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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/10/AR2006081001430.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006081219id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/10/AR2006081001430.html
Many in State Dept. Can't Talk the Talk
2006081219
Nearly 30 percent of State Department employees based overseas in "language-designated positions" are failing to speak and write the local language well enough to meet required levels, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. "We have a shortage of people with language skills in posts that need them," said John Brummet, assistant director for international affairs and trade at the GAO. "If people do not have the proper language skills, it is difficult to influence the people and government and to understand what they are thinking. It just doesn't get the job done." Languages described as "superhard" by the report are proving particularly difficult. Four out of 10 workers in posts requiring Arabic, Chinese and Japanese fail to meet the requirements. The levels are even higher in some critical postings. Sixty percent of State Department personnel in Sanaa, Yemen, and 59 percent in Cairo do not meet language requirements, the report said. Even levels set by the department could be too low to do the jobs properly. According to the GAO, embassy officials in China and Yemen said the speaking and reading levels asked for were "not high enough and that staff in these positions were not sufficiently fluent to effectively perform their jobs." But not all the news is bad. The report -- which has been sent to Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee -- said there have been positive steps: "State has made progress in increasing its foreign language capabilities, but serious language gaps remain." Still, the GAO found that many posts, including some critical to anti-terrorism efforts, are vacant or filled by inexperienced workers. Brummet said shortages include "visa officers, political officers, economic officers, substantive reporting and consular affairs." "We are looking for the State Department to rethink the assessment system and do things they are not currently doing to fix the problem," he said. "We are pleased they have agreed with the recommendations and are thinking of making significant changes. The question is: How far is the department willing to go?" All the way, officials said. Justin Higgins, a spokesman, said the State Department had worked with the GAO on the report, which took a year to compile. "We are already making the changes that will address many of the concerns noted in the report," he said. More staff will be employed to ensure additional training opportunities in critical languages such as Arabic. Higgins said efforts to close remaining gaps have been "hampered by an expansion of our mission, including in Iraq and Afghanistan." The report says some overseas postings are not long enough for staff workers to build up skills in certain languages. It recommends that the secretary of state lengthen postings in some countries. It also suggests targeting fully qualified officers at critical posts using incentives, and evaluating the effectiveness of efforts to improve language proficiency. The findings came as no surprise to some observers. "It confirms my impressions from my time meeting with U.S. diplomats," said Anatol Lieven, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation. "The language skills are poor, and often they are very cut off from the local population." Lieven agreed with the GAO that the government could do more to encourage people to learn certain languages for critical posts with better incentives. "Somebody who is willing to make a career in the war on terror and spend their whole career working in or about Muslim countries should be permanently on a different rate of pay," he said.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/08/08/DI2006080800873.html
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Is Mexico Nearing an Election Resolution?
2006080919
Felipe Calderón has declared himself the winner of Mexico's July 2 presidential elections , despite his opponent's refusal to concede . For the past week, López Obrador has lived in a tent in Mexico City's Zocalo square along with tens of thousands of demonstrators. López Obrador has said he will not accept the results of a partial recount, even after a special election court rejected his request for a full recount. The court must declare a winner by Sept. 6. Protests escalated as the partial recount was set to begin, with Mexican leftists blockading the offices of three major foreign-owned banks , and briefly taking over highway toll booths . Ackerman has written for various publications, including the New York Times and Mexico's Reforma newspaper. He is a senior consultant to the World Bank and vice president of the International Association of Administrative Law. He is also coordinator of the Research Program on Accountability, Legality and the Rule of Law at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Mexico City. Read commentary by Ackerman in The San Diego Union-Tribune , The Houston Chronicle , and Revista Proceso (in Spanish)(pdf). Ceci Connolly: Welcome to today's live chat with John Ackerman, a legal scholar on Mexican politics. Before we open up the conversation to your questions, I'd like to thank John for joining us and ask you: Does the partial recount beginning today in Mexico suggest the end is near for Andrés Manuel López Obrador? John Ackerman: The partial recount the Tribunal called for on Saturday is indeed very bad news for López Obrador. Although the Tribunal could theoretically still call for a full recount later and this would be entirely legal, the arguments which the justices offered on Saturday would make this extremely difficult. This is highly problematic because if serious irregularities are discovered in the partial recount there will be increased social demands for a full recount. But, in this case, pretty much the only option the justices have left for themselves is to "annul" or simply not declare the election valid and call for new elections. Mexico City, Mexico: Mr. Ackerman: the Mexican government and it's electoral institutions have failed to make this election a democratically solid and reliable process. Now the answer from the left is also barely legal, and illegal in some cases. From your point of view, Is there any way that future actions from the government and from the opposition could allow Mexican people to recover (if there ever was any) the trust and belief in the electoral process and it's public institutions? John Ackerman: Really the best solution is a full recount. This is not at all a radical demand being made by López Obrador. It is basic common sense in an election which is as close as this one. The Electoral Tribunal would be entirely within its legal jurisdiction to call for such a full recount and this is really the only way to reconstruct faith in Mexico's electoral institutions. Otherwise, a cloud of doubt will remain hanging over things and this will make things extremely difficult for Mexican politics. The other option is a "citizen recount" after the election is over. This would not have legal standing, but if it confirmed the electoral authorities results it would greatly legitimate the election. On the other hand, if it came up with a different result, this could lead to serious political crisis. The best answer would be for the Tribunal to change its criteria and call for a full recount ASAP. West Orange, N.J.: An August 6 WP article states that López Obrador trails by about 240,000 votes or about 0.5% of the votes cast. It says nothing about any evidence of alleged fraud. Are there many districts were gross vote counts were suspiciously high or low? In the PRI era, ballots could be 95%+ (or maybe more than 100%, counting the dead) in favor of the official candidate. Did the first count of the 2006 ballot feature any overt signs of shenanigans? Are the odds high or low that a full recount would yield a materially different outcome? washingtonpost.com: Mexican Runner-Up Remains Defiant John Ackerman: The question of whether there was outright fraud or not is still up in the air. López Obrador has made some pretty important allegations and there are enough apparent irregularities in the vote count and in surrounding events (tell tale phone calls and e-mails between government officials and political operators) that there is a reasonable doubt with regard to the election results. A full recount would clarify things once and for all and calm down the political situation significantly. Ceci Connolly: For those interested in the recount process which began this morning, here's an excellent overview from El Universal. http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/19756.html Bethesda, Md.: As someone who used to live in Mexico City, but doesn't have first-hand experience of recent events, I'd like to know a couple of things about the protests by AMLO supporters: Is there a different mood among the protestors than there was after Cardenas' contested defeat in the late 1980's? Do some AMLO voters believe he should accept the official results, or do all of them want to fight on? What stretch of Reforma does the encampment cover -- from the Angel to the Zocalo? More? Less? And are the people in the encampment mostly being cheered on, or booed, by encampment neighbors and passersby? Thanks. John Ackerman: Thanks for your questions. I wasn't here in 1988, but from what people have told me there is much more hope now among the AMLO supporters than in 1988 that they might actually be successful this time. People consistently state that now they have a "real" leader who is organizing resistance, not like Cardenas who supposedly left the movement hanging in 1988. The encampment goes far beyond the Angel, all the way to the Fuente de Petroleos in the exclusive Lomas section of town. They are both booed and cheered, depending on what section of Reforma you are on. Guadalajara, Mexico: You make the statement that: "a Felipe Calderón presidency will hold a weak hand in dealing with the Mexican Congress, where his party only has a minority." Wouldn't this be equally true if López Obrador was declared president of Mexico? While López Obrador calls for a full recount, is it not true that he only petitioned the TRIFE for a full recount in only a few areas of the country? John Ackerman: Yes, of course. Either way, the incoming president will have to conduct major political negotiations with Congress. The López Obrador challenge to the election has two prongs to it. On the one hand, he challenged tens of thousands of particular voting booths. On the other hand, he has challenged the election as a whole, calling for a full recount to clear up any and all doubts. On Saturday the Tribunal threw out the general challenge as a reason to conduct a full recount (although these arguments still could be used later to annul the election as a whole). The Tribunal decided to follow an extremely limited, strict interpretation of the law and only review Obrador's challenges of specific voting booths. This itself was a political (although legal) decision on the part of the Tribunal. They could have easily called for a full recount based on AMLO's more general claims. Cancun, Mexico: Greg Palast has been putting out a series of what I consider very poorly researched articles on the Mexican election. In his latest he finally acknowledges the clarity of the ballots themselves and the fact that they were filled out and counted manually. He continues to harp on why the million (actually around 820,000) null votes are not being counted. I don't believe that this was one of demands in the PRD's legal brief, which according to what I've read was deficient in more than one technical aspect. Could you explain this and also brief us on what exactly the PRD asked for in its complaint with the electoral court? I'd also like to know your opinion on charges by columnist Carlos Ramirez that many protestors are being paid by Mexico City construction companies, who he writes are also financially supporting the demonstrations in other ways in return for promises by the PRD that they will get building contracts. John Ackerman: One of the arguments the PRD did offer for the full recount is the high number of null votes and evidence from the partial recounts that have been conducted that many of these were actually for López Obrador. This is part of the second prong of the challenge which puts into question the election as a whole and calls for a full recount. I haven't seen Carlos Ramirez's charges, but this sounds extremely unlikely. Queretaro, Mexico: 1. Isn't it unfair to compare the 1988 elections to today's situation? After all, in 1988, the IFE did not exist and votes were counted by the Secretaría de Gobernación. 2. Why is it important that Calderón accept a full recount? This decision is not made based on political negotiation, but by the Electoral Tribunal. 3. Isn't it true that the questionable practices that López Obrador provided evidence for are the basis for the partial recount ordered by the court of those voting places? What evidence is there that there was fraud in the rest of them? John Ackerman: Good questions. The institutional conditions are indeed very different between 1988 and 2006, and this should have assured an un questionable election. Unfortunately, the present IFE councilors were not appointed by consensus (the PRD was excluded) and they have been less than entirely free of suspicion in the way they have acted. And if they decide to burn the ballots after the electoral process is over in order to prevent citizens from conducting their own recount we will be right back in 1988. Calderón is the one who would gain the most from a full recount. This is perhaps the only way he will be able to come in with significant legitimacy to manage Mexico's government. Once again, you don't have to accept the accusations of fraud to support the idea of a full recount. The full recount is needed precisely so that we can see whether there was fraud or not. The central issue is the transparency of the election. Marquette, Mich.: López Obrador has refused to label himself a populist, but to what extent do he and his supporters fit into the growing movement across Latin America that has seen the election of presidential candidates such as Chavez and Morales? John Ackerman: The support for López Obrador is definitely parallel to the support for other leftist presidents throughout Latin America (not just Chavez and Morales, but also Vasquez, Lula, Bachelet and Kirchner) in so far as it reflects widespread frustration with the failure of the economic reforms of the past two decades. But López Obrador is an extremely pragmatic politician. The fact that he believes in the welfare state and things that U.S. citizens take for granted like unemployment insurance and public education does not make him a "danger" for the U.S. or Mexico. Indeed, such policies may be exactly what Mexico needs to stop the tide of emigration to the United States. Marquette, Mich.: If Calderón is declared the winner, does he plan to continue the existing neoliberal policies? And if López Obrador wins, do you imagine a sharp departure from Mexico's current economic policies (specifically in relation to the United States)? John Ackerman: Calderón has expressed a clear message of continuity with Fox's policies. He will continue along the same line. López Obrador would not make a radical break and is not at all "anti-U.S.". He is just a pragmatist who believes in the importance of social justice. No radical break, but definitely important changes. Elma, N.Y.: Does López Obrador have sufficient evidence of miscounted votes to call into question the close election victory of his opponent? And is the evidence strong enough to challenge the fairness of the election laws which significantly restrict when you can call for a recount? John Ackerman: I think so. There is a reasonable doubt about the election results. Enough to justify a full recount. The Mexican constitution, electoral law and the court's jurisprudence would all permit such an action. It is simply incorrect to say that a full recount would be illegal. Washington, D.C.: Does the inability of protesters to create hysteria, if that's the case, basically mean a resolution is approaching? Is their a point when the PRD controlled Mexico City tell Obrador to pack up his tent and go home? John Ackerman: These next few days will be absolutely crucial. The partial recount began today and must finish before this Sunday. I doubt the Mexico City government will step in, but the federal government has been threatening to do so. Oaxaca, Mexico: The city of Oaxaca de Juarez is under the control of a group demanding the removal of the governor of Oaxaca state. They also control the state television and radio stations and many government offices. Do you see a tie-in between this movement and AMLO's? What possibility do you see for a general uprising of the poor in Mexico? John Ackerman: Don't see any direct connection between the situation in Oaxaca and AMLO, although both situations reveal the failings of the present governments (state and federal) to satisfy the basic demands of the poor. Don't think there will be anything like a "revolution", but discontent may indeed spread if the economy doesn't start to pick up. Greeley, Colo.: The democratic formula is 50 % + 1. In the Mexican presidential elections, None of the candidates reached that percentage. How can they even discuss who the winner of the election is when there are no clear indications how they can govern. Shouldn't they form a coalition with other political parties-forces in order to govern? John Ackerman: Yes. This whole situation reveals the urgent need to reform the electoral and state structures in Mexico. The country definitely needs run-off elections as well as possibly a move towards a pseudo-parliamentary form of government. Tucson, Ariz.: How would an upset by López Obrador affect foreign-owned property in Mexico? Would he try to create a "Mexico for Mexicans" kind of country where property was repossessed by the state? John Ackerman: No. Not at all. He is definitely in favor of foreign investment and the free market. His top economic adviser, Rogelio Ramírez de la O., is a serious, pragmatic guy. No worries here. Pedro, Chihuahua, Mexico: Do you expect serious irregularities to be found in the recount? John Ackerman: It is quite likely that the margin between Calderón and AMLO will become much smaller. Burke, Va.: What is your prediction of what will happen if the partial recount is held and there is no change? John Ackerman: Calderón would be quickly and quietly confirmed by the Electoral Tribunal and AMLO would try to lead a nationwide social movement against neoliberalism. Hopefully, the IFE would also allow the "citizen recount" to take place. This would help allot to shed light on the election and calm the political situation. Oaxaca, Mexico: Thank you for this discussion. What is your opinion of the involvement of Elba Esther Gordillo in the electoral process? Have you seen the allegations that she diverted educational funds for pro PAN campaigning? John Ackerman: Very worrisome. Elba Ester Gordillo's (old guard PRIsta union leader) participation is the dark side of the Calderón campaign. If there were serious irregularities they most likely can be attributed to her. New York, N.Y.: Professor Ackerman, The Fox administration had a difficult time passing structural reforms in a divided congress. Regardless of the winner, do you expect the narrow margin to erode an already weak presidential mandate? Tucson, Ariz.: I understand from friends in Sonora, the north Mexican state south of Arizona, that the same U.S. political group which was instrumental in gaining the election of Bush through various shenanigans, lost votes, uncounted votes, shortages of ballots, etc was also involved in Calderon's win. Is this true? John Ackerman: I have heard this as well, but don't have any solid sources. All the more reason for a full recount, so as to make sure this didn't happen. Takoma Park, Md.: On July 3, the IFE said that it had counted 99% of the vote. On July 4, it admitted that it had been unable to include 2.5 million votes (roughly 6%). Is there an innocent explanation for this? I sure can't think of one. John Ackerman: Well, supposedly the parties all new about the "archivo de inconsistencias", but the IFE should have announced this publicly. The fact that they didn't and falsely declared that 99% of the votes had been counted definitely created widespread suspicion. Mexico: Professor Ackerman, I'm studying here in Mexico City. It seems to me that AMLO is the victim of a stolen election. It's obvious that his opponents didn't want him to run and tried T prevent it. Then they tried to link him with Hugo Chavez. This "leftist" as the American press refers to him has massive popular support. Most news sources here are slanted to the right and only seem to report on how disruptive the protest is. If the election is handed to Calderón, I think a revolution is quite possible. Do you agree? John Ackerman: Definitely don't think a revolution will occur, but if the Tribunal simply rubber stamps the IFE results Calderón will definitely have an extremely difficult time governing. Berlin, Germany: Isn't a complete recount in either way inevitable? In case the outcome doesn't change and Calderón is declared winner AMLO probably won't simply give in but raise pressure on the streets until a full recount will be held. On the other hand, if Calderón will loose the partial recount wouldn't it be logical for him to call for a complete recount? John Ackerman: A full recount would definitely be in the interests of both candidates and for Mexico as a whole. As you point out, if Calderón turned out to come out behind after this partial recount he would be the first to call for an expansion of the recount! West Orange, N.J.: Assuming that a full recount yields a variance in the total tally greater than the spread between the candidates, aren't both likely to call for new elections? Would this be a two-way run-off? Who would benefit most from votes won by PRI in the original ballot? To what extend are blank or mutilated ballots a factor? Does Mexico's congress have the power to pick a winner in a disputed contest? John Ackerman: A new election is a very possible scenario. This would not be a two-way run-off, but a competition between all parties if they offered candidates (unless of course electoral law were reformed in the meantime). There are indeed lots of null votes in this election. Enough to make the difference if a recount were conducted. The Mexican Congress has no power over the elections. Although if the election were thrown out it would be responsible for naming an interim president. Atlanta, Ga.: One of the points made by the Electoral Tribunal judges in explaining their Saturday ruling on the partial recount is that in the vast majority of polling stations they ordered recounted, the main problem was that the number of recorded votes exceeded the number of recorded voters. The judges then further clarified that the polling officials from IFE had all the authority they needed to recount when there was such clear evidence of simple arithmetic errors. In a tense situation which depends so heavily on trust by parties and voters, why do you think the IFE so clearly (in the view of the judges) fell down on the job by refusing to recount in those thousands and thousands of stations? Did they not realize that by not recounting where there were obvious, obvious errors that they would sow distrust? John Ackerman: Yes, this was a major mistake of the IFE and did sow wider suspicion about their behavior. Ceci Connolly: I'd like to thank John Ackerman for giving us an hour of his valuable time today. We apologize that not every question could be answered. For more on this never-ending election, tune in to Campaign Conexion http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mexicovotes/. Thanks again! Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080800964.html
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A Fight Against Terrorism -- and Disorganization
2006080919
Early this summer, a new strategy for combating terrorism, described by its authors as "revolutionary" in concept, arrived on President Bush's desk. The highly classified National Implementation Plan for the first time set government-wide goals and assigned responsibility for achieving them to specific departments and agencies. Written by officials at the National Counterterrorism Center, under a directive signed by the president last winter, the 160-page plan aspires to achieve what has eluded the Bush administration in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: bringing order and direction to the fight against terrorism. VIDEO | FBI Academy Adjusts to Post-9/11 World In the years since Bush stood atop the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center and pledged retaliation against "the people who knocked down these buildings," the federal government has undergone an unprecedented expansion and reorganization. Yet the counterterrorism infrastructure that resulted has become so immense and unwieldy that many looking at it from the outside, and even some on the inside, have trouble understanding how it works or how much safer it has made the country. Huge amounts of money have been spent -- $430 billion so far on overseas military and diplomatic counterterrorism operations, according to the U.S. comptroller general, a tripling of pre-9/11 expenditures for domestic security programs to an estimated $50 billion to $60 billion this year, and untallied billions more in state and local money. Institutions historically charged with protecting the nation have produced a new generation of bureaucratic offspring -- the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) and Joint Intelligence Task Force for Combating Terrorism (JITF-CT), the Treasury Department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA), and the FBI's National Security Service (NSS), to name a few -- many with seemingly overlapping missions. New laws have broadened domestic enforcement powers, and the Justice Department has been radically restructured to emphasize counterterrorism. The FBI, where counterterrorism now accounts for half of all investigations, has nearly doubled its budget to $6 billion since 2001 and added 7,000 employees. Twenty-two domestic agencies have been combined under the new Department of Homeland Security, while separate counterterrorism divisions now exist in virtually every nook and cranny of the federal government, from the Transportation Department to the Food and Drug Administration. Outside Washington, 42 states have established intelligence "fusion centers" -- centralized locations where local, state and federal officials operate joint information-gathering and analysis operations. The proof that it is all working, White House officials often say, is that there has been no attack on U.S. soil since 2001. But critics say that after nearly five years, the fight against terrorism often seems like a chaotic work in progress. "It's as if we're at 2002 and not 2006 in terms of where we are," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview. The ad hoc construction, adding layer upon layer with none taken away, has left intelligence and security agencies competing for turf. Deadlines for priorities have been missed. DHS, for example, has repeatedly delayed supplying a congressionally mandated list of the nation's critical infrastructure, and a blueprint for information-sharing among federal, state and local entities has been slow to get off the ground.
Early this summer, a new strategy for combating terrorism, described by its authors as "revolutionary" in concept, arrived on President Bush's desk. The highly classified National Implementation Plan for the first time set government-wide goals and assigned responsibility for achieving them......
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So What's Our Role in Iraq's Civil War?
2006080919
Of all the signs that the American people are fed up with the war in Iraq, the one that the administration should fear most was put forth last week by a longtime supporter of both the president and the war, Virginia Republican John Warner. While chairing a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Warner suggested that the president might need a new congressional resolution authorizing our presence in Iraq, since the conflict there has become (or, best case, may yet become) a civil war. Now, that would be one challenging resolution to write. Once you've come up with "Whereas the conflict in Iraq is now a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis," what is it, exactly, that we are therefore supposed to resolve? In an Iraqi civil war -- which is precisely what we now confront -- what is the mission of U.S. forces? There are, after all, civil wars and civil wars. In the carnage that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was chiefly the genocidal aggression of Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian nationalists that needed to be checked, and in time U.S. forces and their allies did just that. But the slaughter in Iraq is the work of many hands on both sides of their religious divide. And the role of American soldiers in an intra-Islamic conflict is impossible to plausibly articulate. (Imagine, for instance, that a small Islamic army had been plunked down in Europe during the Protestant-Catholic strife of the 16th and 17th centuries. Its mission would have been about as clear as ours in Iraq today.) For the Bush administration, then, any admission that the Iraqi civil war is in fact a civil war destroys whatever remains of its justification for our presence there. For while it is true that the withdrawal of our forces will probably unleash even greater sectarian mayhem, it is also true that our presence cannot stop it and that our presence there has also greatly diminished our diplomatic and military capacity to accomplish anything else anyplace else. If Iraqis have embarked on a bloody partition of their nation -- and to all appearances they have -- then the one remaining task for any non-indigenous force within Iraq is to help ensure that that division takes place with as little slaughter as possible. In the best of all possible worlds, the Iraqi parties would agree on their new lines of demarcation. Agreement or no, however, the job of keeping the mayhem to a minimum would best be performed by forces with no perceived stake or history in the conflict -- that is, by a United Nations deployment of troops from nations that are neither Muslim nor Christian. For George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, however, such a messy and sad resolution would make unmistakably clear the full dimensions of their folly. It's not true that they don't have a plan for Iraq. Their plan is to avoid having such a resolution occur on their watch, to delay the disintegration of Iraq, for which they more than anyone else are responsible, until Bush is out of office and they can lay the blame for this catastrophe on his successor. There's also a more immediate reason why they need to stay the course. A recent poll of Republican voters commissioned by the Republican National Committee and reported on in yesterday's Los Angeles Times found that the best way the GOP could motivate its base in the upcoming election would be to contrast "the president's commitment to defeat the terrorists in Iraq" with the Democrats' supposed lack of commitment to that goal. (The quote is from pollster Fred Steeper's memo to Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.) The problem here is that only the Republican hard core still has confidence in Bush's Iraq policy, and a campaign focusing on affirming that policy would further inflame not only Democrats but independents as well. But with Republicans worrying about how just to turn out their base, staying the course in Iraq does retain a certain warped logic. Once it's acknowledged that the war in Iraq is a sectarian civil war, however, staying the course has no logic for anyone. Which is why Bush remains determined to dispute any such characterization. "You know, I hear people say, well, civil war this, civil war that," he told reporters at his Crawford, Tex., ranch on Monday. "The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box. And a unity government is working to respond to the will of the people. And, frankly, it's quite a remarkable achievement on the political front, and the security front is where there's been troubles." As long as there's an Iraqi government, apparently, there can be no civil war in Iraq. Another problem solved in the neat little world of George Bush.
Of all the signs that the American people are fed up with the war in Iraq, the one that the administration should fear most was put forth last week by a longtime supporter of both the president and the war, Virginia Republican John Warner.
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Democratic Leadership Welcomes Lamont
2006080919
HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 9 -- Democratic leaders embraced their new antiwar Senate nominee Ned Lamont on Wednesday, but his defeated rival, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) vowed to wage an independent crusade to save his seat and prevent the party from being captured by forces he said are out of the political mainstream. At a unity breakfast in Hartford, state party officials, who had lined up almost solidly behind Lieberman in Tuesday's primary, including Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), pledged their support to Lamont in the general election campaign. In Washington, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a statement that Lamont would have the national party's support. Also laying on hands for Lamont were such powerful party figures as former president Bill Clinton, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). In background conversations, Democratic officials gently signaled their desire that Lieberman abandon his independent candidacy but appeared reluctant to press him publicly. A senior Democratic official in Washington said leaders had met and decided to put off confronting Lieberman at least for a few days, to allow the senator time to absorb the implications of his loss and his new isolation from longtime colleagues and supporters. "There's a feeling that the dust needs to settle," the official said. Lieberman, on the national ticket as Democratic vice presidential nominee six years ago, appeared committed to turning the general election into a contentious rerun of the primary. He said it would be "irresponsible and inconsistent with my principles" to step aside from the fall race. He also announced that he is shaking up his entire campaign staff, accepting the resignations of his entire team, including several veteran consultants who have served him for many years. Meanwhile, Republicans showed their determination to try to exploit the results of Tuesday's primary in the November elections by claiming that Democrats have been captured by the antiwar left. Vice President Cheney, in a call initiated by his office to news service reporters, said Lieberman had been purged by a party ready to "retreat behind our oceans." Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman charged in a speech in Ohio that Lamont's victory showed the Democrats had abandoned the internationalist traditions of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Democratic leaders said the charge was without merit and argued that the Connecticut primary showed broad opposition to President Bush's Iraq war policies that put Lamont closer to the mainstream than his critics. Some Democrats said Lamont's triumph was more likely to turn the midterm elections into a national referendum on the war. Lieberman's campaign also confirmed an ABC News report that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove had called the senator Tuesday night, but denied that the president's top political adviser had offered help and support in the fall. "We would not have been interested, regardless," said Dan Gerstein, Lieberman's campaign communications director. Earlier that evening, Lieberman spurned a meeting with Dodd, his longtime colleague who had come to caution against making a hasty decision to run as an independent and to explain why he would be supporting Lamont in the fall, according to a Democratic official who asked not to be identified in order to speak freely about events on primary night. Lamont defeated Lieberman on Tuesday by 52 percent to 48 percent after a campaign in which Lieberman's support for the war and what his critics said was a too-cozy relationship with the president were the dominant issues. When he announced his candidacy earlier this year, Lamont was a lonely figure in the party, enjoying the backing of so-called Net-roots activists and bloggers but little else. His campaign tapped into grass-roots antiwar, anti-Bush sentiment in the state and the race became a national symbol of the debate over the war. Lieberman conceded shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday, and 12 hours after a victory speech, Lamont was the star attraction at a Hartford news conference with state Democratic Party leaders. The mood was boisterous. With turnout at 43 percent, the primary had shattered the previous record of 25 percent, suggesting a highly motivated Democratic electorate and an appetite across the state for change. Speaking briefly at the Democratic rally Wednesday morning, Lamont laid out the three main issues of his campaign: bringing the troops home, expanding health coverage, and improving education. He acknowledged the broader implications of his victory. "I think people around the country are looking at Connecticut," Lamont said.
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Lamont Relied On Net Roots -- And Grass Roots
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MERIDEN, Conn., Aug. 8 -- Almost no one saw it coming. Six months ago, Ned Lamont's name recognition was, within the margin of error, zero. He made campaign fliers on a copy machine. In a race against a Democratic senator with a national reputation, the political novice had two main things in his favor: substantial personal wealth and a potent issue. VIDEO |The day after defeating Sen. Joseph Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic primary for Senate, Ned Lamont joined state party leaders Wednesday calling for a change in Washington if he is elected. From Day One, the man who became Connecticut's Democratic nominee for the Senate on Tuesday stuck to a simple message: The war in Iraq was wrong and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman was wrong to continue supporting it. But while Lamont's success has been widely attributed to the rising power of the antiwar movement and liberal Internet bloggers, the 52-year-old upstart from Greenwich became a political giant-killer by blending both new- and old-style politics. He tapped the Net roots to promote his cause -- but the grass roots to win over voters. With its strong Internet presence and gung-ho supporters, Lamont's campaign soon came to resemble Howard Dean's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination two years ago. But there are key differences. Despite the national implications of Lamont's candidacy, his campaign retained a distinctly local flavor, staffed by veteran state operatives and a homegrown volunteer corps. As the hype grew, the campaign stuck to the basics. It focused on building a file of likely voters, organizing a turnout effort and circulating Lamont at events, including small gatherings in living rooms. "The story is really about voters in Connecticut who stood with Ned Lamont," said Tom Matzzie, political director for the antiwar organization MoveOn.org, one of numerous outside groups that promoted Lamont's candidacy. "He went from town to town, house to house, for months. It defined grass-roots campaigning." The Lamont effort started slowly, with a clear mission but low expectations. The multimillionaire cable television businessman had little political experience aside from a stint as a Greenwich selectman in the late 1980s. When Lamont entered the race in March, polls showed Lieberman with strong popularity, despite the state's strong antiwar leanings. Moreover, Connecticut's election laws forced primary challengers into a costly and time-consuming qualifying process that led other Democrats to conclude the road was too steeply uphill to proceed. Lamont turned those early obstacles into opportunities. He decided to pursue both avenues for getting on the ballot: collecting signatures and wooing Democratic delegates at the state convention. Both required aggressive outreach and helped to expand his support base. The results were so impressive, campaign manager Tom Swan said, that once Lamont secured a third of the delegates -- well in excess of the 10 percent he needed -- his workers continued collecting signatures to expand their database. Lamont's success at the state convention was the first of three turning points. The second was Lieberman's announcement in July that if he lost, he would run as an independent -- a decision that offended some Democrats and reinforced Lamont's argument that Lieberman is not a true Democrat. The third was a debate performance that showed Lamont could stand up against a skilled politician while pressing his case to a statewide audience. Lamont is not a typical insurgent. Preppy and mild-mannered, he is the scion of a patrician banking family, with a lineage that includes a great-grandfather, Thomas W. Lamont, who was chairman of J.P. Morgan. He first met with Swan in early December. Swan, the director of a consumer advocacy organization called Connecticut Citizen Action Group, was an experienced local organizer. He had nursed a grudge against Lieberman since 1994, when the senator opposed the Clinton administration's universal health care plan. Swan and his colleague John Murphy had been invited to meet Lamont by a mutual friend, a statewide political figure who become angry with Lieberman over the war. "The first meeting, it was clear to us that he was not a typical politician," Swan said of Lamont. "There was something that we found really, really appealing -- an earnestness." After Christmas, Lamont decided to challenge Lieberman, and Swan and Murphy took leaves of absence from CCAG to join him. One early move was to launch a primitive Web page seeking 1,000 volunteers in all 169 of the state's municipalities, building on the strength of local Democratic organizations. They began a voter-history project to track down people who voted in every obscure local primary and referendum -- information that was not available in statewide rolls. The campaign relied heavily on "house parties," or small neighborhood gatherings -- a tactic used in the 2004 presidential campaign, in particular by Dean. Organizers used the events to build their lists of likely voters and add to the volunteer ranks. Eventually, the campaign put the whole system online. "Their voting techniques are on the cutting edge of politics," said Matzzie, whose organization, MoveOn.org, is a pioneer of the house-party model. Lamont's wealth was also a critical factor. His campaign raised and spent about $4 million through July 19, about$2.5 million of which came from his own pocket. The campaign also reached out to organized groups that had grown frustrated with Lieberman over issues other than the war, including unions that opposed free trade as well as women's groups that had been angered by the senator's support for a decision by Connecticut's Catholic hospitals to refuse emergency contraception to rape victims. Those issues underscored a weakness that Lamont and others had sensed from the outset: that after 18 years in the Senate, Lieberman had grown distant from Connecticut Democrats. "I don't know if any of it would have worked, if Joe hadn't been so out of touch," Swan said. Though highly effective in the primary, Lamont's grass-roots model may need some tweaking if Lieberman decides to run as an independent. "The grass-roots approach is targeted at left-leaning Democrats," said Ken Dautrich, a professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut. In his victory statement Tuesday night, Lamont said: "This race started out as a dream, many thought an impossible dream, but thanks to all of you and thousands of citizens across the state . . . we have a coalition that believes this is a time for change."
MERIDEN, Conn., Aug. 8 -- Almost no one saw it coming.
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Israelis Authorize Expansion Of Combat
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JERUSALEM, Aug. 9 -- On the deadliest day of fighting yet for Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, the Israeli security cabinet Wednesday authorized the military to expand ground combat operations to try to root out Hezbollah guerrillas who continued to mount fierce resistance. The cabinet debated military options during an acrimonious six-hour meeting that occasionally dissolved into shouting matches among members torn between the public's growing anger over the military's failure to stop Hezbollah rocket attacks and concerns that enlarging an already treacherous battlefield will result in high numbers of combat casualties, according to participants. Wednesday's toll drove home those fears -- 15 soldiers were killed and 25 wounded in Israel's worst day of battlefield deaths since the conflict began, according to Israeli military officials. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, in a defiant televised address Wednesday night, warned that expanded Israeli military operations in Lebanon would be repelled by the same fierce resistance that has prevented Israeli troops from controlling the terrain in the last 29 days of warfare. "You can invade, you can land by air, by sea and take any hill, we will expel you with force and transform our land in the south to a graveyard for Zionist invaders," Nasrallah said. "We will kill your officers and soldiers and inflict a calamity on you in the battlefield." Nasrallah also called on the Arab residents of Haifa to evacuate their neighborhoods. "To the Arabs of Haifa, a special message," he said. "I plead with you to leave that city." Hezbollah lobbed more than 180 rockets across northern Israel Wednesday, but they caused no serious injuries. Israeli jets pummeled an often-hit bridge at Akkar in northern Lebanon and hit other bridges and roads in the Bekaa Valley near the village of Mashghara. Local residents told Lebanon's Future Television that seven people from one family were killed in the raid. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly attacked roads and bridges in the eastern Lebanese valley, seeking to cut off the transport of Hezbollah munitions, funds and rockets from Syria. Another air attack shook southern Beirut in the late afternoon, part of Israel's almost daily pounding of the Dahiya area where Hezbollah's leaders and followers were concentrated. When the blast reverberated across the city, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, C. David Welch, was conferring with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and other Lebanese officials on cease-fire negotiations underway at the United Nations. It was his second visit to Beirut in a week, as the Bush administration tries to narrow differences between Lebanon and Israel. But diplomatic efforts to ease the fighting continued to flounder. Israeli planes dropped leaflets on the Dahiya suburbs overnight, blaming Nasrallah for the air raids that have hit the area almost daily for four weeks. "Nasrallah is playing with fire and Beirut is burning," said the leaflets, attributed to "the State of Israel." Police in Lebanon said the death count from Monday evening's Israeli attack on the southern Beirut suburb of Al Shiyah had risen to 47 as bodies continued to be pulled out of the rubble, making it the single deadliest airstrike since the conflict began July 12. Although the Israeli cabinet set no schedule for the escalation in ground combat because of ongoing international diplomacy, a buildup in Israeli ground forces was evident in the string of small Israeli towns that line the Lebanese border. In Zarit, dozens of tanks and artillery pieces stretched along a half-mile access road into the town. A military official said more than 1,000 soldiers were moving into Lebanon to augment the 10,000 troops already operating there. The official said as many as 5,000 more Israeli troops would soon join the operation.
JERUSALEM, Aug. 9 -- On the deadliest day of fighting yet for Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, the Israeli security cabinet Wednesday authorized the military to expand ground combat operations to try to root out Hezbollah guerrillas who continued to mount fierce resistance.
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The Fast Money
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Leave the Harley at home, Ed. This is Saturday night motorcycle drag racing, where nothing matters but speed, sweet outrageous speed, G-forces that peel your eyelids back and push your retinas back against your skull, the smoke of burning rubber drifting over the empty grandstands at the Maryland International Raceway, bikes exploding from 0 to 190 mph in seven seconds, your feet four inches off the asphalt. It's all about adrenaline, nature's narcotic. It's so thick down at the starting line, down there in the eardrum-scraping engine noise, you can inhale it right out of the smoke and feel it slide around the back of your brain. But why stop there? Why, man? Why do one drug when you can mainline two? How about speed speed speed and cash cash cash? Oh, yes, back there in the shadows of the trailers in the parking lot, where guys are working on their modified Suzuki Hayabusas, their Kawasaki Ninjas, hip-hop busting from a boom box, corn dogs with mustard and a cold can of Bud, bets are shaping up. The midnight races tonight are all "grudge matches," guys taking each other on for -- officially unknown to the track staff -- lots of scratch. Rumpled wads of $100 bills are pulled from front pockets of jeans, from jackets of racing leathers. The quarter-mile under nine seconds with six gear shifts, baby. It is to speed what pornography is to sex. "The driver's cut is usually 10 to 20 percent of the bet," says Richard Gadson, his surname emblazoned across the back of his black riding leathers, standing beside a black Hayabusa with "Godzilla" stenciled on the side. "So if the bet is three grand, you get like $300, $600." Let's see: $600 for eight seconds work. You think this isn't a skill? That works out to a billing rate of $270,000 per hour. Try that, Mr. K Street lawyer. Gadson is from Philly. He's in the center of a knot of bikers, guys with arms folded across their chests, talking loud in the parking lot behind the race tower. It's 11:30 p.m. Gadson is 20 years old, maybe 5 feet 5, 135 pounds, a legend in the making. He's like a jockey -- he rides other people's bikes in one-on-one showdowns, one taking the inside lane, the other the outside. He's a hired gun, an "assassin," in the words of one bike owner, because "he takes everybody down." Most others call him Little Richie. The man reeks of star quality, the megawatt smile, the personality to burn. He's Richard Petty on two wheels. He's down here tonight, way out in the country darkness, for the money. He'll take as many races as he can get, piling that cash up. His day job is working as a laborer at a landscape company. Left his girlfriend back home; got to have something to show for it come Monday. Now here he goes, zipping up, strapping the helmet on, straddling the bike. It sounds like a jet engine. Takes his place in the line of guys waiting to go, side by side. Through the awning directly behind the strip, waved forward by the guy with the headphones covering his ears, beckoning the next two racers forward with arm motions like a guy directing airplanes on the tarmac. Richie is running the outside lane.
MECHANICSVILLE, Md. Leave the Harley at home, Ed. This is Saturday night motorcycle drag racing, where nothing matters but speed, sweet outrageous speed, G-forces that peel your eyelids back and push your retinas back against your skull, the smoke of burning rubber drifting over the empty...
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At the Track, the Betting's On the Queen of Saratoga
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Minutes after Invasor, an impeccably bred 4-year-old owned by Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum of Dubai, won the $750,000 Whitney Handicap by a nose here Saturday, a sleek silver Mercedes edged down the dirt track. It glided to a standstill several yards from the winner's circle in front of the stately wooden grandstand at Saratoga Race Course, a storied racing venue that traces its roots to 1863. When the sedan's back door opened, photographers and television cameramen jostled for position. The 80-year-old Marylou Whitney emerged gingerly. She wore a pink silk dress with matching coat, a signature wide-brimmed pink hat, three strands of pearls, and white Keds sneakers. Her 41-year-old husband, John Hendrickson, clutched her on one side, and her longtime friend, Albany public relations man Ed Lewi, propped up the other. The so-called "Queen of Saratoga" was making a grand, if somewhat wobbly, entrance back into the spotlight to present the trophy to the 79th winner of one of racing's most coveted prizes. Over the Memorial Day weekend, Saratoga's beloved Marylou suffered what's been described as a mild stroke that weakened her right side. On July 1, she and her husband reluctantly announced the cancellation of her lavish annual gala for 300 of her closest friends. Staged since 1960 at Canfield Casino in Congress Park on the night before the running of the Whitney Handicap, the gala became the marquee evening of the summer social season. "She's a very proud woman," Lewi said last week before Whitney's first public appearance at the racetrack since her stroke. "She's bound and determined to get better. She doesn't want to come to the parties in a wheelchair." Whitney reportedly is still undergoing about five hours of daily physical therapy, and several friends said she's expected to make a full recovery. They also say Whitney has continued to financially support her favorite causes around town, even if she has been unable to sit in her box at the track or attend any of the countless benefits and parties scheduled throughout Saratoga's 36-day racing meet. Whitney and her husband declined a request to be interviewed for this article. "Marylou is great at marketing the town," said Saratoga resident Bob Giordan, who works as a greeter at the racetrack. "She comes from a long line of women of a certain social order because of what they do for the hospital or horse racing." The fourth wife of the late Cornelius Vanderbilt "Sonny" Whitney, she's been involved with all things Saratoga ever since she arrived in 1958 in this Upstate New York spa, which has been famous for its mineral water baths since the Revolutionary War. Whitney has been a fixture at the racetrack and a star of the August social swirl, a passionate and popular philanthropist who has championed countless local causes. "She's been instrumental in making Saratoga well known throughout the country," said Linda Toohey, a close friend and former publisher of the town's newspaper, the Saratogian, who now works part time at the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. "When you combine her flair for having fabulous parties and the donations of millions in funds for local charities, it's a win-win for everyone." In the mid-1980s, Toohey recalled, Sonny Whitney asked Marylou what she wanted for her birthday. She told him she was tired of seeing her guests at their ball perspiring profusely because Canfield Casino -- an opulent onetime gambling emporium built in 1870 -- had no air conditioning. She told him the best gift would be to install a cooling system in the facility. "Not only did it make it more pleasant for her guests, but now everyone in the community is grateful for that generosity," Toohey said. "They probably have 50 fundraising events in the casino over the summer. There's a museum in there, and they have another 50 weddings. It's a very public building, and the air conditioning made all of it possible." Sonny Whitney, who died in 1992 at age 93, had money and blue blood on both sides of his family. His interest in horses included a string of polo ponies and a stable filled with fine thoroughbreds, hunters and steeplechase racers. Chairman of the board of the Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Co. and a founder of Pan American World Airways, he owned a horse farm in Kentucky, a hacienda in Mexico, a lodge in the Adirondacks and a 135-acre estate on the outskirts of Saratoga Springs called Cady Hill.
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Brothers of Reinvention
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So what is it about Mario? The portly plumber who's out to save Mushroom Kingdom and maybe get a kiss from the princess is still hopping, jumping, stomping his way from the original "Super Mario Bros." (released in 1985) to the latest "New Super Mario Bros." (released in May). He's still the friendly Everyman, still in the same red-and-blue overalls, still sporting the same mustached, rosy-cheeked, aw-shucks look. And he's the most popular game character among 9-to-12-year-olds, says the NPD Group, which tracks game sales in the United States. "Mario never gets old, kind of like James Bond," says Michael Pachter, a game analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. "And who doesn't think James Bond is cool?" Twenty-five years after his debut, Mario is the angelic, lovable, all-too-recognizable face of the best-selling video game franchise ever, racking up sales of nearly $2.3 billion in the United States -- and that's only since 1995, as far back as NPD data go. There are currently more than 50 Mario-related games in the market. And the best ones attract tweens who are old enough to appreciate the games' complexity and beauty -- pipes that lead to secret mazes! Mushrooms that double your size! -- but young enough to want to have pure, easy, harmless fun. Who wouldn't want to break a brick by bopping it with your head? It also doesn't hurt that many parents of these tweens, head-boppers themselves, have grown up playing Mario. It's all Mario, all Nintendo, all the time at the Palamore residence in Arlington, where it's not entirely clear who's the biggest Mario fan. Is it 8-year-old Matthew, who proudly declares, "I have Mario's voice," and spontaneously says " Mamma mia! "? Or Curtis, 10, who goes on and on about "Super Mario Sunshine"? Or 12-year-old Chris, who can't decide which of the family's eight Mario games is his favorite? Or is it Brad -- the boys' 30-year-old dad, a minister at the Arlington Church of Christ -- who jokingly introduces himself as "Luigi" and has very fond memories of a five-day binge of pizza and "Super Mario Bros." on his Nintendo Entertainment System when he was 10? "The thing about Mario is, you can play it with your kids," says Brad Palamore, a self-described "Nintendo dad." "You don't have to worry about what they're seeing on the screen because as a kid yourself, you've seen what goes on in a Mario game." Mario is the creation of the legendary Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, also the man behind Donkey Kong. In the early 1980s, Mario was known as Jumpman, Donkey Kong's nemesis in an arcade game. But when Jumpman proved to be as popular as Kong, he transformed into Mario, the middle-aged plumber with a heart of gold. He's Tony Soprano but gentler, Tony Danza but cuter, Mickey Mouse but Italian by way of Japan, with a posse that includes Luigi, Yoshi, Princess Peach, et al. (It's been reported that the name is a homage to Mario Regale, the former landlord of Nintendo's warehouse in Redmond, Wash.) He's starred in "Super Mario Brothers," his very own live-action 1993 movie, and has appeared on "The Simpsons," playing an Italian tourist. He's the omnipresent mascot of Nintendo, which this fall will release Wii, its new game console, and if all goes well, a new game called "Super Mario Galaxy" with it. "It's Mario's games that have made him so universally famous. 'Super Mario Bros. 3' is still my all-time favorite video game today. It's got such inventiveness -- not too simple, not too frustrating," says Dan Hsu, editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly. "Mario's games are consistently good. That's why the man is where he's at today." There's a Mario game in practically every flavor and genre -- sports ("Mario Tennis: Power Tour"), racing ("Mario Kart: Double Dash!!"), adventure ("Mario Party 7") -- and like "The Sims," the hugely successful PC franchise, Mario has proven to be girl-friendly too. The game world, like other entertainment media, is an industry built on brand loyalty -- there are "Legend of Zelda" people, "Final Fantasy" people, "Madden NFL" people, "Halo" people, "Grand Theft Auto" people and the folks who sweat and swear and live by "World of Warcraft." Then there are Mario people like Michael Koyfman. Five years ago, at age 12, Koyfman started his own Web site, the Super Mario Fan Club ( http://www.smfc.us/ ). The club has 239 members. Koyfman, 17, who will be a senior at John A. Rowland High School in Los Angeles County in the fall, says he got hooked on Mario 10 years ago and still takes the time each day to play one of his 30 Mario games -- "Mario Kart DS" and "Super Smash Bros. Melee" are his favs -- save Mushroom Kingdom and kiss the princess. "I guess I should be getting tired of the games now, but I'm not."
So what is it about Mario? Twenty-five years after his debut, "Super Mario" is the most popular game character among 9-to-12-year-olds.
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Return on Warranties: $1.2 Billion
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N.E.W. Customer Services Cos., started 23 years ago by a law student trying to pay his bills, was sold yesterday for $1.2 billion. The little-known Dulles company, which over the past five years has become the biggest independent provider of extended-service warranties for thousands of consumer products, was bought by a Boston private equity fund. N.E.W. has more than tripled in value in two years, making hundreds of millions of dollars for its financial backers and senior management under Chairman Fred Schaufeld, who founded it using his credit cards -- and dropped out of law school. Although the company did not release revenue or profit figures for the past year, company executives say revenue has grown more than 35 percent in each of the past three years, which would put its annual revenue at about $400 million. The new owner is Berkshire Partners LLC, a Boston private equity fund that specializes in investing in private consumer products companies. Los Angeles firm Freeman Spogli & Co. also invested. The seller was not Schaufeld but a private equity group led by venture capital firm TH Lee Putnam Ventures, which bought the firm two years ago in a deal that valued N.E.W. at $370 million. Schaufeld said he and his senior management will retain a stake in and continue to manage N.E.W. Schaufeld, who sold a large part of his ownership in the 2004 TH Lee buyout, declined to say how much of the company he had retained. N.E.W. is an administrator of extended-service warranty and replacement contracts, selling them through dozens of retailers such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Lowe's and Ritz Camera. It covers most consumer products that can malfunction or break, including microwaves, Game Boys, bikes, iPods, power drills and printers. A typical contract can cost anywhere between a few to several hundred dollars and kicks in after the manufacturer's warranty ends. The extended warranty will allow a product to be replaced or repaired for several months to years in the future, depending on the type of product. N.E.W. has 3,000 employees, most of them at six U.S. call centers. About 123 employees work at its headquarters near Dulles International Airport. Schaufeld, 46, started the company when he was an American University law student. His first customer was a now-defunct electronics store in Rockville. Trying to earn money for tuition and living expenses, he took a job selling extended warranties for another company. "I did some research on the laws covering this business and realized the company was breaking every one of them," Schaufeld said. "I knew there had to be a better way to do this." Founded in 1983, N.E.W. -- the company's old name was National Electronics Warranty -- was financed by Schaufeld's credit cards and money from family and friends. Profitable early on, its growth has accelerated since 1999, when Schaufeld began hiring a crew of seasoned sales, operations and financial executives. It raised its first venture capital in 2000 in a small deal led by Bethesda's Novak Biddle Venture Partners.
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Stepped-Up Police Efforts Don't Avert Club Fracas
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D.C. police said yesterday they were frustrated that despite efforts to curb juvenile crime, they were unable to prevent a melee that marred a daylight concert organized for teenagers. "There were fights, bottles thrown, people shot," said D.C. Assistant Police Chief Brian K. Jordan about a fracas outside a Northeast Washington music club Monday evening that ended with two juveniles shot, two beaten and three arrested. "What this says is we have some issues with our young people . . . the way they resolve issues with fights and weapons." The incident began at an organized event inside the lounge and spilled out onto the street. "We've worked hard to reach out to kids. We've got recreation centers open as late as midnight to give juveniles a place to go," Jordan said. "We can try to stop it if it happens after 10 p.m. [the teen curfew hour]. But something like this, at 6 o'clock?" The concert began at 2 p.m. at the Market Lounge Inc., a club above the Florida Avenue Market in the 1300 block of Fifth Street NE. The lounge, which has a good reputation among the city's club crowd, usually is host to weekly go-go concerts, a homegrown version of funk that has been a local favorite since the 1970s. Members of go-go bands often shout out neighborhood names, acknowledging their fans from all over the city. But sometimes that recognition can ignite petty squabbles. Bands have been playing at Market Lounge for years with few incidents. But on Monday, during the appearance of acts such as TOB, CCB and the Trinidad Bombsquad, some members of the audience began to brawl. It started, Jordan said, as "some type of conflict between two neighborhood groups." The club owner ended the concert two hours early and sent about 200 concertgoers into the street. Shortly after they were bounced, the teenagers milling outside began to fight again, amid the urban market's trucks and forklifts, halal meat, wholesale croaker, bulk bok choy and Mexican fruit stand. Someone fired a gun in the crowd, shooting a 14-year-old girl in both legs and a 13-year-old boy in one leg. A 17-year-old youth was pistol-whipped. Bottles were thrown, Jordan said. A 17-year-old sped from the scene in a car, and police stopped him. He had a shotgun in his car, and officers arrested him. Yesterday, tests were being done to determine whether he was the shooter, Jordan said. Police are looking for another teenager who left the scene in a white Honda. In the chaos of the shooting, two girls, ages 13 and 14, began to beat another girl with a bottle. Police arrested them, and the victim was taken to a hospital, Jordan said. All the youths injured Monday were treated and released, he said.
D.C. police said yesterday they were frustrated that despite efforts to curb juvenile crime, they were unable to prevent a melee that marred a daylight concert organized for teenagers.
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With DeLay Out, GOP Searches for Write-In Candidate
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Former House majority leader Tom DeLay announced yesterday that he will make whatever moves are necessary to remove his name from the ballot in November, leaving the Texas Republican Party with no name on the ticket in his district but allowing GOP leaders to back a write-in candidate. DeLay's decision leaves his party with a difficult write-in campaign, in which it will seek to hold the retired politician's Houston area district in a year when Democrats have a chance to seize control of the House. "It's a huge uphill battle to win against the circumstances that are in place," said Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a Republican member of the Houston City Council who has been preparing to run for DeLay's seat. "It's difficult to get voters to take a write-in candidate seriously." Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats to take control of the House. On Monday, two Republican districts were thrown into havoc when Rep. Robert W. Ney (Ohio) announced that he will not stand for reelection and the Supreme Court refused to intervene on the GOP's behalf to allow Republicans to find a replacement for DeLay on the ballot. "All things being equal, if current trends continue, the Democrats take the House," predicted Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. "That's a pretty strong statement for August." For DeLay, there were no good options. Under indictment in Texas and facing a federal investigation in Washington, he resigned from the House in June after winning his party's primary three months earlier, hoping to help pick his successor. But successive federal court rulings backed Texas Democrats, who contended that the GOP could not pick a replacement once DeLay had won the primary. That left DeLay with two choices: Ask the voters he had abandoned to elect him to represent a district he hoped to leave, or force the party to mount a write-in campaign. DeLay said yesterday that his decision to leave the House, move to Alexandria and go into business "is irrevocable." "As a Virginia resident, I will take the actions necessary to remove my name from the Texas ballot. To do anything else would be hypocrisy," he continued. "I strongly encourage the Republican Party to take any and all actions necessary to give Texas voters an up-or-down choice this fall between two major-party candidates." At least two possible candidates, Sekula-Gibbs and Sugar Land Mayor David G. Wallace, had been preparing to jump in if Republicans prevailed in their efforts to replace DeLay's name on the ballot. Other possible candidates include state Reps. Charlie Howard and Robert Talton. Besides Sekula-Gibbs, it is not clear which potential candidate could mount a write-in campaign. Such efforts have prevailed in the past. Republican Ron Packard won a California election as a write-in in 1982, as did Republican Joe Skeen in New Mexico in 1980. Arkansas Democrat Thomas Dale Alford won his seat the same way in 1958. But a Republican successor to DeLay would have significant hurdles, said Amy Walter, a House political analyst at the Cook Political Report. With less than 100 days to go, Republicans have not even begun to coalesce around a name to write in. Most polling places in the Houston suburbs will be using touch-screen computers without keyboards, making the process of typing in a name laborious -- especially one such as Sekula-Gibbs, the councilwoman joked. And the Democrat on the ballot, Nick Lampson, is a former House member with millions of dollars to spend. Rothenberg said he had categorized DeLay's Texas district as leaning Republican when he believed the party would choose a successor. Now it will be back to a tossup. Republican efforts to retain Ney's Ohio seat ran into complications yesterday as well, when GOP officials said the leading party candidate may prove ineligible. House Republican leaders prevailed upon Ney to drop out rather than hobble into the contest under federal investigation for his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. But their chosen candidate, state Sen. Joy Padgett, may be barred from running by Ohio's "sore loser" law, which prohibits politicians who lose one primary from entering another in the same year. Padgett lost a primary in May to stand as her party's nominee for lieutenant governor. "The net result of all this is more uncertainty, not more clarity," Rothenberg said. For Democrats, the longer the uncertainty hangs over the Republican campaigns, the better their chances, analysts agreed. And the anti-incumbent, anti-Washington, antiwar atmosphere already clouding the midterm elections is showing no signs of abating. If anything, races on no one's watch lists are suddenly heating up. Republican incumbents such as Reps. Chris Chocola (Ind.) and Thelma D. Drake (Va.), who were considered second-tier targets for the Democrats, are running behind in recent polls.
Former House majority leader Tom DeLay announced yesterday that he will make whatever moves are necessary to remove his name from the ballot in November, leaving the Texas Republican Party with no name on the ticket in his district but allowing GOP leaders to back a write-in candidate.
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U.S., France At Odds on Resolution For Mideast
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UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 -- The United States and France have split over key provisions in a compromise resolution to end hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, triggering intense diplomatic scrambling, according to European and U.S. officials. The two co-sponsors of the resolution had agreed on the need for changes after Lebanon's proposal Monday to deploy 15,000 troops in the south, but Washington and Paris have basic differences over the issues and the scope of other modifications that Beirut had requested. France wants to incorporate ideas from Lebanon's new proposals, particularly on two issues: deploying Lebanese troops alongside a more robust version of the U.N. force now in Lebanon as a means to expedite an Israeli withdrawal, and settling the status of Shebaa Farms, the officials said. But the United States, which has accepted Israel's concerns on both issues, thinks that a strong international force still needs to be in place before an Israeli withdrawal to ensure that the Shiite militia is not able to resume control of southern Lebanon or shoot at Israeli forces as they pull out, U.S. and European officials say. The Bush administration also does not want to offer more specific language on Shebaa Farms -- the disputed border area that abuts Israel, Lebanon and Syria that Hezbollah has used to justify keeping its weapons -- for fear it would be seen as a reward to the Shiite movement, European officials say. "We have differences on how to incorporate the needs of the Lebanese," a French official said. French President Jacques Chirac will hold talks Wednesday with his prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister to review the situation. France thinks that Prime Minister Fouad Siniora needs to have Lebanon's concerns taken into account to be able to persuade Hezbollah to cooperate and eventually disarm, French officials say. If Lebanon's proposals are not incorporated in some significant way, France fears the fragile Beirut government will break apart and throw Lebanon into political chaos, making a resolution far more difficult, the officials say. In a special Security Council session Tuesday, a high-level Arab League delegation appealed for a resolution that includes an immediate halt to Israel's offensive against Hezbollah and its withdrawal from southern Lebanon, warning that Israel's continued presence threatens to trigger a civil war. The Arab initiative reflected mounting concern by Lebanese officials that Hezbollah and its key foreign backers, Iran and Syria, would resist a U.S.-backed plan to send an international force to the region to ensure an end to attacks against Israel. The proposal has complicated efforts by the United States and France to seek passage of a resolution that would call for a full cessation of hostilities in southern Lebanon but allow Israeli troops to remain until an international force is deployed along the border. Key sticking points include the timing of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the mandate of a new international force for the south. The Lebanese favor expanding a U.N. peacekeeping operation to help the Lebanese army restore control over the south. "The draft resolution not only falls short of meeting many of our legitimate requirements, but it also may not bring about the results that the international community hopes to achieve," said Tarek Mitri, special envoy to the Lebanese council of ministers. But Israel insists that a robust European-led multinational force with the authority to fight be sent to the region. It says that the 2,000-strong U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon is too weak to restrain Hezbollah. The Arab League secretary general and foreign ministers from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates warned that the deployment of a heavily armed Western force could plunge the region into chaos. "If we adopt resolutions without fully considering the reality of Lebanon, we will face a civil war," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jasim al-Thani said.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 8 -- The United States and France have split over key provisions in a compromise resolution to end hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, triggering intense diplomatic scrambling, according to European and U.S. officials.
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At Rape Hearing, U.S. Soldiers Describe Stress of War
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BAGHDAD, Aug. 8 -- The constant fear of death and the trauma of several devastating incidents took a heavy toll on morale in the U.S. Army unit whose members included five soldiers accused of involvement in the rape and killing of an Iraqi teenager, witnesses testified Tuesday in a military court. Pfc. Justin Cross said the 1st Battalion of the 502nd Infantry Regiment was subjected to intense stress during the months it served in the area south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death. Patrols, he said, put soldiers in constant fear for their lives. "I couldn't sleep, mainly for fear we would be attacked," he said. Cross described his unit as "full of despair" and recalled worrying that he would be killed while manning a checkpoint. Cross testified during the third day of an Article 32 hearing, the military's equivalent of a grand jury. The hearing is being held to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to try Spec. James P. Barker, Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard on charges of raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her parents and 5-year-old sister. Another soldier, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, is accused of failing to report the attack but is not alleged to have participated. The soldier described in testimony Monday as the ringleader in the attack, former private Steven D. Green, was discharged because of a "personality disorder" and does not face the possibility of court-martial. Green was arrested in the United States in June and has pleaded not guilty to federal rape and murder charges. The alleged rape and killings were carried out on March 12 in the town of Mahmudiyah. In his testimony, Cross said his unit was demoralized not only by the dangers of being posted in the Triangle of Death but also by several devastating setbacks. On Feb. 5, the unit's living quarters in Yusufiyah burned to the ground, destroying many soldiers' personal belongings. And the shooting of two members of the unit at a checkpoint "pretty much crushed the platoon," Cross said. Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Fenlason, who testified that he had been sent to the unit to restore discipline, said that shortly after he arrived, he identified emotional and disciplinary problems in several soldiers, including Barker, Cortez and Green. "I recall a conversation with [Green] regarding his lack of concern or caring for Iraqi life versus American soldiers' life," Fenlason said. Eugene Fidell, a Washington military law expert, said Tuesday that the defense attorneys were most likely emphasizing combat stress to argue that their clients not face a possible death penalty in the event of a court-martial. "This is not a defense known to the law," Fidell said. "But this kind of evidence could come in during the court-martial, and it might be pertinent to the sentence. They could be setting the stage to avoid a death penalty." Staff writer Josh White in Washington contributed to this report.
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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Mt. Athos, Greece: Of Monks and Men
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Visitors to the Holy Community of Mount Athos, on a hilly, heavily forested peninsula in northeast Greece, will have to do without radio, television or newspapers. Nor are they likely to see paved roads, private cars or neon lights. Some places do not have electricity. Hot showers are uncommon. And, most notably, there are no children and no women. Women have been barred from the mountain for a thousand years. Mount Athos is an Eastern Orthodox "monastic republic" and a surviving fragment of the Byzantine Empire -- a fully functioning mini-state with roads, settlements and a capital city, all operating under a charter granted by the Emperor at Constantinople in 972. It's a time-warped place. Clocks are set on Byzantine time, which starts at sunset; dates are calculated by the Julian calendar of the Roman Empire, 13 days different from the modern Gregorian calendar; some settlements are supplied solely by mule teams; and the flag of Byzantium still flies. It's also a World Heritage Site, containing what is arguably the world's greatest concentration of Byzantine religious art and architecture. Legally speaking, Mount Athos is an autonomous region in Greece with many characteristics of an independent state. Visitors must show passports or national ID cards on the way in and undergo customs inspections on the way out. Psychologically and geographically speaking, it's a world apart. The peninsula on which it sits -- six miles wide and extending 35 miles into the Aegean -- terminates in the peak of Mount Athos itself, sharply pointed, bare rock, 6,600 feet high and dropping steeply into the sea. No road connects the peninsula with the mainland -- access is solely by boat. Scattered over this rugged landscape are 20 large monasteries, a dozen smaller communities, innumerable hermitages and about 2,500 monks. This exotic little state, sometimes described as a Christian Tibet, has many features making for a truly great travel destination: grand architecture, hiking trails along cliff tops or through virgin forests, guest rooms in monasteries, meals of fresh natural foods, and a chance to talk with wise and thoughtful men about the nature of the good life and the state of your soul. And no one can complain about the price: In the tradition of monastic hospitality, each monastery offers two meals and a night's lodging for free, then sends you on your way. You can spend a week on Mount Athos, as I recently did, without spending a dime. That is, if they'll admit you in the first place. Mount Athos guards its isolation and discourages casual visitors. To be admitted, I had to prepare a letter for the central Pilgrims' Bureau explaining why I wanted to visit. Fortunately, I had some decent reasons. I had read about Mount Athos in high school and had thought it delightfully quirky. Now, after years of legal practice, I was ready for a seriously nonmaterialistic pilgrimage. Mount Athos is the spiritual center of the Eastern Orthodox world. Achilles Paparsenos, a spokesman for the Greek Embassy in Washington, explained that "most Greek men" want to visit there at some point because of the "special place it holds in Orthodox tradition." Visitors need not be Orthodox themselves, but it helps if they have religious or spiritual purposes in mind. A monk passes through each monastery courtyard at 3:30 a.m., tapping a distinctive rhythm on a wooden board called a simandron to wake everyone for 4 o'clock services, which begin in total darkness and run for three hours as the candlelit church slowly brightens into daylight.
Return to Byzantine (and quieter) times at Greece's Mount Athos, a "monastic republic" lined with cliff-top monestaries.
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Post Politics Hour
2006080819
Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news. Washington Post national political editor John F. Harris was online Tuesday, Aug. 8, at 11 a.m. ET . Minneapolis, Minn.: If Lieberman decides to run as an independent (assuming he loses today's primary) will he have to "start over" his years as a Democrat? In other words, after 17 years as a Democrat, he starts back at ground zero as a freshman Senator with little clout. John F. Harris: Good morning. LOTS of Lieberman-Lamont questions today, and I am open for business. As we chat, I am on the phone with Shailagh Murray, who covers Congress for us and is up in Connecticut with Dan Balz covering this race. says she believes--though she did not sound 100 percent sure, I must confess--this would be up to the Democratic caucus--whether to accord Lieberman his old seniority. Sen. Lautenberg, who returned to the Senate after an absence, was allowed to keep his cumulative seniority rather than starting from scratch. By the way, for people expecting White House reporter Mike Abramowitz--he's on vacation in Spain. I'm filling in. Fort Myers, Fla.: What is the usual voter turnout in contested primaries in Connecticut? How big a role will voter turnout have on the Connecticut primary results, and who stands to benefit from either high or low turnout? John F. Harris: My understanding from this morning's stories--I can't remember if it was in Balz's or Murray's, but we'll post 'em both--is that the record primary turnout in Connecticut was in a Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1994. That was 25 percent. Given the interest this race has excited, that record might well be broken, I expect. Even so, primary turnouts are always relatively low compared to general elections, so the question of which side's voters turnout is always pivotal. It had been received wisdom a week ago that low turnout probably helped Ned Lamont, since his fervently anti-war voters are certain to vote, while Lieberman supporters might have less intensity. To be honest, I'm not so sure that received wisdom is not baloney (to use a washingtonpost.com-approved word in place of the one I would ordinarily use.) It's clear from Connecticut polls that Lamont has been ahead, but not so far ahead that we should be shocked if Lieberman comes back and wins. I don't know what turnout will be and don't really place much stock in karom-shot calculations about what the implications are of various turnout percentages. I'm very much looking forward to real results--as opposed to heated speculation--this evening. Polls close at 8 p.m. and I do not think it's going to take very long to count voters. Start clicking on post.com at say 9 p.m., or maybe earlier. In regards to the CT primary today, in listening/reading some commentators recently, you think that the idea of an incumbent losing would signal the end of the Democratic Party or even the Republic itself. Could it be as simple as CT Dems have grown tired of Lieberman after 18 years and want change? Its not unheard of - NY GOPers a few decades back nominated Al D'Amato over Jacob Javits for Senate in part because Javits was left of the Republican center (of course there was Javits health issues in play then as well). John F. Harris: Wait a minute...are you trying to dampen our fervid speculation and analysis with a dose of level-headed perspective? I'm not buying. A Lamont victory would demonstrate in a very clear fashion the power of the anti-war movement in Democratic politics. The example you cite--Javits losing to D'Amato in 1980--seems to me to prove the point. Javits was a liberal Republican, and his defeat showed the ascendancy of conservatives in the GOP. Of course there are always local and other idiosyncratic factors at play in these races. But I think there is potentially quite a lot of significance in this race. I'd ask the chat host to post two very relevant Dan Balz stories...One that ran on Sunday about the significance of this race for Democrats nationally, and a portrait of Lieberman that ran in today's paper. Both are superb pieces and a reminder of why Balz is the best in the business. (Thank goodness he did not take the recent Washington Post buyout offer.) washingtonpost.com: Conn. Race Could Be Democratic Watershed , ( Post, Aug. 6, 2006 ) washingtonpost.com: Lieberman's Troubles Go Beyond War , ( Post, Aug. 8, 2006 ) Assuming that the left wing of the Democrat Party prevails today, and Lieberman loses, what is the general consensus as to his prospects as an independent in a three way race? John F. Harris: I'm not sure I'd characterize a Lamont victory as strictly speaking a victory for the "left wing" of the Democratic party. Certainly many liberals are Lamont backers, and many have bridled at Lieberman's more centrist politics for a long time. But the anti-war wave that Lamont appears to be riding likely crosses ideological lines. I think there is not yet an informed consensus (as opposed to people popping off without real knowledge) about Lieberman's independent prospects. A lot of people I have spoken with are skeptical that Lieberman will actually follow through on his vow to run as an independent if he loses. In any event, a lot would depend on whether he loses by a little or a lot. Glenside, Pa.: People have talked about Hilary Clinton's response to the Conn. senate primary, but what do you think it would do for someone like Evan Bayh or Mark Warner? John F. Harris: You can be sure that both those guys--and a lot of other likely presidential candidates--are watching the race closely. In Warner's case, he is from Connecticut originally and I'm assuming must know Lieberman well. Both he and Bayh are representatives of the centrist/Democratic Leadership Council wing of the part of which Lieberman is a long-time leader. They are going to be studying the race closely to see what it portends for their own brand of politics. As I said earlier, I think a Lamont victory would be seen as an anti-war statement, not necessarily a repudiation of centrist Democrats generally. But it would underscore the power of the anti-war wing of the party, in the unlikely event that Hillary Clinton, Warner or Bayh needed any reminders. Arlington, Va.: It seems as though some members of the media are portraying a potential Lamont win as a victory for radical liberal antiwar Democrats. When a strong majority of Americans (60%) agree that the war was a mistake, do you think it is inaccurate to categorize mainstream public opinion this way? John F. Harris: You and I are in rough agreement, I think, as I suggested in earlier answers. Anti-war sentiment is strong--especially in the Democratic party but to some degree even in the Republican party. A Lamont victory, if it happens, would not mean the triumph of "radical liberal" politics. Are Republicans pulling for Ned Lamont? Would a Lamont victory signal centrist democrats to move left and allow republicans to portray the democratic party as controlled by the far left? After all, The far left drives republicans to the polls in far greater numbers than the far right driving Democrats to the polls. Your thoughts? John F. Harris: I don't think Republicans are expecting much success in Connecticut under any circumstances. It is a strong Democratic state in statewide elections in recent years. It's conceivable that Republicans could maybe pick up the Senate seat if Lieberman runs as an independent and splits the vote with Lamont, but most people I have spoken to do not consider that likely. The GOP candidate, Alan Schlesinger, has yet to demonstrate statewide strength. New York, N.Y.: Why hasn't there been more coverage of Hillary Clinton's sudden change in tone on the war, upbraiding Rumsfeld at a hearing last week and then calling for his resignation? Given how exceedingly cautious she's been, isn't that an interesting development? What do you make of it? Is that the Lamont effect on other Democrats now at play? John F. Harris: I am sure she would say--and I think in fairness it's true--that the strong views she expressed the other day at the Rumsfeld hearing are not a "sudden change in tone." She's not renounced her initial support for the war, but she has been been voicing dissent about the administration's strategy and execution for some time. That said, it was hard not to interpret her outspokenness as a response to events in the news--in particular, the desire to demonstrate to the anti-war wing of the party that she shares many of their views and does not wish to have that group turn on her in the same fashion it has turned on Lieberman. Rochester, N.Y.: You wrote that great book on Clinton -- do you think, notwithstanding his perfunctory campaigning for Lieberman, that he'll be secretly happy if the Senator who denounced him on the floor in 1998 goes down to defeat? And how much do you think Democratic backlash against Lieberman moralizing on Clinton plays a role in the home-state dissatisfaction with him? John F. Harris: Who is this playing to the vanity of the chatter from my hometown? Thanks for the shout-out. I was struck by how little effect Clinton's appearance for Lieberman seemed to have based on the polls immediately afterward. On the other hand, if Lieberman wins--and I consider that a distinct possibility, given the closeness of the race and the imponderability of primary races--probably Clinton would deserve some of the credit. Did you consider Clinton's endorsement perfunctory? I'm not sure I did but I guess it depends on what the meaning of perfunctory is. Clinton was irked at Lieberman at the time of his 1998 floor speech denouncing the president's behavior in the Lewinsky matter, but over time he came to believe that Lieberman did him a favor--by giving voice to a lot of people who were distressed by the behavior but did not believe it was an impeachable offense. Macon, Ga.: You write, "a Lamont victory, if it happens, would not mean the triumph of 'radical liberal' politics." But in fact, even if many people across the ideological spectrum are upset about the war and ultimately support him, isn't it true that his campaign was driven by the radical liberal wing of his party, in terms of the Web and activist base? Would he have become a national cause celebre without the liberal base making him their project? John F. Harris: There will be a lot to study and debate if there is a Lamont victory. Unquestionably, Lamont's candidacy has been driven by the anti-war movement, and a lot of people in that movement are liberals, but not all. I think it is true he would not have become a national figure were it not for the enthusiasm he generated among the "netroots" on the war issue. These netroots have propelled other candidacies, including Howard Dean's in late 2003, but so far they do not have many important victories. We'll see what happens tonight. Minneapolis, Minn.: If Lieberman wins will he have gotten the message from the disgruntled electorate or will he keep on going his course of support for the administration and appearances on Fox TV? John F. Harris: Lieberman has made pretty clear in recent days that he has gotten the message of the discontent toward him within the party. I'm guessing if he wins he would be much less prone than in years past to deliberately running against the grain of his party. By the way, I just got an e-mail from the Post's Department of Marketing Hype and Cross-Platform Synergies. They ask me to remind people to tune into Washington Post radio (you can link off the Web site) on Thursday at 1 p.m. when we'll have Dan Balz and several analysts on air talking about the results of the Lieberman-Lamont primary and what we should make of them. Saint Paul, Minn.: What significance would a Ned Lamont win have on a Gore campaign in 2008. (I'm secretly hoping he'll run.) John F. Harris: I bet a Lamont victory would excite interest in a Gore candidacy in 2008, with the former vice president running on a similar anti-war message. Indeed, I predicted to a colleague the other day that Gore will get in if Lamont wins. So far, I have precious little evidence on which to support this prediction--which flies in the face of Gore's repeated statements that he does not plan to run--but this has never stopped me before. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that my record of predictions coming true is probably worse than if they were based solely on a random coin toss. That's why I am not making one tonight. Let's just see what happens, and we'll chew it over here tomorrow. 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.
Washington Post national political editor John F. Harris discusses the latest buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
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Lazy Parents' School Guide
2006080819
Careful parents pick their child's school long before August. So what can we less organized moms and dads do? Here are 10 tips for those who were too busy, like to put things off, or just had an emergency transfer to a new town. Reading the research and checking with the experts, it has occurred to me that we lazy parents might not do so badly after all. Many things that parents think are crucial to the school-picking process are not so important, and following your instincts is often the best way to go. Some of these suggestions do require a little effort, but most can be done without ever leaving your favorite chair. Remember, we have more choices than we used to. In many regions, such as the Washington area, there are regular public schools, magnet public schools, charter public schools and, for parents with enough money, private schools, some faith-oriented and some not. Even on August 8, there is likely to be a good school with space for you. 1. Don't worry about elementary school. The fact that you are checking out this list means you care about education and, I would guess, have been reading and talking to your children since they were infants. You have many books in the house. You point out interesting sights while driving to grandma's. All the studies show that you are going to have much more influence over your child's academic achievement through sixth grade than the elementary school you choose. As long as the school is safe and you like it, it really doesn't matter whether its test scores are the highest in the city or not. Your child is still getting a great education because he or she lives with you. 2. There are no good middle schools. I am, of course, exaggerating for effect, but not by much. It is an itchy age, pre-adolescence. You will discover that no one will have many nice things to say about whatever middle school you pick, even the one full of millionaires' kids. Children that age are just too difficult to teach, everybody says, and so whatever middle school it is, people will complain about it. Look beyond the weariness of the teachers and parents who have to deal with those raging hormones and check out just one thing: how hard does the school try to get every student through Algebra I by the end of eighth grade? If at least half the students reach that goal, it is a very good school. If fewer than 25 percent of a school's students meet this benchmark, you might want to look elsewhere. 3. Buy an expensive house and you can be fairly sure that the local school will be good. This is terribly elitist, and sad, but it is often true. Newcomers often say to themselves, "Let's find a school or school district we like and then find the house.'' In many areas, however, particularly in and around D.C., parental affluence is so closely tied to the school district's educational quality that if you buy a pricey house, the nearest school is likely to be excellent. The two largest school districts in the Washington area, Fairfax and Montgomery counties, are so well off and so well run that even their low-income neighborhoods have schools and teachers that compare with the best in the country. The same is true for the public schools in Arlington, Loudoun and Prince William counties, and the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria. All the D.C. schools west of Rock Creek Park are, I think, as good as those in the suburbs. Other local school systems have some good public schools, but to find them you have follow more of the suggestions below. 4. Look at the data . In the Internet age, there are plenty of ways to check the achievement levels of schools that interest you. Most school districts and state education departments around the country have Web sites that provide information on the courses, extracurricular activities and strengths of each of their schools, with a particular emphasis on test scores. You might also try the greatschools.net and schoolmatters.com Web sites. But you need more than test scores to make a decision, so your next step should be to: 5. Talk to parents of at least two unrelated children in different grades already enrolled in a school that you are considering. Your real estate agent might know some parents you can call, or the school principal's secretary will have the names and numbers of a few PTA leaders happy to talk to parents. Ask them about the school's strengths and its weaknesses. Find out how well the school serves children whose interests are similar to your children's, and always ask what they think of the principal. 6. Visit the school and ask to speak to the principal. I think checking any school you find attractive should include at least a 30-minute conversation with the principal. He or she is the person who is most responsible for the quality of the teaching, the atmosphere in the halls and whether your child will be looking forward to going to that building every day. Ask this person what the school's strengths and weaknesses are, what he or she is trying to make better and what the school can offer a child like yours. Ask yourself, "Would I hire this person to work in my office?" If the answer is no or, even worse, if the principal has no time to see you, beware. 7. Listen to your kids . Many of us, in our conscientious desire to find the best schools for our children, sometimes forget to ask them whether they want to go to the place at the top of our list. Many elementary and middle school students are going to find the question mystifying or boring, but high schoolers are old enough to have useful things to say. If they are putting up a fuss about your choice and have in mind an alternative that is not significantly more expensive and passes the tests in points 5 and 6, you might seriously consider letting them go there. 8. The most competitive high schools do not necessarily lead to acceptance at the most selective colleges . Many parents think that if their kids can get into the private school where all the local judges and company presidents send their children, or into the public magnet school that rejects 80 percent of its applicants, their child is guaranteed admission into the Ivy League. The opposite is true. A 1997 survey of more than 1 million high school seniors by Paul Attewell of the City University of New York Graduate Center found that, except for a few superstars, attending a very competitive high school hurt students' chances of getting into a very selective college. The reason is that selective colleges take only a few students from each school. A student with a 2200 SAT score is not going to stand out at high school with several 2300s, but will be at the top of Yale's list in a school that has only one or two seniors who score over 2100. (The top score is now 2400.) Of course, those competitive high schools will still give your child a great education, and perhaps that is more important than which college sticker you get to put on your car. 9. Look for challenging high schools . These days, that usually means schools that have many Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses, and that encourage all interested students, no matter what their grade-point averages, to take those courses and the independently written and scored AP or IB tests. For a list of which local high schools do this, search for the America's Best High Schools list at newsweek.com or check out the Challenge Index . 10. Listen to your heart. You can read all the charts, interview all the neighbors, decide the principal is a saint and still not like one school as much as another. Go with your instincts, not the statistics. You have to be happy with the choice if you are ever to hope that your children will be in a mood to learn.
Careful parents pick their child's school long before August. So what can we less organized moms and dads do?
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Swath of North Turned Over to Iraqi Army
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TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug. 8 -- U.S. military commanders on Tuesday handed over to their Iraqi counterparts primary security responsibility for a swath of northern territory extending from the foothills of Iraq's eastern mountains all the way west to the Syrian border. Visiting U.S. and Iraqi officials hailed the transfer -- which will have no immediate effect on American troop levels in the area -- as a watershed moment in the gradual shift of military duties in Iraq from U.S. forces to this country's nascent army. They also expressed optimism over stepped-up security operations in Baghdad, where military spokesmen announced Tuesday that a new phase of a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown on violence had begun. Events in the capital and surrounding provinces, however, illustrated how deeply entrenched Iraq's security problems are after 3 1/2 years of war punctuated by nearly six months of intense sectarian violence. At least 18 people were killed and more than 90 were wounded when two explosions ripped through al-Araby market in the capital's Shorja district, according to hospital workers. And in Diyala province, just east of Baghdad, local officials reported Tuesday night that a wave of killings, apparently sectarian in nature, had claimed at least 29 lives over the course of the day. At Forward Operating Base Dagger, a U.S.-Iraqi military installation on the outskirts of Tikrit, the Iraqi army's 4th Division was given the lead security role in Salahuddin, Nineveh and Tamim provinces. In a festive ceremony held in the marble-lined main hall of a palace built by Saddam Hussein, the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division handed off what commanders described as primary responsibility for coordinating, planning and conducting security operations in the three-province area. Five of the Iraqi army's 10 divisions now have primary responsibility for security in their areas, and FOB Dagger becomes the 48th of 110 U.S. bases handed over to Iraqi control. "Half of the Iraqi army is now under control of Iraqis," said the country's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie. "We believe they will be much more competent in fighting terrorism. We know our way around." Thousands of American troops will remain in the area, including about 9,000 at Camp Speicher, a larger base near Tikrit. Rubaie acknowledged that Iraqi forces will depend heavily on U.S troops for intelligence, logistical assistance and heavy firepower. "I think everyone needs to understand that this is a step," said Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who attended the handover ceremony with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. "First we had to build and train them. Then we put them in the lead, and we'll ultimately help them become independent. That's a little ways down the road." Khalilzad called it "a good day for Iraq. Iraqi forces are taking on more responsibility." Asked about the vastly greater challenge of tackling violence in Baghdad, the ambassador said: "Security in Baghdad is vital. It's the national capital, and 7 million Iraqis live there. . . . A new, modified security plan is in the process of being implemented that will take on one neighborhood after another." After an earlier U.S.-Iraqi security scheme for Baghdad, called Operation Forward Together, failed to stem sectarian killings and other violence ravaging the city, Pentagon officials announced last month that thousands of U.S. troops would be moved to Baghdad from elsewhere in Iraq. A key component of the shift is the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, whose 3,700 troops have been gradually taking up positions in Baghdad, according to Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman.
Washington Post coverage of the American occupation of Iraq, the country's path to democracy and tensions between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
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Green Fashion
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Want to shop "green" but still look fashionable? It is possible, if you know where to look. In the Sunday Source's Green Issue , deputy editor and former Vogue fashion writer Suzanne D'Amato has tips to help you stay eco-friendly and still look stylish. Suzanne D'Amato: Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining me. As those of you who've read the latest Sunday Source already know, green is indeed the new black. The fashion world may be fickle, but this is one trend that shows no sign of letting up: I found out about quite a bit that I didn't even have room to mention in my green fashion story, from a local designer who's making jewelry out of vintage Lucite to a French company making sweaters crafted from - get this - soy. So send me your questions! (And if you have non-green fashion questions, I'll take those, too.) Now, I have a question for you: I'm working on a story about fall fashion trends for a future edition of Sunday Source, and I want to know what you want to know about the coming season's styles. Wondering what's new in menswear? Whether the bubble skirt will still have legs come September? Ask away! Silver Spring, Md.: American Apparel just opened a store in Silver Spring. I've heard about it, but I haven't gone in because it looks like it's just a store full of T-shirts. Is it worth going into? Are there other places in Silver Spring/Takoma Park to go for "green" clothing? Suzanne D'Amato: American Apparel is definitely worth a look -- their T-shirts are well-priced, well-cut and available in a number of great colors. They also make many other kinds of clothes: shorts, hoodies, leggings, dresses, swimsuits, underwear...even dog outfits. (No, I'm not making that up.) As for green stores in that area, I'll open this one up to the group. Chatters, any shops you'd recommend? It seems even more important for babies and kids to have green clothing. I know me and my friends would never buy flame retardant because we don't want chemicals and we do want natural fibers. What are the top lines making organic baby and kids clothes? Suzanne D'Amato: You have a lot of options. There's a newish boutique in Alexandria called Apple Seed that sells organic cotton onesies and receiving blankets. One Web site I like is called Egiggle.com: They sell cute (if expensive) kids' clothes, toys, furniture and more -- and they indicate when items are made of environmentally conscious materials or otherwise manufactured in a socially responsible way. Wal-Mart offers an organic cotton line for babies -- I believe it's called George. So you have a lot of options, at all price points. I wanted to put in a plug for Patagonia, a company that was sadly missing from your article. Patagonia has been a leader in eco-friendly clothing for many years. Their famous fleeces are made from recycled plastics, and they have continuous spring, winter, and fall lines in organic cotton and hemp. A percentage of their sales proceeds goes to the 1 percent for the Planet Fund. Patagonia also spends significantly on R&D to discover ways to improve the life of their products - reducing waste and encouraging customer loyalty. Suzanne D'Amato: You're right that Patagonia is known as a leader in the eco-friendly category. That said, I just don't think of them as being very chic (nor do I think that's the company's overall aim). The fits are, by and large, boxy and unflattering -- fine for your next hike, but... Washington, D.C.: Can you recommend tailors or local clothing re-purposers that can fix shirt collars torn/worn along the crease (perhaps by reversing the collar). Suzanne D'Amato: Sounds like you need a tailor (someone who repairs and alters clothes) rather than a repurposer (a fashion designer who happens to work with pre-made clothes instead of bolts of fabric). Regarding the former, I've heard very good things about Parkway Custom Dry Cleaning in Chevy Chase. They aren't cheap, but they're known as meticulous tailors -- many New York socialites send their clothes there. I read the article in the Sunday Source on repurposed designs. Are these garments made from old clothes that have been cut up and constructed into new garments, or are they shredding the old fabric to make new fabrics? Suzanne D'Amato: Generally "repurposed" means that the designer is scouring the racks at Goodwill, the Salvation Army and the like, looking for outdated styles made of interesting fabrics, then ripping the clothes apart and re-fashioning new pieces out of them. And, quite often, selling these new-old clothes at a premium price! Hi, I loved the part of the article about recycling vintage clothes. I've been doing this since my pre-teen days. I have a fondness for thrift stores. I used to live in Montgoemry County. I loved to go to Venus on the Halfshell in downtown Frederick. The owner looks like Debbie Harry and there's always rockin' music playing, and the clothes are fab. Suzanne D'Amato: I share your love of thrift stores -- and thanks for the tip! Thank you for taking my question Is there a generally accepted definition of "green" when it comes to clothing and if so, what is it? For example, is leather ok as long as the cow was raised organically and the leather was tanned using vegetable dyes? What about cotton, does one have to distinguish between organic and conventionally farmed cotton. Finally, does the "green" definition, if it exists, also take account of the labor conditions of the textile workers, etc. I guess to really boil down the question...does "green" fashion have a concrete definition that allows customers to be certain what they are buying actually leads to better outcomes. Or is "green" fashion just another marketing ploy to make people feel good about what they are purchasing? Suzanne D'Amato: Wow -- you've asked enough to take up the rest of this chat! Let's see how far I can get: I don't know that there is one generally accepted definition of green; the Web site Hautegreen.com lists several common "sustainability criteria" you might find interesting -- it runs the gamut, including everything from using materials that are recycled or recyclable to using alternative energy such as solar power in the manufacturing process. "Green" is sort of an umbrella term in that sense -- it's meant to encompass all manner of socially and/or environmentally responsible practices. Does that mean that some companies will use it as a marketing ploy, exploiting and ultimately diluting its meaning? Absolutely -- I think we're seeing that already. I'd like to comment on Patagonia. I would agree that they are a leader with organic cotton but like Suzanne said they are not very chic. I think it a shame that they are missing the boat on this because they're a lot of young hip people who love Patagonia and what they stand for but their clothing lacks today's fashion. I don't want to pick on Patagonia alone. I did see an ad for Volcome's new line that is using veggie dyes and organic cotton. Maybe there's hope for those of us who want to go green but still have a little style. Suzanne D'Amato: Thanks for sharing your thoughts! That is what I got from your article. If the designers are making clothing from old clothes, how does that affect cleaning the garments? Will they mix fiber types, say a silk top and sleeves, with a cotton body? Also, I thought fabric got weaker with age. Will repurposed garments have the same fabric strength and durability as garments made from new fabrics? Suzanne D'Amato: Interesting question. There is a lot of fabric-mixing going on with repurposed clothes and accessories, and for that reason you're probably best off hand-washing or spot-cleaning a lot of these items. Or dry-cleaning them, which of course raises its own questions about being good to the earth. In terms of wear, though, I'd guess they'd last about as long as many other chic, delicate clothes. These are fashion items -- by which I mean, you might have trouble running a marathon in Angela Johnson's lace-trimmed bustle skirt, but that's sort of beside the point, you know? Whatever happened to hemp? I thought that was going to be the new green fabric. The movement seemed to have peaked with Woody Harrelson and fizzled out from there. Suzanne D'Amato: Hemp is still out there, and many designers continue to use it for sweaters, T-shirts and the like. It's just had a bit of an image problem: People think of it as hippie-dippy wear: itchy, frumpy and uncomfortable (which, too often, it is). Now that bamboo has become popular, it's facing some serious competition. One recommendation for fashion, enviro, and socially conscious footwear:www.shoeswithsouls.com They can be pricey, but will run periodic sales that are well worth the $. Suzanne D'Amato: Another suggestion from one of our chatters... Hi, Suzanne, Not a green question, but I'm facing the prospect of buying my first-ever maternity clothes. I'll be wearing them mostly in fall/winter. Do you have any suggestions for buying a small, versatile but not horribly boring (or dumpy) wardrobe that I won't hate by the end of nine months? Thanks. Suzanne D'Amato: This isn't a subject that I know much about personally, but a company called Belly Basics makes something called the Pregnancy Survival Kit, which has always struck me as a smart idea. It's a four-piece set comprised of a top, dress, skirt and pants, all in machine-washable cotton spandex. I'd think you could dress them up or down with accessories -- and at least you can use those long after the baby has arrived! Has eco-friendly become elitist? I find that with foods, for example, organic food is more expensive than the "other" stuff, which rather limits who can buy it. Is the same going on with clothing? Suzanne D'Amato: Well, does growing cotton sans pesticides, installing solar panels on your factory's roof, and paying your workers a living wage cost more than going about things the "usual", non-green way? Usually, and these prices are often passed on to consumers. That said, American Apparel's prices have always struck me as pretty fair. And repurposed clothing often costs about the same as standard Urban Outfitters-type places. The "Green" clothing prospect is interesting. Probably most will invest in a few pieces, but will continue to dress in their own way. Come to think of it, I have been dressing "Green" for about 20 years, I still have some slacks I bought in the 80's. (Can't say I am not tired of them, and had just about decided to get rid of them.) Suzanne D'Amato: It's definitely a trend right now, but the momentum is mostly with niche designers. So it'll be interesting to see what happens as bigger companies try to tap into (and profit from) all of the attention that green has been getting. I was interested about panda snack, what does the bamboo fiber feel like? Suzanne D'Amato: Like silk. It's pretty incredible -- the finished product bears absolutely no resemblance to anything you might see Tai Shan munching on. I love to buy at thrift and vintage stores, but often things need to be altered. I have a pile of stuff waiting. Can you recommend a good tailor (other than the super-pricey Parkway), and what should I look for in a good tailor and how much would a reasonable alteration cost? Say, hemming a pair of pants or taking in a dress at the waist? Suzanne D'Amato: In addition to Parkway, I've heard good things about Kim's Custom Tailoring in Pentagon City. Prices vary pretty dramatically depending on what you're having done, but in general, look for a place that has you try on the item before altering it, rather than somewhere that just tells you they'll lop two inches off the hem. Suzanne D'Amato: Thanks so much, everyone. As always, feel free to send me more questions -- about green fashion, fall fashion, or anything in between -- to styleq@washpost.com. Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
Sunday Source Deputy Editor and former Vogue fashion writer Suzanne D'Amato discusses eco-friendly fashion.
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Book World Live
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Diplomatic scholar Peter Galbraith fields comments and questions about his latest book, "The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End." Peter W. Galbraith, a former US ambassador to Croatia, is a fellow at the Center For Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. 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. Peter Galbraith: Thanks for joining this conversation on the future of Iraq and US strategy in the country. I will try to answer as many questions as I can in the next hour. Harrisburg, Pa.: I agree with you that the solution to the problems in Iraq may be best to partition the country and allow Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd domination of three new countries. I suggested something similar and an expert stated that we Americans perceive there are more differences between these ethnic groups then really exist and that such an idea was nonsensical. Yet, since these groups killing each other, doesn't it indeed make sense to agree that their differences can not be resolved, at least in the short term, and it may be best to separate their leadership and allow the leaders of each community to lead their followers? What is your thinking? Peter Galbraith: Kurds and Arabs are quite distict nations, speaking very different languages. Kurdish is an Indo-European language while Arabic is a Semitic language. The Kurds have never wanted to be part of Iraq and now have a de facto independent state with their own government, army, and flag. Kurdistan law prohibits the Iraqi Army from coming into Kurdistan without permission from the Kurdistan parliament. Central government mininistries do not operate in Kurdistan and the Iraqi flag is banned. In January 2005, Kurds voted 98 percent for independence in an informal referendum. Kurds and Arabs are not fighting each other now, but the Kurds will never voluntarily agree to any control from Baghdad. Iraq's Arabs are 25 percent Sunni and 75 percent Shiites. These are religious not ethnic differences bur increasingly they operate more like ethnic or national differences. As long the now dominant Shiites define themselves by religion, they exclude the Sunni Arabs who also resent the loss of their historic domination of Iraq. I believe an independent Kurdistan is inevitable--not this year but likely in the next decade. At the moment, the Sunni-Shiite civil war is a struggle for domination of Arab Iraq. Forming distinct Sunni Arab and Shiite regions--with the very weak central government already enshrined in Iraq's constitution--is probably the best way to limit the civil war. It is possible--but far from certain--that a Shiite and Sunni entity would become fully independent. Springfield, Va: Peter, it strikes me that one of the turning points in the inexorable slide into civil war and anarchy in Iraq was when, just after the fall of Baghdad, our soldiers stood by and watched looters walk away with their stolen goods. We did nothing to stop it. Why did we let this happen? How could we not have taken swift action to stop the looting and set a tone of law and order and respect for our position as the new Sherrif? Peter Galbraith: I arrived in Baghdad five days after Saddam fled. As I tell in the book, I went into more than a dozen government ministries and other key installations as they were being looted. The looters were mostly poor people,and generally friendly. Although we invaded Iraq with too few troops, we could have protected all the government ministries and several other key locations--such as the National Museum--with the troops we had. But there was no plan to do so. The Pentagon leaders never anticipated the looting--even though they had been warned and even though it had talen place in 1991 in the parts of Iraq where Saddam lost control. The consequences of this failure to plan were immense. With no place for bureaucrats to work, we could not keep the government functioning Peter Galbraith: As a result, we could not get essential services functioning. Iraqis interpreted our failure to protect Baghdad as a sign that we were either incompetent (unable to protect Baghdad) which meant that resistance was possible or evil (we intended to destroy Baghdad) which made resistance imperative. Pittsburgh, Pa: Would an independent Kurdistan seek to include Kurdish regions of present-day Turkey? One shudders to think of the problems that would entail. Peter Galbraith: No. The Kurds in Iraq want their own state. The resolution to the Kurdish problem in Turkey and Iran has to be different. Turkey's integration into Europe--and changes in Turkey to improve the human rights of Turkey's Kurds--make being part of Turkey a more attractive option for its Kurds. New Orleans, La: In your view, what politician has the most realistic plan for effectively ending our involvement in Iraq? Peter Galbraith: Senator Biden has a plan similar to the one I advocate which is to accept the reality of a country that has broken up already and work with the pieces. Brattleboro Vt: In watching the News Hour last night, Ambassador Khalilzad was talking about Iraq as if cival war was just a possibility, not something that is already happening. Can you comment on why this is still the position of the Bush administration, and on Khalilzad's comments? Peter Galbraith: Greetings from up the West River. The Administration does not want to describe the violence in Iraq as a civil war because it would be an admission that the US cannot achieve the President's goal of a unified and democratic Iraq with the forces we now have in country. If there is a civil war, Iraqi forces--which are either Shiite or Sunni--can not provide security in mixed areas, like Baghdad, as they are partisans in the civil war. Containing the civl war would mean US troops would have to become the police in Baghdad and this in turn would mean many more casualties. In fact, the Bush Administration has no intention of doing what is required to build a unified and democratic Iraq. This would require many more troops and accepting more casualties, and there is no poltical will for this. As a consequence, we are locked into a strategy that cannot win and which can only be justified by denying the reality on the ground in Iraq. Arlington, Va: Explain this to the public and whether the solution is in the book. If the Iraqis cannot resolve their tribal differences without war why can't the UN step similar to OSCE in Bosnia and Kosovo and simply separate them into their respective enclaves under armed guard until they resolve to settle their differences. In this way we get out and go to a perimeter if necessary. How can we be so stupid as to stay inthere and play the Iraqui's civil war game? Dan W Peter Galbraith: Neither the UN nor any of its members is going to be willing to put its troops into harms way int the midst of a civil war. We cannot hope to pass this one off to someone else. Idaho Falls: Peter Galbraith: No. The Kurds in Iraq want their own state. The resolution to the Kurdish problem in Turkey and Iran has to be different. Turkey's integration into Europe--and changes in Turkey to improve the human rights of Turkey's Kurds--make being part of Turkey a more attractive option for its Kurds. Could you elaborate a bit on that? Are yous suggesting that, should Turkey implement the required human rights changes demanded for membership in the EU, the Kurds might reverse course, and instead of seeking to append the Kurdish areas of Turkey to a new Kurdistan, might instead want to join the present Iraqi Kurdish Autonomous Zone to Turkey's Kurdish province and integrate into the Turkish economy and government? A complete reversal of the present situation? Peter Galbraith: The Iraqi Kurds do not seek a Greater Kurdistan, where they would be overwhelmed by the more numerous Turkish Kurds. In fact, in the 1990s, they worked with the Turkish military against the PKK--the Turkish Kurdish separatist insurgents--which was operating out of bases in northern Iraq. Most Turkish Kurds understand that there is no realistic chance to break away from Turkey and that they are better off being part of a democratic Turkey on the path to the EU. For this reason, the Turkish Kurdish parties area among the strongest supporters of Turkey's EU Memebership. Anonymous: Is Peter Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith's son? Phoenix, Ariz: Isn't a de facto break up of Iraq already under way, as evidenced by the quasi-independence of the Kurds and the ethnic cleansing and house-swapping in Sunni and Shia areas of Baghdad? Although Senator Biden's proposals may be more reality-based than most, he was treated by the media as almost certifiably mad, not to mention, treasonous, when he advanced this position. In your opinion, what will it take for Biden's proposals to gain traction with the American public (short of a full-blown civil war that is so dire that even the deniers can no longer deny the severity of this situation)? Peter Galbraith: You are absolutely right that Iraq has already broken up. Further, the Bush Administration de facto accepts this break up while saying it is committed to a unified Iraq. It has done nothing to dismantle the Shiite militias that mushroomed during the period of official US occupation (2003-2004). It has accepted that Kurdistan retains its own army and wisely has made no serious effort to reintegrate Kurdistan into Iraq. As noted, the Administration deals with Iraq's Sunni-Shiite civil war by pretending it isn't happening. Washington, DC: Now that US has physically destroyed and obliterated hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, we recommed the break up of the country? Did US break up into factions (except political) after the Civil War? Peter Galbraith: I am not recommending the break up of Iraq. I am simply saying that it has happened. But I see no reason to hold countries together against the will of their people. We lived with the break up of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Just like Iraq, these were multinational states put together after WWI and held together by force. The real issue is not the break up but avoiding the violence that can accompany it. Alas, we have not learned the lesson of Yugoslavia where we put all efforts into preventing a break up--a futile task-- when we should focus on stopping the war. Brookeville, Md: why did you title the book American Incompetence created a war without end? I believe it was Bush's incompetence, or possibly media's incompetence. I was part of major was protest movements that were completely ignored by the press. Many Americans did their best to warn against this very scenario. Many Americans in govt. and outside were shut out of the process. Peter Galbraith: The press did not cover itself in glory in the lead up to the war. In addition to the hyped WMD stories that some journalists wrote, there was almost no coverage of the inadequate planning for the post war. Princeton, NJ: But there are no clear boundaries. What of Mosul, Kirkuk, and Baghdad? Will the Sunni get any oil? Will the Turks allow an independant Kurdish state? Partition is a recipe for war. Peter Galbraith: The Iraqi constitution does have a formula for resolving the status of the territories in dispute between the Kurds and the Arabs by the device of a referendum to be held not later than Dec 31, 2007. Kirkuk will probably vote to join Kurdistan while Mosul is not part of Kurdistan--although it has a substantial Kurdish minority. Baghdad, tragically, is dividing between the Shiite east and Sunni west. Delmar, NY: I'm looking forward to reading your book. In reading about "The End of Iraq" it is said that shortly before the US invasion of Iraq President Bush was unaware of the distinction between Sunni and Shiite Iraqis. This is the second time I have heard this. While I was skeptical the first time it at least seemed credible based on what we seem to know about the President's ignorance due to his lack of curiosity. What is the source for this? Did Cheney and Rumsfeld know the difference between Shiites and Sunnis? Peter Galbraith: The anecdote is told--and sourced-- in the book. It wasn't that Bush didn't know of the differences but that they he didn't know that these two branches of Islam existed. Rumsfeld and Cheney certainly did know, but operated on wishful thinking about the leanings of Iraq's Shiite paties Hanover NH: Is there any Arab state that is not as multi-ethnic and multi-religious as Iraq? How should they look upon the "End of Iraq"? Nationalism seems to have been a very bad solution to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Peter Galbraith: Iraq is proobably the most diverse of the mostly Arab countries (the Kurds object to calling it an Arab state). I don't assess whether nationalism is good or bad--only that it is a fact. Tacoma, Wash: With the new uprise of unrest in the Middle East, will Iraq be an ally in the quest for peace or with it become another nation bent on destruction? Peter Galbraith: Iraq's Shiite dominated government is very sympathetic to Hezbollah--perhaps more so than any other Arab goverment. (The others are led by Sunnis; Hezbollah is, of course, a Shiite party). Further, should it come to a showdown between the US and Iran, Iraq's Shiite militias have already said they will side with iran Anonymous: Do you think your recommendations would ever find a receptive ear in the administration or the military? Or would that be too much to hope for? Have you ever discussed this with them? My apologies if this is detailed in your book but I haven't read it yet. Peter Galbraith: There is a lot of interest in these ideas among the uniformed military and I have had many conversations with them. They know the reality on the ground and realize our current strategy will not prevail. Peter Galbraith: Wow. This forum sparked many more questions than I could answer. The book, The End Of Iraq, provides much more information on almost all the questions you have raised as well as fleshing out the argument for a different strategy. I hope you find it useful. 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.
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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Jonathan Yardley, - Panting Prose
2006080819
Book publishers are like wolves: They travel in packs. One gets an idea, and everyone else rushes to imitate it. Thus it is that of the eight books I've reviewed in the past month, three have been about something alleged to be "an American icon." First there was rum, which Wayne Curtis in "And a Bottle of Rum" called "classically American." Then there was the popular music guru John Hammond, who, according to Dunstan Prial in "The Producer," championed "uniquely American music." Now we have bluejeans, which James Sullivan would have us believe embody "two centuries' worth of the myths and ideals of American culture." Hey, the plane's still at the gate. Anyone else want to get on board? What about Coca-Cola? Jambalaya? Alice Waters? Little Richard? Boston baked beans? Warren Buffett? The Chevy Corvette? Newt Gingrich? Paris Hilton? Buddy Holly? Parson Weems? Lizzie Borden? Aren't they "American icons"? Shouldn't all of us be reading books about them, books that show how they "changed America" and "made us what we are today" and embody "everything it means to be American"? Well, actually, no, we shouldn't, but that doesn't mean we won't. Heaven knows how many scriveners are holed away even as these words are typed, batting out paeans to America as seen through the prisms of, oh, Lawrence Welk and Baba Wawa. So let's call a halt to it right now. Let's make "Jeans" the last "American icon" book, and bury the genre before it turns into Frankenstein's monster. It's not that most of these books are bad -- they're more like fair-to-middling -- but that the idea was stale before it was born. This country is much too big and diverse for any one thing -- a person, a product, even an idea -- to embody it. As James Sullivan's book makes plain, the story of bluejeans is interesting enough in and of itself. Why tart it up with thematic baggage it can't sustain? But just so you know, here's what Sullivan says: "Jeans are the surviving relic of the western frontier. They epitomize our present-day preoccupations -- celebrity and consumer culture. . . . Blue jeans -- not soft drinks, or cars, or computers -- are the crowning product of American ingenuity. . . . They can imply either democratic parity or the aristocratic hierarchies of status. . . . First they built the country's infrastructure, then they populated it with a collective identity." Et cetera. In a word, bluejeans have Meaning. Maybe even Deep Meaning. And in the chattering classes, Meaning is treasured above all else . . . even bluejeans. So if the history of denim trousers interests you -- and there are plenty of reasons why it should, not least of them being the pair of jeans you're probably wearing right now -- skip the heavy-breathing parts of "Jeans" and stick to the straight stuff. That, for example, "the name denim is presumed to derive from the phrase serge de Nîmes , the trade term for a cotton-wool blend first introduced in Nîmes, in southeastern France, around the sixteenth century"; that the most famous of all denim manufacturers, Levi Strauss, didn't start to make his name and his fortune until he hooked up with a tailor named Jacob David who used copper rivets to toughen the pockets of the pants he made; that it was the company founded by one of his competitors, H.D. Lee, that introduced a novelty called the Whizit, now universally known as the zipper; that women didn't start wearing denim in significant numbers until World War II and the coming of Rosie the Riveter. There's more. It wasn't until around 1960 that "bluejeans" became the universal term for denim trousers; as a boy in the 1950s I assumed -- as did all my friends -- that "bluejeans" were for girls and sissies, while real guys wore "dungarees." In part that may have been because, though we actually were good little boys, we treasured the image of juvenile delinquency that clung to denim during the '50s, in no small measure thanks to James Dean ("Rebel Without a Cause") and Marlon Brando ("The Wild One"). As Sullivan points out, in that decade "Jeans manufacturers were experiencing a strange paradox of the American marketplace. They had a daunting image problem, yet it was precisely that image problem that gave the product its desirability among the target audience." Sonny Boy may have thought that denim pants were the cat's pajamas, but Mom and Dad thought they were "the clothing of a much less wholesome kind of boy," which is putting it mildly. In that narrow sense, the story of bluejeans is indeed an American story. A recurrent theme throughout our history -- especially 20th-century history -- is the tension between our puritanical heritage and our sybaritic, hedonistic instincts. The prude in us resists temptation but the pleasure lover in us leaps at it, and in the long run the pleasure lover almost always wins. When Sullivan says that "we'll likely be wearing [jeans] long after the business suit, say, has been relegated to the dustbin of fashion," he's probably right, or so at least history suggests. Now that everybody is wearing jeans, the inevitable has happened: the trendies have taken them over. The solid working pants of yore now spill onto the marketplace in every imaginable variation: designer jeans, stonewashed jeans, ancient jeans that have been rescued from the scrap heap and resold at outrageous prices to rich folks who go slumming in them. Ancient bluejeans are "collectible," just like every other piece of American junk. But to tell the truth, jeans aren't really "American" anymore. The jeans you're wearing may well have been sewn in the United States, but the denim probably came from someplace else. Here's what globalization means: "Over the past few decades competitive foreign manufacturers have brought giant North American textile mills such as Cone, Swift, and Canada's Dominion Textiles to their knees. India's Arvind Mills, rooted in a multigeneration family cotton business, has become one of the world's biggest denim manufacturers and the number-one exporter, producing more than 120 million meters annually. Brazil -- now the second biggest consumer of 'pantalones vaqueros' in the world -- is home to several huge mills. . . . By 1997 East Asian suppliers had surpassed the aggregate output of United States mills, producing 1.7 billion square yards. In recent years Turkey has emerged as another aggressor, building at least three massive mill groups." All of which is to say that the story of bluejeans is a big one that ultimately encompasses far more than the country in which they began. It entails matters that have to do with more than just the seat of your pants, from fashion to globalization to intergenerational conflict. But these are matters of fact, not of Meaning, and Sullivan's efforts to twist them into Meaning ultimately mean . . . nothing. This is Jonathan Yardley's last regular weekly book review for Style. After a quarter-century with The Post, he is moving into semi-retirement. His occasional Second Reading columns will continue in Style, as will his Sunday book reviews in Book World.
JEANS A Cultural History of an American Icon By James Sullivan
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McDowell Shows Independence
2006080819
Robert M. McDowell had not even taken his seat on the Federal Communications Commission when a curveball came whizzing his way. Shortly before his June 1 swearing-in, McDowell learned he would soon have to vote on whether to require cable companies to carry more digital broadcast channels -- a controversial issue that has one big supporter in Washington: FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin. McDowell concluded that the FCC did not have the authority to force cable companies to do so and, in his third weekend on the job, told Martin, a fellow Republican, that he could not offer his support. In response, Martin issued a terse, Sunday evening press release conceding defeat. Lawyers who follow the agency closely say McDowell's early record has served notice that he is an independent force at the FCC who is willing to defy the chairman. His actions have confounded the conventional wisdom that once he became the third Republican on the five-member commission, he would give Martin a reliable majority at the agency, whose decisions can mean billions of dollars to communications companies. FCC watchers also said McDowell may now emerge as the swing vote on the commission with considerable influence as it weighs decisions such as whether AT&T Inc., the nation's largest phone company, should be allowed to swallow up the third-ranking player, BellSouth Corp., in a roughly $67 billion deal. "I think he wants to demonstrate his independence," said James H. Quello, who served as an FCC commissioner for more than 23 years. Before McDowell's arrival, the FCC was often split between Martin and fellow Republican Deborah Taylor Tate on one side and Democrats Michael J. Copps and Jonathan S. Adelstein on the other. In addition to differing with Martin on the cable issue, McDowell has harshly criticized the agency in public and successfully prodded the FCC -- after more than a year of inaction -- to try to resolve the dispute between Mid-Atlantic Sports Network and Comcast over airing the Nationals' games. "The FCC has not been doing its job," McDowell said bluntly at the July 13 meeting at which the FCC adopted his proposal giving Mid-Atlantic the right to seek commercial arbitration to settle the dispute. He said Mid-Atlantic's complaint to the FCC about Comcast's refusal to carry the games -- a sore spot for many area fans -- had apparently "been left to rot in some lost crypt inside this building." A few weeks after McDowell's criticism, Martin proposed that Mid-Atlantic be given a choice between sending the dispute to an arbitrator or to an administrative judge under the FCC's supervision. The two companies reached a private agreement Friday, the deadline the FCC set for Mid-Atlantic to make its choice.
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Army Ponders Amusement Venue, Hotel At Ft. Belvoir
2006080819
Army officials say they are considering allowing a private developer to build a 125-acre entertainment, hotel and conference center complex next to a national Army museum at Fort Belvoir that could draw more than 1 million people a year to traffic-choked southern Fairfax County. The possibility of adding what county officials call a military theme park arises as about 22,000 employees prepare to be transferred to Fort Belvoir in the next five years because of the federal base realignment and closure recommendations, designed to save $49 billion nationwide. The Army is considering the entertainment venue to help offset the cost of the $300 million museum, which a spokesman said is scheduled to open in 2013. No federal funds are being sought for the museum, but Fairfax has donated $240,000. A Florida developer has submitted an unsolicited proposal for a military theme park that would include the "Chateau Belvoir" hotel and an entertainment district with bars like the "1st Division Lounge" and several "4D" rides. "You can command the latest M-1 tank, feel the rush of a paratrooper freefall, fly a Cobra Gunship or defend your B-17 as a waist gunner," according to the proposal by Universal City Property Management III of Orlando. The company has no connection to NBC-Universal, which owns Universal Studios, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Fairfax officials, who have no say over the Army's decision because the site is federal property, said they are worried about an entertainment complex's impact on traffic. Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee) was so upset after hearing about the Universal City proposal last year that he threw company representatives out of his office. He said he had no interest in turning a military history museum into "Disney on Rolling Road." After the meeting, he said, he thought the entertainment concept for the Army museum was dead. But last week, the Army told Kauffman and other Fairfax officials that it intended to move the museum from the Fort Belvoir entrance to the Engineer Proving Ground a few miles from the post because it needs to increase the size of the complex from 75 acres to 125, which Kauffman said is a prelude to an entertainment complex. "It seems fairly clear that the Pentagon brass has decided the only way they can succeed with the Army museum is to make a museum wrapped in an amusement park," Kauffman said. At last week's meeting, county officials pressed the post's commander, Col. Brian W. Lauritzen, about the plans for a large entertainment complex. Lauritzen, who did not use the phrase "theme park" to describe the plans, said the demand for more space for the museum complex seemed to be coming from Army leaders above him. An Army spokesman, in response to written questions, said the Army is studying what it calls "a visitor destination concept" for the museum but did not elaborate. "Should the concept be approved, the Army will publicly solicit expressions of interest in the visitor destination concept from the private sector."
Army officials say they are considering allowing a private developer to build a 125-acre entertainment, hotel and conference center complex next to a national Army museum at Fort Belvoir that could draw more than 1 million people a year to traffic-choked southern Fairfax County.
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AOL Takes Down Site With Users' Search Data
2006080819
AOL issued an apology yesterday for posting on a public Web site 20 million keyword searches conducted by hundreds of thousands of its subscribers from March to May. But the company's admission that it made a mistake did little to quell a barrage of criticism from bloggers and privacy advocates who questioned the company's security practices and said the data breach raised the risk of identity theft. "This was a screw-up and we're angry and upset about it," the company said in a statement. "Although there was no personally-identifiable data linked to these accounts, we're absolutely not defending this. It was a mistake, and we apologize." The posted data were similar to what the U.S. Justice Department had been seeking when it subpoenaed Internet companies, including AOL, last year. AOL complied and handed over search terms that were not linked to individuals. Google Inc. fought the subpoena in court and won. The AOL data was posted at the end of last month on a special AOL Web site designed by the company so researchers could learn more about how people look for information on the Internet. The company removed the data over the weekend when bloggers discovered it. The Washington Post did not review the full 439-megabyte data set but contacted bloggers who had looked at it. For the posted data, each person using AOL's search engine was assigned a unique number to maintain anonymity, the company said. But some privacy experts said scrutinizing a user's searches could reveal information to help deduce the person's identity. Michael Arrington, editor of the blog TechCrunch, said some of the data contained credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, addresses and names. "People put anything they can think of into the search boxes," he said. Based on his analysis so far, out of 20 million queries, the number that contained sensitive personal financial information such as credit card and Social Security numbers is probably "in the hundreds," he said. "Most people aren't stupid enough to type their Social Security numbers in a search engine, but it's definitely enough to make AOL look stupid," he said. Some bloggers said some of the information available included queries on how to kill one's spouse and child pornography. Experts said people search for all sorts of personal data -- including their own names -- with the assumption that it will remain private. "I search on myself," said David H. Holtzman, president of GlobalPOV, a blog and consulting firm on privacy and security and author of the forthcoming book "Privacy Lost." "Now you think you have a disease or you have some emotional issue -- I'm a single parent and I'm always looking for things. All of a sudden there's a correlation between my name and something very private that I don't expect to have dumped all over the Internet." Kevin Bankston, an attorney with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said AOL's apology was appreciated but the damage had already been done. "The horse is out of the barn," he said. "The data's out there and been copied. This incident highlights the dangers of these companies storing so much intimate data about their users." The mishap was rooted in an effort by AOL to design a Web site aimed at helping researchers do their jobs more effectively by including AOL open-source data tools, company spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. A technician posted the data to the site without running them past an in-house privacy department, not realizing the implications, Weinstein said. An internal investigation is underway to determine what happened and how to prevent future occurrences, he said. However, Weinstein also noted that identifying an individual by search terms alone is difficult because someone could have typed in a friend's name or address instead of his own. The AOL search network had 42.7 million unique visitors in May, so the total data set covered 1.5 percent of search users that month. The 20 million search records represent about one-third of 1 percent of the total searches conducted on the AOL network in that period, the company said. The data were gleaned from searches conducted by people with AOL user accounts in the United States.
AOL issued an apology yesterday for posting on a public Web site 20 million keyword searches conducted by hundreds of thousands of its subscribers from March to May. But the company's admission that it made a mistake did little to quell a barrage of criticism from bloggers and privacy advocates who...
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Thompson's Medicaid Reforms Could Benefit His Employers
2006080819
Last week, Tommy G. Thompson, the former secretary of health and human services, proposed overhauling Medicaid in ways that he says would be good for the country. Critics contend that some of Thompson's recommendations also could be good for companies that he works for. Thompson, in an interview with The Washington Post last Tuesday, said the federal government should assume primary responsibility for elderly Medicaid beneficiaries and leave those under 65 to the states. He called for more disease-prevention efforts, electronic medical records, and moving some Medicaid patients and the uninsured into commercial health insurance. The former Wisconsin governor had shopped many of the ideas around for years, and experts say many are worth exploring. Still, these days Thompson speaks not just as a former government leader but also as an executive with ties to several companies that have a hand in Medicaid. The program, jointly funded by the state and federal governments, pays medical bills for more than 50 million low-income, elderly and disabled people with no other access to care. Thompson, who served during President Bush's first term, is on the board of Centene Corp., a St. Louis-based company that operates Medicaid-funded health maintenance organizations in Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. His proposals to move more Medicaid beneficiaries and uninsured people onto such plans could improve the company's bottom line. Thompson also is chairman of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, part of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, a consulting firm that has contracted with states to help improve their Medicaid programs. If Thompson becomes a driving force behind revamping Medicaid, states who hire Deloitte may feel they are contracting with a player. Ditto for clients' perceptions of the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, in which Thompson is a partner and which has health-care and insurance industry clients. Thompson also is a part-owner and board member of VeriChip Corp., which makes microchips that store data and can be implanted in humans. The company might benefit if Medicaid were to embrace electronic medical records. "An important part of our strategy has been to attract key thought and opinion leaders, and Secretary Thompson has played an influential role in shaping this country's healthcare policies," Scott R. Silverman, CEO of VeriChip Corp.'s parent company, said in a July 2005 news release. "We look forward to him assisting the company to make the VeriChip an important part of the healthcare landscape." In a statement yesterday, Thompson said his efforts to change Medicaid began "long before" his corporate relationships. "When I was governor of Wisconsin in the mid 1980s, I witnessed first hand how this program was placing an enormous financial burden on my state and others as well as how inefficient Medicaid was in meeting the needs of those who rely on it," he said, adding that his goal is to "initiate a meaningful dialogue with Medicaid's various stakeholders and to assure that that this program doesn't unravel in the coming years."
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Colombia's Uribe Begins Second Term
2006080819
BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug. 7 -- President Alvaro Uribe began a second term Monday, promising to seek an elusive peace with leftist rebels while maintaining the hard-line security policies credited with a sharp drop in murder and kidnappings. In an inauguration ceremony attended by 11 heads of state, Uribe said he would devote "all of his energies" to pursuing a peaceful end to this nation's four-decade-old civil war. "I'm not afraid of negotiating peace," Uribe, 54, said after taking the oath of office. "I confess what worries me more is falling short of that goal and instead seeing our gains in security eroded." After reforming the constitution last year to allow himself to seek a second term, Uribe coasted to victory in the May 28 elections with 62 percent of the vote -- 10 percentage points more than he won in 2002. He is Colombia's first sitting president to be reelected. Despite his reputation as a free-market conservative and Washington's closest ally in Latin America, Uribe at times in his speech sounded like the left-leaning social democrats favored of late by voters in neighboring countries. "We are against a fiscally tight macro-economic policy that leaves economic growth to the luck of supply and demand. The state must be devoted in equal parts to growth and equality," he said. Uribe made no bold proposals for improving the lot of the 50 percent of Colombians who live below the poverty line -- on less than three U.S. dollars a day -- even as the rich benefit from the increased foreign investment that improved security has brought.
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Designs on Italy
2006080819
Q. Are there bargains to be had on designer clothes in Italy? I really like Ermenegildo Zegna's high-priced clothes. A. You could easily spend some serious cash wandering through Roman, Milanese and Florentine boutiques. But to be kind to your wallet, window-shop in town -- then head to the nearest outlet for some bargains on designer duds. A member of the American Society of Travel Agents, Walking Tours of Florence (011-39-055-264-5033, http://www.italy.artviva.com/ ) can ship you to the nearest outlet area (known as the Mall), which is about 45 minutes from central Florence. The daily tours, offered at 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. (no morning option on Sundays), include a minivan ride and three hours of shopping time; sadly, those Ermenegildo Zegna purchases aren't included in the $45 ticket. If that's not enough time to search for bargains from Salvatore Ferragamo and other designers, you can blow some of the money you'll save by shopping on a private tour. Walking Tours manager Angie Delima says they run about $380 on up, "depending on the query, how many stopovers [and] the number of people in the private car." Booking ahead is recommended for both options. McArthurGlen ( http://www.mcarthurglen.it/ ), a designer outlet group, offers 30 percent to 70 percent discounts on major brands. It has locations in Serravalle, an hour's drive south of Milan (where the wares by Diesel and Versace, etc., are presented in a fake 18th-century Ligurian town center), and Castel Romano, nine miles south of Rome (for shopping in a faux Imperial Roman atmosphere). The newest Italian location, Barberino, opened in March about 15 miles north of Florence. Another option is an outlet 31 miles from Milan in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Foxtown ( http://www.foxtown.ch/ ) carries Armani Le Collezioni menswear and Missoni for both men and women, among hundreds of other lines. Primeitaly.com ( http://www.primeitaly.com/ ), a travel site about all things Italian, offers lists of outlets throughout the country, plus information on contacting personal shoppers who might have an insider scoop. For general information on Italy: Italian Government Tourist Board, 212-245-5618, http://www.italiantourism.com/ . I need a safe, well-located hotel in Shanghai for early October for $150 to $200 a night. Any suggestions? When looking for a hotel, keep in mind that the historic city, the Shanghai museum, the French Concession and most other tourist sites are in Puxi, on the west side of the Pujiang River. The new skyscrapers and financial hub of the city are in Pudong. Shanghai hotels run the gamut, including old standbys like the Peace Hotel (011-86-21-63-21-6888, http://www./ http://shanghaipeacehotel.com/ ; double rooms from $100; also listed on http://www.hotel-rates.com/ ), with its storied history and amazing location straddling Nanjing Lu on the Bund (the city's waterfront promenade and historic area). On the other end of the spectrum is the Shanghai Grand Hyatt ( http://www.shanghai.grand.hyatt.com/ ; rooms from $300), in the Jin Mao tower, with a giant's view of the Bund from the Pudong side. But unless you find a great Web deal or have a travel agent, the latter isn't an option (you can still snag the view by springing for drinks at one of the hotel's bars). If you like wooden floorboards, meandering hallways and the cachet of staying where Charlie Chaplin crashed, try the Pujiang Hotel. About a half-mile along the Bund from the Peace, it's across from the Russian consulate. Like the Peace, it has a long history in this ever-changing city; since opening in 1856 it's been known as the Richards Hotel, the Astor House Hotel and the Pujiang, and in recent years has vacillated between the last two names. Info: 011-86-21-63-24-6388; book through either http://www.astorhousehotel.com/ or http://www.pujianghotel.com/ . At press time, available rooms that fit your criteria ranged from a standard twin ($65, including breakfast) to a deluxe king room for $135, plus the 10 percent booking fee. For more Shanghai info: Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission ( http://lyw.sh.gov.con/en ) or the China National Tourist Office (888-760-8218, http://www.cnto.org/ ). David Kelly of Chevy Chase has a suggestion for exploring Chicago's architectural scene (July 23). He says that "one great way to learn about Chicago's buildings is on a river tour," and notes that several operators offer guided boat tours, including Shoreline Sightseeing (312-222-9328, http://www.shorelinesightseeing.com/ ) and Wendella's Boats (312-337-1446, http://www.wendellaboats.com/ ). Send queries by e-mail (travelqa@washpost.com), fax (202-912-3609) or U.S. mail (Travel Q&A, Washington Post Travel Section, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071). Please include full name and home town.
Searching out designer bargains in Italy and finding a hotel in Shanghai.
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Metro: Roads and Rails
2006080719
Do you think Metro has grown unreliable and become downright unpleasant? Or are you happy with your commutes on rail and bus? Does the thought of the intercounty connector (ICC) keep you up at night or does it seem like it's long overdue? And what of the moves by Maryland and Virginia to encourage the private sector to build road projects, such as widening the Capital Beltway? Washington Post staff writer Steven Ginsberg was online Monday, Aug. 7, at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions, feel your pain and share the drama of getting from Point A to Point B. Steven Ginsberg's Blog: Get There Special Report: Building a New Wilson Bridge Steve Ginsberg: Good morning chatters. It's been a long time and I've got a little news. This may be my last chat with you guys. I've switched jobs and am now transportation editor instead of reporter, which means I will be even more engaged in the issues y'all care about. But it also means I will cede the chat to the person who takes my old job. Please continue to send me all of your questions and concerns to ginsbergs@washpost.com. Also, I'm extremely interested in talking to anyone who has stopped using VRE or MARC. If that's you, please send me an e-mail. And with that, let's get rolling... Hague, Va.: In Japan when new bridges are built, the Japanese make sure a rail line is incorporated within the bridge, either over, under or on it. Will the new Woodrow Wilson bridge have a metro rail on it? If so when? Steve Ginsberg: The new Wilson Bridge was built to support a Metro line. Whether it gets one remains to be seen. There is talk of using the bridge's transit lane for bus service or even carpoolers. Reston, Va. : I have seen two stories in The Post recently where everyone is saying Dan Tangherlini is the best man for the job heading Metro, just give it to him. My question is if he is the best man why did the Board have to redo the criteria so that he could apply? And why, if he is the best candidate, are they afraid to have him compete for the job? Maybe because he is not the most qualified or best candidate. Just a thought. Steve Ginsberg: They didn't redo the criteria for him to apply. And I'm not sure how afraid they are for him to compete. I think some board members genuinely feel he's done a good job in his 6 months and it's a waste of time and money to launch a national search. Prince Georges, Md.: What's going on with the Purple Line? Are we going to get it or not? I commute to Bethesda three days a week and would love an alternative to the horrible traffic in that area at the 7:45 Steve Ginsberg: Maryland officials held a press tour a few weeks ago to say that planning for the Purple Line--they call it the bi-county transitway--is moving forward. But they also cited a litany of obstacles to actually getting it done, so you didn't exactly get the sense that it was going to happen anytime soon. Alexandria, Va.: Why does Metro, at the height of evening rush hour, only run four-car trains on the Blue line? At the very same time, they run eight-car Orange line trains. Additionally, the ratio of Orange trains to Blue trains run is about three to one. Why is this the case? Steve Ginsberg: It's as simple as the fact that many more people use the Orange Line. Baltimore, Md.: Is there anything in the planning stages to better integrate the public transit systems of Baltimore and D.C.? As the two metropolitan areas continue to merge, it seems that this should be a major priority in developing regional transit solutions. Steve Ginsberg: I don't know of any integration plans. What kinds of things are you thinking about? How would they be better integrated? Alexandria, Va.: Need to have Metro from Leesburg to Tysons Corner. When are they going to build it? They need to build the Metro above the ground -- not below the ground . Steve Ginsberg: Wouldn't we all like to know when that will happen. You're referring to the Dulles line, which would reach into Loudoun County but not get all the way to Leesburg. I'm curious, though, why do you prefer an above ground line? Ashburn, Va.: The main toll plaza on the Dulles Greenway has two fast toll lanes heading west in the afternoon rush hour, and three fast toll lanes heading east at the same time. It doesn't make sense. Shouldn't it be reverse? Traffic is backing up westbound while the few cars heading east zip on through. I don't get it. Steve Ginsberg: I don't get that either. Most of the traffic heads west at that time, back to their homes in the fastest-growing county in the country. (Or one of them, at least.) Eastern Market, Washington, D.C.: Steve, All right, what's the real story on the opposition to Dan Tangherlini as Metro chief? Responsible, serious people have backed him, and it's disingenuous for detractors in Virginia and Maryland to say "we oppose him because he doesn't have a transportation background." What's the real ox being gored by this guy? Steve Ginsberg: There aren't any detractors in Maryland; they're squarely behind Tangherlini. It's the Virginia representatives who are reluctant. Their concern is not that he doesn't have a transit background--he was head of the District's transportation department--it's that they wonder if he's sufficiently committed to Virginia issues such as a rail line to Dulles. How deep that concern is or whether they're just looking to get him to pay more attention to their issues, I honestly don't know. Washington, D.C.: Just a positive comment for Metro -- over the last few months I've heard people asking for clearer announcements in stations, notices about other lines than the one you might currently be on, and so forth. Well, maybe someone did get the message at Metro -- I've noticed clearer announcements in lots of stations on the Red Line and announcements about delays, etc., on other lines also. A step in the right direction! Washington, D.C.: Steve -- Please help. The area surrounding Columbia Heights Metro is a complete disaster. The D.C. Council (Col. Heights is in Ward One -- Jim Graham) and WMATA have apparently lost their minds and forgotten that living people actually use the Metro station there. The intersection (14th and Irving, NW) is being developed on three of four corners, and the area along Irving b/w 14th and 16th is being developed on BOTH sides of the street. The developers constantly encroach on the already pathetic and laughable pedestrian access, sending kids, the disabled, and the elderly out into traffic on a major E-W commuter route. At many points, what used to be an 8-10' sidewalk is reduced to 20 usable inches. In addition, an army of portable toilets parked right next to the sidewalk/bus stops have made the air there more foul than you could imagine. Is anyone from WMATA paying ANY attention to this? Steve Ginsberg: This is a DDOT, not WMATA issue and it happens all over the city. I wrote a story about this issue a couple years ago and there was some immediate and short-lived improvements. The city has got to understand that the development will come regardless and they need to take a stronger stand against developers so walkers, bikers, etc. can continue to move around the city. Blue Line: Blue Liners understand that the Blue Line has the lowest ridership on the Metro. But running one Blue Line 4-car train for every 2 Orange Line 6/8 car trains is inexcusable -- especially on nights when there are already heat related delays! Metro needs to cut us a break. One blue line 6 car train per 2 orange 6/8 car trains is fine. One Blue Line 4 car train per one Orange Line 6/8 car train is fine. The total horror that has been the Blue Line lately is not. Steve Ginsberg: I hear ya. Metro is eagerly waiting on some new cars that are supposed to alleviate some of these problems. The first are expected by the end of the year. Alexandria, Va.: The incident on the Dulles Toll Road this weekend may be isolated. However the symptoms that caused it are not. EVERYONE needs to calm down a little on the road. Just because someone is not driving to your liking or someone does something you don't like, you do not have the right to then use your car as weapon to prove your point. Remember, we are living in a congested community. So committing actions like the slamming on of brakes, swerving, tailgating, may have far reaching effects other than you and that other person. Others are on the road with you. "I'm sorry" only goes so far when your actions seriously hurt or kill people not involved with the accident. And remember, your actions could get you killed or seriously hurt as well. Steve Ginsberg: Sane words about an insane situation. There are so many things we want to know about this story. What were they fighting about? Why did the guy get out of his car so close to the airport, where he was headed? The whole thing is so weird, and sad. Washington, D.C.: I too have really appreciated the clearer announcements -- especially when I'm on a train that gets stuck in a tunnel because of a sickness up ahead or electrical problem with another train. The clear explanation and timeframe estimates are really appreciated. Now if only they could get the escalators right. Today only one of Van Ness station's three large escalators were working during the morning rush. Seems like getting them working in the morning would be a priority. Steve Ginsberg: Another shout out for clearer announcements. Sterling, Va. (originally from Detroit, Mich.): I love Metro, but look at where I came from. In Detroit there is no public transportation to speak of. I love all the options here just to get to the airports. I can drive to a park and ride and take a connector bus to Metro, or park at a Metro lot and take Metro to Amtrak, or National Airport, or take Metro to Amtrak to get to BWI. I guess it all depends on what you're used to. I was thrilled in Chicago that one could take the "L" from O'Hare airport and go straight to Marshall Field's on State without ever going outside. In Detroit you drive to the airport or you don't get there. I guess I'm easily satisfied since I'm used to no public transportation at all. I think you have it pretty good here. Steve Ginsberg: It's always good to be reminded that we have it better than most here. But that's also always a reminder that it wouldn't have gotten to be this way unless people clamored for it. In 20 years we're going to look back on this time and either be grateful for what we did or angry about what we didn't do. Alexandria, Va.: Congress has earmarked $32 million to widen I-66 in Arlington. Would these earmarks have required the tacit approval of Arlington's congressman Jim Moran? Are the rules of the House such that if the local congressman objects to a transportation earmark then that earmark cannot go forward? Steve Ginsberg: I don't believe it's required for the local congressman to back an earmark, but I can't imagine it would happen without it. All those other congressmen would be more than happy to take the money themselves. One of you Hill staffers correct me if I'm wrong about this. Los Alamos, N.M.: Why are there no rest rooms at Metro stations? Steve Ginsberg: There are, you just have to ask the station manager to use them. Re: Blue Line: From what I've heard, the new cars Metro's getting aren't going to be used to alleviate crowding. They will either be replacing older cars or will be spread on the more "heavily traveled" lines, like the Orange Line. Am I wrong? Steve Ginsberg: I believe they will be spread across the system. The first ones are supposed to come later this year, but others will come over the next year or two. It won't happen all at once. Odenton, Md.: With the ever-increasing traffic and users of local mass transit (Metro, MARC, VRE), what are people doing to address the real issue --population growth? Steve Ginsberg: Population growth follows job growth and no one is interested in trimming job growth. Transportation systems tend to lag behind, but we seem to be in danger of lagging so far behind that we may never catch up. Arlington, Va.: My boyfriend commutes from Arlington to Warrenton, thus public transportation is not an option since it wouldn't take him far enough. I'm wondering if it would be possible for him to occasionally, on his way home, park at Vienna and metro home, and metro back to his car on the way in the next morning. Can one park overnight at Vienna? Steve Ginsberg: According to Metro's Web site, one can, indeed park at Vienna overnight. Washington, D.C.: Re: pedestrian dangers during construction. I agree with the poster from Adams Morgan, and would like to add Penn Quarter to the "incredibly dangerous" list, particularly around the Spy Museum and Portrait Gallery. The Portrait Gallery has built a structure around their construction that fully blocks one lane on F Street(they've painted it and added trim, so I think they plan on leaving it up a while.) Meanwhile, tour and school buses double park up and down the street in front of the Spy Museum, and Clark Construction's work behind the museum has blocked off both sidewalks (9th and 8th street.) The visibility on these streets makes it very scary to cross - even with the light. This is also the area where a little boy was killed by a bus about a year ago. Who are the appropriate contacts to complain about this situation? Steve Ginsberg: The phone number for the DDOT public affairs office is 202-671-2004. Let us know what kind of response you get. Maryland: Transit between B'more and D.C. could better be integrated by more efficient and frequent service via the MARC rail. and by ADDING WEEKEND SERVICE! I believe, however, that CSX owns the rails and the lines are shared with freight trains, which I believe have priority. I can't understand ANY proposals to extend light rail/metro, etc. towards B'more since the liens already exist. Additional and more frequent service certainly would encourage additional users. The commuter trains already are packed like sardines, at least on the Penn line -- I think the Camden line is less so. Steve Ginsberg: I wonder about weekend service. I'm sure some people would take it, but it's hard to imagine that it would be enough to run MARC trains, especially when you can take Amtrak. Washington, D.C.: Last Friday afternoon on my way home on Orange toward Vienna the train was so packed that the train operator was apologizing through PA to those who couldn't manage to get in. Now I know Metro is high on good customer service and all, but apologizing to passengers because the train was too crowded? I think that's really odd and not necessary. She's doing a fine job advising a train was right behind her and I don't believe she needed to apologize for a big crowd in rush hour. It's just made me feel uneasy. Your thoughts? Steve Ginsberg: It made you feel uneasy? I don't see any problem with it. The operator works for a system that was, at that moment, not helping many of its customers. Nothing wrong with apologizing for that. It's nice to know that at least someone there feels our pain. Arlington, Va.: I hadn't heard about the I-66 widening plan for Arlington. Where exactly is this supposed to take place? I assume between where Route 7 enters 66 through Ballston, which would alleviate a lot of headaches. Why would anyone who uses this stretch of highway oppose this? Steve Ginsberg: Oh Lord, you must be new to the area. This battle has been going on for about 25 years. Widening backers want to add lanes between the Beltway and Roosevelt Bridge but, for now, are pushing a plan to widen a westbound lane on that stretch. Opponents, most of whom are your neighbors, feel like more lanes will just mean more cars, more air pollution and more suburban sprawl. And Arlington was promised those lanes would never be widened when the road was built. Arlington, Va.: I just spent two years in Tokyo, and I am glad to see the new design with the "perimeter seating." I've been waiting to see this for years, the old design is annoying for a variety of reasons. One example: you take an empty seat to alleviate crowding the doors, then someone, reasonably enough, sits next to you. But, since you are getting off before him/her you have to ask them to stand up to let you out ... etc. ... and it is worsened by a crowded isle. I would add the plastic handstraps for shorter people standing. Steve Ginsberg: I'm interested how people react to the new seats. They seem good to me, but a lot of people I talk to say the other seats are more comfortable. MARC: You can take Amtrak from New York to New Jersey and Connecticut too. But New Jersey transit and Metro-North run reasonable weekend schedules. Fares on MARC are much lower and MARC trains can make stops that Amtrak has no need to do. Steve Ginsberg: The question is: Are we New York? Our area, for all its growth, has nowhere near the number of people that the NJ, NY, Conn. area has. We also don't have as much traffic. It's not all that hard to drive between Baltimore and DC on weekends, but it's always hard to get into Manhattan. I'm not saying we're not at that point, but it's dangerous to lay them out as direct comparisons. Washington, D.C.: I just would like to commend the Fairfax Connector staff for doing an excellent job this morning assisting with the mess at the Franconia-Springfield station. I did not see any Metro buses serving as shuttles, rather, Connector managers were rerouting some of their buses to take people directly to the Van Dorn station, or even directly to the Pentagon. I've had my ups and downs with the Connector over the four years I've been riding it, but today they really did a great job. Steve Ginsberg: That's good to hear. Washington, D.C.: Hi, I just wanted to provide a comment on Metro. Specifically, I would like to tell other readers to please be careful as they walk up/down the escalators. I learned the hard way that it is not safe to walk on the escalators. I fell a few weeks ago and broke my foot. (Although the worst part of the whole story is that only one other person was on the escalator and he walked right over me after I fell and didn't ask if I was okay). After spending countless hours at the emergency room and missing many days of work, I would just like for others to realize that walking on the escalators won't save one that much extra travel time. Please be careful. Steve Ginsberg: I'm sorry you broke your foot. I worry about myself on some of those long escalators--the metal steps start to blur together. Chevy Chase, Washington, D.C.: Why is traffic over Chain Bridge so poorly covered on D.C. traffic announcements? I rarely hear in advance of traffic backups/closures along my D.C.-Fairfax commute over Chain Bridge. Last week the bridge was closed at 4:30 p.m. to inbound traffic -- no explanation, no mention on Post traffic Web site, nothing on the radio. Shadow Traffic is worthless -- I hear about the 270 spur and the Beltway, and that's about it. Is there anyway to get timely information about the routes I specifically use? Steve Ginsberg: It's difficult to get that information in the car, but if you check our Web site before leaving you should be able to find out about problems on chain bridge or anywhere else. Perhaps our producers could post a link to our traffic section? Washington, D.C.: I came in from Metro to Courthouse on the best air-conditioned car I've ever been on. I stopped by the kiosk and thanked the man inside. Metro can be great sometimes. Steve Ginsberg: I'm glad you stopped and thanked someone. Positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement. Arlington, Va.: Here's a question for the folks at the Arlington Transit (ART) office. Have any of you ever ridden the ART41 bus to and from work? How can you claim that these "green and clean" machines are "high quality" buses when most of the time the A/C unit is woefully underpowered and can't seem to handle a regular summer day, let alone a 100 degree day? This is a heavily traveled route, and it's usually filled with women and young children who get on/off at the DHS bldg in Clarendon. I'm hardpressed to believe that Arlington County cannot afford buses like those of Alexandria and Fairfax. Or is it that commuters from South Arlington don't really count? Steve Ginsberg: I confess to not being overly familiar with ART. Anyone out there have similar problems? Overnight Parking: Where on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Web site do you see that overnight parking at Vienna is allowed? According to the parking page, overnight parking is only allowed at Greenbelt, Huntington and Franconia-Springfield, and then, only in one of the handful of specially marked spaces made available for that purpose. This is something that Metro really should address. I know that parking is in high demand, but this is something that forces drivers onto already crowded roadways if they're going to be away on a one-night trip. Steve Ginsberg: I'm working fast here, but there was a section that said you could park at some stations for up to 24 hours and Vienna was on the list. Blue Line blues: Well, the Blue Line was down in the direction of Franconia this morning. What's the excuse today? Too hot? Too much rain? Steve Ginsberg: This, from a story on our Web site: Metrorail service is suspended between the Franconia-Springfield and Van Dorn stations on the Blue Line due to a signal outage on the track, Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said. Riders can take a shuttle bus from the Franconia-Springfield station to the Van Dorn station or go directly to the Van Dorn station to avoid the delay. Steve Ginsberg: Here's the link to our traffic section. Washington, D.C.: Do you know what the story is with the Yellow Line extension of Metro to Ft. Totten station? I think it is a great idea! Also, how do we get Metro to be more accountable for their service? I sent a complaint about a bus driver passing me and waving as he passed my stop. Okay, so I got an e-mail apology, but what are we going to do about this getting corrected? Customer service really needs to step it up. Steve Ginsberg: If you tell Metro exactly what bus (or train) problems arise on, they can take direct action. Wouldn't hurt to follow up with them too. Not that riders should have to do this... Steve Ginsberg: Okay, everyone. That's all for me today. As always, sorry I couldn't get to all your questions. Please keep the transportation comments and concerns coming to our Get There blog and to my email at ginsbergs@washpost.com. Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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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Outlook: No Future for Chavez
2006080719
Read Fukuyama's previous Live Online discussion . Orange, Va.: Interesting opinion piece in yesterday's Post. However, I must confess to being puzzled as to your rather blithe dismissal of Chavez as a dictator. Hard to see how any leader twice elected to office and also having survived a recall effort can be fairly described as such, even if the phrase "post-modern" is tossed in as a modifier. Isn't being elected like being a little bit pregnant, you either are or you aren't. Chavez certainly seems to meet the former status, especially given his multiple electoral successes. Francis Fukuyama: Democracy in my view is more that being elected every four years. It also involves institutions of horizontal accountability like courts, rule of law, political parties, and independent civil society and media, and all of these things Chavez has steadily brought under his control. I wouldn't call him a dictator, but a quasi-democratic, quasi-authoritarian leader whose instincts incline him towards the latter position. Columbia, Md.: Chavez believes he can spread Chavismo to other countries in Latin America (much like the Castros and Che Guevara believed they could spread socialism to the same region), why does he believe this will work, or is he just power hungry? Francis Fukuyama: He has good reason to think it will work because, first, there is a lot of social discontent in Latin America that he speaks to, and second, because he has money from oil. Eastern Market, D.C.: Dr. Fukuyama, I don't know any serious person who regards Hugo Chavez as anything more than a throwback to the old days of populist military dictators that were prevalent in Latin America for decades. There is nothing, other than his rather pompous statement that "Chavismo" is somehow post "end of history" and in the vanguard, that even suggests that he even knows how to spell "vanguard," in any language. Francis Fukuyama: Chavez is a throwback, but with a new twist. Older dictators would simply take power through a military coup (something Chavez tried); he however creates greater legitimacy for himself by running for and winning elections. So in a sense the challenge of dealing with him is more complex. Capitol Hill, D.C.: You claim that Venezuela's economy has grown only because of oil. How would you explain the fact that non-oil sector growth is outpacing oil sector growth? Francis Fukuyama: The Venezuelan economy tanked during the year of the PDVSA strike and recall movement, so it is natural that it should recover (just like Argentina in the past two years). But the overall performance of the Venezuelan economy from 1998-2004 was extremely poor. Washington, D.C.: How is Chavez anything but a natural reaction to the social inequality and international monetary economics that have been plaguing Venezuela and Latin America for the past 50 years? Francis Fukuyama: If you want leaders on the left who are trying to respond to social inequality, Michelle Bachelet or Lula represent far more responsible alternatives. Chavez recalls a populist earlier history that most Latin Americans are eager to forget. Washington, DC: Your article seems to suggest the Chavez phenomenon will not last, but as long as oil prices remain high what is to stop it? Given the demand for oil will remain high for the foreseeable future, Chavez will have an endless surplus of cash to buy influence and weaponry. What are the chances of Venezuela getting a seat on the U.N. Security Council? Francis Fukuyama: To tell you the truth, the Post titled my piece "The End of Chavez," something I wouldn't have done. I actually think Chavez is fairly durable, even if oil prices come down to the $50 range in the next couple of years. Part of the problem is that the opposition is very weak and divided, so there is no real alternative for the foreseeable future. I've been told that Chavez may not get the number of votes necessary for a Venezuelan security council seat, largely because of opposition in Europe and in other parts of Latin America. Baltimore, Md.: Where would Chavez be today if the U.S. had simply chosen to ignore him? Francis Fukuyama: I agree that Chavez benefits from overt American hostility, and certainly capitalized on our uncertain posture during the coup attempt. I think it would be a tremendous mistake to try to isolate him like we have tried to isolate Castro. Washington, D.C.: If you spend any time in the slums of Venezuela, you will hear over and over again that Chavez isn't the one driving Venezuelan policy. That this is a grassroots effort and Chavez is being allowed to be the voice of that effort. I think it is a common mistake to focus our attention on Chavez the man, rather than recognize that these social movements have a very strong base and are addressing some crucial social issues that decades of Venezuelan leadership ignored. You don't have to like Chavez, but as Americans we do have to respect the rights of Venezuelans to their own democracy. Francis Fukuyama: I absolutely agree with this. As I said in my article, it is very important that people genuinely interested in democracy come up with a social agenda that will meet the needs of poor people. Some of Chavez's ideas in this area are good, but most are unsustainable absent oil rents. The challenge is to come up with policies that are sustainable, like the income transfer programs started in Mexico and Brazil. Washington, D.C.: Why is Chavismo a threat, as you claim? I fail to see how Chavez has done anything to threaten his neighbors or the global community (something few of us could say about the Bush administration, sadly). Francis Fukuyama: Chavez complains about American meddling, but that has not stopped him from intervening in the affairs of countries all over the region (e.g., giving money and sanctuary to FARC fighters from Colombia). As I said in the article, I believe that people are reacting to this overreaching. Silver Spring, Md.: Neo-liberal economic policies have led Latin America to have the highest degree of inequality in the world and Venezuela is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America. Isn't the Chavez phenomenon a reaction to neo-liberalism hat is erupting throughout South America? Rather than being doomed, Chavez has won numerous elections and survived coup attempts. Isn't it apparent that he is overwhelmingly popular in Venezuela and beyond. Francis Fukuyama: Neo-liberalism is not remotely the cause of Venezuela's problems, because Venezuela never opened itself up to the global economy the way Chile or Mexico have done. It's the fact that they never tried this in the decades prior to the collapse of oil prices that accounts for the economic crisis they experienced during the 1980s. Moises Naim has a good piece on this in a past issue of Foreign Policy. West Orange, N.J.: From 1958 to 1988, Venezuela had a two-party democracy whose shortcomings and stagnation led to Chavez's election and re-elections. Reliance on oil, and its distortion of the rest of the economy, appear to be constants. Oil makes it cheaper to import everything or invest in property abroad. Most Venezuelan's still think that oil will make everyone rich. Whoever follows Chavez can scarcely avoid the same dilemma. Is there any votable formula or example to avoid this trap? Francis Fukuyama: It's very hard, because it requires a government with political discipline to sequester natural resource rents and invest them rather than spending them on current consumption. The Norwegians do this, and the Chileans are doing something similar with their copper earnings, but the record isn't very good elsewhere in the developing world. Hillsdale, Mich.: Dr. Fukuyama, thank you for your article. You mentioned that the advance or at least the maintenance of 'Chavismo' depends upon high oil revenues. High oil revenues in turn depend at least in part upon disruption of other sources of oil, particularly in the Middle East, on the one hand, and upon continued expansion of Chinese industry, on the other. Is it then in Chavez's interests to assist radical Islamists/jihadists in that part of the world? We already know that he's made overtures to China. Francis Fukuyama: Yes, his recent trip indicates his more global ambitions to unite as many anti-American countries as possible, even reprehensible dictatorships like Lukashenko's Belarus. Washington, D.C.: I've lived and worked in Venezuela for many years, although I'm back living in the states now. One of the things that is obvious inside Venezuela that I never see articulated in the press here, is that Chavez is the voice of a major civil rights movement that encompasses race, class and poverty--things that have rarely been openly discussed in Venezuela until the last decade. Like our own civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s, there is a period of pain and social tension, but when the immediate pain subsides, all Venezuelans will be better off and look back on this period with respect. Francis Fukuyama: I hope you're right. The old order in Venezuela was nothing to write home about. Washington, D.C.: Mr. Fukuyama, the thesis of your op-ed yesterday is that the economic policies of Hugo Chavez are unsustainable, yet it is these same policies that seem to have reversed Venezuela's long economic decline (the economy shrank by 7% total per capita GDP from 1980-2000). Along with Argentina, Venezuela now has the strongest growth in Latin America. Considering that the "Washington Consensus" policies promoted by the IMF have largely failed the rest of the region (overall per capita GDP growth of 14% over the past 25 years compared to 82% from 1960-1980), what policies do you imagine would be more successful and sustainable for growth, alleviating poverty, and providing services to Venezuela's poor? Francis Fukuyama: This would lead to a long discussion, but the Washington Consensus worked pretty well throughout the region. It was designed to fix the problems of out-of-control fiscal policy and monetary emissions that led to the debt crisis of the 1980s, and it did that pretty well. The problem is that there are institutional factors holding Latin America back, which "neoliberalism" didn't emphasize particularly. It's that institutional agenda that is critical now. Washington, D.C.: Why would President Alvaro Uribe maintain close ties with a man that, as you claim, is offering refuge and support to the FARC? This allegation has been thrown around plenty, but I have yet to see evidence to substantiate it. Francis Fukuyama: Uribe has to maintain good relations with Venezuela for economic reasons (eg the gas pipeline project) but there's no question the Colombians are very upset with Chavez for his interference in their affairs. Toronto, Ontario.: It is delusional to think, as you evidently do, that a successful new '21st century socialism' in Venezuela will not have a positive influence in the rest of the Americas, where the overwhelming majority have endured disenfranchisement, poverty and deprivation at the hands of their own corrupt elites, and the multi-national corporations, whose primary motivation is the exploitation of natural resources, cheap labour and whatever else they can get hands on. It does not require deep intuition to comprehend that the poor will resist the factors that contribute to their poverty once given the encouragement and guidance from others who are in the process of doing the same. The Venezuelan revolution will, therefore, spread like a prairie fire as its success grows, oil or no oil. Francis Fukuyama: The tragedy of Latin America is that you get leaders like Chavez responding to the real problems of inequality, rather than people who could actually address the problem in the long run. Albany, Ga.: How widespread do you think is the American sentiment expressed by Pat Robertson? Francis Fukuyama: My sense is that most Americans don't pay much attention to Latin America; I'd hope it's not widespread. Lake Charles, La.: It appears that Hugo Chavez wants to use his wealth to somehow rival the United States' geo-political and economic influence. He is competing with the wrong nation since the silent dragon, China, surpasses us. The dollar can't even compete with the Euro and our foreign policy is reprehensible. Perhaps Chavez is fortifying himself against paper tigers. Francis Fukuyama: Chinese and European influence is evident all over Latin America, but I doubt the US will leave the scene anytime soon. It is true that our policy in the Middle East has not increased American prestige in the region, however. Ledroit Park, D.C.: I think you are right that some of Venezuela's social spending won't be maintained when oil prices drop, but I think its perfectly responsible to invest in schools, healthcare and military upgrades when you are flush with money. At any rate, this is for the Venezuelans to decide. My biggest fear is intervention from the United States, particularly in the leadup to Venezuelans presidential elections. That will cause more damage to U.S. standing in Latin American than anything that Chavez ever says. Francis Fukuyama: I agree in general, but social policy that is not sustainable or not well thought-out often makes people worse off than they were previously, like Argentina's Peronist labor laws, or the land reform attempted by the Peruvian junta in the 1960s. Washington, D.C.: You name Bachalet and Lula as better viable options for the poor than Venezuela. While I'm not sure that it is true, I do believe that if Chavez did not exist, the United States would be just as outspoken against Bachalet and Lula as they are toward Chavez now. To what extent do you feel that the presence of Chavez actually allows other leftist Latin American governments to exist with less pressure? Francis Fukuyama: I really don't think we are looking for new enemies in Latin America. We have enough real ones elsewhere. America's problem now is a fundamental lack of serious interest in the region. Arlington, Va.: Your analysis seems spot on regarding the unlikely spread of Chavismo through Latin America. However, you also recognize that "oil, oil, oil" is the issue and this Nexus with the U.S. interest is where there is uncertainty. Do you think that there may be some form of U.S. intervention in Venezuela in order to ensure reliable access to oil and that this could create a circle the wagons effect in Latin America? Would the best course of action for the U.S. be to stay out of Venezuela's affairs even if it means not enjoying privileged and/or consistent access to the oil? Francis Fukuyama: Intervention would be very foolish and is very unlikely. US foreign policy has a lot on its hands at the moment, and opening up another front in our hemisphere would be a very dumb thing to do. Washington, D.C.: Mr. Fukuyama, you state that Chavez's significance comes from his nation's oil wealth and without it he wouldn't be relevant. I respectfully disagree. While it is true that oil is a powerful resource that he has decided to stop squandering and use on behalf of his own people and poor people abroad, it is not the only resource that makes him significant. Recent polls carried out by opposition polling firms confirm that his electoral reforms provide more transparency and democracy in elections and Venezuelans now have more confidence in their elections than U.S. citizens. Their voting machines produce a paper and electronic trail and 55% of the votes will be audited in the upcoming presidential elections which will be monitored by international observers like the Carter Center and the OAS. So why the statements in your article to the contrary? How do you explain massive voter enfranchisement and voter turnout in record numbers in the last few years? The only thing different between Venezuela's use of its powerful resource-oil versus the U.S.'s is that oil doesn't kill people. Francis Fukuyama: As you doubtless know, the Carter Center's certification of the referendum has been bitterly contested by much of the Venezuelan opposition, and particularly the independence and objectivity of the CNE. I do not have a strong opinion about this, but know that IFE in Mexico is a much better example of a truly independent electoral authority. Washington, D.C.: The rhetoric of Chavez borders on hysterical. Virtually every speech he engages in the most virulently anti-American demagoguery. While President Bush dismissed Chavez as a military threat, what are the chances that Chavez actually seeks a military conflict with the U.S. Attacking Israel has done wonders for Hezbollah, why not the same for Chavez assuming he is willing to sacrifice a few of his countrymen. By this, I'm thinking, hitting a U.S. naval ship in the Caribbean or something similar. Francis Fukuyama: By and large, I think that Chavez is actually trying to goad us into opposition because that helps his own position internationally and domestically. That doesn't mean that there are some important red lines that he could step over, particularly with regard to cooperation with Iran on nuclear issues. Eastern Market, D.C.: Here's a rather obvious, if difficult, question: what is Chavez' relationship with Raul Castro? Clearly, Raul may or may not ever be in charge in Cuba, but have there been any communications or public utterances by Chavez regarding Castro's successor? Or doe Hugo, too, think Fidel will outlive his Galapagos turtle? Francis Fukuyama: I don't know the answer to this. New York, N.Y.: How do you think Venezuela's acceptance into Mercosur will affect the regional trading bloc and its relations with the U.S.? Francis Fukuyama: Venezuela going into Mercosur will be extremely disruptive for their small and weak private sector. Their natural trading partners are in the Andean/Caribbean region, and their companies will have a lot of trouble competing against the Brazilians and Argentines. But perhaps this is Chavez's intention. Milwaukee, Wis.: I appreciate some of the nuance displayed in this conversation which I did not see in the op-ed, so my comment is more to the op-ed than anything said here online. I have to say that I'm generally distrustful of both the analysis and the reasons for presenting it. First, it seems to ignore the huge plusses represented by Chavismo -- especially what I see as participatory democracy (in some towns following the Porto Alegre model) and a real sense of popular empowerment, and a consequent investment in the country's poor, rather than buying the contentment of the upper class. The flip side of this is buying into a lot of negatives that I keep hearing about but have never seen any evidence for, such as this business about funding the FARC. Second, it seems to ignore the negative role played by the United States. Venezuela gets arms from Russia in part because it cannot get them from the U.S. The op-ed seems to say that Venezuela's current regime is destined to fall because of its own mistakes, but meanwhile, its expected fall is receiving plenty of outside help. Your op-ed seems, in other words, to be calling Chavez clumsy just as someone prepares to push him down a flight of stairs. Francis Fukuyama: The last several responses all strike similar themes, which argue that the benefits of Chavez's social programs and the fact that Chavez was democratically elected outweigh his negatives. I agree very much that what not just Venezuela but the rest of Latin America needs is renewed attention to the poor and the social agenda. But good social policy--land reform, educational reform, strengthening of various social safety nets--is very difficult to do in ways that actually promote equality of outcomes over the long run. What has happened in many Latin American countries in the past is that poorly thought-out social agendas have been promoted in flush times, but were not sustainable when the inevitable economic downturn came. Some worked better, like Colombia's land reform in the 1960s. As I said in the article, there's a lot of rethinking going on elsewhere in the region on these issues, but people don't pay attention because of the focus on Chavez. Democracy is more than plebiscitary elections. It is also a system of institutions that provide horizontal accountability. Chavez is simply accumulating political power in a way that weakens institutions and ties Venezuela's future to his own personality. Naguanagua, Venezuela: What do you think will be the effect of the US$3 billion that Chavez is buying in the very powerful and sophisticated Russian war materiel will have in the regional political balance, specially the combat airplanes, helicopters and rockets? Francis Fukuyama: It is hard for me to believe that Chavez actually wants to use these weapons against his neighbors (as opposed to buying the Russian vote for Venezuela's seat on the Security Council), but I suppose stranger things have happened. Washington, D.C.: Well 25 years of economic stagnation is a long time -- how many decades of this would you give "the Washington Consensus," or neoliberalism if you prefer, before you admit failure? Argentina piled up a $100 billion debt in the mid-90s, defaulted on it, and began its rapid recovery within three months. They have been growing at 9 percent annually for more than three years. Why should Latin Americans still be be paying the price for over-spending in the 70s, 30 years later? Isn't it time to admit that this long-term growth failure (not inequality, which has long preceded the neoliberal era)has something to do with Washington's recommended policies, and maybe that's why you are seeing all these elections of left governments in Latin America? Francis Fukuyama: Argentina's crisis in 2001 had very complex causes, including the excessively rigid dollar peg (which the IMF did not, incidentally, support), the spending race between Menem and Duhalde that was the outgrowth of their contest for leadership of the PJ, and a variety of other factors. Chile, which followed the neoliberal agenda most closely (though not slavishly, as in the case of its capital controls) has been far and away the best economic performer. Brazil has also done much better since Cardoso's reforms of the 1990s. washingtonpost.com: Thank you all for joining us today. Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/06/AR2006080600902.html
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In Southern Lebanon, Weary Resignation
2006080719
SIDON, Lebanon, Aug. 6 -- Physician Ghassan Hammoud leaned into the phone Sunday, one hand to his ear, the other gesturing. As in so much in southern Lebanon these days, there was a tone of desperation, a touch of exasperation, a hint of pleading and a sense of the unprecedented. It was one of 15 calls he would make this day, one of 50 he might receive, all trying to bring order to chaos. He needed fuel for cars. Then seven cars to go to Beirut to pick up medicine. He needed drivers who would risk roads that Israeli forces have attacked. Then more fuel for the generators to power his hospital, the biggest in Lebanon's third-largest city. Hammoud, 70, hung up his phone and fell back in his chair. He shook his head, a gesture toward a Sisyphean plight. "I tell you what, this war might go for a long time," he said, a four-page list of needed medicine before him. "There won't be an end because no one is going to win or lose. Both sides are winning, both sides are losing. The big loser is the Lebanese." The United States and France have agreed on a draft U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire in the nearly four-week-old war, but already Sunday, U.S. officials were saying that it was only a first step and that it would take a while to end the fighting. Few appeared to disagree in beleaguered southern Lebanon, where weary residents began settling in for the long wait across a terrain more battered by fighting than at any time in the country's modern history. With a sense that both Israel and Hezbollah have the stamina and endurance to fight on, many in southern Lebanon have started to think of their futures placed within a long-running war: Doctors talk about leaving the country for good; some of the hundreds of thousands of displaced within Lebanon have simply come back to their homes in places such as Tyre, fearful the temporary was becoming permanent. "Brother, you try living in a school," said Khodr al-Ruz, 17, who returned two days ago to Tyre after spending three weeks sharing a classroom with 15 other displaced Lebanese in the Christian town of Byblos, north of Beirut. A day after the war started, Ruz and his extended family got in eight cars -- a ramshackle convoy of old Mercedes, Toyotas, Hondas and a van -- and headed north, a 12-hour drive, between shelling, over often mountainous roads. They decided to leave after an Israeli missile struck a building in Tyre that housed the civil defense agency and leaflets urged southern Lebanese to evacuate. "No one was reassuring us," he said. At the government high school in Bint Jbeil, they joined about 400 other people from the poor Shiite Muslim neighborhoods of Beirut, Tyre and the villages of southern Lebanon bearing the brunt of the war. "How could you breathe?" he asked. "There wasn't any oxygen in there." By last week, Ruz said, he had had enough. He caught a taxi to the edge of Beirut, another through Beirut, a third taxi to Sidon and then a minibus to Tyre. He borrowed the money to pay for the fare, about $12 in all. On Sunday, a Metallica tattoo on his arm, a pack of cigarettes at his side, he spent the afternoon at his home watching an old Egyptian film, starring comedian Adel Imam.
SIDON, Lebanon, Aug. 6 -- Physician Ghassan Hammoud leaned into the phone Sunday, one hand to his ear, the other gesturing. As in so much in southern Lebanon these days, there was a tone of desperation, a touch of exasperation, a hint of pleading and a sense of the unprecedented. It was one of 15...
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080100825.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006080719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080100825.html
Class Questions - washingtonpost.com
2006080719
PRETTY, SLEEPY LEXINGTON, VA., IS A TOWN OF CROOKED STREETS, quaint coffee shops and charming old wood-and-brick houses. Nestled side by side among its magnolia trees and azalea bushes are two historic universities, Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University. The Lylburn Downing Community Center is just a few blocks away but in a different part of Lexington -- what's called the black part of town. This area also has narrow streets and rockers sitting on front porches. But it's across an unseen border -- one that students from nearby Washington and Lee, which is nearly 90 percent white, have little occasion to cross. On an April day, though, seven young women from Washington and Lee arrived at the center bearing food shortly after 3 p.m. They wore short jean skirts and flowing, flowery blouses. Painted toenails glistened under jeweled thong sandals. Up the front entrance stairs they went, carrying industrial-grade stainless steel containers filled with orange slices and roast beef. Their destination was an after-school program for low-income kids. Its director, Tammy Dunn, a short black woman of 41 with an enormous smile, stood on the front stoop, cellphone in hand, waving them in. She stopped the last young woman, the one wearing bluejeans and a gray T-shirt that said, "Teach. Reach. Feed. Lead." "My buddy!" Dunn said. "My darling!" Ingrid Easton, a senior, broke into a smile and put her arm around Dunn. She asked about the older woman's family. The two had met the previous year, when Ingrid had volunteered at the center. They'd been friends since, meeting for lunch when they could, catching up on the phone. At first, Dunn assumed Ingrid was just like her, someone who had struggled through poverty and come out on the upside. It took several lengthy conversations to learn that Ingrid is instead a child of privilege: a doctor's daughter who attended exclusive, nearly all-white private schools in Charlotte. Dunn marveled that the girl showed no white guilt, none of the discomfort of the haves around the have-nots. Ingrid, she says, is simply a natural. "It takes a gifted person to be able to sit wherever she goes," says Dunn, who refers to herself as Ingrid's "mother away from home." Inside the community center swirled the chaos of 15 children cooped up on a nice day. One girl zoomed around the room on purple Rollerblades. A crowd gathered around three computers that booped and blapped as the kids shot down aliens. Others sat at a table, giggling at cellphone messages. One girl sauntered into the maelstrom and slammed down a giant, 32-ounce bottle of cola from the nearby convenience store. She turned to the college women. "What kinda snack you got?" she demanded. "Ice cream?" The college students, who by now had all put on gray T-shirts like Ingrid's, stood in a pack at the edge of the room, fingering their hairnets and smiling the self-conscious smiles of well-meaning outsiders. Ingrid left them there and went to sit down next to two little girls. She asked their names. "That's such a pretty name," she said to each one. She asked about school, what they learned and what they liked. Then she asked what they'd had to eat that day. "I stayed at a motel with my cousin last night," the other said. But before Ingrid could ask anything more, the two ran off. Ingrid began to organize the college volunteers and the food they'd brought into an assembly line. They made roast beef sandwiches and handed out the orange slices. Then, unflappable, chewing her ever-present wad of gum, she led the kids in a raucous game of Nutrition Jeopardy, making a point to call on the quiet and withdrawn kids -- "Destiny?" "Sierra?" "Colby?" -- even as the loud ones like LaShawn yelled at the others, "It's my turn, fool!" When the game was over, Ingrid had taught the kids the difference between good fats and bad -- "Sunflower seeds is good fat? I love those!" one boy shouted -- and that there is no such thing as bad protein. She told them she'd be back the next day with another healthy snack and that they would play outside, maybe a game of basketball. Ingrid has been on family trips to Europe, to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, on ski vacations out West. Growing up, she never gave much thought to the poor, or even saw many people who were. "Downtown Charlotte was just not a place you would go," she says. In her Episcopal church, she'd heard the priest talk about giving alms to the poor, she'd read how Jesus said, "The poor will always be with you." She absorbed the vague notion that if you worked hard, you would have what you need for a good life. So if you were poor, she thought, perhaps you just hadn't worked hard enough.
PRETTY, SLEEPY LEXINGTON, VA., IS A TOWN OF CROOKED STREETS, quaint coffee shops and charming old wood-and-brick houses. Nestled side by side among its magnolia trees and azalea bushes are two historic universities, Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University. The Lylburn Downing...
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Hypermiling - washingtonpost.com
2006080719
In his Honda, Josh went from getting 48 miles per gallon to 75.6 miles per gallon after he started hypermiling. How To: Increase Your Gas Mileage ( Post, Aug. 6 ) Zumbrun was online Monday, Aug. 7, at Noon ET to recount his experiences and share hypermiling tips. Josh Zumbrun: Alright, let's get started. I'm excited to be online where we can flesh this out a little bit more. Questions about hypermilers, about techniques that might work for you, about hybrids, oil, or just general life advice -- I'm all ears. People get into this for a lot of reasons: to save money, to help the environment, boredom with their commute or a gut-wrenching aversion to gas stations caused by spending the worst summer of one's life working at one. Welcome to the wild world of hypermiling. Let's start with a question about safety. Washington, D.C.: The expert questioned alongside your hypermiling tips seems to think some of them are pretty dangerous. Have you ever been in an accident, or come close, while 'hypermiling'? While I'm sure you're an excellent motorist, do you really think it's a good idea to encourage the idiot drivers of the world to coast and not use brakes? Josh Zumbrun: That's the whole reason we talked to the expert -- to remind people that this can be dangerous. DISCLAIMER: In case you only skimmed the article: don't try these techniques for the first time on I-95 at 85 miles per hour with a baby in the passenger seat. If you're serious about changing the way you drive, start with something simple. Not driving faster than you need to, maybe. Then get in the habit of slowing down a bit when you go up hills and accelerating on the way down, when gravity is your friend. Change your oil, if you've never done it. See if you're already seeing some savings (if you're driving as far as I do every morning you will be), then decide if you want to try for more. Odenton, Md.: I've gotten into the habit of putting the car in neutral and coasting whenever possible. Will this result in a significant improvement in gas mileage? Josh Zumbrun: Probably. Depends how often you do it, When your car is in neutral, the engine is just softly purring, right? Generally the lower your RPM's, the less gas you're guzzling. Again with the disclaimer... be careful and know your car before you try this. Don't throw the car in neutral on a highway, and then put the car back in first gear at 45 miles per hour. And if you're thinking "huh? what's first gear?" then don't even try it. Washington, D.C. : You mentioned thinner gas is better. What kind of gas is thinner? Josh Zumbrun: Uh... I think I mentioned thinner oil is better. You do know about the oil for your engine, right? It's in the plastic containers marked Pennzoil or Valvoline next to the Hostess Cupcakes but before you get to the Slim Jims. Sparks, Nev.: Is there a difference in mileage for a hybrid because of battery efficiency between hot weather and cold winter weather? Josh Zumbrun: There's a pretty big difference in all cars in different temperatures. I don't know whether it's more pronounced in hybrids than in other cars. All cars get worse mileage in the winter. That's just a fact of life. For me, I was barely able to stay above 60 miles per gallon in the winter. Now that it's blazing summer, I'm able to get back to the 70s. Fort Wayne, Ind.: I am curious about how long the batteries in hybrids will last. And since I have a son who owns a hybrid, are there possible electrical dangers, or dangers with the batteries in accidents? Josh Zumbrun: When they first made hybrids this was a big concern everybody had. So they offered ridiculously long warranties -- 10 years I believe, on the batteries. I don't have to worry about it until well after 2010. If you're buying a used car, this is something to be mindful of -- does it come with that warranty. Boise, Idaho: Have you considered bicycling? It's only 70 miles a day, round trip. And the mileage is pretty good, too. Josh Zumbrun: Of course, if you can, bicycles get remarkable miles per gallon -- but they're not practical for everyone. Portsmouth, N.H.: Any special tips for hypermiling in a Prius? Josh Zumbrun: There's a technique called the "pulse-and-glide" that's specifically used to increase mileage on a Prius. This is one of the techniques Wayne Gerdes and his team used when they were able to average over 100 miles per gallon for an entire tank of gas. Check out his site. Sterling, Va.: I drive a Prius, and there's something to be said for parts of this. Our last tank average was 49 mpg (my wife doesn't like "driving the car like a video game), and my normal average on my drive to work is 53 (I come over the mountains on Rt. 9), and the best I've ever done was 56. I'm already fairly conscious of how much pressure I'm using on the gas pedal, so these numbers are pretty good. This morning I decided to focus even more on the mileage. I allowed the car to decelerate going uphill. I kept to the speed limit (unless coasting downhill). What I didn't do was bump the pressure up in the tires (didn't have time), as the dealer just set it at 32 and I want it at 40 (which is still safe for this car and tires). My average for the drive in today was 64.6 mpg. This is far better than I've ever done, and better than the "unattainable" EPA city average for the Prius of 60. It's really just a change in your focus when driving. Instead of "getting where you're going as fast as possible", it's "getting where you're going on as little gas as possible". There are side benefits as well, such as no stress from lane changing and jockeying for position. I would add to the hypermiling suggestions that you leave five minutes earlier for wherever you're going. Josh Zumbrun: Here's a success story. It's really not that hard or dangerous. And really, you've only got Elliot in the Morning to keep you company on that early commute -- it gives you a lot of time to experiment in the afternoon. It's all about the mind set. I find that even though I'm driving slower it doesn't really take me any longer to get places. Fairfax, Va.: I have one year of college left, and plan to get a car after I graduate. If I spend the money for a hybrid car, would I save enough money in the long run to make it worthwhile? My number one concern is the environment, but also as a poor college student, I have to be careful with the money. Any other suggestions for college students making their first car purchase would be great! Josh Zumbrun: Alright, it's math time! Check this out: I drive about 500 miles a week or about 25,000 miles a year. Now, let's assume that for the last year we've had an average of $3 per gallon gas. At 75 miles per gallon, the best I can get, that's 333 gallons of gas this year. At $3 per gallon, that's $1,000. At 60 miles per gallon, which you can easily get with a hybrid and a few of these techniques, 420 gallons of gas or $1,250. At 40 miles per gallon, what you could possibly get in a typical sedan, 625 gallons of gas, $1,875. But once you start talking about the way most people drive, it adds up faster. At 25 miles per gallon, 1000 gallons of gas, $3,000. At 20 miles per gallon, you'll end up paying $3,750. If I were at 10 miles per gallon in my squirrel-squashing, deer-smacking Canyonero SUV -- $7,500 a year in gas. And some drivers get even worse mileage than that. So it depends how much you drive, mostly. And how much you've got to spend. Nothing is going to be cheaper than that 1988 grey Ford Escort you inherit from your great-grandma. Oakton, Va.: Does the Octane of gasoline make any difference in Hypermiling? Josh Zumbrun: I'm pretty sure most hybrids use regular unleaded. I've never heard anyone suggest using something else. You're definitely not going to save money putting premium fuel in a car that doesn't need it. Josh Zumbrun: Josh Zumbrun... sheesh Alexandria, Va., to Reston and back: In your article, you recommend using thinner oils and changing the oil more frequently. For those of us who are "engineering-challenged," what grade of oil is "thin" for the D.C. climate? Josh Zumbrun: This is different for every car. My car uses a 0W20 oil that's super thin already. If you trust your mechanic, ask him. Otherwise don't worry about it -- get your oil changed when you're supposed to and I bet you'll be doing better than most people. Washington, D.C.: Why are people still not buying these cars? Josh Zumbrun: Are you talking about hybrids? Or the Insight specifically? The Insight was never intended to sell hundreds of thousands. It's a two-seater with a small trunk that weighs about 800 pounds. It's not very practical for anybody with kids. It's not very practical for people who use big cars to compensate for other inadequacies, I guess. But Hybrids are selling like hot cakes. You can't drive three blocks in DC without seeing a dozen Priuses. Boston, Mass. I've religiously been keeping track of my mileage for just over a year on GreenHybrid . In that time my car has averaged 35 MPG. It's a 2.0 liter gasoline Jetta, EPA rated at 24/31. Pretty good considering that I drive two hours daily, often in heavy rush hour traffic. The toughest obstacle, and the best way to increase your efficiency is to drive the speed limit. But, if you only drive 45-55 in the slow lane, you are a nuisance and dangerous to traffic. I begrudgingly drive 60. At that speed you're still annoying to most drivers, but not so much that you pose a safety risk. The more people who slow down, the easier (and safer) it will be to drive for optimum efficiency. Until then, I certainly hope that people who are concerned with high mileage don't prioritize that over public safety. It's just not worth it! Josh Zumbrun: You have to find a balance. It can be really dangerous to drive slower than everybody else on the road. You know, I actually found that if I left work at about 6:00, hit the outer loop of the Beltway at about 6:25, that my section of the loop was going at about 55 mph until I got to the 270 spur. That's highly specific advice, and pretty lame to make note of -- but if you have flexibility on when you come in and leave work, you might be able to find that optimum time where you can get significantly better mileage. Rockville, Md.: I am disappointed to find that the mpg on the MFD is usually higher than the actual computation with gallons used for miles covered, the old way. Any comment? Prius 2004 Josh Zumbrun: This might be for two reasons: 1) when you fill up, you probably don't fill up all the way to the very tip top exact same level every time. 2) you don't always use your gas all the way down to the same level at the bottom of the tank. I don't think Toyota is trying to perpetrate any sort of fraud here. Washington, D.C.: Do you notice a difference in mileage per gallon depending on the number of people in your car (i.e., more weight)? Josh Zumbrun: My car is a two-seater, and as it so happens, I only give rides to slender, beautiful ladies. If I got caught checking the mileage to see if the weight of my passengers were wrecking it... Seriously, I've never noticed. If you're not a blacksmith it's probably not a great idea to drive around with anvils. But if an extra passenger decreases your mileage a little bit it's still a lot less gas than if they drove themselves. Don't avoid car-pooling if it lowers your MPG by .8! Josh Zumbrun: actually, I got an e-mail from a reader, Edward Pita, from Houston, TX who mentioned weight in the car as a factor for him. This was his advice: 1. Change oil/filter - thin oil 5-20 every 2000 miles. 2. Change air filter every 10,000 miles. 3. Change transmission fluid/filter every 15,000 miles. 4. Change fuel filter every 10,000 miles. 5. Over inflate tires 2-4 pounds over recommended. Will not hurt tires. Balance and rotate tires every 4,000 miles. 7. Keep windows closed, use AC. 8. Use cruise control whenever in highway. 9. Wash car often - reduce drag. 10. Keep radiator clean of debris and change coolant at 30,000 mph - keep engine clean. 11. Change PCV valve every 20,000 miles and spark plugs even platinum every 30,000 miles max for constant good spark. 12. Don't carry in car anything you don't use daily. I do everything myself so it is cheap. Like a Focus we have (2) we got 38-40 mpg on a trip to Utah from Houston at 70 mph all the way. Josh Zumbrun: And your car's owner manual gives you guidelines on how often to make all these changes. It's not exactly the same for every car. Omaha, Neb.: Will hybrid cars also run on grain alcohol? I hear it's just as efficient. Josh Zumbrun: They're not designed to run on grain alcohol yet. The car probably won't explode if you put it in there. I've heard that grain alcohol will actually give you slightly lower mileage, but, obviously, it's a renewable resource, so it's not as much of a concern. Although I applaud your desire and overall techniques to reduce gas consumption (I have always coasted -- my grandfather, who was a traveling salesman, taught me that method to save gas and wear and tear on the car), unfortunately, these methods risk safety on our over congested roads and selfish drivers who will slot into every little nook and cranny at 60 mph to gain a car length. Do you think these methods risk the safety of all the other drivers on the road, plus yourself? As an example of how our highway driving is not apt to hypermiling, with my car, I had my first set of brakes last over 60k miles (living and driving mostly in the District and to and from Tyson's, rarely on the Beltway, plus I occasionally race my car at Summit Point). After getting married and moving to Gaithersburg, driving on 270 and 495 every day, the same car, same type of brakes lasted about 20k, as have the last 3 sets I've had (so it's not an anomaly). I wish I could drive more economically, but you'd get shot on 270 if you coasted at 38 mph when traffic was actually moving. And, if there were any decent (not single lane no shoulder roads) alternatives, I would take them. Josh Zumbrun: Not everybody has a commute where you can really do much to improve your mileage. If you think the techniques you're doing are putting you at risk or making you a danger to other drivers, then back off. Generally, I think hypermilers are safer drivers, just because they are much more deliberate drivers. Ames, Iowa: First of all, I love all your articles. They are always thought-provoking and interesting. However, wondering why you are obviously anti-SUV. The deer-splatting comment made earlier was disturbing, but perhaps you were just making an attempt at humor. Do you really believe that people like me that drive SUV's (Dodge Durango) are evil? Josh Zumbrun: No, no, no. I'm terrified of deer and actually jealous of people who don't have to be scared of them every time they cruise down Rock Creek Park. A lot of people need SUVs and Pick-ups for their jobs or for their kids, etc. But, there's also a lot of people who don't. I see a lot of people cruising solo at 80 miles per hour in big ol' SUVs and it doesn't look like they are on their way to Home Depot. If you want to do that, great. But don't complain about how gas is hurting you so bad at the same time. Columbus, Ohio: I have a Prius, and I've obtained remarkable mileage so far, but my commute makes it dangerous to go 45 MPH. In fact, I've been pulled over by a cop and ticketed for being a road hazard by going that slow on the highway. What's the answer to get around it? Travel 20 miles extra by going side roads instead of interstate? Josh Zumbrun: Sometimes a longer route can improve your mileage so much that it's actually saving gas. But generally, you'll use more gas if you're driving 20 extra miles -- so it's not really doing your pocketbook or the planet any favors -- then you're just driving for the ego-boost you get from the high-mileage. I'd say don't worry about it. Drive a safe (and legal!!) speed on whatever commute you've got. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: I am a hypermiler and I didn't even know it! I always lay off the gas when I see a red light ahead, and sometimes that gets other drivers mad, even though we end up waiting at the red light together. Do any of your hypermiler connections have warning bumper stickers? Oh, by the way, the bottled fuel injector cleaners work wonders for increasing gas consumption in my 92 Maxima. Josh Zumbrun: I always get those bottled-fuel injectors as stocking stuffers. Those are great. Yeah, it's really amazing how important it is for some people to race to a red light. It also wreaks havoc on your tires to break way more often and way harder than you need to. Gaithersburg, Md.: I have a question regarding the "slow down to save gas" idea. I drive a manual transmission, so at 55 mph I'm at 2500 rpm in 5th gear and just over 3000 rpm in 4th gear. I suppose basically it's the same rpm's for me to drive 55 in 4th gear as it is to drive 70 in 5th. So my question is, for manual transmissions, is there (rather than an ideal speed) an ideal rpm level to optimize gas mileage? Thanks! Josh Zumbrun: This is a really important point for drivers with manual transmissions. Your car will have a peak efficiency in each gear. But it's different for every car. This is actually true for automatic transmissions as well, but in an automatic you don't have much control over what gear you're in. If you have a car that displays instantaneous gas mileage you can learn pretty quickly through trial and error where those peak speeds are. When I spoke to Pat Goss he mentioned installing a vacuum gauge to monitor how much gas you are using. Not a bad idea if you've got the know-how, but if you need a mechanic to do it and it ends up costing a couple hundred bucks... it's going to take you a long time to save that money... watching your RPM's, keeping them lower, that'll give you enough of a guide. Greenbelt, Md.: Hi, I read the article in Sunday's paper and one of the things mentioned was to shift to neutral and turn off the engine when coasting to a stop. I do turn off the engine at lights when I am going to be stopped for at least 10 seconds or more. But I have found that when you turn off the engine, sometimes your brakes don't function like they should. I have observed that when I have turned off the engine at a light and when it is downhill, I just let go of the brake to move a few feet and sometimes the brake doesn't work! So, how can one coast with the engine turned off? What if I need to brake? Thanks for a useful article. I drive a 10-year-old Honda Civic, half on the beltway and half on the back roads. I drive at 55 mph on the Beltway. During the summer months, I get anywhere between 37 and 40 mpg. Josh Zumbrun: Aiiieeee! Don't put your car in neutral if your brakes don't always work when you do it! Heavens to Bessie. I'm so worried that people are going to go die because of this article. Burbank, Calif.: First off, don't you think you disrespect a car by hypermiling? I mean, cars are made to have their engines revved and to race. I'm just not sure about this hypermiling business. Second, give me 5 reasons why you think hybrids are better than regular old cars. Josh Zumbrun: Yeah, I see what you're saying, Ricky Bobby. Seriously, I don't mean this to come across as some sort of moralizing thing. Some people are really taking a hit in the pocketbooks at the gas station. Other people are, you know, patent attorneys who can afford it. And just today, barrels are hitting record highs. But you gotta consider that maybe you're disrespecting me and disrespecting the planet when you drive your car ridiculously fast. Washington, D.C.: Does the small size of your car make it difficult to pick up girls? Josh Zumbrun: Does anyone still cruise around in their cars trying to pick up women? Man, that'd be so fun. Next Saturday, I'm just going to cruise up and down Wisconsin Avenue, "hey there, lady, you wanna ride in my high-mileage machine?" Georgetown, Washington, D.C.: Is there a point (mileage-wise) where it just doesn't make sense to drive any more, even with these techniques? It seems to me like 35 miles is about pushing the limit. I'm not asking about anyone's sanity during the commute, of course (knowing D.C. drivers), just about the math. How far away can you get before hypermiling isn't worth it? Josh Zumbrun: No, the longer you drive the more money you save with these techniques. I mean, if you commute to Washington, DC, from Philadelphia every day you're using a lot of gas. If you can move closer to work that's better -- but not a lot of people have that sort of flexibility. Alexandria, Va.: When will hybrids come with rooftop solar panels to help feed the battery? I'd buy one today if I could find one. Josh Zumbrun: Beats me... nobody knows what the next generation of more fuel-efficient cars is going to be. A lot of people talk about plug-in hybrids that will have big hybrid batteries that you just charge at a jack in your garage, and might get 100+ MPG. We'll see. That seems a lot more practical to me than a car with rooftop solar panels. The roof of a car isn't really big enough to generate much power. Juneau, Alaska: Thanks for your information. Wondering if your driving tactics change while driving at night, or specifically, after dark? As you probably realize, it is rather dark up here for part of the year, so wondering if the electrical functions of my 1996 Chrysler would be hampered by shutting off the car while coasting? Josh Zumbrun: They might be. I can't speak to your Chrysler specifically. Try it once on a road you know is empty. If you key off and the headlights go off too... never try it again. If the bottom line is saving money, you need to consider that bicycling (or for that matter, walking or running) also requires the 'combustion' (i.e., metabolism) of organic materials (i.e., food). It's an easy calculation to demonstrate that per mile you will need to spend more on food then you would on gasoline. Josh Zumbrun: Well, yes, but food is generally considered to be more renewable than oil, right? But let's not get carried away. I'm not telling people to change their entire lives. If you have a longer commute and are looking to save some money, try some of this stuff out maybe Gaithersburg, Md.: Did I just miss the obvious way to raise gas mileage? It's been a cardinal rule for generations that a car with a standard transmission will always get better mph than an identical car with an automatic. Use the engine to slow the car by downshifting, in other words. A standard also gives the driver a better feel for the road in my experience, and thus a better feel for when to give it the gas. Plus, it's just more fun to drive a standard. Josh Zumbrun: Standard transmissions get better mileage than automatics in almost all circumstances. But not everybody is good enough at driving to use a manual. And some rare people have legitimate reasons that they need an automatic. Anonymous: One oft-neglected tool in the MPG arsenal is the motorcycle. I routinely get over 50 MPG on mine without even thinking about it. It's a great way to commute, especially with the options for protective over-clothes. Add a set of saddlebags and you would be surprised how much you can carry. And MUCH more fun than driving a Prius. Josh Zumbrun: Yeah, motorcycles get great mileage. But they're not a realistic option for many people. I wonder if anybody has ever tried all these hypermiling techniques on a motorcycle. Portland, Ore.: I appreciated your story yesterday but was curious why you didn't mention VW TDI vehicles. These vehicles, in my opinion, are a step better then hybrids in that they get better MPG (I average between 750-800 miles per tank) and since I'm running B 99 bio diesel, without needing to do any conversion, I am actually producing less emissions then a regular gasoline engine, while supporting a domestic, renewable fuel. While hybrids are quieter you are getting less MPG and still supporting foreign fuel interests. Just a thought to consider but again kudos in shedding light on this important topic! Josh Zumbrun: Bio diesel is great. But it was sort of a short story -- it didn't cover everything. The great thing about hypermiling is you can do it in any sort of car! The only car I mentioned was my Insight -- because it's what I happen to drive! Josh Zumbrun: And the Dodge Durango, that I unfairly disparaged. Centreville, Va.: I don't see any reason to recommend a hybrid to the student looking to save money. If they average 10,000 miles a year the numbers just don't work out. Even at higher miles per year a good small sedan driven properly using many of the tips in your article will get you decent enough gas mileage. I have heard the hybrid technology bumps of the price by about $10,000 which can take up to 10 years of driving to break even if ever! I don't believe this includes the additional maintenance costs for having all the additional gear. It is hard to calculate what those will be at around the five year mark since the technology is so new. Josh Zumbrun: It depends how you're paying for the car. Are you plopping down cash or taking out an auto loan over the years? Look at how much gas costs at 60 mpg, that's your average hybrid owner doing some mild gas-saving techniques: $1,250. At 25 mpg, it's $3,000. Now, let's say that you're a person that has $8,000 a year to spend on your car. And about $2,000 of that goes into maintenance, insurance, oil changes. Then you've got $6,000 left. Go with the hybrid, after $1,250 of gas you'll have $4,750 a year to spend on car payments - about enough money to buy a hybrid on a 5 or 6 year loan. Go with the 25 mpg machine and you've got $3,000 to spend on car payments. But be honest, is anyone who buys a new car trying to save money as their first objective? When people buy a new car, they're not just considering its features, they are considering its style: the statement it makes, will your friends think it's cool, what will all the pretty girls think of the car, etc. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Hopefully the U.S. will wake up to the fact that they cannot continue to gluttonously ravage the world oil reserves on the basis of the "I have the money so I'll spend it how I wish". It is the rest of the World that has to try to survive in the fumes of the exhausts from oversized and under-used SUVs that just "Look Good." Josh Zumbrun: There was an amazing story in the Chicago Tribune this past weekend about the effect of the US gas appetite on the countries that produce the gas. Can we link to that? A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble (Okay, it's really long. And after you read it, come back to washingtonpost.com and click on a bunch of our advertisements and read our great reporters.) Hillsborough, N.C.: I ask about cruise control because some sites say use it on flat terrain and other sites say use it, period. Interstates in North Carolina (except for the flat coastal plain) are rolling hills. Is cruise control still efficient on such roads? Josh Zumbrun: Most hypermilers can always beat their cruise control. For many drivers, cruise control helps them avoid going too fast. It's okay, but not great for hills. It prevents you from over-accelerating on hills. You see lots of drivers who hit a hill and speed up by about 10 mph to get the hill over quickly, I guess. That's the opposite of what you want to do. It's better than that. But I doubt many commuters have much open road to cruise control on. Winter vs. Summer MPG: I've always noticed that my gas mileage goes down in the summer. The density of the air is lower (less oxygen to burn), the summer-blend fuels, and the power-robbing A/C all take their tolls. My current car gets about 10-15 percent worse mileage in the summer with no change in driving technique. Josh Zumbrun: Wow, I've noticed the exact opposite. I've noticed that my air-conditioning has very little effect on my cars mileage. I get about 10 mpg better in summer. I guess this just goes to show how different cars are. washingtonpost.com: A Tank of Gas, A World of Trouble ( Chicago Tribune ) Anonymous: This is off topic, but do you have an opinion on the future of bio diesel? Josh Zumbrun: We're getting to the end here, I can afford to go a bit off topic. Annandale, Va.: Car manufacturers routinely blame drivers for the poor gas mileage, for not doing many of the things you espouse. What do you think the chances are the all cars will someday have a gauge that shows the current mpg so drivers can adjust their driving/car maintenance to get the most out of each gallon? Josh Zumbrun: Many newer cars already have these gauges installed. I think these will become more and more standard. I believe all hybrids have these gauges. We're running out of time, I think I'll take only a couple more questions. Rockville, Md.: How does the other traffic react to your drifting actions. Don't they get annoyed at your slower pace? Josh Zumbrun: No, because I'm not obnoxious about it. I don't drive much slower than anybody else. A lot of times I'll just get behind semis -- which are often a little slower. They help reduce drag a little bit too. Just don't follow too closely. "Food" vs. Oil: I think what Rockville meant was something like this: currently, the resources (water, fuel, etc.) you put into farming and transportation to produce a gallon of ethanol outweighs the savings. Plus, even if agricultural fuels are renewable, they still produce CO 2 - even more so if the above is true. Bottom line, ethanol is not at present as environmental as it's held out to be. Josh Zumbrun: The jury is still out on these alternative types of fuels. But I think the bottom line is that, either way, ethanol is way more renewable. I don't think anyone is debating that. And if the infrastructure was there, presumably those other costs would start to come down. For now, the industry is still subsidized. Paris, France: Is coasting difficult? It seems dangerous and complicated. Perhaps the author could explain the procedure to me over a romantic candle-light dinner. Josh Zumbrun: Alright! This is the question I was waiting for. Enough of this chat business. E-mail me at zumbrunj@washpost.com. Josh Zumbrun: Thanks for your time, everybody. Check out the Web sites I recommended, if you're looking to learn more. Keep it real. Drive safe. 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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Science: Human Behavior
2006080719
Washington Post staff writer Shankar Vedantam was online Monday, Aug. 7 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss his weekly series of stories about the sociology and psychology behind news events. Today's story focuses on the link between hot weather and crime . Read his past articles, including last week's story about what brain imaging shows about partisan behavior here: Dispatch From the Department of Human Behavior . Shankar Vedantam: Welcome to the science online chat. We're going to be talking about a couple of my stories today. One story in the paper today talks about how, beyond a certain temperature, hot weather causes violent crime to go down, rather than up. The other story, from last Monday, used brain imaging studies of Democrats and Republicans to show that, rather than weighing all the evidence and coming to a conclusion, partisans often come to a conclusion and then weigh what evidence they need to support that position. Both these stories are for a weekly series that explores ideas behind the news. If you have recently seen something that intrigued you, speak up and let's chat about it. It could become the subject of a future column! Silver Spring, Md.: Shankar - Ray Bradbury wrote a short story about this phenomenon in the 1950s. I don't remember the name of the story at the moment. A character in the story postulates that 92 degrees is the ideal temperature for violence - hot enough to spark violent activity in response to stress, but not so hot that the person becomes lethargic. Shankar Vedantam: Thanks for this, Silver Spring. I like Ray Bradbury very much. Don't remember the specific story, though. One interesting thing I couldn't get to in the story today is at what temperature point you start to see this inflection, where violent crime stops going up and starts going down. Turns out, it depends where you are. People from the DC are have gotten used to a certain temperature, so if you take them on a very hot day and plonk them in a very temperate area, you may well unleash the hidden beast. Thankfully, no one has conducted that experiment. (The flip side, of course, is to take violent Washingtonians to Florida, where we can hope the heat will knock them out!) Arlington, Va.: Is the same true for cold weather? It seems like the incentive would also be taken away in severely cold weather. Crime rates among Eskimos? In Siberia? Shankar Vedantam: Excellent question. I have no idea whether people have done such a study. My sense is that the cold tends to predispose people to withdraw (they certainly stay indoors a lot more) so that should have a negative effect on crime. But it is also true that people can drink a lot of alcohol to compensate for it being freezing, and alcohol clearly increases the risk of violence. Interestingly, alcohol has a similar effect on aggression -- it raises it up to a point, but then when people pass out, they are docile as lambs! Fairfax, Va.: Neat story. What about the early racial theorists who believed that one's disposition was determined by the climate of one's geographical origin(s)? This was the foundation for many of the racist theories that propped up colonialism in Africa, the southern Americas, etc. The "laziness", "promiscuity", and all other manners of "evil" of the peoples of sub-saharan Africa (as perceived by Europeans) was thought to have been caused by hot weather. Shankar Vedantam: I agree with you. I hinted at some of this history that tried to compare people in hot countries from those in cold countries. One of the reasons modern statistical methods are so useful is that they can help put such beliefs to the test. Human behavior turns out to be more similar than dissimilar in different places. Laurel, Md.: Have you taken a look at the field of evolutionary psychology? Shankar Vedantam: Hello Laurel. Say more. Yes, I am familiar with some of the work in evolutionary psychology. Did you have something in particular that you wanted to talk about? Rockville, Md.: Besides studies on crime and heat, are there other behaviors we humans do more or less of in these hot conditions. Also, what kind of factor does humidity play? Shankar Vedantam: If you are asking about the sort of stuff we tend not to write about in a family newspaper, well, this is still a family newspaper website! The article today focused only on the question of aggression and temperature. The humidity question is very interesting. Contrary to their expectations (and mine!) they found that the correlation between temperature and humidity was negative. In other words, the lower the humidity the higher the risk of violent crime. I am not sure whether this is because at very high humidity -- 100 percent -- criminals are deterred by precipitation. That would not explain why you see reduced violence all the way up to 100 percent of course. The negative relationship between violence and humidity was seen in analyses in Minneapolis and Dallas. Those seem like fairly different weather locales; of course, you might find something quite different if you look at a swampy area. I suppose one way to look at it is that your discomfort with the humidity rises, you are likely to see less crime! Another reason to enjoy DC's summer discomfort? Bradbury story: I don't remember the Bradbury story name either, but I'm pretty sure it was in The October Country anthology. One of my favorites from Ray. Shankar Vedantam: Posting as followup to earlier conversation ... Alexandria, Va.: I found the article on insults particularly interesting--and that in more individualistic countries, family insults may carry less weight. What did the study find as the most common type of insult in the States? washingtonpost.com: A World of Insults, a World of Reactions Shankar Vedantam: This question refers to a story a few Mondays ago that explored the sociology of insults, following the Zidane head-butting incident in the World Cup. It found that insults around the world varied depending on whether cultures were individualistic or not; in cultures where family ties were particularly important, the most potent insults seem to be those targeted at family members. At least one psychologist raised the possibility that an insult against Zidane's family, especially given his cultural roots in Arab culture, may have been perceived quite differently than if Zidane's background had been a very individualistic culture. As for the question about the US, it is a very large country with a lot of different cultures. The story reported that adolescent northerners were less likely to be deeply hurt by insults than adolescent southerners, which speaks to the other factor driving insults -- the greater the masculinity in a certain area, the more the men from that area will trade in insults. Curiously, and sadly, insults directed at family all over the world focus on women: You will find endless insults about wives and sisters and mothers, but almost nothing about brothers and husbands and fathers. As for specific insults in the US, I think it would be fair to say they will be about the individual -- the US is among the most individualistic countries in the world. Jensen Beach, Fla.: Looking at your inverted "U" in relation to violence, or just plain squirrely behavior, have you ever factored in the heat, time of day, AND a full moon? Shankar Vedantam: There is a lot of research on other factors besides temperature, but I think you are asking what happens when you combine a lot of different factors that trigger aggression. Obviously, the answer is you get your average Hollywood B movie! Seriously, as a science writer I have to admit to some skepticism about this, but there is actually some data showing connections between the phases of the moon and violence. Caveat Emptor! Washington, D.C.: The partisan study tangibly proves a common sense notion: people can be very close minded! And any additional information is processed through their lens. This may be a bizarre question, but are there known brain chemicals that make people more flexible/open-minded? Kind of like serotonin and sleep or melatonin and happiness? washingtonpost.com: How the Brain Helps Partisans Admit No Gray Shankar Vedantam: Thanks. Stories the last two mondays explored the nature of the partisan mind. When Democrats and Republicans are showed candidates they oppose, they have a negative reaction, which is not at all surprising. What is interesting is their brains also seem to turn up the dial on distaste, effectively preventing them from taking in information that would threaten their pre-existing beliefs. When they were shown news items about candidates doing something unpleasant or inconsistent, partisans were quick to spot hypocrisy, but only in the opposing candidate. For their own candidate, the hypocrisy did trigger a negative reaction, but then their brains quickly turned down the dial on the distaste. I don't know of any specific chemicals that could lead to more open-mindedness. I would also question the need for such chemicals. Being partisan is not a disorder, and there are probably sound evolutionary reasons people are so good at defending their own opinions. Also, don't you mean melatonin-sleep and serotonin-happiness, and not the other way around? Chatham, Mass.: I don't believe what you said in your article. It goes against everything I believe in -- I think people are fundamentally fair and want to listen to both sides. Shankar Vedantam: Well, say more. The data seem pretty clear, and my own perceptions of public discourse tells me that people tend to defend their opinions -- especially when it comes to national politics or the middle east conflict etc -- pretty strongly. Lantana, Fla: Can you correct me on the whole 'full moon' issue - the fact that before gas or electrical lighting, people would get in more 'trouble' during full moons since they could see better at night? (I sound whacko, don't I?) Shankar Vedantam: Hmm. Although wouldn't you say that if you could be seen at night you would be less likely to get up to bad stuff? Washington, D.C.: I don't particularly enjoy the recent shift towards fluffier (pop-psychology and sociology) science writing in the Post. The article on the unreasonableness of political partisans was particularly unwelcome---it seemed almost bent to present a scientific defense for the news media coverage that infuriates both the left and right. (Alternate hypothesis: it's just bad journalism that gets partisan blood boiling.) Whatever happened to the important news in physics, biology, chemistry, geology and anthropology, which used to be the beat of writers like Kathy Sawyer? Shankar Vedantam: Thanks for the comment. The Post does lots of the kind of writing you say is missing. I wrote a story a couple of weeks ago, for example, that explained how scientists were finding that the human genome is undergoing dramatic changes. Kathy Sawyer was certainly irreplaceable, but I think you may be under-counting what some very talented science writers at the Post are doing. On the specific question about stories related to psychology and sociology, I see no contradiction whatever in being interesting and being scientifically rigorous. I draw my material almost exclusively from the peer reviewed literature. On the partisan story, I fear you may have missed the point of it. There is absolutely no question that media reports can be flawed, or biased. But the experiments examined something else altogether, which is the perception of bias. The fact that pro Israeli and pro Arab partisans can look at the very same clips and come to diametrically opposing conclusion about media bias does tell you something very very interesting about how people watch and read the news. Shankar Vedantam: That's all we have time for today. Thanks for the comments and questions! Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
Washington Post staff writer Shankar Vedantam was online to discuss his weekly series of stories about the sociology and psychology behind news events.
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Do Re MySpace
2006080719
Offstage, there's been the usual high school drama, and onstage there's been more of the same. It's all part of the creation of "Edit: Undo," an experimental musical that debuts tonight in a two-day run at the Kennedy Center's Theater Lab. Last week in the auditorium at Fairfax's W.T. Woodson High School, 39 high school actors from around the country had the surreal experience of learning how to play high school students using a script and score conceived, written and composed by high school students. The props and costumes were from high school, too. The chairs onstage were carried from the cafeteria down the hall. The graduation robes were donated by a neighboring school. The "Dance Dance Revolution" video game came from the prop master's basement. The iPods, backpacks, cellphones, hair clips, binders, sneakers and laptops were all the actors' own. And that half-eaten pizza sitting backstage -- "Is that for the next scene?" a techie asked. No, that was lunch. Onstage, slouching on a couch playing a video game, the football-playing female protagonist complains after getting a one-day suspension: "There goes law school." "Edit: Undo" is not the time-worn story of high school crushes and clique wars, although there is some of that. What's most unusual about the musical is also what's most unusual about this generation of high-schoolers: the digital boom. When the characters onstage chat about being "Me-myself-and-I-space" friends, it's with a snicker. Offstage, online, the actors are part of the Myspace.com group Edit: Undo. The two-act, 16-song musical centers on female jock Rory and her love interest, a wannabe video game designer who leads the tech-savvy students of fictional Wiley High ("Wi-Hi") into a strike against the town's adults. The kids say they're through helping with iPods, cellphones and TV on Demand. The teens sing such songs as "Ring Our Phones," which turns the ubiquitous buzz of a cellphone ringtone into high art, and snap along to "O-M-G, L-O-L," a doo-wop number sung by the school's reigning three cheerleaders, who speak in chat room shorthand. But although the kids are having a great time, Wiley's adults devolve into a bunch of doddering fools in high-rise khakis and bad hairdos. It's a comedy about the strife between parents and children and the difficulties of the 21st century, as seen through the eyes of teens. The teen savvy that is suggested onstage is evident offstage, too: Kids are just fine without adult supervision. (A few adults, however, do have some involvement.) Over the past five years, the Critics and Awards Program for High School Theater has asked student critics in high schools all over the country to help pick the year's best student actors. The top vote-getters are invited to Washington in mid-July to form the all-star cast of the summer "Cappies" production. Talented 14- to 18-year-olds have come from as far off as California and South Florida and stay with host families when they're not at grueling 12-hour rehearsals. This is the first year that the show has also been written by high-schoolers. All the students who worked on the script live in the D.C. area. Since October, the team has met every Sunday at the McLean home of Cappies volunteer Bill Strauss, founder of the Capital Steps troupe. "People say teens today aren't interested in real theater, that they don't read, they don't write," Strauss said. "But here you have teens who are not only interested in theater -- they wrote their own show." At a table in the school's empty cafeteria last week sat 18-year-old writer Robert Rome of Fairfax's Robinson High, who has written several plays and performed in Scotland. "There are musicals that appeal to teens, and there are musicals about teens that appeal to adults," Rome said. "There are no teen musicals about teens, for teens. This is it." What Rome and his co-authors came up with is confidently advertised as a "new musical comedy for the digital age . . . not your typical standard conventional formulaic high school musical." The students who wrote "Edit: Undo" have no use for Disney's adult-written "High School Musical," and studied the conventions of "Mean Girls," "Heathers" and "Grease" in order to destroy them. "We hated the character of a jock bully," said K.K. Bracken, 16, of Fairfax, who fleshed out Rory's character in the script -- she's a girl who is great at sports, gets straight A's and still is not that popular. The writers populated Wiley High with what they saw in their own high schools: kids who could be confident in one situation but insecure in another. Girlie-girls could feel threatened by tomboys, jocks could feel unsure in a roomful of computer geeks. In "Edit: Undo," dorks tease jocks with such lines as "I don't even think she has a screen name." Another high school stereotype, the naturally brilliant pothead, is turned goofy in the musical, mouthing tired platitudes. ("The only thing necessary for, like, the triumph of evil is for good people to, like, do nothing.") And adults aren't reduced to the stereotype of Charlie Brown's blithering voice boxes; they often make their own children seem absurd, mocking them in PTA meetings for "roaming the malls, where they buy $200 pre-ripped, pre-faded jeans that don't even fit properly over their bottoms." The young composers tried to write songs that spoke of high school's universal realities--the hard crush (thus, "Falling in Like") and great tragedies, such as having to wake up far too early (the catchy "Seven A.M.," sung by students half-dozing at their desks). Other numbers were more experimental. One song puts dancers in the costumes of instant-messenger emoticons. "It's all an exaggeration of the everyday high school experience," said Dallas Sweezy of Chantilly, who plays a loner Goth kid with kohl-ringed eyes, "but it's closer to it than most." At a dress rehearsal, Jess Speck, a teacher at Montgomery County's Churchill High School and the adult called in to direct, assumed the whole cast was listening to her notes. In reality, Sweezy and two friends were playing "The Legend of Zelda" on a laptop computer, held just below the level of the seat in front, while down the row an actor played a high-speed car chase game on a cellphone. Speck, 30, called out props she noted were missing -- where were those pencils to outfit the villainous Mr. Langston, owner of the Abacus Pencil Co.? Did no one bring a single pencil? No one brought a flashlight, either. To follow the script in the darkened wings, these 21st-century teens use illuminated cellphone screens. They also use their phones as lights in the play, onstage. A self-described "stoner kid," leaning nonchalantly against the grubby high school tile, 17-year-old Cincinnati actor Kyle Smith effused the "too-cool" attitude of a 21st-century James Dean. He claimed he was "typecast" for the role of "stoner kid" Kyle Thompson. "When I come in to rehearsal late, they're like, 'Whoa, this is perfect, he's in character!' " "But I'm, like, not acting," Smith said. "I am Kyle." Either everything offstage had become material for the production onstage, or what was onstage was a good mirror for life off of it. When the character of Maxwell compares the video-game formula that tempts players "up-a-level" to the pressures of SATs, AP courses and college that loom over high school students, he says, "Art imitates life imitates art." In the typical happy ending of a musical, all of the actors in "Edit: Undo" pair off into couples. It's the main gripe cast members have with the show -- that the ending feels "cheesy." But backstage on Saturday, awaiting the big finale, actors stood in pairs, snuggling. Said Smith, "I think about six of us have hooked up since we met here." Edit: Undo, at the Kennedy Center Theater Lab, 2700 F St. NW, today and tomorrow at 7 p.m. $20. For information, go to http://www.editundo.org/ .
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Date Lab
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Chris: I was mildly nervous. I probably dressed a little bit more strait-laced than I usually do. I had on a button-down shirt, gray slacks and a pair of vintage wingtip shoes. Chrissie: I hadn't had a date in six or seven months, and I got up [that] morning, and I was really excited, and I ran outside and fell. My elbows are skinned; my knees are skinned; my hands and knuckles are skinned. I was going to wear a terrific short sundress with thin straps, very sexy, but of course I couldn't wear it. Chris: I took a cab over and actually saw someone walking up the street who fit the description of someone I would hope to be set up with. As it turns out, the person on the street did happen to be Chrissie. Chrissie: When I walked in I was towering behind Chris, and I heard him say, "I'm here for The Washington Post." I thought, Oh, they set me up with a short, bald man. Chris: I have a feeling that she felt a little uncomfortable about [being taller]. It wasn't an issue for me. I didn't wake up short just two days ago. Chrissie: We went right back to the table. I was feeling a little shy and flustered, but then I looked up at him, and he had a huge smile. Chris: We didn't jump on ordering. We probably just sat and talked for about an hour. Chrissie: His shoes were fabulous. [When] I looked down at his vintage wingtips, it was obvious that he had dressed like himself, while I hadn't. And that was the sexiest moment of all. A man who can be himself is a man that I could truly care for. Chris: She's just a ball of energy. I let her talk, and I just filled in bits of the conversation when I could get in. Chrissie: He told me he's a chef shortly after we sat down. To me, a man that can cook and is that creative and can manage a kitchen and work with customers, that is sexy. Chris: It was a breath of fresh air to date someone not in the restaurant business and to have there be restaurant talk but have it not be about the restaurant industry or gossip, but about where the passion for food comes from. After dinner we moved to the wine bar and did [photos]. Chrissie: The date ended; it was 12 or 12:15. He walked me to my car, and I maneuvered it so that we were sitting down. And I think I said something like, "I think we should kiss now." It was a nice, long, lingering kiss, and he was great, and it made him seem even sexier. I wonder if I kind of shocked him because I'm kind of forward. Chris: She asked me to kiss her, but I'd already planned to. Chrissie: What I ended up having was like probably the greatest date I've ever had. Chris: I would give the date a 3 1/2, if not a 4. She's beautiful and intelligent. And she seems so natural and easy to get along with. Most certainly we will go out again. Interviews by Christina Breda Antoniades >>UPDATE: Most certainly they did. One month after their date, the couple got engaged. They're planning an October wedding. >>DATE LAB IS LOOKING FOR singles willing to get set up. Go to washingtonpost.com/datelab for details.
She said her dream date was a sexy chef. He had a recipe for success, but could he overcome her taste for taller men?
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Collins Is an Expert in His Field
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Every Washington Redskins receiver has felt the sting of a football slapping his face at some point over the past few months. Inevitably, the receiver was just a step slow, a moment late coming out of his cut in a drill, and Todd Collins's spot-on spiral was there to greet him with no time for his hands to be of any use. Each occurrence was a reminder of the precision necessary to execute associate head coach Al Saunders's offense, and the gap between Collins's mastery of this complex offensive system and the receivers' collective inexperience. Timing is everything, with the ball quickly delivered from the quarterback -- well before a receiver makes his move to the open field. To Collins, entering his seventh season in Saunders's offense, the process is routine, with Saunders calling him the embodiment of the system. Everyone else is still trying to catch on -- literally. "He knows this offense, and you can tell with the way he releases the ball," Pro Bowl wide receiver Santana Moss said. "You turn your head and you have to really look for his ball, because it's hitting you in the face half the time if you're not ready. You'll be reaching up with your hands up high and it's already coming down. I haven't seen a day when he didn't get that ball out on time. So he's the guy who's going to be getting us right when it comes to timing. He's a perfect fit for this offense." That, more than anything else, would explain why a quarterback who has not started a game since 1997, with just 12 appearances and 18 completions in that span, was pursued by Washington this offseason. Collins, 34, is an on-field extension of Saunders, and when the offensive whiz joined the organization in January, the longtime backup was not far behind. Saunders trusts Collins, and the veteran would appear to be the front-runner to back up Mark Brunell this season as second-year quarterback Jason Campbell, 24, continues to adjust to the professional game, learning yet another offense and absorbing Saunders's 700-page playbook. Even Brunell, at 35 and with 141 regular season starts on his résumé, has leaned on Collins these past few months, and players involved in all aspects of the offense say his presence has been a godsend. "I'm so glad we have that guy here," Campbell said. "He's like another coach on the field." Saunders said: "Right now, probably the most significant person in Jason Campbell's development is Todd Collins." But counting on a player who has thrown so few meaningful NFL passes in nearly a decade is undoubtedly a gamble, especially at a position as injury-prone as quarterback. Coach Joe Gibbs liked the film of Collins in past preseasons and his rare regular season work, but with so little recent game experience, expectations for Collins requires belief in Saunders's appraisal. "He's brilliant," Saunders said. "If you ask people who know Todd, one of the first things they would make a reference to is his intelligence. And he's a great technician in what he does. He's very professional in the way he goes about his study and preparation, and his knowledge of this offense is as sound as it could possibly be. He has some tremendous skills. In a quarterback you always like to see a guy with physical skills, emotional skill and mental skills, and great courage, and he has all of those qualities. We're just really happy that he's here." For Collins, a quick-witted Revolutionary War buff, following Saunders was a no-brainer. The Redskins pursued him from the instant free agency began in March, and he signed a two-year, $2.5 million deal. Unlike in Kansas City, where starter Trent Green never missed a start during Collins's last five years, Brunell has not played a full season since 2000. Saunders believes that, had Collins started for the Chiefs, he would have excelled and that is the kind of support any second-stringer would relish. "It feels good to be here," Collins said. "I don't have to learn a new offense and I know what the coach expects of me. I pretty much know when I'm doing something right or doing something wrong, but you definitely want to meet those expectations, not only for yourself but for him." Collins's career has been a series of adjustments. He left Michigan with the best career and single-season completion percentages in team history, and the best average yards per play. Buffalo projected him as a rising star after selecting him in the second round in 1995. Collins, a Boston native, finally won the starting job in 1997, but completed just 55 percent of his passes with 13 interceptions and 12 touchdowns. The team won only five of his 13 starts and lost five of his last six.
Redskins backup quarterback Todd Collins is an expert in associate head coach Al Saunders's offense and he is helping his teammates learn the system.
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Devices That Bridge a Music Gap
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The Internet can bring a radio signal or a recording from the other end of the country to your house, but getting that music from your computer to your stereo can take a little more work. Computers are a natural at downloading music off the Internet, but most have terrible speakers and don't even occupy the living room in the first place. Stereo systems provide all the volume and sonic fidelity you'd need, but they don't connect to the Internet. Several years ago, computing vendors started selling a new type of gadget, the wireless media receiver, to fix this problem. It plugged into your stereo but connected to your computer via a wireless network to allow playback of your Web radio feeds and music files: no need to string audio cables from laptop to stereo, or burn audio CDs of each new set of MP3s. Unfortunately, most of these things did little to smooth over the hassles of home networking and file-sharing. Now, though, enough time has passed to see the worst contenders swept out of the market, while the survivors have managed to craft some attractive, useful devices. The only thing that's holding them back now may be the online music services that help make their existence necessary in the first place: Each of three receivers I tested from Roku, SlimDevices and Sonos did fine with Web radio and MP3s, but balked at downloads from one or more of the big online stores. Roku's SoundBridge M1001, at $200 ( http://www.rokulabs.com/ ), was the cheapest of the bunch. This slim cylinder connected to a wireless network with minimal fuss -- once I'd entered the network password by selecting its 26 characters, one at a time, with the remote control's buttons. (Roku supports WEP passwords, not the newer, more secure WPA encryption.) Unlike the SlimDevices and Sonos hardware, the SoundBridge doesn't need any special software. If you use iTunes, turning on that Apple program's music-sharing option makes your music library available to the receiver; if you use Windows Media Player, Microsoft's free Windows Media Connect software does the same. You can browse your computer's music by the usual categories of artist, album, song and composer, cue up a set of songs and then shuffle their playback. The SoundBridge's two-line, fairly low-resolution LED display, however, can be hard to read from the couch. The SoundBridge played standard-issue MP3 and Windows Media Audio files as well as WMA files bought off the MSN Music store and songs rented from the Rhapsody music service. But it couldn't do anything with songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store -- and instead of skipping to the next track, the SoundBridge halted playback until I responded to this error message with a tap of the remote: "Can't play protected content. [OK]" No, it's not OK! The blame for that incompatibility falls on Apple, which won't license its FairPlay copy-control system to Roku or other wireless-receiver vendors, even though Apple doesn't sell a true wireless media receiver of its own. (Apple's AirPort Express can play iTunes purchases but lacks a remote control and display.) SlimDevices' Squeezebox v3, at $299 ( http://www.slimdevices.com/ ), had the same trouble with iTunes downloads but also couldn't play WMA purchases -- the firm says it hasn't seen enough demand for that option to justify the cost of adding it. Entering a wireless password wasn't much more fun with this trim, rectangular device (though it accepts both WPA and WEP encryption), and then I had to install extra software. And yet the Squeezebox might be the best receiver of them all, considering the creative features it bundles.
The Internet can bring a radio signal or a recording from the other end of the country to your house, but getting that music from your computer to your stereo can take a little more work.
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End of a Park Fit for the King
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MEMPHIS -- During hot summer nights in the 1970s, the Memphis fairground would close down to the strains of "Goodnight Sweetheart," but neighborhood residents sometimes heard the rumble of the roller coaster, the Pippin, long after the gates were locked. The rides kept running and the lights stayed on for a special customer, Elvis Presley. He would rent the park, bring family and friends, and ride the roller coaster in privacy around and around the wooden track. The Zippin Pippin, as it was later renamed, is silent now. Libertyland park closed to the public last fall and has not reopened. This is only the third summer in generations that the Pippin has not clattered over its tracks. The park's historic Grand Carousel is dark, its painted wooden horses stabled behind locked doors. The other rides and attractions have been sold and are being trucked away piece by piece. The padlocking of Libertyland angered some Memphians, who fought to keep the park open and get the Pippin and the historic carousel off the auction block. In the end, the city claimed the carousel, and two Nashville collectors with a traveling museum bought the coaster in June. "Memphis has become a little less unique, a little more generic," said Steven J. Mulroy, an assistant professor of law at the University of Memphis. He acted as spokesman for the group Save Libertyland and was elected county commissioner last week. The carousel, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will likely turn again. Preservationists are looking for a new home for it, such as the zoo or the Children's Museum of Memphis. The future is less certain for the Pippin. Stephen M. Shutts, 42, came to the June auction with his business partner, musician Robert Reynolds, hoping to buy just the Pippin's lead car -- Elvis's favorite -- for their traveling museum, the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame & Rock-N-Roll Roadshow. They were not allowed to bid on just the car, so they decided to try for the entire roller coaster. To their surprise, they had the winning bid: $2,500. Now, they are trying to figure out what to do with the coaster. Shutts, a former Elvis impersonator, recently visited the park to inspect his new acquisition. Shutts said he would love to find a corporate partner that would pay to move and operate the Pippin in Memphis -- or at least find a preservation-minded park owner that would keep it intact elsewhere. "It should be preserved," Shutts said. "I'd love to see it stay in Memphis. It would make a lot of people happy. But if it goes to somewhere in Tennessee, I'd be almost just as happy." The park opened as Libertyland in 1976, but it dates to the early 20th century, when the huge midtown property was a racetrack and the site of an enormous regional fair. After the state outlawed betting on horse races, 24 acres of the fairground was converted to an amusement park in 1923. The Grand Carousel and its hand-carved horses were considered a national treasure. Fans of the Pippin came from miles around. After he became too famous to easily go out in public, Elvis would rent the park so he could ride the bumper cars and the Pippin uninterrupted. The park got a facelift and reopened in 1976 with a new, patriotic name, and the Pippin became the Zippin Pippin. But Libertyland never thrived, according to the Mid-South Fair, which ran the park and the eponymous fall fair. In nearly 30 years, the park turned a profit in just four, losing about $600,000 annually in recent years. The board decided to close it last fall. "There just wasn't anybody who could come up with any ideas or enough money to save it," said Billy Orr, the fair's general manager. The city is looking for other uses for the property. While there are several proposals for the site, "the city is not interested in having a theme park of any variety," said Cynthia Buchanan, director of city parks. "The long and the short of it is that its time had come," she said. The closure of the park left an unexpected void in midtown Memphis. Just about every Memphian has a Libertyland story, park supporters say. Tammy Fondren came of age with a Libertyland season pass in her pocket. The Pippin's rumble was her summertime soundtrack, and she saved up for her wedding ring with money she made counting gate receipts. "This is home. I've literally been coming and going here since 1976," Fondren said. On a recent hot summer morning, Libertyland was a forlorn ghost town. The sign had come down from above the front gates, leaving a ghostly outline of the letters. Trumpet flower vines choked the suspension bridge leading to Tom Sawyer's Island. Ornamental fish swam in the canals, but the water was green and clogged with leaves. Power tools whined as a worker disassembled the Paratrooper, and the Dragon Wagon and the Little Fender Bender were already gone. The closure upset 9-year-old Leanna Ritter, whose mother, Mary, worked summers waxing the tracks for one of the park rides. Leanna said she cried herself to sleep when she heard Libertyland had closed. As she sat outside the park, squinting in the bright sunlight, she mused: "I wonder what Elvis would think about them taking this place down."
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Lieberman Confronts Criticism Over Iraq
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EAST HAVEN, Conn., Aug. 6 -- In a dramatic bid to stave off a potential defeat in Tuesday's Democratic primary, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) on Sunday rejected charges from rival Ned Lamont that he has been one of the chief cheerleaders for President Bush's Iraq policy, but he reaffirmed his belief that a hasty withdrawal of U.S. forces would prove disastrous for Iraqis and for the United States. With polls showing Lamont leading the three-term incumbent, Lieberman at last moved to confront the issues -- opposition to the war and anger with Bush -- that have put his political career in jeopardy. The decision came after a lengthy debate within his campaign over whether he could win the primary without directly addressing his position on the war and his relationship with the president. Campaigning with renewed intensity 48 hours before the balloting, Lieberman described himself as a proud and loyal Democrat who not only has opposed nearly all of Bush's domestic agenda but also has repeatedly criticized the administration's handling of the Iraq conflict. Saying he still believes his vote to authorize the war was correct, Lieberman added: "What I don't think is right, as I've said over and over again, are many of the Bush administration's decisions regarding the conduct of the war. The fact is I have openly and clearly disagreed with and criticized the president." Lieberman cited what he called Bush's failure to develop more allied support before the war, to have a plan to win the peace and to put more troops into the conflict. He recalled that, as far back as October 2003, he said he would have asked for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld if he were president. His staff handed out a five-page memo of past statements to buttress the claims. Lieberman delivered his remarks Sunday evening at a community center in East Haven, with Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D) and former Georgia senator Max Cleland (D), a Vietnam War veteran who lost three limbs in that conflict, at his side. Lieberman argued that he has been a victim of the same kind of smear tactics that he said Republicans used to defeat Cleland four years ago. Lamont's campaign responded with a statement accusing Lieberman of engaging in personal attacks against his opponent. "The senator has finally chosen to talk about issues, but we can't help but notice that, like [White House Deputy Chief of Staff] Karl Rove, he has chosen to appeal to people's fears," it said. Lieberman campaigned across southern Connecticut on Sunday, telling voters that "I'm in a battle" against Lamont and urging them to turn out Tuesday. He described Sunday's speech as a closing argument to rebut "the two big lies" from Lamont's campaign: that he has been Bush's enabler on the war and is not a real Democrat. In his speech, Lieberman acknowledged the anger he has felt along the campaign trail and said there may be little he can do to turn around his harshest critics. But he argued that he has never sought to discredit dissent over the Iraq war and pointed to his own record as an opponent of the Vietnam War as evidence. "I not only respect your right to disagree or question the president or anyone else -- including me -- I value your right to disagree," he said. Lieberman also sought to clarify a December comment in which he appeared to upbraid Democrats for criticizing Bush, saying that "in matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation's peril." On Sunday he said the words were meant not to stifle criticism but to warn against the kind of partisan exploitation that he said Republicans had used against Cleland. As a supporter of the war, he said, he feels a heavy responsibility to try to end it quickly and successfully. "I want to get our troops home as fast as anyone, probably more than most, and as I have repeatedly said, I am not for an open-ended commitment," Lieberman said. "But if we simply give up and pull out now, like my opponent wants to do, then it would be a disaster for Iraqis and for us." The incumbent drew on friends and colleagues to help make the case for him Sunday. To help rally African Americans, a crucial constituency in the primary, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker joined Lieberman for services at black churches in Stamford and Bridgeport. Norton told members of the congregations that Lieberman had stood with African Americans on critical issues and should not be rejected Tuesday simply because of his support for the war. She called Lieberman "dead wrong" on the war but said many other Democrats in the House and Senate were on the same side as the Connecticut senator, "including the front-runner for president of the United States, [New York Sen.] Hillary Clinton. She agrees with him, and is anybody going to vote her out of office anytime soon?" Lieberman brushed aside questions about whether he will run as an independent if he loses the primary, as he had previously indicated. He said for now he is focused on trying to win Tuesday. In East Haven, Lois Ruocco attended the speech with her daughter, Stacy, granddaughter Alexandra and husband, Gene, who is the Democratic town chairman. A Lieberman loyalist, she said she hoped the speech would encourage voters "to ignore what they're hearing in the television ads and remember who he really is -- a good guy and a good Democrat who has done a lot for everyone."
EAST HAVEN, Conn., Aug. 6 -- In a dramatic bid to stave off a potential defeat in Tuesday's Democratic primary, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) on Sunday rejected charges from rival Ned Lamont that he has been one of the chief cheerleaders for President Bush's Iraq policy, but he reaffirmed his...
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080400644.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006080719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/AR2006080400644.html
Jersey Subway Cars? What a Dive!
2006080719
Even 65 feet below the ocean, New York subway riders can be pushy. Here's what happened: As I was exiting the train in New Jersey, near Brielle on the northern coast, a jellyfish with ropy tentacles smacked into my mask. I tried to elbow him aside, then shooed him more forcefully. Eventually, he drifted his way (down) and I went mine (up). The characters you meet on submerged trains these days. Of course, that's the whole point of artificial reefs like the subway cars -- to attract marine life that would otherwise avoid such barren ocean areas. And New Jersey, despite its heavy boat and barge traffic, is hardly SeaWorld. Because the glaciers ended at Long Island, Jersey's sea floor is like a desert, with few aquatic formations to draw fish and crustaceans. So, goes the thinking, if Mother Nature isn't going to build a reef, man will. "The artificial reef construction is a win-win situation," says Hugh Carberry, reef coordinator of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Fish and Wildlife. "The marine life have a habitat to attach to, and the fish use the reefs for refuge. The divers use it to explore, or to go spearfishing or to hunt for lobsters." Artificial reef programs are widespread; basically, if a state has water, most likely it will dump a man-made object in it. For example, Lake Erie contains faux reefs made of rubble from Cleveland Stadium, and Texas, appropriately enough, formed a rigs-to-reefs program that recycles its petroleum platforms. In May, the 888-foot USS Oriskany, a retired aircraft carrier, was sunk about 24 miles off Florida's Pensacola Beach in the Gulf of Mexico, creating the world's largest artificial reef. Of states with the most artificial reefs, New Jersey ranks third in the nation, behind Florida and South Carolina. Jersey has 15 sites between Sandy Hook and Cape May, and since the program's start in 1984, 140 ships have been deployed to their watery graves. Vessels, though, are not the only objects to be dropped in the ocean. Other popular materials include Army tanks, reef balls (concrete fish habitats), tires, septic boxes, concrete and, yes, subway cars. (To protect the environment, all foreign objects are scrubbed clean, and any toxic or dangerous fixtures are removed.) New Jersey received its first shipment of public trains in 1990 from Philadelphia, and five SEPTA cars now lie on the Sea Girt Reef site. Fourteen years later, says Carberry, "the trains are 70 percent intact and fully colonized by reef life." In 2003, when New York City Transit approached its neighbor about unloading 250 steel Redbird cars, Jersey jumped. The trains, which had served the IRT lines for 40 years, were dropped in bundles of 50 at five offshore locations: Cape May and Deep Water reefs (off Cape May County), Atlantic City Reef, Garden State North Reef (off Ocean County) and Shark River Reef (off Monmouth County). Delaware, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia each secured a load as well. Yet it was the subway cars in Jersey that had me reaching for my mask and regulator. More than a decade ago, I learned to dive in the North Atlantic's chilly, shadowy waters, but since then, I've been spoiled by the Caribbean's warm waters, lollipop-colored fish and endless visibility. Now I was ready to return to my training grounds and test my (softening) scuba skills. Plus, for once Jersey was getting dumped in, not on. I met our group of seven from Atlantic Divers, a local operator that runs frequent trips, before the summer sun was fully awake and dawn's mist had lifted. The Sea Lion was docked in Brielle, a beach town about 70 miles north of Atlantic City, and by 6:30 a.m., the 36-foot boat was fully loaded with tanks, scuba gear and coolers. Our plan was to explore two kinds of sites, a natural wreck and an artificial reef -- and trust me, there's an ocean of difference. Leaning on a railing, Capt. Al Pyatak gave a quick rundown of the rules and regulations, explaining the delicate toilet and the food-evacuation plan (stick your head over the side). He then took his place at the wheel for the 90-minute ride out to our first dive, about 13 miles offshore. As the shoreline dissolved into abstract lines and squares, I chatted with Mike Nugent about the appeal of Jersey diving. The 50-year-old construction contractor, who's spent 20 years diving these waters, said he prefers the slightly ominous Atlantic waters to the sunny Caribbean's "bathtub diving."
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Tell Me About It
2006080519
Appearing every Wednesday and Friday in The Washington Post Style section and in Sunday Source, Tell Me About It offers readers advice based on the experiences of someone who's been there -- really recently. Carolyn Hax is a 30-something repatriated New Englander with a liberal arts degree and a lot of opinions and that's about it, really, when you get right down to it. Oh, and the shoes. A lot of shoes. Washington, D.C.: Thanks for taking the time to host these chats. In a recent chat, you mentioned that about half of all marriages end in divorce. This is incorrect, though often cited. It is true that in a year, there are about half as many divorces as marriages. But to determine the divorce rate, one must consider the marriage stock (those already married) and the divorce stock (a much smaller number). Also, some people divorce repeatedly. It's actually hard to calculate the true divorce rate, but it is closer to one-third than one-half. If you cite the 50 percent rate, then under the same logic you would say that 60 percent of Americans die each year (births about 4 million, deaths about 2.4m). I'm not pro- or anti-marriage (for me it seems a silly institution, but if others want to partake, that's fine with me), just a statistician. Carolyn Hax: Thanks. The number I was given was actually in the low forties--reached by a source that also teased the numbers apart by looking at the failure rate of first marriages vs. subsequent ones. Because it does seem to be a hard number to come by, my default has been to say "nearly half," which is how I interpret 42 percent. So, yes, I realize 50 percent is not true, but I feel I also need to speak generally to avoid hearing from statisticians. Er. Chicago, Ill.: I have rather low-self esteem lately, and I'm really hating my rather large, unfeminine nose. I've hated it all my life. Do you think plastic surgery is a good option? I've tried to tell myself my nose is fine, but no matter how hard I try, I'm still hurt by negative comments people make about it, and I fear that it is all anyone sees when they look at my face. Carolyn Hax: I'm the wrong person to ask, probably. I think nose jobs just create unnatural looking faces, and I also think interesting noses are beautiful. I won't pretend that I always thought Meryl Streep and Anjelica Huston were strikingly beautiful, but once I figured it out I was a little embarrassed it took me so long. Plus, I have a schnoz. Carolyn Hax: I'm sorry, that was probably an incomplete answer. There are certainly cases where a natural feature doesn't look like it fits (or just gives you fits) and plastic surgery can be an esteem-building relief. However, I hesitate even to say this when you're already down, presumably about other things. That's not the time to start cutting your face. Plus, I know neither how old you are nor how accurately you see yourself. So back to my original answer: There is so much underappreciated beauty in faces that aren't cookie-cutter "beautiful." Even runways are reflecting this now. So, any chance you can give yourself a chance? Washington, D.C.: My best friend has done something which was at best thoughtless and inconsiderate, at worst, a betrayal. I want to confront her about it, tell her the extent of my hurt and the exact reasons for it. I'm very up-front that way. She had a baby a few weeks ago. How long should I wait before I have this conversation with her? I don't want to be cruel and add something unpleasant to her already-full plate, but I also don't want to let things slide to the point that I'll be bringing up ancient history by the time we talk. Carolyn Hax: It's hard to say. Did this thoughtless/inconsiderate thing/possible betrayal have anything to do with the fact that she just had a baby? Did it happen before she gave birth, and you've already waited three weeks? Did it just happen and was it completely unrelated to her having a newborn? Three possibilitis with three different answers. Arlington, Va.: My husband recently told me he's hurt because thinks I share an intimate relationship with a close male friend of mine. He doesn't mean sex, he means my friend and I can talk effortlessly and have a lot of shared experiences that don't include my husband. How can I keep the friendship but not hurt my husband's feelings? Carolyn Hax: Sounds like you do talk effortlessly and have a lot of shared experiences that don't include your husband, which wouldn't make you guilty of anything--it certainly happens, all the time--but would make his point a legitimate one. Hard to ask a guy to feel left out of his own marriage. I don't think you need to end the friendship with the other guy, per se (there is no attraction issue, right?), but you probably should 1. back off a bit; 2. try not to rub your conversational ease in your husband's face; and 3. make a little extra effort at home, in ways that you and your husband are good together. Greece: Married, 2 kids, love the wife to death. Old high school girlfriend contacts me after her divorce and we strike up email / phone relationship. I see it has good friends conecting but also realized I still love her as well. I see no problem internally (once I am in love, I think it last forever), but worry that my wife would never understand me having this ex as a friend. Basically, if I am friends with one of her girlfriends that is okay, but forget having my own friends of the opposite sex. Question...Are married men prohibited from having their own female friends? I see this as typical female double standard. Carolyn Hax: "Typical female double standard"? Way to get on my good side. Of course married people can have opposite-sex friendships. The alternative is to have a worldview that's sex-crazed to the point of absurdity. However, no one committed to a marriage should be cultivating "friendships" with people for whom they still have feelings. To ignore how you'd feel if your wife did the same because it doesn't serve your self-interest is typical male double standard. Just wanted to you see how it felt. re: nose: Wait, people make negative comments about her nose? These people are jerks. My nose is hardly cute but if someone made a comment about it I'd think they had a problem, not me. Keep the schnoz!: I have a big nose. Big whoop-dee-do. I grew up in a town where girls got nose jobs on their 16th birthdays. It was kind of sad that these girls were not only wiping away their individuality, but also their history. I love looking at old pictures of women in Italy and seeing my nose. That's my history, those are my people...and I have the nose to prove it. And several guys that I've dated have said they thought I was attractive because I didn't look like all the other girls in DC...I had my real nose, my real hair color and have curves. Please keep your nose! We'll form a group! Carolyn Hax: Count me in. Just pick restaurants with round tables. Nose Jobs: Only the bad ones look unnatural. I'd never advocate a nose job for anyone, but I know a few people who had great ones--they still have big noses, but their features are more balanced now. (Yes, I know, love what you have, but humans like symmetry and proportion.) My advice -- talk to a therapist about the low self-esteem and, possibly, body dysmorphic disorder. If you do decide to get a nose job, look for a surgeon who won't just give you a cookie cutter tiny tip with flared nostrils job. Carolyn Hax: 1. Did any of the people with bad nose jobs sign up for a bad nose job? 2. If we "like symmetry and proportion," is it better to cut ourselves, or get over ourselves? Plastic surgery is a miracle for some people, I do believe that. But these days I lump it with online poker--just because it's there doesn't mean you have to do it. Schnoz job: My best friend's mom offered her a choice of gifts for her 16th bday - nose job or boob job. The poor girl hadn't asked for either one and didn't have a complex until that day! Carolyn Hax: She needed a Mom job. Alexandria, Va.: Hi Carolyn. I am pregnant, due today. No sign at the moment that labor is imminent. Please say something to entertain me in these final hours? days? of self-absorbtion and inactivity. Carolyn Hax: Get a pedicure, read a book, watch a movie from beginning to end in the same day, eat a meal slowly using your knife in one hand and the fork in another, have a conversation that involves the exchange of complete sentences. If I think of anything else I'll come back to it. 11 billionth nose job comment: I'm sure this will be a hot topic today, but here's my two cents: I feel bad for this person because now, on top of the self-esteem "valley" she's going through, she's feeling guilt, confusion, and self-doubt about this nose job. Maybe she should give herself a break, get the nose job if she wants it, and not torture herself over whether she's betraying some great moral/aesthetic principle by doing so. Carolyn Hax: Point well taken, but I don't think the concern is so much about betraying great moral/aesthetic principles as it is about betraying herself. Plastic surgery isn't the way out of self-esteem valleys. Period. I added my views on the issue because I thought it was only fair to disclose. Re: Pregnant, due today: Carolyn, you left out sleep. 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep = happiness. Carolyn Hax: I did, but deliberately. I doubt anyone as pregnant as she is can sleep for more than a few hours at a stretch. Fluffy Question: Hi Carolyn, Happy friday! I just moved in with my fantastic boyfriend of one year. He has a cat that I adore and help care for, however the cat was his from before we were together. At what point do I get to refer to her as "my" cat in conversation with casual acquaintances or "our" cat with mutual friends? Carolyn Hax: I think you need to ask the cat. Falls Church, Va.: I wish you had given more attention to the second question in today's column. As I read it, the question is whether people should accept or seek "dates" (an unfortunately ambiguous term) when they have no physical interest in the other person. It's not necessarily a matter of free dinners vs. cheap sex, but could be misleading and untimately hurtful. Carolyn Hax: I dunno, I think the fact that physical interest can develop later means there's no obligation to decide one way or another based on physical interest. Don't mislead or take advantage. That pretty much covers it. Alexandria, Va.: Boyfriend of three years getting full custody of 15-year-old daughter that I don't like. Is it time to break up? Carolyn Hax: Maybe. She needs him more than you do. But if you both see your relationship as a lifelong one, you could just lie low till she's out of the house and/or less difficult to like. Early to mid-teens can be hard years. Philadelphia, Pa.: Is it possible to have a future with someone who is less adventurous? I've been in a relationship with a guy for two years. Lately, I've been bored to the point that I already feel married. He is content with that: His big dream is marriage and kids. I never thought much about that -- more career oriented, more change the world, even though I have a job like everyone else that significantly falls short. He recently commented that he thought our relationship was making progress because I've mellowed out, inferring I don't go out and party as much as I did. I don't know that I want to be mellow. He's wonderfully caring, bends over backwards for me, but sometimes I just wish he would suprise me once in a while. He's afraid of the water and afraid to fly. I love swimming in the river and traveling -- and I'm starting to think that these differences in adventure might be the differences between the one and someone. But I also know the qualities of his patience and humor will probably never be replaced. Carolyn Hax: A quiz: Which is the clearest sign it's time to go? 1. When you're giving yourself reasons to stay. 2. When you're bored out of you're mind. 3. When you're desperate to go swimming. We all have something to recommend us. That doesn't mean everyone's a worthy mate for everyone else. I do feel bad for the guy, but only temporarily. More pain now is less pain later. You're not his girl. Dates, with or without: The dates/sex question is a spillover from Weingarten's chat Tuesday. Carolyn Hax: I haven't read the transcript, but I imagine the person emailed the question to both of us. Warrenton, Va.: All other things equal, if you are dating a woman who just got out of, say, a one-year serious relationship with another guy, does it generally take longer to form a serious relationship with her; do you just need to give her time if, emotionally, everything else seems to be progressing fine in the new relationship? Thank you. Carolyn Hax: All other things can't be equal. Did the one-year relationship end abruptly and painfully, or did it fade? Did she end it, or did he, or was it mutual? Was it over an absence of passion, or was there passion but disagreement on, say, geography or family size? Did one of them cheat on the other? You could be her forced attempt to recover, or her short-lived passion while she rediscovers her nerve endings, or her blissful reward after years of educational near-misses. Loosen your expectations, err on the side of patience and see where it goes. It's when you try to anticipate people's words that you're most likely to miss what they actaully say. Cosmetic refurbishment: so where do you draw the line?: Okay, so "Plastic surgery isn't the way out of self-esteem valleys. Period." But where do you draw the line? I'm 49, staring 50 in the face, and these last couple of years, every time I look in the mirror a person with more and more grey hair stares back at me. If I color my hair to set the clock back a couple years and it makes me feel better, does that mean I'm a shallow person with questionable values? Is it only if we make changes to the flesh that we need to question if we're trying to raise our self-esteem at the blade of a scalpel? In that case, what if I go for a tattoo and multiple cartilage piercings of my ears? Does doing that make me more or less suspect than someone who wants a nose job? Good grief, Carolyn, the cosmetics industry, hair-care industry, and fashion industries are all founded on the basis that none of us is "good enough" in our natural state to pass muster, and there are a gazillion women who wouldn't dream of facing the world without "putting on their face" or coloring/perming their hair or wearing a garment that is 5 minutes out of fashion. What say you about that? Carolyn Hax: I'd ask you to put the curling iron down and back away slowly. I meant only that people who are struggling with deeper issues--low self-esteem, depression, even just "blues"--should stay away from major surgery. This is neither radical stuff, nor a moral imperative not to cover your gray. Knock yourself out. But while we're here--is it so wrong to resist, vocally, the influences that have us questioning our worth based on unrealistic physical standards? It's a long road from pedicures to surgery, and I resent that there's pressure to travel it. Natural Woman: A friend and I are having a debate about wearing make-up (we're both women; she won't leave the house without it, whereas I seldom use it). She maintains that she wears it "for herself," in order to "feel good about herself"; I maintain that it's illogical to say one wears it for oneself when one can't see it on ones' self and, in fact, the only reason it makes any woman "feel better about herself" is because societal expectations make her feel there's something wrong with herself if she doesn't enhance/camoflague her real self. Carolyn Hax: Different women, different faces, different standards of beauty. She's tending to hers, you to yours, and to say hers is somehow wrong or externally imposed because it involves makeup is awfully rigid. Nothing she's doing is irreversible or damaging to her health, so score a point for diversity and give the girl a break. Over him, but not what happened: Hi Carolyn, I have finally accepted that my relationship is over. We tried to be friends but he treats me like crap and I don't want to know him anymore. Fine. But I can't seem to get over the five years of time and energy and love I spent on someone who still keeps hurting me. It was such a figgin' waste. I can't stop aching over it. Help. Please. Carolyn Hax: It wasn't a waste, it was a slap in the face. Use it to help you wake up. If you're not sure to what, find yourself a competent, compatible therapist and go figure it out. This will sound harsh but it isn't, I swear. Painful five-year flameouts -are- the road to happiness, because it's often the exact kind of misery you're feeling that motivates change. I say "often" only because to get there, you have to fight the impulse to eat ice cream and pretend it never happened, and that impulse can be pretty strong. Bored to the point that I already feel married?: Another reason not to stay with this guy. Why does she equate being married with being bored? Wouldn't it be nice if she found someone just as adventurous as her, who could be her partner in adventure forever? I know lots of married people who do fun stuff together -- hiking in South America, scuba diving, visiting the pyramids. That stuff doesn't appeal only to single people. Carolyn Hax: There are also married people who stay home and watch TV but aren't bored with each other. (And bungee-jumping couples who have nothing to say to each other.) You're right, it's a terrible view of marriage. Thanks. Arlington, Va.: I am friends with both members of a couple. Each has told me, seperately, of a desire to break up with the other. Each is sure that the other wouldn't want to break up. I just want to shout "get it over with, already!" Pretty sure it's not my job to let that cat out of that bag, though. Thoughts on staying sane in the meanwhile? Carolyn Hax: You can't even throw in a, "What makes you so sure?" Your restraint is admirable. For sanity, I don't know, maybe tell them both it's time to rip the Band-Aid and hope one of them listens. Or, keep posting every Friday with updates, for our amusement. A little serialized pulp fiction to carry us to Labor Day. When you're giving yourself reasons to stay...: But what if those reasons are because you just found out you have a serious illness that will likely become debilitating? I was on the verge of leaving a wonderful, kind husband, because I'm not his girl (to steal your words). Now I'm having serious doubts, mostly because I'm scared out of my mind. I realize this is a horribly selfish motive, but it's hard to pick up and leave a situation that, in many ways, is good and solid and secure. How do I re-gather my courage? Carolyn Hax: I'm sorry. Is there a support network for people with your illness? Maybe educating yourself on the practical aspects of what you face will make it less of a scary unknown--and also allow you to choose a course that works instead of just fall back on one out of fear. More fair to your husband that way regardless, whether you ultimately stay or go. Natural Woman: The point was that -- whether we're talking about wearing makeup, dying gray hair, or getting a nose job -- it's all because we fear people will think we're not okay in our natural state; the "permanence of the coverup doesn't seem to me relevent, but rather the perceived necessity for one... Carolyn Hax: I don't know that I agree with that. Makeup isn't always a coverup, but instead can be an enhancement. Lipstick to call attention to a nice mouth, mascara to frame pretty eyes, toenail polish to call attention to a finacially unjustifiable shoe collection. It doesn't mean plain toes are too ugly to be seen, but that red toes are like jewelry on your feet. In fact, jewelry is a good parallel--it enhances, right? It just seems to me that making the effort to buy pretty or flattering clothes--which I assume passes moral-aesthetic muster here--is really just the same act as putting on lipstick. Where I think things diverge is on the issue of concealing--but even then, a non-permanent hair-color change is artifice on such a small scale. The gray I think we need to be more comfortable with here is the point where concealing crosses over from, "Hey, I look pretty good" to "I'm lethal and can;t inflict myself on the public unadorned." Carolyn Hax: I'm still here, I'm just up to my nose in noses and got carried away reading all your comments on this. New York, N.Y.: Am I in need of an attitude adjustment? I dated a guy in my building who initally seemed really into a relationship -- he worried about whether I'd move out of state for grad school next fall, talked about canceling an upcoming visit with an ex for me, pulled his Match profile, things like that. I thought we should be careful and take things slow, but we both moved way too fast from there, and we slept together. Well, a week later he dumped me. The next Friday night, he was calling me to see if I wanted to hang out, since he thought it would be great for us to be friends (we weren't friends before we hooked up). Here's the attitude adjustment part: I'm not interested in letting him have it both ways by ignoring me, dumping me, and then still getting to hang out with me. I feel like, he didn't want to be with me, so he doesn't get to be with me -- as a girlfriend OR as a friend. Am I being bratty? Punitive? Missing out on a friendship just to prove a point? Carolyn Hax: Thinking too much? This doesn't sound like someone I'd want to hang out with. Carolyn Hax: Okay, now I've made a technical mistake and erased the question I was answering. I think this is A Sign. But I'll try one more before I give up. Movingonville, USA: Classic question: how do you move on from a friendship that you valued that ended because the two of you tried to became more than friends? It was a mistake to become more than friends for a variety of reasons. And now that things are over, I am left feeling like he lied to me and he believes that I used and manipulated him. I miss him and I hate that! Carolyn Hax: If both of you think the other did something to hurt you, then maybe neither of you was trying to hurt the other. Discuss. Can't resist the nose thread: I never met my great grandmother. She was a bit of a hermit, and lived hundreds of miles away. En route to visit her for the first time (I was about 12 yrs old), she died. So I "met" her at her funeral. It was an open casket funeral, and I spent most of it marvelling to myself, "So THAT'S where I got this nose!" It felt nice, in a circle of life kind of way. Carolyn Hax: I just liked "nose thread." Like some kind of breakthrough in the science of floss. Carolyn Hax: Okay, looks like I won't have time to reconstruct the answer I lost, so I'm going to go. Sorry for all the skittishness at the end. And, thanks for dropping in, as always. Have a great weekend and I'll type to you next week. 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Iraq at Risk Of Civil War, Top Generals Tell Senators
2006080519
Two top U.S. generals said yesterday that the sectarian violence in Iraq is much worse than they had ever anticipated and could lead to civil war, arguing that improving the situation is now more a matter of Iraqi political will than of U.S. military strategy. "The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it," Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. military operations in the Middle East, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "If not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war." The testimony from Abizaid and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, was the military's most dire assessment of conditions in Iraq since the war began 40 months ago. It echoed the opinion of Britain's outgoing ambassador to Iraq, who, in a confidential memo revealed yesterday, told Prime Minister Tony Blair that a de facto partition of Iraq is more likely than a transition to democracy. Both U.S. generals said they think Iraq will be successful in maintaining a stable government in the near future, but their assessment about the possible slide into civil war is something the administration had avoided acknowledging before. "We do have the possibility of that devolving to a civil war, but that does not have to be a fact," said Pace. ". . . We need the Iraqi people to seize this moment." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld called the Iraq violence "unfortunate" and "tragic." He said he "remains confident in the good, common sense of the American people" that running away from Iraq would amount to victory for "murderers and extremists." Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the administration may need to seek new authorization from Congress to allow U.S. troops to fight in a civil war. Originally, the forces were authorized to topple Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party. Senators from both parties questioned whether troops were adequately trained to fight in a civil war. If it comes to that, asked Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), "which side are we on?" "I'm reluctant to speculate about that," Rumsfeld said. "It could lead to a discussion that suggests that we presume that's going to happen. . . . The government is holding together. The armed forces are holding together." Several times during the hearing, Rumsfeld expressed concern that the committee's back-and-forth would aid the enemy. "They're waging a psychological war of attrition," he said at one point. "They want us pointing fingers at each other rather than pointing fingers at them." The somber mood was amplified by concern about the war in Lebanon and the possibility that it will lead to instability in the region. "I've rarely seen it so unsettled or volatile," Abizaid said.
Washington Post coverage of the American occupation of Iraq, the country's path to democracy and tensions between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
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The End Of the Right?
2006080519
What might have seemed an absurd question less than two years ago is now one of the most important issues in American politics. The question is being asked -- mostly quietly but occasionally publicly -- by conservatives themselves as they survey the wreckage of their hopes, and as their champions in the Republican Party use any means necessary to survive this fall's elections. Conservatism is an honorable disposition that, in its modern form, is inspired by the philosophy developed by Edmund Burke in the 18th century. But as a contemporary American movement, conservatism is rooted intellectually in the 1950s and the circles around William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review magazine. It rose politically with Barry Goldwater's campaign in 1964. Conservatism was always a delicate balancing act between small-government economic libertarians and social traditionalists who revered family, faith and old values. The two wings were often held together by a common enemy, modern liberalism certainly, but even more so by communism until the early 1990s, and now by what some conservatives call "Islamofascism." President Bush, his defenders say, has pioneered a new philosophical approach, sometimes known as "big-government conservatism." The most articulate defender of this position, the journalist Fred Barnes, argues that Bush's view is "Hamiltonian" as in Alexander, Thomas Jefferson's rival in the early republic. Bush's strategy, Barnes says, "is to use government as a means to achieve conservative ends." Kudos to Barnes for trying bravely to make sense of what to so many others -- including some in conservative ranks -- seems an incoherent enterprise. But I would argue that this is the week in which conservatism, Hamiltonian or not, reached the point of collapse. The most obvious, outrageous and unprincipled spasm occurred last night when the Senate voted on a bill that would have simultaneously raised the minimum wage and slashed taxes on inherited wealth. Rarely has our system produced a more naked exercise in opportunism than this measure. Most conservatives oppose the minimum wage on principle as a form of government meddling in the marketplace. But moderate Republicans in jeopardy this fall desperately wanted an increase in the minimum wage. So the seemingly ingenious Republican leadership, which dearly wants deep cuts in the estate tax, proposed offering nickels and dimes to the working class to secure billions for the rich. Fortunately, though not surprisingly, the bill failed. The episode was significant because it meant Republicans were acknowledging that they would not hold congressional power without the help of moderates. That is because there is nothing close to a conservative majority in the United States. Yet their way of admitting this was to put on display the central goal of the currently dominant forces of politics: to give away as much as possible to the truly wealthy. You wonder what those blue-collar conservatives once known as Reagan Democrats made of this spectacle. Last night's shenanigans were merely a symptom. Consider other profound fissures within the right. There is an increasingly bitter debate over whether it made any sense to wage war in Iraq in the hopes of transforming that country into a democracy. Conservatives with excellent philosophical credentials, including my colleague George F. Will, and Bill Buckley himself, see the enterprise as profoundly unconservative.
Is conservatism finished? What might have seemed an absurd question less than two years ago is now one of the most important issues in American politics. The question is being asked -- mostly quietly but occasionally publicly -- by conservatives themselves as they survey the wreckage of their hopes,...
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GOP Bid On Wages, Estate Tax Is Blocked
2006080519
Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bid to combine a tax cut for the wealthy with a wage increase for the working poor last night, adding a volatile economic issue to this fall's congressional campaigns. GOP leaders fell three votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and bring the package to the Senate floor, where it was considered certain to pass on a simple-majority vote. Republicans said Democrats will pay a price in November, contending that most Americans support the bill's call for an increase in the minimum wage and deep cuts in the estate tax. But Democrats said rich Americans have received enough breaks from the Bush administration and the GOP-led Congress. Voters, they said, will see the Republican-backed bill as a ploy to further enrich upper-income families while trying to usurp the Democrats' role as champions of the working poor. Under the bill, "8,100 of the wealthy and well-off hit the jackpot, while millions of working families get $800 billion in [federal] debt," said Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who led the opposition to the measure. The official Senate tally was 56 to 42 in favor of proceeding to a vote on the wage-and-tax bill, short of the 60 required. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) supported the package but switched his vote -- reducing the final number to 56 from 57 -- to enable him to seek a reconsideration later. Republicans Lincoln D. Chafee (R.I.) and George V. Voinovich (Ohio) joined one independent and 38 Democrats -- including the two from Maryland -- in opposing the bill by backing the filibuster. Four Democrats and 52 Republicans -- including Virginia's two senators -- signaled their support for the bill by voting to limit debate. Republican leaders in Congress have long wanted to eliminate or slash the taxes levied on estates left by wealthy people, but the Senate has repeatedly refused. Hoping to attract enough Democratic support, House leaders last week added a sweetener: the first increase in the federal minimum wage in nine years, plus an extension of several popular tax breaks for businesses. The House passed the complex measure -- dubbed "the trifecta" because of its three main facets -- and sent it to the Senate, which planned to vote before adjourning this weekend for the August break. Frist agreed to the deal, hoping that several Democrats could not resist a chance to raise the minimum wage, in three phases, to $7.25 an hour from the current $5.15. The bill would also have exempted from taxation all estates worth as much as $5 million -- or $10 million for a married couple -- and applied a 15 percent tax rate to inheritances above that threshold and up to $25 million. The value of estates exceeding $25 million would have been taxed at 30 percent. Most congressional Democrats support raising the minimum wage and oppose cutting the estate tax. Most Republicans take the opposite view, although some from both parties support both proposals. Democrats said they will keep pushing to raise the minimum wage with no strings attached. GOP senators had practically dared Democrats to vote against the package with the minimum-wage increase. All but four Senate Democrats took the dare, heeding Reid's plea to deny Frist a victory as lawmakers go home to campaign. Republicans predicted that Democrats will regret their decision. "I certainly wouldn't want to vote against this bill" and then face the voters, Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) said in an interview. Polls show overwhelming public support for raising the minimum wage and for eliminating "the death tax," he said. Voting against the package, he said, "is bad for the country, and bad politics, too." Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said all three elements of the bill could have survived simple-majority votes had they been allowed, and he accused the Democrats of being obstructionists. "How can we have bipartisanship in the Congress if Democrats won't take 'yes' for an answer?" he asked. But Democrats expressed confidence that voters will see the package as a cynical effort to help wealthy GOP supporters by making the estate tax cut the price for a wage increase that the nation's lowest-paid workers deserve.
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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Lamont Leads Lieberman by 13 Points in New Poll
2006080519
HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 3 -- Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, riding strong antiwar sentiment, has surged to a significant lead over embattled Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) heading into Tuesday's Senate primary, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released here Thursday. The poll showed Lamont ahead of Lieberman by 54 percent to 41 percent, underscoring the challenger's clear advantage. Facing a likely defeat, Lieberman has scrapped plans for a massive and costly get-out-the-vote operation on primary day, according to several Democratic sources. Instead, he will shift some of his resources into more television commercials designed to highlight his accomplishments for the state, in hopes of boosting his battered image. The three-term incumbent and 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee announced earlier that he will run as an independent in November if he loses on Tuesday to Lamont, a millionaire Greenwich businessman with limited political experience. But a landslide loss to Lamont could complicate Lieberman's hopes of winning a fourth term in a three-way general election contest. Many Democratic leaders have endorsed Lieberman in the primary, but most of them have said they will back whoever wins the nomination. Lieberman, a leading centrist Democrat and one of the Senate's most prominent advocates of bipartisanship, seemed invincible until a few months ago. But he has suffered from his strong support for President Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, in a state where opposition to the war and the president runs high. And he has alienated some voters, who complain that he has neglected his home state over the years. Lamont, a former Greenwich selectman but a newcomer to statewide politics, has derided Lieberman as "Bush's lapdog" and has soared in the polls with the help of an agile, well-financed campaign and strong backing from progressive bloggers. In a hard-hitting televised debate last month, Lamont assailed the incumbent for ignoring reports of rising violence and instability in Iraq, and for cheering on Bush "when he should have been asking the tough questions." Lieberman sought to portray Lamont as a fringe candidate with little grasp of the military and geopolitical stakes in Iraq, but the tactic did not appear to work with Connecticut's large pool of Democrats. Lieberman's struggle has drawn national attention because it illustrates the power of antiwar activism in the Democratic Party and because of its potential implications for other races in the November midterm elections. Significantly, the new poll findings show that Lieberman received no boost from a high-profile visit by former president Bill Clinton, who came to Waterbury on July 24 to vouch for Lieberman's Democratic credentials and urge Connecticut Democrats not to reject him because of his support for Bush's war policies. Lieberman, who used Clinton in television ads after the visit, said this week that he considered the rally a turning point that rejuvenated his candidacy. Instead, the poll shows Lieberman continuing to lose ground to Lamont. In June, Lieberman led Lamont by 55 percent to 40 percent. A second poll released just before Clinton's visit found Lamont edging into the lead, 51 percent to 47 percent. Lieberman spokeswoman Marion Steinfels played down the significance of the new poll. "Our view is it's a fluid race, that no one really knows what's going to happen," she said. Another campaign adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss strategy, said the public poll tracked internal campaign surveys. "The race has been headed in that direction for a while," the adviser said. "It's a fairly accurate reflection of where the race is."
HARTFORD, Conn., Aug. 3 -- Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, riding strong antiwar sentiment, has surged to a significant lead over embattled Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) heading into Tuesday's Senate primary, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released here Thursday.
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Vietnam Wall Visitor Center Approved
2006080519
The federal commission with final say over monuments and memorials in the nation's capital gave the green light yesterday for the newest addition to America's front yard: a sprawling underground Vietnam Veterans Memorial visitor center that will be constructed between the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. The center will be the first new memorial project on the coveted Mall since the National World War II Memorial was built. Preservationists, who have wanted to conserve the Lincoln Memorial's grounds, fought the center. But the project was championed by some veterans groups that have long been troubled by the understated nature of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall and want to provide more history and context for its list of more than 58,000 Americans killed or missing in the war. With memorial space at a premium in Washington -- where some groups have quietly fought for years to get patches of land inside traffic circles for memorial statues or slivers of pocket parks for monuments -- the Vietnam veterans won one of the biggest prizes of all yesterday. "It's a good day. This was a long time in coming," Jan C. Scruggs, president and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, said after the National Capital Planning Commission approved the project yesterday. The project has drawn criticism because of its potential to convey conclusions about a conflict that tore the country apart. But Scruggs said the 25,000-square-foot center will be a neutral, fact-based presentation that will pay tribute to U.S. soldiers. It may include a movie theater, a three-dimensional battle scene, mementos left at the memorial, and a wall where pictures of slain soldiers will be projected on their birthdays, creating a dynamic tribute that changes daily. Because it will be the only sizable visitor center dedicated to a single conflict's veterans, some planners worry that it will create an opening for others to lobby for similar additions to memorial rotundas, fountains or statues in Washington. "Each memorial will ask for their own visitor center," warned Elizabeth Merritt, deputy general counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, who testified against the project at the commission meeting yesterday. Not all veterans like the project. Vietnam War veteran Ray Saikus flew in from Cleveland yesterday to tell the planning commission that an underground "bunker or tunnel" is insensitive to veterans who fought enemies underground. "It will be more a tribute to the Viet Cong," Saikus said. He also said his fellow veterans in the Midwest believe that an underground center is "being placed out of sight, hidden as if in shame." Planners do want it out of sight -- but for aesthetic reasons. According to 14 design guidelines established by the planning commission yesterday and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts last week that must be followed as a condition of approval, no portion of the center can be visible from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Constitution Avenue or surrounding streets. The center must be built below the existing grade on the land surrounding the Lincoln Memorial. Any skylights, monitors, light wells or sunken areas cannot be seen from surrounding sidewalks, according to the commissions' guidelines.
The federal commission with final say over monuments and memorials in the nation's capital gave the green light yesterday for the newest addition to America's front yard: a sprawling underground Vietnam Veterans Memorial visitor center that will be constructed between the Lincoln Memorial and the...
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N.Va. Prisoner Lost in Translation
2006080519
The man had been there before, wandering around the second floor of the Prince William County courthouse, his face a mask of worry. No one knew how often he had come or to whom he had talked. But Kerry Kaiser, a clerk who sits at an information desk in front of the elevators, knew she'd seen him. She thought she might even have talked to him once, briefly, before the day when she really listened to what he said to her in Spanish. "I didn't know exactly what he was saying, something about his brother," she said. "He was just desperate: 'This is my brother. I need to find him.' " He said that his brother, Fernando Antonio Cruz, had been left in the county jail and that he should have been freed already. With a few clicks, Kaiser opened a file on her computer and confirmed that his case had been dismissed in December. It was February. She alerted the clerk's office, which faxed a release order to the jail. Court records show that it was dated 3:01 p.m. Feb. 15, with the handwritten words "was dismissed 12-12-05!!" Through human error complicated by language and cultural differences, Cruz had been forgotten. Like many immigrants, he had become as invisible inside the criminal justice system as he was outside. As the number of Hispanics has swelled to more than 16 percent of Prince William's 348,588 residents, Cruz's case shows how one immigrant can find himself lost in the judicial system. Every morning, dozens of Latinos come by Kaiser's desk. Many appear confused, frustrated. Starved for familiarity, they devour her every word, even if her Spanish is a bit broken. Kaiser, 59, speaks English with a strong Tennessee accent and Spanish with the inconsistency of someone who taught herself more through desire than formal training. But she tries, and she sympathizes, and on a February afternoon when the halls were mostly hushed except for a man wandering around with a worried look, she listened. Mark Voss, a defense lawyer who frequently works out of the Prince William courthouse, said that what happened to Cruz is in part a product of the county's changing caseload. "You go to court, and it looks like you're looking at Juárez," Voss said, referring to the Mexican city. "I go over there and start speaking Spanish, and the next thing I know three or four people are coming over. . . . I open my mouth, and all of a sudden I'm surrounded." Voss was there the day Cruz's brother came looking for help. He explained to the man that the jail would release his brother in a few moments -- which it did. He also advised the man to take his brother home and then call Voss, because they had a potential lawsuit against the county. "Somebody made a mistake," Voss said. "If you spend two extra months in jail, that's not like spending an extra night in jail." In the two decades he has worked in Prince William, Voss said, he's seen the justice system strive to keep up with population changes -- hiring more Spanish speakers, printing court literature in two languages, commissioning more translators.
The man had been there before, wandering around the second floor of the Prince William County courthouse, his face a mask of worry.
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AOL Plans to Cut 5,000 Jobs, Some in Virginia
2006080519
AOL said yesterday it planned to lay off more than a quarter of its workforce -- including hundreds of employees in Northern Virginia -- over the next six months as the company restructures its business to focus on online advertising instead of dial-up subscriptions. In a meeting yesterday morning at the company's Dulles headquarters, chief executive Jonathan Miller told employees that 5,000 of the company's 19,000 worldwide positions would be eliminated. An executive with the firm said several hundred of the 4,700 jobs in Northern Virginia would be affected, and that some employees had already been granted paid leave to look for new employment. Several employees said the news was expected, and people who worked for certain divisions knew for weeks that they were likely to lose their jobs. "At a company-wide Web cast this morning, AOL chief executive Jon Miller told AOL's worldwide workforce of 19,000 people that about 5,000 employees would within six months likely no longer be with the company," said AOL spokesman John Buckley. The news came a day after parent company Time Warner Inc. announced a major overhaul in AOL's business strategy. AOL said Wednesday that the company would give away much of its content, including AOL.com e-mail addresses, on its Web site to anyone with broadband access. Customers who pay for access to the Internet through AOL will still be charged a monthly fee. Miller, AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis and Chief Marketing Officer Joe Redling addressed about 400 people gathered at a Dulles headquarters conference room and fielded questions from employees for an hour, according to people who attended the meeting. An employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the layoffs said there had been "a fair amount of anxiety and uncertainty" at the company for months. At least 45 people whose jobs involved ordering and distributing AOL's free promotional CDs were told last month to take paid leave and look for new jobs, according to one executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media. This person said it was possible that the local layoff figures "could reach a fourth digit," but that the company was planning to eliminate jobs in phases. A larger portion of the cuts are expected to come from AOL's business in Europe, where AOL has said it is negotiating to sell its dial-up-related business to European telecommunications firms. Earlier this week, AOL said it had entered into negotiations with French telecom company Neuf Cegetel to sell AOL's dial-up business in that country. Miller told analysts yesterday that similar plans to sell AOL's business in Britain and Germany will be completed by this fall. AOL employs 3,000 workers in the three countries. AOL will offer severance packages to employees and assist them with job placement services, Buckley said. Since the beginning of the year, AOL has shed 1,300 positions, mostly in its call centers in Florida and Arizona. The majority of jobs expected to be eliminated in this round are in the marketing and other divisions related to recruiting new subscribers. AOL and Time Warner executives said they found those efforts were no longer profitable and said they plan to end them. The business that AOL had built around dial-up subscription service in the 1990s has dropped off as more people who upgraded to broadband found that many of AOL's competitors, such as Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc., offer similar content for free. AOL lost nearly a million subscribers in the most recent financial period, the company reported Wednesday. It hopes to make up for the shortfall by attracting more online advertising revenue, and grow a bigger audience at AOL.com and other AOL-owned Web properties with free offerings, such as security software and parental control tools. Yesterday's announcement about layoffs gave a sense of just how quickly AOL plans to move on with its new plan, said Allen Weiner, research director at Gartner Inc. The layoff number "is not surprising. The business they're getting out of is one that is so heavily support-based," Weiner said. Still, he said, AOL is late to the game and will face stiff competition for online advertising revenue with Yahoo, Google and Microsoft Corp. "If they had made this move five years ago, when they began to see the shift in usage move to broadband, they wouldn't have had to go through such a painful move," Weiner said.
AOL said yesterday it planned to lay off more than a quarter of its workforce -- including hundreds of employees in Northern Virginia -- over the next six months as the company restructures its business to focus on online advertising instead of dial-up subscriptions.
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A Punk Legacy Takes New Form
2006080519
A scenario in which L.A. punk pioneers the Germs reunited and toured a quarter-century after the suicide of lead singer Darby Crash never entered Pat Smear's head. Even in his wildest imagination. "No. Never could have thought of it. Never thought I'd play with those guys again," the band's guitarist admits. Or that Darby Crash would be revived by an actor who plays an emergency room doctor on television. When the Germs play the Black Cat on Saturday, Shane West -- best known as "ER" intern Ray Barnett -- will stand in for Crash, as he does in the upcoming biopic "What We Do Is Secret," whose title comes from the hyperkinetic 42-second opening track on the Germs' only full-length album, 1979's "GI." A synopsis of Germs history necessarily races by as fast, and as chaotically, as most of the band's tunes, beginning in the late '70s, when punk first roared in London, New York and Los Angeles. That's where pals-since-high-school Georg Ruthenberg and Jan Paul Beahm -- soon reborn as Pat Smear and Darby Crash -- formed the Germs with bassist Lorna Doom and just-for-a-minute drummer Dottie Danger, who, as Belinda Carlisle, went on to front the Go-Gos. She was replaced by Don Bolles. In 1977 came "Forming/Sexboy," one of the first American punk singles, and a shambolic debut at Los Angeles' Whiskey, quickly followed by an exile from other local venues because of vandalism off- and onstage; the seminal "GI," produced by Joan Jett; the increasingly erratic behavior of the drug-addicted Crash and his departure from the band for a brief, unsuccessful solo career; a Germs reunion show at the Starwood on Dec. 3, 1980; and Crash's suicide by heroin overdose four days later -- just one day before John Lennon was fatally shot in New York. "It was shocking, but it wasn't a surprise," Smear says of Crash's suicide. "He'd been talking about it for years: 'This is my [five-year] plan, this is what I'm doing . . . and then I'm going to kill myself.' Then it was oh, [expletive], he really did what he said he was going to do! That was the surprise." And the stuff of legend. Just look at Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, who had followed the same path a year earlier. The Germs, the first Hollywood punk band to veer into hardcore, made aggressive, technically uncomplicated music that would inspire scores of bands, including Nirvana. Kurt Cobain invited Smear to join that band the year before his own suicide in 1994. Drummer Dave Grohl's post-Nirvana band, Foo Fighters, also featured Smear in its original incarnation. A decade ago, filmmaker Rodger Grossman began work on "What We Do Is Secret." After years of interviews and preparation, shooting finally took place last year. The film is in postproduction, targeted for next year's film festivals. Made for Rhino Films, it features Rick Gonzalez as Smear, Bijou Phillips as Doom, Noah Segan as Bolles and West in a performance that gives the 28-year-old, best known for family dramas such as ABC's "Once and Again" and such films as "A Walk to Remember" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," the opportunity to reinvent himself as an actor. He already has one fan.
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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Blitzing Microbial Infections
2006080519
The Washington Redskins took quiet steps during the offseason to combat one of their tiniest and toughest foes -- a microscopic organism that is becoming increasingly dangerous and potentially lethal. The microbe, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is a bacteria once relegated to hospitals and prisons but now -- because athletes are in such close contact with one another and share Jacuzzis, whirlpools and athletic equipment -- is proliferating in locker rooms at all levels of sports. Over the past two years, the Redskins have had five cases of MRSA, team physician Tony Casolaro said last year. "We're concerned about it," said Bubba Tyer, the Redskins' director of sports medicine. "We don't want to lose any player. We don't want anything to affect their career and we want to do all we can do. It's a terrible infection that can cripple your team." In addition to spending $17,000 on a new Jacuzzi system that is equipped with an ultraviolet light filtering system designed to kill germs, the Redskins hired SportsCoatings Inc. to treat the training room, locker rooms and weight rooms with an anti-microbial coating the company claims will help kill various strains of the bacteria. Tyer did not divulge the amount the Redskins spent, but SportsCoatings spokeswoman Wendy Orthman said the treatment cost roughly $1.50 per square foot. The Redskins aren't the first NFL team to take preventative measures where MRSA is concerned. Some teams are doing so with different products this year and others, such as the St. Louis Rams, have done so in the past, using bleach. But preventing MRSA doesn't end with simply an expenditure of money. Players must be retrained. To Tyer, who has taken a personal interest in the prevention of MRSA, especially at the high school and college levels, the Redskins' high-tech approach has little value if the team and players do not adopt basic, low-tech methods, such as washing hands with an alcohol-based sanitizer, avoiding sharing towels and daily athletic gear. Last season, the Redskins' locker room was filled with benches. This year, each locker has its own stool. "We spent a lot of money this offseason," Tyer said. "We have new carpet, new paint, new benches. Having said all of that, it's improved our facilities a great deal." Players are constantly reminded not to let down their guard. A reminder among the collection of player photos hanging on the wall should be a photo of Brandon Noble, a backup defensive lineman last year who has been twice treated for a MRSA infection on his right leg and whose career is in limbo. There are also signs throughout the training room, reminding players to avoid entering the whirlpools or Jacuzzis without first having showered. At each entrance to the training room are oversized dispensers of antibacterial liquid soap. In the locker room's bathroom area, across from the new Jacuzzi, is a sign adjacent to the sink, reminding players not to share razors. Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also inspected the Redskins' facilities, Tyer said. The Redskins have taken a futuristic -- if not apocalyptic -- view of fighting germs in an environment that is frighteningly ripe for them, medical experts say. Last week, the Toronto Blue Jays confirmed that the staph infection that has kept right fielder Alex Rios on the disabled list for the past month is a version of MRSA, which can enter the body through a tiny opening in the skin and spread rapidly. Blue Jays pitcher Ty Taubenheim, who is suffering from an infection on his foot, also is on the disabled list, but it is unclear whether the infection is MRSA. In 2003, Jeffrey Hageman, an epidemiologist with the CDC and expert in sports-related MRSA cases, investigated the St. Louis Rams and found that five of 58 players developed MRSA infections, likely from turf abrasions. In his research on the Rams, Hageman found linebackers, linemen and players of high body mass to be particularly susceptible. To health experts and sports physicians alike, the reason for MRSA's growing prevalence is confounding. According to CDC spokeswoman Nicole Coffin, disease experts believe that MRSA has not grown in virulence because of environmental forces, meaning that the Redskins' locker room is perhaps no more naturally predisposed to MRSA today than it might have been 20 years ago. The difference, she said, is in the need to increase prevention methods. Staph infections have been part of the sports world for years, but in recent years, medical experts say, the MRSA bacteria have become highly resistant to common antibiotics, such as penicillin. In turn, the potential for its spread, some experts believe, has been heightened by the inappropriate use of antibiotics, such as using antibiotics to treat viruses and not bacteria. These misuses can increase the resistance of bacteria. The Redskins aren't finished with their preventative measures. Tyer said the team plans over the next few weeks to apply the same treatments to their facilities at FedEx Field. In addition, Tyer said, the Redskins plan to use similar prevention methods for road games. But will the sprays and other precautions work? Orthman said the application of anti-microbial spray protected a surface for life without the possibility of the bacteria becoming resistant. Orthman also said that the chemicals that comprise the treatment do not weaken over time. According to Coffin, the CDC does not evaluate the efficacy of products, nor do they test the methodology behind products.
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California Fights Filth of Its Ports
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LONG BEACH, Calif. -- In the first effort of its kind in the nation, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are about to launch a $2 billion campaign to clean up the ships, trucks, cranes and locomotives that ply and pollute the waterfronts in country's busiest ports. The two ports are among the biggest polluters in a region known for some of the nation's dirtiest air. Federal officials say that unless something is done, the pollution at those ports and many others across the nation will drastically worsen. The Environmental Protection Agency is predicting that by 2030, smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions and particulate matter from ships and other commercial vessels will have doubled their current levels. The California proposal, expected to be formally adopted next month, aims to reduce particulate matter by 81 percent and nitrogen oxides by 62 percent in five years. The plan includes a program costing several hundred million dollars to replace or retrofit the 16,300 trucks that service the ports on a regular basis and an aggressive attempt to force international shipping companies to switch to cleaner fuels, slow down as they enter the harbor and retrofit their ships so that they can be powered by electricity when unloading. Environmentalists and government officials say the cleanup program underscores that, while California may have lost national prominence in areas including education, prison reform and transportation infrastructure, it remains the leader in environmental issues. They said that leadership was on display earlier this week when British Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the Long Beach port and met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and leading industrialists to discuss joint efforts to reduce global warming. "California historically has been the laboratory from which others learn," said Bill Becker, executive director of the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators. "It started regulating cars in the 1960s. Now while the rest of the country is sitting idly by, its ports are taking appropriate steps as well." Combined, the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports are the biggest in the nation and among the top five in the world, occupying more than 60 miles of waterfront along the dirty waters of San Pedro Bay. The places are vast, dotted with mountains of 40-foot cargo containers, gangly 300-foot tall cranes, oceangoing ships, and warehouses stretching into the Southern California smog. Each year, more than 40 percent of all containerized trade in the nation -- valued at more than $300 billion -- flows through these ports, filling Wal-Marts and other big-box stores across the land. An engine to Southern California's growth, the ports generate more jobs -- 500,000 -- than Hollywood's movie industry. The longshoremen who work the ports have some of the highest-paying blue-collar jobs in the nation, averaging more than $120,000 a year. In recent years, as trade with Asia, especially China, has boomed, so has activity in the ports. In 1990, the two ports handled the equivalent of 3 million 20-foot containers. This year, they will process more than 16 million, according to Art Wong, a spokesman for the Long Beach facility. S. David Freeman, chairman of the powerful Los Angeles Harbor Commission, estimated that traffic will double by 2020. The problem, Freeman said in an interview, is that if the ports hope to handle that increased cargo, they will have to grow. But each time the ports -- located in a region that is home to more than 14 million people with no shortage of active environmental and neighborhood associations -- have put forward a plan to grow, they are sued. And increasingly they lose. In 2001, for example, a lawsuit by the National Resources Defense Council blocked the Los Angeles port from constructing a 174-acre terminal for the China Shipping Holding Co. because the port did not conduct an environmental impact study. The resulting judgment forced the port to conduct the study and pay $50 million in environmental mitigation measures. "We realized it was either clean up the air or lose business," Freeman said in an interview. "The time for yakking is over. The only way we're going to remain competitive is by growing and cleaning up the air at the same time." Another problem was that for decades, the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports barely talked. They were intense competitors, and the commissions that run the ports had not held a joint session since 1929. But that situation began to change with the election of Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor of Los Angeles in 2005. Villaraigosa appointed Freeman to head the L.A. port, and the 80-year-old tough-talking former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority set about improving ties with Long Beach. Freeman hired the former No. 2 official of the Long Beach port, Geraldine Knatz, as executive director. Knatz has been a "genius," Freeman said, in improving ties. Still, the job of cleaning up the ports will be daunting, Freeman said. In the Los Angeles area, oceangoing ships, harbor tugs and commercial boats regularly emit many times more smog-forming pollutants than all the power plants in the region. On a daily basis, the Los Angeles port spews more nitrogen oxide, 32 tons, and more particulate matter, 1.8 tons, than half a million cars, a typical refinery and power plant combined.
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Bush Starts 10-Day Texas Vacation
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WACO, Tex., Aug. 3 -- President Bush arrived here Thursday evening to begin a 10-day stretch at his Prairie Chapel ranch, his longest planned period away from Washington during this summer vacation season. Bush's scheduled week and a half in Texas is a far cry from last year's working vacation, which was shaping up as the longest presidential retreat in more than three decades before it was rudely cut short by Hurricane Katrina after nearly a month. VIDEO | President Bush began a week-long working vacation with a stop along the U.S.-Mexico border and a plea for lawmakers to put the finishing touches on immigration reform. The image of Bush on an extended stay away from the White House while Katrina flattened much of the Gulf Coast and left New Orleans engulfed by floodwater proved to be a defining moment of his presidency. The image of a president who critics say is aloof from details and too eager to delegate was only driven home when he ordered Air Force One to fly low over the stricken region so he could get a bird's-eye view of the destruction as he returned to Washington. "It's devastating, it's got to be doubly devastating on the ground," Bush said as he flew over the area. "The impact of Katrina was profound," said former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. "It caught a tired White House staff off guard and turned out to be one of the most damaging events of his presidency." Last year's vacation was even more problematic for Bush because of the protests led by Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist whose son was killed in Iraq. Sheehan camped out on the road leading to Bush's ranch last year promising not to leave until he agreed to meet with her, drawing international news coverage and large numbers of supporters to Crawford, while helping to galvanize opposition to the war. She recently bought five acres near Crawford, which she plans to use as a base for future protests while Bush is in town. This year, with the crisis in the Middle East at a fever pitch, the carnage in Iraq continuing and even the first hurricane of the year brewing in the Caribbean, the president's schedulers left less room for this year's vacation to cause such political damage. Before going to his ranch, Bush stopped in McAllen, Tex., where he inspected Border Patrol equipment before delivering a speech in nearby Mission, Tex. He heralded the deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops along the border and called on Congress to enact his stalled proposal to revamp the nation's immigration laws. Bush said the initiative will work only if it includes both tougher enforcement and a temporary-worker program that would allow low-skill immigrants a legal path into the country. "We have an obligation to secure our borders, and we have an obligation to treat people with dignity and respect," he said. Over the weekend, Bush is scheduled to meet at his ranch with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Later in the week, he is scheduled to travel to Wisconsin for the day to campaign for Republican congressional candidate John Gard before returning to Washington on Aug. 13. White House press secretary Tony Snow said that "while everybody recognizes what happened with Katrina" the president's vacation schedule this year is "driven by sheer necessity." With a large number of GOP congressional seats in play and his party's ability to set the agenda in Congress in jeopardy, Snow said, Bush wants to be sure to be on the road to help raise money and get his message out in hopes of improving his approval ratings, which have been abysmal for much of the past year. Bush is not the first president to be criticized for spending time away from Washington. More than a century ago, Ulysses S. Grant was pilloried for his retreats to the Jersey Shore. President Bill Clinton often spent vacations at friends' homes in places such as Martha's Vineyard and twice vacationed in Jackson Hole, Wyo., a locale his political handlers said would play well among swing voters. President Lyndon B. Johnson spent 474 days at his Texas spread during his five-plus years as president, far surpassing the 370 days that Bush has spent in Texas since his election, according to U.S. News & World Report. White House aides are quick to point out that Bush remains in command even when he is far from the Oval Office. He continues to receive his normal security briefings and holds meeting with top aides and foreign leaders during his working vacations. The president also likes to use his down time to mountain-bike around his 1,500-acre ranch and to do chores such as clearing brush. "We've reached a point in the modern presidency where any vacation the president takes hurts in some way, because the world and the media move so fast," Fleischer said. " . . . The normal things that everyone else does, if the president does it he gets criticized." While Bush plans to curtail his long stretches away from Washington this year, he still plans to spend most of the coming month out of town. He has planned long weekends at Camp David and the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, for August, before returning to Texas before the Labor Day weekend. "The president certainly took some hits for being so relentlessly on vacation during Katrina," said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas political scientist. "One reason to break up the time away is to signal that there is some activity going on there."
WACO, Tex., Aug. 3 -- President Bush arrived here Thursday evening to begin a 10-day stretch at his Prairie Chapel ranch, his longest planned period away from Washington during this summer vacation season.
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Jewish Shops in Rome Vandalized
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ROME, Aug. 2 -- Jewish shops across Rome were vandalized and defaced with swastikas in an apparent neo-fascist attack linked to fighting in the Middle East, officials said, while Pope Benedict XVI issued an impassioned call from Vatican City for an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East, saying that "nothing can justify the spilling of innocent blood." Owners of about 20 shops in the center and outskirts of the Italian capital found door locks filled with glue, shutters nailed closed and swastikas on nearby walls Tuesday morning, said Riccardo Pacifici, a spokesman for Rome's Jewish community. Although not all the shops targeted were owned by Jews, the vandalism was apparently a reaction to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, Pacifici said. Fliers signed by a group calling itself Armed Revolutionary Fascists were left at the shops. They denounced "the Zionist economy" and included pro-Hezbollah slogans, Pacifici said. "There are still anti-Semites in Italy," Pacifici said. He said Italian Jewish organizations have been flooded with dozens of e-mails blaming Jews for violence in the Middle East. Mayor Walter Veltroni condemned the vandalism. Police officials declined to comment on the investigation. Last month, swastikas were spray-painted on walls in the Old Ghetto -- Rome's ancient Jewish neighborhood -- while hundreds of thousands gathered in the nearby Circus Maximus to celebrate Italy's victory in the World Cup. The pope, speaking Wednesday to 50,000 pilgrims in sun-drenched St. Peter's Square, said, "Our eyes are filled with the chilling images of torn bodies of so many people, especially children -- I am thinking in particular of Qana." Benedict was referring to the Israeli attack Sunday in the southern Lebanese town of Qana that killed more than 50 civilians, most of them women and children. It was the latest in a half-dozen peace appeals by the pontiff that have consistently included calls for an immediate cease-fire. He has spoken out on every public occasion since the fighting began three weeks ago, reminiscent of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who became a rallying point for critics of the Iraq war. But Benedict has made clear that attempts to reach a settlement should be left to diplomats "because we don't enter politics. . . . Our goal is simply peace, and we will do everything to help attain peace." The German-born pope has repeatedly stressed his interest in good relations with Jews, and last year visited a German synagogue destroyed by the Nazis. The Vatican is also concerned about the large Maronite Catholic community in Lebanon.
ROME, Aug. 2 -- Jewish shops across Rome were vandalized and defaced with swastikas in an apparent neo-fascist attack linked to fighting in the Middle East, officials said, while Pope Benedict XVI issued an impassioned call from Vatican City for an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East, saying...
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A Hatteras Fan Goes North To Try Out the Other Cape
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For somewhere I've never been, the scene is uncannily familiar: strolling an almost deserted stretch of wide, rustic national seashore with a group of friends as an intermittent rain dimples the sand. The beach is backed by a line of dunes, some marsh grass and then, beyond the park boundary, enviable homes. The Atlantic Ocean paws at the shoreline; sea mammals surface and retreat. We do this almost every summer on Cape Hatteras, N.C., but this is the other cape -- Cape Cod, Mass. -- where the mammals are gray seals, the Atlantic is butt-numbingly cold, and the property tax alone on some of the homes could buy a beachfront lot in North Carolina. A wedding brought me here, on this stormy June weekend, and I'm curious to see how this cape stacks up to Hatteras. I love the Outer Banks (the outer Outer Banks, really) for the wild coast, dominance of nature, clear, warm Gulf Stream waters and come-what-may pace of life. It's not that I've studiously avoided Cape Cod, but perhaps I did so unconsciously because a) I'm a cold-water wussy, b) the Massachusetts coast is a longer drive from D.C. than the Outer Banks and c) hearing every third person in New England boast of "summah on thah cape" left me with the worrying image of wall-to-wall Bostonians elbowing for towel space on the one stretch of beach not owned by a Kennedy. So where is everybody? "Oh, they'll be here," says Barb, the owner of Barbara's Bike and Blade, as we rent cycles near the entrance to Nickerson State Park, on the edge of the town of Brewster. "July and August are a zoo." Even now the place isn't deserted -- families and couples cruise along the rail trail that runs 22 miles along a string of cape towns -- but when we duck into Nickerson's trail system, especially the single-track, off-pavement trails, we have the better part of the 1,900-acre park to ourselves. We zip through the cool forest, enjoying two features that are largely absent on Hatteras: expansive woods and verifiable hills. (Cape Cod's relatively variable landscape -- it tops out at 289 feet abut sea level -- was kneaded by the Laurentide glacier as it retreated northward around 20,000 years ago.) The trails lead to a series of kettle ponds, pockets of clear fresh water formed by the melting of giant glacial ice cubes, and to dozens of primitive campsites, none occupied. According to Barb, these, too, fill up quickly in high season, but it still seems that Cape Cod, with 15 towns spaced over 400 square miles, a national seashore covering 43,608 acres of shoreline along with labyrinthine salt marshes and forest, can absorb a heavy tourist rush. Plus the cape, which resembles a human arm in full bicep flex, touches four major bodies of water -- the Atlantic, Nantucket Sound, Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay (which is, incidentally, one of the major fisheries for giant bluefin tuna) -- affording ample play space for anglers, whale watchers and water sports enthusiasts. Some of the towns, like Eastham, evoke Hatteras -- a few seafood shacks and kayak rental stands, maybe a gas station. But most towns have New England charm, rooted in early U.S. history, and the kind of quaint, expensive shops and galleries you'd expect in a Manhattan suburb. I didn't come here to shop, so we pop into a National Park visitors center next to the Salt Pond -- an old kettle pond-turned-salt-marsh -- for information on kayaking. Ranger Christopher Brett advises us against paddling at low tide -- "You'll do a lot of walking through the shallows" -- and offers another caution: "Certain times of summer, those greenheads [flies] can get bad. We've done [canoe] trips where people come back and their arms are literally bleeding from bites." My smug assurance that we have high-test bug spray draws a wry smile from Brett. "That's just an appetizer for those guys." But behind him, beyond a big picture window, the soft green and yellow grasses and blue waters of the Nauset Marsh widen toward the sea. In the distance we see the sun-brightened sands of the barrier islands.
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'Phantom' vs. 'Love': Which One Is All You Need?
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VENUE: Only in Vegas would a show's setting be part of the entertainment value. "Phantom" is housed in a $40 million theater -- tucked deep within the Venetian -- modeled on the Paris Opera House, complete with an opulent stage and a dome. Fabric covering the walls drops during the show's opening moments to reveal a gilded gallery of faux Parisians (pretty eerie, actually) standing in boxes on both sides of the audience. "Love" consumes Siegfried and Roy's old digs, which have been retrofitted (for more than $130 million, including the cost of the show) into a theater-in-the-round. Seats crowd the cross-shaped stage and soar to the ceiling (getting to the theater's nether regions requires a climb up dimly lit steps and much help from ushers clad like British bobbies, though Sherpas would also come in handy). Video screens, ropes, catwalks, lighting: Everything is exposed and, upon first view, tantalizing. MUSIC: You'd think this would be an easy call . . . and it is. "Phantom" is an 18-scene extravaganza that deflabs the Andrew Lloyd Webber Tony winner but keeps the tunes intact (Lloyd Webber and original director Harold Prince did the pruning themselves). They're all here, from "Angel of Music" to "Music of the Night," belted out beautifully by Broadway-caliber performers to a live orchestra. Still, Andrew has nothing on John, Paul, George and Ringo. More than 130 Beatles tunes -- dozens of snippets and fuller versions of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Hey Jude," "Lady Madonna," etc. -- have been incorporated into "Love," gorgeously remixed and remastered by original Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his son, Giles. It's often hard to tell where one song ends and the next begins. Further, an amazing sound system, including speakers built into the seats, envelops you in music. Simply astounding. It's hard to top the first few minutes of "Phantom," when its fabled, doomed chandelier assembles itself over the audience (its demise toward show's end is unexpectedly anticlimactic). But it tries mightily to keep impressing, with pyrotechnics, gorgeous sets (including the Phantom's glowing underground lair) and lush costumes. If you've seen Cirque -- part circus, part ballet, part who-knows-what-else -- you usually know what to expect: acrobats, trapeze artists, crazy costumes. But the circus aspect of "Love" is kept to a minimum, with more dancing than in other Vegas Cirque shows, such as "O." That's a good thing (if you've seen one spandexed performer twirling by her toes, you've seen 'em all). Not that "Love" always makes a lot of sense -- "Help!," for instance, features a bunch of guys hot-dogging on roller skates -- but it sure is fun to watch, and there are so many Beatles references tucked within the show's sophisticated mayhem that it would take several viewings to mine them. Highlights include "Octopus's Garden," when the darkened arena becomes the depths of the ocean, luminescent jellyfish floating through the air; "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," accompanied by thousands of tiny, synchronized lights dangling from above; and "Drive My Car," an exuberant free-for-all featuring the VW bug from the cover of "Abbey Road." CROWD: At a 7 p.m. Thursday performance of "Phantom," we were taken aback by the large number of children and young adults. We were even more surprised when just about everyone stuck around for the show's final two scenes after a malfunction prompted an unplanned 25-minute intermission. We expected the Friday crowd at the 10:30 p.m. "Love" to be more rambunctious (except for that 28-year-old birthday girl rocking out next to us). Instead, applause was oddly muted -- and were we the only ones singing along to "All You Need Is Love?" If so, sorry, everyone. VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS: We weren't under the dome or flanked by fake people, but from our $75 perch at "Phantom," we had a terrific panoramic view and could watch that chandelier shimmy without tilting our head. Our $69 "Love" seat was a row from the top but offered a grand perspective of the pandemonium below. Because the seating was so steep, there was nothing to block our view -- unless, of course, you count the video screens that descend from the rafters several times. Only once (during "Hey Jude") did we find them intrusive, and once was too much. BOTTOM LINE: If you liked "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway but were wondering "When will this end?," you'll love "Phantom." You get a rich, effects-laden theatrical experience, with plenty of time left to shoot craps in the casino. But unless you just don't get the Beatles, or don't enjoy music in general, or find endless spectacle tiring, you can't do better in Vegas these days than "Love." It's one of the best shows to hit the Strip in a long time. Tickets for "Phantom" (866-641-7469, http://www.phantomlasvegas.com) are $75 to $150; dark Tuesdays (starting Sept. 11, dark Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays). Tickets for "Love" (800-963-9634, http://www.mirage.com) are $69 to $150; dark Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
In Las Vegas, a heavyweight matchup: which show is better, Cirque du Soleil's "Love" or Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera"?
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Ask Tom
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In a city loaded with diverse restaurants, from New American chic and upscale Italian to sandwich shops and burritos on the run, finding the best places to eat can be a real puzzle. Where's the best restaurant for a first date or an anniversary? Father's Day? What's the best burger joint? Who has the best service? Ask Tom. Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post's food critic, was on hand Wednesdays at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions, listen to your suggestions and even entertain your complaints about Washington dining. Sietsema, a veteran food writer, has sampled the wares and worked as a critic in Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Milwaukee, and can talk restaurants with the best of 'em. You can access his Postcards from Tom to read his recommendations for other cities, read his dining column and the Weekly Dish or read transcripts of previous "Ask Tom" chats . Tom's Sunday magazine reviews, as well as his "Ask Tom" column, are available early on the Web. Tom Sietsema: NEWS TO CHEW ON: Andale, the Mexican-inspired restaurant in Penn Quarter, closed earlier this week, after a run of almost six years. The reason? One of its three business partners "decided he didn't want to be in the restaurant business anymore," according to chef Alison Swope, who has "no idea" what the future holds for her. Does she want to keep cooking? "Of course!," she told me yesterday afternoon. "What else am I going to do after 27 years?" Attention, area restaurants: As I type, Swope is trying to find jobs for her cooks, waiters and busboys, some of whom have been with her since before she even opened Andale. Charlie Bauer, chef at the two-star Rockfish in Annapolis, has been hired to massage the menu at Tony & Joe's Seafood Place in Washington Harbour, which is where he's spent the last three weeks. "I saw a lot of hard-working people and a busy restaurant," he says, "but it hadn't been updated in awhile." Among his changes, which he refers to as "baby steps" in Tony & Joe's evolution: Bouillabaise on the dinner menu, real albacore tuna instead of canned fish in the tuna salad at lunch, and fresh tropical fruit, ginger, and Creole sauces instead of compound butters for the grilled fish entrees. Also: "The baked potatoes in foil are gone." Maybe there's hope for waterfront dining after all ... Last but far from least, Ray's The Classics (8606 Colesville Road, Silver Spring; 301-588-7297) is FINALLY opening its doors to the general public this Thursday, August 3. Owner Michael Landrum's much-awaited restaurant, a spinoff of his wildly popular Ray's The Steaks in Arlington, has been quietly serving meals for the past four weeks, but only "to friends and family." Beginning next week, the 120-seat RTC --- which includes a bar called (what else?) Ray's The Bar -- will serve dinner Wednesday through Saturday for a few weeks, before expanding those days to include Tuesday night. On the range: Michael Hartzer, late of Michel Richard Citronelle. Better start dialing, foodies! (Or are we now calling 'em "gastronauts"?) Ready to rock? I am. Bring it on. DC 20037: What the heck is going on at Agraria? I had a pleasant meal there with friends two weeks ago. Loved the design of the place. Appetizers first rate. Entrees steady but not astonishing. Superb wine and drinks list. For a new place, in sum, pretty darn good. Yet Agraria seems to have been a magnet for bad press and now there are reports that the amazing Derek Brown (Palena and Firefly) is already packing up. I'm rooting for the place on principle (let's give it up for the American farmer!), but it seems to have had a rocky beginning.... Tom Sietsema: Rocky? I have to agree with you. I can't think of another restaurant that's had such a bumpy launch. Rumor has it that Mr. Brown, the dashing sommelier and host, is going to (garbled text). Too bad I'm not at liberty to spill any beans just now. But it's an upward move for him! I enjoy your chat every week even thought I don't always fully agree with you on some of the reviews. I just want to let you know that you nailed it on the Pigalle review. I normally give another chance to a restaurant when not pleased but this one will have to be the exception to the rule. I expressed my concerns and disappointment with the manager after dinner. Apparently, my criticism was not taken seriously. Tom Sietsema: Who says summer in Washington is boring or slow? I got a lot of feedback on that column, my first "poor" rating (zero stars) since I launched the star system three years ago. As bad as Le Pigalle is, I felt compelled to write about the place, given its owners and location. washingtonpost.com: Le Pigalle, (Post, July 30, 2006) Thai Rice is a unique yet endangered Thai restaurant in Frederick, Maryland. Beyond very good renditions of standard Thai dishes, Thai Rice offers a number of unusual and delicious menu items. For example, appetizers include nam tok (grilled beef salad); and a seafood salad with squid, scallops, and shrimp. Specials have been particularly good. This month's special, mango chicken, featured meltingly sweet mango cubes, spicy chili sauce, and thinly-sliced chicken breast over crisp lettuce. I have never seen this dish offered elsewhere. When dining at Thai Rice, I usually order something that I have never tried before. This strategy has been amply rewarded. Unfortunately, Thai Rice was nearly empty on a recent Friday night visit. If you can, please check out this restaurant. If you are as impressed as we are, you would be doing a great service by writing it up. Personal background: I fell in love with Thai food 20 years ago, and eat at Thai restaurants frequently. I also cook Thai food at home, including making Thai curry pastes from scratch with a mortar and pestle. I even brought fish sauce and Sriracha to the beach so I could make Thai beef salad and Thai omelets. Tom Sietsema: Thanks for the dining tip. I'm getting hungry. Minneapolis, Minn.: What kind of response have you gotten from the Le Pigalle review? Tom Sietsema: Half the people seem to heartily agree with me and half the people seem to despise me. Richmond, Va.: Tom, I just moved to Richmond from D.C. and am completely lost with the new restaurant scene. Any recommendations? Tom Sietsema: My food spies down there are encouraging me to get to Acacia (whose chef was a Food & Wine magazine "best chef" a few years back); Dogwood (American); North Belmont (French food by way of a Belgian chef); and Can Can (a brasserie that's supposedly great for people-watching). Georgetown, D.C.: Hi Tom. I had lunch at Chadwick's in G'Town yesterday, and noticed that its menu listed its locations as Georgetown and Old Town. It didn't mention Friendship Heights. Is that one closing? Good heavens, I hope not!! I've always thought Friendship Heights was the best one. Tom Sietsema: I drove by there last night and the lights were on. I think it's safe to say the FH location is open and serving. Washington, D.C.: Re: Pigalle.... How did you feel when you wrote that review? Were you hoping it was encouragement to do better? Have they tried to contact you to get you to come back? What happens to a restaurant with a BAD review? Good to see a bad one once in a while... Tom Sietsema: How did I feel? I was both angry and sad. The owners are guys who have been around and who know the drill. I expected SO much more from the place, given their experience. Very little of Le Pigalle makes sense to me. Not the food, not the design, not the service. I have heard nothing (personally) from the restaurant. It's funny, though. Sometimes, I get really nice feedback from places I've panned. Sometimes I get calls from chefs who didn't like what I had to say in the 14th paragraph of an otherwise glowing review. It really varies. As for Le Pigalle's future ... THEY determine the next step. Along with their neighbors and customers, of course. Steak Lunch?: Your pick (on expense account): Bobby Van's, Caucus Room, Charlie Palmer, Morton's, The Palm, Prime Rib, Ruth's Chris, Sam & Harry's or Smith & Wollensky? Tom Sietsema: That's easy: Charlie Palmer Steak Arlington, Va.: Of the many Vietnamese restaurants at Eden Center in Falls Church, which one(s) would you recommend or warn against? My husband and I are looking for some place authentic and not too pricey. Thanks! Tom Sietsema: Huong Que is probably the most reliable restaurant of the bunch, and it delivers great service along with very good shrimp toast, squid with sour cabbage and grilled meats. While you're at Eden Center, be sure to check out the Vietnamese sandwich maker, Nhu Lan, in the interior shopping mall there. The pork meatball sandwich is especially delicious -- and it's only $2.50! North Potomac, Md.: Hi Tom, My son loves the food of Moby Dick House of Kabob, especially their rice, the one w/ yellow and red spices. I tried to make it at home but don't know what kind of rice they use and how can cook it. Also, what kind of spices are they? Saffron? Could it be just as simple as steam it and mix w/ spices after that? Tom Sietsema: The manager of the Moby Dick in Bethesda tells me they use basmati rice -- which is first soaked for a day, in salted water -- then boiled (a rolling boil for a few minutes then 20 minutes on a simmer). The "yellow" is saffron threads; the "red" is sumac, a common (sweet-tart) Persian seasoning. Arlington, Va.: In June you said the food at Marrakesh wasn't all that great- can you offer an alternative for Moroccan? My boyfriend really wants to go but I don't want to waste our time/money. Tom Sietsema: For cheap eats, I head to the tiny Pyramids at 600 Florida Ave. NW. The lamb tagine and bisteeya are particularly good. For something dressier, I like Taste of Morocco in Silver Spring, which is much better than the original in Arlington these days. Arlington, Va.: Tom! I've been meaning to tell you this one for a few weeks. How To Make A Patron Feel Mortified And Never Want To Return, by a waiter at Pizzeria Paradiso in Georgetown. A dear but petite friend of mine and her boyfriend were taking her parents out for dinner. The parents were visiting from afar and my (again, petite) friend was showing them her independence by traipsing them around town for sightseeing and such. While she is short and has a tiny frame, she dresses like a young professional. At dinner the waiter brought her a kid's menu and a box of crayons. She is 20 years old. Tom Sietsema: I just got off the phone with PP's floor manager Kevin Longstreth, who said: "We don't have kids' menus and we don't stock Crayons." Washington, D.C.: Tom, Your review of Le Pigalle was, unfortunately, accurate. I could sum up both my experiences there as a comedy of errors. I just hope that they haven't resigned themselves to being a "starless" establishment just because of their coveted outdoor seating and fabulous people watching location. Which brings me to my real question - what is the deal with Lauriol? I mean, it's always a zoo there and people get dressed up to go there like they are seeking admission into a private club. The wait is ridiculous and the food is horrible. What are your thoughts? Tom Sietsema: Longtime chatters and lurkers know I don't feel too kindly toward Lauriol Plaza, which seems to get by on its good looks (eye candy) and pitchers of margaritas. Why people wait longer than two nanoseconds for a perch there is beyond me. Re: Le Pigalle: I think the problem is that the largely mediocre 17th street food allows places like Pigalle (and certainly Peppers before it, Fox & Hound, Food Bar, etc.) to stay in business. They're all there is for most of us who can't afford Sushi Taro, Hank's and Komi's every night. So they don't have to do better to keep folks coming. It's sad the new owners seem not to have wanted to do better -- your review was spot-on. Tom Sietsema: But cheap doesn't have to mean bad, does it? Chadwick's: I have heard that two different people each own two Chadwick's each. The Old Town owner is probably only announcing the location of his/her second one on their menu. Tom Sietsema: Aha! Thanks for weighing in. No sense promoting the competition, huh? Arlington, Va.: I wanted to just compliment the staff at Heritage India. I went there for my birthday and have never had such great service. I called to make reservations, but somehow they didn't get them so they seated us in the private dining room since we had a larger group. The manager was very attentive and was very patient and answered all our questions about the food. One dish was a little too spicy and he was great about taking it back and seeing if he could get something to replace it. After the meal they even served us a complimentary champagne toast. They really helped to make my birthday perfect. I will now recommend this place to anyone who asks where to get good Indian fare. Tom Sietsema: Which branch are you talking about? If it's the Glover Park location, hell has frozen over and the pope has eloped! Re:cheap doesn't have to mean bad: So true. Look at 18th Street in Adams Morgan where Meze, Amsterdam Falafel and Regent all offer up good, tasty fare for cheap. Tom Sietsema: Ah, thanks for the supporting evidence. Washington, D.C.: I have to admit I'm perplexed by the virulence of the comments about your Pigalle review. Hate? Discrimination? That's just weird. Anyway, my real question. Does Hank's have a bar of some sort? That's my neighborhood and sometimes I like to just grab dinner on my own, but I don't know if Hank's is single friendly. Help? Tom Sietsema: Hank's Oyster Bar has a bar, but it's TINY. I think there are no more than five stools there. Hot Outside: What do you eat when it is this hot outside? I pretty much stick to salads, fruits, and sushi (and ice cream!) but wondered if you had some dining-out musts during the warmer months? I'm hoping for an inspired citrus salad or perhaps some seafood recs. Tom Sietsema: Ceviche and margaritas are my recipe for fun! Rockville, Md.: Tom, Do you have an opinion of the Melting Pot? Tom Sietsema: You know what? I had a ball reviewing the fondue chain (the Washington location) a few years back. But it tends to be too much food for me. Dupont Circle, D.C.: Hi Tom, if you were a culinary student living in New York, in which kitchens or for which chefs would you most like to work, even if just as a prep cook to start? Tom Sietsema: Gosh, there are so many! Daniel would be interesting, for classical training. But I'd also want to prep/observe at The Modern, Gramercy Tavern, Jean-Georges, Masa, and Per Se. Among a dozen or so others. Silver Spring, Md.: Tom, WHAT is going on with Galileo? They should post an announcement on their Web site, or inform you when you call to make a reservation that their A/C is not working! This was my first trip, and I was really looking forward to it. First of all, it was too hot to even enjoy anything! The wine we selected was not available because their refrigeration was not working properly. Then the wine they did bring us could barely stay chilled in the 85 degree dining room! Our gelato melted before we could even finish it- how could anyone enjoy a meal in such heat? I was truly disappointed in the whole experience. Tom Sietsema: The restaurant is in a building that is being renovated, which explains the unfortunate problems (there have been several A/C meltdowns, I understand). But I'm told by Galileo's publicist that the dining room is cool again -- enough so that she put on a sweater this morning -- and that the chef himself brought in a solution, in the form of portable coolers. I agree: Diners should be told that the A/C isn't functioning ahead of time. But in a few cases, problems were fixed in time for dinner service, and the staff didn't want to turn away reservation-holders needlessly. I sympathize with both owner and diner (but mostly with the customer). Fox and Hound's Fan: As a frequenter of Fox and Hound's, I must point out that my friends and I go there to get cheap drinks before we head out to places a bit more expensive. Of course their food isn't world class, no one wants it to be. There is something to be said for cheap drinks and dive bars. Tom Sietsema: Hey, I love dives, too. Dives like Stoney's in the District and the Quarry House in Silver Spring remind us that good things can come from scrappy spots. Silver Spring, Md.: I have to chime in here about Heritage. Went recently for the first time in six months and the service was amazingly adequate. The manager stopped by several times and service was friendly and prompt. It was somewhat surreal as we have always loved the food, but rarely the service at the Glover Park location. Also, thanks for the tip about Ray's -- have been waiting and waiting and just got a reservation for Saturday night!!! Tom Sietsema: Wow, sounds as if I need to get back to the Heritage in Glover Park. In the past, I've always enjoyed the Indian food and lamented the service there. Have fork, but don't want to travel: You spoke very highly of the Sakuta's restaurant back in march of 2005. I am trying very hard to like this restaurant but the restaurant itself is making it hard for me. Do you know what happened to this place? Tom Sietsema: I was sad to return to 21P earlier this year and find a menu that was so up and down, really uneven. I still like the look of the place, though, and would recommend it for drinks in the bar. Love that skinny counter facing the sidewalk! Washington, D.C.: Tom, pretty PLEASE answer this question! I'm going to San Francisco tomorrow for 2 days. I have reservations at Town Hall, Range and Slanted Door. Good choices? I'm not a huge seafood fan so 2 of your postcard recs didn't thrill me. Thanks a million! Tom Sietsema: I haven't been to Town Hall. Range is fun and delicious. Slanted Door is more fun than delicious. Maybe you can get a reservation at Delfina, one of my fave Italian destinations? Re: 17th St corridor: You're right that cheap doesn't have to be bad, but it is the cheap that keeps people coming back, so they have no real reason to improve on the bad. I also have a feeling that many of the discernments you make about food, with your trained pallet, are invisible to the majority of Washingtonians, me included. Tom Sietsema: 1) "Cheap keeps people coming back." You have a point. 2) "Most people have no sense of taste." Gosh, I have to disagree with you there, at least as far as so many of my readers are concerned. D.C. and feeling bad: We had a bad experience at Cafe Milano I need to ask you about. We called at 10:15 last night to find out how late they were serving. The nice woman who answered the phone explained that they served dinner until 11 and thereafter served lighter food. We got to the restaurant about 4 minutes later, said hi to the woman and told her that we were the folks who had just called. The snooty fellow who's often at the desk took one look at us and said that they had stopped serving -- and the woman looked at him dumbstruck. Clearly, he did not want to serve us -- perhaps because we we were two adults and two teenage kids (who, incidentally, eat more and more expensively than we do). We pressed the issue,the woman looked more and more uncomfortable, and the man basically did everything he could to get us to leave. We've eaten at Cafe Milano a lot over the years, with our (very well behaved) kids and without, and we're not inclined to return. Are we wrong? Tom Sietsema: If I'm getting all the details -- no. I was wondering if it is possible to predict when Galileo's Grill might be open? I've signed-up for the e-mail, but I'm dying to try his sandwiches and cannoli! In regards to the Vienna question from last week, a great and authentic area to enjoy real Viennese food and wine is in the Grinzing district (district #19) of Vienna. Take short trolley ride to this quaint area where you can experience traditional heurigen taverns, which sell their own wine (look for the pine branch above the establishment's door that indicates it's a real heurigen tavern) and great food at a great value. It's a wonderful area to not feel quite so much like a tourist. It's especially lovely in the summer. Tom Sietsema: Galileo's grill is open today and tomorrow. Danke schoen for the Vienna suggestion. Since you've never steered us wrong before, we thought we would throw this questions out to you. My fiancee and I are looking for a restaurant to host our wedding reception. We are looking for a place with personality - both in the food that is served and the decor. Firefly in DC is on the list along with 2941 in Falls Church. We would welcome any other suggestions. Thanks! Tom Sietsema: Gosh, Firefly and 2941 are two very different scenes. If it's "personality" you're after, consider Charlie Palmer Steak, 1789, the Oceanaire Seafood Room, maybe Vidalia or Zola. Washington, D.C.: Hi Tom - Heading to Tabaq on U Street this weekend. Still a quality place for dinner? How is the service - attentive? Thanks! Tom Sietsema: Hate to say this, but I'm not getting great feedback re: Tabaq of late. It was mentioned recently, but wanted to be sure that Del Merei Grill in Del Ray, Alexandria gets all the praise it deserves. If Del Merei were in D.C. it would be mentioned this chat every week. We ate dinner there Sunday night and it was terrific. Our party had the crab cakes (far and away the best in the area) and lamb special. Of course, everyone enjoyed their sides (cheesy grits, mac n cheese, and mashed potatoes). We finished off our meal with one slice of peach caramel pie and one slice of blueberry pie. Very good service too. Tom Sietsema: Peach caramel pie? I'm there! Kids in Restaurants - Part II: Tom - a few weeks ago I posted regarding my feelings on kids in restaurants. One poster did not share my feelings, and that was expected as any negative comment about children instantly and unfairly labels you anti-child. That said.... The other evening we were at Corduroy - not a kids place - and a family came in with one very loud, operatic 2 year old. He had the entire restaurants attention with his once-a-minute siren-like scream burst. It was, as one or our table mates said, "Unreal." The parents - and I've never seen this before - left the restaurant in 10 minutes. They never even ordered. While this is going to sound callous and sure to inflame some of your readers, I applaud this family for doing what many would feel is the right thing. In other restaurant situations - even these family restaurants that cater to kids - they got their kid out of the restaurant knowing that he was a distraction to the other diners. While I'm sure the parents weren't happy about this, they realized that they were making ~ 80 other people less happy. Thanks for hearing this out, and I hope that parents of small children will take note of this exceptional (used in the meaning of "uncommon" and not "above average") act. Tom Sietsema: As I've said before, I love seeing (well-behaved) kids eating with their families in restaurants. I also believe inappropriate behavior should not be tolerated. In this situation, it's too bad one of the parents couldn't leave with the little screamer for "time out" and return to order/eat with the rest of the tribe. Washington, D.C.: My 18 year old son is working as a line cook at a major DC restaurant before he goes to cooking school in the fall. My problem: I can't seem to get the grease/food smell out of his chef's pants no matter what product I use or how many times I wash them. Any advise from the front lines? Tom Sietsema: Stains and smells. I feel like Heloise! I bet a cook in our midst can address your question. Washington, D.C.: Hi, Tom. I will be in Shanghai in a couple of weeks for work. I didn't see a Postcard for Shanghai, but I was hoping you might have a recommendation for a restaurant that I shouldn't miss while I'm there. Thanks for your help! Tom Sietsema: Shanghai is on my list of cities I'm eager to explore. Chatters? Has anyone in the peanut gallery been there? Fredricksburg, Va.: Hi Tom, I am having my wedding reception at Sequoia (we have the entire restaurant rented out) and was wondering if you think it's going to be better than a regular night out. I read your reviews from last week and worry about the food. Please let me know what you think. Tom Sietsema: Yikes. Honestly, I've not heard one good thing about Sequoia in at least three years. For Richmond, Va.: Hi Tom, I'm a D.C. transplant to Richmond, as well, and your recommendations were spot on (though I haven't tried 1 N. Belmont). I would add Comfort, which has delicious and reasonably priced comfort food (surprise) and the best banana pudding I've ever tried. Tom Sietsema: Thanks for adding a promising tip to our list. If going to the grill at Roberto's : be ready when you get to the counter. He is generally in good humor but is trying to serve a lot of people in a short time. Tom Sietsema: And leave the chat NOW if you want bread with your meatball sandwich! Summer in the city: Do restaurants lose business in this heat where no one wants to go outside or walk very far? Tom Sietsema: Most taxis are air-conditioned! A number of restaurants have told me they're really busy this summer. Good news for the dining scene. 17th street: Food-wise, 17th Street is no-man's land. We used to live in the neighborhood and walked through again recently. All of the horrible places were still there without any motivation to improve. And as for the Hound, no one should ever expect good food there. But cheap beer, yes, and maybe a chocolate shake on a day like today. Tom Sietsema: Don't forget Hank's and Sushi-Taro! Restaurant Week: Tom, Is it poor form to bring a cake to a friend's birthday dinner which is taking place at a restaurant participating in restaurant week? I made reservations before learning that the restaurant is participating in restaurant week. I want to make my friend's celebration special and of course I would ask the restaurant before bringing the cake, but I just want to avoid any embarrassment by asking if it is totally inappropriate. Tom Sietsema: You always want to call ahead on these matters. The restaurant might have a great pastry chef. Be prepared to pay for a "cake slicing" fee, too -- similar to a corkage fee for folks who bring their own vino to restaurants. Blue Duck Tavern: Have you been yet? I'm dying to know how it is; one of my all-time loves was Melrose. Tom Sietsema: I've been. Four times. My review runs August 20. Penn Quarter: Hi Tom! My fellow interns are looking for a place nearby to have a end-of-summer lunch. Something casual that can accommodate around 20 of us. What should we do? Tom Sietsema: Try Jaleo, the basement at Teaism or Rosa Mexicano. I have been cooking for sometime now and the best way to get rid of those pesky smells and stains off chef paints is soaking them in Oxy Clean and then using Tide. Always works! Tom Sietsema: Brought to you by Proctor & Gamble! Washing (ton), D.C.: Regarding the chatter who wanted to get the greasy smell out of clothes, try Win Detergent (I got it online but many running stores have it). It is formulated for athletes who have smelly clothes. I'm training for a marathon and it has really worked for me (no more details necessary this close to lunch). Do a google search for it. Tom Sietsema: What a smart (and obviously clean-smelling) bunch we have here. Washington, D.C.: Hi Tom, a question on your postcards -- when you travel abroad, to Shanghai for example, how do you decide where to go in such a huge city? Do you use travel guides, recommendations, try every hole in the wall you see? I can't imagine traveling to a foreign city and coming back with a solid opinion of its restaurants. Tom Sietsema: As I plan, I spend hours interviewing people who have just been to a place, reading recent guides and travel magazines, calling chefs and critics, etc. So when I land, I pretty much know where I'm going to spend every meal, although I always like to leave some wiggle room for the unexpected, last-minute dining tip. If I'm only spending 72 hours in Paris or Oaxaca or Los Angeles, I don't have time for bad meals. And I tend to invite pals along for the ride, to help me eat. Washington, D.C.: THIS JUST IN (hope I'm on time): The Prime Rib is suspending the requirement of jackets and ties until further notice due to the heat. Never thought I'd see the day! Now why did they have to do it when I'm out of town and can't take advantage...... I've never, ever, seen the Prime Rib relax its dress code. Heritage nice? Prime Rib relaxed? Who thought we'd see the day? I'm outta here. See you next Wednesday! 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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101453.html
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Much Undone In Rebuilding Iraq, Audit Says
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NASIRIYAH, Iraq, Aug. 1 -- A flailing Iraq reconstruction effort that has been dominated for more than three years by U.S. dollars and companies is being transferred to Iraqis, leaving them the challenge of completing a long list of projects left unfinished by the Americans. While the handover is occurring gradually, it comes as U.S. money dwindles and American officials face a Sept. 30 deadline for choosing which projects to fund with the remaining $2 billion of the $21 billion rebuilding program. More than 500 planned projects have not been started, and the United States lacks a coherent plan for transferring authority to Iraqi control, a report released Tuesday concludes. In some cases, Iraqis are having to take over projects from American construction firms that were removed from jobs because of poor performance. For example, in Nasiriyah, about 300 miles southeast of Baghdad, the Iraqi firm Al-Basheer Co. was recently given a prison-construction contract that a huge American conglomerate, Parsons Global Services Inc., lost. Parsons was six months overdue with the project and had completed only a third of the job. "This is the fourth quarter" of the U.S.-led reconstruction, said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, whose office is issuing the report. "The Iraqis are going to have to develop their own system." As the handoff proceeds, there are questions about exactly what it is the Iraqis will inherit and how a government plagued by corruption can restore confidence in a rebuilding program that has been dogged by corruption allegations from the start. Bowen's report makes clear that while the rebuilding campaign has achieved some successes, hundreds of jobs remain incomplete and many key projects hang in limbo. The United States has completed 82 percent of its planned projects, having spent $15 billion. Those funds have brought oil and electricity production above prewar levels. They have given 5 million more people access to sanitized water. And they have paid for more than 1,200 security facilities such as fire and police stations. The reconstruction program, though, is also littered with notable failures. A project to create more than 140 primary health-care centers resulted in 20 so far. Baghdad residents still have about eight hours of electricity per day, less than they did before the war, even as power supplies improve in other parts of the country. And a crucial oil pipeline that could have brought the fledgling Iraqi government nearly $15 billion in badly needed revenue remains more than two years behind schedule. With more than two-thirds of reconstruction funds spent and more than 90 percent already directed to specific projects, reconstruction officials are reckoning with the fact that they will not accomplish all they had hoped. Security costs are a major reason why, but Bowen's office has reported that mismanagement and poor planning also played a role. Some projects will be left for the international community to fund or for the Iraqi government to finance with oil revenue. The United States will continue to spend money on reconstruction in Iraq through the U.S. Agency for International Development, but the flow of funds in future years is expected to be a fraction of what it has been. To lawmakers, the U.S.-directed reconstruction has fallen well short of expectations. "This story is a very disappointing one. Everywhere you look, goals have not been achieved," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who will hold a hearing on the reconstruction today. "I don't think we can ever get back the billions of dollars that have been lost to poor planning, outright fraud and corruption."
NASIRIYAH, Iraq, Aug. 1 -- A flailing Iraq reconstruction effort that has been dominated for more than three years by U.S. dollars and companies is being transferred to Iraqis, leaving them the challenge of completing a long list of projects left unfinished by the Americans.
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Soldier Testifies About Comrades' Threats
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BAGHDAD, Aug. 2 -- An American soldier testified Wednesday that comrades threatened to kill him if he disclosed their roles in the slaying of three Iraqi detainees in May in northern Iraq. Pfc. Bradley L. Mason, 20, said at a military hearing in Tikrit that Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard threatened him on May 10, the day after the Iraqis were shot dead in a raid on a suspected base of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq near Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad. "He said that if I say anything, he'd kill me," Mason said, according to a pool report. Later that day, Mason said, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett told him that Girouard "won't have to kill me because he'll kill me." The case is one of several to surface in recent months in which U.S. service members have been accused of wrongfully killing Iraqi civilians, including an alleged massacre in Haditha and charges that five U.S. soldiers raped and murdered a 15-year-old girl near Mahmudiyah. The allegations have prompted strong denunciations from Iraqi leaders and critics of the U.S. military presence here. The testimony came as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani declared that Iraqi forces would assume control over the nation's security by year's end, even as thousands of U.S. soldiers are now flooding into Baghdad to quell sectarian violence and try to return order to the capital. "We are highly optimistic that we will terminate terrorism this year," Talabani said at a news conference. "The Iraqi forces will take over security in all Iraqi provinces by the end of this year gradually, and if God's will, we will take the lead." Girouard, Clagett, Spec. William B. Hunsaker and Spec. Juston R. Graber have all been charged with murder and other offenses in connection with the killing of the three Iraqis. All but Graber are also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly threatening to kill Mason. All of the accused are members of the Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Mason delivered his testimony during a so-called Article 32 hearing, after which a military court will rule whether there is sufficient evidence to court-martial the four defendants. Mason, a witness for the prosecution, was granted immunity to testify. Mason testified that, during the May 9 raid, Girouard told his squad that Clagett and Hunsaker were going to kill three detainees who had been handcuffed. Clagett and Hunsaker "just smiled," said Mason, who said he objected to Girouard. "I told him I'm not down with it. It's murder," he said.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 2 -- An American soldier testified Wednesday that comrades threatened to kill him if he disclosed their roles in the slaying of three Iraqi detainees in May in northern Iraq.
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For Castro, a First Step In Calculated Transition
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Cuban leader Fidel Castro's appointment of his younger brother, Raul, to take over temporarily as president and head of the Communist Party marks the beginning of a long-planned transition designed to maintain iron-fisted control of the island after Fidel Castro's eventual death, administration and intelligence officials said yesterday. "This is their transition plan out for a test drive, a dress rehearsal," one intelligence official said of the surprise announcement Monday night that the Cuban leader had undergone surgery for intestinal bleeding and had relinquished "provisional" power to his brother. Neither Fidel Castro, whose 80th birthday is on Aug. 13, nor Raul, 75, made public appearances yesterday. Meanwhile, the government moved to quell rumors reaching Havana from the jubilant Cuban American community in Miami that Fidel was on the verge of death or had died. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who fled Cuba as a young boy after Castro took over in 1959, said that "it's certainly possible he's not alive now." But White House spokesman Tony Snow said the administration had "no reason to believe" Castro was dead. In a statement that was attributed to Castro and read on Cuban state television last night, the Cuban leader said he was in "stable condition" and "as for my spirits, I feel perfectly fine." The streets of Havana appeared calm, according to news accounts and sources reached by telephone, and few Cuba experts predicted unrest. The government has taken a harder line against the island's small opposition movement in recent years, most notably cracking down on dissidents and jailing dozens who have spoken out against Castro or the communist system in the past. The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy were preparing to block any effort by exiles to storm the island as uncertainty mounted over Castro's condition, according to Martinez, who said he had been briefed on the plans. He compared the situation to that of Spain during the protracted death throes in 1975 of dictator Francisco Franco, whose demise "sort of trickled out day after day." The Cubans seem to have given some thought to ensuring their announcement projected calm and continuity, one intelligence official said. The statement issued over Castro's signature late Monday said that hard work "with scarcely any sleep" last month had provoked "an intestinal crisis" requiring "complicated" surgery. He indicated the surgery had taken place and said he would be "resting for several weeks." Administration officials noted that Castro delivered a two-hour, twenty-minute speech last Wednesday and speculated he had suffered a sudden flare-up of an ulcer or diverticulitis. He has been in visibly declining health for some time and suffers from Parkinson's disease, according to the CIA. It has long been assumed in Washington and Havana that Raul would take his brother's place. Castro himself announced in early June that his brother was his chosen successor. "This is an opportunity for them to see how this would work," said the intelligence official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. "They're looking at [their own] streets, neighborhoods and places beyond, seeing how people, foreign governments and Cuban Americans react." Administration officials said they did not expect a change in President Bush's hard-line position of economic sanctions and limited contact with Cuba. In the absence of firm information out of Havana, they restricted their comments to repeating standing policy calling for democratic elections. Snow cautioned against what he called "questions that are premised on the death of somebody who is not dead." Three weeks ago, the administration released a 40-page report by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, with recommendations to hasten the end of Castro's government and assist a future transition to democracy. This year's report from the three-year-old presidential commission, now jointly headed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, pledged $80 million in new funding to aid opposition and democratic forces, including Miami-based broadcasts of Radio Marti, but it offered no new policy initiatives. It warned of Castro's growing alliance with the populist government of Hugo Chávez, president of oil-rich Venezuela, which it called a "Castro-led axis" designed to insulate the Cuban regime from democratic and economic pressures and subvert existing Latin American democracies. In comments reported yesterday by Prensa Latina, the Cuban government news service, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón said celebrations over Castro's supposed death by "mercenaries and terrorists" in Miami "make me vomit." Alarcón, a longtime aide to the Cuban leader, said that "imperialism ignores the magnitude of Fidel Castro" and that Castro would always fight until "the last moment." But that moment, Alarcón said, "was still far away." In addition to avoiding panic at home or abroad, Monday night's statement by Castro appeared to designed to head off any suggestion of a power struggle in Havana. Powerful younger figures, including Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and economic policy chief Carlos Lage Dávila were instructed to continue work on Castro's priorities of health, education and energy under Raul Castro's leadership. Raul Castro already holds a variety of government and party titles, including defense minister, and is the commanding general of the Cuban armed forces. Although less public than his older brother, he already wielded great power behind the scenes. He has overseen Cuba's military since the beginning, his influence rising as he also gained control over the police force. He has recently begun overseeing tourism -- one of the island's greatest revenue generators -- and placed his military allies in key positions throughout the government. "There has been a kind of Raul-ista transition in Cuba for some time," said Mark Falcoff, author of the book "Cuba, the Morning After." "From an institutional point of view, this transition is already fairly well advanced." Raul lacks his brother's public flair, but he is known as a deft consensus-builder who has developed a large cadre of loyal followers during the past four decades. "He has the loyalty of the senior officer corps," said Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst and author of the book "After Fidel." "His leadership and management style are very different from his brother's. He earns loyalty and keeps it." Raul Castro has a "duality of personality," Latell said, "a harsh, brutal, cruel side and a lesser-known sympathetic and compassionate side. The question is which of the two emerges." The larger question in the minds of many observers is what will happen if both Castro brothers leave the scene. Although five years younger than his brother, Raul, too, is widely believed to be in poor health. Roig-Franzia reported from Antigua, Guatemala.
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The Passion Of the Apology
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Four days after he went into an anti-Semitic tirade during an arrest for drunk driving, Mel Gibson apologized yesterday for the first time to "the Jewish community," while the controversy built in Hollywood and fueled speculation about the Oscar winner's future. "I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge," Gibson said in a written statement released by his spokesman, Alan Nierob. "I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot," Gibson's statement continued. "Hatred of any kind goes against my faith. I'm not just asking for forgiveness. I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing." Gibson added that he had begun an unspecified "program of recovery" and asked "the Jewish community" for help "in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display." Those "vicious words" were uttered to James Mee, the sheriff's deputy who arrested Gibson at 2:30 Friday morning for driving 80 mph on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu with a blood-alcohol level later measured at 0.12 percent. (The state legal limit is 0.08.) "[Expletive] Jews," Gibson said, according to a police report later leaked to TMZ.com, a celebrity news Web site. "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the cop: "Are you a Jew?" As it happened, the cop is. The star's movie "The Passion of the Christ" was attacked as anti-Semitic, and critics have pointed out that his father, Hutton, has called the Holocaust "fiction." ABC announced yesterday it had scrapped plans to produce a miniseries on the Holocaust with Gibson's production company -- but that deal was already in limbo, languishing in development for two years without even a completed script. Yesterday's apology was the blockbuster sequel to Gibson's first apology, which came Saturday before the details of his tirade became famous. In Apology I, the star said only that he had made unspecified statements that "I do not believe to be true and which are despicable." Apology I was judged to be "insufficient" and "unremorseful" by Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. Foxman, who had criticized "Passion" as an incitement to anti-Semitism, posted a statement on the ADL's Web site: "We would hope that Hollywood would now realize the bigot in their midst and that they will distance themselves from the anti-Semite." But Foxman was more impressed with Apology II. "We are glad that Mel Gibson has finally owned up to the fact that he made anti-Semitic remarks and his apology sounds sincere," Foxman said in a statement. "Once he completes his rehabilitation for alcohol abuse, we will be ready and willing to help him with his second rehabilitation to combat this disease of prejudice." Gibson's agent yesterday indicated his client was availing himself of help as an outpatient. Gibson's latest apology did not change the views of Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel, who said through a spokesman that he stood by his earlier statement that folks in Hollywood ought to be "shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line." Others in Hollywood disagreed with Emanuel. "Any types of call of that nature fly in the face of what free speech is," said veteran producer Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Entertainment, in a phone interview from Hawaii, where he is vacationing. "Anybody trying to prevent anybody from being gainfully employed is distasteful to me. . . . Any type of vigilante justice or political pressure meted out by a business community would be wrong and ill-advised."
Get style news headlines from The Washington Post, including entertainment news, comics, horoscopes, crossword, TV, Dear Abby. arts/theater, Sunday Source and weekend section. Washington Post columnists, movie/book reviews, Carolyn Hax, Tom Shales.
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Peak Season
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The local 'lopes are coming in, the corn has arrived, the peaches are darn near perfect. If ever there were a time to celebrate the bounty of the mid-Atlantic region, and the farmers who bring it to our urban and suburban neighborhoods, it's now. And so we do, thousands of us. We get up on Saturday at the C of D (that's crack of dawn) for the big market in the heart of Alexandria, sign up for the Arlington Farmers Market weekly e-mail so we won't miss when the garlic shows up (now!), give up our Sunday sleep-in to hit the Dupont Circle FreshFarm food extravaganza. Some of the 87 farmers markets and stands that we named in our annual listing back in late April are producer-only, meaning everything is grown by the farmers who come to market, while other markets permit importing of such things as bananas to give customers the convenience of one-stop shopping. Some markets boast 100 vendors; others are one lone truck from, say, a diversified farm in Pennsylvania. For the most part, people shop at the farmers market that's convenient to their home or work -- in fact, that's the point. But some markets are, as the Michelin Guides say, "worth the trip." And not just for what's for sale (see Foraging, on Page 5), but for the vendors themselves. Farmers are an idiosyncratic bunch -- they'd almost have to be in order to make their way in the world by applying heavy doses of ferrous oxide (in the form of a hoe) to Mother Earth. Their crustiness can compete with their enthusiasm for their trade to produce an interesting experience for their customers. Take James and Mary Van der Woude Hill of Van der Woude Hill Farm in Catlett, Va., who sell at the producer-only Archwood Green Barns Farmers Market in The Plains in Fauquier County. The Hills sell eggs and honey from their 10 hives, also wool taken from the Cotswold sheep and Nubian goats they raise. Those goats produce goat cheese as well, but that prize is not sold. Rather, after a lengthy and complicated dust-up with state agriculture officials, it is given out to customers -- a kind of gift with purchase, for those familiar with cosmetics counters. The Hills also sell goat herd shares to those who want a steady supply of goat milk and cheese. Stan Edmister of Midtrees Farm also sells out of Archwood Green Barns, but at the moment not the " 'shrooms," as he calls them, that earned him the nickname "Mushroom Guy." While he awaits guidance from the state ag officials, he is concentrating on offering both grass-fed and grain-finished Angus beef. "My cattle are not an industrial product," he said in an e-mail. "They eat grass and clover, drink my well water and get fat. It's the old way of raising livestock from the land." He sells them, he says, "in a vain attempt to generate enough funds to pay my property tax." Archwood Green Barns isn't all niche products: Chester Hess, of C. Hess Orchard & Produce of Martinsburg, W.Va., has plenty of corn, heirloom tomatoes, squash, potatoes, peaches and melons to keep the crowds happy. Up at the Takoma Park Farmers Market, Jerry Worrell of Ferry Landing Farm and Apiary in Dunkirk sells honey and beeswax candles. Which is a good thing, because his farm-fresh eggs are likely to be sold out in the first hour of the day. Worrell also sells his wares at the market in Riverdale Park. Eggs of a different dimension altogether are what Steve Morgan of Mechanicsville sells at the Charlotte Hall Farmers Market & Auction in St. Mary's County. He deals in quail and their tiny eggs. Morgan didn't want to be photographed but some of his Amish neighbors in Mechanicsville were more sanguine, including Henry Stoltzfus, who is among the farmers who have set up at the North St. Mary's County Farmers Market in the nearby Charlotte Hall library parking lot. His wares are a good bit less exotic -- apple pies, eggs and fresh corn, plus other produce. Some farmers spread out, the better to sell their wares. Lana and Joseph Edelen of the 96-acre Homestead Farm in Faulkner, in Charles County, raise and sell regular produce (if one can call free-range blue-green eggs from Araucana hens "regular"), but they also have a subspecialty -- ethnic eggplants, including Ichiban, a slender purple variety; garden egg, originally from Africa; neon, a French version; and Kermit Thai. The Edelens sell their products at the Bowie Farmers Market, at the Howard County Farmers Market at Mount Pisgah, in Gaithersburg, Kentlands, Falls Church and La Plata. Kathy Audia of Audia Farms has her own specialty she's experimenting with -- three kinds of currants (red, black and white), plus gooseberries and perhaps enough figs to bring to Takoma Park's Sunday market next year. As befits a farmers market catering to urban sophisticates, the 10-year-old Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market specializes in the unusual, such as baby artichokes from Sunnyside Farm & Orchard and kiwis and figs at Next Step Produce. In addition to soft-shell crabs and catfish, Buster's Seafood has, on occasion, live eels. At Dupont, Cibola Farms offers buffalo, goat, pork, chicken and rabbit. For the past six years, Paul Stephan, co-owner of Blue Ridge Dairy, has sold fresh mozzarella cheese. This year he added a tangy, yogurt-like product he calls Yo-Fresh. "Now it's our biggest seller," he says. Says market president and co-founder Ann Harvey Yonkers: "It's our geographic diversity that makes us unique. Our farmers come, not only from Maryland and Virginia, but from West Virginia and Pennsylvania. That gives us a longer season for a lot of vegetables." For other markets, the source of richness is closer to home. Says Joseph Edelen of Homestead Farm: "The customers make Howard County market special." Frequent contributor David Hagedorn and staff writers Bonnie S. Benwick, Judith M. Havemann, Marcia Kramer and Walter Nicholls contributed to this report. For locations and hours of operation of local farmers markets, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/food.
The local 'lopes are coming in, the corn has arrived, the peaches are darn near perfect. If ever there were a time to celebrate the bounty of the mid-Atlantic region, and the farmers who bring it to our urban and suburban neighborhoods, it's now.
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Free Range on Food
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A chat with the Food section staff is a chance for you to ask questions, offer suggestions and share information with other cooks and food lovers. It is a forum for discussion of food trends, ingredients, menus, gadgets and anything else food-related. Each chat, we will focus on topics from the day's Food section. You can also read the transcripts of past chats . Do you have a question about a particular recipe or a food-related anecdote to share? The Food section staff goes Free Range on Food every Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET. Read about the staff of the Food section . Walter: Welcome chatters to this week's Free Range. I hope you're by a pool or at the beach because we are frying in the Federal City. And speaking of frying, we're ready to take on your questions and comments. There are few of us at the controls this day but we will try our best. The best question of the day will receive, in honor or the Castro transition, Havana Salsa, Stories and Recipes by Viviana Carballo. Jane: Greetings, all. I'm Jane Touzalin, and I've joined the Food section and the weekly chat. Nice to be here! Madison, Wis.: I have two big green bell peppers at home and I don't know what to do with them. I am sick of stir-fries. I was thinking of making stuffed peppers, but I can't find a recipe that appeals to me. Any ideas? Thanks! Jane: Here's a recipe we ran in 1999. It calls for four peppers, but you could easily cut it in half. It's credited to Christopher Robinson of Sunnyside Farm and Orchard in Charles Town, W.Va. This filling entree is an ideal vegetarian meal. 2 large avocados, peeled, seeded and diced 1/4 cup (about 2 ounces) ricotta cheese 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled 2 tablespoons chopped tarragon or dill Freshly ground black pepper to taste 1 cup cooked large-grain couscous Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill a baking dish with 1 inch of water; fit a rack inside the dish. Trim the stem ends of the peppers, leaving the peppers intact. Scoop out the seeds and discard. Stand the peppers upright. In a large bowl, mix together the avocado, ricotta and feta cheeses, oregano, thyme, tarragon or dill, garlic, oil and pepper to taste. Add the couscous and combine. Scoop a portion of the stuffing mixture into each pepper. Stand the peppers on the baking rack and sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese. Bake the peppers until they are slightly soft to the touch and the filling is hot, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately. Baltimore, Md.: Great article on Indian simmer sauces. Patak's yellow Korma sauce is my favorite. I hate to cook in the hot weather, so I grilled a whole lot of chicken and pork on the weekend, cut it up and refrigerated it. Now I can make quick dinners all week with some rice or pasta, veggies, meat, and a sauce. Jane: The writer of that article, Stephanie Witt Sedgwick, isn't with us today but she'll be glad to hear you liked it. I've been eyeing those simmer sauce bottles on the store shelves. The story inspired me to make chicken tikka masala. Annandale, Va.: Hi, I really enjoy your chats and hope you can help me. I bought a prepackaged assortment of wonderful peppers (some sweet, some hot) from a farmer's market and am not sure what to do with some of them. We grilled the sweet ones, but are left with banana peppers, some jalapenos (I think), and a few others I'm not sure what they are. It's too hot for chili - any ideas? Walter: Tomatoes and peppers go so well together. How about a salsa or a gazpacho with a little kick? Start with a little finely diced pepper and find your heat level. Jane: A cook from Arlington asks: Thanks for your article about DC area farmers markets. I look forward to the Court House farmers market each Saturday morning. Last Saturday morning, I noticed purslane, an ingredient that I had just seen in a lamb and lentil stew recipe from Paula Wolfert. Intrigued, I bought a small batch, not really knowing how I would use it. As I was paying for it, the vendor reached into her van and pulled out a photocopied article from a recent NY Times article about purslane (a very nice gesture). It contained one recipe for a chickpea and purslane salad and described what purslane is -- a weed in the succulent family that grows profusely in many parts of the world and is commonly used in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking. I didn't get extremely adventuresome with my first preparation -- I made a salad with the purslane, halved cherry tomatoes, a sherry vinaigrette, and shaved parmesan reggiano on top. The purslane is quite tart/sour, and though I enjoyed the salad, I'm curious about other preparations. Do you or the chatters have any other recommendations for purslane? I've done some Internet recipe searching but haven't come up with too much. Any advice would be appreciated before I head back to the farmers market this Saturday! Thanks for the question. Purslane -- good choice! It's tasty and versatile, plus it's rich in antioxidants and beta-carotene. It grows wild in our area, so if you're adventurous you can probably harvest some right in your neighborhood. We ran a purslane story, with four recipes, in June of 2002. Here's one of the recipes: Springtime Purslane and Pea Soup Served either hot or cold, this soup makes an elegant first course when garnished with a dollop of creme fraiche, sour cream or plain yogurt. It also makes a satisfying lunch when partnered with bread and cheese. Garnish it with a small sprig of chervil. 2 leeks (white and pale green parts only), washed and chopped 4 cups purslane, washed and patted dried 10-ounce box frozen petite peas or about 2 cups fresh small peas 1 pound Russett or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock or broth Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste In a large stockpot over medium-low heat, heat the butter until the foam subsides. Add the leeks and cook, stirring frequently, until they are softened but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add the purslane, peas, potatoes, stock or broth and a pinch of salt. Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside to cool for at least 10 minutes. Transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and puree to the desired consistency. If an exceptionally smooth soup is desired, strain the soup, discarding the solids. Return the soup to the pot, return to medium-low heat and cook, stirring, just until warmed through. If the soup appears to be too thick, add more stock or broth to taste. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding salt and pepper accordingly. (May freeze the soup for up to 3 months; to thaw, transfer to the refrigerator a day or two ahead of when you plan to serve.)Springtime Purslane and Pea Soup Served either hot or cold, this soup makes an elegant first course when garnished with a dollop of creme fraiche, sour cream or plain yogurt. It also makes a satisfying lunch when partnered with bread and cheese. Garnish it with a small sprig of chervil. 2 leeks (white and pale green parts only), washed and chopped 4 cups purslane, washed and patted dried 10-ounce box frozen petite peas or about 2 cups fresh small peas 1 pound Russett or Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock or broth Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste In a large stockpot over medium-low heat, heat the butter until the foam subsides. Add the leeks and cook, stirring frequently, until they are softened but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add the purslane, peas, potatoes, stock or broth and a pinch of salt. Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside to cool for at least 10 minutes. Transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and puree to the desired consistency. If an exceptionally smooth soup is desired, strain the soup, discarding the solids. Return the soup to the pot, return to medium-low heat and cook, stirring, just until warmed through. If the soup appears to be too thick, add more stock or broth to taste. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding salt and pepper accordingly. (May freeze the soup for up to 3 months; to thaw, transfer to the refrigerator a day or two ahead of when you plan to serve.) Arlington, Va.: In the past, I took my cheaper knives (Chicago Cutlery) to Cherrydale Hardware in Arlington to get sharpened. They did a good job, plus I didn't much care if they took off too much of the blade. Now, I don't really want to take my Shun knives to a hardware store for sharpening, I would prefer someone who specializes in knives. Any suggestions on where to take them? Walter: Chesapeake Knife & Tool has stores all over the area. OK City?: Any advice on restaurants or other fun food things in Oklahoma City? I've got an unexpected 5-day business trip there in two weeks and I'm sure I'll get tired of catfish and barbeque! Walter: Let's throw this one out there. Can anyone help? Littlestown, Pa.: Hello on this hot day. How can I make a molded dessert to serve 12, using three flavors of ice cream--one flavor within the second and the second within the third? Do I need a set of nesting bowls to make this work? Because I don't have matching bowls. If you can give a hint of how much ice cream each layer will take, I'd appreciate it. Jane: The good news is, you don't need nesting bowls to pull this off. Just settle on a mold and chill it in the freezer for an hour or so. Then, spread a layer of slightly softened (not melted!)ice cream to cover the inside of your mold evenly. Press some plastic wrap against it and freeze until solid. Then repeat with your second flavor. You'll end up with a bowl-shape hole in the center, and you press the third flavor into that. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for several hours. When you unmold, you'll get your desired result. You might want to spray the mold lightly first with nonstick spray. For 12 people, try using a quart of each flavor. Good luck! Minneapolis, Minn.: I'm submitting early, hoping you can help me out. I am making dinner for my partner tonight, I have chuck-eye steaks defrosting to grill, and a bunch of tomatoes that I need to use with it. We've had a lot of the basil, tomato, mozzarella salad lately, I'm looking for something different that would pair well with the steak. Any help would be great. Thanks! Jane: Last week's section has a great recipe that, while it does include basil, is definitely a departure from the old basil-mozzarella standby. Here it is: 6 appetizer or light-lunch servings Tomatoes, of course, take center stage in the classic Tuscan bread salad. This version uses sourdough baguettes and firm picholine olives to vary the texture. 1/2 sourdough baguette, cut into bite-size pieces 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 1 peeled and mashed clove garlic 1/3 cup red onion, cut in julienne (very thin strips), soaked in water and drained 1/4 cup picholine olives, pitted and halved 1 cup fresh mozzarella cheese, diced 1 pound mixed heirloom tomatoes, smaller ones cut into thick slices and larger ones cut into wedges Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss the pieces of baguette with 1/4 cup of the oil. Toast until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes per side. Let cool. In a medium serving bowl, add the vinegar, garlic, red onion, olives, mozzarella cheese and remaining 1/4 cup oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Fifteen minutes before serving, rip the basil into small pieces and add it to the bowl along with the tomato, toasted bread and cucumber. Toss to coat and let sit at room temperature until ready to serve. Md. Burbs: I have a question about yeast. I make rolls that require two packets of yeast. However, they come in a strip of three packets. I was wondering if it is possible to use the remaining packets together the next time I cook, is there a problem with mixing yeasts that have different expiration dates? Jane: As long as the packets haven't passed the expiration date, you should be able to mix them with no ill effects. Silver Spring, Md.: For Arlington, take your knives to La Cuisine in Alexandria old town on Cameron Street. Expensive but totally worth it. Walter: And while you're there, ask owner Nancy Pollard for a tour of the chocolate and vanilla selections. What a super little store. Silver Spring, Md.: Simmer sauces: They can be great and quick and yummy, but many of them are fairly high in fat. Remember to read the label and be realistic about your portion sizes. If the label says to cut with water, do it or suffer the calorie consequences. That said, a couple of the Trader Joe private label simmer sauces are da best. They have some non-Indian ones as well. Nancy McKeon: We tried some of the Trader Joe's sauces and chose the Patak's, Jyoti and Ethnic Gourmet versions over them. Re: OKC: Go down to the stockyards to Cattlemen's for steak. It's so tender, you hardly need a knife! Walter: Here's help for chatter headin-out-west. Washington, D.C.: I bought some lovely fresh, wild-caught salmon on sale yesterday at Whole Foods and would like to cook it tonight. But I only have about a half pound, and it's just for me. Do you have any simple recipes I might use? Thanks! Jane: Here's a one-serving salmon recipe that seems right up your alley. You can grill it to keep your kitchen cooler, or you can bake it. This quick, no clean-up recipe was posted on the AOL Cooking for One message board by Stacey Altman from Los Angeles. The dish can easily be multiplied in the event that unexpected guests arrive. salmon fillet (about 6 ounces) Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley Preheat a grill or oven to 350 degrees. Place the salmon fillet in the center of a large piece of aluminum foil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. In a small bowl stir together the butter, parsley and garlic. Spread the butter mixture over the salmon. Top with the slices of lemon, onion and tomato. Fold the aluminum foil tightly around the salmon fillet and grill or bake until cooked through, about 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Carefully unfold the foil and serve immediately. Bethesda, Md.: Chocolate Chip Cookies - Not that I would make them today, but my father always talks about my grandmother's "perfect" chocolate chip cookies. They were large and thin with brown edges. Mine never come out thin, always more like hockey pucks. Can you help me recreate these special treats for my father? Thanks Nancy McKeon: You're going to have to experiment (not such a hardship where chocolate chip cookies are concerned!). Different types of shortening will give you different results--as I recall it, butter makes the dough spread, hence thinner edges, while vegetable shortening (meaning a Crisco-like product) gives you a crisper cookie overall. Also, I got interesting results by overbeating with my KitchenAid stand mixer--got choc-chip cookies that were more akin to those crispy lace cookies. Wait till your kitchen is down below 100 degrees and run your own choc-chip lab (take notes). Family Reunion in Pa.: Hi! You answered my question two weeks ago regarding what I should take to the annual family reunion in PA. I did exactly what you recommended: roasted a beef tenderloin and small baby potatoes (packed 'em in the cooler and served them cold) along with some blanched petit string beans (salt/pepper/olive oil, sesame seed). WOW! What a hit!!! Wish you could have heard the positive comments! Of course, I gave the Food Section full credit! See ya next year! Walter: So glad it worked out for you. It sounds so easy but for WOW and What a hit!!! you must have perfectly roasted the meat and potatoes and hand-picked the little beans which makes all the difference in the world. Washington, D.C.: Last week I asked if I could use extra large eggs instead of large eggs for a sour cream coffeecake. Turns out I had only one egg so had to go out and buy some more! I thought I would share the recipe. It is from Joy of Cooking. It is really easy to make. I often mixed the dry ingredients together the night before so making the coffeecake in the morning is very quick. Have ingredients at room temperature. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x9 pan Blend ingredients until they crumble. Add 1/2 t cinnamon. Sprinkle over dough. You can add 1/4-1/2 cup of chopped nuts. 1 1/2 cups sifted AP flour 1 cup sugar (I put in a little less) 2 t double acting baking powder In a large bowl, combine and beat well 1 cup sour cream and two eggs. Add dry ingredients to cream mixture. Beat until just smooth. Overbeating will toughen the dough. Spread dough in pan. Sprinkle streusel top and bake 20 minutes or until done. Walter: "Easy" and "quick" means less time in a hot kitchen and we are so tired of hot. Thanks. Arlington, Va.: I am sending this question in early, while I am thinking about it. Growing up in Bethesda in the '70s, there was a farmer who parked his truck on Bradley Blvd. and sold tomatoes and green beans and other things many weekday mornings. Now that I am grown up and living in Arlington, there are wonderful farmer's markets on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings, but does anyone have ideas of what to do if you want to get a great (i.e. non grocery store) tomato or two on a non-farmer's market day? If I weren't living in an apartment I would grow some, but that isn't an option. Thanks! Walter: I remember the truck guy on Bradley all so well for his sweet corn and peaches. Now, to your question: you need to plan ahead and buy tomatoes that will ripen during the week. Or, you could find a community garden in your area and a gardener with a bumper crop. Do you know by chance if broccoli leaves are edible? I have lots of plants in my garden, but got just one head of broccoli. I want to take full advantage of what's there. I know the stems are edible, and the leaves are looking delish about now... Walter: Broccoli leaves are "a little tough but yummy" says our friend and farmer Terry Lehman, owner Of ECOW market in Washington, Va. tomatoes: I've been finding so many wonderful tomatoes at the farmer's market. Other than a summery pasta or soup, what can I do with these? I'm especially looking for ideas on a hot day like today when you don't want to do too much cooking. Jane: Check out the earlier response about Heirloom Tomato Panzanella Salad. It could be an appetizer or a light main course, and the only cooking required involves toasting the baguettes. Grosso, Utah: Where in Northern Virginia can I find haggis? I'm curious to try it. I think... Walter: Try The British Collection at 703-836-8181 or the British Pantry..703-327-3215. Bethesda, Md. Mom: I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful "Dinner in 25 Minutes" recipe from three weeks ago--Greek style grilled chicken breast with lemon zest, oregano and garlic. I made a big batch of it for a barbecue and it was a huge hit. It was also just as good the next day cold. I modified the recipe slightly (as I do with all chicken breasts I grill), by slicing the breast in half horizontally to achieve the thinness. I have never had much success with getting a uniform thinness with pounding, but this works well. I served it with a salad of chunked up heirloom tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, feta, kalamatia olives and parsley, but I used a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice to pick up the lemon flavor of the chicken (and also to use up the lemons I had zested) instead of balsamic vinegar. Walter: Good choice Md. Mom. Summer and lemons go together so well. Silver Spring, Md. - Dacquiose : Hoping you can help me out - I tried a recipe for dacquiose, and while it came out well taste-wise, the meringues were hard and never softened up once the cake was put together. The recipe said to cook for four hours -250 which seemed long but I didn't want to tinker with it the first time. I really want to make this for a friend's b-day so any suggestions would be a appreciated. Jane: Well, in this heat, ANY time in the oven sounds pretty long. But your instincts are right: Four hours at 250 definitely seems like overkill. Most meringue recipes for dacquoise call for only 1 to 1 1/2 hours of baking time -- a little longer if it's rainy or humid. Another factor that affects the texture of a meringue is the sugar-to-egg-white ratio. The more sugar you add, the harder the meringue gets. So you may need to experiment a little, but it sounds like the baking time is the key here. Frederick, Md.: fyi...next time you brew sun tea, put a piece of lemongrass in the container. Mmmm Walter: I like this idea. But I'm wondering, do you grow your own lemon grass Frederick? We reported, some weeks ago, that lemon grass was in short supply across the country due to heavy rains in California. Prices were sky-high and not expected to return to normal until late August. An alternative tomato salad: For the poster who's making dinner for his partner tonight, my mom used to make a tomato salad all the time when I was growing up that might fit the bill (no basil or mozzerella). It consists of equal parts chopped cucumber and tomatoes, a little bit of finely diced (really finely diced) onion, salt and pepper. If you want to jazz it up a bit, add a splash of rice wine vinegar or some fresh herbs. I know, not very fancy, but it's cool and refreshing and always makes me think of summer... Walter: Thanks for the alternative help. Petworth, Washington, D.C.: Hello food section: I'm looking for help with cookbooks. We want to make (and preserve) some mustard. Someone told me about a wonderful book that he thought was called "History of Mustard." I can find no such thing. Do you have a recommendations for a cookbook for mustard making? The mustard museum was no help - all their cookbooks center around cooking with prepared mustard. Jane: A search of Amazon.com turns up a book called "Gourmet Mustards: The How-To's of Making and Cooking With Mustards" by Helene Sawyer and Cheryl Long. According to the table of contents, there's a chapter called "Basic of Mustard Making" and another called "Making Gourmet Mustards." Sounds like just what you're looking for. Arlington, Va.: Add up too an extra stick of butter to your cookie recipe, overbeat the batter so it's more pliable, and then drown your cookie sheet in Pam! That will DEFINITELY give you crispy thin cookies! Walter: More butter is always better in my book. fruit salsas and meat: I love the idea of using plums as a salsa for pork, do you have other ideas for all the summer fruit we can find: peaches, berries, etc. I would love to incorporate those more into dishes instead of the usual spices. Nancy McKeon: Walter Nicholls wrote a piece back in June about what chefs around town were doing with fruit salsas and pickled fruits. Let's see if we can get a link to those recs. Washington, D.C.: Is there anyplace in the DC area that prepares heart-healthy meals for delivery or pick-up? I'm thinking in terms of a Diet-to-Go-type situation, but their meals have loads of sodium. My friend had a heart attack recently and we would like to pitch in to get him some prepared meals so he can continue his good habits. Nancy McKeon: The fast answer is I don't know, but a quick flick through Google turned up eDiets.com, which seems to offer a Heart Smart Plan. all such programs seem to be very expensive. just some simple home cooking in bulk might in the end be an easier answer. For the banana peppers: Stuff them with goat cheese and either grill 'em or run them under the broiler. Sooo good. Walter: Here's a thought for someone with too many peppers. Saipan, MP: I live 9000 miles / 14 hours away, so I read transcripts of the chat. Just a couple of comments about yesterday's chat. I have the Unicorn Magnum Plus Peppermill. I did some Internet research and paid a fortune for shipping, but if you like pepper, it is fantastic. Also a word for the person with too much basil -- you can freeze pesto in ice cube trays and then pop those into another container, and voila, pesto in small doses. Walter: The Unicorn seems to have fans all over the world. And about the freezing of pesto, I would seal the ice tray inside several layers of plastic to keep unwanted aromas out. Silver Spring, Md.: Hi there. I'm not sure how I missed the easy rice pudding from last week's chat, but was so excited to see it in the Food section today. One question regarding it, does it matter which type of milk you use (skim, 1 or 2 percent, or whole)? Thanks. Nancy McKeon: Our Rice Pudding Queen, Leigh Lambert, says whole or 2% milk will both work fine. Chocolate Chip Cookies: In addition to trying different kinds of shortening, you can also experiment with mixtures and ratios of shortening. I use 1/2 butter and 1/2 margarine, but that mixture generally only works well for me in cooler weather...in the summer, the cookies spread out too much and are too thin and crispy for my taste. Walter: More ideas for our cookie baker. Tired of hot!: This heat can't break fast enough -- and won't for me. Am cooking lunch for a crowd this weekend (lucky me, it's my turn this month!) and was trying to get away with cold/room temp dishes that are still pretty and more substantial than apps. It's a group of 16, we meet once every two months and everyone else has outdone themselves on their turn. Can you help rescue me? Nancy McKeon: How about a wonderful oversize frittata stuffed with fresh chives, at room temp. also a flank steak, cooked (rare) earlier and sliced thin across the grain and served cold. could marinate in teriyaki sauce. nicely tossed greens and strips of red bell pepper would allow people to turn it into a nice, fresh steak salad. Indy, Ind.: For the excess of peppers...add a couple to a vinegar-based cucumber salad with some carrots and green onions. Of course, this does assume that the diner is a bit of a chile-head...but it's good! Walter: Thanks Indy, an obvious chile-head. Washington, D.C.: Love the chats! Perhaps a dumb question, but are there any good substitutes for egg to bind meatballs together? If I skip any kind of binding agent, will the meatballs turn into a crumbly mess, or can I get by without it? Thanks! Nancy McKeon: You may not like this answer, but chef Joe Beck at Susan Gage Caterers makes teeny-tiny "hamburgers" using a bit of cream as a binder. Man are they smooth! (Unlike my thighs after eating them.) Washington, D.C.: I read that leaving the avocado pit in the guacamole keeps the dip greener, longer. Is it true? WHY is it? Jane: That's a piece of often-heard advice, but it hasn't really worked for me. And in fact, Lori Small of the California Avocado Commission told me it's "an old wives' tale." According to Lori, there are two ways to keep your guac from darkening. One is to squeeze some lemon juice (presumably lime would do, too) to cover the top, and the other is to lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of your dip, making sure there are no air bubbles. For extra insurance, you could do both. washingtonpost.com : Quick! Pickle Something (Post, June 14, 2006) Cookies: Reading the question about the choc chip cookies reminded me of the Christmas I made oatmeal cookies - without the oatmeal. I traditionally made double batches of choc chip, peanut butter, butter and oatmeal raisin cookies in one day to give as gifts. The oatmeal raisin were the last of the very long day. I remember thinking as I scooped the dough onto the cookie sheet how nice and smooth they looked. I put the first batch in the oven and went into the other room for a seven min rest. As soon as my butt hit the chair I realized what I had done and raced back into the kitchen, pulled the trays out and mixed it back into the bowl - WITH the oatmeal! The cookies were none the worse for wear and tasted great. Walter: Cookies can be so forgiving. Extra tomatoes: One of my favorite summer meals is fresh tomatoes, fresh baguette and some havarti cheese. Walter: White bread and mayo and salt for me. McLean, Va.: Loved your look at farmers markets and their farmers! But help! Where can I find a listing of farmers markets in Virginia? When I went to the "Guide to local farmers markets" link back to your April listing, nothing came up for Virginia, just DC and Maryland sections. A few VA markets were included in the Reviews of Area Farmers Markets but still no listing. Thanks. Nancy McKeon: I think there's some kind of glitch on our site, which we'll work on. There are certainly tons of farmers markets in Virginia, and they were listed in that April 26, 2006, article. We'll ask our colleagues to fix the link--when I just tried it, I got nothing but one D.C. market!--so try back later, or tomorrow. Sorry! Washington, D.C.: I'm not sure if Alfajores are a Cuban food, but I've had them in Miami (but also in Argentina). I thought given the topic of the chat today might be the day to ask how to make them? They are the best cookies in the world!!! I've heard that they are hard to make however. Any recipes or tips? Can I use jarred dulce de leche or should I make it from scratch (again a recipe please!). Jane: We found this online at www.christmas-cookies.com, but haven't made it ourselves. It does call for you to make the filling, but that doesn't sound complicated -- you'll need a candy thermometer, though. Sounds delicious! An almond-flavored shortbread sandwich cookie with a rich caramel filling in the middle. Popular in South American countries. 1/3 cup ground almonds (can be ground in a food processor) 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar >1 cup half & half or light cream or evaporated milk Cream the butter with the powdered sugar until fluffy. Stir in salt, extracts, ground almonds and flour. Wrap and chill 30 minutes. (If you chill longer, you have to let the dough warm up a bit before it can be rolled. Or, do what professional pastry chefs do: whack it with a rolling pin until it becomes more malleable). In a medium saucepan, heat brown sugar with cream over medium heat. As it cooks, brush inner sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. This wipes away grainy sugar crystals. Heat until mixture reaches soft ball stage (238-240 F). Remove from heat - let cool to about 110 F. Stir in the butter and beat until mixture is thickened. Add vanilla. (Heat to loosen or add additional cream). If mixture is too thin, add in confectioners' sugar. Roll out dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut in 2-1/2-inch circles. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 350 F for 12-14 minutes. Cool baking sheets between batches. Cool cookies on wire racks. Spread some caramel filling on a cookie. Top with another cookie and press together nicely. Be careful, these are fragile. Dust tops with confectioner's sugar. Washington, D.C.: Some ice water is a suitable binder for meatballs. I just made some last night that way. Walter: That sounds easy enough. More on choc chip cookies: I use the old standby recipe on the back of Nestles. But if you use 1 cup brown sugar plus 1/2 cup white instead of equal amounts, the cookies are crisper. Walter: Some last minute cookie advice. Walter: That's it for today. And the Silver Spring chatter who had the rice pudding question, send us your mailing information, we'll send you the book. food@washpost.com. Till next week. Stay cool. 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White House Talk
2006080219
Dan is also deputy editor of Niemanwatchdog.org . Dan Froomkin: Hi everyone and welcome to another White House Talk. My column today starts with a survey of the many editorials from small- and medium-sized newspapers across the country expressing concern about President Bush's unprecedented use of signing statements to flout the will of Congress. I wasn't sure, initially, whether this was an issue that went much beyond policy wonks and constitutional scholars. Certainly, the news coverage from the major players, with the exception of the Boston Globe, has been lackluster at best. But now I have reason to believe this issue's got legs. After all, everyone cares about the Constitution. Right? In other news, President Bush continues to almost single-handedly block an international consensus for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon; Iraq is as deadly as ever; and a whole bunch of former press secretaries are coming by the White House this afternoon to bid the ratty old briefing room and press offices goodbye for now -- while they undergo renovation. Roseville, Calif.: Hi Dan, thanks for all the great columns and tireless work. I especially appreciate your writing on the signing statements and straw-man arguments. Here's my question: Does the US have a foreign policy anymore? It seems like on every issue at hand, we have nothing to offer - Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, Palestinian conflict, Russian democracy, etc. Even the possible Cuba transition seems to catch the administration flat-footed. Where are the ideas coming from and who is trying to break through the logjam? Or does everyone just follow the president down the hole? Dan Froomkin: Thanks for the kind words and good questions. The answer to all your questions is: I don't know. If you've followed the approved Washington narrative over the last several weeks (see, for instance, my July 10 column, Desperately Seeking Doctrine, first we had Cowboy Diplomacy, then we had Condi Diplomacy, and now we're apparently back to Cowboy Diplomacy. The one thing they have in common, of course, is that none of them is legitimately called "diplomacy." The one consistent behavior in this administration has been that it refuses to engage in a dialogue with its enemies, considering that either a sign of weakness or a reward for bad behavior or both. What's our foreign policy? Bush would say it's very clear: Fight terrorist and spread democracy. But if the net result of his actions is to actually create more terrorists and bomb democracies (like Lebanon, for instance), well, then, the only thing you know is that his words don't mean much. London, Ontario: Thanks Dan for another great column entry. You write about the Fox News interview in which Bush stated "the terrorist activities of a Hezbollah or an Al Qaeda or a militant Hamas, are all linked". Seeing how poorly things turned out for the American people the last time he tried to link unrelated influences (ie: Saddam and Al Qaeda), do you think we're just dumb enough to go for it again? It would seem to me that attributing everything he disagrees with to the workings of a guy on dialysis in a cave does more to make that renegade Saudi the William Wallace of the Arab world than anything he could ever do on his own. Dan Froomkin: Well, in Bush's defense, he did qualify that linkage. Here's the full quote from the Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto: "I have got two big issues, Neil, as we go into the future. One is to remind people we're still at war, but have them comfortable with the fact that the government's doing everything we can to protect them; and, two, to remind people that the terrorist activities of a Hezbollah or an Al Qaeda or a militant Hamas, are all linked, that they may not be coordinating together, but they have this kind of same attitude and same desire to stop the advance of democracy, that a long-term peace for America will come when liberty is unleashed in the Middle East, and a policy that had excused tyranny in the past simply didn't work." I found that quote fascinating for all sorts of reasons. For instance, for a guy who claims not to care about public opinion, he sees both of his top two challenges as being, essentially, "educating" the people. Then there's what he's educating them about, like for instance that all these terrorists are alike. Because he's wrong: they're not all alike. Their goals are quite different. And to see it as so black-and-white (they hate democracy) leads to the thinking that the only way to deal with them is to kill every one of them. But even Israel is having a hard time executing that strategy, and it is arguably backfiring. So where does that leave us? And yet... the guy is clearly on to something. Maybe it doesn't matter what's really happening, as long as the public sees things his way. You may recall an item from last Wednesday's column: "Editor and Publisher reports: "Despite several years of official and press reports to the contrary, a new Harris poll finds that half of adult Americans still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) when the United States invaded the country in 2003. "This is actually up from 36% last year, a Harris poll finds. . . . "In another finding wildly diverging from most expert opinion and media reports, Harris found that 64% said Saddam Hussein had 'strong links' with al-Qaeda, up from 62% in October 2004." That was also the subtext that I took out of Karl Rove's odd attack on the political reporting profession the other day. Here's Caren Bohan 's story for Reuters about that. Rove said: "There are practitioners of politics who hold that voters are dumb, ill-informed and easily misled, that voters can be manipulated by a clever ad or smart line." He said he disagreed. And then added: "The American people are not policy wonks. But they have great instincts and they try to do the right thing." There's little doubt that the voters are ill-informed. But one could argue that the American people are indeed misled by a clever ad -- they're misled through repeated assertions of unreality (often perpetuated by the partisan media and insufficiently refuted by the traditional media) along with powerful imagery and emotional appeals, all of which works on them on the gut level, not the policy-wonk level. And Rove is the master of communication on that level. Montville, N.J.: Is there any more information about POTUS, VPOTUS or any other WH senior staff 'lawyering up' in case the Democrats take one or both chambers of Congress? Dan Froomkin: As far as I know, just that one, tantalizing clue from newly-minted Time.com blogger Mike Allen last week. He wrote: "As for Bush himself, he is curtailing his traditional August working vacation at the ranch so that he can barnstorm before the midterm elections. Their outlook thus far seems so ominous for the G.O.P. that one presidential adviser wants Bush to beef up his counsel's office for the tangle of investigations that a Democrat-controlled House might pursue." I enjoy reading your blog every day. Keep up the good work! Tony Blair spoke out yesterday, basically calling Bush's Middle East policy a failure, saying that we should instead show the middle east a better way through "moderation." I am curious if this speech of his will even have any effect. Blair just met with Bush, and probably cleared with Bush this speech. Yet Blair has to "show" that he is not a poodle to Bush. Can Blair tell Bush in his face that his policy is a failure? Or is this just a hollow attempt by Blair to "show" his independence? Dan Froomkin: I'm wondering the same thing. For the rest of you, here is Patrick Wintour writing in the Guardian about Blair's speech. Syracuse, N.Y.: So how is Karen Hughes doing in her job of winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim world? Or has she packed it in, haven't heard much about her lately. Dan Froomkin: She's still on the job. But consider what she has to work with. Alexandria, Va.: While the Middle East is exploding, Is George Bush going to be in Crawford, Texas during most of August solving the Middle East problems? Dan Froomkin: Presidenting is definitely eating into Bush's vacation this year. Bush heads off for Crawford tomorrow, for about a week and a half. And he's expected back for at least one more short visit after that. But no more month-long hiatus for him. I'm also quite sure that his aides will set up several high-profile official events (or at least a few handout photos) showing that he is still working. Madison, Wis.: Hi, Dan-- In reference to your item today about the administration circulating an amendment to the War Crimes Act, is there a sense that this is motivated by a desire to get protections for their actions in place in advance of a possible Democratic takeover of one of the houses of Congress? Is there anything else like this happening under the radar? Dan Froomkin: Actually, it would seem to me that all the potential war-criminals out there are safe until 2008 at the very earliest, regardless of who takes Congress. After all, it would be Bush's Justice Department that does the prosecuting. San Antonio, Tex.: On the Rove media analysis: So does contemporary American politics essentially boil down to who is the better ad-meister and who's got enough bucks to run those gut- and heart-appealing ads (without truth) repetitively? Dan Froomkin: Well, that's awfully cynical, isn't it. Even if you were right, however, I'd have to add a caveat: Much of what Rove is doing (at the gut level) right now is free. The White House is one heck of a bully pulpit. Orange County, Calif.: Hi Dan, what are new next steps to reverse the signing statements that Bush has added to every piece of legislation that he hasn't liked yet sometimes has supported publicly? Can any citizen challenge this or can only the feckless Congress? Is it the Supreme Court that will receive the challenge and, if so, how long will it take to test the whole system of signing statements? Dan Froomkin: Well, since you asked: Step one, it seems to me, would be to do some reporting. Did any of those signing statements actually result in Bush not following a particular statute. Who was harmed by that? When you find that out -- ta-da! -- suddenly, you have someone with standing to sue. As far as I know, not one single reporter (or Congressional staffer, or law student, or anyone) has found a single instance of something that actually happened (or didn't happen) as a result of a signing statement. The two possibilities: 1) Maybe those signing statements aren't really that big a deal; 2) Journalists haven't done their job. My understanding is that the Specter bill is necessary to give Congress the standing to sue. Just being frustrated that the president is ignoring them apparently does not give them legal standing. Washington, D.C.: Dan, I disagree with Mr. Bush on most things, but I'm not sure I understand the point of calling for a cease fire in Lebanon. Doesn't that essentially just mean that Israel should cease fire? Hezbollah is a terrorist organization with a history that suggests they have no interest in actually ceasing fire. Thanks. Dan Froomkin: That's certainly been Tony Snow's repeated assertion -- but on what basis? The Lebanese government (which, unlike us, is in fact talking to Hezbollah) is begging for a cease-fire. They would be in the best position to know whether Hezbollah would honor it. In fact, if Hezbollah didn't honor the cease-fire, then the political pressure would be off Bush and Israel. That said, nothing in the Middle East is predictable. Dallas, Tex.: I appreciated your compilation of editorials from across the U.S. concerning signing statements. It would be interesting to know if these editorial pages have experienced this turnaround recently...for instance, how many endorsed Bush in 2004? Dan Froomkin: That's a great idea. Lacking an intern: Anyone out there want to do a little research? Anonymous: My understanding is that the Specter bill is necessary to give Congress the standing to sue. .....Dan don't forget Specter's bill stipulates that the suits go the the secret FISA court where the administration holds all the cards, the judges are secret, there is no transparency, no public record, no appeal etc. etc. this bill makes the situation worse not better. Dan Froomkin: You (understandably) are mixing up two Specter bills. It's all the domestic wiretapping lawsuits that would vanish into the ether of a secret court, under one Specter bill. The Specter bill I was talking about would give Congress standing to sue in a regular, real-live, open-to-the-public court. Dover, N.H.: On someone being injured by a signing statement. Bush has issued signing statements about torture and about wiretapping without warrants. In both of these cases, Bush has BLOCKED the justice department from investigating these cases on the grounds that they would violate national security so how pary tell is one supposed to claim injury?? Dan Froomkin: I believe that experienced beat reporters pounding away day in and day out, mining their sources and not taking no for an answer, could get to the bottom of a lot of these stories in fairly short order. Baltimore, Md.: Re Bush's insistence on "not talking to enemies." Paul Krugman labeled this "childish" in the NYTimes and I think that is frighteningly accurate. How does the President think we avoided nuclear war with the Soviets for decades? There were little things like the START and SALT discussions on one end of the spectrum, and cultural exchanges on the other end. That approach (some call it diplomacy) worked fairly well. Frankly, I think if we asked to Iranian national soccer team, for example, to come here and play a series of exhibition games, it would probably help more than all the bluster from Bush, Rise, et al. put together. Dan Froomkin: I think it is absolutely worth asking why this administration is so adamant about not engaging in dialogue with its enemies, and whether they don't think it's maybe time to reconsider. In yesterday's column I noted that Jimmy Carter and Bob Schieffer were at a loss on this subject, as well. Regarding the NY Times story today about how President Bush has broken with his father on how to approach the U.S. relationship with Israel, it seems to me that much of this Bush's presidency has been based on a strong desire to undo not the Clinton presidency but the elder Bush's presidency. Have any thoughtful articles been done about how "W," who for most of his life was the failed son of a father who was famously successful at just about everything (business, sports, war), may be primarily motivated by a desire to finally out-do a father he apparently has some resentment toward? I realize pop psycho-analysis is not the role of journalists, but seeing W as a rival, not a protector, of his father explains a lot. Dan Froomkin: There was a fair amount written on this topic during the 2004 election, but not recently. See my May 10, 2004, column, Bush vs. Bush . Here's Lisa Anderson in the Chicago Tribune in August 2004. I think it's probably worth revisiting. And the Times is setting the way. San Francisco, Calif.: Thanks Dan for keeping the flame alive on the signing statement controversy. To me, this is a huge and very dangerous issue. My question: Has any reporter asked the President about his use of signing statements? If not, isn't it bizarre he hasn't been forced to account for it, at least by the press? Dan Froomkin: No, no one has ever asked Bush about it. Heck, they've barely even asked Tony Snow about it. It is my hope that today's column will help demonstrate to Washington assignment editors that this is a story that has more than just wonky significance. Ellicott City, Md.: I think this will be known as the ADD White House. They never seem to keep on any one track through to completion. For instance, whatever happened to the big reshuffle at the White House. And what of the big reengineering of the government? Dan Froomkin: I think you give them short shrift. They may be going through some intense contortions on foreign policy now and in the coming weeks, but they've been incredibly consistent and true to their word on any number of other fronts. The White House reshuffle has been fairly extensive; Josh Bolten is palpably different from Andrew Card. And you have no idea how dramatically Bush has re-engineered government. I mean that literally. You have no idea, because it's one of the great unreported Washington stories. No, he hasn't made government more efficient, suddenly -- but he has, for instance, put dramatically unqualified political appointees in all sorts of key positions all over the government, with bold and unprecedented marching orders to hire like-minded people. See, for instance, Princeton Professor David E. Lewis in NiemanWatchdog.org, or the Boston Globe's Charlie Savage a few days ago in the Boston Globe. Those sorts of effects could be with us for a long time. Davis, Calif.: Dan, regarding not talking to our foreign enemies (Iran, Syria, etc...). Is this really a surprise? Bush does not talk, appear, dialogue, or even credibly debate his domestic opponents. Why would he do so with his foreign or international ones? Or is the debate only done in private? Thanks and keep up the good work. Dan Froomkin: As I wrote in my Friday column, Bush's Choice , "The Bush White House has a long-standing aversion to engaging in dialogue with its enemies -- foreign or domestic. At least in part, that's based on an intense desire not to reward bad behavior. But the aversion to rewarding enemies by talking to them has not historically risen to the level of doctrine." Dan Froomkin: OK, I've got to run. Thanks very much for all the wonderful questions and comments. I'm sorry I couldn't get to more of them. See you again here in two weeks, and every weekday afternoon at washingtonpost.com/whbriefing . Dan Froomkin: Oh, golly, Bush himself just showed up in the briefing room. 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.
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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Flourishing on the Birthday Cake Diet
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"Too many birthday cakes," explained POTUS, who celebrated his 60th last month, as he exited National Naval Medical Center. During six hours of tests, doctors also burned a tiny precancerous lesion off his left arm -- nothing serious, they said -- and gave him the old scold about sunscreen. They nonetheless declared him "fit for duty." His resting pulse rate? A tranquil 46 beats per minute. His cholesterol? Lower than ever. His hay fever? Under control, thanks to a nasal spray. His acid reflux? Not bothering him these days. Whatta machine! "He's still healthier than we are," said White House spokesman Tony Snow . Mosbacher, Lending Glitz to Costco Georgette Mosbacher and Costco: Two things we never expected to find in the same sentence. But she shops there -- and she sells beauty in a bottle there. "I'm been going to Costco for a long time," said the glam red-haired triple divorcee from her Fifth Avenue apartment. "I have bought everything from my flat-screen television to my meat. The meat is absolutely outstanding -- beyond good." And: "I buy all my orchids there." The flashy Texas socialite made national headlines when she came to Washington in 1989 with her third husband, Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher . Like a character out of "Dynasty," she was bold, brassy, sexy -- and the object of constant gossip. The couple returned to Houston in 1992 and divorced six years later. Now 59, Mosbacher is too busy for boyfriends ("I wish") or any more husbands ("There won't be another.") She's raising money for Republicans, talking politics on Fox and running Borghese, a high-end cosmetics firm. After selling her La Prairie firm she took over Borghese six years ago. Its upscale creams sell for big bucks in high-end department stores; Mosbacher was shopping at Costco two years ago when she had her idea to "monetize our brand." Now there are kiosks with the cheaper "Kirkland Signatures by Borghese" in 364 stores. The 22 products in the line-- makeup and skin care -- sell for $9.99 to $19.99. "That's what it's about," said May's cover girl on 22 million copies of "Costco Connection." "I'm in business. This isn't a hobby." HEY, ISN'T THAT . . . ? · James Blake, Mardy Fish and the Bryan brothers ( Bob and Mike ) at Lucky Strike on Monday night. The tennis pros, in town for the Legg Mason tournament, bowled three games; Fish, with scores of 154, 138 and 162 (average 151), was the best bowler of the bunch; Blake averaged 129, Mike Bryan 109 and Bob Bryan 102. The Press Leaves, and the Rats Will Follow Today is the last day reporters will meet in the West Wing's ratty old press room, so a celebration is in order: Former White House press secretaries Jim Brady, Marlin Fitzwater , Jody Powell, Ron Nessen, Joe Lockhart and Dee Dee Myers will join Tony Snow at the last briefing this afternoon. The press corps is decamping across the street to Jackson Place until long-overdue renovations -- state-of-the-art technology and wider seats -- and rat extermination are completed next May. C-SPAN's Steve Scully, president of the White House Correspondents' Association, said it's "especially poignant" that Brady will be there since the room is named after him. No speeches are planned for the farewell party, but whaddya bet the alumni will be coaxed into a turn at the mike? Give 'em hell, Helen Thomas! Got gossip? Join Reliable Source columnists Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts today at noon onhttp://washingtonpost.com/liveonline.
Is President Bush a seesaw dieter? He gained six pounds in the year and a half before the 2004 elections, then lost eight pounds by last summer -- only to regain five pounds since then, according to the results of his annual physical yesterday. He now weighs in at 196. Georgette Mosbacher and......
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Toyota Tops Ford For First Time in Monthly U.S. Sales
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The Japanese automaker sold 241,826 cars and trucks during the month, up 11.7 percent from a year ago. Ford Motor Co. had sales of 239,989, down 34 percent. General Motors Corp., the No. 1 U.S. automaker, reported sales yesterday of 406,298, down 22.5 percent. Jim Lentz, Toyota's top U.S. sales executive, said market conditions are playing to "traditional Toyota strengths" of fuel efficiency and a competitive lineup of cars. Globally, Toyota crept closer to GM's sales lead. In the first half of the year, Toyota sold 4.36 million vehicles, up 7.1 percent. In the same period, GM's worldwide sales fell 2 percent, to 4.6 million. Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis at the vehicle-review Web site Edmunds.com, called the July sales report a "psychological milestone" for Toyota. "In July they were the No. 2 automaker in the U.S.," Toprak said. Rival automakers, he said, will have "to deal with the momentum of Toyota in the marketplace." Overall, automakers sold 1,493,078 vehicles in the United States in July, down 17.4 percent from a year ago, according to Autodata, an industry research firm. Sales were off sharply from a year ago, when the industry had a blockbuster month because of Detroit's employee-pricing incentive deals. The July sales pace of 17.24 million vehicles on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis was generally in line with industry forecasts for the year. In a worrisome trend for the industry, sales of minivans, pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, collectively known as light trucks, fell 30 percent. Last month, passenger cars made up 48 percent of the market, compared with 39 percent a year ago, Autodata said. At GM, truck sales dropped 31 percent, while car sales were down slightly. In cars, GM reported improving sales of the Pontiac G6 and Chevrolet Impala. The Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe all had double-digit sales declines in the month, compared with a year ago. Ford reported major declines across the board. Sales of its flagship Ford brand tumbled 35.7 percent. Its other brands, Mercury, Lincoln, Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover, also experienced steep sales drops in the month. Sales of Ford F-Series pickup trucks, a money-maker for the company, slumped 45 percent. Ford said the declines were a distortion caused by the high sales levels spurred by incentives a year ago. George Pipas, Ford's sales analyst, said the numbers that Ford will report next month would look depressed for similar reasons. Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research Inc., said middle-class buyers, who make up the bulk of Detroit's consumer base, are growing more concerned about gasoline prices, personal finances and job security. "If you squeeze them on gas prices, that's also going to squeeze them on some of the other stuff as well," Spinella said. Those consumers were becoming more worried about taxes, food prices and education costs, he said. Japanese automakers tend to have a more affluent customer base and are somewhat more insulated from the same type of pressures, he said. At Toyota, the increase was led by Corolla, sales of which amounted to 41,800 vehicles in the month, up 37 percent. The Corolla came within striking distance of outselling its larger, pricier relative, the Camry, the country's best-selling passenger car. Toyota sold 10,137 Yaris subcompact cars in July. Honda Motor Co. also outperformed Detroit automakers in July. Honda's sales grew 6 percent, to 151,804, lifted predictably by the Civic and Accord and also by the Pilot, a car-based SUV. Nissan Motor Co. said sales dropped 20 percent from a year ago, to 84,408. Unlike its Japanese rivals, Nissan is more dependent on gas-guzzling trucks and large cars for sales.
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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Mystics Continue Late Season Renaissance With Win
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It may be August, but to the Washington Mystics it feels like June. That's when they were defeating the WNBA's best teams and establishing themselves as a contender to win their first championship. The Mystics returned to their early season form last night in an 84-74 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks at Verizon Center. The performance showed why the Mystics were tied atop the Eastern Conference standings before several of their top players suffered injuries. But the effort also indicated they are peaking at the opportune time. "This is exactly the way you want to be playing with the playoffs coming up," forward DeLisha Milton-Jones said. "You could just feel the closeness we had with each other out there on the court, just like we had at the beginning of the season. I just pray to God that we can play like this every game." Two days after the Mystics (16-13) needed to hold on to defeat Charlotte -- one of the league's worst teams -- they surged to a victory over the Sparks, who own the league's best record (23-7). The win pulled the Mystics 1 1/2 games behind Indiana (17-11), which lost to Detroit last night, for the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Alana Beard posted a game-high 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting and nine rebounds and Milton-Jones added 18 points and seven rebounds to power Washington to just its fourth victory over the Sparks in 17 meetings. Los Angeles forwards Chamique Holdsclaw and Christi Thomas each scored 12 points to lead six Sparks who finished in double figures. "Right now, we don't care how many points each of has because the most important thing is we beat a great team," said point guard Nikki Teasley, who had nine points and a game-high six assists. "We expect to play like this every game." Trailing 56-48 midway through the third quarter, the Mystics rallied. Washington took advantage with Lisa Leslie, the Sparks' perennial all-star center, on the bench in foul trouble. Washington scored five driving layups and two free throws during a 12-5 run-to cut the lead to 61-60 entering the fourth quarter. The Mystics, who for the past month have made a habit of falling apart during the fourth quarter, refused to fold after a Leslie's jump shot gave the Sparks a 70-67 lead with 5 minutes 21 seconds remaining. Forward Nakia Sanford made a pair of free throws and two possessions later, Milton-Jones swished a baseline jumper and Sanford followed with a layup. After a Sparks turnover, Milton-Jones delivered the knockout blow by making a long jump from the left wing for a 75-70 lead with 2:41 remaining. "This was a defining game for our team because we showed we could close a good team out," said Beard, whose team's four-game winning streak is its longest since 2004. "We've seem to always keep the game close and then mistakes at the end and lose. But we weren't going to let that happen this time." The key to Washington's success was containing Mwadi Mabika, Leslie and former Mystic all-star forward Holdsclaw, who entered the game collectively averaging nearly 45 points, but were held to 32. "Everyone knows to beat LA you have to contain their 'Big Three,' " Adubato said. "I thought our defensive intensity was incredible."
Alana Beard scores 29 points and DeLisha Milton-Jones keys a late rally with two jumpers to help the Mystics to their season-high fourth straight victory, 84-74 over the Sparks.
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Cubans in Miami Cheer Castro's Illness
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MIAMI, Aug. 1 -- On Calle Ocho, they jeered his name and wished for his death. " Cuba Sí, Castro No! " they shouted. " Se Acabó! " -- "It's Over!" Horns blared and celebrants waved flags and smoked cigars. The announcement late Monday that Fidel Castro is ill and has temporarily ceded power in Cuba to his brother Raul has spawned a sense of momentous expectancy here. At various spots popular among the city's Cuban immigrants -- a park for playing dominoes, at restaurants that serve café cubano, and all along Little Havana's main thoroughfare Calle Ocho -- the possibility that the dictator's long reign might be ending has set off dizzying waves of anticipation, glee and nostalgia for the island and loved ones they left decades ago. "I hope he's dead!" said Mirta Fernandez, 76, smiling broadly outside the Versailles Restaurant, adding that she could not sleep last night wondering what it all means. "It's a manufactured lie," said Juan Gonzalez, 76, amid the clinking of tiles at Domino Park, echoing many who no longer believe any news they hear from Havana. "My first thought was ' . . . he's dying now, and I wish my father were alive,' " said Carlos Prio-Touzet, a Miami architect and the son of Carlos Prio Socarras, the last democratically elected leader in Cuba. The demonstrations in the streets have amounted thus far to simple, uncomplicated fun, but what lies ahead and what's at stake may be far more complicated. "We are cutting a little slack right now if people want to conga down Eighth Street at three in the morning like they did last night," said Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. Exactly what the surprise announcement means for the population of this region -- which has been transformed time and again by waves of Cuban immigrants since Castro's rise -- is also the subject of much speculation. How many people here would return to live on the island, if given the chance? How many people in Cuba will try to immigrate? Federal and state officials said they are preparing to block mass migrations into the United States. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) said a plan is in place "to not allow for mass migration into the country at a time when the net result of that is it creates tremendous hardship and risk for people that could lose their lives." Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) echoed Bush, warning people against taking boats to ferry people across. "There is not going to be a successful launch of migrants to the U.S.," she said, standing in front of the Versailles, a landmark gathering place for Cuban exiles in Little Havana. But if the demonstrations have been simple, many here suspect that the political future in Cuba, even if Castro, dies may be far more complicated.
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Surveys Show Satisfaction With Medicare Drug Plan
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Most senior citizens who signed up for Medicare's new prescription drug coverage say they are happy with their plans, but some report that they are not saving money and many say the overall program could be better designed, two new independent studies show. The surveys -- one published today on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs, the other released last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation -- are the latest attempts to gauge the progress of the biggest expansion of Medicare since the creation of the federal health program for the elderly and disabled in 1965. The new drug benefit was passed amid furious political wrangling on Capitol Hill in 2003. In January, seniors began choosing from scores of plans offered by private insurance companies, a process that some complained was confusing and would lead to poor decisions. "Overall so far there have definitely been bumps in the road in the implementation of the law, but it hasn't been the catastrophe that critics had predicted," said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser foundation, which surveyed 1,585 people in June. About 38 million Medicare beneficiaries now have drug coverage, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the program. That includes about 25 million who enrolled directly in the program or whose employer-sponsored coverage receives a subsidy from Medicare, and millions more who have coverage through other government or private programs. That means about 90 percent of those who are 65 and older have drug coverage, said Daniel McFadden, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley who conducted the scientific survey of 1,571 seniors for Health Affairs. "Overall coverage is quite high," McFadden said. "People by and large seem to have been able to handle it and understand it." Leslie Norwalk, deputy administrator of the Medicare agency, said, "I was heartened to know that we were largely successful." The Kaiser survey found that more than 80 percent of people in Medicare drug plans were satisfied with their particular plan. McFadden's survey found that 58 percent of respondents thought the new coverage was a "major benefit." Not all the findings were as positive, however. The Kaiser survey found that nearly two in 10 enrollees had encountered a major problem in using the benefit, including having to pay unexpected costs and leaving the pharmacy without being able to fill a prescription. Low-income participants and those who take multiple prescription medications each day were more likely to say they had trouble. Also, only 46 percent of all respondents in the Kaiser survey said they were saving money, while 17 percent said they were paying more than last year. "There definitely are problems that require real attention," Altman said. In McFadden's survey, only 30 percent thought the Medicare drug benefit program was well designed overall. More than three in four (77 percent) said it would have been better to provide coverage automatically as part of Medicare, rather than as an optional program with scores of competing providers. McFadden also found that about 2 million people who use one or more prescriptions a month and would benefit from the program, including half a million low-income people, have not signed up. "Virtually anyone who is using one prescription or more should be signed up," McFadden said. "It's a no-brainer." The "doughnut hole" in Medicare drug plans -- the coverage gap in which an individual must shoulder all his or her drug costs until the total spent reaches $5,100 -- also is unpopular, with 88 percent of those in McFadden's survey calling it a "significant drawback." Medicare officials say as many as 4 million seniors could hit that coverage gap this year. Norwalk said Medicare officials are revamping the agency's Web site and will continue to educate consumers about their options and how the program works. "We want to be sure that beneficiaries have prescription drug coverage," she said. "It's fine no matter where they get it, as long as they have it."
Most senior citizens who signed up for Medicare's new prescription drug coverage say they are happy with their plans, but some report that they are not saving money and many say the overall program could be better designed, two new independent studies show.
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Fitness - Moving Crew
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Health section editor Craig Stoltz, section contributor John Briley and Health assistant editor Susan Morse were online Tuesday, Aug. 1, at 11:30 a.m. ET to talk with you throughout the hour. As the Moving Crew, we specialize in helping beginners get started, regular exercisers reach the next level and everybody avoid injuries, stick with their programs and have fun. And because the fitness world can be so intimidating to folks who are overweight and sedentary -- and since they can benefit so much from a fitness program -- we take special pride in helping them along the path to fitness. The Moving Crew will be online to take questions every other Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. ET. John Briley: As loyal Moving Crew readers know, we are huge proponents of outdoor exercise, but if you're anywhere near the D.C. area, today is *not* the day. With excessive heat warnings in effect, your best course of action for the next few days - and especially the next hour - is to find a cool place, sit back and chat about fitness. As usual, it's open phones today: Hit us with anything at all fitness or exercise related, and we'll do our best to satisfy curiosity, correct misinformation and dispel rumor, or just shoot the breeze about your exercise habits. Man, even hearing the word - "breeze" - is a little relief today (ahhhh - sort of). Arlington, Va.: I really enjoy your discussions. I just wanted to take the opportunity to comment on your column about flashy gizmos/exercise equipment. I live in a small apartment on a grad student's budget, so I can't afford all the trappings of exercise luxury. When I moved in, I splurged on a weight set that goes up to 30 lb dumbbells and a mini-trampoline from a chain department store. When it's rainy or I want to weight train, I use 'em alternately for an indoor circuit. Otherwise, my best investment has been my bike-- I save at least $100 a month on bus/metro fare riding to and from work. Oh, and my legs. I tailored my long run so that I pass not one but two Gold's gyms-- it inspires me to look inside and see all the folks on treadmills! John Briley: Great inspiration, Arlington! Keep it up and keep it fun. Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, what's the best exercise contraption out there that "gets it done" and has stood the test of time? John Briley: That would be...YOU, Burke. Seriously, this comes down to three things: your fitness goals, what you like to do and what you body will tolerate. Free weights have certainly helped millions of people get stronger, and treadmills, rowing machines and cycles (stationary and otherwise) have helped people boost cardio endurance. The swimming pool, while hardly a "contraption", has been the salvation of countless legions. My opinion: Mix it up. Try lots of things, find a few you really enjoy and rotate among them. If you rephrase the question like this: "I have 30 minutes in the gym. What one machine would give me maximum workout for that time?" I would answer: rowing machine, if used properly and safely. Just keep it all fun and interesting, and you should be a life-long exerciser. I'm a runner but it's just too hot to run safely this week. Any chance there's a gym in the Bethesda area that offers drop-in spinning, kickboxing, or Pilates? I need something that will give me a good work but that involves lots of air conditioning. I don't want to commit to a gym when the heat is due to break any time. Thanks, and keep cool! Good question--and good timing. Even the water in the outdoor pool where I do laps before work (summer treat) was bathtub-warm this morning--and the heat's only just started. Some ideas for you: Bethesda Sport & Health Clubs offers a free 3-day pass on its Web site. (Same deal available at other S&H clubs.) Another possibility: Leland Rec Center (ok, it's really in Chevy Chase, not Bethesda) has a gym with drop-in rates. It's $15 for 4 visits ($10 more if you're not a Montgomery County resident). And of course, if you're into swimming, there's the Mont. Co. Aquatic Ctr, but the gym is small and I don't think they offer the three activities you mention. Let us know if something here works for you. Stay cool! Washington, D.C.: I have been working out consistently with a personal trainer since December and trying to watch what I eat. I am considered fairly overweight (5'6", 225lbs) and I have been unable to lose any weight, even though I have been working out about four times a week (usually two weight training sessions and two cardio a week). Lately, I find myself becoming more and more unmotivated because of the lack of weight loss and slipping back into my old habits (eating worse and working out less). I know this is not going to help me, but I'm having a lot of trouble maintaining this when I'm not seeing any results. I've spoken with a doctor and even a dietician about this and both said that it could be hereditary (I've always been overweight, but this is the highest...I've been at this weight for about seven years and nothing I try works). I know that weight loss isn't the only gauge, but I'm not seeing any improvements in any other areas either. I don't know what to do. I'm at my wits end and ready to give up. Do you have any advice? Craig Stoltz: Good morning, Washington, and thanks for sharing your story. *Please, please, please* [I'm not too proud to plead in the name of fitness] don't quit. There are plenty of ways to help you see results. A few suggestions: 1. Today, go home and take measurements of your arms, waist (use your navel so you know where to do it next time), hips and thighs. Take those measurements again every two weeks. I suspect you'll see progress there, if not on the scale. [Your personal trainer should have done this, along with other baseline measurements of flexibility, leg strength, abs and arm strength. If he/she didn't do that, you may need to find a new trainer.] 2. Phase one of your training should have consisted of just building up basic cardio and strength--to essentially prepare your body for injury-free workouts of higher intensity. That period should (depending on your fitness and experience coming in) last six weeks or so. Since you've been at it since December, by now you should be doing more challenging workouts--adding some intervals to your cardio at least one day a week, doing large-muscle weight training, shifting from machines to dumbbells, doing strength training in circuits, etc. Again, if your trainer isn't having you step up, you may need a better trainer. 3. On the days you don't work out, you should walk from 30 to 60 minutes. That's a lot, but it'll burn more calories, keep you limber and help you see results. What you describe is a really common problem, especially for women. Any Crewsters out there have advice or encouragement for our friend in Washington? Largo, Md.: Dear Moving Crew, How about an article on the features and such of the gyms at area universities/colleges? Between my husband and myself, we've attended three schools in the area - UMD, Howard and GW. I could tell you which school I think wins for best gym! What a great idea--especially if some or all of their facilities are open to the public. Are they? I've heard friends speak of using the pool at Montgomery County Community College in Takoma Park but don't know much about what other area colleges offer. Tell us what you've learned. We're all ears! Alexandria, Va.: As I am taking off all my extra weight I want to keep my exercise varied--so I'm buying a bike. Do I need to bike longer than I walk? Do I need to do extra weight training besides the biking? Also how often do you need to replace your running/exercise shoes? I wear mine for a couple of hours a day, five or six days a week. Would shoes last longer if I had two pairs and gave them a rest every other day. (that is my Dad's theory of leather shoes) Thanks for being there in cyberspace. John Briley: Wow, lots o' questions. Let's see... 1. Depends on intensity. You want to cycle hard enough to get breathing/heart rate up (so that it'd be tough to carry on a conversation, breath-wise, for at least a fair portion of your ride) and you should break a good sweat. 2. Maybe - a bike does not provide weight-bearing exercise, so subbing in a walking session or two a week, or some weight work, will help with bone health. Also, depends on your goals: If, over time, you want to be able to do longer rides, maybe even compete, some weight training will help. And you do want to mix up your workouts anyway - better for body, helps prevent over-use injuries and keeps your exercise mind fresher. 3. When they wear out. Experts say 500 miles, but I really never keep count. I just look for wear and tear or a notable drop in support. Ballston, Va.: What's the best way to exercise in this hot weather? I want to get out there and do something, but the heat and my exercise-induced asthma is keeping me from doing anything (which is bad). What to do? John Briley: Listen to your body, Ballston. Really - no need at all to try to push it in this heat. If you belong to a gym, maybe some walking on a treadmill or light pedaling on a bike or other gym activity. If you have access to a pool, of course that's an easy one. If you work in air-conditioned, multi-story building, a couple of cycles up and down the stairs or a few laps around the halls are good too. Or go out for a walk in the early a.m. BUT even then, during these major heat waves, the ozone levels are elevated and the humidity is stifling (I broke a sweat walking out to get my paper this morning). Hopefully - though you never these days with the world's whacked out climate - this heat will recede in a few days and you can resume your routine. Taking a few days off will not hurt you in the long run though. Damascus: I recently heard that it it not good to stretch before a workout. The theory was that stretching relaxes muscles making them nor prone to injury. Is this true? Craig Stoltz: Ah, Damascus (Maryland, I assume?), you raise one of my favorite topics. What you've heard is essentially correct, but not precise. You should always *warm up* before you stretch. This can mean walking, a very light jog, some calesthenics, even marching in place (sir, yes sir!). This prepares your body for more vigorous activity, gets your heart rate elevated a bit and, the key point here, lubes your joints. The stuff inside most joints--called synovial fluid--is thick when it's cold, more pliable when it's warm. That's what you want. So: You should warm up for 5 minutes. Then if you want to stretch *before your workout,* that's fine. What you've heard about "overstretching" in a way that boosts injury risk isn't quite accurate. Some super flexible people, or those who really work their ligaments and tendons through static or dynamic stretching, can indeed be so flexible that their joints move in ways their muscles are not prepared to do. They can tear, pull, etc. muscles if they are too limber. That's not a risk for most of us deskbound wretches, whose muscles and other tissues are tight as banjo strings. Running outside: I have a triathlon coming up, so I really need to keep the outdoor workouts going. But this weekend, I really felt unwell while running outside. Any tips to keep up the workouts but stay safe? John Briley: See my prior answer. Even with the race approaching, your body will not suffer from taking a few days off, or greatly dialing back the intensity. It's not just me - studies do show this. If you are competing to win and simply cannot accept my answer (which is okay - really), maybe look for a cheap flight to eastern Canada and train for a few days up there. Bicycling and Leg Strength: I've been cycling for awhile but still have difficulty riding standing up (for extra oomph going up hills, or just to give my seat a rest). How can I build strength in my legs? Susan Morse: Two words: quad exercises. Quad as in short for quadriceps--the groups of muscles in the front of the thighs. Training those is a good idea not just for climbing hills on bikes but for taking pressure off vulnerable knee joints and helping to prevent injuries too. The most basic quad exercise is probably the squat. The important thing is lower yourself from a standing position to the squat with weight on your heels so your knees never go past your toes. Once you master that, add weights--just enough so you can do 2 sets of 12 to 15 reps. The piece of gym equipment called the leg press is good for building quad strength, too. Good luck! Silver Spring, Md.: Hi there. I'm confused by some of the posters in my gym. One says that a heart rate in some specified range is for cardio training, while another range is for fat burning. Does that mean that if I'm working out within the cardio training range that I'm not burning fat? Thanks. Craig Stoltz: Ah, one of my favorite fitness myths, Silver. This is a finicky distinction based on what kind of fuel your body draws on during lighter and harder exercise. Yes, it draws more on fats when working out at a lower heart rate. But it just doesn't have practical value. You want to do two things with cardio workouts: burn calories and train your heart-lung-blood vessel industrial complex. Working out at higher intensity is better for both of those. For those interested in max heart rate generally, the very-very rough formula is 200 minus your age. Take that result and multiply by .60; that's your low-end heart rate training zone. Multiply it by .80 (or, if you're buff as Briley, .85) and that's the top end of your cardio training zone. Arlington, Va.: What are some of the more-effective ways to rev up a workout routine? I'm, to use a past description of yours, a sorta-fit gym rat, who'd like to take it up a level. John Briley: Intervals, my friend, intervals. During whatever you do for cardio - walk, elliptical, cycle, rowing, swimming - get warmed up, then every two minutes do 30 seconds of a "wow, I'm really pushing it" intensity (breathing hard, feeling that heart working harder). In between, maintain a steady pace - i.e., do not drop all the way back down to near-zero effort. Try to do that six times or so, then aim to boost it up to 10 times per cardio workout BUT only do that two times per week. Then vary your non-interval cardio sessions - longer and slower one day, a little higher steady pace but shorter another. The intervals boost cardio endurance and accustom your body to moving oxygen to muscles more efficiently, and the variance in workouts throughout the week keep your body guessing. Apply the same mix-it-approach to strength training also - you can do the same exercises (focus on large muscle groups) but use different gear to do it, or just straight-ahead push-ups, for example, and make some days more intense than others. Last - and this, to me, is very meaningful - find activities in which you can APPLY all that training. Softball, soccer, kayaking, rock climbing, group bike tours of Vermont (cooool, no?), challenge your kid to a swim race, etc. etc. etc. There is so much out there. Once you get on a field, trail, diving board, whatever, you will want to keep getting in better shape to improve your ability to do whatever you like to do. Vienna, Austria: I am a reasonably fit, healthy 49-year-old woman who nearly every day either runs, plays singles tennis, or lifts at the gym. On and off for the past 10-15 years I get this "rash" around my ankles and slightly up the backs of my legs when I exercise in high heat/humidity. This has happened no matter where I exercise--D.C., Texas, Europe. The rash is always above the sock line and I'm never wearing anything that covers my lower legs, so it's definitely not a heat rash. It doesn't really itch and it goes away after a few days, but boy is it ugly, scary and red for those few days. Folks probably think I have some kind of tropical skin disease. I finally poked around the Internet and think it is "exercise induced vasculitis" or "golfer's vasculitis." One Web site mentioned something like this is common at multi-day walk-a-thons or even marathons. Have you had any experience with this--you or the chat readers--and do you have any suggestions about how to prevent/treat it? Thanks! Craig Stoltz: Hi Vienna, when we get questions from Vienna around here, they are usually from the cozy suburb of Vienna, Va. Welcome from across the sea, and I hope you're having a pleasant evening! Anyhow: Yes, I've heard this rash-on-lower-leg-with-exercise reported, and what you've found on the Internet is likely correct (inevitable disclaimer: I'm no doctor, and your doc is the authority on this stuff). But this vasculitis is an inflammation of the blood vessels that is triggered by exercise; it is generally considered not serious and not (as far as I know, again as a non-doctor) connected to some other circulatory problem. Reports I've read have even included the same observation about the rash not appearing underneath socks! Suggesting compression, even minor, has some effect on how the blood vessels are behaving. Anyway: Fear not and get more info from your doctor. I'd recommend a sports doc. It's a fairly unusual condition and a GP may not be familiar with it. Laurel, Md.: Just a comment really to the poster on area colleges: UMD has the BEST POOL EVER. You don't have to be a member of the gym to join the Masters swimming there. Great people, great atmosphere. Don't be afraid of "Masters." There are some slow people there too. Craig Stoltz: Thanks, Laurel, I've swum (swammed?) in that very pool, in my callow youth as a grad student at UMD, and agree fully. Arlington, Va.: Hi there -- Thanks for all the great advice! Since the weather started warming up this spring I have been enjoying running outdoors. I know how important it is to do strength training in addition to cardio, but when faced with the option of going for a nice jog on a trail nearby and going to the gym to use all those leg curl/extension/etc. machines, I find it SO difficult to motivate. My boyfriend, on the other hand, really enjoys lifting and hates the treadmill. How do I get myself to enjoy it more so I don't avoid it? There's no rule, you know, that strength training has to be done in a gym. Along some of the trails in Rock Creek Park, as you may have discovered, are pull-up bars and parallel bars and other equipment that lend themselves to a pretty good strength workout. Find a relatively soft piece of ground and you can add push-ups and planks (make like you're about to do a push-up and hold position, legs straight, weight on arms, belly sucked in). Just a few suggestions. Your fellow chatters may have others. Good luck (Wait til it gets cooler to try this outdoors!) Falls Church, Va.: My question is about rest, and what that really means. I work out nearly everyday alternating upper body (weights, abs etc) with cardio (three to four mile jog). I only rest when I feel tired, usually once every 10 days or so when I'll skip a day--always the run day! Should I be resting on a more regular schedule? How can I tell if my body is getting the recovery it needs and whether or not I'm over-exercising myself? Congrats on your commitment; it's an inspiration. The general advice is to take a day off per week, just to let all those minor tweaks and tics heal. Some trainers refer to this as allowing your body to "consolidate its gains," meaning giving it a full day to replenish tissues and send proteins to muscles that are recovering from the microtears that occur with vigorous exercise. I have no idea if that "once a week" is science-based or just a useful suggestion to help people organize their workout lives. Runners talk about feeling "leg-weary," when they are just feeling heavy and sluggish despite regular training. The advice is almost universally to take a day or two off. It's important to refuel after workouts, especially if your work out every day. Look for a good mix of healthy carbs and protein: a peanut butter roll up on a wheat tortilla, or a fruit smoothing with (my own vice) whey protein mixed in. Always, if your body tells you it needs a rest, rest. Your body is a genius and has plenty to teach. For Washington, D.C.: Having lost a fair amount of weight myself, and taking a long time for the weight loss to get started, I realized there are two components to it: eating habits and exercise habits. Tackle one first, then the other. 1. It might be what you are eating. I ate healthy food. However, I had to buy a scale, weigh my food, bring my lunch and write down everything I ate before I saw where the calories I was consuming (before) were enough to keep my weight steady, even with exercise. 2. You might not be working out as intensely as you may need. Again with the tools, I got a heart rate monitor and found that, while I'd previously varied my workouts between weights and cardio, I was not getting as effective a cardio workout as I needed on a regular basis. And a weight lifting session doesn't generally burn that much; cardio is very helpful in getting the pounds to drop. The weight started coming off when I combined eating 1800 calories per day with 300 calories burned per cardio session four times a week (plus one day of weights). There is, of course, always the possibility that there is a medical issue, so be sure also that your MD has cleared you for exercise and health related issues (or discussed prescriptions you may take) that could slow weight loss. Whatever happens, you never defeat yourself when you continue to exercise. Even if the weight isn't coming off, exercise still benefits your body - hang in there, keep being good to yourself and good luck! Craig Stoltz: what a wonderful comment/inspiration; thanks much. Chicago, Ill.: Greetings from Chicago. I have a hamstring question. I run 25 miles a week, and for the past few weeks I've noticed a dull ache in one hamstring, though not while I'm running. It's a little tighter than the other when I stretch etc. and usually aches when I'm sitting in the office the office or driving. I've increased stretching time (on both legs), but it hasn't helped. Am I at increased risk of a pull? Any clue what it could be or how to fix it? Thanks. John Briley: Hey Chicago - STOP NOW and listen: Man, do I wish I had heeded that very same warning my body was sending me in the spring. Same. Exact. Message. I ignored it, or thought that a little extra stretching would allow me to keep going. May 13, 2006: Sproing! Torn hammy. Two-and-a-half months later: Still in physical therapy. So, what can you do? You almost certainly have a Grade 1 pull (look it up on the Web) which will heal if you do the following: 1. REST. That's right do VERY LITTLE with that leg until you feel a notable improvement in said tightness and discomfort. 2. Light stretching: Lie on floor at home with towel or strap over ball of foot, and pull straight leg up from ground to near 90-degree angle to floor. Keep your hip down (i.e., don't let your butt come off the floor). DO NOT pull this past the point of mild discomfort. 3. Ice after these stretching sessions. 4. Come back slowly. Really. Trust me on this. Do a few sessions where you just walk, with maybe a light short jog or two mixed in. ICE AFTER THESE TOO. Once you can do that with NO tightness or discomfort, start to ramp back up. 5. Get into yoga. Find a good studio and go at least once a week, and practice at home on other days. This provides strength and flexibility, plus the bonus of balance and body awareness. Don't view this as sissy stuff. Lots of pro athletes do it, for good reason. 6. If none of the above works and you are getting impatient, get a few sports massages and/or see an orthopod. This is - bar none - the worst injury I have ever had, simply due to its persistence. You still have time to save yourself. Good luck! Response to help riding up hill...: To the poster looking to get help riding up hill. The more time you spend on your bicycle riding up hills and doing specific workouts on the bike targeting your weaknesses...the better you'll get at them. I've been trying to get better at climbing this year too, so I've been going out to Military Rd in Arlington and just riding back and forth on those hills a couple of times a week. Spend too much time in the gym and not on the bike and all you are doing is packing on some more baggage to carry up those hills.. John Briley: A valid perspective here... Indianapolis, Ind.: Hello. Could you please expand on your comment about the rowing machine being the best piece of equipment for the maximum workouts for your time? I like to use the rowing machine but would love tips on getting more out of it. Thanks! The ergometer (as it also called) engages more muscle mass per unit of perceived exertion than other gym gear. You use your legs, your upper back, your lower back, your core and your arms. Go to www.concept2.com for a tutorial on using the machine properly (technique counsel is on that site somewhere). One key caution, which I know is on the site: Do not lean back past 90 degrees as you pull through a stroke - that could cause lower back strain. People see pro rowers do this and try to imitate them, but most of us are not in the appropriate level of conditioning for that. Good luck and have fun. Reforming Slug in Arlington, Va.: To "discouraged in DC" who has been working out since December .... DON'T DESPAIR! I'm a 6'1" woman with 210 (now 204) lbs on a small frame -- in my late 40s -- with a heart arrhythmia and moderately-well-controlled asthma. I joined a gym a YEAR ago because I was afraid I'd be wearing muumuus to work in a few months. I have only recently started losing any weight at all, although I have increased my upper and lower body strength immensely (e.g., leg press 260) and have lowered my (gerbil-like) heart rate considerably. It does take time. Don't give up. I feel much better even though I haven't dropped a size yet. I also became very stern with my diet ... I only eat things that "do" something for me (no empty calories because they taste good) and count calories (1200-1800/day mixing it up so my body doesn't think it's starving). I am a couch potato by nature and have always loathed exercise -- but I try to go to the gym every night after work. One of the trainers at the gym finally asked me if I lived there! He called me a gym rat (a compliment). It can be done ... take it from the last person who ever got picked for sports in elementary school (had a medical excuse for gym in high school). Keep going -- it DOES GET BETTER! John Briley: Awesome post, Arlington. Thank you. Re: Heart Rate: So I did your math (200-29=171 and 171-0.6=103 and 171-0.85=145), even though I'm not as buff as Briley. But only 145?! After a run, I'm usually at about 175; is that bad? Craig Stoltz: Hey, thanks for the math! The big asterisk--it's about the size of a 25-pound weight plate--is that there is enormous individual variation in maximum heart rate. Some folks naturally have HRs that are higher (and lower). This makes people think they are exercising "too hard" or "not hard enough." Two suggestions for folks who find themselves off the charts: 1. Look up "Karvonen formula" on the Web. It's a way to get a better individual estimate of your max HR by taking into account your resting HR. It still doesn't explain all folks who are off the charts, but it resolves many folks' discrepancies. 2. Use the Borg Category Rating Scale (look that one up on the Web too), which asks you to self-rate how hard you're working on a scale that runs from six to 20. (It starts at six because Gunnar Borg thought it would sort-of correspond with heart rate, i.e., practically no exertion, a six, would be around 60 bpm for many people, and 20, as hard as you possibly can, would be close to 200 for many people. 11 to 13 is the slow-burn workout zone, 15-17 the butt-kick zone. The chart will help you self-rate with some precision. Since this week is really not suited for exercising with 90+ temps. as I'm not. I thought I'd ask this question for those that insist on it. What exactly are the symptoms of Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke? I see people that will jog in any kind of crazy weather like today. Susan Morse: Good question, Arlington. Hope you don't mind if I jump in for John. I've had a little first-hand experience with the subject. It's easy to come by if you go backpacking on the Appalachian Trail on a 100-degree Code Red day in a drought. Even after my companion and I shucked off all non-essentials to carry more water, we ran low at midday after a climb. Lay down in the shade to wait before continuing hike to next water stop (probably the best health strategy, under the circumstances)and remember pretty vivid hallucinations. Makes for a good story, but not something you want to fool with. We were lucky. Heat exhaustion, which can occur after too much exercise outdoors in a day like today and too little fluid, can produce nausea, faintness, dizziness, a rapid heartbeat, pale skin. Heat exhaustion, if not treated (get out of the sun, drink cool not cold fluids, lie down) can progress to heat stroke, which can be life-threatening. With the loss of the body's normal temperature control, a person can develop a high fever and become confused, disoriented, irritable. Call 911 or emergency medical help promptly. Washington, D.C.: I read all about how everyone needs to be in the gym to lose weight and supplement their cardio with weights and I think it's a sham put up by personal trainers to gain business. Take two people that are the same and have one do 30 minutes on the stairmaster and 30 minutes of weights and compare the weight loss to the person going out and running every day for an hour and the smart money is on the runner. The more you run/bike/swim/walk fast/etc...the more you'll lose. 1. Replace (say) five pounds of fat with five pounds of muscle, and your body burns more calories every day, just sitting around lookin' cool, than the runner's body will. 2. It's possible, and for many folks desirable, to do strength training in the form of circuits, i.e., one exercise after another with no rest in between. This makes your heart do the rhumba, giving you calorie burn while you strength train. 3. It's all about calories in/calories out. Intense stair/strength can burn more calories than a moderate steady state run or a slow jog. Any trainers or ex. physiologists out there have comments? Alexandria, Va.: Heat, heat and more heat! I'm training for the MC Marathon and was on a rigid schedule that has worked for me in the past - most days are 5+ mile runs with one long run on Sunday. But this weather has thrown me off it. Time is running out and I feel like I'm falling behind with every 'code orange' day (and I suspect August will be filled with them). Any tips on how can I get to marathon fitness in this swamp? Craig Stoltz: Run before 9 a.m. Do not, do not, do not do a long training run in this heat. You run serious risk of heat exhaustion or, far worse, heat stroke. If you feel you *have* to run in this midday heat, it might be time for a gut check: has a habit you've taken on to be healthy led you to risk your health? Not a good sign. College Park, Md.: Relevant to the heat: I've gone from running my 1-hour training runs outside to running them on an indoor track. The only problem is that the track is only 1/10 of a mile, so I'm making a lot of turns. I wonder, will the tighter turns make me more prone to injury (I have a slight history of bursitis), or will the softer surface (I'm usually on asphalt -- Bad runner!) be better for that? For the record, I've finally broken down and ordered an mp3 player for when I run inside, to break up the monotony... Craig Stoltz: Any runners have advice on this? I know I used to run on the indoor track at the downtown YMCA and each day they reversed the direction of the run in order to make sure people didn't develop a one-way "lean" into all-left or all-right turns. Waitressing: Hey Moving Crew, does waitressing count as my activity for the day? I've become very busy over the last month, working full time and going to school full time that I've been using waitressing as my source of exercise. I really don't have time to get the gym as I had been before I went back to school and working full time, so could you please tell me if this counts? Or are there some other quick exercises I can do to supplement this activity so that I'm not missing anything? Thanks! Craig Stoltz: Wear a pedometer; if you're taking 10,000 steps per day you're sufficiently active to remain healthy. Not fit, mind you, but healthy. Which ain't bad, of course. And all you Crew members: Be sure to take care of all those waitresses out there. They're working hard to make your meal pleasant. (Ding! Ding!) In response to running and rest...: I heard some great advice once from a pro about rest: "The worst thing you can do is work too hard on their rest days and not hard enough on days when its supposed to count." Now that's for someone running everyday, but it applies in that you could run less days, say three or four days a week, but make those days count. Run faster, farther, and at a greater effort level. And then on the days that you don't run...stay off your feet and really rest. You'll see better gains all around. Craig Stoltz: superb advice, Crewster. Thanks much. Silver Spring, Md.: Hi there! Love the chats. I have a motivation problem - developed plantar fasciitis a few months back while training for and; running a 10K. I saw a doc and am cleared for running now, but am having a hard time getting motivated. Due to work/family constraints, the only time to work out is in the morning. Any tips on getting myself back in the habit of getting out of bed early? What motivates you? John Briley: What motivates me? Pull up a spinning bike and stay a while, Silver Spring, it's a long answer. My love of sports, for one thing - basketball, tennis, mountain biking, skiing, kayaking, trail running, Frisbee, etc... Being in a modicum of shape allows me to keep up with my friends and enjoy these things without conking. Also, it's the knowledge that I almost always (except when I've injured myself!) feel better after a workout than before. The blood flow, knowing I did something good for my body, the clearer head (lots of science on this, though no study yet has concluded precisely why this happens) - it all adds up to a happier me post-workout. And, of course, regular exercise gives me a little dietary leeway. Not to eat junk, but to have that third beer on a given night, or (what the heck?) add the melted swiss on the turkey sandwich. Of course, we all have our vanity and the better I look (usually) the better I feel. Now, to Part 1 of your question: Try getting up just 10 or 15 minutes early for a week or so and taking a light jog or brisk walk. Not sure where you live, but most neighborhoods - urban and suburban - should allow for this. If that habit takes, you can start to tack on an extra five minutes a week or every two weeks, so that eventually you've got 45 minutes for a jog in the a.m. Do allow yourself a little extra warm up time in the morning, especially when (IF) the temps ever cool down. So maybe start with a fast walk then break into a jog after a few minutes. Drop back here for added motivation anytime. Washington, D.C.: Hi! Thanks so much for your always sage advice. So, I wasn't exercising at all - nothing, nada, zip. I hurt my knees awhile back and let it keep me from working out. For the past six weeks, I've gone to the gym four to six times a week. Weekly, I'd say I'm averaging three to four hours elliptical (need low impact b/c bad joints), 2.5 hours challenging yoga, and two hours weight training. Oh, and lots of stretching. I'm challenging myself but being careful not to kill myself at the gym - in the past, I've either injured myself or pushed to the point of extreme soreness, both kept me from returning to the gym. I feel more energetic and stronger. However, the scale hasn't budged, not even a bit. I thought that by going from no exercise to a fair amount of exercise, I'd lose some weight or at least slim down. Do I absolutely need to change my diet? I don't have the best diet in the world, but I drink loads of water, eat nonfat dairy products, try to avoid preservatives, fried foods, corn syrup, etc. I also eat a ton of raw veggies and not much meat. And, when I'm really hungry, I eat something healthy like carrots or Kashi cereal. I'd give myself a B+ on the food (weaknesses include French bread and pasta). I was really hoping I could just increase the exercise without changing the diet. Do I just need to be more patient and wait for results? Thanks so much for your help! Please assist this exercise newbie in finding the right path. Craig Stoltz: Take heart, newbie. First, see the answer I gave to a similar question above. But, in addition, you need to take a good look at your eating. As a Crewter above said in a very useful response, you need to log your food for at least a few days and estimate calories in. It *almost always* turns out people are consuming more calories than they thought, and that accounts for the lack of weight loss. So it may not be the quality of food (I'm a B+ on my *best* days), but the quantity. Give it a try and see what happens. Let us know. New York, N.Y.: Any suggestions for a good DVD on stretching? I'm not so into yoga, but I'd like to work on my flexibility. Susan Morse: Hi New York, Because there are so many fitness videos out there of such varying quality and because exercisers too come in so many different conditions, sizes, needs, from time to time, we like to ask chatters to share their recommendations for favorites. Your question reminds me that I think it's time to do that again. In a previous chat, one writer was enthusiastic about videos by Cathe Friedrich. She's got one called Total Body Stretch--but can't say I've tried it. Collage Video is a good place to look for suggestions in general. But let's put question to others. Suggestions for a good stretch video, chatters? Omaha, Neb.: Can you suggest the best way to get a strong glute workout on a stair machine? The different settings ("cardio" "fat burner" "cross country") are pretty vague. I usually do speed intervals, which is a great cardio workout, but I seem to be relying on my calves and quads. Thanks, as always, for doing this chat! Your glutes will engage during most settings on those machines but (it seems to me) work harder at higher step settings. You lower settings work your calfs and lower leg muscles more. As you go up, you get more into quads and glutes. Also, keep your upper body "quiet" on the machine, focusing your effort and movement on the lower half. Try not to bounce or lean on the handles. Heart rate formula: I've always read/heard that the formula for determining your max heart rate is 220 minus age, not 200. Then the previous 29-year-old poster who is exercising at 175 (above his "max") is still working hard, but not above his (220-age) max. Craig Stoltz: Ah, I didn't check the poster's math. Thanks much for this correction. Yes, it's 220 minus your age. Never mind! (Though the K. formula and the Borg chart are indeed useful for folks who find their HR falls outside the norm.) Did I mention that I was an English major in college? Downtown D.C.: Dear Moving Crew, I walk a lot and I walk fast. I walk about three to five miles several times a week at a clip that many people have a hard time keeping up with (I'm a native New Yorker so it comes naturally). While the pace is fast, my heart rate never gets that high - I stay well below the 65 percent threshold. The only way for me to get it higher is to jog. My question is am I getting any health benefits from the walking if it isn't getting my heart rate up high enough? Or, should I just jog instead. I should note that when I jog my heart rate goes way up and I am usually above 85 percent. What to do? Craig Stoltz: DDC via NYC: It sounds like you are in quite good cardio shape, and that the walking doesn't challenge you sufficiently to keep improving your heart-lung machine. If jogging is unpleasant (it is for me), try to walk with 30- to 60-second intervals of jogging in between. Good things will happen to your HR--it'll vary from the 60 to 80 percent max HR most folks want to be in -- without the tedium of a jog. Washington, D.C.: Hi...I'm registered for my third Marathon, but I'm having A LOT of trouble getting motivated to run. I play soccer regularly, and work out on an elliptical machine at the gym. I've got no problem maintaining about 150-160 heart rate for an hour (I'm 40), but somehow I can't bring myself to run. By the way, I have a BMI of 33, but was a "clydesdale" in both previous Marathons. Do you know of a beginning running group that might motivate me? Or any other ideas? John Briley: Maybe you should find another competitive exercise outlet? Of course, training for a huge race requires many episodes of "man, I don't want to do this today" but if you're really hating it, perhaps you should move on to cycling or something else? If you hate it and keep doing it anyway, you eventually will leave it for an extended period, probably with some level of ill will. That said, check out the road runner clubs in and around D.C. (just search "D.C. Road Runners", with the quotes, on the Web). They have groups at many levels. Also, Potomac River Runners is a good group, and skews to the more serious runner (and, admit it, you HAVE done two prior marathons). Good luck with this. I am NOT trying to talk you out of a good habit, but there's no reason you be kicking dust all day/week/month just to try to prove something that you've already proven twice! Fairfax Station, Va.: Do we burn more calories exercising outside in this heat? Sure feels like it ... Craig Stoltz: I don't know, but nobody should do it for that reason. Nobody should be outside running right now, or until close to dusk. If you see anybody out there, report it to Briley, who travels the D.C. area with a mobile "cooling van." He wrestles disobedient runners into the back and covers them with ice and lectures them about the dangers of heat stroke. It's a strange practice, and probably illegal, but Briley's heart is in the right place. Silver Spring, Md.: Crew, thanks for your time. I'm in my mid-20s and not in bad shape but I'd like to get into good shape. Here's the catch: I don't want the expense and hassle of a gym. I can jog outside (carefully on days like this) but what can I do to set up a workable, not-too-expensive home gym? Any options short of buying a Bowflex? Susan Morse: The secret's out: You can train at home with some pretty simple, inexpensive equipment. The basics usually include rubber tubing, one of those big, air-filled stability balls (from about $16 to $30), a gym mat and some hand weights or medicine balls (about $20). You're not a wuss for doing so. Some personal trainers use basic equipment like this for training clients in their homes. Physical therapists often use little more than such equipment, too. Washington, D.C.: Hi. I was hoping you could give me some feedback about my current fitness routine and whether or not it will help me achieve my goals. I'm 38, 5'7" 160lb, and would like to lose 20 pounds. For cardio, I walk about 60 minutes, six days a week (this is in addition to the normal walking of a city dweller). I am also lifting 4xweek (this is in a good week, although it's never less than 2xweek) split between lower and upper body work. I've been doing this for about six weeks now, although some weeks have not been as active as what I described above. But even in a "slow" week I probably walk 4x and lift 2x. I've lost about 5 pounds and have seen an improvement in strength. This is not my first time working with weights, but it's been a few years. Is this good progress? Is there anything you'd recommend that I change? Thanks! Oh, and yes, this is combined with healthy eating! Craig Stoltz: This is a great program and fantastic progress. Anything more than a pound (to, all right, 1.5 pounds) of weight loss per week suggests a program that's unsustainable (and therefore likely to fail in the long term). As you progress: freshen your workout with new exercises (or different reps, sets, etc.) every six to eight weeks. And I'd recommend getting a heart-rate monitor to make sure that as your fitness improves, you are challenging your heart-lungs with enough intensity to keep improving as your body adapts to your level of activity. Congrats on a great program and progress! Let us know how you're doing a month from now. Boston, Mass.: Hi there. I sprained my ankle pretty badly about a month ago. I had some laser therapy a few weeks ago to help with the healing, and I think its come along quite well. I set a date of August 1 to start running again (although, given the heat wave looks like its going to be a few days later). What can I do to make sure that I work back into my running routine without injuring the area again? John Briley: See my post somewhere above about coming back slowly. While it does not apply directly to an ankle injury, the principle is the same: Come back slowly, testing the ankle with definitely-less-than-you-used-to-do workouts, and closely monitor how it feels afterward. Do the stretches and icing your doc recommends and, if you feel any notable pain (beyond the generalized discomfort that comes from reintroducing a healed injury to exercise), back off. Be patient, stay slow for a week, then GRADUALLY ramp back up. When this goes well, you will finish workouts feeling good, not like you're on or over the brink of re-injury. Aside from the laser work, I hope you did all those range-of-motion exercises with the stretchy bands? Those are crucial for ankles. Washington, D.C.: Thanks for taking my question. I've been working out in the gym since April. I'm relatively new to this kind of thing. I've been circuit-weight training plus 20/30 minutes on elliptical three days a week (thanks for the great article by the way. It made a huge difference in my technique). Two days a week I walk on the treadmill for one hour at an incline and pace of 3.5 miles per hour. The last two times I've been on the treadmill my left-foot went completely numb. I loosen my shoe but that doesn't seem to be the issue. Should I be concerned or is this something that happens. I should say I've never had this happen on long walks outside the gym in the past. Thanks. Craig Stoltz: We get this one fairly frequently; it's happened to me. The advice from trainers is usually to switch your cardio workout--a version of the old "if it hurts, cut it out" advice. Some folks have said that after a layoff they have returned to the offending machine and have not had the problem recur. 15K: So I joined a half-marathon training program, all psyched up about it, until I wanted my Saturday mornings back...and now it starts at 6 a.m.. The hubby and I haven't officially quit yet, but I don't want to do it anymore, and I feel guilty about being a 'quitter.' The thing is, I HATE running. I like the feeling of accomplishment after a run, but when I was growing up my main form of exercise was dance classes of all shapes and sizes, and so I'm used to exercise that engages all of your muscles, most importantly my brain. I get so bored while running and I miss the mental engagement. But, my concern is this: do aerobic DVDs (like tae bo and others) match the fitness benefit of running? John Briley: You can match the fitness benefits of running if you achieve similar intensity in those other activities. See my prior post on running and the love (or lack thereof) of the sport. You joined the program with good intentions. If you are quitting for the reasons you cited, that seems completely valid to me. Don't beat yourself up over it. Find what you love and pursue that. Washington, D.C.: I ran a marathon five years ago. I weighed 180 pounds when I crossed the finish line (I'm a female). Since then, I have gained 40 pounds. I would like to begin running again, but it's too hard (plus, if I can be frank, I can't find a supportive enough sports bra). I've been just walking but isn't cutting it. Other exercises don't appeal to me. What should I do? Craig Stoltz: Hi Washington, congrats for having the motivation to return to exercise. My weight has increased seven pounds in the last six months (hey, even Crew Dudes have setbacks, bad habits, etc.), and I can tell how much harder it is to run, walk hard, even do daily activities with that extra poundage. So you should expect things will be tougher with 40 more lbs. I'd recommend walking, but getting a heart-rate monitor and making sure your HR is within the 65-80 percent of HR max when you're walking. Walking at the proper intensity is plenty of challenge for almost anyone. And for people carrying more weight than they'd like, much easier on the joints, self-esteem, etc. Good luck, and let us know how it goes. Arlington, Va.: I have been seeing a personal trainer for a month. I just wanted to get your opinion. My weight is going up and down a bit - in the 5 pound range. Also, I feel bloated a lot and don't feel much in the way of changes. I do think he's a great trainer and he's pushing me hard, and I haven't done this much weightlifting before. We meet once a week. My goal is to get more tone, and he's doing high reps/low weight for that. Do you have any perspective on when I might see some changes, and on the weight yo-yo? Thanks! John Briley: Have you clearly stated your goals to him? Most trainers I've worked with focus on strength because they can stay engaged with you throughout the workout (and, of course, because it IS good for you). But you still need cardio - are you getting enough on your own, or has the trainer advised a certain level every week? Focus on that, and on diet, and make sure your trainer knows what you're after. John Briley: We are out of time folks. Thanks, as always, for the lively participation. We'll be back in two weeks, sweat-absorbent towels draped over our necks. Meantime, grab some lemonade and take it easy. 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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25 Years Down the Tube
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MTV turns 25 today, which is still a few months younger than Justin Timberlake. The typical way to go from that sentence would be to bemoan -- in snarkabratory fashion -- what MTV has become since it first transfixed some lucky cable-ready teenagers on Aug. 1, 1981. (Those of us first labeled "the MTV Generation" would now like to apologize to all the parents with basic cable who hired us as babysitters in those days. You should know this: Your small children went unsupervised, unless they happened to pass between our eyeballs and Adam Ant's.) But for real? MTV has never been better. You get older, while MTV happily and wisely regresses. You watch in slack-jawed horror as it takes you into the details of a $200,000 16th-birthday party for another irreparably spoiled spawn of the baby boomers or, after that, stay tuned as MTV takes you on a bus with five 19- or 20-year-old women, all with tramp-stamp tattoos on their tailbones, as they find themselves "Next"-ed by a finicky, shirtless, overmuscled dipwad. You watch the entire "Making the Video" with Jessica Simpson's new video and feel a combination of loathing and rapt fascination. MTV guarantees you a lifetime pass into someone else's spring break. What, after all, would be the point of being MTV if it were still pleasing to the Gen-X eye? I need now for MTV to disgust me even as it lures me in. I rely on it now as the cleanest, surest path to the American teenage id. The worst that could happen to MTV is also the best that could happen: Everyone older than 30 finds it boring, or too different, or irrelevant, or a barrage of immaturity. And whenever MTV reaches a milestone, people whine that it lost its juice long ago by abandoning its original format -- music videos day and night, eased along by VJs wearing bigger and bigger shoulder pads, with higher and higher hair. "Remember when MTV played videos?" asked the front page of Friday's USA Today, waving its cane. For those reasons, the network is understandably cautious about nostalgic reflection or cutting much cake; its publicists are unhelpful about digging up archival photos, claiming even that no such history exists, that at MTV, it is always about the now. Its only nod to the occasion was to begin airing last week as "A.D.D. Videos," showing just a glimpse of iconic music clips from each year of its history, in five-year chunklets. ("A.D.D." for attention-deficit disorder, which is one of MTV's proudest legacies.) There, in a sort of cuneiform recitation of the ancients, are "Rock the Casbah" by the Clash representin' 1982; "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston for 1987; "One" by U2 for 1992, and so on. If you would like to see more old videos, in their entirety, and also see a lot of new videos and a lot of short commercials for Toyotas, Tampax, video games and acne creams, you must do what MTV wants all its viewers to do now: Go online, to MTV Overdrive. There are more videos to watch now than ever, on your laptop. Go to iTunes, go to YouTube, go to the artists' Web sites, go to this one site where some guy is obsessively archiving videos from the 1980s. Gorge yourself on music videos, past and present. Over at VH1, which debuted Jan. 1, 1985, as an adult-oriented music channel, they would love to bathe you in their fountain of endless flashback. But do relieve MTV of the burden of being its old self. It has now been around long enough for its first generation of viewers to forsake it, only to have some of us frequently and curiously return, this time as voyeurs. Mother, forgive me, but I still waste a lot of time watching plain ol' basic-cable MTV. Not all adults can do this, and I sympathize with parents who struggle to know how much of it to let in, and how much of it is just too much. A certain moral clarity sets in about media, and part of the longing for the days of Billy Idol is, on some level, because Billy Idol merely cavorted with dark-sided imagery, zombies and smoke. Billy Idol did not kick a girl back on the "Next" bus because he deemed her too fat. Billy Idol said it was a nice day for a white wedding; Billy Idol did not rent an elephant, a helicopter, a stripper and a foul-mouthed rapper for his daughter's velvet-rope birthday party. The other grown-up in my household has a claw-the-walls response to just a few minutes' exposure to "Laguna Beach," MTV's enhanced-reality series about rich kids in Orange County. Why do you watch it? Turn it down. Turn it off. This is a refrain heard from the saner people in my childhood, and now. I cannot exactly say how or if my life is enhanced by knowing about Kristin and L.C. and Talan and Jason, but I do know them now, and there it is -- nothing. If you needed a stack of photos of "Real World" cast members sorted by city and year going back to 1992, I could probably handle it unassisted, and that also means nothing.
MTV turns 25 today, which is still a few months younger than Justin Timberlake.
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MTV'S HIGHLIGHT HISTORY
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March 31, 1983: Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video debuts. With "Billie Jean," which aired earlier, Jackson became the first black artist with a video on MTV. Sept. 14, 1984: Madonna, not yet a star, performs "Like a Virgin" at the first Video Music Awards. March 21, 1985: MTV runs its first "Spring Break" special, allowing college students who couldn't head south to live it vicariously through the network. Aug. 6, 1986: "Yo! MTV Raps!" premieres as rap begins its ascent as the dominant music form for young Americans. May 21, 1992: People stop being polite and start being real when "The Real World" premieres and viewers get their first taste of reality television. April 19, 1994: President Clinton appears live before a group of 16-to-20-year-olds and is asked by 17-year-old Laetitia Thompson of Potomac: "Mr. President, the world's dying to know: Is it boxers or briefs?" "Usually briefs," the president replied. Oct. 22, 1998: "Total Request Live" is cemented as pop culture's home page when the Backstreet Boys shut down Times Square during an appearance on the afternoon show. March 5, 2002: "The Osbournes," reality TV's first dysfunctional family, debuts and draws huge audiences for the network. Aug. 28, 2003: Madonna appears on the 20th Video Music Awards and plants open-mouthed kisses on Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears.
Aug. 1, 1981: MTV launches with "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. Only a few thousand people on a single cable system in northern New Jersey could see it.
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A Moment Mel Would Understand
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The world is having a Mel Gibson moment. If it does not quite hold Jews "responsible for all the wars in the world," then certainly it is ready to blame Israel alone for the carnage in Lebanon and, in the addled formulations of some, the war in Iraq as well. Gibson offered his inebriated analysis to a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, but drunk and a skunk though he may be, he put his finger to the anti-Israel zeitgeist and uttered its prevailing sentiment: Enough. The war in Lebanon has thus far proved to be a debacle for both Israel and the United States. It has flipped George Bush into a state of babbling inanity about how this was "a moment of opportunity" -- as Britain's Tony Blair, his steadfast enabler, stood by and watched. This is similar to the opportunity presented by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which offered Bush et al. the chance to rearrange the china of the Middle East by smashing a good deal of it. That, as we all know, has not worked quite as splendidly as promised. Before Gibson there was Kofi Annan. I do not accuse the United Nations secretary general of anti-Semitism -- a slam-dunk in Gibson's case -- but here again there is a rush to judgment, an impatience, an anger and a general vexation that, at best, is worrisome. When an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed four U.N. observers last week, Annan was quick to say Israel had done so deliberately. Why Israel would do such a thing -- what's the benefit to it? -- went unexplained or even, it seemed, unconsidered. Annan, who later said he would await an Israeli report on the incident, was having a mini-Mel Gibson moment. This is all regrettable, not to mention troubling. War is a nasty thing, and in this war Israel has most of the firepower. Having most of the firepower means that it can do most of the damage. The consequences can be horrendous and almost unbearable to see on television. What's more, Israel has an almost mythical reputation for military prowess, a supposedly magical ability for battlefield precision, so it's all the harder to accept the fact that it, too, can make awful mistakes. The United States, after all, has done similar things in Iraq and Afghanistan. As for Hezbollah, it cannot make such mistakes. It doesn't give a damn where its rockets land. It is the nature of contemporary war that its causes are soon forgotten. Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and its cross-border missile attacks are a distant memory. More pressing, more urgent -- more compelling by far -- are the horrible images of dead and wounded children. The urge is to change the channel, alter the programming: End the war. The kidnapped soldiers have no on-screen presence. Their plight, their fate, cannot compare to what happened in the Lebanese village of Qana. It is also useless to point out that the 2,500 or so rockets fired into Israel have mostly been directed at civilian targets. Haifa, after all, is not a military base. A constant state of war makes a country mad. It unnerves it, unhinges it -- which is what happened here after Sept. 11. You only have to read the Israeli press to get a sense of the fury, the anger, the hurt of a people who see their enemy lurking among civilians, their weapons placed in and among children -- and feel the wrath of the world for hitting back. The strike into Lebanon has almost universal support in Israel, the most contentious of all societies, because of a deep and justifiable sense of grievance. What more can it do? What else will be asked of it? Who picked this fight, anyway? The world has a responsibility here. If it can no longer put up with Israeli excess, with its (understandable) policy to strike back disproportionately, then it has to put an end to the slow bleeding of that country. The world -- the United Nations -- created Israel. It ought to safeguard it. It is the only way. Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000. It pulled out of Gaza last year. It was making plans to pull out of most of the West Bank. Still, the suicide bombings continue, the rockets keep coming down and soldiers get kidnapped, maybe never to be returned. Yet the world, appalled at what it can see on television and untroubled by what it cannot, has had it with Israel. Mel Gibson would understand.
The world is having a Mel Gibson moment. If it does not quite hold Jews "responsible for all the wars in the world," then certainly it is ready to blame Israel alone for the carnage in Lebanon and, in the addled formulations of some, the war in Iraq as well. Gibson offered his inebriated analysis...
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An Insufficient Stomach for War
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"This is a deliberate massacre against civilians," Lebanon's acting foreign minister, Tarek Mitri, told reporters yesterday after addressing the U.N. Security Council in New York. "Genocide," cry Lebanese and Middle East leaders and commentators, referring to Israel's actions. Even Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said in a Senate floor speech yesterday that there was "sickening slaughter" on both sides. Everyone on the planet seems to agree 600 civilians deaths are too many in this two-week-long war. The condemnation certainly suggests a step forward for humanity: The global community doesn't have much -- or sufficient -- stomach for war. But there's another possibility. Perhaps the dominant view of the Lebanon war and expectations about war itself are clouded by innumerable subtexts -- anti-Israel, anti-American, anti-Bush, anti-air power -- that subtly influence news media reporting? First, we have to dispense with a core fallacy suggested by those who consider Israel's military campaign excessive and see it as as a "failure": If Israel were militarily "successful" against Hezbollah because of different tactics, would the hatred on both sides really have dissipated? I, for one, have a hard time conceiving of any Israeli military tactic that would have convinced a prejudiced Lebanon population -- or the "Arab street" -- that the Jewish state was merely defending itself and justified to do so. Thus Israel in theory is granted the right to use force in self defense and yet any actual use of that force is ruled unacceptable, at least by the chattering classes. It is as if war can be condoned as a chess game but not as an actuality. That isn't to say that Israel has done the right thing in targeting civilian infrastructure in its air strikes -- they may or may not have produced the military effects the country was seeking. The only real justification under international law and the law of war for such attacks would be if Israel could "prove" that the bombing of civilian infrastructure has had demonstrable military impact on Hezbollah. Nor am I excusing the incident at Qana. But war commentators are too quick to jump on civilian deaths in Qana and the Israeli failure bandwagon to fight other parochial wars: If Israel didn’t rely so much on air strikes, civilian deaths in Qana wouldn’t have happened; this show the limits of high technology in warfare; there is no military solution, etc., etc. Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales writes in the Washington Times about "over-reaction by the Israeli air force." Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey criticizes the Israeli strategy on NBC Nightly News: "They tried to do this on the cheap with precision air power, special operations, pinpoint attacks ... they needed to get in and expunge Hezbollah." And here's the lead of a Christian Science Monitor story published today: "When Israel started its offensive against Hizbullah militants in Lebanon more than two weeks ago, it hoped its high-tech military hardware would quickly decimate the Iranian-backed militiamen with their low-tech arms. But what began as a bid to swiftly rout the guerrillas with sophisticated air strikes has become bogged down in the hamlets of southern Lebanon." Bogged down? On the cheap? Over-reaction? Is any of this an accurate portrayal of what is happening on the ground? And what exactly are these commentators suggesting as an alternative? They agree that Israel has the right to self-defense, which means it is justified in attacking Hezbollah. Yet they argue that Israel should have relied less on high technology and conducted a massive ground invasion instead. Are they saying that ground operations would have been more humane, that fewer than 600 civilians would have died in the more brutal fighting that they crave? "Israel is headed for the greatest military humiliation in its history," the Wall Street Journal says today on its op-ed pages. "So far, Israel has nothing to show for its efforts: no enemy territory gained, no enemy leaders killed, no abatement in the missile barrage that has sent a million Israelis from their homes and workplaces." Certainly Israel has failed to instantly subdue Hezbollah. And no doubt in the court of public opinion -- including surprisingly all of these Western mainstream and "expert" voices -- Israel is "losing." But are they losing militarily? The missing ingredient here though is how well Israel is doing against Hezbollah. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Hezbollah has "suffered a heavy blow" and that Hezbollah leadership "fears for its life." The Israeli Defense Force said Friday that Israeli troops had killed about 200 Hezbollah fighters while Hezbollah was reporting only 35 casualties. Moreover, Hezbollah's long-range firepower is significantly depleted. Israeli air strikes and counter-battery fire has destroyed an estimated 1,000 Hezbollah weapons. Hezbollah has also fired more than 2,000 rockets, artillery and mortar rounds, Israeli intelligence estimates. That means that if the group had 11,500 to 13,000 rockets at the start of the conflict, it might have lost one-third or more of its capability since July 12. Israel's shift this weekend to attacks in far eastern Lebanon, to the Golan Heights area, also could indicate that Hezbollah has shifted its rocket firings and activity away from the central areas where Israel was having greater success. We readily accept that this is a different kind of conflict and Israel is not fighting a conventional foe. Shouldn't we also then apply different standards to measuring success? In other words, it is just as much possible that while Israel is losing the P.R. war, and while Israel has made life more difficult for itself through its attacks on Lebanese infrastructure and civilian casualties, it could be seen as otherwise "winning" its military battle. I'm not excusing Israel's war, nor its effort or strategy, but I do think we deserve better military analysis of where Israel stands, with better understanding of the conflicts of interest and analysis that cloud the judgments of the commentators. By William M. Arkin | August 1, 2006; 9:34 AM ET Israel-Lebanon Previous: Dog Days at Homeland Security | Next: Cease-fire Within Days? Not Likely There is no reason for the Hizbollah to give up anything. They clearly outmatched the IDF, who, with their Air Force, spent most of their time perpetrating indignity and massacre one after the other in the local villages throughout Lebabon (and not just in the south, as they would have you believe)with the apparent notion that ANYONE in Lebanon had to be Hizbollah. So, they destroyed the airports, the seaports, the utilities, and the roads, even the local roads, in a vain attempt at punishment on Lebanon for 'harboring' the Hizbollah. Second, I see NOTHING in the record of actions--other than the record of words--that indicates anything near a desire by Israel for peace. Israel's idea of 'peace' is only on its own terms, with its big brother bully the US to run interference for it. What would happen if the US suddenly decided not to support or arm Israel, and simply left them to defend themselves against the people who have lived in the region for centuries? I would bet the 'peace terms' would be quite different. Israel boasts of its army victories of 67 and 73--but they did that only because they were constantly supplied by the US, France and Britain, who also sent 'volunteers' to the region. Let's stop with this vision that Israel, whatever it does, wears a white hat, and the others all wear black hats. Finally, one writer speaks of the total responsibility for this nightmare being on the Hizbollah and Syria. How quickly we forget that the great 'crime' of the Hizbollah was to capture two Israeli soldiers. Isreal responded with widespread and wanton, usually indiscriminate, destruction and bloodshed throughout Lebanon. When the Hizbollah responded in kind, they were condemned by Israel and its Axis of death--the US and Britain, for their actions. Bottom line--Israel kills and bombs--that's good, they are defending themselves. When Hizbollah bombs and kills, that's bad, because the US says so. Posted by: John _tieso | August 19, 2006 8:55 PM Israel has now found its very own Vietnam by following the rules fondly favored by George Bush and company. To wit: win hearts and minds by killing as many as possible. They also find themselves in the company of Sen. Joseph Liberman, another loser as a result of the fatal "kiss" from Bush. Israel must choose her friends more carefully. Posted by: kay | August 15, 2006 7:38 PM WW1 - 17% Civillian casualties WW11- 65% Civillian casualties All wars since after WW11 - 90% civillian casualties. How can any moral being take any side in a war when the above statistics make all wars civillian massacres. Posted by: Americangenocide | August 9, 2006 6:05 PM Arabs/Muslims, your empire is long dead, and will never rise again. Israel's destruction cannot ever come by your hands again, (but by the emerging Euro-based 4th and final empire). ....so sad....you waste millions of martys in a hopeless exercise. Regardless of whatever happens, Israel will never be destroyed, and will infact expand and get bigger until ALL land that was chosen for Her is reclaimed. The final days will be a battle between the Beast/Anti-Christ and their armies and the saints. "Blessed be those that bless Isreal (America).....and cursed be those that curse her (Arabs/Muslims)". Look at the world........Go Figure. Posted by: Peacemaker | August 8, 2006 1:05 PM Isreal always retaliated with maximum force against including civilians whenever Hamas or Fatah guerillas attacked her and subdued them. In This war one finds 1)ben jebil statment of IDF was wrong and Hizbollha was right about its claim of holding it. 2)markava tanks are getting disabled by the anti/tank missiles of hizbollah and IDF has lost 55 of its troops to these missiles.Hizbollah is firing them at correct range and not afraid to face the armour 3)Gun locating radars doesnot seem to help the Isreal airforce as well as IDF in locating the katyushas inspite of Airsuperiority of IDF without any ack ack from ground. 4)Hizbollah is supposed to be a terrorist organisation but it is fighting a conventional war without ackack and able to hold ground against superior firepower and trained troops of IDF. Ultimately IDF will win and will flatten the territory upto littany river but if Hizbollah doesnot accept the International force and continue the guerillah war and resistance like the one USA is facing in Iraq/afghanistan; will Isreal has the strength to continue the war.Now it looks as if the ceasefire is in Isreals interest?Now it looks thebombing of civilian targets inside Beirut/tryre seems to be a ploy by Isreal to shakeup the lebanon government to do its job of disarming the Hizbollah or face Infrastructure loss in its land. Posted by: captainjohann | August 8, 2006 11:34 AM How do we know who is civilan and who is Hezbollah in reporting deaths in Lebanon?? It is known that they have recruited women and children. Just curious about who is making the distinction. It is in Hezbollahs advantage to call them civilans and Israels to call them military. Posted by: tom | August 4, 2006 04:42 PM Your question frames the reality that most do not yet grasp - that acts of war have no place in a civiled world. They are a lose-lose proposition except for maybe the few who reap the profits from the sales of the weapons used. Why are the war profiteers never mentioned as active participants in these incidents? Shouldn't we know their company names and their CEO names and hold them accountable? Do they have lobbyists who influence policy makers? No one seems to ask these questions in the press, and why not? Posted by: james_1108 | August 6, 2006 1:48 PM Compare and Contrast: the world's respose to bombing of the Chinese embassy in Kosovo vs. the reaction to Israel's targeting of sites where Katyshua rockets were launched from. Hezbollah launches rockets from mobile launchers. A rocket could have launched from right next to Qana. It is blood libel to believe that Israel would purposefully target civilians. Posted by: Susan Stein | August 6, 2006 11:01 AM Get out of the middle east and the fanatism that unfortunately always seems to prevail as the only valid and accepted point of view, this will come to you, just like it did in September 11, never mind all the embassies and airplanes full of people and night clubs full of people and all suicide killings, that was not enough, there had to be a September 11. What many people fail to see is that Israel only happens to be there but if these islamic fundamentalists like Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad had their way and destroyed Israel one day, the next day the Sunnis will try to anihilate the Chiites and when one of these fanatical groups prevails they will take it against whoever happens to be in the vicinity, the Indians,who the islamic fundamentalists also hate as much as the israelis, and do not think for a moment that they do not hate Christians as much as Hindues or Israelis, they hate us just as much it is just that they somehow are getting their priorities straighten up. First let destroy the israelis, then whoever comes next. Another people they consider almost as another ethnic race are the "American" which for many of these people is the same as saying Pigs or dogs, except of course when it comes to donations and contributions, in that case they are spared momentaneously. Posted by: emptyboxes | August 4, 2006 11:59 PM How about we give Alaska to Israel, give nukes to the shia and the sunni and let them settle their own differences. Posted by: jack | August 4, 2006 7:38 PM the united state lost the most liberal country in the arab world and created more hatred. yesterday a friend of mine said "hitler was the only one who knew how to deal with them" some people think that plestinians occupied israel. its a black comedy Posted by: tarek hamam | August 4, 2006 6:42 PM Mr. Atkin has got it right in the article "insufficient stomach for war". As Pat Bucanon and Jimmy Carter indicated and echoed the opinion of Lebanon's foreign mimister. "This is a deliberate massacre against civilians," Lebanon's acting foreign minister, Tarek Mitri, told reporters yesterday after addressing the U.N. Security Council in New York. "Genocide," cry Lebanese and Middle East leaders and commentators, referring to Israel's actions. Even Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said in a Senate floor speech yesterday that there was "sickening slaughter" on both sides Posted by: ashan | August 4, 2006 6:34 PM The most powerful influences on global opinion are television pictures. An experienced TV journalist will tell you that the picture is the story. No picture, no story. Those same journalists will tell you that a powerful picture will overwhelm reality. The picture becomes reality. That's why there is such a global outcry for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. The pictures of death and injury, of lives ruined and property destroyed, are horrifying. All decent human instinct demands a ceasefire immediately. The pictures say that what Israel is doing is out of all proportion to the injury done to it and the threat posed to it. Global opinion seems to be solidifying around the view that it's all Israel's fault. The trouble is that these reactions, understandable given the power of the images, do not stand up to sober analysis. They contain within them the seeds of greater strife in the future. Let's start with Israel's ostensibly disproportionate response. It would be disproportionate if Israel were responding just to the kidnapping of two of its soldiers and the deaths of eight others. This was just one small incident, however, in an almost 25-year war conducted by Hezbollah to obliterate Israel. Iran boasts publicly that it founded Hezbollah, is its greatest supporter and supplies it through another of Israel's enemies, Syria. Many of the same people who accuse Israel of a disproportionate response recount in the same breath, some with barely hidden pleasure, that Israel is having trouble dealing with Hezbollah, which is turning out better armed, better trained, better disciplined and in much larger numbers than expected. Why hasn't anyone recognised the profound inconsistency of alleging on the one hand that Israel is acting disproportionately to the threat, while stressing that this so-called disproportionate action is barely dealing with that threat. It's illogical, but logic plays little part when emotion rules and images flood our TV screens with horror. Next, the question of an immediate ceasefire. Who benefits? Hezbollah, of course. Hezbollah will proclaim that it has fought Israel to a standstill and will immediately begin to rebuild and rearm, even if expressly prohibited by the UN from doing so. If Israel were to take military action to stop this happening, it would be back to the present situation with horror TV pictures of artillery bombardments and bombings, plus this time being vilified for allegedly breaching a ceasefire. That's why France's insistence on a ceasefire first, before the sending in of credible forces able to enforce it and the beginning of substantive negotiations, would equally be a victory for Hezbollah. Once such a ceasefire begins. there will be no agreement on a serious peacekeeping force, no negotiations on a real solution. Even stout-hearted figures such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair are joining the chorus that solving the Palestinian problem is the only way to bring peace. If only the US would exert itself to the maximum, so the argument goes. If only Israel would be reasonable and accept its 1967 borders, we could have a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine side by side. Why do otherwise intelligent people perpetuate this myth? It wouldn't matter if the US exerted every ounce of its being. It would not matter if Israel went back to the 1967 borders or even to the 1948 borders. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, most likely Syria, certainly the Islamic fundamentalist world, would not regard this as in any way acceptable. Here's what former Hezbollah leader Hassan Massawi said about Israel and negotiations: "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you." On October 22, 2002, Hezbollah's present leader Hassan Nasrallah, said: "If they (the Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide." This is the true heart of the problem. The Palestinian issue cannot be resolved because a significant part of the Arab and Muslim world still do not accept Israel's right to exist. They will not accept the two-state solution beloved of analysts because they do not accept the existence of one of those two states, Israel. This is just not a matter of politics to them; it is a matter of religion. It is non-negotiable. Until this changes, Israel will remain as it has for 60 years: under siege. Those who seek Israel's elimination will engage in conflict and terrorism against Israel and its friends. So what are we to conclude? That Israel is just too much trouble? That it causes all of us too much grief? That in defending itself against these implacable enemies Israel offends our sensibilities by the manner in which it feels compelled to use force? Already there are growing whispers from the so-called realist school of international relations that it would be a really smart thing if we just quietly walked away from Israel because it has become an embarrassment and inconvenience to our larger interests. Such is the consequence of privileging the power of the TV image over reason. Posted by: | August 4, 2006 4:49 PM How do we know who is civilan and who is Hezbollah in reporting deaths in Lebanon?? It is known that they have recruited women and children. Just curious about who is making the distinction. It is in Hezbollahs advantage to call them civilans and Israels to call them military. Posted by: tom | August 4, 2006 4:42 PM To: Harold and The Rev I think that the high tech version of the pen, the internet, will prove mightier than the high tech sword, the F-16. The pen used honestly and respectfully delivers the truth. A sword delivers only destruction, either of the sword wielder's victims or attackers. The American revolution itself is more a product of the pen than the sword when you consider George Washington lost 7 of the 9 major battles he fought against the British. It was superior ideas that sustained the revolution, not the superiority of weapons. The most famous Jew ever said, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written: 'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone?' Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed." Luke 20:17-18. I like to think that the stone spoken of is the Truth. All sides in this conflict ignore the Truth at their own peril. Posted by: Baron Munchausen | August 4, 2006 4:02 PM That there is so much debate occuring over these issues which are normally so sanitized by US media as to obscure their factual meaning is very encouraging and a testament to the sociocultural revolution of the Internet. In the spirit that the word is mightier than the sword, we must hope that the blog will become mightier than the F16's. Posted by: Harold | August 4, 2006 9:57 AM The Topic Should Be: Will Americans Ever Be Able To Stomach The Truth! Why some Americans are apparently so hard on America, when it appears that we are at times letting the other side off of the hook, the answer is simple, we know and can see what goes on here in America and what America has been doing abroad? We only know what we are being told by people who have lied and misrepresented information to us before about what the other side is doing. Patriotism in America is in trouble because of the current Administration in Washington DC. Today our country is like a dysfunctional family that pulls down its shades at night in order to conceal its own internal shame in the daytime when it parades around in public pretending that everything is okay and above board. We are a dysfunctional family that cannot solve its own internal problems, so how dare we attempt to tell other nation families to use our methods in order to solve their problems when our methods contributed to our own dysfunction? We may be able to teach the world how to build a powerful military, how to kill or how to use greed and class-stratification in order to get rich or to die trying, but that seems to be about it. We should admit that we haven't figured out how to respect the rights that we say that everyone has inherently possesses. Folks we need to get it right ourselves first! Americans, we support terrorism. Americans, what we have been doing and are still doing in Iraq is nothing short of State Sanctioned Terrorism. There is more than one definition of terrorism, other than the one that the U.S.A. helped to construct and put forth at the United Nations which excuses its misbehavior. How can we be right in Iraq, when from day one all that was put forth was lies upon top of more lies? And if it is truth that makes one free, then we will never be free as long as we cannot stomach the truth about our nation, particularly before trying to straighten out another nation or people! Posted by: The Rev | August 4, 2006 8:56 AM Posted by: Outraged | August 4, 2006 7:01 AM Posted by: Outraged | August 4, 2006 7:00 AM Posted by: Outraged | August 4, 2006 6:58 AM I'm tired of movies where the cars blow-up if you walk near them, we kill 30 or 40 bad guys and walk out with trumpets and fanfares as large breasted girls hug the heroes.... how about, this, 9/11 happens we arrest the complicit congress, CIA/FBI, and most of the executive branch....confiscate their properties and send them away forever... find an alternative, or alternatives to oil, turn our back on the middle east, using what we have in National Resources, boot out internationals that are raping our country and destroying our citizens...put a national healthcare plan in place, double the frikkin estate tax and sell tickets to public executions of those that used the military to enrich themselves in a war based upon an illusion rebuild Americas' infrastructure, reestablish morality, make it manditory that if you serve in congress you have to be clearable....or you don't serve we don't need any more testosterone based war-stories..... it's easy to kill people, it takes really mean people to kick the bad boyz in the a ss and tell them to "knock it off...." and mean it.... there is no war, and Israel is the dupe and the bully Posted by: Dear Horse Badorties | August 4, 2006 2:06 AM do you have proof it wasn't CIA backed propaganda? Posted by: ps. about the beheading | August 4, 2006 1:57 AM like using the CIA in Central America, to train the "freedom fighters," and how did Al Queerda get trained, CIA wasn't it? School of the Americas? or was it in Argentina? and your jingoism "back in America Left_wing...." please you're too stupid to work with, kill yourself how about mossad, special forces, hezzbollah, mafia when they're on _your_ side they are the "good guys" when they are on _their_ side they are "terrorists"... this moderne day "boogey man," the "terrorist," has given the liscense to steal, to a really_stupid village idiot from texas and his buddies legitimacy? neither side has legitimacy but that is not what it's about, it's about the thrill of killing and inflicting revenge....primitive tribal urges there's nothing evolved going on, put a cage around them and let them havea death match terrorism , yeah right , the United States is obviously not the terrorists are they.... and by the way, block head....yes you, why should someone apologize for something they didn't do..... look up the WTC bomber s on wikipedia, they're predominately Saudi...trained in America think slowly now.....we trained them, they're our friends, maybe it's a "false flag attack," so we can go over there and control the friggin oil.... nah, that's too obvious...especially for stupid people Posted by: terrorism....right, | August 4, 2006 1:53 AM Mr. Arkin makes some untenable leaps of logic in getting from A to B in making many of his arguments. To pick one example, he says there is probably no rationale that will convince the Arab "street" that some use of Israeli military force is justified. Okay, fair enough. Then he makes the leap that therefor the "chattering classes" will never sanction Israeli use of military force, as if somehow the Arab "street" were a proxy for the "chattering classes" in America. Which, of course, is ridiculous. Mr. Arkin also assumes as true the oft-repeated argument that Israel is reacting to Hezbollah attacks, when in reality the attacks have been a tit-for-tat affair for years: both sides have made attacks in reponse to action by the other. But when, say, the Israelis drop an air to ground missle in to the side of an apartment building, to kill one bad guy and a dozen innocent people, and Hezbollah drops a missle in to Israel that actually hits somebody less than 1% of the time, it gets reported in the U.S. press as those darn terrorists attacking Israel, with no context. It's as if after Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba, the U.S. had blockaded the island, and fired missles killing the leading suspects (and a few dozen innocent bystandards). By Arkin's standards, well, heck, no reason for those assasinations would ever satisfy the Arubans themselves, so the chattering classes in the U.S. should just be ignored. Posted by: Boraxo | August 3, 2006 7:56 PM The Revolution Has Been Televised, the one in Lebanon. How come we have not been terrorvision coverage of the Revolution by America, in Iraq? Perhaps Mr. Bush ddid not and does not want us to see the little children that were blown apart by American bombs and missles? Posted by: The Rev | August 3, 2006 4:28 PM in my veiw it is a well paln israeli action for genocide in lebnone. as it sure that UNO is help less in that matter to stop israeli from more killing. and it is also a truth that israeli killed only innocient civilians in that war. As USA encouraging them for their own intrest and want to put presure on Iran. But USA president do it at the cost of their own nation. USA economy is now facing a great challeng and it would be more sever in the next year and half. Now there is a need to stope israel from more attacks and US president should save their nation from starvation. Posted by: MUhammad Arif | August 3, 2006 4:05 PM Ben Caspit, an Israeli journalist wrote this proposed speech for Prime Minister Olmert: July 31, 2006 Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel. We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you. Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims. And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility. Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not. Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us. The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy. What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly. We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more. And Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London. An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us. So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population - then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't? In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to lead normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's too late." The righteousness of this war which is for self-defence and the survival of Israel and all civilized, democratic, christian and non-secular countries, is very true. We should all wake up to the pan-Islamic ambition/agenda of the muslim extremist groups/countries, like Hezbollah and Iran. We should help Israel , instead of condemning them, for they are not only fighting for their own survival, but they are also fighting for us. Remember, that Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas and others of the same kind, are out to destroy Israel or annihilate or kick the Jewish people out their land. They will not be satisfied until all the Jews give up all the land to them - this is their real agenda. They always initiate the killings/violence by terrorist acts and when Israel hits back, they resort to complaining about the damage to their homes and deaths to their civilians to all TV stations, newspapers of the world and whine/complain of 'Israeli aggression/violence/genocide". They justify and cover up their hidden agenda to destroy/kill Israel/Israelites to make them leave and give all the land together to them, by calling their own terrorist acts as "acts of resistance" against Israeli occupation. In short , they want the Israelites to give up all the land to them and leave, move to Europe, as Iran's president had declared to the world Posted by: observer | August 3, 2006 3:06 PM Isn't it interesting that the Islamic fascists never make a mistake? We rarely see worldwide demonstrations condemning their consistently barbaric behavior. In violation of a U.N. mandate, Hezbollah has fired thousands of missiles targeting civilians into Israeli cities. Have you seen many demonstrations against that? How about after 9/11? Did you see mass demonstrations condemning Al Qaeda? Did you see protests when those savages beheaded civilians on videotape? The answer is no. The terrorists can do pretty much anything without the world condemning them. Want more? Iran is defying the United Nations on nuclear weapons. Any demonstrations? Muslims are slaughtering each other inside Iraq. Any protests? Back in America, the left-wing press counsels negotiation. OK, it's worth it. We're trying. But let's look at the negotiating record. President Clinton and Israel negotiated with Yasser Arafat until every cow in the world came home. Arafat didn't want peace. Why? Because his terror activities made him millions of dollars. If you don't believe me, speak to his widow, currently living lavishly in Paris. The U.N. has negotiated with Iran over nukes for years. No result. Iran doesn't want peace, it wants jihad. North Korea doesn't want peace either. It signed a nuke agreement with the Clinton administration and promptly violated it.Does Al Qaeda want peace? So what makes anyone believe Hezbollah would negotiate in good faith? Posted by: | August 3, 2006 2:28 PM Who changed the rules on warfare? In the last six months of WW II, the allies killed 900,000 people, not including the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why don't modern military thinkers get over our new moral thinking that we are more enlightened about war and embrace their inner Genghis Khan. We are basically savages in designer suits. Contrary to popular belief, we are not any morally superior to his age. So as Napoleon asid, if you are going to take Moscow, take Moscow. Study the Romans. Study Grant. As Maximus said in Gladiator, "At my command, unleash hell". Do we, does Israel, does anyone. have the stomach for unleashing hell,in 2006, or are we just too damn nice. Nice guys finish last. I'm done with my rant. The Vietnam War was the first war fought by systems analysts - Stanley Kubrick Posted by: Horse Badorties | August 3, 2006 1:53 PM Posted by: abhcoide | August 3, 2006 1:36 PM Religion has always been Extreme. And religious people throughout world history have been extremists? Someone mentioned Cain earlier in the blog. Among other things, why did he kill his brother, he had to do with a 'religious sacrifice'. One's was accepted and the others was not apparently. So what did Cain do, acted extremely, and killed his brother. We are seeing too much of the same today! Existentials would agree that God is Extreme! Posted by: The Rev | August 3, 2006 12:39 PM Defend itself? How is it defending yourself when you kill over 600 innocent people at least a third of them children just to recover 2 kidnapped Israeli soldiers. What moral justification is there for that and what god really believes that is acceptable? Thus far we have been told that the god who condones violence name is Allah but it seems it is also Yahweh. Posted by: dorothy | August 3, 2006 11:50 AM Extreme Democracy vs Middle-East Extremism In this minister's opinion, to a certain extent all sides are totalitarian. What we have, among everything else, are several competing ideologies fighting to dominate or eliminate the other. We have the extremists on the Democratic side who mostly believe in the Bush-Doctrine, and they believe they are, without exception, right. Then we have multiple doctrines coming out of the Middle and Near-East with competing Arab, Muslim and Jewish subset ideologies, competing to dominate in that region. I am not sure if the question should be, who is right or on the other hand, who will win out in the end? But one thing that I am certain of is that Hitler would feel vindicated if he were alive today. For he sought to spread his ideology around in a region, with hopes of spreading it around the world! How come people cannot simply stay in their own homes and their own territories and mind their own business, and respect the right of disparate people in other places to pursue their own dreams, goals, choice for governance and their destinies? Americans, we have extremists as well on our side and sitting in our Federal Government, actually some of them are fascists. We have fascists in some of our political parties in the U.S.A... We may have drawn different conclusions about what is right and what is wrong; however, our behavior in many instances is just the same as those that we criticize. At the heart of the matter lay differences of opinion! How can America counsel anyone else? We have been trying to force our ideas, on the rest of the world for the past 2 centuries! Is our way truly the right or only way? America has never resolved its own racial divide, how can America lecture or impose its ideology and will upon other more advanced people and nations of the world?. "...having becomes teachers", America needs to be taught, its racial and class fissures are still present, and they could erupt at any time! Posted by: The Rev | August 3, 2006 9:18 AM I have been trying to get Christians to understand that Hagar actually had more conversations with God or his angel, than the Virgin Mary did, in hopes of getting them to be more balanced in their understanding. Clearly God promised to bless Hagar's seed as well, although, he admitted that her folks would have to fight everybody. Both prophecies, recorded in Hebrew scriptures, have apparently come true. Fundamentalism and radicalism on both sides and in all faiths is problematic at best, and when the latter is coupled with prejudice and violence, it can be deadly. I strive to get religious and secular people to look internally and to deal with their own biases, and to respect the brotherhood of man. But too many people like in the story of Cain and Abel, are either incapable or unwilling to do so. My prayers are also for the health and safety of Arabs, Persians and Muslims. I also pray that we will all day learn to co-exist peacefully in the world. Posted by: The Rev | August 3, 2006 6:56 AM Cain and Sarah had a characteristic trait in common. Both had the nerve to lie to God when questioned by God (see Gen. 4:9 and Gen. 18:15). In contrast, Hagar told the truth when questioned by an Angel of God (Gen. 16:8) I consider the tendency to lie or deceive to be a congenital deficiency as evidenced by Abraham's lie that Sarai was his sister, Jacob's deceipt of Isaac by posing as Esau, the sons of Jacob's deceipt of Jacob about Joseph's death. Therefore, how can any claims recorded by the descendants of liars be taken as perfectly true? Your reality, people of the Middle East, is lies and balderdash, and I'm happy to say I have no grasp of it whatsoever. There is no moral high ground in your quagmire of quagmires. The bloody conflict will continue without end as long as deceipt and disrespect persist between the descendants of Hagar and Sarah. Posted by: Baron Munchausen | August 2, 2006 8:25 PM here are some points vs. arkin's idea that criticism of israel's military performance is biased. 1. wars against guerilla organizations are as much about PR and perceptions as they are about actual results of battles. 2. the israel leadership, espeically the chief of staff expected the war to be quick and won thoroughly through air power 3. the war was undertaken with the goals of reestablishing israel's deterrence vis a vis hizbullah. deterrent power depends on the enemy's perception of how much it has lost (potency of threat)and how much pain one can take(credibility). only on the credibility score and thanks to the israel public has israel gained. 4. the israel leaders have presented the war as one that has farther consequences. they have echoed bush in claiming it will be a victory over iran. so perception is very important and thus the edge over hizbullah very great. see more along these lines at killing the frog. http://frogkill.blogspot.com Posted by: atik yomim | August 2, 2006 6:45 PM If everytime Israeil is hit with a rocket the response is 'they are trying to destroy us' then everytime a Lebanese civilian dies it should be 'they are doing ethnic cleansing.' Posted by: tit 4 tat | August 2, 2006 5:17 PM Ron: "Lebanon says 57 people, mostly children, were killed at Qana yet the Red Cross reports only a total of 28 bodies were recovered. What number gets reported?" Ha'aretz yesterday reported the updated number (which is only bodies recovered so far, with more expected; 19 of those 28 were children). And those numbers are getting picked up by U.S. media today. Qana was a massacre of children, however much you may want to spin baseless conspiracy theories to deny the Israeli military's responsibility. Citing those denialist conspiracy theories just makes you look like someone willing to grasp at any straws to cling to the mantle of "good guys". There are no good guys in this or many other wars. Stop, please, and listen to the compassionate human being inside you. Stop this slaughter so that a political solution can be reached. Posted by: Nell | August 2, 2006 4:46 PM Your view is civilized - too civilized... you are not writing about governments who have problems with one another; you are writing about people who are committed to killing someone because of their race/religion... go live in Israel and distribute some bibles - see what happens. Posted by: | August 2, 2006 3:56 PM I like to kill people and to die, because it makes life more exxciting.... I am a primitive middle eastern personality. Posted by: this is the creed of the | August 2, 2006 3:55 PM To win a war you must break the spirit of those you fight to continue. The cost of continuing to fight a war of those whom wish to destroy you must be unacceptable to them. They must belive that they have lost and you have won. Until then there will be no victory. We did not need to occupy Japan and Germany with huge combat forces at the end of WWII simply because they accepted we had won. There have been no victors on either side in the mideast...only losers. Posted by: dan | August 2, 2006 3:46 PM Unfortunately war has been around since recorded history and the human race has not evolved sufficiently to do away with it. I'm not religious but it is quite clear that biblical predictions of Armageddon might be fulfilled very soon. It is very likely that a "low key" WWIII started on 9/11 who knows. History and a macro-view undoubtedly indicate an unprecedented conflict is imminent. The right or wrong is only judged by the vantage point of the observer. Posted by: Daniel | August 2, 2006 3:00 PM ==Dimitry Yep... you are right, see the problem is that short of Great Britain, the rest of the so called allies have a case of stage fright. They all criticize US policy but surely expect the US to bail them out... isn't it wonderful. Seriously, if the supposedly FREE WORLD does not unite to fight terrorism we have a BIG problem due to what you mentioned... I would not limit myself to the Europeans or Turks I would think that from Australia to Argentina it is an evil that concern us all it is a matter of survival.== Ahh...my post was done in the spirit of irony. I don't agree with you. I don't think that fighting terrorism by killing large numbers of civilians, occupying countries and forcing them to comply at a barrel of a gun is a winning hand. I think that such a strategy endangers us all. However, you feel differently and want to attack and occupy Lebanon, Syria, Iran, etc. Then logically you must immediately join the armed forces and/or convince your children to do so. Posted by: Dimitry | August 2, 2006 2:23 PM how about mossad, special forces, hezzbollah, mafia when they're on _your_ side they are the "good guys" when they are on _their_ side they are "terrorists"... this moderne day "boogey man," the "terrorist," has given the liscense to steal, to a really_stupid village idiot from texas and his buddies legitimacy? neither side has legitimacy but that is not what it's about, it's about the thrill of killing and inflicting revenge....primitive tribal urges there's nothing evolved going on, put a cage around them and let them havea death match Posted by: terrorism | August 2, 2006 2:06 PM Ben Caspit, an Israeli journalist wrote this proposed speech for Prime Minister Olmert: July 31, 2006 Ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world. I, the Prime Minister of Israel, am speaking to you from Jerusalem in the face of the terrible pictures from Kfar Kana. Any human heart, wherever it is, must sicken and recoil at the sight of such pictures. There are no words of comfort that can mitigate the enormity of this tragedy. Still, I am looking you straight in the eye and telling you that the State of Israel will continue its military campaign in Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces will continue to attack targets from which missiles and Katyusha rockets are fired at hospitals, old age homes and kindergartens in Israel. I have instructed the security forces and the IDF to continue to hunt for the Katyusha stockpiles and launch sites from which these savages are bombarding the State of Israel. We will not hesitate, we will not apologize and we will not back off. If they continue to launch missiles into Israel from Kfar Kana, we will continue to bomb Kfar Kana. Today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Here, there and everywhere. The children of Kfar Kana could now be sleeping peacefully in their homes, unmolested, had the agents of the devil not taken over their land and turned the lives of our children into hell. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time you understood: the Jewish state will no longer be trampled upon. We will no longer allow anyone to exploit population centers in order to bomb our citizens. No one will be able to hide anymore behind women and children in order to kill our women and children. This anarchy is over. You can condemn us, you can boycott us, you can stop visiting us and, if necessary, we will stop visiting you. Today I am serving as the voice of six million bombarded Israeli citizens who serve as the voice of six million murdered Jews who were melted down to dust and ashes by savages in Europe. In both cases, those responsible for these evil acts were, and are, barbarians devoid of all humanity, who set themselves one simple goal: to wipe the Jewish race off the face of the earth, as Adolph Hitler said, or to wipe the State of Israel off the map, as Mahmoud Ahmedinjad proclaims. And you - just as you did not take those words seriously then, you are ignoring them again now. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaders of the world, will not happen again. Never again will we wait for bombs that never came to hit the gas chambers. Never again will we wait for salvation that never arrives. Now we have our own air force. The Jewish people are now capable of standing up to those who seek their destruction - those people will no longer be able to hide behind women and children. They will no longer be able to evade their responsibility. Every place from which a Katyusha is fired into the State of Israel will be a legitimate target for us to attack. This must be stated clearly and publicly, once and for all. You are welcome to judge us, to ostracize us, to boycott us and to vilify us. But to kill us? Absolutely not. Four months ago I was elected by hundreds of thousands of citizens to the office of Prime Minister of the government of Israel, on the basis of my plan for unilaterally withdrawing from 90 percent of the areas of Judea and Samaria, the birth place and cradle of the Jewish people; to end most of the occupation and to enable the Palestinian people to turn over a new leaf and to calm things down until conditions are ripe for attaining a permanent settlement between us. The Prime Minister who preceded me, Ariel Sharon, made a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip back to the international border, and gave the Palestinians there a chance to build a new reality for themselves. The Prime Minister who preceded him, Ehud Barak, ended the lengthy Israeli presence in Lebanon and pulled the IDF back to the international border, leaving the land of the cedars to flourish, develop and establish its democracy and its economy. What did the State of Israel get in exchange for all of this? Did we win even one minute of quiet? Was our hand, outstretched in peace, met with a handshake of encouragement? Ehud Barak's peace initiative at Camp David let loose on us a wave of suicide bombers who smashed and blew to pieces over 1,000 citizens, men, women and children. I don't remember you being so enraged then. Maybe that happened because we did not allow TV close-ups of the dismembered body parts of the Israeli youngsters at the Dolphinarium? Or of the shattered lives of the people butchered while celebrating the Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya? What can you do - that's the way we are. We don't wave body parts at the camera. We grieve quietly. We do not dance on the roofs at the sight of the bodies of our enemy's children - we express genuine sorrow and regret. That is the monstrous behavior of our enemies. Now they have risen up against us. Tomorrow they will rise up against you. You are already familiar with the murderous taste of this terror. And you will taste more. And Ariel Sharon's withdrawal from Gaza. What did it get us? A barrage of Kassem missiles fired at peaceful settlements and the kidnapping of soldiers. Then too, I don't recall you reacting with such alarm. And for six years, the withdrawal from Lebanon has drawn the vituperation and crimes of a dangerous, extremist Iranian agent, who took over an entire country in the name of religious fanaticism and is trying to take Israel hostage on his way to Jerusalem - and from there to Paris and London. An enormous terrorist infrastructure has been established by Iran on our border, threatening our citizens, growing stronger before our very eyes, awaiting the moment when the land of the Ayatollahs becomes a nuclear power in order to bring us to our knees. And make no mistake - we won't go down alone. You, the leaders of the free and enlightened world, will go down along with us. So today, here and now, I am putting an end to this parade of hypocrisy. I don't recall such a wave of reaction in the face of the 100 citizens killed every single day in Iraq. Sunnis kill Shiites who kill Sunnis, and all of them kill Americans - and the world remains silent. And I am hard pressed to recall a similar reaction when the Russians destroyed entire villages and burned down large cities in order to repress the revolt in Chechnya. And when NATO bombed Kosovo for almost three months and crushed the civilian population - then you also kept silent. What is it about us, the Jews, the minority, the persecuted, that arouses this cosmic sense of justice in you? What do we have that all the others don't? In a loud clear voice, looking you straight in the eye, I stand before you openly and I will not apologize. I will not capitulate. I will not whine. This is a battle for our freedom. For our humanity. For the right to lead normal lives within our recognized, legitimate borders. It is also your battle. I pray and I believe that now you will understand that. Because if you don't, you may regret it later, when it's too late. Posted by: Howard | August 2, 2006 1:58 PM it is really between stupid people that need to be isolated. We, the United States, should seek to create an alternative energy source. That solution would effectively neutralize the monetary impact of the middle easts' oil reserves. If you don't need something, it's value diminishes and it's impact also diminishes. Nylon and plastic replaced silk and rubber in WWII....both American inventions, I believe. We can do it again, easily. Nullify and extend the life of existent resources, by having alternatives. Isolate the combatants and let them destroy each other. Find alternatives and market them, destroy the current un_needed dependence on oil, and corporations and countries that seek economic advantage by using or controlling a scarce resource.... Including this complicit congress, the Military_Industrial_Complex, and the Executive Branch......pirates disguised as caring citizens. Posted by: whatever is going on | August 2, 2006 1:54 PM "Maybe we can get the Europeans to contribute troops to the occupation of Iran. Or perhaps the Turks. Oh, gosh darn it, our allies are so feckless about massive wars!" Dimitry Yep... you are right, see the problem is that short of Great Britain, the rest of the so called allies have a case of stage fright. They all criticize US policy but surely expect the US to bail them out... isn't it wonderful. Seriously, if the supposedly FREE WORLD does not unite to fight terrorism we have a BIG problem due to what you mentioned... I would not limit myself to the Europeans or Turks I would think that from Australia to Argentina it is an evil that concern us all it is a matter of survival. Posted by: Leon | August 2, 2006 1:52 PM Demetri - "I don't think that fighting terrorism by killing large numbers of civilians, occupying countries and forcing them to comply at a barrel of a gun is a winning hand." When your attacker refuses to negotiate because his goal is to kill you, you must kill him. Your view is civilized - too civilized... you are not writing about governments who have problems with one another; you are writing about people who are committed to killing someone because of their race/religion... go live in Pakistan and distribute some bibles - see what happens. Posted by: Namron | August 2, 2006 1:51 PM ==Actually this is a tremendous opportunity to inflict a mortal wound on terrorism and I would hope that both Syria and Iran are dealt the same hand as Hezbollah.== Then you better get your kids into the military quick, since we will need a lot of bodies to occupy both Syria and Iran, combined population well over 100 million. Actually, we will need more to cover Lebanon as well. Maybe we can get the Europeans to contribute troops to the occupation of Iran. Or perhaps the Turks. Oh, gosh darn it, our allies are so feckless about massive wars! Posted by: Dimitry | August 2, 2006 1:31 PM Frankly I don't know how any of you can be critical of Israel's posture. Not only have they being provoked but also attacked by known terrorist that have NO concern for civilian lives. Hezbollah is responsible for ALL civilian casualties on both sides. The indiscriminate barrage of TOUSANDS of rockets directed at civilians fired at Israel is more than enough for anyone, with a half of a brain cell working, to realize what kind of principles Hezbollah holds. Furthermore, Syria and Iran are fully supporting Hezbollah and it is a known fact that both countries want the total annihilation of Israel and both patronize, support and finance global terrorism. Actually this is a tremendous opportunity to inflict a mortal wound on terrorism and I would hope that both Syria and Iran are dealt the same hand as Hezbollah. If Hitler was stopped immediately after the invasion of Poland there would not be 6 million + Jews massacred. By the way, Israel HAS NOT FORGOTTEN and I hope they never will. Posted by: Leon | August 2, 2006 1:09 PM I don't know why people are so willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the Israeli idea, which amounts to talking about a war to end all wars in Lebanon. They don't give the benefit of the doubt to critics, accusing all who would say this is a humanitarian disaster of anti-Semitism. Even if it is a success it still qualifies as a humanitarian disaster, that's number one. And as to the "building of a meaningful ceasefire" by permanently disabling Hezbollah, a little bird is singing something in my ear that makes me doubt it. It goes like this: "The eastern world, it is exploding, violence flaring, bullets loading...And even the Jordan River's got bodies floating..." (1963, Barry McGuire). This conflict has been going on all my life (I'm old enough to receive promo from AARP). In fact, if you count as the start the Arab killing of Jews in 1929, and the subsequent acts of Zionist terrorism in 1931, and all the tit-for-tat through the 1930's and 1940's, it's been going on all my parent's life, too. Hezbollah would need to be replaced, wouldn't they? They are also the Shi'a representation in Lebanon. Their militia is officially sanctioned by the Lebanese government, which we claim to be friends of. Can that be done without replacing the so called "militant wing"? With whom, all the young guys whose families have just been displaced and bombed? Blood begets blood, and there will be new heads on this hydra. Meaningful ceasefire, permanent solution to Hezbollah, war to end all wars? After close to a hundred years, you need more to back up the idea that Israel's ends justify its means than accusing me and all other critics of anti-Semitism. I expected more out of you Mr. Arkin. Posted by: ondelette | August 2, 2006 12:53 PM Precisely--Hezbollah has used "TV Diagnosis" as its own PR campaign. I am also a physician, and while I'll leave the Qana event up to the investigators, I found the pictures to be a little bizarre for a rescue mission. While we know Hezbollah stages events, the media fails to investigate this as part of the problem, almost glorifying their tactics. Posted by: | August 2, 2006 12:25 PM =="they bombed the children in Qana". As a physician, it is clear how stiff those children's bodies were. What is that called...rigor mortis...a condition that occurs after the bodies have been lying around for more than 24 hours. Where was the blood? Why no explanation about the 8 hour time difference on the photos that the AP and Reuters can't even deny? But then again, Hezbollah is known to stage events and use the media as its bait.== You and Bill Frist should open a practice. You both are excellent at TV diagnosis! Posted by: Dimitry | August 2, 2006 11:33 AM =="So is Hezbollah like Nazi Germany?" The answer is undeniably yes. The Nazis mission was to eradicate the Jews. Hezbollah, with Iranian backing, as their mission wants to wipe Israel off the map.== Well, that's the problem right there. Israel judges the enemy based on perceived intent, not actual capabilities. The result is that an irregular force numbering 5,000 fighters is judged as an existential threat to Israel (capable of destroing Israel) and the country that "hosts" it is treated accordingly. Since Israel is a regional superpower and its military capabilities are essentially unlimited (both on its own and fully backed by the US), its response is wholy disproportional (in both common usage, killing many more civilians than it lost and legal usage, killing many more civilians than combatants). Unfortunately, Israeli response ends up being the worst of both worlds. It is far too strong to address actual danger from a small irregular force, yet is not nearly strong enough to address its parallel goal of terrorizing civilians into stopping support for this force. For the latter to occur, Israel has to kill civilians in the many tens of thousands. One gets a distinct impression that if Israel was located next to California and was "invaded" by a drunk, anti-semitic Mel Gibson, it would immediately declare that to be an indication of an active plot to "throw jews into the see" and begin "precise" bombing of all areas that Mel Gibson can potentially be (or ever have been). Then, when Mel Gibson evades "punishment", Israeli leaders would leaflet Southern California, demanding its citizens flee north, as an invasion force begins destroying all human habitats in a large swath of the state in preparation for an "international force" to keep Israel safe from Mel. Posted by: Dimitry | August 2, 2006 11:30 AM Arkin: "I, for one, have a hard time conceiving of any Israeli military tactic that would have convinced a prejudiced Lebanon population -- or the "Arab street" -- that the Jewish state was merely defending itself and justified to do so." In lieu of guided missiles, drop large wads of dollar bills on south Lebanon, wrapped in leaflets that say 'get rid of Hezbollah and you get the next installment'. Posted by: Anton R | August 2, 2006 10:29 AM "they bombed the children in Qana". As a physician, it is clear how stiff those children's bodies were. What is that called...rigor mortis...a condition that occurs after the bodies have been lying around for more than 24 hours. Where was the blood? Why no explanation about the 8 hour time difference on the photos that the AP and Reuters can't even deny? But then again, Hezbollah is known to stage events and use the media as its bait. CNN Anderson Cooper: After letting us take pictures of a few damaged buildings, they take us to another location, where there are ambulances waiting. (On camera): This is a heavily orchestrated Hezbollah media event. When we got here, all the ambulances were lined up. We were allowed a few minutes to talk to the ambulance drivers. Then one by one, they've been told to turn on their sirens and zoom off so that all the photographers here can get shots of ambulances rushing off to treat civilians. That's the story -- that's the story that Hezbollah wants people to know about. (Voice-over): These ambulances aren't responding to any new bombings. The sirens are strictly for effect. When a man in a nearby building is prompted to play Hezbollah resistance songs on his stereo, we decide it's time to go. Hezbollah may not be terribly subtle about spinning a story, but it is telling perhaps that they try. Even after all this bombing, Hezbollah is still organized enough to have a public relations strategy, still in control enough to try and get its message out. Isaeli propaganda? No, Hezbollah's tactics that are chosen to be ignored. Posted by: | August 2, 2006 10:21 AM Israel compared to Hezbollah: Israel makes phone calls, drops leaflets, blares loudspeakers warning civilians to get out of the way - they target Hezbollah terrorists. Hezbollah loads rockets with ball bearings to tear away flesh of anyone near where their rockets land - rockets sent that target civilians. Hezbollah shoots their rockets from the midst of Lebanese civilians to protect themselves knowing that Israel cares about human lives (why else would Hezbollah hide there?). In so doing, Hezbollah causes Lebanese casualties when Israel fights back even with precision weapons, which gives Hezbollah political gains - a win-win situation for them. If Hezbollah was such a humanitarian cause, why don't help the Lebanese civilians out of South Lebanon? If I were a Lebanese, I would be mad as h-ll at Hezbollah for turning my homeland into a battle ground. Hezbollah is responsible for casualties on both sides. Posted by: Bill Smith | August 2, 2006 10:09 AM "Nor am I excusing the incident at Qana." You swallow and regurgitate everything else the Israeli war machine puts out. Posted by: Gary | August 2, 2006 10:08 AM David, you are a piece of work. You say Jews can practice their religon freely in Lebanon. One problem with that; there are no Jews in Lebanon. There are next to no Jews left in any Arab country. It is a tragedy considering most Arab countries were inhabited by Jews first. The indigenous Jewish populations of Arab countries were ethnically cleansed by the Arabs through pogroms in the early 1950's. Posted by: Bill Smith | August 2, 2006 9:52 AM No one is talking about balance - simply the idea that it is evil to deliberately kill innocent civilains. Like the UN pleading with Israel at the weekend for a 72 hour truce to get thousands of civilians out. And Israel refusing, officially and publically stating that ALL people left in Southern Lebanon would be regarded as terrorists. Then they bombed the children of Qana, despite the admission by the IDF that they had seen no action from Hezbullah there for at least a day. Posted by: David | August 2, 2006 8:00 AM Like the US, Israel favors air bombardment of foes who have some artillery, barely an army, but no tanks or airforce or navy. Appropriately, the kill ratio approaches 10:1 in Israel's favor. How's that for military talk? What sort of balanced nuance are you expecting here? Posted by: War of Words | August 2, 2006 7:51 AM The world has no astomach for deliberate slaughter of civilains by Israel. Israel can choose to take out a Hizbullah apartment in Beiruit with precision guied misiles. Or it can choose to take out the whole high-rise apartment building, containing a hundred homes, many with families still in them. But instead it destroys ten high rise apartment buildings at a time - home to 1000 families - some still inside. This is deliberate slaughter of innocent men, women and children. Posted by: David | August 2, 2006 7:36 AM "Thus Israel in theory is granted the right to use force in self defense and yet any actual use of that force is ruled unacceptable," This is patently untrue and a false representation of most opinions. They could have used force directed specificly at the actual entrenched Hezbollah militants in Southern Lebanon, rather than pursue a reign of terror all over Lebanon, destroying people's lives and property in a grossly negligent and callous manner. Posted by: RW | August 2, 2006 4:54 AM Why is it so hard for the Israeli Government to listen to the world. If the Israelis are interested in living with the citizen of the world, then they shouldn't they respect the voices of these people. I see the Israeli Government as being too proud of themselves. It is not winning the war that is important but winning the hearts of the world is vital to the Israelis. Posted by: Alhum | August 2, 2006 4:51 AM Rubbish. If you go to fairly mainstream sites like J Post you'll see plenty of Israelis and Americans celebrating the child massacres at Qana. Even Bush dismissed it as "self defence", even though the IDF say they didn't spot any Hizbullah movement in Qana that day. Posted by: David | August 2, 2006 3:23 AM Dark Shadows and Long Days Mode - C ADIZ > DC FRZ 7500 Posted by: Crash | August 2, 2006 3:18 AM Bill Smith wrote "Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Muslims, Christians, and Jews can practice their religon freely." Surely you didn't forget about a country called Lebanon???? Or are you trying mislead people with propaganda? Apart from the risk of being bombed by Israel, they can practice their religions freely. Posted by: David | August 2, 2006 3:13 AM This is nothing compared to Passover. What a vicious god these people pray to. Posted by: Chui | August 2, 2006 2:48 AM The Israeli government has learned well from Nazi Germany, hasn't it? Posted by: dave | August 2, 2006 2:19 AM I wonder why it is that the MSM puts so much faith into the so called facts and figures from Lebanon yet they pay no attention to facts coming from Israel. For example, Lebanon says 540 killed, mostly civilians. Israel says they killed 300 or 400 Hezbollah fighters. Which number gets reported? Lebanon says 57 people, mostly children, were killed at Qana yet the Red Cross reports only a total of 28 bodies were recovered. What number gets reported? There's a report out of Lebanon that Qana was a setup by Hez to make Israel look bad. See: Does that get any mention in the US media? Sadly, no. Israel is winning brilliantly against Hezbollah. The goal is to render them unable to do further harm to Israel. If UNSC res. 1559 can be fully carried out, the disarming of that terrorist organization, Israel would be content to stay within her borders. Since the Lebanese govt. didn't do it and since Hez attacked Israel, there was no choice but to attack and invade. The attacks on the roads and airport are to prevent more arms from flowing into Lebanon from Syria. If Syria would stop the arms shipments, the roads wouldn't have had to be bombed. Israel is doing all she can to defend herself. Posted by: Ron | August 2, 2006 1:35 AM Dmitiry - I worked in a hospital in Israel as a doctor during my training. Arabs, Druze, Christians, and Jews were all treated equally. That compared to it being illegal to have Christian churches or Jewish Syngagogues in many Arab countries. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Muslims, Christians, and Jews can practice their religon freely. Posted by: Bill Smith | August 2, 2006 1:33 AM I sense that Mr. Arkin is trying to articulate a rationale for Israel to continue indiscriminate butchery of fellow humans because - hey, it's effective! A count of the unguided, relatively ineffective rockets that Hezbollah may no longer have means little. Israel is willing to sacrifice as many Lebanese Arabs and mislocated Christians as it takes to make her point. Because of that, she will inevitably lose. Military analysts love to cite the asymmetry of conventional forces fighting irregulars, but the real asymmetry operating in southern Lebanon is per the maxim recited by some of the irreclaimable Jews in Israel, that 100 Arabs are not worth one Jewish fingernail. It is not a new sentiment - the Zionists who were present when the original boundaries of Israel were appropriated from the families living there were fond of calling it a land without people for a people without a land - not because the land was vacant but because the Palestinian Arabs did not count. The flaw in Israel's subterfuge that moms and kids get killed because Hezbollah hides among them, is that Israel knows Hezbollah's tactics, she assumes the innocents are there, but she bombs them anyway. "Hezbollah made us do it!" Killing 50 civilians to take out one or two militants - that is asymmetry! There were other ways. Having disabled the airport and just the main roads and bridges (to keep the kidnappers from taking the two hostages to Syria, remember?), Israel could have sent envoys to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. They could asked him to join with them immediately to hunt down the militants and their kidnapped men, while Beirut was still whole and he still had an infrastructure and livable towns in southern Lebanon. They could explain their alternative, the nearly heavy-handed use of airpower. Meanwhile, that superior airpower would be surveilling the terrain, ready to react to suspicious activity. Israel could have evacuated its northern towns and cities a lot easier than the residents of southern Lebanon can evacuate via bombed out bridges and cratered roads, knowing the demonstrated chance that Israeli jets will fire on them as they flee. With that single act Israel could have largely neutralized Hezbollah's rockets. Then - ideally with the Prime Minister's support or acquiescence - Israel could have entered Lebanon and engaged Hezbollah. Sure, Hezbollah fighters could still hide among civilians - hell, they ARE civilians when they are not marching around for the TV cameras - but house to house fighting would be less brutal than what is going on so far. Of course, that would put Israeli soldiers more at risk, which is a lot to ask to save innocent people who just do not happen to count. The Israelis briefly had the moral high ground but they could not keep it. They had to fall back on their repugnant doctrine of inordinate deadly force. To protect their fingernails. Posted by: RichB | August 2, 2006 1:30 AM "So is Hezbollah like Nazi Germany?" The answer is undeniably yes. The Nazis mission was to eradicate the Jews. Hezbollah, with Iranian backing, as their mission wants to wipe Israel off the map. The world seems to have forgotten the multiple other terrorist attacks that Hezbollah committed, unprovoked, among them on the Jewish community center in Argentina, not to mention the US peacekeepers in Beirut in 1982. During an allied bombing in WWII, 30,000 Germans died in a few hours, their infrastructure destroyed. With all of the Israeli sorties flown, only 400 Lebanese civilians have died, and that is the fault of Hezbollah for shooting rockets from the midst of these civilians. Israel grieves these losses while Hezbollah and the Lebanese celebrate Israeli deaths. It is Hezbollah and those that support them who are bloodthirsty. Posted by: | August 2, 2006 1:16 AM ==Can you imagine an allied cease fire for humanitarian aid to the German or Japanese civilians?== So is Hezbolah like Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan, then? A huge mechanized army that invaded many countries, a dangerous air force, all supported by a first rate industrial infrastructure? Maybe even worse - Nazis didn't have katyusha rockets. Soviets invented them during WWII. Most self-respecting militaries stopped using them long ago. The only way they can be used effectively as a military weapon is the way Soviets used them - in massive, mutli-truck-based batteries, to saturate approximate target area with many hundreds of rockets at a time. Seriously, though, the level of destruction undertaken by the allies in both Germany and Japan is considered excessive by many scholars. We actually killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians with nukes. Imagine that! Well, we may not have to imagine - the current "limited incursion" into Lebanon just might repeat history if Syria and then Iran are drawn into the fighting. Posted by: Dimitry | August 2, 2006 1:03 AM Hmmmm. interesting thought of where we would be if the UN was around during WWII. Can you imagine an allied cease fire for humanitarian aid to the German or Japanese civilians? Posted by: ron | August 2, 2006 12:39 AM ==Its time for the palestinians and arab nations to accept some responsibility for allowing the violence to persist -- a good start would be to NOT teach hatred to your children and to stop training them that martyrdum means blowing yourself to murder people. Blaming Israel for all the violence going on is no way to gain peace in a region that must disengage in fighting all together, and that includes name calling.== I agree. But I am struck at the casual hatred exhibited by many Israelis toward Arabs, including acceptance of complete destruction of their very existence in response to Israeli grievances. The attitude seems to be "they hate us and want to kill us (and sometimes do, mostly with their bodies) so we can do essentially whatever we want to them." Wouldn't some compassion be in order here, if Israel is to retain some moral standing in its own eyes? I think that in the eyes of many Israelis, Arabs are subhuman. For example, Israeli plan for Lebanon appears to be complete destruction of all human infrastructure in a wide buffer zone, making the whole area essentially unlivable for a generation. The level of destruction exceeds all bounds and is like capital of Chechnia after the Russians "won" that war. Israelis seem to support that and that seems savage. It gives me pause to realize that fellow jews can be this bloodthirsty. Americans were like that after 9/11, but after a while one tires of the killing and has some second thoughts. Do Israelis have second thoughts, or is that time long gone? Posted by: Dimitry | August 2, 2006 12:38 AM Perhaps if the palestinians where ready to have peace they would stop firing rockets into Israel...over 600 of them before these attack even began within the last year. Israel offered Arafat 99% percent of what he wanted but yet rejects peace and launches infatida. Israel leaves southern Lebanon in 2000, Hezbolloh becomes better armed and claims victory. Takes withdrawl as sign of weakness and occassionaly rain rockets down in Northern Israel from 2000 to 2006. Israel unilaterally leaves Gaza, receives rocket attacks in return and Hamas as elected government, which will not even say Israel has the right to EXIST. Israel looks to disengage from Westbank and again its looked at as sign of weakness from Hamas. Hamas kidnaps Soldier in an act of war, Hezbollah follows suit. Its time for the palestinians and arab nations to accept some responsibility for allowing the violence to persist -- a good start would be to NOT teach hatred to your children and to stop training them that martyrdum means blowing yourself to murder people. Blaming Israel for all the violence going on is no way to gain peace in a region that must disengage in fighting all together, and that includes name calling. Posted by: | August 1, 2006 11:51 PM unfortunately there is deep and vicious anti semitism in the muslim world, and it pre-dated the state of Israel. And, although they didn't play a major role, many arab nations were aligned with the Nazis during WWII. Posted by: jan van flac | August 1, 2006 11:36 PM "however Israel is the occupier" Of what? Of Lebanon? Not since 2000. Posted by: Knemon | August 1, 2006 11:25 PM "Thus Israel in theory is granted the right to use force in self defense and yet any actual use of that force is ruled unacceptable, at least by the chattering classes." Propped up by the USA Israel has become the dominant force in the area. They dominate many of their neighbors. They subjugate them in the name of their right to be free and have their homeland. Right, wrong, no matter. You treat people like that and you will inspire hate from some corners and admiration for your strength from others. If you believe in the rightness of it quit your whining. I met Moshe Dyan once. One of the most charismatic, engaging people I have ever met. People were drawn to him like moths to light. He would have pursued the course he believed to be right without excuse and without the self tortured whining about what others may think. Posted by: Clandesdun | August 1, 2006 11:09 PM There has been comments which compare European Jews who came or guided by UN, to come to middle east, to the settlers in Alaska. Like settlers in Alaska, they say, it is not practically possible for Jews to go back. I don't mean that Jews should leave Palestine but there is a big mistake comparing Jews settlers and native Arabs to history of Alaska or for that matter, migration by the Europeans to North America. 1- In Alaska and North America, European settlers became overwhelming majority very soon and as Geranimo, one of the native resistance hero, said in his final analysis about the settlers that "they are so many and they keep coming". This situation is reversed in the middle east. There are so many Arabs and they keep coming. The native Americans were isolated from the world and they lived in their own world of ancient ways. They could not compete with the numbers and weaponry and technology of the Europeans. Arabs very much are part of the same world that Europeans lived in. They are knowledgeable and lead the world in many areas of science, technology and religion. They have faced Europeans in the past and successfully defended their land from European's onslaught in the past and will keep defending it now. So to hope that Arabs will withdraw to some kind of indian reservation is a mistake. 2- The UN gave European Jewish settlers keys to homes in Palestine but soon the new comers pushed out Arabs, who were born and lived in the area from eternity. Jews threatened and toppled the political infrastructure of the area, carved new borders and amassed large amount of weapons. I am not sure if UN meant them to do all that when they gave misplaced Jews a home to live. If UN did mean that, they surely did not have permission of the local Arabs which they demonstrated during half a century of bloody resistance. Imagine that USA giving opportunity to Mexicans to live and work in California and Texas. But they go on to create their own government there which will push out millions of locals and take over their homes and farms and start building weapons of mass destruction. 3- If Jewish people were successful in Middle East like European settlers were in Amrica, then might, might have been right. However they are not successful and state of Israel is endlessly in search of security and has killed and displaced millions in search for security. The security is still not in sight. This is 21st century and the world has to stop this killing in the name of security. Why the Jews and the world don't see the obvious that creating state of Israel in Arab world was a mistake? How long the world has to pay for this mistake. 4- Lots of people say Israel is fighting terrorism together with US. That Israel is doing the dirty work of fighting terrorism that the rest of world don't want to do. Excuse me!! Would there have been 9/11 attack on US if Israel did not have the policy of egression and occupation in the middle east in the name of security? Would there even have been terror that PLO carried out during the last 50 years in the world? Would there even has been Hazbullah? I don't think so. The world would have been much different if Israel did not have the occupation or was located somewhere where it was more blended in the local population. So the argument that Israel is fighting terrorism is incorrect. In fact Israel's policy of occupation is responsible for creating terrorism in the world. 5- There are comments that Muslims hate Jews. Muslims don't Jews, they hate Israel's policy of occupation. They would have hated it even if Israel was not a Jewish state and carried out the same policies. Muslims by nature are tolerant of Jewish people. All the hate is generated by Israel's policies. If that policies change, Jews can live peacefully in middle east. Jewsih people were prosecuted in Europe In the recent past. They suffered alot and they carry that memory where ever they go today. In the past many other people were prosecuted too. South Africans and slaves in America are a couple of examples of the past crimes comitted against one group by another. I think the world is different today. World has learned from its past mistakes and it is not the same world which allowed holocaust to occur. Jews have to stop reacting from the fear of the past. Like there will never be slavery or apartheid again, there will never be another Holocaust. Stop attacking Arabs out of fear of the Holocaust. They did not play any role in the Holocaust. They suffered during the same time when Jewish people were suffering. I can't imagine people who went through the suffering of hlucast will bring same kind of suffering on another nations. Israel is blurring its image with Hitler's. Posted by: msa | August 1, 2006 11:07 PM " clouded by innumerable subtexts -- anti-Israel, anti-American, anti-Bush, anti-air power' Personally I am anti-dead children. I wonder if the author would be so blase if these were American kids being massacred? Posted by: sonic | August 1, 2006 11:04 PM ==excessive force in the short term is humane in the long run.== Only if you are willing to kill them all to ensure your way of life. Partial excessive force is counterproductive. It leaves children behind that grow up and then need to be killed also. Posted by: Dimitry | August 1, 2006 11:02 PM "a well-placed black hole to Earth's center" Now that would be poetic justice. Instead of another great flood as survived by Noah, there would be a great, relentless, sucking sound purging the solar system of a species incapable of civilized, cooperative behavior. God may not be shuffling his feet, but dancing as She operates Her vacuum cleaner. Posted by: T. Jefferson Lincoln | August 1, 2006 10:43 PM My take on Israel's strategy, whch given its aims has been successful (to date) is this: Israel perceives that Iran is developing its nuclear weapons capability too rapidly for multilateral pressure (largely ineffective on Iran anyway for the last 25 years) to have any effect. North Korea's rapid advances in long-range missile and nuclear weapon technology is alarming for Israel. North Korea has sold some long range missiles to Iran. Cooperation in the nuclear weapons area is also possible which MAY HAVE ACCELERATED IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME. Therefore Israel is determined to refocus world attention from US policy on Iraq (and other issues) to threats on Israel which, via Hezbollah, most dramatically means the Iranian threat. Israel's intense reactions to the kidnappings in Gaza and Lebanon were clearly aimed to create a front page, international crisis to focus attention on Israel's international security problems. Israel initially envisaged an intense, but short term, airstrike campaign. Hezbollah's massed rocket reaction (to Israeli airstrikes) surprised Israel. Knowing that peacekeepers could not reduce the intensity of the missile activity Israel resolved to continue to hit missile launchers even if this prolonged the fighting. Israel changed its strategy by actively delaying an international decision favoring peacekeepers by: - (very probably) asking the US to delay (at G8 and the UN) a ceasefire and peacekeeper decision, and - intentionally bombing the UN post partially as a brutal way of dissuading other countries from pushing for the peacekeeper option YET. If Israel's aim was to: - refocus world attention on Lebanon; - prompt a large peacekeeper force to move in - which is bound to fail - thus "proving" the moderate course is weak and wrong; - "prove" that Iran is a rogue state via the Hezbollah connection; and - harden the resolve of the US to assist Israel in bombing Iran; then I think Israel has succeeded. This whole crisis has made Israel even more unpopular in the Middle East and further afield, but if this postpones a future and determined nuclear threat Israel sees this as an acceptable tradeoff. Posted by: Spooky Pete | August 1, 2006 10:34 PM whats this preoccupation with the number of "women and children" killed? its absurd. there are no innocents anymore. especially when you have a terrorist organization thats moonlights as a political party using human shields and the like. western societies' philsophical aversion to war and casualties is dangerous and indulgent. excessive force in the short term is humane in the long run. Posted by: mark | August 1, 2006 10:27 PM Hopefully Aliens will kill us all off with a well-placed black hole to Earth's center before that infection of the mind that is 'religion' can spread throughout the Galaxy. Apart from that ... what will happen after Israel is satisfied that it has sufficiently depleted Hisbollah to attain less than X attacks per month on its northern border? Iran will just airlift a few additional planes full of madness and C4, Syria will assassinate the last few moderates in Beirut and generally make a nusiance of itself, the population will be attracted to whatever firebrand cleric emerges out of the rubble, a humanitarian crisis will loom, militias roam the land and do some ethnic cleansing of 'unbelievers', while the freedom fighters and assorted rifgraff looking for a good time set up training camps. And then Pakistan blows up ... Posted by: And God shuffled his feet. | August 1, 2006 9:57 PM ==it is kill or be killed== Thanks, man, but I will do my own killing and I strongly advise you do the same. It's really chickensh*t to let others kill your enemy's women, children and elders. If you feel your life is threatened by Hezbolah or Hamas, get your gun and head out East. Maybe Israelis will let you decorate one of the shells they shoot into Lebanon. It's apparently a popular activity now. As for "weaselly europeans", I think that the Russians, the British and many national resistance movements may disagree with you. Posted by: Dimitry | August 1, 2006 9:25 PM It is sadly amusing to read the ridiculous statements: * "Israel is creating more hatred among the Arabs." Obviously, these people have never taken basic math: infinity + anything still equals infinity. Hezb and Hamas have repeatedly stated that they want to drive the Jews into the sea. * "blah blah the occupation blah blah". There is no occupation in Lebanon. At most, there is some dispute about a small piece of land (Chebba Farms) that the UN says belongs to Syria. * "blah blah israelis are terrorists blah blah". i don't think so. terrorists and their sympathizers are not the people who apologize when innocents are accidentally killed or drop flyers telling people to leave. terrorists are those who dance happily after 9/11, those who hand out candy when others are killed, those who walk into weddings and blow themselves up. * "blah blah disproportionate response blah blah". particulary pathetic weaselly europeans who ignore their own history of caving before fascists, to no avail. far more are the heirs of neville chamberlain than winston churchill. it is excusable from the moderate muslims who are often apologists for the fanatics, but the secular westerners better wake up and realize that the jihadists hate you, too...it is kill or be killed. they are another version of the nazis, wrapped in their self-righteous perversion of their religion. Posted by: defeatislamofascists | August 1, 2006 9:19 PM Sick of it All has written: • Israel has both satellite and drone aircraft videos unmistakably showing Hizbollah trucks pulling into civilian buildings in Qana loaded with katyusha rockets • Israel also has videos of many katyusha rockets being launched from the particular building containing civilians that was bombed From Haaretz.com -------------------------------------- As the Israel Air Force continues to investigate the air strike, questions have been raised over military accounts of the incident. It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time. The Israel Defense Forces had said after the deadly air-strike that many rockets had been launched from Qana. However, it changed its version on Monday. The site was included in an IAF plan to strike at several buildings in proximity to a previous launching site. Similar strikes were carried out in the past. However, there were no rocket launches from Qana on the day of the strike. ------------------------------------------ I guess those "unmistakable videos" are mistaken... I guess that "particular building" from which "videos show rockets being launched" was actually not the building from which they were being launched... Posted by: Dimitry | August 1, 2006 8:50 PM Do Christians really know who they are supporting and backing themselves, when at the same time they are criticizing Iran and Syria for purportedly supplying Israel? Do Christians ever question the fact that half of Israel's population are non-religious secularists? Are Christians even aware that it is illegal for them to proselyte in most parts of Israel, just as it is in Communist China? And don't get confused by this but the Koran is actually friendlier to Mary and Jesus than Judaism! So why do Christians write off Islam and accept Judaism which has no place in its heart for Jesus Christ? Finally, what do the scripture teach you about religious people and prophets who do not accept Jesus Christ? Then why do Christians keep pouring money into the offering coffers in order to support the war effort by Israel? Are you still under the impression that your philanthropic dollars are going to support the synagogues in Israel? Isn't it ironic that many of the Jews who benefited from t
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Text of Castro's Letter Ceding Authority
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Because of the enormous effort involved in visiting the Argentine city to attend the Mercosur meeting, at the closing of the Summit of the Peoples in the historic University of Cordoba and the visit to Alta Gracia, the city where Che (Guevara) lived in his childhood and immediately afterward attending the commemoration of the 53rd anniversary of the attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks, the 26th of July of 1953, in the provinces of Granma and Holguin, days and nights of continuous work with hardly any sleep, have caused my health, which has withstood all tests, to fall victim to extreme stress and to be ruined. This has caused in me an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that has obliged me to undergo a complicated surgical operation. All the details of this health accident can be seen in X-rays, endoscopies and filmed material. The operation will force me to take several weeks of rest, away from my responsibilities and duties. As our country is threatened in circumstances like this by the government of the United States, I have made the following decision: 1) I delegate in a provisional manner my functions as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba to the second secretary, comrade Raul Castro Ruz. 2) I delegate in a provisional manner my functions as Commander in Chief of the heroic Revolutionary Armed Forces to the same comrade, Army Gen. Raul Castro Ruz. 3) I delegate in a provisional manner my functions as president of the Council of State and of the government of the Republic of Cuba to the first vice-president, comrade Raul Castro Ruz. 4) I delegate in a provisional manner my functions as the main driving force behind the National and International Program of Public Health to Politburo member and Public Health Minister, comrade Jose Ramon Balaguer Cabrera. 5) I delegate in a provisional manner my functions as the main driving force behind the National and International Education Program to comrades Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and Esteban Lazo Hernandez, members of the Politburo. 6) I delegate in a provisional manner my functions as the main driving force behind the National Program of the Energy Revolution in Cuba and cooperation with other countries in this field to comrade Carlos Lage Davila, member of the Politburo and secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers. The relevant funds for these programs _ health, education and energy _ should continue to be assigned and prioritized, as I have been doing personally, by comrades Carlos Lage Davila, Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Council of Ministers; Francisco Soberon Valdes, Minister President of the Central Bank of Cuba; and Felipe Perez Roque, Foreign Relations Minister, who have accompanied me in these duties and should constitute a committee for this purpose. Our glorious Communist Party, supported by mass organizations and the entire public, has the mission of carrying out the duties outlined in this proclamation.
Read the full text of the letter from Fidel Castro read on state television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga:
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Hill Democrats Unite to Urge Bush to Begin Iraq Pullout
2006080119
After months of struggling to forge a unified stance on the Iraq war, top congressional Democrats joined voices yesterday to call on President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops by the end of the year and to "transition to a more limited mission" in the war-torn nation. With the midterm elections three months away, and Democrats seeing public discontent over Iraq as their best chance for retaking the House or Senate, a dozen key lawmakers told Bush in a letter: "In the interests of American national security, our troops and our taxpayers, the open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot and should not be sustained. . . . We need to take a new direction." The 12 Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), include liberals and centrists who have differed over Iraq in the past. The signers included the top Democrats on the House and Senate committees dealing with armed services, foreign relations, intelligence and military spending. Their action puts party leaders on the same page, and it helps clarify the Nov. 7 election as a choice between a party seeking a timeline for withdrawing troops from an unpopular war and a party resisting any such timetable. For all its passion, the letter has more significance as a political statement than as a policy alternative. Most Democrats previously have embraced the general idea of beginning a troop drawdown this year, and the letter adds no specifics about how many troops should be withdrawn or how rapidly. Senior Republicans quickly denounced the document as defeatist. But this rebuttal came as a number of GOP lawmakers are joining Democrats in criticizing the war's progress. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) last week called Iraq "an absolute replay of Vietnam." Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-Minn.) recently returned from Iraq with a call for U.S. troops to pull out. In Democratic primaries in several states, meanwhile, voters are venting their unhappiness. Pelosi said the impetus for the letter was growing concern that Iraq is dangerously draining the military's readiness and that Bush's plan to shift more U.S. troops to Baghdad is ill advised. "We're united around a proposal for responsible redeployment, and we want it to begin before December," Pelosi said in a telephone interview from Boston. "It's not about candidates," she said. "It's about our young people in harm's way." Pelosi's spokeswoman, Jennifer Crider, acknowledged that "a lot of our candidates are set on wanting a new course" in Iraq. She added that the letter does not represent an official party platform, leaving candidates free to act on the basis of "what works in their district and what are their own beliefs." Also signing the letter was Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense. He and Pelosi caused waves within their party last year when they called for U.S. troop withdrawals to begin promptly. Most Democrats then opposed the idea, and the House and Senate overwhelmingly rejected it. Among those who rejected a prompt withdrawal last fall but signed on to the letter yesterday were centrists such as Reid and House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (Md.). By June, most congressional Democrats were expressing support for beginning a troop drawdown this year. Many, however, remain wary of imposing a binding deadline on the Bush administration, and the letter does not endorse that. A senior Democratic strategist, who agreed to discuss electoral calculations only anonymously, said party leaders concluded that voters want a clear choice between backers of a timeline for beginning a pullout and the GOP's no-timetable position. "This offers a pretty clear contrast" for the next few months, the strategist said, and Reid and others plan a series of events to drive home the point. Polling data and focus groups suggest that Democratic candidates can embrace the letter's message without falling victim to familiar Republican claims of being soft on national security, the strategist said, because setbacks in Iraq have eroded the GOP's traditional advantage on that issue. But the accord hardly heals continued divisions among Democratic politicians and voters. In Connecticut, for example, Joseph I. Lieberman -- who was one of only six Senate Democrats to vote against a June resolution calling for a troop drawdown to start this year -- is battling an antiwar challenger who is trying to deny him the party's nomination for a fourth term. Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said yesterday's letter "underscores the critical choice facing the American people in November." At a time of "jihadist attacks on civilians in Baghdad, Mumbai and northern Israel," he added, "Democrat leaders propose to cut and run from the central front in the war on terror. Waving a white flag in Iraq may appeal to the Net roots, but it will embolden the enemy, encourage more terrorism and make America less secure." The Democrats' letter to Bush said: "Despite the latest evidence that your Administration lacks a coherent strategy to stabilize Iraq and achieve victory, there has been virtually no diplomatic effort to resolve sectarian differences, no regional effort to establish a broader security framework, and no attempt to revive a struggling reconstruction effort. Instead, we learned of your plans to redeploy an additional 5,000 U.S. troops into an urban war zone in Baghdad." In June, the Senate voted 86 to 13 to reject a proposal by John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) that would have ordered Bush to bring most of the troops home within 13 months. Another Democratic measure -- a nonbinding call on Bush to begin a troop drawdown by December -- failed 60 to 39 but had the backing of most Democrats. The House earlier had voted 256 to 153 to back Bush's Iraq policies. Forty-two Democrats joined a virtually united GOP to declare that the United States must complete "the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure and united Iraq" without setting "an arbitrary date for the withdrawal."
After months of struggling to forge a unified stance on the Iraq war, top congressional Democrats joined voices yesterday to call on President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops by the end of the year and to "transition to a more limited mission" in the war-torn nation.
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Washington Coverup
2006080119
Deadly ultraviolet sun rays in the summer, acid snow in the winter, torrential rains all year long -- there's no telling what the skies will throw down these days. We need all the protection we can get in these angst-ridden times. Maybe that's why more and more people seem to be carrying open umbrellas all the time, on perfectly sunny days as well as dark and stormy ones. Walk along the Mall on a pretty afternoon and see for yourself. There's a large blue one with a floral print. There's a bright red one. And a small green one. "I can protect more of myself," says Inci Bowman, 66, a retired University of Texas medical historian who lives on Capitol Hill. On a recent weekday, she's sporting a beige umbrella as she strolls toward Pennsylvania Avenue. Overhead the sun is hot, but clouds and leafy trees provide intermittent shade, and breezes sweep along the streets. Bowman never lowers her umbrella. "It's cooler to carry an umbrella than to wear a hat," she says. Besides, "it could rain every day. You never know." She keeps the umbrella open "just to be on the safe side." Valerie Steele, director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, says that people are carrying umbrellas more on sunny days because of concerns about global warming and danger to the skin. It can be an emotional aid, she says, in "an uncertain environment." The word "umbrella" comes from the Latin word for shade. Originally, umbrellas were used for sun protection. In earlier civilizations they were a status symbol -- Egyptian royalty are pictured with umbrella-bearing attendants. (The modern equivalents are the valets who have carried umbrellas for celebrity royalty, such as Michael Jackson and P. Diddy.) The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that carrying umbrellas was okay for women but not for men, the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us. In the mid-18th century, a British traveler wrote home from France of the en-tout-cas, an umbrella that protects from both rain and sun. And he suggested that Brits should start carrying them. Guidebooks through the years have urged visitors to the British Isles to carry an umbrella at all times. Historians tell us that British soldiers even toted their umbrellas to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. A legend accompanying a watercolor of a parasol at the National Gallery of Art explains that parasols were introduced to the United States in 1772 by a Baltimore entrepreneur. "Soon the fashion centers of Philadelphia and New York took an interest in this kind of accessory," the legend reads. "By the 19th century, parasols were commonly used by women for carriage rides or for promenading." The umbrella, on the other hand, "was declasse," says Steele. "You were supposed to have a carriage to keep you from getting wet. Only middle-class people carried umbrellas." In the mid-19th century, Louis Phillipe of France carried an umbrella. He was known as the Bourgeois King. Parasols were considered a more genteel thing in the southern United States, Steele says, where many people wanted "to keep their skin as light as possible." The same was true in India. She adds that parasol carriers were also trying to avoid heatstroke. Today the answer to the umbrella and parasol is a 24/7 omnibrella. All-weather umbrellas are offered in gift catalogues.
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The Mel Gibson Case
2006080119
washingtonpost.com: Ray Richmond, thank you for joining us today for a discussion of the Mel Gibson case. From your vantage point as an entertainment columnist and blogger who covers the industry, what is the inside Hollywood reaction to what happened and do you think Mel Gibson has lost any credibility as a movie star and movie director? Ray Richmond: Thanks for having me, good to be here. I thought only smart people got to be a part of the Washington Post world. Glad to be an honorary intelligent dude for a day. But I digress. To answer the question, I'm surprised by the severity of the reaction Hollywood has had to Gibson's DUI and anti-Semitic spewing meltdown at the scene. There's real anger and anything but a forgiving mood. As for credibility, yes, in the short term there has been a great loss of credibility for Gibson. But expect it to subside within a few months when the emotion has cooled and more sober reflection (so to speak) taken hold. Anonymous: Gibson seems to be contending that he said things he does not at all believe because he was drunk. Have any medical experts opined on whether such a situation is credible? Ray Richmond: I'm not entirely sure what the medical/psychological community feels about this issue, but I've always been led to believe that alcohol merely acts as a truth serum, if you will, that lubricates the lips and mind and reduces the social inhibitions. It does not in itself create thoughts and belief systems that are not already there. My suspicion is that Gibson's anti-Semitic rant happened because he's an anti-Semite whose tongue was loosened, pure and simple. I have no medical fact to base this on, once again. Purely opinion. Washington, D.C.: It's kinda scary that Post is hosting a discussion about this, but here goes: Given the apology, and unless-until demonstrated otherwise, I suppose a charitable path should be taken and allow for the possibility that Mel's one of those alcoholics who can have Tourette-like symptoms in terms of self-destructive behavior. I've known these folks, who will say vicious things they absolutely don't mean simply out of self-hatred as a way of ensuring their own downfall. One's "Id" having free rein, so to speak. If it wasn't his "id" talking, I'd be curious to know why, if he were an anti-Semite, he'd bother producing a miniseries on the Holocaust (that his father evidently believes never really happened). Ray Richmond: I don't buy any Tourette's argument. Puh-leeze! I think Gibson would produce a Holocaust mini even if he's an anti-Semite for business reasons, to prove he's not anti-Semitic in a town largely run by Jews. But ABC already decidedly against that, wisely. Woulda been like the KKK making a mini about Emmett Till at this point. And yes, Gibson's dad Hutton is a known Holocaust denyer who believes it's largely "fiction." Mel has never vehemently disagreed with that assessment, that I've seen. Washington, D.C.: What's your best guess on "Apocalypto's" fate now? Postpone until some time passes to give studio chance to try and 'wait this out?' Perhaps boycotts in certain chains or markets? Ray Richmond: I actually think "Apocalypto" will be as okay as any strangely-conceived film shot in a dead language could have been. If it tanks, I don't think it will be because of Gibsongate. Mel and his spinners have four months to buff his image back to respectability. Sterling, Va.: Ray, I'm a big fan of your weekly column in the Reporter and your daily blog. I'm wondering what you see as the ramifications of Gibson's comments in Hollywood since there is such a large Jewish community out there. Ray Richmond: Thanks for the kudos! Much appreciated. Didn't even know I had readers in Sterling. As I wrote a sec ago, I think Hollywood -- p_ _ _ ed off as it is over this -- will ultimately forgive Mel. There is only one thing in Hollywood you aren't forgiven for: being unsuccessful. And there's only one thing the public won't forgive: not apologizing. Alexandria, Va.: Hi there. What does this latest controversy mean for Mel's new movie, which was already hard to market in the first place? And do you think it'll affect his star power on future projects? Ray Richmond: I do think "Apocalypto" will get released on schedule and be mostly unaffected by this mess. Hey, Tom Cruise can act like a wack job and still score with M:I 3. Which brings me to the only really good thing about Gibson's sad tale: it's knocked Suri Cruise off the front pages in Hollywood. For a second there, I'd almost thought the kid actually existed. Reston, Va.: If a fugitive sex offender like Roman Polanski can still win Academy Awards, isn't the talk of Mel's career being over premature? Hollywood is either very forgiving or has a short/selective memory. Ray Richmond: Yes, it is premature. Hollywood does have a short memory -- if you're successful. If you aren't, it will bury you and then urinate on your grave. D.C. actress: It's always seemed to me that Hollywood runs on two dicta: "There's no such thing as bad publicity" and "The talent can say/do anything as long as they show up ready for filming (more or less) on time." So while I deplore Mel's behavior (and apparent latent anti-Semitism, as well as his sexism and homophobia), do you really think his obnoxious behavior alone will be enough to shut the studios' doors, or will he only be an outcast if he can't manage his substance abuse problems? Ray Richmond: I don't believe his obnoxious behavior will shut the door. he's still Mel Gibson. He didn't kill/rape/molest anyone. He drove drunk and he said some stuff that unfortunately exposes his less savory side (a side, I might add, that isn't much of a secret to those in the business). There is less shock in Hollywood than there is revulsion. But yeah, as I said, he'll survive this as long as the PR Machine does its job as we know it will. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Apparently Gibson issued another apology this morning which was specific, contrite and acceptable to the Anti Defamation League which agreed to meet with Gibson after his alcohol rehab. Do you think that Gibson and handlers might be able to turn this around to his advantage? First he'll have to disown his father's vile Holocaust denial (which Mel has never done). Ray Richmond: I do think Gibson will get the audience with the ADL (I SO predicted this!) but yeah, he'll also have to sell daddy down the river a bit. Dad may get upset, but he is an 87-year-old anti-Semite, so that shouldn't really break Mel's heart too badly if he's even 10% sincere about any of this. And yeah, he may even work it to his advantage. I don't have a big problem with that. He could honestly do some real good if he uses this to be a uniter instead of a divider (in the words of our fearless leader). Chicago, Ill.: Do you think Disney will cancel the Holocaust mini-series deal with Gibson? Ray Richmond: Done. Had to. Gaithersburg, Md.: I disagree that this incident will blow over in a few months. Won't the Hollywood establishment shun him now? Ray Richmond: Maybe, maybe not. You may be right. It's just my guess from what I know of Hollywood and how it deals with its big players. The agent Ari Emmanuel was courageous yesterday in shunning Gibson and calling on his colleagues to do the same. But I don't believe that will be followed. Especially now that Gibson's damage control team has bitten the bullet and reached out to the Jewish community. Washington, D.C.: I personally don't care what Gibson said when he was being arrested, and a poll run by MSNBC also indicated that 75 percent of people don't care either. So, why is the press making such a big deal about it? Let's not forget that his arrest for DUI and taking him off the roads is a bigger deal than what's coming out of his mouth. Ray Richmond: This is why I think Gibson will survive this intact. It was only words, after all, however despicable they may have been. Also, I'm sure there are enough people in America who agree with him about the Jews. Let's face it. If a Jew said the same about Christians during a drunken rage -- "They started all the wars, and they can't make a brisket worth a _ _ _ _" -- it might be very different. As for the press making a big deal, sorry, but it IS a big deal. He's an American icon melting down before our eyes. Los Angeles, Calif.: Gibson's statement called for members of the Jewish community to contact him. What is Gibson's strategy with this offer, and how effective will it be? Ray Richmond: I'm not sure of all of the details. He asked the Jewish community to "help him" on his "journey through recovery." I'm not sure if that means supplying bagels and cream cheese or what. It's what Mel has to do to save his hide, bottom line. His publicist also happens to be Jewish, which will help him sell the idea his anti-Semitism was a mere alcohol-fueled aberration. Anonymous: Was it known in Hollywood that Gibson has a drinking problem? First I'd ever heard of it. Ray Richmond: Good question. I had never heard he had a drinking problem before, too. Strange. I had only heard the tags of anti-Semitism, homophobia and sexism ascribed to Mel. Never alcoholism. Washington, D.C.: Is there any chance that the manner in which the officers handled the situation solicited this kind of response from Mel? Ray Richmond: I tend to doubt it. I didn't get that at all. If anything, I think it's plain to see that the instinct was to be overly nice to him as a consideration of his celebrity status and one-of-the-boys association with the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. I'm not one to harp on any sheriff's cover-up. I prefer to focus on the fact that the arresting officer was brave for doing what he did. Arresting Mel Gibson took courage. Few who work there would have. Washington, D.C.: Not excusing Mel's actions, but it seems that there is a trend among those who have reached superstardom to give the world an unrequested peak at who they really are (i.e., Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Tom Cruise, and now Mel Gibson) behind the created persona. This seems to lead to the downfall of many and is a reflection of the public's unrealistic expectations of the rich and famous. After all, they are only people. I guess it really pays to have a good PR rep and manager! Ray Richmond: Yeah, good PR and spin are what it's all about. And that's really how it always has been. If your image is strong, you'll be popular, the public will love you and fame and fortune will be yours. But never confuse the public persona and the real human. Two different animals. One is created for audience consumption. The other has to live a life. I don't think we have unrealistic expectations of the rich and famous anymore, however. In the tabloid age, their foibles are right out there on their sleeve for all to see. Herndon, Va.: What did Mel Gibson say? Ray Richmond: Can't reprint it here on a family chat forum. But he did rant that "The Jews are responsible for all the wars!" and referred to a female officer's breasts with a sexist slur involving sugar. He was also generally belligerent and resisted arrest. Ah, good times. Anonymous: In the "golden age" of Hollywood, would we, the general public, have ever heard about this? I'll bet some retired Malibu cops are re-telling war stories that would make this story pale in comparison ... Ray Richmond: Great point. I doubt we would have heard about it. In fact, it seems if certain factions of the Sheriff's Dept. had had their way, we also wouldn't have heard about this. But in the old days, the press always looked the other way (with stars, JFK, etc.). In the age of insta-news and the blogosphere, them days are long gone. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Ray, great discussion. I also am a reader of your column. (Loved your take on the Ellen Burstyn Emmy nomination today, by the way.) I heard you've also been talking on your new blog about the Mel Gibson thing. Where do I go to read your blog? Can you give me the address? Ray Richmond: Thanks. Whoa, does this sound like a planted question or what? So glad you asked (Mom). It's www.pastdeadline.com. Tell all your friends. It's like real life, only better. Harrisburg, Pa.: I smell a visit to Oprah. And yes, the Holocaust miniseries was canceled, but the network added that it had been two years and they hadn't yet seen a first draft of a script. I don't think he ever planned to make it -- rather, he wanted the PR that came with 'saying' he was going to make it. Ray Richmond: I agree he probably never planned to make the Holocaust mini. Very good point. And I too smell a visit (or 2 or 3) to Oprah. And Dr. Phil. Hey, if it's good enough for Pat "You Are SO Hot" O'Brien, it's good enough for Mel. Chesterfield, Mo.: Don't you think the police have already punished Gibson by providing the media with verbatim details of Gibson's remarks? Should they have done that? Is it correct legally or ethically? After all, if it was an ordinary citizen, they would not have made a big hue and cry about such remarks. This is not to condone Gibson's behavior or remarks, but a viewpoint on what the police did Ray Richmond: I don't have an issue with releasing the details of what Gibson said during his arrest. What would be the value of keeping that under wraps? Better to have knowledge of what really goes through a man's mind in this case -- at least in part because he's such a Christian community icon. It's the very fact he wasn't an ordinary citizen that I believe necessitated the release of the information (which I'm sure tmz.com paid good money for). I don't have a legal or ethical issue with it. I would have had a bigger one with whitewashing or destroying it. Los Angeles, Calif.: Ray, I'm as shocked to find you here as you are. My question concerns TMZ.com, the folks who were way out in front of this story. Heretofore, a lot of their celebrity coverage has been salacious and judgmental and their cameras roaming LA's hot spots seem to want to provoke celebrities. What're your thoughts on TMZ? And, given that it's backed by Time Warner, will that at some point result in a backlash against that studio by actors sought by the studio? Ray Richmond: I don't have a big opinion on TMZ.com, which I hadn't regularly visit prior to this. From what I gather, it's run by former attorney Harvey Levin and is is largely about salacious gossip, as you say. I don't know about an actor backlash against a Time Warner enterprise because it's still relatively tame compared to the defamer.com and gawker.coms of the Web. I give them credit for getting this story. But I mean, hey, times change. I recall that the NY Times chased the National Enquirer's tail on the O.J. story for a while. Las Vegas, Nev.: I heard that some of Mel Gibson's "handlers" are actually Jewish, too! Is that true? If so ... how ironic. Have any of them decided to part ways with him as a result of this incident? Ray Richmond: I haven't heard about any of Mel's peeps (Jewish or otherwise) bolting because of this. But I'm sure his Jewish publicist Alan Neirob in particular has helped steer the olive branch held out to the Jewish community and the need to mend the fence ASAP. Alexandria, Va.: This is a great discussion. I love your take on things ... I totally agree with you on the Mel thing ... sad as it is, in a matter of months, it's likely that "All will be forgiven." I would love to start reading your column online at the Hollywood Reporter Web site. Do you also have a blog? Ray Richmond: Yes. It's pastdeadline.com. And thanks again Mom. Mel's Family?: Other than his father that we've heard about, doesn't he have a wife and kids? Where are they? Or where were they when this happened? Ray Richmond: That's a VERY good question. You never hear squat about the extended Gibson clan. Kept very well hidden in the background. The wife is who I'd like to see with Babs Walters or Diane Sawyer. I have no clue what's going down with the wife and kiddies now. But the words "long suffering" spring to mind. Washington, D.C.: Has there been any response to this incident (either critical or supportive of Gibson) from any actors -- I've read comments from producers and agents but not a peep from any other actors. Any idea why? Ray Richmond: I heard some supportive comments from a few B-list types (Carnie Wilson) and D-minus list types (Tina Yothers) but not too many others. My guess: those who have worked with Mel will support him, those who haven't won't. But in general, there's a reluctance from those in the industry to discuss this because they fear when Gibson does get back on his feet they don't want to be on Mel's bad list, if you will, for any appearance of kicking him when he's down. And Hollywood just runs on fear, anyway. So it's business as usual. Sterling, Va.: In regard to Mel's previous struggles with alcohol: I recall reading an interview wherein Gibson admitted to problems with heavy drinking early in his career. Shortly after the success of "Mad Max," I believe, back in Australia. He credited his wife as bringing him through it. So it seems that Mel has a history. Regardless of what he said or meant -- he has a problem with alcohol, he admits it, he is willing to get treatment. I say, treat this as two separate issues; i.e., alcohol abuse and anti-Semitism. Ray Richmond: I totally agree about treating the two issues separately. Makes complete sense. And to jumble them confuses it all. New Orleans, La.: In praising the arresting officer, you stated that "arresting Mel Gibson took courage. Few who work there would have." That is a rather provocative remark! Are L.A. County sheriff's deputies normally reluctant to arrest celebrities? Maybe I am being jaw-droppingly naive to ask such a question. Ray Richmond: Yes, LA County deputies are probably a bit reluctant to arrest celebrities, particularly powerful ones like Gibson who have recorded public service announcements for the department and been longtime friends of local law enforcement. Don't know if you've seen Mel's PSA with Scott Baio, but it's pretty cheesy. Syracuse, N.Y.: FYI, I know that some people are saying that Hollywood will "never forgive him," etc... but just so you know, columnist Liz Smith is somewhat aligned with your analysis. In fact, she feels that Mel's career will "thrive" as a result of this. In today's paper, she said "... believe me, none of the evangelicals who jammed theaters, stadiums and churches to watch "The Passion of the Christ" over and over again will condemn Gibson for his addiction or his drunken remarks. He has the power and money to finance and release his own films, so he ought to be thanking God the industry has changed since the days when studio moguls ruled the roost. In that atmosphere, he'd be a dead duck, unable to do anything except low-budget movies in Europe. That was Orson Welles' fate, and all he did was insult the egomania of William Randolph Hearst via Citizen Kane." washingtonpost.com: New York Post/Liz Smith Ray Richmond: Hollywood will forgive him. That's not wishful thinking on my part. I personally am kind of on the fence, though I'm also inclined to want to help an alcoholic who is (at least on the surface) reaching out. I pretty much totally agree with Liz's words. Again, it isn't because that's what I want to see happen. It's just the truth. San Antonio, Texas: It seems to me that Mel Gibson is a lying hypocrite who is full of anger and hate. I can readily understand how he became this way when I recall the hateful, antisemitic remarks made by his father, Hutton Gibson, regarding the Holocaust. Although there should be no place for Mel Gibson as a respected and well-compensated molder of public opinion, I am afraid that he will simply skate through this current incident and continue to poison our atmosphere. This is unfortunate for the vast majority of decent Americans who inhabit this country. Ray Richmond: Skate through? Not entirely. It's clear he will have his feet held to the fire and will be punished for a while. But yeah, ultimately he's forgiven and gets to keep his career. On the other hand, it isn't like he's an in-demand leading man anymore, anyway. He's a little too old for that. My teenage daughter has zero interest in him. He's also rich and can fund his own movies, so he'll get through. And yes, good Christians will forgive him wholeheartedly, if they haven't already. I have issues with this, like you, but I have to face facts. washingtonpost.com: Mel Gibson Police PSA Hollywood, Calif.: I heard that Variety's Peter Bart said yesterday that he was warned nearly 20 years ago by those in-the-know about "good Mel" vs. "Monster Mel," and that he's always been known in certain circles as a bit of an alcoholic brute. Were you ever aware of Gibson's "split personality" (assumedly brought on by his substance/alcohol abuse)? Ray Richmond: I have to admit I wasn't aware specifically of the split personality, but I'd long heard about thre anti-Semitism, homophobia and sexism (as one exec told me, "A typical Aussie male"). I won't agree with that about Aussies males, but this incident would seem to confirm a certain do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do mentality. But again, as Bart says, Hollywood has long known that. The fact Mel has been able to thrive in his career despite this image is a bit remarkable -- and the obvious reason why he'll ultimately be forgiven. washingtonpost.com: Mel Gibson Police PSA, courtesy YouTube. Washington, D.C.: No crystal ball here, but you might be underestimating the particularly toxic impact of anti-Semitic bigotry versus some of the others you mention (sexism, etc.). Given the particularly evil history behind these kinds of recurring conspiracy theories, I don't know if typical Oprah-style pleas for forgiveness are going to work in this case (I also wonder if his publicist has any sense of self-respect at all, but different point ...) Ray Richmond: You may be right. I'm certainly not minimizing anti-Semitism. It's hateful and the worst kind of bigotry. But I'll also point out that Jews make up only about 4% of the US population, I believe. And there is, whether we like to admit it or not, a lot of Jewish hatred in this country. So while I'm not saying a majority agree with Mel, it's also not as if the majority will rush to blackball him forever because of his view. Washington, D.C.: I think this shows Gibson's true colors. But I have to say, in addition to his words and conduct after he was pulled over, the fact that he was drunk and driving down PCH at 80 mph should be concern for everyone, especially the local community and the sheriff's office. Reports are that he has been pulled over several times before for apparent drunken driving. To me, the real crime is that police officers are letting famous drunk people continue to drive. Ray Richmond: I agree. Yes, the fact he was twice pulled over previously without being charged fuels my argument about the courage and atypical conduct of the arresting deputy. I'll just bet he got Gibson to the station and was met with something akin to, "What? You arrested Mel Gibson? Oh God! What'll we do?" But the truth is also that if Gibson were also cited for speeding and drunk driving, I wouldn't be having this conversation with you. Washington, D.C.: With So many other things going on in the world of much more important, it amazes me how the media and the public sop up this trash. Why is it that the media puts more attention on things like this instead of figuring out what is happening to America, its democracy, and its people? Imagine if the press was just as diligent with exposing issues that actually matter. We have become as bad as the U.K. Why? It's only a big story so people like the invited guests can keep a job. Ray Richmond: It's stuff like this that focuses our attention on things that are easier to digest than war and poverty and disease. However, I'll disagree with you that this is just tabloid celebrity business as usual. It involves a religious icon slamming another religion and those who follow it. He's an influential figure who exhibited stunningly offensive behavior after a drinking bout. This crosses the line from Hollywood mind rot to something of greater significance, in my view. Alexandria, Va.: Do you think it's possible that as a well-known member of a very conservative branch of Roman Catholicism, Mel himself has encountered some amount of religious bigotry in Hollywood? This would not excuse his anti-Semitic diatribe, but could possibly explain it. Ray Richmond: I'm sure Gibson has dealt with religious bigotry and some Jewish power brokers whose style he didn't care for. But I think that's too simplistic an explanation for his outburst. I believe the answer can be found in his dad having contributed to a poisoned outlook and Mel having never quite dismissed the idea. You are the one who is making a big deal about it; as a member of the media, I'm not too surprised. Like you said, 75 percent don't really care. And for the record, I think what Mel Gibson said was BEYOND deplorable. I think it is hate speech, pure and simple. But it's not like it is the President of the U.S. making light of the situation in the Mideast, which is FAR worse than what Gibson said. My point is, the only people who are making this a serious issue is the media, e.g., You. Ray Richmond: I actually couldn't disagree more. There are surely examples of instances where blaming the messenger is justified, but not this time. I think if you go out into America, the same people who made "Passion of the Christ" a $600 million-plus blockbuster have strong opinions about Gibson's plight (I'm guessing far more supportive of him than non). This isn't just the media whipping up a firestorm from a tiny spark. It's real news because of who Mel Gibson is and what he represents. Washington, D.C.: Any bets on who will get the first interview on the "Apology Tour"? Who will be the first to insult our intelligence this time around? Oprah? Diane Sawyer? Dr. Phil? Maybe Katie Couric as part of her debut at CBS. So many possibilities! I can't wait. (NOT!) Ugh! Ray Richmond: I'm picking Diane or Katie. Wait, are either one of them Jewish? Hmmm.... Ray Richmond: Hey thanks for your questions (all very good ones) and hanging with me here, folks. This was a lot of fun and I hope to visit with you again soon on a different subject (or maybe the same, who knows?). I think what's next for Mel Gibson is more of the same: apologies, reports from rehab, plans for meetings with Jewish leaders, etc. Understand that this is big business we're talking about. Gibson is a brand, and that brand has been compromised. So everything will be done to restore it (him) to his previous level of prominence. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. This is one for which I'm happy to have a front-row seat. Take care ya'll! washingtonpost.com: Continue the discussion with Celebritology 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 Boffo Buffet With a Little Bit of Everything for Someone
2006080119
Washington just got a little cooler. You're in on this non-meteorological revelation if you were hanging around downtown over the past week and a half and ducking into the Touchstone Gallery on D Street or the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue or the funky Warehouse complex on Seventh. At these and a dozen other locations, fresh air blew in on a jet stream of whimsy, nerviness and surprise -- a sustained gust otherwise known as the first Capital Fringe Festival. The festival and its eclectic offerings -- 97 productions in all -- had precisely the desired effect. For 11 days in late July, little oddities popped up among the city's monuments. The works ranged from one in which a gay man in a wedding gown enlarged on his obsession with the president, to an audience-participation show set in a fake cocktail lounge; from a piece that had spectators pursuing dancers around an art installation, to one depicting a painting lesson by Frida Kahlo. In other words, the event, which ended Sunday, broke down artistic barriers, making an institution-driven town more hospitable to entrepreneurial spirits in theater and dance, to independent types eager for a local platform to show what they could do. Or, for that matter, couldn't. As with any attempt to stretch boundaries, a fringe festival tends to attract many performers not yet ready for the limelight. Capital Fringe provided its share of twaddle, as many a festival-goer was happy to expound on as they dashed from show to show. Still, cheap tickets and a feeling of being on an adventure in entertainment mitigated any sensation of pain. As an older gentleman at a dance performance on Saturday observed, about his so-so experience at another production: "I got my $15 worth." In some cases, of course, you got more than your money's worth: dexterous theatricality and unexpected pleasure. I happened, for instance, to take in, at noon on Saturday, a staged reading of "Abstract Nude," a new play by Gwydion Suilebhan, and was bowled over by the suppleness of the writing as well as acting. (Someone needs to pay close attention to this Baltimore-bred, Northwestern-trained playwright, who lives on Capitol Hill.) The night before, I sat through "La Corbiere," an obtuse poem-play about prostitutes who drowned in a shipwreck off the Isle of Jersey during World War II. Its major satisfaction was the inspired spot where the sharp little theater company, Solas Nua, chose to stage it: a pool in Georgetown. On a macro level, too, the festival gave full value. From this theatergoer's perspective, the organization of the massive event was superb. Working with a staff of 30 and an additional 80 volunteers, the festival's organizers, Damian Sinclair and Julianne Brienza, pulled off an astonishing 11 days of precision urban choreography. The online ticketing was terrific, and every show I attended was smooth and began on time. Sinclair and Brienza, transplants from theater (and fringe) in Philadelphia, were still gauging the venture's impact in its final days. According to Sinclair, the Fringe's executive director, the festival sold 17,763 tickets and brought in more than $220,000, much of the money going to the performers. The festival gets a small percentage, too. All told, Sinclair said, about half of all seats were sold, an outcome that he described as in line with projections. "The word on the street is very successful, but to be fair, we're not a sellout," he said. By the festival's start on July 20, tickets to some shows, such as Charles Ross's "One-Man Star Wars Trilogy" at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, were impossible to obtain. (I secured a standing-room spot for that one.) The turnout was impressive for many other pieces I saw. A 5 p.m. performance of "Confessions of an Invisible Woman" July 24 at the National Building Museum, for example, was virtually sold out, and Friday's 6 p.m. show of the solidly mounted "Frida Vice-Versa" at the Touchstone Gallery was packed. A long line for "Le Corbier" at the Georgetown Swimming Pool on Friday began to form half an hour before the 9 p.m. show; every seat was filled, too, for a weekend performance at Woolly Mammoth of Rick Fiori's solo piece, "The Worst President Ever." Fiori's act -- a Cupid's arrow aimed at W and tipped with strychnine -- was a 50-50 experience: some funny bits wrapped in some not funny ones. As a performer, Fiori is sweetly unaffected. He's better, though, at telling a story than embodying a character. His best notion is that of a clueless gay man, gazing longingly at a cutout of the president and hurling insults masked as encomiums. Less successful is his impersonation of an equally clueless Southern soldier's ex-wife making a pilgrimage to the White House gates. Satire was also the main feature at "The Eddie Lounge Show," a good-natured sendup of lounge acts that provided Ed Spitzberg and a group of his friends an outlet for a pent-up need to sing. The environment was primitive -- a rickety little space called Warehouse Next Door -- but it somehow matched the genially fringey air of the 45-minute set, sung by the fictional Eddie and the Cosmos. Spitzberg, development director at Arena Stage, smartly kept things loose, almost karaoke-style. As Eddie, the lead singer, he invited audience members onstage for cameo roles in the Cosmos' renditions of the oeuvre of Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond. A bit in which a spectator is recruited for impromptu drumming was funny, and a duet of "We've Got Tonight" between the group's keyboard player (Alex Romain) and the lounge's cocktail waitress (Melissa Romain) evinced bona fide charm. The find of the festival, for me, was "Abstract Nude." Performed only once, at Flashpoint-Mead Theatre Lab, the 70-minute play unfolded as a witty, finely observed glimpse at the ways in which a work of art can be viewed. Moving back in time, Suilebhan's drama tracks the passing through several hands of a sexually graphic painting. In the process, the lives of a diverse group, from a frustrated wife (Naomi Jacobson) to a dissolute slacker (Josh Thelin), are comically and poignantly revealed. A staged reading, in which actors typically read from scripts on music stands, is not the best way to see a play. But it's a great way to hear one, and with a cast this good -- in addition to Jacobson and Thelin, top-notch contributions came from Teresa Castracane, Mauricio Alexander, Jen Plants, John Lescault and Jeffrey Bailey -- you heard a really strong play. No doubt the inaugural Capital Fringe Festival brought new people to the theater. At the start of "Star Wars," for example, when Michael Kyrioglou, Woolly Mammoth's communications director, asked the audience how many had never been to Woolly before, most of the hands went up. Still, pumping oxygen into a piece such as "Abstract Nude" may be the most vital service a fringe festival can do. Brienza, the festival director, said that the hope for next summer is to expand the number of performance spaces and offerings even further. I say, bring it on.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101201.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006080119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101201.html
US Airways To Tackle Complaints
2006080119
Wanted: US Airways customer service agents. Job: Responding to a backlog of e-mails and letters from US Airways travelers. The correspondence, mostly complaints, is piling up at the airline's Tempe, Ariz., headquarters. Since its merger with America West last September, US Airways has attracted a flood of unhappy comments about its new merged Web site and frequent-flier program. The carrier has put out the word on its internal bulletin boards that it needs workers to respond to about 6,000 e-mails and 1,500 letters. Since May, complaints have poured into US Airways' customer-service department as travelers have had difficulty navigating the Web site or found discrepancies in their frequent-flier account balances. Of the nation's top 20 airlines, US Airways received the most complaints filed in May with the Transportation Department, according to the agency's latest Air Traveler Consumer Report. A traveler who contacts the government is often one who had an unsatisfactory response from the airline itself. "We got slammed," acknowledges Elise Eberwein, spokeswoman for US Airways. "We have a long way to go, and we'll get there. We have to establish ourselves as a customer-relations center that not only apologizes when things go wrong but also works hard to convince customers to give us another try." The airline is aiming to add dozens to its staff of 140 customer-service workers. Offering pay of $8.50 an hour, US Airways is hoping to attract workers at least 18 years old with a high school diploma or the equivalent. Candidates need to have data-entry skills and excellent written and verbal communication skills. While many frequent fliers applaud the carrier's new effort to respond to customer complaints, some travelers said they were alarmed that US Airways would not be relying on employees with greater seniority and airline experience to address their concerns. "People who have been in the business longer have more understanding and can better respond to customer concerns," says US Airways frequent flier Andrea Williams of New Hope, Pa. "I wonder how an 18-year-old who was just hired by the airline can actually respond to my issues." Ken Rinzler, a lawyer from the Wesley Heights section of Washington, said he became so frustrated with the lack of response from airlines that he stopped sending his complaints years ago. "My experience with airlines is that customer service is generally useless. They're generally not much empowered to make much of a difference," Rinzler said. US Airways executives defend their hiring program and insist that the new employees will be fully trained and able to address travelers' concerns as needed. The new staff will free senior workers to answer customer-complaint telephone lines. Only about 50 percent of customer service phone calls are now getting answered because of the amount of time, as much as 20 minutes per call, each worker spends on them, Eberwein said. "I'm proud that we are putting a program like this together and that we are not going to try to spin our way out of a time when we can use the additional help," Eberwein said. US Airways said the jobs are only temporary, lasting about two weeks to three months, or as long as the airline needs the workers. After their assignments are completed, the employees will then be "on call" to return during peak periods.
Wanted: US Airways customer service agents. Job: Responding to a backlog of e-mails and letters from US Airways travelers.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101106.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006080119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101106.html
Kaine Limits Harvest of Key Fish
2006080119
RICHMOND, July 31 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) on Monday imposed annual limits on menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay, a move designed to protect a critical piece of the bay's food chain while keeping alive a century-old Virginia industry. The small, oily fish, similar to herring and shad, help filter impurities from the bay's water and serve as the primary diet for many of its larger fish, including the popular striped bass. Menhaden do not end up on dinner tables, but they are a key source of oils used in dietary supplements for humans. The fate of the menhaden, whose health has been questioned in recent years, has sparked a pitched battle between environmentalists and Omega Protein Corp., which squeezes oil from the bony fish to produce omega-3 supplements. The company, now based in Houston, originated in the Northern Neck in the late 1800s and still operates its largest processing plant in Reedville. Flanked by environmentalists and officials of Omega Protein, Kaine said his decision to limit menhaden fishing for five years will give scientists time to conduct more menhaden research while allowing the company's 275 Reedville employees to maintain their livelihoods. "We again demonstrate that protecting Virginia's environment and supporting our economy can go hand in hand," Kaine said during an event at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach. In Maryland, where there is no commercial menhaden fishing, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) praised Kaine for finding a solution to a difficult environmental problem. "This has never been a partisan issue, never should be a partisan issue," said Ehrlich, joining in Kaine's announcement by satellite from Sandy Point State Park. "You have shown great leadership and a great conservation ethic." Virginia and North Carolina are the only states where industrial harvest of menhaden is permitted in state-controlled waters, which extend three miles from the shoreline. Kaine's limits -- of up to 109,000 metric tons per year -- must be voted on by the Virginia legislature. The plan also will be reviewed this month by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a multi-state group designed to oversee fishing management issues along the Eastern Seaboard. That group has been pushing for Virginia to accept a slightly tougher menhaden cap in the Chesapeake Bay for years and had threatened to seek a ban on catching the fish if Virginia did not agree to limits. The ASMFC had previously given Virginia until July 1 to act on regulating the fishery. Without a response, the commission could have voted Virginia out of compliance at its Aug. 16 meeting, triggering a process that could have led to a fishery shutdown by the U.S. Department of Commerce. "The governor has been trying to work something out," said A.C. Carpenter, chairman of the commission's menhaden management board. "I am encouraged that the . . . groups all apparently have agreed to work together on this matter." Omega Protein's Reedville facility is the only remaining one on the East Coast to catch and process menhaden.
RICHMOND, July 31 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) on Monday imposed annual limits on menhaden fishing in the Chesapeake Bay, a move designed to protect a critical piece of the bay's food chain while keeping alive a century-old Virginia industry.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101186.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006080119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101186.html
Jealousy Spurred Gasoline Attack, Police Say
2006080119
A Prince George's man charged with setting his girlfriend on fire last weekend attacked her after he accused her of cheating on him, according to police charging documents released yesterday. The suspect, Anthony M. Willoughby, 40, appeared via closed-circuit television during a brief bond hearing yesterday at the Prince George's Courthouse in Upper Marlboro. Willoughby said little at the hearing, during which District Court Judge Thurman H. Rhodes read the charges against him: attempted first- and second-degree murder and first- and second-degree assault. When Rhodes asked if he would like to be represented by the public defender's office, Willoughby, a self-employed landscaper, responded, "Yes, I would." The judge ordered that Willoughby continue to be held without bond and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Aug. 28. Meanwhile, the victim, Fredia Edwards, 39, remained in critical condition in the burn unit of Washington Hospital Center, a hospital spokesman said yesterday. She suffered severe burns to her face, chest and arms, police said. According to police, Willoughby attacked Edwards in his home about 3 a.m. Saturday. The charging document alleges that when Willoughby began questioning Edwards about other men, the two argued, and Willoughby left. He returned a short time later with a cup of gasoline, doused her upper body and set her on fire, the charging document alleges. On June 6, Edwards had obtained a protective order against Willoughby. In her petition, Edwards wrote that he had choked her and hit her twice in the back of her head. The protective order was rescinded June 30 at Edwards's request. Relatives said she was trying to reconcile with Willoughby. The attack resembles a high-profile domestic violence case that occurred in Prince George's in October, when Yvette Cade, 32, was attacked by her estranged husband at the mobile phone store in Clinton where she worked. Roger B. Hargrave doused her with gasoline inside the store, chased her outside, then set her on fire. Cade suffered severe burns to her face, head, torso and arms. Hargrave was convicted of attempted first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
A Prince George's man charged with setting his girlfriend on fire last weekend attacked her after he accused her of cheating on him, according to police charging documents released yesterday.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101053.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006080119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101053.html
Quaranta Rejoins United, May Suit Up Against Columbus
2006080119
Santino Quaranta rejoined D.C. United yesterday after taking a week-long leave of absence and might be in uniform tonight for the club's U.S. Open Cup round-of-16 match against Columbus at Maryland SoccerPlex. "It was just something I had to sort out with my family and myself," the 21-year-old midfielder-forward said after an hour-long practice at the RFK Stadium training grounds. "Everything is fine and I'm happy to be back with the guys." VIDEO | D.C. United Signs Emilio Quaranta, sidelined most of the season with hamstring injuries, did not travel with the team to Salt Lake City last weekend. "Everyone has personal issues at some time, he went home and took care of them and now he's back to work," assistant coach Tom Soehn said. United Notes: According to sources around MLS, the New York Red Bulls have expressed interest in acquiring former D.C. midfielder Dema Kovalenko, who joined a club in his native Ukraine last winter after United decided to not renew his contract. United has maintained Kovalenko's MLS rights and would be compensated (probably with draft picks or salary cap considerations) if he signed with New York. . . . John Harkes, United's youth development director and TV color commentator, was hired by the Red Bulls as an assistant coach under Bruce Arena. . . . Defender John Wilson (knee tendinitis) and midfielder Domenic Mediate (quadriceps strain) are unlikely to play tonight. . . . Defender Brandon Prideaux, who underwent knee surgery four weeks ago, returned to practice yesterday and did some light running. He will not be available to play for at least another week.
Santino Quaranta rejoined D.C. United yesterday after taking a week-long leave of absence and might be in uniform tonight for the club's U.S. Open Cup round-of-16 match against Columbus at Maryland SoccerPlex.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101020.html
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Drama in the Senate: Rich Plan, Poor Plan
2006080119
The Senate is on a collision course this week between backers of a higher minimum wage and supporters of a sharply reduced estate tax. Leaders in both parties were busily taking temperatures and counting votes yesterday, saying the outcome is too close to call. Most Democrats support the minimum-wage hike and oppose the estate tax cut. Most Republicans take the opposite stand. But their choices will not be easy because the House -- with Senate GOP leaders' blessings -- approved both proposals in one bill Saturday and then left town for the summer. The legislation will preoccupy the Senate during a hectic week that also will include action on offshore drilling, military spending and a rewrite of pension law. The wage-tax showdown, likely to occur Friday, will boil down to this: Do enough Democrats sufficiently detest the estate tax cut -- which would benefit the wealthiest Americans -- to reject a chance to increase the federal minimum wage, which would benefit the working poor? Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is gambling that the answer is no, and his reputation as a legislative strategist is partly on the line. Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) virulently opposes the coupling of the minimum-wage hike and the estate tax cut, which he called "a cynical, cheap political trick" in a speech yesterday. "This attempt at political blackmail is not going to work," he said. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) attacked the legislation in a Senate speech yesterday, citing a new study by the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The study concluded that the estate tax reduction would cut government income by $753 billion in the first 10 years, forcing lower spending for Medicaid, food stamps and unemployment insurance, which help low-wage workers. But Frist says it is time "to reform the unfair death tax," and the odd-couple bill is his chance. Under the bill, the federal minimum wage, which has stood at $5.15 an hour for nine years, would rise in three phases to $7.25. The bill would exempt from taxation all estates worth up to $5 million -- or $10 million for a married couple -- and apply a 15 percent tax rate to inheritances above that threshold to as much as $25 million. Estate values exceeding $25 million would be taxed at 30 percent. Frist and other Republicans have failed in efforts to eliminate the estate tax altogether, and it is unclear whether the proposed sharp reduction can survive a Senate filibuster. Backers will need 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to choke off debate. Even if all 55 Republicans vote to kill a filibuster -- which is not certain -- Frist and his allies must peel off half a dozen Democrats. To that end, the bill is sprinkled with incentives drafted with particular lawmakers in mind. A rural bonds provision is aimed at Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). A tax break for timber interests is a possible lure for Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). A provision benefiting coal mines is targeted at Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.). Reid and his allies may have an ace in the hole, however. They may be able to push the "cloture" vote -- needed to kill a filibuster of the wage-tax bill -- until Friday, the toughest day to round up 60 votes. On any Friday -- but especially one that launches a month-long recess -- a few senators from both parties are typically absent. The Friday-flight tradition will make Frist's challenge all the harder. A conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat have accused the Bush administration of misleading Congress by withholding key information about India when the House voted last week to support U.S. plans to sell nuclear technology to New Delhi. Administration officials knew at the time -- but did not tell lawmakers -- that it planned to sanction two Indian firms for selling missile parts to Iran. News accounts of the incident did not sit well with Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.), top members of the House International Relations subcommittee on oversight and investigations. In a July 28 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the two expressed "grave concerns about testimony provided by Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation Frank Record at a July 20, 2005, hearing on U.S. Nonproliferation Strategies -- testimony that is, on its face, highly misleading if not intentionally deceptive." The lawmakers said the subcommittee had asked Record about the tardiness of a report on weapons transfers to Iran. "In response to a specific question about whether the long-overdue report would name any Indian entities that made such transfers to Iran, Mr. Record replied 'I don't recall,' " the letter to Rice said. "Mr. Record also asserted that 'There is no ulterior motive in waiting or trying to hold that information back.' "
The Senate is on a collision course this week between backers of a higher minimum wage and supporters of a sharply reduced estate tax. Leaders in both parties were busily taking temperatures and counting votes yesterday, saying the outcome is too close to call. A conservative Republican and a...
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/17/DI2006071700858.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006073119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/17/DI2006071700858.html
Post Magazine: Are You a Toxic Parent?
2006073119
Here's a test. True or false: * Kids are going to drink anyway, so they might as well do it at home, under adult supervision * Restricting teenagers makes no sense when they'll be on their own in college soon enough * You'd rather be your child's friend than an authority figure If you answered "true" to any of the above, you are not alone. But that doesn't mean you're right. And, no matter how you answered, you might want to join Marc Fisher , who will be online today to field questions and comments regarding his article on parenting that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post Magazine . Marc Fisher is a columnist for The Post's Metro section. Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, folks. Lots of reaction to the Sunday magazine story on toxic parents--parents wondering what to do to, teens (and former teens) opining on what really makes for a cool and effective parent, and of course debate over whether permissiveness helps or hinders in the struggle to produce kids who know how to lead confident, balanced lives. Offline, I'm hearing from some parents who think the story was all wet, that I, like some of the parents in the article, am naive to think that anything a parent does can keep kids from testing the wildwaters. Here online, the response, at least in my first glance at the comments in the queue, is more polite. But have at it--let's hear all sides over our hour together.... Annapolis, Md: Good Afternoon, Marc, Thanks for the interesting article. My mother and I had a good discussion about it yesterday. I feel you didn't clearly state an attitude of toxic parents: they don't agree with liquor and drug laws, won't force their children to abide by them, and feel some righteous superiority when they allow/encourage other people's children to break the laws. These people are on the extreme end of the large portion of the population who will serve their older teenagers wine with dinner or at holidays, or who think nothing of driving after one or two drinks. My family has always included younger members (17 and up) in the holiday wine, but has never approved drugs, drunk driving, coed sleepovers and the like. Many other families have similar traditions that are illegal, but don't seem that toxic to me. The parents you profiled seem out of control to me, but there is a continuum that I think you may have glossed over. Thoughts? Marc Fisher: Absolutely--and on that continuum, I'd place myself smack in there with your family. I think our prohibition on drinking for 18-21 year olds is wrongheaded and counterproductive and I'd have no problem with my kids drinking a glass of wine with dinner with us in those years. I do not, however, believe I have the right to allow that behavior from any other kid who might be in my house. And in fact, the laws that have been passed recently to toughen penalties on parents for providing alcohol to minors do make an exception for parents serving their own children in their own home. Washington, D.C.: This article smacks of smug self-righteousness. True, horrible things like death and accidents can occur when children make bad decisions. But to write phrases such as "Would that kid have been there if the parents had done their job and set limits?" is blatant editorializing. Parents need to decide what's best for their child individually, regardless of the pressure put on by other parents. Some parents clearly did that in this piece, although they were portrayed as the "non toxic" variety who set strict rules. So should my parents - who didn't impose a curfew, never grounded me, and basically had few rules in the house - be defined as toxic? They raised 3 children that way. None of are drug users or drinkers, drive drunk or are promiscuous - and all of us are on our way to great careers and stable lives. But if your slant piece is to be believed, they are toxic. Marc Fisher: Oh, goodness, no, I hope no one reads the story to mean that there are only two paths--the toxic and helicopter parents described in the story. Obviously, these are broad generalizations, but they do cover a fair amount of the behavior we can all see in contemporary parents. But you're right to focus on the possibility of another way, one that seeks to focus most keenly on developing trust between parents and kids, but always accompanied by high expectations. My man Weingarten argues that I must consider him a toxic parent because he let his kids do as you describe--no strict curfew, no rules about drugs and drink--but Weingarten, like me, gave his kids freedoms along with extremely high expectations, including the absolute expectation of total openness about any situation in which the kids might feel they were getting in too deep into some rough territory. In any social compact, whether it's a family or a society, it's the unwritten rules that work most effectively. When you buy into the expectations, you don't need hard and fast, codified rules. Rockville, Md: The article raised some very good points. I am compelled to comment; my parents are ex-hippies, and I had no rules, boundaries, or expressed expectations. They would not know where I was for days at a time, and when I came home, didn't even seem to know I was gone. My husband's mom called his friends parents, had strict rules of check-in times, and had a feeling of control. We both wound up with drug and alcohol problems. We are now sober and raising a son of our own. One of the most important things we do as parents is put forth a unified front. Our son knows (he's only 5) that he can't play against each other-and he tried! He also knows where the lines are. Yes, he sticks a toe, or sometimes his whole foot over, and we reenforce that line. My parents tried to enforce rules when I was 17, and at that point it was too late. There is no substitute to knowing your kids. What made me so sad about your article is that fact that parents are robbing themselves of a potentially very helpful support system. Trying to one-up each other's parenting styles seems very counter-productive. All I can hope is that the parents who read it will have an open mind, and a willingness to talk across lines. Marc Fisher: That's an important point--there are no magic wands, no silver bullets, and people of all approaches can find themselves in a mess. But everyone I talked to who has examined these issues closely agrees with your view that consistency and openness are essential. I can't tell you how many parents I interviewed who just don't talk to their kids--they either think the kids would just reject them, or they say they "don't know how to get through to them." I suppose that could be a real problem if you don't start early and keep on talking all the way through. Silver Spring, Md. : you have just barely touched upon the real issue in your article. Toxicity? In what sense of the word? the world is sometimes a toxic place, due primarily to much of the skewed thinking...What's the difference between drinking/smoking, etc. and anesthetizing ourselves with whatever are the"methods of Avoidance" at hand, such as too-much TV-watching,or any other thing to impair our thinking/judgement? Young Adults are only mirroring their parents behovior by wanting to act out in the ways they see their parents behaving, since they are at an important threshold intheir lives and are begging for some structure.When we can concern ourselves with what is important to us individually by investigation into our most inner core values and concerns (and this would be a journey for each person to embark upon in order to satisfy the quest) then the guidance which we will be able to give to our children would be more intact, when these issues are not dealt with, it becomes contingent upon the community to educate for the growth of everyone. people learn very differently, the disordered child of today, may be the world leader of tomorrow, How can anyone judge! Marc Fisher: Yes, I heard a lot from kids making exactly that point, that they are being punished for the very same kinds of behaviors that they see daily in their parents and their parents' friends. And while it's always wrong to fall into the trap of letting kids decide to be judged by adult standards, it's also true that teens are splendidly attuned to adult hypocrisy, which is rampant on these issues. Just as toddlers mimic everything they see, adolescents are easily outraged and morally offended by hypocrisy--and they're right to feel that way. Stuck in the 1950's: Hi Marc, Great article. We have two girls, ages 10 and 12. So far they are wonderful, but we are nervous for the teen years. We have talked to them about the big things (sex, drugs, alcohol) and eat dinner together five out of seven nights, say no, watch movies together, and everyone in the family can quote expansively from "high school musical.' We know that we are probably screwing up (cause that is what parents do) but that's o.k. And if our kids hate us because we are more restrictive than their friend's parents, well, we still love them. However, we are believers in a couple of idea: parents throughout the centuries have used guilt and fear to rear their children. Who are we to argue with that? And: you get the government you deserve. Anyway, we are trying to give them the tools they will need to survive in the world. Becoming a parent is the scariest thing I have ever done. Marc Fisher: Guilt, used judiciously, is a good thing. So is shame, which we don't have nearly enough of in this society. But I don't think fear works nearly as well as moral suasion and pride, which come from high expectations and effective modeling. I heard a lot of parents talk about parenting as a scary task and I have to say, I don't get that. It can surely be frustrating and trying, but why scary? I did meet parents who are afraid of their children, which is indeed scary. But in those cases, I was surprised to hear about how early in life those parents had lost the ability to talk to their kids in any depth. Washington DC: Dear God. How disgusting. You know, it's far from a foregone conclusion that all teenagers will drink or do drugs. I didn't do either. Of course, if my parents had been buying me and my friends booze and playing drinking games with us, things probably would have turned out differently. Marc Fisher: This is probably the point on which high school counselors bang their heads against the wall most frequently--despite all the hype and all the media exaggeration, most kids--even today--do not drink or drug. Parents who are on the wrong side of that question never believe this--they say the stats must be cooked--but it's true, and every measure I've ever seen confirms it. Wait until they get to college: Hi Marc-- I don't have kids, so I can't comment on it from that aspect. BUT, I have gone to college, and I'll tell you what, those kids who have been sheltered and not allowed to 'live' a bit go absolutely apesh-t when they get to college. The ones I knew ended up dropping out due to failing grades (can't go to class when you've been out drinking all night....). So, to parents, don't be super-watchful and then expect your kids to be okay on their own. They won't. Teach them now (while they're under your care) how to responsible handle their freedom. Marc Fisher: I've heard that argument, and I knew some frighteningly sheltered kids who arrived at college and indeed went wild. But those seem to be the extreme cases. It's also true that the helicopter parent phenomenon is taking on ever more extreme character: When I was teaching college classes over the past couple of years, I heard from professors and students alike all manner of horror stories of parents writing papers for kids, parents calling professors to browbeat them about a kid's grades, parents checking in by cell or email several times a day. Yikes. I have to think there will be a reaction to all that excess and that it won't be pretty. Reston, Va: Why did you not title your article "Are you a Toxic MOM?" Did you notice that all the "cool parents" are ironically the moms; the "parent-from-hell" stories are the moms-from-hell. (ex. "Frederick mom," Silvia Johnson, Mrs. George from Mean Girls, Ginny Walter, Kentland mother...) The moms are toxic, not the "parents." Your examples assume that the women are the full time guardians. The fathers in your toxic-parenting picture express worries and concerns, and are willing to battle this toxic--mom]parent threat. I think the question should be, where are the fathers when these toxic moms are subjecting other parents' children? Is the problem not so much those toxic moms, but the inability to have BOTH parents play the responsible role? Marc Fisher: Well, as I mention above, it is far more common to find mothers playing the role of the active parent, but I did try to get as many fathers into the story as I could, including Ron McClain, Allan Shedlin, and the dads who picked up their kids at the busted party. So we see a full range of fathers in the story, but you're right, not in the same depth as the mothers, and I think that reflects the reality that's seen in the schools and in the communities I was writing about. Tysons Corner, Va: Who's more likely to be the "toxic" parent -- the mother or the father? The father, traditionally, is more of the disciplinarian, but your article refers to at least one dad who tells police "everyone does this sort of thing at that age," etc., while a couple of moms are much more strict. You have counter examples for each gender, if I recall, but in terms of the breadth of your reporting, was there an even split between "toxic" moms and dads, or was one parent more likely than the other to be too permissive? Marc Fisher: I don't know--It is true, as another reader points out (I'll post that one next), that the story focuses more heavily on mothers, and that's because mothers tend to be the parents who are more involved in schools and in organized parent activities. It's also true that the great majority of contact that the system--law enforcement, school security, guidance people, teachers--have with parents is through mothers. But as you say, I found examples of both kinds, where the father was the more permissive one and where the mother was the toxic one. And there was also clearly a preponderance of troubled kids I talked to who said that conflict between their parents was a major part of their broken relationships. Marc Fisher: Oops--these last two posts should have been in reverse order. Rockville, Md.: Good work on the piece. My husband and I stayed up late discussing the issues brought up. I read your columns, but you did a good job leaving out your opinions are letting the parents' quotes speak for themselves. Was that a challenge given that you're a columnist and a parent with obvious Marc Fisher: Thanks--a magazine piece is obviously quite different from a column, but both require a certain amount of interpretation and perspective that I would scrub from a news story. If I were columnizing on this issue, I'd be looking for the grey area in between the toxic parents and the helicopter parents, searching for that sweet spot in the middle where, as I said above, trust and high expectations took the place of either permissiveness or rigidity. Washington DC: Scary? Allow me to explain. Parenting starts getting scary with the positive pregnancy test. Is the kid going to be born normal? Horribly handicapped? Etc. Then comes the birth. Then things get really scary. Is this child going to survive? Will I be able to survive, emotionally, and retain my sanity if the child does not? I am in my fifties. My kids are successful adults. I still get just a little scared every time the phone rings. Marc Fisher: Oh, there are scary moments galore, even long, scary passages. Anytime the health of your kid is seriously compromised, that's the definition of scary. But even after going through life-threatening moments, I find the overall experience to be anything but scary--to be just about as affirming and fascinating and joyfully challenging as anything I've found in life. Arlington, Va: OK, the Weingarten point is a good one. In high school, the kids that drank and slept around etc. were either the ones whose parents did not seem to care (or actively tried to be "cool"), or the ones whose parents had strict rules but the attitude that they expected their kids to be bad. Not high expectations, but low expectations. I had friends whose parents set strict curfews and always wanted to know who they were with, but generally acted highly suspicious. Of course those were the ones who went out of their way to break the rules. Those of us with "normal" parents who allowed us some freedom--even a lot of freedom--but expected us not to take advantage generally kept up our end of the bargain. I went to a college where the same attitude prevailed--we were treated like responsible adults and had few written rules (about things like drinking in our dorm rooms, overnight guests, etc.) but high expectations that we would self-manage. With very few exceptions over my four years there, people were responsible and respectful...while of course still being college kids. It's possible to strike this balance, but it does mean you have to raise your kids right (teach them values, including self-respect) and be willing to tolerate a certain amount of "learning." Marc Fisher: That's it--the middle ground. It's hard to write a prescription for it, but it exists and you've captured its spirit. Washington, D.C.: I thoroughly enjoyed the article. It's interesting that less-affluent parents are frequently criticized whenever their kids act out. However, it's been my experience that bad parenting trascends socio-economic and racial barriers. I can't tell you how appalled I am when I see parents who are literally frightened of their 5-year-olds who talk back, swear, hit, throw tantrums and engage in other forms of unacceptable behavior. Unfortunately, some of these "children" are now showing up in our office as summer interns and/or first-year associates. As a supervisor, I am amazed at the lack of maturity, overinflated sense of entitlement, and the refusal to accept that there are boundaries and consequences for bad behavior. There are times when I feel as if I'm babysitting young professional "adults" as opposed to managing. Marc Fisher: I agree that lousy parenting occurs in every social stratum. But I don't think it's right that less-affluent parents get called out for it any more than other parents. Rather, I think as a society, we've created ever stricter taboos around criticizing parents. There was a very good piece in the Wall Street Journal last week about the wrath that falls upon anyone who tries to correct someone else's child's behavior in a public place. Yet that should be the responsibility of any adult. If my kid pops a smartass remark to a person in public, that person should call out my kid, whether or not I'm around, but of course very few of us dare to do that for fear of some defensive parent going wild on us. So is shame, which we don't have nearly enough of in this society. : Repeat 1,000 times at least. I've tried to no avail to point out how the absence of shame has become more prevalent. In the best case scenario, if your conscience doesn't work, shame could at least prevent you from doing something inappropriate or wrong. Darnestown, Md: As a teenager living in a somewhat "helicopter" home, i think that such a strict method of parenting is counnterproductive. Not being allowed to go to parties or use drugs or alcohol make me want to experiment even more. I am a senior in high school with one more year left to spend with my friends, and i would hate to not experience that year to the fullest. Missing out on the parites and the drinking would mean missing out on a big chunk of quality time with them. While I do go to a fair number of parties and have experimented with drugs and alcohol, I have to lie to my parents in order to do so, which just doenst feel right to me. I love my parents and appreciate everything they do for me, but i sometimes question the effectiveness of their authoritarian-style parenting. Marc Fisher: I'd have more sympathy for your plight if you'd told me that you regularly discussed all this with your parents. But I'm afraid I accept neither the idea that the only way to spend quality time with your friends is to get blasted with them, nor the idea that you have to lie to your parents to lead a full and fulfilling high school life. Ohio: One type of parent I think you missed completely in your otherwise excellent piece are the ones who are so deeply in denial. They don't necessarily ignore their kids, but they simply don't or won't see the bad behavior. It's one thing to hover or to actually provide the illicit products, but I know of many parents who, even in the face of enormous proof to the contrary, (beer cans in the trash can, missed curfews, reports from friends, school administrators, police) insist that their children are good, and that all of these other people are simply negative nellies or are making it up. To me, these parents may be the most dangerous to their children, who think their parents are clueless and ignorant. Marc Fisher: That's a very important subset of the toxic parent syndrome. The level of denial in some cases is jawdropping. This is the #1 complaint I hear from principals--the parents who even in the face of overwhelming evidence cannot bring themselves to accept facts and get into a useful discussion of how to rein in or turn around their beloved. And I don't mean to belittle that denial--it comes from deep love and tremendous fear. But still, it can be comical, and madly disturbing. Annandale, Va: Interesting story Marc. I think it's a good thing that police break up the kid's parties, but I think it's Montgomery County seeking another funding source when they issue 32 citations at $500 each. I have to say that it doesn't matter whether your parent doesn't drink or does drink--the kids that want to drink are going to do it. Just like anything else, if I was a parent, I would probably talk about the subject a lot and the problems that drinking can create. While I drank as a teenager I saw what could happen to those that seriously overindulged with alcolhol and drugs and stayed away from that. I didn't want to end up like them. Maybe instilling fear isn't the best way to raise kids, but it's one way. Marc Fisher: So are you saying that fear works for kids but doesn't work on parents? Because the whole idea of the hefty fines for parents who host parties is to instill some fear, not to raise money for the county. Piddly little fines do nothing; slap a parent with $20,000 in fines for a party where 20 kids are drinking and you might well see a change in attitude. Washington, DC: I was in highschool in the late 90's. My parents knew everyone I was hanging out with, as well as the parents. I knew the ramifications if I would get caught drinking, and since they were the same for all of my friends we mostly avoided any partying until I was granted a little more freedom after graduation. I also was very invovled in athletics and dealing with my coach would have been even worse than my parents. My practice schedule would not allow for drinking, and the desire to be at the top of my game was an even bigger disincentive to drink. I am extremely grateful that I did not get caught up in the destructive drinking environment that so many kids in my highschool did. Not to say that I never drank, but having boundaries and being held accountable for my actions by both my parents and coach certainly lessened the frequency and extent to which I drank. Basically, my experience was that kids will push any boundaries they are given to the limits. Parents who are more permissive regarding alcohol use will have children who take advantage of these very lenient boundaries. Marc Fisher: Sounds like you were pretty much self-governing, which has to be the goal. No amount of strict rules or limited freedom can possibly provide the level of fear and surveillance that would stop kids from doing dangerous stuff. What works is instilling the values that you absorbed, that led you to figure out your own moderate path. shame on you...: For suggesting that shaming your children is an acceptable technique. I understand that adults need to be able to enforce rules, but using shame seems to me like a form of verbal abuse. Marc Fisher: I'm glad you at least know enough to attempt to shame me. There's nothing wrong with shame--it is one of the most powerful, effective, moral and trusting human inventions. It is the essence of our social compact and it is vastly more powerful and righteous than law. Reston, Va: Wonderful piece! So many comments to make and thoughts to share, but I'll keep it to this one question - in the MD study, how were "non-users" defined - those that never used, or had tried once, or used a couple times? If it was "never used," how large a percentage of the 35K overall sample was that segment? Was it statistically significant? Thanks for the insightful, and disturbing, work! Marc Fisher: Thanks--I don't have the study in front of me, but I believe most of the questions in the survey asked Have you used X substance in the past period, and I think the period was 30, 60 or 90 days. So the effort was to find out which kids were habitual users, not necessarily whether they were drink or drug virgins. I will be on Washington Post Radio this afternoon to discuss this and we are scheduled to have as a guest a representative from the Maryland State Education Department who is much more familiar with that survey and its results. You can tune in at 2 p.m. today on 1500 AM or 107.7 FM. Milwaukee, Wis: Here's my dilemna: After my 16-year-old daughter came home at 3:00 am reeking of alcohol. I grounded her. Her response? She moved in with a friend of hers. When I call a local runaway hotline for advice, I was told that the police would simply return her to our home, and we'd have a very angry teenager who would likely just run away to another friend's house when she is provoked. My point is, parents don't have the physical power to restrain children from making bad decisions. The kids either agree to follow their parents direction, or they don't. We walk a tightrope with our daughter, talking to her about choices and showing respect for her attempts to be a grownup, but we know she can simply ignore us if she wants to. Marc Fisher: Obviously, this is a case that goes well beyond the kinds of theoretical approaches we've been talking about here, but I take issue with your last phrase, the notion that "she can simply ignore us if she wants to." My experience is that those who have been brought up to share their parents' values, who from an early age have had to take responsibility for their own actions and who have had to earn trust and whose trust has been respected, would not choose to ignore a parent. But there are always exceptions. For the Darnestown Senior: I was you in high school. I took advantage of the freedom my parents gave me. I got blasted pretty much every weekend (or as often as I could) and got high as well. I'd sneak out at night and cause trouble. I loved the friends (there were 20+ in my clique) I had and the good times we had...at that time at least. But then I grew up. I can now count on two fingers the number of friends from HS that I still stay in touch with. When people talk about their HS days, I try and change the subject because it no longer brings good memories, just a fog of drunkenness. I realize I'm just some guy on the Internet and you're a teenager who knows what's best, but 15 years down the road you may come to your senses and realize what a waste it all was. I just wish I had done so 20+ years ago. Lanham, Md: Marc (or anyone), do you have a similar artical with statistics and similar interviews/research for black or hispanic neighboorhoods? The truths of the artical probably transcend time and culture, since we are speaking about human beings. However, culturally, the article seems focused on upper-middle class white America in Montgomery County, Maryland (city's like Germontown, Rockville, and Potomac are predomantly upper-middle class white neighboorhoods. No. Virginia, Fairfax Station is also mentioned) I want to share these thoughts with my neighboors here in northern PG County, inside the Beltway, with my middle class black and hispanic neighboors. Marc Fisher: Right--that would also be a fascinating story, and I'd like for us to do that. But it would be a different story. The principals, teachers and counselors I spoke to in Prince George's and the District brought up a very different set of issues: parents who are absent because they are working two jobs, parents who come to this country with different expectations of their kids and different traditions about contact with other families. They're great issues to explore, but I couldn't do it all in one piece. New England: I'm a DC transplant to New England, married to a police chief, and the parent of 2 teens. No stress there. Here, when the police break up a teen drinking party, they take the kids into 'protective custody'. If a kid can prove they weren't drinking by taking a breathalyzer, the police let them go, if they have been drinking, they are taken to the station and held until the parent(s) come to the station to pick up the kids. They are put under arrest if they are found with drugs. They definately enforce a no tolerance policy and it is rare that a parent doesn't thank them for handling it this way. They try hard to work with the parents to work together rather than as adversaries. Marc Fisher: We're seeing that kind of approach more and more, especially in more affluent suburban areas. Interestingly, this is a case in which enforcement seems much tougher in affluent areas than in more impoverished areas--which is not usually the pattern in law enforcement. To the high school senior: You know, senior year isn't "the last time" you'll have with your friends. I'm 31 and had friends from high school over to my house for my Ph.D. graduation party in May. And we (legally) drank a bunch of Champagne and had an outstanding time. Saying "this is the last time I'll see my friends" is an incredibly lame and stupid excuse for drinking and using drugs. Come on, man. Marc Fisher: Right, though of course that's hard to see from the vantage point of an 18-year-old. San Francisco, Calif: In response to Darnestown, Md - I feel like that's a cop-out. It's the EXACT excuse I used with my parents as a teen. In fact, I was just looking for a compellig argument to use with my parents so I could do what I want and circumvent their rules. It doesn't sound any more convincing all these years later. Marc Fisher: Yes, but I bet it sounded pretty good to you when you were 17. Interestingly, though, when I sat down with high school kids, I found many of them to be very much aware of exactly your point. One group of students I spoke with seemed much more mature about these issues than my friends and I were at the same age, but it's also true that when I sat down with kids who'd gotten into big trouble on drugs and drinking, their attitudes were much more reminiscent of....their parents' attitudes. Landover, Md: Just curious - Do you have a background in child or adolescent psychology? Your comments and article really touched on some important points in adolescent psychology, namely the point you made about teens being attuned to and turned off by adult hypocrisy. Marc Fisher: No, no training in that field. Just a generalist journalist who has covered education issues on and off for 25 years. Wash Post Radio: You should tell people they can also listen on their computer, right from the Wash Post web site! Marc Fisher: You just did. It's washingtonpostradio.com Ballston, Va This was easily one of the most disturbing quotes from the article: The mother visibly relaxes. "It's okay," she tells her child, "these police are just harassing kids." She raises her voice so the officers can hear. "They're just trying to spoil your fun." WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?!? GAH! It sickens and irritates me. No wonder there are so many spoiled, obnoxious kids who think they're entitled to everything- it starts with the parents. When I become a parent, you better believe I will never have this kind of an attitude with my kids. Wish I could spoil HER fun! Grrr. Marc Fisher: When I was coming home from one of those nights out with the party police, I came upon the cops stopping an adult foursome who had been out drinking in Bethesda. One of the totally blasted women--mother of a teenager, as it turned out--was so drunk she tried to use her key on two other cars before settling on her own vehicle. When the cops stopped her, she became hugely abusive and one of the things she said was that "All you f---ers want to do is ruin people's fun. That's how you get your kicks." I think we all know something about her teenager. How many times have you seen a child act badly in public and wanted to say something? I do especially at the grocery stores. I have seen kids take fistfulls of candy from bins and their parents don't blink. Should I report that to the manager? You know you'd feel awful if you did nothing, so why not do something? Los Angeles, Calif.: I'm in my mid-20s, and about a year ago, my mom told me about what she did with my sister and I. She said that when we were younger, they were pretty strict, and as we got older, they loosened up because we knew what we should and should not do. My parents had very high expectations as well, but by the time we were in high school, they had no reason to set tight rules because we already had been "trained" when we were younger. I guess discipline isn't something to start when the kids starts to act bad; it's something to practice throughout child rearing. Marc Fisher: Sounds wise to me. My parents had pretty set guidelines when my sister and I were in school. We fought them, we tried to bend them but man...we never broke them. They also had incredibly high standards for us and it was gratifying to reach them. NOthing felt better then to overhear someone telling my mom that her kids were the greatest. But man oh man did we fight. Recently, my dad said that the two years of hell from high school - maintaing curfew, telling us no way in hell were we going to that party, removing driving privilages, were worth it just to see my sister and I grow up to be happy, healthy, succesful adults with whom they have a really good relationship. I think that is the key - sure your kids may hate for a few years (lord knows I did) but if you can stick with being a parent vs their friend, you may just end up with what you desire - a kid you can be proud of and who is also proud of you. Marc Fisher: Key point--there's little as important as the willingness to take the heat from a kid who can't go out and do what the lowest common denominator is doing. The thing that drives cops on the party patrol nuts is hearing from all those parents who whine about how they just wanted to be their kids' friends. Ugh. Alexandria, Va: There are as many styles of parenting as there are parents, and as many styles of childrearing as there are children. The strictness and caution a parent might use with the first child might be completely wrong for the second child. The first might have a 10:00 curfew, which is enforced strictly, but the second has no curfew at all. Both are "right" given the parents and the children, but they offer different styles and who's to say which is better as a style? The other thing I take issue with is; by what metric is "good parenting" measured? If they obey you all the time now, they may go crazy when they're all alone. If they get good grades, they may still die in a car crash. If they succeed in business when they're older, they may not be involved in their church. Any measure of a human being is flawed in that sense. Is this argument about "toxic parents" is exacerbated by the lack of clear measurements and the fact that different styles can produce the same results? Marc Fisher: Sure, there's no exact science to any of this. No easy answers. Any field in which it's possible for generations of know-it-alls to make millions with how-to books is by definition a field in which the real answers are all suffused in grey mist. But that doesn't mean there can't be basic philosophical foundations about human behavior that lead to more fulfilled lives, and that's why I feel confident talking about things like trust, expectations and shame. Beltway insider: We were in England in June, where our 14 year old learned to her delight that she could have a beer or wine with dinner when accompanied by adults! (No pubs, no kids drinking only with peers.) Any studies out there on how the European experience differs from US? It seems to me that the Euro-teens I've met, who are so used to drinking at home & in restaurants, are a lot less likely to think it's cool to sneak off to an unchaperoned party -- although I may be missing the big picture. Marc Fisher: Sounds right to me. On a purely practical level, kids who have grown up watching parents act in moderation and who have themselves learned the pleasures of a glass of wine are far more likely to build their own guardrails against excess. That's certainly the European experience--but to be fair, you have to also note that the Europeans are dead serious about zero tolerance on drinking and driving. We are total wusses about it compared to them. Calgary, Alberta: Having lived in both the US and Canada with teenagers, can I tell you that you guys just need to lighten up a bit? The drinking age here is 18 and there are significantly less drug issues here than in our US school. related, I don't know. I would decribe myself and almost all of the parents of my children's friends as smack in the middle of the continuum you describe. I could not even imagine a list of parents who have signed off on a code of conduct being sent home from school. I think we make very conscious decisions to be tuned into our kids and their social circle and be vigilant but it just feels less under the microscope than when we lived in the US. Evrybody there seemed to see their child as the reflection of themselves and couldn't bear to see even the slightest age appropriate imperfections. Marc Fisher: That's what many Europeans say as well, and I think the lower drinking age is a big piece of that. It's just silly to expect that 20-year-olds won't ever drink. And we have this law in place only because we are unwilling to be as strict as we ought to be about drunk driving for adults. So we cordon off the 18-21 year olds because younger folks get into more deadly crashes, and we declare the problem taken care of, when actually we've seeded the whole system with counterproductive taboos and deep cynicism. Shame is Valuable: Go Marc! If we used shame more effectively as a society, we might have fewer lawsuits, illegitimate births, and DUIs. I don't desire a return to the days when a pregnant girl was shipped out of town to quiet the scandal, but I do wish that babymama had never become part of our lexicon. Marc Fisher: Thanks--and one more on shame.... Re: shame: Shame is indeed powerful, and it's especially important for kids! As Aristotle says, children "live by emotion and are prevented from error by shame". This is precisely because, to use Marc's term, they are not yet self-governing. Until you are ruled by a higher part of yourself than mere emotion and desire, shame is one of the only effective tools to prevent bad behavior and to develop the right habits; this foundation of habits and morals helps a child eventually to make good decisions for himself. Some high school kids seem to have gotten that stage; most, in my experience, have not. Frankly, a lot of adults haven't either, as many of the parents in this article demonstrate. Marc Fisher: My man, Aristotle! He makes so few appearances on the chat, but he's always welcome to drop by. But, Ballston...: Ballston wrote: No wonder there are so many spoiled, obnoxious kids who think they're entitled to everything- it starts with the parents. When I become a parent, you better believe I will never have this kind of an attitude with my kids. Hmm...I thought a point of your article was not so much criticizing parents but pointing out the phenomenon of parents criticizing parents-- being SO sure of themselves and what others are doing wrong even as they themselves do things that are baffling to the rest of us... That and the phenomenon of BLAMING PARENTS when kids go wrong. Isn't it sooooo much harder being a parent when you don't have a united cultural front enforcing your views of what it means to be a good kid and a solid adult? When you don't have that neighbor down the block yelling at your kid for doing something everybody knows is wrong and teachers feeling like they'll have parental support when they discipline kids or give 'em a bad grade? just a thought-- it's easier to criticize individuals than to confront the culture in which we function. Marc Fisher: Another vote for shame. Chicago, Ill: Your article was depressing at best. We all know who "toxic" parents are- they've always been around in one form or another. What scares me are the current crop of self-righteous parents who foolishly convince themselves that they can control the lives of their children up to the time they enter college. What happens then? They miss the entire point of parenting- you are preparing your child to leave you. You are, hopefully, teaching him or her critical thinking skills, values, and how to navigate a world that isn't always safe. I am concerned about the preponderance of middle class parents out there who insist that their kids watch G-rated movies till puberty, over-schedule their time, control their social lives, and expect them to achieve, achieve, achieve. What happened to letting them grow into adults? Is it wise to cushion the fall indefinitely? I am part of the Me Generation - we clearly wanted to prolong adolescence. The current crop of 20 to 30-somethings has elevated it to an art form. They've been aided and abetted by their parents. Marc Fisher: And what is the price we will all pay for this? One reader above said we're seeing some of that sense of entitlement showing up among workers taking on their first jobs. Do we see it in our politics too? Is there a straight line from this sense of entitlement to a politics that pays ever less attention to the plight of those who have less, or a politics that allows the majority of us to live in wartime without knowing people who actually go to war? One of the issues I see over and over in education is the dreadful sense of entitlement some parents exhibit for their children. Little Johnny and/or Jane fail to meet a deadline, obligation, standard, etc. and here comes Mommy or Daddy to protest the (natural) consequence. Oh, yes...and I'm talking about college...... Recently, a colleague of mine said that she had read that these same (presumably) parents were now contacting their children's place of employment and making the same arguements for their children's entitlement (to not be held to any standard). Marc Fisher: How does an employer handle such a call? My instinct would be to refuse to take the call. Too harsh? Arlington, Va: I read your article first when I received the Post Magazine Saturday (this is a tribute to you Marc; usually I read Weingarten first, then Sietsema, and then the rest of the Magazine) so it was some hours later when I got around to the Party Animal piece about a pig roast. Interestingly, "fueled by a keg of beer, everyone helped with the pig preparations". Two of the people helping were 19 years old and 20 years old and,although the author does not specifically say they were drinking the beer, it is certainly implied. The parents of the 19 yr old were the hosts of the roast. Your article focused on younger teens. What about the 18-20 group? Do we let them drink? I'm 49 so I remember when the drinking age was lowered to 18 and one of the arguements at the time was that someone old enough to be drafted (this was during the Vietnam War for those too young to remember) should be old enough to buy a beer. One of the arguements when the age was raised to 21 was that it would be harder for younger teens to obtain alcohol. That certainly doesn't seem to have happened. Parents can only do so much but offering alcohol to high school students in their own homes seems incredibly wrong to me. Not to mention illegal. But, for 18 - 20 somethings, I think it gets a lot trickier. It's still illegal of course. Marc Fisher: Still illegal, but nobody's fooling anybody. If the high school stats show that most kids don't drink or drug, the college numbers are quite the opposite, and why shouldn't they be? We have no good reason to ban 20-year-olds from drinking, and it's only common sense that those kids are likely to drink more and drink less responsibly if their activity has to be underground or through illegal fake IDs. Woodbridge, Va: Marc, I found your article to be really insightful and representative of the struggles that all parents fact. I am a young parent with a pre-teen. Each day, I make decisions that I know are shaping her into the person she will become. I explain to her which movies she can watch and why, what fingernail color she can use, how much time she can spend on the telephone, how she should treat people. I stress that she must be a leader and not a follower, about personal responsibility. And I know despite my best efforts outside influences will come and either undermine or reinforce what I've tried to give her. I think of my own mistakes as a teenager, and I hope she won't have to learn everything the hard way. I pray that the standards I'm setting and the lessons I'm imparting will stay with her as she is faced with making her own decisions. I'm trying my best, and in the long run, I hope it's enough. Marc Fisher: Thanks. Is it such a mystery, though? Don't most parents really know what direction their kids are heading on? My experience is that most parents can get to know a class in kindergarten and predict with uncanny accuracy which of those kids will go through a very rough patch and which won't. Sacramento, Calif: What I don't get is, why aren't any of these parents talking to their kids about choices and personal responsibility? High school kids aren't stupid. They know the dangers of drinking/sex/drugs. Parents need to be involved and set limits in their children's lives EARLY, so that when the time comes, and their child is confronted with drugs, etc., parents can trust their child to make the right choice for themseleves and their family. Parents who refuse to allow their kids to go to any social functions are sending a message to their kids that they don't trust them. That's why the kids lie and make up stories. At some point, you have to trust your own skills as a parent and know that your child has a good head on their shoulders. Marc Fisher: Trust is essential, but blind trust is irresponsible. Frederick, Md: I found your article about toxic parents informative. I struggle with my husband over just the same issues. My husband wants to be "friends" to our 2 teenage children - I tell him he needs to be a parent, not friend. I know it is because he is tired of arguing with them and thinking they don't listen. He continues to be amazed that I can get them to do things. I just don't take "no" for answer and act as if I expect to be obeyed and I am. I don't argue with them even when they try to argue with me. Also, he allows our teenage children to taste his beer and wine, then chides me when I object by telling him that they are not yet of age. According to your article, parents seem to be divided into two groups, as pairs. But my marriage is divided as well. I will continue to try to be a good parent, and will continue to try to make my husband one as well. Marc Fisher: So much of parenting is a confidence game. Authority that's presumed is so much more effective than authority that is claimed. Switzerland: I loved your article. It was very comprehensive. I am in Europe for a few weeks visiting my family and wow, are things different here. Once the kids are 15 or 16, they are nearly all drinking and smoking. But no one drives, so they don't see the worst of what we see in the States. You wouldn't believe the piercings and tatoos as well. On 12 year olds!! It's as if there is no limit to any excess. Kids are left alone for several hours from the time they are 5 or 6 (really), and are really on their own from about 8 on. No daycare, nobody watching. I have family from all walks of life and they all think I have too much of an eye on my 3 kids (under 10). Yet every last one of them has said they have never seen such well-behaved kids. I can't even come to any conclusion, because some of the kids turned out horribly, yet others, whom you would have expected to be a mess, turned out beautifully. I am a great believer in Love and Logic (Cline/Fay) and have given my children choices from the time they were about 8 mos old. Everyone laughed at me, but I never yell at my kids and I let them make their own decisions, based on exactly what I want. That way, every time things don't work out, I point out that THEY were the ones who made the bad choice. And though my kids aren't really that old yet, I can see the difference daily with kids who get everything they want. My kids are daily offered a lot of things that are not acceptable to me. Not once has one of them made the choice to take something I wouldn't have approved of. What is the worst is the other adults (parents themselves!) telling them, 'Go ahead, you can do it, I won't tell.' My sister-in-law told my daughter I was cruel when I told my daughter she wasn't old enough to play with some toy (because she didn't do her job when she was playing with it). In any case, this problem exists worldwide and I really believe it's worse here than in the States. Marc Fisher: Hmm, interesting. Sounds like you want to believe you are giving the kids their own choices, but then you tell the story of stopping your kid from playing with something that she's not old enough for. So, like many parents, you are setting guidelines but have trouble admitting that you're doing so--that's something I heard a lot of in reporting this piece. Walt Whitman HS Teacher: A few years ago one of my colleagues was told by a student's mother that her son would not have had to cheat "had you been a better teacher." And now the kid is in jail for vehicular homicide while under the influence of both alcohol and drugs. I think that says it all. Marc Fisher: Yikes. Thank you. Re: Adult Hypocrisy: Mark Fisher said "And while it's always wrong to fall into the trap of letting kids decide to be judged by adult standards, it's also true that teens are splendidly attuned to adult hypocrisy, which is rampant on these issues." So what? They're the kids and we're the adults. We make the rules that they have to live with. If they don't like it, that's too bad. While kids don't want to hear the old tried and true "I was a teenager once", it's true. We have the experience, why not let the teen learn from our mistakes (or successes, as the case may be). Marc Fisher: Better yet, why not act in a manner that they find attractive, honest and doable? Immigrant: I have about 10 cousins ranging in age from 14 to 39, all born and raised in US of SouthAsian parents. None behave in the manner described. The adult cousins are all successful professionals. Is being part of an immigrant home, the expectation of achievement etc. a great protection? Maybe you should look into those homes where drinking/drugs/sex-at-14 are not the norm and yet, the kids are happy. Marc Fisher: There's nothing necessarily better about an immigrant home, except that many immigrants come here with a much more expansive view of childrearing, in which the extended family and community feel much more free to chastize unacceptable behavior and the web of connections is much tighter than in this society, creating the trust, the high expectations and the shame values that we talked about earlier. Washington, DC: Yes your story did make it seem like there were just two paths and you were siding with the nuts who overcontrolled rather than the nuts who undercontrolled. Who came up with that toxic term anyway. Marc Fisher: That was my shorthand, but I'm sure others have come up with it on their own elsewhere. Arlington, Va: Like everything else, I wish there could be a little balance. The woman who locked herself in a room and stuffed cotton in her ears to block out the orgy down the hall is at one extreme, but at the same time I have heard condemnation of parents who might let their teenager have a glass of wine at some ceremonial occasion. It seems like simple reverse psychology to me, but this exaggerated fear that we apply to alcohol only heightens its attraction to teenagers (much more than TV ads featuring naked girls). Marc Fisher: There does seem to be a lot of undue fear of our own kids--that's where all the zero tolerance laws come from. Washington, DC: My experience in high school (I'm now one year out of college) suggests that there is a middle ground between irresponsible parents who do not want to be bothered and overbearing ones who deny their kids freedom. While there are parents who have a laissez-faire attitude and thus allow drinking in their home, the safest drinking environments that I encountered in high school were the ones where the parents would confiscate keys and closely monitor what was going on at the party. They weren't trying to be the "cool parents" but they were fully aware that if we didn't do it there, we would go to a parking lot or a house where the parents were away. These parties were the ones where people were safest, there were no drunk drivers (the parents demanded a list of the designated drivers before the party) and no promiscuity. More often than not, parents who allow their kids to drink or buy them alcohol are being neglectful. However, there are cases when a genuine concern for safety does allow for a chaperoned environment that is better than the alternatives. Did you encounter any parents such as this, or was it much more rare than I seem to think it is? Marc Fisher: There are lots of points along a continuum, but I'd argue that the parents who host those take-the-keys parties are doing other kids and their families a terrible disservice, undermining whatever efforts other parents may be engaged in in trying to set a tone for their own kids. Columbia, Md: No toxic parents in DC, then? Heck, no PARENTS in DC--no kids either! In DC, where 11 & 12 year olds are running the streets at 3am? In Prince George's County, where high-school kids skip school to go to a "hang-out house" where any drug is available? Who is going to write the article on lackadaisical parents in less-affluent parts of our megalopolis? A boring and obvious article. I think the Post can do better. I think we should be talking about parents who are, essentially, criminally negligent. Marc Fisher: That would be a great story to do. It's just not the story I chose to write this time. I talked to a lot of high school teachers, guidance counselors and principals in all sorts of neighborhoods for this story, and many of them guided me toward the more affluent communities I ended up focusing on because they thought that this particular set of problems is most keenly felt in that setting, where parents have the wherewithal to farm out some of their responsibilities to nannies, sitters and so on. There's a somewhat different set of parental issues in more financially stressed communities, including the dysfunction that you refer to in the inner-city areas where the District is now trying to enforce a curfew. I've written about some of those issues in my column, including a recent column about efforts in Silver Spring to pull immigrant parents into the schools to pay attention to what their kids are doing there. Arlington, Va: While not necessary for your article, I think it is appropriate that you disclose to the chat that you are a teetotaler. The reason I think it is appropriate is because many, indeed most, of your readers expect their children at 21 to become responsible, moderate, legal consumers of alcohol. I'm not sure you do. The outrageous, uncontrolled non-parenting you describe in your article is appalling and unacceptable. But as is often the case with teatotalers, you suggest no alternative. In fact, there is at least one proven alternative -- parents who let their childen drink with -them-, i.e., their parents, in moderation, and modeling responsible drinking behavior. For example, a half glass of wine at the occaisional family dinner at age 14 or 15. Or one supervised beer at a family picnic at 17 or 18. Eventually leading to a 21st birthday that is No Big Deal instead of a post-prohibition binge-fest. Marc Fisher: Nice theory, but I'm not a teetotaler and never have been. Had two glasses of wine at dinner last night, in fact. Washington, DC: I'm astonished that the Post allowed you more than 8,000 words for this ode to the immense challenges of parenthood in our privileged suburbs. The pleasure with which you detail your ride with the party police is downright Victorian in its gaudy, self-important and self-righteous moralizing. My question: Aren't you ashamed of yourself? This is 8,000 words that could have been used to unpack real problems. Marc Fisher: Ah, but we live in a fairly Victorian age, with very similar contradictions riddled throughout society--asphyxiatingly tight legal restrictions (zero tolerance rules, 21-year-old drinking age) even as we lead more permissive lives than at almost any point in our history. If how we deal with those contradictions isn't a story, I'm in the wrong line of work. New Jersey: Could you tell me why "Beach Week" even exists? Clearly the teenagers cannot handle it. What would happen if parents forbade their children to go? I mean, literally. Would the children sulk for a week, two weeks, a year? Would they scream? Would they be psychologically damaged? Marc Fisher: The very simple answer to the Beach Week problem is this: "No." Chapel Hill, NC: I'm a 23 year old who had hovering parents in high school (it felt like my mom was the only one who ever called to check up on parties), and I'm proud (now) to say that I didn't drink in high school, and I feel better about my experiences because of that. However, I have a 14 year old brother who is getting into a more downward spiral. He has been in trouble in middle school, and has witnessed my parents being ok with me and my 21 year old sister drinking with them. I can see him becoming one of the kids who drinks, because my parents have put fewer and fewer restrictions on him than they ever put on my sister and me. Did you see any other parents like this when researching your article? I figure it's because they haven't had to deal with a teenager in the house for a while, and with the having him be a boy, and the youngest, things just get lax. What do you think? My parents can't be the only ones - they did such a good job with their older kids, that this has to be some other factor. Marc Fisher: Yes, I did hear from a bunch of kids who talked about how the rules and expectations for their older siblings were much tougher, and to their mind, showed much more care on the part of parents. Lots of the people I talked to said they saw a powerful diminution of parental effort when it came to younger sibs, as if the parents had finished the job and couldn't wait to move on to the next phase of life. Washington, DC: My parents are from Germany. Growing up, I was allowed to have a glass of wine with Sunday dinner here in the states. I was allowed to have a beer or wine sometimes with meals in Germany. I was allowed to go to a friend's house for Passover and have wine as part of the service. I was not allowed to serve wine or liquor to my friends or through parties with any alcholic beverages. Does that make my parents, grandparents and friend's parents toxic parents??? Marc Fisher: Seems pretty non-toxic to me. Rockville, Md.: Maybe this question requires you to be more a columnist role than unbiased reporter but here it goes: I know that when one loses a child the guilt and sadness (I'm refering to the lady who lost her step-daughter) that occurs can't compare to anything anyone can say or do. But I don't see why its wrong of me as a citizen to be judgemental on other people's parenting skills. Not to say that I'm perfect because I'm not, but its not like we live in a vacuum and a parent's action or inaction in a way can affect my well- being. (i.e. a teenage drunk driver hits a loved one of mine, which has happened to me). Also in I sense that if I'm too strict on my kids, its ok to criticize that, but if I criticize someone who I view as too lax then I'm on a high Marc Fisher: Yeah, it's a tough bind we've put ourselves in. I think you just have to have the courage to say what's right. Washington, D.C.: I liked the title "Are you a toxic parent?". But do you honestly think that any parent is going to say "yes"? Marc Fisher: That's the problem, isn't it? Thanks, everyone for coming along. More discussion on this coming up at 2 p.m. today on Washington Post Radio, online at washingtonpostradio.com or on the air at 1500 AM and 107.7 FM. And we can get back into it on my regular chat, Thursday at noon, when Potomac Confidential appears right here on the big web site. 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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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/28/DI2006072801023.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006073119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/28/DI2006072801023.html
Outlook: Interview with Accused Soldier
2006073119
"I came over here to kill people." The gangly 21-year-old soldier spoke the words with casual indifference. "The truth is, it wasn't what I thought it was cracked up to be. I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.'" Stars and Stripes reporter Andrew Tilghman took the words down in his notebook when he visited the soldier's base in Mahmudiyah in February, but didn't think them abnormal at the time. But the soldier's name was Steven D. Green . A few months later, he picked up a newspaper and saw the same soldier's photo on the front page. Dressed in civilian clothes, the young man was standing outside a federal courthouse in handcuffs, charged with the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the slaying of her family. Suddenly, Tilghman had to reconsider everything he had thought about Green -- and what constitutes normality in a time and place of war. Andrew Tilghman was online Monday, July 31, at noon ET to discuss his Sunday Outlook article, "I came over here because I wanted to kill people." , ( Post, July 30, 2006 ). Washington, D.C.: Excellent article...left me wondering, did you happen to meet to any of the other soldiers who have been charged with Green? Did you get a sense of what they were like as well? (Barker, Howard, Spielman?) Green didn't strike me as a leader per se, so I wondered if these other soldiers struck you as followers or if they seemed adversely affected by their combat experience, etc.? Andrew Tilghman: As I look back on my notes, I realize that I did meet one other soldier who was charged in this incident, but I do not recall him as clearly as I do Steven Green. I think that many of the troops I met in Steven Green's unit were affected by their combat experiences, each in their own way. The signs and symptoms of that are as individual as the soldiers themselves. Some say they have trouble sleeping at night. Some get startled when they hear a freezer door slam. I met one kid (in a different unit, in Falluja) who started talking about his mother and began to cry. Interestingly, Steven Green did not appear to show these sorts signs of combat stress -- the most striking thing about him was his eagerness to share his thoughts and experiences with me in a way that I think he felt was cathartic. New York, N.Y.: During WWII there were rapes, murder, fragging, and desertion -- obviously, on a miniscule scale, as to almost not eve register percentage wise against the military as a whole. Since we can find these mixed-up, or crazy, or even monstrous youths serving our military in every war going back 230 years, why should this story be front page news? Yes, I am suggesting burying this story! Why? Because the avg. American reader cannot read between the lines and realize that this is a tiny fraction of a fraction of our servicemen. Why trumpet such ugly and unfortunate events when the positive stories about our soldiers and the war are so sparse? Andrew Tilghman: I appreciate your thoughts and I understand your frustration with the nature of "news" (There is an old saying: It's not news when the plane lands safely). However, I think you underestimate the sophistication of the "average American reader" whom I do believe understands that Steven Green is just one of hundreds of thousands of troops who have served in Iraq. And I think it would be a disservice to the profoundly intense experience that many soldiers have in Iraq to portray it in a two-dimensional way, or to "bury" the darker and more unsettling stories that emerge from a war. Ardwick, Md.: Wow. This made my blood run cold, and I am a veteran of both Vietnam and the first Gulf War. This is exactly the kind of person you do NOT want on the front lines, although after extensive service some simply can't avoid it. But for a 21 year old to have this view simply scares me silly. I'll bet he would have morphed into a stateside serial killer had he not wound up in the military. Andrew Tilghman: That is a very interesting question: Would Steven Green have been accused of such a crime if he had stayed home in Texas and never joined the Army? I don't pretend to have any expertise on that question, but it is an important one, I think. Washington, D.C.: what made you want to go to Iraq with Stars and Stripes? Andrew Tilghman: I wanted to go to Iraq because I felt it was an extremely important story. I wanted to work for Stars and Stripes because it allowed me to focus on the story of Iraq from the perspective of the American Troops. Admittedly, this is one perspective, but an important one, I think. Chicago, Ill.: If the charges against Green and the other soldiers are true ... do you think they should be given some leniency because of where they were serving in Iraq and what they were doing? I have heard that the Sunni Triangle is the most dangerous place in Iraq, would you agree? Andrew Tilghman: The area where Steven Green was one of the most dangerous in Iraq. I don't think that the judicial system should grant any leniency in a situation like this, but I think that readers can consider this alleged crime in a different light than a crime allegedly committed at home. New York, N.Y.: When Green was telling you that this war was not like other wars fought by the U.S., what do you think he meant? What were the soldier's general feeling about the war in terms of whether they thought it was the right thing to do, do they see a light at the end of the tunnel etc? Andrew Tilghman: In my experience, soldiers' feelings about the war are as varied as the American population at large. Oakland, Calif.: Do you think Mr. Green was saying he wanted to commit murder, or do you think it is possible Green was speaking bravado and/or trying to deal with the psychological issues of losing his friends, having to kill people etc? Thanks! Andrew Tilghman: I did not hear Steven Green saying that he wanted to commit murder. I have no crystal ball and had no way of knowing what he would later be accused of. The reason I may not have found it so striking is because I met a lot of soldiers who talked about really liking the adrenalin rush of firefights and combat. There are some who like being tested in such an extreme way. That is what I guess I thought Steven Green was saying, although in a very flippant way. Hindsight is always more illuminating. Washington, D.C.: It strikes me that Pfc. Green fits the mold of a sociopath. He does not seem to have a conscience. If he would have not been charged with the rape and murder of the Iraqi girl, I wonder if he would have evolved into a serial killer in the U.S. or would he have just turned into some "strange man in the old house". My question is "do you think the Army lowered their mental standards in order to satisfy their needs in order to let Green in a combat situation?" Andrew Tilghman: I am not an expert in the Army recruiting process. But I have read that there has been an increase in the number of waivers that are granted to potential recruits, ones that allow soldiers to join who may previously have not been accepted. McLean, Va.: Mr. Tilghman, did your decision not to use any of Pfc. Green's statements in your original article have anything to do with the fact that you were writing for the military's newspaper? (I'm referring to self-censorship, in an effort to keep morale up, etc.) Do you in any way feel responsible for Pfc Green's later actions because you did not report on his statements? (I don't consider you responsible, but am curious as to your own feelings.) Thank you for this insight into the military that is rarely seen. Andrew Tilghman: I did not feel any level of self-censorship. However, my readers at Stars and Stripes were very unique. My readers were the guys eating in the KBR-run show halls of Iraq, and the fact that some soldiers have a low moral is not really news to them. Seattle, Wash.: After you interviewed Green ... did you walk away saying "this guy is a socio-path" or the like, or not? Your article states that his comments seemed to be a "reasonable thing to say" given the place and circumstances? Do you think he expressed thoughts consistent with others over there? Andrew Tilghman: My conversations with Green all involved other soldiers as well, and many sort of nodded in agreement. Although they did not use the same language, I felt there were other soldiers who shared some of his sentiments, particularly about the war at large. Washington, D.C.: Why should the crime of murders and rape be judged differently because it occurred in the Sunni Triangle? What crime did six year old Hadeel do to deserve execution? What crime did 14 year old Abeer commit to suffer gang rape, witnessing the murder of her parents and her baby sister, and then being executed herself and set afire? What crime did her parents do? What crime did the two newly orphaned sons of Qasim and Fatima (parents of Abeer and Hadeel) commit to come home and see the dead bodies of their parents and sisters? War does not justify these atrocities. Andrew Tilghman: I agree. As I said in the Post yesterday, no amount of combat stress excuses an alleged crime such as this. Miami, Fla.: Green's description of how Sgt. Casica died in his arms seems like a pretty traumatic event. Did it appear to you that affected him a great deal? Did other soldiers talk about that death? Was that one of the moving stories of a friend'/soldier's death you heard? Do you know how (or if) the Army helped Green and others deal with things like that? Andrew Tilghman: Green said "that was the worst time since I've been in Iraq" and that experience of watching his sgt. die did seem to have affected him. Many soldiers with his unit have similar stories. In fact, I wrote a profile at the time of firefight in which a young soldier died. It was a separate incident from another platoon in Green's company. Alexandria, Va.: Do you have any information as to what was behind this "personality disorder" discharge? There must have been incidents of misbehavior that led to it; and if so, why would it have been an -honorable- discharge? I don't get it. If "personality disorder" is perhaps a euphemism for obnoxious dangerous nut, why would the military have let him go "honorably" only to be unleashed on civilian communities back home? Andrew Tilghman: I am not aware of the details of Green's honorable discharge from the Army. Arlington, Va.: You mentioned that you didn't feel at the time that his comments should be included in your story. Did you use any quotes from Green? If so, what were they if you recall? It seems like his comments came across as sort of a coping mechanism, whereas in reality they showed how calloused he had become. Andrew Tilghman: No, I did not use any of Steven Green's comments in any stories I wrote at the time. You are right, his comments did come across in a way that seemed like he was speaking about this as a form of a coping mechanism. He was eager to talk about these things and share his thoughts. It did not come across as bravado. Silver Spring, Md.: I know you don't know what motivated Green, but I'm wondering, how did it strike you when he was telling you killing people was not as big a deal as he'd thought. I believe his quotes was, "...and then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever." Did any flags go off in your mind like, this kid isn't all there. Or did you just think it was an appropriate response given the war? Andrew Tilghman: A lot of young soldiers in Iraq told me a lot of crazy things during my 9-month stay there. I can't say that what Steven Green told me in February was the most disturbing thing I'd heard. Bethesda, Md.: From what you saw, do you believe that upon their return to the states, we may have many young men and women afflicted with the same mental anguish (shellshock, PTSD, etc.) experienced by many soldiers after their return from Vietnam? Andrew Tilghman: I met many soldiers and marines who were on their 2nd and 3rd deployments and many spoke to me about have problems at home -- problems ranging from sleeping thru the night to problems with their marriage. In many cases, it's a question of degrees. Washington, D.C.: A couple follow-up questions: 1. What was the most disturbing thing you heard in speaking with the soldiers? 2. Is there any sort of counseling for soldiers if they witness the death of another? Andrew Tilghman: There is grief counseling that is available to soldiers who experience traumatic events. But in the vast majority of cases, these soldiers are expected to go back out and patrol the same streets just days after these traumatic events occur. Arlington, Va.: In your article, you mention that you saw Green's bloodthirsty remarks about killing as "a rare example of honesty" from the troops with whom you were embedded. Are you saying that you believe that most soldiers are sociopathic killers at heart, but that some simply hide it better than others? Andrew Tilghman: No, that is not what I meant. I do believe that many soldiers are trained to NOT speak candidly to reporters about a whole range of issues. And in many other cases, young men simply don't like speaking to a "stranger" about such personal thoughts and feelings. Therefore, as a reporter, I am always wondering what level of candor a soldier is sharing with me. Alexandria, Va.: "I can't say that what Steven Green told me in February was the most disturbing thing I'd heard." -- OK, what was the most disturbing thing you heard? I'm paying for this war and I feel I have a right to know. Andrew Tilghman: Some of the most disturbing things I heard were not just personal stories from young soldiers but instead came from thoughtful officers criticizing strategic aspects of the war. Dallas, Tex.: I noted that one of the victims in the case is a small child (4 to 5 years old), which is obviously a horrible allegation. I've read things like children being used to get candy from soldiers etc., to lure them to put there guns down and then they get shot, or that kids might even handle weapons or throw grenades at U.S. soldiers etc. Similarly, I've read that one of the biggest stresses the soldiers face (like in Vietnam) is that they can't tell who the enemy is because of the guerilla type warfare they face. Did you ever hear of things like this? Silver Spring, Md.: Of course it is terrible that someone raped and killed a girl and her family. Does the situation differ much as the My Lai killings of Vietnam? Lt. Calley did not serve much, if any, time for his crime of being a leader of the killers. Do you see the comparison being made in court? Andrew Tilghman: I think each war and each war crime is unique and I'm reluctant to make a lot of comparisons that span 40 years. Andrew Tilghman: I want to thank all of you for taking the time to read this story in the Post and taking the time to log on for this discussion. If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact me at my email address: andrewtilghman1@yahoo.com. Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/28/DI2006072801166.html
https://web.archive.org/web/2006073119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/28/DI2006072801166.html
Dr. Gridlock
2006073119
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: Fellow voyagers, it's a pleasure to join you on what's shaping up as an interesting day in local transportation. I've just come from the Metro rail station at Reagan National Airport, where the transit authority was displaying some new rail car interiors. One was a test car that has some bench seating along the sides. Metro wants to put that on the rails today or tomorrow and see how you react to it. Metro also had an example of the new interior design that will be entering service within a month. It's the one in which floor to ceiling poles have been removed in favor of seat to ceiling poles. The idea is to move us into the car, away from the congestion around the doors that riders find so annoying. I'll put something up on our Get There blog later today, describing this some more. Maybe I can show you a picture, too. Also today, at about the time we wrap up this discussion at 2 p.m., a panel of experts commissioned by the state of Virginia will be releasing its recommendations on whether the new rail line through Tyson's Corner should be above or below ground. We can talk about those topics, or anything else in transit and traffic that's on your mind today. I can tell you some of the things I've been up to during my first week as the new Dr. Gridlock. Let's start off with some of the questions and comments that were waiting for me when I came in. Washington, D.C.: Why Dr. Gridlock? Did you write a dissertation? Get an honorary degree? Until you earn it, I think you should go by Mr. Gridlock. Dr. Gridlock: I'm in the process of certifying myself. I've been making the rounds, trying to learn about what hurts, so I can make proper diagnoses. For example, I circumnavigated the outer loop of the Capital Beltway. I'm closing in on another goal of riding the entire Metro system. Still have legs of the Red, Yellow and Blue lines to complete. Been exploring Braddock Road, Fairfax Parkway, Route 7, the Ride On bus, the DC Circulator -- I know it's Cole's Notes, not "Grey's Anatomy." I know you expect the doc to know our corner of the world on a micro level. Rockville, Md.: Congratulations (I think) for becoming the next Dr. Gridlock! Just an observation, but it seems like summer commuting is a good indication of what rush hour traffic would be like if more people telecommuted. Just taking off the vacationers from the roads during the summer seems to make a tough commute tolerable. Dr. Gridlock: One thing I'm very aware of as I go out on test drives across the region is that I'm not seeing experiencing the agonies that so many of you have reported for so long. We've had a lot of people respond to our Get There posting by offering to let us accompany them on their commutes. I expect to be doing that. For most of the past seven years, I've had a luxurious commute: Red Line from Silver Spring to Farragut North. I used to drive downtown, but it dawned on me that I was paying ten bucks a day to warehouse my car. When I started taking the Red Line, I figured I was saving about $750 a year. Must have been a lot more by the time I stopped doing that regularly. You've got big shoes to fill, but I am sure you are going to do great. Any word on when the Springfield Interchange will finally be completed? There were MAJOR backups this weekend coming from Washington, D.C. going south. Dr. Gridlock: Thank you, I do indeed feel like I have big shoes to fill, and I'm trying to get smart in a hurry. I've been The Post's editor for local transportation issues for most of the past seven years, so I've got a broad understanding of the region's traffic and transit issues. Now, I'm trying to learn this at the level you folks expect. Springfield Interchange is still on schedule for completion in late 2007. Our other big project, the Wilson Bridge, also is on schedule. Second span is to be completed in 2008. But those two big projects have providing some of the big action this summer, as they progress. There's a lot of work going on at Springfield that has a high impact on travelers. Wilson Bridge opened the first new span over the past two months. That was a big disruption on two weekends as the lanes were shifted to the new span, but I thought it was managed very well. Silver Spring, Md.: What is your view of the Purple Line's chances of becoming a reality (in our lifetime)? Dr. Gridlock: When I was The Post's transportation editor, I used to ask the reporters to write a series called "Not In My Lifetime," describing all the road and rail projects that we've been teased about over the years. Currently, I'm wondering if the Purple Line and Rail to Dulles will fall into this category. Both projects have serious financing issues. Both have issues about whether to tunnel. There are questions about whether the federal government will provide essential funding. These are issues on want to stay on top of in the newspaper column and online. Severn, Md.: Dr. Dr. Give me the news, I've got a bad case of gridlock blues. Wondering if there has been any further news on the Metro expansion to BWI and all those stops along the way? Dr. Gridlock: I just expressed my concerns about the Purple Line and Rail to Dulles. That goes triple for Metro to BWI. It's another project that would require gobs of federal money. How could Maryland suck up that much more money from the feds after the inter county connector and the Purple Line? Clifton, Va.: What type of vehicle do you drive?? Other car and trucks in the family. I really think Dr. Gridlock should have a Ducati 999 in Ferrari Red.! Dr. Gridlock: My editor, Steven Ginsberg, says I need to buy a hybrid -- that Dr. Gridlock needs to make a statement. Others say a hybrid, with a GPS, and satellite radio. I drive a 1997 Toyota RAV4 SUV. I get the hand-me-downs in our family. My wife, who commutes from our inside the Beltway home in Montgomery County home to Baltimore, gets first crack at vehicles. When she builds up high mileage, she passes them down to me. Wheaton, Md.: I figure that the high heat that is predicted for the next few days will require the trains to slow down, due to the tracks' tendency to expand with heat. Dr. Gridlock: I see the heat advisories from VRE and MARC, when the temperature causes the freight lines that own some of the region's track to issue go-slow orders to the commuter lines. Seems like there have been an awful lot of them this summer. It must be hard to operate a commuter service when riders can't count on a schedule. I understand the safety issue involved: That high heat can kink rails and create dangerous situations. By the way, I'm an admirer of Train Talk, the alert system used by VRE to keep riders informed of such things. Washington, D.C.: I'm curious. I know you've subbed in from Mr. Ginsberg on his blog when he's away. Do you plan to have your own Dr. Gridlock blog or do you plan to share with him? Dr. Gridlock: Now that Steven has taken my old job as transportation editor, our plan is to share the Get There blog. Steven was on vacation last week. (He looks great. Tanned and rested for his new assignment.) ICC in my backyard: Speaking of the ICC - do you think it will be built? How do you feel about it since you live in Silver Spring? Dr. Gridlock: It's always been an interesting thing to me: The projects that soak up most of our transportation money don't necessarily have a widespread impact. For me personally, ICC is in that category. We live in Silver Spring. If we want to go over to Bethesda, we take either East-West Highway or the Beltway. If we're going to Baltimore, it's Route 29 or I-95, and maybe sometimes the BW Parkway. I don't expect I'll drive the ICC, though it will be just a few miles from where I live. Rockville, Md: Got to go .Will I be able to see responses later, and where? Dr. Gridlock: We'll have a transcript posted. That's true of all our Live Onlines. Inside the beltway: Are you going to do more columns on bike and walking commutes. We have issues too, you know -- like sidewalks closed for construction, and drivers who won't yield. Dr. Gridlock: We get many such comments and indeed will be certain to pay attention to issues concerning biking and walking. Washington, D.C.: Why was the new Wilson Bridge span designed with the same number of lanes as the old Wilson Bridge span? Size matters. What's up with that? Dr. Gridlock: What you're seeing now is only half the action. The first of the two new spans is open. That allows the project workers to tear down the old bridge to clear room to complete the second new span. Once that opens in 2008, there will be more lanes on the bridge than on the Beltway approaches to it. That's when you should really see some relief. For now, the advantage is that at least the new span has shoulders for disabled vehicles. Re: Summer Commutes: I'm sorry to say I haven't experienced much relief in my evening commute home to Rockville from Tyson's this summer. At best, the relief is sporadic. Last summer (when I started this commute), I remember lighter traffic more days than not. Is anyone else noticing this? Dr. Gridlock: I'm curious about that, too. I think summer traffic is generally down, but there are exceptions. Bethesda, Md.: I read about how starting this fall all the trains on the Red Line will go to the end of the line during the weekend and non-peak hours. How about peak hours? It would be great if all the trains went to Shady Grove. Dr. Gridlock: I believe that's the only change that's scheduled: That starting in October, trains will no longer turn back at Grosvenor during non-peak hours and on weekends. Maryland had to pay for the additional service. The rationale I've heard for the improvement on the west side of the Red Line, as opposed to the east side where trains turn back at Silver Spring, is the extra development to the west that's increasing rider ship on the Shady Grove side. "We have issues too, you know -- like sidewalks closed for construction, and drivers who won't yield.": Can I ask that the analysis of the issue present the problem from both sides? LOTS of pedestrians downtown think that the "Don't Walk" signs don't apply to them. They walk when it starts flashing and become livid if drivers don't yield--well, if it says "Don't Walk," the driver isn't supposed to have to yield (the pedestrian is!) None of us will ever get anywhere if BOTH sides don't cooperate. Look at New Yorkers--they jaywalk like crazy, but no New Yorker is stupid enough to try to hold up oncoming cars (especially not taxis). D.C. pedestrians need the same common sense! Dr. Gridlock: What do folks think of those "walk-don't walk" signs with the countdown timers? Are they helpful to pedestrians? Once in a while, I encounter one that seems to skip about 10 seconds. That makes it extra interesting. Re: Summer Commutes: I drive from Tyson's to Silver Spring and it is just as bad during the summer as during the other parts of the year. But, what can you do? Congrats on the new position and thanks for taking the time to get to know us! Dr. Gridlock: Thank you. That's just a killer stretch. So unpredictable, too. One thing I'd like to hear about from folks is how they get their traffic information. When I visit our Fairfax Bureau, where transportation researcher Diane Mattingly is based, I look at the online traffic cameras before I leave home and before I leave the bureau -- not that there are all that many alternatives anyway. Washington D.C.: I read that you rode the Circulator bus last week. I love the service, but I have two questions. First, the obvious, are they planning any more routes? Second, do they have any plans to better advertise and encourage riders to purchase tickets before boarding and then to enter by any door? It seems as though no one knows they can do this! I only know that you can by going to their Web site. It is a great system similar to London's bendy-buses, and it really speeds things up if the bus doesn't have to wait for a long queue to put their exact change into the fare box. I also wish they would put a SmartTrip scanner near the rear door so that those users can bypass the front and enter the rear. Thanks. Dr. Gridlock: No definite plans at the moment for more routes or more hours. I think it's a great service and would like to encourage more people to use it. You'll probably see more about it on the Get There blog, and I might write about it for the Sunday Gridlock column. Good as I think the Circulator is at making things clear and simple, they could still do more. I like your suggestion about the SmartTrip cards at the other doors, but bet that's an expensive addition. The service is pretty heavily subsidized already. One thing I noticed is that if you don't know where you're going -- if you're a tourist, or taking a trip you don't usually take -- it's a bit hard to figure out your best stop from inside the bus. Arlington, Va.: Can you please explain why anyone continues to drive inside the Beltway? I'm from the Midwest, where I've been driving since the age of 15, and since moving to the area I love the freedom of public transportation. With the D.C. Metro trip planner web site you can easily get anywhere in the Beltway. My friends tease me for this fondness of buses and metro, but I catch up on my reading, rest, and even nap while they sit in traffic polluting our environment. On top of that, I've met many interesting people and learned a lot about the region in just a few years here. Dr. Gridlock: I'm a big fan of transit, but I do drive. For example, if my wife and I want to go to dinner in Bethesda some night, we're not going to take the Red Line V into downtown Washington and then back up to Bethesda. The bus connections would be problematic. Purple Line would make a difference. Bethesda, Md.: I think it would be good for you to let readers know your positions on some of our regional transportation issues such as the Tyson's to Dulles Rail Project, the Bethesda to New Carrollton "Purple Line," adding HOT lanes to the VA Beltway, the ICC, etc. Dr. Gridlock: I'll be telling you what I think on these topics and many others. Stick with me. Check the Get There blog. I'll put something up there today about the new rail car designs, for example. We have Dr. Gridlock on page 2 of the Sunday Metro section, and hope to restart the Dr. Gridlock columns in The Post's Extra sections in late August. I-270, Exit 1: Good afternoon and congratulations on becoming Dr. Gridlock. I imagine it's like being the next Dr. Who, you travel around and try to solve problems. My question is about the column/chat itself. How does one measure the success of this enterprise? Has Dr. Gridlock ever remedied a traffic problem with local governments, or is success more a measure of the number of readers who informally exchange alternate routes, but mainly vent about bad traffic management and driving practices? Thank you and best wishes. Dr. Gridlock: This is a really good question. Ron Shaffer got some things changes. I hope I can help, too. Getting some wrongs righted would be tremendously satisfying. Sometimes, though, you readers of the columns and the blogs and the Live Onlines help each other. I've seen you do that over the years through Dr. Gridlock. Dr. Gridlock: Folks, despite having many, many more questions and comments to go, I think I'd better sign off for today. I want to get up a blog item about those new Metro rail cars and maybe post a picture of the interior. Thanks for making this first foray such a welcoming experience. For all those readers whose notes I didn't get a chance to respond to today, please be aware that I'm reading them all and will take the advice seriously and try to find answers to the questions, so that I can respond in future discussions and columns. 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.
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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Custom-Built Pathogens Raise Bioterror Fears
2006073119
Eckard Wimmer knows of a shortcut terrorists could someday use to get their hands on the lethal viruses that cause Ebola and smallpox. He knows it exceptionally well, because he discovered it himself. In 2002, the German-born molecular geneticist startled the scientific world by creating the first live, fully artificial virus in the lab. It was a variation of the bug that causes polio, yet different from any virus known to nature. And Wimmer built it from scratch. The virus was made wholly from nonliving parts, using equipment and chemicals on hand in Wimmer's small laboratory at the State University of New York here on Long Island. The most crucial part, the genetic code, was picked up for free on the Internet. Hundreds of tiny bits of viral DNA were purchased online, with final assembly in the lab. Wimmer intended to sound a warning, to show that science had crossed a threshold into an era in which genetically altered and made-from-scratch germ weapons were feasible. But in the four years since, other scientists have made advances faster than Wimmer imagined possible. Government officials, and scientists such as Wimmer, are only beginning to grasp the implications. "The future," he said, "has already come." Five years ago, deadly anthrax attacks forced Americans to confront the suddenly real prospect of bioterrorism. Since then the Bush administration has poured billions of dollars into building a defensive wall of drugs, vaccines and special sensors that can detect dangerous pathogens. But already, technology is hurtling past it. While government scientists press their search for new drugs for old foes such as classic anthrax, a revolution in biology has ushered in an age of engineered microbes and novel ways to make them. The new technology opens the door to new tools for defeating disease and saving lives. But today, in hundreds of labs worldwide, it is also possible to transform common intestinal microbes into killers. Or to make deadly strains even more lethal. Or to resurrect bygone killers, such the 1918 influenza. Or to manipulate a person's hormones by switching genes on or off. Or to craft cheap, efficient delivery systems that can infect large numbers of people. "The biological weapons threat is multiplying and will do so regardless of the countermeasures we try to take," said Steven M. Block, a Stanford University biophysicist and former president of the Biophysical Society. "You can't stop it, any more than you can stop the progress of mankind. You just have to hope that your collective brainpower can muster more resources than your adversaries'." The Bush administration has acknowledged the evolving threat, and last year it appointed a panel of scientists to begin a years-long study of the problem. It also is building a large and controversial lab in Frederick, where new bioterrorism threats can be studied and tested. But overall, specific responses have been few and slow. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declined so far to police the booming gene-synthesis industry, which churns out made-to-order DNA to sell to scientists. Oversight of controversial experiments remains voluntary and sporadic in many universities and private labs in the United States, and occurs even more rarely overseas. Bioterrorism experts say traditional biodefense approaches, such as stockpiling antibiotics or locking up well-known strains such as the smallpox virus, remain important. But they are not enough.
STONY BROOK, N.Y. Eckard Wimmer knows of a shortcut terrorists could someday use to get their hands on the lethal viruses that cause Ebola and smallpox. He knows it exceptionally well, because he discovered it himself.
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Bush's Focus in Florida Is on Domestic Agenda
2006073119
MIAMI, July 30 -- With crucial midterm congressional elections just three months away, President Bush tried Sunday to return to his domestic agenda even while the latest eruption in the Middle East continued to dominate his administration's attention. Bush flew here after going for a Sunday bicycle ride and hosting a children's T-ball game on the South Lawn of the White House to have dinner with Miami community leaders. He plans a day of activities Monday in the Miami area, visiting the National Hurricane Center, delivering an economic speech, touring the Port of Miami and headlining a Republican fundraiser. The studied appearance of political normalcy, however, could not compete with the pictures of destruction from southern Lebanon. The president appeared at the White House twice before flying to Miami to express sympathy for the victims of the Israeli bombing of the Lebanese town of Qana while repeating his insistence that any cease-fire plan address root causes of the crisis first. Bush also consulted by telephone with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is returning to Washington on Monday from the Middle East after the Israeli bombing forced her to cancel a planned visit to Lebanon. "America mourns the loss of innocent life," Bush said before heading out on Marine One, the presidential helicopter, adding: "The United States is resolved to work with members of the United Nations Security Council to develop a resolution that will enable the region to have a sustainable peace, a peace that lasts, a peace that will enable mothers and fathers to raise their children in a hopeful world. May God bless those who lost their lives." The president's visit here to the home state of his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, suggested the depth of White House concern over his political standing as Republicans head into the campaign with a leader whose approval ratings remain stuck in the 30s. The president rarely travels domestically on the weekend and almost never spends the night in a city within easy flying time of Washington. White House strategists, however, are trying a new approach that has Bush lingering during targeted trips around the country, rather than popping in for a single speech and leaving within hours. He began these "drill-down" visits earlier this month in Chicago, where he also spent the night, celebrated his 60th birthday with Mayor Richard M. Daley and held his first full-fledged domestic news conference outside of Washington. With his brother at his side, the president will focus his Miami trip on a series of issues of regional and national concern: hurricane preparedness a year after Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast; the economy at a time when growth appears to be slowing; and port security after the Republican revolt over plans to allow an Arab company to take over management of several U.S. ports.
MIAMI, July 30 -- With crucial midterm congressional elections just three months away, President Bush tried Sunday to return to his domestic agenda even while the latest eruption in the Middle East continued to dominate his administration's attention.
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Are You a Toxic Parent?
2006073119
·Restricting teenagers makes no sense when they'll be on their own in college soon enough ·You'd rather be your child's friend than an authority figure If you answered 'true' to any of the above, you are not alone. But that doesn't mean you're right Each fall, when Montgomery County high schools send home the list of families who have signed the Safe Home Pledge, Nancy Murray studies the document as if it were holy writ. "You better believe I examine it," says Murray, a Burtonsville mother of four. The families on the list have agreed to abide by these rules for their teenagers: (1) I will supervise parties or gatherings in my home. (2) I will welcome calls from other parents when my child is hosting a party or gathering. (3) I will call the parents for a Safe Home confirmation when my child is attending a party or gathering. (4) I will not allow or serve alcohol, tobacco or other drugs in my home or on my property. Lots of parents sign the pledge, often because of peer pressure: If everyone else is signing, how would it look if your name were not on the list? Who opposes keeping kids safe? But it's something else entirely actually to pick up the phone and call other parents, especially when your kid is 15, 16, 17 years old.
Kids are going to drink anyway, so they might as well do it at home, under adult supervision. Restricting teenagers makes no sense when they'll be on their own in college soon enough. You'd rather be your child's friend than an authority figureIf. If you answered "true" to any of the above, you are not alone. But that doesn't mean you're right.
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Tell Me About It
2006073119
Carolyn takes your questions and comments about her current advice column and any other questions you might have about the strange train we call life. Her answers may appear online or in an upcoming column. Appearing every Wednesday and Friday in The Washington Post Style section and in Sunday Source, Tell Me About It offers readers advice based on the experiences of someone who's been there -- really recently. Carolyn Hax is a 30-something repatriated New Englander with a liberal arts degree and a lot of opinions and that's about it, really, when you get right down to it. Oh, and the shoes. A lot of shoes. McLean, Va.: Hey Carolyn-- love your column and your chats. I remember at least once reading what you had to say about couples who have the same argument(s) over and over and thinking it was extremely smart. I have a friend who's trapped in that cycle now and I'd love to send him what you said. I haven't been able to find what you said in the archives -- would you mind restating for me? Carolyn Hax: No no, thank you! And while I should know better than to turn down any extremely-smarts (since you never know when it'll be your last), I think what I said was really basic. There is no reason to have the same argument over and over. You argue, and then either one of you comes around to the other's viewpoint, or you both recognize that the other has a differing viewpoint and you both need to adjust accordingly. It's a decision not to try to win or persuade. (Except possibly by time and example.) Washington, D.C.: Is there a way to tell, early on in a relationship before you fall in love with a person, that someone is ultimately going to have a fear of intimacy? Certainly the beginning of a relationship is one where the couple is learning about each other, etc., but it's also not exactly the right time to whip out a 20-item questionnaire with questions like, "Have you ever told a woman other than your family members that you love her?" Although, as a friend of mine did say, it would be something to do during an awkward silent moment... Carolyn Hax: Give it a shot and report back. But I think the way to tell -is- the early-on-in-a-relationship. If you pay attention to what people are saying to you, you'll hear most of what you need to know about them without having to grade any exams. I wish I could give you a black-and-white example, but different things can say the same thing. For example, someone can betray a fear of intimacy by never talking about her own fears or frailties. Someone else can betray that same fear of intimacy by talking about her fears and frailties to anyhone who will listen. Both of them accomplish the same thing: They empower no one person with access to their soul. Buying Shoes for a wedding ...: Do I get the cheaper, more sensible shoes that I can wear all fall and winter, or the more expensive shoes I love that I won't be able to wear again until next summer? Carolyn Hax: You can wear the sensible shoes, but will you? Buy the ones that will be more useful over the life of the shoes, not over the next calendar year. How'd I do? Sufficiently rationalized? Atlanta, Ga.: How do you respond to ugly comments in social settings? So my husband and I are at a friend's housewarming bbq party a few weeks ago, and got to chatting with other guests. One couple that we are acquainted with (him more than her) was talking about their move to another part of the country later this summer. In the course of explaining to several of us why they were moving (the usual, closer to family, job opportunities) she said said she was also tired of living in "the black urban mecca" (she is not black). My husband and I were shocked, and quickly extricated ourselves from that conversation. Later we thought we should've done something differently, but didn't know what. How do you handle these kinds of situations? Carolyn Hax: Like an ostrich, except I bury my head in the clamdip. If I'd had the presence of mind--I don't always, in these situations especially, something I'd change about me if I could--I would have asked her to explain herself. Not a dukes-up challenge but a raised-eyebrow "Hmm, what makes you say that?" I have to think she would then notice the foot in her mouth, which is all you'd really need to accomplish. I really love the chats and column. How do you avoid "losing yourself" in a long-term relationship? I had a discussion with friends this weekend about how maybe one way you know you might be not immediately doomed to an unhappy marriage is that you are able to completely hold onto your self of self in a relationship. OK, fine, but what now? First, I'd like to say some unhappy marriages are foreseeable but that doesn't mean all of them are, and also that "foreseeable" doesn't mean you yourself are in a position, emotionally, to foresee it. See? Often it's the experience itself that opens your eyes to what an unhealthy experience is. All you can do is be kind to yourself, be kind to others and feed your 401K. So take a deep breath and just do your best. Second, about your specific quesiton, I think there should be some "us" to a couple. A self isn't a fixed object, it's a dynamic, (ideally) growing entity. So you grow with each other. And, you also retain a sense of yourself, yes--but I think you do that not by force of will or design, but by choosing someone who loves and thrives on who you are. That takes away the pressure to change/yield/hide. Re: Atlanta, Ga.: "She said said she was also tired of living in "the black urban mecca" (she is not black)." Not to be nitpicky, but would it have mattered if she had been black? It's still an offensive comment. Carolyn Hax: Interesting. I can see your point, but: A white person in search of a more diverse neigborhood says, "I'm sick of living in white bread mecca." Do you walk away too shocked to speak? Wuss-ville: Any tips for when/how to initiate one of those Big Talks in a relationship when you are not a naturally assertive person & tend to avoid confrontation at all costs? Of course, there's never a perfect or easy opening to launch into one of these heavy conversations, but it needs to be done. It doesn't even necessarily have to be an awful discussion once it's underway; I just can't bring myself to kick it off. Help? Carolyn Hax: "I'm awkward at this so I'm just going to blurt it out." Or something else of your creation that accomplishes the same thing, which is, essentially, to push yourself off the conversational high dive. If anything, getting the other person to brace for the worst, while not ideal, might actually take the edge off what you finally say. Ugly comments in social situations: I find that even if you try to point out the foot in mouth, some folks seem to feel you are too idealistic, naive or just a dimwit and some day when you're wiser you'll feel the same way they do. I also find the ones who say the most offensive things are the first to get offended by and dissent. Carolyn Hax: Certainly and possibly, but even then, I think most people will feel a little better for asserting themselves vs. slinking off for more punch, even if no minds are actually changed. Chicago, Ill.: What's your honest opinion of polyamory? Do you believe the only viable long term relationship is a monogamous one? Can people have simultaneous loves in their lives? I am considering this option but I am skeptical. Carolyn Hax: I don't think it works for skeptics. It's kind of like shooting the moon. You have to mean it, really mean it, both of you--or else you're short two hearts and going down. La Baule, France: But Carolyn, if she buys the summer shoes she loves now, will she still love them next summer? These summer romances don't last. Carolyn Hax: I know, but has that made anyone stop having them? No city, please: I think I've got to leave my relationship, but we are about to head out on a trip to celebrate a major anniversary. He knows things aren't good, but I haven't talked to him much about it because my struggle has basically been to decide whether or not I love him enough to put up with things that haven't changed and aren't likely to change after years of letting him know that I'm not happy with them. Do I go on the trip, knowing that I'm about 80% likely to leave? I can find other things to do at our destination, and he can always reroute the trip to visit friends in another city nearby. I'd like to think things can still be fixed, but I think I'm losing this fight. Carolyn Hax: Talk to him much about it. Right now, you're making the decision without his input, and that will be harder for him to get over, which then will be harder on you. Bethesda, Md.: I have been married for 12 years; we have two great kids. My husband does not believe in compliments and is quick to criticize. I thought I had made my peace and accepted that this is part of him - have to take the bad with the good. Recently, I have been more and more attuned to guys at work who compliment me or seem to have an interest in me. I have never been a flirt, but I cannot deny my need for this type of attention which I don't get from my husband. I am in such desparate need of affection, its embarrassing. How to cope? Carolyn Hax: Realize that your kids are in exactly your state of deprivation, but half as equipped to deal with it. Then, help them deal with it, and in the process get some of your own strength back. Seriously. I feel for you, very much, but this isn't just about restorative flirting. This is airplane-emergency time--you put on your oxygen mask first only so you're not too loopy to take care of your children. (Oh no, it's Metaphor Day.) It might even be something worth talking about in counseling, so you can figure out what to look for in your kids and what you need to do to provide balance. Washington, D.C.: Why can't she say she is tired of living in a black urban mecca. Maybe she is! Not everyone like diversity. She didnt say anything derogatory. I for one am sick of everyone having to say PC things all the time. geeze.. Carolyn Hax: It isn't true diversity without ignorance, I guess. Linking behavior to skin color isn't heroically anti-PC, it's the very root of racism. Fairfax, Va.: RE: ugly things -- the other thing you can get tossed at you is that you are hopelessly "politically correct." That's the new fireback to protesting racism or other such comments. Carolyn Hax: And there you have it. But I'd still rather hear, "I'm socially kind of a dope," or even, "I have no interest in trying to change the mind of an idiot," than, "I don't want to be accused of being PC," as a reason for not speaking up. Washington, D.C.: How do I tell a friend her breath is beyond bad? It reads like a horrible question but it's true. We have set her up on dates and in confidence the guys separately have made the same comment. As a good friend how do I say something? Carolyn Hax: You just say you're sorry for how much it's going to suck to hear this, but that she has been having bad breath lately. Somebody's got to do it. Washington, D.C.: My gal pal and I escaped the heat of D.C. for the beach for a long weekend. Many people thought that we were a couple... both men and women. When they asked... which they did... we immediately let the questioner know that we are both very much into men and have boyfriends. What's the deal? Are two women traveling together as friends not acceptable? Carolyn Hax: Asking them if they're a couple is not acceptable. On behalf of the armies against incredibly nosy questions, please consider not giving a straight (sorry) answer to questions like these. How you choose to avoid is up to you--evade, confront, make jokes, whatever comes most naturally. Re: talk to him: OK, but how do I tell him "I don't know if I love you enough to put up with X, Y, and Z"? It seems cruel to ask him to make me love him more than I do. Some of X, Y and Z are habits/tendencies that I've been telling him for years are making it really hard for me to stay in the relationship, and some are irreversible or hard-to-reverse decisions that he made after I asked/begged him not to. He still loves me, but I don't think X, Y, and Z are going to change. See my dilemma? Carolyn Hax: What is it, exactly, that you're still trying to fix? From what you say, I get the impression that it's all an internal decision--i.e., there's nothing he can do at this point to change, you just need to figure out if you can love him as-is--but I'm inclined to believe that if it's anything short of a certainty that you're going to leave, you need to tell him. Obviously, "I don't know if I love you enough to put up with X, Y, and Z," is cruel, but it wouldn't be cruel to say, "I thought I could live with/get used to X, Y and Z, but they're still bothering me enough that I'm not sure if I can stay." That way, you give him a chance to ask or offer possible solutions. That's what you're doing right now, isn't it? Working through possible solutions? So let him offer some. That doesn't mean you have to agree to them, it just means you owe it to him to listen, and to see whether his ideas will make any difference. And if not, then it won't be so much a shot to his blind side as a decision you both come to, albeit a painful one. Bad breath...: And see a doctor or dentist about it! Carolyn Hax: Right! I was going to say that, but last time I did (in column form, I believe), it served as an accidental invitation for hundreds of theories on halitosis, which put me off three weeks of lunch. So. Tell a dentist, then if needed tell a doctor, and then tell your blank page if you just can't resist, but please don't hit send. Thanks. Richmond, Va.: Do you think it's important to say "I love you" often in a relationship if it's shown? Like the old phrase goes, actions speak louder than words... Carolyn Hax: Does your beloved love to hear it? Then saying it is an important action to take. No acceptable?: "Are two women traveling together as friends not acceptable?" So if you were lesbians, it would somehow be "not acceptable", but since you're just traveling as friends it's okay? If I were on vacation and started chatting with two women or men or whatever, I would probably ask, too. Do I treat you as a romantic unit or not? Hard to be social if I don't know and hardly an unreasonable question. And, um.... Just what beach were you at? You (as straight women) may very well have been in the minority in Rehoboth, Outer Banks, etc. Carolyn Hax: NO NO NO it IS an unreasonable question. The romantic state of the people you chat with on vacation is none of your business and of no import socially. You're just talking! You can do that without labels. If it is relevant--say, you want to hit on one of them and so their status matters--decency probably demands that you at least know them well enough for the answer to come out in conversation before you go pawing one of them anyway. Richmond, Va.: For the gal pals...a sking if they were a couple only says "it's not OK to travel with a female friend" IF you consider being viewed as a lesbian as a negative thing. It's not. It may be nosy to ask about two people's couple status, but really its ridiculous to get offended. Be flattered you and your friend seem like you're in love. There is no need to "rush to assure" nosy people that you like men. Why do you feel the need to explain that? Carolyn Hax: That may have been what she was suggesting, but it could also be read that she found it disturbing that they attracted so much attention--meaning, the nosy people apparently had an issue with it, while the friends themselves didn't. You have to admit, it is weird that anyone would make an issue of it, much less several people on one short trip. (Yeah, unless it was to Rehoboth, as many of you have pointed out ...) Ugly Comments, USA: What wouold your suggestion be if it's your in-laws who feel the need to make anti-semitic comments everytime you are around? In the past, I've ignored it but now with my 2.5 year old present, I feel I need to address it. By the way, my wife is absolutely useless in these situations (meaning she makes no attempt to defend me or criticize her family for the comments). Carolyn Hax: That you address it with your 2.5-year-old--starting now, pre-comprehension, so that the groundwork is there when the lights go on--is far more important than getting your in-laws to stop. You are the one who's around your child the most, your influence will far exceed your in-laws'. But you could get extra points if you demonstrate a good response to your in-laws' bigotry. When you say, "Please don't say such things around X," you'll be equipping your child, vs. sheltering. Carolyn Hax: I had one of these opportunities recently with my 3-year-old, who now, every once in a while, out of the blue, says, "It's not nice to say [offensive thing]." Just thought I'd share. On the outside looking in: Carolyn - I appreciate your advice so much and would love to hear your take. I have a friend who is dating a guy. No, wait, no they're not. Oh, they're back on again. And so it goes. In the last two months alone, I've spent more than one night listening to her cry and trying to cheer her up. The reasons for their breakup and reconciliation aside, I'm tired of spending countless nights helping her through, just to see her go back to him AGAIN. I feel myself just not caring, not wanting to call her, and I definitely don't ask her any questions about HIM anymore. I sense she feels me pulling away, is a little hurt and now I feel guilty. But there's this part of me that says I can't seem to do anything about the fact that she's banging her head on a wall, and to just let her. What to do? Carolyn Hax: "Do you like things this way? Do you like yourself this way? What are you going to DO about it?" Useful maybe not as a direct quote, but certainly as a discussion guide for you when she tries to bring it up. "Okay, so what are you going to DO about it," is the perfect response to, "I just want him to ..." Rehoboth Beach, Del.: I was going to write in and state how narrow-minded to make the assumption that two women travelling to Rehoboth were romantically involved. Then I realized if everyone continues to think it's gay-only I'll still be able to get a room. So, never mind. Carolyn Hax: If they thought it was gay only, they wouldn't have had to ask. Does anyone really ever think a place is gay-only? Washington, D.C.: How do you kindly explain to some one that they're smothering you? Especially when he thinks that the smothering is showing you how much he loves you? And by the way, is any one else's creepy alarm set off by the phrase "I love you more than anyone else love you"? Carolyn Hax: BWA BWA BWA BWA BWA BWA But: The fact that you;re creeped out is all you need here. Get out. People work so hard to fight their own judgment. Listen to yourself, please. Which obviates the advice you were seeking, but here it is anyway, in case someone else is dating a boa constrictor: Part of showing love is noting and honoring how your mate likes to receive love--and so sometimes the most loving thing a person can do is grant a little space. Request it. Ask for your requests to be treated with respect. Leave if they aren't. I do think it's that simple. I made a mistake, and married an abusive jerk. Long story, should've known better, etc.. The good news is that I finally wised up and left him, and have moved on nicely. I have filed for divorce, and I can't wait for it to be finalized. Unfortunately, he has decided to make it a "nasty" divorce, and has hired a goon of a lawyer who seems to take pleasure in delaying, hiding assets, and putting up legal barriers. As I see it, I have two choices. I can give up all the assets (he has effectively hijacked them), let him have everything, but walk away faster and cleaner. Or, I can hire my own shark, and fight for the assets. It will likely be an expensive and protracted battle for what is, ultimately, not that much money. The assets are truly and rightfully mine (I owned the house and had the savings account prior to the relationship), and would undoubtedly be awarded to me (this from every lawyer I have consulted), but the conflict and time lapse is weighing heavily on me. I make a decent living, and could easily start over, but the little voice in my head is calling me a wimp, and telling me to stay and fight for what's mine. Carolyn Hax: I wish I had an answer for you. There's a lot to recommend both courses of action, since you're either standing up for what matters (and letting him think a small amount of money is a victory, wee haw) or standing up for yourself against bullying. In a way, the only advice I see here is to go to the proverbial mountaintop and see what would bring you the most peace. It's such a personal question. (I also think it wouldn't hurt to know beforehand exactly how long and how expensive a battle you're talking about, if it's possible to know that with any certainty, since the scope of the battle will probably have a lot to do with how well you can live with your choice.) Good luck, and congratulations on winning the battle that mattered. re: ugly comments: I have a similar situation, though no kids involved. How do you address a person of close relation and/or friendship who says anti-Semitic things to you (knowing you're Jewish)? Is step one to determine if it is ignorance or malice (but then how does one make that determination?) or is step one to just explain that it is hurtful and why? Carolyn Hax: Seems like just saying it's hurtful is best, since that leaves room for apology and/or discussion that a counterstrike never does. I even googled BWA and Carolyn Hax: But didn't find the definition. Battered Women's Alternative? Please help decipher. Thanks! Carolyn Hax: Say it out loud (ideally if you work in a cubicle). It's the sound of an alarm going off. Austin, Tex.: Can people change? Carolyn Hax: Of course. Just not when you want them to. I'm having one of those days where I can't stop internalizing every bad thing that's happening in the world. I read a terrible article today about child abuse and I spent at least half an hour dwelling on those types of atrocities. How do you cope with (or how do you recommend one copes with) reading about these types of things, but also being able to move on with your day and be productive. I'm just having a terrible time with it today. Thanks. Carolyn Hax: I know the feeling. Most days our minds can process effortlessly the natural balance of things, and some days it takes a special effort, bordering on force, to keep in mind that the best and worst of human nature have coexisted, do coexist, and will always coexist. Some days you have to call someone special, write a check to charity, go to bed early with a stupid book. We're built to keep going--ideally with a new commitment to be good. I'm not sure what else I can say. I'm sorry. (Though if the feeling persists for more than the occasional day, that might suggest depression.) Washington, D.C.: My boyfriend is very very insecure. He needs a lot of reassurance about our relationship and my feelings for him. I'm not the kind to end every conversation with an I-love-you. I'd though that as time went by he'd become more secure, as I am, after all, still with him. But it's not happening, and it's making me crazy. If the name of a male comes up in conversation, he tells me "I bet he wants to be with you." I call him on it, an argument ensures, which ends with him apologizing and saying it's only because he's so insecure. Considering your first post about having the same argument over and over, I'm way overdue on dumping him, aren't I? Carolyn Hax: "It's making me crazy" plus no changes usually does equal that, yes. Re: BWA: I thought it was the sound of wretching... Y'know, because of the whole "I love you more than anyone else loves you" thing... Carolyn Hax: No, that was too scary for e-hurling. re: ugly comments: I dunno, maybe I'm too hasty, but why would anybody remain friends with someone who would make anti-Semitic comments in front of them KNOWING that they are Jewish? And the earlier poster has a huge problem with his wife if he is Jewish and she sits still for her family members making such comments. Carolyn Hax: I don't think you're too hasty, which is why I wrote what I wrote in yesterday's column. Perplexed and Confused: Carolyn and 'nuts: My favorite columnist has been moving the on-line chat to different days. This throws off my whole week and causes undue tension at home. What should I do? washingtonpost.com: Blame the producer, who was on vacation and asked Carolyn to reschedule. Carolyn Hax: ... but you can blame me in a few weeks when I take a break in August. (Remember, too, we do these because we want to, not because we have to, if that helps with the tension at home.) That's it for today. Thanks for rolling with the time change, and type to you Friday as always, unless I have a whim and need to go out for ice cream. Arlington should fight for what is hers: I went with the "get out asap and get some peace" route. And then I was so upset at myself for not fighting to get what was mine. I let it go because it was so stressful to fight him and yet I would have won if I'd just hung in there, and I'd also have respected myself and not been so angry for so long afterward. It's possible that she'll feel peace at first, but then rage against herself as I did for letting the bas&$%d take what belonged to her. Carolyn Hax: And, the other side: Family Lawyer: It might help to realize that if you're fighting over "not that much money" there's a good chance you will end up with negative dollars when the lawyers fees are taken into account. I've seen couples spend $15,000 EACH in legal fees over $10,000 in assets. Ultimately it is this particular woman's choice, and I understand the need to not let a bully think you're slinking off. It may, however, be equally satisfying to hire a 12 year old to leave a weekly bag of flaming dog poop on the creeps door step. (Not that I advocate illegal uses of fire and excrement). Carolyn Hax: Of course not. Thanks. 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.
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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Competing Developers Share Waterfront Ideas
2006073119
One developer proposed a theater dedicated to Cirque du Soleil performances. Another suggested a produce market similar to the nearby fish market on Maine Avenue SW. A third boasted that his team includes Magic Johnson's urban investment fund. Those are among the prospects for the District's Southwest waterfront offered by five development teams that are competing for a leading role in the area's first revitalization effort in more than 40 years. On Thursday night, the rivals provided a peek at their ideas to transform 47 acres between the 14th Street Bridge and P Street SW with shops, restaurants, housing, parks and offices. The two-hour meeting attracted about 150 community leaders, neighborhood residents and members of the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. to Southeastern University on I Street SW. "We want a waterfront that is the envy of the nation," Adrian G. Washington, president and chief executive of Anacostia Waterfront, told the crowd as people fanned themselves in a hot, standing-room-only auditorium. "We want a place that has an urban waterfront and where people can live and work." The plans to redo Southwest's waterfront started in 2001 by soliciting community opinion about what should be built. The approved plan calls for 2 million square feet of development on land that is now mostly parking lots and concrete buildings, including the Channel Inn Hotel, nightclubs and the Phillips Seafood restaurant. The new plan calls for 850 residential units, with 30 percent of them marked as affordable; 250,000 square feet of retail; 2,000 parking spaces; 180,000 square feet of cultural attractions; and 250,000 square feet for a hotel. Seventeen development teams sent in requests in the spring to be named the master developer that will work with the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. Five finalists were selected in June: EastBanc Inc., a retail developer in Georgetown that did Cady's Alley, a row of upscale shops; District-based retail developer Madison Marquette with Vienna-based housing developer KSI Services Inc.; PN Hoffman Inc., a housing developer in the District with Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, a development company based in Baltimore; office and housing developer JBG Cos. of Chevy Chase; and the John Buck Co., a major developer in Chicago. The competitors were asked not to bring detailed sketches and renderings from architects but rather explain their qualifications, minority investors and how they would pay for the project. The Anacostia Waterfront Corp., a quasi-public entity charged with improving the rundown Southwest and Southeast waterfronts, expects to pick a winner in the fall. Construction would probably start in 2008. "Our vision is to bring the neighborhood to the water," said Monty Hoffman of PN Hoffman. "Our vision is not a mall; it's not an amusement park." His plan includes a "cultural zone" with a water park, piers and an aquarium and Cirque du Soleil. Hoffman said he has discussed the possibility with management of the popular acrobatic extravaganzas. Anthony Lanier of EastBanc said he wanted to make the area "look unplanned and create something that looks as if it's been here for a long time." JBG, which built the Transportation Department headquarters in Southeast and has plans to redo L'Enfant Plaza, said it has the Phillips and Channel Inn leaseholders on its team. The Anacostia group and the chosen developer will probably have to buy out the long-term leases of the tenants on the land, developers said. The land is owned by National Capital Revitalization Corp. and is being transferred to the Anacostia group. John A. Buck tried to convince the group that his experience transforming parts of the lakefront in Chicago made him most qualified to redo the Southwest waterfront. And Madison Marquette said that it had financial participation from Johnson's group and wanted to bring in a grocery store such as Trader Joe's. Some in the audience questioned whether the developers would have environmentally friendly buildings and whether the housing units would be in high-rise or low-rise buildings. Others complained that the plans would bring too much development to the area.
One developer proposed a theater dedicated to Cirque du Soleil performances. Another suggested a produce market similar to the nearby fish market on Maine Avenue SW. A third boasted that his team includes Magic Johnson's urban investment fund. Tishman Speyer Properties of New York is in talks to......
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For Those Rebuilding in New Orleans, How High?
2006073119
NEW ORLEANS -- Be careful walking out the front door of Al Petrie's new home. It's a long way down. Fourteen steps above the sidewalk, about 10 feet over the street, the front stoop is perched high like a lookout post within a fortress of brick. The home is built far enough up, Petrie says proudly, that "when the next Katrina comes, I'll be dry." What if a more powerful hurricane strikes? "I just can't imagine it getting much worse than Katrina," he says. As residents struggle to rebuild some of the tens of thousands of ravaged properties here, few questions unnerve people more than how safe their homes will be in the next catastrophic flood. And the key to that is how high above the ground their homes will stand. Some, like Petrie, are lifting their dwellings far above surroundings. Others are betting that Katrina was so rare that nothing that bad will come their way again, and they're building just as they were before the storm. But in a city daunted by profound uncertainties about the future, the issue of home elevations arouses these often-unspoken fears like no other. For flood insurance purposes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has recommended that people rebuild to the elevation requirements in effect before the storm, or three feet above ground level, whichever is higher. But officials acknowledge those levels won't ensure safety -- they certainly didn't in Katrina, when many homes took on 10 feet or more of water. Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers, which is repairing the city's levees and flood walls, isn't guaranteeing protection when a hurricane of Category 3 strength or higher strikes. "It's a risk each individual must decide whether or not to live with," according to a Corps statement. "History has proven time and again that Mother Nature will throw something bigger at these protection systems than what was built so people should recognize that that threat always exists." The financial viability of the federal flood insurance program, which took a staggering $22 billion hit in Katrina, may one day depend on whether homeowners take steps now to reduce the risks.
Complete Coverage on Hurricane Katrina and Rita including video,photos and blogs. Get up-to-date news on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita,news from New Orleans and more.
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Lakefront Property on a Saturn Moon?
2006073119
It has taken nine years, hundreds of millions of dollars and a huge amount of effort, but planetary scientists have finally found another place with a topography quite like Earth's. On July 22, they gathered around a screen at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and saw the first detailed pictures of the high latitudes of Titan, one of the moons of Saturn. The images were eerily familiar. What the scientists saw looked like dunes, hills, valleys and -- most unusual -- rivers running into lakes. If further studies prove that the dark, ovoid features on the vast landscape are indeed lakes, Titan will be the only body in the solar system besides Earth possessing that geological feature. The differences between the two places, however, are as striking as their similarities. Titan's surface temperature averages 292 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The landscape, carved by wind and a constant drizzle, is made up largely of ice, not rock. It takes nearly 30 years for Saturn to orbit the sun, so each of Titan's seasons is a little more than seven years long. The liquid that falls from the sky and runs down into the lakes isn't water. It is some form of liquid hydrocarbon -- very possibly methane, or what we know as natural gas. In Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, scientists reported that methane appears to fall on Titan in a constant, year-round slight drizzle. "It is almost a parody of the Earth," said Jonathan I. Lunine, a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona. "It is very funny to go to this place and see all these processes being played out, but with very, very different materials." Elsewhere in the solar system -- on Mars, for instance -- there may once have been the cycles of weather and landscape-building that still exist on Earth. They ended billions of years ago. But they are still taking place on Titan, which is about one-third the size of Earth but nearly 10 times as far away from the sun. "This tells us that we have to go a very long way from Earth to find the processes we have here," Lunine said. The revelation comes thanks to the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Oct. 15, 1997.
Science news from The Washington Post. Read about the latest breakthroughs in technology, medicine and communications.
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A Rallying Cry for Democratic Populism
2006073119
Thomas Dunne Books, 288 pp., $24.95 What would happen if the opposition party actually chose to oppose the one in power? Not just on the margins, but by rejecting outright the majority party's fundamental beliefs on trade and tax policy? Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) urges Democrats to take on Republicans in just that way in his new book, "Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain Dead Politics Are Selling Out America." He makes a politically compelling -- if economically questionable -- case. Dorgan, a master of partisan rhetoric, puts his debating skills to good use in spinning out anecdotes that make free trade and corporate tax breaks seem cruel to the average citizen. He clearly hopes to instruct fellow Democrats how to ride a populist wave if one were ever to form. Democrats are deeply divided, of course, about whether to adopt his advice. Many prefer pro-business, pro-trade positions that distinguish them a little from the GOP, but not a lot. A growing number of others, however, are in Dorgan's radical camp. They think the way to finally win is to just say "No." Depending on how low President Bush's job-approval ratings go, Dorgan might be on to something. His book is worth reading if only to see in detail how a reenergized Democratic Party might act. Its first tenet would be to buck the economic consensus about the wisdom and inevitability of globalization. Dorgan disparages the elites' blind faith in markets to produce positive financial results. Instead, he concentrates on the human toll that cheap labor has exacted on low- and middle-income families. He describes well the personal hardship felt by loyal workers when factories for such iconic U.S. products as Fig Newtons, Levi's jeans and Radio Flyer wagons moved abroad. After Huffy bikes closed its plant in Celina, Ohio, Dorgan writes, employees left shoes in empty parking spaces to deliver the message, "You can move our jobs to China, but you're not going to be able to fill our shoes." The senator does more than tug the heartstrings. He recommends a litany of solutions, including repealing a tax break that encourages the outsourcing of jobs overseas, prohibiting imports from countries that abuse their workers and setting a ceiling on our trade deficits. He would stop approving free-trade agreements of the kind that have flowed through Congress in recent years. Democratic and Republican administrations alike have embraced such pacts (NAFTA for North America and CAFTA for Central America, for example) as the only way for the United States to prosper over the long run in an interdependent international economy. Dorgan rejects that thinking as injurious to American workers, the people whose well-being, he says, should be the focus of federal policy. The title of his final chapter says it all: "Flat World? No, Flat Wrong!" To Dorgan, big corporations are the villains and labor unions the saviors. "I understand that big is not always bad, and small is not always beautiful," he writes. But, he adds: "If the shoe fits, wear it. And it damn well better be American-made." He blames many of the nation's woes on the avarice of large multinational companies -- a tack that few politicians, dependent on campaign contributions, are willing to take these days. He also bashes lobbyists, which is for him a somewhat hollow declaration. His wife, Kimberly Olson Dorgan, is the chief lobbyist for the American Council of Life Insurers. Dorgan heaps particular scorn on pharmaceutical and oil companies. He accuses drugmakers, for instance, of bending the country's laws in ways that hurt consumers and bloat their bottom lines. In response, he would repeal laws that bar the government from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for lower prices and that prohibit the importation of less-expensive prescription drugs from countries such as Canada. These are not the freshest of ideas, particularly coming from a liberal Democrat. But Dorgan delivers them with real sting. He claims, for example, that Tommy G. Thompson, then-secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, told him privately that Dorgan was "right" to favor allowing prescription drugs to cross into this country -- a position at odds with that of Thompson's boss at the time, President Bush. Dorgan also sounds what has become a major rallying cry for the political left -- a full-throated assault on the nation's largest retailer. "Wal-Mart," he writes, "is the poster child for what has gone so terribly wrong in this global economy." He complains that the company "trades American jobs for cheap foreign labor" and "pushes wages down here in the United States." "Take This Job and Ship It" is Dorgan's effort to spread that kind of populism beyond his prairie home. Birnbaum covers lobbying and politics for The Washington Post.
Get the latest US government news on recent federal affairs. Up-to-date information and analysis of federal legislation and contracts. Search for government job openings and career information.
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Finding Mideast Unity in the Classroom
2006073119
Every detail had to be negotiated when an Israeli and a Palestinian started team-teaching a class on the Middle East. They haggled over the syllabus, the readings, the maps, even the words used: Was 1948, when Israel was formed, the War of Liberation -- or the Catastrophe? Now, 12 summers and many debates later, professors Edy Kaufman and Manuel Hassassian have learned to share not only the lectern in their six-week University of Maryland course but also an office, a house near campus and an unexpected friendship. Their class teaches the narratives of each side, the way history is retold and how news is understood, with the hope of bringing the sides together. "There is no military solution to this conflict," said Hassassian, a Palestinian Christian and an ambassador to the United Kingdom. "Only dialogue." When Kaufman, 64, and Hassassian, 52, started teaching together in 1993, they thought peace in the Middle East was within reach. This year, as Kaufman and his wife arrived in the United States from Jerusalem, they heard news blaring from the airport TVs with reports of kidnappings, Katyusha rockets, funerals -- the worst fighting in years. So as the class meets this month and next, their lessons in conflict management seem more important than ever. Or are they more futile? Like everyone in the Middle East, the professors have their own narratives, stories intertwined with the history of the region, memories that laden the fighting, the negotiations, the land itself with meaning. Kaufman left his whole life behind in Argentina in 1960, when he was 18, to help build a new country. "I was very much in love with Israel," said Kaufman, whose parents were ardent Zionists. He met his wife there, a sixth-generation Jerusalemite whose father disappeared during an attack in 1948 when she was about 4. Lisa Kaufman remembers a city under siege, not having enough food and how she kept talking to her father, long after he was gone. Now the Kaufmans have children of their own, whom they raised in Jerusalem through years of war, bloody attacks and tension. Their son, a doctor at a hospital in Haifa, is delivering babies now with rockets crashing into the city around him; he recently lost a close friend. Hassassian was born in Jerusalem, in a neighborhood that came under Israeli control after the war in 1967, when he was 13. His wife, Samira, remembers her father putting on his doctor's coat and telling the Israeli soldiers in her town near Bethlehem that the Palestinians would not leave. The Hassassians raised three children, through years of occupation and checkpoints, curfews and intifada, while Manuel Hassassian taught at and helped lead Bethlehem University. A few years ago, during crossfire between Palestinian and Israeli forces, a bullet shattered a window of their house while Samira was making dinner. She gathered the family to pray to the Virgin Mary in thanks that no one had been hurt, she said, and at that moment, an explosion sent glass shattering, her children screaming.
Every detail had to be negotiated when an Israeli and a Palestinian started team-teaching a class on the Middle East. They haggled over the syllabus, the readings, the maps, even the words used: Was 1948, when Israel was formed, the War of Liberation -- or the Catastrophe?
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Rep. Davis Linked to Consultant
2006072919
Washington Post investigative reporters Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow were online Friday, July 28, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss their article on the link between a Rep. Thomas R. Davis III (R-Va.) and a consulting firm, whose clients say they had special access to the Congressman. Read more: Wife, Friend Tie Congressman to Consulting Firm , ( Post, July 28, 2006 ) Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: Good morning. We're here to chat about our story today about Rep. Tom Davis and the consulting firm where his wife, a Virginia state senator, works part-time. We're looking forward to a lively conversation, so let's get going. Hoping for "some balance" to your story: For more than 15 years, I have ALWAYS received timely "access" and needed assistance from Rep. Davis' office as a VOLUNTEER CITIZEN ADVOCATE for issues related to Disabled military beneficiaries of TRICARE and for military widows. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: That's good to know. Rep. Davis and his staff have said they welcome visitors and input from constituents, companies and the like. Washington, D.C.: Hi there. Great article. One question: why was there no mention that the wife of convicted White House procurement official Michael Safavian works for Rep. Davis? Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: Interesting question. It wasn't central to this article. Callao, Va.: I started this article thinking that there was some "smoking gun" related to Congressman Davis' conduct. Instead, it is simply a re-hashing of any number of articles The Post has published related to sons/daughters/spouses/relatives/friends of elected officials and their influence on the Member. I read the whole article and ended with a "so what?" Could you please help me understand what unique thing Congressman Davis did that merited the exhaustive time, hours, newsprint and pages the Post gave to this story? With everything else going on in Congress and the world, I feel like you owe me the twenty minutes I'll never get back from reading this piece. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: Thanks for reading the piece and for taking the additional time to join us today. We posted the ethics committee letter on the newspaper's Web site today. Washington, D.C.: Scott & Rob: Great piece, but you only scratched the surface. The trade press has well documented (although from a cheerleader perspective), Davis near total dismantlement of the procurement oversight and regulatory functions of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) at OMB. In addition, he was largely responsible for putting David Safavian in as Administrator of OFPP (Safavian's wife is Davis chief investigative counsel). There's just so much to choose from, why don't you expand your story? Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: That's an interesting prospect and a good idea. Chantilly, Va.: Interest groups from the Girl Scouts to the Sierra Club and companies from start ups to the Washington Post Co. regularly "help" members with draft information. Why is this such a big issue to you all? You seem to be playing connect the dots, but all I see is a veiled attempt at smearing a public figure. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: We work hard at reporting how government does business. One of our tasks is telling our readers the particulars of relationships among lawmakers and business people. We do our best to be fair and to get news into the paper. Silver Springs, Md.: After reading your very lengthy story it seems that nothing improper was done here. Yes, everyone can complain that Davis' wife is paid a lot of money to work only 20 hours a week, but so are countless numbers of other people that are paid exorbitant amounts of cash because they are prominent members of the community, politics, industry etc. also, it seems as though you were unable to prove that Davis' wife had anything to do with the contract and issue central to the article. So, in the end, it seems as though no one has done anything wrong, everyone has followed the laws, the Congressional Ethics Committee said that although it could be perceived as improper, he still had done nothing wrong. It pretty much sounds like every other lobbying firm in the nation, so why the witch hunt? Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: That's an interesting perspective. We can only work on one story at a time. Any ideas for other stories down the road? We're all ears. Silver Spring, Md.: Word is that Davis also sponsored legislative drafting sessions with contractors. The price for admission was allegedly campaign contributions. Did you find any of this? Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: As you probably know, Washington works very hard at obscuring direct links between campaign contributions and official acts. Rep. Davis said in our interview with him that he welcomes, and often receives, advice and financial help from information technology executives. Alexandria, Va.: As a federal employee who lives in Northern Virginia I owe a lot to Rep. Davis and Rep. Moran. Additionally, both men are strong supporters of my particular agency. Unfortunately, both have recently been "linked" to improper uses of their public offices and, by extension, do not appear to care about the voters who put both men in office. It is really a shame. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: Thanks for writing. Reston, Va.: Hey, do you know how much money Rep. Davis has received from ICG?? Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: No. We don't know of any direct payments. We know that his household benefited from his wife's employment at the firm. Baltimore, Md.: For me, the money quote in the Davis piece was the last one, from his chief of staff. I am working from memory, but I think it was "our business is access." This neatly sums up just how blinkered and corrupt Congress has become. I thought the House and Senate were supposed to oversee spending, pass (or not pass) legislation, approve appointees, etc. I did not know the body's principal work was "access" for business interests. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind a job like the one Rep. Davis's wife has: nearly 80k a year for 10-20 hours of work a week done at home from her cell phone. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: We're glad you read the article so attentively. Washington, D.C.: Once again the press tries to make a high profile issue, "exposing" members of Congress for commonplace, legal activities. Members of congress writing letters on behalf of a company in their district, and having the company who is most knowledgeable of the problem do a draft... what's the problem? Davis represents a district filled with government contractors. In my opinion, he is just doing his job. The link to the wife- no crime there per the ethics letter. Meeting a spouse through your line of work is not uncommon. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: Another interesting perspective -- one that's shared by other folks in this town. Thanks. Reston, Va.: I respect the right of public officials and their spouses to make an honest living. However, I think that there are so many other occupations out there, whether civil service, non-profit, or private, that don't involve influencing lawmakers. Ms. Devolites Davis would be an asset to any of these groups. While I support Rep. Davis' viewpoints, I am tired of hearing/reading about lawmakers putting themselves in positions where their integrity and ethics could be questioned. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: Thanks. As the ethics letter underscores, lawmakers must take care when their spouses get involved in work that intersects with the government. Falls Church, Va.: I was wondering if you could explain, in further detail, why there were no ethics violations found on the part of Congressman Davis? This appears peculiar when you have spent so much print space begging the inference that there was some sort of ethics violation. Perhaps you are advocating that certain ethics standard be revised? If so, why not go into detail about, that instead of spending all of your time waiving innuendo about Congressman Davis. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: Thanks for your note. We don't advocate for anything. We believe that a close read of our story shows that we stay very close to the facts we have gathered and to put them into the proper context. It's up to others to judge whether the congressman and state senator crossed any ethical or legal lines. Woodbridge, Va.: Where does someone get a $78,000 a year job for 5-10 hours a week work? Ramp that to full time status and you get $312,000 to $624,000 a year position!! I do not think anyone deserves that sort of hourly rate, certainly not a state senator who was a house mom before Tom recruited her to run for public office. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: Interesting perspective. Thanks for writing in. Keep the questions coming. Washington, D.C.: Hi, I was really interested in your article. I was curious that you focus a lot of your article on a small contractors using ICG to lobby government officials to encourage DISA to continue to use a contract that they were on. Is this common practice among the larger contractors as well? Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: We focused on one relatively small contract because it was a client of ICG and received assistance from the firm and a lobbyist. We're told that the larger companies with an interest in the contract were hustling to get a piece of it, using their own lobbyists. Washington, D.C.: Seriously--this is not to offend you, but what is the point of washingtonpost.com chats? To respond to questions? To flesh out stories squeezed into precious space? Because you are not really answering these questions. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: No offense taken. Our main job is to collect information and present it fairly. We're fascinated by the response to today's piece. It's important for us to keep an even hand, even at the risk of seeming a tad dry. Washington, D.C.: Were you able to interview Davis' wife? I'd be interested to hear how she describes the "work" she performs that justifies such a princely salary for so little time and effort. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: She granted us a substantial interview and covered a fair amount of ground. As we said in the article, she said her work mainly involves making phone calls. That includes making arrangements for business clients to meet with government officials to discuss their technology and services. She also calls government officials to arrange speaking engagements at ICG and other events. She said she arranged for former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge to speak at an ICG event shortly after he took on that post. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: We have received some very interesting and well informed questions that we have not posted. If you have any ideas or information that might help our work, please send e-mails to highams@washpost.com or oharrowr@washpost.com. We can also be contacted at 202-334-6000. Ask to be connected to one of us. Washington, D.C.: You indicated that you are fascinated by the response to your article. Why is that? It seems that most of the comments have been in defense of the congressman rather than in support of your claims. Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow: As you can imagine, we've received numerous responses, many of them in support of Rep. Davis and his wife, and many of them critical. We want all the very interesting views reflected. On that note, we'd like to thank you for joining us. Feel free to contact us. Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
Washington Post investigative reporters Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow discuss their article on the link between Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and a consulting firm, whose clients say they had access to the congressman.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/27/AR2006072701222.html
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Pander and Run
2006072919
After years of struggling to define their own approach to post-Sept. 11 foreign policy, Democrats seem finally to have hit on one. It's called pandering. In those rare cases when George W. Bush shows genuine sensitivity to America's allies and propounds a broader, more enlightened view of the national interest, Democrats will make him pay. It's jingoism with a liberal face. The latest example came this week when Democratic senators and House members demanded that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki either retract his criticisms of Israel or forfeit his chance to address Congress. Great idea. Maliki -- who runs a government propped up by U.S. troops -- is desperate to show Iraqis that he is not Washington's puppet. And the United States desperately needs him to succeed because, unless he gains political credibility at home, his government will have no hope of surviving on its own. Maliki took a small step in that direction this week when he articulated a view of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict quite different from that of the Bush administration. His views were hardly surprising: Iraq is not only a majority-Arab country; it is a majority-Shiite Arab country. And in a democracy, leaders usually reflect public opinion. Maliki's forthright disagreement with the United States was a sign of political strength, one the Bush administration wisely indulged. But not congressional Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid demanded that Maliki eat his words or be disinvited from addressing Congress. "Your failure to condemn Hezbollah's aggression and recognize Israel's right to defend itself raise serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East," wrote Reid and fellow Democratic Sens. Richard J. Durbin and Charles E. Schumer on July 24. How, exactly, publicly humiliating Maliki and making him look like an American and Israeli stooge would enhance his "leadership" was never explained in the missive. But of course Reid's letter wasn't really about strengthening the Iraqi government at all; that's George W. Bush's problem. It was about appearing more pro-Israel than the White House and thus pandering to Jewish voters. Reid's letter is not an anomaly; it is part of a pattern. In February Democrats (and some Republicans) slammed the Bush administration for allowing a company from the United Arab Emirates to take over operation, though not management, of several U.S. ports. Democrats insisted that they were standing up for homeland security, but in fact homeland security experts overwhelmingly said the move did not represent a security risk. The principle animating the Democrats' attack was not security, it was politics. The Bush administration, playing against type, argued that America's long-term security required treating Arab countries with fairness and respect, especially countries, such as the UAE, that assist us in the struggle against jihadist terrorism. One might have thought that the Democrats, after spending years denouncing the Bush administration for alienating world opinion and thus leaving America isolated and weak, would find such logic compelling. But what they found more compelling was a political cheap shot -- their very own Panama Canal moment -- in which they proved they could be just as nativist as the GOP. Then, in June, the media reported that the Iraqi government was considering an amnesty for insurgents, perhaps including insurgents who had killed U.S. troops. Obviously the prospect was hard for Americans to stomach. But the larger context was equally obvious: Unless Maliki's government gave local Sunni insurgents an incentive to lay down their arms and break with al-Qaeda-style jihadists, Iraq's violence would never end. Democrats, however, rather than giving Maliki the freedom to carry out his extremely difficult and enormously important negotiations, made amnesty an issue in every congressional race they could, thus tying the prime minister's hands. Once again, Democrats congratulated themselves for having gotten to President Bush's right, unperturbed by the fact that they may have undermined the chances for Iraqi peace in the process. Privately, some Democrats, while admitting that they haven't exactly been taking the high road, say they have no choice, that in a competition with Karl Rove, nice guys finish last. But even politically, that's probably wrong. The Democratic Party's single biggest foreign policy liability is not that Americans think Democrats are soft. It is that Americans think Democrats stand for nothing, that they have no principles beyond political expedience. And given the party's behavior over the past several months, it is not hard to understand why. The writer, a monthly columnist for The Post, is editor-at-large of the New Republic and author of "The Good Fight: Why Liberals -- and Only Liberals -- Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again."
After years of struggling to define their own approach to post-Sept. 11 foreign policy, Democrats seem finally to have hit on one. It's called pandering. In those rare cases when George W. Bush shows genuine sensitivity to America's allies and propounds a broader, more enlightened view of the...
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A War of Her Own
2006072919
Lebanon has now become Condi's war. You can argue whether legal title to the tragic mess in Iraq properly belongs to Rummy or Cheney or to the Decider himself, but as far as Lebanon is concerned, it's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who has stepped front and center to handle the crisis and show the world who's boss. It was Rice who waited more than a week, giving Israel time to pound the daylights out of Lebanon, before finding time to visit Beirut and Tel Aviv and attend a crisis summit in Rome. It was Rice who spent her trip categorically ruling out a quick cease-fire, which made one wonder if she really needed to travel at all, since she could have just thumbed out a text message: "2 soon 2 stop boom boom." The most significant development from Rice's swing through the region was that she took personal ownership of the bloody, escalating war between Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas with a single breathtaking pronouncement: "It is time for a new Middle East. It is time to say to those who do not want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail, they will not." Take a moment to absorb those two sentences. The bit about how "we will prevail" is just standard chest-thumping from the Bush administration, the equivalent of George W. Bush's "bring it on" challenge to the Iraqi insurgents. It's the "new Middle East" part, which she repeated at every opportunity, that makes this Condi's war and that should send shivers down the spine of anyone who has more than a passing knowledge of the region. What secretary of state hasn't dreamed of a new Middle East where peaceful, democratic nations live in harmony? They all have, I suspect, but any utopian fantasies they might have entertained inevitably ran smack into dystopian realities. The current-model Middle East is replete with legitimate grievances, non-negotiable demands, ancient resentments, Machiavellian alliances, religious fanaticism and modern weapons of war. The idea of a grand stroke that would somehow create a "new" model is not just unrealistic, it's downright frightening. Rice's predecessors have all discovered that containment, incrementalism, trust-building and similar unglamorous, snail-paced measures are the worst way to handle the Middle East -- except for all the other conceivable ways. Rice prefers glamorous, though. And her boss remains convinced that grand gestures change everything -- witness how the Iraq invasion and occupation have persuaded Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to bring out their guitars and join in chorus after chorus of "Kumbaya." Does Rice envision that in her "new" Middle East, Palestinians will somehow develop amnesia and forget their aspirations for a viable independent state? Does she believe the autocrats in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere will allow free and fair elections -- and that voters will reject the militant faith-based factions that for years have been providing needed services that corrupt governments can't be bothered with? Does she think anyone is going to see the uncontrollable Frankenstein's monster we created in Iraq as a model to emulate? The one thing that's clear so far is that Rice believes that allowing Israel to decimate Hezbollah and drive what's left of the group out of southern Lebanon is such a valuable step toward her "new" Middle East that it's worth crippling a nascent Arab democracy with hundreds of civilian casualties and billions of dollars worth of infrastructure damage. At least that's what she believed before her trip. If at this point she isn't rethinking the whole thing, given the trouble Israeli forces are having with Hezbollah, then we're really in trouble. Other stalwarts of the Bush administration's grandiose schemes seem exhausted -- Rumsfeld is more philosopher than conqueror when he talks about Iraq these days, while Cheney bizarrely sticks with the story that everything's just fine. But Rice's life story -- little black girl from Birmingham rises to become secretary of state, somehow becoming a hawkish Republican along the way -- and her obvious potential in politics still make her an intriguing figure. I personally know three people who are writing books about her. Now, in her first real test as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice will be judged on more than her impressive résumé, her obvious intelligence, her poise on the world stage and her fashion sense. Now she has her own war to sort out, and all she's done so far is scare people with her talk of somehow making the world's tinderbox into something "new." She should remember the famous dictum from philosopher Rumsfeld, which I paraphrase: You go to war with the Middle East you have, not the Middle East you might want.
Lebanon has now become Condi's war. You can argue whether legal title to the tragic mess in Iraq properly belongs to Rummy or Cheney or to the Decider himself, but as far as Lebanon is concerned, it's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who has stepped front and center to handle the crisis and show...
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A Time To Act
2006072919
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's just-concluded trip to Lebanon, Israel and Rome was an exercise in grace, bravery and, to my regret, wrongly focused diplomacy. Especially disappointing is the fact that she resisted all suggestions that the first order of business should be negotiation of an immediate cease-fire between the warring parties. In the course of her trip, the secretary repeatedly insisted that any cease-fire be tied to a "permanent" and "sustainable" solution to the root causes of the conflict. Such a solution is achievable, if at all, only after protracted negotiations involving multiple parties. In the meantime, civilians will continue to die, precious infrastructure will continue to be destroyed and the fragile Lebanese democracy will continue to erode. My own experience in the region underlies my belief that in the short term we should focus our efforts on stopping the killing. Twice during my four years as secretary of state we faced situations similar to the one that confronts us today. Twice, at the request of the Israelis, we helped bring the bloodshed to an end. In June 1993, Israel responded to Hezbollah rocket attacks along its northern border by launching Operation Accountability, resulting in the expulsion of 250,000 civilians from the southern part of Lebanon. After the Israeli bombardment had continued for several days, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin asked me to use my contacts in Syria to seek their help in containing the hostilities. I contacted Foreign Minister Farouk Shara, who, of course, consulted with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. After several days of urgent negotiations, an agreement was reached committing the parties to stop targeting one another's civilian populations. We never knew exactly what the Syrians did, but clearly Hezbollah responded to their direction. In April 1996, when Hezbollah again launched rocket attacks on Israel's northern border, the Israelis countered with Operation Grapes of Wrath, sending 400,000 Lebanese fleeing from southern Lebanon. Errant Israeli bombs hit a U.N. refugee camp at Cana in southern Lebanon, killing about 100 civilians and bringing the wrath of international public opinion down upon Israel. This time Shimon Peres, who had become prime minister after the assassination of Rabin, sought our help. In response, we launched an eight-day shuttle to Damascus, Beirut and Jerusalem that produced a written agreement bringing the hostilities to an end. Weeks later, the parties agreed to a border monitoring group consisting of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, France and the United States. Until three weeks ago, that agreement had succeeded for 10 years in preventing a wholesale resumption of hostilities. What do these episodes teach us? First, as in 1996, an immediate cease-fire must take priority, with negotiations on longer-term arrangements to follow. Achieving a cease-fire will be difficult enough without overloading the initial negotiations with a search for permanent solutions. Second, if a cease-fire is the goal, the United States has an indispensable role to play. A succession of Israeli leaders has turned to us, and only us, when they have concluded that retaliation for Hezbollah attacks has become counterproductive. Israel plainly trusts no one else to negotiate on its behalf and will accept no settlement in which we are not deeply involved. Further, based upon my experience in helping bring an end to the fighting in the Balkans, the Europeans are unlikely to participate in a multinational enforcement action until the United States commits to putting its own troops on the ground. Finally, Syria may well be a critical participant in any cease-fire arrangement, just as it was in 1993 and 1996. Although Syria no longer has troops in Lebanon, Hezbollah's supply routes pass through the heart of Syria, and some Hezbollah leaders may reside in Damascus, giving the Syrians more leverage over Hezbollah's actions than any other country save Iran. Syria has invited a direct dialogue with the United States, and although our relations with Syria have seriously deteriorated in recent years (we have not had an ambassador in Damascus for more than a year), we do not have the luxury of continuing to treat it with diplomatic disdain. As the situations with North Korea and Iran confirm, refusing to speak with those we dislike is a recipe for frustration and failure. Because Hezbollah has positioned itself as the "David" in this war, every day that the killing continues burnishes its reputation within the Arab world. Every day that more of the Lebanese infrastructure is turned to dust, Beirut's fragile democracy becomes weaker, both in its ability to function and in the eyes of its people. The impact is not limited to Lebanon or Israel. Every day America gives the green light to further Israeli violence, our already tattered reputation sinks even lower. The reluctance of our closest allies in the Middle East even to receive Secretary Rice this week in their capitals attests to this fact. It is time for the United States to step forward with the authority and balance that this moment requires. The writer was secretary of state from 1993 to 1997.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's just-concluded trip to Lebanon, Israel and Rome was an exercise in grace, bravery and, to my regret, wrongly focused diplomacy. Especially disappointing is the fact that she resisted all suggestions that the first order of business should be negotiation of an...
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