of the case managers I have interacted with have been RNs or have MSWs. Thanks.
Pamela Paulk: Hmmm. Good question. Most case managers are nurses or social workers. I suggest you ask to see the job description. If it says, "RN or MSW required" then you need not apply. If it says nothing about degree or if it says "RN or MSW preferred" then it is not required and you could build a case in your cover letter why you qualify. Good luck.
Washington, D.C.: Is it still possible to work contract/freelance hours as an RN or are failities more interested in having people on staff? How might the pay scale differ for individuals in each case?
Karen Haller: Yes, it is still possible to work for a temporary agency that contracts with healthcare facilities to provide nurses. There will always be a need for some RNs who can freelance to replace staff who are out on leaves or to fill vacancies.
The pay to freelance can be higher for a relatively new nurse, but a seasoned veteran RN makes more in the hospitals now. In addition, hospital benefits are generally much more generous.
Baltimore, Md.: How come Hopkins employees have to pay $100 a month for parking even though Hopkins Hospital is considered a non-profit organization when it comes to paying taxes at the end of the year?
Pamela Paulk: This question is specific to Hopkins and would apply to other urban hospitals where parking is a premium. I am sure our parking office will be happy to answer if you contact them directly. But for everyone in a similar situation, parking structures are very expensive to build and one of the reasons that many hospitals have moved out of cities to where there is more land. You cannot pass the cost of parking on to the patient charge so the parker has to pay. Unfortunately, it is expensive and comparable to what people pay who work in downtown office buildings.
Karen Haller: Thanks to everyone who posed a question!
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Personal Tech - washingtonpost.com
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2006090919
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The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online to answer your personal tech questions and discuss this week's column: Speak and Spell, Slowly Growing Up and other recent columns on Monday, Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. ET .
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: Lots of questions already in the queue about the subject of yesterday's review, voice-dictation software. (In case anybody's wondering, I'm not using any today; I'm in the office and, for the reasons outlined in my column, am in no position to fire up Dragon here at my desk.)
Jonesboro, Ark.: Dragon Naturally Speaking has a standard version and a preferred version. What does the preferred version offer that is not available with the standard version. Greater accuracy?
Rob Pegoraro: Not greater accuracy--it's the same basic software engine underneath--but more features. This page at Nuance's site explains what each version can do.
Eugene, Ore.: Using Dragon N. S.: I tried using a version of DNS in 2002 and found in the working area I was to use it in was not usable. First, I had to speak to loud to get a response. Second, my "Vital Capacity", the amount of air I take in to speak was not sufficient for more than 7 words, then my voice would trial off, and so would the words I spoke. Last, My background noise was too loud. I am a Quadriplegic, C-5/6, and DNS in 2002 just did not work for me.
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the posting. The Dragon developers say the voice-recognition engine in the current version is much improved from what they had in earlier reasons (I know, such a shock to hear that!), but it can still be tripped up by pauses in speech. Turning off its automatic-punctuation features might get around that.
As for background noise--well, yup, that's a problem. Is the source of the racket anything you can control?
Washington, D.C.: Care to provide your guesses as to what we might hear from Apple tomorrow at their press event? It seems like some movie downloads plus new iPods but I wonder if we'll see incremental or more significant changes. Also, do you think there is any chance there will be some sort of new hardware like a media center?
Rob Pegoraro: Great question. I think you're right in expecting movie downloads and new iPods--everybody's stories agree on movies being added to iTunes, and the iPod is just plain due for an update.
I don't expect any new Media Center-type machine; Apple already updated its two home desktops, the Mac mini and the iMac, last week.
The other possibility some folks have raised is a new wireless media receiver that would let you stream a video download wirelessly from a computer to the TV. Not sure about the odds of that happening...
16th and M: HELP!!!!! Can anyone out there -- Rob, fellow chatters -- tell me how to successfully combine Linux and Verizon DSL? They sent me the Westall device that is both a modem and a router, but after hooking everything up, I get "You are running an unsupported OS. Only Windows and Mac OS are supported" in Firefox. I called their tech support and they said, "Go talk to Dell and have them call us." WHAAAAAT?????????? What does Dell have to do with anything? The computer had Windows on it when it was sold. I probably broke every warranty there is by installing Linux (and removing Windows, so I can't use that to get around Verizon). Where does Verizon get off telling me what OS I can and cannot use? Aargh!!!
Rob Pegoraro: You've got me. I can see Verizon employing some idiotic proprietary account-setup system that would require you to use a specific browser, but I don't know of any way they could continue to enforce that restriction after setup is done. (Do you have a Windows laptop you could borrow?)
Anybody got advice for 16th and M?
Jonesboro, Ark.: Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your work. I teach composition, and I often use your pieces to stimulate discussion or writing assignments. Have a great day!
Rob Pegoraro: You use my work as an example of what not to do, right? :)
Wheaton, Md.: Rob - when looking to buy an LCD TV, should I pay attention to the Contrast Ratio? Is there a big difference between, say, 1000:1 and 3000:1? I've noticed some differences in display TVs at the major electronics retailers, but I don't trust those TVs to be properly set up for home viewing. FYI, my preferred size to buy is 30" to 32". Thanks for your continued good work.
Rob Pegoraro: Yes, contrast ratio is a big deal in LCD TVs. It's your best clue as to how they'll do at reproducing darker shades properly--many LCD TVs have showed anything below a certain level of black as just plain black. (As a result, for instance, when you're watching The Sopranos, Dr. Melfi's suit blends into her chair.) Higher contrast is better.
The other number to look out for is the refresh rate--here, lower is better to avoid any smearing or blurring effects when viewing fast-moving images. (12 ms is typical but not great, a lot of LCDs now manage 8 ms, and some go as low as 4 ms.)
Toledo, Ohio: Going back to the Dragon Naturally Speaking software, how easy is it to switch back and forth from talking to typing (to edit text) and back again? Also, have you tried Dragon with a digital recorder? J.S.
Rob Pegoraro: Not hard at all--as long as you don't try to talk to the software while you type. But: If you use the keyboard to fix errors instead of the standard correction mode, the software can't learn what it got wrong.
Bowie: Rob, I've heard you over web-videos and suspect you're well suited to using most U.S. voice recognition software. How well does it handle the voices of recent immigrants with accents?
Rob Pegoraro: I have no idea, really--although Dragon has done well enough when my Jersey accent has surfaced. (I've gotten plenty of responses from readers sharing their own experience with Dragon, but I haven't had time to read more than a handful of them... the answer to your question may be lurking in my inbox.)
The time is right for us to dive in and buy an HDTV. Given the space constraints and viewing angle requirements of our family room, a 42" plasma seems like the right choice for us. We would also be looking to get an A/V receiver that supports surround sound, an upconverting DVD player, and new speakers.
The problem is that the array of options on these components and the litany of decisions to be made is positively dizzying. For example, it seems that getting a receiver that supports HDMI switching is a good idea if the TV only has one HDMI input, but with the pending HDMI 1.3 standard will such a receiver be quickly obsolete? I have a notebook with numerous questions along these lines, and the harder I work to try and answer them, the more questions in my mind that arise.
I guess what I am really asking (in a roundabout way) is whether you plan to have a buying guide for home theater systems in the not-to-distant future. That, my friend, would truly be an early Christmas present.
Rob Pegoraro: Not home-theater systems per se, but I am working on an LCD-versus-plasma column. Should be in print later this month or early next month.
FWIW, knowing what I do (which isn't always that much!), I'd go ahead and get the HDMI-switching receiver now. As I understand it, HDMI 1.3 simply beefs up support for 1080p resolution--which you almost certainly won't get in a 42" plasma unless you pay the premium on a very high-end model. Besides which, you won't be able to *see* the difference between 1080p and 720p from the average couch's distance...
Oregon City, Ore.: Is there any value at all to the new BROWZAR browser? (http://www.browzar.com/) I recently ran across it, tried it, found it to be something related to IE and wondered why use it? Since you can't get rid of IE, and some web sites still require IE to function properly, you have to use it once in a while.
So why use BROWZAR? It doesn't seem to gain anyone much (except perhaps the owners of their search engine).
Rob Pegoraro: No, I don't see the point of this one. It's not even really a browser; it's just a wrapper for the IE code already on your machine. If you want a browser that can delete all your Internet-surfing data with a couple of clicks *and* resist any hijacking attempt you're likely to see, get Firefox.
Arlington, Va.: My free ZoneAlarm firewall corrupted last week and I had to uninstall. I switched over to Windows firewall and my machine runs much faster now. Is it safe for me to stick with just Windows firewall, or should I sacrifice some performance and re-install ZoneAlarm?
Rob Pegoraro: Stick with Windows firewall. ZoneAlarm will stop any spyware already on your machine from uploading data, but if you already have spyware on your machine you're already hosed--it's like buying door locks that ensure a burglar can't get out of your house after breaking in. I'd rather use a simpler, stabler firewall that won't require periodic debugging.
Portland, Ore.: You recently mentioned an inexpensive TV with digital tuner for $200. Could you provide more details? Are flat screen digitals now available in smaller sizes? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: Hit the Web sites of Best Buy, Circuit City or pretty much any other mainstream retailer. These sets are entry-level CRTs, no bigger than 27 inches, with digital tuners--so when they pull in a digital signal properly, you get a perfect picture, not with the snow or ghosting you can get even with a reasonably strong analog signal. (But if the signal cuts out, the whole picture can disintegrate instantly instead of getting steadily worse.)
You gave me some good advice a couple years ago about durable MP3 players to consider buying before I deployed to Iraq. I hope you can help me out again.
Over the past few months, the processing speed of my five year old Gateway has slowed significantly. I've tried all sorts of home remedies. I've also tried some free scans of my system from Internet sites which tell me that their scan corrected some faults but I must purchase their software to correct other "serious problems".
One thing I haven't yet tried is to delete some of my CPU "processes". I have anywhere from 30-40 running depending upon when I check my Task Manager. However, because of my uncertainty of which processes are important, I'm very leery about deleting any of them.
So my options appear to be:
¿ Purchase some software to scan my system, detect problems, and correct them
¿ Hire someone like Geeks on Call to look at my system
¿ Delete some of the processes in the hope it results in improved speed with no harm to the system
¿ Look for another computer
Can you give me any other advice?
Rob Pegoraro: I'd rule out buying a new computer right away--in a worst-case situation, you could restore all of the machine's original performance by backing up your data, then wiping the hard drive and reinstalling Windows from scratch.
But you shouldn't have to go that extreme either. I would try using Microsoft's free Windows Defender to police what runs at startup. Just going through Add/Remove Programs to get rid of stuff you no longer use can also help.
Columbia, S.C.: Are you aware of other voice recognition products besides Dragon and iListen?
Rob Pegoraro: There's an IBM program called ViaVoice, but it appears stuck in permanent developmental limbo--it hasn't gotten an upgrade in a few years.
North Bethesda, Md.: My wife said it's time to by a flat-screen TV for the kitchen (got to love her). You've answered this before but I can't remember and I don't want to make a mistake. If I'm using cable and a box, it doesn't matter if it is a HD TV or not, right? If I want to continue to just have a cable into the TV, I should get HD as in a few years, non-HD won't be available, right?
Rob Pegoraro: If you buy a screen larger than 26 inches, it's almost certain to have a digital tuner built-in--and you should look for one that has that feature. If you only watch the networks, you may find that you'd rather watch digital TV off the air for free--without needing to add a cable box to the kitchen.
Re: 16th and M, Verizon and DSL: You can probably easily get around it by just getting a router. The cable modem will interface directly with that, and you can interface with the router via Linux or Windows.
Rob Pegoraro: Here's one option for our Linux-using friend...
Bethesda, Md.: Re: 16th and M. Just guessing, but I'd bet that your DSL box has a configuration page located at some pseudo-Internet address (i.e., something like http://127.xxx.xxx.xxx). If there is, you can just go to that address in your browser and work from there.
A few weeks ago during your chat, you mentioned having just sent a review iMac back to Apple. Was it the 24-inch? Are we going to see a review of this iMac in your column? I am about ready to buy one. Could you summarize for me your impressions of Apple's newest, biggest all-in-one?
Rob Pegoraro: Nope, that wasn't the 24-incher. I'm not planning on reviewing that one--it's a little too expensive for my blood, and it's also not a huge change from the previous model.
Pegoraro v. Krebs: Rob - interesting comment on the ZoneAlarm firewall. Your colleague Brian Krebs recommends using ZoneAlarm to catch any nasty intruders before they get out of control. Any chance we'll get to see a debate between you two on this issue (broadcast on the Internet, of course)?
Rob Pegoraro: I keep trying to set up a steel-cage match, but Krebs keeps coming up with schedule conflicts :)
Fix or Buy?: My 2003 Dell computer's been dead (no power) since June after the electrical storm. I bought a new power unit from Dell but nothing happened. Now I'm told its probably the mother board and I'm wondering. Should I purchase a new one or try to fix it? I'm a little bit nervous about trying to fix it because paying someone and buying a new mother board sounds like it will cost at least $200. Buying a new computer (without the viruses I've acquired) would be $350ish. Thoughts? I don't have a ton of pictures or financial documents on the computer. I mainly surfed the web, and used the computer as an alternative to going into work on the weekends.
Rob Pegoraro: The motherboard might cost less than $200; I'd get a solid estimate on it first. Thing is, buying a new machine might not get you any amazing increase in *perceived* capability--given how little you were taxing the processor on the old box, I doubt you'd see that great of a jump in performance (especially if you threw some extra memory into the old heap, a very cheap and cost-effective upgrade).
Portland, Ore.: We're in the process of building a 2,400 sq. ft. house on two levels, with tv's and music on each of the levels. I'd love to have an entirely wireless system, with all music and at least some movies stored on a central server, and controllable by a remote. Ideally, at least one of the tv screens could serve as a substitute monitor for the laptop.
From all I read, the technology in this area still seems to be a bit spotty. Is there a neat solution for all of this -- whether wireless or, if necessary, wired?
Rob Pegoraro: No, not really. The music-sharing isn't that hard; you could use the Sonos system I reviewed a few weeks ago to do that, for instance. But I haven't heard of any whole-house video-streaming options.
Biloxi, Miss.: I'm in the early stages of Apple ownership with a baseline MacBook, and the test drive edition of Word is getting ready to expire (which it tells me every time I save a file, which only makes me want it to expire that much quicker). Is there a free word processor out there that's Mac-compatible?
Rob Pegoraro: You've got a couple of choices--both open-source apps that have been ported to Mac OS X (meaning they won't have all the fit and polish of something "born" as a Mac program). Try starting with AbiWord (www.abisource.com), a small, *fast* word processor that doesn't try to match Word feature-for-feature. If you need something more powerful, you can try the beta version of NeoOffice (based on OpenOffice), at neooffice.org.
And if you don't need *anything* but the basics, try plain old TextEdit. It can open, edit and save files in Word format, although it will get confused at any really complex formatting.
Governmentland: I use Firefox at home. However, my organization's web-based databases are only compatible with Explorer. Isn't it ridiculous that the government should file an anti-trust suit against Microsoft and still require us to use only their products? Are any candidates for Congress addressing this?
Rob Pegoraro: Remember, there are people in this Congress who think the Web is a "series of tubes." You're completely right about the idiocy of having IE-only sites, but you should save your lobbying efforts for individual IT people in your shop, who will probably know what Firefox is in the first place.
Rockville, Md.: Rob, have you heard any further details about the TiVo Series 3 release recently?
Rob Pegoraro: Still more advice for the would-be Fios user.
Now, my own advice is for Verizon: When the customer wants to give you his money, let him do that! It's not your job to tell people what software they should run to go through some stupid registration process--much less go through the extra work needed to block out people using the "wrong" software.
Las Vegas, Nev.: Cannot access secure financial web sites since I downloaded latest Internet Explorer 7 update--where can I get IE6? or how do I adjust to access secure sites?
Rob Pegoraro: You can uninstall IE 7; hit Add or Remove Programs, then click the "Show Updates" checkbox at the top of that window.
BTW, what exactly do you mean by "cannot access"? What message does IE flash when blocking these sites?
1080 what?: Hi Rob, I'm going to buy a LCD for the bedroom, which may eventually become a tv for a living room. I'm thinking wither 26" or 32". Will 26" be made with 1080p soon? I'm confused whether you can see a difference in quality at these sizes, but I assume its better to go with 1080p for viewing movies. Help! Thanks!
Rob Pegoraro: Forget about 1080p at those sizes. Forget about it for any screen below maybe 50 inches, unless maybe you plan to use it as a computer monitor for a large portion of the time. This notion of 1080p as "full" or "real" or "true" HD is pretty much complete BS. You can't watch *anything* in 1080p unless you invest in the idiotic Blu-Ray/HD DVD format war; all broadcast, cable and satellite HD comes in at 720p and 1080i. Hell, when I've asked marketing guys at TV makers who will notice 1080p resolution versus even 720p, *they* have said you pretty much can't see any difference below 50 inches.
Annapolis, Md.: Remember that crazy audiophile guy from Clifton (?). What's he been up to lately.
Rob Pegoraro: Uh, shopping for a 1080p HDTV?
Taking into consideration that, over time, installing/uninstalling app's has the potential of messing up the registry, among other things...should the pre-packaged software that comes with a new computer just be left alone? Or can I go about removing the annoying clutter? AOL trial, MS Office trial, Netscape, plus a slew of Sony's own stuff (Connect music service. 'Nuff said). I'm not short on disk space - just unhappy w/ the junk ware cluttering things up.
Rob Pegoraro: Yes, punt that junk off the hard drive. (If you want the cleanest system possible, see if the system-recovery feature on the computer will let you install just Windows and any necessary drivers; some manufacturers offer this as an option to putting the whole package back on the hard drive.)
email formats...: Rob, my question is about Internet email. I used to use .Mac, and loved the flexibility that having IMAP mail gave me, but I couldn't justify paying $100/yr when GMail is free. The only problem I have with GMail is that it's POP3 and comes with all the related annoyances when checking email from multiple computers. Now that using multiple computers to check email is the norm rather than the exception, why aren't there more IMAP options out there? It would be nice to be able to send/recieve emails and have those messages stored no matter where I am at the time.
Rob Pegoraro: Try fastmail.fm. I've heard nothing about good things about that service from readers in the past.
Buena Vista, N.M. 87712: Are there any cell phones which transcribe the speech onto the screen?
I am deaf so that I am unable to hear any calls on the cell phone. If I could read the message from the cell phone screen it would be a life changing experience.
Rob Pegoraro: I'm afraid the technology isn't there yet.
Washington, D.C.: When I watch a DVD through my DVD player/receiver, white horizontal lines appear during major action sequences. The player is about five years old. I thought there might be a problem with the lens and have tried to clean it, but that doesn't seem to help. Do you know what the problem might be?
I never seemed to have the problem before I bought a plasma TV last year. The dvd/receiver doesn't have component connections and I use an S-video cable, if that makes a difference.
Rob Pegoraro: See if there any video-processing/upconversion options enabled on the plasma TV; they might be introducing artifacts in the footage.
But, really, you should just buy a new, upconverting DVD player. It shouldn't run you more than $200, maybe much less than that--a small price to pay to take full advantage of your plasma's capabilities.
DC: Hiya Rob, Between now and Christmas, is there any one time better than another to buy my new iMac? Thanks for all your great articles!
Rob Pegoraro: Go ahead and buy now--Apple *just* updated it, so you'll either get a good closeout deal on the old model or you'll be buying the brand-new version. (FYI, Amazon's offering its usual rebates on them--$100 to $150, depending on which version you get.)
Silver Spring: Can you provide any information on firewall/virus software that may (or may not) be built in to the new Ubuntu Linux platform? I don't see any information about this as a built-in on the distribution.
Rob Pegoraro: Ubuntu has a firewall built in, like every other Linux distribution I've tried. No anti-virus built in. You can download one if you like; they do exist for Linux. But you are *extremely* unlikely to run across any Linux viruses in the wild, much less put one in any position to infect your machine. (You'd have to do some non-trivial tinkering just to get it to run, assuming it arrived attached to an e-mail message.) If you only download from trusted sites--an easy thing to do, as long as you stick to using its built-in software installer--you pretty much don't need anti-virus software in Ubuntu.
Washington, D.C.: Hi Rob, I've asked a few times in the past few weeks, but no response. Please, even if you have no info, can you tell me what you know about when FIOS might be available in the district?
Rob Pegoraro: Sorry, I just don't know. If you're sick of Comcast, get RCN instead. If you can't get RCN, try Dish Network or DirecTV. If you can't put up a satellite dish, see if you can live with free digital TV over the air. If that doesn't work or you must have the extra channels... well, Comcast will continue to own you. Sorry.
Thanks for your excellent column. My question is the following : I just got a spanking new Dell laptop.. which came with all this pre-installed junkware (AOL, Corel). I tried Windows/Uninstall - that didn't work (install.log file not found, etc); I then tried running the Dell De-Crapifier - which didn't work either (starting getting Windows installer errors); I then tried giving Dell a call - which didn't work as they don't give software support ! Apart from the terrible caveat emptor customer service provided, have you heard of a good way to fix this??
Rob Pegoraro: See my previous suggestion about using the computer's system-recovery features, then opting out of the "bonus" software. (I don't know offhand if Dell gives that option, but I know the last time I did have to rely on a Dell's recovery feature, it didn't even install the right drivers by default, much less any extra software!)
Boonsboro, Md.: Referring to your Midrange Blues article, and looking to finally replace my obsolete desktop PC. Planning to do some video editing of old home movies in the near future and burn them to DVD. Would a low to midrange PC be sufficient for this if I install a decent video card myself, rather than the default Intel graphics?
Rob Pegoraro: The video card won't help you edit movies; it's only there for 3-d graphics (and, should you install Vista, to render the Aero Glass interface). For editing movies, you really do need a fast processor. There's no getting around that.
Arlington, Va.: Here is my plan -- I want to make sure its possible: Buy a Macmini, buy a reasonably nice flat-screen TV, and keep my existing stereo.
I'll be able to hook both the TV & the stereo to the Mac, right? So I could play music from the Mac & play DVDs from the Mac drive. I'll also be able to use the TV as the computer monitor, right?
Also do you think this would be hard? Or is Apple's fabled compatibility going to make this a snap, or will it be somewhere between hard & a snap?
Rob Pegoraro: I've done exactly that. It's all pretty straightforward; the only hard part is figuring out where to wire the different connectors between the Mac mini, the TV and the stereo system--what you'd have to do to add any audio/video component to the home theater stack.
Leesburg, Va.: Question - my Linksys Wi-Fi (WRT54G) router interferes with my 2.4GHz AT&T portable home phone by causing clicking sounds during telephone calls. The problem is reduced when I move beyond 20 feet of the router. The problem makes it difficult to have phone calls in my office near the router.
Is there a more compatible portable phone system?
I think my current phone system is the AT&T model 2462 with a base station capable of handling up to six remote units.
Rob Pegoraro: A lot of cordless phones use the same 2.4 GHz range as WiFi, but they're supposed to avoid using the exact same frequencies. It sounds like yours doesn't. I'd put it up on eBay and buy a new one--you certainly won't be able to fix things by getting another wireless router.
In the past you have criticized office suites for being too complex and much more business oriented than home/home business oriented. Have you looked at Apple's iWork Pages and, if so, can you compare it in these respects to MS Word or other word processors? Perhaps you could compare it as you did when you compared Excel to an online spreadsheet, that is, Pages does x percent of what Word does in terms of home/home business use. Thank you.
Rob Pegoraro: I don't think iWork is any sort of Office replacement yet--how can it be when it doesn't include a spreadsheet app? (You can embed a very basic spreadsheet in a Pages document, but that's it.)
Baltimore, Md.: Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, since this is my first tech chat. My question is regarding iTunes and external hard drives. I just bought an external hard drive because I'm afraid that my laptop is going to crash any day now. I have lots of songs on my laptop, but will I be able to transfer them? If I remember correctly, iTunes only lets a restricted number of computers to play the music on file. Should I burn CDs instead?
Rob Pegoraro: The iTunes limit only affects how many computers at any one time can play music; you can authorize or de-authorize computers as you want. This doesn't affect your ability to make extra backup copies of your purchases; you could put them on a dozen separate hard drives without a problem, as long as you don't try to play them on a dozen machines at once.
Re: 1080 what?: Hi Rob, Okay, so if 720p is the best you're going to get for casual viewing at either 26" or 32", what are the most important specifications to look for when buying an LCD? Do you think its better to wait for the market to drop further before buying or is now as good a time as any? Thanks!
Rob Pegoraro: I'm not done writing that column! Sit tight...
Laptop repair follow-up question: Hi again, Rob. Did you ever have any more thoughts or get any good leads on whether you're better off taking your laptop to a mom-and-pop shop or someplace like MicroCenter when it needs to be diagnosed and repaired? There's a (relatively) new shop on King Street I'm tempted to try, but I don't know how to know whether they're good and I can't afford to get burned. On the other hand, the bigs are so focused on selling upgrades and extended warranties that I don't really trust them anymore. Ideas welcome!
Rob Pegoraro: Good question. (Just yesterday, I stumbled across one local blogger's rant about her experience with Micro Center's repairs. I'd hit the library and look up the last issue of Washington Consumer Checkbook to review computer-repair services. Or hit checkbook.org and buy a subscription for yourself.
Governmentland again: "who will probably know what Firefox is in the first place" Some of them call it "Foxfire."
Rob Pegoraro: But if they know that refers to an alternative browser and not a Clint Eastwood flick, that's still something...
Warrenton, Va.: What's the latest thinking about leaving a home computer on all the time vs. turning it off when not in use? I have a new iMac, and the user manual recommends leaving it on. But I'm worried about power outages. I only have a power strip type surge protector. So how much does it hurt the computer if the power fails occasionally?
Rob Pegoraro: Not really--the Mac has a "journaled" file system that should prevent any data loss or corruption after an unexpected outage. But if these outages come up often enough to interrupt your work, buy yourself an uninterruptible power supply. You don't need a high-end model that will work for hours and hours; the cheapest model in the store will still let you ride out the occasional blip and give you time to shut down things in orderly fashion if you're in for a longer outage. (I've got an APC model under my desktop at home, and it's done very well over the last few years.)
Alexandria, VA - Tell me about the 700wx: I have a friend who recently jumped from his T600 to the 700wx and has been blown away. He's a longtime Palm user, stuck to them religiously, but has been really surprised at the Sprint service and also at his overall approval of the device. Have you taken a look at it yet?
Rob Pegoraro: Nope, I haven't--it's almost the same thing as the Treo 700w I reviewed in January: http://www.palm.com/us/products/compare/index.html
Arlington, Va.: Do you have any sense as to how Verizon's roll out of its new Fios service is going? I'm wondering if my experience is an aberration or if other people have had similar problems. We decided to switch to the Fios phone/cable/internet package because it theoretically should save us $35-40 per month, would give us the cable stations we want, and high speed internet. Verizon installs the phone service first and then installs the cable and internet at a later date. So, we had the phone service installed which took most of a day. It stopped working that night. We called Verizon and told them about the problem. They told us they could have someone out the next day and we didn't even have to be at home because they would only need to work on the box outside the house.
We got home the next night and found a note from the technician which said he could not fix the problem because we were not at home. However, the phone was working and when we called Verizon they could not explain why he had left that note. Within a few days we started getting a radio station faintly over the phone. Within a week the music on the phone was so loud we could not hear the people we were talking to. We scheduled another appointment and received the 8-12 time slot. My wife took another morning off work so she could let the guy in. She started calling shortly after 12 and was told throughout the afternoon that he would be there within an hour. He finally showed up a little after 5:00 p.m. Initially, he told my wife that it was "impossible" to get the radio over a Fios phone and that we needed to call the radio station and tell them to stop broadcasting their signal so strong. My wife told him that we had never had this problem before we installed Fios and persuaded him to check out the system. He eventually found that the initial tech had never disconnected the old copper wire. This solved the problem temporarily. However, within a few days we started getting the radio again, although it is very faint.
Last week we had the cable and internet installed. Both cable and internet work very well and we have no complaints. The guy who installed the internet was the same guy who originally installed the phone. He tried to fix the problem with the phone but could not do it. He said he was going to talk to his boss about the problem and get back to us but we haven't heard anything yet.
Rob Pegoraro: Weird... hadn't heard of *that* problem ever before. Most of the people who have told me about their Fios installations--aside from 16th and M today!--have actually been really pleased about the whole process.
Worcester, Mass.: Hi Rob, I'm intrigued by HD radio, but don't want to be an early adopter (and end up saddled with the 2006 equivalent of a Betamax). What's your opinion of the technology and its chances of survival, especially vs. satellite radio? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: So many radio stations have begun broadcasting in HD that I would be surprised if it perished outright--but the manufacturers MUST get some more hardware in the market. If the selection is just as bad as it is now by the middle of next year, I might have to revise my predictions about HD Radio.
Medford, Ore.: Hi there, my seven year old computer has been running so sloooow, and the computer info person at the senior center said it was hardly worth trying to up-grade. So I bought a new computer I will hook-up this week. What can I do to keep it operating safely, smoothly and efficiently? Thank you for taking my question, I enjoy your column.
Rob Pegoraro: Have a look at my how-to column on computer security from last winter: Basic Rules Plus Common Sense Add Up to Security
Haymarket, Va.: You ran a column in December 2004 that I clipped and cannot find. Also, I couldn't find it online. Please help!!! We have had AOL for several years but recently moved to a new community. Broadband internet service is included in our HOA dues. Clearly, we don't need both, but we don't know how to keep our AOL address while dumping the service. Thank You
Rob Pegoraro: I just revisited that topic, actually--forunately, it's a little easier than it was when I described it the first time around:
San Diego, Calif.: In XP, if I have loaded anti-virus, spyware, etc. on one profile, are the other profiles covered? If not, does that mean that I have to add the protection onto each profile or is there one central place that I can manage the protection for all profiles? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: Those apps should all work for every user without your having to change any settings.
Rob Pegoraro: That wraps things up for today--the day job is calling me. Thanks for all the questions! I should be back here in a couple of weeks.
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 will be online to answer your personal tech questions and discuss his recent reviews.
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A Different Face of Iran
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As a journalist, I've spent considerable time over the years in places where America was not always popular. In the bad old days, that meant Russia, China and Vietnam; more recently I've reported from such human-rights black holes as Uzbekistan and North Korea. Then there were the destinations with elements of danger: Israel, the southern Philippines, Northern Ireland. None of those ever gave me pause.
But I wouldn't be truthful if I didn't admit being slightly uneasy about going to Iran -- now in the United States' cross hairs because of its developing nuclear technology -- when a U.N. contact invited me to join a group of international reporters on a trip in May.
The United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran haven't had diplomatic relations in 26 years, since students in Tehran seized 66 American hostages inside the U.S. Embassy and held some of them for as long as 14 months. Neither nation has an embassy in the other's capital, and the U.S. State Department has a travel warning on Iran. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council is pressuring Iran to stop its uranium enrichment, and the Bush administration is talking sanctions.
I applied for my visa in a room on the second floor of a nondescript building in upper Georgetown marked "Iranian Interests Section." This facility is technically part of the Pakistani Embassy (which handles Iran's affairs in the United States), but Pakistan's embassy is actually two miles away. What I saw here didn't ease my mind. Inside were a dozen Iranian Americans waiting for their own visas. As they waited, they gazed at videos on a large plasma television. On the screen was the classic image that most Americans have of Iran: a bearded, red-faced mullah wagging a bony finger at a stadium of young people. For what, I didn't know.
Four days later, visa in hand, I boarded an Air France flight from Dulles to Tehran. There I met my colleagues arriving from various points; they were German, British, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Korean. I was the only Yank.
What took place over the next fortnight astonished me. Everywhere I went -- from the traffic-choked streets of Tehran in the north to the dusty desert town of Yazd in central Iran, to the elegant cultural centers of Isfahan and Shiraz -- I was overwhelmed by the warmth and, dare I say it, pro-Americanism of the people I met.
Ponder the irony of that last statement for a moment. While much of the rest of the world seems to be holding their collective noses at us Americans, in Iran people were literally crossing the road to shake an American's hand and say hello. Who knew?
Initially, when Iranians asked me where I was from, I'd suggest they guess. But this game quickly proved too time-consuming -- no one ever guessed correctly. So instead I would simply mumble "American." And then their faces would light up. For better or worse, Iranians are avid fans of America: its culture, films, food, music, its open, free-wheeling society.
In a small stall at the bazaar in Isfahan, for example, I was nonchalantly eyeing a carpet while the young rug merchant looked on sleepily. But when I responded to his casual question about where I was from, he became as energetic as an 8-year-old near an ice cream truck. Straight away, he launched into a virtual love sonnet to all things Hollywood.
"Do you agree," he pressed, "that Marlon Brando was the greatest actor in the world?"
Indeed he was, I granted, slowly edging toward the exit. But he beckoned me back. Reaching under his desk, he pulled out a large paperback, which turned out to be a well-thumbed Brando biography . . . in Persian.
He turned the pages with gentle reverence, gesturing at specific photos of the Great Man. Then, holding his hand up in a "don't go" gesture, he broke into an impersonation of Brando doing Don Corleone. "Ya come to meee on desse de day of ma daughter's wadding . . . " It was the worst Brando impersonation I've ever heard, but surely the most heartfelt.
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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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Reagan Aide Stockman Targeted in Fraud Probe
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To old hands in Washington, David A. Stockman will always be the long-haired numbers cruncher who led the cheers for Reaganomics but nearly lost his job for privately denigrating the administration's budget at the same time he sold it to the public.
Stockman's trip "to the woodshed" with President Ronald Reagan and his denouncement of the "rosy scenario" of White House fiscal policy helped coin political phrases that linger in the capital's lexicon more than two decades after he left government.
Now the man who put one over on Congress could face far more severe consequences for possibly misleading Wall Street.
Lawyers at the Securities and Exchange Commission recently notified Stockman that he could face civil charges related to upbeat statements he made to investors two months before an auto parts company he ran sought bankruptcy protection last year, according to sources familiar with the issues who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation continues.
Securities regulators are examining the role Stockman and other former executives played in alleged financial irregularities at Collins & Aikman Corp., with an eye on whether Stockman may have lied to investors by telling them the company's finances were being "managed quite effectively" when he was aware of mounting problems. Federal prosecutors have also subpoenaed financial records from the company.
Stockman, 59, declined interview requests. But two sources sympathetic to him who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said Stockman did nothing wrong. Rather, they said, he knocked himself out to save Collins & Aikman from crippling industry forces that sent several competitors into bankruptcy proceedings.
The sources said Stockman had no motivation to commit fraud. He apparently did not sell Collins & Aikman stock he owned during his tenure there and doubled his personal holdings to more than 300,000 shares between August 2004 and the day he left the Southfield, Mich., company in May 2005.
Stockman did not receive a salary or stock options from Collins & Aikman. Instead, the privately operated investment partnership he ran, Heartland Industrial Partners L.P., struck a deal that required the parts maker to pay it annual fees in exchange for financial services and Stockman's advice. Heartland bought a stake in Collins & Aikman in 2001 for $260 million and ultimately invested another $100 million in the company. The fee agreement is a relatively typical arrangement among Wall Street buyout firms and their portfolio companies, but it also makes it hard to know how much Stockman collected and what his incentives were as he ran Collins & Aikman. Stockman did not earn more money under the terms of the deal, nor did Heartland, after he became chief executive of Collins & Aikman in 2003.
Collins & Aikman agreed to pay Heartland $4 million each year as an advisory fee and to reimburse the partnership for out-of-pocket expenses and other services. It also agreed to give Heartland 1 percent of the value of acquisitions -- and there were many, valued at more than $1 billion total.
Between 2001 and 2004, a time when Collins & Aikman reported annual losses, Heartland received more than $44 million from the auto parts company, according to securities filings and a shareholder lawsuit. The money went into Heartland's coffers. How it was distributed among Stockman and his partners remains unclear. The percentage Stockman owns of Heartland, which operates with few public disclosure requirements, could not be determined. He stepped aside as managing partner last year.
A self-described Michigan farm boy who won a House seat before becoming one of the youngest Cabinet officials in history, Stockman was a key player in pushing Reagan's "supply side" economic platform, a crucial facet of the president's domestic policy, which reasoned that benefits from big tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals would trickle downhill to the middle class.
But as he made bold public pronouncements supporting the plan, Stockman and William Greider, a Washington Post editor at the time, for months privately discussed "Trojan horses" and "magic asterisks" that hid mounting budget deficits. Stockman grew disenchanted with politics, criticizing opponents and his own party for failing to cut entitlement programs and bring the deficit under control. Greider eventually published a magazine story containing Stockman's statements, which almost got the young White House aide fired.
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To old hands in Washington, David A. Stockman will always be the long-haired numbers cruncher who led the cheers for Reaganomics but nearly lost his job for privately denigrating the administration's budget at the same time he sold it to the public.
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Berry Joins the Wizards As an Assistant Coach
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Berry has previous assistant coaching experience with the Chicago Bulls (1999-2003), Houston Rockets (1991-99) and Sacramento Kings (1989-91) and was on the bench as an assistant under Rudy Tomjanovich when the Rockets won NBA titles in 1994 and 1995.
Berry also was the top assistant under Jud Heathcote at Michigan State when the Magic Johnson -led Spartans won the 1979 NCAA championship.
In the offseason, Wizards owner Abe Pollin and President of Basketball Operations Ernie Grunfeld encouraged Jordan to consider adding an assistant coach with a strong defensive background. Jordan interviewed a handful of candidates and chose Berry, citing his championship background and depth of experience.
"Bill has extensive knowledge of the game of basketball," Jordan said. "[He] has had the opportunity to work with some outstanding players and coaches during his career. We are confident that he will be an excellent addition to our coaching staff."
The Wizards open training camp Oct. 3 in Richmond and begin an eight-game preseason schedule Oct. 9 at Verizon Center against the Toronto Raptors. The regular season opener is Nov. 1 at Cleveland; the regular season home opener is Nov. 4 against the Boston Celtics.
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After spending the last two seasons as an advance scout for the Wizards, Bill Berry becomes an assistant coach for Washington.
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The Ugly Truth About Denial
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The moral at Maryland: Deny, deny, deny. Deny drinking at an off-campus bar after curfew during the season. Deny throwing a punch during a melee at the bar. Deny everything, most of all groping a woman's behind. Because that could mean the difference between being suspended for a game -- dealing with public ridicule and shame -- and securing the absolute benefit of the doubt from a university's football coach and athletic department.
Don't admit, and the Terrapins must acquit. Or they will leave your fate to the glacial pace of the Prince George's County District Court system. By the time your case is heard, your eligibility might be up. It won't cost you a game. You and your family won't have to worry about anything but attorney fees.
It's a good deal. Just ask Marcus Wimbush, a senior safety from the District. Wimbush was charged last March with two counts of second-degree assault and a fourth-degree sex offense after an ugly night at the Cornerstone Grill and Loft in College Park last Halloween.
That was the same night at least nine Maryland players were at the same bar, the same night at least a few of the Terps threw haymakers after midnight. This was a nasty brawl, in which one bouncer suffered a broken nose in two places, and former Maryland wideout Derrick Fenner received multiple stitches in his head. Another wide receiver still on the team, senior Drew Weatherly, missed that week's game because of a concussion.
Wimbush was not arrested that night and still denies any wrongdoing. Yet three players who admitted they were at the bar -- and admitted they threw punches, after Ralph Friedgen went "Law and Order" on them -- were suspended for a game by their coach, even though they claimed self-defense. Beyond Fenner and Weatherly, there was senior William Kershaw, who lost his last opportunity to play in his home state of North Carolina before family and friends.
Wimbush, meantime, did not miss a game for Maryland last season and in all likelihood will not miss one this season. His attorney sought and was granted a continuance for Wimbush in July. His new trial date is Jan. 26 -- conveniently after Maryland has wrapped up its season and Wimbush his eligibility.
Nearly a year has passed since that incident, and only one Maryland player was criminally charged. And that kid, who won't talk about the incident, is going about his business like nothing happened.
Some latitude for justice in College Park, no?
"This was not a double-standard deal," Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow said. "If we had a female athlete charged with shoplifting and she says it was a huge misunderstanding -- 'My girlfriend was on the other side of the door, and I was telling her to feed the meter' -- we don't sanction her. We let it play out in the courts. Now if her friend with her says, 'That didn't happen; that's bogus,' well, we're going to deal with it."
"I don't want to be judge and jury in a situation where I don't know who's innocent and guilty. It just smacks of unfairness."
Wimbush was not an indispensable player last season, so there's nothing to suggest Yow or Friedgen treated him with ulterior motives in mind. And if Wimbush were suspended, his family would have been in Yow's office the next day asking why she decided the young man was guilty before the courts have had their say. (Curiously, however, Friedgen said yesterday Wimbush has a knee injury and his status for tomorrow's game against cupcake Middle Tennessee is uncertain.)
Maryland's student-athlete handbook demands suspension on felony charges but leaves wiggle room when it comes to misdemeanors, of which Wimbush was charged with three. Yow ultimately determines whether the athlete can play or practice in such cases.
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Don't admit, and the Terrapins must acquit. Denial is the difference between a one game suspension and securing the absolute benefit of the doubt.
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Xanga to Pay $1 Million in Children's Privacy Case
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Social-networking site Xanga.com Inc. and its operators said yesterday that they would pay a $1 million fine for alleged violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, at a time of heightened parental and government concern about children's safety online.
In a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Xanga also agreed to increase its privacy controls after allegedly collecting, using and disclosing personal information collected from children under age 13.
The settlement named the company and its principals, Marc Ginsberg and John Hiler.
The site, with 25 million registered members, is one of several Web sites where people meet and make connections.
The settlement followed numerous congressional hearings and several legislative proposals aimed at addressing concerns that younger Internet users are exposing themselves online to sexual and financial predators. MySpace, after complaints and media reports that its site was being used by sexual predators, this year hired a security chief.
The law "requires all commercial Web sites, including operators of social networking sites like Xanga, to give parents notice and obtain their consent before collecting personal information from kids they know are under 13," FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras said in a written statement. Although the site said children under 13 were not permitted to join, it accepted registrations from those who submitted birth dates indicating that they were underage.
Hiler, Xanga's chief executive, said the company has hired a chief safety officer and would add safeguards to help it police the site for use by underage members.
"When these issues came to our attention, we instituted a stronger, more comprehensive safety and compliance program," Hiler said.
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Social-networking site Xanga.com Inc. and its operators said yesterday that they would pay a $1 million fine for alleged violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, at a time of heightened parental and government concern about children's safety online.
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Down the Homestretch, the House Wanders Off Course
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Let us stipulate, as the lawyers like to say, that horses should not be slaughtered for human consumption.
Let us further stipulate that there is nothing inherently offensive about minting coins to commemorate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth.
Still, the question arises: What are House Republicans thinking?
Returning from a five-week summer vacation, GOP lawmakers have much to worry about: war in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism and border problems, high energy prices and health-care costs, and none of the federal government's annual spending bills enacted.
So what did House leaders decide to make the centerpiece of the week? H.R. 503: the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. This legislation, passed yesterday, followed Wednesday's action on a full slate of bills including H.R. 2808, the Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Coin Act.
And to think that Republicans are in jeopardy of losing their majority in the House.
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), setting the pace for yesterday's debate, was champing at the bit. Holding a poster of a horse's bloody head in the well, he proclaimed: "What we are exposing today is a brutal, shadowy, shameful, predatory practice that borders on the perverse."
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) was equally hot-to-trot in support of horse slaughtering. "These horses are eating our cellulose and costing us ethanol," he countered.
The debate -- lasting nearly four hours while horse lover Bo Derek watched from the gallery -- quickly degenerated into dueling expressions of equestrian love.
"The horses are part of the history of this nation, and the West would never have been settled if it weren't for the horses," declared Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) in support of the horsemeat ban.
Whoa, answered pro-slaughter Rep. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.) "My horse Skychief Poco and I won the 1997 SandHills Rodeo and quarter horse shows team penning championship."
Democrats enjoyed all the whinnying. "I'm for the horsies, too; I'll vote for it," allowed Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). But what about Iraq, energy, health care and the federal debt? "I can't believe that we are here today using the very limited time left to this Congress to deal with horsemeat," she said.
Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), meeting privately with colleagues in the morning, referred to the legislation as "the horse [expletive] bill," according to someone present at the meeting.
Even Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), who as Rules Committee chairman helped to jockey the horse bill to the floor, was a bit sheepish about trotting out the legislation. The work of Rep. John Sweeney (R-Saratoga Race Course), it would effectively close the three U.S.-based slaughterhouses that produce horsemeat for human consumption in Europe and Asia.
"When you've got Bo Derek twisting your arm, what can you say?" Dreier rationalized, noting that the actress visited the Republican breakfast caucus before the debate. The chairman, in a brief interview off the House floor, tried to rein in the story: "This will be old news as of tomorrow."
Even before the horse bill, House leaders had been a bit sensitive about their legislative pace. The People's Representatives have been in session for all of 80 days this year, and with 15 days remaining on the legislative calendar, the House is on pace to shatter all records for inactivity. The "Do-Nothing" House of 1948 was positively frenetic by comparison, passing 1,191 measures in 110 days in session.
The current House has passed barely 400 measures, including this week's lineup of legislative priorities: H. Res. 912, "Supporting the goals and ideals of National Life Insurance Awareness Month" and H. Res. 605, "Recognizing the life of Preston Robert Tisch and his outstanding contributions to New York City, the New York Giants Football Club, the National Football League, and the United States."
By yesterday, when the House devoted itself to equine slaughter, even Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the dead-serious House minority leader, was ready for a bit of horseplay. "And we can't even get out of the gate with any good legislation!" she observed as she headed to the speaker's office for a meeting.
For all their ridicule, Democrats weren't about to let the other side canter off with the horse-lover's vote. "I've been around horses all my life," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), who represents Manhattan's Upper East Side. "They are cherished companions. They are sporting animals. . . . They are probably the most beloved animals native to the United States."
Nobody pointed out that the Spanish introduced the modern horse to the Americas; everybody was busy praising the beasts.
"They are as close to humans as any animal can get," asserted Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.).
"I have as much appreciation and admiration for these creatures as anyone in this body," challenged Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.).
"Look at the monument in front of the Capitol -- it's a horse!" exulted Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.). It took the long-in-the-tooth Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the House, to rear up against the horse celebration. "It's a triumph of emotion over common sense," he scolded. "We have before us a solution, a poor one, to a nonexistent problem."
But in the final tally, 263 lawmakers voted for the horse bill. Only 146 dared to say "nay."
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Let us stipulate, as the lawyers like to say, that horses should not be slaughtered for human consumption.
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'Vegetative' Woman's Brain Shows Surprising Activity
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According to all the tests, the young woman was deep in a "vegetative state" -- completely unresponsive and unaware of her surroundings. But then a team of scientists decided to do an unprecedented experiment, employing sophisticated technology to try to peer behind the veil of her brain injury for any signs of conscious awareness.
Without any hint that she might have a sense of what was happening, the researchers put the woman in a scanner that detects brain activity and told her that in a few minutes they would say the word "tennis," signaling her to imagine she was serving, volleying and chasing down balls. When they did, the neurologists were shocked to see her brain "light up" exactly as an uninjured person's would. It happened again and again. And the doctors got the same result when they repeatedly cued her to picture herself wandering, room to room, through her own home.
"I was absolutely stunned," said Adrian M. Owen, a British neurologist who led the team reporting the case in today's issue of the journal Science. "We had no idea whether she would understand our instructions. But this showed that she is aware."
While cautioning that the study involved just one patient who had been in a vegetative state for a relatively short time, the researchers said it could force a rethinking of how medicine evaluates brain-damaged patients.
"We have found a method for determining if a patient is aware," Owen said. "It provides us with a tool that may be able to help make difficult decisions about these patients."
Other researchers were cautious but praised the research as groundbreaking with potentially profound implications. The work could lead to crucial new insights into human consciousness, one of the most daunting scientific mysteries, and to new ways to improve the diagnosis and treatment of tens of thousands of brain injury patients.
"This is a very important study," said Nicholas D. Schiff, a neurologist at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. "It's the first time we've ever seen something like this. It really is kind of shocking."
But Schiff and others stressed that much more work is needed.
"It raises a lot of questions," Schiff said. "At what level is she conscious? Is she really imagining she is playing tennis? Is it possible to communicate with this person? At this point, this doesn't allow us to make any inference about where this patient's consciousness might be."
The research inevitably renewed questions about patients such as Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman in a persistent vegetative state whose family dispute over whether to discontinue her care ignited a national debate over the right-to-die issue. Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, said the study underscores the uncertainties in diagnosing brain injury patients.
"Things are changing almost every day with what they're finding out about the brain," he said. "The technology they're creating could help people like my sister."
But Owen, Schiff and others stressed that the research does not indicate that many patients in vegetative states are necessarily aware or likely to recover. Schiavo, in particular, had suffered much more massive brain damage for far longer than the patient in Britain, making awareness or recovery impossible, they said.
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According to all the tests, the young woman was deep in a "vegetative state" -- completely unresponsive and unaware of her surroundings. But then a team of scientists decided to do an unprecedented experiment, employing sophisticated technology to try to peer behind the veil of her brain injury for...
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PBS Wide Angle: 'Back to School'
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PBS's Wide Angle launches its fifth season of in-depth explorations into the forces shaping the world today. The centerpiece of the season, Back to School the second installment in the 12-year documentary project, 'Time For School,' revisits seven children in seven countries striving to beat the odds against getting an education. The 90-minute special premieres Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).
Coordinating producer Tamara Rosenberg was online Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the PBS Wide Angle documentary.
Rosenberg has been with Wide Angle as coordinating producer for five years.
Welcome to The Washington Post's Web chat about the Wide Angle program, Back to School, which aired yesterday evening on PBS. I will be answering your questions on this film and the Wide Angle series. While you're online, please feel free to check out our Web site (http://www.pbs.org/wideangle), which includes the full transcript of our post-film interview with Gene Sperling, Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as expanded context for the film.
Phoenix, Ariz.: Hello Tamara, Firstly, I wanted to say that was incredible follow up on the original 2003 piece. My question: Is there an organization that handles donations so these children can continue their education?
I'd love to help them.
Tamara Rosenberg: Yes, there are ways you can help close the education successes of Raluca and Ken and the challenges faced by Joab, Neeraj, Shugufa, and Nanavi. We've listed a few ways in the advocacy pages of the "Back to School" Web site, which you can find at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/school2/school.html
Wilmington, Del.: Thanks for the film last night. It really is amazing seeing these kids who want to go to school so bad when most American kids not only take it for granted but try and find ways to skip it! How did you find these kids? It seems like you found really motivated ones -- especially Neeraj.
Tamara Rosenberg: I'm glad you enjoyed the show, and our kids really make it what it is. We spoke to NGOs on the ground in the various countries and through local contacts we eventually found our seven kids.
Albany, N.Y.: Is it possible to donate money or school equipment in order to support an impoverished student abroad? For example, could one "sponsor" a child throughout their educational life? Thanks very much. Your show was outstanding.
Tamara Rosenberg: Yes, there are ways you can help our kids and their peers all over the world. Go to our advocacy pages on our Web site at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/school2/school.html
New York, N.Y.: Your film looks at the global crisis in education, any chance you will document students in the U.S.?
Tamara Rosenberg: Wide Angle specializes in international current affairs, so no we won't be covering education in the US. But you're right, there'd be a lot of material for a whole new film on our kids in this country. We're hoping that by watching seven kids in different countries, American children can realize the disparities in opportunities regarding education around the world.
Longmont, Colo.: Thank you, Tamara, for the fascinating look at kids around the world. The juxtaposition of the "rich" kids and the "poor" kids made me really want to do something to help the poor ones. Do you ever help out the kids who seem like they need it? That's probably against some journalistic rule, but still. Any suggestions on how I could help?
Tamara Rosenberg: The way WIDE ANGLE helps is by showing the poor kids' struggle to get an education despite great odds to millions of people around the world. But you can help too, and we listed many worthy Web sites if you want to donate money. They're all at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/school2/school.html
Washington, D.C.: Thanks for an incredible film. Do you have plans to follow up with the students again in a few years? Also, do you have any plans to hold screenings of the film on Capitol Hill to bring awareness? Thank you.
Tamara Rosenberg: Yes, we will follow with these kids every three years until 2015, their expected year of graduation. 2015 is the year that 191 nations have set as a goal of free and compulsory education for every child on earth.
Regarding a screening on the Hill, we're hoping we can organize one, but we have no definite plans yet. Thanks for your support.
New York, N.Y.: It was encouraging to see that so many people were concerned about Joab's well-being after his mother's death. What is he up to? Is he still one of the top students in his class? Also, do you think the presence of an international documentary crew adds needed pressure to the family, teachers, schools, etc., to help keep the children in school?
Tamara Rosenberg: Joab is still in school, and striving according to his principal, whom we're in regular contact with. Yes, it's been a real struggle for him to cope with his mother's death, and in a strange way our presence might have helped him. Frederick Rendina, the field producer who went to Kenya three years ago for the first episode and this time around as well said that Joab was very happy to see him again, and opened up to him a lot more on this shoot.
Chicago, Ill.: Hi Tamara. From your perspective, what stood out most to you in this documentary?
Tamara Rosenberg: I think what stood out to me the most was the difference an education can make in these children's lives. As Gene Sperling, director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations, whom we interviewed after the film said: "Children die from lack of education all the time. Children without an education are more likely to grow up to have HIV/AIDS. They're more likely to die in infancy or before the age of five. So this is a life or death issue."
New York, N.Y.: The school in Afghanistan seemed really dodgy, with the teacher hitting the girls to go into class and staring at the camera and then no teacher in the classroom. The American government really talks up how the U.S. invasion allowed girls to go to school, but the film sure didn't convince me of that point, especially with their 1/2 days of classes to begin with. What was the real story? Did the little girl there even have a teacher? Is it getting any better?
Tamara Rosenberg: The situation is very challenging for girls to get an education in Afghanistan now. In many parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban's resurgence is again jeopardizing girls' education. In Shugufa's case, teachers show up irregularly, and as we said in the film, there's a shortage of female teachers, which traditionally teach the girls. So, we're happy our kid there is highly motivated because she's going to need it!
Anonymous: Man I am glad I'm done with school. I feel so sorry for these kids today. They have to write an essay at their SAT. They also have to do like 20-40 hours of extra-curricular activities or "volunteering" to have a prayer of getting into college.
Haha, good luck kids ...
Tamara Rosenberg: Yes, our kids in Kenya, Benin, India, and Afghanistan face challenges that kids in this country can't even imagine. Our little Indian girl has to graze the family's cattle, Shugufa in Afghanistan has to do all the household chores, and Nanavi in Benin has to help her mother on the farm. It is remarkable that they still find the energy and want to learn. But that's what makes them such winning kids...
Chicago, Ill.: There was a point in the film where the students were shown reacting to seeing themselves in the first film three years ago. Would you elaborate more on their responses to seeing themselves, some for the first time?
Tamara Rosenberg: Sure, this was Judy Katz's idea, the producer and writer of both "Time for School," which aired three years ago, and "Back to School," which premiered last night. We asked all our field producers in the various countries to show the first film to the seven kids, and film questions they might have for each other. As you can see in the film the kids came up with very creative questions like when Neeraj in India asks Ken in Japan who he talks to when he wakes up in the morning as he has no siblings, which Neeraj can't even fathom. I think it's been tremendously interesting for our kids to see their communities and life in different places of the globe. The people in Nanavi's village in Benin don't get to see what the rest of the world looks like very often, so we're glad we could show them the film.
East Lansing, Mich.: I teach at Michigan State University and would like the University to purchase your excellent videos/DVDs to show in class and would like to know where to purchase them. I have not had much success in contacting BS for the same.
Tamara Rosenberg: Unfortunately, at the current time, the program is not available on home video. But since it's a university, you can contact our educational distributor, Films Media Group (http://www.filmsmediagroup.com/).
You can also check with your local station to see if they'll be re-airing the program. If so, you could record the episode and use in your classroom for one year.
Also, the entire film is streamed online on our Web site as of tomorrow: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/school2/index.html
Munich, Germany: A bit late here, but I was wondering if you came to a personal conclusion about children in developing countries looking forward to school, and children in western countries seeing it as drudgery? Is there a way to make children in well off, industrial nations be more appreciative of education?
Tamara Rosenberg: I think one way to make children in Western countries realize their luck is to show them films like "Back to School," which we hope will be used in classrooms around the country.
Tamara Rosenberg: I'm afraid our time is up. Thank you all very much for your questions. We appreciate your interest and hope you enjoyed the film. I hope you'll tune in for the next Wide Angle on Tuesday, September 12 (check local listings for time), Democracy in the Rough, which will take you on the ground as the Democratic Republic of Congo holds its first elections in 45 years.
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Lieberman Redux in Rhode Island?
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WARWICK, R.I. -- Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey doesn't run for office, he bounds -- up steps, across lawns, in his quest to unseat Rhode Island's incumbent senator, Lincoln Chafee, in next Tuesday's primary.
"If one of the other candidates knocks on your door, vote for that guy, but they won't," the 44-year-old Laffey assures voters. He's accompanied by his wife, four of his five children and a posse of high school friends, all decked out in trademark Laffey yellow and blue, right down to the double stroller for the youngest Laffeys and his wife's custom-made "Laffey 2006" Converses. (The candidate, who has a Harvard MBA and isn't shy about mentioning it, read a study finding this the optimal color scheme for communicating.)
"This will probably be the first time in 40 years we haven't voted for a man named Chafee, but we've just about had it," Richard Carr, a 62-year-old construction company manager, tells Laffey, referring not just to the current senator but to his late father, John, who was a senator and governor.
After Laffey sprints on, Carr explains his distaste for the younger Chafee: "He is a Republican and he doesn't vote for the president," he says, referring to the senator's 2004 presidential write-in vote for George H.W. Bush.
Is Steve Laffey to Linc Chafee as Ned Lamont was to Joe Lieberman?
Once again an incumbent senator who often breaks with his own party -- this time a Republican -- could find himself toppled. Once again, the opponent is an energetic businessman-turned-politico, milking discontent among the base and disgust with Washington. Once again, outside groups -- in Connecticut the liberal blogs, here the anti-tax Club for Growth -- are stoking voter anger.
It was inevitable, then, that Laffey-Chafee would be cast as the GOP replay of the Connecticut Democratic primary. Yet the analogy goes only so far. The Rhode Island race is more complex, certainly odder and potentially far more momentous.
For angry Democratic voters, a Lamont vote was all but risk-free. Rhode Island is Connecticut with consequences: A Laffey nomination in this heavily Democratic state could imperil GOP control of the Senate. A general election race between the Democratic nominee, former attorney general Sheldon Whitehouse, and a bruised Chafee promises to be close. But nearly the only one who thinks Laffey would beat Whitehouse is Laffey. "I'll crush him," he asserts.
That's doubtful, but Laffey has a serious shot at ousting Chafee. Precisely how serious is unknowable, because the population of Rhode Island Republicans is so minuscule (just 10 percent of registered voters) and so much could turn on the wild card of independent voters.
Greeting voters outside the Warwick Stop & Shop, Chafee himself doesn't sound terribly confident. "What I've been surprised at is having a parade of Republican luminaries come in to help me -- highlighted by the first lady -- that didn't have a really strong move from the conservative base in my favor," Chafee says. "Even after that, still the Laffey people were Laffey people."
Hence the spectacle of the Washington Republican establishment rushing to the defense of a man who voted against all the Bush tax cuts, the war in Iraq, the Medicare prescription drug plan and Justice Samuel Alito, and who favors gay marriage and abortion rights and opposes the death penalty for Osama bin Laden.
The Republican Senate campaign committee has plowed hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race, savaging Laffey with ads as brutal as those deployed against any Democrat. One particularly ugly anti-immigrant spot attacks Laffey's acceptance of Mexican matricula cards as identification. (No matter that Laffey opposes the Senate immigration bill -- which Chafee backed -- as too permissive.)
If Connecticut was about unhappiness with Iraq and President Bush, the issues here are more nebulous. The candidates are vying to outdistance each other from Bush, and while Chafee opposed the war and Laffey supports it, Iraq hasn't been a focus.
Instead the race has been partly about personality ("If you looked up demagogue in the dictionary there would be a picture of Steve Laffey," Chafee says), partly about a generalized sense of dissatisfaction with what Laffey terms "big-spending Washington insiders."
Laffey temporarily raised taxes to help rescue Cranston from bankruptcy. "Well, duh, what was the choice?" he says. But he rules out the possibility of any national-level "well, duh" moment. "The corporate welfare gets you $150 billion and [freezing] the nonmilitary discretionary spending gets you $63 billion," he says, throwing in $27 billion more from cutting earmarks. "I just gave you $250 billion and I haven't blinked my eye. So that's where the waste is right there." The solution isn't nearly as simple -- or as painless -- as Laffey asserts.
Still, Laffey, a toolmaker's son who was the first in his family to go to college, is no cookie-cutter conservative. He says his role model in the Senate would be Bobby Kennedy, and he describes himself as a populist reformer, "more of a Teddy Roosevelt kind of Republican." A Senator Laffey would push the federal government to negotiate prices with big drug companies and promote tax breaks to encourage a solar panel on every roof. "By the way, that doesn't sound like a conservative Republican, does it," Laffey asks, part of the running self-commentary he provides.
Whitehouse, for his part, plans to run a similar campaign against either man -- arguing that either would provide a vote, quite possibly the critical one, to empower a Republican majority. Still, he says with the grin of a man who sees a long-shot Senate seat within reach, "I can't wait to find out which."
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Cranston, Rhode Island, Mayor Stephen Laffey doesn't run for office, he bounds -- up steps, across lawns, in his quest to unseat Rhode Island's incumbent senator, Lincoln Chafee, in next Tuesday's primary.
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How We Dummies Succeed
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If you're looking for the action in education, forget the Ivy League. Talk instead to Anthony Zeiss, president of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte. It has six campuses and 70,000 students taking classes in everything from remedial English to computer networking. With about 12 million students, the nation's 1,200 community colleges help answer this riddle: Why do Americans do so badly on international educational comparisons and yet support an advanced economy?
At this back-to-school moment, the riddle is worth pondering. Those dismal comparisons aren't new. In 1970, tests of high school seniors in seven industrial countries found that Americans ranked last in math and science. Today's young Americans sometimes do well on these international tests, but U.S. rankings drop as students get older. Here's a 2003 study of 15-year-olds in 39 countries: In math, 23 countries did better; in science, 18. Or consider a 2003 study of adults 16 to 65 in six advanced nations: Americans ranked fifth in both literacy and math.
In trying to explain the riddle, let me offer a distinction between the U.S. school system and the American learning system .
The school system is what most people think of as "education." It consists of 125,000 elementary and high schools and 2,500 four-year colleges and universities. It has strengths (major research universities) and weaknesses -- notably, lax standards. One reason that U.S. students rank low globally is that many don't work hard. In 2002, 56 percent of high school sophomores did less than an hour of homework a night.
The American learning system is more complex. It's mostly post-high school and, aside from traditional colleges and universities, includes the following: community colleges; for-profit institutes and colleges; adult extension courses; online and computer-based courses; formal and informal job training; self-help books. To take a well-known example: The for-profit University of Phoenix started in 1976 to offer workers a chance to finish their college degrees. Now it has about 300,000 students (half taking online courses and half attending classes in 163 U.S. locations). The average starting age: 34.
The American learning system has, I think, two big virtues.
First, it provides second chances. It tries to teach people when they're motivated to learn -- which isn't always when they're in high school or starting college. People become motivated later for many reasons, including maturity, marriage, mortgages and crummy jobs. These people aren't shut out. They can mix work, school and training. A third of community college students are over 30. For those going to traditional colleges, there's huge flexibility to change and find a better fit. A fifth of those who start four-year colleges and get degrees finish at a different school, reports Clifford Adelman of the Education Department. Average completion time is five years; many take longer.
Second, it's job-oriented. Community colleges provide training for local firms and offer courses to satisfy market needs. Degrees in geographic information systems (the use of global positioning satellites) are new. There's been an explosion in master's degrees -- most of them work-oriented. From 1971 to 2004, MBAs are up 426 percent, public administration degrees, 262 percent, and health degrees, 743 percent. About a quarter of college graduates now get a master's. Many self-help books are for work -- say, "Excel for Dummies." There are about 150 million copies of the "For Dummies" series in print.
Up to a point, you can complain that this system is hugely wasteful. We're often teaching kids in college what they should have learned in high school -- and in graduate school what they might have learned in college. Some of the enthusiasm for more degrees is crass credentialism. Some trade schools prey cynically on students' hopes and spawn disappointment. But these legitimate objections miss the larger point: The American learning system accommodates people's ambitions and energies -- when they emerge -- and helps compensate for some of the defects of the school system.
In Charlotte, about 70 percent of the recent high school graduates at Central Piedmont Community College need remedial work in English or math. Zeiss thinks his college often succeeds where high schools fail. Why? High school graduates "go out in the world and see they have no skills," he says. "They're more motivated." The mixing of older and younger students also helps; the older students are more serious and focused.
This fragmented and mostly unplanned learning system is a messy mix of government programs and private business. In some ways it compares favorably to other countries' more controlled governmental systems. Of course, that isn't an excuse for not trying to improve our schools. We would certainly be better off if more students performed better. Nor should it inspire complacency. "Other countries are picking up these models of community colleges and online learning," says Chester E. Finn Jr. of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a research group.
But the American learning system partially explains how a society of certified dummies consistently outperforms the test scores. Workers and companies develop new skills as the economy evolves. The knowledge that is favored (specialized and geared to specific jobs) often doesn't show up on international comparisons that involve general reading and math skills. As early as the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that Americans are addicted to practical, not abstract, knowledge. That's still true.
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If you're looking for the action in education, forget the Ivy League. Talk instead to Anthony Zeiss, president of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte.
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Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell was online Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 2 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the Washington Nationals, Major League Baseball and his recent columns .
16th & K, N.W.: I have never been a fan of these new-age young "kids" becoming GM's with absolutely no experience in baseball. I guess they remind me all too well of McNamara's "Whiz Kids" who mismanaged the Vietnam War. Having said that, I don't think that I am being overly harsh in saying that Theo Epstein is in totally over his head. He overestimated the strength of his pitching when he gave up Arroyo. He grossly overestimated Coco Crisp and vast underestimated Johnny Damon. He completely goofed when he didn't do something before the trade deadline, thus ceding the season to the Yankees, who did get two valuable players. These amateur followers of Billy Beane have been the ruination of more the one team in MLB. Do you agree that Theo Epstein should be fired, the sooner the better?
Tom Boswell: Here we have what may be the perfect post to capture the Red Sox Nation mentality. It's unique, passionate but also truly bizarre. The argument is subtle and probably correct on many points, but the object of the anger is the only GM to oversee a Red Sox world champion in 86 years. Oh, and McNamara still hasn't been forgiven. My wife is from New England so I see up close this every summer. It's fascinating.
Patterson, N.Y.: How on earth can the Florida Marlins put together a .500 season with a $14 million payroll (two known entities and 23 unknowns) while the Orioles spend $73 million and never escape the Groundhog Day of fourth- place finishes? Is there something magic with the player development down there in South Florida, or is this more an issue of the O's being in a tougher division and league?
Tom Boswell: That is a stunning comparison.
The Marlins are as big a surprise this year as the Nationals were last year -- both playing .500 and hanging in the wildcard race until mid-September.
The difference, of course, is that the Marlins are extremely young and have a great future. Of course, the Nats, on a smaller scale, have tried to trade veterans for young prospects so that, in '08-'09, they may resemble the Marlins of '06.
Barry and I are in the press box at RFK -- Nats 1, Cards 0 after three innings --reconstructing how the Marlins were built. Getting two top players for Josh Beckett, using Rule 5 to get Dan Uggla. But we both said, "Where did Josh Johnson come from?"
Washington D.C.: Hey Boz, thanks for the chats. The Nats can't seriously think that Nook Logan is the long-term solution to the team's center field issues, can they? Isn't this just another example of Bowden trying to squeeze every drop of talent from a bunch of cast-offs that no other team wants?
Tom Boswell: Nook Logan isn't a joke. He lost the CF job in Detroit this year, otherwise he might be playing for the best (W-L) team in the AL
The general thinking is that if the Nats resign Soriano, then they could afford to have a low-offense, lotta-range CF to support their weak starting pitching. If no Soriano, then maybe no Logan either. They kind of go together. "Kearns, Logan and Soriano wouldn't look like a bad OF next year, would they?" said one Nats exec today.
Logan actually has a track record as a young hitter -- .267 average in 469 career at bats with 31 steals in 39 attempts. Granted, no power and not nearly enough walks.
No. 756: I personally hope Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's career home run mark. I have nothing against Hank Aaron. And it's not that I like Bonds or believe he should break the record even if he used steroids (and I believe he did).
It's just that I know Bud Selig and the MLB brass do not want Bonds to break the record. I want to see their awkwardness and discomfort when he does. It would serve them right for trying to single him out the way they did.
Bonds can easily break that record if he goes over to the American League and is a designated hitter for two seasons. The way he's hitting them out lately he may be able to do it in one season.
Tom Boswell: There would certainly be justice in seeing Bud shake Bonds's hand after a No. 756. But, when guilt for the steroid age is being measured out, Selig and the rest of baseball management has to take a back seat to the player's union. It's really Don Fehr and Gene Orza who should meet Bonds as he crosses the plate if he ever passes Aaron. Whatever happened to the responsibility of a union to protect its members on crucial "safety in the workplace" issues. The union never had the guts to face down the top agents who didn't want their players to come off the juice. So, they hid behind high-minded talk about privacy issues and let a generation of their players poison themselves.
OK, that's a simplification, but it'll do for a chat.
Washington, D.C.: Can you give us any update on the Sean Black situation?
Tom Boswell: News flash. The Nats just learned 30 minutes ago that Black went to class today at Seton Hall. Now the Nats can't sign him. Washington signed seven of its top eight picks.
Annapolis, Md.: Sometime back in June, I believe, you wrote an article about the dominating AL pitchers as the primary reason for the old-fashioned whipping that the AL gave to the NL. I have thought long and hard about this since you ran that article. While what you wrote is absolutely true, I believe that AL teams were literally forced to become better to keep up with the AL East, whose teams were literally forced to become better in their attempt to keep up with the Yankees. There is no dominant team in the NL forcing the other teams to get better. Does this make sense to you? I'm very interested in your input as to see if you agree with my summation. Thanks.
Competition is at the core of the success of markets -- including, I assume, competitive baseball markets.
Will the Orioles gradually become better, or less bad, as a result of their increased need to compete with the Nationals for fans? Note: the Orioles, along with the Angels, are considered two of the teams most likely to go hard after Soriano this winter. Are the Orioles still using "Confederate money" in their free agent chases because so few players want to end up wanting to play in Baltimore? (They went as high as $200-million in the A-Rod bidding when Texas gave him $250-million -- one of the worst contracts ever.)
If the Nationals hadn't lost Patterson, Lawrence and Ayala to the DL, and if Hernandez had been healthy all season, I think this team would have won 85 to 90 games and been contending for the wild card. Your thoughts?
Tom Boswell: I predicted before the season that the Nats would win 75 games. That assumed reasonable, but not perfect health for their pitchers. If Patterson had won 15, the Nats might have won 80. Their current pace for 70 wins, all things considered, is probably a respectable performance. Assuming they keep playing hard to the finish and don't mail it in. Their recent five game win streak --and the way in which those games were won -- probably shows that there's still as much or more life in the club than you'd expect.
Chevy Chase, D.C. : Where did the Yankees' Wang come from? He JUST got on my radar a month or so ago and now he is the chalk for the Cy Young. Do you know anything about his back story?
Tom Boswell: The New York Times had a 4,000-word story on him recently. Check their archives if you're a subscriber.
Has Lopez commented on the possibility of second base next year? Can the same team who benefits from Logan in the outfield take away a similar advantage in the infield?
Tom Boswell: You can't have bad starting pitching and ALSO be weak defensively up the middle at CF, SS and (with Vidro's decreased range) at 2nd. Lopez will probably move to 2nd at some point. Guzman can come back at short.
With hindsight the nationals biggest blunder of '06 was NOT trading Vidro in May when he was hitting .340, his value was high and his legs had not worn out yet. They could have gotten plenty for him AND gotten out of his $8-million contract next year. LAST WINTER the Nats were dreaming about a fast start for Vidro so he could be traded. Then, when they had the chance, they fell back in love with him and didn't deal him. (He's a very classy guy who's had an excellent career -- all with one franchise.) The Nats have tried everything to deal him since June. The market disappeared completely.
In the end, if Soriano isn't resigned, it may be the weight of Vidro's contract --with two more years left to run -- that kills 'em. But don't write Soriano off yet.
Silver Spring, Md. Oh, please. Young GMs, old GM -- they're all about the same based on age alone. Theo's decisions about Pedro Martinez (currently on the DL, no?) and Johnny Damon (who will be 92 when his NYY contract expires) took courage.
And Theo's decision to stand relatively pat at the trading deadline bit him in the tail when Varitek AND Trot Nixon went down with injuries so soon after the deadline.
The Red Sox have a lot of money. They don't have an infinite amount of money. Signing Damon through 2009 would have been truly Idiotic. And keeping Pedro for four years would have been even dumber.
But what would have been even worse would have been compounding the initial mistakes and thinking a couple tweaks (or heaven forbid, NAAAtional Leaguers) would have turned the 2006 Red Sox into a playoff team.
Tom Boswell: I didn't know Theo had relatives in this area.
Seriously, I always say that the questions here are better than the answers.
(The Nats had chances to get to Carpenter early. Church and Vidro went out with men on second and third in the first -- Vidro on a 405-foot drive that was barely caught in center. Robert Fick defused a two-on, no-out rally in the second when O'Connor missed a sacrifice bunt attempt and he was caught between second and third.)
Farragut West: Why isn't Kearns starting today? The guy has been swinging a big stick....
Tom Boswell: Just a day off. He wasn't hurt by the HBP last night.
Rockville, Md.: Cal Ripken Jr. says he would consider purchasing the Orioles if owner Peter G. Angelos put the club up for sale.
"I think I could have value to a group, an ownership group," the former Orioles star said in an interview. "I like Mr. Angelos, and I don't know what's going to happen to his club, but if it were for sale, it would be interesting to explore."
Boy, one can only dream eh?
Tom Boswell: That's everybody's dream. Except the one person who matters.
I'm surprised that the O's -- 61-77 -- are only one game better than the Nationals -- 60-78. Granted, the AL is tougher. But I don't understand how you can have a rotation with as much promise as the O's with Mazzone coaching it and have the second worst ERA in baseball. Oh, I could cook up theories. But it's still one of those one-season anomalies as far as I'm concerned. The Orioles shouldn't think too much this off season. Just leave their starting pitching as is, try to add a middle-inning arm in the bullpen and let Leo work with it another year; then sign one big free-agent hitter at 1st or LF and come back next year and roll the dice again.
Which is it Tom?: Last week you said:
Soriano is gone: I can't imagine him staying. This can't be any fun for him and next year doesn't look much better. A contender will say, "Here's a no-trade, $75 million, 5-year contract. Make a home with us." How could he resist? Tom Boswell: He can't. And he won't.
Now you say don't give up on him yet...
Tom Boswell: I've been doing a little more digging. Neither New York team looks interested. There's no reason for the Red Sox to be interested. Who else, with mega-big money, is interested enough in Soriano to drive the price beyond the Nats appetite for spending? A lot of people in baseball, after August 1st, said, "He's gone. Book it." Including me. But as the dust has settled the Nats emerge as one of the logical contenders. Still, it's probably less than even money for him to resign. I'd make the Angels the front-runner.
Patterson, N.E.: What caused the Orioles to give up on John Maine? Although everyone thought that the Mets were just getting rid of a bothersome spouse in dumping Benson, this year's numbers do not bear that out.
Kris Benson: 10-10; 4.66 ERA; 1.39 WHIP; 4.22 K/9
John Maine: 5-3; 3.44 ERA; 1.03 WHIP; 6.75 K/9
Other numbers you might want to check. Ryan Zimmerman, at 21, is having an almost identical statistical season to Scott Rolen in his rookie year at 22. But Zimmerman is on pace for about a dozen more RBI and almost a dozen less errors. (Rolen had 24 errors and 92 RBI with a .846 OPS in '97; Zimmerman entered today with 11 errors, 93 RBI and an .825 OPS with 24 games to go.)
Washington, D.C.: Who the heck is Chris Booker?
Tom Boswell: He's the guy who just came in after O'Connor went five shutout innings and gave up a single, a wild pitch and a walk. Then, after Chris Schroder replaced Booker and got two outs (including Pujols on a popup), Scott Spiezio hit a three-run homer off the right field foul pole.
Booker is one of the few pitchers who throws a true old-fashioned forkball that is wedged far back between the fingers and drops with a knuckling action. Today? Just, "Stick a fork in him."
Columbia, Md.: I keep hearing Derek Jeter's name being bantered about for MVP. Although he may well be deserving, can a singles and doubles hitter be named MVP?
Tom Boswell: Absolutely. Especially if he plays shortstop and is the captain of the New York Yankees. (See "Phil Rizutto.")
Sec 515: Did Lopez change to No. 2 because Logan asked for the No. 7?
And who is George Lombard? Never heard of him before his appearance last night.
Tom Boswell: Jackson had No. 2. Lopez wanted it when he left.
Most teams are slow to hand out famous low-digit numbers -- like No. 7 -- to rookies like Logan. Mickey Mantle is more the sort of "Playing center fielder, No. 7..." that would come to mind. However, Washington isn't burdened by any such tradition. Bernie Allen used to wear No. 7 for the Senators when he wasn't even the fulltime second baseman.
As for Lombard, you're going to see a lot of late-season call up in '06 that you never heard of. It's the late-season pitching call ups NEXT September who may matter -- names like Zech Zinicola (from Arizona State, who has already moved up through three leagues this year) and (lefty) Matt Chico.
Alexandria, Va.: So, right on cue, is this the real Brian Schneider we are finally seeing?
Tom Boswell: Schneider tied the game with a pinch-hit single off Carpenter in the sixth. Soriano then hit the next pitch on a line into center for a 2-run single to knock out Carpenter and put the Nats ahead, 5-3.
Schneider is a career .254 hitter who is currently hitting .242 and has 47 RBI in 351 at bats (better than his norm and more than enough for a strong defensive catcher.) He's just a solid September away from putting up exactly the numbers you'd expect. His early-season slump probably bothered him more than most people because he comes from a very duty-conscious hard-working family --some of whom live in this area -- and he was determined to justify his new $16-million 4-year contract. Sometimes you can try too hard.
He seems back on track now.
Washington, D.C.: According to today's L.A. Times, Grady Little likes to rest his players the game after they have a big game because the players relax knowing they don't have to play the next day. Is this the stupidest decision a manager's ever made, or only in the top five?
washingtonpost.com: "Little has made a habit of resting players the day after they excel. Garciaparra, for example, drove in six runs Saturday against the Colorado Rockies and sat out Sunday. " 'A lot of their success has to do with knowing they have the next day off,' Little said. 'It gives them a relaxed kind of feeling.' " Dodgers Display Awful Timing (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 6, 2006)
Tom Boswell: Thanks. That really is hard to believe.
But it only ranks No. 2.
Grady already owns the Worst Decision In History.
RE: Sean Black: Is is true that Bowden had subordinates at the Seton Hall campus trying to tackle the kid while he made his way to class?
Tom Boswell: They tried to tackle him but I heard that they failed to "wrap him up."
That's probably akin to Gregg Williams' NFL statistic "Yards After Contact." The Nats have had contact with Black for three months but couldn't bring him down.
That's it for this week. Gotta watch the late innings of a close ball game on a beautiful September afternoon at RFK. The announced crowd of 21,322 is spread out in the stands, taking the sun, feet up, skipping work perhaps. Molina just homered into the Cards bullpen to cut the lead to 5-4.
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Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell discusses baseball and his latest columns.
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Date Lab
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Sandy M. Fernandez, one of the editors behind "Date Lab," was online Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 1 p.m. ET to take all questions and comments on the phenomenon.
Sandy M. Fernandez: Hi there! Thanks for joining the first-ever Date Lab chat. We have loads of good questions, so let's get started.
Arlington, Va.: I find the Date Lab feature deliciously entertaining. Now, honestly, what percent of your objective is matching up two people who seem great for each other and how much of it is just about entertaining me (and allowing me and my happy partner to click our tongues and shake our heads with more than a touch of schadenfreude and declare, "no wonder he/she is having so much trouble finding a mate that he/she has to ask the Post for assistance"? Seriously, this feature is my favorite new one in the magazine, and I'm not too proud to admit it!
Sandy M. Fernandez: Thanks! Here's the sad answer: We are pretty much always trying to make a good match. Now, there may be something that we're trying to explore in the match that the couple maybe wouldn't choose--like we set up one pair largely because they were both still living at home--but the disasters are always accidental. Then again, though, so are the successes.
Bethesda, Md.: I must say, I love this feature, but most couples' focus on physical appearance is depressing. Remember the guy who said his ideal woman was an anorexic with big boobs? And his date, while slender, just wasn't slim enough? But that's OK -- his date thought he was too short? Do you think appearance matters more on blind dates, as the couple have had no chance to build any rapport before the date? I must say their tiny little picky points, like the man ate the last dumpling without first asking her permission, are pretty depressing.
washingtonpost.com: Date Lab, (Post, July 9)
Sandy M. Fernandez: It's been a real eye-opener for me to read these things, partly for the reasons you cite. And again, I think you're right about appearance being more important on a blind date, when you know nothing about the person. But the dumpling--that speaks to me about people's search for common values, and trying to determine if this stranger across for them shares theirs.
Springfield, Va.: I've read some of your Date Lab events and it seems like it is a hit and miss when it comes to people's personalities. What do you consider or look at before matching up the potential daters? Last week's Date Lab was just a complete disaster, so hence the inquiry.
washingtonpost.com: Date Lab, (Post, Sept. 3)
Sandy M. Fernandez: It's interesting about this week's date. Reading her questionnaire (Daters fill out a rather fulsome questionaire and send in pics before we match them up), we were intrigued by Soko, and wanted to find her exactly the person she wanted to date. We put an ad up on Craigslist with very specific requirements: A programmer, sarcastic, loves Vespas, etc. We picked one of the guys who answered and seemed a match. And she hated him. You never can tell, really.
Washington, D.C.: How much editing do you do behind the scenes? How much of the dates end up on the "cutting room floor"? Have you heard back from Date Lab participants, about whether they feel they were misrepresented in the Magazine, due to editing?
Sandy M. Fernandez: Well, we have a date that sometimes takes hours and we distill it to about 500 words, so obviously not everything makes it in. But it is a pretty full interviewing process--the reporter talks to each Dater at least twice after the date--so we have a pretty good idea of the overall narrative and try to take what seems representative.
Metro Centro: Judgment in your last few pairings has been questionable. I could tell the dates were doomed just by the photos and likes/dislikes.
Sandy M. Fernandez: Here's the thing: Dating, even when you are choosing people for yourself, is a questionable enterprise. How many of us can say we always made awesome choices? We really don't know how a couple will play out til they get together. We try to edit the charts, which are straight from the questionnaires, to show after the fact what the couples had in common and where they differed.
Re: Last Week's Date: Do you think that just goes to show that people very rarely know what they actually want?
Sandy M. Fernandez: Absolutely. Just wait til you read this Sunday's.
Washington, D.C.: For those who have already been matched with someone and sent on a date, would you consider sending them out again? The latest male "contestant" seemed like such a great guy.
Sandy M. Fernandez: To me, a lot of them seem great. (I've been surprised when other women here have felt otherwise; there have been many in-house discussions). Sometimes after a date we get fan letters for one or another person, and we always send those on. But we probably wouldn't set the same people up again.
Washington, D.C.: How do you get picked to be a Date Lab participant? Do you guys have an age limit? It seems like you focus on 20-somethings but there are a lot of singles over 30 in D.C.
Sandy M. Fernandez: We've run mostly late 20's, early 30s mostly because the preponderance of people who apply are in that age range. We are not against setting up older people or gay or lesbian couples, but we need to get enough applicants that we're not just setting them up because they're the same age or sexual orientation. So apply, people!
New York, N.Y.: Date Lab has the good things about Reality TV and yet is nice and short (so as to limit brain-numbing).
Kudos on a well-designed/executed, cute concept. If only the participants lived up to the excellent 'framework.'
It's a shame that some of the match-ups seemed to draw out the worst of the people -- preconceptions, narrow-mindedness, a plain lack of manners -- my guess is if people felt they met a potential match, they'd behave better or at least put on a more presentable facade.
You should be commended for your ambitious experiments for interracial/intercultural set-ups. Though, in an ideal world, race shouldn't even register on people's minds.
Unfortunately, the labs reflect the superficial differences seem to always interfere. This unfortunately perpetuates common notions that different types of people don't mix. To make things worse, some of the participants of ethnic minority backgrounds make their 'kind' look bad by their bad behaviors.
Sandy M. Fernandez: Huh. I guess I hadn't thought of them as standing for their race or ethnicity, but just for themselves. And for daters in general--it's rough out there. On the interracial dating, of course we're doing it. Surveys show that, esp for younger people, it's just a fact of life.
Dupont Circle, D.C.: A quick reality check: I know you folks have an ideal that various groups should intermingle on dates, and you're doing your best to facilitate that. But dating is a unique universe. People know what they like, and you can rarely impose something else on them. Wouldn't you rather have a higher success rate than a picture of how things "should be"?
Sandy M. Fernandez: It's not "how it should be;" it's how it is. We are, always, guided by people's questionnaires.
Chevy Chase, Md.: I assume the photographer is just there at the beginning? That alone would amp a blind date to the high-anxiety level.
Sandy M. Fernandez: I wish this was clearer on the page--there is no photographer and no reporter. The couples take the photos themselves, and the reporter calls that night or the next day. (We have to move fast because people's memories change or they have further interactions that make them misremember. Or sometimes they start fleeing!) We tried sending a photograph in the beginning--it messed with the vibe.
Arlington, Va.: How long after the date does the interview for the column take place and how long after the date does the actual article appear?
Also, how many people have signed up to be a part of this feature? Do you wade through hundreds of would-be daters or are people shy about putting themselves in the paper for this kind of thing?
Sandy M. Fernandez: We have a store of hundreds. But yes, we have called some--once just days after an application came in--and been told they were off the market. I do think, esp after a bad date appears, people get cold feet.
Alexandria, Va.: So besides the couple that got engaged, how many first dates have ended up in second dates?
washingtonpost.com: Date Lab, (Post, Aug. 6)
Sandy M. Fernandez: A few--we always mention it on the update. But it's interesting to see that sometimes even if the people are all enthusiastic the day after, they never get together again. Dating is fickle, whether assisted by a major metropolitan newspaper or not.
Reston, Va.: How come you don't allow your dates to see a photo first or allow them the option to have a few choices?
I think appearance plays a big part in the attraction.
Sandy M. Fernandez: For various reasons, some having to do with privacy and safety, we chose to do it this way. All they have before they meet is a name, a (public) place and a time. But anyone who's not comfortable with that doesn't have to do it, obviously.
Washington, D.C.: How do you decide who to match? I notice your questions at the end of the column each week, but I imagine you've a stack (mine's in there somewhere) of applicants from which to choose.
Sandy M. Fernandez: It's so variable. Sometimes we read a questionnaire and just think, "We HAVE to match this person up." Other times you read one that sticks in your head and then when someone else comes in, it's like, Bingo! The sad part is sometimes we find a perfect match and either they're already dating someone else or they won't return my calls. I have this awesome guy I wanted to match with this gorgeous goth girl--but we can't get her to respond, so it'll never happen.
Falls Church, Va.: So, do most of the people who want to be matched up seem to seriously want to find someone or do they seem to be more after getting a free meal and a bit of fame? And, p.s., how's the engaged couple doing? Are any of you invited to their wedding?
Sandy M. Fernandez: When people ask, I tell them to do this in the spirit of fun and adventure, not with the serious expectation of finding a life partner. I mean, no one would be happier than me to see that happen, but odds are long, long, long. As for the engaged couple--I matched them, and it was a total fluke. So no invitation yet, and I really don't deserve one.
Philadelphia, Pa.: I love this section! Any chance you will open it up beyond the metro area? Lots of us used to live in D.C. and still love it and its singles.
Sandy M. Fernandez: Nix. We've had people offer to fly in for a date, but we just can't do it. It's complicated enough setting up someone across the great MD/VA divide.
Springfield, Va.: Bravo to you for such an interesting and timely piece. It's the first thing I read every Sunday. I also give kudos to the participants; dating is hard enough without having to worry about it being published! I would also like to say that being "matched" on paper is a great way to start but not always on target. I know that my husband and I would never match on paper, but we've been together for over 10 years. Hope people have an open mind about dating, especially blind-dating.
Sandy M. Fernandez: Exactly. Do it for the lark, to open up your universe, to have a laugh. Be optimistic and open. But keep expectations low. You'll have a better time.
Alexandria, Va.: Looks like women are more attuned to notice a guy's manners - does he order dessert before she's finished with dinner, did he arrive on time properly dressed, and so on. Word to the wise, guys: shape up here! Would love it if all this means a resurgence of what used to be called "being a gentleman."
Sandy M. Fernandez: Men notice things about women, too. But as a friend pointed out, they may be less likely to spill those details to a writer. Women tend to feel more comfortable expressing their complaints. Men are more likely to be evasive after the date. Sad, but true.
Foggy Bottom, D.C.: Roughly how many applications are you receiving? I'm interested to know how many people are willing to have such a public date. I don't think I could handle it.
Sandy M. Fernandez: We have hundreds, and more coming in every day. It's definitely not for everyone, but it can be totally fun and positive, too.
When you think about it....: It's kind of surprising any of these work out. The pressure of trying to remember your impressions and reporting back and knowing that the other person is doing the same thing makes for a very large hurdle in developing a connection.
Sandy M. Fernandez: I love it when they work out. It gives me faith in people. And I honestly don't think it's all that hard. First rule: Don't go hatin' someone just because they're different than you. That's 90% of the game, IMHO.
Washington, D.C.: I get such ghoulish pleasure out of these articles--it's like watching NASCAR for the crashes! Thanks for giving us a real disaster this week! Suppose one of the reading audience was interested in one of the participants in a date that didn't work out. Would it be possible to cajole contact information out of you?
Sandy M. Fernandez: I'll never hand out contact info, but I will forward emails saying, "I think we'd get along" or whatever. Of course, whether the Dater chooses to respond is up to him/her.
Rockville, Md.: If someone lives in the suburbs, do you take that into account when making a match? I work in DC, so I'd be happy to meet someone in the city on a weeknight, and not be limited to people in Maryland simply because that's where I live.
Sandy M. Fernandez: We take into account where you live, where you work and how good the match is. If there seemed to be an incredible match between someone in Warrenton and someone in Rockville, we'd probably do it because--well, why not?
Pittsburgh, Pa.: So what're the weirdest guy and girl applications that you've received? Or some of the more particular requests, likes/dislikes/attractions that people have cited?
Sandy M. Fernandez: Good question. My favorite guy is a former wrestler. We all love him here and are dying to set him up with the right girl. One of my favorite women is a woman who saves money by camping during the summer, so she can spend the winter in Colorado being a ski bunny. It's such an unusual choice for this area--I love it. And I love people who have unusual likes: One guy said he was attracted to women with slightly bigger noses than usual. It shows individuality.
Fairfax, Va.: Are you concerned that you've got a self-selected group of people in the pool? TV programs like Blind Date and Studs have been doing this for a long time -- granted, the Post is not a tabloid trash zone -- but only exhibitionists would sign up for this thing. I'd be mortified to have someone follow me around on a blind date!
Sandy M. Fernandez: It's a self-selected crew the same way that someone on an Internet site or at a particular bar would be. But hey--everyone we set up has applied, so they've self-selected to the same crew.
Washington, D.C.: Have enjoyed reading this week after week. The couples are typically pretty young -- but the Washington, D.C. metro area is full of older singles (mid-late thirties, forties, and beyond). Are you going to set up couples in those age ranges (and if so, how do I sign up!)?
Sandy M. Fernandez: We are doing older couples--we just have fewer of them, I think because prime dating years are 20's, 30's. But the application is online, feel free to sign on!
Arlington, Va.: I've enjoyed reading the reports of the dates, and comparing the perspectives of each of the participants. What are the biggest mistakes you think participants make that turns their date off? Have there been times when you think "Oh my god, I can't believe he/she just said (or did) that!"? Also, do you expect to feature any over 40/50 couples as well as the young'uns?
Sandy M. Fernandez: I'm a big patsy--most of the time I empathize with them. Especially the guys, but maybe because I hear suck flack from women friends and coworkers. The guy who said his date was really fit, but his type was girlier? I felt like I understood where he was coming from. Not so some of my friends, who were outraged.
Springfield, Va.: This column is a must-read for all of us single folks who still hopes for the best in the dating arena. I just read that you use Craiglist to find a match? CL seems to be very leery when finding a good match, but Soko's date seems to be decent. In reference to finding the "good" date, how do you pick your applicants from the genuine people to the non-serious daters?
Sandy M. Fernandez: Believe me, we didn't take everyone who answered that CL ad. Especially the gentlemen who sent, um, private photos. We had them all then fill out the questionnaire and go through the usual screening process. And I too thought Soko's date was decent. She, obviously, felt otherwise. For space, I had to cut the line in the story where she said that maybe the Washington Post was blind. Ouch.
McLean, Va.: I went on a date for this a couple weeks ago, and can't wait to see how it gets written up! Is there any way that me and the guy I went out with can see it before it's published or do we just have to wait with everyone else?
Sandy M. Fernandez: You have to wait, but your writer should have, in the back and forth, given you a pretty good idea of what the other person said. Nothing should ever come as a total surprise.
Washington, D.C.: Am trying to convince a friend to sign up. Are you able to match people by religion (she's Catholic)? This might help.
Sandy M. Fernandez: A few potential daters have asked me this, and my answer is always that you have to be open to anything. It's just one date, for goodness sake. So no guarantees.
Washington, D.C.: Are there plans to feature any gay or lesbian pairings in future Date Labs?
Sandy M. Fernandez: You betcha. We just need to get in enough applicants that it isn't one of those soap opera dates, where if you see two gay or Latino or African American characters, they're inevitably going to hook up.
Mmm...food: How are the restaurants chosen? And also, what has been the most surprising revelation that you and your staff have realized while combing through all of these applications?
Sandy M. Fernandez: We choose restaurants by asking the Daters for suggestions and looking for affordable options in the locations we need. Like the rest of it, it can be a little random. To me, the biggest revelations people-wise have been the ones that seem to validate old stereotypes. Like, in my dating life it had never been important that the man pay for the first date. Apparently, I'm the only woman on earth for whom this isn't important. Sigh.
Washington, D.C.: I disagree with those who are saying that people "know what they like" and that the Post should stick with that. What I love about Date Lab is that you're setting up people who may not date against "their type." Your engaged couple is a perfect example! Through numerous blind dates and online dating, I have dated guys I never would have thought were "my type" physically. But once I started accepting dates with a much more open mind, I started meeting a wider range of guys I might not have considered before and soon realized it was a sense of humor and that undefinable "chemistry" that made me fall for someone. So, keep an open mind D.C.!
Sandy M. Fernandez: Exactly. How else are you going to go outside your comfort zone--while being in the comfort of a nice restaurant and under the wary eye of the newspaper? There is a way for people to shop for exactly the age/height/weight/occupation they want to date: It's called online dating. And I don't knock it--it's how I met my husband. But Date Lab is something different.
Washington, D.C.: Date Lab is an interesting name. Did you pick the name because you hope that the rest of us will learn something from these dates?
Arlington, Va.: One thing that seems strange to me-- although, I confess, entertaining (eek!)-- is how MEAN some of these daters' comments have been. I mean, like you keep saying-- it's just one date, it's for fun. Some people are gracious-- they say nice things, but then they just decline another date because they don't feel compatible. It seems strange that some folks are so malicious. Do you find this is true, or is this just my sympathetic overreaction to certain comments?
Sandy M. Fernandez: I agree. And I must say, people got meaner after the pieces started appearing in the paper. Strange. Behind the scenes is another whole issue: We've had people be very nice to each other on the date and to the reporter, only to freak out when the piece appears. It's odd.
Washington, D.C.: Hey, why not match people by religion? It's as valid as any of the other criteria you use. It was important to Soko to find a computer nerd, and you found her one. So if someone wants a catholic or Muslim or Jewish date, what's wrong with that?
Sandy M. Fernandez: Nothing wrong with it, and we have one date in the pipeline that does just that. But do we guarantee you'll get the religion you request? As with everything else, no.
Rockville, Md.: Are you really trying to setup compatible people together or just trying to see if seemingly compatible people can overcome a something that they find unattractive in their date?
Sandy M. Fernandez: We put people together that we think will offer the other person something. If they don't have anything in common--well, that would be a pretty boring date.
Sandy M. Fernandez: This has been great fun, but time is up. Feel free to send questionaire's to us anytime, and I hope you keep reading!
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Station Break
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What did you think of Katie Couric on The CBS Evening News last night? Did she meet expectations? And what about Rosie O'Donnell on The View? Was she a team player?
Station Break's Paul Farhi is here to weigh in on these culturally significant TV moments plus more on the pop culture landscape and invites your questions and comments.
Farhi was online Wednesday, Sept. 6, at 1 p.m. ET.
Farhi is a reporter in the Post's Style section, writing about media and popular culture. He's been watching TV and listening to the radio since "The Monkees" were in first run and Adam West was a star. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Los Angeles, Farhi had brief stints in the movie business (as an usher at the Picwood Theater), and in the auto industry (rental-car lot guy) before devoting himself fulltime to word processing. His car has 15 radio pre-sets and his cable system has 75 channels. He vows to use all of them for good instead of evil.
Paul Farhi: Greetings, all, and welcome back to a Very Special Edition of StationBreak (very special because we usually do this on Tuesdays, but here we are on Wednesday! As you can tell, I have very low standards for what I consider "special"). Anyway...Katie, anyone? Yes, me. I thought she was attractive, sharp and (as always) likeable. The broadcast, on the other hand, was junky. I think they tried to do too much on Day One. Where, for example, was the news? Lara Logan's piece on the Taliban wasn't a lead story; it was a second-block feature. The interview with Tom Friedman: Why?The oil-price piece didn't tell me very much about oil prices. And Morgan Spurlock is the first guy you get for the FreeSpeech segment? Unclear why. Plus, the idiotic Tom Cruise baby pics--sheesh. The one highlight, for me, was the appearance of Ted Baxter AND Ron Burgundy (both personal heroes of mine) on the broadcast. Shows CBS News has a sense of humor, which is good. But I'd really rather (subtle pun) CBS News had some news....Let's go to the phones...
Katie on the news: Paul,
She will never be a total newsperson. She has survived so far on her smile and spunk, neither of which will serve her on the evening news.
Paul Farhi: Well, smile and spunk are good. But she has other skills, too. She's a fine interviewer, a good reporter and she can read a TelePrompter with the best of them. Why is she any less qualified than Tom Brokaw and/or Charlie Gibson?
Baltimore, Md.: Why do journalists keep using terms like "good interviewer" and "charm" when referring to Katie Couric? Since when does making a series of vague and uniformed statements to guests qualify as an interview?
Katie: This is your first book, right?
Katie: You like cheese, right?
Guest: No, I'm lactose intolerant.
And so went her horrible interviews on The Today Show. She sucks and her aura is the color of evil. Since when does a fake smile make someone charming? Since when are journalists giving free compliments to these cheesy TV personalities frontin' like they're real journalists?
Paul Farhi: Well, let's throw down the gauntlet (whatever a "gauntlet" might be): There's a fair amount of sexism in all the criticism of Katie. She's done "tough" interviews and she's done "light" interviews. And why is "charm" a bad thing? I LIKE charm....
She is definitely DAY SHOW MATERIAL and she outta remember that. Her kind of schtick is not meant for the evening ANYTHING, let alone news.
I hope she has her next job lined up.
Paul Farhi: Man, the hatas are out today...I wonder if having a personality is what trouble y'all. The idea that we sort of know Katie, that we're "comfortable" with her, kind of rankles people who feel anchors should be remote, cool figures, like Peter Jennings. As if "remote and cool" equals "serious and trustworthy." Well, it does and it doesn't.
Way too much todo about Katie doing the news. She's just another person reading the news, that's it. Give me Connie Chung any day.
Paul Farhi: Interesting comparison. To me, Connie always seemed to be trying too hard to be emphatic and "likeable." It seems to come easier for Katie (don't you love how we call the women by their first names and the men by first AND last, or just last names?)...
Binghamton, N.Y.: Bring back Tim Brokaw!
Paul Farhi: TIM Brokaw? I think, of course, that you are referring to longtime anchor and country singer Tim McGraw...
Severna Park, Md.: The Fonz was remote and cool but was he trustworthy? I can't remember.
Paul Farhi: Hahahaha. Yes, waaaaay trustworthy! The Fonz was a man of his word.
Katie breakdown: As far as I'm concerned there was the early Katie (with Bryant Gumbel) who did tough interviews. Remember how Bush I went after her?
Then (when Gumbel disappeared? when she was comfortable in her position?), she morphed into the I'm all about me and my fabulous gams interviewer.
Paul Farhi: The gams, yes. Interesting. CBS (and NBC before it) surely showed them off (they did it again last night; they could have shot her from the desk-level up, but chose several times to show her with legs exposed. This does make arguments about "sexism" a little murkier, I think...
Katie on the news: Paul,
Thank goodness CNN has round the clock coverage. After watching that, network news is old and slow moving, no matter how much you spend on set design or anchor personnel.
Paul Farhi: Call me an old guy, but I still like the network evening news (when I get to see it). It's usually a very good summary of the day's major events, with a feature or two thrown in. Compare that with the LOCAL evening news(es), which always seem hyped and padded.
Los Angeles, Calif.: Hello Paul,
Isn't it funny that on a day when more space in newspapers and blogs and time on radio and TV are collectively spent on Katie Couric than anything else going on in the world, many critics are ripping her because her show was light on news? (Example: Tom Shales: "The CBS Evening No-News.") The people in those glass houses really need to pull up their shades.
Paul Farhi: It does bespeak a certain amount of empty celebrity worship, yes, but I also think it says that anchor people (at least at the big networks) are still culturally important figures. They bring us (or about 25 million of "us") our daily fix on the world. They're still important, even in our ever-fragmenting news universe. And we (or some of "we") would like them to live up to high standards. That's good, ain't it?
Katie: Boy, that mist lens was pretty strong, huh? What are they going to do if she needs to have someone else in the studio? And how about when hi-def becomes the norm, and the law?
Paul Farhi: Whachu talkin' 'bout? She's a nice-looking person. She'll look fine in high, low or some other def. And back again to the sexism: No one's asking how Charlie Gibson will look in hi-def.
The Sign Off: ..Paul, are YOU sending Ms. Couric a suggestion on her sign off? Do share!
My suggestion - "It's really all about me, isn't it?"
Paul Farhi: I like what Ann Althouse, a blogger, said about the silly sign-off contest:
She wrote, "why did [CBS] think it was a good idea? It's like a schoolteacher's 'hands-on' assignment. Ooh, she wants to include us. It's so feminine to want everyone to feel included . But how about having an identity instead of asking us to supply one or offering to please us with whatever we want?"
Washington, D.C.: Thank goodness for CNN? Yeah, because we needed 36 consecutive hours of Steve Irwin coverage. I used to be a cable news junkie until I realized that there's way too much oversaturation without much new information. Now, an hour of Jim Lehrer each night keeps me more on top of things than three hours of CNN ever did.
Paul Farhi: Yes, I like the NewsHour (okay, okay, I AM an old guy). It plays EVERYTHING straight down the middle. It does not hype or primp or have gimmicks. Just very, very solid. In, out, nobody gets hurt...
ABC World News Tonight: Monday night, instead of reporting an obituary for Steve Irwin, ABC News chose to use his death as the hook for a story on thrill-seeking personalities. Psychoanalyzing the man before his body was cold seemed EXTREMELY callous, especially since Irwin wasn't engaged in any particularly risky activity when he died.
Paul Farhi: This is known in the news biz as a "second-day follow," using yesterday's news as a peg for a feature that offers some kind of perspective on the news story.
I don't know about ABC's callousness, but Irwin was indeed engaging in risky activity, as evidenced by the fact that he is now dead.
Equal Time: I just want to say for the record that I think Charlie Gibson will look HOT in hi-def.
Paul Farhi: I told you never to post on these chats, Diane Sawyer!
Washington, D.C.: Shouldn't we be careful before around accusations of sexism? It could just be that Charles Gibson has unattractive legs and looks terrible in shorts.
Paul Farhi: Oh, I've seen 'em. ABC is totally covering up its most powerful weapon in the news wars...
Springfield, Va.: I watched Katie Couric's debut last night. I have never watched any of the others (seriously) so I am unable to compare her to the men. However, it seemed like she was acknowledging the fact that whole idea of her as a solo news anchor was a little bit awkward for everyone (herself included) so she was taking a softer approach and attempting to ease her way into our living rooms. Is it also possible that it was a fairly soft day news-wise?
I'd watch her again - if I could remember what time and channel she was on.
Paul Farhi: That's a good point. It WAS a slow news day yesterday, as reflected on the front pages of most newspapers. But watching CBS News I got the sense of a restaurant that wasn't quite ready for review. Too many dishes. No order or direction. Simmer down, please...
Baltimore, Md.: As long as they show his reruns on the TV, the Crocodile Hunter will never leave us.
Paul Farhi: True, I'm sure. But I noticed that Irwin's star had dimmed on Animal Planet before his death. I mean, they were still running lots of old "Croc Hunters" (had he made any new ones in the past few years?), but he was out of primetime. "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom"--the anti-"Croc Hunter" nature show--was getting more primetime play than he was.
Burbank, Calif.: Hi Paul, love your stuff.
I am sputtering over CBS affiliates apparently being fearful to re-air that 9/11 documentary (the one made by those two French brothers) because of the language. As I recall when I saw it, someone says "Holy f-k" when the first plane hits the tower...All Janet Jackson issues aside, when would there ever be a more appropriate moment to curse than during that horrible day? I weep for our future, seriously.
Paul Farhi: Yes, I find that whole episode absurd, disappointing, and a bit suspicious. There are actually two CBS affiliates that have declined to re-run that documentary--both of them owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. When last heard from, Sinclair (HQ'ed outside of Baltimore) was trying to pass off a very anti-Kerry "documentary" as a public service during the 2004 campaign. They also loudly protested "Nightline's" roll call of Americans who have been killed in Iraq. I wonder if their concerns about the 9/11 documentary have some other motive than worries about "indecency"...
Did WRC get rid of Clay Anderson ? They have a new weekend guy on the past couple weeks.
Paul Farhi: They did. Not sure what's happened to Clay.
Baltimore, Md.: Paul, THANK YOU for addressing the sexism issue. It's quite clear that much of the criticism directed at Katie Couric has a lot to do with her gender. Tom Shales' review was a classic example. He commented on her outfit. Who cares? Did he comment on what Charlie Gibson was wearing for his first broadcast? Katie will be fine. Her credentials are fine. The content of the show was a little jumbled, but I suspect that will get ironed out eventually. I'm sure I'll watch again, and I never watch CBS. That's the true test.
Paul Farhi: Yep. Well said. Although I have to say, I NOTICED her white jacket, which seemed to be askew during the broadcast. Sorry, I couldn't help it...
ABC News/Second-day follow: Yes, but it wasn't the second day, it was the day of his death. And not everyone watches cable news all day, particularly on holidays.
The fact that he's dead is evidence that he died doing something unusually risky? Tell that to all those folks who die slipping in the bathtub. I have a better chance of being hit by lightning than Steve Irwin did of getting stabbed by a sting-ray. Whatever risks he took during his life, his death was a freak accident.
Paul Farhi: That's odd. You mean, ABC didn't report Irwin's death as a news story, that they went straight to the feature about thrill seeking? If true, that's pretty odd news judgment. And, yes, Irwin's death was a freak accident, but Irwin's whole shtick is/was to put himself in dangerous situations.
Columbia, Md.: Sorry to disagree, but "Wild Kingdom" was not the anti-"Croc Hunter." Yes, Marlon Perkins stayed nice and tidy, but remember Marlon's flunky Jim? The film footage would show poor Jim fighting for his life while Marlon was saying in a soothing voice over "The playful anaconda decided to wrestle with Jim."
Paul Farhi: Hahaha. Yeah, Marlin always seemed to be back in the Range Rover, while Jim did the dirty work. But Irwin kicked up the dangerous scenarios about a hundredfold. That was the whole POINT of "CH," wasn't it? Not so "WK," which often did the cute-baby-leopards-in-their-den thing...
Arlington, Va.: So, we've moved on from Katie? Good. Who is the new sports chica on channel 9? Meeeeeowww! Sure is better to look at AND listen to than Brett Haber. Actually, strike that. She's just better to look at, period. Better than Lindsay Czarn...
Paul Farhi: You see the kind of sexism we have to deal with? You see the kind of blatant objectification that is endemic to our society? When will we get past this nonsense?
(And what time is this sportscaster woman on?)
Scuba diving is not a high-risk activity: Sure, some people get the bends. But when I saw snorkeling in Hawaii I took the chance a shark could come by. Everybody does.
I was so shocked when Steve Irwin died. I think the TV coverage has been appropriate, especially once people saw how he touched so many people.
Paul Farhi: I think everyone thought that what Irwin did was dangerous (and fascinating). You knew it could backfire on him, but it never did. Even so, it was still a shock when he died.
Rockville, Md.: It seemed to me that Katie was very nervous, especially considering that she has been on TV for many years. She ran from story to story as if she was reading the prompter but didn't really know where the spaces were. I think we should all do what Tom Sietsema does with restaurants, give her a month to settle in and then make a judgment; I hope by then there will be more news in the news.
Paul Farhi: Well, opening night IS opening night. No chance reviewers were going to ignore her debut, especially since CBS itself hyped the thing no end.
ABC re Steve Irwin: I saw it also. It was literally, "He's dead; now let's talk to this Harvard expert about people who have to have extra dopamine to be happy..."
Paul Farhi: That's reaching a little bit far. As a longtime editor around here once counseled, "Readers need one clean shot at the facts before anything else." That goes for TV news, too...
Silver Spring, Md.: Baltimore thinks that criticism of Katie is based on sexist opinions. I think what is sexist that they toned down the news and upped the fluff for a woman anchor. Do they not believe that she can handle hard-hitting topics or international issues?
Paul Farhi: Well, they had a woman (Lara Logan) reporting the opening piece (and on such a fluffy subject--the Taliban's military resurgence in Afghanistan), so I don't think they have a problem with women doing serious reporting.
Alexandria, Va.: I admit it. I'm a woman and am old enough to have rooted for Barbara Walters and Connie Chung on the evening news broadcasts--and I still would. More recently, I watched Vargas, and I'd be delighted if any number of other female journalists (Diane Sawyer?) got a shot at the solo gig.
The fact is, I, like many other viewers, just have a visceral dislike for Katie Couric. In my case, it has almost nothing to do w/ her credentials or her ability. I think it's more about the feeling that the perky exterior she tries oh so hard to portray just thinly covers someone who is less likeable underneath. The hard-hitting reporter doesn't have to be Miss Congeniality, too. (Martha Raddatz (sp?) doesn't try to be perky.) Katie seems to want to have it both ways, and it leaves me feeling vaguely distrustful and uneasy about her.
Paul Farhi: I hear you. This goes to a very old observation about TV news--people don't watch the news, they watch the people on the news. How we "feel" about our anchor "friends" is a very important, perhaps the most important, factor in what we watch (or don't). But back to sexism: Can a woman be "tough" and "hardhitting" and succeed as an anchor? A man can. Not so sure it works the other way. Women HAVE to be "pretty" and "feminine" and a bunch of other things that men don't have to bother with to succeed.
Re: Katie: My parents (late 50's) have freakishly strong opinions about their television personalities. They LOVED Katie Couric on the Today show, but after last night's news, they told me they were going to stick with Brian Williams while Katie "got her sea legs." I could tell they were underwhelmed.
Paul Farhi: It's that perception thing again, isn't it? I dig what your folks are saying. Once again, it's not about the news. It's about your feelings about the people on it.
New York, N.Y.: If we are forced to cover our anchorwomen's legs, then the terrorists have already won.
Paul Farhi: The caller makes a good point.
RE: Katie Couric's Sign Off: Paul,
Any truth to the rumor that Katie will into The Station Break Dancers to shake their money makers as the broadcast fades to black?
Paul Farhi: We are in discussions, yes. Sexism-wise, I will point out that the StationBreak Dancers include both men and women. Also, we've added a mariachi band...
Old-Timer, I Guess: All these comments about Katie Couric not being able to do hard news...am I the only one who remembers her as a pretty good hard news correspondent for WRC-TV (Channel 4 here in DC) when she was fresh out of U.Va?
Paul Farhi: No, you are not the only one. I remember, too. She played Pat Collins' younger sister...
RE: Katie & Ratings: Ok, so the big event is over and her debut has something like a 17 share. Paul: What are the chances that you can make a specific point of mentioning her ratings, on October 5th? She's a good new reader but the novelty will have certainly worn off.
Paul Farhi: Hard to say where she'll be on Oct. 5th. But I suspect CBS has already earned back the $15 million they're paying her.
My question is...: What's Robing Givhan going to say about Katie's white top ?
Paul Farhi: Should be an interesting column, shouldn't it?
Reston, Va.: A slow news day is a lame excuse.
Would Cronkite have led off with a fluff piece about the Muppets if it were a slow day?
Paul Farhi: You ever watch old tapes of CBS News? I mean, in the '60s and '70s? Yes, they were serious and did important stories. But they were also kind of stiff and parochial (women, non-white men and non-government people were hardly in evidence). Network news has changed, and in many ways it's much better...
Re the Steve Irwin thing: Am I the only person in the world who found him incredibly loud and annoying? He's nearly being canonized by the media, but wasn't he the idiot who held his kid in front of a crocodile? I haven't seen that mentioned once in all the "poor Steve Irwin" stories.
Paul Farhi: Oh, crikey, mate. That was a stock line in every obit I saw. And I think I saw file footage of that incident at least a dozen times...
Washington, D.C.: Bring Bob Schieffer back!! I liked him more than Rather, Brokaw and Jennings AND Couric.
Paul Farhi: I liked Schieffer, too. Where were they hiding that guy?
Baltimore, Md. again: I'm not sexist... I'm a lady journalist! Katie's not charming! She's EVIL. Actually, I think it's sexist that she's receiving compliments. She has no good professional qualities. It's like men may as well be writing articles saying, "She sucks, but she's HOT."
I got Haterade by the gallon, Paul.
Paul Farhi: My advice: Stay classy, Baltimore.
If Katherine Couric wants to be a true news reader...: she's gonna need to leave her mike on and go to the bathroom. Apparently that's what "serious" news organizations do when a political figure they oppose is delivering a speech.
Paul Farhi: Um, could someone tell this poster that Kyra Phillips and CNN didn't know that her mike was on when she went to the bathroom? That it was a MISTAKE? Sheesh...
Chantilly, Va.: Enough Katie -- no one besides the elderly and other assorted shut-ins watch the evening news any more.
Instead, I would like to get your thoughts on the Mike Steele commercial. Your colleague Chris Cilizza thinks it's effective. I think it's an amateurish joke -- along the lines of commercials for Eastern Motors (Motors).
Paul Farhi: That's one of the most interesting campaign ads going, and one of the most interesting in a long time. I'm still having trouble figuring out what Steele is trying to do. To portray himself as a kind of Phil Donahue-ish/Montel Williams talk-show host? To go all warm and fuzzy? To make himself look and sound different than the other guys? If so, it works for me. But it also raises a question: What else has this guy got? The ad is so vague about what he would do as senator that it's kind of hard to figure out.
Alexandria, Va.: I second the comment about Bob Schieffer. Bob was the bomb.
Purcellville, Va.: RE: WUSA Sports gal.....
Her name is Sara Walsh..... and give me Lindsay C. any day of the week over her.
Paul Farhi: Thanks. And let's note a mini-trend here: Women sportsanchors. Not many of them. In fact, according to an industry survey that I just happen to have right here in front of me, only 7 percent of sportsanchors nationwide are women.
RE: Kyra Phillips: Let's talk sexism here. If Miles O'Brien was captured on mike saying most women were (unprintables), he'd be hung out to dry. Ms. Phillips slams all men in a vulgar fashion, and not a peep....
Paul Farhi: Hmmm. Yeah, I bet the reaction would be different. But did Kyra say that? I couldn't tell from the tape because that other guy who was giving a speech kept talking over her.
"Bob Schieffer was the bomb..": If you told that to Schieffer he'd probably be offended!
Paul Farhi: Okay, okay. Bob Schieffer was a happenin' dude. Better?
Pittsburgh, Pa.: I third the Bob Schieffer comment. Katie may have a sense of humor, but Bob has WIT.
Paul Farhi: Wit, experience, reporting cred, a certain twinkle. Yeah, all that.
Alexandria, Va.: I loved defamer.com's recommendation for Katie's closing line:
"I'm Katie Couric, and I'm sorry."
Alexandria, Va.: Re women sports anchors. That ranks better than women coaching men's sports teams. It's OK for men to coach women, but not for women to coach men. We've still got a long way to go, baby.
In Sinclair's Defense: Fair questions about impartiality. On the other hand, the FCC has been fining individual stations the max for language, without offering guidance in advance, so it's pretty risky stuff for a station group to expose itself to those fines. Whether the language is appropriate or not, the filmmakers could have gotten their point across without giving station owners a plausible reason to skip airing the show.
Paul Farhi: Yes, I will acknowledge that. The FCC has spooked everyone about what they can and can't say. The agency used to give a blanket pass to language contained in news reports (and documentaries would seem to be "news reports") but that went out the window when they fined a PBS station in California for airing Martin Scorsese's doc about the blues (several musicians used some salty language--imagine!). So, now everyone is skittish. 'Tis a shame, and particularly weird since we're now wringing our hands over a documentary that has ALREADY been on TV.
I'm sorry but...: isn't "tru' dat" the proper spelling ?
Baltimore, Md.: Re the true Katie Couric: Paul, just ask your colleague Marc Fisher about the run in he had with Katie when he was working for the Miami Herald and she was a TV reporter down there. Among other things, she called his editor to try and get him fired. He ain't a fan.
Paul Farhi: Heard something about that, yes, but don't know the particulars so I won't comment...Okay, I will comment: I'm on Fisher's side. He's da man. Or da bomb. Or possibly both.
Olney. Md.: What about Rosie's debut on the View. Thought the opening was well crafted. Rosie will always be Rosie, even with Barbara WaWa sitting nearby.
I thought Rosie was poised and funny. She needs to regain her Queen of Nice title and I think she has, but with an edge.
Do you think Babs will pick another female, maybe Hispanic, for the fifth spot on the View? Babs looked really tired yesterday. Do you think she can show up there daily and participate, given her age? I know she's the boss, but she needs to loosen the reigns a little.
Paul Farhi: I am fully prepared to hate "The View," but I actually find it interesting at times (okay, go ahead and revoke my Maxim card). From the look of yesterday's show, Rosie could really shake that thing up. It won't be long, I'm sure, before she's going after Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Rosie can be brash, obnoxious and irritating. I like that...
Katie Evil?: All I can say is that she sat next to my brother...who is a schmo...on a flight into DC a few years ago, and he said she was an absolute joy. Very friendly to everyone who approached her, and my brother and her conversed most of the flight, she didn't bury herself in a book or magazine so as not to be bothered.
It says something that she swims with the Great Unwashed.
Paul Farhi: I don't know anything for sure, but I'm a little suspicious of the Katie-is-evil stuff (which seems to have been propagated by Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times). Anytime someone, particularly a woman, gets as big as Katie, there will always be people calling her a diva.
Baltimore, Md.: Women can be just as hard or harder on other women. It's one of our many charms. The woman journalist who wrote in about Katie personifying evil is probably jealous of her success. Evil? Isn't that a bit of a stretch?
Paul Farhi: Yeah, Stalin, Hitler, Mao...Couric? Naw.
Paul Farhi: Folks, I gotta wrap this bad-boy (or bad-girl) up. Just to let you know, I too am having a contest to create a new sign-off. I was thinking of "Peace. I'm outta here!" and/or "Shecky, get the jet!" but I've heard those someplace before. If you have a suggestion, pipe up when we return to our regular time (1 p.m., Tuesday) in two weeks. Until then, "Kato, bring the car around!" No, no...Nevertheless, regards to all...Paul.
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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Washington Post staff writer Paul Farhi weighed in on the debuts of Katie Couric on The CBS Evening News and Rosie O'Donnell on The View and other culturally significant TV moments.
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At Long Last, Here's Suri, With Fringe on Top
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Vanity Fair spokeswoman Beth Kseniak said no money was exchanged with the couple or a charity of their choice for the pictures -- unlike the $4 million People reportedly paid to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt for the first peek at Shiloh Jolie-Pitt . Holmes told the magazine the couple planned to release personal pictures of Suri "at the right time" until all the "Where's Suri?" craziness began. "We weren't trying to hide anything."
Mike O'Meara and the Pub That Got Away
Singles-bar nostalgists and cheap-happy-hour connoisseurs mourned the news this summer that Sign of the Whale -- an M Street watering hole for more than a quarter-century -- had gone on the endangered-species list. WJFK radio star Mike O'Meara of the nationally syndicated "Don & Mike Show" scooped up the place at a bankruptcy sale and planned to turn it into an offshoot of his own Manassas pub.
But the O'Meara deal has fallen through, according to bankruptcy court files, and a new buyer has stepped forward. Britt Swan , owner of Georgetown nightspots Modern and the Rhino Bar, told us yesterday that he intends to preserve the Sign of the Whale name and its old-school shabby gentility.
"It's got a lot of character, a lot of history," Swan said. He's even filed incorporation papers under this name: Save the Whale LLC. (Did you totally see that one coming or what?)
It's unclear why things went south for O'Meara and business partner John Cantrell , whose Northern Virginia pub is a magnet for radio fans. As of last month, they were seeking waitstaff for the new O'Meara's and taking steps to get a D.C. liquor license. But their drawn-out negotiations with the bar's landlord left Whale owner Glasgow Inc. complaining that the O'Meara team was dragging its heels, and Glasgow announced its intent to sell to Swan, the next-highest bidder. On Aug. 18, a judge nullified the O'Meara sale.
O'Meara's Restaurant & Pub managing partner Jeff Salisbury confirmed that his group is now looking elsewhere in D.C.: "We're keeping our options open." Meanwhile, Swan is already talking with Whale employees and hopes to close a deal in a few weeks. The biggest changes, he said, will be to expand the old dark-wood and animal-head bar, spruce up the exterior and overhaul the bathrooms. "It could use a little makeover, you know?"
· P. Daddy!: It's twins on the way for hip-hop mogul Sean Combs and his longtime companion, model Kim Porter , his publicist confirmed yesterday. No word on their gender or when they're due. The couple already has an 8-year-old boy, and Diddy has a 12-year-old son from a prior relationship.
· Just married: ABC correspondent Jake Tapper , 37, and Jennifer Brown , 29, a field manager for Planned Parenthood, exchanged vows Sunday in the bride's home town of Kansas City. The two met the night of the 2004 Iowa caucuses when their eyes met across a crowded bar at the Hotel Fort Des Moines; the chupah at their wedding was held by friends in the room that fateful night, including MSNBC's Tucker Carlson ; guests included Gore aide Mike Feldman and Hillary Clinton spokesman Philip p e Reines . The St. Lucia honeymoon will have to wait until after the midterms. In previous gossip-column incarnations, Tapper was known for dating (briefly) a pre-scandal Monica Lewinsky and (more seriously) Miss America 1998 Kate Shindle .
THIS JUST IN . . .
Donald Rumsfeld had surgery yesterday to repair a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder. The cause of the "old athletic injury" isn't clear -- Rummy is an avid squash player, but this isn't his racket arm. He spent the night at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and will wear a sling for a while but was back working by late afternoon. "The secretary is already asking for his inbox," said Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff .
Get It Right From The (Reliable) Source
Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts take your tips and dish about what's going on in Washington, today at noon on www.washingtonpost.com/liveonline . Want to share a tip? Send it to reliablesource@washpost.com .
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Singles-bar nostalgists and cheap-happy-hour connoisseurs mourned the news this summer that Sign of the Whale -- an M Street watering hole for more than a quarter-century -- had gone on the endangered-species list. WJFK radio star Mike O'Meara of the nationally syndicated "Don & Mike Show" scooped...
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Antiwar Message Travels From Texas to Washington
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The antiwar activists who picketed near the president's ranch this summer traded dusty Texas for soggy Washington yesterday, when they set up camp near the White House to continue their vigil.
"Every day, we realize there is a war in Iraq," said Charlie Richardson, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out and whose son is a U.S. Marine recently returned from Iraq. "But the vast majority of Americans don't; they forget. Less than 1 percent of this population has gone to war. And we need to get those troops out -- now."
Richardson and about 100 other military family members, veterans and peace activists kicked off a 17-day demonstration called "Camp Democracy" yesterday. With piles of military boots to represent slain soldiers and banners calling for an end to the war as their backdrop, they rallied in the pouring rain and stayed throughout the day's relentless drizzle.
Camp Democracy, a spinoff from Camp Casey in Crawford, Tex., started by antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, will feature a series of speeches, lectures and discussions under white tents pitched on the Mall at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
Sheehan, whose older son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004, started the Crawford protest camp early last month on a five-acre lot she bought in July, after her roadside vigil last year drew about 10,000 supporters from across the country. She wasn't in Washington yesterday, but organizers expect she will be a speaker before they pull up stakes.
The main voices heard yesterday were those of veterans.
Charlie Anderson, 29, spoke loudly through the rainstorm. "I was so optimistic," said the Toledo native, who joined the military when he was 19. Then he "rode into Iraq without body armor," he said. And "I had no idea what the mission was, because it was changing every day."
Dozens of other veterans nodded when Anderson said this. A Vietnam War veteran in a wheelchair clapped. A naval recruiter from the Vietnam era raised her fist in the air. A Gulf War veteran mouthed the word "yes."
They talked about shortfalls in veterans' benefits and medical care. They discussed ways to end the war and tactics to starve the war machine of its essential fuel -- young recruits like them.
"I've been to dozens and dozens of counter-recruitment actions," said Joe Hatcher, who served in Dawr, Iraq, from February 2004 until March 2005 with the 1st Infantry Division. Now, the 25-year-old California native tours the country and sets up camp outside schools, where he gives students his real-life version of the recruiters' pitch about military life. His group also advises families on ways to opt out of military recruiting.
Camp Democracy will have similar themes every day for the next few weeks: Organizing the Progressive Agenda Day, which will feature several members of Congress; Immigrants' Rights Day; Labor Speaks Out Day; Climate Crisis Day; and others.
Camp Democracy has no single message, though its organizers said they wanted the veterans and their families front and center because "they are the ones affected most by this war, except for the Iraqi people," said David Swanson, coordinator of Camp Democracy, which was born when the people protesting in Crawford wondered what they could do next.
The variously themed days and speakers from causes across the spectrum are one way to demonstrate that war affects all parts of American life, organizers said. They want to show that funding to rebuild New Orleans is hamstrung by war costs, and immigration legislation is threatened by the drumbeat of war on foreign soil, Swanson said.
"People keep telling us that this will muddle our message," Swanson said. "But this is not a three-week PR campaign. It's more complicated than that. We're trying to bring people together to make a stronger movement."
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The antiwar activists who picketed near the president's ranch this summer traded dusty Texas for soggy Washington yesterday, when they set up camp near the White House to continue their vigil.
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Pakistan Reaches Peace Accord With Pro-Taliban Militias
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KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 -- The government of Pakistan signed a peace accord Tuesday with pro-Taliban forces in the volatile tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, agreeing to withdraw its troops from the region in return for the fighters' pledge to stop attacks inside Pakistan and across the border.
Under the pact, foreign fighters would have to leave North Waziristan or live peaceable lives if they remained. The militias would not set up a "parallel" government administration.
Reached as Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, prepared to visit the Afghan capital Wednesday, the accord aroused alarm among some analysts in Afghanistan. They expressed concern that, whatever the militias promise, a Pakistani army withdrawal might backfire, emboldening the groups to operate more freely in Pakistan and to infiltrate more aggressively into Afghanistan to fight U.S. and allied forces there.
"This could be a very dangerous development," said one official at an international agency, speaking anonymously because the issue is sensitive in both countries. "Until recently there has been relative stability in eastern Afghanistan, but now that could start to deteriorate."
The agreement could add a new element of tension to Musharraf's visit, aimed at smoothing over his relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The two Muslim leaders, both allies in the U.S.-led war against Islamic extremists, have clashed heatedly over allegations that Taliban forces in Afghanistan are receiving support and shelter from inside Pakistan.
Pakistan's move also appeared to complicate the U.S. role in the region. U.S. officials have praised Musharraf for his help in capturing al-Qaeda members and refrained from pressing him hard on cross-border violence. A withdrawal of Pakistani forces could reduce pressure on al-Qaeda figures believed to be hiding in the region, including Osama bin Laden, allowing them more freedom of action.
NATO forces are currently in a fierce conflict with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, where the militia has attacked in rural districts with increasing boldness in recent months. In the past four days, officials said, a NATO military operation in Kandahar province has killed more than 200 insurgents.
The conflict spread during the summer across the south, where about 10,000 NATO troops recently replaced a smaller number of U.S.-led forces. This week, Britain's top army officer said his forces were barely able to cope with the conflict, and the senior NATO commander here appealed for more support from member countries.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in combat and terrorist attacks this year as violence in Afghanistan swelled to its highest level since 2001, when U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban from power. Suicide bombings, once unheard of, are now almost daily occurrences. Schools have been burned across the region and dozens of community leaders have been assassinated.
U.S. forces continue operating in eastern Afghanistan, where attacks have been far less frequent. But in recent weeks, attacks have stepped up dramatically in Ghazni province, situated between the two regions.
Many Afghans, including President Karzai, have blamed Pakistan for the violence. They charge that the Musharraf government has either failed to control Islamic militants at home or actively supported the Taliban militia, which it officially backed until 2001, in order to destabilize and gain sway over Afghanistan.
Musharraf has denied such claims and vowed to curb armed Islamic extremism in the border areas. In the past several years, he has sent more than 80,000 army troops into the semiautonomous tribal region, where Islamic militants including Afghans, Pakistanis and some Arabs were defying government rule, killing opponents and preaching holy war against the West.
The army units have met with fierce opposition, however, and critics say their presence undermined the tribal political system needed to counter rising Islamic militancy. On Tuesday, the peace pact was greeted with relief and jubilation by army and tribal representatives who gathered in the border town of Miran Shah in the North Waziristan tribal area, according to news service reports.
But some analysts said that the agreement exposed the military government's weakness and that by withdrawing troops, Musharraf is buying a dubious local peace at the risk of giving pro-Taliban groups more power both at home and across the border.
Taliban leaders in North Waziristan announced a unilateral cease-fire during the summer as peace talks got underway. But they have reportedly continued their brutal tactics, such as executing people they view as traitors. Less than a week ago, Pakistani officials found the headless bodies of two men near Miran Shah with notes saying they had been spies for the Kabul government.
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Artificial Heart Gets Limited FDA Approval
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The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved for use the first totally implantable artificial heart under a program that will make the complicated, $250,000 device available for as many as 4,000 people.
The decision reverses an FDA advisory panel's recommendation last year that the device was not yet ready for widespread use after many of its first 14 test patients suffered strokes. No engineering changes have been made in the heart since then, but FDA officials believe that physicians will now be able to better manage the complications that often follow its use.
The approval is the latest chapter in a half-century quest to make a mechanical replacement for the human body's most essential and hardest-working organ. It also raises anew questions about how much money should be spent briefly extending the lives of critically ill patients and how to judge the cost-benefit balance of devices that are far from perfect but better than nothing.
Whether insurance companies and the federal government's Medicare program will pay for the AbioCor (and its $100,000 implantation cost) is unknown. Medicare regulations specifically list artificial hearts as uncovered devices.
The president of Abiomed Inc., which makes the AbioCor, said yesterday that the company will seek to have that policy reversed, arguing that the device is the only alternative for many patients and that the expense compares favorably to some drug therapies for rare diseases.
The device would be limited to people with severe congestive heart failure who are estimated to have about a month to live and do not qualify for heart transplants. Those patients must also be able to take anticoagulant drugs.
Because of its size -- about two pounds -- only large women would be able to accommodate it. All the original recipients were men.
While the AbioCor's target population is relatively small, the number of Americans with less severe congestive heart failure is huge -- about 5 million. Some qualify for heart transplants but die before they can get one. Both are potential future markets for the artificial heart.
"We see this as an important milestone. It is not the beginning, and it is certainly not the end of the journey," said Daniel G. Schultz, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
The device was approved under a "humanitarian device exemption" that effectively lowers the bar for FDA approval. Normally, devices must demonstrate "safety and effectiveness," but under the exemption they need only to show "safety and probable benefit." The latter can include largely subjective measurements, such as improvement in quality of life. No more than 4,000 of the artificial hearts can be implanted under the exemption.
Unlike previous artificial hearts, the AbioCor runs with no wires or tubes piercing the skin. It is powered by a battery that is recharged with an induction coil placed against the skin. The patient can be away from an external power source for about an hour.
Of the 14 original recipients, two died on the operating table. The rest survived for an average of 5.2 months, with the longest living 17 months. Ten left the hospital only with occasional day passes. One moved to a nearby hotel, and another went home.
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Science news from The Washington Post. Read about the latest breakthroughs in technology, medicine and communications.
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Shapes and Colors
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Across the street from the D.C. Armory, down the road from RFK Stadium and sharing a neighborhood with blocks and blocks of traditional brick rowhouses, the new occupant at Independence Avenue and 19th Street SE invariably draws curious stares.
Its face combines several geometric shapes -- four cubes turned to various angles, and a cylinder -- and a full palette of color, ranging from Carolina blue to deep burnished orange to sea-foam green. One side is brick-red and creamy vanilla. Windows come in rectangles, squares, circles. The impression is almost whimsical, like a child's elaborate drawing come to life. The building's pedigree, however, is far more impressive than that. The design firm is headed by Michael Graves, the architect famed for his postmodernist style and powerful use of color (and that popular line of housewares at Target).
Still, it was the children shaking off the rain and streaming through the doors yesterday morning who provided the inspiration for the place. It was the first day of classes at St. Coletta Special Education Public Charter School, a brand-new facility that will serve close to 260 of the most severely mentally disabled children (and some adults) in the area.
"Hampton! We're so happy you're back!" said a smiling teacher, leaning over a young boy in a wheelchair.
"Look, Dad's videotaping!" pointed out another staff member, as a little boy with a Thomas the Tank Engine backpack proudly walked to his new classroom, his tiny hand clutching that of an escort. A little girl with braids and a pink Disney Princess backpack preened as she greeted her teacher. A severely autistic boy threw himself on the floor in a tantrum -- new places being scary and all -- but was quickly calmed and led off to see his new school.
While the exterior of St. Coletta has been generating buzz in the city -- particularly in its Capitol Hill neighborhood -- for some time now, it's the world inside that has truly stunned the families of its students, many who have had nothing but negative experiences involving the D.C. public school system.
"Truthfully, I just wanted to cry," said Doreen Hodges, whose 6-year-old son, Titus, suffers from Down syndrome. "It's so beautiful and you could just feel the love in the building. . . . You never thought anything like that was ever going to be available to kids like this in D.C."
At over 99,000 square feet -- and costing $32 million, which came from congressional appropriations, a bond secured by Bank of America, and a capital fundraising campaign -- St. Coletta is nothing like any other public school in the city. The gymnasium looks like a field house at a Division I college. The cafeteria kitchen would be suitable for an upscale restaurant. The central atrium is cavernous, with a soaring, arched ceiling and multiple skylights. Dubbed the "village green," the open space is large enough to fit at least a half-dozen standard-size classrooms. Off the atrium are five individual "houses," each one home to a different age range of students.
And everywhere, that riot of color: more Carolina blue and creamy yellow, pinks in all hues, soft greens, vivid oranges.
"It's a rush -- there's nothing like it," says Sharon Raimo, the chief executive officer of St. Coletta of Greater Washington and the impetus behind the project (not to mention the person who personally picked out the interior paint colors, insisted that all furniture and lockers be white -- the better to show germ-laden dirt -- and chose the polka-dot furniture in the administrative waiting area).
"I didn't think this partnership with D.C. would ever happen," she said, "but in the end it's such a win-win."
Founded in 1959, St. Coletta of Greater Washington has long served the mentally disabled in the region, providing both a school for children and an adult day program. Nonprofit and nonsectarian, St. Coletta also has facilities in Alexandria, where the school operated privately until this year and where the adult program continues.
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Across the street from the D.C. Armory, down the road from RFK Stadium and sharing a neighborhood with blocks and blocks of traditional brick rowhouses, the new occupant at Independence Avenue and 19th Street SE invariably draws curious stares.
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NFL Insider
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blog, providing the latest news from around the league. With the kickoff of a new season looming, he was online Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 11 a.m. ET to answer questions.
Rob, Naperville, Ill.: Mark, what do you make of Coach Gibbs's comments regarding the backup quarterback?
Mark Maske: First of all, hello to everyone and thanks for coming to chat. We'll be doing this every Tuesday at this time throughout the season.
What Gibbs did with the backup quarterback situation is somewhat in line with what I thought the Redskins would do. I thought they'd go with Collins if Brunell was out short-term, meaning a game or two, and with Campbell if Brunell was going to be out longer than that. They condensed it even further with Gibbs saying that Collins would only finish a game and Campbell would start with a week to get ready. But that's the way of today's NFL. If you use a first-round draft pick on a quarterback, he plays.
Fairfax, Va.: Since you get to travel and visit the various NFL teams, which heads your list of teams coming out of training camp looking like playoff and perhaps Super Bowl contenders this year? Would you call the preseason games strictly "red herrings" or does it show you and us something?
Mark Maske: You just can't put too much stock into what you see in these camps and during these preseason games. Only every once in a while does something that happens at this time of the year end up mattering.
I still think what I thought going into training camp, that the Colts are the class of the AFC and the Cowboys, Giants, Redskins, Panthers and Seahawks all are about equal at the top of the NFC.
Who gets the practice reps every week ? Usually, the second-string guy gets some and the third-string virtually nothing.
So if Brunell goes down in week eight, say, Campbell will be starting with one week of reps after next to nothing for two months ?
Or will Campbell be getting the reps and then Collins will enter a game without any reps?
Mark Maske: Your assessment of how the reps are divided, under normal circumstances, is accurate. But given the unique way they've set this up, I'd guess they will come up with a unique way to divide the practice reps and make sure Campbell gets some. The attraction to signing Collins in the offseason was that he already knew the offense, and all you're talking about is finishing a game.
Alabama: How do you see Pittsburgh-Miami shaking out Thursday night? I know losing Big Ben is a blow for the Steelers, but Charlie Batch is a decent quarterback -- after all, he led the Lions to their last winning season.
Mark Maske: The Steelers went 2-0 with Batch as the starter last season, and they're still an excellent team. But I think Miami could be quite good, and I might be leaning toward saying the Dolphins will win that game now that Roethlisberger is out.
20165: Predict the finish of the NFC East, please.
Mark Maske: Wow, not easy. For now, I'll say Cowboys, Redskins, Giants, Eagles. But I'm not saying it with any degree of certainty. Between the Cowboys, Redskins and Giants, I think any one of them could end up a Super Bowl team. The law of averages says that one of them will fall apart, but I don't know which one. I think the Eagles, after getting Donte' Stallworth, could be an above-.500 team. This is just a terrific division.
Houston: How IRONIC. The Texans pass on a two-time Rose Bowl MVP in the draft (Vince Young) and then pick up a two-time Rose Bowl MVP on the waiver wire (Ron Dayne). And that's not all! The Texans pass on a Heisman Trophy-winning running back in the draft (Reggie Bush) and then pick up a Heisman Trophy-winning running back on the waiver wire (Ron Dayne).
Are these guys geniuses or what?!?!?!
I don't expect the Texans will be very good this year. But I do expect Ron Dayne to rush for over 1,200 yards.
What do you forecast for Gary Kubiak's first season as a head coach?
Mark Maske: I would not have passed up Reggie Bush for the first pick. But I think Kubiak had great confidence, based on his experiences in Denver, that he could find a running back to plug into this system and rush for 1,200 yards. The problem with that thinking is that he now has the Texans' offensive line, not the Broncos' offensive line. I think they're a bad team and passing on Reggie Bush could end up being an all-time gaffe.
Foggy Bottom: The more preseason football I watched, the more I agreed with Wilbon. Since starting players don't (and shouldn't, because of injury risk) play that much in preseason, these games don't tell you much about what a team is capable of doing. Nevertheless, as a Ravens fan, I'm a little concerned that Steve McNair seems to be having a difficult time meshing with the "new" system. I still think he's the right guy for the moment, but can you give some insight into this process for the Ravens?
Mark Maske: I do think he's the right guy for the moment, but ideally the Titans would have treated one of their all-time players with a little more respect and he would have gotten to the Ravens a little earlier instead of being involved in that silly dispute over whether he could get into the training facility in Tennessee. All that time during the offseason that he missed by not being with the Ravens is the problem now, and it could be a month or two into the season before he's able to catch up.
Cody, Wyo.: Even if the starting quarterbacks ahead of them avoid injury and remain healthy, which backup do you foresee being promoted to take over first this season? Jason Campbell in Washington? Vince Young in Tennessee? Or Tony Romo in Dallas?
Mark Maske: Vince Young will play a little bit in every game, I think, right from the beginning, and he'll probably end up being the starter by the end of the season because that's a team going nowhere and there's no reason not to give him time to play and learn. Other than that, it's just the luck of the draw because I don't see Campbell or Romo being a starter this season unless Brunell or Bledsoe gets hurt.
New York: Can you explain what all this national hype surrounding the Dallas Cowboys is about? It seems just about every prognosticator has them winning the NFC East and going deep into the playoffs. I can't see why. Yes, they have a good defense, but they also have a statue for a QB, no RB that instills fear in opposing defenses and a questionable offensive line. Is the hype based solely on T.O.?
Mark Maske: Yes, all those things are true. But they still added perhaps the best wide receiver in the sport to a team that went 9-7 last season. I think it all comes down to their offensive line. To me, Bledsoe is good enough and Julius Jones is good enough if they get even average blocking in front of them, and the defense could be very good if the young players continue a normal development.
Arlington, Va.: Will Cleveland make significant strides in its second season under Romeo Crennel? On paper, it seems the Browns have some pieces in place but are still lacking in a bunch of other areas.
Mark Maske: They will be an interesting team to watch if Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow can stay healthy and on the field. But they still have a young quarterback in Charlie Frye and they lost their big addition on the offensive line when LeCharles Bentley got hurt, so they still have a ways to go before they're good. If I'm then, I'm just hoping to show some signs of improvement this season and then hope I can reach .500 or better next season.
Philadelphia: I think you are discounting the Eagles too much. Don't forget, they have something to prove this year.
Mark Maske: I don't know that I'm discounting them as much as I'm saying I think two of the other three teams in the division will end up being excellent teams. I like the Eagles. They're solid on both the offensive and defensive lines, which not too many teams can say. You can't help but like McNabb as a quarterback when he's healthy. They're extremely well-coached, and I like the Stallworth trade. As I said, I think they can be above .500. But I still think they come up a little bit short by not having a 20-carry-a-game running back and not having a No. 1 wide receiver if Stallworth doesn't develop into that, and I think the up sides of the other teams of their division are higher.
Northern New Jersey: Thanks for taking these questions.
With all these diva receivers (Terrell Owens, Plaxico Burress, Chad Johnson, etc.) I'm curious when it all started, and who began the diva-as-receiver era.
I don't remember guys like Tony Hill, Drew Pearson, Stallworth, Branch, Carmichael, being divas.
My theory is Jerry Rice might have started it when he talked about not getting any commercials after being the Super Bowl MVP against Cincinnati.
Mark Maske: Michael Irvin, perhaps?
Maybe he's the guy that these guys grew up wanting to be.
Brandywine, Md.: Most everyone agrees that the game is won or lost in the trenches. Other than adding Andre Carter to improve the pass rush, what did the Redskins do to strengthen the offensive and defensive lines? And how is that working out?
Mark Maske: To me, the most alarming thing I saw about the Redskins' play during the preseason was the poor blocking on offense. Even if you're not game-planning for anyone, you still should be able to line up and block the guy in front of you on a somewhat consistent basis, and they didn't do that. But this group has the personnel to be a very good offensive line, and I will continue to think they're going to be that until I see otherwise in the regular season.
On defense, they have found ways since Gregg Williams has been in Washington to get to quarterbacks, through their scheme, without standout individual pass rushers. Again, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt that they'll be able to do that once more until I see something in regular season games that shows they can't.
Fairfax, Va.: Bill Parcells appears down right surly when plopped down in front of a row of mics. How is he in person? Is the tough guy act just that, an act?
Mark Maske: You know, it's actually kind of enjoyable. He takes as well as gives. He sits up there and answers every question, and much of what he says is very insightful. That's how he's different from a Bill Belichick or an Eric Mangini. If you're in my business, you walk away from a Bill Parcells press conference with a bunch of great stuff in your notebook.
One of the big stories in the NFL obviously is still Deion Branch. Do you think it's a lost cause? Hard to see him coming back in time to make a difference, and the team doesn't want to trade him. I think he blew it.
Mark Maske: I think the Patriots granted Branch permission to seek a trade hoping that he wouldn't find a team willing to give him more than the $6 million a year the Patriots were offering him in a contract extension. That way, Branch would have no choice but to end his holdout and report to the Patriots, whether he signed an extension with them or not.
As it turned out, Branch found two teams, the Jets and Seahawks, willing to give him a contract he liked. So the Patriots, in my view, miscalculated on that.
But that doesn't mean that the leverage isn't still with the Patriots. I can't imagine that the Patriots would have told Branch's agent, as Branch's agent claims, that they would be locked into trading him if they received an offer equivalent to what other teams were getting for comparable players. My guess is they told the agent they'd trade Branch if they got what they considered a good offer. The Patriots are too smart to turn over control of trading one of their players to someone else. The arbitration becomes a he-said, he-said sort of deal, and I have a hard time imagining the agent, the player and the union prevailing. To me, once this arbitration case is settled, the situation is going to be exactly the same as it is right now, a stare-down between the Patriots and Branch.
But if and when he comes back, there's no reason he can't step right back into the lineup and be productive. There's nothing new he has to learn. He has great chemistry with Brady and his issues are with the management of the team, not his teammates.
Unlike most fans, you don't seem concerned by the 'Skins' lackluster preseason effort. Can I ask you why?
Mark Maske: I just think you generally have to discount what you see in the preseason. Now, when I covered the Redskins, there was a year when a terrible preseason was a precursor to a terrible start to the season, in 2001 with Marty Schottenheimer coaching. But more times than not, there's little or no correlation.
What the Redskins seem to believe is that once they get to the regular season and everyone starts coaching for real, they will be able to out-coach other teams. Now, maybe that's arrogant of them, and maybe it won't work out that way. But if you're Dan Snyder, you certainly have a right to expect your coaches to out-coach some people, given what you're paying these guys.
I am a Redskins fan and their QB situation scares me. I am concerned we are going to see a bunch of 125-yard, no-interception games from Mark Brunell. The perfect QB would have Brunell's experience, Collins's knowledge of the offense and Campbell's body.
What do you foresee this year from the 'Skins' QB situation?
Mark Maske: The quarterback situation should scare you a little bit if you're a Redskins fan. Brunell is at the point in his career where it's probably unreasonable to expect him to be able to get through an entire season and playoffs without having some injury that's going to affect his level of play significantly. The bad luck the Redskins had last season was that he was hurting and his play fell off at the end of the season, in the games that mattered the most.
Washington, D.C.: Everyone seems to want to buy the Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals as the "breakout" teams of the season. I'm not buying either of these. Arizona has no offensive line to block for Warner and a very suspect defense. Detroit has no QB and a very questionable defense.
Who do you think will be the "breakout" team of 2006-07?
Mark Maske: I keep getting fooled year after year on the Lions, and I was among those fooled on the Cardinals last season. I do think the Cardinals will be respectable this season. How about the Saints as the most improved team, with Brees and Reggie Bush?
I've got to run, folks, but it's been fun and I'll see you right here next week at this time.
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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Sept. 11: Five Years Later
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Washington Post reporter Mary Beth Sheridan wasonline Tuesday, Sept. 5, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss her story about Muslims convicted of involvement with a local "jihad network." The Justice Department says it is trying to prevent terror attacks; many Muslims complain of prosecutorial overkill.
The story is part of The Washington Post's special series Sept. 11: Five Years Later.
washingtonpost.com: Mary Beth will start responding to questions in a few minutes. We're having some technical difficulties.
Mary Beth Sheridan: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the chat. Sorry for the technical problems and delay.
Jerusalem, Israel : We read much about Saudi supported Wahahabi extremist anti- American education being done in America's mosques. Can you estimate how widespread and significant is this phenomenom?
Mary Beth Sheridan: Thanks for your question. My colleague David Ottoway wrote a story a few years ago about Saudi proselytizing in the U.S. He quoted a survey of 1,200 U.S. mosques done in 2000 by several Muslim organizations. It found 21% followed Wahhabi practice. But I would direct you to a story in the Post today by my colleague CAryle Murphy, which talks about how much of the Saudi activity in the U.S. has been curtailed since 9/11--both by the U.S. government and the Saudis themselves.
For Conservative Muslims, Goal of Isolation a Challenge by Caryle Murphy
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: I thought the idea of "preventative prosecutions" was reserved for futuristic films like The Minority Report. Have we, or are we, reaching that future without paying enough attention? What is the legal basis for "preventative prosecutions?"
Mary Beth Sheridan: Thanks for your question. This is obviously a controversial practice. The federal officials note that they only charge people for crimes they've allegedly committed--but the reason for aggressively pursuing them is to head off something worse. As for the legal basis, many of these cases involve conspiracy charges, which can also be controversial, since someone can have a very small role and still be found guilty. Of course, under American law, conspiring to commit a crime is a crime in itself.
Charleston, S.C.: Do you feel that the reason our government is so "trigger-happy" to convict any persons they believe to have involvement in terrorist activities has mostly to do with the issue of creating a feeling of security among the American public while strengthening the belief that our government is winning the war on terror?
Mary Beth Sheridan: Thanks for your question. I"ve certainly heard that from defense attorneys. But I also think it's very hard to identify possible terrorists--and the consequences of getting it wrong are huge. The government was certainly heavily criticized for not "connecting the dots" before 9/11, and I think they would rather err on the side of caution. And bear in mind that most of the guys I wrote about were found guilty by juries or judges.
Catonsville, Md.: We always read the about the outcomes of these terror trials, but seldom know really what's said in the courtroom. As someone who is a habitual 'trial watcher', I know the real story unfolds in the details of the prosecution and the details of the defense. Any hope of ever getting an inside view of these terror trials?
Mary Beth Sheridan: You're right, of course. The difficult thing is that the trials took several days or weeks, and the transcripts go on for hundreds or even thousands of pages. Maybe you could start a campaign to get the Post editors to let us write even longer stories??!! (LOL).
Rockville, Md.: Did you watch the trials? One juror said in The Washington Post that the case was insignificant. If that was the case, why did he convict? Do you think the jury is being influenced by fear, the constant scaring by Bush about the 'impending terror threat'? How much does fear play into the jury in your opinion?
Mary Beth Sheridan: Thanks for the question. I got to see a lot of the Chandia trial, less of the others, although I read the transcripts when they were over. There's been a lot of debate about how much juries have been influenced by the post-9/11 sense of insecurity, and the juries in federal court in Alexandria are thought to be generally pro-government. But in the Chandia case there was a lot of evidence presented that he did help the Lashkar guy. In fact, his defense agreed he did--but argued that Chandia didn't know the man was from Lashkar. The prosecution presented evidence that Chandia was very familiar with Lashkar, and didn't just bump into this guy by chance. So I'm not surprised the jury convicted him. However, the fact they found him guilty didn't necessarily mean they thought Chandia was worth prosecuting--as the juror indicated in the story.
New York City: The two questions that are constantly on my mind when I read or hear something about conservative muslims in Western Nations are:
- If their religious practices are so at odds with a liberal democractic society in everything from man/woman interaction to the food served in public schools, why do they not just come to these countries, but insist on the citizenry bending to their rules?
- Although there have been many tips from the Muslim community, why aren't the community and religious leaders, and members of CAIR screaming at the top of their lungs for the heads of all Muslims who excuse and justify the terror bombings in the US, London, Spain, etc.? Their argument is akin to "there are good Nazis and bad Nazis, and sometimes when Nazis feel threatened by the dominate Western Culture Nazis have to fight back." They are parsing radical Islamo-facism.
Mary Beth Sheridan: Thanks. I think that one of the things at the core of American democracy is freedom of religion--which means freedom for all religions (as long as they don't violate the law, of course). So if you're an Orthodox Jew and follow certain customs that are different from the mainstream, you're free to do that. And the same if you're an ultra-orthodox Muslim, or a Sikh, or a Quaker, or whatever. I think the majority of Muslims have been able to integrate their faith and American identity. (And as for why they come here...bear in mind something like one-third of U.S. Muslims are African-Americans who were born here). I also think most Muslims are absolutely appalled by the terrorist attacks here, in London, etc. and American Muslim groups have strongly condemned them.
Greenbelt, Md.: The article mentioned that some of Chandia's supporters were discouraged from talking to the press. That may leave the impression, surely coupled with today's story that they are conservative fundamentalists who are seeking isolationism, that they did not have contact at all. This was absolutely not the case. Press releases and a great deal of time was spent with all of the reporters who covered this particular trial. The problem was that we were very much in disagreement with the facts as they were presented, some in the absence of additional information, some in the form of sheer misinformation. When you are Muslim in America, the voice that is portrayed in the press can sway public opinion in many dangerous ways, particularly because most Americans do not know much about Islam and have very little contact with Muslims.
Mary Beth Sheridan: I certainly understand the sensitivity many Muslims feel about their portrayal in the media. And I agree there's lots of misinformation out there about Islam. But, as I tried to talk to Muslims outside the Chandia trial, his supporters would literally circle whoever was talking to me, hissing at them not to trust the media. I think press releases are very helpful, but journalists like to be able to engage in conversation to understand a person's point of view, ask questions, etc. I'm sure many people feel it's a risk to talk to a journalist; will they be accurately quoted? But I'm not sure how they'll be able to get across their point of view otherwise.
College Park, Md.: As a reporter do you feel inclined to bring unbiased information to the newspaper, or are you specifically required to report from the point of view assigned to you? The reason I ask is because I am a lifelong Washingtonian, a daily Washington Post reader, and a convert to Islam. I feel like although the paper has made attempts in recent years to have a more "hometown" feel instead of a a "political-town" feel, I have seldom seen any articles that reflect the Washington life of muslims as a group except when the article is related to terrorist activity. How can that be the case from an "independent newspaper?"
Mary Beth Sheridan: Thanks for your question. No, we're certainly not assigned a point of view. And if an editor insisted on imposing one, I would withdraw my byline or quit. Really. As you know, there's been a lot more interest in the Muslim community in the wake of 9/11; the Post has had lots of articles on Muslim life, including such topics as Muslim scout troops, Latinos converting to Islam, Muslims trying to be both fashionable and observant, etc. However, as you point out, the terrorism theme is a constant. I think that's mainly because terrorism is seen as such a huge threat to the country post-9/11. Having said that, though, I think we need to constantly be aware about presenting the Muslim community in a fair way, and not only in relation to terrorism investigations.
College Park, Md.: I'm an American Muslim. Over the last few years, the media has really been pushing labels on Muslims in America: conservative, moderate, salafi, wahabi, etc. How can you prevent yourself from being used by the govt to show who the 'bad' Muslims are and who the 'good' Muslim are?
Today's piece on 'Salafis' I think shows them as the 'bad' Muslim, but it's funny because most Muslims view them as apolitical and the ones least likely to get involved with action against any government.
Mary Beth Sheridan: Thanks for the question. I think Muslims themselves make distinctions about the way different Muslims observe their faith. In my story (which ran on Sunday) and the piece today by Caryle Murphy, many of the quotes about salafism are from Muslims. I tried hard to understand the "jihad network" group from the inside--to understand what drew the men to the salafi approach. And certainly it was nothing bad; they were trying to be true to their faith, and not compromise their religious principles. I agree that traditionally salafis were largely apolitical. But I think that has changed, at least for some.
Hardball Tactics in an Era of Threats by Mary Beth Sheridan
Beltsville, Md.: India has been fighting with Kashmir forces for decades. As far as I know, the US has always viewed the independence struggle as an internal thing for that region. Soon after 9/11, the US declared LET a terrorist organization at India's insistence. Are you going to explore the politics of that, and how it played into the 'VA Jihad' trials. What about Chechnya, since 9/11 we also declared that struggle to be terrorism, when it used to be an 'internal problem'. Will the govnt start going after Moslem who supported the Chechens, what do you think?
Mary Beth Sheridan: Thanks. I think the government has actually charged some people for supporting the Chechen rebels. I think there's a couple of interesting points here. One is that, after 9/11, the government became far more concerned about all kinds of violent guerrilla-type groups. Some are not focused on America, including Lashkar. But questions have grown about Lashkar's ties to al-Qaeda--particularly since an al-Qaeda official was found in one of its safehouses in 2002. The other point is, of course, once a group is designated as a terrorist organization, it's illegal under U.S. law to support it in any way--even if you think the designation was a mistake.
Mary Beth Sheridan: I'm afraid I have to wrap it up. I'm sorry I couldn't get to all the questions--they're very thoughtful and I greatly appreciate your interest and suggestions. Thanks so much!
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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A College Park teacher is among nearly a dozen Muslims convicted of involvement with a local "jihad network." The Justice Department says it is trying to prevent terror attacks; many Muslims complain of prosecutorial overkill.
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Mexico: Democracy Under Threat
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To get a sense of the danger hovering over Mexican democracy, consider these numbers: In the 681 years between the founding of the Aztec empire in 1325 and the present day, Mexico has lived for 196 years under an indigenous theocracy, 289 years under the absolute monarchy of Spain, 106 years under personal or party dictatorships, 68 years embroiled in civil wars or revolutions, and only 22 years in democracy.
This modest democratic 3 percent of Mexico's history is divided over three periods, far separated in time: 11 years in the second half of the 19th century, 11 months at the beginning of the 20th century, and the past 10 years. In the first two instances, the constitutional order was overturned by military coups.
Scarcely 50 years ago, armed groups of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (known as the PRI, its initials in Spanish) attacked polling stations with pistols and submachine guns, gunning down suspect voters and stealing ballot boxes. Scarcely 20 years ago, the PRI -- which had refined its methods -- prided itself on being a nearly infallible machine. The government and the PRI (symbiotic entities) controlled every step of the elections, from the preparation of voting rolls and the discretionary issuing of voter registration cards to the counting of votes. Many bureaucrats and members of worker and peasant organizations were carted to polling stations where they were instructed to vote in mass for the official candidate chosen by the outgoing president. The voters were given sandwiches and gifts; their leaders were given government posts, sinecures and money. Many times the ballots were marked in advance and stuffed days before the election into "pregnant" ballot boxes; the establishment of secret polling places was common, and some people were registered many times over.
This shameful situation ended in 1996 when President Ernesto Zedillo set in motion a deep democratic reform. Elections at all levels were no longer controlled by the government, becoming the jurisdiction of an independent Federal Electoral Institute (IFE), subject to a Federal Electoral Tribunal. At great cost, detailed voter rolls were drawn up with a registration and voter ID system that made it possible to correlate physical presence, identity and registration at the polling places. The IFE very soon gained remarkable credibility. All over the country, citizens began to vote freely in fair and transparent elections. Few were surprised when in 1997 the PRI lost the majority in the Chamber of Deputies for the first time and the leftist candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, attained the extremely important post of mayor of Mexico City. Three years later, the PRI lost the jewel in the crown, and the crown itself: Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN) won the presidency.
On July 2 this same independent electoral organization, made up of 909,575 citizens (not government employees), oversaw an orderly, peaceful election in which more than 41 million people voted. It's important to note that almost a million representatives from all parties participated, as well as nearly 25,000 national observers and 639 international observers. At the end of the day, the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) presidential candidate came away with more votes than any other leftist candidate in Mexican history; in fact, he fell just 240,000 votes short of winning the presidency.
What happened next has left Mexico on the verge of social upheaval. What would an American think if, after a campaign as heated as the Kerry-Bush race, the losing candidate had declared himself the winner the night of the election, claimed "massive fraud" a few days later and orchestrated a sit-in of his followers (many of them directly paid by the local PRD government) on the Mall in Washington, blocking access to the neighboring streets and affecting businesses and government offices? That is exactly what Andrés Manuel López Obrador has done.
In articles and interviews published in the international press (written in a misleading tone of civility, far from that of his incendiary speeches), López Obrador has seriously damaged Mexico's young democracy by trying to sustain the unsustainable: that Mexico today is the same as Mexico in the days of PRI rule. He fails to mention that:
· He spent more on television advertising than any other candidate.
· In the same election he calls "a filthy mess" his leftist coalition managed to become the second-most-powerful force in the legislature, considerably increasing its presence in both chambers, while the coalition's candidate for mayor of Mexico City won with 47 percent of the vote.
· The polling places where the Federal Electoral Tribunal ordered a recount (9 percent of the total) weren't a random sampling, which would have been more than sufficient to determine whether there was generalized fraud. They were instead a selection weighted in López Obrador's favor because he chose the polling places where he hoped to show that there had been fraud -- unsuccessfully, since the resulting difference has been minimal, according to the tribunal's ruling.
· He has said that even if there were a recount in 100 percent of the polling places, he wouldn't accept the results if they were not in his favor.
Today, many citizens who voted for López Obrador are not only disappointed but fearful. According to recent polls, the majority of the country disapproves of his actions and supports the Federal Electoral Tribunal's performance. If the presidential elections were held today, Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party would win with 54 percent to López Obrador's 30 percent.
López Obrador has complained about his opponents' fear-mongering, but he's the one stirring up real fear, by declaring that "Mexico needs a revolution" and comparing the situation to the circumstances that led to the Revolution of 1910. The historical comparison is completely wrong: López Obrador isn't the heir of liberal democrats Benito Juárez and Francisco I. Madero, but of Porfirio DÃaz and Victoriano Huerta, the coup leaders who smothered Mexico's two initial attempts at democracy.
What comes next? If, as is likely, the final ruling of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary confirms Calderón's victory, López Obrador will do as he has warned: On Sept. 16, Mexico's Independence Day, he'll gather tens of thousands of people in the central square of Mexico's capital to declare him "president" by acclaim. He may even try to control "his territory" in the southern states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco and Guerrero, and the capital itself. His aim for the near future will be to lay siege to the institutions he despises ("let them go to hell," he said recently) and force Calderón to resign.
It is crystal-clear that López Obrador is not a democrat. He's a revolutionary with a totalitarian mentality and messianic aspirations who is using the rhetoric of democracy to try to destroy this third historic attempt at democracy in Mexico. Eighty-six years ago, Mexico brought an end to a revolution that cost a million lives. Since then it has lived in peace. It's a country still plagued with injustice and poverty, but it has made significant progress in its economic transformation, social programs and political life. It would be a sad thing for it all to end in dictatorship or revolution: the 97 percent of our history. Mexico isn't just another democracy: it's the neighbor and partner of Canada and the United States and the counterweight on the scale tipping Latin America toward the example of Brazil and Chile and not Cuba and Venezuela. It's more important than ever that the democracy we've achieved has the support and understanding of international opinion.
Enrique Krauze is the author of "Mexico: Biography of Power" and editor of the magazine Letras Libres. This article was translated by Natasha Wimmer.
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It is crystal-clear López Obrador is not a democrat. He's a revolutionary with a totalitarian mentality and messianic aspirations who is using the rhetoric of democracy to try to destroy this third historic attempt at democracy in Mexico.
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President Bush Delivers Remarks on the War on Terror
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SPEAKER: GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
BUSH: Thanks for the kind introduction. I'm honored to stand with the men and women of the Military Officers Association of America. I appreciate the board of directors who are here and the leaders who have given me this platform from which to speak.
I'm proud to be here with active members of the United States military.
Thank you for your service. I'm proud to be your commander in chief.
I'm pleased also to stand with members of the diplomatic corps, including many representing nations that have been attacked by Al Qaida and its terrorist allies since September the 11th, 2001.
Your presence here reminds us that we are engaged in a global war against an enemy that threatens all civilized nations. And today the civilized world stands together to defend our freedom. We stand together to defeat the terrorists. And we're working to secure the peace for generations to come.
I appreciate my attorney general joining us today, Al Gonzales.
Thank you for being here.
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff is with us.
Three members of the United States Senate -- I might say three important members of the United States Senate -- Senate President Pro Tem Ted Stevens of Alaska.
Thank you for joining us, Senator.
Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi.
BUSH: And chairman of the Armed Services Committee, John Warner of Virginia.
I thank Norm Ryan (ph), as well, for his leadership. I do appreciate all of the folks at Walter Reed who've joined us today.
I'm going to tell the parents of our troops we provide great health care to those who wear the uniform. I'm proud of those folks at Bethesda and Walter Reed who are providing you the best possible care to help you recover from your injuries. Thank you for your courage. Thank you for joining us here today. May God bless you in your recovery.
Next week America will mark the fifth anniversary of September the 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. As this day approaches, it brings with it a flood of painful memories. We remember the horror of watching planes fly into the World Trade Center and seeing the towers collapse before our eyes.
We remember the sight of the Pentagon broken and in flames.
We remember the rescue workers who rushed into the building buildings -- burning buildings -- to save lives, knowing they might never emerge again.
We remember the brave passengers who charged the cockpit of their hijacked plane and stopped the terrorists from reaching their target and killing more innocent civilians.
We remember the cold brutality of the enemy who inflicted this harm on our country, an enemy whose leader Osama bin Laden, declared the massacre of nearly 3,000 people that day, I quote, "An unparalleled and magnificent feat of valor unmatched by any in human kind before them."
In five years since our nation was attacked, Al Qaida and terrorists it has inspired have continued to attack across the world. They have killed the innocent in Europe and Africa and the Middle East and Central Asia and the Far East and beyond.
BUSH: Most recently, they attempted to strike again in the most ambitious plot since the attacks of September the 11th, a plan to blow up passenger planes headed for America over the Atlantic Ocean.
Five years after our nation was attacked, the terrorist danger remains. We're a nation at war. And America and our allies are fighting this war with relentless determination across the world.
Together with our coalition partners, we've removed terrorist sanctuaries, disrupted their finances, killed and captured key operatives, broken up terrorist cells in America and other nations, and stopped new attacks before they're carried out.
We're on the offense against the terrorists on every battle front and we'll accept nothing less than complete victory.
In the five years since our nation was attacked, we've also learned a great deal about the enemy we face in this war. We've learned about them through videos and audio recordings and letters and statements they've posted on Web sites. We've learned about them from captured enemy documents that the terrorists have never meant for us to see.
Together, these documents and statements have given us clear insight into the mind of our enemies, their ideology, their ambitions and their strategy to defeat us.
BUSH: We know what the terrorists intend to do because they've told us. And we need to take their words seriously. So today I'm going to describe in the terrorist's own words what they believe, what they hope to accomplish, and how they intend to accomplish it.
I'll discuss how the enemy has adapted in the wake of our sustained offensive against them and the threat posed by different strains of violent Islamic radicalism.
I'll explain the strategy we're pursuing to protect America by defeating the terrorists on the battlefield and defeating their hateful ideology in the battle of ideas.
The terrorists who attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, are men without conscience, but they're not madmen. They kill in the name of a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs that are evil but not insane.
These Al Qaida terrorists and those who share their ideology are violent Sunni extremists. They are driven by a radical and perverted vision of Islam that rejects tolerance, crushes all dissent, and justifies the murder of innocent men, women and children in the pursuit of political power.
They hope to establish a violent political utopia across the Middle East, which they call caliphate, where all would be ruled according to their hateful ideology.
Osama bin Laden has called the 9/11 attacks, in his words, "a great step towards the unity of Muslims and establishing the righteous caliphate."
BUSH: This caliphate would be a totalitarian Islamic empire encompassing all current and former Muslim lands, stretching from Europe to North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
We know this because Al Qaida has told us.
About two months ago, the terrorist Zawahiri -- he's Al Qaida's second in command -- declared that Al Qaida intends to impose its rule in every land that was a home for Islam, from Spain to Iraq. He went on to say, "The whole world is an open field for us."
We know what this radical empire would look like in practice, because we saw how the radicals imposed their ideology on the people of Afghanistan.
Under the rule of the Taliban and Al Qaida, Afghanistan was a totalitarian nightmare, a land where women were imprisoned in their homes, men were beaten for missing prayer meetings, girls could not go to school, and children were forbidden the smallest pleasures, like flying kites.
Religious police roamed the streets, beating and detaining civilians for perceived offenses. Women were publicly whipped. Summary executions were held in Kabul's soccer stadium in front of cheering mobs.
And Afghanistan was turned into a launching pad for horrific attacks against America and other parts of the civilized world, including many Muslim nations.
BUSH: The goal of these Sunni extremists is to remake the entire Muslim world in their radical image. In pursuit of their imperial aims these extremists say there can be no compromise or dialogue with those they call infidels, a category that includes America, the world's free nations, Jews, and all Muslims who reject their extreme vision of Islam. They reject the possibility of peaceful coexistence with the free world.
Again, here are the words of Osama bin Laden earlier this year: "Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us."
These radicals have declared their uncompromising hostility to freedom. It is foolish to think that you can negotiate with them.
We see the uncompromising nature of the enemy in many captured terrorist documents. Here are just two examples.
After the liberation of Afghanistan, coalition forces searching through a terrorist safe house in that country found a copy of the Al Qaida charter. This charter states that there will be continuing enmity until everyone believe in Allah; we will not meet the enemy halfway; there will be no room for dialogue with them.
Another document was found in 2000 by British police during an anti-terrorist raid in London, a grisly Al Qaida manual that includes chapters with titles such as "Guidelines for Beating and Killing Hostages."
BUSH: This manual declares that their vision of Islam does not make a truce with unbelief but, rather, confronts it.
The confrontation calls for, "the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine gun," end quote.
Still other captured documents show Al Qaida's strategy for infiltrating Muslim nations, establishing terrorist enclaves, overthrowing governments, and building their totalitarian empire.
We see this strategy laid out in a captured Al Qaida document found during a recent raid in Iraq which describes their plans to infiltrate and to take over Iraq's western Anbar province.
The document lays out an elaborate Al Qaida governing structure for the region that includes an education department, a social services department, a justice department, and an execution unit responsible for sorting out arrests, murder and destruction.
According to their published statements, countries that they have targeted stretch from the Middle East to Africa to Southeast Asia.
Through this strategy, Al Qaida and its allies intend to create numerous decentralized operating bases across the world from which they can plan new attacks and advance their vision of a unified totalitarian Islamic state that can confront and eventually destroy the free world.
BUSH: These violent extremists know that, to realize this vision, they must first drive out the main obstacle that stands in their way: the United States of America.
According to Al Qaida, their strategy to defeat America has two parts.
First, they are waging a campaign of terror across the world. They're targeting our forces abroad, hoping that the American people will grow tired of casualties and give up the fight.
And they're targeting America's financial centers and economic infrastructure at home, hoping to terrorize us and cause our economy to collapse.
Bin Laden calls this his "bleed until bankruptcy plan," end quote. And he cited the attacks of 9/11 as evidence that such a plan can succeed.
With the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden says, Al Qaida spent $500,000 on the event, while America lost, according to the lowest estimate, $500 billion, meaning that very dollar of Al Qaida defeated a million dollars of America.
Bin Laden concludes from this experience that America is definitely a great power, with unbelievable military strength and a vibrant economy, but all these have been built on a very weak and hollow foundation.
He went on to say, therefore, "It is very easy to target the flimsy base and concentrate on their weak points. And even if we are able to target one-tenth of these weak points, we will be able to crush and destroy them."
Secondly, along with his campaign of terror, the enemy has a propaganda strategy.
Osama bin Laden laid out this strategy in a letter to the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, that coalition forces uncovered in Afghanistan in 2002.
BUSH: In it, bin Laden says that Al Qaida intends to launch, in his words, a media campaign to create a wedge between the American people and their government.
This media campaign, bin Laden says, will send the American people a number of messages, including that their government will bring them more losses in finances and casualties.
And he goes on to say that they are being sacrificed to serve the big investors, especially the Jews.
Bin Laden says that, by delivering these messages, Al Qaida aims at creating pressure from the American people on the American government to stop their campaign against Afghanistan.
Bin Laden and his allies are absolutely convinced they can succeed in forcing America to retreat and causing our economic collapse. They believe our nation is weak and decadent and lacking in patience and resolve, and they're wrong.
Osama bin Laden has written that the defeat of American forces in Beirut in 1983 is proof America does not have the stomach to stay in the fight.
He's declared that: In Somalia, the United States pulled out; trailing disappointment, defeat and failure behind it.
And last year the terrorist, Zawahiri, declared that: Americans know better than others that there is no hope in victory; the Vietnam specter is closing every outlet.
BUSH: These terrorists hope to drive America and our coalition out of Afghanistan so they can restore the safe haven they lost when coalition forces drove them out five years ago.
But they've made clear that the most important front in their struggle against America is Iraq, the nation bin Laden has declared the capital of the caliphate.
Here are the words of bin Laden: "I now address the whole Islamic nation. Listen and understand: The most serious issue today for the whole world is this third world war that is raging in Iraq."
He calls it, "a war of destiny between infidelity and Islam." He says, "The whole world is watching this war and that it will end in victory and glory or misery and humiliation."
For Al Qaida, Iraq is not a distraction, from their war on America, it is the central battlefield where the outcome of this struggle will be decided.
Here's what Al Qaida says they will do if they succeed in driving us out of Iraq. The terrorist Zawahiri has said that Al Qaida will proceed with several incremental goals. The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq. The second stage: Establish an Islamic authority or emirate; then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of caliphate. The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq. And the fourth stage: The clash with Israel.
These evil men know that a fundamental threat to their aspirations is a democratic Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself.
BUSH: They know that, given a choice, the Iraqi people will never choose to live in the totalitarian state the extremists hope to establish. And that is why we must not, and we will not, give the enemy victory in Iraq by deserting the Iraqi people.
Last year, the terrorist, Zarqawi, declared a message posted on the Internet that, "Democracy is the essence of infidelity and deviation from the right path." The Iraqi people disagree.
Last December, nearly 12 million Iraqis from every ethnic and religious community turned out to vote in their country's third free election in less than a year. Iraq now has a unity government that represents Iraq's diverse population. And Al Qaida's top commander in Iraq breathed his last breath.
Despite these strategic setbacks, the enemy will continue to fight freedom's advance in Iraq because they understand the stakes in this war.
Again, hear the words of Bin Laden in a message to the American people earlier this year: He says, "The war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever."
BUSH: And I know some of our country hear the terrorist words and hope that they will not or cannot do what they say. History teaches that underestimating the words of evil and ambitious men is a terrible mistake.
In the early 1900s, an exiled lawyer in Europe published a pamphlet called "What Is to Be Done," in which he laid out his plan to launch a communist revolution in Russia.
The world did not heed Lenin's words, and paid a terrible price. The Soviet empire he established killed tens of millions and brought the world to the brink of thermonuclear war.
In the 1920s, a failed Austrian painter published a book in which he explained his intention to build an Aryan superstate in Germany and take revenge on Europe and eradicate the Jews.
The world ignored Hitler's words, and paid a terrible price.
His Nazi regime killed millions in the gas chambers and set the world aflame in war before it was finally defeated at a terrible cost in lives.
Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The question is: Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say?
America and our coalition partners have made our choice. We're taking the words of the enemy seriously. We're on the offensive. We will not rest. We will not retreat. And we will not withdraw from the fight until this threat to civilization has been removed.
BUSH: Five years into this struggle, it's important to take stock of what's been accomplished and the difficult work that remains.
Al Qaida has been weakened by our sustained offensive against them and today it's harder for Al Qaida's leaders to operate freely, to move money, or to communicate with their operatives and facilitators.
Yet Al Qaida remains dangerous and determined. Bin Laden and Zawahiri remain in hiding in remote regions of this world.
Al Qaida continues to adapt in the face of our global campaign against them. Increasingly, Al Qaida's taking advantage of the Internet to disseminate propaganda and to conduct virtual recruitment and virtual training of new terrorists. Al Qaida's leaders no longer need to meet face to face with their operatives. They can find new suicide bombers and facilitate new terrorist attacks without ever laying eyes on those they're training, financing or sending to strike us.
As Al Qaida changes, the broader terrorist movement is also changing, becoming more dispersed and self-directed. More and more, we're facing threats from locally established terrorist cells that are inspired by Al Qaida's ideology and goals, but do not necessarily have direct links to Al Qaida, such as training and funding.
Some of these groups are made up of home-grown terrorists, militant extremists who were born and educated in Western nations, were indoctrinated by radical Islamists or attracted to their ideology and joined the violent extremist cause.
BUSH: These locally established cells appear to be responsible for a number of attacks and plots, including those in Madrid, in Canada and other countries across the world.
As we continue to fight Al Qaida and these Sunni extremists inspired by their radical ideology, we also face the threat posed by a Shia extremists who are learning from Al Qaida; increasing their assertiveness and stepping up their threats.
Like the vast majority of Sunnis, the vast majority of Shia across the world reject the vision of extremists. And, in Iraq, millions of Shia have defied terrorist threats to vote in free elections and have shown their desire to live in freedom.
The Shia extremists want to deny them this right.
The Shia strain of Islamic radicalism is just as dangerous and just as hostile to America and just as determined to establish its brand of hegemony across the broader Middle East.
The Shia extremists have achieved something that Al Qaida has so far failed to.
In 1979, they took control of a major power, the nation of Iran; subjugating its proud people to a regime of tyranny and using that nation's resources to fund the spread of terror and to pursue their radical agenda.
Like Al Qaida and the Sunni extremists, the Iranian regime has clear aims. They want to drive America out of the region, to destroy Israel, and to dominate the broader Middle East.
To achieve these aims, they are funding and arming terrorist groups like Hezbollah, which allow them to attack Israel and America by proxy.
Hezbollah, the source of the current instability in Lebanon, has killed more Americans than any terrorist organization except Al Qaida.
Unlike Al Qaida, they have not yet attacked the American homeland.
BUSH: Yet they're directly responsible for the murder of hundreds of Americans abroad.
It was Hezbollah that was behind the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans.
And Saudi Hezbollah was behind in 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans; an attack conducted by terrorists who we believe were working with Iranian officials.
Just as we take the words of the Sunni extremists seriously, we must take the words of the Shia extremists seriously.
Listen to the words of Hezbollah's leader, the terrorist Nasrallah, who has declared his hatred of America: He says, "Let the entire world hear me. Our hostility to the great Satan, America, is absolute. Regardless of how the world has changed after 11 September, death to America will remain our reverberating and powerful slogan, 'Death to America.'"
Iran's leaders who back Hezbollah have also declared their absolute hostility to America.
Last October, Iran's president declared in a speech that, "Some people ask," in his words, "whether a world without the United States and Zionism can be achieved; I say that this goal is achievable."
Less than three months ago, Iran's president declared to America and other Western powers, "Open your eyes and see the fate of Pharaoh. If you do not abandon the path of falsehood, your doomed destiny will be annihilation."
Less than two months ago, he warned, "The anger of Muslims may reach an explosion point soon. If such a day comes, America and the West should know that the waves of the blast will not remain within the boundaries of our region."
He also delivered this message to the American people: "If you would like to have good relations with the Iranian nation in the future, bow down before the greatness of the Iranian nation and surrender. If you don't accept to do this, the Iranian nation will force you to surrender and bow down."
BUSH: America will not bow down to tyrants.
The Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies have demonstrated their willingness to kill Americans, and now the Iranian regime is pursuing nuclear weapons.
The world is working together to prevent Iran's regime from acquiring the tools of mass murder.
The international community has made a reasonable proposal to Iran's leaders and given them the opportunity to set their nation on a better course.
So far, Iran's leaders have rejected this offer. Their choice is increasingly isolating the great Iranian nation from the international community and denying the Iranian people an opportunity for greater economic prosperity.
It's time for Iran's leader to make a different choice.
And we've made our choice. We'll continue to work closely with our allies to find a diplomatic solution. The world's free nations will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
The Shia and Sunni extremists represent different faces of the same threat. They draw inspiration from different sources, but both seek to impose a dark vision of violent Islamic radicalism across the Middle East.
BUSH: They oppose the advance of freedom, and they want to gain control of weapons of mass destruction.
If they succeed in undermining fragile democracies, like Iraq, and drive the forces of freedom out of the region, they will have an open field to pursue their dangerous goals and each strain of violent Islamic radicalism would be I'm emboldened in their efforts to topple moderate governments and establish terrorist safe havens.
Imagine a world in which they were able to control governments; a world awash with oil, and they would use oil resources to punish industrialized nations. And they would use those resources to fuel their radical agenda and pursue and purchase weapons of mass murder.
And, armed with nuclear weapons, they would blackmail the free world and spread their ideologies of hate and raise a mortal threat to the American people.
If we allow them to do this, if we retreat from Iraq, if we don't uphold our duty to support those who are desirous to live in liberty, 50 years from now history will look back on our time with unforgiving clarity and demand to know why we did not act.
I'm not going to allow this to happen, and no future American president can allow it either.
America did not seek this global struggle, but we're answering history's call with confidence and a clear strategy. Today we're releasing a document called "The National Strategy for Combating Terrorism." This is an unclassified version of the strategy we've been pursuing since September the 11th, 2001.
BUSH: The strategy was first released in February 2003. It's been updated to take into account the changing nature of this enemy. This strategy document is posted on the White House Web site, whitehouse.gov, and I urge all Americans to read it.
Our strategy for combating terrorism has five basic elements.
First, we're determined to prevent terrorist attacks before they occur, so we're taking the fight to the enemy. The best way to protect America is to stay on the offense.
Since 9/11, our coalition has captured or killed Al Qaida managers and operatives and scores of other terrorists across the world. The enemy is living under constant pressure, and we intend to keep it that way. And this adds to our security. When terrorists spend their days working to avoid death or capture, it's harder for them to plan and execute new attacks.
We're also fighting the enemy here at home. We've given our law enforcement and intelligence professionals the tools they need to stop the terrorists in our midst. We passed the Patriot Act to break down the wall that prevented law enforcement and intelligence from sharing vital information. We created the terrorist surveillance program to monitor the communications between Al Qaida commanders abroad and terrorist operatives within our borders.
If Al Qaida's calling somebody in America, we need to know why in order to stop attacks.
I want to thank these three senators for working with us to give our law enforcement and intelligence officers the tools necessary to do their jobs.
BUSH: And over the last five years, federal, state and local law enforcement have used those tools to break up terrorist cells and to prosecute terrorist operatives and supporters in New York and Oregon and Virginia and Texas and New Jersey and Illinois and Ohio and other states.
By taking the battle to the terrorists and their supporters on our own soil and across the world, we've stopped a number of Al Qaida plots.
Second, we're determined to deny weapons of mass destruction to outlaw regimes and terrorists who would use them without hesitation.
Working with Great Britain and Pakistan and other nations, the United States shut down the world's most dangerous nuclear trading cartel, the A.Q. Khan network.
This network had supplied Iran and Libya and North Korea with equipment and know-how that advanced their efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
And we launched the Proliferation Security Initiative, a coalition of more than 70 nations that is working together to stop shipments related to weapons of mass destruction on land, at sea and in the air.
The greatest threat this world faces is the danger of extremists and terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction. And this is a threat America cannot defeat on our own.
We applaud the determined efforts of many nations around the world to stop the spread of these dangerous weapons. Together, we pledge we will continue to work together to stop the world's most dangerous men from getting their hands on the world's most dangerous weapons.
Third, we're determined to deny terrorists the support of outlaw regimes.
After September 11, I laid out a clear doctrine: America makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those that harbor and support them. Because they're equally guilty of murder.
Thanks to our efforts, there are now three fewer state sponsors of terror in the world than there were on September 11, 2001.
Afghanistan and Iraq have been transformed from terrorist states into allies in the war on terror. And the nation of Libya has renounced terrorism and given up its weapons of mass destruction programs and its nuclear materials and equipment.
BUSH: Over the past five years, we've acted to disrupt the flow of weapons to support from terrorist states to terrorist networks. And we have made clear that any government that chooses to be an ally of terror has also chosen to be an enemy of civilization.
Fourth, we're determined to deny terrorist networks control of any nation or territory within a nation. So, along with our coalition and the Iraqi government, we'll stop the terrorists from taking control of Iraq and establishing a new safe haven from which to attack America and the free world.
And we're working with friends and allies to deny the terrorists the enclaves they seek to establish in ungoverned areas across the world. By helping governments reclaim full sovereign control over their territory, we make ourselves more secure.
Fifth, we're working to deny terrorists new recruits. By defeating their hateful ideology and spreading the hope of freedom -- by spreading the hope of freedom across the Middle East.
For decades, American policy sought to achieve peace in the Middle East by pursuing stability at the expense of liberty. The lack of freedom in that region helped create conditions where anger and resentment grew and radicalism thrived and terrorists found willing recruits.
BUSH: And we saw the consequences on September the 11th, when the terrorists brought death and destruction to our country.
The experience of September the 11th made clear, in the long run, the only way to secure our nation is to change the course of the Middle East. And so America has committed its influence in the world to advancing freedom and liberty and democracy as the great alternative to repression and radicalism.
We're taking the side of democratic leaders and moderates and reformers across the Middle East. We strongly support the voices of tolerance and moderation in the Muslim world.
We're standing with Afghanistan's elected government against Al Qaida and the Taliban remnants that are trying to restore tyranny in that country.
We're standing with Lebanon's young democracy against the foreign forces that are seeking to undermine the country's sovereignty and independence.
And we're standing with the leaders of Iraq's unity government as they work to defeat the enemies of freedom and chart a more hopeful course for their people.
This is why victory is so important in Iraq. By helping freedom succeed in Iraq, we will help America and the Middle East and the world become more secure.
BUSH: During the last five years, we've learned a lot about this enemy. We've learned that they're cunning and sophisticated. We've witnessed their ability to change their methods and their tactics with deadly speed, even as their murderous obsessions remain unchanging.
We've seen that it's the terrorists who have declared war on Muslims, slaughtering huge numbers of innocent Muslim men and women around the world.
We know what the terrorists believe. We know what they have done. And we know what they intend to do. And now the world's free nations must summon the will to meet this great challenge.
The road ahead is going to be difficult, and it will require more sacrifice. Yet we can have confidence in the outcome, because we've seen freedom conquer tyranny and terror before.
In the 20th century, free nations confronted and defeated Nazi Germany. During the Cold War, we confronted Soviet communism. And today, Europe is whole, free and at peace.
And now freedom is once again contending with the forces of darkness and tyranny. This time the battle is unfolding in a new region, the broader Middle East. This time we're not waiting for our enemies to gather in strength. This time we're confronting them before they gain the capacity to inflict unspeakable damage on the world, and we're confronting their hateful ideology before it fully takes root.
We see a day when people across the Middle East have governments that honor their dignity and unleash their creativity and count their votes. We see a day when, across this region, citizens are allowed to express themselves freely, women have full rights and children are educated and given the tools necessary to succeed in life.
BUSH: And we see a day when all the nations of the Middle East are allies in the cause of peace.
We fight for this day because the security of our own citizens depends on it. This is the great ideological struggle of the 21st century, and it is the calling of our generation.
All civilized nations are bound together in this struggle between moderation and extremism. By coming together, we will roll back this great threat to our way of life. We will help the people of the Middle East claim their freedom. And we will leave a safer and more hopeful world for our children and our grandchildren.
Sep 05, 2006 14:18 ET .EOF
Source: CQ Transcriptions © 2006, Congressional Quarterly Inc., All Rights Reserved
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Read Bush's remarks on recent efforts battling terrorism.
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Growth Slows in Housing Market
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In the latest evidence of a cooling housing market, U.S. home prices rose in the second quarter by the slowest rate in more than six years, according to a government report released yesterday.
Home prices were 10 percent higher in the three months ended June 30, compared with the corresponding period last year. The quarterly appreciation rate of 1.17 percent, however, was the slowest since the fourth quarter of 1999, according to the analysis by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
In contrast, in the second quarter of last year -- which many analysts describe as the height of the recent boom -- the quarterly rate was 3.65 percent. The change in the rate between those two quarters was the sharpest decline since the agency began tracking the data in 1975.
"These data are a strong indication that the housing market is cooling in a very significant way," James B. Lockhart, the agency's director, said in the report. "Indeed, the deceleration appears in almost every region of the country."
The ballooning number of homes for sale and higher interest rates have put a brake on rising home prices, analysts said. The housing market also had been "artificially propped up" by speculators and "mortgage gimmicks," said John H. Vogel Jr., professor of business administration at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. Many economists think interest-only, adjustable-rate and other exotic mortgages helped people buy homes they otherwise may not have been able to afford in the recent housing boom.
"You just see all these for-sale signs out there," he said. "If you're a buyer . . . it makes you question, 'Do I really have to stretch that far to buy a house?' "
What is notable about the report -- the latest in a series of statistics this year that point to a downturn in the housing market -- is the rapidly declining rates of appreciation in prices in regions that were once red-hot. The quarterly report is based on comparisons of prices of the same houses sold or refinanced over time.
For example, just last year in the South Atlantic region, which includes Maryland, Virginia and the District, appreciation was at its highest rate since 1975, with home prices rising 18 percent year over year. The change in the quarterly rate over the past year was the biggest drop since the second quarter of 1976.
Places such as Massachusetts experienced some of the biggest price gains in the country throughout much of the housing boom. But now, the state ranks 48th in appreciation rates.
California cities used to pepper the list of the metropolitan areas with the highest rates of appreciation. Now, there is just one in the top 20 -- Bakersfield, with a year-over-year price gain of 22 percent.
"The issue is that a number of states appreciated at rates that are just not sustainable over the long term," Andrew Leventis, an economist with the federal agency, said in an interview.
In the market that includes the District, Northern Virginia and Prince George's, Charles and Calvert counties in Maryland and Jefferson County in West Virginia, home prices increased by 1.79 percent in the second quarter. But the region posted a year-over-year increase of 16 percent because of jumps in prices late last year.
In the Montgomery County-Frederick County market, which the agency measures separately, the second quarter saw a home price gain of 1.64 percent over the first quarter and 13 percent over the same period last year.
Of the nation's largest 275 metropolitan areas covered in the report, seven regions experienced year-over-year price drops, including Ann Arbor and the Detroit-Dearborn region in Michigan. All declines were less than 2 percent.
Vogel thinks this is just the beginning. Housing prices have become so out of line with people's ability to buy, he said, that barring a wage spurt, it won't be possible to escape significant price declines.
"It won't be just prices flattening," he said. "I think it's going to be a pretty hard landing."
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In the latest evidence of a cooling housing market, U.S. home prices rose in the second quarter by the slowest rate in more than six years, according to a government report released yesterday.
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Crocodile Hunter, Audience Charmer
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Steve Irwin spent much of his life not just tempting fate but petting it, riding its back and swinging it by the tail. In the end, fate snapped back.
Irwin, television's "Crocodile Hunter," died yesterday at the age of 44 in his native Australia after being stung by a stingray while shooting a new TV series along the Great Barrier Reef. It was a freaky way to go -- stingrays are rarely lethal -- but perhaps morbidly fitting, since imminent death was the unbilled co-star of Irwin's fascinating and entertaining career.
You watched Irwin as you watched a high-wire performer, never hoping for a slip but fully aware of how awful (and interesting) one would be. In his showman's heart, Irwin knew that "Crocodile Hunter" would never be captivating television if the animals he touched, held and occasionally provoked couldn't take him out with one snap of the jaws.
So, in his trademark safari shirt, khaki shorts and hiking boots (did the man ever wear anything else?), Irwin bounded gleefully into the viper's pit and the scorpion's den. He traveled the world to show off new nasties -- pythons, Komodo dragons, monitor lizards, tarantulas and, of course, massive crocs -- all without a doctor or rescue team anywhere in sight, the herpetologist's equivalent of working without a net.
There was a bit of gleeful, heedless joy in the way Irwin went about his adventures, as if he were a kid playing in a mud puddle. He actually seemed to like all the icky stuff. In one episode, he walked through a bat cave, taking a bat "shower" in the process. In another segment, he combat-crawled up to a pack of vultures as they fed on the remains of a hippo.
"One of my wildest boyhood dreams was getting close enough so that I was sharing the carcass with vultures," he said, by way of narration.
It was the kind of thing that invited the viewer to invoke Irwin's signature line: "Crikey!"
Irwin was also a relentless hype artist, forever pointing out the sheer folly, the craziness -- the "dain-jah!" -- of whatever he was doing. An unusual number of snakes seemed to rate his breathless description as "the world's most venomous," and this or that creature would be "one of the biggest I've ever seen," or "the most aggressive animal I've ever come across!"
But the man could hold viewers spellbound, beguiling them just as he charmed his snakes.
"I don't want to seem arrogant or bigheaded, but I have a real instinct with animals," he told me when I interviewed him several years ago. "I've grown up with them. . . . It's like I have an uncanny supernatural force rattling around my body. I tell you what, mate, it's magnetism."
Herpetologists scoffed at that, pointing out that many professionals handle dangerous animals without incident. (In fact, Irwin got bitten fairly regularly by non-venomous snakes and had one or two unpleasant encounters with crocodiles.) The pros were generally none too pleased with Irwin's antics, saying they simultaneously inflated the dangers of wild animals (most animals run away when confronted by humans, for example) while making wildlife handling seem like casual fun.
All of which may be true, but it missed the real appeal of "Crocodile Hunter." The concept -- guy meets nature's meanest -- would not have worked, or worked as well, had Marlin Perkins or Jack Hannah been the host. Only a personality as vivid and exuberant as Irwin's could have made the adventurer-among-the-beasts bit such compelling television.
American viewers, who saw the series on the Animal Planet channel, "got" Irwin immediately, I think. We've been trained to identify his type by a generation of Qantas airlines and Foster's beer commercials and "Crocodile Dundee" movies. Irwin was another of those unpretentious, outdoorsy, can-do Aussie blokes who seem so much more "American" to Americans than the British ever will.
In person (or at least on the telephone, which is how I spoke with him and his wife, Terri), Irwin seemed a lot like he did on TV -- amped-up, emphatic, sincere in his passion for preserving and protecting wildlife. He also sounded a bit humbled by his then-dawning TV career. Trained as a diesel mechanic (he never received a degree in any animal study), Irwin credited his love of the animal kingdom to his father, a plumber turned zookeeper. He said he never expected to be appearing on TV screens around the world.
One other thing: He really did say "crikey!" a lot.
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The Ed School Disease, Part Two
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I read Stanford University educational historian David F. Labaree's new book, "The Trouble With Ed Schools," shortly after last week's column scorching those same education schools. You would think his wonderfully insightful book, which is even harder on ed schools than I was, would make me feel good. Here is a distinguished education school professor who knows that world so well, and he is validating my opinions.
Instead, the book made me ashamed of myself. It was similar to the feeling of loathsome guilt I had when I was eight years old and beat up a five-year-old with a lisp next door who had annoyed me for reasons I no longer recall. Labaree succeeds in making American education schools such objects of pity, suffering from decades of low status and professional abuse, that you want to give the next ed school professor you meet a big hug and promise to bake her a plate of cookies.
"Institutionally," Labaree says in the book, "the ed school is the Rodney Dangerfield of higher education; it don't get no respect. The ed school is the butt of jokes in the university, where professors portray it as an intellectual wasteland; it is the object of scorn in schools, where teachers decry its programs as impractical and its research as irrelevant; and it is a convenient scapegoat in the world of educational policy, where policymakers portray it as a root cause of bad teaching and inadequate learning."
That is not the worst part. In last week's online column, and in a column in The Washington Post Magazine Aug. 6, I fussed over the failure of education schools to pass on tips from the real world of expert teachers working in inner city schools. I cited several methods used by famous teachers who have raised student achievement significantly. I decried the response from many ed school people: We can't teach that until we subject it to thorough research.
Like many ed school critics, I was quivering with righteous disgust over what I called their nose-in-the-air attitude. Waiting for the research to come back was defeatism at its worst, because the research was usually too narrow or irrelevant to be much good. Ed schools were ruining these new teachers, I suggested, and hurting our schools.
But Labaree has gone a long way toward convincing me that ed schools are doing no such thing. He concludes, after an exhaustive examination of the birth and evolution of teacher training in the United States, that education schools have about as much impact on what happens in U.S. classrooms as my beloved but woeful Washington Nationals are having this season on the pennant race.
Teachers in training, he shows, are far more influenced by their memories of how their own school teachers behaved, and by orders and advice they get from supervisors and colleagues in the schools that eventually employ them. Rookie teachers are happy for the credential they get from ed schools that allow them to start earning a paycheck, but they don't use very much of what they learn there, Labaree says.
Ed schools aren't a menace, Labaree says. They are a cipher. They have little more impact on an ed school graduate's life than the traffic school he had to attend for running a red light.
At the heart of the book is a Frankie and Johnnie romance between two losers, ed schools and child-centered progressive education. Labaree notes several books that have decried the effect on public schools of progressive education, including the thoughts of theorist John Dewey. Then he asks a simple question: What evidence is there that many classroom teachers are actually doing anything that Dewey would want them to do? As the faculty lounge saying goes, Dewey advocates are supposed to act like a guide on the side, letting each student follow his or her natural instincts and curiosity, rather than a sage on the stage, dispensing wisdom which everyone must write down and memorize.
At this point in the book I vaguely recalled once upon a time having a similar thought myself. Too bad, I thought, that I am at that age where memory is only a sometime thing. But Labaree cited my December 2002 column, making me feel appreciated, quite unlike the feeling ed school people will have when they read this book.
What I said in that column was that I had been in a lot of classrooms and had rarely seen much of this guide on the side stuff. I wasn't saying I was happy about it. We have never given the Deweyites a fair test of their theories, and I know of a few schools that have used child-centered learning to good effect. Labaree's insight is powerful and useful all the same: why worry about ed schools if they don't do any harm, or any good?
I am exaggerating a bit. Labaree does explain, in a way that buttresses what I have learned from the work of educational historian Diane Ravitch, that the reluctance of many educators to challenge low-income students with rigorous courses like Advanced Placement stems in part from Dewey's emphasis on individualizing instruction. Generations of educators have been sending the bright children of day laborers and domestics off to vocational classes because they thought that was the kind of learning that would best fit their individual needs and talents.
Labaree, however, asserts that this is mostly the fault of administrators, not teachers, and probably would have happened even if ed schools had not existed.
He does not end the book on a hopeful note, although the fact that it is being written by an ed school professor suggests there are lots of people at such places as smart as Labaree, able to think through these issues and maybe come up with a solution. There must be some way ed schools could add significant value to teaching, rather than, as Labaree describes it, mostly satisfy the need of young education consumers to get the pieces of paper that will get them teaching jobs.
He discusses the difficult job of meshing theory and practice, and the daunting job of a teacher who, unlike a doctor or a lawyer, needs the energetic cooperation of her clients to be a success. That teacher is, he points out, giving away her expertise to every student and thus sharply diminishing its perceived value.
Just as I said last week, I still think ed schools would do better to teach the experiences of the great teachers in our poorest neighborhoods, but obviously that is one of the least of their problems. Maybe we need an entirely different way of preparing young people to be effective in the classroom. Sadly I am not smart enough, and not even Labaree is smart enough, to figure out what that might be.
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K Street Confidential
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K Street Confidential columnist Jeffrey Birnbaum was online to discuss the intersection of business, politics and government on Tuesday, Sept. 5 at 1 p.m. ET .
Palm Desert, Calif.: Has the current exposure of the corrupt relationship between the Federal Legislators and the K Street operatives had any effect on the power once enjoyed by them both?
I wrote about the National Rifle Association this week. But in today's paper, I had a story about the new swing voter called Mortgage Moms. These are folks who feel pinched by stagnating wages and rising expenses and debts.
Please don't hesitate to ask about either of these subjects or anything else that might be on your mind.
As to your question, about "corruption" and power on K Street, I have to say there hasn't been much impact as far as I can see.
I have been told that business has been a little sluggish on K for a change. In part because of doubts about whether lobbying will be reined in by a new law this year.
But, as it turns out, it looks like lobbying reform is dead this year and the House will try to enact a sliver of the original proposal as a rules change. Nothing that would rein in lobbyists will pass this year, as far as I can see.
So the answer, in Washington anyway, is that there hasn't been much change.
What remains to be seen is whether voters will punish incumbents for being part of a system that has been attacked as corrupt. That one I don't have an answer to -- yet.
Washington, D.C.: Do you think Linda Cropp's support for the SE baseball stadium has turned off some voters in her race for mayor?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Not my area of expertise.
Sanibel, Fla.: Jeffrey, Your column on the NRA and Brady Campaign gun law lobby dustups at state legislative levels brings back fond memories of working for the trucking industry in southern states years before I lobbied for Lockheed in DC. Frankly, I found state legislative lobbyists tougher and smarter than their Washington, DC-based counterparts. Reasons? State legislatures meet for much shorter sessions and state legislators have smaller staffs, if any at all. Also, everyone knows who gets the job done in Tallahassee, Montgomery and Richmond. They have wide-open, well-known won-lost records. That's not the case in DC. Does anyone keep a rating system for DC lobbyists? Also, Common Cause and the Center for Responsive Politics say that DC lobby costs are five to ten times the $2.7 billion reported under the 1995 Lobby and Disclosure Act. That places the total at $10-20 billion. I'll bet that state and local lobby costs match that - at least. Would you agree?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Don't know how much lobbying at the state level is costing, and there is no way to know.
But as to measuring lobbyists' clout, well, I tried that for a while when I was at Fortune Magazine. I oversaw a poll of Washington insiders that measured the influence of major lobbying groups. It was called the Power 25.
But Fortune dropped the poll as money got tight there. Washington is not central to Fortune's mission, I'm afraid. That's a major reason I am here at the Post, and happy being here by the way.
But I would be up for restarting the poll with the Post. I'm not sure that would satisfy your craving for a broad assessment of effectiveness of lobbyists, but it would be start.
Otherwise, I'm afraid, the market will have to speak on that subject.
By the way, the NRA was perennially No. 1 or in the top three or four of lobbying organizations every time Fortune's poll came out. I bet the group would rank just as highly now.
Chantilly, Va.: When will this govt take a strict measure to end the contract bundling issue and to make sure that these large companies do not have their dummy small business companies / woman-owned / etc and take contracts away which truly should be awarded to genuine small businesses.
Debate # 2 between President Bush and Senator Kerry during the 2004 elections where Mr. Bush mentioned that he will unbundle these contracts. The contracts have increased to four folds, DHHS awards contracts to Staples for office supplies, IRS to Corporate Express which is a subsidiary to a non US based company ad many many more, Wal-Mart and others getting small business contracts. Sometimes it makes me feel that it is an eye wash to the public from White House and to make these big companies rich. Are we sure that White House is Pro small business? I doubt it very much. What a shame, small business is the one who drives our country's economy but, with this regime it is not the small business it is the large business, not driving but ruining the economy.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: You bring up interesting points about which I know nothing. I will have to look into this one. Thanks.
Do you see any way these days for a private individual--one of modest means who has no claim to fame other than "I am an informed citizen and vote in every election" to get his/her points of view on broad issues across to Congress?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Voting is the way that individuals can have their voices heard in Washington.
The other way is to join organizations that lobby here. Another, I guess, is to contribute money to causes or candidates.
Individuals also can have some sway with their own elected officials. After all, lawmakers want to be reelected, so they anger their constituents at their own peril.
Other than that, I'm afraid, individuals don't have much clout. The country, and the capital, are too just too large.
Ascot, U.K.: Any observations on the role of AIPAC during the recent upheaval in Lebanon and official US policy?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Aipac is a very powerful group. It is the pro-Israel lobby in America.
I am unaware of what Aipac has done specifically to keep the U.S. on the Israeli's side during the recent, failed war.
My guess is, Nothing. The U.S. has been Israel's advocate for decades. It would have been a surprise if we had acted differently.
Aipac's clout is under pressure, now, however, as the U.S. decides what to do in the future. Keeping America as Israel's partner without wavering if Aipac's big test now.
Oakland, Maine: The Bush Investment, the "Carlyle Group" are the Beneficiaries of our involment in the Middle East, and Eastern and Asian involvments.. Why doesn't the Democratic Party expose this Fraudulent game? Like Billy-Bob Clinton, are they all part of the deal? Are they all getting financial returns at the cost of American Soldiers Lives? As Sen Dodd says, Bush won, let him clean up,it's his turn..Will it be the Democrats turn to Steal when they win Congress? Is this the new game? To the winner belongs the spoils, including the Middle East Oil.. Where do we, the working class come in? jlp
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I believe that Carlyle is bipartisan. I also don't believe any of the conspiracy theories about that company. Big names like George H.W. Bush who have been on Carlyle's roster are meant to draw investors to meetings and not much more. They are political celebrities, not fixers, as far as I can tell. I wish I had the stomach for believing that "they" are out to get us. It would make my job a lot more exciting. But, I'm afraid to say, those theories are almost always completely untrue.
Los Angeles, Calif.: How do mortgage moms differ from soccer moms? And why is it the "moms" are such a targeted group as opposed to women in general.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I guess we could have called the swing group of voters we identified today Debt Dads or Financially Frazzled Females. But those would not have been as catchy.
Seriously, we used the term Moms because of the history of Moms in the past two elections: Soccer Moms and Security Moms. And we used it because we are talking for the most part about families with middle incomes that also own homes. That's the swing group of voters as best we can determine. Therefore, Moms works pretty well.
These Mortgage Moms are different than Soccer Moms because of their economic focus. The Soccer Moms were worried about education and moral values for the most part. Their finances weren't at issue at the time, which was back in 2000. The Mortgage Moms may well be a lot of the same folks, but they are feeling crushed by debt, rising expenses and flat-lined wages. Their dreams are being put on hold as a result. These are pocketbook concerns that have not been at the top of the agenda since 9-11. Now, I believe they are rising to the top and will make a difference on Election Day.
Both political parties are campaigning hard for the Mortgage Moms' attention. The party that gets their sympathy could win in November. We'll see.
Hazlet, N.J.: but come on Jeff doesn't it seem sometimes like one big ugly Oligarch ?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: It may seem that way. And there are not an unlimited number of power players in Washington. But there are a lot. It is far from one-sided here. Which makes it interesting, but not in the way you suggest by your question.
Houston, Tex.: What formal group speaks for the US business interest that support a continued immigrant work force (beside California farmers)?
Jeffrey Birnbaum: I wouldn't say there is any such group. There are many business organizations, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that welcome visiting workers. And there are many individual companies that lobby for the same thing. But I don't know of a single group that lobbies just on this subject.
Jeffrey Birnbaum: Thanks everyone for writing it. I'll be back after my next column in a couple weeks. See you 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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K Street Confidential columnist Jeffrey Birnbaum was online to discuss discuss lawmaking, lobbying and the National Rifle Association.
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Rosie O'Donnell's Lively 'View' Debut
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NEW YORK -- "My name is Meredith Vieira, and welcome to 'The View,'" said Rosie O'Donnell, introducing herself _ as if that were necessary _ on the ABC women's chat show Tuesday.
Filling the moderator slot vacated in June by Vieira (who went to NBC's "Today" show), O'Donnell was greeted by a rousing standing ovation from the studio audience. And she coyly suggested that her longtime crush, Tom Cruise, had sent the huge flower arrangement on the floor beside her.
The show began its 10th season with O'Donnell joining the returning Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters. Another change was a cozy, blue-and-orange arena-like set with a glass-top version of the famous drop-leaf table the ladies sit around for their "Hot Topics" segment.
Other things were very familiar. There was talk of their children peeing on the floor. Of taking nude baths with their kids _ or, in Hasselbeck's case, in a swim suit. Words like vomit and booby were heard. Candid women stuff.
Also mentioned: the retirement of tennis great Andre Agassi and the death of "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin.
"How long have we been on the air? Four minutes?" said Walters after the show's more-hopped-up-than-usual initial burst. She asked O'Donnell, "How do you feel?"
"Really excited to be here, and kind of ecstatic," O'Donnell gushed.
(The day's guest was Jessica Simpson, complete with micro-mini-dress and a croaky speaking voice _ from a bruised vocal cord _ that somehow had no impact on her song performance.)
It was just the first of presumably many hours ahead for O'Donnell on "The View." But she made a good start after several years of mishaps (including her short-lived, lawsuit-plagued magazine, Rosie, and her noisy coming-out as a lesbian) that damaged the "Queen of Nice" image she had earned during six hit seasons as host of her own daytime talk show.
Meanwhile, "The View" has suffered from repeated clashes between its sisterly panelists. Most of the friction involved Star Reynolds Jones, who was fired (or quit) in June, but there also were hints that Behar and Hasselbeck rub each other the wrong way.
What brought O'Donnell back to daytime TV? The taped feature "Where has Rosie been?" allowed her to give her own account of the past four years, point by point.
Why did she leave her talk show in May 2002? To rest, and to help raise her four children with her partner, Kelli Carpenter O'Donnell.
"I think last time I got a little swept away by the undertow," she said of her former series. "I think it's been a good break for me, but I think I'm definitely ready" for a return.
The magazine litigation: "by far the most troubling event that ever happened to me."
Her short, "lesbian" haircut of that period: "an error of epic proportion, a mistake on many levels." ("This girl has long, luxurious hair from now on," she added, with a demonstrative shake of her long-tressed head.)
On coming out? "I sort of thought everybody knew" already, she said.
Then she spoke of her luck in landing a lead role last year in the Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof."
"I really am not gifted enough to be a Broadway star," she cracked. "I'm really good to be a replacement."
Who knows? O'Donnell just might prove to be a good replacement on "The View."
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NEW YORK -- "My name is Meredith Vieira, and welcome to 'The View,'" said Rosie O'Donnell, introducing herself _ as if that were necessary _ on the ABC women's chat show Tuesday.
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Car-Sharing Merges Into the Mainstream
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For more than a year, Michelle Brown eyed the Zipcars parked across the street from her Penn Quarter restaurant. The co-owner of Teaism, a popular tea house, plotted and pondered and then, two months ago, she took the plunge.
Now, every morning, the chefs at Teaism prepare salty oat cookies and sandwiches and load them into a Honda Element owned by Zipcar so they can be delivered to the restaurant's two other District locations before noon. Brown figures the shared-car service saves her a couple of hundred dollars a month on gas and parking.
"I love getting in a car that's clean, that's new, that's responsive, that's well maintained and has gas in it," Brown said. "When my car was used for the runs, I'd get in my car and have lentil soup [spilled] in the back."
Brown is one of a growing number of business owners using shared-car services instead of their own vehicles. No longer a curious fad, the services boast 530 shared cars in the Washington area, making them increasingly attractive to new kinds of customers, including universities and businesses.
Within the past year, the area's two shared-car services, Zipcar and Flexcar, have both received $20 million in private investment that they plan to use to expand. Using their popularity among politicians and transportation policymakers, the firms are aggressively cutting deals with cities for parking and marketing promotions.
The companies charge an annual membership rate of $35 to $50, plus hourly fees of $7.25 to $9 to rent a car, which includes gas and insurance. Cars are reserved online or through a toll-free number, and each member is given a keyless entry card to access the car. Part of the appeal is that both firms offer a range of vehicles -- from high-end BMWs to pickup trucks to Mini Coopers. Many major cities have at least one company, but only the District and San Francisco have two firms vying for customers.
In time for the new school year, District-based Flexcar expanded its deal with the University of Maryland to allow students 18 and older to join. Before, the companies could not accept members younger than 21, but Flexcar said it reached agreements with its insurance companies to lower the limit. Zipcar, which has an arrangement with George Washington University, offers 17 vehicles on campus for employees and students over 21.
America Online co-founder Steve Case was behind the investment at Flexcar, which announced a new management team earlier this summer, including a new chief executive, Mark D. Norman, who hails from the auto industry. "The whole opportunity for growth is a great benefit to our members," said Norman, formerly chief executive of DaimlerChrysler AG's Canadian operations. "With the additional cars, the benefits of the network effect continue to snowball."
Within the past year, Flexcar doubled the number of cars in its D.C. fleet. Norman said that this year, he expects the pace to be just as fast, if not faster, as it expands neighborhood by neighborhood and into new cities.
Adams Morgan resident Aurelie Shapiro said she has been a Zipcar member for four years and recently noticed a huge increase in the number of cars available. "I used to complain on weekends that you could never find a car, especially in the spring when it's nice outside," Shapiro said. But in the past year, that's changed. "I noticed there's a lot more cars. They've added a ton more. There's one near my work in Silver Spring."
Both firms, which are privately held and do not disclose revenue, say they are more focused on expanding the business than on profitability, which is a longer-term goal.
Zipcar is profitable in all of its markets, said Matt Malloy, vice president of sales and marketing for the Cambridge, Mass., company, but he would not say how much it makes overall.
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Washington,DC,Virginia,Maryland business headlines,stock portfolio,markets,economy,mutual funds,personal finance,Dow Jones,S&P 500,NASDAQ quotes,company research tools. Federal Reserve,Bernanke,Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Lives of Timeless Purpose
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Marilyn Gaston, a physician, and Gayle Porter, a clinical psychologist, are friends with a mission: They want other African American women in midlife to become more self-centered.
"As women, we're the caretakers. We have a 'C' gene, a caretaker gene," said Gaston, a former U.S. assistant surgeon general who lives in Potomac. "Our mothers and our grandmothers taught us to take care of everybody else first. . . . But if we take care of ourselves first, then we can take care of whoever we want to take care of."
Three years ago, Gaston and Porter began spreading that philosophy through their "Prime Time Sister Circles," groups for women 40 to 70 that explore the link between physical health and emotional and mental well-being. Now their efforts have received a new $100,000 national award that applauds social innovators older than 60.
The Purpose Prize is aimed at retirement-age Americans who use their wisdom and experience to change society. The five $100,000 prizes were awarded today by Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank in San Francisco that champions the contributions of aging baby boomers.
"There has been much celebration of what young people can do," said Marc Freedman, the organization's founder and president. "Over the years, there has been a steady stream of examples of people drawing on life experience to tackle some of the biggest problems of society, and yet there has been very little attention to the work of these older social entrepreneurs."
Akbar Ahmed, a professor of Islamic studies at American University, and Judea Pearl, a University of California at Los Angeles computer science professor who is the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, shared a Purpose Prize for their series of dialogues to promote understanding of Judaism and Islam.
"In the Muslim world, a lot of Muslims think that America is on a warpath against Islam. So imagine how they will feel when they hear a Muslim has been so honored," said Ahmed, 63, a former Pakistani government official.
About 1,500 people and groups applied for the prizes, which will be awarded annually, Freedman said.
Like the other recipients, Gaston, 67, and Porter, 60, intend to use their prize money to expand their project, funded in the past with grants from the Ford Foundation and the University of Maryland. Friends for nearly 30 years, they first began to take a frank look at aging about 10 years ago, when both were featured on a Black Entertainment Television program on the subject with actress Pam Grier.
"We were saying, We really are in prime time, the prime of our lives," Gaston said.
Their comments drew a deluge of telephone calls and led to a 2001 book, "Prime Time: The African-American Woman's Complete Guide to Midlife Health and Wellness," which gave birth to the "Prime Time Sister Circles." The small groups of 10 to 15 women participating in the D.C. area, Chicago and Florida meet once a week for 14 weeks to hear experts advise them for free on stress management, spirituality, nutrition, exercise, and "anger and attitude." Each woman develops an individualized plan for "the lifestyle changes" she needs.
Gaston and Porter said they feel a sense of urgency. "The bottom line of why we are so passionate about this is that black women are dying at higher rates than any other groups in the nation from heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes," Gaston said. "The main message is: Most of these deaths are preventable, and a lot of it is prevented if we can change the way we live our lives."
Porter said she understands the cultural habits that have to be overcome. " 'Soul Food' is a movie that has become legendary in our community," she said. "But what people forget is that the mama dies from diabetes. And then the whole family sits around at the end of the movie sharing a food orgy. We have a nutritionist who says, 'Look, Sisters, we've got to make some changes, or we're going to kill ourselves.' "
Follow-up surveys have shown that a large majority of the participants maintain the improvements they have made months later, Porter said.
Most women know what they have to change, the doctors said. They just need someone to help them take the first step.
"We tell them, 'If somebody said to you, You could extend your mother's life, your child's life, your husband's life, you could cut their chances of heart disease in half, by just walking a half-hour a day,' there's not one woman who wouldn't find that half-hour," Porter said. "So then the question is: If you can find it for your mama and all your loved ones, why can't you find it for yourself?"
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Marilyn Gaston, a physician, and Gayle Porter, a clinical psychologist, are friends with a mission: They want other African American women in midlife to become more self-centered.
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For Jets, Ex-Apprentices Now Piloting the Franchise
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HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- In the fall of 1994, Eric Mangini and Mike Tannenbaum, armed with prestigious college degrees and mountains of student debt, put their educations to good use running a copy machine in the old Cleveland Browns offices. They did this because they loved football and, being short of any ability to make the NFL as players, realized their only way in was from the bottom.
"Once I got my foot in the door, they were not going to kick me out," Tannenbaum would say years later.
They did not know each other despite the fact they grew up less than two hours apart -- Mangini in Hartford, Conn., and Tannenbaum outside of Boston. But once they converged upon that copy machine, they were destined to be friends, they were so much alike. And as the blue light flashed and the copies piled up in trays, they talked late into the night; two interns lost in the tedium of their tasks, fantasizing about the day they would run a football team of their own.
The machine was called "the Queen Mary."
How could they know just how soon it would propel them to their dream?
Twelve years later they do have a team of their own -- the New York Jets -- and they operate it at an age when most men are only starting to build their names in the league. Mangini, 35, the head coach, is the youngest man currently holding such a position in the NFL. Tannenbaum, 36, is the general manager. In an NFL that puts a high price on dedication, lineage and many years of apprenticeship, having two men in their mid-thirties in charge of a team is not only unusual, it's almost unheard of.
Not that either of them sounds excited about the situation.
"Whether we're trailblazers or not, it's more about taking the opportunity and making the most of it and putting the best Jet team on the field," Tannenbaum said.
"I'd rather be the young guy than described as the old guy," Mangini said.
This is the way of the youngest management team in the NFL. Despite their sterling pedigrees (Mangini has a degree in political science from Wesleyan and Tannenbaum graduated from Tulane's law school) they were raised at the feet of Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells, two coaches who demanded ingenuity, perfection and little communication with the outside world. Talking openly meant revealing snippets of information and eventually those snippets of information could add up to bigger pieces that might make their way to other teams and could be used against them in a game.
In Parcells and Belichick's world, secrecy means winning. And nothing in that universe can be allowed to get in the way of winning.
Which, in part, is probably why Tannenbaum and Mangini are here at such young ages. While in the employ of Parcells and Belichick, they worked hard, brought good ideas and kept out of the public eye. They rarely spoke to reporters, never did television interviews or signed autographs. They just stayed in the office and worked until Tannenbaum was negotiating nearly all of the Jets' contracts as assistant general manager and Mangini was Belichick's defensive coordinator in New England.
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At Quarterback, Redskins Add a Twist to Backup Role
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In announcing the backup to starting quarterback Mark Brunell, Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs yesterday unveiled a nuanced, multilayered compromise that acknowledged the respective positions of quarterbacks Todd Collins and Jason Campbell, as well as new associate head coach Al Saunders.
Should Brunell suffer an injury during the course of a game, Collins would be the first to replace him. But Gibbs's decision of making Collins his primary backup came with one important condition: Should the Redskins be without Brunell for at least a full week of practice, Campbell would be the game-day starter, with Collins assuming the backup responsibilities.
Never in Gibbs's tenure as a head coach has he agreed to such fluidity at quarterback, he said, but the move played into what Gibbs considered the strengths of both men.
And while he laid out the unconventional blueprint, Gibbs added that performance would remain the ultimate judge and that specific scenarios would be addressed as they arose, not with a rigid flow chart.
"If there's a week's work to start a game, we'll start Jason," Gibbs said. "If there's anything that would happen in a game, then it's going to be Todd. That's the way we'll start the year. Now, as the year goes, things could change. Obviously, every day and every practice and every game could change any situation, but it's the best way for us to go into the season."
Despite nagging injuries to his knees and ribs, Brunell, who turns 36 in two weeks, started all 16 games last season and two playoff games. He has not missed a start because of injury since joining the Redskins in 2004.
In the Redskins' final preseason game, last Thursday night against the Baltimore Ravens, Collins impressed Gibbs by completing 13 of 22 passes for 201 yards and a touchdown in the second half. Particularly important to Gibbs was the fact that Collins, 34, entered the game earlier than expected when Campbell suffered a hamstring injury. Entering a game cold and performing at a high level is precisely what Gibbs is looking for in a backup.
"I think he is a gutsy guy. . . . The other night it said a lot to everybody," Gibbs said of Collins. "He went in with a bunch of young guys in the second half. What he showed there is what we think we have. We have someone who is also very talented, big strong and makes good, quick decisions."
But Gibbs maintained that Campbell, 24, is the team's quarterback of the future, and a week to prepare before his first career start would allow him time to gain confidence. Gibbs's compromise also means Campbell isn't relegated to the third-string quarterback for a second consecutive year. In discussing Campbell, Gibbs displayed an enthusiasm that had been missing from his previous comments.
"Jason has done every single thing that we have asked," Gibbs said. "He is very talented. He can run, is big and strong. He showed that in preseason. I think he can throw a ball in places that a lot of people can't. He is extremely competitive. He is somebody who has done it all in high school and college at two of the biggest programs you could be in. We have a real talented guy that we think is the future of the Redskins."
Meantime, Saunders, who arrived in February from Kansas City, handpicked Collins, who was signed to a $2 million contract. Saunders wanted Collins, his backup quarterback with the Chiefs, because of his familiarity with the complex scheme.
For the majority of training camp, Saunders seemed completely at ease with Collins's understanding of and ability to execute his complicated system. But Saunders and Gibbs tended to differ in their immediate assessment of Campbell. Gibbs said yesterday he felt Campbell was "ready to win some games." Saunders has consistently praised Campbell's progress but has stopped short of describing him as undeniably game-ready.
"I think what Jason has done since he's come in here is worked himself silly," Gibbs said. "When we changed to Al running the show, obviously there's a lot of new things, a lot more volume to it, more rhythm passing and Jason went right to work on that. He was the quarterback who was here the entire offseason, during the break. He's worked with [quarterbacks coach] Billy Lazor. He's done a lot of film work. What he did, including in the preseason, was show some of the things we think he can do."
Redskins Notes: Gibbs said that defensive linemen Cornelius Griffin and Phillip Daniels were cleared to practice. Daniels missed the final three preseason games because of a strained back he suffered in practice. Griffin injured his right knee with 9 minutes 43 seconds remaining in the first quarter of the Redskins' second exhibition game, a 27-14 loss to the New York Jets, and has not played or practiced since. Renaldo Wynn, the backup defensive end who sprained his ankle Aug. 26 at New England may practice by Thursday, Gibbs said. . . .
Gibbs also said running back Clinton Portis and cornerback Shawn Springs are still day-to-day and he was unsure if either will be available for Monday's opener at FedEx Field against the Minnesota Vikings.
"The decision will be pretty much up to them," he said. . . .
Offensive lineman Jasper Harvey, who was released by the Redskins on Saturday, signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, joining their practice squad.
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Freston Out, Dauman in As Viacom's CEO
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NEW YORK -- The board of Viacom Inc., frustrated with the media company's lagging stock price, has ousted Tom Freston as CEO and replaced him with Philippe Dauman, a former Viacom executive and longtime board member. Chairman Sumner Redstone said Tuesday he hopes the new team will be more aggressive and entrepreneurial.
Dauman's business partner Thomas Dooley, another board member, is also assuming an active role with the newly created title of chief administrative officer. Freston had only been in the job since the beginning of the year, when Viacom split up with CBS Corp.
The news of Freston's sudden departure got a poor reception among investors, who pushed the company's shares down $2.08, or 5.6 percent, to close at $34.89 in heavy trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
"We think that it was too early for the board to replace Mr. Freston, who is a seasoned media executive," Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet wrote in a note to clients.
Redstone told analysts on a conference call that the decision was a difficult one given Freston's deep roots at the company, but that the board wanted a more aggressive management team that would have a closer relationship with investors.
"On the one hand we love Tom," Redstone said. "On the other hand, the board felt that not enough was being done ... that the communication with Wall Street had been deficient, and the stock price reflected that."
In addition to being Viacom's chairman, Redstone, who is 83, is also its controlling shareholder. His daughter Shari, 52, also serves on the board and is Viacom's non-executive vice chair. She has been tapped to eventually succeed her father, though Redstone said Tuesday her role at the company was still evolving.
Freston joined MTV in its early days and is seen as one of the key executives who helped build it into a global entertainment franchise and one of Viacom's most valuable properties.
Dauman and Dooley have long worked closely with Redstone, but they were sidelined from active roles following Viacom's purchase of CBS Corp. in 1999, when CBS's CEO Mel Karmazin became chief operating officer. Karmazin later clashed with Redstone and departed the company, eventually becoming CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.
Viacom's stock has underperformed that of CBS Corp. after the two companies split up at the beginning of the year, although Viacom had been billed as having faster-growing businesses than CBS including the cable networks Nickelodeon, MTV and VH1.
CBS, which has raised its dividend three times since the beginning of the year, has seen its stock appreciate 12.2 percent in the year to date, versus a 15.1 percent decline in the year to date for Viacom.
Jessica Reif Cohen, a media analyst at Merrill Lynch, downgraded Viacom's shares to "neutral" from "buy" following the announcement, telling investors in a note Tuesday that the sudden shake-up creates "significant uncertainty" for the company.
Cohen noted that Dauman and Dooley don't have significant experience running a large entertainment company, and said the shake-up would likely result in other management changes. "We think this move is likely to be regarded as an attempt by Mr. Redstone to reassert himself in an operating role, a development that is not likely to be warmly received in the investment community," Cohen said.
On the conference call, analysts questioned whether the appointment of Dauman and Dooley was a stopgap measure or if it reflected deeper troubles in the company's businesses. Like all media companies, Viacom is racing to adapt its traditional media businesses to rapid technological changes and the exploding growth of Internet advertising.
Redstone insisted, however, that the move was "not a short-term fix," adding: "This company is in good shape, it could just be better managed."
Viacom was seen as having missed out on an opportunity to buy the massively popular Internet site MySpace.com, which was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and has sealed a lucrative advertising deal with Google Inc. Redstone indicated Viacom would be more aggressive in pursuing digital deals, though he declined to comment on specifics.
Viacom's businesses are focused largely on cable TV networks including MTV, VH1, Comedy Central as well as the Paramount movie studio. CBS Corp. owns the CBS network as well as a large TV station group, a radio broadcaster and an outdoor advertising business.
Freston's departure comes just weeks after Redstone abruptly ended Paramount's 14-year relationship with Tom Cruise, saying the movie star's off-screen behavior was hurting box office returns. Redstone said Freston's departure wasn't related to the decision to sever ties with Cruise.
Freston, who is 60, became CEO of Viacom in January when it split from CBS. Both Dauman, 52, and Dooley, 49, have previously held a number of executive positions at the company. Since 2000, they have run a private equity firm specializing in media and telecommunications investments.
Dauman has been a director of Viacom since 1987, oversaw strategic transactions, legal and government affairs, human resources and administration and was general counsel from 1993 to 1998. Dooley held various corporate positions at Viacom from 1980 to 2000, was a board member from 1996 to 2000 and rejoined the board in 2006.
Freston, who spent 26 years at Viacom, said in a statement that he would do all he could to ensure a smooth transition. A company spokeswoman didn't immediately return a call seeking further comment from Freston.
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NEW YORK -- The board of Viacom Inc., frustrated with the media company's lagging stock price, has ousted Tom Freston as CEO and replaced him with Philippe Dauman, a former Viacom executive and longtime board member. Chairman Sumner Redstone said Tuesday he hopes the new team will be more aggressive...
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Trial in Plane Plot May Wait Till '08
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LONDON, Sept. 4 -- Suspects in an alleged plot to bomb U.S.-bound jetliners are unlikely to face trial before 2008, a prosecutor said in court Monday.
Prosecutor Colin Gibbs, citing the large amount of evidence in what police describe as a conspiracy involving at least 11 people, told a judge in London's Old Bailey courthouse that the trial could start as late as March 2008.
Defense attorneys expressed concern that the suspects might be held in jail without bail for more than 18 months before trial.
Eight suspects accused of conspiracy to commit murder, in an alleged plot to smuggle liquid explosives onto jetliners and detonate them in flight, were ordered held without bail until their next court appearance on Sept. 18. Three other suspects facing the same charges are also scheduled to appear in court that day. Police have not announced whether they will bring charges against five other people still being held following raids last month.
The suspects in court Monday, who appeared via video link from Belmarsh prison, are Ahmed Abdullah Ali, 25, Tanvir Hussain, 25, Umar Islam, 28, Arafat Waheed Khan, 25, Assad Ali Sarwar, 26, Adam Khatib, 19, Ibrahim Savant, 25 and Waheed Zaman, 25.
Also Monday, in an unrelated investigation, police in Sussex issued a statement saying they had sent officers and staff at least 15 times for diversity training at an Islamic school currently being searched by anti-terrorism officers from Scotland Yard.
The Jameah Islameah school, set on 54 acres southeast of London, has been the subject of an intensive search by scores of police since Saturday in an operation in which police arrested 14 people on suspicion of terrorism-related offenses. British news media have reported that police suspect the school may have been used by radicals trying to recruit and train violent extremists.
"The school has been used by officers and staff undergoing advanced training for their role as diversity trainers to the rest of the workforce," the police statement said. "This has involved a series of one-day visits to the school by groups of two or three trainers on up to 15 occasions over more than a year."
Police said training at the school helps officers "improve our knowledge and awareness of the many diverse communities that we serve in Sussex." Police said they were "not embarrassed" by the situation, "but inevitably this will have to be reviewed in the light of the weekend's events."
Police are still questioning the 14 people arrested in that case. They have not been identified, and no charges have been brought, yet.
According to widespread reports in the British media, one of those arrested was Abu Abdullah, 42, a close associate of Abu Hamza Masri, a radical Islamic preacher who was sentenced to seven years in prison in February for inciting racial hatred with his sermons.
The Sunday Times on Aug. 27 published an interview with Abu Abdullah in which he said he would "love" to kill British troops in Afghanistan, called the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks a "deserved punch in the nose" for the United States and described President Bush as "a scalp that needs to be taken."
Britain earlier this year enacted legislation making it a crime to "glorify" terrorism; legal experts here say police may be considering using the new law against Abu Abdullah.
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World news headlines from the Washington Post,including international news and opinion from Africa,North/South America,Asia,Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather,news in Spanish,interactive maps,daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
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Georgian, Russian Relations Strained Anew by Shooting
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MOSCOW, Sept. 4 -- Tension between Russia and Georgia, never far from the surface, flared anew Monday after a helicopter carrying the Georgian defense minister was shot at by separatists in a breakaway enclave supported by Russia.
The helicopter carrying Defense Minister Irakly Okruashvili was hit several times and forced to make an emergency landing Sunday after it flew over South Ossetia, a region that has declared independence from Georgia and receives diplomatic and financial backing from Moscow.
"This is yet another provocation," said Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli, speaking on television. "This was nothing unexpected, but the impudence of these provocations is getting more and more self-evident day by day."
Okruashvili said, "The rampage of these rogues will stop very soon."
Russia, which has a peacekeeping force in South Ossetia, accused Georgian authorities of deliberately violating the terms of a cease-fire that bans Georgian craft from flying over the province.
"A fair question arises: Why did the Georgian minister need to fly around in a violation" of the cease-fire, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministry statement said Russian officials "regard actions like this by Georgia as an act of provocation. . . . This is clearly intended to wreck efforts to resolve the Georgian-Ossetian [conflict] by peaceful means and shows that Tbilisi is starting to openly prepare the ground for resolving the problem by other means." Tbilisi is the seat of the Georgian government.
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region inside Georgia's internationally recognized borders, are a constant source of tension between Russia and its southern neighbor.
Georgian forces were driven from South Ossetia and Abkhazia in short, brutal wars in the early 1990s. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has said he is determined to restore Georgian sovereignty over the two regions, and small-scale clashes along the borders of the disputed regions have repeatedly raised fears of a wider military conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Russia maintains that its troops are essential to peace in the region, but Georgia accuses Moscow of using its forces to prop up an illegitimate local government.
Saakashvili, who was swept to power following street protests over fraudulent elections in 2003, has firmly aligned the former Soviet republic with the West and wants his country to join NATO, an aspiration that is scorned in Moscow.
The Georgian Interior Ministry also said Monday that on Aug. 28 a helicopter carrying Saakashvili and a delegation of U.S. senators led by John McCain (R-Ariz.) was fired on by South Ossetian forces -- a charge that was quickly rejected by U.S. officials.
"The shots were fired at a different helicopter, and Senator McCain's helicopter was nowhere near where the incident took place," said a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi.
Georgian officials said that an antiaircraft missile was fired at the delegation's helicopter and that fragments of the missile were handed over to U.S. authorities. But the embassy spokesperson said the FBI had looked at the claim and dismissed it.
McCain met with South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoyty during his visit but described the encounter as "not productive."
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World news headlines from the Washington Post,including international news and opinion from Africa,North/South America,Asia,Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather,news in Spanish,interactive maps,daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
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For Conservative Muslims, Goal of Isolation a Challenge
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Twelve girls sat in rows at the front of the community room in Silver Spring's Muslim Community Center, calming their nerves with giggles and girl talk. In their sweaty hands, they held prepared speeches. On their heads, they wore scarves in a rainbow of colors: pink, brown, gold, white and lavender.
The seventh- and eighth-graders were competing in a debate on this question: Is a segregated, all-Islamic upbringing key to protecting your Muslim identity?
Eight of the dozen argued yes, using variants of the theme offered by Fatimah Waseem. Young Muslims "join with the non-Muslims, copy them and look up to them. This is hurting our identity. . . . Sometimes, we turn way from Islam," she said. "In conclusion, . . . we cannot sway in the wind and become weak. We need to be protected . . . by segregation."
" Takbeer! " shouted some in the audience of proud, clapping parents as each girl concluded her case. "Let us praise God!"
Like Fatimah, most of the debaters attend Al-Huda School in College Park. It is run by Dar-us-Salaam, one of the Washington area's most conservative Muslim congregations. Many of its members believe that, in order to be true to their faith, they should live apart from secular society as much as possible. The congregation's Web site describes how it hopes one day to become a self-contained Islamic community.
The kind of Islam practiced at Dar-us-Salaam, known as Salafism, once had a significant foothold among area Muslims, in large part because of an aggressive missionary effort by the government of Saudi Arabia. Salafism and its strict Saudi version, known as Wahhabism, struck a chord with many Muslim immigrants who took a dim view of the United States' sexually saturated pop culture and who were ambivalent about participating in a secular political system. It was also attractive to young Muslims searching for a more "authentic" Islam than what their Westernized immigrant parents offered.
But the discovery that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were Saudi and that their violent al-Qaeda ideology was rooted in Wahhabism had a particularly deep impact on Salafis, whose theology and practices were suddenly suspect.
The attacks "shook the foundations of anyone affiliated with Wahhabism or Salafism," said Chris Khalil Moore, 31, of Annandale, a convert who became immersed in Wahhabism while studying in Saudi Arabia before abandoning that approach to Islam. "Because they were fingered, pointed at, as being the ideology that helped foster the mentality of those hijackers," he said, "I think a lot of people got scared."
One of the area's most prominent Salafi preachers, Ali al-Timimi, is in prison, convicted on charges that he incited young Muslims to wage war against the United States. Dar al-Arqam Islamic Center in Falls Church, where he preached, is now closed. The Saudi government's proselytizing campaign has also been rolled up. Its preachers were sent home, and a Saudi-run institute in Fairfax that taught a strict Salafi outlook no longer has any students.
Moderate Muslims have become more vocal in warning about the dangers of separatism and fundamentalism while policing rhetoric that could be construed as radical or extremist. In particular, they increasingly take exception to the sharp divide between Muslims and non-Muslims drawn by some Salafis, saying it can encourage intolerance and violence.
The sense of beleaguerment among many Muslims in the Washington area is particularly strong among Salafis. "In the past, people would say, 'I'm Salafi.' Now, I never encounter people who say that," District resident and Muslim activist Svend White said. "It's a combination of fear, anxiety and a real change in the community."
Taken broadly, practicing Salafism means imitating the ways the prophet Muhammad and his companions in the 7th century practiced their faith, from their clothing to the spiritual principles that guided them. Salafism also stresses a return to fundamentals in pursuit of "pure" or "authentic" Islam.
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Twelve girls sat in rows at the front of the community room in Silver Spring's Muslim Community Center, calming their nerves with giggles and girl talk. In their sweaty hands, they held prepared speeches. On their heads, they wore scarves in a rainbow of colors: pink, brown, gold, white and...
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Young U.S. Muslims Strive for Harmony
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Standing in the small, fluorescent-lighted room that served as George Washington University's Muslim prayer area, Amin Al-Sarraf pointed to the six-foot-high plastic partition dividing the space.
It had been a point of contention at the university's Muslim Students' Association. Some members thought the partition, common in mosques to separate men and women when they pray, was a necessary part of their religion; others disagreed, saying women had trouble hearing the imam.
"Some see it like the Great Wall of China in the middle of the room," Al-Sarraf explained, adding that there was a fear "freshmen will get a bad taste in their mouth -- like this is how the MSA's going to be."
Al-Sarraf didn't want to alienate anyone. In his post last year as president of the Islamic Alliance for Justice, a political group under the umbrella of the MSA, he'd heard of Muslim groups at other universities making students feel excluded for not dressing a certain way, for example. Perhaps, he mused aloud, his MSA could come to a compromise: Keep the partition, but make it shorter.
For Al-Sarraf, 22, a student of international relations who graduated in May, the partition quandary was part of a larger debate taking place among American Muslims, especially young ones: how to incorporate their religion into daily life. The question has become more pressing -- and more pressured -- since Sept. 11, 2001, linked Islam, in the eyes of many Americans, with acts of fanaticism and murder.
Immediately after the terrorist attacks, Muslims began to feel the heat. Women in hijab became targets of hostile remarks; mosques were sprayed with graffiti and vandalized. Some Muslim immigrants were required to register with the government, and families got unexpected knocks on the door from immigration and FBI officers.
In some communities, resentment swelled as Muslim men disappeared, deported to their home countries or swallowed into a law enforcement system many Muslims felt had convicted them of ill-defined crimes. The United States went to war, first in one Muslim country, then another.
To many Muslims, it seemed that the United States was going to battle against them. "These policies create the impression in the minds of many people . . . that to fight the war on terror you have to fight some kind of war on Islam," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Until Sept. 11, being Muslim in the United States had not necessarily meant taking a special stand or explaining the actions of others. But in a new social climate, Muslims had to decide, more concretely, what it meant to be both Muslim and American.
For two young Muslim men in the Washington area, the process of refining the balance between faith and country, set in motion by the attacks, has played out differently.
Al-Sarraf, raised in a multiethnic family that frequently discussed how Islam fit into mainstream America, was propelled into a leadership role aimed at integrating Muslims into broader society.
Basim Hawa, son of Palestinian immigrants, went from ignoring many tenets of his religion to thinking actively about what they meant to him and, ultimately, throwing off the trappings of American life that didn't fit with Islam.
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Standing in the small, fluorescent-lighted room that served as George Washington University's Muslim prayer area, Amin Al-Sarraf pointed to the six-foot-high plastic partition dividing the space. Al-Sarraf grew up the eldest of four children in leafy Pasadena, Calif., with an Iraqi father and.........
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Not Wanted: An Exit Strategy
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The mostly bad news from Iraq this summer left a lot of people in Washington, including a few in the Bush administration, feeling confused, anxious and doubtful about whether the Iraqi government can deliver on its promise to stabilize the country. As it turns out, some of Iraq's most powerful leaders have had similar feelings as they have watched the news from Washington.
That was the message of a quiet pre-Labor Day visit here by Adel Abdul Mahdi, who has been one of America's key allies in the attempt to replace Saddam Hussein's totalitarianism with a democratic political system. Mahdi is now Iraq's vice president, but he called his meetings with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and key senators and congressmen a "private visit."
In fact, he was here to deliver a message, and ask a question, on behalf of Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who remains Iraq's single most influential figure -- and the linchpin of the past 40 months of political reconstruction. Sistani's message to Bush, Mahdi told a group of reporters I joined last week, was that "Iraqis are sticking to the principles of the constitution and democracy." But the ayatollah wanted to know if the United States is still on board as well.
"It's a critical moment. We want to be sure that we understand perfectly what's going on, and what is the real strategy of the United States in Iraq," Mahdi said. "We read in the press about different perspectives and attitudes. That's why we want to be clear -- whether there is a Plan B."
Mahdi said he got Bush's commitment to stand by the government. But the uncertainty he expressed on behalf of Sistani was real. "When I read the [American] press, I'm confused," said the burly, bearded economist, who was educated in a Jesuit school in Baghdad and later in France and who speaks fluent English.
The worry goes deeper than that caused by growing calls for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops, or by reports that some even in the Bush administration are considering the abandonment of Iraqi democracy. As Mahdi sees it, American and Iraqi agendas are more broadly out of sync. Whether or not they support the government and the war, Americans are looking for ways to quickly reverse -- or escape from -- the deteriorating situation they see on the ground.
Mahdi, Sistani and other Shiite leaders in the government don't share Washington's perception of a downward spiral. They also don't buy the American sense of urgency -- the oft-expressed idea that the new government has only a few months to succeed. Consequently, the many ideas for silver bullets tossed around in the U.S. debate mostly don't interest them.
You could see this in the conversation I joined at Mahdi's suite at the Ritz Carlton hotel. We journalists peppered him with questions about why the formation of a unity government had failed to reduce the violence. We asked about all the options usually talked about in Washington -- from a rewrite of the constitution to a partition of the country; from an international conference to the dispatch of more U.S. troops.
For the most part, our queries were politely and somewhat laconically dismissed. Iraq is not in a civil war, Mahdi said, and doesn't need more U.S. troops. It has a constitution and elected government, and thus there is no need for an international conference. As for constitutional reform, the Shiite and Kurd parties that wrote the charter last year are waiting for proposals from Sunni dissidents. Mahdi added: "So far we have heard nothing."
So what is the solution? "Time -- that is it," Mahdi replied. "A nation like Iraq needs time. The elections for a permanent government happened eight months ago. We have been in office a few weeks. The people who we have in office have never governed. These people come from oppression and a bad political system. We can't import ministers to Iraq. There will be many mistakes. The Americans made many mistakes, and Iraqis had to support that."
"Our options as Iraqis are that we don't have an exit strategy or any withdrawal timetable," Mahdi said, somewhat bitterly. "We simply go on. . . . It is a process, and brick by brick we are working on it."
Mahdi is a brave man, with nerves of steel. Two years ago, while meeting with another group of journalists, he learned that his brother had been killed in an insurgent ambush; he stoically continued to answer questions. Though it's not clear that the government to which he belongs is capable of transcending the sectarian passions of its various parties -- who battle each other in the streets more than they bargain in the cabinet -- there's no question that Mahdi himself, and many other Iraqi politicians, remain deeply committed to the goal of Iraqi democracy.
Whether they can reach it will depend in large part on whether the political skills of leaders such as Sistani will be enough to stop the sectarian warfare before it destroys the political system they created. But it will also matter whether Americans are willing to go on believing in that project, and provide the time for which Mahdi asked.
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The mostly bad news from Iraq this summer left a lot of people in Washington, including a few in the Bush administration, feeling confused, anxious and doubtful about whether the Iraqi government can deliver on its promise to stabilize the country. As it turns out, some of Iraq's most powerful...
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The U.S. Edge In Education
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Even as they welcome students back to campus, our country's colleges and universities are deluded by their own historical excellence, and their many contributions to U.S. strength may be eroding. That, at least, is how a special commission of the U.S. Education Department sees it.
The critique by the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education was issued last month. It said that that while America's colleges and universities have "been the envy of the world for many years," they are no longer training the educated workforce needed to win in a global economy. In its unkindest cut, the report suggested that U.S. higher education may be -- dread phrase! -- a "mature enterprise": risk-averse, self-satisfied, self-indulgently expensive, oblivious to smarter rivals overtaking us.
I don't take such critiques lightly. But because they are often based on a view of Asia as our emerging competitive rival, let me share my own experience traveling to four Asian countries this summer.
What I encountered was not principally pride and rising confidence in Asia's educational systems, though there is much to be proud of. Everywhere I went, I found these systems to be the objects of intense and complex anxieties. When I told my counterparts that Americans were worried about losing ground to Asia in educational accomplishment, they found it impossible to believe.
In Japan and Korea, I heard concern that falling birthrates mean there are now too many college places for the number of qualified applicants, threatening a reduction in student quality. In Taiwan, university leaders worried about how few international students choose to study there.
Everywhere, I ran into concerns that competition for college admission had reached unbearable levels. Americans who think they know the limits of college admission obsessive disorder would have a few things to learn from Asia, where parents plan vacations to be free to drill their children in advance of college entrance exams, and where air traffic is rerouted on exam days to prevent distracting noises.
I also encountered another widespread worry, most loudly voiced in China. This is the fear that Asian higher education is long on discipline but short on creativity and that the very strengths of their system may prevent the fostering of a versatile, innovative style of intelligence that will be the key to future economic advancement.
Here was the paradox: The things that Americans tend to look to as Asia's overwhelming educational strengths -- a deeply ingrained work ethic and disciplined training in the elements of knowledge -- are linked in Asian minds with secret weakness. They, too, look to higher education to create the mysterious ingredient that will guarantee success for their society. But they worry that we, not they, have the secret advantage.
Anxiety about education, I've learned, is an inescapable byproduct of the contemporary aspiration to competitive success. The more countries want to thrive in the opportunity-rich but unstable dynamics of the new world economy, the more they look to higher education to give them the edge.
I don't think that we're wrong to worry about our system. If we want to train smarter people and tap into more talent in our population, we do need to look to the deficiencies in American education and candidly and courageously address them. This will inevitably mean improving in areas where Asia is strong: building stronger foundational skills in early grades, making sure more students persist in so-called STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math), supplying more good math and science teachers, and other steps.
But making ourselves over in the image of an imagined rival won't be the formula for success. Even as we correct real deficiencies, we need to recognize and nurture the strengths that are so evident to others.
In particular, we need to promote everything in our system that breeds initiative, independence, resourcefulness and collaboration. One of these is the liberal arts model of education. The schooling that trains students in many different disciplines makes them more flexible at shifting among a range of challenges and approaches. It also equips them to bring different sets of tools to bear on complex problems, allowing them to improvise new solutions by making new connections.
At an even more basic level, we must build on a system whose founding values are very different from respect for authority. When we touch off real debate on serious, open questions and encourage students to have worthwhile thoughts of their own, we are developing an asset of the highest strategic as well as personal value: the habits of active, independent thought.
There is no shortcut solution for the problem of education. The country that will do the best is not the one that will find the magic fix. Rather, it will be the one that asks, in the deepest way, what education is for and what human traits it is meant to foster.
The writer is president of Duke University.
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Even as they welcome students back to campus, our country's colleges and universities are deluded by their own historical excellence, and their many contributions to U.S. strength may be eroding. That, at least, is how a special commission of the U.S. Education Department sees it.
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Iraq Cites Arrest of a Top Local Insurgent
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BAGHDAD, Sept. 3 -- U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured a top al-Qaeda leader who ordered the bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra that triggered a wave of ferocious sectarian killings, Iraqi officials said Sunday.
The arrest of Hamed Jumaa Faris Juri al-Saeidi, described by Iraqi officials as the No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was the latest in a series of blows to the Sunni Arab insurgent group, believed responsible for numerous suicide attacks on civilians and other deadly violence. The group's former leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed by U.S. forces in June and replaced by Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
"The al-Qaeda organization in Iraq has been seriously weakened and is now suffering from a leadership vacuum," Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said at a news conference. Twenty senior al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters have been captured or killed based on information from Saeidi since his arrest within the past few weeks, Iraqi officials said.
The Mujaheddin Shura Council, an insurgent coalition that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, denied that Saeidi was a member of al-Qaeda. A leader of another group in the council, however, confirmed that Saeidi belonged to al-Qaeda.
"But he is not that famous or any sort of leader," Abu Abdullah, a leader of the Islamic Army of Iraq, said in a phone interview from Salahuddin province. "He is only a normal fighter."
Iraqi officials said Saeidi, an intelligence officer for ousted president Saddam Hussein, was captured within the past few weeks as he hid among women and children in an unspecified location just north of Baghdad. Saeidi, who is in his early forties, confessed that he had joined al-Qaeda in Iraq three years ago and is being held by U.S.-led coalition forces, the officials said.
In an attempt to thrust Iraq into a full-scale civil war, Saeidi supervised Haitham al-Badri, an operative under his command, in carrying out the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered golden-domed Shiite shrine in Samarra, officials said. That attack sparked brutal reprisal killings by both Shiites and Sunnis that have left thousands of people dead.
"Why did you kill hundreds of people?" Saeidi was asked during a recent interrogation, according to Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman.
"What do you mean 'hundreds of people?' I've killed thousands," Dabbagh said Saeidi responded.
If the Iraqi government's depiction of Saeidi is accurate, he would be the highest-ranking al-Qaeda in Iraq figure killed or captured since June 7, when U.S. forces killed Zarqawi by dropping two 500-pound bombs on his hideout north of Baghdad.
A U.S. military official said Saeidi was "one of the top five al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders" but declined to identify him as the second-highest official in the group. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the Geneva Conventions could be construed as forbidding the public discussion of detainees.
In a statement posted on the wall of the al-Tameem Mosque near Ramadi, where there is strong support for al-Qaeda, the Shura Council attacked government officials and denied that Saeidi, also known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was a member of al-Qaeda.
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BAGHDAD, Sept. 3 -- U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured a top al-Qaeda leader who ordered the bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra that triggered a wave of ferocious sectarian killings, Iraqi officials said Sunday.
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Santorum Defends President, Iraq War
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Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), battling for reelection in a state where President Bush is not popular, gave a full-throated defense of the president yesterday and said the United States must prevail in the Iraq war.
In his first and perhaps only debate with Democratic challenger Bob Casey Jr., Santorum lived up to his reputation as a feisty, unapologetic conservative, even though it has caused him problems in moderate-voting Pennsylvania. Ignoring Casey's taunts that he is a "rubber stamp" for Bush, Santorum embraced the president and most of his anti-terrorism policies.
"I think he's been a terrific president, absolutely," Santorum said in the nearly hour-long debate on NBC's "Meet the Press." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- whose resignation is being sought by some Republican candidates -- "has done a fine job," he said, and "there is no question that the Iraq war should have commenced."
Polls consistently have shown Casey, the state treasurer and son of a popular former governor, leading Santorum. Democrats see the race as among their two or three best chances for gaining a Senate seat on Nov. 7, although Santorum has a record of winning tough elections. Santorum, who has asked for many debates, spent much of the hour portraying Casey as a bob-and-weave politician unwilling to take stands on tough issues.
Moderator Tim Russert tried to pin down Casey on whether he still believes he would have voted to support the Iraq invasion, knowing what is now known about Saddam Hussein's lack of unconventional weapons. "If we knew then what we know now," his vote would be no, Casey said, adding, "I think there wouldn't have been a vote" in the House and Senate under those circumstances.
Russert also pressed Casey on how he would fulfill his pledge to balance the federal budget. Casey said he would seek to repeal the recent tax cuts for persons making more than $200,000 a year, and retain a tax on very large estates, which Santorum opposes. But he would not identify federal programs he would be willing to cut.
"What you heard from Mr. Casey is what you hear all the time," Santorum said. "No specifics, no answer."
Casey said Santorum has helped expand the deficit dramatically by joining Bush in cutting taxes without trimming spending. As treasurer, Casey said, he has "been fiscally responsible in my work. You ought to try it." Although both candidates oppose legalized abortion in most cases, they differed on the government's recent decision to allow nonprescription sales of Plan B or the "morning-after" emergency contraceptive pill to women 18 and older. Santorum said he opposed the decision because the pill essentially causes an abortion in cases in which an egg has been fertilized.
Casey said, "I think the science is clear on this. I think it is contraception," not abortion.
Russert pressed Santorum on his willingness to allow abortions in cases of rape and incest, even though the senator says it involves the taking of a human life. Santorum said he agreed to such exemptions in an effort to find "common ground" in the abortion debate.
Democrats hoped to negate some of Santorum's appeal to conservatives and moderates by nominating Casey, who supports gun rights and opposes abortion. But some Democrats worry that Casey is playing it too safe by refusing most debate invitations and offering unspecific solutions to many problems.
With Casey and Santorum sitting elbow to elbow across a table from Russert in a Washington studio, the candidates had their sharpest exchange over a recent raise for Pennsylvania legislators, which proved unpopular with voters. As treasurer, Santorum said, Casey "said nothing for three months, signed the checks," and opposed the raise only after the controversy had crested. "That's not courage, that's political pandering." Casey replied that he was "following the law," and noted that Santorum had not taken a stand on the pay raise. "I'm not a state official, you are," Santorum said.
Russert devoted much of the program to Iraq. Santorum responded by repeatedly turning to criticism of Iran, saying Iraq's Shiite-led neighbor is "at the heart of this war. . . . How do we cure Iraq? Focus on Iran." In a rare swipe at the White House, he said, "a big problem I have with this administration is it hasn't been tough enough on Iran." Casey criticized Bush's handling of the war -- and called for Rumsfeld's resignation -- without urging a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals. "We need new leadership," he said. "We don't need a deadline, a timeline." He called for greater "accountability" in the war, and more special forces.
Santorum repeated his assertion that "we have found weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, an allusion to shells apparently left over from Iraq's war with Iran in the 1980s. "We have not found any new weapons," he acknowledged.
Casey scoffed at "this crazy theory that there's still weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.
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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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U.S. Planes Mistakenly Hit Canadians In Afghanistan
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TORONTO, Sept. 4 -- U.S. jets mistakenly strafed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan on Monday, killing one and bringing to five the number of Canadian troops killed during a major push against the Taliban this weekend.
The deaths come as domestic support for the war is sliding and political opposition is growing, and the fatalities are certain to fuel the controversy in Canada over this country's role in supporting NATO and the United States in the five-year-old Afghan war.
Four of the battlefield deaths occurred Sunday as the Canadians attempted to sweep Taliban guerrillas from Panjwai, an area of farms and poppy fields in the southeastern province of Kandahar that has been a staging area for attacks against Canadian troops. The operation, code-named Medusa, met what commanders acknowledged was surprising resistance.
Just after dawn Monday, another Canadian contingent was camped in an open area when two A-10 "Warthog" ground attack planes flown by U.S. pilots under NATO command strafed its camp. One soldier was killed and about 30 suffered what officers described as mostly light wounds.
NATO officials said the planes were called in for support by other Canadian troops during the fighting. Canadian and NATO officers were quick to describe the incident as an unfortunate consequence of war.
The accident "is very regrettable," said Lt. Gen. David Richards, the NATO forces commander in Afghanistan. "But the task they were set is extremely important, perhaps pivotal in some respects, to the operation we are conducting here."
In a similar incident earlier in the Afghan war, four Canadians soldiers were killed in 2002 when a U.S. plane mistakenly dropped a bomb on Canadian forces as they trained. That incident caused bitter feelings for many in Canada and has lingered as a rhetorical touchstone for those who oppose the alliance of Canada with the United States in the war in Afghanistan.
Thirty-two Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002.
Jack Layton, a member of Parliament from the opposition New Democratic Party, this weekend called Afghanistan "the wrong mission" for Canada, which has 2,300 troops in the country. Most are stationed near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, a stronghold of the Taliban. Layton called for the troops to return home by February.
Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor toured Afghanistan this weekend to boost the morale of the soldiers and offered an upbeat assessment for the country.
"My expectation is that over the next year the security situation will improve," he told reporters in Kandahar. "I believe support for the mission is solid among Canadians."
But opinion polls released this weekend, before the most recent deaths, showed a continuing slide in support for the war in Afghanistan and for the foreign policy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The polling organization Ipsos-Reid said support for the Conservative-led government elected in January is at 38 percent. Harper's staunch support for Israel in the latest Lebanon war added to his growing unpopularity, the pollsters said.
Canadian Brig. Gen. David Fraser, who is in charge of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, defended the Canadian mission in television interviews from Kandahar, a volatile area where Canadian troops moved from Kabul, the capital, earlier this year.
"I believe in this mission," Fraser said at a news conference at the Kandahar airfield. "In seven months, we have made a significant change. We are having positive effects, but it comes at a cost."
Fraser said the friendly-fire incident will be investigated.
"We do have procedures, we do have communications, we do have training and tactics and techniques and procedures to mitigate the risk," he said. "But we can't reduce those risks to zero."
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TORONTO, Sept. 4 -- U.S. jets mistakenly strafed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan on Monday, killing one and bringing to five the number of Canadian troops killed during a major push against the Taliban this weekend.
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Odd Jobs that Keep the Area Humming
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The brains generally belong to rats and mice. The other day, at the National Institutes of Health laboratory where she works, Scimemi reached into a takeout soup container and pulled out a little black mouse. In an Italian accent that bared her roots in Tuscany, Scimemi said, "He's going to have a short life."
She dropped the mouse into a plastic chamber where he was quickly put to sleep. She gently pulled him out, moved over to a sink, and sliced off his head. She cut the bones of the skull, dug out the brain, dropped it into some cold solution, and then, with a scalpel, carved out an area including the hippocampus, the brain's center of learning and memory.
In the knowledge economy that has emerged in Washington, Scimemi's job is hardly among the most glamorous. Brain-slicing is a rote procedure and, to Scimemi, simply a means to the end of one day running her own lab. But it is also among the thousands of positions that have helped turn Washington into one of the richest and most educated metropolitan areas in the country. Often two-sided in nature, they are jobs that might be filled by a PhD and have deeply creative elements, yet still involve the type of repetitive tasks more associated with work on an assembly line.
In Scimemi's case, brain-slicing puts her among the 3,500 workhorse scientists the National Institutes of Health rely on to churn out basic research and help decipher the mysteries of the human body. They are typically PhDs working on postdoctoral assignments, and their research can eventually lead to the types of discoveries that lead to the formation of companies that lead to the creation of jobs -- further reinforcing the area's wealth.
Scimemi works in a cramped nook of an NIH lab, preparing tissue samples for study.
The hippocampus is soft and pinkish; it looks like children's aspirin. Scimemi lines it up on a $14,000 slicing machine that slices brains much like a deli machine slices Parma ham, only with a tiny razor. In a few minutes, the machine makes a dozen slices, each thinner than a postage stamp.
Scimemi, 31, works 10- to 12-hour days in the Synaptic Physiology Unit run by Jeffrey S. Diamond, whose title -- principal investigator -- is one she covets. Slicing brains is something he did many years ago when he was a postdoctoral fellow. It is simply a rung on the scientific ladder.
The lab's overall goal is to understand the synaptic connections between brain cells and ultimately to get a better idea of how different drugs work. To do that, postdocs such as Scimemi apply drugs to the nerve cells, which stay alive in the thin little slices for up to eight hours.
But first they have to get the slices, which is how Scimemi begins many of her mornings, separating heads from mice and rats. Her colleagues in the lab also slice rat retinas.
"The usual question: Why do you do that?" she said. "Can you cure people by doing that? The honest answer is that I don't know. This is basic research. It's an investment but there is no guarantee on the outcome. It's the first step.
"When I first started, of course nobody wants to work with animals. You maybe feel attached to the animal. But the reason for which you are doing it justifies what you are doing. From my point of view, I am doing it for a good purpose."
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Annalisa Scimemi slices brains. The brains generally belong to rats and mice. The other day, at the National Institutes of Health laboratory where she works, Scimemi reached into a takeout soup container and pulled out a little black mouse. In an Italian accent that bared her roots in Tuscany,...
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NRA Finds A Welcome Audience at State Level
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Not much is happening in Congress this year that deals with the issue of firearms, and the National Rifle Association is fine with that.
For the longest time, the NRA stood in the crosshairs of some of Washington's nastiest legislative battles -- from assault weapons bans to handgun waiting periods. Sometimes the gun lobby won and sometimes it lost. But the fights were always agonizing.
Lately, the NRA has taken a lower profile in the nation's capital and has been turning its attention instead to places where it regularly wins without much hassle: state legislatures. Like a growing number of lobby groups that have tired of the expense and ugliness that congressional dustups often bring, the NRA has shifted its staffing and grass-roots pressure to passing laws at a more local place.
"The closer we get back home, the stronger we are," said Wayne R. LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA. Passing laws in Washington, he said, "is harder."
"The NRA has figured out where they have a unique advantage," agreed Peter S. Hamm, communications director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the NRA's chief nemesis. "Their power at the state level is formidable."
Which isn't to say the NRA is invincible there. In certain large, highly urbanized states, such as New York and Massachusetts, the gun lobby doesn't fare as well nor does it try as frequently.
Nonetheless, its string of accomplishments in state assemblies is long and impressive. It successfully lobbied for laws that give citizens the ability to carry firearms in 23 states in the past 12 years, including Kansas and Nebraska this year. It has also legislated the right of gun owners to stand firm and use deadly force in the case of a dangerous attack in 15 states, 14 of them this year. In addition, this year it got 10 states to agree not to confiscate weapons during times of declared emergencies.
This isn't to say that the NRA is doing nothing in Washington. Federal legislation is pending in Congress this month that would prevent gun confiscations during emergencies nationwide. This bill -- like its brethren in the states -- is an offshoot of the effort in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to reduce violence by collecting survivors' weaponry. In addition, the NRA is pressing bills that would restrict the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in various ways.
But the NRA has clearly been emphasizing state-level legislating for a while. Since 2000, it has increased by a third the number of its lobbyists who concentrate on state and local government affairs, to 36 from 27. It has also more than doubled the number of calls from phone banks it delivered to state legislators, to 270,000 in 2004, the latest year for which figures were available, from 110,000 in 2000. And it increased the number of letters it generated to state legislatures to 1.5 million in 2004 from 960,000 in 2000.
The NRA and the Brady Campaign offer different reasons for the NRA's change in tactics.
LaPierre said that the frustrating rules of the U.S. Senate make victory in Washington an uphill climb for the NRA almost no matter what it wants. It's simply too easy for gun-control advocates to block NRA bills, he said. He also believes that the close-knit "elites" of the nation's capital, in conjunction with a cabal of big-media conglomerates, continue to block laws the NRA likes, despite what he sees as the nation's pro-gun consensus.
LaPierre attributes the welcome the NRA receives in state legislatures to the local lawmakers' more regular contact with down-home voters. He also said that state legislators, who are often part-timers, aren't swayed by the insular, liberal views of Washington. "In Washington, the Georgetown salon society is strong and powerful and has a very strong pull on politicians," he said. "As you get closer to the states, you get away from that."
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Not much is happening in Congress this year that deals with the issue of firearms, and the National Rifle Association is fine with that. The political action committee of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Keep Our Majority PAC, reported paying a $60,030 "PAC event site cancellation fee" to...
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Gene Therapy Shows Progress
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A team of researchers from the National Cancer Institute reported yesterday that they have successfully treated two cancer patients using gene therapy, the introduction of genes into the human body for medical purposes.
Two men, both with the rapidly growing skin cancer melanoma, were given immune system cells taken from their own blood and engineered to attack their tumors. They are alive, with no evidence of cancer, 18 months later. Fifteen other patients who got the same treatment died.
The report, published online by the journal Science, is the latest result of a three-decade effort by surgeon Steven A. Rosenberg to find ways to manipulate the human immune system to fight cancer.
Four years ago, Rosenberg and his colleagues treated a group of melanoma patients with naturally occurring anti-cancer cells extracted from their tumors, and some of those patients also have had long-term disappearance of their cancers. The new report, however, is believed to be the first time that genetically engineered immune system cells -- specifically, T lymphocytes -- have produced the same effect.
Neither Rosenberg nor others would describe the two patients as cured. At least five years would need to pass before such a declaration would be considered. And cancer sometimes returns even after that much time has elapsed.
Gene therapy was once viewed as the great hope for treating, or even curing, a long list of dread diseases. But tests of the concept since the late 1980s have been overwhelmingly disappointing.
"I do consider this a proof of the principle that it can work," Rosenberg said yesterday. "I have every expectation that we can get it to work better."
Response by others in the field was positive but not effusive.
"I think it is an important landmark to see some cancer patients respond to a gene therapy -- finally," said Patrick Hwu, a physician and gene-therapy researcher at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, who was not involved in the new study. "I think that clearly all of us want to do better than two out of 17."
Michael T. Lotze, a professor of surgery and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, said that "the work is heroic. The question is, does it advance the field in a major way?"
While the good results in two patients are encouraging, "in terms of response rates, the overwhelming data is that T cells, even in high numbers, are inadequate to mediate sufficient anti-tumor effects," Lotze said.
In the study, Rosenberg and his colleagues took lymphocytes from the blood and inserted into them genes for a receptor capable of "recognizing" a protein on melanoma cells called MART-1. This would allow the lymphocyte to attach to a tumor cell and kill it.
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A team of researchers from the National Cancer Institute reported yesterday that they have successfully treated two cancer patients using gene therapy, the introduction of genes into the human body for medical purposes.
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Backpacks Filled With a Message
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At the Loudoun County home of Tim and Shally Stanley, four sturdy backpacks stuffed full of notebooks, binders and pencil boxes sit in the hallway, ready for the first day of school.
But they won't make their debut Tuesday, the first day of classes at Harmony Elementary School in Hamilton. The four Stanley boys will hoist them onto their shoulders today and take them to church, where they will pray for a productive and spiritually fulfilling school year during a special ceremony called the "blessing of the backpacks."
"It kind of makes the point to the children that God touches them in their daily lives," said Tim Stanley, whose family belongs to Harmony United Methodist Church. "It will be special to them for that reason."
Across the Washington region, churches, temples and other religious centers are holding fundraisers, delivering education-oriented sermons and throwing parties to get kids excited -- and emotionally prepared -- for the school year. Classes begin this week in Loudoun and other parts of Northern Virginia and have started elsewhere in the region.
The activities also are a way to attract more young people, who are as inclined as ever to go to services, according to a 2004 Gallup Youth Survey. The poll suggested that American teens, like their parents, are very religious, due in part to church activities geared toward them. Forty-four percent of the teens in the study reported that they had attended a religious service of some sort in the previous seven days.
Local religious institutions are no exception. To usher in the new school year, Prince George's Community Presbyterian Church in Springdale, Md., is throwing a party Friday called "Project SMASH: Students Making Any Situation Holy."
The all-night affair will feature a midnight basketball tournament, a step dance competition, movies, school supply giveaways, music and plenty of prayer to carry them until 2 a.m. There also will be a cafe where parents can learn about college preparation, among other topics.
About 300 people attended the bash last year, many of whom "came to Christ" during the event, said the Rev. Willie J. Thompson Jr., the church's youth minister.
The goal also is to show young people that the church is there for them, Thompson said. The church provides tutoring and scholarships, and Thompson said he is always available to provide support to teenagers in crisis.
"We want to show them what our faith community can offer them so they can be successful in school and throughout their journey through life," said Thompson, who estimates that 400 young people and many parents will show up for Friday's event.
At the Durga Temple in Fairfax Station, Hindu worshipers have tied the back-to-school season to an annual celebration of the god Ganesha, considered a protector and remover of obstacles. The holiday takes place around the beginning of the school year and was celebrated yesterday at the temple.
"We do it so any obstacles to the school year can be removed," said Paripuram Srinivasan, a teacher at a Hindu Sunday school in Fairfax called Balavikas. "We ask kids to pray for this purpose."
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At the Loudoun County home of Tim and Shally Stanley, four sturdy backpacks stuffed full of notebooks, binders and pencil boxes sit in the hallway, ready for the first day of school.
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Security Fix Live
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Brian Krebs: Hello everyone, and thanks so much for joining us today for Security Fix Live, especially at the beginning of a long holiday weekend. With that, I will jump right in....
Lancaster, Pa.: I am an elder and travel a lot. How can I safely do online banking at Internet cafes?
Brian Krebs: You should consider either investing in a service that offers Virtual Private Networking or whether you really need to access such sensitive information over public (read: assumed hostile) wireless networks. With live CD distributions of custom made operating systems chock full of online attack tools that crackers can use to intercept traffic, it's never been easier for attackers to intercept and even modify wireless communications. Yes, at the coffeehouse, if you log on to your bank's site, it will be over secure sockets layer (SSL) technology, which encrypts the traffic so that even someone who intercepted it on the network would not be able to read it. But these same tools now come with point and click programs that allow bad guys to create their own fake SSL certificates, and it wouldn't be hard for someone who wanted to target you and your account to spoof a certificate for your bank in a so-called man-in-the-middle attack. I have seen these attacks in action, and they are not technically difficult to execute.
That said, the likelihood of someone going so far as to spoof a cert that mimics the one your bank serves is low, though not zero. But security is about trade-offs, and some people feel that using a VPN service is worth the peace of mind it gives them when they're accessing sensitive information on untrusted or unfamiliar networks. You will have to decide what it's worth to you.
Annapolis, Md.: Hi, Brian - Your discussion came up just at the right moment! I turned on my home computer last night and got a yellow "alert" icon (on my tool bar) about my email security being unprotected for Norton Anti-Virus. The "proposed fix" led me to a promotion for their Internet Security 2006 software. Is this just a way for Norton to make a quick buck or is my system really at risk without this new software? And if I'm already protected with Norton Anti-Virus, Synematec Firewall and Webroot Spy Sweeper, how do I get the current Norton alert icon changed back to a green "everything's fine" icon? (Should I just reload the program?) Thanks for your help!
Brian Krebs: Not sure what version of Norton AV you are using, but the program should allow you to scan incoming and outgoing e-mails for viruses, WITHOUT having to pay for additional services (assuming you are running an up-to-date version of NAV, that is, that your subscription is still valid). Check out this link for pointers on how to configure NAV to scan e-mail.
Matt in Arlington: Hi Brian, love your column.
I read a story earlier this week about a county government Web site that was hosting public information. After a while, their traffic got to be too much of a load for the site and they have had it down for several weeks. Is there any completely safe and secure way (and reasonably cost effective) to have information like that on a Web site?
Brian Krebs: Hi Matt, thanks for your question, although I'm assuming you meant to say the site was hosting "private" information on public citizens? I can't think of any good reason why a government site would want to do that. If you check out today's column in Security Fix, you'll see that the improper display of citizens' personal information on government web sites has led to the compromise of data on more than 2.1 million Americans over the 16 month period ending in May.
Rochester, Mass.: Brian, What's your take on the methodology Consumer Reports used to test AV suites? Sounds like a solid way to test for unknown attacks to me, especially with attacks getting so targeted? And as for targeted attacks, what's the scariest anecdote you can share there?
Brian Krebs: Hi Rochester. I wrote a column just the other day that examined both sides of the controversy over the Consumer Reports anti-virus tests.
As for scary anecdotes, my employer has not be immune to targeted attacks via e-mail, and that's about as close to home as it gets for me.
Falls Church, Va.: What would you recommend as a method of completely rendering private data unreadable on an old computer that I am about to discard? A software approach or just smashing the old hard drive with a hammer?
Brian Krebs: I would advocate both.
If you're serious about making sure the data is gone and cannot be easily recovered, you'd be wise to use one or more free or commercial tools available, and then drill a few holes in the thing. I wrote
on this a while back and offered some suggestions, but some of the more interesting (and amusing) suggestions came from the comments section below the article.
Washington, D.C.: What is your policy on removing comments from your blog?
Brian Krebs: The policy is very clearly stated at the bottom of the comments version of each blog post.
Junk/spam/malicious link comments are deleted with extreme prejudice. Personal or gratuitous character attacks on the author or against other commenters is grounds for removal, as are those that include profanity, racial slurs, or inappropriate material. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed.
These policies are designed in large part not to censor readers, but to lead to a more thoughtful discussion that everyone can feel comfortable participating in. As I think you can see from the breadth of views expressed on my blog, I am very judicious about removing comments.
(address withheld): Mr. Krebs, why isn't there an effective way to fight spammers? Why can't I just submit their IP or email address to some authority or activist organization and put them out of business? - crush them with spam, redirect all their spam back at them, spam, spam spam them?!
Brian Krebs: Nearly all spammers these days use comrpomised Windows PCs to forward spam for them. They bascially infect or have someone else infect the machines with a malicious program that turns them into spam relays that spammers can use to maintain anonymity. Basically, these guys operate networks of infected machines, called "botnets", and use them to spam. So, if you have a botnet of 30,000 computers, for example, and can send out 1 piece of spam from each infected PC every second, you could easily send millions of pieces of spam each day. Sure, the victim's ISP or the guys at Spamhaus and other anti-spam groups will eventually get around to blacklisting those individual PCs as known spammers, there is absolutely no shortage of new machines for these criminals to infect and recruit in future spam operations.
Oh, and by the way that "fight spam with spam" tactic was tried, and it resulted in a great deal of collateral damage for the internet community at large, and pushed the company managing the attacks out of business after spammers used their botnets to push the company off the Internet. See my
in The Washington Post about BlueSecurity's experiment in this area.
Anonymous: My employer says they are going to a biometrics system for a time clock. I say, no one needs my fingerprints except me and the police. What security risks are involved with this sort of thing?
Brian Krebs: I don't know anything about your employer, but I'm assuming for the moment that you work either for the military or for a defense contractor or biometrics or biotech company.
What is your concern here, exactly? That someone would have access to your fingerprints would do what with it? If the police already have your fingerprints, maybe that explains some of your concern. But consider how easy it would be for someone to get your fingerprints if they really wanted them. When was the last time you ate out at a restaurant? I'd guess your fingerprints were all over the water glass served at your table.
Falls Church, Va.: RE: the question above on the rules for comments on your blog. I've noticed that many people use made-up, throw-away names for their postings, which doesn't fit the stated policy. Other comment areas on the Post's website require us to use our "registered" name. But then again those other Post areas make us look like ignoramuses by removing the punctuation marks from our comments and by not letting us preview what we have written. On balance, I'm happier with your approach.
Brian Krebs: More comments on the comments.
I'm running Norton Internet Security 2006 on a Windows XP PC with 2.6GHz processor and 2 gigs of RAM - and it is strangling my computer! I've seen comments elsewhere commenting on the inefficiency of Norton's code. Are there more streamlined security suites available (AV and firewall)?
Brian Krebs: I've made no secret of my dislike for the amount of system resources that Norton's product suites consume, and I believe my colleage Rob Pegoraro has expressed similar concerns. In my opinion, security suites generally do a less impressive job on any one of their constituent tasks, and often end up consuming a lot more system resources than would separate programs made by separate companies. I would venture to say that just about any security product out there for Windows today would leave a smaller system footprint than NIS.
For free alternatives, AVG personal and AVAST work well, combined with something like ZoneAlarm. I prefer Eset's NOD32 for anti-virus because it is sleek ,quiet and doesn't bother me a whole lot, plus it updates very quickly. But your mileage may vary.
Arlington, Va.: I plan on buying a new laptop. From a security point of view, is it worth waiting for Vista to come out? Thanks
Brian Krebs: Excellent question Arlington. however, I don't have an easy answer for you. I'm tinkering with Vista at the moment, and I have to say that its constant pop-up warnings asking whether I really want to do this or that or make some system change are extremely annoying, and if left unchanged are probably going to either a) turn a lot of regular users off of Windows Vista, or b) get users even more accustomed to clicking "okay" to every single dialogue box that pops up, thereby effectively neutering the ostenisble point behind the prompts.
To your question, Vista is a system resource hungry OS. Running it with anything less than 2 gigs of RAM is painfully slow, or at least not close to ideal - given all the graphics intensive pretty knobs and wheels on the thing. Most laptops for sale these days come with about 512 MB worth of memory pre-installed. It will be interesting to see what happens when consumers get their new Vista laptops home and find that they need to spend another $200 just to make the system operate at acceptable speeds. Either that, or Vista equipped laptops will be very pricey due to the inclusion of so much extra hardware power to handle the demands of the OS. But again, we'll see.
(address witheld): Thanks very much for your comments, maybe I'll try a follow up. These spam messages all have email addresses to respond to, I don't think they're fake, why not spam spam spam them?
Brian Krebs: Replying to spam is the surest way to receive even more spam. Just hit the "delete" button, or ignore it.
Oxon Hill, Md.: Hi Brian. Thanks for taking questions. I have ZoneAlarm and McAfee and I've owned my PC for 3 years and been lucky enough to never get a virus, but I've had a few encounters with spyware and the like. My question is this. I'm becoming more and more concerned with viruses that are activated just by visiting a Web site. Is there any way to prevent that. I use the Firefox browser, but I know that doesn't mean I'm not vunerable.
I tend to stick to the same sites, but my kids are all over the place and they're 17+ now and in high school and college. I'm worried about their personal information being breached. Thanks.
Brian Krebs: I answer a variation of this question in nearly every chat, and I'm answering it again because it's vitally important for Windows users.
If you're using Windows and still running the machine and/or your browser under the all-powerful administrator account, you're asking for trouble and will almost certainly get it at some point.
It's not rocket surgery, and you can save yourself a world of headache by following this advice:
Running Windows as a Limited User
Using the Drop my Rights Program
Warrenton, Va.: Brian, there has been some uproar over the Macbook wireless card columns you have written in the last month or so. Being an IT professional I can see some areas where it appears that if you had more knowledge of the technology you could probe a lot deeper than you did.
Can you tell your readers about your qualifications for writing a technology security column? Do you have any training or experience in the IT security field? If not, what sort of independent experts do you rely on to confirm the information provided to you?
Brian Krebs: Hi Warrenton. If you're asking whether I have any technical certifications, such as CISSP or an MIS or CS degree, I do not. What I do have is an deep and abiding interest in and curiousity about all things computer and Internet security related. Much of what I have learned has been through devouring technical texts on the subject, some serious and ongoing hands-on learning about how systems are secured and broken into.
I would love to be able to dig down into a knowledge of assembly language and/or C programming, but alas I don't have that. For the more techical stuff, I am fortunate enough to work for a company that opens a great many doors and provides access to some of the smartest and most thougtful people in the business. About a half-dozen of my best sources I keep in constant contact with via instant message, phone, e-mail and Internet relay chat, and am not shy about boucning ideas or questions off of them when I need to (as they would no doubt attest to if you asked). Whenever possible, I am share (sometimes sanitized) information that has been provided to me in the context of an exclusive or investigatory piece.
Anonymous: re: biometrics: i work in the hospitality industry, fingerprints to use a time clock seems excessive to me. i just think we have all kinds of personal info out there in the world and no control over it.
Brian Krebs: Wow. That's a first I've heard of it being used in the hospitality industry. I guess that's one way to make sure it's the employee punching the clock and not a co-worker, eh?
Not to make light of your concern, because I don't think it's entirely misplaced. We cannot seem to keep control over our personal information in this society, and when that problem migrates to biometric data on a society-wide scale, then we will have entered into a truly terrifying era for personal security and identity fraud.
Brian Krebs: Thank you all for the questions and comments; I'm only sad that I couldn't get to more of them before we ran out of time. Please join us again in two weeks time for the next Security Fix Live, and in the meantime please drop by the Security Fix Blog and join in our discussions there.
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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Blasts Kill at Least 66 in Baghdad
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BAGHDAD, Aug. 31 -- A string of closely timed explosions killed at least 66 people and wounded 255 in a Shiite Muslim area of Baghdad on Thursday night, one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in months despite the launch of a new security plan to stanch the sectarian carnage.
The blasts flattened a multistory apartment building, buried women and children under mounds of rubble and sent terrified shoppers fleeing out of a major bazaar, authorities and witnesses said. The booming explosions rang out within minutes of each other around 6:30 p.m. in the city's New Baghdad district, but it was not immediately clear what caused them.
Witnesses and police said some combination of rockets, mortars and car bombs caused the bloodshed. Gen. Jassem Khider of the Interior Ministry said that six rockets in the Nuairiya section of New Baghdad killed 48 people and injured 160, primarily women and children, and that 18 were killed and 92 injured by three rocket attacks on multifamily homes in the Baladiyat neighborhood.
But another senior Interior Ministry official said the attackers had instead rented homes in heavily populated neighborhoods, planted large amounts of explosives within the buildings and then detonated them.
"This is a new terrorist invention," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The terrorist insurgents have found a new way of killing people."
Abu Zayneb, a 65-year-old landlord, recalled finding more than 20 corpses after an explosion on his block in the Baladiyat neighborhood shattered windows and blew off doors in his apartment building. At 10:20 p.m., he remained outside his home because he feared his building would collapse. The structure hit hardest by the blast was a three-story apartment building with 12 families that sits next to an Internet cafe that is usually packed at the hour the attack began.
"These are bad times," Zayneb said as he sat outside in the dark with his wife and relatives.
About five minutes after the attack on the apartment building, there was an explosion three blocks away between a primary school and a fire station in Baladiyat, said Abu Samar, 42, a taxi driver. Police Col. Hassan Jaloub said the blast was a car bomb that killed three police officers and wounded seven. Five minutes after that attack, an explosion took place about a mile and a half away at a restaurant called the Arabian House, Abu Samar said.
At almost exactly the same time, witnesses said, several missiles or mortar shells slammed into the area around a huge market in the Nuairiya section of New Baghdad. The shelling completely collapsed a multistory apartment complex and also struck a nearby parking garage, residents said. Members of the Mahdi Army, the militia of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, were seen rescuing residents from the rubble.
Earlier in the day, a car bomb exploded in a long gas line in New Baghdad at 12:45 p.m., killing seven people and wounding 18, police Col. Abdul Razaq Mahmoud said.
The violence in the capital coincided with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's statement Thursday that Iraqi forces were prepared to take control of the southern province of Dhi Qar in September from the U.S. military and its allies. It would be the second province in which Iraqis have taken full control of security; the British handed over Muthanna province in July.
"We hope that by the end of the year, our security forces will take over most of the Iraqi provinces," Maliki said in a televised news conference.
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World news headlines from the Washington Post,including international news and opinion from Africa,North/South America,Asia,Europe and Middle East. Features include world weather,news in Spanish,interactive maps,daily Yomiuri and Iraq coverage.
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Hezbollah's 'Victory'
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So much for the "strategic and historic victory" Nasrallah had claimed less than two weeks earlier. What real victor declares that, had he known, he would not have started the war that ended in triumph?
Nasrallah's admission, vastly underplayed in the West, makes clear what the Lebanese already knew. Hezbollah may have won the propaganda war, but on the ground it lost. Badly.
True, under the inept and indecisive leadership of Ehud Olmert, Israel did miss the opportunity to militarily destroy Hezbollah and make it a non-factor in Israel's security, Lebanon's politics and Iran's foreign policy. Nonetheless, Hezbollah was seriously hurt. It lost hundreds of its best fighters. A deeply entrenched infrastructure on Israel's border is in ruins. The great hero has had to go so deep into hiding that Nasrallah has been called "the underground mullah."
Most important, Hezbollah's political gains within Lebanon during the war have proved illusory. As the dust settles, the Lebanese are furious at Hezbollah for provoking a war that brought them nothing but devastation -- and then crowing about victory amid the ruins.
The Western media were once again taken in by the mystique of the "Arab street." The mob came out to cheer Hezbollah for raining rockets on Israel -- surprise! -- and the Arab governments that had initially criticized Hezbollah went conveniently silent. Now that the mob has gone home, Hezbollah is under renewed attack -- in newspapers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt, as well as by many Lebanese, including influential Shiite academics and clan leaders. The Arabs know where their interests lie. And they do not lie with a Shiite militia that fights for Iran.
Even before the devastation, Hezbollah in the last election garnered only about 20 percent of the vote, hardly a mandate. Hezbollah has guns, however, and that is the source of its power. But now even that is threatened. Hence Nasrallah's admission. He knows that Lebanon, however weak its army, has a deep desire to disarm him and that the arrival of Europeans in force, however weak their mandate, will make impossible the rebuilding of the vast Maginot Line he spent six years constructing.
Which is why the expected Round Two will, in fact, not happen. Hezbollah is in no position, either militarily or politically, for another round. Nasrallah's admission that the war was a mistake is an implicit pledge not to repeat it, lest he be completely finished as a Lebanese political figure.
The Lebanese know that Israel bombed easy-to-repair airport runways when it could have destroyed the new airport terminal and set Lebanon back 10 years. The Lebanese know that Israel attacked the Hezbollah TV towers when it could have pulverized Beirut's power grid, a billion-dollar reconstruction. The Lebanese know that the next time, Israel's leadership will hardly be as hesitant and restrained. Hezbollah dares not risk that next time.
Even more important is the shift once again in the internal Lebanese balance of power. With Nasrallah weakened, the other major factions are closing in around him. Even his major Christian ally, Michel Aoun, has called for Hezbollah's disarmament. The March 14 democratic movement has regained the upper hand and, with outside help, could marginalize Hezbollah.
In a country this weak, outsiders can be decisive. A strong European presence in the south, serious U.S. training and equipment for the Lebanese army, and relentless pressure at the United Nations can tip the balance. We should be especially aggressive at the United Nations in pursuing the investigation of Syria for the murder of Rafiq Hariri and in implementing resolutions mandating the disarmament of Hezbollah.
It was just 18 months ago that the democrats of the March 14 movement expelled Syria from Lebanon and rose to power, marking the apogee of the U.S. democratization project in the region. Nasrallah's temporary rise during the just-finished war marked that project's nadir. Nasrallah's crowing added to the general despair in Washington about a rising "Shiite crescent" stretching from Tehran to Beirut.
In fact, Hezbollah was seriously set back, as was Iran. In the Middle East, however, promising moments pass quickly. This one needs to be seized. We must pretend that Security Council Resolution 1701 was meant to be implemented and exert unrelieved pressure on behalf of those Lebanese -- a large majority -- who want to do the implementing.
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Hezbollah is in no position, either militarily or politically, for another round of battle.
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Perfect Storm for the Poor
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After a week of remembering the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, the most depressing realization is how easily our leaders forgot their fervent promises to lift up our nation's poorest citizens.
All manner of politicians and columnists said in Katrina's wake that this was the time to revisit the problems of the destitute. The anguish of the people of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward would have at least some redemptive power if the country took poverty seriously again.
It didn't happen. The innovative ideas that came from all sides were swept off the table. The poor became unfashionable once more. Congressional conservatives changed the conversation. A concern for the struggling gave way to debate over how to offset spending on Katrina with budget cuts -- directed in large part at programs for the needy.
Perhaps the release of the Census Bureau's annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in this particular week is a sign that God and statisticians have a sense of humor. The report reinforces what we knew at the time of Katrina -- that the poor are still with us and that the middle class keeps losing ground.
The "good" news is that the poverty rate, the proportion of Americans who are poor, didn't change much between 2004 and 2005, falling in a statistically insignificant way from 12.7 percent to 12.6 percent. The bad news is that the poverty rate, having risen steadily in recent years, is still higher than it was in 2001, when it stood at 11.7 percent.
Worse is that the proportion of the poor who are very poor has risen. People are considered in deep poverty if they have half or less of the yearly income of those at the poverty line. In 2005 half the poverty line for a family of three was $7,788; for a family of four it was $9,985. (Try living on that.) According to the new report, 43.1 percent of poor people lived in that sort of deep poverty -- a record since 1975, when the government started assembling such statistics.
In the six economic recoveries since the early 1960s, this is the first time the poverty rate was higher in the recovery's fourth year than it was when the recession was at its worst.
The number of Americans without health insurance rose, too, to 46.6 million in 2005, up from 45.3 million in 2004 and 41.2 million in 2001. The proportion without insurance is up from 14.6 percent in 2001 to 15.9 percent in 2005.
What about the middle class? Yes, the median income of American households rose by 1.1 percent last year after five years of decline. But most of the growth was in households headed by Americans 65 and over -- who are helped, rightly, by substantial government benefits. In households headed by people under 65, incomes fell yet again.
Want to know why so many men out there are mad? Check out Table A-2 on Page 38 of the Census report. (I'm grateful to my friend Bill Galston for calling it to my attention.) Adjusted for inflation, men's earnings were lower in 2005 than they were in 1973.
Dear liberals, who worry about the political leanings of angry men, and dear conservatives, who exploit that anger, do you have any proposals to end this income stagnation?
Yes, women have been slowly closing the gender gap in income. Among full-time, year-round workers, women earn 77 percent of what men do, compared with 57 percent in 1973.
But in the most recent year, the gap closed because women lost income at a slightly slower rate than men did. Between 2004 and 2005, the earnings for those working full time year-round dropped 1.8 percent for men and 1.3 percent for women. That's not how most women imagine achieving equality.
The census had some very good news for the well-to-do. The top fifth of American households received 50.4 percent of all income last year, the highest proportion since 1967, when the Census Bureau started following that trend. The biggest gains were concentrated in the top 5 percent.
"The economy is growing, and someone is getting the growth," said Sharon Parrott, a senior analyst at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "So now we know who it is."
President Bush and the Republican Congress, take a bow: You took power to make the well-off even better off, and you have succeeded brilliantly.
As for the poor and the middle class, maybe they'll do better after the next hurricane, or the one after that.
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After a week of revisiting the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, the most depressing realization is how easily our leaders forgot their fervent promises to lift up our nation's poorest citizens.
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What was left of Tropical Storm Ernesto delivered a heavy lashing of rain and wind to the Washington area throughout the day yesterday, prompting officials to order evacuations, declare states of emergency and open up shelters.
The brunt of the problem in Washington and its immediate suburbs appeared to be power outages caused by the high winds. Nearly 50,000 homes and businesses in Northern Virginia were without power last night. About 30,000 in the District and Maryland also were without power.
"Do all you can to stay inside. Don't go out if you don't have to," Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) said yesterday afternoon, in what seemed to become a battle cry among area emergency officials as the weather got more intense.
State and local emergency officials opened up operations centers across the region, just in case massive flooding and power outages called for additional evacuations or rescues. But most never had to fully activate. They had expected a pummeling, but got a slap. By late afternoon, the storm had been downgraded and the rain estimates had dropped significantly from the four to eight inches originally forecast.
By last night, between one and two inches of rain had fallen in most of the Washington region, the National Weather Service said. St. Mary's County, though, saw nearly six inches and the Shenandoah Valley got almost four.
Sustained winds at Reagan National Airport last night were about 30 mph with gusts over 40.
But for many residents in the region, the whole thing was mostly a nuisance -- little more than a delay to an early Labor Day weekend. But in areas south and east of the District, the storm will be remembered for a long time.
Norfolk and other Hampton Roads communities saw more than six inches of rain, flooding low-lying areas, knocking out power to more than 200,000 customers. In Richmond, more than 200 homes were evacuated and more than 90,000 cstomers without power.
But for othesr, those sill recovering from the storm in June that brought as much as 13 inches of rain to the region, just the looming threat was enough to send them stockpiling sand bags.
"I think people are apprehensive because we don't know how serious this storm is going to be," said Brian Hannigan, a spokesman for Alexandria, which saw massive flooding during June's storm. "Four inches is a lot, and eight inches is a real lot."
Meteorologist Louis Rosa, of the National Weather Service in Sterling, said the threat of flash flooding had greatly diminished by yesterday afternoon, but a swelled Potomac meant costal flooding would remain a possibility through the night. High tide was set for 2 a.m. Fairfax had opened a shelter at Edison High School as a precaution.
Locally, Southern Maryland appeared to be hardest hit. Mark O'Brien awoke yesterday at his St Mary's home to a flooded yard, and he knew instantly it was the beginning of something terrible. By noon, he and his girlfriend had moved one car half a mile inland. By afternoon, the lights and phone lines had gone out. So, with the last few hours of the daylight fading, they frantically stacked all their possessions on tables and couches -- all the while keeping an eye on the waves sloshing back and forth on what used to be their lawn.
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Iran Defies Deadline On Nuclear Program
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A defiant Iran faced the prospect of economic sanctions after U.N. inspectors reported that the country ignored yesterday's deadline to halt its nuclear program and has been hindering efforts to determine whether it seeks to secretly develop nuclear weapons.
President Bush, invoking the same language that he used to describe Iraq before the March 2003 invasion, called Iran a "grave threat" and said "there must be consequences" for Tehran's actions. "It is time for Iran to make a choice," Bush said in a speech to the American Legion's national convention in Salt Lake City.
His administration had offered to join talks with Iran and held out the possibility of future cooperation after 27 years' enmity, if Tehran met the United Nations' deadline for suspending its nuclear program. Yesterday, however, U.S. officials said they will demand international sanctions against the Iranian government.
"We are going to move this toward a sanctions resolution at the United Nations," said R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs. "We expect others to join us."
It is unclear how much support the White House has for the tough measures it hopes will force Iran to abandon a nuclear effort that has become a source of national pride. No world leader who commented on yesterday's events spoke in the stark terms that Bush used, and none of the president's closest allies said sanctions are certain.
European officials expressed dismay with Iran but emphasized a commitment to negotiations; they scheduled a meeting next week with Ali Larijani, the Iranian government's point man on nuclear issues. European diplomats will meet with Burns the next day in Berlin to discuss their options.
Since his 2002 State of the Union speech, when he singled out Iran as part of an "axis of evil," Bush has tried without success to roll back Tehran's nuclear energy program. He has asserted, without offering proof, that it is a cover for weapons development.
Iran has insisted that the nuclear program, which it kept hidden for 18 years, is for the production of peaceful energy that it has a right to develop.
"The Iranian nation will not accept for one moment any bullying, invasion and violation of its rights," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. He called the United States government "tyrannical." His foreign minister said Iran's program is transparently peaceful and will continue.
In yesterday's report, nuclear inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency detailed a mountain of circumstantial evidence, collected in the last three years, that suggests Iran is still concealing aspects of its nuclear program. In just six pages, the inspectors complained 18 times about Iran's lack of cooperation, including refusing to hand over crucial documents, denying access to facilities and a new policy of rejecting certain entry visas for some inspectors. As a result, inspectors said, they could not confirm "the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program."
But IAEA officials noted yesterday that they have not found proof of a weapons program and said Iran is still complying with basic, mandatory inspections that allow the agency to monitor all of its work with uranium. That access enabled the IAEA to report that Iran had "not suspended its enrichment related activities," as the Security Council required it to do by yesterday.
Inspectors reported that since April, when Iran began enriching uranium in a string of centrifuges, it has produced about six kilograms of uranium to levels consistent with an energy program. The material cannot be used for a weapon.
Iran began enriching another small quantity last week, but inspectors wrote that there have been more substantial pauses than progress. They noted that the Iranians are working at a much slower pace than the IAEA, outside nuclear experts and some foreign intelligence agencies had forecast.
Iran had said it would be operating three cascades by now, each with 164 centrifuges able to enrich uranium. Instead, one cascade is assembled and is working only sporadically.
"Their progress is far less than expected," said David Albright, a nuclear expert who is president of the Institute for Science and International Security. "Whether it's because of technical problems or self-restraint it's hard to gauge, but I don't think the U.S. can deliver on its promise to get hard sanctions when Iran is barely progressing."
Russia and China were reluctant to impose sanctions even before the report came out, playing down the need just weeks after U.S. officials felt they had received assurances from both countries to support such measures. Although many countries appear to share U.S. suspicions about Iran's intentions, they have profound differences with the Bush administration over how to respond and are apprehensive about the goals of a U.S. president who has said that "all options are on the table" in dealing with Tehran.
"Concerns about a slippery slope toward a military conflict with Iran have hurt U.S. efforts at diplomacy," said Robert J. Einhorn, who was assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation until November 2001. "The administration approaches the idea of negotiations with Iran as if we are prepared to take yes for an answer, but also engages in activities that suggest regime change is the real objective."
U.S. officials have refused to respond to questions about whether they are seeking the removal of Iran's clerical government. But they have given private assurances to allies that they are currently committed to diplomacy.
There were signs yesterday that Europe will maintain a steady role in that process. Larijani, the Iranian official, spoke by phone Saturday and Tuesday with Javier Solana, the senior representative of the European Union, in discussions both sides described as positive.
Privately, Iranian officials have said they would resume cooperation with inspectors and even consider freezing the nuclear program, but only after they restart talks with Europe and Washington.
In addition to several unanswered questions about the history of the program, inspectors detailed new ones in yesterday's report. A cylinder filled with uranium hexafluoride was temporarily moved by a technician at a uranium conversion plant in the town of Isfahan. No materials seem to be missing from the container, but inspectors expressed concern about the incident.
Also, traces of highly enriched uranium, which can be used for the core of a weapon, were discovered through environmental samples taken at another facility. Previous traces were found to have been the result of used and discarded centrifuge equipment the Iranians bought from Pakistan. Officials at the IAEA said privately yesterday that the new contamination appears to be from old spent fuel the Iranians moved out of harm's way during their eight-year war with Iraq.
"I think the only thing that would move opponents of sanctions now is if the agency found unambiguously the 'smoking gun,' " Einhorn said.
Staff writer Michael Abramowitz in Salt Lake City and researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
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A defiant Iran faced the prospect of economic sanctions after U.N. inspectors reported that the country ignored yesterday's deadline to halt its nuclear program and has been hindering efforts to determine whether it seeks to secretly develop nuclear weapons.
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Bush Takes His Case to Veterans
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SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 31 -- President Bush renewed his effort to shore up flagging public support for fighting the Iraq war, appearing before one of the country's major veterans groups to cast the war as part of a larger ideological struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.
In an impassioned new statement of familiar White House themes, Bush described the war in Iraq as part of the same struggle that has pitted U.S. forces against the Taliban in Afghanistan, has found Israel battling Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and has involved the administration in a so-far unsuccessful diplomatic initiative to force Iran to give up activities that the White House thinks will lead to the development of a nuclear weapon by that Islamic republic.
"The war we fight today is more than a military conflict," Bush said Thursday. "It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century."
Bush's speech here before thousands of mostly supportive veterans at the annual convention of the American Legion was the first in a series of addresses that White House officials hope will rally an electorate that polls indicate is tiring of the three-year war in Iraq. While others in his administration, including Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, have suggested unnamed critics may be appeasing terrorists, Bush said the detractors are simply mistaken.
"Many of these folks are sincere, and they're patriotic. But they could . . . not be more wrong," the president said. "If America were to pull out before Iraq can defend itself, the consequences would be absolutely predictable and absolutely disastrous."
He said a premature withdrawal of more than 130,000 U.S. troops would "be handing Iraq over to our worst enemies: Saddam's former henchmen, armed groups with ties to Iran and al-Qaeda terrorists from all over the world who would suddenly have a base of operations far more valuable than Afghanistan under the Taliban."
Bush also repeated his assertion that the advance of democracy will bring to power in the Middle East countries that oppose terrorism, although free elections in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories have given power to Hezbollah and Hamas, both deemed by the United States to be terrorist entities.
Judging by the applause, Bush's message that the fight against Islamic radicals is akin to the battle against the Nazis and Soviet communists resonated with the legionnaires.
"If we are willing to stay the course, we will win," said Bill Osborne, a Vietnam War-era veteran from Kansas. "Perseverance is the key. . . . A job half-finished is a job not worth starting."
Clancy Lux, another Vietnam War-era veteran from Florida, whose son is serving in the Marines in Iraq, said he is discouraged that more Americans do not see the war in Iraq the way Bush does. "People need to open their eyes -- he is on the right track," Lux said. "If we quit too early before we finish the job, we will lose."
The audience was not entirely supportive. Richard Witbart, a former schoolteacher and local official from Illinois who served in the Navy in World War II, said he believes the troops should be brought home and that the United States should not have invaded Iraq. "It just wasn't the right thing to do," he said. "We were not being attacked by Iraq."
Indeed, even in a state that provided Bush his largest percentage of the vote in 2004, his presence was polarizing. Rocky Anderson, the mayor of Salt Lake City and a fierce critic of the war, led an anti-Bush rally Wednesday that drew a crowd of several thousand to deliver a symbolic indictment of the president for failing to uphold the Constitution. For their part, White House aides organized a boisterous and friendly welcoming rally with Utah's largely Republican congressional delegation for when Bush stepped off Air Force One late Wednesday.
Although billed as a major address by his aides, Bush's speech Thursday employed rhetoric that has become a staple of his speeches on terrorism and Iraq. He said that if the country gives up the fight in Baghdad, "we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities."
He also repeated his mantra that the status quo in the Middle East before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks represented a false stability -- and that "the lack of freedom in the Middle East made the region an incubator for terrorist movements." Many Middle East experts believe that the war in Iraq has radicalized the region and spawned more terrorists.
Bush also described as "encouraging" the initial results of a new U.S.-Iraqi plan to provide security for Baghdad, which has been engulfed in sectarian violence in recent months. The plan, which involved the redeployment of thousands of troops to the capital, was widely deemed a failure at first, though U.S. commanders say they have seen improved security in recent weeks.
Bush also rejected the suggestion advanced by some experts on Iraq that the country has descended into civil war. "Our commanders and our diplomats on the ground in Iraq believe that's not the case," Bush said. "They report that only a small number of Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, while the overwhelming majority want peace and a normal life in a unified country."
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SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 31 -- President Bush renewed his effort to shore up flagging public support for fighting the Iraq war, appearing before one of the country's major veterans groups to cast the war as part of a larger ideological struggle against radical Islamic terrorism.
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California Tightens Rules on Emissions
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California's legislature approved the broadest restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions in the nation yesterday, marking a new stage in the accelerating drive for a more aggressive national response to global warming.
The California bill requires a 25 percent cut in carbon dioxide pollution produced within the state's borders by 2020 in order to bring the total down to 1990 levels. In at least eight other states, political momentum is building to take similar steps to limit emissions of greenhouse gases linked to climate change, a trend that could increase the pressure for a national system despite the Bush administration's consistent opposition to mandatory caps.
The California legislation also provides a statewide market system designed to make it easier for heavily polluting industries to meet the new limits. They would be able to buy "credits" from companies that emit lower emissions than the caps allow, rather than having to invest in cleaner new technologies.
The measure cleared the California Senate on Wednesday night. The Assembly, on a 46 to 31 vote, sent it on yesterday to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pledged this week to sign it.
"It really does point out the country needs to solve this problem in a uniform way," said William K. Reilly, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency under President George H.W. Bush and now co-chairs the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy. "It will rebound in Washington."
California lawmakers, along with environmental advocates and some business leaders, said they pushed the measure both to address what they see as a threat to their state's economic and environmental welfare, and to influence national energy policy.
"I really believe the effort to curb global warming is a bottom-up effort in this country," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D), who is a co-author of the bill, said in an interview Wednesday. "For us, this is not just about California. This is about making a push from the bottom up to get the Congress to take action."
Advocates would have to overcome major obstacles to bring about a national program, however. Both the House and the Senate have rejected mandatory limits on carbon dioxide. But if Democrats make gains in this fall's elections, it could bolster support on Capitol Hill for a universal cap-and-trade system.
Congress would have to hash out many more details than are spelled out in California's bill. State lawmakers left key implementation issues to be decided by the California Air Resources Board. The measure also includes an escape hatch allowing the governor to extend compliance deadlines for as much as one year "in the event of extraordinary circumstances, catastrophic events, or threat of significant economic harm."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has her own proposal to establish a national cap-and-trade system, said yesterday's vote "is a giant step forward toward a national cap. . . . It's only a question of time." But she said that, when it comes to details, the state bill "does not have a methodology or a process. It just caps it."
Because 40 states have coal-fired power plants that account for much of the country's carbon dioxide emissions, Feinstein added: "Forty times two, in terms of senators, makes a bill very difficult."
On that point, Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), an implacable opponent of emissions caps, agreed, citing the Senate's record on the issue. "Cap-and-trade proposals are all cost and no reduction," Inhofe said in a statement.
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California's legislature approved the broadest restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions in the nation yesterday, marking a new stage in the accelerating drive for a more aggressive national response to global warming.
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Sudan Says No as U.N. Backs Force For Darfur
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The U.N. Security Council yesterday approved a long-sought resolution that would place an expanded peacekeeping force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region under U.N. authority, even as the government appeared to have begun a new offensive against rebel forces.
The new U.N. mandate would take effect only with Sudan's consent, and its president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, immediately rejected it. Officials in Khartoum have repeatedly said that they favor the current African force, under the auspices of the African Union, instead of one from the United Nations.
The African Union, however, favors the transfer of control to the United Nations, saying it is unable to keep the peace and will soon run out of funds.
The stalemate over the troops and the new outbreak of fighting appeared to signal the failure of a peace deal reached three months ago that was hailed by the Bush administration as the key to resolving the conflict. Only one rebel group, with little support from the population, signed the agreement, and it has joined forces with Sudanese troops in an effort to crush ethnic African tribes challenging the Arab-led Khartoum government.
The peace agreement was brokered by Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, but he has since left the government, as have many of his key advisers on Sudan.
The Darfur conflict broke out in early 2003 when African rebel groups attacked police stations and military outposts. The United Nations and human rights groups accuse the central government of supporting militiamen, called the Janjaweed, in an effort to crush the rebellion.
About 2,000 villages have been destroyed across Darfur; violence and disease have left as many as 450,000 people dead and 2 million homeless. Two years ago, the Bush administration accused Bashir's government of abetting genocide.
The peace agreement, rather than ending the fighting, appears to have rekindled it. There are widespread reports of the major rearming of government forces and the two rebel groups that did not sign the peace deal. They have since joined forces and have apparently acquired shoulder-fired missiles.
The rebel group led by Minni Minnawi -- who met with President Bush at the White House in July, after he signed the May peace deal -- has, in effect, become a paramilitary arm of the government. Growing numbers of Land Rover vehicles and Toyota trucks with machine guns have been reported in northern Darfur.
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer flew to Khartoum this week to persuade Bashir to change his mind on the U.N. force, dangling the possibility of a meeting with Bush if Bashir accepted. Bashir made Frazer wait three days before he saw her, and he signaled that he had not changed his mind. But Frazer said yesterday that she was "very confident" Bashir would ultimately accept.
The U.N. resolution would create a peacekeeping force of as many as 22,500 military and police personnel, compared with the 7,000 currently serving under the African Union in an area the size of France. The U.N. force would also have a much stronger mandate to prevent an outbreak of violence.
About 5,000 members of the African Union force could be immediately placed under U.N. authority, but officials have not yet determined which countries would provide the rest.
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The U.N. Security Council yesterday approved a long-sought resolution that would place an expanded peacekeeping force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region under U.N. authority, even as the government appeared to have begun a new offensive against rebel forces.
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Democrats Target Rumsfeld
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Under assault from Republicans on issues of national security, congressional Democrats are planning to push for a vote of no confidence in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this month as part of a broad effort to stay on the offensive ahead of the November midterm elections.
In Rumsfeld, Democrats believe they have found both a useful antagonist and a stand-in for President Bush and what they see as his blunders in Iraq. This week, Democrats interpreted a speech of his as equating critics of the war in Iraq to appeasers of Adolf Hitler, an interpretation that Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff disputed. But Democrats said the hyperbolic attack would backfire.
But even before that, Democrats and some Republicans had maintained that Bush has never held anyone in his administration accountable for decisions in the Iraq war that many military analysts say went disastrously wrong. The decisions include not mobilizing enough troops to keep the peace, disbanding the entire Iraqi army and purging all members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party -- including teachers and low-level technocrats -- from the Iraqi government.
"Secretary Rumsfeld's stewardship of this effort is a failure, and he has let down our armed forces," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who is pushing for the no-confidence move.
By demanding accountability, Democrats hope to blunt what has been an all-out assault on their positions on national security. The Republican National Committee yesterday blasted Democrats again as "Defeatocrats," and the attacks will continue when Congress returns next week from its month-long recess. Republican leaders plan to consider a full slate of security-related legislation before leaving on Sept. 29 for the campaigns.
The legislative calendars in the House and Senate include defense spending bills, the annual defense policy bill, legislation to authorize the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program and a measure to bring Bush's military tribunals into compliance with a Supreme Court ruling that declared the initial tribunals unconstitutional.
"Now is not the time for a weak and indecisive approach that has been offered by Capitol Hill Democrats, and that's why Republicans are working to keep America safe through policies based on strength and purpose, rather than confusion and defeat," House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said yesterday, as he laid out the final legislative push before the campaigns.
Rather than change the subject to domestic issues, as they have tried in past years, Democrats are hoping to confront Republicans head-on.
"We will not be Swift-boated on this issue," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in an interview, alluding to the assault by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on the Vietnam war record of Democratic candidate John F. Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign. "We will fight them on national security."
Front and center of that campaign may be the attack on Rumsfeld. Some Democratic House candidates, such as Diane Farrell in Connecticut's 4th District, have been encouraging Democratic leaders to move formally for a vote of no confidence. And party leadership aides said they are canvassing Democratic members of Congress and exploring the parliamentary mechanism to do so. Before the move is set, the aides said, they want to hear from Democrats in tough races who may feel that the move would leave them vulnerable to Republican attacks.
But Emanuel said the move is set. And he hopes to stage the resolution with as many as 12 retired generals and other military officers who have called for Rumsfeld's resignation.
"We're going to go for a no-confidence vote on Rumsfeld," Emanuel said.
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Under assault from Republicans on issues of national security, congressional Democrats are planning to push for a vote of no confidence in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this month as part of a broad effort to stay on the offensive ahead of the November midterm elections.
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Fast-Growing Countries To Gain More Clout at IMF
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The International Monetary Fund took a first step yesterday toward retooling itself to reflect major changes in the global economy, agreeing to increase the power that several fast-growing countries have over its policies and promising to boost their clout more in the next two years.
The IMF's executive board, which represents its 184 member countries, approved a resolution that would modestly increase the voting power of China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey immediately. The resolution, which still must be approved at the fund's annual meeting in Singapore on Sept. 19, also sets forth a plan to revamp the formula for determining voting shares by the 2008 annual meeting.
The vote change is the initial stage of a broader initiative aimed at refocusing the IMF's priorities and giving high-growth emerging countries, especially in Asia, a bigger say over its operations, commensurate with the size of their economies.
Known chiefly in the past decade as a financial firefighter that sought to rescue emerging countries stricken by crises, the IMF is being prodded -- in large part by the United States -- to be more active in addressing global trade imbalances and other problems that menace the world economy.
That role would presumably include confronting countries whose currency policies are contributing to the imbalances -- the most obvious example being China, which many economists criticize as keeping the value of the yuan too low and thus giving its manufacturers an unfair competitive advantage.
At the same time, the IMF is seeking to address complaints that the apportionment of individual countries' voting power has not changed in 30 years despite wide shifts in the relative size of their economies. For example, China's economy has grown to twice the size of those of Belgium and the Netherlands combined, yet Belgium and the Netherlands together have 1.5 times as many votes.
At the fund, decisions are mostly approved by consensus, so voting power has little practical importance. But given the perception that the U.S. government dominates the institution, changing voting shares "is important symbolically," said Edwin Truman, an expert on the IMF at the Institute for International Economics.
Accordingly, the board decided to increase the overall number of votes immediately by 1.8 percent, with the extra voting power divided among China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey -- four countries whose votes have particularly lagged behind their economic clout. A resolution adopted yesterday also committed the IMF to a second stage of changes -- one expected to increase those countries' votes further, along with a few other underrepresented countries, while decreasing the votes of countries such as Belgium.
Yesterday's resolution was approved only after the objections of some poor nations, especially in Africa, were addressed. Critics have long accused the IMF of running roughshod over poor countries by insisting on harsh austerity policies in exchange for loans, and IMF managing director Rodrigo de Rato has vowed that poor countries' voting shares will increase. Under yesterday's agreement, a second stage of increases in fast-growing countries' votes would not take effect until the poor countries got their increases, too.
"We're pleased that the IMF board is moving this process forward," Brookly McLaughlin, a Treasury spokeswoman, said in a written statement. "An effective IMF needs a modern governance structure that legitimately represents its members."
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The International Monetary Fund took a first step yesterday toward retooling itself to reflect major changes in the global economy, agreeing to increase the power that several fast-growing countries have over its policies and promising to boost their clout more in the next two years.
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IRS Ends 2-Year Probe Of NAACP's Tax Status
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Nearly two years after a controversial decision to investigate the NAACP for criticizing President Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign, the Internal Revenue Service has ruled that the remarks did not violate the group's tax-exempt status.
In a letter released yesterday by the NAACP, the IRS said the group, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, "continued to qualify" as tax-exempt.
If the NAACP were stripped of the status, donors would not be allowed to claim contributions to the group on income tax returns.
Federal law requires tax-exempt nonprofit organizations to be politically nonpartisan.
"It was an enormous threat," NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said of the investigation. The opposite outcome, he said, "would have reduced our income remarkably."
Bond reiterated his belief that the investigation was politically motivated. He said the decision, received by the NAACP on Aug. 9, "meant that they thought they had harassed us enough and they could stop."
In a response to lawmakers who expressed outrage over the investigation in 2004, IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said the agency's examinations are based on tax law, not partisanship.
The commissioner said the investigation of the NAACP was undertaken because two congressional leaders, whom he declined to name, requested it. They were unhappy because Bond criticized Bush in a speech in July 2004, saying his administration preached racial neutrality and practiced racial division.
"They write a new constitution of Iraq and they ignore the Constitution at home," Bond said.
After filing four freedom-of-information requests, NAACP lawyers discovered that far more than two members of Congress called for an investigation and that all were Republicans.
Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Susan Collins (Maine) called for the investigation.
Others included Rep. Jo Ann S. Davis (R-Va.) and then-Rep. Larry Combest (R-Tex.). Former GOP representatives Joe Scarborough of Florida, who now hosts a talk show, and Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., currently governor of Maryland, also requested a probe.
The investigation started Oct. 8, 2004, a month before the election. As the investigation dragged on into the following February, the NAACP announced that it would not continue to cooperate.
Angela Ciccolo, an NAACP lawyer, noted that although Bond's remarks were made in July 2004, the investigation did not begin until October, just when the NAACP was attempting to register voters. "The timing of the investigation is critical," she said.
When the investigation started, Bush and the NAACP were locked in a long-running feud that started shortly before the president's first election victory in 2000.
During that campaign, the NAACP ran television spots featuring the daughter of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Texas in 1998. She criticized Bush, then governor of Texas, for not signing hate-crime legislation.
The rift grew when the NAACP charged that Republicans in Florida stole the 2000 election by turning black voters away from the polls.
Recently, however, the relationship between the group and Bush has begun to warm. Bush addressed the NAACP convention in July for the first time in his six years in office, avoiding becoming the first president since Warren G. Harding to snub the group for an entire presidency.
"It's disappointing that the IRS took nearly two years to conclude what we knew from the beginning: The NAACP did not violate tax laws and continues to be politically nonpartisan," said its president, Bruce S. Gordon.
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Nearly two years after a controversial decision to investigate the NAACP for criticizing President Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign, the Internal Revenue Service has ruled that the remarks did not violate the group's tax-exempt status.
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