url
stringlengths 36
564
| archive
stringlengths 78
537
| title
stringlengths 0
1.04k
| date
stringlengths 10
14
| text
stringlengths 0
629k
| summary
stringlengths 1
35.4k
| compression
float64 0
106k
| coverage
float64 0
1
| density
float64 0
1.14k
| compression_bin
stringclasses 3
values | coverage_bin
stringclasses 3
values | density_bin
stringclasses 3
values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/24/AR2006032400942.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/24/AR2006032400942.html
|
U.S. to Sanction Belarus for Stifling Protests
|
2006032519
|
The White House yesterday denounced the suppression of political protests against election fraud in Belarus and said the United States planned to join European nations in imposing sanctions on Belarusan leaders.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the United States demanded the immediate release of hundreds of protesters who have been arrested for demonstrating against March 19 elections, which President Alexander Lukashenko claims to have won with nearly 83 percent of the vote.
Riot police broke up days of demonstrations in Minsk, the Belarusan capital, early yesterday. About 200 protesters who had been camped in the main square were arrested and carted away in trucks.
The opposition, whose candidate received only 6 percent of the vote, charged that the elections were blatantly fraudulent, an assertion backed by independent election observers and the United States.
Under Lukashenko, 51, a former Soviet collective farm manager who came to power in 1994 as an anti-corruption crusader, Belarus has become one of the world's "outposts of tyranny," a phrase Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has used to describe half a dozen authoritarian countries. But the man Western critics have dubbed "Europe's last dictator" has won the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose foreign minister defended today's police action against the protesters.
McClellan told reporters, "The United States calls on authorities in Belarus to release without delay the hundreds of citizens who have been detained not only in the past 24 hours but in recent days and weeks simply for expressing their political views."
He said, "We strongly condemn the actions by Belarusan security services," who "forcibly seized and detained citizens of Belarus who were peacefully demonstrating against the fraudulent March 19th election results."
Praising the European Union's decision to impose sanctions on Belarusan leaders, McClellan said, "We plan to take parallel steps involving targeted travel restrictions and financial sanctions." The U.S. sanctions appeared likely to include travel restrictions against Lukashenko and other top Belarusan officials.
Lukashenko has denied being a dictator but has freely acknowledged his authoritarian tendencies.
"An authoritarian style of rule is characteristic of me, and I have always admitted it," he said in 2003, according to a BBC profile. "You need to control the country, and the main thing is not to ruin people's lives."
Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe concluded that the March 19 balloting was not free and fair, citing a "pattern of intimidation" by the state throughout the campaign. However, some Western and Russian polling organizations have found considerable popular support for Lukashenko in Belarus, which has recorded strong economic growth under his presidency and has avoided some pitfalls of the transition to capitalism experienced by other former Soviet republics.
|
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.
| 11.391304 | 0.434783 | 0.478261 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/24/BL2006032400623.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/24/BL2006032400623.html
|
Of Media Mistakes and Explanations
|
2006032519
|
"An article in The Metro Section on March 8 profiled Donna Fenton, identifying her as a 37-year-old victim of Hurricane Katrina who had fled Biloxi, Miss., and who was frustrated in efforts to get federal aid as she and her children remained as emergency residents of a hotel in Queens.
"Yesterday, the New York police arrested Ms. Fenton, charging her with several counts of welfare fraud and grand larceny. Prosecutors in Brooklyn say she was not a Katrina victim, never lived in Biloxi and had improperly received thousands of dollars in government aid. Ms. Fenton has pleaded not guilty.
"For its profile, The Times did not conduct adequate interviews or public record checks to verify Ms. Fenton's account, including her claim that she had lived in Biloxi."
As Ronald Reagan said, trust but verify. This is particularly unfortunate since the Times admitted six days ago buying a bill of goods from a former Abu Ghraib prisoner who claimed to have been the hooded guy photographed on that box.
I mention this as a backhanded way of getting into a discussion about media transparency. The Times, in my view, has made great strides on that front since Bill Keller took over in the wake of the Jayson Blair debacle. I've generally found Keller candid and accessible (except when he made a decision that he could not detail why the paper held the domestic eavesdropping story for a year without compromising confidential sources).
But Keller may be rethinking this whole question of providing behind-the-scenes information and responding to blogs, according to this American Journalism Review piece by Rachel Smolkin. First she poses the question:
"What exactly should news organizations be open about? Are we trying too hard to explain ourselves, being too needy, wasting too much time on the therapist's couch, with a motley lot of bloggers, partisans and pundits as our Dr. Phil? Is more transparency always better, or are there dangers lurking within an otherwise healthy movement? In short, is the pressure for explaining spiraling out of control?"
" 'If you don't explain yourself, you just invite others to do the explaining of you for you,' and sometimes they are ill-informed or are promoting a particular agenda.
"But Keller has become a little more choosy about transparency. On the advice of Managing Editor Jill Abramson, he's mostly stopped reading the media blogs, including Romenesko's influential one on the Poynter Institute Web site (he still finds Gawker hard to resist). 'There's nothing wrong with them, and I don't object to their existence,' Keller says. 'It's just that they can lead to a tremendous and to a somewhat disorienting degree of self-absorption.'
"He's also gotten more selective about granting interviews and about the questions he feels compelled to answer. 'It was time-consuming and distracting,' Keller says of his early transparency efforts. 'Some of that time was well spent, but not all of it. Also, I think, there's a danger that if you spend too much time explaining yourself that you become defensive rather than authoritative.' "
|
Stop the presses: The New York Times has been scammed again :
| 47 | 0.692308 | 1.153846 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301180.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301180.html
|
Tagliabue Deserves a Quick Trip to Canton
|
2006032519
|
Memo to my fellow members on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee:
If we fail to vote NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue into the Hall next February, we should be even more embarrassed than ever before, including the incomprehensible failure once again to get former Washington Redskins receiver Art Monk in the front door in Canton and the mean-spirited snub also accorded to Art Modell, one of the great behind-the-scenes league architects in the Pete Rozelle-era and beyond.
Difficult to believe, but Tagliabue, who announced that he will resign in July after 17 years as commissioner, never has even been among the 15 finalists discussed at length and then voted on for enshrinement every year on the Saturday morning before the Super Bowl. He's made it to the final 25 the past two years, but never the final cut to 15.
It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out why.
Unlike his predecessor, Rozelle, a team public relations man in his early days in the league, Tagliabue has always been exactly what he was hired to be -- all lawyer, all the time. The man who defended the league in countless lawsuits by Al Davis back in the 1970s and '80s was hardly the hand-shaking, back-slapping, public-speaking wizard in the Rozelle image.
He was a former Georgetown basketball player who did all the dirty rebounding work, a driven, brilliant man who spent most of his early professional career in the world of torts and briefs. He was a law library and get-me-in-front-of-a-jury kind of guy who early on also mastered the art of logical, fact-based thinking working for a powerful Washington law firm.
Public speaking wasn't his strength, but as a strategic planner and consensus builder he was widely respected and perhaps even intellectually feared by some of the owners he worked for. He had no peer among the league's owners.
His news conferences, whether at league meetings or the annual state-of-the-league address at the Super Bowls, were hardly made-for-television sound bite stuff. At times, with cameras rolling and pens poised, he came off as stiff and humorless. He occasionally lost patience with questioners who tried to probe a little too deeply for more facts than he was willing to provide, or inquisitors who simply asked dumb questions.
There were times, I must admit, I walked out of some of those sessions shaking my head and agreeing with colleagues who wondered why the commish couldn't have been more forthcoming, thrown us a bigger news story bone or at least exhibited a warmer, fuzzier face and tone.
I've also been around him in more private settings, occasionally even one-on-one, when he could be charming, humorous and far more informative. I also have heard about another side, the kind and compassionate commissioner who did some of his best work at a time when the nation was still reeling from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Tagliabue was the first national sports leader to understand that playing games the weekend after the attacks was absolutely the wrong thing to do. While most of his commissioner colleagues in other sports were still contemplating their options and/or navels, Tagliabue set the pace, stepped up first and did exactly the right thing in calling off the games while the nation tried to come to grips with the specter of terrorism and mourned for the thousands so needlessly killed.
Just as significantly, friends in the NFL's Park Avenue office later also told me about all the right moves he also made behind the scenes. Several league employees lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks, and I was told that for weeks and months, Tagliabue spent as much time trying to help his employees deal with their grief and shattered lives as he did on anything having to do with the big business of pro football. This was not really meant for public consumption, they just wanted me to know what he'd done.
Tagliabiue also showed great leadership on another significant front. He had always been a firm believer in improving diversity on the coaching sidelines and executive suites of teams around the league.
When two Washington-based attorneys made public their scathing report on the dearth of minority head coaches four years ago, Tagliabue used the occasion to form a diversity committee chaired by widely respected Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney. He and Rooney eventually convinced owners to adapt a rule -- the Rooney Rule -- pledging that for every coaching vacancy, at least one minority candidate had to be interviewed.
There will be six African-American head coaches on the sidelines next season, and likely many more to come in future years, long after Tagliabue has gone off to a well-deserved retirement split between homes in Maine and Washington.
In all the stories about his retirement this week, the emphasis on his tenure has mostly been about all the television money he helped his owners make, the labor peace over his entire reign, the building of so many modern stadiums, the formation of the league's own cable channel, the groundbreaking drug program he pushed through, the expansion to 32 teams and on and on.
All of those accomplishments ought to be enough to assure his selection to the Hall of Fame as arguably the finest sports commissioner of his and, arguably, any other era. But his basic decency, so obvious in the weeks after 9/11, and his commitment to diversity throughout the league make him a slam-dunk Hall of Famer in my mind. Not to do make that happen next January would be a travesty of the highest order, and an embarrassment beyond belief.
Question or comment? E-Mail Len.
|
Hall-of-Fame voters would embarrass themselves beyond belief if they do not vote NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue into the Hall next February.
| 42.615385 | 0.884615 | 4.653846 |
high
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032302001.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032302001.html
|
From Her Lips to His Ear
|
2006032519
|
It's time for you to act. Nancy Reagan did it. You can, too.
Things are falling apart. They always do in the second term. And when they do, there's only one person who can change things: the wife. You are the only one who can tell him the truth. You are smart, astute; you're not afraid of him and you love him.
I see you're going on Larry King tonight, and that's a good way to show your support and share your popularity. But your real work is behind the scenes.
The president's poll numbers have tanked. They are among the lowest of any president in history at this point in his term. So think back to Ronald Reagan's second term. He was mired in Iran-contra, his staff was exhausted, and their reaction to criticism was to dig in. Nancy managed to clean house, bring the White House back in touch with the outside world and, in doing so, allowed Reagan to clear his head, end the Cold War and "tear down that wall, Mr. Gorbachev." His polls skyrocketed, from a low of 42 to 68 percent when he left office.
Because of the nature of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Hillary Clinton was unable to carry off the same trick. But you are perfectly positioned.
The biggest problem your husband has now is that so many top Republicans have turned against him. Without the support of his own party, it's pretty much impossible for him to run the country. After the way they went after him over the Dubai ports deal, you can imagine what they are saying about him privately.
Incompetent, unrealistic and insincere were a few of the words circulating at a private dinner recently. Referring to the president's refusal to seek advice on anything -- the war, the economy, foreign policy -- one of the most prominent Republicans in Washington called the situation so dire that he feared "the country would fall apart with another three years of this."
"They don't listen to anybody," said another prominent Republican who was close to the first President Bush.
To a person, every Republican and Democrat I talked to compared your husband to his father. W didn't come out on the winning end. "A real gent," "gracious," "responsive," "inclusive," "conciliatory" were words used to describe the senior Bush. Democrats told how he always returned their phone calls, sometimes at 2 a.m.
Now even Dad's former friends and advisers can't get through. "All of his father's old boys are out in the wilderness together," lamented one of them.
Here are some of the things you can do, collected from half a dozen senior Republicans:
|
Dear Laura, It's time for you to act. Nancy Reagan did it. You can, too.
| 26 | 0.904762 | 12.619048 |
medium
|
medium
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032302050.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032302050.html
|
All Rise, Rock and Roll
|
2006032519
|
They look like a bunch of mobsters.
They wear dark suits and darker sunglasses, have nicknames like Trash Can and Top Dog and brag about how they fought the law (and the law won).
The thing is: They are the law.
Stoic stewards of the Constitution by day in D.C. Superior Court, they are by night (or weekend, or whenever they feel the urge) Deaf Dog and the Indictments -- a guitar-heavy group of seven music-loving judges, anchored by the lone civilian among them, a ponytailed shrink on drums.
They aren't picky about where they play. All they ask for is a little space and a little bit of love.
The love might take some work tonight, when the band is to perform at the Fraternal Order of Police lodge -- in front of a crowd of cops, prosecutors and defense lawyers.
But it was in plentiful supply last weekend, when the band played its first show in months -- at the Armed Forces Retirement Home.
Strutting onto the stage Saturday afternoon in Blues Brothers-black, Dawgg (aka Judge William Jackson) and the rest of the Indictments had more space than they needed -- 100 or so people were spread out in an auditorium built for lots more.
"Let the good times roll," Dawgg announced, launching into the classic from B.B. King, as Dennis "Red Dog" Doyle on lead guitar let out a howl of approval.
It was to be a trip back to the 1950s and '60s, with the music of Wilson Pickett, Ben E. King and, of course, The King himself.
Unsure what to make of their guests, more than a few of the retirement home's residents sat toward the back, as if they were at a Sunday service they feared might go on too long. Dancing in the aisles they were not, but with each song, the restlessness seemed to fade just a little bit.
Even a few fellow judges turned out, eager to see how the band had progressed since its debut last spring during a talent show at the judges' annual retreat.
|
They look like a bunch of mobsters. They wear dark suits and darker sunglasses, have nicknames like Trash Can and Top Dog and brag about how they fought the law (and the law won).
| 10.589744 | 1 | 26.282051 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032302171.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032302171.html
|
Big Game From Ovechkin Can't Save Capitals
|
2006032519
|
TAMPA, March 23 -- It would have been so easy for the Washington Capitals to go through the motions Thursday night at St. Pete Times Forum. But nobody did, which made their 4-3 overtime loss -- the Capitals' eighth in a row -- so difficult to accept.
Twenty minutes after the final horn, many sat in their sweaty gear, staring vacantly at the walls inside the cramped visitors' locker room.
"It's been the same recipe all year," team captain Jeff Halpern said. "At this time of year, when you're out of the playoffs, you're playing for each other and you are playing for pride. It's frustrating. It's embarrassing."
The losing streak may be embarrassing, but the Capitals' effort against the defending Stanley Cup champions was not.
After more than 60 minutes of up-and-down skating, board-rattling body checks and timely saves by the goalies at both ends, Lightning defenseman Pavel Kubina fired a slap shot past a screened Olie Kolzig to provide the decisive score 37 seconds into the extra session.
It was the Lightning's third power-play goal of the game and brought to a sudden end one of the Capitals' most inspired performances of the season.
"I feel for our team," Capitals Coach Glen Hanlon said. "There's nothing else I can say. There's nothing to be ashamed of. If we keep working like this, the time will come for our young kids when we'll win games like this."
Ovechkin, meantime, scored twice to boost his season total to 46, moving him into a tie with Peter Bondra for ninth in Capitals franchise history. He also had an assist.
"I don't know how many goals have Bondra and other Caps who come before," Ovechkin said. "Right now, I just try to score goals and try to help team [take] points from playoff teams like Tampa and Ottawa."
Ovechkin, who fired a season-high 13 shots on the Tampa Bay net, scored his second goal of the game with 9 minutes 53 seconds left in regulation to put the Capitals ahead 3-2. But the Lightning came right back on a goal by Ryan Craig, who deflected a wrist shot past Kolzig (34 saves) to even the score with 7:14 remaining to force overtime.
The Capitals had a chance to possibly put the game away during a six-minute span in the second period in which Ovechkin and his teammates found themselves enjoying a lengthy power play rather than trying to kill one off.
But in a fit of futility, they failed to squeeze a single puck past Lightning goalie John Grahame (27 saves).
|
Pavel Kubina scores 37 seconds into overtime Thursday night to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals.
| 21.24 | 0.84 | 1.96 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301737.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301737.html
|
Soriano Struggles With Mental Adjustment to Left
|
2006032519
|
VIERA, Fla., March 23 -- He hasn't made an error. He hasn't misread a fly ball. He hasn't thrown to the wrong base. And, in reality, he hasn't been tested. But two days in, no one associated with the Washington Nationals expects Alfonso Soriano's switch to the outfield to be easy.
The first part -- getting Soriano to reluctantly agree to play left field, moving from second base -- appears over. Now, though, there is the matter of actually pulling off the switch both physically and mentally. How Soriano handles not only the idea of playing left, but the physical task of, say, going to the gap to track down a double, will go a long way toward determining what kind of season he has.
"Always, I like to be close to the hitter, and to be close to the home plate, close to the bat," Soriano said Thursday. "I hope that it is not working on my mind, being out in the left field."
Yet it will almost inevitably work on his mind, and on the minds of teammates, staff members and fans. Soriano has impeccable credentials as a teammate, drawing raves from nearly everyone who has played with him. But because the flap over this position switch played out so publicly, and because Soriano admits that he would be happier at second base, some members of the organization wonder whether he will be questioned about his effort -- regardless of how hard he is actually playing -- when he misplays a ball in left.
"I just want to make sure that when something goes wrong there, when he starts making some bad throws or something, I don't want to see people start going after him and ripping him," right fielder Jose Guillen said. "That would be bad. Everybody knows he's going to play left field, and he's just learning that position now. I think we've just got to be patient with him."
In the week the Nationals have remaining here before they head north for two more exhibitions -- one in Washington, another in Baltimore -- Soriano is scheduled to get extra work before home games. He will take fly balls off a fungo bat. He will talk with Jose Cardenal, a special assistant to Nationals General Manager Jim Bowden and a major league outfielder for 18 years. They will work on angles to balls, on positioning, on situations. A crash course that takes some players years of work in the minors will be taught in a week and a half.
"People think going over there and catching fly balls is easy," Cardenal said. "It's tough. To me, it's easier coming from the outfield to the infield and catching ground balls.
"You're talking about line drive. You're talking about fly ball, talking about the wind. You're talking about the wall behind you. You're talking about who's running. 'Where am I going to throw the ball now?' It's a lot of things, man. It's not easy to play there."
Which is particularly true in Soriano's current state of mind. As he sat at his locker Thursday morning, he admitted that the firestorm over the past few days has rattled him. After the Nationals sent only eight men to the field on Monday night -- a display meant to emphasize Soriano's apparent refusal to play left -- he was widely criticized for being selfish, for defying a direct order. He and some club officials now think that refusal was a miscommunication. Rightly or wrongly, Soriano knows how he has been portrayed.
"I'm disappointed, because I not like people to think I'm the bad guy," Soriano said. "If I'm the bad guy, it's okay that people think that. But now, I'm not a bad guy. They put me in a situation where I look like a bad guy, but everybody knows who put me in this situation."
That would be Bowden and the Nationals, the same people who must now root for Soriano to somehow make a seamless adjustment. Part of that adjustment, though, is the mere willingness to do it.
"Number one, you have to want to be there," Manager Frank Robinson said. "You have to want to do it. That's number one. And I think if you do that and you're willing to work to get better, [you will]. I think he's a good enough athlete to be able to do it in time and be a pretty good outfielder."
|
This is your source for info on Washington Nationals baseball. Learn about DC baseball at the RFK stadium. Get the latest schedule and stats for the Washington Nationals. Stay updated on the latest Washington Nationals news!
| 20.953488 | 0.534884 | 0.813953 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/23/DI2006032300971.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/23/DI2006032300971.html
|
Cherry Blossoms
|
2006032519
|
The cherry blossoms. Another year has passed and the annual ritual begins again.
Full Post Coverage: Cherry Blossom Guide
Robert DeFeo , chief horticulturalist at the National Park Service, was online Friday, March 24, at 11:30 a.m. ET to discuss everything you wanted to know about the cherry blossoms, the trees, the history and the activities in the nation's capital.
The Cherry Blossoms: National Park Service
Robert DeFeo: Thanks to this ice age we're experiencing the last week or so my original forecast for the blooms was correct. This year the blossoming period which could last 10-14 days will start this weekend with the peak begin sometime early next week, just as forecasted back in early March. Got lucky again.
To stay updated on the blooms go to the following Web site:
An added feature this year is a link to a Web camera that gives live pictures of the Tidal Basin at any one time.
Leesburg, Va.: I can only get down to D.C. on the weekend, so do you recommend going this weekend (when it doesn't look like the trees have hit peak yet) or next weekend (when the trees might be past peak)?
Robert DeFeo: Next weekend and they will be beautiful. The 10-day forecast is for relatively normal temperatures with cool nights which will prolong the blooms so next weekend will be probably the best time to see them. They'll be a few days past peak which is 70 percent of the blossom open; next weekend 100 percent will be open. So it will be a great time to see them.
Washington, D.C.: Does the cold we're having help or hurt the cherry blossoms?
Robert DeFeo: The cooler temperatures are not cool enough to harm the blossoms. They are actually good from the perspective of the festival in that the opening of the cherries and their development through the blooming period is a biological process which is slowed down by cooler temperatures. Therefore, the cooler temperatures are going to prolong the blooming period and it looks like at this point we will have blossoms for the entire two-week period of the festival. The cool temperatures are just good news for the festival and all the visitors that will be coming in that two-week period.
Washington, D.C.: Are the tours offered by the Park Service free of charge?
Robert DeFeo: Yes. And you can find information on the numerous tours -- when they start and their locations -- at The Cherry Blossoms .
Washington, D.C.: I work during the week so I'd like to catch the blossoms this weekend. Where should I go? Last year I got cold early but enjoyed being down at the Tidal Basin.
Robert DeFeo: The entire Tidal Basin will have cherries in the early stages of bloom but a very nice location to see some of the early flowering cherries that will be open as well as the magnolias and other flowing bulbs and shrubs is the George Mason Memorial located between the Jefferson Memorial and the Inlet Bridge. It is one of my favorite locations to view the cherries and numerous other spring flowering plants.
Washington, D.C.: I'm a little confused -- the NPS Web site you gave still says that peak bloom will start this Sunday, March 26th -- are you now saying it will start a little later than that?
Robert DeFeo: The Web page has a forecast for the blooming period. This is when the blossoms start to open until the end where the blossoms fall off.
Within the blooming period is the peak bloom in which 70 percent of the blossoms will be open. The reason we have two periods is because in the past everyone tended to focus on the peak bloom date and if you're here on that day then it's great but it's just as enjoyable early in the bloom as well as near the end. Personally, my favorite time is at the end of the blooming period when the pedals of the blossoms start to fall off the tree. It's also the time when I can get back to my real job.
Denver, Colo.: Rats! It looks I'll just miss the peak time when I come out there. I arrive April 6th. Will there be anything left?
Robert DeFeo: Yes, you will see the blooms but you will be viewing them at the end of the blooming period. They will start to open around March 25 (tomorrow); the peak will be early to mid-next week and the blossoms can go 10-14 days provided the temperatures are cool and the 10-day forecast is for average temperatures during the day with cooler nights. This will prolong the blooming period and so there will be blossoms on the trees on April 6.
Dulles, Va.: What is the difference between the cherry blossom and the dogwood in length of bloom, size, etc.? I know that dogwoods are very slow to grow (I think they only grow 1 foot a year); is it the same with cherry blossoms? Do you have any recommendations as to which is the hardier tree? Thanks.
Robert DeFeo: The cherry tree has more tolerance to the stresses imposed on a tree in an urban environment. A dogwood in a front yard would be fine; however, a dogwood as a street tree would not be a good choice. The cherry is a more durable tree than the dogwood but in the context of trees, an American elm is a much more durable tree than the cherry. The horticulture knowledge base for tolerance to urban conditions by species is very well documented and any search on the Internet would provide information on various species and their tolerance to soil types, moisture and urban stress (i.e., tolerance to de-icing salts).
Herndon, Va.: Will the upcoming rain (I think the forecast is calling for rain today and tomorrow and Tues.) create problems for the blossoms at all?
Robert DeFeo: Not at all. Because early in the blooming period the individual petals are held tightly and are retained by the blossoms and the rain will have no impact whatsoever. But later in the blooming period when the individual petals will naturally abscise (shed) the rain and the wind can serve to knock the petals off and shorten the bloom period.
Bethesda, Md.: What type of trees/blossoms are in the Kenwood neighborhood, and do they bloom at exactly the same time as the ones around the Tidal Basin?
Robert DeFeo: The trees in the Kenwood section are Yoshino cherries, the same trees as around the Tidal Basin, and they bloom just a few days later because it's slightly warmer in the District than in the suburbs. The suburbs tend to experience slightly cooler temperatures than the city.
Washington, D.C.: The Yoshinos are pretty but my favorites are the Kansan. When will they be in peak bloom?
Robert DeFeo: I think you mean Kwansan. This is a different species (Prunus serrulata) and they bloom 10-14 days after the Yoshino cherries. They are also a double deep pink flower vs. the Yoshinos which have single white blossoms.
Washington, D.C.: Everytime I drive by the Tidal Basin, I appreciate what Japan did in donating the cherry blossoms to our city but I wonder why other countries didn't do the same. Are there other botanical gifts from other nations in Washington that you know of?
Robert DeFeo: On National Park Service lands no other donations of trees are as significant as the cherries. A few individual shade trees that grace our monuments and memorials have been donated but again, nothing like the magnitude of the cherries.
Washington, D.C.: I know I'm a grump, but the cherry blossoms turn me into several dwarfs (sneezy being most prominent). When will it all end this year?
Robert DeFeo: Around April 8 or 9.
Alexandria, Va.: We have visitors who are only in town this weekend to see the cherry blossoms. The blossoms don't seem to be blooming much downtown yet. Where's the best place in the D.C./Maryland/Virginia area to see them at their best this weekend?
Robert DeFeo: As stated in an earlier question, the best place is the George Mason Memorial located between the Jefferson Memorial and the Inlet Bridge just west of the 14th Street Bridge.
Robert DeFeo: Also, I suggest you take Metro and walk there vs. driving and trying to find a parking place. If you are driving, go very early in the morning (6-8 a.m.) before it gets crowded. It's gonna be a zoo.
Alexandria, Va.: Thank you for taking questions. I absolutely love the cherry blossoms. So much in fact that I really would like to grow one of the trees in my yard one day. Currently, I live in a condo. Is it possible to start a sapling in a large pot and then transplant it to the ground in a few years (if so which variety is most hearty), or am I better off waiting until I have a yard?
Robert DeFeo: Yes, but it would need to be a very large pot and I would suggest for a patio plant in a large container purchasing the Weeping Cherry (Prunes subhirtella var. pendula). A word of caution: Since the entire plant, including its root system, is above ground and could freeze solid during periods of extremely low temperatures (less than 20 degrees) protection may be necessary to protect from the cold.
It can be planted in the ground anytime but keep in mind the longer it is in the pot the more root-bound it will become. But you could get, depending upon the size of the pot, four to six years of enjoyment.
McLean, Va,: Other than the Tidal Basin, where could one go to see the cherry blossoms?
Robert DeFeo: All the cherries on National Park Service lands are located around the Tidal Basin, on the grounds of the Washington Monument and in East and West Potomac Parks.
Washington, D.C.: Is there any restaurant or bar, or basically anywhere to sit, to enjoy a view a of the cherry blossoms? Thanks!
Robert DeFeo: Not for the trees around the Tidal Basin but you can view the blossoms in East Potomac Park from the numerous bars and restaurants in the are known as the Waterfront along the Boundary Channel.
Washington, D.C.: I am going on a photography tour of the blossoms on Sunday -- will they be ready?
Robert DeFeo: Yes but as stated earlier, they will be in the early stages of bloom and will tend to have a pink hue to them. That will fade to pure white as the blossoms mature.
Robert DeFeo: Probably 30 - 40 percent of the blossoms will be open this weekend. Keep in mind, though, that on any given tree you will have blossoms that are open and blossoms and blossoms that are three to four days from opening. Not all the blossoms are in the same stage of bloom on any one given tree. It varies, generally with the south of the tree opening a little earlier than the north side of it and trees in the sun being slightly ahead of those in the shade.
Fairfax,, Va.: Is it against the law to pick a branch or twig off one of the trees?
Robert DeFeo: Absolutely. Picking the blossoms not only hurts the trees for this year but it also affects future blossoms as the cherries bloom on spurs which are removed when you pick a blossom off. If you are caught you will be ticketed. Basically it is destruction of a resource within a national park and it is against the law.
Robert DeFeo: I would like to close on that note. Please do not pick the blossoms or climb the trees as cherries are soft-barked trees and climbing them can cause irreversible damage.
Thank you for your questions and come down and enjoy the cherries. Best time is early in the morning. Enjoy the festival.
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.
| 57.97561 | 0.609756 | 0.707317 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301606.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301606.html
|
A New Class of Comets Emerges Nearby
|
2006032519
|
Astronomers have identified a new class of comet in the asteroid belt, offering fresh support for the view that the large volumes of water that transformed the barren early Earth into today's fertile planet may have come from a much closer source than the icy bodies that periodically swoop in from deep space.
Researchers at the University of Hawaii late last year discovered a supposed "asteroid" ejecting dust like a comet, and conducted separate observations of two other objects that had been seen spewing dust tails. All three were between 293.4 million and 297.1 million miles from the sun -- in the "main belt" of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.
"Together these three objects form a new class of comets," authors Henry Hsieh and David Jewitt wrote in today's edition of the journal Science. The two researchers called them "main-belt comets."
The new research gives formal recognition to a phenomenon that some astronomers had long suspected -- that not all comets originated in the Kuiper Belt or the Oort cloud far beyond Neptune.
But by adding a third class of comets, Hsieh and Jewitt revived debate not only about the origin and behavior of comets, but also about the early evolution of the solar system and of Earth itself.
"We've known about one of them [main-belt comets] for quite a while, and we thought of it as a strange duck, an outlier," said comet expert Donald K. Yeomans, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Now we have three, and we are going to have to deal with the interesting suggestion that they formed within the asteroid belt."
Asteroids are small, stable, irregularly shaped bodies composed of stone and, sometimes, metal -- principally iron and nickel. Comets, by contrast, are frequently described as loosely packed "dirty ice balls" that erupt with geyserlike jets of dust when exposed ice sublimates, or vaporizes, as the comet nears the sun.
The origin of asteroids is unclear, but scientists generally regard comets as deep space remnants of the spiraling gas and dust disk that formed the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Astronomers study comets as time capsules, pristine samples of the solar system's original building blocks, preserved in a cosmic icebox since the beginning of time.
Most comets remain "dormant," in deep space, but occasionally the gravity of a passing star or of some other cosmic phenomenon disturbs a comet's orbit, sending it into the inner solar system on an elliptical path.
For most of the ensuing journey, the comet remains unchanged, but once it passes the "snow line" inside Jupiter, the sun's heat becomes strong enough to vaporize the ice, creating the characteristic tail and "coma" known to astronomers.
Earth, 93 million miles from the sun and well inside the snow line, began as a hot, waterless wasteland but began to cool about 3.9 billion years ago, while volcanic activity created a carbon dioxide atmosphere that stabilized the climate at temperatures that allowed ice to melt without vaporizing.
Some astronomers say the ice was provided by incoming comets large enough to reach Earth's surface intact. The water filled the oceans and provided Earth with a weather cycle, key events in the subsequent evolution of life.
One difficulty with this interpretation is that the ratio of hydrogen to "heavy" hydrogen, or deuterium, atoms in ocean water does not match that of any deep space comet whose ice has been analyzed.
Jewitt suggested that Earth's ice may have come from the asteroid belt: "We have not measured d-h [deuterium-hydrogen] ratios in these guys [the main-belt comets], but they are not that far away," Jewitt said. "They are probably good targets for future spacecraft."
This view, however, has its own difficulties. Much of the asteroid belt appears to be inside the snow line, so there is no easy reason why main-belt comets should still have ice on them unless they migrated in from deep space with the ice insulated beneath a blanketing layer of soil.
"Could they be captured comets? Perhaps," Jewitt said. "But nobody has yet figured out how that might have happened." Instead, he suggested that the comets formed in the asteroid belt itself and crusted over at a time when the snow line may have been closer to the sun than it is today.
"I'm inclined to accept what they're saying -- that these things did originate in the region," said Brian Marsden, director of the Minor Planets Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "There are three of these objects now, and it would be difficult to explain all three any other way."
Jewitt said the comets, while dormant, looked "just like asteroids" but were probably activated when an impact from a meteorite or other object punched through the insulating crust to the ice below. He and Hsieh estimated in their paper that there could be between 15 and 150 comets in the asteroid belt. "They're not very bright, but you can find them if you look hard," Jewitt said.
|
Astronomers have identified a new class of comet in the asteroid belt, offering fresh support for the view that the large volumes of water that transformed the barren early Earth into today's fertile planet may have come from a much closer source than the icy bodies that periodically swoop in from...
| 18.518519 | 0.981481 | 52.018519 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301784.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301784.html
|
Japan-Taiwan Ties Blossom As Regional Rivalry Grows
|
2006032519
|
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Early rising seniors have gathered for years to exercise among the yellow lotus blossoms and fuchsia rhododendrons of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park, the sprawling gardens in this island's capital. Now local residents stretch their limbs in slow-moving tai chi routines amid a landscape distinctly altered by the addition of 450 cherry trees, a national symbol of Japan.
The trees, set in a park commemorating a leader who fought Japan during World War II, are among the first of more than 10,000 that Japanese and Taiwanese groups intend to plant across Taiwan. They are seen as emblems of the newly blooming relationship between the Pacific neighbors -- a tie that only underscores the competition for regional influence between Japan and China, East Asia's two major powers.
With Japan seeking to shed a half-century of pacifism and reassert itself in world affairs, and China acquiring vastly larger economic and military might, relations between the two are as tense as they have been at any time since World War II.
Nowhere is their contest more visible than here in Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary. In recent months, Japan has made a series of unprecedented overtures toward Taiwan, which was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945. In Tokyo, leading politicians are increasingly adopting the view that Japan must come to the island's aid in the event of Chinese aggression.
Many analysts say they believe Japan's evolving interest in Taiwan could tilt the regional balance of power. The United States, which has diplomatic relations with mainland China, is nonetheless sworn by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 to defend the island territory if it is attacked.
"The peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait and security of the Asian Pacific region are the common concerns for not only Taiwan, but also Japan and the United States," Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian said during an interview last week. Therefore, he said, "Japan has a requirement and an obligation to come to the defense of Taiwan."
Like many countries, Japan severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in the 1970s in deference to Beijing's "one-China" policy. But lately, Japan has been less particular about its rule of maintaining a careful distance. Twice in the past two months, Japan's foreign minister, Taro Aso, has angered China by publicly referring to Taiwan as "a country." Last year, the Tokyo government dropped visa requirements for visitors from Taiwan. And Japanese and U.S. leaders have for the first time jointly declared protection of the Taiwan Strait a "common strategic objective."
In a less public gesture, Yoichi Nagano, formerly a general in the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force, the army, is serving as the first military attaché at Tokyo's de facto embassy in Taipei, the Interchange Association. In an interview, Nagano said he conducts meetings with Taiwanese government and military figures and sends regular dispatches to Tokyo.
In 2004, a group of Japanese legislators formed a committee on Taiwanese security. This May, Tokyo is set to allow former president Lee Teng-hui, the Japanese-educated champion of Taiwanese democracy, to visit Japan for the second time in 18 months. So-called Track 2 meetings between Japanese and Taiwanese politicians, academics and retired military officials have intensified, according to officials in Taiwan and Japan.
These moves coincide with the rise to power in Japan of a new crop of hawks in the long- ruling Liberal Democratic Party headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. During his five years in office, Koizumi has pushed aside rivals in the LDP who had long stressed the importance of maintaining a respectful distance from Taiwan.
The shift also comes as China's military buildup is causing growing concern in Japan. The Beijing government boosted military spending by 15 percent this year. Tensions were particularly heightened after riots broke out across China last year against Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and the publication in Japan of textbooks allegedly whitewashing the country's militarist past.
The Japanese view a potential Chinese takeover of Taiwan gravely. Such a move would give Beijing a perch for its missiles a mere 66 miles from Japanese territory while helping China to control the shipping lanes that carry the bulk of Middle East oil coming to Japan.
|
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Early rising seniors have gathered for years to exercise among the yellow lotus blossoms and fuchsia rhododendrons of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park, the sprawling gardens in this island's capital. Now local residents stretch their limbs in slow-moving tai chi routines amid a...
| 15.425926 | 0.981481 | 52.018519 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301545.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301545.html
|
Rice Presses Karzai on Convert's Life
|
2006032519
|
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 23 -- Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to "pull him into pieces."
In an unusual move, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned President Hamid Karzai on Thursday seeking what she called a "satisfactory outcome" of the case of Abdul Rahman. The 41-year-old former medical aid worker faces the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for becoming a Christian.
His trial has fired passions in this conservative Muslim nation and highlighted a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers.
"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," said cleric Abdul Raoulf, who is considered a moderate and was jailed three times for opposing the Taliban before the hard-line regime was ousted in 2001.
The trial, which began last week, has caused an international outcry. President Bush has said he is "deeply troubled" by the case and expects the country to "honor the universal principle of freedom."
Rice told reporters in Washington on Thursday the case was "a very deeply concerning development" and she had "raised it in the strongest possible terms" with Karzai. "There is no more fundamental issue for the United States than freedom of religion and religious conscience," she said. "This country was founded on that basis, and it is at the heart of democracy."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters she had received assurances from Karzai in a telephone call that Rahman would not be sentenced to death.
"I have the impression that he has a firm willingness" to abide by human rights requirements, Merkel said of Karzai as she headed to pre-European Union summit talks. "I hope we will be able to resolve this."
|
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 23 -- Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning that if the government caves in to Western pressure and frees him, they will incite people to "pull him into pieces."
| 7.075472 | 1 | 53 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301688.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301688.html
|
Use of Drug to Treat ADHD in Children Opposed
|
2006032519
|
The narcolepsy drug modafinil should not be approved as a treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children until more is learned about a possible link to a serious skin disease, federal advisers said yesterday.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted 12 to 1 against recommending modafinil as safe for children with ADHD. Earlier, the psychopharmacologic drugs panel unanimously agreed that modafinil works as a treatment for ADHD.
The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisory panels but usually does.
The committee recommended that Cephalon Inc. undertake a 3,000-patient trial to determine the risk modafinil may pose for Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Drug reactions cause nearly all cases of the sometimes fatal skin disease, which can produce widespread blistering and rashes, according to the Merck Manual.
The FDA's drug evaluation chief, Robert J. Temple, said one out of 900 children involved in earlier studies of the drug developed the disease. He and Cephalon spokeswoman Jenifer Antonacci said the agency and the company will discuss the committee's recommendation.
In December 1998, the FDA approved modafinil, under the brand name Provigil, for treating adults with sleepiness associated with narcolepsy. Other drugs approved by the FDA for ADHD include Ritalin, Strattera and Adderall.
|
Get Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland and national news. Get the latest/breaking news, featuring national security, science and courts. Read news headlines from the nation and from The Washington Post. Visit www.washingtonpost.com/nation today.
| 5.571429 | 0.333333 | 0.333333 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301655.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301655.html
|
College Board Acknowledges More SAT Scoring Errors
|
2006032519
|
School administrators were stunned yesterday by the revelation from the College Board that an additional 27,000 SAT tests from the October exam had not been rescanned for errors.
The announcement was the third admission in two weeks by the testing organization of potential errors and underreported scores in the college entrance exam used by thousands of schools. A spokesman for the New York-based company said that the largest error was a discrepancy of 450 points out of a potential 2,400. The total number of students who will have higher scores resubmitted is 4,411.
"It's incomprehensible to me that there have been three separate discoveries of scoring errors on the same exam," said Gary Ross, dean of admissions for Colgate University, which was informed that it had received 57 erroneous scores. The College Board reports only the scores that were erroneously lowered -- not scores that were mistakenly raised.
"It's a disgrace that upon discovery of the first series of scoring errors the College Board was not able to get to the bottom of the problem," Ross said. "They owe all of us a detailed explanation of what went wrong and how they are going to avoid these kinds of mishaps in the future."
Lee Stetson, admissions dean for the University of Pennsylvania, which had 103 affected applicants said he was "disappointed" in the way the errors were dribbled out. "It makes us very unsettled."
Jennifer Topiel, executive director of communications and public affairs at the College Board, which administers the test, said yesterday that "nothing like this has ever happened before, and we are going to ensure this does not happened again."
"We are 106 years old and have a long history of excellence," she said.
The College Board announced Wednesday on its Web site that it will implement new policies along with its scoring subcontractor, Pearson Educational Measurement. In the future each answer sheet will be scored twice, and steps will be taken to ensure that answer sheets are protected from humidity. In addition, Booz Allen Hamilton has been hired to review scanning procedures, and will provide recommendations within 90 days.
Two weeks ago, the College Board disclosed that of the half-million students who took the October SATs, 4,000 had scores that were higher than originally reported. A week later, it reported that an additional 1,600 sheets had not been rescanned. And then this week, it reported that an additional 27,000 of the October tests were not rechecked, notifying schools and affected students.
"It's the latest installment of a soap opera, and it makes you wonder what's coming next," said Robert Schaeffer of FairTest, which is critical of schools' reliance on standardized testing. He said he would lobby Congress for hearings. "There's less regulation over these tests than over what you feed your pets," he said. "This demonstrates how much human error is involved in making high-stakes education decisions."
The timing is terrible, several admissions directors said. At the University of Virginia, Dean of Admissions John Blackburn found out yesterday morning that 12 more applicants had incorrect scores. So officials will pull out their files just as they did for 66 other applicants, look at the numbers, and see if they need to reconsider. So far, he said, the news has not changed any of their admissions decisions. "SATs are just one factor we consider," he said.
Blackburn said he has never seen a problem like this, in nearly 40 years in admissions. "This group has tested millions of people . . . they're amazingly consistent. Every once in a while the score sheets got some humidity, rippled, so the scanner didn't pick it up."
At Georgetown University, 15,000 admissions decisions letters get mailed today. Officials reviewed 93 applications because of incorrect scores. One was wrong by a significant 200 points, but most were in the 10-to-30-point range, said Charles A. Deacon, the dean of undergraduate admissions. "The concern many of us have is they only adjusted scores that went up -- not the scores that went down. That's the most troubling part," he said, articulating a concern of many administrators that there could be students with inflated scores who got slots another applicant deserved.
The news of testing errors fueled opponents of standardized testing as some schools are reevaluating how much weight to give the SAT.
Twenty years ago, Maine's Bates College made the SAT optional, and the results have been positive, said William C. Hiss, vice president for external affairs.
"First of all, our applicant pool doubled," Hiss said. "It's very simple. You can build a better class with a larger applicant pool. You end up considering a dozen different variables and get a more diverse group with intellectual breath and varied interests.
"Ultimately we concluded that testing was an artificial indicator of success and that intelligence is more multifaceted and complex than what can be measured by any single testing system."
Staff writers Lori Aratani and Susan Kinzie and research editor Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.
|
Get Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland and national news. Get the latest/breaking news, featuring national security, science and courts. Read news headlines from the nation and from The Washington Post. Visit www.washingtonpost.com/nation today.
| 23.452381 | 0.571429 | 0.809524 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301776.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032519id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301776.html
|
Cardinals Scramble To Defeat Abuse Bills
|
2006032519
|
Roman Catholic Church officials are putting a full-court press on Maryland legislators to reject bills that would extend the time allowed for victims of childhood sex abuse to file lawsuits against abusers and their employers.
Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of the Washington archdiocese and Cardinal William H. Keeler of the Baltimore archdiocese have gotten involved, expressing opposition to the bills to House Judiciary Committee members directly or through intermediaries. The archdioceses also have hired a prominent Annapolis lobbying firm, Schwartz & Metz, to supplement the efforts of the Maryland Catholic Conference, their regular lobbying arm.
"Almost everyone on the committee has acknowledged to me that the church has called them or called their ministers about the bill, and they are meeting with every member of the committee, including me," said Del. Pauline H. Menes (D-Prince George's), the bills' principal sponsor.
Del. Carol S. Petzold (D-Montgomery) described the church's lobbying as "just short of frantic. It appears to be a very high priority with them."
Some lawmakers also reported that Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan had conveyed to them the church's concerns.
Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the Washington archdiocese, said that the church's lobbying was not unusual and that "we are doing the same kinds of things we do with any bill" that affects the church.
Under Maryland law, lawsuits by childhood abuse victims can be filed until the victim is 25. The two bills would significantly ease that restriction.
One would let victims file suit until they are 42; the other would open a two-year window during which victims of any age could sue.
Supporters say the bills are needed because victims typically do not report the abuse until they are in their thirties or forties. Church officials say it would be hard for defendants to present an adequate defense decades after an alleged incident, and they note that Maryland has no time limit on criminal charges against a child abuser.
Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (D-Baltimore), a co-sponsor of the bills, said he was contacted by a local rabbi who had received a call from Keeler about the legislation and was relaying the cardinal's concerns. Rosenberg said the rabbi, whom he declined to name, reported that the cardinal was upset that Jewish lawmakers were sponsoring the bills. Rosenberg and Menes are Jewish.
"To make a point of the religion of the sponsor of a bill . . . was beneath contempt," Rosenberg said he told the rabbi.
Keeler is in Rome, and his spokesman said Wednesday and yesterday that he could not be reached for comment.
Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons (D-Montgomery) said Duncan, who is running for governor, telephoned him recently to say that McCarrick was "very concerned about the bills."
Duncan spokesman David Weaver said that McCarrick had spoken about the legislation with Duncan, who is Catholic, but that the cardinal "did not ask Doug to make calls on his behalf."
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, also a candidate for governor, said that church officials "have made me aware of their concerns about this issue" but that neither he nor city officials have become involved.
Committee member Anthony G. Brown (D-Prince George's), who is Catholic, said he and his wife were invited by McCarrick to "a social call" at the cardinal's residence a couple of weeks ago.
They discussed several matters, including the bills extending the statue of limitations, said Brown, who is O'Malley's running mate.
Staff writers Matthew Mosk and John Wagner contributed to this report.
|
Roman Catholic Church officials are putting a full-court press on Maryland legislators to reject bills that would extend the time allowed for victims of childhood sex abuse to file lawsuits against abusers and their employers.
| 18.421053 | 1 | 38 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/15/DI2006031501474.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/15/DI2006031501474.html
|
Post Politics Hour
|
2006032319
|
Don't want to miss out on the latest buzz in politics? Start each day at wonk central: 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 reporter Tom Edsall was online Tuesday, March 21, at 11 a.m. ET .
Rahway, N.J.: I see that you have hired Ben Domenech, one of the founders of RedState.org, a leading right-wing political weblog, to write the "Red America" blog for the Washington Post. In his current post, he immediately defames and slurs leading left-wing political blogs such as DailyKos.com. Can we assume that you will provide an equal opportunity to the left side of the blogosphere by granting a prominent left-wing blogger a column as well? Since the media fairness doctrine is long dead, thanks to Mr. Domenech hero Ronald Reagan, I suppose there is no longer a legal requirement to do so, but it would be nice if The Post could at least pretend to give some kind of equal voice to the left.
Tom Edsall: The hiring of Ben Domenech of RedState has provoked a firestorm, if the volume of questions this morning is any measure. One theory in the newsroom is that he was hired at the behest of Dana Milbank.
More seriously, I am told that this is part of the Post's web operation's efforts to provide diverse views. These decisions are, unfortunately, above my paygrade, much as I would love to have the power to hire and fire.
San Diego, Calif.: Today's paper exposes the soft underbelly of McCain, who is not known as being a LOYAL Republican. His poor showing in Memphis was at 66 votes, yet the media keeps calling him the "frontrunner", (ok, it was Chris Matthews on his live Hardball in Memphis). Does McCain finally have a base of support in Iowa? (which he lacked in 2000) or will he finally show his nose at the August 2007 straw poll in Ames Iowa?The media is not selecting the Republican nominee, it is the early voters in Iowa, N. Hamp. and S. Carolina. My state gets to support who is ever left standing by Super Tuesday in March, or else we get to winnow the race down to the top 3. Who do you think the top 3 will be in 2008 for the Republican nomination as president?
Tom Edsall: McCain is walking a very high tightrope. He is trying to appeal to the conservative base of the GOP that he alienated in 2000, especially the religious right. He spent an hour with Jerry Falwell, whom McCain denounced in 2000. At the same time, his defiance of conservative orthodoxy is what won him votes in 2000, when the states he carried were those where independents and Democrats were allowed to cast ballots in Republican primaries. Much of his appeal now within the party is that he could be competitive, in theory, at a time when Bush's numbers are collapsing. But every time he appears to be compromising past principles to advance his bid for the nomination, he undermines the basis for his claim to be a strong general election candidate.
Washington, D.C.: My question is about the Moussaoui story in The Post today. Is the fact about FBI being warned about Moussaoui new information? Was it not there in 9/11 Commission report?
Tom Edsall: This is a good question that bothered me this morning when I read the story, and I hope to have an answer for you before the end of this chat.
Iowa: I'm assuming this RedState blogger is being paid. How does the Post management justify this when the newsroom staff is being cut by 10 percent according to several reports I have read? I would much rather have The Post continue to present quality, unbiased political coverage than provide bandwidth to an avowed partisan.
Tom Edsall: Another good question. Washingtonpost.com is technically separate from the Post newspaper. The dot com is widely viewed as the area of future growth, while the paper is struggling to keep making a profit in the face of declining circulation and growing competition for advertisers. The results are very different personnel policies. The consequences for the quality of the journalism are not yet determined, although budget constraints are already limiting the scope of our work.
Ontario, Calif.: Good morning, Tom.
Russ Feingold's characterization of other Democrats as "run and hiders" for not supporting his presidential censure efforts seemed surprisingly self serving. It probably furthers his own political aspirations by strengthening his position with much of the nominating base of the party, but does so at the expense of the party as a whole; which will end up seeing his "run and hide" comment again...in Republican campaign ads!
What's your take on his public response to the reluctance other Democrats to endorse his plan?
Tom Edsall: Your question goes to the heart of a major conflict within Democratic ranks over Feingold's censure proposal. Ryan Lizza of the New Republic has presented the sharpest critique of Feingold, arguing that he is willing to damage Democratic prospects in 2006 to further his fundraising and visibility among anti-war forces. Others contend that his proposal is furthering contemporary Democratic interests, and hurting President Bush and the GOP. I believe Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard may have expressed this view. I hate to admit it, but I don't know which side is right.
Austin, Tex.: In your opinion, did the president help or hurt his case for the war in Iraq at today's press conference?
Tom Edsall: From his point of view, he has to be out front pressing his argument for continued support of the war. During the press conference, there were times when he appeared rambling and unable to provide the kind of concise, direct answers that signal confidence. I don't think the hypothetical undecided viewer watching his performance would feel reassured.
Washington, D.C.: Since the Post paper and the .com are separate, who EXACTLY should we contact if we are unhappy about the new blog? I know it won't be removed (since the controversy is probably considered good for ratings), but I would like to argue strongly for an equally liberal blog!
P.S. I think it is pretty wimpy that the new guy's blog doesn't allow comments to be posted...
Tom Edsall: I hate to do this to Jim Brady who seems to be a pretty smart guy, but for the many of you who have strong views about RedState, you should email: Jim Brady at executive.editor@washingtonpost.com
Deary, Idaho: Can you ask those people above your paygrade to reconsider their decision to hire a rabid republican to "balance" Dana Millbank? There is no balance there. Granted, it is hard to find people on the left with the oblivious and offensive certainty of RedStaters. After all, the left has no Coulter or Limbaugh. But if you're going to give the far right a forum you better look hard for an anarchist or extreme radical for the other side.
Tom Edsall: The idea of trying to balance Dana Milbank poses some very interesting questions that I would love to explore, but my suggestions (hire someone with vision, who does not thrive on ridicule) would take too much space. Many of us do believe Dana is rabid.
Washington, D. C.: Do you see any serious prospects for lobbying reform in the current Congress? Does the wave of Republican retirements have anything to do with the prospect of lobbying reform?
Tom Edsall: If I had to bet, I would put my money on no bill, or, at most, a modest bill of little long-range consequence.
Washington, D.C.: The hiring of the Red State Blogger is yet another example of why I cancelled my subscription to The Post and do not intend to ever re-instate it. The Post's view that it needs to "balance" viewpoints buys into the notion that The Washington Post adequately provides a forum for a liberal viewpoint. Do you really believe that The Post has an over abundance of liberal viewpoints?
Tom Edsall: In fairness to the many inquiries about the Red State blogger, the questions you raise go to some basic issues of journalism that deserve much more expansive treatment and should get answers defining the principles guiding the Post as it engages with web. I could shoot my mouth off on these questions, but they should be answered by those with the power to set policy.
Dale City, Va.: Why does the Post feel a need to "balance" Dana? First off I don't consider Dana liberal, just irreverent. I suspect he will use the same tone regardless of the politics of those in charge. Also, the right has many, many places where only the right gets a hearing or is the main voice, like the Washington Times or Clear Channel. "Balance" has nearly destroyed the media. Just spouting two sides because there are 2 sides with no regard for which is correct is a bigger problem than a lack of Bush views.
Tom Edsall: As I suggested, there probably is nothing human, at least, that could balance Dana. I have suggested a close examination of various reptiles, and it may be that we need to go to the Galapagos Islands to find something appropriate.
Washington, D.C.: "Many of us do believe Dana is rabid" Can you explain what you mean by 'rabid'? And who is 'many of us'?
Tom Edsall: Dana provokes levity.
Washington, D.C.: Does DailyKos actively send its people to these chats every morning or something? It seems like whatever that board is talking about, these chats end up talking about. -yawn-
Tom Edsall: Good question. The Red State questions overwhelmed queries about other policy and political matters.
At the start of this chat, I said I would try to get an answer to the question:
Washington, D.C.: My question is about the Moussaoui story in The Post today. Is the fact about FBI being warned about Moussaoui new information? Was it not there in 9/11 Commission report?
"They had lots of warning. but we didn't know until yesterday quite how extensively this guy Samit had been begging for attention to Moussaoui and what he was up to. 70 emails/contacts with superiors is more than we knew." With that I will sign off, and I hope everyone enjoys the entire product of WashingtonPost.com, including the ideologues that we publish.
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.
| 51.487805 | 0.634146 | 0.878049 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/20/DI2006032001051.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/20/DI2006032001051.html
|
Canadian "Prince of Pot" Sought By U.S.
|
2006032319
|
Read the story: High Crimes, or A Tokin' Figure? , ( Post, March 18, 2006 )
Washington, D.C.: Do you think there is an image problem with the legalization movement? Why is it that most of the people who are advocating medical use don't look like doctors but instead look like 60s leftovers?
Marc Emery: I agree, it would be nice to get more suits and fewer cliches attending rallies.
But those who have something to lose don't come to marijuana legalization rallies. If you can be fired, urine tested, suspected as a grower, because newspapers photographed you at a rally, then you won't get people with jobs, kids, security, status, etc to lose.
Why don't teachers attend rallies? Their job. Why don't truckers attend rallies for pot? Urine-testing. Why don't mothers attend? Lose the kids.
Appearing at a legalization rally implies you are doing illegal activity and this is thought in America to full of consequences.
People at rallies typically are young people with no likelihood of stigma causing a compromise on their quality of life. I wish it weren't so, but a police state is effective at suppressing public dissent.
Philadelphia, Pa.: I am one who believes that dangerous substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and pot should be regulated strongly but not illegal. Would you agree this is a consistent and logical position to take?
Marc Emery: Cannabis might more accurately be regulated like coffee, although coffee is less value-added in that coffee workers are thought to be underpaid, exploited.
Cannabis growers typically receive the highest price in the market of any cash crop.
Alcohol and tobacco kill hundreds of thousands each year, cannabis kills no one. Is the alcohol and tobacco paradigm really applicable? I think not.
Cannabis is subtly consciousness changing, but I don't believe it is mind altering.
One thing I tell young people, alcohol when consumed will have a person acquiesce to any kind of immorality, but pot does not change any moral parameters. For example, on alcohol, standards drop rapidly and women often end up having sex with someone they ordinarily wouldn't have sex with. On marijuana, that never happens. Pot never has you do something that goes against your moral beliefs when sober. Pot will have you enjoy more what you would already do. Alcohol will have you do things you would never do ordinarily.
They are not similar. Alcohol is dangerous. Marijuana if it has undesirable effects, subsides quickly and with no long term damage.
Laurel, MD.: Isn't it true that every known medicinal value of marijuana is available in some other therapy? And hence that the people who want it legalized for medical use really just want to smoke it?
Marc Emery: This person may be right, maybe if a person toured the entire pharmocopiae, you might find the right substitute for marijuana medicine.
But why bother? If marijuana works, then that is all the proof any sick person requires.
Even if marijuana is not perfect medicine, why should anyone go to jail for believing it is medicine? Why should anyone go to jail over a plant?
I find this argument about health and responsibility disingenuous.
The president of Coors Breweries (Mr. Coors) has never once been before a court to account for the hundreds of thousands of death related to Coors products. Nor has the President of Philip-Morris been before a court for the hundreds of thousands of tobacco deaths directly related to their products. Same with Smith-Wesson, Ford Motor Company (who still make cars with speed limits two to three time the legal speed limit), Vioxx manufacturers.
Yet because I provided safe seeds to consenting adults (not a one of whom complained!) in America, I face a prison term longer than what a multiple murderer would receive in a Canadian jail. And no one has ever been sentenced to one day in jail for seeds in Canada
Charlottesville, Va.: Does smoking pot (i.e. combustion) cause lung cancer?
Marc Emery: No, smoking pot attacks cancers.
Let me point out a fascinating empirical bit of news.
No coroner or doctor or researcher has found that even one person has ever had respiratory or lung cancers from smoking pot exclusively. Yet many of us have been smoking for 30 and 35 years, non-stop for the most part, and no cancers! Why? Because THC attacks tumors. a 1974 World Health Org study showed that THC injected into rates shrank tumors by 50%!! It was suppressed by the US government and found by the Boston Globe in 1999.
So when you take a big bong hit, you are delivering THC to the lungs, which attacks tumors. Pot itself is a vaso-dilator, unlike nicotine, which is a vaso-constrictor.
That is why chewing tobacco causes lesions and cancers, it blocks the flow of blood and oxygen causing necrosis.
Pot opens up arteries and blood vessel movement, causing increase blood flow and oxygen, and ultimately better health than normal!
Arlington, Va.: Is pot a gateway drug in your opinion? I have my own, just want to see what the "Prince" thinks.
Marc Emery: Pot is readily available, so I would concede that pot is an introductory experience.
However, alcohol, nail polish remover, solvents, tobacco, parent's prescription drugs, stuff kids can easily find around the home are the bad gateways to substance abuse.
All young people will abuse some substance (experience = trial & error), but long term abuse is the key concern.
I ran a drug addiction treatment house and treated 65 patients for hard core addictions like heroin, cocaine, crystal meth. I found that of those 65 patients, 60 did not have their biological father in their life for all or part of their childhood. This psychic wound went on to undermine their entire life. It was this discovery that lead me to see that drug addiction isn't about the drugs, its about childhood trauma. If someone has suffered childhood trauma, then they will go through every drug possible to chase away demons or fears.
Ottawa, Canada: I am curious about your attitude about going to prison. You seem to think that by making a martyr of yourself the U.S. will change its repressive pot laws. Can you explain why you think this will happen?
Marc Emery: I believe if I am extradited to the USA, then over the years that follow, on anniversaries, my birthday, etc. activists around the world will act against US government interests and policies around the world. I will encourage all those who believe as I do to take special and dramatic action to commemorate my imprisonment. I hope that my incarceration would be responsible for tens of thousands of new activists who will burn with a seething passion to undermine the US WAR on Drugs and the evil entities (DEA, ONDCP, the President) that thrive under this US form of fascism.
Rockville, Md.: You're an idiot. You deserve to be locked up for your crimes. Why do you feel the need to throw your activities in the faces of law enforcement agents?
Marc Emery: I believe that I have always kept the debate focused:
Cannabis is a peaceful and honest lifestyle choice, endorsed in writings by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, that is being suppressed by a Nazified, paramilitary organization (the DEA) acting under illegal authority from a White House that has usurped the Constitution. That is a rogue government in Washington DC and in a manner similar to Falun Gong, it is our duty through peaceful methods to rid the world of the evil that sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That is why to defeat the US War on us we use peaceful means, education, and our peaceful spirit to show that there is evil in America and it needs to be addressed. Our enemy uses guns, weapons, helicopters, wire tapping, phone surveillance, snitches, informers, German Shepherd attack dogs, gulags and concentration camps. Is there any doubt what should be eradicated from the face of the earth?
Winnipeg, Manitoba: Marc, what conditions contained in the MLAT treaty would allow the Canadian courts or government to refuse extradition?
Marc Emery: Interestingly, if an extradition is based on politics (as this one surely is), that should negate the extradition. But the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty signed by Canada does not allow politics to be a reason for refusing the extradition -in drug cases!
So I am screwed there, even though Karen Tandy (head of the DEA) repeatedly went on about my impact on the legalization movement (calling Cannabis Culture Magazine a propagandist magazine!).
Only 3 people in 150 years have not been extradited to the US at the behest of the US government. And both my lawyer, 60 Minutes reporter Bob Simon, reiterated that the DEA wants me very badly.
Montreal, Quebec: Marc, why should you and the others Michelle and Greg be charged within Canada on a an Canadian warrant and then not be prosecuted under Canadian law??
All the Best to the BC3
Marc Emery: Because the Canadian political establishment that is in governance in Canada (The Liberal-Conservative parties) both want me out of the way for as long as possible, like the enemies of freedom (White House, DEA, Congress) in the USA do.
In 10 years I achieved huge results in Canada and the world. I sent out over 4 million seeds, had people grow those plants out, over 10 years, probably produced 10 to 20 million marijuana plants around the world, forcing the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars in Nazi police style activities in the USA, Canada and the world. Then with that money, I spent just under $4 million on court cases, lawyers for class action suits, ballot initiatives, politicians, elections, rallies, conferences, political parties, all peaceful, democratic investments, completely transparent, to subvert the US drug war and bring about a legal environment where cannabis can be taxed, regulated in a manner that addresses all social concerns. Ending prohibition, to say it simply.
It was a genius plan. Produce millions of plants to Overgrow the Governments, give the US people what they want (they do want the marijuana, and they'd rather grow it themselves than buy Afghani or foreign pot) and then spend the money they have entrusted to me to achieve what Americans who must hide from their government cannot do, participate in the public process to end prohibition.
Silver Spring, Md.: Megalomania, noble megalomania, but megalomania all the same.
Marc Emery: But that is not a criticism of me, only my attitude.
Criticism should be directed at my work. And where is the flaw in the raison d'etre or the execution of my ideas. All peaceful, honest, transparent. So easily contrasted with our enemies in Washington, deceptive, dishonest, megalomaniacal, armed to kill.
Detroit, Mich.: You seem like a passionate activist. Why not focus your energy on something that would provide a greater good for all of society? Like getting rid of poverty, or pollution controls? I mean there are just so many worthwhile causes to benefit society as a whole instead of people who just want to get high. I had an uncle who smoked pot until he was in his 40s, his kids have problems because their dad smoked pot, but since he's stopped he's so much more fun to be around. I mean, do something to help everyone instead of creating an even more lazy society.
Marc Emery: More people are in jail for non-violent, peaceful transactions about drugs than any other grotesque civil rights violation in the world.
Since 1956, over 13 million Americans have been arrested for pot, several million spent significant times in jail for pot over those years. Why? No reason! Just pure state sponsored sadism!
Currently there are over 100,000 in US jails for non-violent cannabis growing, selling, distributing or even possession. There are 150,000 more in jails worldwide for marijuana. This staggering in inhumanity to those jailed and their children and loved ones who are made miserable. And for what? To satisfy a sick and evil urge in the US government to make "the sinners pay". That's all it is. Ideology that punishes people for their peaceful honest lifestyle choices.
In our new to be released edition of Cannabis Culture Magazine, we profile the 10 longest serving pot prisoners in America, all have been in jail at least 14 years so far, and many have been in jail for 15 to 20 years on life sentences for distribution of pot. Rapper Weldon Angelos just received a 55 year sentence for selling a few ounces of pot. America is a prison state with over 2.5 million prisoners, many for drugs, which is the result of prohibition. If I can draw attention to the cesspool of abuse and incarceration that is America today, then I will be useful in jail.
Silver Spring, Md.: What do you believe to be a reasonable age for a person to begin smoking marijuana. I myself first tried it at 13 and am kind of horrified in retrospect when I see how you 13 year olds appear now. I never smoked it with any regularity until the end of high school and then went on to be a very successful college student, as well as a daily smoker. I consider myself a strong legalization advocate mostly for practical concerns relating to society as a whole but I have mixed feelings as to how I feel children should be educated about marijuana.
Marc Emery: I didn't smoke marijuana until I was 22. I had my comic book business from 11 - 16 to keep me busy, then my bookstore from 17 - 22 to keep me busy. So I was a late bloomer.
Realistically, kids discover stuff around their house. Getting liquor from the liquor cabinet, finding smokes about the house,going into the medicine cabinet. In British Columbia, 5% of all 10 year old boys are on Ritalin. That's an amphetamine. And we wonder where they get an interest in crystal methamphetamine.
When they find pot, its always fun. That's why 80% of high school kids will try pot. The word from their friends is that pot is fun and pot is cool. and pot IS always cool.
You look at who tells you pot is great - musicians, hip hoppers, rockers, artists, move actors, writers, poets, computer nerds, etc - and who tells you pot is not great -parents, teachers, police, priests and government. It is always the permanent uncool class of culture that's says pot is not good. POT was used by black jazz musicians in the 20's and 30's, beatniks (Kerouac, etc) in the 50's, the peace generation in the 60's, Hendrix, the Beatles, etc. c'mon, that is permanently cool.
Pot is always cool. As long as its illegal, young people must have it. In this way we criminalize the natural curiosity of our youth and create an evilly apartheid like community.
Munich, Germany: You're obviously a strong advocate of smoking marijuana. What is your opinion on the negative heath aspects (cancer (thinking of Bob Marley), concentration loss, motivation loss) versus positive health aspects of medicinal marijuana?
Marc Emery: Bob Marley died of cancer of the toe, which spread through his blood to his brain. His lungs were free of cancer to the end.
Any substance used by 164,000,000 people worldwide is going to have some health anomalies. Nothing can be used by that many people without some interesting unexpected effects.
However, that is no reason anyone should go to jail. That is why I typically refuse to talk about health implications because it is the only time in human discourse where the health efficacy of a substance is used to jail us.
For example, if we talk about deaths from trans fats or McDonald's French fries, no where in that discussion is it even implied or suggested that someone should go to jail for possessing those French fries or selling them. But in every discussion about the health effects of marijuana, the questioner is usually trying to draw a negative health inference specifically with the intent to justify prohibition of marijuana, that is the jailing and punishment of my people. So it isn't really about health, since jail is never an antidote to bad health, its about justifying the pogrom against us with 'health' explanations. Evil stuff but subtle.
Reston, Va.: I'm not sure if selling pot seeds by mail makes you a one-man criminal enterprise, but I cannot understand this administration's obsession when it comes to marijuana. I haven't smoked since college in the 1970s, but pot's value for relieving various medical symptoms is documented and undeniable. When my grandmother stayed with me so I could take her to the hospital for daily radiation treatments, a bit of marijuana suppressed her nausea better than any medication and without any side effects. I have had other friends who were forced to buy it illegally when it was the only thing that worked well enough to have a halfway normal existence and get through each day.
Marc Emery: Governments are obsessed with marijuana because the marijuana people are peaceful, experimental, sexual, sensual, critical thinkers who reject one book dogmas, whether the dogma is Christian, Muslim, fundamentalism, or even the dogma of the Book of The Law. All the people who believe all the "answers" are in one book are very dangerous to the survival of the planet. That is why Falun Gong is so dangerous to the Communist Party of China. They put their spiritual self ahead of the Communist Party. They believe they have the right to practice autonomous, peaceful, behavior and thoughts. They practice a peaceful and honest lifestyle choice that infuriates the Communist Party, to the extent that Falun Gong practitioners are tortured, jailed, executed, punished. The Cannabis culture is the same. Always governments, teachers, police, parents, priests, see the cannabis people questions their authority, which requires unquestioning obedience. We don't accept unquestioning obedience as a basis for life, so we are targeted by governments who need followers, not critical thinkers.
Washington, D.C.: Are there currently any legal alternatives that produce the same effects as marijuana?
Marc Emery: If there were, they'd be illegal. Its the call to critical thinking, repudiating dogma that marijuana brings out. That substance would be illegal.
Actualizing substances that allow you to see beyond the Calvinist work-sacrifice-obedience to God(via the White House/Tehran/Jerusalem)are all illegal. Mushrooms, cannabis, DMT, all these substances that allow a person to see greater truths beyond the popular "imaginary friends" dogma of mainstream belief systems is illegal. Ever met a Deadhead that was menace? (Al Gore, maybe, but) mostly Deadheads are peaceful people, yet there are still over 100 people serving their second decade for distributing LSD at Grateful Dead concerts. LSD is one of the most beautiful experiences any human can have. And there they sit rotting in jail for delivering a beautiful experience to others.
Washington, D.C.: I do agree that with the legalization good can come, tax dollars & cutting into the 'black market' but then the problem will lay how would the government control it. There are so many different 'brands' of chronic, which then leads to the problem of increasing the black market with just the 'heavier' chronic if not provided by the government. What should be the age limit, or would there be?
Marc Emery: The system I envisage is this way.
State governments licence farmers to grow marijuana, usually in Greenhouses in the rural areas. Its legal now, so theft won't be a big problem. People with gardens are allowed 10 plants in the back yard. Growing in residential houses is discouraged. Government would licence retail distributors. It would be labeled for potency and purity. It would be chosen like a coffee flavor, " Give me 10 grams of White Widow, 5 grams of Grapefruit. " Then it would be vacuum sealed and it would be a $100 fine to smoke on the streets, so you have to take it home to a private function, club or residence before it could be opened. The point of sale distributor would not be able to sell to those under 18, would collect applicable taxes.
This would deprive millions from crime syndicates, stop the hundreds of thousands of teenagers who enter the illegal cannabis market every year to earn money, make everything transparent and obvious.
Silver Spring, Md.: I would argue that the most influential cultural force on today's youth is hip-hop culture. It is a culture that is openly accepting of marijuana and reaps the commercial rewards of this stance. Do you find it ironic or infuriating that a culture that embraces Snoop as a marketable icon condemns his most public of indulgence?
Marc Emery: Hip hop is very influential to young people, its a strange mix of mass conformity (haven't they been doing the same schtick for 15 years now!) posing as rebellion.
However, clothes, music, even attitude isn't real rebellion. But pot is still rebellion. Anything that makes your parents,. teachers, and cops come down on you is definitely certified rebellion! And so they exploit that in the music.
The problem is really that white guys who have been smoking every day for 30 years do not announce this. Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Robert Plant, Jack Nicholson, Harrison Ford, they all smoke marijuana every day and I would love it if those guys, and about 300 others I know who are white, old and famous, would come out and say it. Its too late for Art Garfunkel, he's out (and so is Paul Simon, 40 years and still smoking!)
But they don't want their travel plans interrupted by Homeland Security, they don't want their label to drop them, etc. so they say nothing while being totally chronic. Its the hippies at the rallies paradigm, if you've got something to lose, you stay in the closet.
Rockville, Md.: I smoked marijuana for over 10 years on a daily basis. Now that I have a wife that doesn't smoke and a new baby boy, I don't smoke at all.
I need to clear a large number of fallen branches from the trees in our yard. It's going to require lots of cutting, the use of a chainsaw, and bundling up the pieces for disposal--and will take several hours.
First the first time in a long while I've been like "Man I wish I had some weed before starting this!". I truly don't miss smoking that much, but it made yardwork SO MUCH EASIER for some reason. I would actually enjoy this monumental task if I had a big fat spliff beforehand.
Marc Emery: One of the great values of marijuana is its utility in making boring routine work invigorating.
It may sound odd to many, but you can handle serious responsibilities using pot and it may enhance your performance.
The proof of competence is always performance, that's why urine testing is completely wrong. People need to be urine tested because no incompetence was visible at the actual performance level! That is the fraud of urine testing. It detects lifestyle but not performance!
Many auto assembly line workers know pot makes the job more interesting and engaging. Women who do housework find that housework is way more fun using pot. I found I was a better parent, driver, lover, teacher after smoking pot. Better businessman too.
New York, N.Y.: Do you think that government persecution may have the effect that people who support our civil rights become disenchanted with their government and stop voting, thus resulting in elections tilted toward the law-and-order vote?
Marc Emery: Lets hope they watch V for Vendetta, currently on at the movies.
I am happy that a popular entertainment vehicle is promoting the idea that the government is the terrorist organization, with clear parallels to governments in Britain and the USA, the primary western terrorist organizations (Iran, China, Russia are the Asian terrorist governments).
Even though its only a 'movie' it will be popular as a cult film in the years ahead, influencing people to look at their government in stark term. Although the July issue of Cannabis Culture has an article, " The 79 Excellent Congressmen and women of the House of Representatives. " its easy to see why pot smokers are disengaged from the political process. Watching Jon Stewart makes you feel informed and helpless at the same time! We need a revolutionary spirit in our politics, and we need to call for the end of the White House/Capital Hill dominance of our daily life. I think more popular entertainment that creates an environment where people feel revolutionary is a very good thing. We need the 60's back, and of course, suppression of marijuana is all about repressing the 60's, Vietnam-war protests, the music, the revolutionary ethos.
Washington, D.C.: Are you high now?
Marc Emery: It would make this more fun, I'm exhausted! But I found out that my interviews weren't noticeably different high or otherwise. When I toured Canada in 2003 on my Summer of Legalization Tour, smoking a bong or one ounce joint in front of police stations, when I got arrested at 4.20, I was hauled off to jail after just the one toke. That happened in 6 cities. In the 12 cities I didn't get arrested in, I kept smoking non-stop and kept talking to the media for up to 90 minutes more.
When I compared the interviews later on (high/not high) they were identical.
Vancouver, B.C.: How can we get our teachers to teach our children the scientific, accurate and evidence based approach regarding drug use if we display a wanton disregard for people like Marc Emery who has brought more information regarding drug prevention and use to the forefront during the past 10 years of his career?
Marc Emery: Why do we have police officers going into schools to talk about drugs? Shouldn't that be nurses, doctors, pharmacists and guidance counselors? Its because we want to impress to kids that its not about health, its about going to jail. Its about breaking the arbitrary rules of society, and the punishment that goes with that. Its all about the punishment.
If drugs were all legal and regulated, and we were honest with ourselves about health consequences, we would pay no attention to marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, we would look at how to best protect ourselves from cars, stress, tobacco, alcohol, prescription drugs (average 62 year old is on 8 different medications - wow!), guns, and all the other actual dangers that exist in every day, real time culture.
The Drug War is not about health. You cannot incarcerate your way to good health. The Drug War is all about obedience and dogma.
Washington, D.C.: Marc, I am very pro ganja and I agree with many of the points you have made regarding the the pros and cons of marijuana verses legal vices such as alcohol and cigs. Even though I support your goal I don't like the rhetoric you are using to achieve it. The marijuana legalization movement will never be taken seriously by the mainstream because too many of its advocates come across as radicals. When you say things like
"a Nazified, paramilitary organization (the DEA) acting under illegal authority from a White House that has usurped the Constitution. That is a rogue government in Washington DC and in a manner similar to Falun Gong, it is our duty through peaceful methods to rid the world of the evil that sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"
"Our enemy uses guns, weapons, helicopters, wire tapping, phone surveillance, snitches, informers, German Shepherd attack dogs, gulags and concentration camps. Is there any doubt what should be eradicated from the face of the earth?"
you come across as a little crazy. Comparing the DEA to the Nazis and implying that the government runs concentration camps is extreme and silly. How could you expect the average person in America to take you or you movement seriously when you say things like that? Concentrate on the fact that alcohol and tobacco are more addictive and destructive then marijuana yet they are legal. That kind of logical argument will get a much better reaction from a housewife in Kansas because it makes sense.
PS I have a great cartoon from the new Yorker on my fridge that has a bunch of Senators standing around smoking joints. The caption reads, "if hippies had drank booze instead of smoked in the 70s"
Marc Emery: I run into this criticism but the evidence is plain.
When you see eight guys in black kevlar with DEA or SWAT on their back, carrying battering rams to smash the front door, with stun grenades, tasers at the ready, with snarling German Shepherds, screaming get down! get down! and invading a home...over some plants, and you think that's normal, that's Karen Tandy's wet dream (if she has any, it'll be about that image).
That scene above happens every hour in America, and its the same scene as Schindler's List, my friend, except no American really wants to believe that, as Pogo said in 1954 (alluding to Joe McCarthy) " we have met the enemy, and it is us."
Gulags that hold more prisoners in America than any other country including all the dictatorships, by absolute numbers and by per capita. That's hardly "land of the free" advertising. Black uniformed Nazified police indeed, they are everywhere in America today. "Patriot" Act, an Orwellian title to herald an end to the very Constitution a "patriot" would seek to save and protect. Its all gone wrong in America and Americans have an obligation to do some heavy work and return to the values of liberty because now those values-gone-wrong are infecting the rest of the western world.
The DEA has offices in 78 countries now, extending the pernicious DEA beast into all those countries. Excepting Venezuela, and soon, Bolivia, that got the courage up to boot the US government out.
New York, N.Y.: In the states that have had medicalization on the ballot, it has been overwhelmingly popular. The percentage of voters in favor of medicalization far exceeds that of any presidential candidate. So why are politicians afraid of embracing such a popular issue?
One might also note that, if recent history is any guide, a Democrat cannot win the White House without either supporting decriminalization (Carter) or using pot himself (Clinton, Kennedy). Going back further, one could note that FDR's advocacy of ending prohibition was a large factor in his election (even though he ended up signing into law the new prohibition in 1937).
Marc Emery: The people who go to the ballot have American compassion and so they support the idea that in America you are free to put in your own body what you need to stay well.
However, politicians know it is all about "control". The purpose of government is not to protect our liberty but to control our access to liberty and choices. No government gives up control easily, readily or without a fight. Government sees its sole purpose as control.
I hope anyone who wishes to read more about my work goes to www.cannabisculture.com On that page is a piece called "My message to you" which is a good summing up of my work over the last 10- years and an assessment of my situation.
Thank you. These were the most intelligent questions and I am pleased with them.
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.
| 153.658537 | 0.731707 | 0.926829 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001416.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001416.html
|
Man Overboard
|
2006032319
|
I have a new theory about what's behind everything that's wrong with the Bush administration: manliness.
"Manliness" is the unapologetic title of a new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, a conservative professor of government at Harvard University, which makes him a species as rare as a dissenting voice in the Bush White House. Mansfield's thesis is that manliness, which he sums up as "confidence in the face of risk," is a misunderstood and unappreciated attribute.
Manliness, he writes, "seeks and welcomes drama and prefers times of war, conflict, and risk." It entails assertiveness, even stubbornness, and craves power and action. It explains why men, naturally inclined to assert that "our policy, our party, our regime is superior," dominate in the political sphere.
Though manliness is "the quality mostly of one sex," Mansfield allows that women can be manly, too, though the sole example he can seem to come up with, and deploys time and again, is Margaret Thatcher. "Is it possible to teach women manliness and thus to become more assertive?" he wonders, but not really. "Or is that like teaching a cat to bark?" Me-ow!
"The problem of manliness is not that it does not exist," Mansfield concludes. "It does exist, but it is unemployed." Well, um, excuse me, but I think -- it's just my opinion, now, maybe you disagree, and I'm sure we could work it out -- Mansfield has it exactly backward. Manliness does exist. The problem is that it's overemployed -- nowhere more than in this administration.
Think about it this way: Is a trait exemplified by reluctance to ask directions -- "for it is out of manliness that men do not like to ask for directions when lost," Mansfield writes -- really what you want in a government deciding whether to take a country to war?
The undisputed manliness of the Bush White House stands in contrast to its predecessors and wannabes. If Republicans are the Daddy Party and Democrats the Mommy Party, the Clinton White House often operated like Mansfield's vision of an estrogen-fueled kaffeeklatsch: indecisive and undisciplined. (Okay, there were some unfortunate, testosterone-filled moments, too.) Bill Clinton's would-be successor, Al Gore, was mocked for enlisting Naomi Wolf to help him emerge as an alpha male; after that, French-speaking John Kerry had to give up windsurfing and don hunting gear to prove he was a real man. And Bush's father, of course, had to battle the Wimp Factor. Mansfield recalls Thatcher's manly admonition to 41 on the eve of the Persian Gulf War: "Don't go wobbly on me, George."
No wimpiness worries now. This is an administration headed by a cowboy boot-wearing brush-clearer, backstopped by a quail-shooting fly fisherman comfortable with long stretches of manly silence -- very "Brokeback Mountain," except this crowd considers itself too manly for such PC Hollywood fare. "I would be glad to talk about ranchin', but I haven't seen the movie," Bush told a questioner.
There are, no doubt, comforting aspects to the manly presidency; think Bush with a bullhorn on top of the smoldering ruins of the twin towers. After a terrorist attack, no one's looking for a sensitive New Age president. Even now, being a strong leader polls at the top of qualities that voters most admire in Bush.
But the manliness of the Bush White House has a darker side that has proved more curse than advantage. The prime example is the war in Iraq: the administration's assertion of the right to engage in preemptive and unilateral war; the resolute avoidance of debate about the "slam-dunk" intelligence on weapons of mass destruction; the determined lack of introspection or self-doubt about the course of the war; and the swaggering dismissal of dissenting views as the carping of those not on the team.
The administration's manliness doesn't stop at the water's edge. Pushing another round of tax cuts in 2003, Vice President Cheney sounded like a warrior claiming tribute after victory in battle: "We won the midterms. This is our due," Cheney reportedly said. After the 2004 election, Bush exuded the blustering self-assurance of a president who had political capital to spend -- or thought he did -- and wasn't going to think twice before plunking down the whole pile on Social Security.
Mansfieldian manliness is present as well in Bush's confident -- overconfident -- response to Hurricane Katrina (insert obligatory "Brownie" quote here). And the administration's claim of almost unfettered executive power is the ultimate in manliness: how manly to conclude that Congress gave the go-ahead to ignore a law without it ever saying so; how even manlier to argue that your inherent authority as commander in chief would permit you to brush aside those bothersome congressional gnats if they tried to stop eavesdropping without a warrant.
Mansfield writes that he wants to "convince skeptical readers -- above all, educated women" -- that "irrational manliness deserves to be endorsed by reason." Sorry, professor: You lose. What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt.
But that's just my view.
|
I have a new theory about what's behind everything that's wrong with the Bush administration: manliness.
| 53.55 | 1 | 20 |
high
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001417.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001417.html
|
The Planet of Unreality
|
2006032319
|
This is not good. The people running this country sound convinced that reality is whatever they say it is. And if they've actually strayed into the realm of genuine self-delusion -- if they actually believe the fantasies they're spinning about the bloody mess they've made in Iraq over the past three years -- then things are even worse than I thought.
Here is reality: The Bush administration's handpicked interim Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, told the BBC on Sunday, "We are losing each day an average of 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is. Iraq is in the middle of a crisis. Maybe we have not reached the point of no return yet, but we are moving towards this point. . . . We are in a terrible civil conflict now."
Here is self-delusion: Dick Cheney went on "Face the Nation" a few hours later and said he disagreed with Allawi -- who, by the way, is a tad closer to the action than the quail-hunting veep. There's no civil war, Cheney insisted. Move along, nothing to see here, pay no attention to those suicide bombings and death-squad murders. As an aside, Cheney insisted that his earlier forays into the Twilight Zone -- U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators, the insurgency is in its "last throes" -- were "basically accurate and reflect reality."
Maybe on his home planet.
Donald Rumsfeld, meanwhile, was busy on The Post's op-ed page, abusing history. Leaving Iraq now, he wrote, "would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis." The bizarre analogy was immediately disputed by foreign policy sages Henry Kissinger (who noted that there was "no significant resistance movement" in Germany after World War II) and Zbigniew Brzezinski (who just called the comparison "absolutely crazy'').
George W. Bush, who speaks as if he has ascended to an even higher plane of unreality, marked the third anniversary of the invasion Sunday by touting a "strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq." I know that "victory" is a word that focus groups love, but did anyone else hear an echo of Richard Nixon's "secret plan" to end the war in Vietnam? Does anyone else remember that there was no "secret plan''?
It's reprehensible when our highest elected officials act cynically, as I believe this administration has done -- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest knew the evidence for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was less than conclusive, but they hyped it anyway to build support for an invasion they were determined to launch. It's dangerous when our leaders act cluelessly, and the Bush White House has done plenty of that as well -- experts who called for a much bigger invasion force were silenced and shoved aside, assurances that Iraqi oil revenue would defray U.S. costs turned out to be a sick joke, and there was no effective plan to get the electricity turned on, much less deal with thousands of insurgents.
But cynicism and cluelessness are one thing. Actually being divorced from reality is another. Do Bush et al. really see only the democratic process they have installed in Iraq and not the bitter sectarian conflict that process has been unable to quell? Do they realize that whatever happens, there's not going to be a neat package, tied up with a bow, labeled "victory" -- certainly in the 34 months (but who's counting?) that the Bush administration has left in office?
Rumsfeld, I think, gets it. "History is a bigger picture, and it takes some time and perspective to measure accurately," he wrote in his op-ed piece, the whole tone of which reminded me of Fidel Castro's famous declaration as he was being jailed after his first, failed attempt at revolution: "History will absolve me." Condoleezza Rice seems to get it, too, telling Australians the other day that "beyond my lifetime" people would appreciate what the administration had done for the Middle East.
But what about the two men at the top?
Cheney lamented this weekend that "what's newsworthy is the car bomb in Baghdad," and "not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces in terms of making progress towards rebuilding Iraq." Yesterday Bush recounted a successful anti-insurgent operation in one town, calling it a good-news story that people wouldn't see in their newspapers or on their television screens.
Fine, blaming the media is a time-honored tactic. I just hope they're being cynical about it. I hope they don't really believe the nonsense they're trying to sell.
The writer will take questions today at 2:30 p.m. on www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address iseugenerobinson@washpost.com.
|
This is not good. The people running this country sound convinced that reality is whatever they say it is.
| 45.619048 | 1 | 21 |
high
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001415.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001415.html
|
Swing Is Still King At the Polls
|
2006032319
|
We hear it every day: America is divided into two camps -- red and blue -- and the key to elections is just energizing the base.
But in fact, while the base is critical, it's not the whole picture. Behind all the rhetoric, the reality is that swing is still king. The two or three or 10 voters who are the quietest in focus groups, who never demonstrate and who belong to no political party, will be the ones who determine the political course of America.
This is less true in Washington, where everyone has to choose sides to survive, but outside the Beltway, trends show that voters are increasingly open and flexible, not rigid. They are looking at candidates' records and visions, not their party affiliation.
In the past 50 years independents have grown from one-quarter to one-third of the electorate, according to Gallup polls. In California, the number of independent voters more than doubled between 1991 and 2005. The fastest-growing political party in the United States is no party.
According to the American National Election Studies at the University of Michigan, the number of split-ticket voters in the electorate -- meaning people who vote for a Democrat for president and a Republican for Congress, or vice versa -- has gone up 42 percent since 1952. That shows a radical new willingness on the part of Americans to look at individual candidates, not party slates. It is a sign of a thinking electorate, not a partisan one.
When asked, Americans have a characteristic swagger and express that they definitely will or will not vote for candidates and parties. In 1995, 65 percent of voters said they would never vote for Bill Clinton. One year later they reelected him in a landslide.
Recent polls show that rather than a static electorate, we have a dynamically changing one. Based on the polls six months ago, journalists were declaring Republican hegemony. Today, Democrats have the widest margin in two decades on the generic congressional vote.
Was there a sudden surge in the number of hard-core Democrats answering surveys, or was it just a matter of America's swing voters deciding that President Bush is failing on the economy, the war and, recently, national security, by compromising the ports? Clearly, there is a massive swing electorate out there that is receiving more information from more sources than ever before -- and acting on it.
According to CNN exit polls, in the presidential elections of 1996, 2000 and 2004, one-fifth to one-third of voters made up their minds in the last month before the vote. Indeed, in the summer of 2004, voters swung from an eight-point lead for John Kerry to a 13-point lead for Bush, and in the end gave Bush a victory by only three points.
We can expect the same variability in the 2006 and 2008 elections. In a Gallup poll from last August, 83 percent of Americans said either that they hadn't seriously considered who they'll support or that they weren't really paying much attention. Asked in January whether they would vote for a Republican or Democrat for president in 2008, 34 percent of registered voters said "neither" or that they could go either way.
And an analysis of the last presidential election shows that while turnout was indeed higher, it was higher on both sides, canceling out the impact of the appeals to the two bases. Middle-aged women and Hispanic voters were the key voting blocs that made the difference, swinging the vote from Kerry to Bush. In fact, in 2004 women made up 54 percent of the U.S. electorate, the highest percentage in history. Their interest in and impact on politics has been increasing.
Choosing between appealing to the base and the swing vote is, as President Bill Clinton would say, a "false choice." His signature policies -- family and medical leave, 100,000 cops, middle-class tax cuts, a strong national defense, and a balanced budget -- drew support from both Democratic die-hards and voters in the vitalcenter.
In 1996 we identified soccer moms as the critical swing voters. Today they remain at the center of the swing vote, but they're a decade older and their kids are going off to college. Now they get their information from the Internet as well as TV, radio and print media, making them the most informed swing voters in history. And while they had little time when their kids were 6 and 8, many of those boomers are now getting some extra time to think about what's going on in America and the world.
These voters are untethered to either political party. While it's become conventional wisdom to say that voters' minds are firmly made up, and that certain candidates can or cannot win, it's just not true. The growing bloc of swing voters takes a hard look at candidates much later in the process, and they adjust and shift as they gather information. They may seem like wallflowers in the political process right now, but they are the ones a successful campaign eventually needs to cross the finish line.
The writer heads a polling firm that conducted surveys for President Bill Clinton in 1996. He is also chief executive of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller.
|
America is divided into two camps -- red and blue. But voters who never demonstrate and belong to no party will determine the country's political future.
| 34.1 | 0.9 | 4.433333 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001418.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001418.html
|
The GOP's Shrinking Middle
|
2006032319
|
Members of Congress retire all the time, but some retirements are leading indicators of the direction of our politics. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert's announcement last week to call it quits matters, and in a depressing way.
The affable 69-year-old New York Republican is one of the last of a breed: a liberal Republican, though he calls himself a "moderate" and has the record to prove it. Boehlert's departure does not leave the House bereft of liberal Republicans -- Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa is more liberal than Boehlert. But Leach, alas, is an outlier. The spotted owl is in good shape compared with liberal Republicans.
Boehlert chose to retire in the year when National Journal, the political world's answer to Sports Illustrated, featured him as the ultimate "Down the Middle" guy. In its Feb. 25 issue, the magazine published its annual ratings, which showed that Boehlert's votes were more liberal than those of 52.2 percent of House members and more conservative than 47.8 percent. Boehlert's district includes the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and it's hard to move the ball more to the middle of the plate than he does.
It's been downhill for his brand of Republicanism from the moment he set foot in Washington as a congressional staffer in 1964. That's the year Barry Goldwater won the Republican presidential nomination and the great flight of the Republican liberals began.
After Goldwater's landslide defeat, two Republican progressives who later became conservatives, George Gilder and Bruce Chapman, wrote a brilliant book called "The Party That Lost Its Head," detailing how and why the party's liberal wing responded so anemically to the conservative challenge. But it was too late. The party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt was destined to become an annex of the conservative movement.
Boehlert has always been unabashed in embracing his liberal roots. Over breakfast on a sunny summer morning in Cooperstown five years ago, Boehlert embraced two of the most progressive politicians of his lifetime. "People say to me: 'Why are you the kind of Republican you are?' Because in my formative political years, when I was coming up in New York, my governor was Nelson A. Rockefeller and my senator was Jacob K. Javits."
Why does the decline and fall of liberal Republicanism matter? After all, rationalizing the political system into a more conservative GOP and a more-or-less liberal Democratic Party makes the alternatives clearer to voters, who are offered, in Goldwater's famous phrase, "a choice, not an echo."
But it turns out that a Republican Party dominated by conservatives is no more coherent than the party that left room for progressives. The huge budget deficit is conservatism's Waterloo, testimony to its political failure. The conservatives love to cut taxes but can't square their lust for tax reduction with plausible spending cuts. Oh, yes, a group of House conservatives has a paper plan involving deep program cuts, but other conservatives know that these cuts will not pass, and shouldn't.
Paradoxically, because the liberal Republicans didn't pretend to hate government, they were better at fiscal responsibility. They were willing to match their desired spending levels with the taxes to pay for them. It didn't make for exciting, to-the-barricades politics. It merely produced good government.
Boehlert, being an optimist by nature, was always ready to declare that the "moderates' moment" had finally arrived. Last November, after I had written a column taking some moderate Republicans to task for backing the outrageous budget bill that passed under the cover of darkness at 1:30 a.m., there was Boehlert on the phone insisting that he and fellow moderate Mike Castle (R-Del.) had wrung some important concessions out of the House leadership. Maybe so, I replied, but I had a higher opinion of moderate Republicans and expected more of them than that lousy budget bill.
The problem may be that Boehlert and Castle did get as much as they could, given the numerical weakness of their variety of Republicanism, but that's not good enough. I suspect Boehlert knows this. Absent a robust progressive wing, congressional Republicans will continue to produce fiscally incoherent government. Democrats now have the task of representing their own brand of politics, and that of progressive Republicans, too.
I'll miss Boehlert and his optimistic moderation. Our politics worked better when a sufficiently large band of Republican moderates and liberals could take the edge off polarization and orient government toward problem-solving. But the liberal Republicans are gone. We have to deal with the GOP we have, not the GOP we wish still existed.
|
Members of Congress retire all the time, but some retirements are leading indicators of the direction of our politics. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert's announcement last week to call it quits matters, and in a depressing way.
| 22.45 | 1 | 40 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/21/BL2006032100573.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/21/BL2006032100573.html
|
Incredibly Optimistic
|
2006032319
|
"I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," President Bush said yesterday in Cleveland. "Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens, and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don't."
Bush tried to explain. But in the end, what he provided was yet another example of what others see -- and he doesn't.
The best Bush could do was tell the story of Tall Afar, a city in northern Iraq. "The example of Tall Afar gives me confidence in our strategy," he said. Tall Afar, he said, was once "a key base of operations for al Qaeda and is today a free city that gives reason for hope for a free Iraq."
The Washington Post provided some reality checks by a reporter there.
Peter Baker, working with "a Washington Post employee in Iraq," writes this morning: "Reports from the streets of Tall Afar, half a world away, offer a more complex story. U.S. forces last fall did drive out radicals who had brutalized the mid-size city near the Syrian border. But lately, residents say, the city has taken another dark turn. 'The armed men are fewer,' Nassir Sebti, 42, an air-conditioning mechanic, told a Washington Post interviewer Monday, 'but the assassinations between Sunni and Shiites have increased.' "
As Baker writes, even Bush's success stories "seem to come with asterisks. The administration hailed the election of a new democratic parliament last year, but the new body has so far proved incapable of forming a government for more than three months. U.S. forces have trained more Iraqi security troops, but the only unit judged capable of acting fully independently of U.S. assistance no longer can.
"The cycle has taken a new spin with the latest evolution of Iraq from violent insurgency against foreign occupiers to sectarian strife bordering on civil war. Since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra last month, hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in reprisals in a bloody spate of violence that has eclipsed most periods during the three years since the U.S.-led invasion.
"All this has taken its toll on Bush's credibility, Republican strategists say, making it hard for him to make people see what he sees in Iraq."
As Jim VandeHei writes in The Washington Post: "Three years of upbeat White House assessments about Iraq that turned out to be premature, incomplete or plain wrong are complicating President Bush's efforts to restore public faith in the military operation and his presidency, according to pollsters and Republican lawmakers and strategists.
"The last two weeks have provided a snapshot of White House optimism that skeptics contend is at odds with the facts on the ground in Iraq.
|
"I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken," President Bush said yesterday in Cleveland. "Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens, and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder......
| 10.072727 | 0.981818 | 53.018182 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032100806.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/21/AR2006032100806.html
|
Moussaoui Memo Unseen, Court Told
|
2006032319
|
A former top FBI counterterrorism official testified yesterday that he never saw an urgent memo sent to his office three weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks warning that Zacarias Moussaoui was a terrorist intent on hijacking an airplane.
Defense attorney Edward B. MacMahon Jr. asked the former FBI official whether he knew that agent Harry Samit had warned in an Aug. 18, 2001, memo to his office that Moussaoui was a potential terrorist.
"No," Michael E. Rolince answered crisply at Moussaoui's death penalty trial.
Was he aware that Samit said Moussaoui wanted to hijack a plane and had the weapons to do so?
"No," Rolince replied. "What document are you reading?"
Samit's report "sent to your office," MacMahon replied.
Rolince, who at the time was head of the FBI's International Terrorism Operations Section, had been called to the stand by prosecutors to buttress their central argument that if Moussaoui had not lied to FBI agents, the Sept. 11 attacks could have been stopped.
But a series of rulings by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema yesterday prevented Rolince from laying out the steps the FBI would have taken if Moussaoui had told the truth about his intentions.
When the day concluded, it was clear that Rolince, a retired 31-year FBI veteran who once briefed the White House daily on terror threats -- and wore an American flag tie to court -- might instead have helped bolster the defense of an admitted al-Qaeda operative.
His testimony appeared to back up the contentions of Samit, a Minneapolis FBI agent, who testified Monday that his bosses took no action on his repeated warnings about Moussaoui after his arrest a month before Sept. 11. The FBI's well-publicized bungling of the case is critical to Moussaoui's defense.
Moussaoui, 37, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with al-Qaeda in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A jury in U.S. District Court in Alexandria will determine whether he lives or dies.
Rolince's testimony came as Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) urged the FBI director to explain the actions of another supervisor whose decisions in the Moussaoui case were questioned in court Monday. Samit said in his testimony that he had warned his superiors more than 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist and accused them of "criminal negligence" in impeding his efforts.
Yesterday, Grassley sent a letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III questioning why the main supervisor named by Samit, Michael Maltbie, had been promoted. The letter asked Mueller whether he approved of Maltbie's decision to remove information about Moussaoui's connection to a Chechen group linked to Osama bin Laden from an application for a warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings. The warrant was not obtained until after Sept. 11.
Special Agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman, said yesterday that the bureau "will respond directly to the senator's office concerning his inquiry." He said the FBI could not comment further because "this is an ongoing trial, and we respect the courtroom procedures." Maltbie, now a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Cleveland office, declined to comment yesterday.
Prosecutors resumed their effort to lay out how Moussaoui's actions before Sept. 11 were similar to those of the 19 hijackers. They showed jurors the videotaped deposition of Hussein al-Attas, who lived with Moussaoui in Oklahoma, where Moussaoui took flying lessons in 2001.
Al-Attas said he drove with Moussaoui from Oklahoma to Minnesota, where Moussaoui took lessons on a 747 simulator just before he was arrested Aug. 16, 2001. Before they left, he said, Moussaoui took him to a sporting goods store, where they purchased small knives, binoculars and boots. He said Moussaoui instructed him never to speak Arabic and to change his appearance so as not to arouse suspicion.
Under cross-examination, al-Attas said he was unaware of Moussaoui's terrorist intentions and denied that he had been asked to participate. Al-Attas pleaded guilty to seven counts of making false statements after he was arrested with Moussaoui in Minnesota. He was sentenced to time already served in jail, is now living outside the United States and did not want to return for the trial, officials said.
The testimony of Rolince was limited by Brinkema, who said he could discuss only what the FBI could have done if Moussaoui had not lied to agents, not what actions the bureau would have taken. He was then prevented from laying out, as prosecutors wanted, what specific steps agents would have taken if Moussaoui had told them what he later admitted in his guilty plea. Moussaoui said that he was part of an al-Qaeda operation to fly planes into U.S. buildings and that bin Laden had instructed him to attack the White House at another time.
He has denied involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.
|
Get Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland and national news. Get the latest/breaking news, featuring national security, science and courts. Read news headlines from the nation and from The Washington Post. Visit www.washingtonpost.com/nation today.
| 22.285714 | 0.380952 | 0.380952 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001941.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001941.html
|
On 'South Park,' a Chef Who's Not Toast
|
2006032319
|
Still basking in the boffo ratings generated by the controversy surrounding the yanked "South Park" episode that skewered Tom Cruise and Scientology, Comedy Central announced yesterday that the show's 10th-season kickoff tomorrow night will be all about Chef.
The character of Jerome "Chef" McElroy was at the eye of the storm last week when Isaac Hayes, who has given voice to the advice-dispensing school cook since the show debuted in 1997, announced last week he wanted out of his contract because he'd just noticed the show mocks religion.
(Apparently he'd forgotten that just last January he'd told the New York Daily News that he loved the "humor" and "audacity" of show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. "Nobody is exempt from their humor," he said. "They're equal-opportunity offenders. Don't be offended by it. If you take it too seriously, you have problems.")
Stone and Parker swiftly retaliated, noting that Hayes had never had any problems in nearly 10 years cashing his "South Park" checks.
They declared in the news media and on late-night television that Hayes being shocked -- shocked -- to discover there was satire going on in "South Park" was really all about the fact that the animated series in November had done an episode savaging the Church of Scientology, of which Hayes is a member.
(So is Tom Cruise, who also was lampooned in the episode and who, as you are reading this, is out promoting "Mission: Impossible III," a flick produced at no small expense by Paramount. A division of Viacom under Chief Executive Tom Freston, by the way. As is Comedy Central. Small world, isn't it?)
Comedy Central was going to rerun that episode last Wednesday night but pulled it without warning. Which must have ticked off the nearly 2 million people who tuned in to see it -- more than double the show's audience the previous two nights.
While other animated shows take months to create, the producers of "South Park" can churn out an episode in days, enabling Parker and Stone to jump on current events. Their "Christmas in Canada" episode, depicting the capture of Saddam Hussein, aired three days after his arrest by U.S. forces, Wikipedia notes.
In tomorrow night's season debut, the little Colorado town is jolted out of a case of the doldrums when Chef suddenly reappears, Comedy Central announced yesterday.
The four potty-mouth half-pints of South Park -- Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman -- are thrilled to have their old friend back but they notice that something about Chef "seems different," the network says, without elaborating. When Chef finds himself in trouble thanks to his new ways, "the boys pull out all the stops to save him," the network said.
Having had our chains yanked last Wednesday by the suits at Comedy Central, do they actually think they can get us to tune in tomorrow night with such an obvious ploy?
Washington's most adorable couple, James Carville and Mary Matalin, are taking their nails-on-chalkboard routine to cable's chick network Lifetime, where they will star in a reality series called "Election" -- just like the Reese Witherspoon flick.
Jamary will counsel real candidates running for class president at a high school in the Washington area; their antics will be filmed for the series, Time magazine reports.
Even nonpolitical types may remember Jamary for their tour de force scenery-chewing on "K Street," HBO's short-lived docufiction series. While it generally was regarded as a failure, "K Street" nonetheless generated about 2 million viewers a week on the pay-cable network in 2003, when HBO was in about 30 percent of the country's TV homes.
Lifetime is averaging about 1.5 million viewers in prime time this year, and it's available in a lot more homes.
Carville, who helped orchestrate Bill Clinton's winning 1992 campaign, and Matalin, a longtime adviser to Dick "Deadeye" Cheney, also have hosted shows on CNN and CNBC.
In the Time report, Matalin says cutely that she doesn't think there will be a media campaign for this student election. Carville adds puckishly that the trick for a 61-year-old dealing with 16-year-olds is getting them to listen to a word you say, adding that he is remarkably unsuccessful with his own kids.
|
Still basking in the boffo ratings generated by the controversy surrounding the yanked "South Park" episode that skewered Tom Cruise and Scientology, Comedy Central announced yesterday that the show's 10th-season kickoff tomorrow night will be all about Chef.
| 19.288889 | 1 | 45 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001655.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001655.html
|
Budget Negotiators to Try Again to Clear Roadblocks
|
2006032319
|
RICHMOND -- The 10 Virginia lawmakers who will resume negotiations Tuesday on the state budget know they are far apart on transportation spending, but that is about the limit of their mutual understanding.
Transportation aside, the House and Senate still must negotiate on spending for other state services. In those areas, the two sides can't even agree about whether they disagree.
In the words of House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), those other differences are "minuscule." House members say senators are holding an agreement on the $72 billion budget hostage to their desire to raise taxes for road and transit improvements.
Senators counter that the transportation fight filters through much of the rest of the budget, because to avoid raising taxes, delegates have diverted money from the state's general fund for education, health and public safety to transportation spending and have proposed borrowing millions of dollars.
"It's very fundamental," said Sen. R. Edward Houck (D-Spotsylvania), one of the Senate's negotiators. "In the House budget, at the end of two years, you've put a drain on the general fund, you've incurred debt and you have no substantive transportation program. What have you gained?"
The General Assembly passes a budget every two years. Although the House and Senate are controlled by Republicans, this is the second consecutive time they have failed to reach a budget agreement during their regular session.
Virginia must have a spending plan by July 1. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) called for a special session to start March 27, but the assembly's budget negotiators have met several times since the legislature adjourned March 11.
In the 2004 stalemate, the House resisted Senate attempts to raise taxes to support more spending on some services. The two sides were divided initially by $1.7 billion, of which nearly $1 billion was to pay for public education.
This year, the Senate would devote about $1 billion a year more to transportation spending by raising taxes on the sale of gasoline, cars and homes. The House would spend $350 million more a year.
Howell said there is "no justification" for the two sides to be deadlocked on anything but transportation. He pointed to areas where the gap is small. For instance, both sides would spend about $12 billion on public education, about $1.1 billion on mental health and $3.35 billion on public safety.
Add up all the differences over two years and, according to state Department of Education data, the gap for school funding is less than $100 million. Take one county, Fairfax, and that translates to a difference of $1.3 million in spending for schools. In 2004, Fairfax schools had $48.3 million riding on the outcome.
"You're not talking about a difference of millions and millions," said Michael Molloy, director of government relations for the school system. "Really, what we're focused on is trying to make sure . . . we end up with a budget that's right around where they are right now."
|
RICHMOND -- The 10 Virginia lawmakers who will resume negotiations Tuesday on the state budget know they are far apart on transportation spending, but that is about the limit of their mutual understanding.
| 17.114286 | 1 | 35 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001889.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001889.html
|
Overnight Success, Instant Changes at George Mason
|
2006032319
|
George Mason communications instructor Rodger Smith began his Radio Production class yesterday morning with a sly question: "Anything big happen this weekend?"
Like everyone else on the school's Fairfax campus, Smith already knew the answer. The Patriots' basketball team -- including Lamar Butler, one of Smith's students -- won the first two NCAA tournament games in school history, knocking off Final Four regulars Michigan State and North Carolina to advance to next weekend's round of 16 at Verizon Center. And as students returned from spring break yesterday, 14 basketball players circulated around a campus in which their celebrity had suddenly ascended to a different level.
"Even the biggest fan here didn't see this coming," junior Beau Cribbs said. "You knew who they were, but they're rock stars now."
For confirmation, ask Butler, a senior guard who finally went to sleep around 2:30 yesterday morning and sat down in the front row of Smith's class six and a half hours later. His first day back on campus was interrupted by dozens and dozens of hugs and handshakes, text messages and phone calls, autographs and interviews. An institution that was once derided as a commuter school has rallied behind its basketball team in the past week, and students predicted this season, which continues with a game against Wichita State on Friday night, will leave a permanent mark on their school's reputation.
"It's like we actually go to a real school now," freshman Alex Innes said. "That's what everybody's saying."
Butler's smiling face has been one of the symbols of this arrival, sprinkled across the national media since George Mason's upset win on Sunday afternoon, and he began to enjoy the fruits of that publicity yesterday morning. After his first class, Butler was stopped by senior Megan Ibbotson, a member of the school's "Patriot Platoon" student fan club, who asked Butler to sign her Youth Advocacy and Empowerment class notebook and then began snapping pictures of him with her camera phone.
"You're awesome, dude, totally," she said. "Your picture is all over, everywhere. I saw you on ESPN this morning. This basketball team has awesomely, single-handedly changed everything about this university."
Before Butler escaped Innovation Hall, he was introduced to a campus tour group, which broke into applause and began taking more photos. Current students congratulated him, wished him good luck, and told him that George Mason had screwed up their NCAA tournament brackets but that they didn't care. He signed photographs and mini basketballs and junior Shakoya Hicks's George Mason T-shirt.
"Put your number big on the back of my shirt," Hicks requested.
"My phone number?" Butler said.
The adulation had, in fact, started the previous night, when the Patriots' charter flight landed at Dulles International Airport. They were led by a police escort back to the on-campus Patriot Center, where students began arriving shortly before 10 p.m. for a hastily scheduled pep rally. "Let's Go Mason!" the growing mob screamed. "Sweet Sixteen!" they screamed. "Hey, they're serving us pizza!" they screamed.
Two charter buses carrying players and coaches and cheerleaders and the pep band arrived an hour later, and the arena's loading dock was overrun with television cameras, luggage and band instruments. Gunston, the school's ambiguous green mascot, began to throw on his costume.
"Out of control," junior guard Gabe Norwood said, shaking his head as he surveyed the chaos. "Out of control."
Coach Jim Larranaga, who has not stopped smiling for a day-and-a-half, entered the arena while pumping his fist, and around 800 students and fans howled. Players jumped into the stands and were pounded and hugged. Others recorded the scene with cameras. Larranaga, who had compared his team to Kryptonite during a pregame pep talk Sunday, delivered a speech that was meant to culminate with the playing of the Purple Ribbon All-Stars hip-hop song, "I'm on It [Kryptonite]." Instead, 3 Doors Down's rock song "Kryptonite" erupted over the sound system, and the Patriots dissolved in laughter.
"Hey, we're new at this whole thing," a school employee said.
Which is why yesterday was such an exhilarating day on campus. Students walked around in bright yellow T-shirts reading "We Believe." Psychology professor and season ticket holder Lou Buffardi stood in the student center with a George Mason logo temporarily tattooed on his forehead; "Pinch me," he said, "this can't be true." The campus bookstore typically receives five or six online orders per day; yesterday, there were 130 orders by the time General Manager Jack Smith arrived, and another 50 had been placed by noon. Smith placed a rush order for 500 "Sweet 16" T-shirts; a waiting list was quickly created, with Butler himself requesting a dozen shirts.
"We had people coming in the second we opened, buying anything they can get their hands on that's green and gold," Smith said. "We had to call in extra people. We called people and said, 'Get in here' -- everybody that we have on staff, whoever could come in here and work."
Several players and coaches reported a massive increase in their number of long-lost friends. Forward Jai Lewis had 32 voice mail messages and 15 text messages after the win over North Carolina, and his phone began ringing again at 7 a.m. yesterday. Assistant coach James Johnson arrived at work to find his voice-mail box full. Another assistant, Chris Caputo, had 128 messages Sunday night. The athletic office received more than 100 interview requests yesterday. A local rock station asked to interview Gunston.
Butler and several teammates held court for well more than an hour in the student center before he walked to Patriot Center, pausing en route to chat with George Mason President Alan G. Merten, who was doing a local television interview while a USA Today reporter and photographer waited nearby.
Butler had been amazed at the media coverage in Dayton. "You couldn't even see who was talking to you, the cameras were blinding you, questions coming from everywhere," he said.
But by late yesterday afternoon he was a veteran. He talked to cameras from local NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox affiliates. He talked to PBS's "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."
"I've never been on that channel before," Butler said, "never been on 'Sesame Street.' "
Earlier in the day he had stopped in a coffee shop and asked, "What do you have that's got caffeine in it?" Now, he leaned against his locker and closed his eyes.
"It's just a frenzy, man," he said. "The life of an athlete in the NCAA tournament."
|
George Mason communications instructor Rodger Smith began his Radio Production class yesterday morning with a sly question: "Anything big happen this weekend?"
| 52.846154 | 1 | 26 |
high
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/16/DI2006031601206.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/16/DI2006031601206.html
|
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
|
2006032319
|
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D., assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and associate director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders, was online Tuesday, March 21, at noon ET to field questions and comments about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
I Said, 'Honey, Are You Listening to Me?' (Post, March 21)
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Post, March 21)
Brown is the author of "Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults," a book published by Yale University Press that presents a new science-based understanding of attention deficit disorders across the lifespan. More information is available on his Web site: drthomasebrown.com.
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: Welcome to this online conversation about ADD/ADHD (I'll be using those two terms interchangeably throughout the session). Below is a summary of some myths and facts about ADD taken from my recent book. If you would like more information about this way of looking at ADD/ADHD, please visit my Web site www.DrThomasEBrown.com
10 Myths and Facts about Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
from Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults, by Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D. Associate Director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders (Yale University Press, 2005)
MYTH: ADD is just a lack of willpower. Persons with ADD focus well on things that interest them; they could focus on any other tasks if they really wanted
FACT: ADD looks very much like a willpower problem, but it isn't. It's essentially a chemical problem in the management systems of the brain.
MYTH: ADD is a simple problem of being hyperactive or not listening when someone is talking to you.
FACT: ADD is a complex disorder that involves impairments in focus, organization, motivation, emotional modulation, memory, and other functions of the brain's management system.
MYTH: Brains of persons with ADD are overactive and need medication to calm down.
FACT: Underactivity of the brain's management networks is typical of persons with ADD. Effective medications increase alertness and improve communication in the brain's management system.
MYTH: ADD is simply a label for behavior problems; children with ADD jut refuse to sit still and are unwilling to listen to teachers or parents.
FACT: Many with ADD have few behavior problems, Chronic inattention symptoms cause more severe and longer-lasting problems for learning and relationships for those with ADD.
MYTH: Those who have ADD as children usually outgrow it as they enter their teens.
FACT: Often ADD impairments are not very noticeable until the teen years, when more self-management is required in school and elsewhere. And ADD may be subtle, but more disabling during adolescence than in childhood.
MYTH: Unless you have been diagnosed with ADD as a child, you can't have it as an adult.
FACT: Many adults have struggled all their lives with unrecognized ADD impairments. They haven't received help because they assumed that their chronic difficulties, like depression or anxiety, were caused by other impairments that did not respond to the usual treatments.
MYTH: Everybody has the symptoms of ADD, and anyone with adequate intelligence can overcome these difficulties.
FACT: ADD affects persons of all levels of intelligence. And although everyone sometimes has symptoms of ADD, only those with chronic impairments from these symptoms warrant an ADD diagnosis.
MYTH: Someone can't have ADD and also have depression, anxiety, or other psychiatric problems.
FACT: A person with ADD is six times more likely to have another psychiatric or learning disorder than most other people. ADD usually overlaps with other disorders.
MYTH: Medications for ADD are likely to cause longer-term problems with substance abuse or other health concerns, especially when used by children.
FACT: The risks of using appropriate medications to treat ADD are minimal, whereas the risks of not using medication to treat ADD are significant. The medications used for ADD are among the best researched for any disorder.
MYTH: ADD doesn't really cause much damage to a person's life.
FACT: Untreated or inadequately treated ADD syndrome often severely impairs leaning, family life, education, work life, social interactions, and driving safely. Most of those with ADD who receive adequate treatment, however, function quite well.
For more information about this new book, visit www.DrThomasEBrown.com
Washington, D.C.: Good morning - what kind of parenting tips would you recommend for husbands whose wives are diagnosed with ADHD and currently taking care of their first child? Thanks.
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: A parent with untreated ADHD is likely to face difficult challenges in many of the complex tasks of caring for a child, particularly when scheduling and consistency are needed. If a parent is having considerable difficulty with their own ADD symptoms, it may be helpful for them to get a good evaluation and possibly treatment for themselves. This may be helpful for them, their child and their partner.
Bangkok, Thailand: I am a very emotionally intense and empathetic person. I have been told in the past that these traits are related to my diagnosed (and treated) ADD. However, I am curious, after a number of failed relationships in which I think I may have almost "listened and understood too much"--to the point of weirding out my partners and probably making them feel the need for space--if I should aim for other ADD people who understand my emotional intensity or if I should stay away from them because we meld and create a negative synergy.
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: Some people with ADHD get along very well with other people most of the time, but some have difficulties such as you mention where they get too intense. If you're getting indications from friends or a partner that you're being too intense, ask them to give you some examples of how it happens.
If the examples sound like problems you have trouble controlling, you might want to check with your doctor to see if the difficulties might be helped by adjusting your medication treatment for ADD and/or whether you need to get some help from a therapist in developing better strategies.
Richmond, Va.: Do you or your colleagues know of any studies that have been done to examine a possible connection between ADHD and the development of Alzheimer's or other dementia in later life? I often wonder if ADHD may be a precursor to Alzheimer's or if the two conditions are in any way correlated.
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: Often adults with ADHD, diagnosed or not, worry that their frequent problems with short-term memory may be a sign of early Alzheimer's. I don't know of any research indicating that persons with ADHD have any greater likelihood of developing Alzheimer's than those without ADHD.
Short-term memory problems affect all of us from time to time as we get older, but adults with ADHD tend to have far more difficulty with remembering names, what they were about to say, where they have put things, what they were about to do, etc. than do those of similar age without ADD. Such problems with working memory are a central aspect of ADD and often improve (though not perfectly) with appropriate medication.
Washington, D.C.: I have been in a committed relationship with my partner for many years now, though there are still times when I forget about her ADHD and become frustrated with her actions. Can you recommend books that might help me better understand her condition or see things from her perspective? Thank you.
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: When one of two partners has ADHD, it's really important for the other partner to have a good understanding of what ADD/ADHD really is and what it isn't.
There are several books that can help with this: Hallowell has published Driven to Distraction and Delivered From Distraction. Solden has published Women With Attention Deficit Disorder and I've published Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults.
However, reading is no substitute for conversation with your partner. You and your partner can both benefit from conversations in which you share information about both strengths and weaknesses that each of you sees in yourself and in the others.
Washington, D.C.: If one has problems with staying-on-focus (becoming easily distracted, staying or getting organized) where does one go to seek help in coping or alleviating these behaviors? How does one seek to make it easier for others to cope with these behaviors (i.e., how can responsibilities in relationships be developed so that the strong and positive side of things can be utilized)?
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: All of us have problems from time to time with staying on focus, getting organized, and doing what needs to be done when it should be done. That's human life!
What is distinctive about persons with ADD is that they have much more sustained and pervasive impairments from these problems which appear to result from inadequate willpower or lack of caring, when they actually result from problems in the dynamics of chemistry in neural networks that constitute the brain's management system.
The most effective way for a person with ADD/ADHD to alleviate their chronic ADD symptoms is to get a good evaluation from a clinician who knows what ADD/ADHD looks like and then, if the diagnosis is confirmed, get a trial of appropriate medication. This can make a significant positive difference for about 70-80% of adults with ADHD. For some the improvement in symptoms is huge, for others substantial, but not huge, and more others more modest.
However, medications for ADHD cure nothing, any more than eyeglasses cure poor vision. Appropriate medication simply alleviates ADD symptoms for the hours it is active. The critical element in medication for ADD is fine-tuning. The amount of stimulant medication that is optimal for any given individual, child or adult, has little to do with age, weight, or symptom severity. It has to do with how sensitive the person's body is to that particular medication. If you are taking medication and it's not working or is giving you significant side effects, talk with your physician to see if it can be better adjusted for you.
Alexandria, Va.: Dear Dr.Brown, I had been diagnosed with ADHD a couple of years ago. The Doctor wanted to give me medication and I was a little reluctant to start taking medication at my age (51 at the time). After discussing this with my family my Son-In-Law made a very interesting observation, he said that I shouldn't change anything about me, this is what made me unique. I might add that I graduated HS with a C average, but I never attended College. I am an Inventor who holds a U.S. Patent, I'm very creative and I have a lot of energy. I've owned a couple of very successful businesses and live very comfortably. My question is, why must we always medicate everything!! Shouldn't we just be accepted for what we are and let well enough alone?
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: Having symptoms of ADD doesn't necessarily mean that one needs to be treated with medication or anything else. The critical question is whether or not the person is significantly impaired by those ADD symptoms.
If there is not significant impairment in school or work, in family or social relationships, or in doing what you need to do from day to day, you probably don't want or need treatment. None of us is ever going to be perfect!
However, there are many children, adolescents and adults, including some adults well past the mid century point, who suffer considerably from ADD impairments. For them, medication may offer relief from a lot of unnecessary suffering and frustration.
Colorado Springs, Colo.: Is the ability to just walk away from a relationship suddenly characteristic of someone with ADHD or ADD?
Same question for someone who seems intensely interested one day but then backs off the next and then "wash rinse repeat" immediately or is this more of a fear of intimacy thing?
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: Many people with and without ADD/ADHD are puzzled by their tendency to suddenly feel that they want to walk away from a relationship, even when the precipitant for that feeling seems pretty insignificant, at least in retrospect. This may result from repeatedly getting into relationships with people who are not a good fit for you, or from one's own fears of making a commitment, or from a variety of other internal or external pressures.
However, many people with ADD report that they have chronic problems with giving up too quickly in their relationships with others, impulsively walking away, literally or figuratively, rather then trying to work things out together. This may be a variant of their continually needing to change the channel on TV, always looking for something else that might be more interesting.
Sometimes it is only after a long line of aborted relationships, perhaps with a couple of divorces included, that the person realizes that there is no potential partner out there who is always going to meet our expectations. Often this is matched with belated awareness that there are some persistent problems in oneself that may sometimes be difficult for any partner. Such problems are not unique to persons with ADHD! Developing and sustaining a mutually satisfying relationship is always an ongoing process and the result inevitably includes a mix of satisfactions and frustrations.
Washington, D.C.: Hi Dr. Brown, Thanks very much for having the chat. Are there any studies or other empirical evidence of a child "outgrowing" their ADD? That is, with or without treatment, a child that once presented ADD symptoms no longer presents such symptoms now that they are older. I understand that ADD is thought to be caused by a brain chemical imbalance, but I wondered if the imbalance or at least symptoms indicative of the imbalance may go away after a number of years.
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: Some preschoolers fully meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD and then, over a few years, develop so they catch up with their age mates in their ability to exercise appropriate self-management. About 20-30% of those diagnosed with ADHD in early childhood seem to outgrow the disorder as they get older, even without treatment.
However, it's usually not possible to tell in advance who will and will not outgrow their ADD symptoms. Delaying treatment may cause the child (and family) to suffer considerably in ways that may be hard to compensate for later. If a child is having significant impairment from ADD symptoms, it usually makes sense to get a careful evaluation and treatment. This should then be reviewed on an ongoing basis, at least once a year, to see if continuing treatment is needed.
For most of those with ADD/ADHD, the most difficult times are from junior high through the first few years after high school. That is the time when one is faced with the widest range of tasks to do with the least opportunity to get out from under the ones that one is not very good at.
If one is lucky, after that time one can find a niche and specialize in doing tasks that will earn a living while using one's skills and avoiding those things that are too tough to do. Many people with ADD who have really struggled in school do much better when they get out of school, into a job that fits their abilities and interests, especially if they can get a good secretary!
Minneapolis, Minn.: How does one diagnose ADD? You say it is "essentially a chemical imbalance", does this mean there is something to measure?
Do you believe some of the children have been misdiagnosed? (I believe my step-son falls into this category.) What impact does medication have on these kids?
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: There is no single test that can adequately diagnose ADHD. There is no imaging study of the brain, no blood test, no rating scale, no neuropsychological test that can, in itself, reliably determine such a diagnosis. The most effective way to assess for this complex disorder of the brain's management system is a comprehensive clinical interview with a clinician who can recognize ADD in its variety of forms and who can differentiate it from other problems that may accompany the ADD and/or may look like ADD when then problem is really something else.
We can't measure the chemical problems in the brain directly because it is not a problem of "too much salt in the soup." The problem is at the level of the countless connection points where critical neurons interface with one another. For those with ADHD, one of both of the two specific chemicals that operate the brain's management system are not released effectively or are taken back up too quickly at these countless points of connection. The process occurs in widespread areas within milliseconds. We don't have technology to measure this for clinical purposes. Our best tool is to get a good history of the person's strengths and problems in everyday life. With that, the diagnosis can be reliably made.
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.: The time we have for this discussion is now up. Sorry I wasn't able to respond to all of the many questions submitted. If you want more information, please check the Web sites at chadd.org and add.org and/or my Web site DrThomasEBrown.com. Thanks very much for your interest.
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.
|
Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D., assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and associate director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders, fielded questions and comments about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
| 81.97619 | 0.97619 | 25.261905 |
high
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001778.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001778.html
|
Vets Running for Congress Fight 'One-Issue' Label
|
2006032319
|
LOUISVILLE -- Andrew Horne's political résumé starts with his military service in Iraq, he recently told a candidates meeting in west Louisville. The Marine Reserve lieutenant colonel said the war represents a failure of Republican leadership, and he won applause when he declared, "I've seen it when they're lying."
When Horne had finished asking for help in unseating Rep. Anne M. Northup, the GOP incumbent in Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District, Paul Porter still had his doubts.
"Horne, he sounds like a single issue," said Porter, a retired lawyer. "The issue is quality of life here. It's eroding. You've got to show you understand the people and their day-to-day lives."
Porter's skepticism underscores one of the biggest challenges facing a platoon of Iraq war veterans, almost all of them Democrats, running for Congress this year in mostly Republican districts. While they are pitching themselves as tough on national security and reaping some of the benefits of growing antiwar sentiment, many are struggling to raise their profiles and prove they can talk about more than the war.
There are 10 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars running for Congress this year. Today may provide an early indicator of their chances: Tammy Duckworth, the star of the class, is entered in a competitive Democratic primary in Illinois that includes Christine Cegelis, a more seasoned candidate. They are vying to replace stalwart Republican Rep. Henry J. Hyde.
Several of the newcomers may yet develop into formidable candidates, but election analysts note that most face experienced and well-financed Republicans in districts that have tilted toward the GOP, often for years.
Northup -- Horne's opponent if he wins the primary -- has won five consecutive House races, the last of them with 60 percent of the vote in a district in which Sen. John F. Kerry (D) outpolled President Bush. She had $1.1 million on hand at the end of the year.
At one point, there were a dozen veterans vying for House seats, but two -- both Democrats -- have dropped out. There is one Republican among the veterans still campaigning for the House -- Van Taylor, who won the March 7 primary in the Texas district that includes Bush's Crawford ranch.
Another veteran of the Iraq war, Paul Hackett, ended his quest to unseat Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) when it appeared he could not match the fundraising of another Democratic challenger, Rep. Sherrod Brown (Ohio).
"It seems to me there's a lot of smoke here, but I don't know how much heat," said Stuart Rothenberg, a Washington political analyst. "To the extent that any of these candidates are going to win, they will probably win because they are Democrats in a Democratic wave year, not because all of a sudden voters have embraced them because they are veterans."
The Democrats' strategy and hope are that articulate service members who served in wartime can strengthen the party's standing on national security and mobilize voters frustrated with Bush's performance on Iraq and the anti-terrorism fight.
Duckworth, an Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost both legs to an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, is leading the pack in media attention and fundraising. She has raised well over $500,000 in three months, backed by some of the nation's most prominent Democrats, who believe she is best positioned to take the seat held by Hyde for 32 years.
|
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.
| 17.282051 | 0.461538 | 0.512821 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001392.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001392.html
|
A Possible Clue On NSA Spying
|
2006032319
|
Did President Bush mention the government's secret warrantless surveillance program to the president of Pakistan more than four years ago? A brief passage of a 2002 book seems to raise that possibility.
In "Bush at War," Bob Woodward recounts a meeting between Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at the Waldorf Towers in New York in early November 2001.
Bush started by talking about plans for a quick victory in Afghanistan but then turned to another topic, according to the passage on Page 303:
"He had become fascinated with the ability of the National Security Agency to intercept phone calls and other communications worldwide," Woodward wrote, referring to Bush. "If they got the key phone calls, future terrorism might be stopped, certainly curtailed. Bush summarized his strategy: 'Listen to every phone call and close them down and protect the innocents.' "
By this time, Bush had already issued his order allowing the NSA to intercept communications between the United States and overseas locations without warrants. The program was never divulged publicly, however, until press reports last December.
Of course, Bush could have been referring merely to the NSA's traditional surveillance programs, which have long involved intercepting large amounts of communications overseas.
Woodward, an assistant managing editor at The Washington Post, said this month that he does not know what Bush may have had in mind during his conversation with Musharraf. Woodward noted that he has not referred to the NSA's warrantless spying program in his books or reporting.
|
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.
| 8.055556 | 0.361111 | 0.361111 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001496.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001496.html
|
Mind Medicine: What Proof?
|
2006032319
|
A research review published in 2002 in an Australian medical journal linked transcendental meditation (TM) to decreased hypertension. The authors concluded that the technique was promising for prevention and treatment of heart disease.
A similar review published last year in the Journal of Hypertension found insufficient evidence to conclude whether TM lowers blood pressure.
Inconsistent results like these leave people understandably baffled about the value of so-called mind-body treatments, a branch of alternative and complementary therapy that includes meditation, hypnosis, imagery and mindfulness-based stress reduction. Each of these techniques assumes that altering one's mental state can affect bodily health. Enthusiastic testimonials and gripping media reports notwithstanding, the research record on mind-body medicine remains thin and inconclusive.
Still, these techniques are used, both with and without standard medical treatments, by millions of people seeking relief from conditions ranging from stress to heart disease. Many users report benefits; risks are low. The chart below examines the uses and research findings for several mind-body approaches. Scientific investigation continues.
|
A research review published in 2002 in an Australian medical journal linked transcendental meditation (TM) to decreased hypertension. The authors concluded that the technique was promising for prevention and treatment of heart disease.
| 5.378378 | 1 | 37 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032002075.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032002075.html
|
Firm Fails to Return D.C. School Funds on Time
|
2006032319
|
A Maryland investment firm entrusted with more than $21 million in District and federal funds earmarked for D.C. charter schools missed a deadline yesterday to return the money and was asking for more time to come up with it, city officials said.
"As of close of business today, no money has been paid and the parties are negotiating," said Traci Hughes, a spokeswoman for D.C. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti.
Spagnoletti and D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi sent a letter Wednesday to Eric M. Westbury, president of Geneva Capital Partners LLC, saying the city had concluded that the firm may be "financially unsound" and demanding return of the money within five days.
Although the District has invested more than $21 million with Geneva, government sources familiar with the case said the amount at risk is about $10 million.
Westbury did not return calls to his Bethesda office yesterday.
The potential loss of the funds stirred concern on Capitol Hill. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate subcommittee on the District, asked D.C. officials to brief him tomorrow.
Adam Sharp, a spokesman for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the biggest congressional supporters of the District's charter school program, said the Geneva situation "is of concern to us and we will keep it in mind when we appropriate funds in the future. But we have great confidence in" Gandhi, Sharp said, "and we hope he gets to the bottom of what went wrong here, if something did."
The city's relationship with Geneva dates to 2003, when the firm was selected to help manage two funds created by Congress to assist charter schools in the purchase, construction and maintenance of their facilities: the D.C. Credit Enhancement Fund and the District Loan Fund.
The Credit Enhancement Fund was established in 2001 with $5 million in local money. The fund, which helps schools leverage loans from other institutions, has since received $5 million from the District and nearly $10 million from Congress, D.C. officials said. The District Loan Fund lends money directly to charter schools. Created by Congress in 2003, it has since received more than $17 million in federal funds, officials said.
Congress also created the Office of Public Charter School Financing and Support to manage the accounts. The office, which was part of the District's banking department, made its first deposit with Geneva Capital in August 2003.
Geneva, an investment holding company, is wholly owned by Westbury, a Silver Spring businessman active in Montgomery County politics. Geneva owns a family of related firms, including SBM Certificate Co., whose board of directors includes Kumar P. Barve (D-Montgomery), the majority leader of the Maryland House of Delegates, and Marialice B. Williams, a prominent D.C. lawyer who for years chaired the city's Housing Finance Agency.
In SBM financial reports, Williams is described as "Special Counsel to the Office of Public Charter School Financing and Support." Williams no longer holds that position, and it was not clear yesterday whether she held it when the office selected Geneva to manage its funds. Williams did not respond to messages left at her home.
The D.C. inspector general is investigating how the District came to do business with Geneva and whether Williams had a role in its selection, officials said. Over the next year and a half, the District invested $21.4 million with Geneva.
The charter school financing office was transferred from the banking department to the District's State Education Office in December 2004. Officials there discovered that while Geneva was paying interest on the District's investments, it was also making loans to the District and charging substantial fees, an arrangement that made little sense to State Education Officer Deborah A. Gist.
"We identified some concerns about the management of the funds. So, we requested an independent audit and an investigation to ensure that public funds were not misspent," Gist said yesterday in a statement.
Gist has appointed a new director for the charter school financing office and developed "a new investment strategy," she said, adding, "It is important to note that the services we are providing to these public schools have not been interrupted."
Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
|
A Maryland investment firm entrusted with more than $21 million in District and federal funds earmarked for D.C. charter schools missed a deadline yesterday to return the money and was asking for more time to come up with it, city officials said.
| 18.422222 | 1 | 45 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031900893.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031900893.html
|
GOP Struggles To Define Its Message for 2006 Elections
|
2006032019
|
Republican efforts to craft a policy and political agenda to carry the party into the midterm elections have stumbled repeatedly as GOP leaders face widespread disaffection and disagreement within the ranks.
Anxiety over President Bush's Iraq policy, internal clashes over such divisive issues as immigration, and rising complaints that the party has abandoned conservative principles on spending restraint have all hobbled the effort to devise an election-year message, said several lawmakers involved in the effort.
While it is a Republican refrain that Democrats criticize Bush but have no positive vision, for now the governing party also has no national platform around which lawmakers are prepared to rally.
Every effort so far to produce such a platform has stumbled.
In January, Bush laid out a modest menu of ideas on health care and energy independence, but Congress has made little movement on them. Senior White House officials consulted with lawmakers earlier this year about jointly crafting an agenda that would allow Bush and Republicans in Congress -- both suffering from depressed public approval ratings -- to get off the defensive. A Republican familiar with the process said these discussions did not result in a consensus.
New House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has been wrestling with the same problem, so far without success.
The struggles reflect philosophical differences among competing factions within the party, but they also underscore the political consequences of holding power. Republicans insist they remain united around core principles of smaller government, lower taxes and a strong national defense, but can no longer agree on how to implement that philosophy and are squabbling over their delivery on those commitments.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said the root of the problem is a failure of Washington Republicans to stick to principles, saying that his party risks losing power because it has done "a pretty poor job" of executing its small-government philosophy. "Republicans just need to take stock, go back and realize that the American people elected them because of their principles, and when you do not adhere to those principles, the American people are just as likely to turn you out and choose someone else."
Lately, the drift Perry described has been on glaring display almost daily. A week ago, Republican speakers at a GOP gathering in Memphis complained about the breakdown in fiscal discipline. A few days later, lawmakers in Washington raised the federal debt ceiling by an additional $781 billion and voted to authorize more than $100 billion in new spending.
Republicans are engaged in a face-off in Congress over two sharply different views of how to deal with illegal immigration -- with no compromise in sight. The split between the White House and congressional Republicans over the Dubai port deal underscores cracks in the party's national security consensus and has given Democrats an opening to challenge the GOP on what has long been a core strength. Republicans do remain united behind Bush's Iraq policy, albeit nervously, with widespread concern that a violent and open-ended commitment in that nation will be a liability in November.
The president once clearly set the Republican agenda, and when his approval ratings were higher, congressional Republicans followed his lead. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said that model hit a wall last year when the president's centerpiece proposal to restructure Social Security "turned out to be not doable."
This year, Bush came back to Congress with a scaled-back agenda -- including tax incentives to expand health coverage and some money to study using wood chips and switch grass as alternative energy sources -- that Blunt said "is not as easily defined." And in Bush's weakened state, his proposals command less allegiance. "It's always the challenge of a second-term administration to keep the agenda fresh, to keep moving with the same intensity they had in the first term," Blunt said. "Combine that with less popularity, and people are much slower to salute the flag."
|
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.
| 19.410256 | 0.615385 | 0.666667 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032000749.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032000749.html
|
Tagliabue to Step Down in July
|
2006032019
|
NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced yesterday that he will retire in July, ending a nearly 17-year reign in which he led the country's most successful professional sports league to new heights of popularity and wealth.
With new television and labor contracts secured, Tagliabue, 65, said he felt the time was right to step aside. He plans to speak to the league's 32 team owners Monday about officially launching a search for a successor, and indicated that he will stay on the job until a new commissioner is chosen even if that takes longer than his July 31 target.
VIDEO | First Person: Paul Tagliabue
"This is not an easy decision for me [but] I know it's the right decision," Tagliabue said in a conference call with reporters. "I have no doubt about that. And when I say right, I mean right for the league. . . . I came to the conclusion in the last 10 days this was the optimum time."
Tagliabue accomplished what may have been the most daunting task a sports commissioner can face: taking a foundation of success to an unimaginable level. Under Tagliabue, for instance, league revenue rose from $970 million in 1989 to nearly $5.8 billion last year.
"He shepherded the league through the next generation of sports business," said David Carter, a professor of sports business at the University of Southern California. "Unprecedented TV deals and long-term labor peace -- I'm not sure under what other circumstances he could have left on a higher plane."
Candidates to replace Tagliabue, several owners said, will include Roger Goodell, the league's chief operating officer; league counsel Jeff Pash; Eric Grubman, the league's executive vice president of finance and business transactions; Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay; and Baltimore Ravens President Dick Cass. One owner said that Goodell would be the front-runner at this point but that it was far too early in the process to make any reliable predictions.
Tagliabue is invoking a clause in his contract that enables him to serve as a senior adviser through the expiration of the deal in May 2008. A former Washington attorney, he has worked for the league since 1969 and has been commissioner since October 1989, overseeing a period in which the NFL has entrenched itself as the nation's most popular sport by a wide margin.
"It's a sad time because he's a wonderful guy," Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney said. "I really feel bad about it, but it's the right thing for him. He gave a lot of time and effort to this league and he's done extremely well. . . . It wasn't a big surprise. He sort of accomplished everything there was to accomplish. We got the TV deal. We got the labor deal [and] revenue-sharing. Pete Rozelle [Tagliabue's predecessor] did an incredible job in his time. Paul's time was to bring [the league] up to a great level from a business standpoint."
Tagliabue did so by surpassing the legacy of a legend. Despite lacking Rozelle's public relations flair, he built the league into something far bigger than even Rozelle could have imagined. Working quietly and efficiently behind the scenes, he achieved what he wanted. Most recently, he got the owners to settle disputes among themselves and with the players' union this month by ratifying a new labor deal along with a modified plan for revenue-sharing among the teams.
"He'll be remembered as one of the greatest commissioners in the history of professional sports," New York Giants President John Mara said. "When he took over, he had big shoes to fill, but he went about the task of filling them and the results speak for themselves. The NFL has enjoyed unparalleled prosperity and growth and he'll be sorely missed. He accomplished everything he set out to do and he leaves the league in great shape."
Tagliabue told Rooney of his decision early yesterday and Rooney informed the other 31 teams at noon via e-mail. Rooney was a member of the committee that negotiated Tagliabue's last contract extension. Tagliabue was paid approximately $9.5 million per season.
Tagliabue retires with the NFL at the height of its popularity. It has a new set of TV contracts worth almost $4 billion per season, and Tagliabue got the owners to ratify a six-year labor agreement with the union that runs through the 2011 season.
The NFL has never had a work stoppage with Tagliabue as commissioner, and his close relationship with players' union chief Gene Upshaw enabled the two to complete extensions of the labor deal seamlessly in previous negotiations. This negotiation was far more contentious, in part because Upshaw was pushing for economic gains for the players and in part because the owners were in a combative internal tussle over how much locally generated revenue the teams should share. But Tagliabue pushed through the deals during a two-day owners' meeting at a Dallas airport hotel that ended 13 days ago. He delivered a forceful address to the owners during the meeting about the need for them to resolve the dispute and work with the players to benefit both sides.
Union officials sensed during the labor negotiations that Tagliabue was weary enough to retire, and Tagliabue told Upshaw last week that he was considering buying a boat over the weekend for use in retirement. Tagliabue had signed his last contract extension to complete the labor and TV deals and the owners, knowing that Tagliabue was on his way out, long ago had begun informally debating possible successors.
Those close to him in the league office and among the owners had hoped he would agree to stay as commissioner for at least another season, having seen instances in the past in which he would work to the point of virtual exhaustion, then bounce back quickly and come back eager for more. The one project they hoped would keep Tagliabue in office was putting a franchise in Los Angeles, a process that the league has put in motion. But Tagliabue said yesterday he'd already pushed back his original retirement target of last spring, and he wasn't going to push it back again.
"I don't think anyone is surprised by this," Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver said. "It's pretty well known he wanted to get the [collective bargaining agreement] and TV in place and once it was, he could make an exit. I actually thought he'd do it at the end of this year, but it's something we all expected. In my opinion, he's the most effective commissioner in all major league sports. The CBA was a little rich for my blood but, as he said, it beats the alternative. . . . It's going to be very difficult to replace him."
Said New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft: "In the end, he was really an employee, but he also was the boss of 32 owners. You needed great judgment and skill to balance all of that, and he was able to do it. He was such a strategic thinker. He was always three to five steps ahead of the other guys."
The owners are scheduled to gather Sunday in Orlando for the annual league meetings that run through Wednesday. Tagliabue said the search will include consideration of candidates from outside the league and the owners eventually will be presented with a list of possibilities that will include minority candidates. Next week, then, the league will begin contemplating Life After Tagliabue.
"We'll go to the meeting next week and discuss it, give everyone a chance to voice their opinions," Rooney said. "We will not have a candidate by the meeting. We want to give everyone a chance to say what they feel. It gives us a chance to step back a little and see where we are and how we want to proceed. I can assure you we will get a zillion candidates and we want to give everyone a fair shake."
|
After helping the league through its labor strife, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will retire in July.
| 85.611111 | 0.888889 | 2.555556 |
high
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/17/AR2006031700904.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/17/AR2006031700904.html
|
Narrow Escapes in The Southwest
|
2006032019
|
My tale of canyoneering in southern Utah begins in Northern Virginia. In my bathtub, to be exact.
My daughter still laughs when she remembers finding me there one day in July, standing in 10 inches of water and 40 pounds of ice. I wanted to know what it was like to wade in 50-degree water, because that's what I planned to do a few months later in several Southwest canyons. And I wanted to see what combination of socks, shoes and pants would keep me driest and warmest.
So, when I set out for Utah in October, I carried with me the best my local outfitter had to offer -- waterproof neoprene socks, water shoes with special slip-resistant treads and double-taped waterproof pants -- confident that I was prepared for anything the rivers could throw at me. Provided it wasn't more than waist-deep.
Spring and fall are the best times to go canyoneering in the Southwest. People do it year-round, but in winter you'll wade in truly frigid water and in summer you'll bake in triple-digit air temperatures. Also in summer, you'll compete for road space and lodgings, and the danger of flash floods is greatest.
Dividing eight days among Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and an area along the Utah-Arizona border that includes the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, I aimed to try my hand -- and feet -- at "canyoneering," hiking along streambeds in narrow canyons. I planned to make my debut in a stunning section of the Virgin River called the Zion Narrows, one of the premier canyoneering locales in the United States.
The idea held great appeal because while millions of people go to the places I would visit, only the tiniest fraction are willing to get their feet wet. I knew I'd have plenty of solitude.
And I'd always wanted to photograph the innards of those special canyons, with their soaring red cliffs throwing down warm reflected sunlight onto pools and riffles below, little seasonal waterfalls, mysterious unnamed side canyons, ferns and flowering plants clinging to dripping rock walls, and ancient Anasazi drawings.
Against those attractions stood some difficulties and dangers, I knew -- hypothermia, injuries from falls, deadly flash floods that periodically and unpredictably flush the narrow canyons.
The Zion Narrows begins at the end of the one-mile Riverside Walk in Zion National Park. From there to a point some 16 miles upstream, the river is forced into a spectacular gorge, as narrow as 20 feet and as deep as 2,000 feet. There are dry, rocky patches along the shore here and there where the river channel widens, but hiking the Narrows essentially means wading the river.
Unfortunately it had rained hard the night before I visited, and when I got there the river was running high and was opaque from silt run-off. Hiking among the submerged, algae-covered rocks has been compared to walking on greased bowling balls, and I figured if I was going to do that, I should at least be able to see them. What to do?
The answer soon came in the form of two small mule deer, making their way slowly down the river and out of the mouth of the Narrows. I noted their spindly little legs, and I saw they weren't wearing neoprene socks. They seemed utterly untroubled by bowling balls, hypothermia, flash floods or anything else. I plunged in.
All went well for about a half-mile. I worked my way slowly up the Narrows, probing the murky water in front of me with a walking stick and stopping frequently to photograph the canyon.
|
My tale of canyoneering in southern Utah begins in Northern Virginia. In my bathtub, to be exact. The Zion Narrows begins at the end of the one-mile Riverside Walk in Zion National Park. From there to a point some 16 miles upstream, the river is forced into a spectacular gorge, as narrow as 20... I...
| 10.953846 | 0.969231 | 33.307692 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031901158.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031901158.html
|
Beyond the Blossoms, a Language Barrier Grows
|
2006032019
|
It is often the tradition in Japan to celebrate the pale-pink arrival of the cherry blossoms by sitting beneath the canopy of a blooming tree with family and friends and pouring some sake. And some beer. And then singing and dancing -- after several more rounds of sake and then more beer, late into the evening.
This is not necessarily how Washingtonians celebrate the blossoms. And in fact, the sake and beer part is very much against National Park Service regulations.
So as more and more Japanese tourists flock to the nation's capital to appreciate the fleeting splendor of cherry trees grown in U.S. soil, organizers of the National Cherry Blossom Festival are desperate to find ways to communicate the sometimes inelegant clash of American rules and Japanese customs.
They are trawling universities, businesses, embassies, government agencies and even Buddhist temples to find Japanese speakers who can greet the influx of tourists and offer directions and translation, particularly concerning such matters as the District's open-container law.
"More and more Japanese have come to realize this is quite an event. It used to be nothing more than a 10- or 15-second shot of the trees blossoming in Washington on Japanese TV. But now, Japanese tourists are coming to D.C. just for this festival," said John R. Malott, a former U.S. ambassador who heads the Japan-America Society of Washington.
Seeing the blossoms, American-style, during the March 25-April 9 festival is becoming a popular way for the Japanese to visit the United States. Flights from Tokyo are packed this time of year, tour groups promote U.S. blossom tours and one Japanese university near Tokyo even postponed the start of its semester this year because of the Washington festival.
"We have tour brokers calling us to ask if the trees have blossomed. And we're already getting calls from groups who want to come next year for the 95th anniversary of the festival. Anniversaries are very important to the Japanese," said Diana Mayhew, executive director of the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
Airlines, tour groups and hotels all report increases in the number of visitors from Japan for the festival that celebrates that country's culture and its 1912 gift of thousands of cherry trees to the United States.
All Nippon Airways said bookings for its Tokyo-Dulles route during cherry blossom time have jumped over last year, with 11 percent more passengers in March and 21 percent more flying to Washington in April, airline spokesman Damion R. Martin said.
These visitors arrive here and find their way to the Tidal Basin and the blossoms but then often get lost in the Mall area's tangle of streets, on-ramps and traffic circles. It doesn't get much easier when they knock on the door of the National Park Service's information trailer, only to have a language barrier thwart the park rangers' usually perky personalities, said Bill Line, spokesman for the National Park Service's National Capital Region.
"Each of the past three years, we've seen an increasing number of Japanese visitors come into the Cherry Blossom Festival Public Information Trailer who speak little to no English," Line said. "We'd like to be able to help them, to have them enjoy a better experience while here."
The National Park Service has about 20 Japanese speakers signed up to help, but it needs dozens more.
|
Get Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia news. Includes news headlines from The Washington Post. Get info/values for Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia homes. Features schools, crime, government, traffic, lottery, religion, obituaries.
| 13.956522 | 0.521739 | 0.608696 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031901002.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031901002.html
|
Soriano, Nats Appear Headed for Second Go-Round
|
2006032019
|
SAN DIEGO -- When second baseman Alfonso Soriano departed the Washington Nationals' spring training camp on March 2 to join the Dominican Republic team for the World Baseball Classic, he left with a seven-word message that was less a threat than a statement of optimism: "They have three weeks to fix it." On Saturday, after his team was eliminated in the WBC semifinals, Soriano walked out of Petco Park to begin the journey back to Viera, Fla., and if he did not know already, he will find out when he arrives: The Nationals did not fix it.
Soriano's return to the Nationals' camp, expected to be as early as Monday, will refocus attention on the divisive, perplexing issue that has dominated the team's spring, even in Soriano's absence: how to resolve the matter of Soriano's refusal to accept the proposed switch from second base to left field. It is an issue for which there is no easy fix.
More so than when Soriano departed, there is now a sense that the dispute will be settled by the means all parties had hoped to avoid: with the Nationals, who have explored trade possibilities to no avail, insisting firmly that Soriano must play left field, and with Soriano deciding upon the critical next move.
"I don't know what's going to happen," Soriano said as he left Saturday. "I have to go back to Florida and see."
The Nationals' immediate plan upon Soriano's return is for Manager Frank Robinson -- who, despite the unease, formed a bond with the player before the WBC began -- sitting down for a one-on-one conversation with Soriano, in which Robinson plans to reiterate the team's plan for him to play the outfield.
"I think that [reiteration] has to be part of the conversation," Robinson said.
Behind his designer sunglasses, Soriano's eyes on Saturday betrayed worry, as even his 2 1/2 -week respite from the Nationals' mess stripped away another piece of the identity he had built for himself during a five-year major league career.
He began the tournament as the Dominicans' starting second baseman, but after struggling at the plate and in the field during the first three games of the WBC, he was benched for the remainder of the tournament. In the ninth inning against Cuba on Saturday, he struck out as a pinch hitter to send the team packing.
Before Dec. 7, Soriano's position in the game had been secure: He was the Texas Rangers' second baseman, a three-time all-star and one of the most revered players in his country. But on that day, the Rangers traded him to the Nationals for outfielder Brad Wilkerson and two other players, and his professional life seemingly has yet to recover.
Traded to a new league, Soriano goes from an extreme hitter's park (Ameriquest Field) to an extreme pitcher's park (RFK Stadium) and is being asked to change positions in his final year before reaching free agency. The benching during the WBC was only the latest indignity.
In addition to asking how the messy situation will be resolved, people inside and outside the Nationals' organization have asked how it could have been allowed to happen in the first place, when Soriano's resistance to moving to the outfield was well known around the game.
A Trade Minus the Talk
On the afternoon of Dec. 7, as baseball's annual winter meetings were winding down in Dallas, the Nationals were itching to make a big move. Flush with cash from their new, expanded payroll budget, the team's brain trust had made unsuccessful runs at a couple of high-priced pitchers, but on the last full day of the meetings, they were considering a proposal for what would be a blockbuster trade.
|
This is your source for info on Washington Nationals baseball. Learn about DC baseball at the RFK stadium. Get the latest schedule and stats for the Washington Nationals. Stay updated on the latest Washington Nationals news!
| 17.255814 | 0.604651 | 0.976744 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031900631.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031900631.html
|
Maryland Finds 2nd Gear After Some Blunt Words
|
2006032019
|
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., March 19 -- Sacred Heart had just scored eight points in a span of a minute early in Sunday's game to pull within three points of second-seeded Maryland. Terrapins Coach Brenda Frese, furious with her team's defensive effort, didn't wait for the first scheduled timeout to chastise the players.
Maryland quickly heeded Frese's strong rebuke, going on an 18-3 run that prevented the Pioneers from threatening again. The Terrapins went on to win, 95-54, and advanced to play No. 7 seed St. John's, a 78-68 winner over California, in a second-round game on Tuesday at Bryce Jordan Center. Maryland (29-4), which tied a team record for wins in a season with the victory, won its opening game in the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive year.
"I just thought [Sacred Heart] was playing harder than us," Frese said. In Maryland's "transition defense, I thought we were jogging back and I thought they were being really aggressive beating us up and down the floor. I was disappointed in our defensive effort, and that's something we stressed really, really hard going into this tournament."
No. 15 seed Sacred Heart (26-5) was making its first appearance in the NCAA tournament after joining the Division I ranks only six seasons ago, but the Pioneers didn't appear the least bit awed by the experience. Encouraged by an enthusiastic cheering section, they were content to run with Maryland. Although the Terrapins opened the game scoring on eight of their first nine possessions, Sacred Heart was able to stay with them by making three three-point baskets in the first five minutes. The Pioneers went 9 for 23 from beyond the arc.
"I think we kind of underestimated how quick they were," guard Shay Doron said. "We responded pretty well."
After Frese's scolding, Maryland held Sacred Heart to one field goal over the next nine minutes. The Pioneers shot just 32 percent for the game. Amanda Pape, Sacred Heart's top scorer, finished with 16 points but shot only 5 of 16.
Although Sacred Heart's guards gave Maryland fits early, the Terrapins capitalized on their height advantage. The Pioneers' tallest starter is 6 feet 1 inch, while Maryland boasts three players who are 6 feet 1 or taller in its starting lineup.
"I thought we battled inside, but size-wise we couldn't get it done," Sacred Heart Coach Ed Swanson said.
Led by reserve forward Jade Perry, whose offensive game has developed to match her strong defensive play, Maryland dominated underneath the basket. Perry scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while starting forward Laura Harper added 16 points and 13 rebounds.
The Terrapins finished with nearly as many offensive rebounds (23) as Sacred Heart had total rebounds (26). In grabbing all those offensive rebounds, they didn't just get second chances at the basket; they got third and fourth opportunities at times. Maryland scored 23 second-chance points and outscored the Pioneers, 56-14, in the lane.
"The coaches had stressed [getting the ball inside] before the game," forward Crystal Langhorne said. "Our guards did a good job of getting us the ball in the right place."
Maryland's two freshman starters, forward Marissa Coleman and point guard Kristi Toliver, did not shoot the ball particularly well in their first NCAA tournament game, but they did contribute in other ways. Coleman grabbed 10 rebounds for her 11th double-figure rebounding game of the season and third in the last five. Toliver had a career-high 12 assists to go along with a team-high three steals.
· ST. JOHN'S 78, CALIFORNIA 68: St. John's guard Kia Wright slashed and dashed her way to the bucket on offense. On defense, she tipped away passes on the way to some easy layups.
High school buddy and current teammate Angela Clark helped, too, with some inside buckets and Greeba Barlow added hot shooting in the second half as resurgent St. John's won its first NCAA tournament game in 18 years.
St. John's, seeded seventh in the Albuquerque Region, pulled away from No. 10 seed Cal in the second half in University Park, Pa. It helped that Cal's Devenei Hampton, one of the top post players in the Pacific-10, was in foul trouble all game.
Wright led the Red Storm with 26 points, Clark had 14 points and seven rebounds and Barlow added 21 points.
· BOSTON COLLEGE 78, NOTRE DAME 61: After a long layoff, Boston College found its game in time for the NCAA tournament.
Brooke Queenan had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Aja Parham scored 16 and the Eagles beat Notre Dame in a first-round game in West Lafayette, Ind., to snap a five-game losing streak.
Playing for the first time in 17 days, Boston College (20-11) outrebounded the Irish, 42-31, outscored them, 29-10, from the free throw line and held their former Big East rival to 34 percent shooting. The eighth-seeded Eagles will play top-seeded Ohio State in the second round.
· OHIO STATE 68, OAKLAND 45: Ohio State was too big, too strong and too athletic for 16th-seeded Oakland.
The top-seeded Buckeyes (29-2) took advantage of a huge size disparity inside, going repeatedly to 6-5 Jessica Davenport and 6-1 Debbie Merrill as they rolled in a first-round tournament game in West Lafayette, Ind. Next up is eighth-seeded Boston College.
Davenport, the Big Ten Conference's player of the year, finished with 19 points and 18 rebounds -- a team record for rebounds in an NCAA tournament game. Merrill had 23 points.
|
Jade Perry's 20 points and 10 rebounds leads the way as second-seeded Maryland gets an easy 95-54 win over Sacred Heart in the NCAA tournament on Sunday.
| 33.794118 | 0.911765 | 2.205882 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031900830.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031900830.html
|
EDS, IBM to Help Revamp Medicare Claims Centers
|
2006032019
|
The Washington area operations of EDS Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. were two of three contractors picked to revamp data centers used in Medicare claims processing.
The two companies and Companion Data Services LLC, a subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, will compete for work under a contract worth up to $1.9 billion over the next 10 years. The contract is part of a modernization effort by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also known as CMS.
CMS plans to consolidate its 22 data centers into four enterprise data centers. Most of the existing centers handle specific applications or business processes or are not under CMS's direct control.
All software applications and hosting operations for Medicare, Medicaid and the state children's health insurance program will move to the new data centers over the next five years, CMS said.
The contracts are about more than consolidating multiple data centers into a few, said Anne K. Altman, managing director of IBM's federal unit, based in Bethesda.
"This is actually a bold approach CMS is taking," Altman said. "CMS is really taking a close look at how their infrastructure -- [both information technology] and physical -- can be better aligned directly to their business."
The enterprise data centers are intended to help CMS handle mounting health care processing workloads. The centers also are supposed to standardize how policy changes are carried out, establish better control of information technology processes and reduce security risks. CMS estimates that the four enterprise data centers will reduce costs by more than $45 million annually.
The three contractors already provide services for CMS:
· EDS is CMS's largest provider of data center operations and claims processing. EDS, whose government operations are based in Herndon, maintains the Medicare Part B Standard System, used to process more than 800 million outpatient claims annually. EDS also provides fraud, waste and abuse detection services for the Medicare program in every state.
· IBM holds contracts for CMS's Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System, Medicare Claims Data Center 1, Common Working File redesign, Medicare Statistical Information System/National Medicare Utilization Database, and Risk Adjustment System projects.
· Companion Data Services' parent provides Medicare claims processing for outpatient, hospital, medical equipment, rural health clinic, home health and hospice services.
Mary Mosquera is a staff writer with Government Computer News. For news on this and other contracts, go tohttp://www.gcn.com.
|
The Washington area operations of EDS Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. were two of three contractors picked to revamp data centers used in Medicare claims processing.
| 16.75 | 1 | 28 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/14/DI2006031400732.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/14/DI2006031400732.html
|
Personal Tech
|
2006032019
|
Want to know what upcoming topics are being covered? Sign up for the Fast Forward e-letter -- get updated information on personal technology news and product demos.
Past editions of Rob's e-letter are online here .
Rob Pegoraro: Welcome back to the Monday tech chat.... so far, we've got questions about e-mail programs, Apple's Mac mini, digital television and wireless networking (and there's probably at least one in the queue about the best e-mail program to use on a wirelessly networked Mac mini hooked up to a digital television). Let's go!
Williamsburg, VA: Hey Rob, thanks for taking the time to chat! I was curious if, in your testing of the new Mac Mini, you played any videos purchased from iTunes on your test TV? iTunes videos are made for playing on the iPod, so I know they don't have the greatest resolution, but I was curious how we'll they'd translate to being viewed on a normal TV set. I want to watch my downloaded episodes of "The Office" on my big screen!
washingtonpost.com: Apple's Mac Mini, Filling Out the Living Room (March 19, 2006)
Rob Pegoraro: I did indeed--watched the pilot episode of "Conviction" on that loaner plasma HDTV. Very much to my surprise, it didn't look awful from couch viewing distance. Compression artifacts were easy enough to see in some areas, and the lack of detail was obvious in comparison to an HD feed--but considering that iTunes downloads offer only a tiny fraction of HD resolution, I was shocked that I found it entirely watchable.
(Aging actors and actresses would probably like this even more; the reduced resolution had the effect of smoothing out everybody's wrinkles.)
Livingston, NJ: I have been thinking of switching from OE to Thunderbird, but your problems with the address book and its failure to take advantage of some XP SP2 security features discourage me.
When the new Vista comes out, don't you think that OE will be modernized too? I agree that it needs to be.
Rob Pegoraro: Microsoft says it will replace OE in Vista with a program called Windows Mail. From the bits and pieces I've read about this application, it sounds like Microsoft is trying (finally!) to put some real effort into it. I've also read that some version of Windows Mail will be released for XP, but my usual PR contact at Microsoft has yet to confirm or
Texas: I cannot start my PC immediately after I switched off/on the power supply. However it can be started after about half an hour. If the power supply is not cut off it can be started immediately after shutdown. It works fine and never crashes. What has gone wrong? Is it problem with the MB? Please help.
Rob Pegoraro: Try plugging the PC into another power supply, or right into the wall... my guess would be your power strip is going bad, because the symptoms you describe don't match any kind of power-management software failure.
(Not that those failures don't happen often enough. I've got a growing stack of e-mails from readers whose PCs have lost their ability to go to sleep or won't wake up from sleep--if anybody has some worthwhile troubleshooting tips, I'd like to hear 'em.)
Front Royal, VA: Can you please tell me more about this Vonage phone service? My husband and I have recently signed up for their service. We spent over 90 minutes on hold to reach someone that couldn't speak English. We were then given an incorrect phone number. We then called back to wait on hold for another thirty minutes. Then, they decided to charge us $10 for their mistake. They sent us to another person to wait another thirty minutes to get the charge taken off. Am I the only one having problem with this GREAT service?
Rob Pegoraro: Probably not, but that doesn't mean that Vonage is terrible for everybody either. Let's see if other folks chime in with their own experience.
Kent, WA: How long can I expect an LCD screen (laptop display) to hold up under usage of about 3 hours per day? Assume max. brightness. How much (what percent) of brightness will be lost per year?
Rob Pegoraro: Most LCD (and plasma) TV screens are rated for 60,000 hours of use--which actually means that after 60,000 hours of use, they'll be at half their original brightness, not dead outright. 60,000 hours divided by 3 hours/day divided by 365 days/year = about 54 years.
Given that most computers become obsolete in four years, I don't think you have anything to worry about.
Fairfax, VA: My employer provides me with a good laptop for job-related use. Of course, I don't want to take any risk and load anything personal on it. In view of this, I am in the market for a PC or laptop for personal use and would prefer to hold down the cost, while making sure that I have enough computer to handle iPod support, tax preparation, home accounting, etc. Do you have any recommendations?
Rob Pegoraro: Um, no. Sorry, but any machine on the market today will handle those uses without complaint.
Greensboro NC: Hi Rob, regarding:
Texas: I cannot start my PC immediately after I switched off/on the power supply. However it can be started after about half an hour. If the power supply is not cut off it can be started immediately after shutdown. It works fine and never crashes. What has gone wrong? Is it problem with the MB? Please help.
I've seen this issue where devices refuse to power up when they are overheated and need time to cool off. I'd advise TX to make sure the power strip has enough airspace to properly cool itself.
Canal Fulton, Ohio: How can I SHORTEN the range of my Linksys based wireless system?
Rob Pegoraro: See if the Linksys admin software includes any option to lower the power of its transmitter.
But first, I have to ask: Why do you want to do this? If you want to stop neighbors from leeching off your bandwidth, your only effective response is to encrypt and password-protect your network.
I am looking for a DVR to replace my VCR. Are there any that don't require a monthly fee? I don't need for the device to connect and download TV listings. I know that I could put a TV card in a PC and use it as a DVR, but my wife doesn't like the idea.
Rob Pegoraro: Yes, there are fee-free DVRs. Hit the nearest consumer-electronis store and look for the DVD recorders; at least some of them will also include a hard drive for DVR-style time-shifting. None of those (aside from the Humax TiVo) come with any subscription requirement... even if their schedules don't go as far into the future as TiVo's, I think a lot of people could live with that limitation.
Bethesda, MD: Rob, I purchased an Airport Express yesterday. I tried to connect it to my Windows XP based network which is using a Linksys Wireless Access point. We have 128kb encryption on the router.
I followed all of the instructions, which are very vague for Windows, and couldn't get it hooked up. Are there any "tricks" you know of?
Rob Pegoraro: I don't know that you can do that at all--not if you're trying to use the AirPort Express to extend your network. To do that (technically, set up a WDS--wireless distribution system) you generally need to stick to one vendor's brand of WiFi hardware.
If you're simply using the AirPort Express as a streaming media receiver for your stereo, that should be doable--but make sure you enter your network's password in hexadecimal form, not alphanumeric. That's usually what you have to do on most non-Apple wireless systems, but the AirPort setup software defaults to plain-English passwords, I think.
Fairfax, VA: I'm kind of surprised at your flippant response to my question on a good economical second computer. I would suspect there would be a lot of us out there will the same dilemma, company computer and limited resources and as a techie you thinks are wallets are bottomless pits!
Rob Pegoraro: I understand and sympathize, but I still can't help you. Asking me to suggest a good computer without giving me any but the broadest requirements is like asking Warren Brown "what's a good car?" I'm not a mind reader; I need *something* to come up with a useful selection.
(I'll put this another way: If there was one all-purpose cheap computer that was obviously superior to every other model in its price range, don't you think we'd all be using it by now?)
West Lafayette, IN: I am unable to download Flash on my new XP. I use Firefox. Is this a problem? Earlier I had no problems using Flash with Firefox and ME.
Rob Pegoraro: That is a problem--but it may only be for you, as I've never had a problem downloading Flash. If you don't have it installed, Firefox should offer to get a copy for you automatically. And even if that doesn't work, you should still be able to install it by going to www.macromedia.com/flashplayer/and running that installer.
I've got my entire hard disk backed up to an external disk. When I uninstall a program, such as Microsoft Antispyware (when I installed Defender), from my hard disk, Norton WinDoctor tries to make various shortcuts point to the backed up files on the external drive. Should I also be performing an uninstall from the backed up files on the external drive? Along the same line, what's the best way to delete everything on the backed up drive except documents, music, etc.? TIA.
Rob Pegoraro: This is why I think it's a waste of time to back up your entire hard drive. That backup strategy takes WAY more time and disk space than a simple backup of your own settings and data, and it also means that if your PC ever gets hit with a virus or spyware, the backup copy may be just as contaminated.
Best way to get rid of the extra stuff on the external hard drive? Delete your old backup, then set up a new backup routine that only covers your own files and settings. You don't need to backup applications, not when you can use the original CDs or download fresh copies of them off the Web.
Berryville, VA: Does the iMac's wireless network receiver work better than the Mac Mini's?
What places on the internet would you recommend for information on Apple wireless networking problems?
Rob Pegoraro: From what I've seen and heard, the Mac mini's wireless difficulties are unique in Apple's current product line--and they're not even common to all minis. Some work fine, and some barely work at all.
For more info, try Apple's tech-support forums: discussions.apple.com
Fairfax, VA: Rob-Arlington County is now providing free WiFi in certain areas. My question is, how does the county ensure that the WiFi is not used for illegal activities such as child pornography if anyone with a laptop can simply log on to the network anonymously? Shouldn't there be some safeguard so our tax dollars aren't spent on something that lets pervs commit crimes?
Rob Pegoraro: How do you know that people aren't using the postal service to send child porn?
Regarding the WiFi: "If you want to stop neighbors from leeching off your bandwidth, your only effective response is to encrypt and password-protect your network."
While I agree the encryption and passwords is the surest way to prevent leeching, isn't turning off SSID broadcasting (after selecting a non-obvious network name) and MAC address filtering significant in keeping out the average (and somewhat above average) neighbor?
I've had problems with encryption and online gaming when the router "reconnects" after a dropout (I think I have the terms correct).
Rob Pegoraro: Both those options will work, but the latter (only letting computers with designed networking hardware addresses connect) is probably beyond the reach of most people around here.
BTW, "SSID" means "network name." I will not rest until that useless abbreviation dies its deserved death. Plain English, people!
Range Extender?: Same manufacturer? I'm using an Airport as my router. Does that mean I can't extend my range with a Linksys range extender?
Rob Pegoraro: I believe so. (There are some cases where the same underlying chipset is in two different brands of router or receiver, and I've heard of people using other hacks, but I try to stick to the realm of things achievable through normal effort in this chat)
For Bethesda and the Airport: I got mine a few weeks ago. I found Apple's online discussion forum -- http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=149 -- and found out how to do it. I don't have the exact thread I used because I deleted the bookmark but I'm sure you could find it again with a little searching.
It had step-by-step instructions and was quite easy.
Tysons Corner, VA: Rob, my one-year subscription to McAfee's Security Suite is almost up for renewal and I have been re-evaluating against other options. Do I need the whole suite or is VirusScan enough? I have a high-speed cable connection and my provider says they provide firewall protection and D-Link says firewall protection is built into my wireless router. I thought McAfee's SpamKiller product was subpar. I use Firefox and Windows XP.
Rob Pegoraro: I think all of McAfee's suite is sub-par, if you must know! But you're correct that you definitely don't need the non anti-virus parts of the suite; beyond your router's firewall, you also have the one built into Windows XP.
Alexandria, VA: I've purchased a Linksys wireless access point/router which has been giving me fits. I clearly do not want to leave the wireless access unprotected, however, that is the only way I have been able to successfully connect. If I use any of the password options, the router refuses to dole out an IP address. And yeah, I'm entering the right passcodes on each attempt. Is this a Linksys quirk?
Rob Pegoraro: I don't think so, because I'm pretty sure I was able to use encryption on a Linksys router the last time I tried. What did Linksys tech support say?
Jericho, New York: Why are commuter trains unable to provide basic connectivity to the web and auxiliary laptop power options?
Rob Pegoraro: Uh, because they only charge a few bucks for a ticket? I suppose it would be nice if the LIRR (or VRE, MARC, NJ Transit, Caltrain etc. etc.) included things like that, but I suspect that most riders would rather see that money put into more reliable and frequent service first. I.e., there's no engineering reason why you couldn't do that, but it would cost some money as well.
Reston, VA: If I'm having trouble getting WEP to work, would restricting access to specific MAC addresses serve as an effective security solution?
Rob Pegoraro: It would at least stop the average passerby from using your bandwidth for free. But if you can't get encryption to work, how do you know that MAC address restriction will work for you either? I think you need to keep leaning on the vendor to deliver this basic, basic feature properly.
Regarding SSID: My apologies. My Dlink router says "network name" when I name it but says "Enable/Disable SSID broadcasting" for that option. I'll never use SSID again (well, after this).
As for the MAC address filtering, I felt setting up the password on the router and doing the same on the laptops was much harder than setting up the MAC address filtering. Guess I'm just "different".
Rob Pegoraro: Let's just say that MAC address filtering is one thing that *really* doesn't work in a house that tends to have review hardware coming and going with great frequency.
Arlington, VA: Rob-Thanks for your fantastic columns and chats. Wish I could be here live, but I have a job. Anyway, I saw a new report on Apple viruses a few weeks back-is there some new big risk we need to worry about? All I do is run the Apple firewall and only accept cookies from sites I navigate to. Is that enough?
Rob Pegoraro: I think so. The virus that did appear (and then disappeared just as fast) required a certain degree of user action for it to spread--i.e., it wasn't a worm--and wasn't even coded right. Vulnerabilities that have come to light since then have been fixed pretty quickly. And in all these cases, the potential damage of a piece of malware was limited to "userspace"--that part of the machine that you run as a regular user, not core system functions that require an admin password.
What follows is more my own hypothesis than any settled theory, but please consider: That last issue means that you can't turn a Mac into a spam relay or a phishing Web-site host or start logging the user's keystrokes just by getting the user to run a strange download; you also need to get him or her to type in an admin password. Until that changes, there isn't much economic incentive for anybody to write a Mac virus.
Herndon, VA: I bought a Sandisk Sensa e260 mp3 player that just came out this weekend and it works well with the CDs that I loaded with window media player 10. I also bought a Napster download card but the songs I bought with card are not playing. I finally got them to show up on the player, changing the USB mode to MSC. When I try and play the songs on the e260 it says to synchronize to continue my subscription. I tried all kinds of synch but no luck. I also got a Microsoft error C00D2772 indicating an issue with the certificate, which was not very helpful. I was able to purchase, synch and play other songs that were synched to my son's iRiver H10 that were purchased with the same download card and loaded from the same Win XP PC. Any ideas that may help would be appreciated.
Rob Pegoraro: When Microsoft came out with a "PlaysForSure" logo to slap on devices that passed its certification tests, it should have thought twice about using a label like that if music downloads would not, in fact, play for sure in the real world. I've seen a lot of complaints like this--and I feel bad for suggesting to readers that they look for this logo. For too many of them, it's actually meant "PlayedForSureInOurLabs,ButMaybeNotInYourHome."
All I can suggest is looking for firmware updates from Sandisk--the initial transfer problem you describe sounds like the sort of thing that an update might address.
Chantilly, Va.: Re: Your note on Symantec/Norton AV software.
I recently replaced my old laptop with a newer, (faster! stronger!) one, since the old one's hard drive failed and it was dirt slow to begin with.
On my previous laptop I had been using the free version of AVG (www.grisoft.com). On my new laptop, since was Symantec preloaded, I decided to give it a whirl. Boy, talk about a pain! Every time I went out to the 'net or did something network related, I kept getting little notes, along the lines of: Norton has detected you just did something and created a rule for future use.
After about a week or so of this, I ended up removing Norton and reverted to the free edition of AVG. It's not only far less intrusive, it takes up a much smaller footprint (and co-exists quite nicely w/Outlook).
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks, Chantilly... AVG (and Avast) are the two free anti-virus programs that I reviewed last fall: Two More Ways to Fight Viruses, for Free
Clifton Park, N.Y.: We have been using Vonage for couple of years now. It works great...no issues with the service. But their customer service is terrible... it takes a long time to reach someone for support questions. However, Vonage website is pretty good for viewing account/Billing information.
Rob Pegoraro: Much appreciated. Other Vonage reports welcome...
Rockville, Md.: For Alexandria: It could be the PC's settings as well. For instance, I had to tell XP explicitly whether my network was open or shared WEP. It couldn't figure that out itself.
Rob Pegoraro: Good tip... with the last few laptops I've tried, the default setting has worked fine. But because I haven't had to change it, I don't remember what it is! (The Service Pack 2 update to XP definitely helped a lot in this respect; my first troubleshooting step on any Windows machine that's having WiFi issues is to use the XP WiFi interface instead of whatever other software the manufacturer put on the computer.)
I just don't "get" RSS feeds. I use Firefox 1.5 and I have a live bookmark for "Rob Pegoraro" and it gives me this tremendously long scrolling list of every article you've written over the last 2 years. I thought these feeds I see all over WP and other sites I visit were supposed to update ME when there was something new, not just provide me an archive. Am I using this properly?
Rob Pegoraro: Well, no--can't you find anything better to read online than my lousy column? :)
Firefox's RSS reader is pretty limited, but it should serve alright as an introduction to the concept. Try a few different sites--preferably, a blog. Most blogs are updated on an irregular schedule, but almost all of them off RSS feeds so you don't have to click "reload" 10 times a day.
Louisville, Ky: What percentage of major corporations do you think are still using Internet Explorer 6.0 at the office?
The Fortune 200 company I work for still does and I still can't believe it.
Rob Pegoraro: Oh, I can. *Lots* of companies seem to have their heads stuck in the sand (or somewhere else)... the worst cases are those companies that also haven't updated to XP. I've said this before and I'll probably have it say it many more times: If you're running a pre-XP SP2 version of Windows, you need to stop using IE *now*. The version you've got is seriously insecure is going to remain so for the duration.
Bethesda and Airport - follow-up: I found the exact thread in the Apple discussion group.
It has the step-by-step instructions. Took me about 5 minutes.
The one thing it doesn't say is that if you use MAC address filtering, remember that the MAC address of the wired port is different than the wireless port - but both are printed on the side of the airport.
Rob Pegoraro: Better yet! Thanks again...
Downtown DC: Intuit is dropping support of Quicken 2003 and earlier versions at the end of April. While I'm not sure I need all (any) of the functions that will no longer be available, I'm uneasy about their dropping support altogether.
Rob Pegoraro: There's Microsoft Money, but Microsoft enforces the same general "sunset" policy as Intuit. You might want to try a program called MoneyDance (www.moneydance.com), which doesn't have that kind of encumbrance.
Tysons Corner, VA: I'm looking for a free firewall (for outgoing traffic) I can recommend to someone. Tiny doesn't appear to be free since CA bought the company, the older version of ZoneAlarm that I used in the past has been a resource hog. Is there anything better out there?
Rob Pegoraro: Sunbelt Software now distributes the old Kerio firewall; although it's offered as a for-sale product, that Web page also says that if you don't pay for it will keep working (but with fewer features) after the 30-day trial: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm
Alexandria, VA: I am going to get the new iMac with intel but have been told to wait until the next generation is here. I have to get it by June as I'll be laid up after surgery for a couple of months. Will anything change by then?
Rob Pegoraro: In terms of hardware design... probably not. That will be about six months since the iMac debuted with its new Intel brain; Apple has been known to revise models that quickly, but usually it takes a little longer. You will certainly see some improvements in its software by then, though--bug fixes from Apple and more "universal" Intel-ready releases from third parties.
I will soon be upgrading to a new computer, but am concerned about how this will affect my ipod. I have moved my music files around and as a result, itunes cannot locate many of my songs. I was wondering if there was a way to have my ipod act as a hard drive and load all of music files onto my new computer. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: Sure--you can simply enable "disk mode" from within iTunes, then dump your entire library on it. Er--wait, you're saying you have the songs on the iPod but can't locate them on the computer? In that case, try the file-transfer utilities I wrote about in this old Help File column: Music Copying Software; Monitoring Upload/Download Speeds (washingtonpost.com)
Windows 98: So, how can I rattle the cage of a co-worker who uses Windows 98 at home and refuses to upgrade b/c of the more intrusive nature of XP (registration, checking your hardware, etc.)
I told her..."You are not safe on the internet with Windows 98." Was I stretching the truth?
Rob Pegoraro: No, you weren't. But this person is also probably going to hate XP if she doesn't upgrade her computer's memory first... practically speaking, though, a machine that old is more of a candidate for the scrap heap than anything else if you're going to stick with Windows.
(A Linux distribution could have lower hardware requirements--well, if your colleague mistrusts Microsoft that much, maybe she *would* be hip to moving to Linux.)
I've been using Netscape (vers. 7) as my email client for several years and would like to try out Mozilla's Thunderbird. But I'd like to export my Netscape email and import it into Mozilla first. Is this possible? I haven't found an obvious way to do it.
Rob Pegoraro: I'm actually Rob, but I'm willing to impersonate Brian Krebs if I have to :)
A friend of mine just did this transfer, and IIRC he said that Tbird imported his Netscape mailboxes automatically. Have you tried just doing that?
Either way, I do recommend that you dump Netscape. That program is almost as dead as pre-XP IE.
Bethesda, MD -Airport: thanks for all the info. It is very helpful and I might get to watch 24 tonight instead of struggling with the set up.
Rob Pegoraro: I'm sure Jack Bauer has had problems configuring his WiFi network too...
MAC on PC: Hi Rob-
Putting XP on a Mac is interesting, but what I really want to know is when I can put OS-X (Mac) on a PC! Can I buy OS-X and save bunches of money skipping the Apple hardware?
Rob Pegoraro: Maybe. People got the early, developer-only builds of OS X for Intel to run on PCs, and I've heard that they've also been able to do this with the current version. But it requires a non-trivial level of tinkering. If you value your time, you may not save much with this approach--certainly not if you need a new computer anyway.
Brookfield, Missouri: I have hundreds of old 35mm slides. Is there anything out there that will allow me to use my pc to transfer them to disc? I would also like to be able to bring them up on my monitor and print copies or make adjustments to them. All I have found is an adapter from HP that they say will allow me to do this but I will have to buy their scanjet printer since the adapter only works with their printer. I have a Dell system.
Rob Pegoraro: You're looking for a dedicated slide scanner--Nikon sells a few. At prices starting around $500-ish, I think... but if you've got hundreds of slides, that could be worthwhile.
Another option would be to pay a good photography shop to do the work for you.
Falls Church, Va.: I could really use your help with two IPOD questions. First, I would love to be able to listen to my IPOD in the car and I have seen a number of adapters which send out an FM radio transmission of your IPOD's output so you can play it in the car and at home on your stereo. On the web I have seen good and bad reviews of a myriad of different models. Are any of them any good? Are there any of the manufacturers you can recommend?
Second, I mostly use my IPOD to listen to music on the metro. I would like to set up playlists of songs that are particularly good for listening to while I read on the train. I can set up the lists but I don't know how to get the IPOD to shuffle the lists so I don't hear the exact same 6/7 songs (the length of my metro ride) in the same order every time. I like using the shuffle songs feature but I would really love to shuffle only the Jazz songs, or only the rock songs, or only the songs in my "metro" playlist.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Rob Pegoraro: 1) Here's the comparison of FM transmitters and tape-deck adapters we ran last year: Two Ways to Take iPod on the Road
2) Go to the Settings menu, then select Shuffle and press the center button to select "Songs." That should shuffle any given set of songs for you, whether it's a playlist or the entire library on the iPod.
Arlington, VA: When I burn a disc in Photoshop elements 4.0 and verify it after the burn, I often get an error message. In these cases it seems that the disc is still readable. To avoid this I started not verifying the discs after a burn and last week it backfired. The disc was partially unreadable at the camera store.
Does the verify error indicate that there is something wrong with my CD/DVD burner (I/O Magic brand) or is it related to the software. Burning music CDs gives me occssional error messages also, but the CD's still play.
The drive is only two years old. Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: Getting disc-burning errors in two different programs--even if the CDs ultimately play sometimes--makes me think that you've got a hardware problem. If you see that issue with a third app, I'd see that as fairly definitive proof. Two years is young for a CD burner, but it's not too young for one to fail.
Rockville, Md.: I have a WinXP machine for my kids. They log in as a limited user while my wife and I can log in as a full user (password protection).
As a limited user, they cannot install software or alter the controls in Norton Internet Professional. However, as a limited user, Windows will not update the software as needed nor will Norton update the virus definitions etc. As a result, I try and log in weekly (or more often if I hear about a virus/risk) and update the OS as well as Norton.
Is there some other way I can configure the system or is this the catch-22 of being a limited user?
Rob Pegoraro: If you've got enough memory, you can keep one admin account logged in all the time with fast user switching. The kids can keep using their limited account, but automatic updates should be able to proceed as usual in your own account (which will remain inacessible to anybody without a password.)
This is one of the things that Windows Vista is supposed to improve upon.
Ocean View, DE - transplanted from Bowie: Hi Rob - Love your online Q & A!
I have a couple diff iPods - the earlier 40gb and the newer 60 gb video (not that I do videos). I've somehow "lost" part of an audiobook I downloaded from iTunes last month and in reading the Apple online support traffic, there seems to be a 3rd party software item that will enable me to reverse what's on the iPod back to the iTunes library... it is called PodPlus and/or TuneJack. Any experience with either of these? I doubt I'll get anywhere with iTunes/Apple in having them resend the lost Part 1 of that audiobook. The part 1 file still resides in the itunes directory, but it has 0 bytes... says "stream" where the file size should be, so I've lost more than 2 hrs of audio.
Rob Pegoraro: See my earlier answer--AFAIK, those iPod utilities work with any audio file on an iPod.
(ObligatorBackupNag: This is why you should make regular backups of your important files.)
Vienna, Va.: I'm starting college this fall and am shopping for a PC. On the hardware end, I've been looking at the dual core, but now I'm reading that quad core will be out by this fall as well.
Do you think that the quad core will launch any major advances in s/w or the way in which PCs are used in industry?
Yakima, WA: I'm in a hotel (Holiday Inn Express, Yakima, WA). They have free wireless but it is totally unprotected (no encryption is offered to the customers). Do you know of a way I could secure my laptop from folks who might want to gain access? Or set my laptop up to run on wireless, but better protected......
Rob Pegoraro: Same way you secure your computer at home--keep a firewall active, stay current with Microsoft's security updates and run up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
Chicago, IL: RE: Not starting until 30 min.
I had the same problem and it was the fan of my computer. It would also overheat and just shut off. I had to replace the fan, but you could also try the cheap way of opening up your PC and aiming a table fan at it until you can get it fixed.
Akron, Ohio: That some contestant/hacker has engineered a way to run Windows on Macs is not earth-shaking news. Engineering OS 10.x to run on PCs is the story I crave. What's the prize for that trick?
Rob Pegoraro: None that I know of. Are you volunteering to start a contest? :)
Washington, DC: I wanted to ask about your comments last week about using Thunderbird for email and the Mac OS X's Apple's address book for your "real contact list." Do you have a recommendation for those of us who are Windows users and have not (yet) been forced to use Outlook? Is there anything better than the Palm Desktop for managing a contact list if you sync to a Treo?
Rob Pegoraro: Not that I know of. This is a lousy situation all around, but I blame Palm more than anybody. They can't seriously think that pushing customers towards their competitor's contacts manager is a viable strategy--but by letting Palm Desktop grow moldy, they're doing just that.
DC: RSS follow-up: You said the firefox reader is "limited" -- can you recommend a better reader/aggregator for Firefox users?
Rob Pegoraro: Not one, but I'll describe the overall choices--I admit that I haven't settled on any of them long-term. (My favorite RSS reader is Mac-only--NetNewsWire Lite. I'm still trying to find a Windows application that's as convenient to use.)
* Web-based aggregators: I like Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) but try Google Reader (reader.google.com) or the ones built into Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
* Google Desktop: This one has the benefit of finding and, if you want, subscribing to new feeds automatically.
* A standalone client: I like the free FeedReader among what's out there, but I haven't tried others as yet.
* One built into e-mail: I'm trying the one included in Thunderbird but don't like it that much, as I can't get any of the filtering tools to work on that.
Fairfax, VA: What more do I need to tell you? I'm not a gamer. I would like to build my music library. I like to IM when I have time. I would like to keep track of home accounting, income development and tax preparation. On line news. Research. Club work. No high demand for speed and bells and whistles.
Rob Pegoraro: That's much better. By saying you're not a gamer, I know you don't need to spend extra on a separate graphics card. Your mention of accounting and tax prep at least suggests that you've got particular programs you use and would like to keep using--so a switch to a Mac wouldn't work for you.
And yet: laptop or desktop? Do you want a smaller desktop? Do you care about the software bundle or are you going to download your favorite applications anyway?
Somebody else asked about this, so here's the last piece I wrote about shopping for a home computer:
Ground Rules for Buying on the Cutting Edge
Boise, ID: Hi Rob, Now that I stepped up to a laptop, how do I clean the screen without messing it up? Thanks.
Rob Pegoraro: Windex and a paper towel should work fine, as long as you spray the towel, not the screen.
Arlington, VA: Regarding e-mail programs - I've been a long-time Verizon DSL customer and I use their bundled MSN Premium for e-mail. My wife and I like the dashboard interface which includes MSN Money and our calendars and address books. However, I HATE using MSN as my browser - too much wasted real estate. We also hate Verizon's webmail offering. I use FF 1.5.
Lately Verizon has been pushing their bundled Yahoo. Is there a benefit to switching? The only Yahoo service we use is Yahoo Music Unlimited. Also, is there an interface available for Firefox which integrates e-mail, calendar, etc. in a similar fashion to MSN?
Rob Pegoraro: The MSN software Verizon bundles looks like it's become one of those once-intriguing projects that have since gotten abandoned; Microsoft put some real effort into this program, but hasn't touched it in years. I'd think about switching for that reason alone--plus, dumping it means you can use the programs of your choice.
Unfortunately, MSN Premium is also one of the only simple ways to integrate a calendar, address book and e-mail at home. Firefox doesn't have either capability built in; there are extensions for Thunderbird, the mail-only counterpart to Firefox, but that software is much more experimental. You might be stuck with MSN Premium for e-mail for a while longer.
Cap Hill: For Alexandrai's problem with LinkSys. I had the same problem and it was fixed by switching from WEP enmcryption to WPA.
Rob Pegoraro: Thanks, Cap Hill. WPA is a more modern, secure form of encryption; in general, you should use that over WEP unless you've got older WiFi hardware that doesn't support WEP at all.
NoLo, DC: If you're looking for a windows feed reader similar to NNW, have a look at Feed Demon. Both products were recently bought by NewsGator to provide desktop solutions to go with their web-based feed reading and synchronization. You can find FeedDemon at http://www.bradsoft.com/ .
No connection to Nick Bradbury; I'm just a fan of his software (including TopStyle, the CSS editor)
Rob Pegoraro: I'd heard about NNW being acquired, but not FeedDemon. If the second program can acquire some of the elegance of the first program, I'd be very excited to try it out.
DC: When will Simcity 5 come out? will it come out? I know you don't know the answer but I really want it.
Rob Pegoraro: July 16, 3:42 p.m. EST
Oh, you wanted a *real* answer?
Fairfax, Va.: I've been thinking about replacing my Clie SJ-22 with a Palm TX. How difficult is it to connect the Tx to WiFi?
Rob Pegoraro: Quite simple in my experience. Palm did a good job with the WiFi software on that device.
Anonymous: Thanks for the informative article on the Mac Minis and Front Row software. One issue that you didn't address that's important to me as a potential buyer is how quiet or noisy a unit is. If I'm listening to music or viewing a suspenseful silent passage in a movie the noise of a normal PC's power supply and CPU fans is a simply deal breaker. I personally stopped using a dual CPU, dual disk drive workstation because the cooling fans were too noisy for long photo processing sessions. Fortunately, I bought a cheap Dell 2400 that is the quietest machine I've ever run across. Yes, I know PCs are getting somewhat quieter. And yes, I know some aftermarket folks "soup" up machines to be quiet, but we need writers like you to tell manufacturers that noise matters - especially in a music and video machine. How can I find out how noisy a PC is?
Rob Pegoraro: The Mac mini was effectively silent in use--I know there's a fan in it, but I couldn't hear it at all. Unfortunately, most manufacturers not named "Apple" don't seem to be working hard enough to fix this. (The Shuttle XPC I tried two summers ago was pretty quiet, but most other machines put out a constant whir of one level or another.)
Baltimore, Md.: Re the person from Fairfax wanting a second computer: Rebates are a pain, but if you go any of the big office or electronics chains, you can get a brand name CPU, monitor keyboard, mouse and (often) printer for under $400, once you have submitted the rebate forms and waited weeks. And before that, you still only spending about $600 for a machine that is plenty robust enough to do common household computing.
Posting this from my sweet new MacBook Pro. Love, love, love it. Super fast (and i've only really used it for surfing this first week). 15" widescreen is super bright. Everything -just works- as we macistas say. Viva CrackBook!
Rob Pegoraro: "CrackBook" is a much better name than "MacBook" :)
Washington, DC: After using AOL for all of my email needs (small office business and personal) I am ready to move on. I need the ability to handle multiple accounts and am intrigued by the idea of saving all email online in one central location. Question is, which would make more sense for a "SOHO: do-it-yourself user like me: A web based "free" mail service (like Yahoo or Gmail) or hosted email service (like GoDaddy) that could also make use of a business domain?
Rob Pegoraro: For business use, you'll look a lot more professional with your own domain name. You can do that with either Web-mail or domain-name services; however, I suggest using a system that lets you keep mail locally, so you're not out of business if Yahoo or Gmail or whoever suffers an outage. So I'd vote for your plan B.
Alexandria, VA: So how do I get the extra stuff for Thunderbird?
Rob Pegoraro: Hit the Tools menu, select Extensions and click "Get More Extensions."
Rob Pegoraro: OK, gang, I've gotta sign off here--I still have some work to get done today, and there's not many hours left in the day to do it. Thanks for all the great questions; I should be back here in two weeks.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
|
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.
| 219.097561 | 0.707317 | 0.95122 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031901078.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006032019id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/19/AR2006031901078.html
|
Multiple Layers Of Contractors Drive Up Cost of Katrina Cleanup
|
2006032019
|
NEW ORLEANS -- How many contractors does it take to haul a pile of tree branches? If it's government work, at least four: a contractor, his subcontractor, the subcontractor's subcontractor, and finally, the local man with a truck and chainsaw.
If the job is patching a leaking roof, the answer may be five contractors, or even six. At the bottom tier is a Spanish-speaking crew earning less than 10 cents for every square foot of blue tarp installed. At the top, the prime contractor bills the government 15 times as much for the same job.
For the thousands of contractors in the Katrina recovery business, this is the way the system works -- a system that federal officials say is the same after every major disaster but that local government officials, watchdog groups and the contractors themselves say is one reason that costs for the hurricane cleanup continue to swell.
"If this is 'normal,' we have a serious problem in this country," said Benny Rousselle, president of Plaquemines Parish, a hurricane-ravaged district downriver from New Orleans. "The federal government ought to be embarrassed about what is happening. If local governments tried to run things this way, we'd be run out of town."
Federal agencies in charge of Katrina cleanup have been repeatedly criticized for lapses in managing the legions of contractors who perform tasks ranging from delivering ice to rebuilding schools. Last Thursday, Congress's independent auditor, the Government Accountability Office, said inadequate oversight had cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, by allowing contractors to build shelters in the wrong places or to purchase supplies that were not needed.
But each week, many more millions are paid to contractors who get a cut of the profits from a job performed by someone else. In instances reviewed by The Washington Post, the difference between the job's actual price and the fee charged to taxpayers ranged from 40 percent to as high as 1,700 percent.
Consider the task of cleaning up storm debris. Just after the hurricane, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded contracts for removing 62 million cubic yards of debris to four companies: Ashbritt Inc., Ceres Environmental Services Inc., Environmental Chemical Corp. and Phillips and Jordan Inc.
Each of the four contracts was authorized for a maximum of $500 million. Corps officials have declined to reveal specific payment rates, citing a court decision barring such disclosures. But local officials and businesspeople knowledgeable about the contracts say the companies are paid $28 to $30 a cubic yard.
Below the first tier, the arrangements vary. But in a typical case in Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, top contractor Ceres occupied the first rung, followed by three layers of smaller companies: Loupe Construction Co., then a company based in Reserve, La., which hired another subcontractor called McGee, which hired Troy Hebert, a hauler from New Iberia, La. Hebert, who is also a member of the state legislature, says his pay ranged from $10 to $6 for each cubic yard of debris.
"Every time it passes through another layer, $4 or $5 is taken off the top," Hebert said. "These others are taking out money, and some of them aren't doing anything."
Defenders of the multi-tiered system say it is a normal and even necessary part of doing business in the aftermath of a major disaster. The prime contracts are usually awarded by FEMA or other government agencies well in advance, so relief services can be brought in quickly after the crisis eases. These companies often must expand rapidly to meet the need, and they do so by subcontracting work to other firms.
The two federal agencies that administer most disaster-related contracts, FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, say the system benefits small and local companies that do not have the resources to bid for large federal contracts. At the top end, prime contractors must be large enough to carry the heavy insurance burdens and administrative requirements of overseeing thousands of workers dispersed across a wide area, agency officials say. They also note that contractors have a legal right to hire subcontractors as they need them.
|
NEW ORLEANS -- How many contractors does it take to haul a pile of tree branches? If it's government work, at least four: a contractor, his subcontractor, the subcontractor's subcontractor, and finally, the local man with a truck and chainsaw.
| 15.98 | 1 | 50 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/08/DI2006030801190.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/08/DI2006030801190.html
|
Real Wheels
|
2006031719
|
Warren Brown talks about all your automobile issues! He has been covering the automobile industry for The Washington Post since 1982. Brown, who joined the newspaper in 1976, has what many people think is a particularly cool job: He gets to test drive all manner of cars, from top-of-the-line Mercedes sedans and the newest sports cars to Volkswagen Beetles and SUVs. His auto reviews are lively, detailed accounts of a car's good and bad points, addressing everything from a car's highway performance to its "head-turning" factor and sound system.
Brown comes online Wednesdays at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions on every aspect of the automotive industry -- from buying your dream car to the future of the internal combustion engine.
Vienna, Va.: Hi, Warren. Love your chats. The new Honda Fit looks like a great car. From so many angles, it looks like my 2002 Honda Civic Si, which Honda never really promoted all that well and I don't think was a big hit here in the U.S. -- perhaps because of the "modest" 160 hp engine (I'll take the great gas mileage, thank you!). Do you think the Fit will be a winner here in the U.S.?
Warren Brown: Good morning. Yeah, the Fit will do okay. But It won't be a cakewalk for Honda. Many worthy competitors in that segment, including the Nissan versa, Toyota Yaris and Chevrolet Aveo.
Denver, Colo.: Mr. Brown: You've criticized Consumer Reports' reviews as being biased in favor of Japanese cars and against U.S. manufacturers, and I tend to agree with you. So, is there another publication or source of information that we should rely on instead of CR? Especially for reliability-over-time statistics? Thanks.
Warren Brown: Again, it is necessary to point out that CR does a very fine job of serving the consumer. I use it frequently. However, there is no such thing as an objective source, per se. Different organizations factor in different things different ways. For example, take CR's working definition of "reliability." Essentially, it translates to the ratio of consumer complaints per vehicle. And what are those complaints? They can range from scratched paint to a drivability problem.
Here's a good example: Many CR people complain that U.S. cars are too easy to steal. Yet, increasingly, people now are beginning to complain about those intelligent key ignition locks sold on many Japanese and other high-end cars.
The locks are meant to make it more difficult for thieves to take your ride. However, if you lose both keys, the original and the backup, you could be looking at a very high replacement cost for that ignition system.
Given those variances in research and interpretation, I'd suggest looking at a variety of information sources on cars and trucks.
Los Angeles, Calif.: If you had cash to spend on a car, say up to $25,000, would you pay cash or take a loan? If you are a single 32-year-old female living in sunny L.A. with the above amount, what would you buy? Thanks!
Warren Brown: I'd pay cash. Loans cost money because they usually come with higher interest rates than most banks or other financial institutions are willing to pay in earned interest on an investment of $25,000. Yes, you could plop your $25 K in the Stock Market...as long as you understand that, in doing so, you are simply engaging in the pinstriped equivalent of a slot machine.
The best road to financial solvency is the elimination and strict control of debt.
Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: VW Service Nightmare: I dropped off my car for service on Saturday at VW Springfield. The car took six plus hours to repair and when it was ready I was unavailable to pick it up. So I paid via credit card for an after hours pickup and I was promised my car would be left outside. When I arrived at 7:15, I could see that my car was locked inside the service bay. I drove around the facility and saw two employees working in the garage. I spoke to them and indicated that I needed my car as I had to leave at 6am to drive to Boston to attend a funeral. The employees would not release my car (even though I had proof it was mine) nor would they call their supervisor to explain my situation. In fact, the employees threatened to call the police claiming I was trespassing. Long story short, I missed the funeral as I was only able to pick up my car on Sunday afternoon. If I want to bring a more serious complaint to whom should I speak?
Warren Brown: That is so terribly rude, goofy, anti-consumer. I'll publish your complaint here. VW is hereby invited to respond.
VW: Here we go, again: Good cars, lousy service. What? Do you all think I'm making this stuff up? These complaints are coming from YOUR CUSTOMERS. What do you all at VW have to say about it?
Rockville, MD: Warren: I've always appreciated your honest viewpoints. Since 1986, I have been in agreement with you on most things automotive. Back then you wrote how a BMW 535i was more fun to drive than a corvette. I bought one, drove it 235k blissful miles, never had a thing done to it, then bought a 525i in '91, put 260K miles on that with no problems. But now cars are so electrically complicated with literally dozens of computers, can I expect any car built today to last that long, or are those days gone forever? I've got a 2002 Audi A-6 with 70K miles on it that probably won't make 100K before the transmission, among other things, needs replacing.
Warren Brown: Hello, Rockville. Statistically, today's cars are more reliable, more durable, safer, and more enjoyable....and, yes, substantially more complicated.
So, while your techno-angst certainly is understandable, it's statistically unsupportable.
Many of today's cars, even the economy models, can run 200,000 miles or so with proper service and care. Be not afraid. It's okay to venture forth into the brave new world of technology, as long as you aren't on a hunting trip with the Vice President. He needs a GPS on his gun.
Temple Hills, Md.: Dear Warren,
I am currently struggling with the decision as to which car I am willing to purchase. I have been torn between the 2003 versions of the Audi A6, Jaguar S-Type and the Lexus GS. In your opinion which one would be the best purchase based on quality, driving experience and overall value?
Warren Brown: Hello, Temple Hills, Md.
1) Forget the Jaguar S-Type, especially for 2003. I'm sorry, but that car just does not live up to the Jaguar reputation in overall presentation and performance. Why bother?
2) I absolutely love the overall performance, feel and look of the Audi A-6, more so than I do those attributes in the Lexus GS.
3) However, the Lexus GS generally is a very well turned out car gifted with solid performance. And Toyota, which owns Lexus, generally does a good job of repairing the cars it sells. VW, which owns Audi, doesn't.
Chicago, Ill.: Ok, before I even ask this question I know what you're going to think "must be a dumb blonde." Well I am blonde, but really not that dumb, just clueless when it comes to cars.
I was recently in a pinch and coming up on my next scheduled oil change, but needed a bit of oil according to my dipstick levels. So I purchased a quart of synthetic oil (I have a 3 series BMW), and completely used up the entire quart by pouring the oil, unbeknownst at the time, into the wrong slot, the dipstick insert and not the oil engine filler, OOPS. Needless to say, I did get the needed oil change just yesterday about eight days after my self "oil" fill up. Upon changing the oil they ask if I had any transmission work, because something is really leaking. I haven't had transmission work, so I stopped by the BMW service center and asked if they could verify that I have no transmission issue. The consultant looked the car over last night, and assured me no transmission issue exists, however, he pointed out that I must of had a sloppy oil change as he could see oil overflow in the engine area. At that time, I did not realize that I poured the quart of oil into the wrong spot, so we just shrugged, and I stated that I'd have to ensure that I return to BMW for all future oil changes. It wasn't until this morning, when my mind was much clearer that I put it all together and realized that the "sloppy oil change" was my mistake.
My question to you is what should I do now? My car has been leaking some oil for the past eight days, should I go to a shop? Is my car ruined/damaged by pouring into the dip stick slot?
Thanks for any suggestions that you may offer.
Warren Brown: Hello, Chicago. That's nothing dumb about what would did, blonde or not. You just made a mistake. We all do -- like all of those people who lose their electronic keys and then whine about how much it costs to make things right again.
The BMW people know how to handle this. 1. They should thoroughly clean that engine to make sure you have no pools of oil in hot spots. That could cause a fire. (Ask me how I know.)
They can drain the excess oil. You should be okay.
I mean, geez, stop fretting.
Consider that all of those smart people in the White House, Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Department and Congress went merrily marching into Iraq on certain "intelligence" about weapons of mass destruction that weren't there.
How dumb is that? And our President isn't blonde, and our Vice President is bald. See?
Rochester, N.Y.: Good morning, Warren. When is the Washington Post going to send a hard working auto reporter such as yourself to a Chinese auto show so that you can review Chinese cars? Also do you know if Chinese Buicks are the same as American Buicks. I always hear about the popularity of Buicks in China and was wondering if GM has a true world car.
You forgot to recommend a car to the 32 year old single female. How about an Eclipse or a Scion (the sporty version).
Lastly, I am not sure I would recommend paying cash unless someone has adequate savings in case of an unforeseen emergency.
Warren Brown: Thank you Rochester for correcting the oversight in my answer. And my apologies to our chatter for that incomplete response. Yes, the new 2007 Eclipse looks like a winner, especially the Spyder edition. The Scion tC car is quite likable, too.
As for China, geez, I've been twice, both times to Shanghai, including the Shanghai Auto Show. I'll probably go to the rapidly expanding Beijing expedition this year. And, dear folks, in addition to meeting you here and on the Car Pages of The Post and the radio (interesting developments there, as well), I'll start doing the podcasting thing as soon as our technical people can get me up to speed.
Lewiston, N.Y.: In last week's chat, you stated that "the reality [is] that it costs as much to develop and produce a station wagon as it does to develop and produce a SUV or crossover." Really? You are saying that it would cost Ford just as much to develop a Five Hundred or Fusion wagon as it has cost them to develop the upcoming Edge crossover that will replace the Escape? How do you figure? Also, you said that the Japanese companies are staying away from wagons because they can't sell them. Does this count the Mazda 6 wagon, which seems to be selling just fine? Finally, you call the the Acura TL a Honda Accord by another name. This is not so. The Acura TSX, not the TL, is the Euro and JDM Accord. I attend your chats every week, and there are always at least a couple of howlers like this. Don't you owe it to your readers and the Post to do your homework?
Warren Brown: Hello, Lewiston. I love these kinds of questions. They give me a chance to get nasty.
Yes, I owe it to my readers to do my homework, and to get in your face.
The Acura TL and TSX essentially are no more than modified Honda Accords by other names. Indeed, the only reason why the "Acura" name exists is because Honda, which owns Acura, figured that it could not move to high-end cars and prices with the Honda, which began its automotive life on the economy side of the tracks, remember? Do this: Look at the platforms of the Accord, TL and TSX. Look at the so-called black metal. How much real difference is there?
And, yes, when you factor in research and design, development, tooling, testing and everything else that goes into the production of a new vehicle, it costs as much to produce a station wagon as it does a car. Source: I spend lots of time with the research and development people at automotive companies worldwide. That's them talking, not me.
You ARE right about the Mazda 6 wagon, sort of. Mazda really isn't all that Japanese, you see. It's actually controlled by the very American Ford Motor Co. Or, didn't you know that?
Hilsboro, Va.: Warren: I was amused that you liked that behemoth you tested for last week's Washington Post. I believe it was the new Yukon or Tahoe. I guess it's good it got 19MPG, but really, shouldn't this country be looking at going in a different way in terms of fuel economy?
Why be amused or bemused? The reality is that there are many people out there who want, need, or otherwise prefer a fullsize SUV. The 2007 GMC Yukon Denali happens to be one of the best.
And it's the very dressed Denali that gets 19 mpg on the highway. The SLE and SLT versions get somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 mpg.
That's a big improvement, considering the usual segment performances of 15 miles per gallon and less for the big rigs.
Thus, to answer your policy direction question, America is moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. Those big rigs eventually will have gasoline-electric and diesel-electric engines for even better mileage and lower emissions.
America would be moving in the wrong direction to curb consumer choice. I mean, we already have enough of that don't we -- a government that believes it can engender freedom abroad by curbing and abusing it at home.
re: VW Springfield: That is possible the worst dealership I have ever been to in terms of service. I had twice made "appointments" for service there, and on average waited two hours each time just to be seen. They just don't care about serving the customer. Long story short, I traded my Passat for a 350Z Nissan, a company that is terrific in this regard.
Warren Brown: I've just finished reading a study in Automotive Digest that says that for every 100 unhappy customers, a dealership loses a net of 32 to 35 additional sales. That is why I don't understand this craziness of treating customers badly. Why anger the people who can make or break you? It just doesn't make sense, or cents.
Washington, D.C.: I'm seeking a fuel-efficient and capable SUV; does the Jeep Liberty diesel answer that call?
Warren Brown: Yes, but noisily on startup. About 30 percent better fuel-efficiency than the 3.7-liter V-6 gasoline model, which supposedly gets up to 22 mpg on the highway. The gasoline model runs regular unleaded, which generally is cheaper than diesel in the United States.
Silver Spring, Md.: Rockville had a good question about whether newer cars will last as long as his good old BMWs. The joke is that after buying two BMWs he bought an Audi and seems surprised that it won't make it to 100k without major repairs. An Audi? I know, I know, Audi makes great cars, and all carmakers make mistakes. Still, an Audi? He couldn't find a Peugeot or Renault?
Warren Brown: Och, Silver Spring!
Denver, Colo.: The blind spot visibility in the Nissan Z350 is the main thing that keeps me from upgrading from the Z300 to this newer car. Any idea if Nissan intends to enlarge the rear triangle window or address the visibility issue in future models? Thanks.
Warren Brown: I recently attended and intensive BMW driver-education course in which all of my instructors insisted that there are no cars with blind spots. I disagreed vehemently...until they showed me how I could eliminate almost any blind spot in any car by properly synchronizing the rearview and sideview mirrors. This is not to argue that you are wrong about the Z350. It's just to say that I had exactly the same belief until those instructors showed me that I was wrong.
New York, N.Y.: We will be buying a minivan in about two months. We have our eyes on the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey which seem to be the same in terms of ratings, features and price. Do you have any comments on one over the other? And what about new vs. used? They both seem to hold their resale value, so we're not seeing significant savings on a two or three year old minivan.
Warren Brown: Forget resale value. It's mostly a myth of the marketplace that has very little to do with tangible quality or reliability. It's mostly perception, which can be manipulated or otherwise altered by events, especially changing consumer tastes.
That said, I'd take the Toyota Sienna over the Odyssey because it offers overall better value -- "value" being defined as the amount of good stuff you get for money paid.
Clifton, Va.: Just to let you know my sister bought a new '07 Tahoe after her '01 Infiniti QX4 was totaled. She was very impressed with the SUV. She needed the room to haul her dogs. Nothing from Toyota worked since you had to remove the third row seat. Acura and Honda just didn't have the room. BMW and Benz, forget it, no room there. Also, she got it for under invoice. She loves it. I drove and was very impressed. Best SUV out there of any size, in my opinion.
Warren Brown: Hello, Clifton. She get the Denali version, or what?
Arlington, Va.: What do you think about the 2006 Nissan 350Z? I'm thinking of trading in my 2004 Nissan Maxima.
Warren Brown: Are you going through a divorce or some other kind of partnership breakup?
Or, is it that the children have left the house and are now paying their own mortgages and rent, and you're ready to celebrate your parental liberation?
It couldn't possibly be a midlife crisis. Those are greatly overrated.
I ask because the cars are so different in attitude -- the entry-level luxury, but unmistakably family Maxim sedan versus the hot-to-trot, homebody-I'm-not 350Z roadster.
Yeah, I like the Z very much -- tight, lightweight and all of that, and snazzy to boot. But I'm a terribly conflicted individual.
Silver Spring, MD: Just a comment re: VW service . We have a 2003 Passat purchased at Martens. While I cannot say the vehicle has been very reliable (a couple of electronic issues, fuel pump failed), the service at Martens has been very good.
Warren Brown: Thank you. We like hearing from all sides.
Arlington, Va.: Re: Rochester. I believe that the popularity of Buicks in China dates back to when Sun Yat-Sen drove a Buick, and everyone wanted to emulate him, even to this day, apparently.
Warren Brown: And the Chinese have a completely different take on Buicks. The models sold there have super-nice interiors, demanded by the Chinese consumers who can afford the cars in the first place. Even the exterior jewelry, the badging, is different and more attractive than the pieces put on the Buicks sold stateside.
The recently introduced Buick Lucerne comes closest to the Chinese Buicks. Believe it or not, that is a very good thing.
Fredericksburg, Va: Hey, Warren. The 2007 Toyota Camry looks like it has been overhauled. I know you had a limited test run of the car and said that it had a little muscle this time. Do you plan to fully test it soon? Thanks.
Warren Brown: Yes, Fredericksburg. I probably will do an extended run in the hybrid model. This is the best Camry ever!
Alexandria, Va.: Warren: Would you please (again) address the driving while distracted issue? I saw a guy putting on his shirt and tie while behind the wheel, every other driver is holding a cell phone to his/her ear, looking at something on the passenger seat, and my all time favorite turning their heads clear around to talk to passengers in the front seat and back. Can't people get that driving is serious business.
Warren Brown: All I can say, Alexandria, is that he'd better not try that in the United Kingdom. He could wind up with the U.S. equivalent of a $450 fine and six points against his license -- based on a distracted driving penalty recently given to UK motorists who was powdering her face and doing her hair at the U.S. equivalent of 32 miles per hour.
That's just dangerously nutty driving, folks. Stop it.
Washington, D.C.: Hello, Warren. I am a longtime Mercedes driver and I looked at the new S 550. Great looking car with a lot bells and whistles, also an $90,000 price tag. From what you know about the Lexus LS 460, should I wait to see it before deciding whether or not to buy the Mercedes. I keep hearing that the LS 460 is quite a package. Thanks!
Warren Brown: Yes, I would wait for the Lexus. I'm anxious to see if Lexus/Toyota takes the same high-tech -- almost over-the-top high-tech approach as Mercedes-Benz.
I read your article about GM's market troubles and it got me thinking about Honda. Specifically, I look at the European Accord and wonder out loud why the European market gets such a great looking Accord while our Accord is a Frankenstein of a car that can't figure out what it wants to be. Seriously, it's the UGLIEST car I've ever seen from Honda. Yes, I know I can go out and buy the European Accord with an Acura badge here in the states, but I feel like I'm getting ripped off and paying extra for the "luxury" car brand. What are your thoughts on this? While your at it, why do the European and Asian markets always get the good stuff years before we do?
washingtonpost.com: Blunt Truths About GM's Market Troubles (Post, March 5)
Warren Brown: Historically, the Japanese and Europeans had intro'd their new models in home markets, worked out the kinks, and then shipped them abroad to the North American market as "new," where they're often perceived as trouble-free because any trouble they had was taken care of at home.
But while we're over here oohing and aahhing over the "new" models, the Europeans and Japanese busily are rolling out second and third iterations of the same cars which are, of course, better than what we're driving here.
But rapid developments in technology and approaches to platform engineers, especially global simultaneous engineering, is changing all of that. Soon, we will be getting what our overseas friends get, or at least more reasonable facsimiles of what they are getting.
Munich, Bavaria: Hello, Warren. Though I've never been to the USA I like your chat a lot. It's interesting to see the different attitudes and needs of U.S. and European drivers. Are there no French carmakers selling their vehicles in the States? You never talk about them. In Europe, they are pretty big and I thought they were operating worldwide.
No, the French are not selling in the U.S. at this point. Hard to even find a used Peugeot.
But, who knows? Washington and Paris are talking again, getting downright chummy as a matter of fact.
And the French car companies finally understand that Americans want things such as air bags and interiors that can withstand the brutality of a summer Phoenix sun, and engines that can cope with the privations of an Anchorage winter.
Who knows, if they return before the current administration leaves, we can call the French rides Freedom Cars which we will drive to Liberty Fast Food Joints and order hamburgers and Freedom Fries.
Warren Brown: Wow! Time flies when you are having fun. Thanks for visiting. Here's hoping to see you all next week. Take care. God bless. Drive carefully, and smile.
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.
|
The Post's Warren Brown answers your questions about every aspect of the automotive industry.
| 318.5625 | 0.9375 | 3.1875 |
high
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031400273.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031400273.html
|
At Least 86 Found Shot Or Strangled In Baghdad
|
2006031719
|
BAGHDAD, March 14 -- Asked for directions to one newly found pile of bodies in Baghdad, Haider Latif Ugaili, an 18-year-old black-market gasoline vendor, replied: That one's over there. But we found three bodies here this morning.
Daylight Tuesday brought the discovery of at least 86 shot or strangled men across the city, most of them with hands tied and many of them tortured, according to police. They included 27 corpses in one of the first mass graves to be found in the capital since the U.S. invasion three years ago.
The day's high toll -- of execution-style killings involving large numbers of victims, rather than the bombing deaths that have characterized insurgent attacks and dominated violence in Iraq for more than two years -- appeared linked to escalating cycles of sectarian slaughter since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra. The toll since the bombing is nearing 1,000, according to government figures; four Iraqi and international officials tracking the toll say it topped that figure in the first week after the Samarra bombing.
Tuesday's body count went largely without note in public statements by Iraqi leaders, including Shiite and other political figures who convened in a heavily guarded meeting in Baghdad meant to help efforts to form a government, one day shy of three months after national elections. A Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammed, said the day's victims included Shiites and Sunnis and called the killings "a premeditated attempt to incite civil war."
The mass grave was found in a former Gypsy enclave bordering a heavily Shiite neighborhood on the eastern edge of Baghdad. A police spokesman, Col. Hadi Hasan, said the victims were men ages 25 to 40. All were found with their hands tied and wearing civilian clothes, Hasan said. They appeared to have been killed two to 10 days ago, police said.
Children playing soccer discovered the grave by its smell, police separately told the Reuters news agency.
In the west Baghdad neighborhood of Khadra, near a school, police found a minibus containing the bodies of 10 men. "Some of them were shot and some were choked by ropes," Hasan said.
A minibus in the western Sunni neighborhood of Amiriyah contained the corpses of eight men, and Hasan said all had been bound, blindfolded and shot.
In Rustamiya, a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, authorities found five men shot dead and covered by blankets, Hasan said.
Authorities picked up the bodies of 11 men in the mixed southern neighborhood of Madean. All wore the dishdasha , or traditional Arab dress, Hasan said.
In Kasrah Atash, in southern Baghdad, killers left the bodies of seven men by the side of the road. The men had been tortured and shot, Hasan said, adding that a piece of paper left with the bodies stated: "The fate of traitors."
Iraqi police also found more than 15 corpses Tuesday morning in Sadr City, according to Capt. Ahmed al-Ani, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Sadr City is a trash-strewn, dusty urban district that is home to 2 million Shiites, overwhelmingly loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, a young Shiite cleric and militia leader.
|
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.
| 13.673913 | 0.434783 | 0.478261 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301478.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301478.html
|
One Man's Crimes
|
2006031719
|
THE LIFE of Slobodan Milosevic offers another lesson in how one individual can shape the course of history. Yugoslavia, the country whose disintegration he inspired, emerged from communist rule at the end of the 1990s resembling many nations (Iraq comes to mind) in the throes of transition: Ethnic and sectarian rivalry was real in a cobbled-together state, but few people expected, much less wanted, a civil war. Mr. Milosevic, a Communist Party apparatchik in Serbia, deliberately and methodically nursed this latent tension from a flicker to a conflagration and used it to consolidate a criminal regime in Belgrade. He bombarded Serbs with lies and hateful demagoguery about their supposed victimization at the hands of Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians, and he convinced them that the only solution was a Greater Serbia created through war and ethnic cleansing.
The result was a series of brutal conflicts stretching across the 1990s in which more than 200,000 people were killed; a painful delay in the spread of liberal democracy to southeastern Europe; and the impoverishment and territorial diminution of Serbia itself. To this day some in and outside Serbia would argue that this terrible outcome was unavoidable, ordained by ancient hatreds in the Balkans or the poisons of decades of communism. But a look at the rest of what was then called the post-Cold War world shows otherwise. In South Africa during those same 1990s, a leader named Nelson Mandela prevented even more explosive tensions between whites and blacks, and among blacks themselves, from touching off a civil war. In the crumbling Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev chose to allow the Baltic nations, and then Ukraine and Central Asia, to secede peacefully, though he, too, could have championed the cause of a greater Russia.
Mr. Milosevic was the antithesis of those great leaders. More than is generally recognized, at least in his own country, he was personally responsible for the most destructive conflict, and most terrible atrocities, recorded in Europe since World War II. There were other protagonists and other criminals, some of them Croatian, Bosnian and Albanian. But without Mr. Milosevic the Yugoslav wars wouldn't have happened.
Because of that, his death Saturday at 64 was unfortunate. His trial before an international war crimes tribunal at the Hague was flawed in several respects, but the most obvious was that it had not ended four years after it began. Mr. Milosevic himself may have conspired to ensure that a judicial verdict on his actions would never be rendered: We're still waiting for the toxicology reports. In any case, the fact that some of his former followers will conclude that he, and Serbia, have once again been victimized grants him a last, ugly victory.
Like all of his battlefield advances, it will prove temporary and tactical. In the long run, Serbs, and Europeans generally, will surely remember Slobodan Milosevic as the last of the power-craving nationalists who all but destroyed the continent in the 20th century. The sooner that understanding takes hold, the more quickly Serbia will recover.
|
Slobodan Milosevic will ultimately be remembered as the last of the power-craving nationalists who all but destroyed Europe in the 20th century.
| 22.230769 | 0.846154 | 7.384615 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301486.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301486.html
|
Truce of the Penguins
|
2006031719
|
Imagine you're dressed like an unnaturally tall penguin -- not a mere tuxedo but full white tie and tails, requiring you to either flap or tuck whenever you sit down -- and you've gracefully elbowed your way through a dense waddle of fellow penguins to the bar, where you've obtained an adult beverage, because you'll be doing this penguin thing for at least five more hours, and up walks John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States. He's dressed like a penguin, too.
Okay, you're a columnist who worries that the Roberts court may lead the country disastrously to the right. This is your first chance to meet the chief justice, and what you've heard is true -- he seems like a heck of a nice guy. So what do you say?
Do you harangue him about how the Bush administration should be compelled to respect the limits of executive power, or end the conversation with something like, "It's been very nice talking with you, Mr. Chief Justice, and by the way, please don't overturn Roe v. Wade ''? No, you don't. You enjoy a few minutes of pleasant chit-chat, and when he wanders off you take a long sip of your adult beverage and motion to the bartender for a refill.
That scene took place Saturday night at the 121st annual Gridiron Club dinner, one of those Washington rituals that, to those who don't live here, must seem as alien as a Masai initiation rite. The Gridiron is the oldest journalists' association in town, and it exists solely to host a yearly evening at which the people who run the United States mingle socially with those who cover them.
I'm not a member, but I have friends who belong, and so, for the second time, I was invited (the first was seven years ago). The dinner, at which Gridiron members roast our highest officials in elaborate theatrical skits, is supposed to be off the record, and I'll respect that prohibition. But a room full of journalists leaks like a sieve, so all the best jokes were reported verbatim in the next morning's newspapers. Suffice it to say that some of the skits were really funny, some fell flat, Dick Cheney had to endure shotgun jokes from his boss and even his wife, and if this politics thing doesn't work out for Sen. Barack Obama he could step in for David Letterman tomorrow.
The point isn't the program or the performances. The point is that the nation's leading journalists get together with the people they are supposed to hold accountable and have an evening of penguin-suited, designer-gowned fellowship.
This year's gathering reminded me of the famous World War I "Christmas truce," when soldiers emerged from their trenches to celebrate the holiday season together and then went back to killing each other. There sat George W. Bush, whose administration is constantly being assailed by the media (rightfully, in my view) for Iraq, Katrina, secrecy, surveillance, deficits -- the list goes on and on. There sat many of the nation's most influential reporters and editors, who within hours would resume the assault.
It sounds bloody, but that's the way the adversarial relationship between journalists and officials is supposed to work. Yet, for the evening, adversaries joshed and joked over lamb and creme brulee.
With apologies to my hosts, I ended up feeling conflicted about the whole thing.
Reporters wouldn't be doing their jobs if they didn't get to know the officials they cover. Politicians, even those who I believe have wrong ideas about everything, tend to be garrulous and fun to be around. The Gridiron dinner and other similar events on the calendar each year seek to demonstrate that adversaries don't have to be enemies.
But we reporters are always pointing out to officials that as far as conflict of interest is concerned, appearance is as important as reality. That's why I left the Gridiron dinner with that vague unease: I wondered what it looked like to people who weren't in that ballroom.
The day after the dinner, reporters went back to trying to pry information out of this ultra-secretive administration. But I wondered what people in Seattle or New Orleans or Cleveland would think if they saw the journalistic elite at such jocular ease with the officials whose feet they hold to the fire.
Houston, do we have an appearance problem?
The writer will be taking questions today at 1 p.m. on www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address iseugenerobinson@washpost.com.
|
Imagine you're dressed like an unnaturally tall penguin -- not a mere tuxedo but full white tie and tails, requiring you to either flap or tuck whenever you sit down -- and you've gracefully elbowed your way through a dense waddle of fellow penguins to the bar, where you've obtained an adult...
| 15.258621 | 0.982759 | 56.017241 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301748.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301748.html
|
Need to Find Your Way on Mars? Google It.
|
2006031719
|
The empire of Google Inc. is officially going interplanetary.
Working with researchers from NASA at Arizona State University, the search engine has compiled images of Mars on a map Web site, making it possible to view the dunes, canyons and craters of the red planet as easily as the cul-de-sacs and cityscapes of Earth.
Infrared images at http://mars.google.com even pull up things normally invisible to the naked eye.
Having mapped the Earth and the relatively nearby moon, Google said seeking out farther-flung planetary conquests is a natural progression.
"It was a very interesting and creative and cool way to apply technology we already had to another planet," said Chikai Ohazama, product manager for Google Earth.
According to one Google-focused blog, the company plans to put images of the other major planets of the solar system online, as well. It has secured domain names such as GoogleMercury, GoogleVenus and GoogleJupiter, even though it appears that image data of other planets isn't available.
"We don't have anything to announce about other planets at this time," a Google spokeswoman said.
|
Stay updated on the latest technology news. Find profiles on different sectors of the tech industry. Learn about new developments in tech policy. Read technology reviews for PCs, laptops, cell phones, and other new gadgets.
| 4.8 | 0.4 | 0.444444 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301707.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301707.html
|
The Young Speechwriter Who Captured Rice's Voice
|
2006031719
|
Christian D. Brose's rise to the heights of Washington speechwriting could have been scripted in Hollywood.
A year ago, Brose was the most junior speechwriter at the State Department. When Condoleezza Rice was nominated to be secretary of state after the 2004 election, the then-national security adviser summoned the State Department speechwriting team to the White House for a discussion of her confirmation hearings.
Government gurus and IT experts needed to fill positions in the D.C. area.
The team went over, not sure they would hold their jobs for much longer. To their surprise, they were ushered into the White House situation room. The conversation meandered and seemed uninspired, Rice aides said, until the 25-year-old Brose shyly raised his hand and offered a suggestion that, for Rice, crystallized her foreign policy themes.
"Who is that young red-haired kid?" Rice asked one of her senior advisers, Jim Wilkinson, as they left the room. "Let's keep an eye on him."
Brose, now 26, was recently named Rice's chief speechwriter. He is responsible for many of the major speeches she has delivered around the world to advance the administration's message of spreading democracy, earning the admiration of Rice's top aides.
"Chris can write her voice better than anyone," Wilkinson said. "He's become one of her closest advisers on policy and communications."
Another fan is Elizabeth Cheney, a principal deputy assistant secretary of state and key participant in the administration's democracy campaign. "Speechwriting is one of the hardest jobs in Washington. Chris is one of the best," she said, praising his "mastery of the subject matter" and his "intellectual curiosity."
Rice considers Brose such an asset that she often brings him along when she travels overseas. Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell's speechwriters never traveled with him, in part because the speeches were completed well before departure. But Rice likes Brose at her side so they can work together to shape and sharpen the speeches until right before she delivers them. A speech in Brazil was altered because of a conversation Rice had on the airport tarmac when she landed in Brasilia, and Rice's signature democracy speech, given in Cairo last June, was tweaked to add language Rice had spontaneously used at a news conference a few hours before the speech.
Last week, the night before leaving with Rice on a 10-day swing through Latin America and Asia, Brose said he had not yet shown her the first draft of a speech she is scheduled to deliver tomorrow in Jakarta. He had gotten some ideas and thoughts from Rice and consulted with experts on Southeast Asia at the State Department, but he said the real work would only begin during the long hours of flying.
"She trusts me to do that first draft with the vision she's given me," he said.
Brose is likable and self-effacing, devoid of the self-promotion that often comes with power in Washington. A former collegiate swimmer and avid bicyclist, the lanky Brose still says that "one of my best jobs" was being a bike messenger because he could tool around on his wheels 10 hours a day. He still bikes to work from the apartment in Adams Morgan that he shares with his wife, Molly, a painter and jewelry designer. Brose often writes Rice's speeches in his wife's studio, "with a pot of coffee at 2 a.m."
|
Christian D. Brose's rise to the heights of Washington speechwriting could have been scripted in Hollywood.
| 37.166667 | 1 | 18 |
high
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301870.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301870.html
|
Feast From The East
|
2006031719
|
Aspirit floating on the wind, looking ethereal as mist.
A crashing wave whose foam is like a mass of clutching fingers, coming up against a cliff that seems more yielding than it.
An image of a picnic by a waterfall that could almost be a work of angry abstract art.
The most elegant of courtesans, out promenading, rendered in a zigzagging line that fractures her serenity.
The only problem with the works of Hokusai, the great Japanese painter who made all the pieces described above, is that it's too easy to adore every one of them -- and he turned out at least 10,000 images.
Taking in the major Hokusai show that recently opened at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery, you go from picture to picture wondering when this artist's inventiveness will fail.
From the time of his first works as an independent master, around 1790, nearly up to the moment of his death at 89 in 1849, virtually every image he produced was a miracle of vibrant composition, color, line and texture, as well as being a wonder of artistic observation, both natural and social.
All that must be what gave an earlier edition of this survey, shown last year at the Tokyo National Museum, the highest daily attendance of any exhibition in the world, according to the Art Newspaper's 2005 census -- the highest, in fact, since the annual tally was launched a decade ago.
The Sackler's new version of the Hokusai show, which includes many rare and crucial pictures that aren't allowed to leave Washington, deserves at least equal public adoration.
It certainly doesn't take a Japanese eye to appreciate Hokusai's genius. If there's a failing in his art, it's that it demands so little labor, even from the most insular of Western viewers. Where European greats such as Titian or Cezanne win you over by the challenge they present, Hokusai does all the work for you.
It's easy to imagine that Hokusai simply gets his pictures right , in some culture-transcending way. Could it be that he ties into basic harmonies of picture-making that literally cannot fail to please? His off-kilter compositions, especially, seem to have a lilt and inner energy that almost no one else's do, anywhere.
|
Aspirit floating on the wind, looking ethereal as mist.
| 40.181818 | 1 | 11 |
high
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301857.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301857.html
|
Retorting From The White House
|
2006031719
|
If David Gregory seems like a bit of a showman in the White House pressroom, it's worth noting that, as the son of a Broadway producer, he grew up meeting the likes of Richard Burton, Rex Harrison and Henry Fonda.
But NBC's White House correspondent, while mindful of the cameras, insists he's not putting on a show, whether he's telling off spokesman Scott McClellan or challenging President Bush with questions that are often replayed on the nightly news or cable shows.
"I have no problem with being tough," says Gregory, 35, dubbed "Stretch" by the president for his 6-foot-5 stature. "I think it's totally appropriate to press hard for answers, particularly with a group of people who don't like to give information." For the administration, he says, "it's easy to divert attention against a familiar whipping boy, the White House press corps, and define this as a freakish sideshow. . . . I provide fodder for critics who say, 'Aha, they're out of control.' "
After six years on the beat, Gregory is emerging as the Sam Donaldson of the Bush years, the outspoken, aggressive, smart-aleck correspondent serving as a symbol for conservatives who detest the press and liberals who want reporters to crusade against the White House.
Still, those who think he is at war with the administration might be surprised to learn that he believes he has a good relationship with Bush. The president has teased him about asking a question of Jacques Chirac in French, and once said at his Crawford ranch: "Gregory, I feel like I've spent a whole lifetime with you."
"He is such an affable, personable guy and uses that to his advantage," Gregory says. "A lot of reporters think he's a good guy. I think he's a good guy."
In the Internet age, the questions at the televised White House briefings are picked apart as much as the answers, with bloggers using transcripts and video to rip reporters who they believe are pushing an agenda. Gregory is a favorite piñata.
When Vice President Cheney accidentally wounded a hunting companion last month on a Texas ranch, White House reporters pummeled McClellan with questions for days. "The vice president of the United States accidentally shoots a man, and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who would witness this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper and not the White House press corps at large?" Gregory demanded. He also scolded McClellan: "Don't tell me you're giving us complete answers when you're not actually answering the question."
At the off-camera morning briefing known as "the gaggle," McClellan tried to deflect a question by saying: "David, hold on. . . . The cameras aren't on right now." Gregory responded: "Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question." McClellan said he didn't have to yell, and Gregory said he would indeed yell "if you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate."
Within hours, lots of people were taking personal shots at Gregory. Jon Friedman, the media columnist for Marketwatch.com, wrote that Gregory had become "the poster child for inappropriate, self-serving behavior."
Gregory publicly apologized to McClellan. "I thought he insulted me, but it was inappropriate to say what I said," Gregory says now.
McClellan calls the apology "an incredibly classy thing to do on his part. . . . We both have a job to do and both have respect for one another. David is a hard-nosed reporter who asks tough questions and works really hard to be fair."
|
If David Gregory seems like a bit of a showman in the White House pressroom, it's worth noting that, as the son of a Broadway producer, he grew up meeting the likes of Richard Burton, Rex Harrison and Henry Fonda.
| 16.173913 | 1 | 46 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301317.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301317.html
|
To Sleep, Perchance to . . . Walk
|
2006031719
|
The most prescribed sleep medication in the United States may be linked to episodes of sleepwalking and related strange and dangerous behaviors, experts say -- including incidents of nocturnal eating, phone conversations, shoplifting and even driving -- of which the subject has no memory.
Sleep specialists and researchers cite a growing though still inconclusive body of reports associating Sanofi-Aventis's drug Ambien with the incidents. More than 24 million prescriptions for Ambien were written in 2004.
Timothy Morgenthaler, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center in Rochester, Minn., says he has seen many cases of people who sleepwalk and sleep-eat after taking Ambien.
He described five such cases in a 2002 report in the journal Sleep Medicine. All those patients stopped having sleep-eating episodes when they discontinued Ambien, Morgenthaler said. Since then he has seen many similar cases, he said.
"I feel pretty comfortable that this is a real phenomenon," he said.
Sanofi-Aventis, the French maker of the drug, declined to make officials available for interviews. The company issued a statement saying the side effect is known but rare, and that "when taken as prescribed, Ambien is a safe and effective treatment for insomnia." The side effect is disclosed in the product's full labeling material, where it is cited among numerous central nervous system side effects.
Other case reports of Ambien-related sleepwalking have been published in medical journals, and researchers of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center reported 19 additional cases at a medical conference last year.
Reports made to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by doctors and patients show more sleepwalking incidents associated with Ambien than with all other sleep aids combined.
None of these observations proves Ambien causes sleepwalking, and questions about the side effect were not raised during the FDA's preapproval review of the scientific data. The agency approved the drug in 1993.
Ambien and other newer sleep drugs are considered safer than previous types, in that they are believed to be less addictive and less toxic even in overdose.
The case of lifelong insomnia sufferer Janet Makinen is typical of the Ambien incidents.
The 55-year-old resident of Dade City, Fla., said she took Ambien nightly for six years. During that time, she regularly got out of bed after having fallen asleep, went to the kitchen and ate, she said.
"I went from wearing a size 1 to wearing a size 12," Makinen said. "I would eat raw eggs. I would eat a half-gallon of ice cream. I would eat a bag of potato chips, a loaf of bread."
She would find evidence of her night eating afterward, she said, but had no memory of doing it.
Makinen, identified via an Internet message board where people share Ambien stories, was interviewed late last year. She has since become a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against Sanofi-Aventis filed in federal court on March 6.
Others involved in the lawsuit face criminal charges for things they have done while they say they were sleepwalking on Ambien, including driving and shoplifting. One alleges she was twice sexually assaulted after taking Ambien, and has only partial memories of the incidents.
Susan Chana Lask, a New York lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, says that besides seeking damages, they hope to force the drug company to provide stronger cautions about sleepwalking. "People need to know about the risks of serious problems associated with this drug," she said.
Sanofi Aventis declined to comment on the suit, which a spokesman said the company had not seen.
Dozens of Ambien users have reported being involved in auto accidents they do not remember, according to news reports and interviews.
Some sleep experts interviewed said the side effect is increasingly familiar to academic and research sleep specialists. But many mainstream sleep clinicians see no problems with the drug, interviews showed. No expert interviewed said he or she had stopped prescribing Ambien due to fear of side effects.
Helene Emsellem, medical director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, says she has seen no link between Ambien and sleepwalking in her practice, which is one of the largest of its type in the region. "Nor do we see [Ambien] standing out as problematic" among other available sleep medications, she said.
Somnambulism, the clinical term for sleepwalking, is a "partial arousal" disorder, in which a person is not fully asleep but not completely awake.
In addition to medications, sleepwalking can be triggered by sleep deprivation, alcohol, fevers, stress, and some mental and neurological conditions.
Ambien may render some people unable to awaken completely even when something significant disturbs their sleep, so they enter the state of partial arousal, some experts say. "It is the case, perhaps, of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object," said Michael Sateia, chief of the Section of Sleep Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., and past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
According to Stacia Sailer, medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, some people taking sleep medications (not just Ambien) can, in that partial state of arousal, carry out many routine activities. The case of Lt. Judith Renee Lasswell, 39, a Navy intelligence officer stationed in Tampa, included several bizarre incidents, including a case of alleged shoplifting that threatens her military career.
According to the complaint in the class-action suit, she once wandered into the intelligence center where she works talking incoherently, and her colleagues led her back to bed. She said she has no memories of the episode.
But most damaging was an incident last September when, after taking Ambien, Lasswell said she sleepwalked into the base exchange, carrying several DVDs which she had purchased previously or rented from the base library. After returning an "X-Files" DVD to receive store credit, she was approached by base police, who claimed she had taken the DVD off the shelf, failed to pay for it and returned it for credit. She was handcuffed and charged with shoplifting DVDs and a candle.
Lasswell said she has no memory of the incidents.
According to the complaint, Lasswell's top-secret security clearance was subsequently revoked, and she faces larceny charges and a dishonorable discharge. A 17-year Navy veteran, she risks losing her pension and severance pay.
"I've never had a problem before in my life until I took Ambien, and it's literally ruined my career and everything I ever worked for," Lasswell said in a statement. "I have gaps in memory from the whole time I was on Ambien, which is very terrifying."
In January, Lasswell requested a polygraph test to support her defense in the military judicial process. According to the test report, a copy of which was provided by Lask, Lasswell denied intending to steal and falsely claiming store credit, and said she did not remember the events related to the incident. The polygraph examiner found "no deception" in her responses, according to the report.
There is no reliable estimate of how many Ambien users sleepwalk, and no one knows who might be at risk. The prescribing information for Ambien lists somnambulism as a "rare" side effect, meaning that it has been reported in fewer than one in 1,000 patients.
Sateia says a lack of solid data on post-approval side effects makes it impossible to know whether the company's estimation of the rate is accurate.
After a drug is approved and marketed in the United States, the FDA accepts (but does not actively solicit) reports of side effects from doctors, patients and drug makers. FDA adverse event report databases contain sleepwalking reports from 1997 through June 2005. (Ambien has been available in the United States since 1993, but sleepwalking events per se were not reported before 1997.)
There are 207 sleepwalking reports. Most of the incidents are considered "idiopathic" by physicians reporting the episodes, meaning their cause is not known. Of all sleep aids, however, Ambien is linked to the most incidents -- 48 of them, or about a quarter of the total.
The data contain two reports associated with Sonata, a drug that acts in a way similar to Ambien. Sonata was approved in 1999. The data contain no sleepwalking reports for Lunesta, the newest sleep drug, which was not widely available until April 2005.
There are also fewer reports linked to older sleep aids called benzodiazepines, including Ativan, Halcion, Restoril, Valium, and Xanax. For these six drugs, which when considered as a group were prescribed more times than Ambien, there are 18 reports collectively.
Larry Sasich, a pharmacist and consultant to Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, says the adverse event reports "raise a legitimate question" about a possible association between Ambien and sleepwalking, particularly since "what winds up in the FDA's database is only the tip of the iceberg." Researchers believe that only a small portion of adverse drug reactions are reported to the FDA.
Adverse event data must be interpreted carefully because many things affect what is reported and how often. Sleepwalking is particularly tricky to track. It's not like liver failure, for example, which unmistakably either happens or does not. Many people may never find out about their sleepwalking or may not understand what they experienced. Others are reluctant to report it: "People do not volunteer this information," Morgenthaler said. "If you do not ask specifically about this behavior, you will miss most of it."
The Mayo Clinic Sleep Center's standard patient questionnaire now includes questions about sleep-related eating.
"In a sane world . . . [reports like those for Ambien] would be an occasion for FDA to ask the manufacturers to do careful surveillance," said Jerry Avorn, chief of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. "But they're not going to do that."
Meanwhile, Sanofi has introduced a new formulation of Ambien, called Ambien CR, designed to sustain sleep throughout the night. Sonata and Lunesta are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising to battle for market share, and competing drugs are working their way toward approval. Consumers are being sold on the benefits and safety of sleep medications as never before.
"That can give patients, and physicians for that matter, the impression that the management of [sleep] problems is as simple as giving someone a prescription for a sleeping medication and sending them on their way," Sateia said. "It's not that simple." ·
Martin F. Downs is a freelancer in Meriden, N.H. Join Michael Sateia of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center today at 1 p.m. for a Live Online chat on sleep disorders and reported Ambien side effects at www.washingtonpost.com. Comments: health@washpost.com.
|
The most prescribed sleep medication in the United States may be linked to episodes of sleepwalking and related strange and dangerous behaviors, experts say -- including incidents of nocturnal eating, phone conversations, shoplifting and even driving -- of which the subject has no memory.
| 44.3125 | 1 | 48 |
high
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031302033.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031302033.html
|
Choi's Blast Leads Korea to Win Over United States
|
2006031719
|
ANAHEIM, Calif., March 13 -- As the United States team's last few precious outs ticked away Monday night, its bench was empty, save for a couple of bored security guards. The entire team, millionaire by millionaire, was on the top step of the dugout, leaning on the railing, trying to will a rally that would never come. Perhaps at some point they gazed across the diamond at the Korean players, congregating on their own top step, poised to rush the field in victory.
Do you believe in miracles? Surely, they are asking themselves that question in Korea, following the country's shocking -- and shockingly thorough -- 7-3 victory over the vaunted U.S. squad in the second round of the World Baseball Classic before 21,288 at Angel Stadium.
Korea, which opened the WBC as a 20-1 or 30-1 long shot with most bookmakers -- while the U.S. team was the favorite at 6-5 or even money -- is the only team still undefeated in the tournament, while the U.S. team once again finds itself in the position of requiring a win, and some help, to advance.
The United States, with one win and one loss in the second round, must beat Mexico on Thursday -- when the Americans will have ace Roger Clemens on the mound -- then hope it comes out ahead in the tournament's bizarre tiebreak criteria, the first of which is runs allowed.
As such, the United States might come to regret the three-run homer that Houston Astros reliever Dan Wheeler gave up in the fourth inning to Korea's Hee Seop Choi, pushing Korea's lead to 6-1, and the run Korea scored off Mike Timlin in the sixth to make it 7-1. Each run Korea tacked on damaged the U.S. hopes not only in this game, but in the overall tournament.
Despite ample opportunities, the United States did nothing that could have been described as clutch against the Koreans, with their collection of mysterious, submarine-style pitchers.
Jason Varitek struck out with the bases loaded to end the first, and Vernon Wells did the same -- against Byung Hyun Kim, the former World Series gopher-ball artist of the Arizona Diamondbacks -- in the fourth. With two on in the fifth, Chipper Jones grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Alex Rodriguez -- mockingly labeled "Mr. March" in a back-page tabloid headline in New York after his broken-bat, ninth-inning single lifted the United States over Japan on Sunday -- came to the plate four times Monday night with two runners on base, and all four times he failed to hit the ball out of the infield although he did have an RBI groundout in the ninth.
But the offense was hardly the only shortcoming for the United States. Its defense committed three errors. Starting pitcher Dontrelle Willis could not seem to locate the plate, absorbing his second consecutive loss in the tournament.
The United States had long since stopped assuming that victory in the World Baseball Classic was their birthright, having been frightened by Mexico, vanquished by Canada and pushed to its limit by Japan. But Korea? Most of the Americans could probably only name two Korean ballplayers, big league veterans Choi and Byung Hyun Kim.
Because the Korean starting lineup contains no fewer than four players named Lee, the U.S. team referred to them, in scouting reports and pregame meetings, by their uniform numbers. The one to pay special attention to, U.S. pitchers were told, was the one known as "25."
First baseman Seung Yeop Lee, number 25 in your program, is a strapping 30-year-old known in his native land as the "Lion King." By the time he turned 26 in 2003, he was already a legend in Asia, hitting 56 homers that season for the Samsung Lions to break legendary Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh's all-Asia record. With 324 career homers by that point, he was said to be the youngest player in the world to reach 300. He won five MVP awards in nine seasons in Korea before moving to the Japanese Pacific League in 2004.
On Monday night, when Lee came to the plate in the top of the first inning to face Willis with the bases empty, he was already the offensive star of the tournament, with four homers and nine RBI in his first four games. And when he smashed Willis's first pitch some 400 feet over the wall in right-center field, those numbers were five and 10.
The next two times Lee came to the plate, the United States walked him -- pitching around him when he led off the third, then walking him intentionally with a runner on second and two outs in the fourth -- and both times the strategy backfired.
In the third, Lee came around to score on an RBI groundout -- putting Korea ahead, 3-1 -- and in the fourth, Choi, pinch-hitting for Tae Kyun Kim, connected on a towering three-run homer off Wheeler that nestled in the right field corner just inside the foul pole.
|
Longshot Korea hands the U.S. a stunning 7-3 loss in the second round of the WBC on Monday, and now the American team's fate is uncertain.
| 30.8125 | 0.75 | 1.875 |
medium
|
low
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031302031.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031302031.html
|
Terrapins Draw a No. 2 Seed
|
2006031719
|
When the first region of the NCAA tournament bracket was unveiled and Tennessee was announced as a No. 2 seed, the Maryland women's basketball team and its fans gathered in Comcast Center's Heritage Hall for the national selection show erupted with a loud cheer. Thoughts of a No. 1 seed began dancing in the Terrapins' heads.
But it was not to be. Maryland, which has not received a top seed since the 1989 NCAA tournament, was seeded No. 2 in the Albuquerque region last night. The third-ranked Terrapins (28-4) will play Sacred Heart (26-4), the Northeast Conference champion, at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center on Sunday. Maryland's game will follow the noon game between St. John's and California.
Junior guard Shay Doron thought Maryland might have a shot at a No. 1 once Tennessee received a No. 2.
"We were really excited," Doron said. "I was hot. I was sweating. I was nervous. We're going to make the best of what we got. Both teams [Ohio State and Maryland] are pretty deserving."
Other area teams selected to the tournament include No. 7 seed George Washington, which will play No. 10 Old Dominion in Norfolk on Sunday, and seventh-seeded Virginia Tech, which plays 10th-seeded Missouri, also at Penn State on Sunday. Virginia missed the tournament for the second time in three years, but accepted a bid to the 40-team Women's NIT.
Anticipation mounted throughout the evening among the players, coaches and nearly 150 supporters who gathered to watch the selections on a projection screen. When Ohio State finally was announced as the top seed in the Albuquerque region, the crowd let out a collective groan. Everyone recovered by the time Maryland, the last school revealed in the 64-team field, appeared on the screen. The players stood and cheered as the fans applauded.
"I'm not surprised they slighted us," Terrapins Coach Brenda Frese said. "That's kind of been [happening] all season long. We're used to that. It's great motivation for us. I always love when the media does that."
Joni Comstock, American University athletics director and chairman of the NCAA selection committee, pointed to Maryland's overall record and the teams the Terrapins played outside of the ACC as reasons for their seeding.
"In looking at Ohio State and Maryland, it was very, very close," Comstock said. "Maryland was one of the teams the committee looked at very carefully in terms of consideration for a number one seed. In our final judgment, two of the things that worked against Maryland were the four losses and that they did not bring quite the strength of schedule as some other teams, obviously in the nonconference the games they could control."
Maryland's overall strength of schedule was ranked 14 compared to 21 for Ohio State, according to CollegeRPI.com. The Buckeyes did have a better nonconference Rating Percentage Index ranking than the Terrapins, seventh compared to 24th, and a better overall RPI rank, No. 7 compared to No. 8.
Two other ACC teams -- Duke and North Carolina -- were awarded top seeds in the Cleveland and Bridgeport (Conn.) regions, respectively, a fact that might have worked against the Terrapins.
Maryland, the only team to defeat two No. 1 seeds in the field, is making its third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. The Terrapins have risen steadily from a No. 12 seed in 2004 to a No. 7 last year to this year's No. 2. The past two seasons they have advanced to the second round.
"I like our bracket," sophomore forward Crystal Langhorne said. "I think we're going to do really well. I know we're going to go out there playing for our lives."
Maryland's first-round opponent, Sacred Heart, is making its first NCAA tournament appearance. The Pioneers have won 10 in a row and are led by junior guard Amanda Pape, who averages 18 points and 7.4 rebounds. Frese admitted she knew very little about Sacred Heart.
"I'm sure they'll be a structured type of team, patient, but I don't have much information on them," she said.
Should Maryland advance out of Penn State to Albuquerque, the Terrapins could face either defending champion Baylor, the third-seeded team in the region, or Ohio State. Last year, the Buckeyes beat Maryland, 75-65, in a second-round game at College Park.
"Obviously we felt like we warranted a number one seed, but it doesn't matter," Frese said. "Us and Ohio State in the same bracket, it's a great bracket. Tremendous matchups, if Ohio State gets that far. I think it's a tremendous bracket for us."
Maryland is playing some of its best basketball coming into the tournament. The Terrapins, who advanced to the ACC tournament final for the first time in 13 years, have the second-best scoring average (83.6 points per game) and the best three-point shooting percentage (41.4) in Division I. Their biggest win this season came Feb. 9, when they knocked off No. 1 North Carolina. Their only loss outside of the ACC was a five-point setback to Tennessee back in November. Maryland needs just one win to tie the school record for victories in a season.
Coleman summed up the general feeling of the team best when she said: "It doesn't matter what seed you get -- you just have to go out and play Maryland basketball."
|
Assistant coach Joanna Bernabei and players Shay Doron and Crystal Langhorne glance at the brackets after learning they are a No. 2 seed in the Albuquerque region and will play Sacred Heart in the first round.
| 28.282051 | 0.794872 | 2.128205 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301824.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031301824.html
|
Founder May Buy Back TNS
|
2006031719
|
John J. McDonnell Jr. started TNS Inc. as a private venture in 1990, took it public in 1994 as the tech market surged, oversaw a sale to networking giant PSINet Inc. in 1999, coordinated a buyout two years later when PSINet crumbled, and took the company public again in 2004.
Now he is ready to buy it back again.
A management group led by McDonnell yesterday offered to buy TNS's outstanding stock for $22 a share -- a premium of more than 30 percent over the day's opening price and another spin of the ownership wheel for the Reston technology company.
TNS operates a telecommunications network that connects financial institutions with transaction sites, such as ATMs and retailers processing credit cards.
It has been profitable in most years, and analysts said the management offer is shrewd, playing off what they regard as an undervalued stock price and potentially eliciting bids from other buyers.
With about 24 million shares outstanding, the management-backed bid would be worth about $527 million.
"This company is worth more private than it is public," said Christopher Penny, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., who described TNS's executives as "very opportunistic, very intelligent and very patient."
For 2005, TNS earned $5.8 million on $258.9 million in revenue, compared with a $5 million profit on $249.1 million in revenue the previous year.
The firm's executives declined to comment on their plans, but analysts said the buyout would allow TNS to avoid the scrutiny of public shareholders and cut back on accounting costs related to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
The company's stock rose $4.26, or 26 percent, to close at $20.85 yesterday after TNS disclosed the offer.
McDonnell, who founded the company as Transaction Network Services in 1990, holds about 4 percent of the outstanding stock. A TNS spokesman said none of the executives was available to comment yesterday.
According to a statement released by the firm, TNS's board is setting up a committee of three independent directors to evaluate the proposal, which is conditional on the executives' ability to secure financing for the purchase.
|
Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland business news headlines with stock portfolio and market news, economy, government/tech policy, mutual funds, personal finance. Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ quotes. Features top DC, VA, MD businesses, company research tools
| 8.176471 | 0.392157 | 0.392157 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/14/DI2006031400621.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/14/DI2006031400621.html
|
Income Inequality Revisited
|
2006031719
|
Pearlstein also explored the topic in a column last week and discussed the issue with readers.
About Pearlstein: Steven Pearlstein writes about business and the economy for The Washington Post. His journalism career includes editing roles at The Post and Inc. magazine. He was founding publisher and editor of The Boston Observer, a monthly journal of liberal opinion. He got his start in journalism reporting for two New Hampshire newspapers -- the Concord Monitor and the Foster's Daily Democrat. Pearlstein has also worked as a television news reporter and a congressional staffer.
His column archive is online here .
Richmond, VA: Couldn't this reality be seen as economic Darwinism? Yes, there is a major decline in moderately skilled jobs. But, doesn't this mass of workers have the responsibility to re-tool/re-train/re-educate themselves? I am sure the blacksmiths of the early 20th century felt the same. Also, if Pop worked at the factory and barely made it out with a retirement why would I want to do factory work? Shouldn't I strive to get a piece of the new economy and do something different?
Steven Pearlstein: I think you are framing the issue in a way that is now outdated. This is no longer a story about people with high school education not able to compete in the new economy. There is some of that still, and improving our education and training system so those people can get better jobs in the future will be important. But its not the whole story, as economists (but not all journalists) once believed. There is something else going on that is just as fundamental in the economy that has to do with how the pie is divided up, and that are affecting all sorts of people, including those with plenty of education. I tried to deal with that in last week's column a bit. Corproate consolidation, globalized capital markets, the rise of winner-take-all competition, changing norms of behavior in corporate America, the singleminded focus on short term shareholder value, deunionization, deregulation -- all of these factors have also conspired to make incomes less equal, even after factoring out the declining demand for "unskilled" labor. And it is because of these factors that I think you can't simply redistribute income. You have to address some of the root causes.
Seattle, WA: It seems fairly obvious that the severe decline of the union movement in the US has made inequality worse. (The explosion of dubiously-earned CEO pay -- which is a big part of the inequality story -- tracks closely with the collapse of unions.)
It's very difficult for employees to form new unions. What do you think about reforming the law to make it easier for people to form unions and increase their bargaining power as workers?
Steven Pearlstein: I think enough about it that I put it right in this morning's column. The important thing is for workers to have the right, and employers to know that they have it, and can exercise it. After that, the dynamic changes whether or not workers at some company chose to form a union or not. That's up to them. But having the threat of it changes the power dynamic.
Washington, DC: Hi Mr. Pearlstein,
Paul Krugman gives major kudos to you for covering the "Income Inequality" topic in your column. He also passes along a criticism.
"Here's a mild example. A few days ago Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post -- a good guy, and sensible -- wrote about income inequality. As I did in my column just a few days earlier, "Feeling No Pain," he emphasized the "retrospective income" distribution data released by the I.R.S.
As he pointed out, those data show that the share of income received by the top 10 percent of taxpayers rose from 33 percent in 1979 to 44 percent in 2003. And for his pains, he was smeared by someone at the Cato Institute who needs help -- technical help. Hint to Alan Reynolds: check which table you're looking at before claiming that Congressional Budget Office data refute a statement you don't like.
But Pearlstein stops there, leaving the impression that everyone in the top 10 percent was a big winner. In fact, there was hardly any rise in the share of income going to people between the 90th and 95th percentiles: almost all the gain went to the top 5 percent. And most of the gain went to a very small elite. The income share of the top 1 percent went from 9.6 to 17.5 percent, accounting for more than 70 percent of the top decile's gain. The income share of the top 0.25 percent went from 4.9 to 10.5, accounting for a bit more than half the total gain.
Why stop with data that convey the false impression that the winners from inequality are a fairly large group? Does talking about the reality that a very small elite has gotten the lion's share of the gains sound too, um, shrill? "
Can you fill this set of readers in on why you stopped with the top 10%?
IRS Paper: Further Analysis of the Distribution of Income and Taxes, 1979-2002 (pdf)
Steven Pearlstein: Its always good to get mentioned in the New York Times. And, to be fair, Krugman has been beating the drum on this issue as well in some of his recent columns. He was also a big help to me a decade ago when he was at Stanford and I was writing a series of long articles under the title, "The Winner Take All Economy," particularly on the issue of how a more competitive economy was squeezing out "rents" earned by companies in protected industries, and how those rents were shared with workers in industries such as autos and stell and airlines.
As to your question of why I stopped at 10 percent, it is because all the groups below that suffered loss of income share, so I thought that a better break point. If you go down much farther, then you also reduce the number for the share of the economy that is involved. The top 1 percent, for example, now get 17 percent of the income, which is hugely skewed, but 17 percent still means that there is 83 percent of $10 trillion going elsewhere. But its really the statistical equivalent of an aesthetic judgment. I think the point we're all trying to make is the same.
Rockville, Md.: Sunday's Washington Times had a column by Alan Reynolds that called into question the statistics that you used for your article. He stated that neither results from the Census Bureau or the Congressional Budget Office supported the findings that income inequality in the US had increased. It was only when income tax data are used, and some income was excluded and other added, that income disparities increased. I have worked in banking for most of my adult life and I can tell you that income tax returns are not exactly the most reliable ways to tell how much income a person has or doesn't have. Some of them show virtually no income, but the individual may have significant amounts of cash coming into their bank account each month because of the way certain types of income are reported. Others may have some small income, but a life style that appears to far exceed it due to their business picking a whole lot of their personal expenses. On the other hand, my husband and I have an income that would put us in the top 5 or 10%, pretty much all from salaries, but with 35% going to various state, local & federal taxes, and another 20-25% going to tuition (2 kids in college this year), we are living on less than half that. And my husband may get laid off this year. Life at the top is not all its cracked up to be. Anyway, my point is that tax data are not the most reliable source of information on income distribution.
washingtonpost.com: From the Washington Times: The Top 10 percent, Again , March 12, 2006
Steven Pearlstein: I said in the column you mention that there are any number of different data sets and that a clever person, by picking and chosing which set, and which beginning and end points, can prove all sorts of contradictory statements about income and equality. This has been true for the decade I've been writing about this subject. I said in the article this was my favorite bit of data, but its not the only one I or anyone else should look at at making judgments in this area. But it is typical of the conservatives that they deny this is a problem, for which the weight of all the evidence is unequivocal. Inequality is getting worse, and so is mobility.
Maryland: I'm not going to quarrel with your premise that income equality is something to be desired - I disagree - but I did want to point out that your household limit of 125,000 seems low to me. I make a good living, but mostly that is due to the fact that I stayed in school for a long time and because I have a job that requires me to be away from home about 75-80% of the time and working long hours at breakneck pace. Part of my motivation is that large paycheck. I fail to see why my efforts to pursue that income should be penalized because others lack either the opportunity or (in many cases) the desire or motivation to work.
Steven Pearlstein: Nobody is trying to penalize anything, let alone your hard work and ingenuity. But the facts are that the share of national income going to people like you has increased, and it is not because, suddenly, you and other successful people started working even harder and more ingeniusly. It is because of fundamental changes in the structure of labor, product and financial markets that, for the same level of ingenuity and hard work, give you (and me!) a larger share of the pie than before. And if you agree with that diagnosis, then it is perfectly reasonable to suggest that some of this "windfall" be redistributed. I know it doesn't feel "fair" to you, because you work hard, but you were working hard before for less and apparently thought that a good tradeoff.
Rochester, N.Y.: You mention the right to form unions. Personally, i think that's a pretty useless idea. Competition from overseas and new technologies make unions pretty useless. They'll just demand more wages in a time that requires more competitiveness.
Steven Pearlstein: Competition from overseas and new technologies don't make unions useless. There are employers who take advantage of their employees in all sorts of ways. One way is not sharing with them a fair share of the productivity gains of the company, which they take for the owners and managers of the company. And its perfectly reasonable for the workers to ask for their fair share and form a union which would make it more likely that they would get it. That won't change the competitiveness of the firm. What it will do is change the way they profits are divided.
Yes, there are bad unions that overplay their hands and weaken companies to the point that they are uncompetitive. But there are good unions too -- and even some of the bad ones have learned their lessons in this regard.
Dunn Loring, Va.: Steven: Am posting early as I'm driving to Baltimore to testify at a parole hearing.
In today's column you write that the factors for today's income inequality are "the new technology, increased trade and immigration, deregulation, deunionization, and the relentless focus on 'shareholder value.'" But weren't most of those factors present in the late 1990s? During the Clinton era, the average per month job growth was 220,000, an average not yet approached by the current administration and when Bush took office the unemployment rate was 4.3%. and I certainly don't recall the number of families living below the poverty line increasing for five years in a row as it has under this administration, just to cite a few statistics. Oh yeah, the budget was in surplus as well.
Steven Pearlstein: You know, this is the kind of argument from liberals and Democrats that isn't useful. For one thing, there was an excessive focus on shareholder value during the boom years of the late 1990s, to the point that there was massive accounting fraud. And while those may seem like golden years for all sorts of reasons, including rising real incomes for the working and middle classes and declininig income inequality for a few years, it was something of a temporary mirage created by artificially low interest rates and the stock market boom. These things we are talking about are long term trends based on long term factors. And trying to use political dating to assign causality is really not useful.
Charlotte, N.C.: Unfortunately restoring the right of workers to form a union, while quite beneficial, would not be as effective as you think. An additional step (much bolder) would be to require of any company that sells products on the US market to have them produced in a country that allows for the right of workers to have an union. I am not saying that the company force should be unionized, but merely that those people would have the choice of forming a union if they want (a real choice, not just one that exists only on paper on some states). This would not be interference in the internal affairs of another state, since it would apply only to companies that would want to sell their products in the U.S.
Steven Pearlstein: I had a nice long lunch with Ron Blackwell of the AFL-CIO this week before writing this column. And he, too, mentioned how important it was to put "labor standards" into trade agreements. I agree it might be a good idea. But two things. One, other countries really resent having us looking over their shoulders telling them what labor laws they should have and how they should be enforced. I know we wouldn't like it if the roles were reversed. For another, I'm not sure its so easy to enforce such provisions, just as we are not very effective in enforcing intellectual property provisions in places like China. And remember -- if a country has good labor laws but still has labor rates that are 30 percent of ours, there is still a big chance jobs will be lost to imports from that country.
For my part, I'd start by making sure we have the right to form unions in this country before we start telling other countries they are unfair traders if they don't have good labor laws. Let's clean up our house first.
Washington, D.C.: Where do people with relatively high incomes but little wealth fit into the discussion on tax reform? It seems like no one cares about these folks or their long-term ability to pay for their prescription pills, housing, education, children's' needs, or retirement by building wealth. A progressive tax scheme has its benefits, but it also has its costs. Reform gone bad can easily condemn many middle-class people with dreams of becoming upper-class to a lifelong struggle with financial (in)dependence.
Steven Pearlstein: I don't think the data support you on this. On the priority list of problems, I doubt its a very big one.
Reston, Va.: Does any "real" economist believe, and can they substantiate, that it is possible to redistribute income after it is earned without tampering with the markets that generate it? This appears to be a fundamental flaw in reasoning.
Steven Pearlstein: Yes, there are economists who think you can raise taxes further on corporations and high income earners. It may dampen growth and investment marginally, but not as much as the Marty Feldsteins of the world believe.
Vienna, Va.: Is paying half of catastrophic insurance really enough? Would employees or employers have to pay the other half? It seems like that cost would be too high for lower income workers.
Somewhat off topic, but the Post had an article earlier this week that showed how HSAs have only been effective for the upper class. Lower class employees have found them to be a worse option, in large part because consumers are only able to shop around for routine medical needs, but are otherwise unable to effectively bargain the fees or shop around.
washingtonpost.com: Uncertain Cure By Amy Goldstein, March 12, 2006
Steven Pearlstein: I've written several columns on this topic, going into much greater detail. And yes, some further subsidy for lower income workers would be necessary. And yes, catastrophic policies aren't as good a full-blown ones. But here is a perfect example of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. Let's start somewhere, shall we. And a good place to start is mandating a bare-bone policy for all workers. Then we can improve things from there.
Charlotte, N.C.: I totally agree with you that the situation calls for fundamental tax reform. In my opinion, the best way to do that would be to impose a flat rat tax, (say 25%), with the first $20K of income exempted from it and with no exemptions/deductions whatsoever.
It may seem strange, but the very rich would pay more under this flat rate scheme (with no deductions/exemptions) than under the current system. For example, John Kerry paid an effective tax rate of 12.8% in 2004 (out of an income of 6.8 million). It is estimated that the effective tax rate for multimillionaires is about 19% now. I know that flat tax would be unpopular with middle class and especially with upper middle class voters (I am one of them) because it would eliminate deductions, but the tax system would become more fair and much more difficult to take advantage of it.
Steven Pearlstein: You can construct a progressive tax coee with a single-rate flat tax, but it gets pretty hard when you're trying to raise the kind of revenue we need to raise. Why are you flat taxers so fixated on a single rate? Two or three rates isn't really all that complicated. You can, in fact, still do it on the back of a post card, as long as you have the tax tables available on the web site (one page). The complexity comes from the deductions and credits, which I agree we should eliminate.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts about setting tax rates based on geographic location. You mention a family income of $125,000 in your column as the cutoff for tax increases. $125,000 is a vastly "smaller" sum of money here than in other areas, given the high cost of home ownership and cost of living generally.
Steven Pearlstein: Its a real problem, I realize, but most of the solutions I've seen cause even more problems. I think we have to come back to the proposition that there are advantages and disadvantages to living in any one place, and high cost of living can be one of them. If it gets too high, people decide it is not worth it and move elsewhere. So the system corrects a bit for that. Incomes and living costs seem to move together.
Virginia: Here's another "modest" proposal to consider: permit all wage earners to operate as S-Corporations.
One source of the rising income disparity is that the average earner has little "excess" income to save or invest. If everyone were permitted to operate under the same rules as self-employed professionals, then all costs directly related to earning a living -- commuting, personal training, professional fees, business attire, day care, 100% of health insurance -- could be treated as expenses applied against revenue when computing taxable income. Many of the better off already enjoy these or similar tax advantages (such as applying secondary expenses and fees when computing capital gains). Why not apply the same rules to everyone??
Steven Pearlstein: Bad idea, I'm afraid. It is an invitation to all sorts of tax avoidance and outright fraud that would be very expensive to police.
Chapel Hill, N.C.: Hi Steve,
You say: "Indeed, you can construct a tax regime that, without increasing the top marginal rate beyond 35 percent for either individuals or corporations, would not only balance the federal budget but also provide extra revenue to repair and extend the social safety net and revitalize public services."
I agree that this could be done but you are going to have to do a lot more than just change estate and gift taxation and tinker with marginal rates with a 35% cap. Don't forget, the AMT is becoming the tax regime of significantly more middle class families. To get us out of the deficit/debt situation we have now will either take a significant economic boom - hard to see with structural problems like $60/bbl oil and significant increases in entitlements over the next 30 years - or some type of consumption tax.
Steven Pearlstein: Actually, I don't want to eliminate the AMT. In going to a income tax with few deductions and credits, I actually want to extend the AMT to everyone, and make it even stronger, so that no deductions or credits are immune to it. Then we could lower marginal rates.
Columbus OH: I was somewhat shocked by the editorial, seemingly unattributed, in Sunday's Outlook on the subject of income equality, because it made reference to the most relevant parameter of the benefits derived from the economy by working people, the median hourly wage. Which has been stagnant for over 30 years.
You, and in fairness nearly all economic commentators who should know better, consistently cite household income, whether median or average, as the measure of economic advancement. American households may have experienced nominal increases in income over this period, but it is nearly all attributable to more hours worked and proliferation of two-earner households. This is in marked contrast to nearly all other western industrial societies.
There are obviously limits as to how much of one's leisure and family time one can trade for higher income. If American families are tapped out as far as how much of that time they are willing or able to trade, in an environment of stagnant real wages, stagnant household incomes are not a conundrum but the expected outcome. You want a simple answer, there it is.
Virtually all fiscal policy for the past 30 years has been directed towards enhancing returns on capital while Federal Reserve policy has been explicitly focused on containing real wage growth. This "pro-growth" policy has been peddled to the electorate as beneficial to all Americans, and I submit there is no meaningful empirical support for that supposed truism. If aggregate economic growth doesn't yield higher real hourly incomes over time, why should ordinary Americans give a tinkers dam about economic growth?
washingtonpost.com: A Rising Tide? , March 12, 2006
Steven Pearlstein: As I said before, I'm not going to get into these data arguments that consume so much energy here in Washington policy circles, but shed little light. I can make a good case for using household income. I can make a good case for using median wages. Its complicated (For example, if you use wages, you ignore a lot of variable pay that is becoming an increasingly important part of compensation, to say nothing of fringe benefits, for which workers are actively trading pay wages). So please let's not get all huffy about accusing people of using the wrong data set. A little humility here is in order.
Austin, Texas: Steve, congratulations on an excellent column, full of sensible policy suggestions.
I'd add this: Contrary to the old saw among economists that market outcomes shouldn't be tampered with, comparative evidence shows pretty clearly that economies that contain inequality within reasonable limits perform more efficiently, with less unemployment and easier mobility between (say) the lower middle and the upper middle income ranges. As a result, such economies have less poverty to begin with, and therefore less need for redistribution through the tax-transfer system.
Your suggestions, therefore, could save us all a great deal of political trouble.
James Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin
Steven Pearlstein: Thanks, Jamie. I wish I had had more room,because I meant to mention the same point. Mr. Feldstein and other conservatives are always talking about the "deadweight loss" that results from things like the minimum wage or higher taxes. But he and people like him never, ever think about the lost output and productivity that results when workers feel alienated from, or less loyal to, the companies they work for, unwilling to go the extra mile or share their best ideas or sacrifice something for the good of the company. I admit it would be hard to measure such a thing. But logic tells us it is a "cost" or "loss" from the more ruthless labor market arrangements we've evolved toward, that the number isn't zero, and that this factor also needs to be considered. All of which is a fancy and long-winded way of saying that having too little inequality is not good for economic growth (China, circa 1965) and having too much inequality isn't good either (Guatemala circa 1965). We've done a good job in this country of keeping things about right, I would say, but recent development suggest its time for some fine tuning to get thing back closer to where they were.
Dumbell effect: Didn't you (or one of your colleagues) write about the dumbell effect on goods some time ago? In a nutshell, there's no longer a pyramid of varieties in a specific product, from a basic model, to something more advance, etc up the chain to a true luxury model. Due to better manufacturing, outsourcing, & keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, we now just have entry-level products and super-deluxe models. Choose between the $60 gas grill from WalMart and the $2000 Viking that can cook an entire pig in 20 minutes. Same reason that Oldsmobile was canned by GM - that middle-of-the-road niche doesn't exist anymore. Seems reasonable that this would happen with wages as well.
Steven Pearlstein: It was me who used the dumbell analogy, last week. And yes, it does make sense that the middle is getting hollowed out in both labor and product markets (and industrial organization, I might add).
Another route: How about this one?
1. Eliminate all (or almost all) income taxes. This shuts up the "I should keep what I earn" crowd.
2. Raise Cap gains to the old level.
3. Institute a 95% inheritance tax about the median cost of a home +25% in the US, indexed to inflation. Gift tax of 95% over $10K/yr.
That will more than cover costs, actually act to improve the reward to merit rather than birth, and be politically sellable.
It would be funny watching the opponents..."but I demand the right for my mongoloid son to stay at the top over your mensa kid! My DNA has eternal and perpetual proerty rights!".
Steven Pearlstein: Provocative, but probably not good public policy.
Lewiston, Mich.: Thank you for talking about this issue, which has been all but ignored by the Media and the Politicians, with the notable exception of John Edwards; namely that we are heading toward another guilded age.
My question to you is, do the rich and the politicians really believe that there will not come a time when there is a really serious pushback from the other 80% of Americans who work for a living? Even Alan Greenspan says a Capitalistic Democratic Republic cannot survive such huge inequalities.
Are we looking towards a worker's revolution in this country not far down the road? I see no other way for equality, unless of course the Ceo's begin to see their jobs outsourced and their pay tied to worker's pay. Comments?
Steven Pearlstein: I'm not sure I'd use the word revolution. But yes, if you want to look at it in Marxist terms, the elites have to realize they are going to get a return to more income inequality one way or the other. They can either figure out how to do it in a reasonable way, or some year down the road they'll wake up and find a populist Congress and president who will do it for them, with probably a lot less sensitivity to the nuances.
Vermont and L: I'll take the economists' side. I think you are right that the data make a strong case for increasing income inequality and that this is something we need to do something about.
But I don't think there is a need for fundamental changes in the market system in the U.S. The market system as it exists is doing an excellent job producing goods and creating income. And it's doing an excellent job in part because it's easy to do business without strong labor unions, a high minimum wage, or mandatory employer-sponsored health insurance.
The problem is that a whole lot of the income produced by that system is going to a pretty small group of people. Why isn't it a good idea to leave the system alone to continue to create so much income, and simply do a better job divvying up that income with a more progressive tax system and better government social insurance programs?
Steven Pearlstein: The answer to your last question is that as the inequality produced by the market system gets bigger and bigger, the redistributive mechanisms have to get stronger and stroner to counteract it, to the point that you'll have 50 percent marginal tax rates. And at that point, you will distort economic behavior by driving activity, or at least taxable activity, offshore or into tax avoidance schemes.
Maryland: You say to raise the tax on the top 10% of households. If I'm doing the math correctly your column implies 90% of American households earn under $125,000. That just doesn't seem right in these days of two income earners! Have some pity on us "sandwiched" earners that have the AMT take away deductions but aren't so rich we can hid it all in untaxed places.
Steven Pearlstein: I think the exact number is 129,000 for last year, but you get the idea.
Bethesda, Md.: What income ranges are considered upper, middle, lower income? Most people, I think, consider themselves to be middle class because they can afford the basic (food, shelter, medicine) and some luxuries (cable TV, vacation, decent car), but can't buy anything they want. How much is enough money? What should the average person have to be considered middle class and are those desire realistic?
Steven Pearlstein: I'm not sure there are answers to your question. Most Americans consider themselves middle class, even those who, objectively, are rich and poor. But its the American ethic. Obviously, any answer if highly subjective, involves all sorts of value judgments, and is dependent on variations regionally in cost of living. Around here in Washington, a family of 4, to be middle class, probably has to earn $80,000 at least. In rural Kansas, you can probably live pretty well, at least materially, on half that. In parts of Manhattan, it takes $150,000.
Washington, D.C.: "One would certainly be giving workers more bargaining leverage by restoring the right of workers to form a union-.]"
This would surprise some who know me, but I would vehemently support extending full collective bargaining rights to any and all (including white-collar, salaried workers). Does your comment apply to any and all? Further, in addition to the indifference of the NLRB, what eroded this right of workers to form a union?
Steven Pearlstein: What eroded the right of workers to form unions is that employers now hire union-busting law firms that basically coach them on how to crush organizing efforts by threatening and firing any worker who participates. And then the NLRB lets them get away with it -- or it if slaps them, does it five years later, when its too late. Its basically a gentle version of the same tactics used by Tony Soprano, which is ironic, because it used to be the unions that used mob tactics. Now its the employers and their lawyers.
Dayton, Ohio: When you talk about income inequality you are implying that all people inherently deserve to have roughly equal lifestyles. You don't recognize that MANY people choose to be poor.
I manage apartment buildings in a relatively tough low-income neighborhood, and I can tell you that many of my tenants don't in any way deserve to have anywhere close to the median income. They get fired from job after job, they spend huge amounts of money on liquor and cigarettes, they are not interested in getting education to better themselves or their income, and they know all the tricks to getting various forms of government and charitable assistance. When tax time comes I offer to do their taxes for free, but instead they would rather pay $180 to get their taxes done by H&R Block and get an instant refund, which they immediately blow.
Taking up the cause of the poor is noble, but America already does an extremely good job of redistributing the wealth. We give the poor twelve years of free public school, plus government grants and loans to send them to college or voc tech school. If you ask a poor person what they would do if they had money, they will tell you about the tricked out SUV they will buy, or the jewelry, etc. They don't act responsibly with money when they do get some. That's why they are poor.
Steven Pearlstein: Well, that's one view, and I say that knowing that is based on your real world observations. But that's far from the whole story. We're talking about a hundreds million middle class Americans whose share of the piece has gone down in the last 25 years. The problems of the underclass, I admit, are much tougher than that, and involve all sorts of social pathology that has been allowed to develop. But that's for another column.
Boston, Mass.: Why shouldn't investment income be taxed, after all what isn't taxed twice? I pay sales tax on items I buy with my taxed income. Lower taxes on investment income is one of the main reasons for the growth in inequality. Once you get to a certain threshold you can increase your wealth at ever increasing pace by shifting to investment income. Why shouldn't money coming into the door be money coming into the door and all treated the same?
Steven Pearlstein: A little double taxation is okay, particularly now that the corporate tax has been so riddled with holes that the effective tax is quite low. But I'll turn the table on you. Why tax it only twice. How about five times. Ten. After all, its just rich people. Why not milk 'em dry?
What I'm saying is that I've not really seen a good case for multiple taxation of one type of income. Your example of the sales tax isn't double taxation of income. Its another tax.
Centreville, Va.: You kinda skate around the fact that studies show that increasing the progressivity of tax rates does nothing to abate income inequality. So while it may be "nice" or perhaps "fair" to have a progressive tax, it is inaccurate to claim it will help with inquality in any way.
Steven Pearlstein: Not sure the studies show that. In fact, on the face of it, after tax income is different than before tax income, and is distributed more fairly.
Once taxes have taken money from the rich, how is it most effectively redistributed to the poor? Should we expand the EITC? Medicare? Subsidized student loans? More general infrastructure spending which would not go to poor people directly, but which could be expected to improve their future lot (and everyone else's)?
Steven Pearlstein: Good public schools, public parks, public education, public arts and culture, public colleges and universities all have the effect of improving the quality of life for those who, permanently or temporarily, don't have a lot of takehome pay. Add to that means tested benefits like the EITC and food stamps and Medicaid and unemployment insurance, and you have key elements of a "safety net."
Washington, D.C.: First, the Census data does show an increase in inequality. Go to Historical Tables on the CPS web site. Tax data is the only to get at the income of the top one percent, top 0.5% etc. The increase in inequality has been going for a long time certaintly several decades.
Second there are some variations on an employer mandate that would not lead to the same reduction in lower income wages. For example individuals could be mandated cover themselves with catastrophic plan and vouchers (or tax credits) provided based on last years income or some variation.
Steven Pearlstein: Census data shows increasing income inequality going over decades. I don't know what you're talking about. Its not as skewed as the tax data, but the trend is unmistkeable. And it is here and nearly every other industrialized country.
Theoretically, an individual mandate and an employer mandate are really the same thing. Employees as a group will eventually pay the full cost either way, either out of their pockets (individual mandate)or in lower pay (employer mandate). The difference, and an important one, is that ni reality, higher income workers wind up subsidizing lower income workers in most employer-based plans. In an individual mandate, there is no cross subsidy.
Washington, D.C.: Steven - Your articles are typically wonderfully insightful and I am usually swayed by your logic. I remain a fan, but I find no traction in this morning's piece. It all seems tired and political, not inspired and practical. This is a complex subject that deserves better answers. I don't have the answers either, but suggesting that unions and "reasonable inheritance tax that couldn't be bypassed through insurance scams or offshore trusts" will help close the gap seems way to simplistic to meet your standard. Also, based on my own empirical observations, I think it is a mistake to assume that income stratification is so static, particularly within the USA. The apparent cohorts may not be the same people over time. Cheers.
Steven Pearlstein: I'm not sure what you'd have me do in a 800 word piece about inequality and its solutions. Sorry the answers are tired, but to a degree all they are saying is to restore some of the equalizing institutions and mechanisms that existed in the past, when income was more equal. That may not be terribly creative, but it may be effective, which is better than nothing. As for income stratification, there continues to be lots of mobility, but the latest studies suggest not as much as there used to be, because equalizing institutions like good public education systems are fraying.
Anyway, keep reading. Maybe the next column will be more to your liking.
Maryland: The top 1% of wage earners pay 35% of ALL income taxes collected. The top 5% pay 54%. The top 10% pay 66%. That is income redistribution at its finest - how much more do you want?
Steven Pearlstein: Just a little more, to reflect the even more skewed distribution of national income.
Washington, D.C.: The discussion on income inequality tends to focus on the lowest earners, i.e. the poor. But what people who advocate income redistribution are loath to admit is that the most income inequality results from lifestyle choices. Putting aside the poor, who don't pay federal taxes anyway (in fact they receive a cash credit), the real debate here is whether people who choose more demanding careers, such as corporate law or investment banking, ought to be punished to subsidize the lifestyles of the very people they went to college with who choose jobs that demand less time, stress and no graduate education.
Steven Pearlstein: I'm afraid your logic was faulty. When you and the other ambitious types chose to go into investment banking and law, the pie was distributed sufficiently in your favor for your to make that choice. Now it is distributed even more in your favor, with no apparent change in the lazy lifestyle of your college roomates in the flabby middle (they were lazy then, they are lazy now). So what, exactly, makes you think you are entitled to this windfall in your favor, simply because of the change in market dynamics?
Fort Washington, Md.: If you are making it, good. But I am truly afraid of what type of society we are creating. What type of job/career will children have who will be in the workforce or college in the next ten years? Where will your nurse, firefighter, refuse collector, teacher, nurse's aide, lab technician and other live and prosper? What type of world will our grandchildren live in and work in? Working hard, getting a good education, spending frugally, aint going to make it folks. Women went back to the workforce and two-income families aren't living better. We are sliding backwards with no reserve or solution with our heads in the sand. Don't be surprised when our butts get kicked.
Steven Pearlstein: Well put. But let's not overstate the case. Most people in the middle, who you describe, aren't doing so much worse than they were before (although they are working harder). Its just that they are not doing a whole lot better in absolute terms. Relative to those at the top, of course, they are falling behind. But in this debate, we have to probably have to keep both measures in mind -- the absolute measure and the relative one. Neither is the "right" one. Both should be considered.
Vienna, Va.: Just a comment: Steve, your column is one of the few in my reading world, which extends to multiple newspapers, I try to read everytime it appears. I don't always agree with you, but I always find you interesting, thoughtfully reasoned, and offering potent ideas. I hope you will continue in particular exploring this income inequality issue, which seems to be reaching dangerous proportions for the common good.
Two income household:: So you want my husband and I to work 60+ hours, pay out the wazoo in taxes and like it?
Steven Pearlstein: No, I want you and your husband to understand that you've benefited in the last 20 years, in addition to your hard work, from a fundamental restructuring of markets that has its source in other factors. You wouldn't feel that. But the data shows that. And so a reasonable response is that society should ask you to give back some of that windfall, to create a more just and social harmonious society.
Don't get me wrong. You are not at fault here. But you are, in part, the beneficiary of an economic restructuring NOT of your own making. Its not all because of your hard work and ingenuity. You got a base on balls and then scored. But you didn't hit a home run.
Laurel, Md.: Considering how many ways there are today for the wealthy (and the businesses they control) to move money anywhere including off-shore, is it really possible to make them share more of it?
Steven Pearlstein: That's a fair question. And its why you have to be careful in how you construct redistribution schemes, and how far you can push them.
Arlington, Va.: I agree with your take on unions. My father, who's an engineer, worked at a privately owned factory for 10 years, that would not allow its employees to unionize (used a lot of immigrants and contract workers). It was so bad they didn't even have air conditioning. He finally got a job at another large public-traded company. This one doesn't have unions, but because it's in a city where most factories are unionized they treat their employees a lot better. Things like air conditioning the plant, days off etc. Since my dad's part of management and sees the numbers he also knows that this plant is a lot more efficient and productive. They have low turnover, so he doesn't always have to train new employees and the employees they have know the job well enough to work very efficiently. So I think employee satisfaction and productively are not at odds with each other.
Steven Pearlstein: Thanks for that.
Maryland: If people want to make more money, they need to consider other career paths. i wanted to bean English major, but i also wanted to eat on a regular basis. Life isn't fair, and you don't always get to do what you would love to do and still have a standard of living that you want. Pick a career and pursue training for it in consideration of your wants and abilities, but also in consideration of how that career can support the lifestyle you want. don't ask me to subsidize someone's choice to pursue a low paying career by forking over more of my money.
Steven Pearlstein: I think you are missing the point. People made the tradeoffs you cite. But then, in the ensuing years, the gap between the english professor and the investment banker's pay got even wider, for reasons having nothing to do with how hard they work or how well they worked. You are saying, well, tough luck. I'm saying, these developments are related to changes in public policy on things like trades, unions, deregulation, etc. And there is nothing wrong with other public policies being put in place to reverse that trend a bit. Your problem is that you assume what is to be proved -- namely, that it is YOUR money and it was distributed according to a perfectly fair and neutral system known as the market. In fact, there is no perfectly fair and neutral market. Markets exist in a context of a set of laws and norms of behavior which help to dictate how the pie is divided. And those norms and laws have changed in your favor. Good for you. But don't your good fortune in recent years is solely the result of your efforts. Its not.
Woodbridge, Va.: Hello: I have a different perspective on this question that I have never seen addressed. Isn't the real reason for increasing inequality the proliferation of households with two incomes? The statistics always talk about the 'top ten percent of taxpayers'. Married people are considered one unit for tax purposes. Today, you will usually find lawyers married to lawyers and doctors married to doctors. In my parents' day, doctors married nurses and they then quit their jobs. It just seems logical that you would have all of these very high income households, while at the lower end you'd have single people and high school graduates who are married to each other. I am curious about this because my husband and I are two GS 14's married to each other and that adds up to a healthy income, and most people in this area are similar to us. I don't see this as a pernicious trend. What do you think?
Steven Pearlstein: One big reason for widening income equality is, as you say, the rise of two earning households, combined with the tendency of people to marry someone of their own education level and class. So you get a turbo charge effect, where an existing pattern is doubly reinforced. That was definitely a factor from 1970 to 1990 or so. Since then, its pretty much leveled out. But it doesn't explain all of the rise of income inequality, or even the major part of it, as I recall from studies I read a decade ago. But thanks for reminding us of that. It is another reason we have to be very HUMBLE in dealing with this data. Its a very complicated subject.
Thanks, folks, We;re 30 minutes over the usual time, so I'll have to bring this very good discussion to a close. See you next week.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
|
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.
| 232.243902 | 0.731707 | 0.97561 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/08/DI2006030801386.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/08/DI2006030801386.html
|
Post Politics Hour
|
2006031719
|
Don't want to miss out on the latest buzz in politics? Start each day at wonk central: 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 White House reporter Peter Baker was online Wednesday, March 15, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest news in politics.
washingtonpost.com's Campaign 2006 interactive map.
Peter Baker: Good morning everyone. Another fun day in Washington politics and lots of interest already. We have 43 questions already posted before we begin, so let's get going.
New York, N.Y.: In the current news cycle the media has been trumpeting a so-called Republican revolt against the Bush administration's agenda but it seems to me that, excluding the collapse of the Dubai ports deal, Congressional Republicans have largely supported the President on his Supreme Court nominations, his subversion of FISA, his Iraq policy (such as it is), and his ambivalence about funding the Katrina reconstruction. Senator Specter is probably the best example of someone who claims the mantle of independent Republican while still carrying water for the administration on all the crucial issues. What are your thoughts?
Peter Baker: You make some good points. Republicans have supported much of President Bush's agenda despite their differences on key issues. But let's remember the context as well -- throughout the president's first term, Republicans virtually never stood apart from him at all. Now they have abandoned him on Social Security, abandoned him on Harriet Miers, abandoned him on the ports deal, abandoned him on his immigration guest worker program, forced torture legislation on him that he'd threatened to veto and expressed less than unquestioning support for the NSA surveillance and Patriot Act renewal. That doesn't mean Republicans don't still prefer George Bush in the White House to John Kerry but it does mean they're not marching quite in lockstep anymore.
Des Moines, Iowa: Did you know there is a growing movement in Iowa to support Condi Rice for president? She got 30% of the preference in a poll in Iowa taken among Republicans, and a group for her has visited our state for political events. If more people from Iowa agree to get on the Condi train, what impact do you think it would have at the Ames Iowa straw poll? Could she gather all the people who supported Elizabeth Dole (who came in 3rd in 1999) or would Rice go even further in attracting the Bush supporters in our state and come out on top in the August straw poll? I live here and I don't know the answer. I just have hope
Peter Baker: The prospect of a Condi Rice candidacy has a lot of folks buzzing, no question. She would have a far different dynamic than Elizabeth Dole. For one thing, she is so close to President Bush that she would be seen as his candidate, even assuming he would stay officially neutral. That could be good or bad depending on whether his numbers keep cratering. But there's still serious doubt that she would run, at least for the top of the ticket. For one thing, she has said she's not running. For another, she has declared herself "mildly pro choice," a stance that wouldn't sit well with many if not most Republican primary voters.
San Francisco, Calif.: Good Morning,
What am I missing about respect and admiration for Condi Rice?
The gossip that she might be a candidate for Pres in 2008 truly baffles me?
Personally I think she is out of the same Federal dog pound, protecting the same personal power, hungry lies, aggressions, and deceit?
Guess I haven't noticed her National and Internationl contributions for this Country.
Peter Baker: Another view on Condi Rice.
Laguna Beach, Calif.: How does McCain equate siding with Bush on foreign policy or on anything with winning the nomination for president? Does he think the poll numbers don't mean anything? Does he think we'll win the war in Iraq by then? Does he think Bush will suddenly get smart by 2007? Does he know something we don't?
Peter Baker: One thing he knows that we may not is that Republican primary voters will probably be much more loyal to President Bush than the broader public that responds to public opinion polls. His numbers have fallen even among Republicans, but he still has the support of more than 70 percent of his party. What's more, John McCain wants to build ties to the conservative wing of the party that historically has distrusted him and supported Bush.
What did Condi Rice do?: Well, she went to India, and brought the President with her. 30 years from now that may be considered on the level of what Kissinger did in China.
Peter Baker: In the interest of furthering this discussion, another quarter heard from. More thoughts?
Why when the president speaks does the media report the location of the speech rather than the audience. When one says he spoke "at George Washington University," the mental picture is of an auditorium full of students and professors. Who he actually spoke to was the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. That's an entirely diffent mental image, and it has nothing to do with George Washington University. Where a group rents a hall to host the President is irrelevant. The significant context of the speach is provided by the nature of the group the president is addressing.
Peter Baker: Thanks for the question. You make a good point. In our story on the president's speech on Monday, we said in the third paragraph, on the front page portion of the story, that he was speaking to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. We only noted that the physical location was George Washington University much deeper in the story, well after the jump.
washingtonpost.com: Bush Sets Target for Transition In Iraq , ( Post, March 14, 2006 )
Alexandria, Va.: I know there will be a dearth of questions on this today, but do you see Feingold's censure resolution gaining any traction? Based on the tenor of the story today I'd say the newsroom doesn't think so.
Secondly, do you see the any political backlash forthcoming for the hamhanded bumbling of the Moussaui case? Thanks.
Peter Baker: A lot of questions on censure today. Senator Russ Feingold's proposal to reprimand President Bush for authorizing the secret NSA surveillance has stirred a lot of passion both inside Washington and out. It seems clear that while it has traction among part of the Democratic Party base, it doesn't at the moment have much among the elected senators. There may be a certain lingering hangover from the Clinton impeachment episode, when no one came out looking all that good.
washingtonpost.com: A Senate Maverick Acts to Force an Issue , ( Post, March 15, 2006 )
Pittsburgh, Pa.: Condi Rice says she "mildly pro choice"? Is that similar to being "kind of" pregnant? Interesting choice of phrase, don't you think?
Peter Baker: A question she'd be asked by both sides of the abortion debate if she were to run. I'm not sure what the answer is.
Democrats are going to attack a Republican President and Republicans are going to defend him, that's their job. But how can someone stand up for, say, the legislative branch versus the executive without being painted as partisan (Dem) or disloyal (Rep) In fact criticism of something like warrantless surveillance could be both bipartisan and loyal or it could be empty politics. How do you tell? How do you present it to your readers?
Peter Baker: More good points. In fact, underlying a lot of the Republican concern over NSA in particular is the institutional prerogative of the legislative branch to write laws that are followed. Politics is there of course as is this structural struggle. We've tried to capture that in stories as well. My colleague Jim VandeHei and I wrote about Bush's campaign to reassert executive power and the congressional unease with that across party lines shortly after the NSA program was disclosed.
Alexandria, Va.: I read in the New York Times that The Post will have a buyout. If The Post had to cut one of the three reporters covering the White House, should it be Peter Baker, Jim VandeHei or Mike Fletcher? You will probably be modest and say yourself. What if the choice were between VandeHei and Fletcher?
Peter Baker: Sometimes during these chats I gather readers would dump all three of us. Let's not open that door!
With things going so badly for the Republicans these days on most fronts, I expect to see them start to emphasize the strong economy more pretty soon as the mid-terms loom. Are the Democrats ready to counter this strategy?
Peter Baker: The economy has been an interesting phenomenon politically. By many measures, the economy is doing pretty decently right now. But polls indicate significant economic anxiety among the public and disapproval of the president's handling of it. A Bush adviser said the other day that he attributes that to the broader public anxiety over Iraq, which has left people on edge generally.
Arlington, Va.: I'm a lifelong Democrat and I support what Feingold is trying to do. All of his spineless colleagues in the Senate are showing us why no one takes them seriously at all. They don't stand for anything, and until they do the party will keep on getting what it deserves.
Peter Baker: A lot of comments like this today. I'll post a few for the sake of discussion. Anyone disagree?
Alexandria, Va.: Why are no other Senators supporting Russ Feingold in his effort to censure the President? Certainly some other Democrats and even some Republicans believe that the administration is breaking the law with its domestic spying program. It seems to reflect a lack of political backbone and a lack of independence from the President.
New Madrid, Mo.: Peter, what do you think is the reason the dems wouldn't back Feingold? Did they think he was wrong to present the Res. or have they lost their backbone? Why are they scared of Republicans? I am a lifelong Dem and this bunch mystifies me. Thanks. P.S. When will Jim Vandehei answer questions. He is my man!!
Peter Baker: And still another. (Is that you, Mrs. VandeHei??)
Charlottesville, Va.: Condi Rice in India equal to Nixon in China? Who is that person kidding? India has been an ally of the United States for a very long time, and a huge trade partner (not to mention the place where great masses of employees of U.S. companies reside). China was a cold war enemy of the United States when Nixon was there. The only thing Bush did was botch any hopes for nuclear nonproliferation. Why did you even take that ridiculous comment?
Peter Baker: I take lots of questions and comments from all sorts of points of view. These chats are better if we get a variety of thoughts, don't you think? And so here's another.
Lewiston, N.Y.: "Well, she went to India, and brought the President with her. 30 years from now that may be considered on the level of what Kissinger did in China."
Huh? Have we been on the outs with India for 30 years? Have I missed something?
Peter Baker: And in the same vein.
Bethesda, Md.: Maureen Dowd wants Barack Obama to run for president. She's not the only one. Any chance at all that this might happen in 2008 (as opposed to 2012 or 2016, when we all know it will happen?
Peter Baker: It seems doubtful he'd run that early, though he might be seen by the eventual nominee as an attractive vice presidential running mate. Obama made a strong impression on a lot of Washington types at last weekend's Gridiron dinner when he delivered a very funny presentation that included a lot of self deprecation about the fact that he's gotten lots of hype without having actually done much legislatively yet.
Irvington, N.Y.: Given the poor track record of Senators running for the Presidency over the past 40 years do you forsee the either McCain or Clinton getting the nomination? Which Governors should we be watching?
Peter Baker: If you had to bet at the moment, John McCain and Hillary Clinton are certainly in the strongest positions in their respective parties, with no one else really even close at the moment. Both have extraordinary name recognition, fundraising capacity, powerful bases of support and important experience in national campaigns. Having said that, rule nothing out. Either could stumble, someone else could make the case that the frontrunner isn't right for that party. The governors on the Democratic side to watch are Mark Warner (now a former), Iowa's Tom Vilsack and New Mexico's Bill Richardson. On the Republican side, there are Massachusetts's Mitt Romney, Arkansas's Mike Huckabee and New York's George Pataki. Haley Barbour of Mississippi recently took himself out.
Boston, Mass.: One note: Tom Harkin is supporting the censure resolution. "The president broke the law and he needs to be held accountable," Harkin said. "Talk about high crimes and misdemeanors!"
Peter Baker: Additional input on censure.
Granger, Ind.: From what I have read, Condoleeza Rice was a mediocre National Security Advisor. She did little to stanch the infighting of Defense and State, and certainly did nothing to slow the momentum for the war.
Also, who can forget her infamous comments after 9/11, when she asked "who could have imagined" people flying planes into buildings --- even after she'd read briefings warning of that very thing.
Like others in the Bush administration, Rice has an aversion to the truth. Nothing in her record suggests she is qualified for political office, much less the presidency.
Peter Baker: More food for thought on Condi. Any supporters want to throw in their two cents?
San Francisco, Calif.: Do you think that Jeb Bush is going to step into the Florida Senate race, replacing Katharine Harris? I really hope Harris stays in the race, since I think she's completely beatable, but it looks like this MZM campaign cash is sticking to her. Do you think Jeb Bush is interested in being a Senator, or does he need to start making money and thinking about running for President in 2008?
Peter Baker: Chris Cillizza, our whip-smart colleague from washingtonpost.com who follows these races closely, says we shouldn't assume Harris is dropping out. Check out his daily online column, The Fix, for the latest in politics here and around the country:
Re: Comments and questions: You said..
"I take lots of questions and comments from all sorts of points of view. These chats are better if we get a variety of thoughts, don't you think? And so here's another."
So I ask this, if you get all sorts of points of views, why is that all we see are the liberal/angry points of view. You have not portrayed one comment supporting the President. Please clarify. Thanks.
Peter Baker: Send me one supporting President Bush and I'll post it. I'm afraid I don't control who participates in the chats.
Dryden, N.Y.: Although I no longer live there, as a native daughter I am extremely attached to the New Hampshire primary. Does the DNC realize the damage it is doing to the Democratic prospects in the only state to turn blue in 2004! Boo to the Inside-the-beltway bullies.
Peter Baker: An issue we haven't addressed today. It is an interesting sacred cow for the Democrats to take on. It's not clear to me, though, how it will ultimately change who they nominate or whether they will eventually win a general election.
In almost every reported story that actually addresses impeachment the remark is made that Democrats remember the backlash after the Clinton impeachment. What backlash was that? A Republican president and Congress? In what way was there a tangible backlash against congressional Republicans?
Peter Baker: I used the word "hangover," rather than backlash. A lot of folks in both parties in Congress truly disliked the whole process and don't want to go through it again. As for electoral consequences, you can debate it. In 1998, the Republicans lost five seats in the House even though Newt Gingrich had predicted impeachment would be a big winner with voters. And so a lot of people came away with the lesson that pushing impeachment is not necessarily good politics. On the other hand, Clinton still had high approval ratings at the time, while Bush currently does not, and the issues at stake now are different as well, so it's hard to make comparisons.
Virginia Beach, Va.: I'm sure you don't get many comments supporting Pres. Bush, because the core that's left that supports him aren't the types who are interested in any other viewpoints but their own, so I suspect they don't participate in anything that would require them to think about anything that doesn't fit in their world view. Oops...run on sentence.
Peter Baker: Thanks for the thought. Any others?
No, India has been on the outs with US!: Or haven't you paid attention to the outsourcing angst, the difficulties U.S. companies have in enforcing their contracts in India, the closed and subsidized markets, the nonaligned movement posturing, etc. Here is the natural counterweight to China, which ALREADY IS IN a cold war with the U.s., and we haven't done anything to court them.
Peter Baker: And continuing our debate over the subcontinent...
Bethesda, Md.: So six months after the resignation and subsequent arrest of White House procurement official David Safavian, perhaps one person in a hundred on the street could tell you who he is. Rest assured that had this occurred during the Clinton administration his would be a household name now. So - if you are even allowed to print this question - what is the latest on that story?
Peter Baker: Thanks for the cynicism. I'm allowed to post any question. David Safavian may not be a household name, but Jack Abramoff, Scooter Libby and Tom DeLay are. There were lots of minor scandal figures in the Clinton era I bet not one person in a hundred could name either.
In re: Codi Rice: All this coming down on Condi Rice? Help me out Peter, I'm try to understand - especially after having experienced such a non-existent Sec of State as Ms. Albright. Talk about a Miss "what have you done lately". Come on people, relax the anger pill a bit.
Peter Baker: She certainly has generated more interest than anyone else we've discussed today, hasn't she?
Falls Church, Va.: What are the early reviews of Paul Hackett's appearance last night on The Daily Show?
Peter Baker: Afraid I didn't see it (young baby). What did you think?
when do you think the Democrats will come out with their version of the Contract with America. Also do you think the Democrats will gain control of the House or Senate
Peter Baker: They've been promising one for a while now, but they keep putting it off and putting it off. The conditions for the Democrats taking over one house or the other are certainly better than they've been in the dozen years since Republicans took over. But at the same time, polls show that many voters don't think much more of congressional Democrats than they do of President Bush. In our latest poll, 65 percent said Bush has no clear plan for Iraq, but 70 percent said the same of Democrats in Congress.
RE: Clinton Impeachment: You said no one came out looking good. Actually, I believe Hillary Clinton came out looking good, with sympathy from a lot of people and that this is what helped her get elected to the Senate in NY.
Peter Baker: Maybe so. Fair point. But at a heck of a price, don't you think? Would any of us really want our marriages dissected in public in such a way?
Dallas, Tex.: Has Sen. Feingold offered anything to suggest that he's more interested in protecting this country from terrorists than in bringing down the President? I haven't. What would he do? If he wants to be President, shouldn't we expect him and the Democrats to articulate what and how they would do this? The whole censure thing is a grandstanding move by Feingold.
Peter Baker: A lot of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate think the same thing, notwithstanding the passionate feelings of many rank and file Democrats.
Boston, Mass.: No need to post, but THANK YOU for writing
"On the other hand, Clinton still had high approval ratings at the time, while Bush currently does not, and the issues at stake now are different as well, so it's hard to make comparisons."
Peter Baker: Someone offers a "thank you" and you think I won't post it? No chance!
Let's go ahead and close on that note. Thanks for all the great questions, provocative comments and smart insights, as always. These are terrific conversations, mainly because you guys are so engaged. Invite your friends to join as well, even some who don't agree with you.
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 White House reporter Peter Baker discusses the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.
| 185.956522 | 0.956522 | 11.913043 |
high
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031400500.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031719id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031400500.html
|
Thousands Rally Against Thai Leader
|
2006031719
|
BANGKOK, March 14 -- Tens of thousands of protesters marched Tuesday to the offices of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, demanding that he resign over allegations that he improperly enriched himself in a massive telecommunications deal.
The demonstration was one of the largest since long-simmering grievances among Bangkok's middle class erupted two months ago when Thaksin's family sold its controlling shares in the Shin Corp. business empire for $1.9 billion to a Singapore investment company.
Although the rally ended peacefully, Thaksin warned he would declare a state of emergency and call troops into the streets if subsequent demonstrations turned violent.
But the army commander, Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, dismissed the immediate need for an emergency decree after reviewing the situation with other top military officers. Sonthi, speaking to reporters, said such an extreme measure would likely damage Thailand's image abroad.
Waving colored flags and placards emblazoned with caricatures of the prime minister, the protesters proceeded slowly through the heart of official Bangkok, past ministries, army headquarters and the capital's Democracy Monument, chanting, "Thaksin, get out!"
Many had camped overnight on the royal plaza near the gold towers of the Grand Palace, the site of anti-Thaksin rallies on each of the previous nine evenings. By mid-morning, they had marched about a mile through streets heavy with police and crammed the boulevards surrounding the compound where Thaksin's cabinet was meeting.
Sondhi Limthongkul, a media tycoon who launched the protest movement late last year when he accused Thaksin of corruption and abuse of power, urged the festive crowd to intensify pressure for the prime minister's ouster by remaining in the streets.
"We will stay here until he resigns," he shouted from atop a truck in front of the compound's gates. "If he won't resign, more people will come."
Police estimated that as many as 40,000 people joined the demonstration, while organizers put the number at close to 200,000.
Thaksin, meanwhile, was campaigning in the countryside, where he remains widely popular. He has called for parliamentary elections next month in a bid to defuse the crisis. Opposition parties have announced a boycott of the balloting on the grounds that Thaksin's likely victory would lend him undeserved legitimacy.
The rally attracted thousands of students, shop owners, professionals and employees of public utilities, who oppose government plans to privatize state-owned enterprises. Many in the crowd also wore yellow bandanas, hats and visors, donning the color associated with Thailand's royal family. Demonstrators accuse Thaksin of lack of respect for the country's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
At the front of the protest were hundreds of members of the Dharma Army, part of an ascetic sect that broke away from mainstream Buddhism. Shaven-headed, blue-clad adherents waved orange flags urging, "Change Through Peace."
The group's leader, former Maj. Gen. Chamlong Srimuang, gave a brief, restrained speech from atop a truck. Addressing his remarks to government ministers inside the compound, he urged them: "Tell your boss to come back from up country and sign the resignation papers. Whenever he signs the papers, we will leave immediately."
Thaksin has repeatedly rebuffed the calls for his removal and argued that voters should decide his fate. He has adamantly rejected the corruption charges, saying the sale of the Shin Corp. stock was legal and a private matter.
Apichart Poomee, 40, a hotel employee, said he disagreed so strongly with this claim that he has been protesting consistently since early February.
"Thaksin has cheated the country and the nation. He has built his power by making money out of his policies," said Apichart, wearing a yellow headband and waving a small Thai flag.
"I've seen a lot of changes in the country and I've seen a lot of tyrants," said Pranee Thanachanan, 79, a retired university dean wearing a yellow baseball cap. "This is the worst I've ever seen."
|
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.
| 16.782609 | 0.369565 | 0.369565 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031300559.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031300559.html
|
Chaney Will Step Down As Coach at Temple
|
2006031319
|
John Chaney, whose loosened neckties, tenacious matchup zone defense and fiery personality were staples of the NCAA tournament during most of his 24-year career at Temple University, announced his retirement yesterday because of his wife's declining health and his program's fading success.
Chaney, 74, will not coach in Temple's NIT opening-round game against Akron tonight. He will be replaced on the bench by longtime assistant coach Dan Leibovitz, who probably will be among the candidates to replace him at the Philadelphia school. Chaney said his wife, Jeanne, was scheduled to have a medical procedure this week, but declined to specify her illness.
In 24 seasons, Chaney guided the Owls to more than 500 victories and six Atlantic 10 tournament championships. But the Owls failed to qualify for college basketball's biggest postseason event, the NCAA tournament, in each of the last five seasons.
"I have said all along that I would know when it would be time to step down and now is that time," Chaney said, wearing sunglasses and wiping away tears during a news conference in Philadelphia. "I want to thank Temple University, its fans and community for allowing me to do what I love for so long. It has never been a job for me, but a passion."
Chaney coached Temple to a 516-252 record, and his 741 victories overall rank fifth among active Division I coaches behind Arizona's Lute Olson, Oklahoma State's Eddie Sutton, Texas Tech's Bob Knight and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and 11th all-time. His teams played in the NCAA tournament in 17 of his first 19 seasons at Temple, reaching the region final five times. However, Chaney's teams never reached the Final Four.
Chaney is one of only 19 coaches to have coached in more than 1,000 games, and he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. He started his coaching career at Division II Cheney State, leading it to the 1978 Division II national championship. He was twice named national coach of the year.
Chaney, a native of Jacksonville, Fla., also was a lightning rod for controversy. He often battled the NCAA over academic requirements for African American players and was an opponent of Proposition 48, the NCAA rule instituted in 1986 that required student-athletes to meet minimum grade-point averages and standardized test scores to become eligible to play collegiate sports.
Chaney talked about his role in educating disadvantaged students from the inner city.
"They just want to bounce the ball and dribble the ball, but I talk about things that are going to stay with them for the rest of their lives," Chaney said. "Somewhere along the line, it will reverberate and they'll remember it."
Chaney's temper sometimes got the best of him. In 1984, he grabbed then-George Washington coach Gerry Gimelstob by the throat at halftime of a game. Ten years later, Chaney threatened to kill then-Massachusetts coach John Calipari at a postgame news conference and nearly assaulted him before security officers pulled him away. Chaney was suspended for one game by the Atlantic 10 and apologized to Calipari.
Last season, Chaney ordered seldom-used reserve Nehemiah Ingram to commit hard fouls in a game against Saint Joseph's. Ingram slammed Saint Joseph's player John Bryant to the floor, fracturing his arm. After the game, Chaney screamed at Atlantic 10 Commissioner Linda Bruno and called Ingram his "goon." Chaney later apologized to Bryant and his family and suspended himself from coaching for the remainder of the regular season and postseason.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
|
John Chaney, whose loosened neckties, tenacious matchup zone defense and fiery personality were staples of the NCAA tournament during most of his 24-year career at Temple University, announced his retirement yesterday because of his wife's declining health and his program's fading success.
| 14.583333 | 1 | 48 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201293.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201293.html
|
Some Top Seeds Could Get Buried Early
|
2006031319
|
The NCAA tournament has been missing one important ingredient the last few years: upsets. No, not a 10 seed beating a 7 seed. I'm talking 3 seeds and 4 seeds hanging on for dear life in the first round, power-conference heavies going out to small conference winners who couldn't have gotten a sniff of an at-large bid, and recent national champions being shown the door early by hyphenated little buggers who mess up your bracket 10 minutes after you submit it to the kid who runs the office pool.
Last year, a No. 1 seed (North Carolina) beat another No. 1 seed (Illinois) for the championship. There weren't nearly enough of the giant upsets and buzzer-beaters that made the tournament irresistible theater. It was entirely too predictable, which isn't what makes folks play hooky from work Thursday and Friday the first week of play. This year? It looks like the person who wins the office pool is going to have to go out on a limb, figure out what 2 seeds and 3 seeds might not last the first weekend, even seriously ponder whether more than one No. 1 will make it to the Final Four. This could be my favorite kind of bracket, the one where there's a premium on picking upsets.
Having said that, I'm already on record as picking Connecticut, a No. 1 seed, to win the whole thing. No upset there. Connecticut is athletic, long, quick, experienced and expertly coached by Jim Calhoun. No other team is six players strong, as the Huskies are with Marcus Williams, Denham Brown, Hilton Armstrong, Rashad Anderson, Rudy Gay and Josh Boone. All but Gay were around for the national championship victory two years ago. The one thing Connecticut doesn't want to see along the way is another Big East team (think: Georgetown-Villanova, 1985), but short of that, Connecticut looks like the strongest team in the field.
Other than that, the other No. 1s look vulnerable. Yes, Duke just won the ACC tournament, but that doesn't mean what it usually does, and while J.J. Redick has rediscovered his marvelous shooting touch at just the right time, there are teams in Duke's region (Syracuse, LSU, West Virginia, Iowa, Texas) who could knock off Duke.
In the Oakland bracket, I'd take the UCLA vs. Gonzaga winner over top-seeded Memphis in a regional final, and that's presuming Memphis gets past the Pittsburgh-Kansas winner, which I'm not ready to do.
And Villanova, the No. 1 seed in Minneapolis, simply had the misfortune of Allan Ray suffering an eye injury in the Big East tournament. Yes, Villanova says he'll be back, but how effective? With blurred vision? With goggles? Without having practiced? It's a shame if we don't get to see Villanova at its best, because its four-guard lineup could cause serious matchup problems for most teams, even No. 2 seed Ohio State, but only if Ray is in peak condition, which is very questionable.
This kind of unpredictable bracket maddens the coach who figures his team should have been invited, such as Cincinnati, which should have been. There aren't many teams that have a beef. Michigan and Florida State finished poorly and should have been left out. Even though CBS seems to be whining over the exclusion of some power-conference teams, the only teams I'd lobby for are still the little guys. Missouri State's RPI ranking is 21. I'm sorry, but if this indicator means anything at all, then Missouri State should have been invited; I don't care if that would have given the Missouri Valley 10 teams in the field. And while I was ready to jump all over the NCAA selection committee for taking George Mason and not Hofstra, which beat Mason twice down the stretch, I'm reminded that another respected statistical indicator, the Sagarin rating, has George Mason ranked 38th in the country, while Hofstra is 64th. Seems to me there would have been room for Cincinnati and Hofstra had the committee simply told Alabama and either Air Force or Utah State to take a hike.
No doubt the Cincinnati coaches, having gone 8-8 in the Big East, look at the bracket today and fume because any team with good regular season wins has to think it has a legit chance of getting, at the very least, to the round of 16. (By the way, we now know that Gerry McNamara's three-point shot that beat Cincy in the first-round of the Big East tournament would have eliminated Syracuse and left Cincinnati in the field. That one game in the NCAA tournament will earn Syracuse $164,000, not that McNamara will see any of it.)
You want upsets? Okay, here's a pack of 'em. In the very first round, how about Seton Hall over Wichita State, Texas A&M over Syracuse (which has to be out of gas by now, right?), San Diego State over Indiana and Wisconsin-Milwaukee over Oklahoma. Looking for 2s and 3s that could be tossed out in the second game? How about Ohio State, which some having going all the way to the Final Four, losing to Georgetown or Northern Iowa? Tennessee, seeded No. 2 in the D.C. region, could certainly lose to Seton Hall in the second round, as could No. 2 Texas to Cal, as could UCLA to Marquette. In fact, how in the world did the Big East, given the way its teams performed, wind up with Marquette and Georgetown as No. 7 seeds anyway? As far as No. 3 seeds, why should No. 3 Iowa be favored over No. 6 West Virginia if that second-round matchup comes to pass? No. 3 Gonzaga will have its hands full in a first-round game against Xavier.
As Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said the other night on the subject of upsets in this tournament, "The teams that are better aren't that much better."
And therein lies the secret to accurately predicting the Final Four. So, with Boeheim's words ringing in my ears, here goes: LSU will shock Duke in the regional semifinal and West Virginia in the regional final to claim one spot. The Pitt-Kansas winner -- perhaps the best of a slew of potentially fabulous second-round matchups -- will join LSU on that side of the bracket. (I'll take Pitt for now.) Connecticut will take out Kentucky, Illinois, North Carolina and Tennessee here in D.C. And Boston College will survive a round of 16 matchup with Villanova to make the national semifinals. So, that's LSU, Pitt, Connecticut and BC who will emerge from a tournament filled with upsets from appetizer to dessert.
|
Unlike last year, it looks as though you will have to pick an upset or two to win the office pool in the 2006 NCAA tournament, even though No. 1 seed U-Conn. should win it all.
| 30.227273 | 0.863636 | 1.681818 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200978.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200978.html
|
Our Opportunity With India
|
2006031319
|
The week before last President Bush concluded a historic agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation with India, a rising democratic power in a dynamic Asia. This agreement is a strategic achievement: It will strengthen international security. It will enhance energy security and environmental protection. It will foster economic and technological development. And it will help transform the partnership between the world's oldest and the world's largest democracy.
First, our agreement with India will make our future more secure, by expanding the reach of the international nonproliferation regime. The International Atomic Energy Agency would gain access to India's civilian nuclear program that it currently does not have. Recognizing this, the IAEA's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, has joined leaders in France and the United Kingdom to welcome our agreement. He called it "a milestone, timely for ongoing efforts to consolidate the non-proliferation regime, combat nuclear terrorism and strengthen nuclear safety."
Our agreement with India is unique because India is unique. India is a democracy, where citizens of many ethnicities and faiths cooperate in peace and freedom. India's civilian government functions transparently and accountably. It is fighting terrorism and extremism, and it has a 30-year record of responsible behavior on nonproliferation matters.
Aspiring proliferators such as North Korea or Iran may seek to draw connections between themselves and India, but their rhetoric rings hollow. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism that has violated its own commitments and is defying the international community's efforts to contain its nuclear ambitions. North Korea, the least transparent country in the world, threatens its neighbors and proliferates weapons. There is simply no comparison between the Iranian or North Korean regimes and India.
The world has known for some time that India has nuclear weapons, but our agreement will not enhance its capacity to make more. Under the agreement, India will separate its civilian and military nuclear programs for the first time. It will place two-thirds of its existing reactors, and about 65 percent of its generating power, under permanent safeguards, with international verification -- again, for the first time ever. This same transparent oversight will also apply to all of India's future civilian reactors, both thermal and breeder. Our sale of nuclear material or technology would benefit only India's civilian reactors, which would also be eligible for international cooperation from the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Second, our agreement is good for energy security. India, a nation of a billion people, has a massive appetite for energy to meet its growing development needs. Civilian nuclear energy will make it less reliant on unstable sources of oil and gas. Our agreement will allow India to contribute to and share in the advanced technology that is needed for the future development of nuclear energy. And because nuclear energy is cleaner than fossil fuels, our agreement will also benefit the environment. A threefold increase in Indian nuclear capacity by 2015 would reduce India's projected annual CO2emissions by more than 170 million tons, about the current total emissions of the Netherlands.
Third, our agreement is good for American jobs, because it opens the door to civilian nuclear trade and cooperation between our nations. India plans to import eight nuclear reactors by 2012. If U.S. companies win just two of those reactor contracts, it will mean thousands of new jobs for American workers. We plan to expand our civilian nuclear partnership to research and development, drawing on India's technological expertise to promote a global renaissance in safe and clean nuclear power.
Finally, our civilian nuclear agreement is an essential step toward our goal of transforming America's partnership with India. For too long during the past century, differences over domestic policies and international purposes kept India and the United States estranged. But with the end of the Cold War, the rise of the global economy and changing demographics in both of our countries, new opportunities have arisen for a partnership between our two great democracies. As President Bush said in New Delhi this month, "India in the 21st century is a natural partner of the United States because we are brothers in the cause of human liberty."
Under the president's leadership, we are beginning to realize the full promise of our relationship with India, in fields as diverse as agriculture and health, commerce and defense, science and technology, and education and exchange. Over 65,000 Americans live in India, attracted by its growing economy and the richness of its culture. There are more than 2 million people of Indian origin in the United States, many of whom are U.S. citizens. More Indians study in our universities than students from any other nation. Our civilian nuclear agreement is a critical contribution to the stronger, more enduring partnership that we are building.
We are consulting extensively with Congress as we seek to amend the laws needed to implement the agreement. This is an opportunity that should not be missed. Looking back decades from now, we will recognize this moment as the time when America invested the strategic capital needed to recast its relationship with India. As the nations of Asia continue their dramatic rise in a rapidly changing region, a thriving, democratic India will be a pillar of Asia's progress, shaping its development for decades. This is a future that America wants to share with India, and there is not a moment to lose.
The writer is secretary of state.
|
The nuclear technology accord now before Congress is needed to recast America's relationship with a thriving, democratic India. There is not a moment to lose.
| 33.933333 | 0.933333 | 3.066667 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031300506.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031300506.html
|
Judge Halts Terror Trial
|
2006031319
|
A federal judge halted the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui yesterday and threatened to remove the death penalty as a possible sentence for the Sept. 11 conspirator after a veteran government aviation lawyer improperly shared testimony and communicated with witnesses.
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, clearly exasperated by the new problems in the oft-delayed case, called the conduct of Carla J. Martin, a Transportation Security Administration lawyer, "the most egregious violation of the court's rules on witnesses" she had seen "in all the years I've been on the bench."
Even prosecutors were stunned by Martin's actions, calling them "reprehensible" in court papers and adding, "We frankly cannot fathom why she engaged in such conduct."
Martin violated a court order by e-mailing trial transcripts to seven witnesses -- all current and former federal aviation employees -- and coaching them on their upcoming testimony, court papers say. She also shared the e-mails among the witnesses.
Brinkema had ruled earlier that most witnesses could not attend or follow the trial and could not read transcripts. She told jurors yesterday that the ruling was "meant to prevent witnesses from comparing their testimony or listening to what other witnesses said and changing their own testimony."
The judge ordered a hearing today to find out how the incident happened. To sanction the government for the error, she could remove the death penalty, forbid the witnesses from testifying or declare a mistrial. The government could appeal either of the first two sanctions.
Further embarrassing the government, Martin's e-mails sharply criticized prosecutors' case, saying, among other things, that their opening statement "has created a credibility gap that the defense can drive a truck through."
Martin did not return calls to her home or office yesterday and did not answer the door at her apartment.
Moussaoui, 37, has pleaded guilty for conspiring with al-Qaeda in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Prosecutors in Alexandria are seeking his execution. If Brinkema were to forbid the death penalty, the case would end and Moussaoui would be sentenced to life in prison. It would be a huge setback for the government.
"This is the only opportunity for the government to make a Sept. 11 case. This is it. There isn't another," said Juliette Kayyem, a terrorism expert at Harvard University. "The government has to cross every t and dot every i to ensure that the Sept. 11 families finally have their day in court. If it gets messed up over a technicality . . . there is no excuse."
Duke University law professor Robert P. Mosteller said ethical restrictions against speaking with witnesses are drilled into every attorney. "Lawyers don't do things like this," he said. "The federal rule on witnesses is elegant in its simplicity, and it's usually not something people get wrong."
TSA officials referred calls to the Justice Department. Justice Department officials declined to comment.
|
News about the U.S. military from The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com. Full coverage of defense budgets, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and the Pentagon.
| 19.333333 | 0.533333 | 0.6 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031300813.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/13/AR2006031300813.html
|
President Bush's Speech on Iraq
|
2006031319
|
SPEAKER: GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
BUSH: Thanks for the warm welcome.
Cliff, thanks for the introduction.
It's a pleasure to be with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. This organization was formed in the wake of the September the 11th attacks to fight the ideologies that drive terrorism.
You recognized immediately that the war on terror is a struggle between freedom and tyranny and that the path to lasting security is to defeat the hateful vision that the terrorists are spreading with the hope of freedom and democracy.
The foundation is making a difference across the world. And I appreciate the difference you're making.
You've trained Iraqi women and Iranian students in the principles and practice of democracy.
You've translated democracy readers into Arabic for distribution across the broader Middle East.
You've helped activists across the region organize effective political movements so they can help bring about democratic change and ensure the survival of liberty in new democracies.
By promoting democratic ideals and training a new generation of democratic leaders in the Middle East, you're helping us to bring victory in the war on terror. And I thank you for your hard work in freedom's cause.
I also want to thank the members of the board of the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies.
I want to thank Steve Trachtenberg, the president of George Washington University, and his wife, Fran, for joining us today.
Thanks for letting me come to your campus; honored to be here.
He informed me that my dad will be giving the graduation speech this year. And Mother's getting an honorary degree.
Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining us.
I'm proud that secretary Rumsfeld is with us.
I want to thank Senator Dick Lugar for being with us today.
Mr. Chairman, I'm proud you're here. Thanks for coming.
I want to thank the members of the United States Congress who have joined us, Congressman Lundgren, Adam Schiff, Joe Wilson, Tom Cole and Dan Boren.
I appreciate you all taking time to be here today. It means a lot.
I want to thank the ambassadors who have joined us. I see two for certain, one from Jordan and one from Israel.
I'm proud you both are here.
If there are any other ambassadors here, I apologize for not introducing you. And you don't have as good a seat as these two guys have.
The mission of this foundation is to defeat terror by promoting democracy and that is the mission of my administration.
Our strategy to protect America is based on a clear premise: The security of our nation depends on the advance of liberty in other nations.
On September the 11th, 2001, we saw that problems originating in a failed and oppressive state 7,000 miles away could bring murder and destruction to our country.
BUSH: We saw that dictatorships shelter terrorists, feed resentment and radicalism, and threaten the security of free nations.
Democracies replace resentment with hope. Democracies respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors. Democracies join the fight against terror.
And so America's committed to a historic long-term goal: To secure the peace of the world, we seek the end of tyranny in our world.
We're making progress in the march of freedom and some of the most important progress has taken place in a region that has not known the blessings of liberty: the broader Middle East.
Two weeks ago, I got a chance to visit Afghanistan and to see firsthand the transformation that has taken place in that country. Before September the 11th, 2001, Afghanistan was ruled by a cruel regime that oppressed its people, brutalized women and gave safe haven to the terrorists who attacked America.
Today, the terror camps have been shut down. Women are working. Boys and girls are going to school. Afghans voted in free elections; 25 million people have had the taste of freedom.
Taliban and Al Qaida remnants continue to fight Afghanistan's democratic progress. In recent weeks, they've launched new attacks that have killed Afghan citizens and coalition forces.
The United States and our allies will stay in the fight against the terrorists and we'll train Afghan soldiers and police so they can defend their country.
The Afghan people are building a vibrant, young democracy that is an ally in the war on terror. And America is proud to have such a determined partner in the cause of freedom.
BUSH: Next week, we will mark the three-year anniversary of the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In less than three years, the Iraqi people have gone from living under the boot of a brutal tyrant to liberation, to sovereignty, to free elections, to a constitutional referendum and, last December, to elections for a fully constitutional government.
In those December elections, over 11 million Iraqis -- more than 75 percent of the Iraqi voting age population -- defied the terrorists to cast their ballots.
Americans were inspired by the images of Iraqis bringing elderly relatives to the polls, holding up purple ink-stained fingers, dancing in the streets and celebrating their freedom.
By their courage, the Iraqi people have spoken and made their intentions clear. They want to live in democracy and they are determined to shape their own destiny.
In the past few weeks, the world has seen very different images from Iraq, images of anger and violence and despair. We have seen a great house of worship, the Golden Mosque of Samarra, in ruins after a brutal terrorist attack. We've seen mass protests in response to provocation. We've seen reprisal attacks by armed militias on Sunni mosques, and random violence that has taken the lives of hundred of Iraqi citizens.
The terrorist attacked the Golden Mosque for a reason. They know that they lack the military strength to challenge Iraqi and coalition forces directly, so their only hope is to try and provoke a civil war. So they attacked one of the Shia Islam's holiest sites, hoping to incite violence that would drive Iraqis apart and stop their progress on the path to a free society.
Immediately after the attack, I said that Iraq face a moment of choosing. And in the days that followed, the Iraqi people made their choice. They looked into the abyss and did not like what they saw.
After the bombing, most Iraqis saw what the perpetuators of this attack were trying to do. The enemy had failed to stop the January 2005 elections. They failed to stop the constitutional referendum. They failed to stop the December elections. And now they were trying to stop the formation of a unity government.
By their response over the past two weeks, Iraqis have shown the world they want a future of freedom and peace.
BUSH: And they will oppose a violent minority that seeks to take that future away from them by tearing their country apart.
The situation in Iraq is still tense and we're still seeing acts of sectarian violence and reprisal. Yet out of this crisis we've also seen signs of a hopeful future.
We saw the restraint of the Iraqi people in the face of massive provocation. Most Iraqis did not turn to violence and many chose to show their solidarity by coming together in joint Sunni and Shia prayer services.
We saw the leadership of Sunni and Shia clerics who joined together to denounce the bombing and call for restraint.
Ayatollah Sistani issued a strong statement denouncing what he called "sectarian sedition." And he urged all Iraqis, in his words, not to be "dragged into committing acts that would only please the enemies."
We saw the capability of the Iraqi security forces who deployed to protect religious sites, enforce a curfew and restore civil order.
We saw the determination of many of Iraq's leaders who rose to the moment, came together and acted decisively to diffuse the crisis.
Iraq's leaders know that this is not the last time they will be called to stand together in the face of an outrageous terrorist attack. Iraq's leaders know they must put aside their differences, reach out across political, religious and sectarian lines and form a unity government that will earn the trust and the confidence of all Iraqis.
Iraqis now have a chance to show the world that they have learned the lesson of Samarra. A country that divides into factions and dwells on old grievances risks sliding back into tyranny.
The only path to a future of peace is the path of unity.
BUSH: Soon the new parliament will be seated in Baghdad, and this will begin the process of forming a government. Forming a new government will demand negotiation and compromise by the Iraqis; it will require patience by America and our coalition allies.
In the weeks ahead, Americans will likely see a good deal of political maneuvering in Iraq as different factions and leaders advance competing agendas and seek their share of political power.
Out of this process a free government will emerge that represents the will of the Iraqi people instead of the will of one cruel dictator.
The work ahead in Iraq is hard, and there will be more difficult moments.
The Samarra attack was a clear attempt to ignite a civil war. And we can expect the enemy will try again and they will continue to sow violence and destruction designed to stop the emergence of a free and democratic Iraq.
The enemies of a free Iraq are determined. Yet so are the Iraqi people, and so are America and coalition partners. We will not lose our nerve. We will help the Iraqi people succeed.
Our goal in Iraq is victory. And victory will be achieved when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens, and when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot new attacks against our nation.
We have a comprehensive strategy for victory in Iraq, a strategy I laid out in the series of speeches last year.
BUSH: Our strategy has three elements.
On the political side, we're helping Iraqis build a strong democracy so that old resentments will be eased and the insurgency marginalized.
On the economic side, we're continuing the reconstruction efforts and helping Iraqis build a modern economy that will give all its citizens a stake in a free and peaceful Iraq.
And on the security side, we're striking terrorist targets and training the Iraqi security forces, which are taking responsibility for more Iraqi territory and becoming increasingly capable of defeating the enemy.
In the coming weeks, I'll update the American people on our strategy, the progress we're making, the lessons we have learned from our experiences and how we are fixing what hadn't worked.
Today I will discuss the third element of our strategy, the progress of our efforts to defeat the terrorists and train the Iraqi security forces so they can take the lead in defending their own democracy.
At the end of last year, I described in detail many of the changes we had made to improve the training of Iraqi security forces. And we saw the fruits of those changes in recent days in Iraq.
After the Samarra bombings, it was the Iraqi security force, not coalition forces, that restored order.
In the hours after the attack, Iraqi leaders put the Iraqi security forces on alert, canceling all leaves and heightening security around mosques and critical sites.
Using security plans developed for the December elections, they deployed Iraqi forces in Baghdad and to other troubled spots.
Iraqi police manned checkpoints, increased patrols and ensured that peaceful demonstrators were protected while those who turned to violence were arrested.
BUSH: Public order brigades deployed as rapid reaction forces to areas where violence was reported. The 9th Mechanized Division of the Iraqi army, which was in the midst of a major training event, regrouped and entered the Baghdad city gates, taking up assigned positions throughout the city with T72 tanks and armored infantry vehicles.
During the past two weeks, Iraqi security forces conducted more than 200 independent operations, each of them Iraqi-planned, Iraqi- conducted and Iraqi-led.
Having Iraqi forces in the league has been critical to preventing violence from spinning out of control.
For example, on the day of the Samarra bombing, the Iraqi national police responded to an armed demonstration in an area immediately adjacent to Sadr City, where an angry Shia crowd had surrounded the Sunni Al-Quds mosque. The Iraqi brigade commander placed his troops -- who are largely Shia -- between the crowd and the mosque and talked to the crowd using megaphones and calling for calm and urging them to disperse.
After a two-hour standoff, the crowd eventually left without incident. And the national police remained in position overnight to guard the mosque until the threat was over.
The fact that Iraqis were in the lead in negotiating with their own countrymen helped defuse a potential confrontation and prevented an escalation to violence.
In another Baghdad neighborhood, a similar situation unfolded. A group of armed militia members had gone in and occupied the Almeda (ph) Mosque. An Iraqi army brigade quickly arrived on the scene, and the brigade commander negotiated with the group and secured their peaceful departure.
Once again, because Iraqi forces spoke their language and understood their culture, they were able to convince the Iraqi militia to leave peacefully.
Not all Iraqi units performed as well as others. And there were some reports of Iraqi units in eastern Baghdad allowing militia members to pass through checkpoints.
BUSH: But American commanders are closely watching the situation, and they report these incidents appear to be the exception, not the rule.
In the weeks since the bombing, the Iraqi security forces turned in a strong performance.
From the outset, Iraqi forces understood that if they failed to stand for national unity, the country would slip into anarchy. And so they've stood their ground and defended their democracy and brought their nation through one of its most difficult moments since liberation.
General Marty Dempsey, our top commander responsible for training the Iraqi security forces, says this about their performance: "They were deliberate, poised, even-handed and professional. They engaged local tribal, political and religious leaders. They patiently but deliberately confronted armed groups to let them know that they had control of the situation."
He went on to say, "I'm sure we'll find instances where they could have performed better. But in the face of immense pressure, they performed very, very well."
As a result of their performance, the Iraqi security forces are gaining the confidence of the Iraqi people. And as the Iraqi security forces make progress against the enemy, their morale continues to increase.
When I reported on the progress of the Iraqi security forces last year, I said that there were over 120 Iraqi and police combat battalions in the fight against the enemy, and 40 of those were taking the lead in the fight.
Today, the number of battalions in the fight has increased to more than 130, with more than 60 taking the lead.
As more Iraqi battalions come on-line, these Iraqi forces are assuming responsibility for more territory. Today, Iraqi units have primary responsibility for more than 30,000 square miles of Iraq; an increase of roughly 20,000 square miles since the beginning of the year.
And Iraqi forces are now conducting more independent operations throughout the country than do coalition forces.
BUSH: This is real progress. But there's more work to be done this year.
Our commanders tell me that the Iraqi police still lag behind the army in training and capabilities, so one of our major goals in 2006 is to accelerate the training of the Iraqi police.
One problem is that some national police units have been disproportionately Shia. And there have been some reports of infiltration of the national police by militias. So we're taking a number of steps to correct this problem.
First, we've begun implementing a program that has been effective with the Iraqi army, partnering U.S. battalions with the Iraqi national police battalions.
These U.S. forces are working with their Iraqi counterparts, giving them tactical training so they can defeat the enemy. And they're also teaching them about the role of a professional police force in a democratic system so they can serve all Iraqis without discrimination.
Second, we're working with the Iraqi leaders to find and remove any leaders in the national police who show evidence of loyalties to militia.
For example, last year there were reports that the 2nd Public Order Brigade contained members of an illegal militia who were committing abuses. So last December, the Interior Ministry leadership removed the 2nd Brigade commander and replaced him with a new commander who then dismissed more than a hundred men with suspected militia ties.
Today this Iraqi police brigade has been transformed into a capable, professional unit. And during the recent crisis after the Samarra bombing, they performed with courage and distinction.
Finally, we're working with Iraqis to diversify the ranks of the national police by recruiting more Sunni Arabs.
For example, the basic training class for the national police public order forces that graduated last October was less than 1 percent Sunni. The class graduated in April will include many, many more Sunnis.
BUSH: By ensuring the public order forces reflect the general population, Iraqis are making the national police a truly national institution, one that is able to serve and protect and defend all the Iraqi people.
As more capable Iraqi police and soldiers come on-line, they will assume responsibility for more territory with the goal of having the Iraqis control more territory than the coalition, by the end of 2006.
And as Iraqis take owe more territory, this frees American and coalition forces to concentrate on training and are hunting down high- value targets, like the terrorist Zarqawi and his associates.
As Iraqis stand up, America and our coalition will stand down.
And my decisions on troop levels will be made based upon the conditions on the ground and on the recommendations of our military commanders, not artificial timetables set by politicians here in Washington, D.C.
These terrorists know they cannot defeat us militarily, so they've turned to the weapon of fear. And one of the most brutal weapons at their disposal are improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. IEDs are bombs made from artillery shells, explosives and other munitions. They can be hidden and detonated remotely.
After the terrorists were defeated in battles in Fallujah and Tal Afar, they saw they could not confront Iraqi or American forces in pitch battles and survive. So they turned to IEDs, a weapon that allows them to attack from a safe distance without having to face our forces in battle.
The principal victims of IED attacks are innocent Iraqis. The terrorists and insurgents have used IEDs to kill Iraqi children playing in the streets, shoppers at Iraqi malls, and Iraqis lining up at police and army recruiting stations.
They use IEDs to strike terror in the hearts of Iraqis in an attempt to break their confidence in the free future of their country.
The enemy is also using IEDs in their campaign against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. And we're harnessing every available resource to deal with this threat.
BUSH: My administration has established a new high-level organization at the Department of Defense, led by retired four-star General Montgomery Meigs.
On Saturday, General Meigs, along with the secretary of defense, briefed me at the White House on our plan to defeat the threat of IEDs. Our plan has three elements: targeting, training and technology.
First part of our plan is targeting and eliminating the terrorists and bomb-makers. Across Iraq, we're on the hunt for the enemy, capturing and killing the terrorists before they strike, uncovering and disarming their weapons before they go off, and rooting out and destroying bomb-making cells so they can't produce more weapons.
Because the Iraqi people are the targets -- primarily the targets of the bombers, Iraqis are increasingly providing critical intelligence to help us find the bomb-makers and stop new attack attacks. The number of tips from Iraqis has grown from 400 last March to over 4,000 in December.
For example, just three weeks ago, acting on tips provided by local citizens, coalition forces uncovered a massive IED arsenal hidden in a location in northwest of Baghdad. They found and confiscated more than 3,000 pieces of munitions and one of the largest weapon caches discovered in the region to date.
Just two weeks ago, acting on intelligence from Iraqis, coalition forces uncovered a bomb-making facility northeast of Fallujah. They capture 61 terrorists at the facility and confiscated large numbers of weapons.
In all, during the past six months, Iraqi and coalition forces have found and cleared nearly 4,000 IEDs, uncovered more than 1,800 weapons caches and bomb-making plants, and killed or detained hundreds of terrorists and bomb-makers.
We're on the hunt for the enemy, and we're not going to rest until they've been defeated.
The second part of our plan is to give our forces specialized training to identify and clear IEDs before they explode.
Before arriving in Iraq and Afghanistan, our combat units get training on how to counter the threat of IEDs.
BUSH: And to improve our training, last month we established a new IED Joint Center of Excellence, headquartered at Fort Irwin, California, where we're taking lessons learned from the IED fight in Iraq and sharing them with our troops in the field and those preparing to deploy.
This new initiative will ensure that every Army and Marine combat unit headed to Afghanistan and Iraq is prepared for the challenges that IEDs bring to the battlefield.
Before deploying, our troops will train with the equipment they will use in the IED fight. They'll study enemy tactics and experience live fire training that closely mirrors what they will see when they arrive in the zone of combat.
Our goal with this training is to ensure that when our forces encounter the enemy that they're ready.
The third part of our plan is to develop new technologies to defend against IEDs. We're putting the best minds in America to work on this effort. The Department of Defense recently gathered some 600 leaders in industry and academia, the national laboratories, the National Academy of Sciences, all branches of the military and every relevant government agency to discuss technology solutions to the IED threat.
We now have nearly 100 projects under way. For security reasons, I'm not going to share the details of the technologies we're developing. The simple reason is the enemy can use even the smallest details to overcome our defenses.
Earlier this year, a newspaper published details of a new anti- IED technology that was being developed. Within five days of the publication, using details from that article, the enemy had posted instructions for defeating this new technology on the Internet.
We cannot let the enemy know how we're working to defeat them.
But I can assure the American people that my administration is working to put the best technology in the hand of our men and women on the front lines. And we're mobilizing resources against the IED threat.
I assured General Meigs that he will have the funding and personnel he needs to succeed.
In 2004, the administration spent $150 million to fight the IED threat. This year, we're providing $3.3 billion to support our efforts to defeat IEDs.
These investments are making a difference. Today nearly half IEDs in Iraq are found and disabled before they can be detonated.
BUSH: In the past 18 months, we've cut the casualty rate per IED attack in half.
More work needs to be done. Yet by targeting the bomb-makers and training our forces in deploying new technologies, we will stay ahead of the enemy and that will save Iraqi and American lives.
Some of the most powerful IEDs we are seeing in Iraq today includes components that came from Iran.
Our director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, told the Congress, Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militia with the capability to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq.
Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran. Such actions, along with Iran's support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, are increasingly isolating Iran.
And America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats.
We still have difficult work ahead in Iraq.
I wish I could tell you that the violence is waning and that the road ahead will be smooth. It will not.
There will be more tough fighting and more days of struggle, and we will see more images of chaos and carnage in the days and months to come.
The terrorists are losing on the field of battle, so they're fighting this war through the pictures we see on television and in the newspapers every day.
They're hoping to shake our resolve and force us to retreat. They're not going to succeed.
The battle lines in Iraq are clearly drawn for the world to see and there is no middle ground.
BUSH: The enemy will emerge from Iraq one of two ways: emboldened or defeated.
The stakes in Iraq are high. By helping Iraqis build a democracy, we will deny the terrorists a safe haven to plan attacks against America.
By helping Iraqis build a democracy, we will gain an ally in the war on terror.
By helping Iraqis build a democracy, we will inspire reformers across the Middle East.
And by helping Iraqis build a democracy, we'll bring hope to a troubled region. And this will make America more secure in the long term.
Since the morning of September the 11th, we have known that the war on terror would require great sacrifice. And in this war, we have said farewell to some very good men and women.
One of those courageous Americans was Sergeant William Scott Kinser Jr. He was killed last year by the terrorists while securing polling sites for the Iraqi elections.
His mom, Debbie, wrote me a letter. She said these words are straight from a shattered but healing mother's heart: "My son made the decision to join the Army. He believed that what he was involved in would eventually change Iraq and that those changes would be recorded in history books for years to come.
"On his last visit home, I asked him what I would ever do if something happened to him in Iraq. He smiled at me with his blue eyes sparkling and he said, 'Mom, I love my job. If I should die, I would die happy. Does life get any better than this?'"
His mom went on, "Please do not let the voices we hear the loudest change what you and Scott started in Iraq. Please do not let his dying be in vain. Don't let my son have given his all for an unfinished job. Please commit to complete the mission."
I make this promise to Debbie and all the families of the fallen heroes. We will not let your loved ones' dying be in vain. We will finish what we started in Iraq. We will complete the mission.
BUSH: We will leave behind a democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself.
And a free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will make the American people more secure for generations to come.
May God bless the families of the fallen. May God bless our troops in the fight. And may God continue to bless the United States of America.
Mar 13, 2006 14:09 ET .EOF
|
President Bush addresses attendees at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies on March 14, 2006.
| 300.666667 | 0.833333 | 2.722222 |
high
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200744.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200744.html
|
Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.)
|
2006031319
|
washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza interviewed former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) on Feb. 13 as part of an ongoing series of conversations with potential 2008 presidential candidates. A transcript of the interview is below:
Let's start with Iraq, specifically the piece you wrote in The Washington Post that started out with the statement "I was wrong." What convinced you to do that? Was there a moment when you finally said, "This vote was the wrong thing to do," and when was it?
Edwards: It happened over time. And I can't pinpoint a specific moment. What happened for me was I have been traveling the country and around the world talking about moral clarity in connection within the issue of poverty. I thought it was important if I was going to try to take the moral high ground and do what I think America needs to do to start from a foundation of truth. And it was something that I felt was the truth and something I needed to say, which is why I did it.
Was it something that took a long time?
It did take time. If there was a point in time, I can't tell you today when it was.
Had you felt pressure to essentially recant on that vote?
No, I don't feel pressure today. I never felt any pressure. I thought it was the right thing for me to do. It was more important for me.
If John Kerry were president and you were vice president, what would our Iraq policy look like today?
I hope that we would -- I can only speak for me, I can't speak for John -- I would hope that we would begin by telling the truth about how we got there. I think that is important, important in terms of the way the rest of the world views us.
Secondly, I think we both believe that on the fundamental judgment about whether troop presence in the numbers that we have now is more harmful than helpful, that it is more harmful. Because it sends all the wrong symbols to the Islamic world, to Iraq about how long we intend to stay there, about whether we are actually going to allow the Iraqis govern themselves and whether we are going to allow the Iraqis to provide their own security. All that means is we have to start substantially enough to reduce the troop level that we send the right signal.
I think we would have begun -- I can't tell you precisely when because I think we would have listened and consulted with our military leadership there -- but I think we would have begun a reduction in our troop level. I think we would have sped up the process and intensified the process of training of Iraqis. And I know we would have made a more intense effort to work on diplomacy in that region of the world and try to bring other countries into what we were trying to accomplish.
You're not where Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is I take it?
Immediate and total withdrawal? I am not.
And what about the plan that the Center for American Progress has proposed -- to basically reduce troop levels by half by the end of this year and get everybody out by the end of next year?
What I have in my own head was a reduction in roughly the range of our Guard and reservists who are there toward the end of the year, which would mean 40,000 to 50,000 troops. And then to make judgments as we went along about what other troop withdrawals would be necessary.
And you don't think that reduction would cause a collapse in the government or make security appreciably worse for the Iraqis?
I do not. Not if they were taken from the right parts of the country.
Have you been talking to military officers about this? I'm just curious about how you came to that conclusion that we could do the job there for less.
[I] read stuff that was being written by others, talk to people who work on Iraq policy in DC and had some but limited conversations with military leaders. I wouldn't want to exaggerate that part.
How do you feel that the U.S. got into this fix -- and you clearly think it's a fix and it caused you to recant your vote in 2002? You must have thought a lot about this whole situation and how we got taken to war in a way that you clearly think was wrong.
I think there were multiple things that happened at the same time. One is there was clearly bad information, bad intelligence -- information that was given to the Congress, information that was given to the administration. I think in addition to that the administration hyped the information that was available to them, and I think they did as subsequent reports have indicated, cherry pick what was available to them. I think there were multiple things happening at the same time.
I'm only speaking on my own behalf now. I think that it's very important for those of us who voted to take responsibility for our vote. I made my own judgment. I made it based on what I heard in the Intelligence Committee based on conversations with military leaders at the time, based on -- and this is not insignificant -- based on meetings with Clinton administration leaders including people like Sandy Berger, Richard Holbrooke and others. All of that information led me to the conclusion that was wrong.
From my perspective it's important to hold Bush and others around him accountable for their misleading the American people, but I made my own independent judgment. And I'm responsible for that.
As you travel around the country, how often and how quickly is the Iraq war brought up when you take questions and what is the reception when you talk about your transformation on the issue?
It doesn't come up real often. The other thing I've discovered is most people don't have any idea that I wrote something in The Washington Post. So I usually have to tell 'em. When I speak I do bring it up, but I don't get much in the way of follow up questions. Honestly, I think probably the reason for that is because the bulk of my time is spent on poverty and moral leadership and how it affects us around the world. That would be the natural focal point for peoples' questions. I spend a lot of time taking questions. I'll get a question on Iraq occasionally, but it's fairly small compared to the poverty stuff.
How optimistic are you that there will be a successful outcome in Iraq?
That depends, of course, on your definition of "successful outcome." If the definition of successful outcome is a relatively stable Iraq, a[n] Iraq that is being governed by itself and providing at least some reasonable level of security, I still think there is a good chance of success. I think it is a very difficult situation right now. And that assumes that we do what needs to be done.
How optimistic are you that the Bush administration can bring it to a successful conclusion?
Less optimistic. I didn't want to spend all this time talking about the Bush administration, but I will since you're asking. I want it to be clear in these tapes that I am responding to your questions because I think it is very important for us -- the Democratic Party -- to talk about a positive vision for the country and not spend all our energy on what's wrong with George Bush.
But since you asked, I think that the Bush administration has shown a fairly consistent pattern of incompetence. They've shown it in the lead-up to the war, they've shown it in their execution of the war, they've show it last fall in how they dealt with this hurricane. they've shown it in the implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. I think there's been a clear pattern of incompetent governing, and unfortunately there are real consequences to that. I think a lot of why we're in the position we are now in Iraq lies at the feet of this administration.
When you say you think the Democrats have to be offering a more positive vision, there's certainly a perception that that's not happening at this point -- that in fact Democrats are offering an almost wholly negative critique of the Bush administration but nothing particularly positive on their own. Do you disagree with that?
First of all, it's just a practical matter [that] the party that doesn't have the White House and doesn't have control of Congress never speaks with just one voice. You know that. it's true of the Republicans when Bill Clinton was president. I think it's normally true. So there is more than one voice for the Democratic Party. And I think there are people trying hard to lay out a positive vision -- it's harder.
But I think it's of critical importance that we do both. That we hold the administration responsible for their failures, both their failure to act and their proactive failures, and secondly that we lay that aside [and present] our positive vision for the country. As you all have probably heard me talk about, and I won't bore you with the speech, but I think this is about moral leadership. I think it is about filling the void in moral leadership that America so badly needs. And there are a whole range of substantive issues that fit into that critique, starting, I hope, with the issue that I am spending most of my life on these days, the issue of poverty.
And secondly, I think there is a huge void in America's moral leadership around the world. We, the Democratic Party, need to provide leadership on [these issues]. It seems to me that gives us a frame for a positive vision and the substantive subparts of that vision.
Polls show that Democrats trail Republicans pretty consistently [on the question of] "who shares your values." How do you make up that values question? That seems to be at the core of how Democrats get back majorities, get back the White House ... to effectively address the question that you as a party are effective messengers on values issues that are important to people across the country. How do you specifically address that?
It's your job to analyze strategy. What I want to see my party do is recognize the difference between right and wrong, and do what's right. I want to see us show the conviction that will provide strength in both vision and leadership. I want it to be absolutely clear to the country what it is we stand for, what we're going to fight for from day one when we are in the White House. it's important, particularly for governing, that we have a depth to the substance of that vision, but everybody who votes has to know what it is we care most about and what it is we're gonna fight for.
Do you think people knew that in the 2004 presidential race?
I'm not in the business of going back there. it's a perfectly fair question, but I've now learned it's better to look forward than look back, and I am going to stick with that. Let me just add to that that I absolutely believe that John Kerry would have made a very good president. I believed it then and I still believe it. The most important thing is to make clear what we stand for, that we have backbone -- that we'll fight for what it is we believe.
I think the last thing we ought to be worried about is polling and focus groups and political consultants. We ought to leave those people behind. that's following, it's not leading. [We need to show] we have the courage of our vision, that we understand where America needs to go, we understand what our core convictions are and that we're going to stand up for them, including some cases [that] may be popular and some [that] may not.
If a Democrat is elected president in 2008, the fiscal situation of the country will probably be pretty grim -- large budget deficits, huge entitlement problems. What opportunities do you think there are for the Democrats to actually propose some new things that they could actually do if you got into office on these larger issues?
I think there's an opportunity to propose big ideas on critical issues as long as we're willing to tell the truth about them, which means there's going to be pain associated with the gain in most areas. I don't want to do that today in this interview, but I can tell you that I hope myself and others will be laying out what we believe some of those of ideas.
Putting aside the pain, which I recognize is difficult politically, what about the gain? There must be one or two things you thought that, "Hey if I'm president I would want to do this to deal with the problem of poverty in America"?
Oh, I didn't understand your question. On the issue of poverty, I see it as basically falling into two categories. One is financial and the other is societal-slash-cultural. A lot of this comes from a little over a year meeting with families who live in poverty in most of the country, 35 states roughly. There is a huge income gap in America which is becoming stratified -- it's becoming hard to move from one income group to another. The things you can do about that is raise the minimum wage, a lot of these families are working for the minimum wage, we are trying to do that in initiatives I'm involved in in Michigan and Ohio and Arizona, Montana, Arkansas, Nevada -- second time around in Nevada because you've got to do it twice there.
I think we ought to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit beyond where it is today, particularly to make it more available to single workers, get rid of the marriage penalty that presently exists in the Earned Income Tax Credit. there's an asset gap, not just an income gap, which is really important. If I'm going too far and wasting your time just stop me.
There's an asset gap. It particularly has a racial component: Black families' net worth [is] $6,000 on average; Latino families $8,000; white families $80,000. I think you saw a lot of that in the aftermath of the hurricane in New Orleans. And the question is what do you do about it?
Here are some ideas: Work bonds, which means we set up accounts for low income families to the extent they are able to save, we, America, the government, matches what they're able to save. We use housing vouchers in a more aggressive way not just to provide basic housing but to allow some mobility across economic and racial divides like we saw in the lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
Access to education. We've actually started a model program in a small county in eastern North Carolina where we've made college available to any young person there who graduates from high school, qualified to go to college and going to a state university or community college and agrees to work at least ten hours a week. There are others. Health care is an obvious example of another financial issue.
On the non-financial side, one of the things that I've learned from sitting in so many meeting now ... is when you go to poverty centers you mostly see women and single mothers and a lot of them have four or five kids. they're supporting the kids by themselves and their kids are having kids. You can just feel the cycle repeating itself. So we have to find ways -- I know this is a difficult, controversial subject -- but we have to find ways to do something about teen pregnancy. We have to find ways to at least address the issue of responsibility. We have to say it's wrong when 14-year-old girls are having kids out of wedlock. That it's wrong when the parents -- including the fathers of the children -- are not supporting them. It's wrong when young African Americans think all that's going to happen to them is that they are going to die or go to prison. We have to find ways to do try to do something about that.
There are actually some creative programs about teen pregnancy, there's a great one in Connecticut for example, there are terrific fatherhood initiatives being done all over the country, including one right here in Washington, D.C.
So, that's sort of the range of things that I see. Poverty is going to take a very serious, comprehensive response. If you deal with any piece of it, it's like quicksilver, the problems will go somewhere else.
As you watch what's happened in New Orleans since the hurricane and flooding, what has this taught you if anything about the issue of poverty and dealing with it?
The hurricane and the aftermath -- horrible as it was -- actually provide the country with a chance to do something. But that will never happen without national leadership driving the issue. I was actually in New Orleans two weeks ago, and it's startling to go through the lower Ninth, the upper Ninth, east New Orleans and see how little has been done.
But I think New Orleans is just a microcosm for what exists all across the country. Right here in Washington D.C., is another example. White people move to affluent areas, in some cases to the suburbs, send their kids to private schools, and we cluster poor people and black people together in the same neighborhoods. I don't know how long it's going to take us as a country to figure out clustering poor people together is a very bad idea.
So I think there was an opportunity available to do something because it was kind of seared into the conscience of the country, what they saw on their television screens [in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath]. It will never happen without us up there driving it, and I might add with real value-based ideas about what we do about it. Nobody likes the idea of what they saw on their television screens, but they also don't like the idea of just spending money to take care of people who ought to be taking care of themselves. They want to figure out a way to help them but by way of opportunity instead of just dependency.
Could I ask you about the foreign policy side of this in terms of moral leadership? Certainly, the supporters of President Bush would say the kind of leadership he is providing in pushing for democracies in areas that have not been receptive to it is a moral thing to do. Do you agree with that? As you think about it in terms of moral leadership, how would you define it?
The way I think about it is there are huge moral issues the world is facing. What the world looks to from America is are we leading on these big moral issues. From the world's perspective, what they've mostly see from America today is the use of our power in Iraq. And then they look at the other things that are going on. Things like the ongoing genocide in Darfur [in] Sudan, and there have actually been some positive things happening recently on that, but over a long period of time America did virtually nothing while black people were being killed because they're black. Particularly in the aftermath of Rwanda, that sends the wrong signal. It's also not the right thing to do.
Global poverty. Instead of leading over the last many years, America has not shown the kind of leadership on global poverty that we need to show, and again I spent some time in the slums outside of Delhi just before Christmas and I had trouble sleeping. I don't know how this could ever be OK, and where is the America that all of us believe in? Where is our leadership?
I think across the whole range, I won't go through the all -- human rights abuses, pandemic of AIDS -- there are all these huge opportunities for America to show that we are the great moral leader in the world and we have not done it. it's a place where if America doesn't lead than no one leads. Less than a year ago I spent about an hour of so with [Prime Minister Tony Blair] in London and listened to him talk about the things they were doing. It was climate change, Africa, global poverty. And the whole time I'm thinking to myself: "Where is America? Where is American leadership?" There's no way in the world for Britain do to this without us. It was a very striking example of the void that we've created on these kind of issues. And I think it matters to the rest of the world.
How do you equate that with the war on terror and this clear battle now between parts of Islam and parts of the West? Is that in your estimation the most important thing that we're doing, or should these other things that you're talking about take precedence over that?
It's not an "Either-Or." We have an obligation. American leaders have an obligation to keep this country safe, to do everything that's reasonable within our power to promote freedom and to strike out at those who are clearly bent on killing Americans before they get to us. I think we have an affirmative obligation to do that, but we should be doing it simultaneous with the things that will show the rest of the world we don't just care about our own plight, we actually care about what's happening on the planet.
We can't be naive about this. There are very dangerous people in this world, and we have to go get 'em before they can get us. But we have to at the same time show that we care about doing what's right. If you do those things in combination and you lead in a way that brings other countries to you instead of driving them away, it changes number on the security of our country. Number two, it changes the way the world perceives us, and number three over the long term it creates the kind of world we want to live in. We have been clearly missing on the second part of that, and you can make arguments about whether we have effectively done what we need to on the second part.
Can I ask you for a few minutes about the NSA surveillance program? I'm curious about your general opinion about what the administration has done with this program and if you're critical of the program, which I suspect you are, I'm curious to know whether you're critical of the substance of the program -- what they're doing -- or how they went about it, without getting explicit congressional approval for their specific changes in FISA that some lawmakers say are needed.
I think it is very important for American security that if members of al Qaeda, which is the example that most people talk about, are communicating with American citizens for us to know about those communications. I think it also critical to what America stands for and who we are that it be done in a lawful and constitutional way. The administration recognized the first but ignored the second. And they ignored it an area where, number one, Congress had spoken. They weren't moving on a blank slate. Congress had told them what needed to be done.
And number two, I've never yet heard a legitimate explanation about why they couldn't get a FISA warrant when it became necessary. Especially given the fact that for 48 or 72 hours you can come after the fact and get the FISA warrant. I know from my own experience on the Intelligence Committee [that] these FISA warrants are not hard to get. it's hard for me to understand why the president of the United States believes he has to violate the law, and I've not heard any legitimate explanation for why he did it or why he continues to do it.
what's the remedy at this point?
The remedy is, I think, the American people holding this administration and others responsible for what they've done. that's one of the things elections are about.
Do you think this is a losing issue for Democrats to point out?
I think it's a mistake for us to think that way, to ever get into that mindset. I think it's when we start saying, "Here's the question, here's the answer, but we shouldn't talk about this because this 48 percent of the public is not for it or 52 or whatever."
I think when it's a question of right and wrong, and there are a lot of areas of right and wrong, this is one of them, that we ought to say what's right and we ought to stand for what we believe in and that's the right thing to do and it's the position of strength. It's what leading is about.
As you've gone around you've done a lot of party events. What kind of shape is the Democratic Party in heading into this election?
I think we're doing much better, actually. I think we're in many ways moving in the right direction. One of the things that Governor Dean gets no credit for in this place, Washington, is all the party building he is doing around the country, and I can tell you the people out there are very appreciative of what he's been doing. He's really working at it.
A week or so ago I did a thing in Ohio where they're very pleased with the money and the effort that's being made to strengthen the Democratic Party there. I hear it everywhere. There is a real effort to strengthen the structure and grassroots of the Democratic Party, which I think is actually very encouraging. [The] 2006 election will tell us something about how effective it's been.
You've now been out of office for a little over a year. Are there specific things that, perspective-wise, are different?
Yes. Nobody out there in the country cares about the petty fights that go on in this place everyday ... [T]hey don't care about it, they're not interested in it and it's part of what feeds the cynicism they have about politics and about Washington, D.C., in general. To be blunt about it, I have trouble keeping up with it, and most people wouldn't call me a normal person when it comes to politics. I have trouble caring. I really do. When I read the newspaper I come to that stuff and I just skip it. It doesn't mean anything, it's totally transient and it doesn't mean anything in peoples' lives. It happens every day literally. Although I have to admit I don't read The Washington Post every day.
It seems as though you are saying you have a broader perspective than when you first came here. How does that inform the things you find important, the things you talk about, the things you think about. And is that a helpful, a hurtful or a neutral thing for you?
I think not only do you have better sense of what most people care about and what's important to them. Secondly, I think instead of being mired down in Washington, when you spend more time traveling around the country you have a better gut feeling for not only what their priorities are but also what they're looking for. What they're hungry for. It's much easier to understand that when you're not in the bubble of Washington, D.C.
Is there a downside to not being in the Senate from your perspective?
If there is I haven't figured out what it is.
Are you running for president or not?
You waited this long to ask that question? I have not decided anything about that. I'm trying to make sure Elizabeth is well. I'm trying to do everything I can about poverty in the country and that's where my focus is. I'll figure that out later.
Are their lessons that you learned from the 2004 campaign? Political lessons, personal lessons, life lessons?
That's not the same question? I'm trying to figure out what the difference is. Here's what I think: I am going to take your question and still look forward but it partly answers it. I think that number one it is an a amazing country and anybody that's ever had the honor to be on a national ticket as either the presidential or vice presidential candidate and doesn't say that they learned something it's because they weren't paying attention. You have so much to learn. It completely changes you in that respect as a leader or a potential leader. That's first.
Second, I think that what most people are gauging potential leaders on is not just their positions and not just policy issues -- those are important -- but I think they're looking for character and strength, leadership ability and, I might add, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think sometimes that that's characterized superficially and wrongly I think as a personality contest. I don't think it's a personality contest. I think it's a voter's judgment about whether a particular candidate has the qualities to be a leader of the greatest nation on earth. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I think those are the kind of judgments that voters should be making about their potential leaders.
Now, do they look at what issues you stand for, what you believe in in order to make that calculation? Yes, they do and they should. But I think they look at other things too.
|
Complete coverage of the 2006 midterm elections, congressional campaigns and governors races. Political news and analysis from The Washington Post and washingtonpost.com.
| 233 | 0.64 | 0.88 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201322.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201322.html
|
The Measure of a Man
|
2006031319
|
For more than six decades, Michael Berman has lived as a fat person. At 5 feet 9 inches, he has weighed as much as 332 pounds. He has been known to eat three racks of ribs at one sitting, or a 40-ounce steak, or a whole box of saltines. In 1986, after dropping a few pounds, he spent $2,100 on three custom-made, pinstriped suits in gray, blue and brown. By the time the suits were ready, 10 weeks later, they no longer fit. Eleven years after that he gave them away, having never been able to wear them.
A highly successful political campaigner and Washington lobbyist, Berman, 66, doesn't deny the dangers of fatness or the urgency of encouraging people to exercise and eat healthier. He acknowledges that with 60 percent of the U.S. population overweight or obese, and the rate of obesity increasing particularly dramatically in children, being fat has serious consequences for the health of individuals and the economy. He'd like to see government and private resources used for a public education campaign similar to that for smoking and seat-belt use.
But forget the notion that fat people can become slim, he says in a part memoir, part self-help book scheduled for release this week. They can -- and should -- manage their weight. They can -- and should -- find an exercise program they can stick with. But fat adults will always be fat. They are in the grips of a disease over which, in the end, they do not have complete control.
This is not likely to be a popular message among those who manage their daily lives with BlackBerrys, filter out porn on their kids' computers, block negative information coming from government sources. Is he trying to say that the fatties who sprawl over airplane seats could not shrink to a reasonable size if they just stopped wolfing down those Big Macs?
Yes, that's what he's saying. "The idea that you can slim down by willpower is a bunch of horse manure," he says. If "nonfat" Americans could be convinced of this, perhaps they'd start relating better to fat Americans. And if fat Americans understood why they're fat and accepted that they will always have to shop at Rochester Big and Tall or Lane Bryant, they could begin "Living Large," as Berman called his book.
A Minnesota native, Berman has lived large for a long time among Washington's elite. He served as counsel and deputy chief of staff to former vice president Walter Mondale, acted as scheduler for six Democratic conventions and, in 1989, formed a bipartisan lobbying firm that today counts General Motors and British Petroleum among its clients. During the Clinton years, he was on a "special access list" that gave him virtually unrestricted entree to the White House. He and Carol, his wife of 40 years, live in the gracious Colonnade condominiums in Northwest Washington and entertain powerful friends they've accumulated over the years.
Being a BMOC means you're treated differently than the masses. The Palm restaurant, noted for its creamed vegetables, serves Berman steamed spinach and broccoli. The chef at I Ricchi created a dish of roasted vegetables for him. The maitre d' at Georgetown's Four Seasons restaurant knows that for breakfast meetings he prefers the table one row from the windows near the center of the dining room; the servers never place a basket of toast on his table.
But politics is dangerous for anyone hoping to maintain a reasonable weight, Berman says over breakfast at the Four Seasons.
"The cocktail parties are not difficult," he says, his shirt sleeves pushed up to reveal a large yellow Corum wristwatch. He attacks a dish of large blueberries, then an egg-white omelet and four wide slices of turkey bacon. "I can get a glass of Diet Coke, mingle, and only occasionally grab an hors d'oeuvre as it goes by. What is hard are the large sitdown dinners where you can't control the menu. Or where you're with 3,000 other people, you order a vegetarian meal, it takes forever to arrive and meanwhile there's a basket in front of you full of bread."
He is comfortable with being different, now. But he has suffered through countless weight swings, 20 diet programs, a kidney infection and knee surgery. And it has taken him eight years of counseling, the careful attention of a personal trainer/nutritionist and the sustained support of his wife to get to that place.
Berman first realized he was not just husky, but really fat, when he was 13, weighed about 170 pounds and was standing in the shower of the boys' locker room one day after gym class in his home town of Duluth, Minn.
"I hated gym," he recalls in "Living Large: A Big Man's Ideas on Weight, Success and Acceptance," written with Laurence Shames. "I couldn't climb ropes, couldn't do pushups. . . . I dreaded being naked in the shower with the other boys. . . . I hid as much as possible, showered as quickly as I could, and pulled a shirt on even before my skin was fully dry."
|
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.
| 19.862745 | 0.431373 | 0.470588 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201304.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201304.html
|
'Old Christine': Juicily Lucyish, Zanily Elainey
|
2006031319
|
Which compliment would please a comic actress more -- that her contagious and infectious humor seems to come naturally to her, as if part of her DNA, or that it is obviously something she has perfected through long and arduous hours of work? Actually, "contagious and infectious" may be the offensive part, since it sounds like a disease.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is not diseased, of course, but she is cheeringly and benignly demented, as she proved in nine joyous seasons of "Seinfeld" on NBC and as she reaffirms tonight with her smart, sassy and delightful sitcom "The New Adventures of Old Christine," a happy blast of fresh, cool air that's just what we need on these warm winter nights.
Merely premiering the series at its regular time slot of 9:30 would be too logical for CBS, however, and might fail to confuse viewers. So -- according to a network press release and the CBS Web site -- the series will get a kind of double premiere that was devised too late for the deadlines of weekly TV magazines: The pilot airs at 8:30 on Channel 9 followed by a half-hour break for "Two and a Half Men" and then a second episode of "Christine" at 9:30.
That perplexing ploy is as daffy as the show. The bright side is, if you like "Christine," you get two fresh episodes, and there's another bright side: Louis-Dreyfus herself. Although a previous attempt at following up her "Seinfeld" success failed, this new vehicle takes better advantage of her rough-and-tumble charm. She's cast as a young single mother, divorced two years and the successful owner of a women's health club -- someone hardly footloose and fancy-free but, despite the responsibilities, still too young for the post-prime-time ennui of middle age.
Louis-Dreyfus looks a bit older, mainly because her makeup has been radically toned down, but she is no less adorable. And though Christine Campbell, the character she plays, is fairly affluent, viewers should have no trouble identifying with her anxieties and insecurities, two closely related states of mind that Louis-Dreyfus has a unique talent for making hilarious.
As the pilot begins, she's phoning her own answering machine to leave self-scolding reminder messages ("Stop eating sugar!") and, more to the point, nervously preparing her 8-year-old son, Richie (Trevor Gagnon), for his first day in third grade, which also marks his transfer from an urban public school to a tony private one. When they walk into the classroom, Richie surveys the situation, looks up at his mom and asks pointedly, "Where are the black kids?" Defensively she tells him she's sure she saw one in the brochure.
A kind of two-woman Greek chorus that also resembles a scaled-down coven of witches from "Macbeth," Tricia O'Kelley and Alex Kapp Horner hover about as a pair of very knowing moms who love to stir up trouble during those brief lapses in life when none manages to present itself. They're the ones who take it upon themselves to tell Christine that her ex-husband is making out with his new girlfriend, right out there in the school parking lot.
In a bit of comic business that does recall Elaine of "Seinfeld," the embittered Christine tells her husband that she, too, has a boyfriend and a rich romantic life. He's -- a lumberjack, yeah, that's it. Joe, the lumberjack. And he's, uh, very rich and virile and so on ("When a lumberjack loves you, he loves you"). Midway through such wishful fantasies, it's obvious that Louis-Dreyfus is making up a lie and wading deeper and deeper into it. Her husband (agreeably played by Clark Gregg) recognizes the telltale signs mere moments into the tale's telling.
Until she meets the new girlfriend -- also, painfully enough, named Christine -- the old Christine had considered hers an ideal divorce, "better than most people's marriages." But then comes the monkey wrench. How much of the series's comedy relies on this situation will depend, obviously, on how adroitly the writers can stretch it out, but there are plenty of other possibilities in Christine's life -- her struggles to raise a child and run a business, her efforts to keep from looking ridiculous, her likably deadbeat live-in brother (Hamish Linklater) and the battle to be waged against the forces of time and gravity ("I have to stand on my head to make my boobs look good").
Louis-Dreyfus has a priceless moment in the second episode, with a mustachioed Andy Richter guest-starring as a (potentially) one-night stand that Christine picks up at the supermarket. Attempting earlier to seduce another shopper, she nervously babbles out her entire autobiography, then stumbles awkwardly into a would-be come-hither wiggle that looks more spasmodic than erotic. It's a combination of physical and verbal humor that evokes memories of -- and one can never say this lightly -- the immortal Lucy herself.
To make things better still, the very tart and very smart Wanda Sykes will guest-star in the third episode, which airs of course in the show's second week. My, but those scamps at CBS like to tempt fate -- rescheduling a new show's air times at the very last minute. But ensconced in the fairly solid CBS Monday night comedy block at whatever hour, "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (executive-produced by Kari Lizer) seems entirely at home and capable of keeping viewers cheerful. And keeping them entirely at home, for that matter.
Louis-Dreyfus deserves her own big hit, and if prime-time television were a true meritocracy, which it isn't, "Christine" would be it. Whatever happens, Louis-Dreyfus is wackily back in the funniest of fettles, the pleasure of her company as deliriously dependable as ever.
The New Adventures of Old Christine (30 minutes) premieres tonight at 8:30; a second episode airs at 9:30.
|
Which compliment would please a comic actress more -- that her contagious and infectious humor seems to come naturally to her, as if part of her DNA, or that it is obviously something she has perfected through long and arduous hours of work? Actually, "contagious and infectious" may be the offensive...
| 20.706897 | 0.982759 | 56.017241 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201300.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201300.html
|
The Big News: Shrinking Reportage
|
2006031319
|
An explosion of media outlets means we now have more coverage and carping about every conceivable event than ever before in history.
But we also have less reporting.
Hundreds of cable and radio commentators, and millions of bloggers, can sound off about the news in real time. But the number of old-fashioned fact-gatherers is dwindling, and will almost certainly continue to shrink.
In the Philadelphia area, for instance, the number of newspaper reporters has fallen from 500 to 220 in the last quarter-century. Most of the local television stations have cut back on traditional news coverage. Five AM radio stations used to cover news; now there are two.
These figures are drawn from a new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism describing what it calls a "seismic transformation" in the media landscape. The good news is that the average consumer can in effect create his own news, picking and choosing from sources he trusts and enjoys rather than being spoon-fed by a handful of big corporations.
But the decline in the number of reporters, especially at newspapers, means less digging into the affairs of government and business. What is "most threatened," says the report, "is the big-city metro paper that came to dominate in the latter part of the 20th century . . . Even if newspapers are not dying, they and other old media are constricting, and so, it appears, is the amount of resources dedicated to original newsgathering."
Newspaper audiences may be growing online, but Web sites don't deliver the kind of revenue that can support large staffs of editors, reporters and photographers, so declining print circulation -- down another 3 percent last year -- could have major consequences. By the project's count, the industry has lost more than 3,500 newsroom professionals since 2000, a drop of 7 percent. The Washington Post said last week it would seek to cut 80 newsroom jobs through voluntary buyouts, the second such offer in just over two years, and attrition.
The papers have plenty of company. Circulation declined last year at the big three newsmagazines. Network evening news ratings dropped 6 percent and morning show ratings 4 percent. The number of network correspondents is one-third lower than it was in the mid-1980s.
The median prime-time audience for cable news was up 4 percent last year, driven mostly by growth at Fox News. But the study faults cable news for focusing mainly on a handful of breaking stories each day, sometimes creating "an odd hyperbole in which anchors endeavor to create a sense of urgency about small things." A prime example was the scare in May when a private plane flew into restricted D.C. air space, prompting evacuations at the White House and Capitol.
Early-evening news ratings for local TV were down 13 percent, the project says. And 60 percent of the local TV newscasts studied by the group -- once traffic, weather and sports are excluded -- consisted of crime and accident stories. What's more, the proportion of stories presented by reporters dropped from 62 percent to 43 percent between 1998 and 2002, leaving these programs increasingly driven by anchors.
On the radio stations studied in three cities, only 14 percent of stories involved sending reporters out in the field -- and most of those were pieces picked up from syndicates or National Public Radio.
"Everyone's got fewer resources, and yet everyone feels compelled to cover the same basic stories," says Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director, whether it's a White House event, plane crash or high-profile murder. "It's a way of branding the event. They want Katie Couric or Wolf Blitzer or News4 Milwaukee there."
|
An explosion of media outlets means we now have more coverage and carping about every conceivable event than ever before in history. Eight days ago, says Milwaukee blogger Jim McAdams, New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro called him and was "pretty irate."
| 14.9375 | 0.6875 | 11.270833 |
low
|
low
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200798.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200798.html
|
Discovery To Offer Online Study Aid
|
2006031319
|
Discovery Communications Inc. is launching a Web-based homework aid, the Silver Spring cable programmer's latest effort to diversify into the education business.
Cosmeo, a $9.95-a-month service that will be announced today, is aimed at students in kindergarten through 12th grade. With a Web site that resembles the screen of a handheld game device and features video clips and interactive games, it's the home version of an online video encyclopedia that Discovery already sells to schools.
Both services use video culled from Discovery's library and from educational content providers such as Scholastic Corp. and the Public Broadcasting Service, then customized to meet the curriculum standards of different states.
"We've gone out and aggregated the best of educational video content," said chief executive Judith A. McHale.
For now, Discovery has no direct rivals in offering streaming educational videos to the 11 million households with high-speed Internet connections that include school-aged children. "We beat Yahoo and Google in this space," Discovery founder John S. Hendricks said.
Discovery still earns most of its money from subscription fees and advertising on its 16 U.S. cable networks, though revenue from its international networks is growing rapidly. But a weak advertising market and recent ratings trouble at two of its flagship networks have underscored its need to diversify its business.
Discovery began about a decade ago to expand aggressively overseas. Today, it operates 101 networks, reaching more than 1.3 billion subscribers in more than 160 countries and territories. Discovery is owned by Discovery Holding Co., Advance Publications Inc., Cox Communications Inc. and Hendricks.
The company's education business kicked off in 2003, when Discovery happened on a key element. United Learning, a 50-year-old educational film and video provider, came to Silver Spring wanting to license Discovery content for United Streaming, a library it created of video clips that correlated with state curriculum standards. Discovery bought the company outright and made United Streaming the centerpiece of a new business unit, Discovery Education. United Learning had signed up 25,000 schools. In two years, Discovery increased that to more than 70,000 schools. The service costs a school $1,500 to $2,000 a year.
United Streaming has turned out to be a far more successful Internet venture for Discovery than its previous attempt in 2000 to spin off a dot-com. The Internet bubble burst not long after the company announced plans for an initial public offering, and Discovery had to scrap the IPO three months later.
Since then, the number of homes with high-speed Internet connections has grown to 38 million. Over the past year, Discovery has been working on its consumer version of United Streaming, Discovery Education President Steve Sidel said.
To get parents to check out Cosmeo, Discovery today is unleashing an ad blitz that includes direct mail pitches and two television spots featuring middle schoolers belting out songs that would appeal more to their parents, including Fleetwood Mac's 1970s hit, "Don't Stop."
Hendricks, who has lowered his profile since stepping down as chief executive in 2004, took on the task of coming up with a name for the new homework service. "I wanted something that relates to the cosmos, something large and vast," he said in an interview at his office last week. "The branding of something is so important."
He considers Cosmeo another example of the company's strategy of being "platform neutral," not tied to one way of distributing Discovery content. That approach has only become more important as consumers have become used to downloading music and watching video on demand, he said.
Selling Cosmeo directly to households will also help the company establish a closer relationship with consumers, which Hendricks said is increasingly important in today's increasingly fractured media landscape. As choices proliferate, Hendricks said, "people will go after what they perceive as the best content."
|
Discovery Communications Inc. is launching a Web-based homework aid, the Silver Spring cable programmer's latest effort to diversify into the education business.
| 27.62963 | 1 | 27 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200938.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200938.html
|
Confronting Digital Age Head-On
|
2006031319
|
Three trucks, carrying hundreds of copies of the president's proposed federal budget, left the Government Printing Office one morning early last month and headed for House and Senate office buildings. For several days, about 100 GPO employees had worked to print the 352-page document and 2,000 pages of accompanying material.
Distributing the budget plan -- a total of 8,500 copies of it -- is one of the biggest events of the year for the printing office, but it is also becoming something of an anachronism for the 192-year-old organization.
For most of U.S. history, any government agency that needed to print many copies of a document went to the GPO. Now, about half of government documents go straight online, forcing the printing agency to find new ways to make itself relevant in an increasingly paperless world. But questions of security, privacy and authenticity have confronted the GPO leadership as it has sought to get up to date in the digital age.
"We are determined that we are going to put every single [government] document on the Web," said GPO chief Bruce R. James, the nation's public printer.
Inside the GPO's 1.5 million-square-foot headquarters across from Union Station, scratched floors, paint-peeled walls and pockets of empty space suggest a warehouse of a bygone era -- not quite the industrial character of 1860 when Congress acquired the site, but certainly not the cutting-edge design of a modern enterprise.
But then, there are signs of change.
Steve LeBlanc, operations manager of the new security and intelligent documents unit, showcases a nearly $1 million printing press called the Heidelberg Speedmaster that can print 13,000 sheets per hour in full color.
Ted Priebe, assistant chief of staff for digital conversion services, oversees the conversion of government documents into digital media that can be accessed for decades to come.
Elsewhere, Lisa LaPlant, a program manager in authentication initiatives, demonstrates how the printing office is trying to tag digital government documents -- in "portable document format"-- so users will know that the documents have not been altered.
The initiatives are part of two projects James launched to refocus the agency on 21st-century challenges after taking the GPO post in late 2002: the Future Digital System; and the secure and intelligent documents unit.
"We had absolutely no technical knowledge with the exception of one or two really insightful youngsters," he said.
Americans wanted to search for information on the Web and did not want to pay for printed versions of government documents. Seventeen thousand people, for example, paid to receive the Congressional Record in 1995, a number that was quickly shrinking by 2002 and now stands at less than 2,000. A quarter of a million pages are retrieved from it online in a month.
|
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.
| 14.833333 | 0.638889 | 0.694444 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200821.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031319id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200821.html
|
Senior White House Staff May Be Wearing Down
|
2006031319
|
Andrew H. Card Jr. wakes at 4:20 in the morning, shows up at the White House an hour or so later, convenes his senior staff at 7:30 and then proceeds to a blur of other meetings that do not let up until long after the sun sets. He gets home at 9 or 10 at night and sometimes fields phone calls until 11 p.m. Then he gets up and does it all over again.
Of all the reasons that President Bush is in trouble these days, not to be overlooked are inadequate REM cycles. Like chief of staff Card, many of the president's top aides have been by his side nonstop for more than five years, not including the first campaign, recount and transition. This is a White House, according to insiders, that is physically and emotionally exhausted, battered by scandal and drained by political setbacks.
"By the time you get to year six, there's never a break . . . and you get tired," said Ed Rollins, who served five years in President Ronald Reagan's White House. "There's always a crisis. It wears you down. This has been a White House that hasn't really had much change at all. There is a fatigue factor that builds up. You sometimes don't see the crisis approaching. You're not as on guard as you once were."
To Rollins, the uproar over an Arab-owned firm taking over management of some American ports represents a classic example. Bush and his staff did not know about the arrangement approved by his administration, and after congressional Republicans revolted, issued an ineffective veto threat that only exacerbated the dispute, which climaxed with the collapse of the deal last week. "This White House would not have made this mistake two years ago," Rollins said.
Bush's problems go beyond the fatigue factor. An unpopular foreign war, high energy prices and the nation's worst natural disaster in decades have dragged his poll ratings down to the lowest level of any second-term president, other than Richard M. Nixon, in the last half-century. Lately it seems to many in the White House that they cannot catch a break -- insurgents blow up a holy shrine in Iraq, tipping the country toward civil war; Vice President Cheney accidentally shoots a hunting partner; a former top Bush adviser is arrested on theft charges.
But at a time when Bush needs his staff to be sharp to help steer past these political shoals and find ways to turn things around, he still has the same core group working since he turned his sights toward the White House. That group includes Card, deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, senior adviser Michael J. Gerson, counselor Dan Bartlett, budget director Joshua B. Bolten, press secretary Scott McClellan and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.
The succession of crisis after crisis has taken its toll. Some in the White House sound frazzled. While there are few stories of aides nodding off in meetings, some duck outside during the day so the fresh air will wake them up. "We're all burned out," said one White House official who did not want to be named for fear of angering superiors. "People are just tired."
White House officials are never genuinely away from the job. Tied to their BlackBerrys and cellular telephones, they are often called to duty even during rare vacations. Weekends are often just another workday. Hadley, for one, schedules a full day of meetings every Saturday. Card comes to the White House on days off to go bicycle riding with Bush.
While other professions demand 14-hour days and six- or seven-day weeks, few involve as much consequence, much less the intense scrutiny of the Internet age. A former Bush aide said, "You don't really realize until you're gone" just how exhausting it really is.
For the record, White House officials reject the suggestion that exhaustion has dulled their political instincts or contributed to the spate of trouble. "People work very, very hard," said White House communications director Nicolle Wallace, and "I'd be lying to say that there aren't some people on some days" who are weary. But "the other side of being here six years is incredible wisdom and steadiness and experience." Moreover, she added, "there's been enough turnover that there's new energy."
Any discussion of the fatigue factor in Republican circles invariably turns to Card, a low-key, self-effacing and well-liked Washington veteran who has been managing Bush's White House team since three weeks after the November 2000 election. Card brought considerable experience to the task, having worked in the Reagan White House, then serving President George H.W. Bush as deputy White House chief of staff and later transportation secretary.
In his current role, Card has proved to be a marathon man, capable of enduring the most brutal hours in perhaps the most brutal job in Washington for longer than anyone in modern times. Only one other person has served as White House chief of staff longer, Sherman Adams, the top aide to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a far less frenetic, wired era. And if Card makes it to Nov. 1, he will surpass Adams's record, according to the Eisenhower library.
Card retains enormous respect inside and outside the White House, but some Republicans whisper about his judgment in the ill-fated selection of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court and the handling of Hurricane Katrina, to name two examples. Card declined to be interviewed, but has publicly dismissed concerns that his schedule has sapped his energy.
"All my life I have worked kind of this schedule," he told C-SPAN last fall. "When I was in college, I delivered newspapers early in the morning and worked at McDonald's late at night. So even when I was in high school, I would get up in the morning and get the newspapers ready for the paper boys early in the morning. So I've had this kind of lifestyle of early-to-bed and early-to-rise -- and so far seem to be doing pretty well."
Speculation among Republicans that Card would leave at the beginning of the year proved false or premature. Bush has resisted emulating Reagan, who brought in a fresh team led by Howard H. Baker Jr. when his second term was threatened by the Iran-contra scandal. Reagan and Clinton accepted Washington figures outside their own circles, and each had four chiefs of staff during their tenures. Bush emphasizes loyalty and surrounds himself mainly with people he knows.
Many Republicans were struck by the relative lack of ambition of Bush's State of the Union address, a program including alternative energy research, science education funding and health care tax breaks but nothing of the scope of last year's plan to reinvent Social Security. But some saw that as a reasonable response to the death of the Social Security effort, a recognition that it would be hard to enact dramatic domestic initiatives in a time of war. Others wondered if the White House was running out of ideas.
Grover G. Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and an adviser to Rove, said he thinks the situation owes not to fatigue but to political realism at the White House. "What they don't have are unreasonable expectations of what can be moved through Congress," he said. "It's not a question of coming up with new ideas. Sometimes you just don't have the votes."
|
Of all the reasons that President Bush is in trouble these days, not to be overlooked are inadequate REM cycles. Many of the president's top aides have been by his side nonstop for more than five years.
| 34.571429 | 0.97619 | 19.261905 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002118.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002118.html
|
U-Va. Comes Out Strong, but UNC Is Just Too Good
|
2006031119
|
GREENSBORO, N.C., March 10 -- Playing like a team with wounded pride, Virginia built an early 10-point lead against a North Carolina team that had humiliated the Cavaliers by 45 points just nine days earlier.
But the seventh-seeded Cavaliers could not maintain the pace against one of the nation's hottest teams. Second-seeded North Carolina held off the Cavaliers, 79-67, in Friday's ACC tournament quarterfinals at Greensboro Coliseum.
No. 10 North Carolina (22-6) won its eighth straight game and continued to make a strong case for a high seed in next week's NCAA tournament.
Virginia (15-14) fared better than it did March 1, when the Tar Heels pummeled the Cavaliers, 99-54, and dominated the rebounding battle, 40-20. On Friday, the Cavaliers could not make critical shots or defensive stops late in the second half, when the game's outcome was still in doubt.
"We came out a little bit flat," Wes Miller said, "but you have to give Virginia credit because they came at us tonight."
Virginia had trouble stopping Reyshawn Terry, who scored 24 points. Terry's jumper with two minutes remaining pushed the lead to seven. Terry, one of the few holdovers from last year's national title team, also converted an acrobatic reverse layup to extend the Tar Heels' lead to 53-44 with 12 minutes remaining. The fans, many clad in powder blue, roared.
"[Terry] was big for us in the second half taking the ball to the basket," Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams said.
The Cavaliers had plenty of opportunities in the second half, but failed on several offensive possessions after the deficit had been cut to five points. Trailing 53-48 midway through the second half, Virginia squandered two opportunities, which led to easy baskets by North Carolina.
"Virginia was much more aggressive and intelligent early in the game," Williams said. Sean "Singletary and [J.R.] Reynolds are loads to deal with. We did not do a good job guarding them other than fouling them."
· WAKE FOREST 82, NORTH CAROLINA STATE 71: Eric Williams scored 20 points to lead the Demon Deacons past the No. 25 Wolfpack, giving Wake Forest its second upset of North Carolina State in a week.
Senior Chris Ellis added a career-best 15 points for 12th-seeded Wake Forest (17-15), which reached the semifinals for the first time in three years and will face No. 3 Duke on Saturday.
Gavin Grant scored a career-high 24 for the fourth-seeded Wolfpack (21-9), which is suddenly reeling as it prepares for a fifth straight NCAA tournament.
· DUKE 80, MIAMI 76: J.J. Redick had 25 points and made a clutch jumper in the final minute, Shelden Williams had his sixth straight double-double to lead the No. 3 Blue Devils.
Williams finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds, and DeMarcus Nelson also scored 14 points for the ACC's top-seeded Blue Devils (28-3), who desperately needed a victory after losing their final two games of the regular season.
The game featured 17 ties and 22 lead changes.
|
Reyshawn Terry has 24 points as No. 10 North Carolina shakes off a sluggish start to beat Virginia, 79-67, Friday in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.
| 19.30303 | 0.787879 | 2.363636 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701220.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701220.html
|
Courts of Record
|
2006031119
|
I could have made it to the NBA. I believed that deeply for many years. I believed I had all the tools the young ones need. Some of the tutelage, too.
I once played basketball with Magic Johnson. Honest.
I was 15, and it was the greatest day of my adolescence. The leather ball my friends and I used was weather-beaten, its exterior worn away -- soft and smooth, rather than coarse and grippable like the balls used on the varnished wood of gymnasiums.
That day we played ramshackle games of three-on-three -- when Magic was 19 and still Earvin -- on the asphalt of a fire station behind the Honolulu Zoo. He was on vacation in August 1979, two weeks before his first Los Angeles Lakers training camp. I was driving a rickshaw on Waikiki Beach when I talked him into letting me be his personal chauffeur for a week.
Earvin showed me how to dunk, to jump off my left foot and hold the ball with my right hand. And to always -- always -- throw it down on the right side of the rim. Earvin said it was easier to get the ball over the hoop in case you couldn't jump high enough to forcefully slam the ball through.
"Like this," he said, his elongated limbs moving toward the rim. My friends began taking pictures with an Instamatic camera. Kuh-chik. Kuh-chik. Kuh-chik.
I dunked for the first time in my life that day. I was going to the NBA. I knew it.
Brad Richman once believed he was going pro, too. In playground vernacular, he had "handle," meaning he could dribble as well as any 14-year-old he knew.
Growing up in and around Takoma Park, he did the White Shadow thing. All through middle school, where he was the rare white kid among 80 African Americans trying out for rec league teams. And then at Montgomery Blair High School, where he made a talented junior varsity team.
Once when Muhammad Ali fought Jerry Quarry the news media tried to make the fight about race. After Ali bloodied and defeated Quarry, who was well compensated for his loss, Ali walked over to Quarry's corner, hugged him and whispered: "There ain't no black and white, man. There's just green."
The game taught Brad, as it teaches many of us, that there is no black and white. You can either ball, or you can't.
Point guard was his natural position, and Brad often dominated games in eighth grade. But his classmates kept getting bigger and better. Then, one painful day at 16 years old, he realized he would go no farther.
|
I could have made it to the NBA. I believed that deeply for many years. I believed I had all the tools the young ones need. Some of the tutelage, too.
| 14.916667 | 1 | 36 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002002.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002002.html
|
Rookie Watson Auditions for Leadoff Role
|
2006031119
|
KISSIMMEE, Fla., March 10 -- It's nothing for Brandon Watson, he of just 40 major league at-bats, to walk into a major league clubhouse or face major league pitching. Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer, might give him tips at the batting cage before a spring training game, as he did Friday morning here. Jose Vidro, a three-time all-star, might hit right behind him. He might be expected to lead off for the Washington Nationals as a rookie. None of it is a big deal.
"That stuff doesn't bother me," Watson said. "With what I've seen, I can't be star-struck, because I know that whoever the people are around you, they're just regular people."
Watson can say that because when he was growing up in Los Angeles, he used to hang with the Jackson 5. He knew Magic Johnson. Eric Davis, the former outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds, is his godfather. From Tony Danza to Penny Hardaway, from dancers to boxers, Watson grew up in the shadow of celebrity, and it has shaped who he is as he tries to seize what could be the key to the Nationals' lineup -- the leadoff spot. He is 24, but, as he said, "I've had someone say, 'This is my good friend Eddie Murphy,' and just been like, 'Oh, okay.' "
"He saw everybody, and he knew everybody I knew," said Watson's father, Sam, a concert and fight promoter who is plugged into Hollywood's celebrity scene. "He was around all of it, all kinds of celebrities -- backstage and all that -- and it really doesn't bother him. He doesn't really care, because to him, they're his friends. And that means that he can be comfortable in just about any situation."
The situation the Nationals care most about is the role of leading off and playing center field. If Alfonso Soriano eventually accepts a move to left field from his regular second base -- an issue that looms over this entire camp, and is far from resolved -- the rest of the lineup falls into place rather nicely. That is, if the fleet-footed Watson can show that his .355 average last year at Class AAA New Orleans translates into the ability to play in the majors.
"What we need from him is what you need from a leadoff hitter," Robinson said. "Each time he goes up to home plate, understand the situation, and then determine what he needs to do to help the ballclub."
That includes working the count. That includes bunting for a base hit, something he did in his first at-bat in Friday's 8-6 loss to the Houston Astros. That includes playing good defense, drawing walks, stealing the occasional base, shooting the ball the opposite way.
But wait. Doesn't this sound familiar? Consider more analysis from Robinson: "He has to, each at-bat, understand the situation, and then that will dictate what you should do that at-bat."
Except Robinson didn't say that this spring about Watson. He said it last spring about Endy Chavez, the speedy center fielder who was given every opportunity to win the leadoff job. Chavez, though, frittered it away. He didn't take pitches, didn't draw walks. He was sent to the minors before the season began, and in May was traded to Philadelphia.
"They're two totally different players," General Manager Jim Bowden said. "Endy never was able to make adjustments with the bat at any level. Brandon Watson, last year in Triple A, hit the ball the other way, bunted, got on base, scored runs, did things that he was supposed to do."
That performance got Watson called up to the Nationals last August, and it couldn't have gone better. He doubled in his first at-bat, later hit a home run the opposite way, and finished with two runs scored in a win at Houston when the Nationals were still in the pennant race. But from that point on, he forgot what got him there.
"He started pulling everything and trying to do too much," Bowden said. "His approach to hitting and approach to the game wasn't the same." He was sent back to the minors 11 days later. But he learned. "Now, this spring, he's brought the mental approach we saw in the minors," Bowden said.
Last spring, Robinson said, Watson would listen to everything the staff told him about leading off, about the approach they deemed necessary. Then he'd go out and, say, swing at the first pitch anyway.
"It's not that he wasn't trying to do it," Robinson said. "He didn't do it -- not enough, anyway. He seems to grasp it a little better and is able to go out and execute a little better this spring. I'm really pleased about that."
Still, it is a gradual process. Friday, in the midst of Watson going 3 for 5 to raise his spring average to .375 and his on-base percentage to .464, Robinson immediately jumped on the areas left for improvement. In the fifth, with the Nationals trailing by three runs, Watson nonetheless swung at the first pitch, flying harmlessly to left. "I knew I should've been a little more patient," Watson said. In the seventh, with Jose Vidro at the plate, Watson didn't take advantage of a situation in which he might have stolen a base, and Vidro grounded into a double play.
So he is learning. But as he does it, he looks comfortable, confident. And he remembers that time last season, when he played with the stars on the big stage. He doesn't want to waste that chance again.
"Any time you wait your whole life to play somewhere and you finally get there, and not many people reach that goal in life, it felt good," he said. "It's something you don't want to be without again, so I'm going to do whatever I have to do to keep that feeling."
|
This is your source for info on Washington Nationals baseball. Learn about DC baseball at the RFK stadium. Get the latest schedule and stats for the Washington Nationals. Stay updated on the latest Washington Nationals news!
| 28.813953 | 0.55814 | 1.069767 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002267.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006031119id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002267.html
|
Charges Loom for Italian Leader
|
2006031119
|
ROME, March 10 -- In the middle of an electoral campaign that is becoming more riddled with intrigue by the day, prosecutors moved Friday to have Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and a British lawyer indicted on corruption charges involving the alleged coverup of financial dealings by the prime minister's Mediaset television empire.
Spokesmen for Berlusconi, who has faced and escaped charges ranging from false bookkeeping to bribery, said the indictment effort was politically motivated. "Here it comes, in time for the elections, the voting statement of the Milan prosecutors' office. It has arrived in the form of false, undignified and impossible theories," said Paolo Bonaiuti, the prime minister's spokesman.
"One can only conclude that they want to interfere with the election campaign," added Niccolo Ghedini, Berlusconi's attorney.
Berlusconi is running for a second five-year term, but according to independent opinion polls his coalition is trailing the main opposition group by about 5 percentage points. He has been a steadfast ally of President Bush in the war in Iraq. Italy has about 3,000 troops in the country; Berlusconi has said he will withdraw them this year.
Berlusconi's campaign was hit by other turbulence Friday when Health Minister Francesco Storace resigned after police arrested 16 people alleged to have operated a spy ring targeting rivals of Storace during last year's elections for president of the Lazio region. Storace, the incumbent, was unseated in the vote.
The burgeoning problems have led Romano Prodi, the former prime minister and European Commission president who heads the opposition ticket, to call the last months of Berlusconi's current government a "disaster."
Italian prosecutors delivered thousands of pages of investigative material Friday to a courthouse in Milan, where a judge will decide whether to indict the prime minister.
In elections in 2001, Berlusconi was able to convince voters that his legal problems stemmed from the unbridled political militancy of communist magistrates. If he is indicted this time, a trial would not begin until after the parliamentary elections, scheduled for April 9.
The case against Berlusconi centers on the alleged payment of a $600,000 bribe to his onetime British lawyer, David Mills.
Italian prosecutors say they have testimony from Mills that Berlusconi paid him not to reveal details of a scheme to have an overseas branch of Mediaset purchase movie rights and then sell the rights to Mediaset in Italy at a higher price, with the difference deposited in offshore banks. Prosecutors argue that such a deal amounts to tax evasion.
Mills has publicly denied wrongdoing. He said recently that the money at issue came from another client, not Berlusconi.
Mills's alleged involvement has caused an uproar in Britain because he is the husband of Tessa Jowell, culture minister in the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Last weekend, after facing harsh questions in Parliament about the origin of money used to pay off a large mortgage the couple had taken out, Jowell separated from Mills.
Storace, the health minister, resigned after investigators contended that his campaign had hired private investigators to spy on Alessandra Mussolini, the wartime dictator's politician granddaughter, who broke with Storace's party and threatened to take votes from him, and on Piero Marrazzo, the opposition candidate who eventually won.
"The mere suspicion that I may have orchestrated political maneuvering against my political opponents hurts me and outrages me," Storace said in a written statement.
He is the second minister in the Berlusconi government to resign in a month. Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli stepped down Feb. 18 after wearing a T-shirt decorated with caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. The day before, 11 people had been killed in riots in Libya protesting Calderoli's gesture, and the Italian consulate in Benghazi was set on fire.
|
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.
| 15.586957 | 0.413043 | 0.456522 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/03/DI2006030300672.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/03/DI2006030300672.html
|
Ask Tom
|
2006030919
|
In a city loaded with diverse restaurants, from New American chic and upscale Italian to sandwich shops and burritos on the run, finding the best places to eat can be a real puzzle. Where's the best restaurant for a first date or an anniversary? Father's Day? What's the best burger joint? Who has the best service?
Ask Tom. Tom Sietsema , The Washington Post's food critic, is on hand Wednesdays at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions, listen to your suggestions and even entertain your complaints about Washington dining. Sietsema, a veteran food writer, has sampled the wares and worked as a critic in Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Milwaukee, and can talk restaurants with the best of 'em. Tom's Sunday magazine reviews, as well as his "Ask Tom" column, are available early on the Web.
Washington, D.C.: Dear Tom-Tom (or so friends have told me your nickname is):
I'm a big fan of yours and regret my first communication is a gripe.
Granted, I'm a major carnivore, but I can't understand how a 3.5 star review results in a two star rating for DC's Fogo de Chao.
You wrote: "salad bar looks like an entire produce section" " meat. For the most part it's TERRIFIC" "Service. If I were a restaurant looking to poach talent, here's where I would begin my search". "Everything's big here: the space, the food, the fun".
I understand the stars are subjective, but the review read a lot better than just "good".
I've been going to Greenfield in Rockville regularly since it opened. On the road, I've eaten at Fogo in Atlanta and Chicago, and I was in heaven when I heard they were opening in DC. Since it's always packed, I doubt the two star rating will hurt business, but it's been bothering me, so I decided to write.
Keep up the good work. I still love your writing. I know your busy, but a brief reply would be appreciated.
Tom Sietsema: (Hmmmm. Only two people call me Tom-Tom...)
You glossed over my criticisms: the side dishes were mostly lacking, the 30-plus item salad bar was best for the uncooked items, and several of the meats were middling.
Good morning, everyone. Lots of good questions today. But I'll start with a request from Galileo: Will the reader who complained last week about slow service at the restaurant's Osteria please get in touch with me? Send me your name, email and number. Galileo would like to make amends for your rushed experience.
Have not heard much about Merkado since your 2-star rating several months ago. Have you been back? Any drop-off in quality?
Tom Sietsema: I dined there solo not long ago and really enjoyed my meal; it felt, and tasted, like a two-star ("good") establishment.
News flashlette: Opening chef Edward Kim has been replaced by Troy Walker, until recently the executive chef at the nearby 15 ria. I expect the new hire will be adding his own touches to the Latin-Asian menu.
First I love your chats. They are a great resource and fun
to read. I am writing because I am going with some
classmates to St. Bernard Parish for a week to work with
Habitat for Humanity. But we also want to do our part for
the N.O. economy. We are grad students and volunteering
so we won't be able to spend a lot of money, but most of
us have never been there and want to go out to dinner at
least one night. We have people who are really open to
any type of food, but probably nothing more than $15 an
entree, though cheaper would be great too. Any help you
can give is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Tom Sietsema: Can you wait a week? I have a 6:50 a.m. flight to New Orleans tomorrow morning ...
Washington, D.C.: Saturday, I was at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown and was there for an early dinner around 5. After we had finished eating, our plates were cleared, bill was paid, and we were still talking, when the server interrupted us. She asked us to leave so that people waiting could use our table. We left willingly but were surprised by the request. After thinking more about it, I thought it was rather rude to ask us to leave, when we had only been sitting there, after the bill was paid, for about 5 minutes. What gives? Is there a reasonable amount of time that patrons should be able to linger at their table after a meal?
Tom Sietsema: Were there a LOT of people waiting, or just one party? And were you really there only five minutes, or was it more like 15? Whatever the case, it sounds like the server could have handled the situation with a bit more tact.
Washington, D.C.: Regarding Kotobuki, my husband and I are eager to try it. Will they take reservations? I know it is very small. Also, would our infant (in an infant car seat, probably sleeping throughout meal) be welcome there? Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: Small, cheap and very good, Kotobuki does not take reservations; my advice is to go early.
Washington, D.C.: There are SO many people out there flooding the restaurants w/o any knowledge of how to tip. Here is a short guide for the general public to follow. Feel free to print out and store in your wallet and/or purse.
1. CHILDREN "THE LITTLE DEVILS":
If you have children, DO NOT let them, open and dump anything on the table (ie; salt, sugar, etc). IF YOU DO, you must leave an extra $5 for the server to clean up YOUR CHILD'S mess & to restock the now unusable wasted items. We are neither their babysitter nor their parent. The least you can do is pay us for the extra work. Also make sure you control your kids and don't let them scream or run around the restraunt. It's very distracting not to mention dangerous if they get run over by a server with hot food in their hands.
If you feel the necessity to stay for longer than 15 minutes after you pay, its an extra $3 every 30 minutes. We make our money from the tables. If you are in one and we can't seat it, we don't make money.
3. COMPLIMENTS AKA THE KISS OF DEATH OR THE VERBAL TIP:
Telling a server they are the best server they've ever had is not a tip. If we are good, let us know by leaving us more money. We cant pay our bills on compliments. Its not that we don't appreciate the praise, its just that if you say that and then leave 10% it's an insult.
Prayer cards and any other religious pamphlet is NOT a tip. It is insulting that you assume we are w/o religion and must save us. Again, like ..3, we cant pay bills w/prayer cards. We'd go to church on Sundays if it wasn't mandatory to work on Sundays because EVERYONE who goes to church follows it by eating out.
It is not 1960. Cost of living has gone up dramatically since then. 18% is the MINIMUM amount of what you should be tipping your servers. Remember, our companies pay us minimum wage (minimum wage for servers is $2.38 in Maryland). And we are taxed on 10 percent of your meal automatically anyway. So if your meal is $100 and you leave $10 and we tip out $4-5 to the busser, bartender, and whoever else then we pay tax on 10 dollars and we make $5. It seems small but it adds up. How many times do you eat out per week and do this?
If you get a discount because of your food was prepared wrong or something, do not take it out of our tip. We didn't cook it. The cooks get paid hourly regardless if the food sucks. However, we only make what you give us.
If you happen to get anything for free and you did not have a problem with your dining experience, most of the time it is because the server thinks you will realize that they are giving it to you for free. There should be extra tip thanking the server for the free item. They could get in a lot of trouble giving away free stuff. You should give them hazard pay for it.
If you come into the restaurant 10 mins before closing or any time near closing hurry up and order your food and get out. Closed means closed, not social hour. It is so rude to sit there and take your sweet a-- time. We can't leave until you leave because we have to do sidework and clean the table you are sitting at. We don't want to stand there waiting for you for an extra hour just because you don't want to go home. We recommend 24 hour establishments such as Dennys if you wish to sit into the wee hours of the night.
If you only come in for coffee or a dessert, to do paper work, or to have a meeting, don't sit there taking up our booths for hours. We are not Starbucks or a hotel restaurant. If you want to sit for hours, go there or else you better leave a good tip for us and camping fee included.
When we come up to the table to greet you and we ask how you are doing please let us know. We honestly want to know how you are doing. If you are in a bad mood we want to know that from the beginning. A confused stare or complete silence does not suffice as a reply to "How are you doing?". Also most of us are REQUIRED to say certain things during the greeting, so please don't interrupt our greeting and say "I want coffee", "Can we get some bread?", or "What are the soups?"
11. THOSE DAMN CELL PHONES:
Don't ever talk on your cell phone in a restaurant. This is probably the rudest thing to do. If you must be on your cell, at least keep your voice down in respect for other customers. If you are on your cell phone when we walk up to greet your table we will walk away and not return until you get off your phone. Just show some respect and give us your attention for a couple of minutes.
Always remember to tip the take-out order servers! They work just as hard as a server, and hardly ever get tips for it! WE DESERVE TO BE TIPPED TOO!
Tom Sietsema: Wow! Too bad this isn't a TWO-hour chat today.
Lots and lots of stuff to discuss therein. Who wants to start?
Bethesda, Md.: Good Morning Tom!
I've been invited to Atlanta for a foodie weekend. Friday night's dinner is at Table 1280 and Saturday night's is at Two. Urban Licks. Do those sound like good choices to you? Can you suggest any place for a long lunch on Saturday or Brunch on Sunday? Thanks for being so wonderful!
Tom Sietsema: By coincidence, your question popped up just before I spoke with my buddy Bill Addison, the former restaurant critic and food editor of Creative Loafing in Atlanta. Here are his suggestions:
"Keep your reservations at Table 1280, as much for the up-to-the-minute
minimalist space as for chef Shaun Doty's astute American/Mediterranean
cuisine, but, unless you want to visit a spot for pure spectacle over
culinary substance, skip Two Urban Licks. Go instead to Midtown's Lobby at
the Twelve Hotel -- which is operated by the same folks as Two but has
worlds better food (don't miss the toffee pudding for dessert) -- or Aria,
which has been around for awhile but serves consistently lovely, often
slow-cooked New American in a slyly posh dining room. Or try Kyma, which
does frisky, high-end Greek right down the street from Aria in the tony
Saturday lunch depends on how extravagant you want to go. Seeger's, perhaps
the most highly acclaimed and loudly debated restaurant in the city, serves
Saturday lunch now, but prepare to blow SERIOUS bucks (like minimum $300 for
two). Otherwise, try Brasserie Le Coze in Lenox Mall -- don't worry, we like
to put quality restaurants in shopping malls in Atlanta.
For Sunday brunch, there's no better than Watershed in Decatur. Scott
Peacock accents traditional breakfast/brunch fare with comfy Southern
overtones. Share a plate of banana fritters, then try the country ham with
(Thanks for the detail, Bill!)
Anonymous: Tom did you publish a restaurant guide in the Fall 2005, and if so, how can I obtain a copy. Thanks!!!!
Tom Sietsema: A link to my fall dining guide in the Sunday Magazine is available on the Post's Web site; my most recent book, published late last year, is available in my local bookstores and on Amazon.com.
Thanks for your always-informative columns and chats. I just wanted to pass on to you and your readers that Jaleo in Crystal City has a wonderful room for a private party. It is beautifully decorated and the right size for maybe 25 to 50 people. We just celebrated a birthday there and had a fabulous time. The tapas and Spanish wines were delicious, and the birthday girl was even treated to an impromptu Spanish love song by the waiter. Your restaurant guide does not mention Jaleo as a private dining option, probably since the original Jaleo downtown does not have a private room, but don't overlook this space!
Tom Sietsema: An impromptu love song by a waiter? Now THAT certainly merits a better gratuity! (Confused? See above.)
Thanks for sharing the word about Jaleo's private digs. As far as diners are concerned, there can never be too many of them.
A world without Ray's?: What's going on with Ray's the Steaks? The message on the answering machine says no more parties over 6, no more reservations (though existings will be honored), and they're closed indefinitely after March 26th. What gives?
Tom Sietsema: From the horse's mouth to your eyes:
"I'm closing because I have to find a way to bring the restaurant back to the neighborhood, where it belongs," owner Michael Landrum told me yesterday. "Even if it involves reformatting my operations."
The "closing" is most likely temporary; the good news is that his forthcoming restaurant in Silver Spring is getting closer to its due date.
Off to SFO: Tom, Can you recommend any casual restaurants in San Francisco? I am vegetarian, but any recommendation will do. I usually find something suiting me on a menu. Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: San Francisco's aptly named Greens is one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the country AND it has a view of the water from its enormous windows. Don't miss it.
Washington, D.C. and not happy!: Tom- Please help! What is the proper etiquette when you are placed too close to another table and their conversation overwhelms the entire lunch?? This has now happened twice this past week- once at The Prime Rib and the other at Rasika. When there are no other available tables what is one to do???? Do we ask the other diners to please quiet down or talk to the host/hostess? Need to find a solution!
Tom Sietsema: I'd bring the noise to the attention of a manager. A tricky problem, though! I'm curious: Were they loud talkers or loud laughers or what? And how large a group were they (and your party)?
Washington, D.C.: Tom, My in-laws are coming to town this weekend and we're trying to decide on a restaurant for a birthday dinner. My husband wants to try Rasika, and we know you like it but I'm wondering if it's a little too trendy for older folks. Thoughts?
Tom Sietsema: If it's Indian food -- and some calm -- you're after, try Rasika's older sibling, the romantic Bombay Club. Rasika is pretty young (though Maureen Dowd seems to like it).
Washington, D.C.: Tom,may I ask a "big picture" question? Do you ever feel strange when you hear or read that half the world's population is literally starving, and then someone writes in that they went to dinner at some fancy restaurant and the whole experience was ruined when a fork was pointing the wrong way or the coffee wasn't refilled fast enough?
Tom Sietsema: I think about it a lot, actually. And I'm sometimes tempted to yell: "People! It's just FOOD (or a MEAL), for heaven's sake!"
Washington, D.C.: Tom, the server rant above was incredibly rude. Those of us who read your chat are obviously experienced diners and know the "rules". If the server above treats CUSTOMERS the way they just treated your readers, no wonder they are only getting 10% tips. Please post this as I (and many of your readers) understand how little servers get paid, but gratuity is just that, GRATUITY, and servers should expect to be tipped poorly if our dining experiences suck because of them.
Tom Sietsema: I was WAITING for one of you to say something!
Washington, D.C.: Re: "If you come into the restaurant 10 mins before closing or any time near closing hurry up and order your food and get out." I'm not one to hang around until the wee hours of the morning, but it would be helpful if restaurants explained what their closing hours meant. If they are taking orders at 9:55, that implies that you are welcome to stay until 11 or 11:30. If you aren't, they should say something like "Serving food until 10; dining room closes at 10:30." If the rules are clear, diners can make informed decisions. If they aren't, servers end up hating lingering customers, and customers end up feeling unfairly rushed.
Tom Sietsema: I'm all for clear rules myself. You raise a good point.
re: NOLA bound: For the volunteers heading to St. Bernard Parish, I know for a fact that Herbsaint is back in business. I doubt their quality has dropped off since Katrina, but I can't say that for sure.
Brennan's is still closed, but is supposed to open in the middle of March, so you may want to check with them. Brennan's is incredible for brunch, and you HAVE to get the Bananas Foster if you go there.
Cafe du Monde is open for sure, and is a MUST if you're visiting NO.
I don't know if it's open yet, but Mother's is a great lunch place (it is open for dinner some nights, too), with incredibly authentic southern cooking.
(All of this from a girl EAGERLY awaiting your trip to NOLA so that I can start making reservations for our big Jazzfest trip)
Tom Sietsema: Thanks for the advance tips.
WHOA!: Are you calling Maureen Dowd "old"? Oooh, she's going to write a column about you.
Tom Sietsema: Well, she's closer to 60 than to 30 -- not that there's anything wrong with that. And she's GAWGEOUS on top of it. I like Mo.
Take Away Tipping: I don't do it, and I don't feel badly about it. The restaurant is lucky to have my business, and the host stand typically clears takeout orders and is paid hourly. If a bartender is in charge, I'll leave a buck or two for the time to move my bag from kitchen to me. Should we start tipping for that takeaway sandwich at lunch as well?
Tom Sietsema: I anticipate reaction from restaurant workers on this one ....
Clifton, Va.: Hey DC here's how I figure your tip:
1. Wait person with an attitude. Cut tip by a third
2. Doesn't ask if we like another drink or a refill. Cut tip by a third
3. Cant remember who gets what? There are only 2 of us. And then we have to find you to get the check? Cut tip by a third.
Hey DC wait person can you say Stiff! I can and I can write it too on the credit card receipt. Lose the attitude or find another profession. And BTW I waited table to put myself through college. And I have worked at every position in a restaurant except for manage to include dishwasher and chef!
Tom Sietsema: As Glinda said to Dorothy in "Oz": "I'm afraid you've made some rather bad enemies..."
take-out tipping...: Actually, glad they brought that up. I never know how much...usually I tip about $2(for usually, two meals)? That seems small, but then again, the point of takeout is to enjoy at home and not pay for table/service.
Can you advice? I definitely don't want to stiff anyone. Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: There tends to be unseen work by other than the cook with regard to take-out. I tend to tip $1 or $2 (or more) depending on the size of my order.
Arlington, Va.: Just wanted to thank you for recommending the Custom House in Chicago. I was there last weekend with my sisters. We had a terrific meal, but what really made the evening was the wait staff. Our waiter was SO nice, really laid back, but fully knowledgeable about the menu. Not at all snooty. When my sister picked an $80 bottle of wine, he steered her to a far cheaper bottle that was excellent. Another waiter stopped by to ask how we liked the wine because it had just arrived the day before and he was curious. A third waiter (who somehow found out where we were all from and shared our hometown) came by to chat and then gave us suggestions on where to go after dinner (since we were all out of towners.) The bill came with an 18% tip included, and when we gave the waiter more than that, he actually came back and pointed it out, to make sure we'd seen that the tip was included! Couple all of that with the excellent food (I'm still having dreams about these little creme puffs with horseradish that came with the short rib) and it made for one heck of an evening. So many many thanks!
Tom Sietsema: Ah, I'm thrilled to hear you had as much fun as I did there.
How would you have suggested the server ask the seated party to leave? Just curious.
Tom Sietsema: "I'm so glad you all seem to be enjoying yourselves today, but I'm wondering if you could lower your voices just a tad?"
"Maybe you'd like to continue your conversation at the bar? I could treat you to one of our great desserts."
Take Away Tipping - Followup: Okay, you've convinced me. There's work that goes into preparing the order for takeout. I'll start tipping $2 or so on my typical order for two.
Tom Sietsema: THAT was easy! (Whew!)
Washington, D.C.: Wow that credo was fantastic. One other gripe I do have about the pamphlets being left on tables; to those of you who feel the need to leave disturbing and graphic anti abortion propaganda DON'T! As my daytime office job is taking off I care less and less about my night time waiting job. The next time someone leaves one of these might be the night I decide to go out in a blaze of glory and assault someone. BE WARNED! (PS I am not claiming pro-life or pro-choice affiliation, just find leaving these about as appropriate as me pulling out pictures of a colonoscopy at the table)
Tom Sietsema: Maybe I'll skip lunch today.
Washington, D.C.: For the disgruntled server:
Tip One: Knock the chip off your shoulder
Tip Two: If you are that unhappy with your industry find another one.
Your list reads as if diners are blobs whose sole function is to cough up cash. I can guarantee you that attitude will come through; and that directly affects that amount left at the end of the meal.
DC Restaurant Worker: As a server, I agree partially with some of the earlier posted rant, but concede that it came off rude and arrogant. I work with a few servers for whom that attitude is the standard, sorry to say, and I have no doubt that some diners' experiences suffer for it. However, to play devil's advocate, waiters and waitresses do have to put up with a tremendous amount of condescension and rudeness even from the so-called "experienced" diners, so I can see how one can reach a breaking point. No doubt everyone out there, no matter how much they like their job, has ranted to a friend or coworker about how frustrating some of the little things are? This person just chose to do so in a public forum, appropriate or not. However, I urge your readers to not assume every server shares the nuances of that individual's views.
Regarding "experienced diners" who "know the rules," I'd like to put in my own two cents: if you are on a business dinner or lunch meeting with foreign colleagues (which happens often in this town) and the colleague offers to pay, is it possible for you guests to discreetly inform them of standard tipping practices in the States? Or slip some extra $$ to the server on the way to the bathroom? It's not fair to an American server to be tipped like he/she works in Europe. 5-10% is nowhere near acceptable, and those guests who allow it to happen are just being cheap.
Tom Sietsema: Some restaurants that cater to a lot of Europeans actually put the tip on the tab (or so I've seen here and there in Washington).
Tipping Rules: I have been the waiter and the waitee, and I completely agree with the posted "rules."
Many, many people do not tip properly and/or do not treat the wait staff with basic respect and politeness. I tip generously and routinely add money to the tip after others I dine with because I have empathy for servers.
PS - I add $1 to the tip per drink refill after the first. Drink refills are incredibly time consuming.
Tom Sietsema: Thanks for sharing.
Washington, D.C.: One quick note on the closing time issue, I don't know how it works in every restaurant, but I can check out and leave once I have all my checks accounted for. So once you pay the check I can take off. If you are planning on staying and relaxing over a bottle of wine late at night, it would be great if you would ask for your check and pay the tab. Then you can sit and chat until the lights go out. So many times I have been stranded another hour past when I could have gone home(making no money by the way!) as a party sat with the check on the table sipping on sodas.
Tom Sietsema: Did you catch that, meal-lingerers?
re: 10 Point Manifesto: I bet whoever wrote those "rules" is a really bad waiter....
What is the hottest restaurant at the moment?
Tom Sietsema: Hot as in popular? Hot as in good? Hot as in they just set sail and people are talking it up?
I'd certainly put Rasika in Washington on the "hot" list. And David Craig in Bethesda. And the recently reviewed Fogo de Chao.
Adams Morgan, D.C.: Tom--Do restaurant owners and chefs know what you look like?
The NY Times' Frank Bruni has addressed this question in his blog. I've asked you this question for several weeks in a row now and have been ignored each time.
Tom Sietsema: Sorry, but this is the first time I remember seeing your question.
Some background: I was a Food section reporter before I took over the critic's job in 2000 (my, how time flies!) and in the course of my assignments, I occasionally came into contact with chefs, restaurant owners and other food professionals. But even then, I preferred to fly under the radar -- eat in places without restaurants knowing I was there, etc. It just made my professional life easier.
Do chefs and others know what I look like? A lot do. I don't like it, but it's just the way it is. Washington is a small place and restaurant workers move around. That said, I've been able to slip into every major restaurant, and a few minor ones, in disguise in the past six years.
Thanks for all your helpful guidance! I'm hoping you can help me score some big points with my boyfriend I'm looking for the best coconut cake in DC. I saw that you suggested the Caucus Room a few years ago for coconut cake and wonder if the recommendation still stands or if you have any new thoughts? Thanks!
Tom Sietsema: The Caucus Room still serves coconut cake (for $12 a wedge), but it's not listed on the menu. You have to ask for it. I recall having a very good coconut cake ($10) at another steak house awhile back, too, at Smith & Wollensky downtown.
Chevy Chase, Md.: Any suggestions on a place near the Studio Theater - but not a Thai restaurant?
Tom Sietsema: The closest restaurants to the stage include the modern American-themed Cafe St.-Ex on 14th St. NW and Logan Tavern and Merkado, both on P St. NW.
The short guide: Wow, what an attitude. I hope I don't end up with that server. And I agree with much of what they wrote.
Tom Sietsema: It's all in the delivery, huh?
Washington, D.C.: Tom, if you experience a problem with anything during your meal (lack of salt, undercooked/overcooked meat, etc.) do you inform your server at the time or do you feel that you compromise your anonymity if you speak up?
Tom Sietsema: It really depends.
I had some grossly underseasoned food earlier this week. My solution: I used the salt shaker at the table.
Elsewhere, my entrees showed up BEFORE my appetizers. I mentioned this to the server, who said the starters were coming. My response: "You're kidding." I had her remove the entrees -- which she put under a heat lamp in my range of vision before serving the appetizers.
tip on drink refill!: Ha! I'm a server and I don't expect that! I only tip a $1 on a drink when I'm at a bar!! Not for free ice tea refills!!!
Tom Sietsema: That could add up, no?
Agree with Fogo complaint of review: You don't have to post this, I just wanted to quickly say that I agree whole heartedly with the first poster of the day (I just logged on and this is as far as I got). I read your review, and it sounded terrific. Everything you wrote was complimentary- there was no "this was horrible, this was bad, the service was slow, etc." Everything sounded tremendous. And I read your reviews every week. So I just laughed when I read the amount of stars you gave to the restaurant. With such glowing praise, you gave it 2 stars? You gave it a mediocre rating? I just laughed and turned to a companion and commented that your rating system was far from desirable. I use your reviews to guide me on what to order, but I think I'll stop using the star system as a guide on where to go. It just makes no sense anymore. Everything is a 2 or 2 1/2 star. Just my .02
Tom Sietsema: Thanks for your feedback, but ...
Two stars is not a "mediocre" rating. It's a "good" evaluation.
As much as I dine out, the truly three- and four-star experiences are few and far between. It makes sense that the majority of the places I review fall into the greater "god" category. I'm not about to lower my standards because someone wants to see more stars than a business really deserves.
(Ah, I feel better now.)
Washington, D.C.: I am a server and I don't like how people have this attitude that servers should be lucky to have their money. Trust me I would be MORE than happy to jack the price of all entrees 20 percent and just have a steady paycheck from the restaurant. The CONSUMER is the lucky one because it is one of the only times you get to pay what you feel like. In almost no other retail field can you alter what a person is paid. If a cashier at the grocery store is rude you don't get to knock down their pay from 8 bucks an hour to 7 for that night. On cruise ships you just add in gratuity before ever receiving service. It is thought of as just a service charge. Businesses are lowering the costs of their product and passing that expense on to the consumer. How come in restaurants people still have the mentality they are giving the server some type of gift by throwing a few bucks on the table.
Tom Sietsema: Great response. Anyone else care to chime in?
Silver Spring, Md.- Help: Tom,
I value your local reviews, and always had fun matching your "postcards" to whatever cities I have visited. However, I keep forgetting to clip and save the hard copy. (WHY are your fans forced to do so?) The WP-dot-com versions either don't exist, or your editors throw them into the ether too far for any search function to find... never to be heard of again.
If you have a SF Post Card from the last couple of years, is it possible your editors would allow your readers (or at least this one) e-access to it... just this once?
PS: What are the magic words for finding your "PostCards" on line?
Tom Sietsema: My most recent postcard was actually FROM San Francisco. There should be a link on this page (in the intro) to my Travel section articles.
Logan Circle, D.C.: Silly Tom... the closest restaurant to the Studio is Viridian (and they do a great job getting you out the door in time for your show). I also enjoy Rice before a play.
Tom Sietsema: But the poster didn't want Thai and I can't recommend Viridian right now, not as a new chef (from Bistro Bis) is getting his sea legs.
Foggy Bottom: I got a hearty laugh from the server who suggested patrons add a dollar to the tip amount for every drink refill, because drink refills are "incredibly time consuming."
Line-editing proofs is an incredibly time consuming part of my job, and last time I checked, I didn't get an extra dollar for every page!
Washington, D.C.: Although the server comments were on the harsh side, I have been a server and agree. The bottom line is we work for tips..if the kitchen messes up, it is not our fault. If the host was rude, it is not our fault. If your drink is weak, it is not our fault. I actually worked at an outdoor restaurant and you would have sworn people think its the beach. Pay rent on the table because once again, we work for tips. And coming in 2 seconds before we close is just plain rude. Don't you feel weird being the only people sitting in a restaurant.
It is easy to rant when you see how uninformed even the 'experienced' diner is.
Submitting early - I've enjoyed a few meals at Rock Creek in Bethesda and wonder what other area restaurants take a similar approach to their menus. Is it too much to ask for healthy, good tasting food in reasonable portions in restaurants these days? I certainly enjoy a gastronomic feast now and then, but I wish there were more restaurants that followed the "less can be more" philosophy. Just my two cents.
Tom Sietsema: I'm eager to see what Sidra Forman & Company offer at Vegetate down the road. (It's to early to say, since they took over the kitchen, after leaving Viridian, only recently.)
Producer: Review of Rock Creek Restaurant
Washington, D.C.: Is there decent Indian food in or near Adams Morgan?
Tom Sietsema: The closest place I can really stand behind is Heritage India, a glam spinoff of the Glover Park original, on Connecticut Ave.
Re: Lima: One of my favorite foods while I was in Peru was causa--a sort of potato and olive concoction with a yellow sauce. Is that on the menu at Lima?
Tom Sietsema: It is not. Actually, there were no Peruvian dishes on the menu. The restaurant Lima gets its name from the Spanish word for lime, not the Peruvian capital.
Washington, D.C.: The greater "god" category? Wow, maybe 2 stars really is something to aspire to!
Tom Sietsema: Blame my fingers!
Arlington, Va.: To servers out there, here's OUR view:
1. TIPS - its called a GRATUITY! Yes, its customary to tip 18% plus, but "customary" means just that - not MANDATORY! Come up to us with a surly attitude, keep us in the dark about what's going on and you get what you deserve re: tips. Yes, you need to tip the busboy, bartender, sommelier, etc., but we ALSO have to tip the coat check person, valet, and if we've sat at the bar, the bartender. Don't just be another person with their hand out - show us you DESERVE it. Oh, and STOP comparing this to other jobs. Believe it or not, people who are paid a standard wage CAN AND DO get docked for poor performance. Hell, they can even get fired without the warning that a dock it pay provides. Don't like it? Get another job.
2. CATCH PHRASES - don't call us "guys" when there is a mixed group. "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen will do just fine." Do not come up with a sugary fake smile and say "HI! MY NAME IS CANDY!" I won't remember your name two seconds after you told me and I could care less. Tell me information I can use like what the specials are, what is the soup of the day, AND THE PRICES OF EACH!
3. DISAPPEARING ACT - I know you are busy, but don't plop down the drinks and disappear. Take the order!! After we're done eating, COME BACK!! I can't tell you how many times I have to go hunting for a server who disappears after the food is delivered. Hello!! Job not done yet!!!
4. PAY ATTENTION - When taking an order, LISTEN to what we are asking. Most of us do have some type of food preference and we if we ask a dish to omit something (i.e., can't stand cilantro), tell us if that's doable or not. Yes, I understand your chef is an "arteest" but I'm the one eating the art!
5. COMMUNICATE! - Sure, mistakes happen. We all understand that, but don't LIE or otherwise make excuses. Simply tell us what happened and that it was a mistake. THEN tell us what is being done to correct. Not all of us expect a free meal, but if one of the orders gets screwed up in the kitchen, tell us! We may be more flexible than you give us credit for!
6. ATTITUDES - simply courtesy and etiquette go a long way. I don't care if you've had a bad day or if the table before us stiffed you. Don't assume we're all bad and treat us that way. If you treat people like sh_t, you'll get sh_t in return. Your 12 point missive is an excellent example of crap thrown at diners in shovelfuls. Let me know where you work. I promise NEVER to go there while you are there!
7. CHILDREN - ARE NOT little devils. Remember, you were one once too. How did you learn manners and how to eat properly? Learn some patience and you may appreciate how to laugh at the foibles of kids. And yes, my wife and I tip EXTRA for the messes our son made when he was younger or we cleaned it up ourselves. Same for our friends with kids. Don't look at us all sideways or you may get the same in return.
8. SOCIALIZING WITH CO-WORKERS - remember, being a server is your job. Its not your job to sit in the back room or to the side telling your fellow servers about the awesome date you had the night before when your customers need you. We aren't supposed to be getting up to help ourselves to condiments, napkins, or to get our own food - you are. So save the socializing for your own time.
9. APPEARANCE - guess what? We're not fascinated by your pierced tongue or the fact that you have more multiple holes in your ear, eyebrow, lip, nose or other appendage. Same goes for tattoos. They may be fine for actors and strippers, but you're handling our food. Try to dress and groom appropriately!
10. INPUT - when we ask what is good, don't say "EVERYTHING!" That tells us nothing and also says you don't care about helping. Try again.
There's probably more, but you get the idea. I hope you realize the type of griping you did on your missive did more to widen the gulf between servers and diners than help.
Tom Sietsema: The clock is winding down, but I wanted to be sure and share this with the peanut gallery today.
Arlington, Va.: Now that you've let everyone know about your 6:50 a.m. flight a gaggle of early-rising restaurateurs will be scanning the gate to get a glimpse of the mysterious Tom-Tom.
Tom Sietsema: But I never revealed the airport!
What's with all the profanity today?: Several people have made references to a dining experience "sucking." In my day, that term referred to something that Monica Lewinsky did that would CERTAINLY make for an unusual dining experience. Come on, people, can't we keep it clean?
Tom Sietsema: Clean is good, clean is good!
Washington, D.C.: I'm also a waiter and I think it basically comes down to respect. I'm a server, not a servant. Some patrons just manage to look down at me and treat me as a sub-human and this is my mental-scream breaking point!!
When you are eating in a restaurant, just be aware of what is around you. If the restaurant is empty except for your party and you see staff just hanging around, think about paying up. If there is a wait at the door, and if you waited yourself, please don't pull out a laptop and settle in. If you have a child, notice if he/she is disrupting others. Just be aware that a restaurant is a group of strangers and respect both other patrons and the restaurant employees.
And yes, the politer and nicer you are to me, the better service you will get. It goes both ways. I like working in a restaurant, and I like meeting new people, but that doesn't make me any less of a person because you are sitting and I am standing.
Tom Sietsema: Wow, lots of good posts today.
Before I sign off, I wanted to answer a post that I accidentally deleted, from a reader wondering about the forthcoming Mai Thai at 1200 19th St. The 200-seater is expected to open later this month, according to "Woody" Tongrugs, the owner. He also has a Mai Thai in Alexandria and operates Thaiphoon in Dupont Circle.
That's all, folks. See you next Wednesday.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.
|
Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema answers your questions, listens to your suggestions and even entertains your complaints about Washington dining.
| 388.173913 | 0.869565 | 3.565217 |
high
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/03/DI2006030301339.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/03/DI2006030301339.html
|
Ask The Post
|
2006030919
|
Chantilly, Va.: What is the process you go through to determine what will be included in the paper's editorials each day? Who does the editorial page speak for, the publisher, the editor only, the staff of the paper, someone else? Are all editorials specifically approved by the publisher?
Fred Hiatt: Thanks for tuning in everyone.
This seems like an excellent first question. Almost every morning, I sit down with our editorial board and we argue about the issues of the day and try to come to a consensus on which editorials we should write, and who (among the eight of us) should write them. We don't always reach full consensus, but we try.
In the end we publish editorials that do speak for the newspaper, but in a funny way--after all, we're completely separate from the reporters and editors who put out the news, and they disavow any opinions. In a sense we speak for the publisher, for the owner--but they don't review most editorials. Instead, they hire someone (me) who they think generally will share their world view.
Washington, D.C.: Why hasn't The Post editorially demanded that the Bush administration and/or Congress take urgent steps to implement mandatory gas mileage requirements to control increasing global warming?
Fred Hiatt: Actually, we have supported raising the gas mileage requirements for cars and trucks; in principle, we also support some kind of carbon tax, which would be probably the most efficient way to move toward other forms of energy. But we recognize that that isn't politically likely right now.
Washington, D.C.: When sending an unsolicited editorial, how can a writer stand out from the pack?
Fred Hiatt: We receive about 70 unsolicited opeds a day, and we only have room on average for one (given our regular columnists). So we have to turn down a lot of excellent pieces. In general it helps if the writing is clear and the piece says something that hasn't been said--will entertain our readers and tell them something new, or help them think about an issue in a new way.
Washington, D.C.: Thank you for taking my question.
Last December, it was reported in the press that some Washington think-tank types had been paid by lobbying or other special interest groups to write op-ed pieces that promoted the groups' policy positions.
Does the Washington Post have a formal policy that restricts, or requires the disclosure of, this sort of supplementary income for its op-ed contributors? If so, is this policy uniform for regular columnists and guest columnists?
Fred Hiatt: We ask our contributors to tell us any relationship they may have that could conceivably be considered a conflict of interest. Doesn't mean we wouldn't publish a piece, but we might decide that readers should know and be able to decide for themselves.
Washington, D.C.: Do you think it is wise for an unsolicited writer to contact the editorial page in advance and discuss what they are working on? Is the editorial page staff amenable to pointing an unsolicited writer in the right direction - so they have the best chance of being published?
Fred Hiatt: Honestly, no. We don't have time to do much of that. But we do look at every piece that comes in, and sometimes if we think an oped might work with some tweaking, we'll talk to the writer about that.
Silver Spring, Md.: Does The Post often get criticized for being "too fair" to certain interests/perspectives? For example, I've noticed that in your coverage of issues relating to global warming your journalists often present the completely dismissed perspective that global warming "isn't happening" as if it is on equal footing with the opposing viewpoint. Your thoughts?
Fred Hiatt: Well, as editorial page editor I have nothing to do with the news coverage of climate change. I do oversee the editorial page, where our position is that climate change is a serious problem that this country should be responding to more seriously than the Bush administration has.
I oversee the oped page too, where I believe we ought to publish a range of opinion--but not a range stretching to include what clearly isn't true.
Washington, D.C.: I am curious as to why The Post does not publish more letters to the editor. On any given day there are usually no more than six. By comparison, today's New York Times printed 15 letters, and as far as I can tell from its Web site, the LA Times ran 10. The local paper in my hometown usually runs 7-8, and they have only a single page to work with for all editorials, columns, and letters.
I find letters to the editor to be an interesting gauge of community sentiment, which actually raises another question I have about the letters the Post publishes. Your page seems to give most of its letter space to "experts" - i.e. people with titles after their names. Why not more from everyday readers/residents, whose perspectives are equally interesting?
Fred Hiatt: Great question. I would like to publish more, and I agree they shouldn't all be from experts. Sometimes we're obliged to run letters from experts, ambassadors, etc., who've been mentioned in news stories or editorials and deserve a chance to reply. We have less space than the NYT in part because we run a cartoon six days a week. We do have the Free for All page on Saturdays which allows for some more reader response. But it would be good to have more.
Mexico City, Mexico: Which criteria do you use to use a piece from an international columnist about issues that concern both the U. S. and other nations?
Fred Hiatt: We consider them seriously. I like having opeds that give American readers a perspective from abroad that they may not get from American reporters, American TV, etc. On the other hand, those opeds have to compete for the same scarce space I mentioned earlier.
Washington, D.C.: I've noticed The Post has embraced blogs in a big way. Most seem to be opinion, not straight news, which I guess is what blogs everywhere tend to be. Some are on the left (Froomkin), some in the middle (the debate), but I haven't seen any that are consistently right-of-center. What do you think of the blogs on the site now (Achenblog, debate, etc.)? Do you read them? And are the any plans to add a conservative blog?
Fred Hiatt: I don't oversee this Web site--but I believe the people who do agree with your point and are in the process of looking for a right-of-center blog. I think it would be a good idea.
Princeton, N.J.: Fred, this is an old topic, but one that is still important. The Post ran a series of editorials on Social Security. They were all based on the premise that the middle projection of the Social Security Administration was gospel. A lot of economists have pointed out that this projection (as well as the CBO one) made assumptions that were essentially unknowable, e.g. the average growth in the GDP over the next 75 years would be 1.78%, and, in addition, made extremely conservative guesses for these assumptions. Also if you compare the record of the SSA's middle projection with its high projection, you see that the high one has been much more accurate. Why wouldn't The Post admit these editorials rest on a bed of sand?
Fred Hiatt: I'd be a fool to get into a LOL debate on Social Security, least of all with someone from Princeton! However I would say--we believe strongly that the aging of the population, combined with rising health care costs, are going to put a huge squeeze on the federal budget in coming years--to the detriment, if there's no entitlement reform, of national parks, aid to the poor and everything else we care about.
Belle View, Va.: Good Afternoon, Mr. Hiatt. I have been attempting to get a simple answer to a simple question from The Washington Post for many, many months, to no avail, so I will try again with you. Why does The Washington Post refuse to publish the names of the authors of your editorials? The Washington Post recently came down harshly on the posting of comments by anonymous contributors, and I see no difference in The Post's obsession with secrecy in editorial authorship. Even the Supreme Court lists it's member's votes, pro and con, why does the Post refuse to let it's readers know who has written it's editorials? Or are all of your writings based on a unanimous vote? Many thanks!
Fred Hiatt: We think there's value in having one column of opinions that speak for the newspaper--and the process of seeking consensus on our board, which I mentioned earlier, often leads to superior editorials. Often more than one person contributes by the time an editorial makes it into the paper.
Several of our editorial writers do also write columns under their own bylines.
Fairfax, Va.: Why is The Post's coverage of the Iraq war unbalanced. For example, why aren't we given more news coverage about the suffering and loss of life of Iraqi civilians and innocent children. Why the push for war and almost unquestioning acceptance of the administration's plans for war?
Fred Hiatt: I know many readers disagree with our stance on the Iraq war, which is fair enough, but I don't think it's right to say we've been unquestioning. We've been highly critical of much about the administration's plans and the way they've been carried out.
Falls Church, Va.: Mr. Hiatt--
I'm one of those baffled by the Post's reluctance to label Dana Milbank as a columnist. What is your view about that decision? And if he were to be officially designated a columnist, would he be welcome on the op ed page?
Fred Hiatt: Again, not my call. As a reader, I think Dana is trying to do something that no one else is doing, either in the news pages or on the oped pages--a sketch that can give you more of a feel, or a different feel, for Washington than news stories can, but not one based on opinion. I think they're often terrific.
Silver Spring, Md.: How many people are involved in the really big editorial decisions, like, say, which presidential candidate to endorse? Is it still just the members of the editorial board, or are there more voices involved?
Fred Hiatt: For big ones like that, the editorial board is involved, and so is the chairman of the company, my boss, Donald Graham.
West Springfield, Va.: When you print letters to the editors about a controversial story, how do you determine how many pro versus con letters you publish? Can a reader determine an approximate percentage of pro/con letters received at The Post by the number of such letters published?
Fred Hiatt: We do factor in the weight of reader opinions when we decide how many on which side to publish. But I'm more interested in publishing a range of different and interesting views than I am in providing a statistical sample.
Fairfax, Va.: Participants in The Post's LOL sessions often level the accusation of pro or anti-Bush bias against The Post's political coverage and its editorial comments. Have you ever looked back and added up the times over the last year The Post has sided with Bush and the times your editorials have opposed Bush? If so what's the score?
Fred Hiatt: I haven't done such a tally. We take seriously our claim to be an "Independent Newspaper," which means to me that we evaluate issues on their merits, regardless of which party or politician is supporting them. I know if you went back you'd find issues where we're closer to Bush (Dubai ports, say) and issues where we're highly critical (treatment of foreign detainees, say). A count wouldn't interest me particularly.
Washington, D.C.: For those not so well-established in the area, is there some sort of easy way (i.e. on the Web site) to find out basic background information about your regular columnists? I would be interested in what their experience is with the issues they write about.
Fred Hiatt: That's a good question. I believe there's some information here on washingtonpost.com. After the chat I'll go look at whether there should be more.
Vienna, Va.: Would the Post ever endorse more Republicans than Democrats in local and state elections?
Before every election you present your recommendations for state delegates and senators. Invariably, The Post selects nine Democrats for every Republican.
Why is this? And is it set in stone?
Fred Hiatt: Nothing is set in stone. There are many local Republicans we've happily supported over the years (Connie Morella in Md., for example, or Tom Davis in Virginia). Lately the Republican position on fiscal matters in the state of Virginia has been on the whole less compatible with ours than the Democratic position, and that tends to be a big factor in state delegate races.
Arlington, Va.: Has Don Graham considered raising his profile on the editorial page?
Fred Hiatt: Not that he's mentioned to me.
Washington, D.C.: Do you think the tendency for national newspapers to be labeled either liberal (NY Times) or conservative (WSJ) stems mostly from the types of things found on their op-ed pages or more from the ways in which they choose to cover what is found on the front page etc.? As an editor yourself, do you think any of these criticisms are valid?
Fred Hiatt: I think it's more from the positions they take in editorials and the columns they choose to run. I don't, for example, think that the WSJ news coverage reflects the conservative slant of its editorial board.
Winston Salem, N.C.: When do you feel that The Post will take accountability for its poor reporting before the Iraq invasion? Its influence is felt especially when the reporting is weak or incomplete.
When do you feel The Post will own up in its editorials in its mistake in supporting the war for the wrong reasons?
Fred Hiatt: I can't speak for the news side, but they have done pretty searching stories on themselves, in my judgment. As for editorials, we've acknowledged that we were mistaken in our assumptions about WMD, and we've written editorials about the implications of that intelligence failure, and we've written editorials along the way trying to explain to readers how we feel about the war as it's progressed, and why.
Munich, Germany: Is there any coordination done on the daily op-ed topics. I noticed today that there were pieces on the upcoming Russian hosted G8 meeting, the proposed fence between Mexico and the States and Global Warming (all great articles by the way).
Also, an opinion is an opinion, but who takes responsibility for the factual content of an op-ed piece? If something turns out to be falsely stated, then I assume that The Post will have egg on its face as well.
Fred Hiatt: Sometimes we try to run one or more opeds on the same topic. Certainly we try to run opeds that are topical--relevant to the news.
I'm ultimately responsible for the factual accuracy of what appears on either the editorial or the oped page. When there's a mistake, sometimes the columnist corrects it in a subsequent column, sometimes we run a correction.
Washington, D.C.: Do you ever miss being a news reporter, and do you see yourself leaving your current job anytime soon?
Fred Hiatt: I miss the part of being a news reporter that involved a lot of getting out--particularly to foreign countries. But you might be surprised how much reporting is involved in the writing of every editorial, so that part of the job really has continued.
I hope to keep the job for a while.
Washington, D.C.: Re: endorsements of local candidates.
It's sad that one of the only two Republicans you could think of was Connie Morella. She was a Republican in name only.
Specifically, what is it about Republicans' fiscal positions that dissuade you from endorsing them? Or is it really something else?
Fred Hiatt: She's not the only one I can think of. She's just one whom I admired. And who got gerrymandered out of her job by Democrats in a way I thought was unfortunate.
As to the fiscal question: It's no secret that as an editorial page we believed that the tax-cutting agenda of the two previous Republican governors diminished the state's ability to do things (in schools, roads, universities, health care) that we think a state should do; and that we've supported the agenda of the subsequent two Democratic governors to correct that. That's no excuse; it's a fundamental issue.
Miami, Fla.: The Post has carefully returned its position on Iraq but my feeling is that it hasn't fully come clean as the NYTimes has on its mistakes. I feel you still are trying to justify the earlier mistaken editorial positions whenever possible.
Fred Hiatt: We have felt strongly that, whether invading Iraq was right or not, the country would be wrong to pull out as long as there's a chance to achieve something that would benefit the Iraqi people and U.S. national security.
Silver Spring, Md.: You wrote that you are ultimately responsible for the facts presented on the editorial and op-ed pages. How long before press-time do you get the op-eds? How big a staff do you have to fact check op-eds before they go out? Printing corrections is a different from stopping factual errors before they are printed, as you know.
Fred Hiatt: Yes, that's for sure. Fortunately I have a copy desk chief and three full time copy editors who are terrific at their jobs (Vince Rinehart, Gina Acosta, Autumn Brewington and Tom Rowe). They catch a lot of mistakes before publication. And while sometimes we have plenty of time--an oped that we accept days before we can use it--a lot of times they're working on pretty tight deadlines.
Washington, D.C.: They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I think that might be an understatement in regards to Tom Toles's work.
What disturbs me is that Toles's pictures uniformly bash Republicans. Where is the balance?
Fred Hiatt: Actually, a week or two ago he had a pretty devastating one centering on a donkey, as I recall. Mostly it's true he goes after the party in power--but I think that's what good cartoonists tend to do.
Lake Forest, Calif.: Good morning....Congratulations!! Your typing abilities are way faster than those guys over in the News. Sometimes there are such long periods between questions/comments that I think they are finished and forgot to say good-bye.
Fred Hiatt: Good typist--maybe that's why I got this job.
I am curious about the perceived importance or impact of editorials by any paper. I confess that for some reason I enjoy reading by-lined columnists regularly, but only occasionally read an unsigned editorial, perhaps because they often seem as if they are written by committee and lack personality. In its readership surveys, are editorials widely read or generally not read by your readers, and do you think they actually have any impact on public opinion or public policy? Thanks.
Fred Hiatt: We try to write our editorials in a way that every reader might want to read them. I know we don't always succeed. As to impact--it really varies. These days there are so many sources of opinion, in so many different media, that no one voice is likely to be dispositive. And that's ok by me. We want to be one responsible, thought-provoking, thoughtful, sometimes passionate voice. But we're just one.
Burke, Va.: I'd love to see more editorial writers do this type of Web question and answers. It'd be really informative.
Fred Hiatt: I'll propose that. I'm sure some would like to, after all that anonymous toil.
Vienna, Va.: Mr. Hiatt--the ombudsman mentions often that The Post's news room and editorial staff are firewalled off from each other. What does that mean and how does it work? Thank you!
Fred Hiatt: It means that I oversee my (little) staff, and executive editor Len Downie oversees his (gigantic) staff, and while we are very friendly we don't talk to each other about what we have published or plan to publish. His reporters covering the presidential race, for example, have no idea whom we will endorse, or when, and no influence over that decision.
Burke, Va.: A few things - I would like more loud and proud liberal commentators, in addition to the centrist ones you have.
I'd love to see your conservative columnists do one of these online things.
I'd like to see more and better fact-checking and sourcing. I know this are opinions, but they should always be anchored in facts.
Fred Hiatt: I tend to find that our more liberal readers think we carry only conservative and centrist columnists, and our more conservative readers think we carry only liberal and centrist columnists, and naturally I think we have a pretty good range.
As to getting one of the conservatives on line--good idea, I can't see why one wouldn't want to.
Washington, D.C.: Re: Mr. Toles' slant
You wrote: "Mostly it's true he goes after the party in power--but I think that's what good cartoonists tend to do."
If a Democrat wins the presidency in 2008, are you saying that we can expect Toles to treat the new president the same as he mistreats Bush? This might be worth renewing my subscription...
Fred Hiatt: I think if you asked Bill Clinton that question, based on Tom's work in the 1990s, he would probably answer yes.
I think you ought to renew your subscription now. Just in case. Then you'll be ready.
Madison, Wis.: Why doesn't any of the columnists (besides the guest columnist Ambassador Richard Holbrooke) take up HIV/AIDS related issues? The number of new cases each year has stayed at 40,000 despite the fact that we know a lot more now that we used to about the disease. More locally, HIV/AIDS policy-- prevention, awareness, education, programs etc. in the District is abysmal at best. As The Post reported, D.C. has the highest rate of new cases in a metropolitan city. It begs the question, what's more important--writing about what the president and when about Hurricane Katrina (conjecture and the blame game day after day) or this largely ignored epidemic in the U.S.? The intelligent people who read the op-ed section need to know what's going on!
Fred Hiatt: I don't disagree. I would say that there are a lot of really urgent issues--including Katrina and whether the nation is prepared to respond to another emergency--and it's hard to find room for them all. We have written lots of editorials about AIDS in Africa and the need to do more to help people there.
Washington, D.C.: An interesting question for you, from someone who reads the opinion section daily and has also submitted things on behalf of clients.
Several times, I've found that an op-ed was received positively when submitted directly by the writer, be it a corporate leader, government leader (Governor/Senator-type), etc. However, when my public affairs firm has submitted a piece on behalf of these types on an equally relevant, interesting, engaging topic, it has been rejected.
I'm wondering if that's a matter of practice, and also, if there's a reason that pieces seem to be treated differently. I can think of one recent example in which we submitted something on behalf of a major political leader, simply because it was easier for us to send it in directly, on a timely topic that the White House had addressed recently and that has received coverage in major papers, but not The Post. And the Post editorial staff gave us a refusal that sounded as if it had not even been read.
Fred Hiatt: I don't think we discriminate against PR firms, but we don't discriminate in favor of them either; I always try to tell people that their chances of getting published are not improved by hiring an intermediary.
As to your recent experience--I'm sorry if we sounded peremptory. But I can be pretty sure the piece had been read.
Fred Hiatt: Thanks for all the questions. Sorry I didn't get to them all. And thanks for reading the paper!
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.
| 121.829268 | 0.731707 | 1.170732 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/01/DI2006030101902.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/01/DI2006030101902.html
|
PostSecret Live
|
2006030919
|
In November 2004, as part of an art project, Warren distributed 3,000 self-addressed postcards to the public. The cards instructed people to tell Warren a secret they'd never shared with anyone and send it back to him. Warren displayed the submissions he'd received in the art exhibit, but he kept receiving secrets -- so he created the weekly updated PostSecret blog to display more.
To date, the Maryland resident has received about 20,000 cards and continues to hold temporary exhibits of the cards. "PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives," a collection of secrets Warren has received, was released in November 2005.
Washington, D.C.: I am sure that some of the "secrets" published by PostSecret are fictional, especially now that the project is highly visible. What do you think? If you agree, how do you think that affects the integrity of the project? Speaking only for one viewer -- myself, I need to believe that the secrets are real in order to feel satisfied. Thanks.
Frank Warren: Hi, I am Frank. This is the first time I have participated in this type of discussion so please be patient if I make some mistakes or am confused at times. And please pardon the misspelling (grin).
Miami, Fla.: Hi, Frank -- Thanks for making PostSecret so amazing. I read it every Sunday and have sent in a card myself. I'm wondering what your favorite part of the recent exhibits has been. Is there a moment or a reaction from someone that sticks out in your mind? Something that made an impression on you?
The book is wonderful. Really, I can't thank you enough for starting this outlet and for keeping it so vibrant and available.
Frank Warren: The issue of veracity comes up often with the project.
I never select secrets to publish or post that do not feel real to me. I like to think of the secrets/postcards as works of art or literature, and as such do not view them as true or false.
Someone once e-mailed me and said, "Even if the secret is not true for the person mailing it, it might be real for dozens of others who read it."
Washington, D.C.: Hi Frank, I really enjoy reading the updated PostSecrets on Sundays. How many postcards do you receive on average a week? Thanks.
Frank Warren: I have received a over 25,000 postcards in 14 months. I get between 100 and 200 every day.
College Park, Md.: What was the first PostSecret you ever received?
Frank Warren: I lost one of the first postcard I remember. Two shopping lists were written on the card and the person had written in the corner, "I am struggling to deal with what I have become."
(Secretly, I think my wife threw it away, thinking it was one of our old shopping list.)
New Market, Md.: I know a lot of these cards have really affected me or my friends -- what's been some of the most meaningful to you?
Frank Warren: Several have made a lasting impression on me.
One came on the back of a photograph of some items tucked into the corner of a bedroom mirror. It read, "I steal small things from my friends to keep memories of how much I love them."
Germantown, Md.: Why is there stuff for a hotline on your blog?
Frank Warren: While I do not think that there is a direct connection between suicide and secrets, I wanted to connect the project with a charity I believed in.
Suicide has effected me personally and I actually volunteer on that hotline, so I know the good work they do.
Maybe suicide is America's secret. Twice as many people kill themselves than are killed by others -- but you would never know that by watching the nightly news.
College Park, Md.: I've seen the All-American Rejects video and thought it was awesome. How did they get the idea? Did they contact you? Are they fans of the site?
Frank Warren: The producer of the video contacted me and offered $1,000 to use the PostSecret images in the video. I suggested that they instead make a $2,000 donation to 1-800-SUICIDE. They did, and I provided them with 100 images for the video.
Four weeks ago, I believe "Dirty Little Secret" was the most downloaded song on the Internet.
Arlington, Va.: Why did you start doing PostSecret? Like, I know it was an art project, but what made you think of it?
Frank Warren: I don't know why I started it.
Maybe it was because growing up my family kept things from me and that always stayed with me.
Maybe it was driven by secrets in my own life that were pushing for reconciliation below my own awareness.
Maybe I just wanted so see if others had a rich interior life like I knew I had.
I think all of these were motives, but I am also sure I really don't know. After all, I have no artistic background or experience. I feel like an "accidental artist," like this project found me.
Washington, D.C.: How big has your book been?
Frank Warren: The book is doing very well. First, I consider it an artistic success, which was important for me because I feel like I am representing everyone who trusted me with their secrets.
Second, it is on the New York Times extended Best-Seller List -- so commercially it is doing well, too. So I might be sharing more secrets in book form.
College Park, Md.: I went to the exhibit in Baltimore last month and thought it was great. How many exhibits have you done, and where? Are you gonna do another one soon?
Frank Warren: I have done four exhibits and am looking to do more.
Washington, D.C.: Your mailman (or mailwoman) must loooove you!
Frank Warren: My mailwoman loves the project but there are people at the post office who hate me (grin).
College Park, Md.: Have you ever spoken or met with anyone who has sent a postcard to you?
Frank Warren: At exhibits and signings, people who have mailed in secrets do come up and introduce themselves. I also hear from people who tell me about how other people's secrets have changed them.
My next book signing in the area will be at the Vienna Borders this Tuesday.
Falls Church, Va.: The book is great -- did you decide to do it because we've wanted to see more of the cards, or did someone approach you with the idea?
Frank Warren: Early on, the blog received a lot of attention online. I was contacted by both literary agents and publishers about a book.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: I just want to commend you on this project. I absolutely LOVE it. I am still haunted by one of the first ones I read: "Everyone who knew me before Sept. 11 thinks I'm dead." Wow.
Frank Warren: Thank you. I often feel guilty because I receive praise for the project, but it is really the poignant and powerful voices speaking through the postcards that are so extraordinary.
Arlington, Va.: At the exhibit, I was struck by the fact that you don't use a P.O. box. Have you had any issues with having your street address released to the world?
Frank Warren: My home address is on the book and on the Web site. I feel that people are taking a risk by mailing me their secrets, so I wanted to take that first vulnerable step by sharing my home address. I feel like I have a relationship of trust with these strangers. And that trust has never been violated.
Silver Spring, Md.: Have you ever received international cards?
Arlington, Va.: I saw your exhibit in Georgetown and found it thought-provoking. Is the artwork on the postcards all done by the senders, or do you add it?
Frank Warren: The artwork you see on the cards at exhibits is exactly as it appears when they arrive in my mailbox. Of course, for the Web site and the book, I sometimes have to edit out identifying information or crop out a company logo. This happens maybe 2 percent of the time.
Washington, D.C.: Are there any particular secrets that seem to come up over and over again as you read through the cards?
Frank Warren: The all-time most common secret is, "I pee in the shower."
Reston, Va.: Thank you for your art -- there is a secret this week that could have come from me. It finally gave words to a wordless fear of dying I have felt all my life.
I may be able to get the answer to this from the blog, but can't access the blog right now. Is there a mailing list or anything that I can receive updates about book signings and exhibits? I would have loved to gone to the exhibit if I had known about it.
Frank Warren: I try to post all forthcoming exhibits and signings on the Web site, http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/.
Baltimore, Md.: Thank you so much for your site. There is a genuine pathos there that really connects with me. My son reads your site each week, too and we've talked about many of the cards. I have one that is ready to go and I'm going to send it out any day. It falls into the more comedic category though and I think people will identify with it. Please keep the site going; we look forward to reading the new cards each week.
Frank Warren: My favorite cards are the ones that make me laugh or express an optimistic secret. One in the book reads, "I put quarters into other peoples parking meters."
More than once, I have heard that world-opening discussions between parents and children have occurred by visiting the Web site or reading the book together.
In my own family, when I was driving my father to the airport after the Georgetown exhibit, he turned to me and said, "Frank, do you want to hear my secret?"
Foggy Bottom, D.C.: What do you do with all of the cards you receive?
Frank Warren: I keep them all in a secure location. I even keep many of the envelopes.
Logan Circle: I found the Georgetown exhibit extremely poignant -- walked out feeling an very sensitive to the weight shame holds on each of us. Certainly there are different degrees, but so many of these secrets come from shame that can be one giant burden, thousands of little pebbles, or a straitjacket ...
Frank Warren: I like to think that, by seeing the hidden burdens others are carrying, it makes our own a little lighter. My experience has also been that, by sharing these intimate private views into other people's lives, I have more understanding and compassion for strangers ... and myself.
College Park, Md.: How did you choose the secrets for your book? Was there something that set them apart from all the others?
Frank Warren: Picking the secrets for the book was very difficult, partly because I always try to treat the secrets in a non-judgmental way.
I tried to pick postcards that were representative of all the cards I get. I also picked a large variety. And sometimes I included cards that just would not leave me alone until I included them. (I know that sounds weird but I do not know how else to describe it.)
Lastly, I tried to arrange the cards as if I were telling a story. I wanted the secrets to be a narrative.
Frank Warren: Thank you for your questions and interest in the PostSecret project. And, of course, I am still accepting secrets. Bye.
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.
| 58.463415 | 0.585366 | 0.682927 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701202.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701202.html
|
Build a Fence -- And Amnesty
|
2006030919
|
It's time to build a real fence or a wall along every foot of the 1,989 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border. There can be only two arguments against this approach to keeping out illegal immigrants: (1) it won't work -- possible, but we won't know unless we try; or (2) we don't want it to work -- then, we should say so and open our borders to anyone but criminals and terrorists. Either way, we need more candor in our immigration debates. Now is the time, because Congress is considering its first major immigration legislation in years.
In 2005 the Border Patrol stopped 1.19 million people trying to enter the United States illegally; 98.5 percent of them were caught along the southern border. Of those who got through and stayed (crude estimate: some 500,000 annually), about two-thirds lack a high school education. Even a country as accepting of newcomers as the United States cannot effortlessly absorb infinite numbers of poor and unskilled workers. Legal immigration totals 750,000 to 1 million people annually, many of them also unskilled.
I do not like advocating a fence. It looks and feels bad. It's easily stigmatized as racist. It would antagonize Mexico. The imagery is appalling, but it beats the alternative: a growing underclass and social tensions. Moreover, a genuine fence would probably work. The construction of about 10 miles of steel and concrete barriers up to 15 feet high in San Diego has reduced illegal crossings in that sector by about 95 percent since 1992, reports Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a supporter of a U.S.-Mexico fence. Sure, there will be tunnels and ladders. But getting in will be harder. Policing will be easier.
We also need to stiffen employer fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Businesses should have to check prospective workers against computer databases with Social Security numbers, passports or immigration documents. Now employers only have to inspect physical documents, which are easily forged. Even these lax rules are widely flouted and poorly policed. In 2004 the Department of Homeland Security cited only three employers for possible violations, says the Government Accountability Office. With an estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States, that's mighty slim.
Fewer jobs and genuine border control ought to curb illegal immigration. Good. Naturally, there's another point of view. It is that the United States needs more unskilled workers to fill jobs native-born Americans won't take. One solution is to admit more unskilled workers legally. By this view, Hispanics are assimilating economically and culturally as fast as some groups in the past.
Perhaps. But common sense and available evidence suggest skepticism. If there are "shortages" of unskilled American workers, the obvious remedy is to raise their wages. A Texas roofing contractor testified to Congress that he couldn't get enough roofers at $9 an hour. Okay, increase it to $10 or $12. Higher wages will bring forth more workers. Perish the thought. Business groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, clamor for more guest workers. That's a euphemism for cheap labor. These business groups seem unperturbed by extravagant increases in chief executives' pay. But they're horrified by anything that might raise the wages of maids, waitresses, laborers or gardeners.
As for assimilation, it's true that millions of Hispanic families are moving into -- and reshaping -- the American mainstream. But average trends look less encouraging. Since 1990 about 90 percent of the increase in people living below the government's poverty lines has come among Hispanics. That has to be mainly immigrants and their U.S.-born children. In a report, the Pew Hispanic Center notes:
· Residential segregation is increasing. In 2000, 43 percent of Hispanics lived in neighborhoods with Hispanic majorities, up from 39 percent in 1990.
· The median net worth of Hispanic households is about 9 percent of that of non-Hispanic whites (net worth is what people own minus what they owe).
· Only about a quarter of Hispanic college students graduate compared with about half for non-Hispanic whites.
Assimilation takes time. The big difference between today's Hispanic inflows and past immigration waves is that those stopped. History or restrictive laws intervened. There was time for newcomers to adapt. Left alone, there's no obvious reason why the present Hispanic immigration should even pause. Today's unskilled arrivals make it harder for yesterday's to get ahead. The two compete. In 2004 the already-low median wages for foreign-born Hispanics dropped 1.6 percent, reports Rakesh Kochhar of the Pew Center.
There's a paradox. To make immigration succeed, we need to curb some immigration. That's why it's vital to control our border. It also explains why it's important not to "solve" that problem merely by legalizing these huge inflows. Unfortunately, the legislation being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee would do precisely that. Among other things, it would create a virtually open-ended guest worker program.
If we control new inflows, we should legalize the illegal immigrants already here. Many have American-born children, who are U.S. citizens. It is not desirable or ethical to force most illegal immigrants to leave. Yes, they broke the law, but we were complicit by making the law so easy to break. Their present shadowy status deprives them of rights and exposes them to exploitation. We should want the melting pot to work -- and fear that it might come to a boil.
|
It's time to build a real fence along every foot of the U.S.-Mexican border. The alternative: a growing underclass and social tensions.
| 38.464286 | 1 | 7.642857 |
high
|
high
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701201.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701201.html
|
Professors of Pretense
|
2006030919
|
The institutional vanity and intellectual slovenliness of America's campus-based intelligentsia have made academia more peripheral to civic life than at any time since the 19th century. On Monday its place at the periphery was underscored as the Supreme Court unanimously gave short shrift to some law professors who insisted that their First Amendment rights to free speech and association were violated by the law requiring that military recruiters be allowed to speak to the professors' students if the professors' schools receive federal money.
Many schools that disapprove of the congressionally mandated "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prevents openly gay people from serving in the military have barred military recruiters from the same access to students that is granted to other employers. This provoked Congress to pass a law denying federal funds -- institutions of higher education receive about $35 billion annually -- to any school discriminating in that way against the military. The law exempts any institution with "a longstanding policy of pacifism based on historical religious affiliation."
Thirty-six law schools and faculties challenged the constitutionality of the law on the grounds that "forced hosting" of military recruiters constitutes a "crisis of conscience" over compelled speech. They said they are compelled to communicate the false message that they support the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and their hosting also subsidizes the military's expression of its view that openly gay persons are not suited for service.
(Do those professors object to public financing of political campaigns, which compels taxpayers to subsidize political speech they oppose? Don't ask.) Monday's opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who, during last December's oral argument, blandly said of the schools' desire to discriminate against the military, "You are perfectly free to do that, if you don't take the money." On Monday Roberts's shredding of the law schools' arguments included a tartness that betrayed impatience with law professors who cannot understand pertinent distinctions.
The court has held that "judicial deference . . . is at its apogee" when Congress legislates under its enumerated power to raise and support armies, so Congress could have mandated access for military recruiters rather than doing so "indirectly" with incentives -- conditioning spending on recruiters' access. And the law at issue, Roberts said, "regulates conduct, not speech. It affects what law schools must do -- afford equal access to military recruiters -- not what they may or may not say."
Suppose, Roberts wrote, an individual announced that he intended to express disapproval of the Internal Revenue Service by refusing to pay taxes. That would not mean that the tax code violates the First Amendment. The court has held that freedom of speech prohibits government from telling people what they must say -- that schoolchildren must salute the flag or that New Hampshire motorists must display the state motto, "Live Free or Die," on their license plates. But those cases concerned government dictating the content of speech, which the law concerning recruiters' access to law school students does not.
The court has held that state law cannot compel a parade -- which is a form of expression, not mere motion -- to include a group whose message the parade's organizer does not want to express. Similarly, the court has held that compelling the Boy Scouts, an "expressive association," to accept a homosexual scoutmaster would "significantly affect" the Scouts' right of expression. But the law schools are in no way inhibited from -- or bashful about -- proclaiming their message of disapproval about "don't ask, don't tell."
"Accommodating the military's message," Roberts wrote, "does not affect the law schools' speech, because the schools are not speaking when they host interviews and recruiting receptions. Unlike a parade organizer's choice of parade contingents, a law school's decision to allow recruiters on campus is not inherently expressive."
Recruiters are obviously not components of law schools; they are outsiders on brief visits for a limited purpose. "Nothing about recruiting," Roberts wrote, "suggests that law schools agree with any speech by recruiters." Besides, "We have held that high school students can appreciate the difference between speech a school sponsors and speech the school permits because legally required to do so, pursuant to an equal access policy." Then, Roberts's tartness: "Surely students have not lost that ability by the time they get to law school."
The law schools and faculties earned that sip of the chief justice's vinegar by bringing this case to court. The professors deserved -- no, let us just say they needed -- better legal advice than they were able to give themselves.
|
The institutional vanity and intellectual slovenliness of America's campus-based intelligentsia have made academia more peripheral to civic life than at any time since the 19th century. On Monday its place at the periphery was underscored by the Supreme Court.
| 20.133333 | 0.955556 | 34.022222 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701524.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701524.html
|
At Long Last, a D.C. Stadium Deal
|
2006030919
|
After 18 months of frustration, mistrust and divisive debate, the D.C. Council sealed a deal to build a baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in Southeast last night, guaranteeing the Washington Nationals a permanent home in the nation's capital.
By a vote of 9 to 4, the council approved a construction contract for a state-of-the-art stadium with a contemporary glass-and-stone facade, seats for 41,000 fans and a view of the U.S. Capitol. The council also voted 9 to 4 to reaffirm its demand that public spending on the project be limited to $611 million.
VIDEO | Nationals Spring Training
Major League Baseball accepted that condition Sunday, clearing the way for the council's action. Under the contract, the team of Clark-Hunt-Smoot will take responsibility for keeping much of the project within budget.
The votes were the final actions needed to satisfy the terms of a deal struck in September 2004 to bring the former Montreal Expos to Washington and return the national pastime to the federal city after an absence of 33 years.
"This is a great day in Washington history because it means baseball is going to stay in Washington, D.C., for generations to come," said Bill Hall, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission's baseball committee. "After this, it's full steam ahead."
After watching the council repeatedly take last-minute action that threatened to derail the deal, baseball's highest officials monitored yesterday's session with queasy anticipation.
"We are gratified that we can move forward in making Washington the permanent and successful home of the Nationals," said MLB President Robert A. DuPuy from Orlando, where he was attending the World Baseball Classic. DuPuy thanked Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D) and other baseball boosters on the council for "bringing this to fruition."
DuPuy declined to set a date for selling the team to one of eight groups of private investors, each of which has agreed to pay $450 million for the franchise. But DuPuy said the council's actions "will make it possible for [Commissioner Bud Selig] to move promptly."
Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said he expects MLB, which owns the team, to name a new owner by April 15.
On both votes, Evans was among the nine-member majority that voted reluctantly for the baseball bills, approving one of the most generous public stadium deals ever. The others were Cropp, Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5), Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6), Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) and Marion Barry (D-Ward 8).
"This is nothing we should put our chest in the air [about] and say we created the best deal for the residents of the District of Columbia," Brown said. "But we probably couldn't have done any better. It was this or zero."
Council members Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), David A. Catania (I-At Large), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) voted no.
|
The D.C. Council approves a deal to build a ballpark on the Anacostia waterfront, guaranteeing the Nationals a permanent home.
| 29.727273 | 0.863636 | 2.954545 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701500.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/07/AR2006030701500.html
|
DeLay Wins Tex. GOP Primary
|
2006030919
|
AUSTIN, March 7 -- Rep. Tom DeLay, facing an unusual four-way Republican primary, won the party's nomination Tuesday, calling his victory a rejection by voters of "the politics of personal destruction."
"I have always placed my faith in the voters, and today's vote shows they have placed their full faith in me," DeLay, 58, said in a statement issued by his reelection campaign.
"Democrat attacks and the politics of personal destruction were heavily used by my opponents in this Republican primary, and they were rejected just like they will be in November," he said.
The 11-term congressman, who voted in his suburban Houston district Tuesday morning and greeted voters at several polls, spent the rest of the day in Washington, voting to renew the USA Patriot Act in the late afternoon and attending an evening fundraiser held by two Capitol Hill lobbyists. The event raised money for DeLay's reelection campaign -- a race that will pit him against Nick Lampson, a former congressman. Lampson had no opponent in Tuesday's Democratic primary.
With 86 percent of the 216 precincts reporting in congressional District 22, which includes all of Fort Bend County and part of three other Houston-area counties, DeLay had 62 percent of the votes, allowing him to win the GOP nomination outright without a runoff. His closest GOP opponent, Tom Campbell, had 30 percent, followed by Mike Fjetland with 4.7 percent and Pat Baig with 3.3 percent.
DeLay -- under criminal indictment on a money-laundering charge; rebuked three times by the House ethics committee; and linked to former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to political corruption charges -- faced his toughest primary race in his 22-year congressional career. Although he spent about $2 million, DeLay ran a low-profile primary campaign, focusing on reaching the most dedicated voters through direct-mail pitches and phone calls. He did not run any radio or television ads, reflecting the campaign's belief that they would heighten the profile of the GOP primary and bring out anti-DeLay voters.
But Tuesday night, the tenor of DeLay's campaign changed dramatically.
"I'm honored . . . to defend this district from the funding and activism of America's most radical Democrats," he said. "Liberal activists like Barbra Streisand, George Soros and Nancy Pelosi all have a dog in this fight, and his name is Nick Lampson."
DeLay and Lampson begin the battle for the November general election virtually tied for cash on hand. According to campaign finance reports filed in mid-February, DeLay had $1.3 million in the bank to Lampson's $1.4 million. According to a Houston Chronicle poll taken in early January, Lampson also had a lead over DeLay of eight percentage points.
District 22 is now also more Democratic by DeLay's own making. Under a 2003 redistricting plan that he guided and that the Texas legislature passed, DeLay agreed to surrender GOP voters to bolster some other congressional districts in Texas and get more Republicans elected to Congress. That redistricting plan ultimately led to DeLay's legal and ethical problems in Austin and Washington.
Lampson, who represented Beaumont and parts of East Texas in Congress, was ousted from office in 2004 under the new redistricting map. He moved into District 22 last year and soon began his campaign against DeLay. Sailing to the Democratic nomination, Lampson ended primary day swinging, too.
DeLay "gets headlines for all the wrong reasons," Lampson said, according to the Associated Press. "I'm looking forward to that headline on November 8th: 'No Further DeLay.' "
|
AUSTIN, March 7 -- Rep. Tom DeLay, facing an unusual four-way Republican primary, won the party's nomination Tuesday, calling his victory a rejection by voters of "the politics of personal destruction."
| 17.097561 | 1 | 41 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601896.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601896.html
|
Beware Red Ink On the Runway
|
2006030919
|
PARIS, March 6 -- Fashion designers deliver amazing accomplishments when faced with an ultimatum.
Two years ago, after Robert Polet became chairman of Gucci Group, he told designers of the corporation's smaller brands that they had to be on the road to profitability by 2007 -- or else. Polet didn't say precisely what would happen to Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Yves Saint Laurent if they didn't stop hemorrhaging money. But his meaning was clear.
Under the leadership of Domenico de Sole and Tom Ford, Gucci Group had acquired a host of brands, most notably Yves Saint Laurent. Those acquisitions were a strain on the parent company, which maintained financial stability thanks to the steady sales of Gucci handbags and shoes. But after Ford left two years ago, the signature brand was having its own troubles -- hiring, firing and promoting designers in a series of moves to find his replacement. The smaller brands needed to prove their viability.
If the merchandise on the runway is any indication, the threat of unemployment seems to be working -- at least for the most part. Designer Tomas Maier transformed Bottega Veneta into a profitable brand known for exquisite handbags crafted from woven leather, matte crocodile and snakeskin. Maier's ready-to-wear, which he showed last month in Milan, is streamlined, artful and speaks of personal indulgence and wealth with dignified subtlety and grace. Last week in Paris, the company opened a new Bottega Veneta boutique on the swanky Avenue Montaigne and editors, admirers and Polet turned out to toast the brand.
Designer Nicolas Ghesquiere showed a stellar fall collection for Balenciaga last week -- one that followed a breathtaking presentation for spring. With the help of its popular handbags, as well as a small specialty collection of trousers and one of reworked vintage designs, Balenciaga appears positioned to meet Polet's deadline. The brand has benefited from significant attention in Paris. There is an exhibition showing now that examines the relationship between Cristobal Balenciaga and an American client, the socialite Mona Bismarck. And in July, another one will open celebrating the house's history.
Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney
The other members of Gucci Group have been more troublesome. Since taking over at Yves Saint Laurent, designer Stefano Pilati has created a series of iconic accessories, including a platform loafer that is more expensive clodhopper than elegant footwear. But he struggles to strike a balance between femininity and feminism -- a dichotomy for which the brand is so famous and revered. Pilati has alternately overwhelmed his mannequins with ruffles, oppressed them with religious references and offered fussy collections that would require a valet, a driver and a manservant before they could be deemed manageable.
He showed the fall collection in the Centre Pompidou. In what was seemingly a bid to win a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest runway, he sent his models down a narrow corridor that could easily have spanned several time zones. One felt like offering the models a Gatorade or Powerbar to keep them fueled for the marathon promenade. The walls and floor were painted a stomach-churning shade of pink that at worst was the color of Pepto-Bismol, at best the same hue as a wad of Bazooka and most definitely was not the pink made famous by Saint Laurent himself. From the start, Pilati had a lot to overcome.
It is his most streamlined collection so far. And that is good. His silhouettes are subdued but he maintains volume in his skirts, emphasizing the roundness of a woman's hips without broadening their girth. His use of ruffles is reduced to a few flounces at the collar of a blouse. And his embellishments are more judicious, as with gold piping on a coat, patent leather trim on a jacket or a wide belt with a bow that emphasizes the waist. The collection considers the needs of a professional woman, with its color palette of charcoal gray and black and with its abundance of trousers.
But there is something almost too minimal about the collection. At times, it called to mind the sensibility of New York designer Donna Karan, who has built her brand on the urban rhythms of her home town. That is a compelling aesthetic, but YSL has always epitomized the French ideal. If that goes missing, then the brand has lost its spirit, its history, its raison d'etre. Pilati still hasn't found a way to interpret that aesthetic in contemporary terms. And the brand is still not profitable.
Designer Stella McCartney has struggled to find her bearings since she became part of Gucci in 2001. McCartney always cut a sexy pantsuit, but that hasn't been enough to build a collection. She understands the sensibility and lifestyle of her customer -- a young woman who looks for sex appeal in her clothes but also has a yen for vintage and has a mix-and-match manner of assembling an ensemble. But McCartney has had difficulty expressing that mood in wool and silk.
Watching her grapple with these hurdles has been frustrating, in no small part because the problem isn't a lack of talent but something more inexplicable. A lack of focus? Too much pressure? An inability to read the fashion tea leaves? With an eye toward the bottom line, McCartney has recently created a limited edition collection for the Swedish mass marketer H&M and signed a deal to create sportswear and workout gear for Adidas.
In her signature collection for fall, McCartney showed off her skill and reiterated the potential of her company. She kept her oversize silhouettes under control so they didn't billow out and swallow the models. Her dresses had a breezy quality to them but also revealed a sure hand through their subtle details. The fit of the clothes was better than it has been in the past. And there was a cohesiveness to the collection that left one feeling that a designer was in control and that what was on the runway was a vision and not merely happenstance.
|
PARIS, March 6 -- Fashion designers deliver amazing accomplishments when faced with an ultimatum. The other members of Gucci Group have been more troublesome. Since taking over at Yves Saint Laurent, designer Stefano Pilati has created a series of iconic accessories, including a platform... Alber...
| 21.826923 | 0.942308 | 25.865385 |
medium
|
medium
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601593.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601593.html
|
The Face That Helped Alter Nation's Flu Policy
|
2006030919
|
As he waited his turn at the microphone, in an Atlanta auditorium filled with doctors and scientists, Gary Stein wondered whether what he had to say would make much difference. These were the experts, he realized, the people who spend a lifetime studying viruses and vaccines. They already knew all the facts, the statistics.
Still, they didn't know 4-year-old Jessica.
So Stein began talking, as a father who once had a little girl with hair the color and shimmer of champagne, a child who loved dress-up and Barbies and who was as healthy as they come until the day in January 2002 when she caught the flu. Less than 72 hours later, she was dead. Stein thought he could get through the main points of his remarks without stumbling. But as he stood before the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, explaining how his Falls Church family had been devastated, he choked up.
"Nothing and no one will ever fill the void left by Jessica," Stein told the gathering.
"It hit me pretty hard," he admitted later. It may have hit the experts hard, too.
The next morning, the 15-member committee voted for a surprise revision in national policy: It unanimously recommended that starting this fall, all children between 2 and 5 years old be vaccinated annually against influenza.
The previous recommendation only advised flu shots for children ages 6 months to 23 months and those 6 months and older with chronic illnesses. As long as they are generally healthy, children older than toddlers tend to just get sick from the flu. They go to doctor's offices or outpatient clinics but are seldom admitted to the hospital.
Children still suffer a "substantial" amount of influenza, however, said Raymond A. Strikas, an associate director at the National Immunization Program, which is part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And that was the major impetus for the committee's decision late last month. Its expanded coverage even includes parents and older siblings, because they also suffer by getting sick themselves or taking time off work to care for ailing youngsters.
All told, nearly 17 million additional people now will be urged to get protection against the flu, bringing the total to more than 120 million men, women and children across the United States.
"We're saying, 'This is the standard of care,' " Strikas said. "This is what you should be doing."
For Jessica Stein's parents, the new recommendation brings some comfort.
"If there are other kids that will get vaccinated," explained Doris Stein, the words hanging in the air without elaboration. The inference was clear: Other parents won't have to bury a child.
|
Get Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia news. Includes news headlines from The Washington Post. Get info/values for Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia homes. Features schools, crime, government, traffic, lottery, religion, obituaries.
| 11.586957 | 0.434783 | 0.478261 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601071.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601071.html
|
Opportunities Await
|
2006030919
|
LaVar Arrington sat in his Annapolis home yesterday afternoon, tending to his baby daughter after a lengthy workout and contemplating an uncertain future after parting with the only pro football team to ever employ him. Arrington, one of the most popular players in recent Washington Redskins history, was having conflicting emotions after being granted free agency after six seasons.
The deal, which was finalized just before midnight Sunday, required Arrington to forfeit $4.4 million in deferred signing bonus payments, according to sources who have reviewed the paperwork. That will now count as a credit on Washington's 2006 salary cap. In exchange, Arrington, 27, is able to sign elsewhere after two tumultuous seasons in which it became clear that he would not have a long-term future with the Redskins.
"The one thing that disheartens me the most about my experience here is basically how everybody tries to cast a negative light on everything," Arrington said in a phone interview. "Why not focus on the positive of what this whole situation has brought about? The positive is the Redskins and myself had some difficult times together; I've pushed through them and [the] Redskins have pushed through them, but we've come to a point where it's time to go our separate ways, and there's nothing horribly wrong with that. They have an opportunity now to get more cap room, and re-sign some guys I really love, and I have the opportunity to get a fresh beginning."
Arrington's record, eight-year, $68 million contract extension, signed in December 2003, included a $16 million signing bonus that would be paid in stages, with $5.7 million still due. Arrington, who was slated to count $12 million against Washington's 2006 cap before restructuring, will receive the remaining $1.3 million of that signing bonus from the team, excluding the $4.4 million portion, with him in essence counting $7.6 million in "dead money" on Washington's cap.
His relationship with the organization, and owner Daniel Snyder in particular, began to sour shortly after he signed that 2003 contract, which Arrington claims excluded a $6.5 million bonus that had been verbally agreed upon. A grievance over that subject lingered and 2003 also became Arrington's last Pro Bowl season. He hurt his knee in Joe Gibbs's first game back as coach, missed virtually all of that season, clashed with the team over his injuries and contract, was benched for much of the first few months of the 2005 season and was not an every-down player.
"When I came here, you knew that LaVar was a big part of the Redskins' program," Gibbs said during a news conference yesterday. "There had been a huge commitment to LaVar, and he was a big part of it. I was looking forward to it; we all were as coaches, and I think sometimes up here what happens is whether through injury or other things it just doesn't go as smoothly as what you want. I think it's just a matter of working through those things to try to do the best you can. We wish it could have been better for LaVar and for us."
Gibbs visited Arrington's home about two weeks ago, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, to begin the restructuring process. The Redskins were working to restructure 10 or more contracts at the time, seeking cap relief in the event the league and the players' association could not agree to a new collective bargaining agreement. There were stipulations in all of those new deals that would render them invalid if the CBA were extended. Without an extension the Redskins would have to meet a $94.5 million cap; with one, the cap would rise to a projected $108 million.
Arrington was willing to agree to a restructuring similar to what other teammates had agreed to but wanted the contract to be valid regardless of the CBA situation, according to sources with direct knowledge of the conversations. They say Arrington offered to agree to a restructuring with more future payments guaranteed up front and eligibility for free agency after the 2007 season. The Redskins would accept that offer only with provisions tied to the CBA outcome, according to the sources. When no agreement could be reached over the weekend, talks turned to deals that would grant Arrington free agency now.
Gibbs said there were "two scenarios" before Arrington, one restructuring based upon the outcome of the CBA talks that would keep him on the roster in 2006, and another allowing him to become a free agent now regardless of a CBA extension. With a CBA extension, however, the Redskins could have cut Arrington after June 1 and absorbed a $5.1 million cap hit in 2006. Arrington also had a $6.5 million roster bonus due by July 15, which he did not expect to see, according to sources close to him, and he wanted to avoid being cut that late in the offseason, when rosters and payrolls are largely set league wide.
The sides agreed to the final figures late Sunday. "I did not give them money back," Arrington said. "It's not like I wrote a check to get out of here."
Arrington's charity work and personality endeared him to fans here, as well as big-play ability. He plans to maintain his home here, and continue his community work. "It's an area I'm deeply rooted in," Arrington said. "So I'll be around, not as a Washington Redskin, but I'll be around as LaVar Arrington, and to the fans that really matter -- and that I matter to them -- that's what's important."
Arrington said he is eager to make his mark elsewhere. One AFC general manager contacted yesterday said there could be 10 teams in the market for outside linebackers -- including NFC East rivals Dallas, Philadelphia and New York.
"That's a position of need for a lot of teams out there, and there isn't a whole lot of talent [available] at outside linebacker," the general manager said. "I'm sure there will be some concern over his health, but there will be interest in him."
Redskins Notes: Gibbs recently contacted defensive lineman Brandon Noble, cornerback Walt Harris, and center Cory Raymer, among others, to inform them they would be released, according to several of the players and their agents. Quarterback Patrick Ramsey was not one of the players Gibbs called, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, and Gibbs said yesterday that uncertainty about the CBA has suspended trade talks for the former first-round pick. . . . The list of players known to have agreed to restructured contracts includes Arrington, Mark Brunell, Clinton Portis, Shawn Springs, Cornelius Griffin, Jon Jansen, Randy Thomas, Renaldo Wynn and Phillip Daniels. All deals but Arrington's are contingent on there not being a CBA extension. . . . Defensive back Ade Jimoh received a qualifying offer from the Redskins yesterday, according to his agent. The makes Jimoh a restricted free agent, meaning the Redskins have the right to match any offer or receive compensation if he left.
|
Info on Washington Redskins including the 2005 NFL Preview. Get the latest game schedule and statistics for the Redskins. Follow the Washington Redskins under the direction of Coach Joe Gibbs.
| 39.685714 | 0.685714 | 1.028571 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600369.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600369.html
|
Majority in U.S. Fears Iraq Civil War
|
2006030919
|
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq will lead to civil war, and half say the United States should begin withdrawing its forces from that violence-torn country, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The survey found that 80 percent believe that recent sectarian violence makes civil war in Iraq likely, and more than a third say such a conflict is "very likely" to occur. These expectations extend beyond party lines: More than seven in 10 Republicans and eight in 10 Democrats and political independents say they believe such a conflict is coming.
In the face of continuing violence, half -- 52 percent -- of those surveyed said the United States should begin withdrawing forces. One in six favors immediate withdrawal of all troops, however, while about one-third prefer a more gradual return.
The survey also found growing doubt that the Bush administration has a strategy in Iraq. Two-thirds of those interviewed said they do not think the president has a clear plan for handling the Iraq situation, the highest level of doubt recorded since the question was first asked three years ago. But an even larger share -- 70 percent -- questions whether Democrats in Congress have a plan for dealing with Iraq, suggesting Americans see neither party as offering a coherent exit strategy.
The survey highlights how support for the war in Iraq dissolved since the first months after the U.S. invasion. At the end of 2003, nearly six in 10 -- 59 percent -- said the conflict was worth the cost; today, 42 percent share that view. In the past nine months, the proportion in Post-ABC polls who say the United States should begin withdrawing its troops has increased from 38 percent to a 52 percent majority.
Recent U.S. reversals in Iraq have not dramatically reduced overall support for President Bush, in contrast to some other national polls. His overall job approval rating stood at 41 percent, essentially unchanged from January. Nearly six in 10 disapproved of his job performance, the 11th consecutive survey since last April in which at least half the country has been critical of Bush's leadership.
In only one area -- terrorism -- does more than half of the public see Bush positively, and even here 46 percent disapprove while 52 percent approve. On every other issue tested in the poll -- including the economy, international affairs and health care -- Bush received negative marks.
Americans also expressed disappointment with Congress, which is now controlled by Republicans. Slightly more than a third -- 36 percent -- said they approve of the way Congress is doing its job, down seven percentage points in the past five weeks and the lowest marks for the legislative branch since October 1997.
But the survey showed Democrats slipping also. Asked which party they trust to deal with the country's biggest problems, 42 percent said the Democratic Party and 40 percent said the GOP. Barely five weeks ago, Democrats held a 14-point advantage.
Americans continue to fault the administration's performance in Iraq. Well under half -- 40 percent -- think Bush is doing a good job there, unchanged from late January but still down six points from December. Nearly six in 10 -- 57 percent -- said the war was not worth fighting, marking the 12th consecutive poll since December 2004 in which a majority said invading Iraq was a mistake.
In question after question, the new survey reflected a sharp decline in optimism, perhaps sparked by the sectarian violence that has flared in Iraq after the bombings of a revered Shiite mosque two weeks ago. Since then, deadly confrontations have occurred between Shiites and Sunnis, who are a minority in Iraq but were favored under Saddam Hussein's regime.
The poll found that 56 percent think the United States is not making significant progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq, while 43 percent think that stability is being reestablished -- a 17-point drop in optimism since December and the most pessimistic reading on this question since it was first asked in June 2004.
|
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq will lead to civil war, and half say the United States should begin withdrawing its forces from that violence-torn country, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
| 15.32 | 1 | 50 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601402.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601402.html
|
New Model Predicts Severe Solar Activity
|
2006030919
|
Sun-spawned cosmic storms that can play havoc with earthly power grids and orbiting satellites could be 50 percent stronger in the next 11-year solar cycle than in the last one, scientists said yesterday.
Using a new model that takes into account the sun's subsurface activity and data about previous solar cycles, astronomers offered a long-range forecast for solar activity that could start as soon as this year or as late as 2008.
They offered no specific predictions of solar storms, but they hope to issue early warnings that will give power companies, satellite operators, and others on and around Earth a few days to prepare.
"This prediction of an active solar cycle suggests we're potentially looking at more communications disruptions, more satellite failures, possible disruptions of electrical grids and blackouts, more dangerous conditions for astronauts," said Richard Behnke of the Upper Atmosphere Research Section at the National Science Foundation.
The prediction, roughly analogous to the early prediction of a severe hurricane season on Earth, involves the number of sunspots on the solar surface, phenomena that have been monitored for more than a century.
Every 11 years or so, the sun goes through an active period, with lots of sunspots.
The sun is in a relatively quiet period but is expected to get more active soon, scientists said. There is disagreement, however, as to whether the active period will start within months -- late 2006 or early 2007 -- or years, with the first signs in late 2007 or early 2008.
Whenever that period begins, the new forecasting method shows, sunspot activity is likely to be 30 to 50 percent stronger than in the last active period.
The strongest solar cycle in recent memory occurred in the late 1950s, when there were few satellites aloft and no astronauts in orbit, and there was less reliance on electrical power grids .
|
Sun-spawned cosmic storms that can play havoc with earthly power grids and orbiting satellites could be 50 percent stronger in the next 11-year solar cycle than in the last one, scientists said yesterday.
| 9.621622 | 1 | 37 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600997.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600997.html
|
Ways and Means Chairman to Step Down
|
2006030919
|
Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), the irascible House Ways and Means Committee chairman who helped shepherd through President Bush's biggest domestic policy initiatives, announced yesterday that he will retire at the end of the year.
House Republican term limits would have forced Thomas, 64, to give up his perch on the powerful committee before the next Congress, a prospect that pushed the 14-term lawmaker toward his decision. His is the highest-profile in a string of retirement announcements that brings the total of seats being vacated to 26, 16 of them by Republicans.
"Ever since I was first elected to Congress in 1978, I set a goal to study the issues and become as effective a legislator as I could be to promote the interests of my constituents, the state of California and our nation," Thomas said from his office in Bakersfield, Calif. "In doing so, I have been extremely grateful to the voters who have returned me to office over the past four decades, and I hope, through legislation, advocacy and constituent service, that I have returned that appreciation."
"Congressman Bill Thomas is a friend and a man of great accomplishment who has been a very effective leader in the House of Representatives," Bush said.
Thomas will leave an impressive record of legislative accomplishment that includes passage of six tax cuts in the past five years, a Medicare prescription drug benefit that was the most significant expansion of the program since its inception, and a slew of hard-fought free trade agreements. Still within reach is a major restructuring of the nation's private pension system.
"Thomas was terrific," said Mark Weinberger, who was assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy during the 2001 tax cut fight. "Not only did he understand the policy of arcane trade, tax and health care issues, but he knew how to legislate. And when you have both of those things, you become a very formidable negotiator."
But Thomas's reputation as a shrewd legislative tactician has a dark side: He has shown himself willing to bully friends and adversaries alike if his arguments do not prove persuasive.
"There's no question the chairman rubs people the wrong way with his brusqueness and his irascible countenance. He doesn't suffer fools well, and that gets him into trouble," said Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.), who is widely seen as the front-runner to succeed Thomas if Republicans maintain control of the House. "But if he didn't have something like that, he'd be darned near perfect."
In July 2003, GOP leaders forced him to deliver a tearful apology on the House floor for summoning the Capitol Police to evict committee Democrats from a Ways and Means library. He also apologized to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) after accusing her of taking a stance on medical malpractice legislation because she faced reelection, which she was not.
Democrats may have a hard time forgiving him for the imperial way he ran his committee. Thomas held only a few perfunctory hearings, keeping even Republicans largely in the dark as he drafted legislation, then giving committee members just hours to digest complex, voluminous bills before slamming them through on party-line votes, said Rep. Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.), the Ways and Means Committee's ranking Democrat.
"I really think the methods he used to accomplish his goals have done severe damage to the legislative process . . . and really damaged relations between the parties," Rangel said.
Thomas is likely to retire without one marquee law that is seen as his masterwork. Bush had hoped last year that Thomas could rescue his foundering Social Security restructuring by folding it into a broader, more popular retirement security initiative. But even Bush aides say Thomas was brought into the process too late to save it.
But in little more than five years as chairman, Thomas left a mark. He leapfrogged over a more senior committee member, former representative Phil Crane (R-Ill.), to become chairman.
That year, Thomas folded provisions to entice more retirement and pension savings into the president's 2001 tax cut. Then, against the wishes of the White House, he broke the 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax reduction into small pieces that passed Congress with unexpected ease.
In 2003, he rejected Bush's complex proposal to end taxation of dividends from fully taxed corporate earnings, replacing it with a simpler 15-percent tax rate on dividends and capital gains.
|
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.
| 22.230769 | 0.435897 | 0.435897 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601437.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601437.html
|
Judge Refuses to Delay Abramoff Sentencing
|
2006030919
|
MIAMI, March 6 -- A federal judge refused Monday to allow a lengthy delay in the sentencing of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, even though lawyers for both sides said the move could jeopardize a federal corruption investigation involving Congress and the Bush administration.
Abramoff attorney Abbe Lowell warned that the defense would disclose information about the ongoing corruption investigation to demonstrate the level of Abramoff's cooperation, something that could affect his sentence in the fraud case.
"We will name names," Lowell said by telephone at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck. "That is not a good thing for law enforcement."
The judge agreed to delay sentencing from March 16 to March 29, but he rejected a joint motion by federal prosecutors and attorneys for Abramoff and co-defendant Adam Kidan to hold off for at least 90 days.
"I just don't want to get involved in a situation where it just goes on and on and on," Huck said. "I don't see any reason for postponing the sentencing."
Huck said the government can always request a reduction in Abramoff's sentence later and that he probably would allow both Abramoff and Kidan to remain free for a reasonable amount of time after they are sentenced.
Abramoff pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to charges that he and Kidan fabricated a wire transfer to make it appear they were putting a sizable chunk of their own money into the $147.5 million purchase of the SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet in 2000. Kidan pleaded guilty late last year.
Abramoff also pleaded guilty in January to charges stemming from an investigation into his ties to members of Congress and the Bush administration.
|
MIAMI, March 6 -- A federal judge refused Monday to allow a lengthy delay in the sentencing of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, even though lawyers for both sides said the move could jeopardize a federal corruption investigation involving Congress and the Bush administration.
| 7 | 1 | 45 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601466.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601466.html
|
Amid AIPAC's Big Show, Straight Talk With a Noticeable Silence
|
2006030919
|
Words are seldom minced at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
During a luncheon speech yesterday at the convention center, Daniel Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, shouted a barnyard obscenity involving a bull when he dismissed the theory that Iran and Hamas might soften their anti-Israel views. The audience gave Gillerman a standing ovation.
The undiplomatic diplomat went on to describe a war on radical Islam: "While it may be true -- and probably is -- that not all Muslims are terrorists, it also happens to be true that nearly all terrorists are Muslim."
But ask people at this week's gathering about Steve Rosen, the father of modern AIPAC, who goes on trial next month for disseminating classified information, and you get the sort of look you'd expect if you inquired about an embarrassing medical condition.
"I'm not the person to ask about that," says Nathan Diament, a Washington representative for Orthodox Jews.
"Who?" responds Neil Cooper, a delegate from the Philadelphia area.
"Rosen? Which one is he?" answers a charity executive, with a smile.
"I need to read more about it," demurs Etan Cohen, a college student.
AIPAC staff members note that, with Iran and the Palestinians to worry about, the indictments of Rosen and former deputy Keith Weissman have not been mentioned in any of the group's public meetings so far. And they say the pro-Israel lobby, unharmed by the Rosen flap, is putting on its biggest and best show ever this week: 4,500 participants, including more than 1,000 students, paying visits to at least 450 House and Senate offices.
Indeed, the scandal doesn't seem to have slowed down the group. At last night's dinner, AIPAC set aside 27 minutes for the reading of its annual "Roll Call" of lawmakers, diplomats and administration officials attending the gathering. As of midday yesterday, RSVPs had come in from 57 embassies, from Burundi to Turkey; a score of Bush administration officials; a majority of the Senate; and a quarter of the House. Even the ambassadors of Pakistan and Oman supped at AIPAC's table.
Any talk of Rosen is confined to private donor meetings and hallway conversations -- where opinions are split on AIPAC's decision to turn its back on Rosen and Weissman.
"I don't like the way AIPAC handled it, hanging them out to dry," said one West Coast delegate, after delivering an on-the-record no comment. "They didn't do anything different from what everybody else does in this town every day."
|
Words are seldom minced at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
| 32.1875 | 1 | 16 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601445.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030919id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030601445.html
|
Guiding His Flock Through the Afghan Sky
|
2006030919
|
At 3:40 p.m., the cage doors open and the air is suddenly full of pigeons.
VIDEO | Faqir Mohammed, 41, spends an afternoon with his flock of pigeons in Afghanistan's capital city.
Not just your average gray pigeons. But a pageant of red, black, blue and white pigeons -- each one different from the next.
Some of these pigeons are the envy of the neighborhood. Some of them have been in training for years. All of them are Faqir Mohammed's pigeons. And they know it.
Mohammed is a 41-year-old shopkeeper with steely blue eyes and a haggard face who, like many Afghans of his generation, looks older than he is. He has been flying pigeons all his life. In Afghanistan, it is a popular way to pass the afternoon. It is also a fiercely competitive sport, with owners vying for one another's birds.
Mohammed learned how to train pigeons from his dad, who used to fly them on this very roof in the capital's oldest neighborhood, where the only color on the palette is brown.
"The roofs are the same. The cages are the same. They're all made of mud," says Mohammed Ismail, 32, as he watches his older brother work. "But somehow, the birds know as well as we do which one is theirs."
The routine varies little from day to day. After spending the morning in his shop, Mohammed comes home and lets loose his collection of 28 pigeons. At first he just watches them circle, and whistles. It is a piercing cry, high enough to make a child on the other side of the roof stick fingers in her ears. Mohammed whistles again. And again. Then he goes for his net.
He wields the net, which extends from the end of a six-foot pole, like a fly fisherman casting a lure. But the goal is not to haul the pigeons in. It is to widen the gyre, to send them flying a little farther from home.
So out they go. Past the nearest mosque, where the call to prayer is sounding. Out near the presidential palace, where an Afghan flag flaps in the breeze. Up against the barren hills, which serve as prelude to the snow-capped peaks beyond.
There are at least six flocks of pigeons flying in Kabul today, and as Mohammed's birds wander farther afield, they merge with someone else's. Together, they are mere specks on the horizon, flying directly into a setting sun.
But they haven't lost sight of home. In a flash, Mohammed drops the net and grabs his only pigeon who never flies -- a white female with a black nose who is, evidently, quite a catch. He holds her skyward, and her clipped wings sound like a balky lawn mower as they flap furiously, and futilely.
|
KABUL, Afghanistan At 3:40 p.m., the cage doors open and the air is suddenly full of pigeons.
| 26.809524 | 0.952381 | 13.904762 |
medium
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/02/23/DI2006022301514.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/02/23/DI2006022301514.html
|
Oscar Fashion
|
2006030619
|
The Oscars are Hollywood's biggest bash of the year and all the stars come out to party and nominees pray to win an award. Sometimes they look hot, sometimes not.
The Washington Post Sunday Source Deputy Editor Suzanne D'Amato dissected Oscar fashion on Monday, March 6, at 11 a.m. ET .
Suzanne D'Amato: Good morning everyone! So...what'd you think? Who had the best dress last night? Whose fashion flopped? Send me your questions and comments!
Los Angeles, Calif.: Fashion? What fashion? There wasn't a single dress of any distinction whatsoever. But that's no surprise as fashion is OVER. When Yves Saint-Laurent retired that was a clear signal that that was that. Now we've got publisexuals like Tom Ford, clowns like John Galliano and grotesques like Alexander McQueen. Meanwhile Vera Wang's ready-to-wear wedding outfits get face time on the tube and Tyra Banks is the new Sally Jesse Raphael. I don't see a new Balenciaga, Dior or Givenchy emerging from this tasteless morass. Do you?
Suzanne D'Amato: While I agree that most of the dresses last night were pretty lackluster, I don't think that fashion is "over" by any means. Young designers such as Proenza Schouler, Derek Lam, Sari Gueron and Thakoon Panichgul are absolutely amazing. They may not be at Tom Ford's level yet, but give 'em a few years!
Vienna, Va.: Did anyone else notice how, um, altered Felicity Huffman's face looked? I almost didn't recognize her.
Suzanne D'Amato: Hmm, I didn't really notice -- I think her cut-down-to-there dress was what caught my attention (and not in a good way). Chatters? Any thoughts?
Washington, D.C.: OK, I don't get it. So many otherwise-gorgeous women were wearing flesh-colored lipstick that made their mouths seem to disappear. It looked awful! Why is that the style this year?
Suzanne D'Amato: I'm assuming they wanted to match their dresses (a lot of nude-toned frocks this year!) but I completely agree. Especially when so many Hollywood types get their lips beefed up with injections...that puffy, flesh-tone lip just looks wrong. Michelle Williams was one star who went with classic red -- and looked stunning for it.
Washington, D.C.: Everyone seems to be raving about Jennifer Lopez's dress. Was I the only one that hated it? I like the train, but thought the sweetheart neckline was unflaterring and the color was awful on her.
Suzanne D'Amato: I thought it had a classic, old-Hollywood cut that suited her figure well. And while I didn't love the color, after all of the black and nude on everyone else it was kind of refreshing. Chatters, any thoughts?
Broadway, Va.: Who do you think wore the best gown of the evening?
Suzanne D'Amato: Michelle Williams, without a doubt.
District Heights, Md.: In all the early morning news shows remarks about best dressed women not one mentioned Jada-Pinkett-Smith ... her outfit was dead on ... without question ... yet Naomi Watts and others got tons of coverage ... Give me a break
Suzanne D'Amato: The dresses of nominees and presenters tend to get more attention in general, but I agree that Jada looked lovely. Great color, and she's in such amazing shape, she pulls off the strapless look beautifully.
Cleveland Park, D.C.: Charlize is the prettiest thing in Hollywood, but who the heck dresses her? It looked like one of those overstuffed penguins had nested on her shoulder. Don't distract from that face, CT! Please.
Suzanne D'Amato: Charlize is gorgeous, but yes -- it looked like she had brought a little pillow with her in case the ceremony ran long.
Dallas, Tex.: Let's give props to Meryl Streep, who ditched her usual matronly gowns for something fitted and lovely. AND she was hysterical ...
Suzanne D'Amato: I agree. An actress who is so talented, and so comfortable in her own skin, can't help but look incredible...
Washington, D.C.: I know it wasn't the "real" Oscars, but what the heck was Rachel McAdams thinking?
Suzanne D'Amato: This was a major topic of discussion at the Oscar party I attended! On the one hand, actresses tend to play it so safe that you don't want to diss anyone who tries something different. On the other hand...what WAS she thinking?? It looked like she'd spilled a tube of glitter all over the front of her dress.
Washington, D.C.: I thought Michelle Williams looked amazing. Mustard is a difficult color to pull off, but it seemed to work perfectly for her and was a welcome relief from all the nude dresses on the red carpet. The fact that almost half of the women came in nude makes me think that the fashion consultants are more concerned with trend than what actually looks good on their clients. There's no way I'd ever let a pale blond wear nude -- it completely washes you out.
Suzanne D'Amato: I couldn't agree more. Two words that speak to your latter point? Nicole Kidman.
Richmond, Va.: Best -- Michelle William and Ziyi Zhang
Worst -- Naomi Watts, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron
Just damned odd -- J. Lo
Suzanne D'Amato: Thoughts, chatters? I'd agree with you for the most part, though I always have a soft spot in my heart for Naomi Watts.
Michelle Williams Fan Club, D.C.: There was Mrs. Ledger, and there was everyone else.
(J-Lo looked classy for once, though she loses points for staying too long in the Mystic tan bed.)
Suzanne D'Amato: Most actresses seem to have gotten the bronzer under control -- J. Lo and Sandra Bullock being two notable exceptions last night.
Dallas, Tex.: Nicole Kidman has been wearing nude for years now. Why doesn't someone tell her?
Suzanne D'Amato: I'm not sure. She's beautiful, but with her skinny, skinny frame, stick-straight hair, tight dress, pale skin...it's all a little severe, in my opinion!
Bring back the crazies: I miss Bjork and her swan dress. Everyone was safe and blah. Boring.
Suzanne D'Amato: Yes, I think that if I had one overall criticism, it's that everyone played it too safe. Of course, maybe they were just trying to protect themselves from the snarky comments of people like us!
Washington, D.C.: I loved Keira Knightley's gown and hair. I just wished she hadn't ruined the neckline with that heavy piece of jewelry!
Suzanne D'Amato: I liked Keira's gown, but she's so young and lovely, she doesn't need all of that heavy eye makeup. As for the necklace...still not sure what I think. Chatters?
Arlington, Va.: What was up with Larry McMurtry showing up to the Oscars in jeans, and an ill fitting jacket, shirt and bow tie that looked decades old? I know he's got a bunch of money, and that these aren't his first big awards: I have a ton of his books, and Lonesome Dove, which won a million Emmys, on DVD?
Suzanne D'Amato: Actually, I loved it! There are always a few people who "dare" to show up at the Oscars looking like themselves, and on a night where everyone's manicured, groomed and styled to death, that's a powerful statement.
Dresses ...: I may be in the minority here, but I loved Reese Witherspoon's dress. It had classic lines, but the sort of ribboned look and the crystals (or whatever the shiny stuff was!) added a lot of interest.
I don't know, I really liked it.
Suzanne D'Amato: Reese looked so incredible in "Walk the Line" that I found that dress was a little disappointing. It's that whole blonde/nude gown thing. Chatters, what did you think?
Washington, D.C.: Salma Hayek looked beautiful in her blue gown!
Suzanne D'Amato: The shot of color really stood out in a sea of black and nude, no?
Man's point of view: Too many skinny women in dresses that made them even skinnier. Two words: Salma Hayek.
Suzanne D'Amato: Some of those clavicles were downright scary, no?
Washington, D.C.: What's up with all the dresses with pockets? Did my mom design these?
Suzanne D'Amato: Actually, this is a really interesting trend, both in high and mass market fashion. I don't want to give anything away but...keep an eye out for some answers in the next edition of Sunday Source!
Herndon, Va.: Despite what everyone else may be saying, I thought George Clooney looked very cute in his tuxedo.
Suzanne D'Amato: Wait...what's everyone saying? I thought he looked great! The man has got that Cary Grant look down to a science.
Potomac, Md.: Forget about the boring dresses. What is up with the guys? It seems that in years past the male attendees were willing to take a 'few' fashion risks. They all seem stuck in the same boring penguin costume! Did any of the men's outfits strike you as showing any creativity (leaving out distinctive glasses a la Nicholson and Terrence Howard)?
Suzanne D'Amato: Not really. Some ill-fitting tuxes, some oddly loopy and/or droopy bow ties (looking at you, Jake G)...other than that, there wasn't much that spoke to me. Chatters?
Tysons, Va.: I think Salma Hayek was the best dressed. I loved the shoulder straps. Too bad none of the blondes chose a color like that!
Suzanne D'Amato: I though the shoulder straps were a bit too tricky -- with a color like that (and a figure like hers) simple spaghetti straps would have worked perfectly. But she did look great, no doubt about it.
Re: Keira's Necklace: She is a beautiful little slip of a thing. A necklace that big needed someone older and with more ... amplitude to wear it. I thought it would have looked fantastic on Queen Latifah, for example.
Suzanne D'Amato: That's true. In a way it reminded me of Mary-Kate Olsen, with her gargantuan bangle bracelets and sunglasses...and that wee little frame. Queen Latifah would have rocked Keira's necklace, no doubt, but I loved that she wore so little jewelry.
Louisville, Ky.: I loved Rachel Weisz hair and even dress, but it was too similar to Catherine Zeta-Jones Oscar night dress.
Suzanne D'Amato: Wow, you're *really* paying attention, aren't you? That comparison would never have even occurred to me.
Washington, D.C. : Michelle Williams looked gorgeous and the dress was great. The color was not. Do you think we'll see a move away from the Hollywood stylist soon? You can spot a Rachel Zoe client a mile away and it's really dull, dull, dull.
Suzanne D'Amato: I doubt we'll see a move away from the Hollywood stylist anytime soon. Everyone is just so image-obsessed these days: Style can really kick-start a career (how else to account for the success of someone like Sienna Miller?) and the opposite -- showing up somewhere looking "bad" -- can subject you to weeks of ridicule. So most actresses view getting dressed as a job; It's important for them to get it right.
Washington, D.C.: I thought Amy Adams looked lovely -- beautiful dress, plus her hair and makeup were simple and elegant. Not only that, but she seemed so darn nice.
Suzanne D'Amato: She looked natural, which on a night like this can be the hardest thing of all. Not to mention, she actually seemed like she was having fun!
Alexandria, Va.: What was Naomi Watts thinking? Her "gown" was nothing more than wads of frayed fabric. Can Jennifer Aniston wear any color besides black? And she sure did seem kind of testy to me last night. I wish someone had told Felicity how awful her cleavage looked, especially after Sheryl Crow's recent chest mishap. Keira's dress was gorgeous but her necklace was too heavy. I loved Sandra Bullock's pockets but her hair looked like a rat's nest. Witherspoon? Eh. Amy Adams, Michelle Williams, and Salma Hayek looked great. But overall, the celebs dressed better for the Golden Globes.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!
Suzanne D'Amato: That's why we're here. Thanks for your input!
Washington, D.C.: While the fashion may not have been as extravagant this year, there were some women who clearly stood out: Amy Adams, Reese Witherspoon, who finally chose a dress that looked terrific on her, and Jada Pinkett-Smith in the bright blue.
Suzanne D'Amato: There were some standouts, no doubt. And there were also a number of women who weren't part of the ceremony, but who also looked great -- like Mrs. P-S.
Guys fashion: What about those fabulous Wallace and Gromit bow ties -- including the matching bow ties for the Oscars? It was so appropriate for their movie and their personalities -- they get my vote for best-accessorized men!
Suzanne D'Amato: Yes, I liked that too. Sometimes when you're not so concerned about capital-F "fashion" the result is a lot more fun!
Suzanne D'Amato: Thanks for your great questions, everyone! I hope you had as much fun as I did.
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 The Washington Post's Suzanne D'Amato to dish about the good, the bad and the ugly fashions of the Oscars.
| 119.608696 | 0.826087 | 1.521739 |
high
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/02/DI2006030201116.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/02/DI2006030201116.html
|
Talk About Travel
|
2006030619
|
The Post's Travel Section Flight Crew will take your comments, questions, suspicions, warnings, gripes, sad tales and happy endings springing from the world of... the world. Of course, the Flight Crew will be happy to answer your travel questions -- but the best thing about this forum, we insist, is that it lets travelers exchange information with other travelers who've been there, done that or otherwise have insights, ideas and information to share. Different members of the Crew will rotate through the captain's chair every week, but the one constant is you, our valued passengers.
Joining The Flight Crew this week is Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf , acting director of the species conservation program at the World Wildlife Fund. With extensive travels throughout Asia, Europe and North America, Dr. Klenzendorf is on hand to take questions and comments about wildlife tourism.
We know you have a choice in online travel forums, and speaking for theentire Flight Crew, we want to thank you for flying with us.
You may also browse an archive of previous live travel discussions.
Anne McDonough: K.C. Summers, John Deiner, Steve Hendrix, Gary Lee, Carol Sottili and yours truly, Anne McDonough, are here to field your travel questions great and small. Along for the ride this week is Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf of WWF, so shoot on over all of those traveling-to-see critter questions you've been harboring all these years. Speaking of animals, the poster with the funniest, grossest or most memorable critter encounter while traveling will walk away with treasures from our box o'junk such as an African Safari Journal, an UNO game and a green plastic thing that just may be a poncho, but it's wrapped up so we can't be sure. Let's go!
Olney, Md: Hi Dr., I am traveling to Fairbanks, Alaska, in a few weeks to see the Northern Lights! Any good suggestions for viewing the wildlife this time of year? I'm hoping the animals will be out and enjoying the warmer weather.
Second question for the crew. Has anyone used the privately owned econopark express at BWI? Safety is a concern of mine since my return flight has me arriving at the a/p at 10:30p.
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: There are plenty of opportunities. Depending on where exactly you are going, it is work checking out the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website, which gives a good calendar by region of wildlife viewing.
Washington D.C.: My son, 10, and I loved Sunday's story on rescuing turtles. Of course, Brad wants to do this -- like tomorrow. I'd like to plan a vacation for the three of us (I suppose my husband should come along) but wonder if a 10-year old boy would be welcome on one of the turtle escorts to the ocean.
KC Summers: Hi Wash, glad you liked the story. Cindy's not here today, but I remember her specifically mentioning having a kid on one of the turtle escorts -- in fact, she worried that the kid was bothering the mama turtle, but the guide said it wasn't a problem. So they're for all ages.
Washington, DC: (Submitting early) I was on an America West flight from Phoenix to National airport this past Thursday. The pilot made us remain in our seats for -one hour- before the flight ended - citing the regulations that required us to sit in our seats for 1/2 not too long ago. What was that? I think they made it up so that the passengers would not bother the crew. What authority allows them to make arbitrary designations such as this one? In contrast, my husband flew into National from Charlotte last night and had not seating "curfew" imposed upon him at all.
Carol Sottili: As you well know, that rule was suspended - exact date was July 15, 2006. There is no excuse for the pilot not knowing about this rule change. But the pilot is in control of his/her ship, and there's no way you are going to argue during the flight - that wouldn't be prudent. I'd shoot an email or letter to America West - here's the link for contact info: www.americawest.com/awa/content/contact/customer_relations.aspx
Chicago, Ill: I just wanted to send a huge thank you for your Puerto Rico piece last week - it couldn't have been better timed as I left the next day for Vieques. I must say that my experience on the island and at Bravo Beach Hotel were much calmer than Island Girl's, but it was still incredible (Bravo was a beautiful, comfortable place to stay). I wasn't into the late night partying, just beautiful beaches, good food and one of the most laid back, relaxed spots on earth. Point being, if you're looking for a party on the beach, I'm sure you can find it, but if you're like me and prefer a quiet drink to end a busy day of finding and sitting on a secluded beach all your own, Vieques is perfect for you as well....
Steve Hendrix: We were all charmed by Puerto Rico, Chicago. Glad to hear you were too.
Takoma Park, Md: I was so excited to see the article on the polar bears of Churchill yesterday. I went there the past mid-October and I loved it. Did not see as many of the bears as the writer of the article did though (probably 12 in all). I definitely want to go back. I debated on going on an volunteer "earthwatch" expedition or going with a tour company. I decided to go with a tour company--Natural Habitat Adventures since they partner with the World Wildlife Fund. They took great care of us, we stayed at the Seaport Hotel which was very comfortable, food was great. I liked being in town so I could walk around the one main street during the very few free times we had. I really would encourage others to do it. The town really depends on tourism, as do the bears!!
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: Thank you very much, Takoma Park. We take great care in selecting our tour operators who are conservation minded and who promote WWF's conservation values through their travel programs.
If you want to see more WWF travel destinations, go to
Honeymoon: Hello, Crew: My fiance and I are getting married in May and spending our honeymoon in Italy. We couldn't afford business class tickets, but are hoping for a free upgrade.
Aside from letting the person taking our reservations know that we'll be newlyweds (did that, it's in the notes), what advice can you give? Are there any non-pushy, non-obnoxious ways to go about asking, or should we just be our pleasant selves and hope for the best?
Anne McDonough: I'd say by putting it in the notes you've done the right thing. What would might not be so wonderfully received is further pushing for an upgrade, particularly by your fellow travelers who might not be getting married but I'd sure wouldn't mind an upgrade of their own! I think being your pleasant selves is the best way to go; if you get an upgrade, that's great! And if not, well, you have plenty of other wonderful experiences waiting for you the rest of the trip.
Barbados: Hi Flight Crew and Dr Klenzendorf!
When you say wildlife tourism, do you mean ecotourism? I think ecotourism goes a long way in educating people about the importance of maintaining the environment and natural species for the survival of humankind.
Relating to my neck of the woods, I know the WWF is working on the Amazon and Galapagos islands in my region. However, one issue that concerns me in the Caribbean is the fragility of our coral reefs/sea/tourism industry and how easy it is for a ship/yacht to damage years of development just by carelessly dropping anchor or even one spill during the frequent transshipment of nuclear waste.
My question is does the WWF offer any facility/assistance/suggestions for a country to prevent this from happening?
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: This is a good point. Not all wildlife tourism is wildlife- or environmentally friendly.
If undertaken responsibly, tourism can be a positive force for sustainable development, conservation and environmental protection, and can provide unique opportunities for awareness raising and enhancing support for conservation. If unplanned, tourism can be socially, culturally and economically disruptive, and have a devastating effect on fragile environments.
What you should, for example, look for when traveling is that tour operators adhere to a code of conduct that doesn't harass the wildlife they're viewing to give you the 'perfect picture; that they use environmentally safe practices like solar-powered energy in cabins, biodegradable soap in field camps, locally grown food during the trip, etc.
Regarding the Carribean, I know that WWF works with the cruise industry to minimize their impact on coral reefs and impact on widlife such as illegal trade of wildlife products (reef fish, turtle products, etc.).
We also work with governments to establish marine reserves in highly critical habitats. For your specific case, I would recommend to contact our local chapter for more information.
Hi -- congrats on the interesting nature travel articles, each worth reading. But the gorillas in Rwanda article made me wonder about what the author really saw and did.
According to the State Dept. website, Rwanda has a population of 8.6 million, with a density of about 322 per square kilometer, one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. But the author only mentions five natives (the driver, the guide, and three armed soldiers), along with her group of eight "trekkers" (presumably not natives), who together are outnumbered by the "three dozen gorillas."
The author also notes that the "gorilla permit" is $375 per person, plus a park entrance fee of $35, and an additional $75 to see the golden monkeys. This in a country with a per capita income estimated at $204, or less than half of these fees.
Am I missing something here? A recurring theme of your African wildlife articles over the past decade is an almost complete overlooking of the human population.
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: A quick perspective:
Tourism to see mountain gorillas in the region (including DRC, Rwanda and Uganda) generates more than US$2 million per annum in direct revenues, and a great deal more with multipliers in the hotel industry, etc.
The International Gorilla Conservation Project (IGCP), a project jointly supported by World Wildlife Fund, Flora and Fauna International (FFI), and the African Wildlife Federation (AWF), has worked successfully with communities surrounding the three parks in the Virunga volcanoes to develop enterprise linked to tourism and provide alternative revenue for the community, which is a great incentive for the protection of this species.
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: Correction: African Wildlife Foundation(AWF)
John Deiner: Hey, D.C., thanks for the good points. I just wanted to add that this wasn't supposed to be an overview on travel to Rwanda -- for the purpose of our special wildlife section, we focused on the trip-of-a-lifetime aspect of seeing the gorillas. For what amounts to a day trip, it's expensive, it's far-flung and you have to plan far in advance.
Washington, DC: I am going to Brussels the day after tomorrow to visit a friend that is working there on a fellowship for the next 6 months. I have a couple days where I will have to entertain myself while he is at work and was wondering if anyone had any different suggestions that I might not find in a travel guide. Even if someone has a favorite cafe suggestion that would be fantastic. Thanks so much! (Also I am a shopaholic so if anyone knows of some good shopping venues that would be great as well)
Gary Lee: For chocolate, check out the Pierre Marcoloni. For clothes, especially women's, I'd recommend Agora Arcade.
For great beer, almost any pub ...
Anyone else with Brussels tips?
Washington, DC: What do you know about cheapseats.com (part of onetravel.com)? I found a decent flight to Ireland on the site (via kayak.com), but have only ever used the usual suspects...travelocity, orbitz, expedia. Reliable? I couldn't find anything on the BBBOnline site about them.
Carol Sottili: Onetravel.com and its subsidiaries are reputable companies. But I'd also look at the Web site of the airline that Cheapseats.com is going to book you on - if the airline is offering the same price, I'd recommend booking directly.
I'm heading to Ireland in a few days. Is there really any wildlife to see in Ireland this time of year? We're planning on hiking the Cliffs of Moher and other areas in the southwestern part of the country. Is there anything you can recommend?
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: sorry, no. We (as in WWF's travel program) don't really travel to European destinations that much and I have not been there personally.
Best would probably be to contact the Ireland Tourism Bureau.
Denver, Colo: For Olney parking at BWI, try FastPark. You can get coupons on their website and they are cheaper, faster and better than the airport satellite parking. They pick you up at your car as your park and take you directly to the terminal.
My animal story: I was out here visiting my beau (before I moved here from Baltimore) and we were hiking in Eldorado State Park. We come across a pile of animal droppings I've never seen before. I asked the bf if he knew what animal that could be from, he said no. On the way back down he confessed it was from a bear (and fresh btw!) but he didn't want to scare me.
John Deiner: Hey, Denver, good stuff. BWI has a number of private companies that offer pick-up-at-the-car parking. The previous clickster asked about EconoPark Express in particular...it's my new favorite parking company at BWI. And safety is a particular strongpoint: Drivers are supposed to wait for you to get in your car and see if it starts.
Cool animal story, too. Horrific, but cool.
Animal Encounters: Hi Crew -
Usually the only animals that come to mind when thinking of the Caribbean are the colorful fish, but my scary animal tale (bad pun) was on an island. Utterly alone and absorbed in a novel on a blanket in the shade of mangroves on a rocky beach in Bonaire while my husband snorkeled, I sensed an ominous presence. I looked up to find myself surrounded by about two dozen of the ugliest, and largest, iguanas I had ever seen, advancing on me like a well-trained army. I let out a shriek and they scattered, but I could see them lurking in the scrub. I granbbed everything and ran into the water, where I stood shouting for my husband. I don't know what they wanted from me, but they really freaked me out!
Anne McDonough: Two dozen iguanas? I would have run screaming for the hills.
Bel Air, Md: When I was in LA three falls ago, I drove down to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and paid extra money for the caravan ride through the huge paddocks where the herd animals roam and mingle. The giraffes would all amble over when we would stop and our guide would pass out treats for us to feed. The giraffes would stick their heads into the caravan and then stick out their tongue and wrap it around the treat in your hand then pull it into your mouth. I ended up with a lot of giraffe slime on my hand, but it was well worth it!
Even cooler, getting to lean over the side of the caravan to feed apples to the rhinocerous - they would open their mouth wide, you'd stick your hand in and they would close their mouth around your hand and then you'd slide it out. So amazing - and I highly recommend to anyone. Seeing those animals in the "real" wild would be great, I'm sure, but getting to interact with them that way was priceless.
Anne McDonough: Hmm...giraffe slime. The perfect souvenir.
Silver Spring, Md.: Have any of the crew stayed in Bangkok? We're looking at the Sofitel, Novotel, Radisson and a "boutique" hotel called the Old Bangkok Inn for a short stay in early November. We're essentially passing through. Aiming at a balance between accessibility to tourist sites and shopping. Any ideas? Hoping to stay under $125 (rules out the Oriental, alas). Thanks!
KC Summers: Well, I have a soft spot for the Riverview Hotel, a humble high-rise right on the Chao Phraya River, although it might be a little too backpacky for some. Completely unpretentious, with mismatched furniture and a laid-back vibe. But I LOVED the location, down an interesting, untouristy little side street, and we spent a lot of time on their rooftop bar/restaurant, admiring that amazing river view. The rooms are so affordable (about $35/nite as I recall) that you can devote more $$$ to shopping). It's near shopping, the water taxis, etc.
Fairfax, Va: RE: Animal stories
I actually have 2 and they both concern my little brother (now 32 and serving in Iraq). We lived in Miami, FL and went to Metro Zoo for a summer camp field trip. My brother was thrilled that the llama allowed him to pet him. Until the llama pinned his ears and regurgitated half-digested hay and grass all over my brother's face, head and shirt. It was warm and rank smelling!
The second experience was the same summer and we went on a field trip to the Monkey Jungle ("Where Visitors are Caged and the Monkeys Run Loose" or something like that). He got beamed with monkey scat.
Luckily, I didn't have to sit near him on the bus.
Anne McDonough: Llama barf and monkey scat trump giraffe slime, methinks.
Burlington, Vt.: My boyfriend and I are flying out of Baltimore around 8 p.m.
Wednesday to spend a long weekend in Reykjavik. The flight
is only about five hours and deposits us in the Icelandic
capital bright and early on Thursday morning. Any sure-fire
sleep tips to make the most of that flight?
Steve Hendrix: Are you young and invulnerable and can you happily stay up for 50 hours? If so, drink up and turn the flight into the first day of your holiday.
Will you be happier if you land with a bit of sleep to carry you forth? Then have dinner in the airport and take five miligram Ambien (or however much your doc advises) the moment you click your seatbelt on the plane. Skip the meal and the movie and lean your head on your boyfriend for five hours of the dreamless.
DR-bound: Hey crew, thanks for taking questions.
My wife and I, who both prefer a more active travel style, will be spending five days at an all-inclusive resort in the Punta Cana region of the Dominican Republic.
We're there to celebrate a friend's wedding, so it's all okay, but we'd still like to get away for a day and do something more active. Hiking, biking, scuba diving, etc. Would there be any point in trying to book an excursion before we arrive, or should we just shell out to the resort for one of their 'official' excursions?
Is there even anything worth pursuing as a day trip from Punta Cana? We both dive, but we understand that the diving near the resorts is terrible.
John Deiner: Hey, DR. Cindy would be a much better person to address this question, as the last time I was in Punta Cana was when it was just crankin' up. But there are lots of day trips you can take from the all-inclusives, and you will no doubt WANT to get away for a day. I went on a jeep tour that included a drive through a sugar cane plantation, a stop in a little village, a demonstration of cock-fighting (yeah, I know) and a stop at a perfect little beach. I'd wait till you got down there and see what's available.
Anyone else have a better answer here?
Madison, Wis: My boyfriend and I are thinking about doing a bike tour sometime in the next few months. We are considering Ireland, Eastern Europe (Estonia), or Greece. We're not sure about whether we want to do a guided tour or do it on our own. It would be nice to not have to haul our own bags around, but we also don't want to have to stick to a strict schedule, eat meals and go on guided trips with the same people every day. Not that we're totally anti-social, but we want to be free to do our own thing. Do you know of any bike touring or other company that will simply transport your bags for you, and let you loose for the rest of the time? Thanks!
Gary Lee: Madison: you might check out Bike Vermont. They have several European options. I did a bike trip with them in Vermont a couple years ago and the approach was to give the bikers a map and instructions at the beginning of the day and let me pace themselves. I'm not sure that it's the same in Europe but my hunch is that it is. If Spain is an option for you, contact madridandbeyond.com and ask whether Carlos has any tips for you. He leads bike trips through Spain (and other parts of Europe) and tailors them to the customers' needs.
Springfield, Va: Its not quite certain yet, but some of the extended family may be in Switzerland for about a year starting this fall. Of course, this has us talking about Christmas in Switzerland. I see people ask the crystal ball question about airfares to Europe all the time, but never paid attention. So, assuming the move gets solidified in the next month, when should we start looking for airfare? I know Christmas is high season in lots of places - are the cold parts of Europe included? Any other tips for non-seasoned international travelers?
Carol Sottili: If you're sure of your plans, may be a good idea to buy soon. Seems to me that fares are best either far in advance or close to travel. I just went online and found a fare of $686 to Geneva with Alitalia for Dec. 20-27. I think that anything under $700, including taxes, is good for Christmas travel. Cold weather places such as Switzerland are in demand at Christmas. Sign up for the services that alert you when fares have dropped. Go to www.kayak.com, www.orbitz.com and www.travelocity.com to sign up for their alert systems.
Rockville, Md: We'll be traveling to Tucson in the near future, and were thinking about a side trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico. But we've heard that it will soon be another Cancun. Are there other beaches in the vicinity we should consider?We are interested in beautiful beaches and nature.
Anne McDonough: We're throwing this one out to the crowd. Crowd?
Bethesda, Md: Re: Critter Encounter,Last year while on a wonderful vacation to Costa Rica we stayed on the Pacific side of the country in a nice little cove, we were warned by our host to be careful not to get too close to the Howler monkeys that live in the trees or they will throw their poo at you. We were fortunate enough to see and hear them but definetly kept our distance!!
Anne McDonough: Okay, maybe I shouldn't have put "grossest" in the request for memorable critter encounters. Let's stick with the memorable part!
I Love Lemurs!: Is Madagascar the only place one can see Lemurs in the wild? I've always thought they were adorable and it was sealed when I saw the BBC production about them hosted by John Cleese several years ago. He's also a Lemur-lover. figuratively speaking of course. I hope.
at any rate, is it dreadfully difficult to visit Madagascar or has tourism changed things? I think only my Brit friends have even heard of Madagascar.
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: Yes. That's the only place. The infrastructure is still not very good and makes traveling pretty difficult.
WWF makes stops on our Indian Ocean Voyage but we don't venture much into the center of the island, but you do see lemurs on that trip during the day trips on land.
scary fares, Va: ok. what is going on. fares are double (and more) on all routes i fly out of iad. is this a nationwide trend? an iad trend? a washington trend? should i buy now ( at the doubled fare) or wait until a week or two before leaving?
Carol Sottili: Independence Air is gone. Since they went under, fares out of Dulles have skyrocketed. I don't see any change in sight. As for whether you should buy, need more info, such as where, when, etc. Have you tried Reagan National or BWI?
Bethesda, Md: Hey Crew!Thanks to your wonderful article I'm planning a trip to Key West in October. I'd like to do a dolphin interaction, what was the final word on the right place and way to go about that? Also, is it possible to go kayaking from Key West to see wild dolphins and other sea life? Thanks!
John Deiner: Hey, Beth. The Keys are the land of milk and honey when it comes to swimmin' with dolphins. In a recent special report on the Keys, Cindy Loose stopped in at the Dolphin Research Center and had a good experience there; it's a research facility geared toward interaction with the critters. Check www.dolphins.org. I'd definitely make an appointment ahead of time; there are a variety of ways you can interact with them for a wide range of prices.
Can't help you, alas, on the kayaking trip. Anyone out there know of such a thing?
Frederick, Md: The funny critter story that I remember was in Kenya. A group of us took a safari through Kenya (mostly Samburu and Masai Mara). After our first evening drive in Samburu, as we approached the lodge, baboons were sitting on flat rocks in front the the lodge entrance. They had no desire to move out of the way. They just sat on the rocks. Our driver explained to us that since Kenya nights were cool and the rocks collected heat during the day, the baboons would sit on them to keep warm in the evenings. After spending a night in a villa at Mt. Kenya Safari Club, when we left in the morning, I glanced back at the villa as I walked away and sure enough, there sat a baboon on top of the chimney! After seeing the big, bad baboons trying to keep their bottoms warm, I have never quite thought they were so big and bad!
Anne McDonough: Warm bottoms: Those baboons have the right idea.
It's been a long time since I've been there (1990), but there's an organization called Arau Tours that still conducts architectural Art Nouveau and Art Deco tours of the city. If you're really into Art Nouveau, I'd also recommend the (Victor) Horta Museum (one of the founders of the Nouveau movement, the museum is his house).
There's an awful lot of tackiness and kitsch in Brussels, and lots of ugly mid-20th century office buildings for NATO and the EU, but the older architecture is spectacular (and I don't mean the Grand Place, which I found WAY too gaudy).
Gary Lee: I agree with you on all counts. I recommend the architecture tours and think the Grand Palace is over-rated.
Arlington, Va: Hi Crew -
Thanks for your great issue on Sunday focusing on how to see wildlife. Clearly, and very sadly, time is of the essence for viewing many of these species in the wild. Particularly the Polar Bear.
Can you recommend the best US or Canadian national parks for wildlife viewing? No particular species, but the greater the scope, the better for my five year old. My family would like to go this summer to perhaps the Banff area or maybe Jackson Hole and we don't want to break the budget. Thanks!
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: From my experience in the Northwest, you see the biggest variety of wildlife in Yellowstone National Park, but it can get quite crowded along the road system there in July and August, especially if a brown bear is nursing her cubs next to the road and the elk are bedded down just down the road....
The key here again is to keep your distance and not try to get the 'best picture'! Let the wildlife go it's natural course.
Washington, DC: I have an entry for the critter encounter contest:
My wife and I were on a charter scuba-diving boat in the Andaman Sea off of Thailand. The A/C had gone out on the boat so we were sleeping fitfully with the windows open as the boat steamed overnight to the Similan islands.
At some point in the night it started to rain so I reached up to slide the cabin window shut. Shortly after I laid back down, I heard/sensed a slap on the pillow right between my head and my wife's. Not really thinking clearly, I reached over to see what it was, only to place my hand directly on something wriggly and wet.
Instinctively I flung whatever it was to the other end of the cabin and sat bolt upright. There was a little chirping sound. I explained to my groggy wife that I thought there was a frog in the cabin (yeah, right), but when we turned the cabin light on my fears were confirmed; the frog turned out to be a bat.
I chased my wife out into the passageway after handing her a sheet to cover herself with. The bat followed her by flopping over the threshhold. Ignoring her pleas to let her back in I insisted on a cabin check for further bats. When none jumped out of the cracks I let her back in and we closed the door.
She wanted me to go out and open the back passageway door to the lower deck, releasing the hapless bat. But the bat was waiting just outside the door and tried to get back in to our cabin. We had to leave it stranded in the passageway. The next morning it was gone.
Breakfast was pleasantly free from mysterious protein.
Anne McDonough: Wriggly, wet bat: The stuff of nightmares.
Bowie, Md: Hey crew! Re: the Amer West comment earlier....same thing happened to me yesterday afternoon on a Spirit flight into DCA at about 3:45 pm...maybe something was happening we weren't supposed to know about? Also, wanted to get your opinion about protocol in asking your unknown seat-mate to shut off his 'electronic device' during landing (specifically a card playing electronic game). I did everything but tell the flight attendant.Finally, just wanted to give ya a heads up on an AMAZING deal: Joe's Stone Crab in Miami Beach. Ate there last Friday and ordered a plate full (18?) of fresh, delicious, fried oysters. Here's the deal:$6.95. Yep, seems there's not a great demand for them there....unbelievable!
Carol Sottili: Interesting, although I think if something were going on that lasted from Thursday-Sunday, we would know about it. At least I hope we would know about it. Anyone else out there have this experience in the past few days?
As for electronic device, I would have said, very sweetly, "You may not have heard the pilot announce that it's time to turn off all electronic devices." And then, if he didn't respond to my hint, I'd tell the flight attendant.
And could you please get me a plate of those oysters right now? I haven't had lunch!
San Francisco, Calif: I have a honeymoon question for the crew. We're getting married at the end of May, and we really really wanted to go to Zanzibar for our honeymoon. However, my fiance is British, so with all the immigration hoops we need to jump through, it's going to be a real pain to leave the country until probably the fall.
We thought we might take a domestic 'mini-moon' right after the wedding. We've never been to Hawaii before and thought this might be a great chance. Given that we like hiking and good restaurants more than sitting on the beach, could you recommend an island and potentially some hotels or some package deals? We'd like this to be nice, but not horribly expensive given that we're saving for Zanzibar!
Gary Lee: If hiking is what turns you on, I don't think you can beat Kauai. For lodging options all over the island, check out www.alternative-hawaii.com
Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: If you had ten days to spend between your arrival in Sarajevo, Bosnia and your departure from Split, Croatia this upcoming May, how would you allocate those days and where would you stop along the way? I should add that three of those days will definitely be in Sarajevo because we're visiting a friend there, but that leaves seven days for Dubrovnik, Split, and points in between. How many nights should we spend in each? Where should we visit in between? How many islands should we stop at - one or two? Which ones? Help!
KC Summers: Hi CH, that's a tough one. So much to see and do there -- it can be frustrating. With seven days, I would split my time equally between Split, Dubrovnik and one island. I mean, you could cram in more islands but I'm a firm believer in settling down a bit and getting to know a place at least a little. Dubrovnik, obviously, is gorgeous and amazing and you could happily spend the whole seven days there. Ditto with the islands -- I spent a couple days on Korcula and was so glad I did. But the best surprise was Split, with not only the amazing Diocletian's Palace -- a world heritage site -- but a fun and frisky nightlife scene on the palm-lined pedestrian promenade. Finally, if you can squeeze in a trip to Zagreb, do it -- it's a wonderful mix of medieval and hip.
Silver Spring, Md: Hi there. Just wanted to say thanks for the CoGo depressing news on European flights this summer. I've been looking for two months and haven't caught a break. On the bright side, and I know this chat seems geared to the do it your selfer, never underestimate the power of a good travel agent. I called ours and she booked us to Europe with lodging for three nights in London and three in Paris for about 1600 per person. That's including the chunnel and roundtrip airfare. Sometimes the internet travel gods smile upon us and other times it's better to reach for the phone and call the experts.
Carol Sottili: Travel agents sometimes have access to cheaper flights when they're twinned with hotel. Did you try booking the same package separately via the airline Web site and hotel Web site? That's how I figure out whether a deal is a deal - I stack up the tour operator or agent package against the same components booked separately.
Falls Church, Va: Hi Crew -
I am leaving my job and taking the spring and summer off -- lucky me! During this hiatus, I'd like to do as much low-cost travel as possible. Fortunately for me, my parents live in the Saratoga and Adirondacks area of New York State and we will be up that way for 4 weeks this summer. I grew up there and have also been to the nearby vacation spots including Lake Champlain/Burlington, VT, Montreal, Boston, the Finger Lakes region, and coastal ME. What other outdoorsy destinations are easily reached from that neck of the woods and aren't budget-breakers? We have a 5 year old daughter who likes to swim daily. Thanks for your help.
Steve Hendrix: Let's throw this out for our many N'eastern readers. But ceratiainly you've got lots to chose from: Baxter State Park in Maine, the Bay of Fundy and the islands off of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Alexandria, Va : Going to Oahu for 9 days next month (spring break), staying at the famed Hale Koa military resort. The in-laws are going along too and keep telling me they want to make a day jaunt to another island, maybe the Big Island? I've checked and this could cost $1000 for us all to go for a day, any suggestions on this idea or advice on how to do it (or just tell us not to, if that's the best answer!).
Thank you in advance! I lovvvve this chat!
John Deiner: Hey, Al. And ack. I'd say definitely no to a day jaunt to another island from Oahu. Too expensive, and the Big Island in one day is just, I dunno, a waste of money. Too much to see in one day, and you're just going to be bummed when you have to get back on the plane. Isn't there any way you can spend two or three days there?(Since you're going to be there for nine total.)
Maui, Hawaii: We - two women, a doctor and English teacher - want to take
our 18-year-old daughter to South America for her
graduation trip and would like to volunteer for service work
somewhere during the months of July and August, plus see
wildlife. We mostly speak Spanish. We can afford the trip, but
not extraordinary costs for tour-guide led excursions by
Smithsonian and Sierra Club, plus we like to find our own
way. (We have previous experience in Africa and Asia) Do you
know of any places that could use us for a week or two?
Anne McDonough: This sounds like a wonderful twist on the graduation trip idea. We're throwing it out to the crowd--anyone have South America volunteer experience they can recommend?
Washington, D.C.: I'm traveling to the Pacific Northwest at the end of May with my sister to celebrate her college graduation. We're planning to visit the Portland/Seattle/San Juan and Vancouver Island region. Any ideas for must-see or must-do activities in that area for two 20-something girls? Wildlife tourism? Neither of us have visited that area of the country before, so we're not sure where to start. Thanks!
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: I would recommend whale watching in the San Juan Islands, but be aware that in late May the weather often is rainy and cold.
The Olympic Peninsula is also a spectacular place for hiking and experience the coastal rain forest - with emphasis on 'rain'!
Seattle is definitely a fun place to spend a couple of days for the '20-something' crowd.
Virginia: I was thinking about planning a longish weekend in Paris this Spring - so far pricing (for a 3-star hotel) I've gotten about $800/person for 2 people for flight and hotel. Do you think flights will go down in the next couple of weeks? I know prices go way up once the summer season actually starts. Do you know when exactly they go up? Or do they just increase every week until it's prime season?Thank you!!
Carol Sottili: Spring is fast approaching. I don't think it's going to get much cheaper than that. Flights go up sometime from very end of May into the first two weeks of June, depending on carrier/sales/etc.
Silver Spring, Md: 1. Anyone with any opinions of Lac Megantic? Its in the Eastern Townships of Canada - somewhere between Maine and Quebec City. Would you recommend it to a family with small kids looking for a summer vacation in the French speaking part of Canada. Any tips on where to stay?
2. In the eternal quest for cheap but nice hotels in NYC ... don't forget about the Skyine Hotel (10th & 49). $10 parking (website still says $8) and an indoor pool (with quirky hours). Also, the Embassy Suites (free drinks and breakfast) in lower Manhattan can often be found on hotwire.
Anne McDonough: Ya've got us there--chatsters, anyone want to weigh in? And thanks for the NYC hotel tips!
Washington, D.C.: On a trip to Belize - we had just gone to sleep -we were exhausted - when I had a dream that my earring had come to life - I woke up - reached my hand up (gently) and grasped something wiggly (???) I turned the light on and it was a tree frog! It turned out that while I had been reading with the night light, several had wiggled in through the cracks in the wall to warm them selves in the heat of the night light. I always kept a watchful eye out for them after that and I don't believe there were any casualties.
Anne McDonough: Good thing it didn't wiggle into your ear.
Germany: hi,going to Munich and Berlin in the Fall. Anything not to miss? Hotel suggestions? we may have a car for a few days to do some side trips, any good drives (1 hour or so) from either city?
Gary Lee: The two must-do day trips from Munich are the Ludwig's castle (it has over the top decor) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (an Alps town dripping with charm.)
From Berlin, I'd strongly recommend a trip to Potsdam.
Anyone else with ideas in or outside of these two German cities?
Washington, D.C.: salut gurus! the wild life I'm after is black truffles and French language. However, I have to back in the capital city by the first day of spring, March 22. Ideas welcomed. Please help me get a great airfare to Paris or Brussels ASAP -- I'll leave day after tomorrow or whenever the best deal dictates.merci beaucoup
Buzzard Point, Washington, D.C.: While hiking in Oregon with my girlfriend, we took an excursion to a "seal beach" where the guide books promised the sight of seals "gallumphing" along the waters edge.
After much trudging through deep, wet sand - I launched into a tirade about how the book was wrong.
My grilfriend shut me up by pointing out the 2 dozen seals we were about 20 feet away.
She's now my fiancee and refers to my awkward movements as gallumphing...
Anne McDonough: Gallumphing. I like that.
Galapagos Islands: I'm travelling to the Galapagos Islands this summer to go diving. Most of our time seeing wildlife will be underwater, but we'll also do some land excursions as well. I sm very excited about this trip and have been looking forward to it for a long time. There seems to be a lot of discussion about how to make travel to the Galapagos ecologically sensitive. What is your take on the Galapagos conundrum? Is it the tourism or the influx of South American workers that's the real problem? Is there a harmonious balanace between scientific needs, tourism and migration from the mainland?
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: Great question and it would take me a long time to answer in detail.
But if you go to our website at http://worldwildlife.org/wildplaces/galapagos/projects.cfm
you will see a lot of info on the threats and some of the possible solutions in Galapagos.
Your one question: South American Worker influx is definitely related to increased tourism, yet tourism is the incentive to conserve the islands and their amazing biodiversity. But please browse our website for more detail and travel with a good tour operator who follows the strict rules that have been established for exploring the marine reserves.
Madrid via Zurich: Dear Flight Crew, I'd like to comment about the chatter last week that was concerned about her connection in Zurich on the way to Madrid. Someone said that Zurich and Madrid are both in the EU and therefore the chatter would only have to pass through customs once. This is not true for two reasons. (1) Switzerland is NOT part of the European Union (2) not all EU countries have free borders. Those countries with open borders belong to the SCHENGEN Agreement. There are 15 countries who belong to the group. Although Switzerland has approved to join the group by popular referendum, the country has yet to implement the policy (maybe in October 2007).
So the person will have to pass through immigration in Zurich and in Madrid, just like others who go to Madrid via London.
Gary Lee: Thanks for that information.
Washington DC: During the summer of 2002, we drove cross country from Berkeley to Washington. We stopped in South Dakota and decided to visit one of the state parks. Wild mules roamed the park, the descendants of pack mules from several decades ago. Unfortunately, people were feeding them from their vehicles, and they had become reliant on humans.
A mule came up to our car, but we had the windows up and the a/c on. The mule was quite insistent on trying to stick his head in the car, and kept pressing up against the window. Finally we saw a line of snot roll down the window. We were sufficiently grossed out, and stopped to get our car washed on the way out of town.
I've got a picture of that, too!
Anne McDonough: Ah, mule snot: Slightly more appealing than scat.
Cliffs of Moher: My suggestion for the Cliffs of Moher is to take a boat to see the cliffs, in addition to hiking up. Much better views of the cliffs themselves.
Also, in the same area, visit the Burren for some pretty views and there's a deep natural cave in the area which was a fascinating tour. But not too much wildlife anywhere.
Anne McDonough: For the Ireland-bound...
Waimanalo, Hawaii: To the traveler heading for the Hale Koa and wondering about the Big Island - check with http://www.kmc-volcano.com to see if they have any openings while you're there. If you are eligible to stay at the Hale Koa, you are eligible to stay at KMC, too. It's inside the Park and very much worth the jaunt from O'ahu to the volcano, but stay at least a couple of days!
John Deiner: Oh, don't we all want to be there now?! Good stuff, WH. Thanks for chiming in.
Arlington, Va: K.C. and/or Steve, I have two questions about Belize and Guatemala travel safety. First, I've read the Sate Dept. warnings on Guatemala. How does the Tikal area fare? Second, how bad are mosquitos in that area and San Ignacio. Is malaria a major concern? Enjoyed both your articles on these countries! Thanks!
KC Summers: Hi Arl. The warnings about Tikal turned out to be scarier than the actual experience. The inn where I was staying across the border in Belize took all kinds of precautions for our day trip there -- we had to leave really early in the a.m. in order to get back to Belize before nightfall, because of the danger of attacks by bandits on the road. And there had been recent attacks on tourists on the Tikal grounds, so we were cautioned not to trek through the jungle alone. We did hire a guide and had no problems.
Had no problems at all with mosquitoes -- this was in spring.
Steve Hendrix: K.C.'s been to Tikal since I have been, so she gets the final word on that. Elsewhere in Guatemala, security is a mixed bag. There was a spat of roadblock robberies a few years ago, including violent ones, that drew a State Department advisory. But those seemed to have petered out; at least I haven't heard of one in recent years. Elsewhere, keep your eyes open and avoid dark empty streets in Antigua (and certainly in the capital, if you go there at all). The big news lately is of vigilante backlash against gang violence. That's scary, but probably doesn't effect tourists at all.
Washington, D.C.: Vienna, Zurich, Milan, or Madrid?? I'm flying with frequent flyer miles to Germany this spring, but no return flights are available from German cities on the date I want to return. So, I'll do an open jaw and take a cheap flight to another city and fly home from there. The question is, which city?! My plan is to go to a city I haven't been to before (one of these listed above) -- arrive late afternoon/early eve on a Friday night and depart for the states early afternoon the next day. For these cities, can you say anything about quick accessibility to the airport, cheap accomodation, and evening events or museums open late? It will be the first weekend in May. Any recommendations? Thanks so much.
Gary Lee: Given your interests (affordability, museums, access to the airport) I would suggest Madrid. You can get to/from the airport by metro, find a good hotel for not too many euros, the museums are excellent and the city never sleeps.
None of your other options offer all of these things so easily.
is there a Euro-orbitz?: Or do I have to search all the euro carriers (easyjet, ryanair, etc.) separately?
Anne McDonough: Try openjet.com--it doesn't include all of them, but many are listed.
For Punta Cana: Since I can't imaging going anywhere like that and not finding a way to dive...you are right that the word on Punta is that the diving is bad, but it is worth the trip to dive at Isla Catalina and Isla Saona which are about 1 1/2 hours away.
John Deiner: Excellent diving tidbits there. I'm betting they can take a bus or cab there, or again, maybe some sort of excursion from the concierge desk, no?
Davis, Calif: My animal encounter was on a church mission trip probably ten years ago to Texas. We were working on a Habitat for Humanity home refurbishing and next door was a litter of puppies. All of these puppies were neglected and flea-ridden, among other things no doubt. For whatever reason, one caught our eye. It was very sick. We took it to a local vet clinic, multiple times, for shots and to be patched up (all on some church volunteer's credit card) and kept it with us the entire trip. We even snuck it into Bennigan's for dinner one night. At the end of the trip, we took the dog home to Kansas with us, placed an ad in the church bulletin, and a family adopted him. He was our Lucky. I actually think the family ended up calling him Lucky Joe.
Anne McDonough: Now THAT is a good souvenir.
Lorton, Va: My most memorable animal encounter has to in Costa Rica. I'm sure others have expierenced poo-throwing howler monkeys, so that might not be prize winning. But, there were coati spottings everywhere, they are like white tail deer down there. Everyone pulls over to the side of the road and gets out their camera. My favorite picture from a coati pack spotting is one where some lady chased the coati across the road, cornered it, then tried to pet it. She was old enough to know that wild animals are, well, wild, but apparently stupid enough to try it. Final score: Stupid lady: 0, Coati: 1
Anne McDonough: Silly lady, coati aren't pets.
Southington, Conn: I'm a big fan of the chat and appreciate all the good info you give. My husband is burned out from years of business travel, but he's okay with me taking trips, especially within the US. I end up going alone for a variety of reasons. Are there package companies for solo travelers? (I snore so I should probably have my own room since My Favorite Snorer is snoring at home.) Or even a SideStep-like website, last minute bargains that solo travelers can take? Thanks!
KC Summers: Hi South. Good for you for heading out on your own. As for single travel specialists, I always fantasize about taking a solo trip with Backroads. I like their emphasis on nature and the trips rather than the solo-ness. Pricey, though. Other companies that are strictly singles oriented: Connecting Solo Travel Network, cstn.com; Going Solo, goingsolotravel.com; Singles Travel International, singlestravelintl.com. There's also Travel Chums, which is related to Shaw Guides (which we like) and which lets you place ads to find travel companions (to avoid the dreaded singles supplement).
Washington, D.C.: The windjammer deal mentioned in the specials section seems great. Can you tell me more about the way they operate? do the passengers get to 'work' on the ship? is there a lot of forced socializing amongst the passengers (bad, bad cruise experience).
Carol Sottili: I haven't been on one, but I hear Windjammer cruises are very relaxed - no dress code, no rules, very laid back. They are fairly social, and attract a youngish crowd. They are not a tall ship experience where you get to work with the crew. Anyone out there been on one?
Reston, Va: Greetings to fellow wildlife-lovers and our friends at WWF. If it isn't a conflict of interest, I'm hoping you will alert your readers that in addition to WWF's excellent travel program, and Smithsonian's (which was mentioned in Sunday's Travel Section), the National Wildlife Federation also has a program dedicated to taking small groups of travelers to view wildlife. Traveling with organizations like WWF or NWF is a great way to see wildlife and learn more about the wonders of the natural world. Our program is at www.nwf.org/expeditions. And thanks for an excellent series of articles about travel and wildlife...maybe it could be an annual feature?!
Dan Gifford, Manager, National Wildlife Federation, Expeditions Travel Program
KC Summers: Hi Dan, Thanks for reminding us about your great program. Readers, take heed. And yes, it would be great to do this issue once a year... I've got dibs on lemurs!
Fortaleza, Brazil: Shortly after I met my future wife while working in Rio, we were walking in the beautiful large Tijuca Park just outside of the city. Suddenly she yelled, "Cobra!" I jumped several feet in the air (or so it seemed). At a time like that one doesn't necessarily calmly think, "Wait, there are no cobras in Brazil." I looked down and saw a harmless garter-type snake several inches long. My wife informed me that "cobra" is Portuguese for snake. Her turn came a few years later, in a safari camp in Swaziland, when we were in a dirt-floor tent (well furnished, I should add), and she wouldn't set foot on the ground all night long, for fear or snakes or ants that might be crawling through.
Anne McDonough: Cobra or "cobra," I'm with your wife: I'm not a snake fan.
Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C.: Hi,We're going to Jamaica at the end of this month and are interested in swimming with dolphins. However, I've heard that some excursion companies/facilities mistreat the dolphins. Can you recommend some responsible outfits or give us tips on things to do/avoid if we take one of these trips?
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: I don't know of any operators there, but as I mentioned to one of the people on this chat before you want to make sure that the operator does not harass, feed or tame wild dolphins. That often means that you cannot get as close to the animals, but it is the environmentally senstive thing to do. These are wild animals and not pets.
If you want to get really close to a dolphin and touch it, it is best to go to an adventure/educational facility and not in the wild.
Arlington, Va: Going to Paris for a quickie trip 3/31 - 4/4. Do you know if Giverny is worth the trip that time of year (and the time, given we don't have a lot of it)? I have been before and loved it but don't want to kill 1/2 day for it if the gardens won't be spectacular.
Also, Louvre tickets -- worth it to buy early online?
Gary Lee: I love Giverny but would say that the garden probably won't be in full blossom until later in the Spring or summer. For that short a time, best to do something else, like Chartres or Versailles.
As for the Louvre, in high season you definitely save wait time by booking on line. But March/early April is early enough in the season that the lines there should not be so long.
Charlottesville, Va: On a tour of the Rock of Gibralter, I was pretty much the only one obeying the signs saying not to approach or feed the Barbary macaques. But, while walking down a long stone stairway to the bottom of the hill, I encountered a pair of monkeys grooming each other right in the middle of the stairway. There was no way around them, so after making a lot of noise so as not to startle them, I approached. They sprang up, apparently startled anyway, and one of them jumped onto the ledge on one side of the stairs. As I walked past him (or her), he reached out, grabbed my nearest hand, brought it to his mouth, bit it, and then flung it away. (And he really did fling it; maybe he didn't like the taste.) A pharmacist in the town assured me that the monkeys are semi-tame and are vaccinated against everything. Don't know if that was true, but I'm still here 10 years later.
Anne McDonough: Monkey see, monkey bite. Glad you're okay!
Frederick, Md: It's not technically in the wild, but if you ever travel to Kenya, the Mt. Kenya Safari Club has an animal orphanage which takes care of injured and baby animals. For a small fee, you can enter the orphanage. When I was there, they had a primate maternity ward where three or four lemurs had given birth. They and their young were were in a large protected cage where they were allowed to bond. An attendent told me that they frequenty had lemurs in the orphanage.
KC Summers: Ooh, thanks. Another add for my must-do list -- I'm on a lemur kick.
Silver Spring, Md: I'm going to Oahu in April for, I kid you not, three days. (Well, with two other half days - flying out on a Wednesday, coming back on a Sunday.) Got any suggestions for what three 30ish, easily-entertained women with scuba certificates should do for three days in Hawaii?
Steve Hendrix: Go diving? Actually, I know Oahu pretty well, but I don't know where the good diving would be. Anyone?
Otherwise, you'll feel oblidged to spend an hour or two at Waikiki, and maybe hiking up Diamondhead, but make time for the truly wonderful Honolulu Academy of Arts (downtown) and drive (top-down!) up to the north shore. Have a wonderful burger at Kua Aina sandwiches on the main drag through Haleiwa and drive on around to Sunset Beach. Lots to do on Oahu....
holy taxes!: I wanted to go to Norway with my 2 year old over easter to
visit my sister, and our fares were $439 each on SAS, but
taxes were another $570! So basically $700+ each, what we
are used to paying in the summer season. Why????? I WISH
airlines would bundle the fees so one doesn't emotionally
commit to a low fare, then get sticker shock.
Carol Sottili: That's a typo, right? You mean taxes were another $270? Even that sounds high. Most fares to Norway at that time of year are about $450 to $500 round trip, plus taxes ranging from about $105 to $197. Some airlines bundle the fuel surcharge with the taxes, while others include it in the base fare.
2 in Dubrovnik (it's must-see, but once you've seen it you've seen it), stop in Mostar on the way.
3 on Hvar or Korcula (direct ferries from Dubrovnik), or 1 on Korcula, 2 on Hvar
That's all you've got time for, but you won't be disappointed in the slightest!
KC Summers: Or, maybe just two days on Hvar or Korcula and one day for Zagreb? Nah, i guess that doesn't make sense unless you're flying out of Zagreb, which I was -- and I was awfully glad to be able to spend my last day there, it added another whole dimension to the country.
Memorable critter encounter!: Hi flight crew! I was visiting St. Thomas with my roommate and we were hanging out on the beach one day. My roomie had gotten too much sun, so she was lounging in a hammock that was strung between two palm trees, while I was laid out on the sand sunning myself. All of a sudden we heard some rustling in the leaves and heard something falling out of the trees and something fell on my roommates head. We were both startled and a little freaked out. We looked on the ground and saw what looked like black rocks, then my roommate noticed her shoulder was a bit dirty. Upon closer inspection, we saw a HUGE lizard on the branch above her head. Apparently it, umm, well, relieved itself on her and the "black rocks" were in fact from the lizard. It was gross! She was traumatized! To this day, I will not hide from the sun under a palm tree - I bring a beach umbrella.
Anne McDonough: You never know what's lurking in those palm trees...
Re: Bosnia/Croatia: I live in Sarajevo and do the drive to Dubrovnik fairly often. It's worth a stop in Mostar to see the Stari Most (Old Bridge), and definitely stop in Jablanica on the way for grilled lamb. There's a bunch of roadside restaurants to try.
As for animal encounters, I recommend Leticia, Colombia (the Amazon). Our guide, an overgrown frat boy named Pablo, showed us the local grubs people eat for medicine, then ate a live one right in front of us. He then took us to a zoo to visit all sorts of gnarly animals, and made me hold a boa constrictor. Finally, he took us out to the Isla de Mikos (Monkey Island), where I was attacked by 8 monkeys, because the guide had put bananas in my pockets while I wasn't looking. While the monkeys swarmed, he put another banana on top of my head.
KC Summers: Beware of tour guides bearing bananas, I always say.
Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.: I am traveling to Turkey - on the south coast around Antalya and then Istanbul - at the end of March. Do you, or any chatters, have any tips on not-to-be-missed experiences? Thanks.
Steve Hendrix: I loved the coast town of Bodrum, DC, an easy reach from the excellent ruins of Ephesus. Do the ruins, and Bodrum is a great seaside town for a day or two eating and wandering.
Washington, DC: A comment: Public transport costs in this area have gone insane for getting to and from any area airport other than National-Reagan, and I wanted to mention that and the continuing lack of practical mass transport to get to Dulles, except for the one bus that runs about once an hour from just one stop in downtown and never has enough room.When Fly-i was still in business, it cost me more to take a cab the few miles from NW DC to Dulles ($45 before tip) than it did to fly from Dulles all the many miles to Syracuse or Buffalo. Even the airport vans to Dulles cost around $25 or $30, and sometimes they take two and a half hours because they drive around picking up so many other people. The "option" of taking a bus to Metro, then Metro to another bus, and then that bus to Dulles is absurdly time-consuming; awkward if one has luggage; and still costs a chunk o' change. BWI of course is even worse.
John Deiner: Hey, DC. Rant duly noted. I think anyone who needs to go to BWI or Dulles on a regular basis feels your pain. Yeah, it's easy to say "Take Amtrak to BWI, then a bus, yada yada," but it is extremely time consuming. Much easier to hop off a subway train and take a skybridge into a terminal. Great point about flying Independence vs. cab fare to the airport. Thanks for venting.
Elephant : Not my story but my sister's & her husband's -- they were feeding the animals in the Colorado zoo, because it was empty and the zoo-keepers thought their daughter was cute. They gave the giraffe's a treat and this apparently made the elephants jealous. Before they knew it, the elephants began flinging poo at them! My bro-in-law dove in front and protected the rest, so he was just covered in it!
For years, I'd ask my niece to "tell me a story about elephant poop" and her eyes would just light up!
Anne McDonough: Can you imagine if we humans threw poop when jealous? Good lord.
Euro-carriers: Another good site for European airlines is www.skyscanner.net!
KC Summers: We haven't used this, but we'll check it out.
Bethesda, Md: I have a story for you... I was in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica last year wandering through the park checking out all the wildlife. (I saw a momma and baby sloth! The coolest thing ever!) Anyway, we came across a huge pack of spider monkeys so we stopped, watched them for awhile and moved a little closer to take a couple of pictures. All of the sudden one practically flew out of a tree at me and tried to rip the bag I was carrying out of my hand. I was stunned, I knew that the monkeys would jump out of the trees while people were in the ocean and steal their unsupervised belongings but I didn't think they were brazen enough to try to rip my bag from my hands. So I stood there yanking my bag back and forth with this little 2 foot tall monkey who was wailing and squealing at me the whole time. It took all I had to not kick the thing back into the trees from where it came. Finally my boyfriend took the bag from both of us and the monkey went back into the tree staring and squealing at us until we had walked far enough away.
Anne McDonough: Monkey see, monkey grab.
Washington, D.C.: The A Section story on Bratislava was pretty neat. Any idea what it would be like for two 20-something women to go there (as opposed to herds of British men on bachelor party weekends)? Cheap sounds good...
Gary Lee: I love this city. It has a funky dining/nightlife scene that I think would appeal to you. It also has a lovely opera if that interests you. If I were you, I'd probably couple a stay there with a visit to the lovely Slovak spa town of Piestany or to Prague.
animal encounter: I was hiking near Kanchanaburi in Thailand when a Komodo Dragon chanced upon my path. He was about 5 feet long and 10 feet in front of me. He didn't seem too freaked out by me--can't say the same-- so we surveyed each other for a minute before he went on his merry way!
Carol Sottili: You fared better than Sharon Stone's then-husband, Phil Bronstein, who was chomped upon by one of those dragons, if you recall.
Bethesda, Md: Is there a place where I can find out eco friendly tours endorsed by organizations like the WWF? Specifically, I'm looking for something in the Carribean, where I can take pictures of the wildlife, and I don't want some phony "green" tour which is the equivalent of a "horse ride" that consists of the horse being led around a corral by someone on foot.
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf: WWF does not do a certification program of 'responsible companies' but we list a good number of trips around the world related to wildlife viewing on our website:
Or you could learn more about responsible tourism at:
They list questions you should ask a tour operator to determine how responsible they are before booking your trip.
Arlington, Va: We have a trip to Greece planned in late April for 8 days in Greece. The majority of the time will be spent operating out of a rented house near Lamia and spending the final 2 days in Athens. We are planning to take day trips from the house. Thus far we only have a day trip to Delphi planned but would like to see other trips that would allow for time to go, visit and return to the house in the evening. Can you recommend some other towns, sights experiences that would be possible working out of this location? Would like to make it to a few islands but I hear the ferries are less reliable in the non-summer months. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated as we are quite open in our planning.
Gary Lee: I have traveled to several of the islands in the Cyclades in he off season and found that the ferries were not wildly off schedule. I particularly liked Tinos and Syros.
Waimanalo, Hawaii: Silver Spring - lots of tour companies happy to take you on a suba adventure. They are all over Waikiki and beyond. Have you ever thought about snorkeling at Hanauma Bay in East Oahu? Lucky you're coming next month: all the beaches windward side are closed after our recent rains/floods/sewage problems! 'Nuff about that.
Steve Hendrix: That's good advice...
KC Summers: Just remember that Hanauma Bay can get incredibly crowded -- like Jones Beach at the height of summer -- so plan this one for the off season.
No Oahu Scuba!: You can't fly, scuba dive, and fly again within 3 days! You'll get the bends!!!
Steve Hendrix: But this might be better...
Rochester, NY: Ok, picture this. We were in Mycenae, in one of these Tholos tombs (some describe as a beehive). There was a stray dog wandering around outside. As we entered, the dog followed us in, and proceeded straight to a spot and started digging, frantically. Dirt was flying all over the place, the digging sound was being echoed (if you stand in the center of the beehive, you can hear loud and clear something whispered from the edge), and we were transfixed - this being a tomb and all, and there being many archaeological digs going on all over Greece...we did not know what was going to, uh, come out. Some humorous pictures later (we gathered around the busy puppy and made exaggerated facial expressions of wonder and surprise, as if something was unearthed), we exitted the tomb - followed by the dog. This dog proceeded to follow us to and in/out of a couple more tombs, and finally wandered off (must've found what it came for).
KC Summers: Hmm, a devil dog?
RE: The Monkey Jungle: In addition to also being a Miami native, I too have been the recipient of flying monkey poo at the Monkey Jungle. The best part of that place was the sign right at the entrance that informed visitors that being hit by monkey feces should be anticipated. If I remember correctly, the sign was inside the gate and could only be read after paying your admission.
I don't think the Monkey Jungle is still in business. I wonder why?
John Deiner: Good news! I just called Monkey Jungle, and the place appears is still open! So if you're hankering to be hit by monkey poo, you can head to South Florida for the privilege.
Anne McDonough: Seems like there are more folks out there who've been slimed on, pooped on and stolen from by animals than I'd have thought. But I couldn't stop laughing thinking about the baboons sitting on hot stones to keep their bottoms warm. So Frederick, send your info to mcdonougha@washpost.com and we'll get those trinkets out to you. Thanks, Dr. Klenzendorf, for joining us, and to you all for joining in--and be sure to come back next Monday!
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 Travel editors and writers take your questions and comments every Monday at 2 p.m. ET.
| 807.388889 | 0.833333 | 1.277778 |
high
|
medium
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500948.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500948.html
|
Iraq's Crisis of Scarred Psyches
|
2006030619
|
BAGHDAD -- More than 25 years after Saddam Hussein's rise to power ushered in a period of virtually uninterrupted trauma -- three wars, crippling economic sanctions and now a violent insurgency -- the psychological damage to many Iraqis is only now being assessed, psychiatrists and government officials here say.
Even as a grim, though incomplete, picture of the population's mental health has emerged in recent studies, so too has the realization that the country's health care system is ill-equipped to deal with what are likely millions of potential psychiatric patients with conditions born of the hardship of recent years.
One recent study was sparked by one of the country's darkest days in recent memory. Last Aug. 31, nearly 1,000 Shiite Muslim pilgrims died -- some trampled in a crush of humanity, others by drowning -- when a religious procession across a Baghdad bridge became a lethal stampede.
Months after the dead were buried and the wounded had begun to heal, a team of psychiatrists at the Health Ministry established a psychological outreach facility in Sadr City, a teeming Shiite slum in the capital, to assess and treat the damage inflicted on victims, witnesses and their families. What they found surpassed even their worst fears. More than 90 percent of the people surveyed suffered from psychological disorders, including depression, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
"The people we've identified as troubled are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the mental health situation in this country," said Ali Abdul Razak, 55, who runs the clinic in a dank corner of Sadr City's Imam Ali Hospital. "I don't consider this post-traumatic, I consider it 'continuous traumatic,' because the trauma they have is ongoing."
Resources for treatment are scarce. Only about 75 psychiatrists remain in a country that has endured a brutal eight-year war with Iran and two wars with the United States, along with crippling economic sanctions in the 1990s and the bloody insurgency today. Many fled along with other professionals to escape kidnappings and threats from insurgents. As a result, there is one psychiatrist for about every 300,000 Iraqis, compared with about one for every 10,000 Americans. There are currently no child psychiatrists in this country of about 25 million, Razak said.
This year the Health Ministry declared mental health a top priority and opened two psychological outreach centers in Baghdad (the second is in the city's main teaching hospital in the predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Yarmouk). In addition to studying those affected by the bridge collapse, the ministry has begun collecting data on the population as whole.
In a survey of just over 1,000 randomly selected people across five Baghdad neighborhoods, completed this month by psychiatrists at Baghdad's Mustansariyah University, about 890 reported having experienced a violent incident firsthand, including all 27 children under 12 in the sample.
Most alarming, according to the physicians who analyzed the data, was that exposure to trauma has grown dramatically more common since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The people in the study recalled 3,504 violent incidents between 1979, when Hussein came to power, and 2003. Since the invasion, they have recorded 6,463.
In the survey, the psychiatrists adapted an Iraqi version of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, a research tool once used to evaluate the mental health of Southeast Asian refugees displaced by war.
Among the 42 yes-or-no queries, Iraqi subjects were asked to indicate whether they had been "oppressed because of ethnicity, religion or sect," "witnessed the desecration or destruction of religious shrines," "witnessed mass execution of civilians," been "used as a human shield," "witnessed rotting corpses," or been "forced to pay for a bullet used to kill a family member."
Those at the greatest risk, psychiatrists say, are people who came of age during Hussein's reign and have rarely known a life without trauma.
|
BAGHDAD -- More than 25 years after Saddam Hussein's rise to power ushered in a period of virtually uninterrupted trauma -- three wars, crippling economic sanctions and now a violent insurgency -- the psychological damage to many Iraqis is only now being assessed, psychiatrists and government...
| 15.14 | 0.98 | 48.02 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/06/BL2006030600718.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/03/06/BL2006030600718.html
|
Hip-Hop's Place in History
|
2006030619
|
WASHINGTON -- Evo Morales, the new president of Bolivia, has made those sweaters he wears so popular that I wouldn't be surprised to see a Phat Farm knock-off soon. Speaking of Phat Farm, Russell Simmons may have sold that hip-hop-inspired clothing line, but he could still look to Morales for other forms of inspiration. For instance, he could take heed of the Inca proverb that Morales has also introduced to a wider public: Ama shua, ama llulla, ama qella. Roughly translated, it means don't lie, don't steal and don't be lazy. I can't speak to Simmons' honesty or integrity, but his heavy-lidded comments at a New York news conference last month suggest that he's guilty of lazy thinking. Or maybe he was just sleepy.
Simmons, who made his fortune as a founder of the hugely successful Def Jam record label, joined other rap music heavyweights to announce the Smithsonian Institution's plans for an extensive hip-hop exhibition. Several of the genre's pioneers, including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc, were on hand at a hotel in midtown Manhattan to introduce the project, "Hip-Hop Won't Stop: The Beat, the Rhymes, the Life."
During his remarks, Simmons reportedly credited hip-hop as "the only real description of the suffering of our people."
To borrow a phrase from Ida B. Wells, whose 1895 study of lynching, "A Red Record," remains one of the best descriptions of our suffering, "that is an expression without a thought."
Let's set aside for a moment the woefully limited notion that African-American history is solely defined by suffering. Let's also dispose of the idea that hip-hop focuses exclusively on that suffering. The best of the genre's music also speaks eloquently about our resilience (in "Keep Ya Head Up" by Tupac Shakur, for example); our devastating wit (anything by De La Soul or OutKast); our romantic yearnings (Pharcyde's "Passin' Me By"); and our capacity for raucous celebration ("Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang). Hip-hop notes our trials and tribulations as well as any other art form, but does it provide the only real description? That's one heck of a lazy notion.
Does anyone believe that those original 20 African captives brought to shore in 1619 didn't immediately begin to describe their condition and express their reactions to it, albeit in a foreign language? Not long after they arrived, their descendants mastered English and created the immortal Negro spirituals, famously described by W.E.B. DuBois as "sorrow songs." Their songs contained "bursts of wonderful melody," DuBois wrote, "full of the voices of my brothers and sisters, full of the voices of the past."
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long ways from home
Couplets like that one perfectly describe -- in a single powerful metaphor, mind you -- the plight of early African-Americans. And that's to say nothing of the melody, which, unfortunately, I can't convey here.
Spirituals led to blues, jazz and brilliant lyricists such as Andy Razaf, who worked with Fats Waller and, in 1929, summed up the African-American tradition thusly: "What did I do, to be so Black And Blue?" It's a small leap from there to more contemporary gems such as Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" (1964) and Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" (1971). "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five rightly belongs in this tradition, as do other hip-hop songs, but let us praise them as a worthy continuation of a long and righteous tradition, not as one-of-a-kind trailblazers. After all, barely a decade passed between Gaye's masterpiece and that wheels-of-steel classic.
The late Gwendolyn Brooks, not usually known as an observer of hip-hop, nonetheless astutely placed it in its proper historical context. In a 1990 essay in Ebony magazine, she pointed out the "delightfully visible, importantly thick line of development in quality, stretch and strength of black creativity" extending from black literature to more recent developments such as hip-hop. She wrote that rap at its best, like other mostly African-American art forms, offers "an intoxicating beat" and "varieties of tone" while expressing "love, light, loss, liberty, lunacy and laceration." Leave it to a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet to put it all in perspective.
Give hip-hop its due, but not at the expense of everything that has come before it. That would be sloppy. Lazy even.
|
Russell Simmons knows hip-hop, but he could use a refresher course in blues, jazz and other mostly African-American art forms.
| 33.464286 | 0.821429 | 2.75 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500898.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500898.html
|
Post-9/11 Drive by Republicans To Attract Jewish Voters Stalls
|
2006030619
|
Nearly five years ago, immediately after the Sept.11, 2001, attacks, Republican strategists identified what they hoped would be a powerful new engine of support. "September 12 Republicans" were Jewish Democrats and independents who would switch their allegiance because of their concern over national security and their appreciation of President Bush's stalwart support of Israel.
It is such people that Vice President Cheney will be courting tomorrow, when he speaks to the closing plenary session of the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee's policy conference. But the much-trumpeted effort by the Bush White House to make deep inroads on the Democrats' historic claims on Jewish voters -- and, even more important politically, the campaign contributions of Jewish donors -- has not materialized in any convincing fashion, according to poll data, fundraisers and campaign finance reports.
In 2004, Bush improved his 2000 performance among Jewish voters, jumping from 19 percent to 25 percent, according to exit polls. But this gain was disappointing to many Bush supporters -- and was substantially below the 35 percent level Republican presidential candidates averaged through the five elections of the 1970s and 1980s.
Recently, two new obstacles are hurting GOP efforts at cultivating Jews: the corruption scandals involving former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and his onetime friend and benefactor, Jack Abramoff.
Abramoff, an orthodox Jew, had asserted he was playing a key role in the drive to recruit Jewish donors to the Republican cause. But some Republicans now consider the disgraced lobbyist an albatross shadowing this effort.
Bruce Bialosky, a leader of the Republican Jewish Coalition's branch in Southern California, told the Forward, a Jewish newspaper, that Abramoff is "a blight upon the Republican Party and the Jewish people."
Other officials with the RJC, based in Washington, contended that Abramoff never played an important role in Republican fundraising among Jews. They declined to comment on Abramoff for the record.
DeLay's problems, likewise, have set back GOP efforts in cultivating Jewish supporters. He has been one of Congress's most aggressive and outspoken backers of Israel's Likud government, and sponsored resolutions of support that were often so strongly worded that some Democrats -- including those who had supported Israel's Labor Party -- abstained or voted no. Republicans cited these votes in arguing that the Democratic Party could not be counted as a reliable ally of the Jewish state.
In 2003, DeLay told the Israeli Knesset that the tie between the United States and Israel "is the solidarity of Moses and Lincoln. . . . And in its name I come to you -- in the midst of a great global conflict against evil -- with a simple message: Be not afraid."
DeLay's resignation from his leadership post, forced by an indictment on fundraising charges by a Texas grand jury, has left him with marginal influence as he struggles to keep his congressional seat -- hardly in a position to contribute to GOP party-building.
The White House's expectations that it could compete among an influential demographic group had been stoked by what political strategists believed would be an outpouring of support for a president who demonstrated unwavering support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and repeatedly stated a determination to defeat anti-Semitic Islamic terrorists.
At the start of 2004, Matthew Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, had raised the possibility of Republican Jewish support reaching 35 percent to 40 percent, citing exit polls from the 2002 House and Senate races.
|
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.
| 17.076923 | 0.666667 | 0.769231 |
medium
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thecheckout/2006/03/caution_credit_bureaus_may_be.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thecheckout/2006/03/caution_credit_bureaus_may_be.html
|
A Consumer Report By Caroline Mayer
|
2006030619
|
If you're in the market for a mortgage--and even if you're not-- you should make sure you read this column by Ken Harney in Saturday's Real Estate section. Harney has uncovered a practice by some lenders and credit bureaus that lets them share your private information without you knowing about it.
How does it work? You apply for a loan and within 24 hours you may start receiving offers from competing lenders because they (or firms acting on their behalf) have paid the credit bureaus for a special alert when consumers apply for a mortgage.
While some consumers may appreciate the competitive offers, a lot will be pretty disturbed to learn of this practice, Harney notes. He also warns consumers to carefully consider any offer, especially unsolicited ones. Consumers need to investigate whether lenders are legitimate and the offers are really what they say they are. Otherwise, he notes, "you could be opening yourself to one of the oldest con games going: bait and switch."
By Caroline Mayer | March 6, 2006; 10:30 AM ET | Category: Consumer News Previous: Checks Enclosed With More Bills Ahead | Main Index | Next: The Baby Walker March to Safety
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/mt/mtb.cgi/5274
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Caution: Credit Bureaus May Be Sharing Your Loan Application:
I think credit bureaus, as much sensitive information as they hold, should be subject to some sort of governance as to what they can do with it.
Posted by: jim | March 6, 2006 12:31 PM
Anyway of preventing these solicitations?
Posted by: ABC | March 6, 2006 12:31 PM
This is quite disturbing. Thank you for letting us know! Anything we, consumers, can do to stop this?
Posted by: Elle | March 6, 2006 01:06 PM
Not entirely sure if this will work but try registering for OptOutPrescreen.com, it's the official service of the credit reporting industry for you to opt out of "offers of credit or insurance." That might apply to these loan offers too.
Posted by: jim | March 7, 2006 10:35 AM
|
The Checkout, a consumer report blog by Caroline Mayer, gives consumers advice and tips. This consumer guide helps consumers avoid scams. Also find the latest on customer service, recalls and consumer product settlements.
| 10.589744 | 0.589744 | 0.794872 |
low
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030501186.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030501186.html
|
Toni Morrison: An Introduction
|
2006030619
|
Thirty-three years ago, Toni Morrison labored in relative obscurity: She was the author of one novel, "The Bluest Eye" (1970), an editor at Random House, an associate professor of English at the State University of New York in Purchase. She was in her early forties, the divorced mother of two boys, slowly gaining respect in the scholarly and literary worlds but almost entirely unknown to the general public.
Certainly, she was unknown to me. I was a relatively young man, working as editorial writer and book editor for a newspaper in North Carolina, doing freelance reviewing on the side for various publications, one of which was The Washington Post's Book World. When in 1973 its editor, William McPherson, invited me to review a new novel titled "Sula," I had absolutely no idea what I was in for but accepted the assignment because I trusted Bill's judgment.
The rest of the story -- Morrison's, not mine -- is history. "Sula" was enthusiastically reviewed (with, on my own part, certain reservations), found a decent number of readers and was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction. Thereafter, Morrison's career took off. "Song of Solomon" (1977), "Tar Baby" (1981) and "Beloved" (1987) made Morrison a best-selling author and the winner of numerous prizes: a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Pulitzer Prize and, most important, the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature. She became this country's most famous literary novelist -- not least because of occasional appearances on the television show of Oprah Winfrey, her most sedulous booster -- and an international figure as well. Now in her mid-seventies, Morrison is leaving the prestigious chair she has occupied for two decades at Princeton but shows no sign of reducing her literary activity.
In choosing to revisit "Sula" for this series, I had a couple of things in mind. My memories of the novel were admiring and fond but vague; I wanted to see how it had held up over more than three decades. I also had been troubled by Morrison's work since "Beloved," which upon publication I praised for the power and grace of its prose but lamented that "it is a novel in which themes are more important than people, with the predictable consequence that the people never really come to life." I had been especially vexed by "Love" (2003), which I found "clotted, tedious, uninviting . . . oracular and ponderous." I wondered whether Morrison's penchant for Delphic pronouncements was something I had overlooked in "Sula" or whether it was a consequence of subsequent fame and the bully pulpit it offered her.
The answer appears to fall somewhere in between. There are, indeed, oracular touches in "Sula" that I missed 33 years ago, and in her foreword to the 2004 Vintage International edition, Morrison goes out of her way to defend herself -- and, by extension, "Sula" -- as deeply political. Yet, now as in 1973, "Sula" seems most remarkable for its humor, its dialogue, its deftly realized title character and, in particular, its portrait of "the Bottom," the black community of an Ohio town called Medallion where the novel is set. In other words, "Sula" can -- and in my view should -- be read not as a political tract but as a "mere" novel, a human story, a statement that cannot so easily be made about Morrison's later work.
In that foreword to the 2004 edition, Morrison quite disarmingly describes the circumstances of her life as she began writing the book:
"I was living in Queens while I wrote 'Sula,' commuting to Manhattan to an office job, leaving my children to child-minders and the public school in the fall and winter, to my parents in the summer, and was so strapped for money that the condition moved from debilitating stress to hilarity. Every rent payment was an event; every shopping trip a triumph of caution over the reckless purchase of a staple. The best news was that this was the condition of every other single/separated female parent I knew. The things we traded! Time, food, money, clothes, laughter, memory -- and daring. . . . We were being encouraged to think of ourselves as our own salvation, to be our own best friends. What could that mean in 1969 that it had not meant in the 1920s? The image of the woman who was both envied and cautioned against came to mind."
This image in Morrison's mind metamorphosed into the character of Sula Peace: granddaughter of Eva Peace, daughter of Hannah Peace, closest friend of Nel Wright. They all live in the Bottom, the ironic name given to the "hilly land" above the "rich valley floor in that little river town," leaving blacks only "small consolation in the fact that every day they could literally look down on the white folks." Here, as in all her fiction, Morrison writes with affection for the tight black communities of the past, and toward the end of the novel, as this particular community begins to disintegrate, she chants what amounts to a dirge for it:
"The black people, for all their new look, seemed anxious to get to the valley, or leave town, and abandon the hills to whoever was interested. It was sad, because the Bottom had been a real place. These young ones kept talking about the community, but they left the hills to the poor, the old, the stubborn -- and the rich white folks. Maybe it hadn't been a community, but it had been a place. Now there weren't any places left, just separate houses with separate televisions and separate telephones and less and less dropping by."
That is in 1965. In the 1920s, when all but a few pages of "Sula" are set, the Bottom is full of life -- shaped, to be sure, in great measure by white bigotry and discrimination, but also by its own culture and sustained by its own institutions. As I wrote 33 years ago, "The most fully realized character in the novel . . . is the community of the Bottom. Toni Morrison is not a Southern writer, but she has located place and community with the skill of a Flannery O'Connor or Eudora Welty." There is no reason to alter that judgment today; Morrison's portrait of the Bottom remains superb.
The lives of all four of the women mentioned above are contained within the Bottom. The themes that Morrison explores through them, she describes as follows: "What is friendship between women when unmediated by men? What choices are available to black women outside their own society's approval? What are the risks of individualism in a determinedly individualistic, yet racially uniform and socially static, community?" All four women confront these issues in one way or another, but it is in Sula that they are most forcefully brought home.
|
An occasional series in which The Post's book critic reconsiders notable and/or neglected books from the past.
| 72.526316 | 0.684211 | 1.210526 |
high
|
low
|
abstractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022800952.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022800952.html
|
Taking the Plunge
|
2006030619
|
I think of it as the toilet bowl index.
A year and a half ago, we were possessed of seven toilets: two in our own house; one in a little cabin we own with some friends in Pennsylvania; and four others in rental properties we'd bought in Takoma Park. Of course, we also had four circuit boxes in those houses, 15 or so faucets and dozens of windows. But it was the toilet tally I preferred as a measure of the tiny real estate empire my wife, Ann, and I had begun to assemble as amateur investors.
It struck me after we closed on the first rental property, a small brick bungalow off Sligo Creek Parkway. On our final walk-through, I stopped before the tank-and-bowl centerpiece of one of the little bathrooms.
"Why, that's my toilet," I said, a little disoriented from the emotional tumult of buying a house that I wasn't planning to actually live in. "I may never even use it. But it's mine, and I'm responsible for it."
I gave it a little getting-to-know-you flush.
I knew seven toilets didn't place me among the great Potty Barons of our age. How many toilets does Donald Trump own? The mind boggles. (It's easier to imagine how many of them he has ever plunged himself.) But I was still proud that two undercapitalized Washington wonks -- a journalist and a public health consultant -- with meager savings and less than a clue about investing, had quadrupled our porcelain holdings in about five years of real estate dabbling. The johns were all performing admirably, as were the houses themselves. All were growing steadily more valuable each year in a streaking property market, with their mortgages paid by the rents we collected. I've never attended a seminar or read a book on real estate investing, but I gather that's how it is supposed to work.
"The commode count stands at seven," I would update my father, who is always interested in our real estate investments. He is a long-retired cement salesman who hasn't owned a house in more than 30 years. "Holding at seven."
And then, in 2004, we had a chance to buy another property and push ourselves, gulp, into double-digit johnny ownership. And these came with something that was noticeably lacking in our mid-Atlantic houses: a really killer view of a volcano.
It was a little place on Lake Atitlan, a high mountain basin in western Guatemala that Ann and I ranked among the most spectacular settings we'd seen in our global wanderings. We were on vacation there with our two daughters and another Takoma Park family and, after a week, we were all thoroughly smitten. Finally -- hypnotized by the view, emboldened by the rum -- I spoke the inevitable:
"I wonder what houses go for around here."
Real estate investing was about to get seriously weird.
Buying a house is the third most emotion-fraught of all human transactions (right after falling in love and selecting a cable package). The whole process is one big Tilt-a-Whirl, from finding a place (The hunt!), to bidding on it (The battle!), to taking possession (The drapes! They have to go!). It also has to be the world's oldest investment, with people acquiring, managing and losing property since the First Landlord served the first eviction notice at the Garden of Eden. (What was that illegal apple picking, after all, but history's first zoning violation?)
|
I think of it as the toilet bowl index. A year and a half ago, we were possessed of seven toilets: two in our own house; one in a little cabin we own with some friends in Pennsylvania; and four others in rental properties we'd bought in Takoma Park. Of course, we also had four circuit boxes in...
| 10.656716 | 0.985075 | 48.298507 |
low
|
high
|
extractive
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/03/AR2006030300611.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/03/AR2006030300611.html
|
In a Family Way: One Amazing Hour With the Susas
|
2006030619
|
We plowed through nettle fields, at one point crawling through the Rwandan foliage on all fours. One member of our armed escort went ahead to scout the path. Just as I was ready to collapse, a tracker hooted in the distance and two young silverback gorillas tumbled into view.
The duo began playing to their audience like a couple of hams in a vaudeville act: striking poses, gamboling with each other, posturing for us. We were supposed to remain at least seven feet away, but no one had told them. Their performance was a combination greeting ("Welcome!") and warning ("But we're in charge!"). They'd stop to eat -- tearing bamboo plants up by their roots and chomping them down in one or two gulps -- then turn a profile.
This was our first glimpse of the mountain gorilla, a member of the great ape family and an endangered species -- about 650 to 700 remain in the wild, half in Rwanda. They live high in the Virunga Mountains of northwestern Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda and migrate freely across the borders of these countries in search of food. Alas, their population has been decimated by a combination of deforestation, human-borne disease and poachers.
The animals are now protected, and while these problems have decreased, signs of poaching are still evident: One of our welcoming silverbacks had lost a hand to poachers as a baby.
This past August, my adult son and I spent time in Rwanda visiting American friends and studying the Rwandan legal processes, but our opportunity to visit the gorillas was what made the trip truly special. A cousin, also working in Rwanda, joined us to attend an AIDS conference in Ruhengeri, so we based ourselves there rather than at one of the hotels closer to the gorillas' habitat in Volcanoes National Park.
Our group of eight trekkers, ranging in age from mid-twenties to mid-sixties, was accompanied by soldiers carrying machine guns, who, we were assured, were there to protect us from mountain buffalo. Whatever the risks posed by angry bovines, there are legitimate security concerns while visiting this region -- poachers and border incursions from neighboring countries have been problems in the past. However, Rwanda and its neighbors are now at relative peace, and Rwanda in particular is rebuilding its economy and society after the horrifying 1994 genocide.
The government understands the value of the tourist trade to the nascent economy and was clearly taking great effort not only to protect tourists, but also to let us know that we were being protected.
Our day had begun at 5:15 a.m. for the 16-mile drive over the rutted road from Ruhengeri to the park. We hired our car (a Toyota Land Cruiser) and driver from the church group our friend works for in Kigali, Rwanda's capital. Though we'd expected the land to be teeming with wildlife, we saw few animals as we drove through the African dawn.
At the park office, the 40 of us with permits for that day's treks were assigned to groups of eight, each with one guide and three armed soldiers. The official language of Rwanda is Kinyarwanda and most people speak French (a throwback to the country's heritage as a Belgian colony). Our guide, Diogene, spoke excellent English, which he had learned from talking with tourists, and was teaching himself Japanese.
Before setting forth, the guides described the personalities of the gorilla family we were to meet. Gorillas are identified by their nose prints, each as distinctive to an individual as fingerprints are to humans. Five gorilla families currently reside in the park; the smallest, the Sabinyo group, has nine members and generally congregates less than an hour from the park office. Group 13, with 10 members, is likewise easy to reach and, according to park guides, is led by a very relaxed silverback.
We chose to visit the Susa group, the most active and farthest from the park office. Primate researcher Dian Fossey, who studied the family in 1967, famously sent supervisor Louis Leakey a telegram reading, "I've finally been accepted by a gorilla," after a young ape named Peanuts exchanged a glance with her. Today, trekkers hope to replicate the experience as they scale the mountains in her footsteps.
|
Deforestation, human-borne disease and poachers have driven down the numbers of the mountain gorilla in Africa, but Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda features five unique families of the endangered species.
| 23.771429 | 0.857143 | 3.2 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500974.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/05/AR2006030500974.html
|
Tennis Adds Replay And Electronic Calls
|
2006030619
|
On-court tantrums soon may become a thing of the past in professional tennis with the introduction of electronic line-calling and the opportunity for players to demand a video review of suspect calls.
Today, officials from the U.S. Tennis Association will join representatives of the men's and women's pro tours to announce that a version of instant replay -- relying on the Hawk-Eye brand of technology and a limited number of player challenges -- will debut later this month at the Nasdaq-100 in Key Biscayne, Fla., an annual hard-court tournament that draws the top male and female players. The replay system will also be used at this year's U.S. Open and at most of the major North American hard-court tournaments this season, including Washington's Legg Mason Tennis Classic, July 29-Aug. 6.
"It's a major breakthrough," said former Davis Cup captain and tournament co-founder Donald Dell. "It's going to jazz up the game and make for an excitement you don't otherwise have."
The technology to make line calls electronically has existed for years and is routinely employed for conversational purposes during ESPN broadcasts, in which analysts refer to it as "Shot Spot." But to date, many tournament officials and players had objected to its use as an officiating aid. Tournament officials worried it might slow matches too much and detract from spectators' enjoyment.
They also wanted assurance it would be reasonably affordable, given that tournament organizers would be responsible for installing video-replay boards at their center courts so players and fans could view Hawk-Eye's ruling in disputed calls.
Players were worried that the technology wouldn't be reliable. Moreover, some favored a system of unlimited challenges, while others argued that players should have only a limited number of challenges to prevent competitors from using replay to stall a match.
But USTA officials were determined to develop a workable system after a 2004 U.S. Open quarterfinal between Jennifer Capriati and Serena Williams was marred by three bad calls -- one particularly egregious -- all of which went against Williams, who lost in three sets. The USTA formed a task force to tackle the issue, drawing on representatives of the Association of Tennis Professionals, Women's Tennis Association, International Tennis Federation, major broadcasters and former players. The upshot was the system that will debut at the Nasdaq-100 on March 22, which Arlen Kantarian, USTA chief executive, calls the biggest revolution to tennis since tiebreaks were introduced -- one that would heighten the game's entertainment value and give players a welcome measure of confidence.
"With the speed and power of today's game, and with 150 mile per hour serves and 100 mile-per-hour backhands, we need an officiating aid," Kantarian said.
Under the replay system, each player starts with two challenges per set. If he challenges a call and is proven wrong by Hawk-Eye, he loses a challenge and has only one left for the set. If he is vindicated by Hawk-Eye, he keeps his two challenges so, in theory, players have unlimited challenges as long as Hawk-Eye proves each challenge correct. In addition, players receive an additional challenge if a set goes to a tiebreaker.
The system drew raves from former touring pro Jim Courier, who was the first to use it during a trial run at a Champions' event in London last December.
"It was very efficient; very effective," said Courier, 35. "The peace of mind it gives players is incredible -- just knowing you're not going to lose a point because of a bad line call."
The U.S. Open will be the only Grand Slam event to use the replay system this year. The Australian Open is expected to adopt it for 2007. There is no need for replay at the French Open because its clay courts serve as a built-in review system. Tennis balls leave a mark wherever they land on clay, and players have long pointed to the tell-tale marks in disputing calls.
There are no plans to use replay at Wimbledon, where officials of the All England club take a notoriously measured approach in changing anything about the game. Courier, for one, hopes the club will be open to the idea.
"They're the crown jewel of tennis," he said. "It's very important that tennis show a united front. If this gets a good run though the Nasdaq and U.S. Open, then there should be peace of mind within the All England club and their stance might change."
|
Instant replay will be utilized for the first time this year at most major North American hard-court tournaments, including the Legg Mason.
| 33.884615 | 0.923077 | 3.076923 |
medium
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/03/DI2006030301247.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/03/DI2006030301247.html
|
Maryland Politics
|
2006030619
|
The Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill Friday that would provide $25 million a year in state money for stem cell research, a science that proponents say holds great promise for debilitating conditions but whose funding has been limited by President Bush on the federal level.
Md. House Passes Stem Cell Funding Bill (Post, March 4)
Washington Post staff writer John Wagner was online Monday, March 6, at 10:30 a.m. ET to examine current legislation at the Maryland General Assembly, which passed the House on Friday.
John Wagner: Welcome to a chat on Maryland politics. It should be a busy week in Annapolis. In the Senate, Republicans are promising a filibuster of legislation authorizing state funding of stem cell research. I'm happy to field questions on that, other legislative issues and the busy 2006 election season ahead.
Baltimore, Md.: Will there be a filibuster in the Senate over the stem cell research legislation? And if yes, how consequential will that filibuster be? A lot of us still in remember how, back in 1990, something similar happened there in the Senate over the abortion issue and it proved to be both drawn-out and fairly ugly to watch. Thanks for reading.
John Wagner: All signs do point to a filibuster, and it's quite possible it could continue for quite awhile. Supporters of the stem cell bill are confident they have enough votes to pass the legislation. That requires a simple majority, or 24. But they may still be one vote shy of the three-fifths margin required to cut off debate. That requires 29 votes in the Maryland Senate.
This is an issue about which both sides are impassioned, so the debate should be lively. Supporters will tout the promise the research holds for Parkinson's disease, juvenile diabetes and other conditions. Opponents will raise moral issues; they see embryonic stem cell research as tantamount to abortion because it involves the destruction of a human embryo.
The bill has already been amended to allow for both embryonic work and work on adult stem cells, which is less controversial. It's likely the bill will be further amended in an effort to secure the votes needed for cloture.
Prince George's county, Md.: Thanks for hosting this chat. I wish you would have these Maryland chats more often.
I am one of the zillion Maryland voters who is disgusted with Comptroller Schaefer. I am glad to hear that he has a primary challenger. I look forward to learning more about Peter Franchot. I'm curious--is Franchot a viable candidate who has a chance. Can he run a big enough campaign to beat Schaefer?
Please say yes--I won't vote for Schaefer again.
John Wagner: In the past, the conventional wisdom has been that Schaefer would be impossible to topple, given his near-universal name recognition and his long run in Maryland politics. The 84-year-old comptroller is a former mayor of Baltimore and a former governor of Maryland.
This episode does seem to be resonating, however. Whether it will be enough to cost Schaefer his office remains unclear, though. Franchot, a delegate from Takoma Park, argues that he is the only Democrat in the race, pointing to the cozy relationship that Schaefer has had with Gov. Ehrlich, a Republican, in recent years.
Duncan v. O'Malley: I read that some Dems--probably O'Malley supporters--want Doug Duncan to drop out of the primary race. But aren't both Duncan and O'Malley ahead of Ehrlich in the polls? If so, what's the worry? Why not let the primary run its course and let the candidate with the most votes in September represent the party?
Haven't the insiders learned from the last election that coronating a candidate without a primary isn't necessarily a good thing? Unless I'm missing something.
John Wagner: There have been polls showing either O'Malley or Duncan could beat Ehrlich. The margin is somewhat larger when O'Malley is matched up head to head with Ehrlich.
The fear among some Democrats is that the nominee will emerge from the primary with battle scars and little money. Ehrlich, meanwhile, is sitting on a large war chest. Other Democrats do argue that a tested nominee will match up better against Ehrlich in the fall.
Annapolis, Md.: Senate President Mike Miller's comments on Friday about Senator Andy Harris were very undignified (his comments tried to imply that Harris was off his rocker when the bill came to the floor changed from how it passed committee.) Were Miller's comments indicative of how the climate in the General Assembly has dissolved into name-calling and uncooth behavior in the name of partisan politics? Should Miller apologize?
John Wagner: The comments of both Miller and Harris offered a preview of things to come on the emotional stem cell debate. Miller has a hard-earned reputation for saying what is on his mind, and it seems unlikely he would apologize.
Ending the filibuster: So, how would a filibuster end? Would it be Miller or Ehrlich that twists the arms.
And, for those of us who are not insiders, what kind of deal gets offered to someone to get them to change sides.
And what kind of punishment is delivered to those who stand in the way on this?
John Wagner: There are a number of ways a filibuster could end. Miller and Democrats who support the stem cell bill will lean heavily on a half-dozen fellow Democrats who plan to join the GOP filibuster. Supporters need two of those Democrats to vote to cut off debate. Neither would then have to support the bill itself and could say they just helped their party on a procedural vote.
If the votes can't be secured, the bill would eventually be sent back to committee and the chamber will take up other business.
Bethesda, Md.: I am curious to know if there is any African American politicians who will be running for the governor in Maryland? Why are they always picked as the lieutenant?
John Wagner: As of now, the only African-American on a gubernatorial ticket is Prince George's Del. Anthony Brown, who is Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's running mate. If O'Malley is elected, many Democrats believe Brown would be a strong candidate for governor down the road.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich, a Republican, became the first major candidate for governor to name a black running mate, putting Michael S. Steele on the ticket in 2002. Ehrlich has yet to name a replacement for Steele, who is now running for another statewide office, U.S. Senate.
Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, O'Malley's Democratic challenger, has yet to name a running mate, but many in the party expect him to tap an African-American as well.
Silver Spring, Md.: On the Duncan/O'Malley matchup: I am getting the impression that although Doug Duncan does not look like he is getting out of the race, both candidates and the state party powers are planning to keep the campaign very positive. Democratic candidates for other offices, like Franchot, are openly saying that either Duncan or O'Malley will be a better governor than Ehrlich. State Party Chairman Terry Lierman has said that having more people running is a good thing, because it gets the candidates out more, etc. Can you imagine a set of circumstances where either Duncan or O'Malley could reasonably think that a more negative campaign would really be in their best interest?
John Wagner: The O'Malley camp believes Duncan has already gone too negative. In recent weeks, for example, Duncan has joined those aggressively questioning whether O'Malley's crime statistics are accurate. That issue seems to have boosted Duncan's profile on radio stations in Baltimore -- an area where the county executive must become better known to win the primary.
College Park, Md.: There was a lot of ink about John Giannetti helping an opponent who was choking in an Annapolis restaurant.
His little incident with Jim Rosapepe made for an amusing story, but it among my neighbors, he's still an embarrassment. We'd be happy to have him as an ex-Senator.
John Wagner: It should make for a very interesting primary. Giannetti is an easy politician, some feel, to underestimate.
Anonymous: What kind of implications do you think the stem cell bill could have nationally? Do you think it could have a reach beyond in Maryland?
John Wagner: Maryland is one of several states considering funding embryonic stem cell research in the wake of a 2001 executive order by President Bush that limited federal money.
One concern for bill supporters is that Maryland's scientists will move to California and other states that support the research if Maryland does not step up to the plate. Leading research in the area is currently being done at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Maryland has a significant biotech industry as well.
Maryland: I used to like Gov. Ehrlich. He seemed earnest and engaging, and like a regular guy during the last campaign. Now every time I hear him on the radio he's crying about something the legislature did or didn't do. He sounds like the selfish pre-schooler in the sandbox who wants all the toys.
I was surprised to read in the Post recently that the MD constitution gives him more power than any other gov. in the country has. Is that true? If so, what the heck is he complaining about?
I've lived in other states and I don't recall the governors complaining so much about the legislature on the airwaves and in the paper.
John Wagner: It is true that Ehrlich has greater budget powers than other executives across the country.
Whether his complaints about Democratic legislators amount to "crying" is more a matter of opinion, though.
Washington, D.C.: Crime Stats: What evidence is there that O'Malley has been dishonest about crime stats? I'm talking real, actual evidence. All I have seen is accusations, and these accusations get reported over and over such that the buzz about it evolves into people believing there are actual facts, even when the evidence is lacking. I'm not media bashing, I'm talking about how this seems to happen in politics, where you don't need any actual evidence to attack someone, just repeat it over and over and it sticks. Please clear this up.
John Wagner: This is a matter probably best taken up outside of an on-line chat, given its complexity. I would direct you to a piece we ran last week as a starting point.
Silver Spring, Md.: The coming election season looks pretty exciting to me. Of course, the governors' race will probably be a bloodbath, but some of the primaries could get interesting too. Do you think that there is any possibility that Peter Franchot can wrest the Democratic nomination for Comptroller from WD Schaeffer? Of course, name recognition is the elephant in the room, but do you get a sense that the voters have had it with Schaeffer's act?
John Wagner: Certainly some have. But most party insiders believe Franchot still has an uphill climb. Part of his challenge will be to break through the clutter of an election season featuring competitive races for governor, U.S. Senate and a host of other offices.
Bethesda, Md.: Can you please provide an update on the investigation of Gov. Erhlich's firing on long time civil servants for what seemed to be unjust political purposes?
John Wagner: It has been a few weeks since the committee looking into terminations under Ehrlich last met. But the panel says its work is not yet done. More witnesses will be called soon, and there is still talk of producing some legislation providing additional job protections before session ends.
Bethesda, Md. (: Is the ICC really a done deal. I'm not a supporter. Could the ICC be killed if we elect a Democrat and if so which one?
John Wagner: Both major Democrats in the race, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, have voiced support for the ICC.
Franchot: Regarding name recognition--count me among those who had barely heard of Franchot a month ago. I barely know my own delegates let alone someone from a far away district. But now I am interested in learning more about the guy and will definitely pay attention to that campaign.
John Wagner: A key for Franchot will be whether enough other voters react in the same way. Despite the widespread attention the ogling episode received, we're still six months from the primary, and most voters have not yet tuned in.
Parkville, Md.: It has been argued that candidates who face primary opponents emerge more "battle hardened" and ready to face the challenger in the general election than those who face no primary challenger. Of course, they also emerge with less money (at least initially). Do you agree?
John Wagner: This can be argued both ways. Many Democrats thought the party would have been better served in 2002 if Kathleen Kennedy Townsend faced a primary opponent who exposed her weaknesses as a candidate earlier on. But most Democrats also believe that both O'Malley and Duncan are stronger candidates than she was.
It is almost certain that the Democratic nominee will spend more money if he faces a challenger than if he has a free pass in the primary. But winning a primary just two months before the general election can provide a sense of momentum heading into the fall.
TT from Annapolis, Md.: When is Duncan going to drop out?
John Wagner: There are no signs at this point that Duncan intends to drop out.
Columbia, Md.: Couldn't the job protection plan backfire on the Democrats if they win in Nov? At that point there would be Republicans holding some of the jobs that were held by Democrats before the last election.
John Wagner: That is one potential irony of this exercise, as some Republicans have noted. Democrats could cut the number of "at-will" positions a governor is allowed and then recapture the office a few months later.
Re: Bethesda, Md.: Isn't it the fact that the committee investigating the governor has not found anything untoward or unethical in the governor's personnel practices? This is becoming more and more an obvious election year ploy by Democrats. Even Mac Middleton, Senate chair of the committee, has admitted recently that they better come up with something soon or Republicans will be proven right and the Demcrats will face a taxpayer backlash. Please provide your insight. Thank you.
John Wagner: Republicans are, in fact, poised to make an issue of how much the investigation has cost if there are no further revelations. But several high-profile witnesses, including Joe Steffen, are yet to come.
Washington, D.C.: What's the deal with Senator Hooper?
John Wagner: A little elaboration from the questioner might be helpful in answering...
Eastern Shore: Any credible women candidates for statewide office -- state or federal -- of any hue or political orientation this year?
John Wagner: So far, few have stepped forward.
All three of the major candidates for governor are men. It is possible that either Gov. Robert Ehrlich or Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan could pick a woman as his running mate.
There is a crowded Democratic field for U.S. Senate. But the only woman is Lise Van Susteren, a Montgomery County psychiatrist, who is considered a long shot.
John Wagner: That's it for now. Thanks for all the 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 John Wagner examined current legislation at the Maryland General Assembly.
| 203.866667 | 0.933333 | 5.733333 |
high
|
medium
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/03/DI2006030301280.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/03/DI2006030301280.html
|
Outlook: BlackBerries Stay in Washington
|
2006030619
|
For BlackBerry lovers in Washington, it was a close call. For a few weeks, they were forced to contemplate the possible demise of the ubiquitous palm-sized e-mailing device that no Washington wonk seems able to unhand, whether at a committee meeting or a cocktail party. So when the news came that the patent-infringement lawsuit that threatened to shut down the BlackBerry forever had been settled, there was rejoicing in the nation's capital. And no one rejoiced more than Ana Marie Cox , the former Wonkette, who delivered an ode to the BlackBerry in her Sunday Outlook article, Me and My Everything , ( Post, March 5, 2006 )
Ana Marie Cox was online Monday, March 6, at 11:30 a.m. ET to discuss the survival of BlackBerry use in Washington.
Ana Marie Cox: First up, I want to thank those of you who are participating and I should make a confession: The reason for the pieces's quasi-past tense tone is that back in October, fear of losing my Berry did drive me to The Other Side. I have a Treo now. I miss my Berry for the reasons alluded to in the article but it's not like it's eased my addiction to constant delivery of email and text messages. It's like switching from crack to freebasing.
Speaking of crack, I promised a friend that I would tell you all that Philippe Reines, Hillary spokesguy, claims to have coined "Crackberry."
New York, N.Y.: Have you ever put your blackberry down, stepped away from it, and thought: what would life be like if I never had this thing? Surely you would have been able to survive. How do people let themselves get so addicted to one object?
Ana Marie Cox: I wish I could explain the addictive quality better -- it's not like they're coated in nicotine. And some people are able to withstand the Berry's charms with ease. My husband was given a Berry for his job and yet sort of just carries it around. Or doesn't.
And, yes, I think about what my life would be like if I had never gotten it. Part of me thinks, Well, I couldn't have written my novel. But then again, I might have written it faster.
Washington, D.C.: AMC - Haven't you become one of them? If not, how do you keep from becoming one of those self-important D.C. blowhards that you used to needle so brilliantly?
Ana Marie Cox: Geez, am I one of "them"? I suppose if you have to ask, you can't afford to know the answer. To the extent I have not completely transformed into a self-important DC blowhard (a blow-medium?), I think it's because I still find most of what happens in this town faintly absurd if not completely ridiculous. I may be a part of the circus now, but I know it's a circus.
Washington, D.C.: Have you given up writing? This chat bills you as the former "Wonkette" author.
Ana Marie Cox: I have not given up writing. And, technically, I am the "Wonkette emerita," rather than a "former Wonkette." (It's like having been in the Marines... or being an alcoholic. Perhaps I am a recovering Wonkette.) I write a chat show wrap up every week for Wonkette.com and I have a more modest blog at http://www.anamariecox.com/.
Savannah, Ga.: With St.Patty's coming up (it's big down here, don't you know?) I have a question: If you can't use a BlackBerry to stir a cocktail, then what is it good for?
Ana Marie Cox: The Berry makes a pour cocktail stirrer but I did once think that we should create a Blackberry drink. The Ritz in Georgetown has many dumber DC-themed beverages. Thoughts on the ingredients, anyone? I think maybe Kool-aid...
Chantilly, Va.: Now that the BlackBerries appear to be saved, can the "must have" BlackBerry users describe why it is necessary to always receive everything instantly? Is there a place in the world for "think time" and reflection? Wouldn't some of us remember that the first thoughts in our minds and certainly the first things out of our mouths are not always our best work?
Ana Marie Cox: There is a rational, practical argument for Blackberrys that probably accounts for about 10 percent of their use: People whose livelihoods genuinely depend on getting and distributing information quickly (some government workers, journalists, PR people...). But, um, yeah mostly it's just because it makes you FEEL important, not because what you're doing actually is important.
That said, one of the reasons I think I was personally seduced by the Berry is because you AREN'T stuck with your lame first thought/first thing out of your mouth. You can edit and revise and be as subtle or clever as your blood alcohol level allows.
Rockville, Md.: I am often at meetings with BlackBerry users. They are annoying people allowing their BlackBerry to interrupt their work and that of others. What is the proper etiquette for using BlackBerrys at meetings?
Ana Marie Cox: Well, no one's written a book yet, but I think generally once you've disrupted someone else, you're outside whatever generous definition of polite we'll allow in Washington.
Washington Zoo: Please take back the blog! The new guys hardly give the 'stick any coverage at all! We need you!
Ana Marie Cox: Apparently the new Wonkettes have decided that Butterstick was my "thing," and so they've given up the kind of constant, adoring hagiography that The Stick deserves. When the Stick leads the revolution, they will be the first against the wall.
No, seriously: The Stick revolution will consist of rolling around in bowls. No worries.
Blettiquette: What are your thoughts on Blackberry etiquette? My biggest pet peeve are people who return a berry message with a call. I mean, if I wanted to TALK to you, I would have called you.
What's your biggest Blackberry pet peeve?
Ana Marie Cox: TOTALLY HATE THAT. In fact, my outgoing message asks people to email if they can. I think this makes me a bad person but it does mean that I usually get back to them quicker.
Washington, D.C.: You speak to my inner soul. I was recently at a party with people who work in D.C. but don't do politics (huh?), and I didn't understand why they weren't all typing away on their BlackBerries and were actually...talking. It was weird.
I'm so happy I can continue to socialize anti-socially.
Ana Marie Cox: Aren't we pathetic? This whole "talking" thing is probably pretty efficient and less hard on the batteries but I have trouble synching it.
Washington, D.C. : So let's get down to specs: What are the pros and cons of the Berry vs. the Treo?
Ana Marie Cox: Well, the Berry is tougher physically. I probably dropped my Berry a dozen times during the year and half I had it and it worked fine. The Treo is notoriously delicate (one drop and you're probably looking at dead Treo) and it has a much more unstable operating system. That said, they are "cooler." You don't look like you're talking to a toaster pastry when you use them as a phone. They're shiny.
I think Washington is slowly moving away from the Berry, but this is based solely on unscientific observations among my friends.
Why Drunk Berrying is better than Drunk Dialing?: No slurring.
Ana Marie Cox: Yes, but there is a record of it. And typos are a kind of digital slur...
Ana Marie Cox: Wanted to add that my heart skipped a beat last night when I saw Catherine Keener Treoing from her seat behind Phillip Seymore Hoffman.
Washington, D.C.: Ana Marie Cox in Outlook. The mind boggles. Somebody's doing some serious selling out. Is it you or them?
Ana Marie Cox: People don't seem to understand that the only reason I ever came to Wonkette was that I had been *trying* to sell out for years. No one seemed interested in buying. I am now trying to sell out often, for as much possible.
There is no dignity in being unemployed.
Washington, D.C.: Did the Outlook editors know you'd already switched from Blackberry to Treo before they published your piece? That seems fundamentally dishonest, somehow.
Ana Marie Cox: I believe they did know, but I don't blame them. I probably should have added something in the bio portion. In any case, I think the phenom of Berry culture (instant access, drunktexting) extends to the Treo. In fact, the random exclamation about "the shark having nothing on me" was Treo born and bred.
Beautiful Silver Spring, Md.: In your article, why did you use "Washington" as a shorthand for "political types, elite media personnel, and those who orbit them or aspire to orbit them"? There are a lot of us living in the greater D.C. metropolitan area who are not involved in the neurotic technological shenanigans you describe.
Ana Marie Cox: This is an excellent point and I usually try to be more clear about this distinction... However, I think it's a fairly common practice to talk about "Washington" as shorthand for the industry/kind of people it represents in popular culture. We talk about "Hollywood" the same way, just with juicier gossip.
Washington, D.C.: So where's the humble Palm Pilot in all this? Just hopelessly, helplessly uncool? No PDA for the old PDA?
Ana Marie Cox: Well, the Palm OS lives on in the body of the Treo. But I do think PDAs are all moving towards having some kind of communications ability. You can keep your address book and calendar on your phone now, why would you want something that duplicates that but doesn't allow you to use that phone book to make calls?
Montgomery Village, Md.: Blackberryopathy is a mental disease and should be treated as such. Do you know any folks who have seen a psychiatrist about their Blackberry mental problem?
Ana Marie Cox: I think Berryopathy is probably more of a symptom than a disease, though it can also exacerbate an existing condition.
Atlanta, Ga.: There are a lot of successful blogs now that lampoon the politics of the nation. With such serious situations needing attention, such as the war, is it worrisome that many of us seem content to sit back and gawk? Is it a sense of giving up on American politics that allows us simply to laugh at it?
Ana Marie Cox: I don't think laughing at American politics is at all synonymous with giving up on it -- laughing is itself a form of engagement. Gawking less so, but at least you're paying attention. Apathy and inattention are much bigger threats to the health of democracy than satire.
Savannah, Ga. again: Cocktail idea: Absolut currant (they make that, don't they...if not, raspberry, I guess), tonic, ice. This eliminates the need to stir, and the BlackBerry could serve as a coaster.
Ana Marie Cox: I am thrilled with this idea and will attempt to concoct it tonight. Please check my blog for results of the taste test.
Cabin John, Md.: A 19th century composer was asked, "Would you prostitute your art?" He replied, "Repeatedly." If they're buying, you go right ahead and sell. Do you have room for oleaginous Butterstick gooiness on your new blog?
Ana Marie Cox: I should pick the Stick more on the personal site, it's true. I've been making do with the National Zoo's quasi blog (National Zoo) which can be amusingly semi-pornographic in its details.
The other day a friend and I were discussing the dangers of being able to see the panda cam on your Treo...
New York, N.Y.: How long before you become the next Maureen Dowd? You know, the phony, I hate politicians and love to mock them, but secretly wish you were important. Or are you already there?
Ana Marie Cox: Why I will never be the "next Maureen Dowd": I don't secretly wish I was important, I openly wish I was important. That said, the chances of becoming so are slim. I will settle for "mildly amusing."
Wilds of Fairfax, Va.: The ergonomics of BBs seem to favor those whose prehensile thumbs are more agile than others.
So perhaps the ultimate Washington-Blackberry type will be all-thumbs? Oh, wait.....
Ana Marie Cox: Thank you for making that joke so that I didn't have to.
My doctor did once tell me she's starting to see RSI in thumb joints among her clients, and she advised me to be careful. HA! Ha ha!
Ana Marie Cox: Okay gonna wrap things up. Thanks again for stopping by. Don't text and drive.
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.
|
Former "Wonkette" author Ana Marie Cox discusses her Sunday Outlook article on the survival of BlackBerry use in Washington.
| 120.772727 | 0.954545 | 4.681818 |
high
|
high
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/02/DI2006030201148.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/02/DI2006030201148.html
|
Taking the Real Estate Plunge
|
2006030619
|
Steve Hendrix is the kind of guy who keeps track of his burgeoning amateur real estate empire by counting the number of toilets he owns. He's also the kind of guy who -- with his wife and another couple -- is willing to buy a vacation rental house in Guatemala on a wing and a prayer.
Hendrix, whose story about his experiences as a landlord appeared in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine , was online Monday, March 6, at 1 p.m. ET to field questions and comments.
Steve Hendrix is a writer for The Post's Travel section.
Steve Hendrix: Hi folks. Thanks for taking to time to stop by and talk about real estate as an investment (which is smart, in my view) or buying a vacation home in the developing tropics (which is probably really, really dumb, but very fun and satisfying).
Odenton, Md: I had initially planned to take my daughters to Guatemala the summer they were 8 and 10 to learn some Spanish and see something beyond the way we live. Life intervened and I instead spent those months packing and preparing for a house move. Now I am sure every Washingtonian with a few coins to spare (or at least some real estate to refi) is going to be jetting down there! But in case they all slept in, I want to put my name on the waiting list! The pictures are gorgeous. Congratulations!!
Steve Hendrix: Well Guatemala has been on the rise for a number of years now (which is how we first ended up there on vacation at all). As someone who keeps an eye on tourism trends for my job, it's been amazing to see how Central America has blossomed in recent years as a destination. Once the civil wars ended in 90s, people slowly began to realize what an beautiful and fascinating region was sitting down there.
Every country is progressing differently, but booming tourism has the potential to really increase living standards in all of them. Having said that, there are enormous challenges still, particularly increasing crime and gang violence (and now the vigilante backlash to same). It's a tricky cycle: I think tourist going to and investing in Guatemala is helping, but there's no promise it will help fast enough to keep the security fears from scaring off the tourists.
Washington, DC: Do you feel secure about 'ownership' since technically you don't own the property? What level of risk do you think there is?
Steve Hendrix: That's a hard one. We're assured by folks, Guatemalan and expats, who have far more experience than we do that our claim is solid and that we're obeying all the local standards and practices. But you're right, our "right of possession" isn't the same as a clear title. In the end, we all decided we couuld live with the uncertainty. My father thinks I'm nuts.
Dale City, Va.: My husband and I have always talked about buying rental houses, but whenever I'm gung-ho, he gets too nervous about spending the money. Or rather, borrowing the money. Are you and your wife equally enthusiastic about these projects?
Steve Hendrix: The gung-ho/hold-back dynamic is probably the key to our negotiating these risky projects. I'm a financial disaster area; before I married, I only knew my checking account was empty when I got the first overdraft notices. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think of some crazy way for us to lose all our money, putting Ann in the unenviable position of being the Doctor No in our house. But when she says yes--starting with the first rental house we ever bought--I know we're on to something good.
Still, it makes it hard on her to always have her foot on the break. Thank goodness she does. THAT'S the secret to successful investing (and living): Marry the perfect person.
Garfield, NJ: This article is really making me re-think my stance on real estate investing. We bought a two family house that turned into a disaster and we sold as quickly as possible. Since then, we have been very afraid to go near real estate. But reading your story has given me hope in foriegn markets. We love to travel and have often dreamed of owning international real-estate. But then the very fears you mentioned in your guatemalen story are exactly what have kept us from actually doing it. Do you have any tips on how to research potential markets, find trustworthy advisors/real estate brokers, etc? What makes a good vacation rental location? Are hot spots the best places to buy? (Hawaii vs Indonesia for example)
Steve Hendrix: I can see how having a clunker on your hands could sour the whole experience. We've had one serious problem (the small fire I described in the article) and that really was a bummer. It took tons of work and money and marrital stress to make right. But right it became, and now that's a great little house.
Of course, Ann and I had the total blind luck to get into this in of the hottest real estate markets of all time. It would be different in, say, the Houston of the late 1980s.
My only advice when you try this over seas to do your research by foot. Go to the places you like, find a place you love, and go from there. Indonesia (or Hawaii) would be too far for us, since we want to use the place with our kiddies a couple of times a year. For others, it wouuld be perfect.
Jeffersonton, Va: How do you treat this property for IRS purposes? Is it different than your other rental properties? How?
My wife, son and I stayed in a small place on Lake Atitlan 6 years ago. Wonderful, including experiencing a 15 second earthquake at 3 am which did not hurt anything, but gave us quite a thrill. We will be going to Costa Rica this summer and have thought of purchasing property there or other central american countries. Any comment of investments like yours in Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, etc? Bob in Virginia.
Steve Hendrix: Now THAT I don't know. Maybe if Ann is listening she can write or call in with tax info. I know we had to report both the purchase and the revenue. Ann?
I don't know much beyond generalities about other countries: Costa Rica is probably more straightforward legally, Honduras is booming along the coast and Roatan (sp?); Mexico has a long history of Gringo home buyers (wonderful book on home buying in San Miguel called "On Mexican Time").
Rockville, Md.: Have just returned from gorgeous Lake Atitlan and stayed in the retreat center Armand and his second wife built. It is truly a paradise. We met many wonderful people there - indigenous Mayans and expats. While there, we visited Santiago Atitlan and, upon our return, saw the article in the Post about the vigilantes roaming the area.
I am fascinated by the country and applaud your courage in investing in a place so full of paradoxes. Given the history of the region, the isolation and locals' mistrust of authority, how safe do you feel (personally and investment-wise) - and how do you reassure your renters that the area is safe?
Steve Hendrix: Glad to hear from someone who knows the unique mix of folks and cultures at Atitlan.
My colleague Nurith Aizenman's great piece of reporting from the lake was disturbing (it ran too late for me to address in the Magazine piece). Maybe we can link to it, but in general she documents the rise of vigilantes to counter the growing problem of gang violence in Guatemala, particular in Santigo Atitlan, a town on the opposite side of the lake from us.
I think the danger is not that this will affect tourists (the groups are targeting local gang members), but that it represents serious backsliding by a country that has been so prone to systemic violence. These groups are going beyond probable gang criminals and settling personal scores. That's bad...not for tourists (who probably benefit from the crime-fighting effect) but for the whole country. I dearly hope that tourism and investment will take hold fast enough to let Guatemala continue its recovery from the war.
Annandale, Va: How well I remember that house! In January 1959, a college friend and her family took me there to visit George Holton, a photographer famous for his photos of Guatemalan Indians in native costume. He lived there with his pet monkey and two parrots. He took a wonderful black and white photo of his monkey silhouetted in that window with the two parrots beside him and a volcano beyond the lake in the distance.
Steve Hendrix: Hmmm. That wouldn't have been the exact same house...it was only built within last 10 or 12 years. But one of the nice things about Atitlan is that all the places along the shore share a variation of that same killer view.
No monkeys around now, though, that I've ever seen or heard.
Fredericksburg, Va: My husband and I are planning our first trip to Guatemala in June and are spending a week at Lago Atitlan. I fall in love with every place I ever visit, and I always dream of buying a home there. Your article is proof that the same will be true of our upcoming visit. I have read a number of safety issues concerning Guatemala, and specifically the trails around the lake. What sorts of experiences have you had with safety? Do you worry about break-ins and/or muggings? Have you had any dealings with local authorities?I thoroughly enjoyed your article and wish you the best.Caren Scaife
Steve Hendrix: Be careful, Fredericksburg! Falling in love with every place we visit is what doomed us. It's just that this time, it was too good to pass up.
Security concerns around the lake seems to ebb and flow. You'll hear of a spate tourists being held up on the footpaths around San Marcos or Tzununa (often adolescent boys), but then months will go be with nothing happening. We hike that way all the time and have had no trouble at all (but we usually do in groups of least four).
The government has reportedly done a good job of patrolling the trails up to the volcanoes, which used to be famous for hold-up. Now you see guards along the way.
Personally, I feel no more at risk there than I do here (hey, the closest I've been to Central American gang crime is the fatal Toys R Us parking lot two miles from my house). I wouldn't take my kids there, otherwise.
But if you're someone who worries a lot about crime and security, you shouldn't go. They are real and serious problems there, especially for the local people.
washingtonpost.com: Self-Styled Justice in Guatemala , (Feb. 24, 2005)
Steve Hendrix: Here's the story on Vigilante justice.
Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C.: I found it pretty funny that the thread of your story was toilets. As someone who spends every summer dealing with the often inadequate Guatemalan plumbing I think you kind of led folks astray with all your talk of johns with great views and your brand new low-flow toilet. Perhaps you should have pointed out to them too that you're encouraged to put your used toilet paper in trash cans and not in the toilet...
Steve Hendrix: True, true. Yes, people, it's common in Latin America to deposit your paper in little wastebaskets provided for that purpose. (What is this, Weingarten's chat?).
But that's not such a big deal (nor is it always necessary. It's more an artifact of custom. A modern houses, the plumbing is basically the same as ours, although folk invariably provide the little wastebasket.
Virginia: Does the IRA really check Americans with properties overseas? My neighbor go to Costa Rica for the summer and came back fine year after year.
Steve Hendrix: I have no idea, but stand-by, here's someone who does....
Takoma Park, Md: Ann Hendrix-Jenkins here...
We treat it as we do our other rental properties for tax purposes. Report income and expenses and pay tax if it makes a profit and take it as a loss if it doesn't. The initial phase of investing in a property to get it up and running typically makes for a loss the first few years. Our goal is to break even from a cash flow point of view and just hang on to the properties as they appreciate. Thanks Steve for saying I am a perfect person. Now I will let you buy another house.
Steve Hendrix: HER goal is to break even. MY goal is make the perfect mojito.
Chevy Chase Md: Steve, My wife, who is from Peru (and I from Rockville, MD) recently visited Costa Rica and considered purchasing a vacation home on the coast down there. However, my wife's primary concern is the lack of medical services available in case of an emergency. We are expecting our first child in May and we are not sure a vacation property in Cental Am. is a good idea for that reason. Could you give us your thoughts about this subject? Thank you. Mark L., a "Tico" want-to-be.
Steve Hendrix: That's a pretty personal call, much like 'how much of a crime risk is too great.' We're probably two hours from the nearest clinic (have to call for a boat, etc), and four or five from a full-scale hospital (faster by helicopter, if it came to that). That doesn't worry us, but I'm sure it's probably too isolated for many people, especially folks who have chronic medical needs.
We go with young kids (my wife took our three-month-old son there last month), but of course, we only go for a few weeks at time. We might feel differently if we lived there full time.
Boston, Mass: Hi Steve, very interesting article!I have spent some time in Guatemala, Antigua mostly, and have fallen in love with the country. Recently, I have been thinking a lot about buying a home in Antigua to use personally and to rent out. What advice would you offer for someone at the beginning of this process? Specifically regarding estimating costs to maintain, renovate, rent and manage something like this. Also can you comment on how it has worked for you to share these responsibilities with another family. Is there any issues with monies/payments coming to you in the US from this rental property?Thanks so much....also do you have a link to your property? It sounds incredible. Jody
Steve Hendrix: Get a good local agent. We were totally dependant on the expertise and good will of Armand Boissey, an expatriate Frenchmen who has lived on the lake for years and knows everything and everyone. Find your Armand!
Hagerstown, Md.: No question. Just a comment. I just read your story online, and I must say I'm appalled. I'm an unwed mother of two who can barely make ends meet with one house, yet the Post sees fit to dangle a story in front of me about someone who owns FOUR. please!!!!
Steve Hendrix: Hey, as someone who was raised by a single mother in a rented apartment, I'm sorry you read it that way. Part of our story of real estate investing is to point out that it can be a way to build assets over time, even if you don't have a whole lot of money to start. We didn't. I was a freelance writer with big student loans and she was low-level policy wonk at an NGO. But we had good credit (thanks to my wife's careful management of our finances), and we searched until we found programs that would lend us 100 percent of the cost of our first house. (Not everyone thinks those are such great programs, but it sure worked for us)
After that, thanks to the growing real estate market, we were able to borrow from one house to make a downpayment on the next, giving us better terms.
My mom would have delighted.
Guatemala: I saw an essay recently suggesting Guatemala would benefit by changing its name to reflect more of its Mayan history and less of its recent history. Agree?
Steve Hendrix: Hmmm. I love the name Guatemala (Is there a funner country name to say? Guatemala. Guatemala. Guatemala.)
But it's not my country. If they want to change it to celebrate the truely awe-inspiring Maya history, I'll stand by and applaud.
Bethesda, Md: Was there anything akin to a title search involved in your pre-purchase activities? Were you at all concerned that, at some point, the land on which the house is built could have been seized from relatively vulnerable landowners who were the victims of the somewhat problematic ownership protections described in your article?
Steve Hendrix: Our land had been owned for more than a decade by the guy we bought it from, and before that there was a clear record of the owners (it was three separate parcels). We did have a local lawyer who was easily able to gather and vet those documents, so we felt the title was free and clear. But as Armand told us, the most important certainty was that the village itself knows we bought the land. There is a land title reform effort going in in Guatemala now, which gives us even more confidence.
Chevy Chase, Md: We've talked about investing in rental properties for years, but your ability to do the repairwork yourself seems key to success. Would you ever consider it without the time or skills - ie having to retain a property manager? I've heard you lose 10-15 percent of the rental income...
Stop talking about the lake house! We need everyone to forget about it so WE can go!
Steve Hendrix: It sure helps a lot when you don't have to spend $100 everytime the disposal gets stuck (which is basically a 30 second fix). But it's not key. I've been doing less of the handiman work as I've gotten busier with my real job and kids. Ann has been doing more, and we hire more quickly. It can work either way.
Helena, Mont: I'm curious as to why you didn't use a local (Guatamelan)attorney to protect your interests. It appears that things worked out ok, but, man, you were hanging out there!
Steve Hendrix: No kidding. Basically, we chose to believe everything everybody told us. Remember that, as you evaulate the quality of my investing advice.
St Petersburg, Fla: Wild card: Norwegians are the main tourists there, you said, and, if I can buy similar property - which my Filipino wife can actually own - in the Philippines, (not so far from Europe) is their any obvious fault in the analogy? My in laws could attend to watching the house/maintenance. Comments?? (P.S. Like lots of places, many areas of the Philippines are quite safe and pleasant.)
Steve Hendrix: My answer to questions like that is always the same: Buy!
Manhattan, NY: Do you have any thoughts on whether it would be better to buy a single family villa or a small hotel? We are currently interested in buying property in Morocco and have had opportunities turn up in both.
Steve Hendrix: It's probably just a matter of management. Running even a small hotel is a much more involved than running a single family house (more staff, more guests). You'd have to have the right local folks, unless you're going to be there yourself. Sounds fun, though. You'd have your own bar!
JC, NJ: As you buy each house, do you worry about market trends? Is fear of depreciation ever a concern? Because a lot of markets these days are very hot, would you recommend waiting it out before buying?
Steve Hendrix: What do you mean, "depreciation"? House values can go DOWN???
Washington, DC: What a fun article! I grew up in Mexico, and have travelled to Brazil, Costa Rica and other Latin American countries. I ask myself on a daily basis why it is that we do not own any property in Latin America. What were the challenges of going 'halvies' with friends? I don't think my husband and I could afford a vacation home on our own, but I think it might be feasible with some friends and/or family. Being here and not there...could you please lay out some steps in making a vacation home in Latin America a reality. THANKS!
Steve Hendrix: We couldn't have afforded it--financially or psychically--without our partners, Jim and Katie Sebastian. Splitting the cost of everything is great, of course, but mostly its the joy of sharing the joy (and the hassle) of a wacky project like this.
What were the chances that TWO families would think this was a swell idea? Second to having the perfect spouse, having the perfect friends is key.
Sheni, Waldorf: I am a Guatemalan native and thank you so much for bringing positive attention to a country that greatly needs it and certainly deserves it. Unfortunately many people will never discover the majestic beauties the country has to offer out of fear of crime and uncertainty. I applaud you on your quest and wish you the best in the future. My husband and I too hope to one day own a piece of that small yet uncomplicated piece of heaven. I will suggest to anyone traveling that you check out other beautiful places like Samuc Champei, San Lucas Toliman, Los Siete Altares, Playa Dorada not to mention the obvious ones like Antigua, Tikal and Panajachel.
Steve Hendrix: I'm going to copy your list of tips! Thanks so much.
People are smart to be cauitous about security, and I certainly pay attention myself. But once I'm on the road to the Lake, I always feel totally...normal. Just like I do here. It's a wonderful country. I hope it can get past its past, and I hope my spending money there can help.
Washington, DC: Why so many Norweigans in Santa Cruz and around Lake Attitlan? We were just there, and (long story) ended up hanging out with some. Also, where does your sewage go? I hear that the Pana sewage goes right into the Lake and that the increased tourism could jeopordize the lake's health.
Steve Hendrix: Don't know, but it's probably the same reason I keep meeting folks from Mongomery County there. Word spreads. (I think we may petition for a Ride-On Bus stop in Panajachel.)
Guatemala City, Guatemala: I just wanted to thank you for emphasizing that the new upsurge in violence is not very likely to affect tourists very much. I have two questions for you.
Judging even simply from this discussion it's obvious that security and stability remain the biggest barriers to foreign investment in Guatemala. To what extent do you think those factors are over or under emphasized and what do you think it's going to require to overcome these obstacles in the eyes of the outside world?
I was also wondering what role you think outside investors like yourself have in helping to develop the country? I know it's personally heartening for me to know that someone such as yourself has such a large stake in the country.
Steve Hendrix: Well, I sympathize with people who want to make sure they're not putting themselves and their families in danger. As you know, there are no guarantees that you won't be a victim of crime there (or here, as I keep saying). But the odds great that you will have a fine time with no problem. It's just never worried me that much, and I traveled alone there a lot.
I HOPE outside investment will be a huge boon to Guatemala. Tourism is already the first or second largest industry and you only have to look at Lake Atitlan or Antigua to see how tourist dollars can spread through the towns.
Bethesda, Md: Sometimes it seems the most beautiful areas are the most disaster-prone -- Isn't that the same lake where a mudslide buried a whole village of over a thousand people at around the same time that New Orleans was flooded last year? Do you have some sort of local or international insurance in case something like that happens to your house?
Steve Hendrix: We were THIS close to buying a place in the French Quarter a few years ago. I still wish we had.
Yes, more than 600 people were buried in Santiago Atitlan. I went down, along with other reporters, to cover it for the Post. Any area near a watercourse was devastated. Our side of the lake fared much better, and locals said they were impressed with tthe government response.
Guatemala City, Guatemala: Just to answer the comments about the Norwegians. Norway had a kind of wild card stake in the peace accords and has been involved a good deal ever since.
Steve Hendrix: Really! Thanks so much for that.
Washington, DC: What would you suggest folks consider before going into real estate with their friends? It seems to have worked out for you rather well, but if there were some bumps in the road how did you handle them? Do you have a sort of chart letting each other know when the other is staying there, etc?
Steve Hendrix: Clear understandings and, for any substantial amount of money, written contracts. We've done it twice now, and those guidelines have made it work both time.
Ultimately, it's probably the nature of your friendship that count most.
Annandale, Va Isn't Atitlan an active volcano? I seem to remember discussions on Frommer's boards about which hotel has the best views of the lava fields. Granted, it seems to be the constantly mumbling sort of volcano rather than the explosive temper type, but it would still make for a noisy neighbor.
Steve Hendrix: There's always a little puff of cloud hanging over it. Someone on this chat felt an earthquake there, but I never have. We have active thermal vents in the water by our dock. Pile up some rocks and you've got a natural hot tub!
Washington, D.C.: Amazing story Steve. I have always dreamed of owning waterfront property and you have provided an interesting alternative to the absurd prices in the US. I have a few questions:
- If you have to take a boat to get to your house, how does the water/electricity work?
-Do you have a link or advertisement to rent the house?
-Does flooding concern you? I've heard that Hurricane Stan did some damage about a year ago.
-I imagine the money transaction and ownership papers gave you some heartache. Any additional thoughts or references?
Steve Hendrix: Well, we certainly sweated bullets after wiring all that money down. But ever person who ever contracted with us (builders, the original owners, the van drivers) has delivered honestly. So now we don't worry about it any more.
For power, it's on the grid. We lose it a lot, but never for long. And yes, Hurricane Stan knocked out our dock, since repaired.
Germantown, Md: Four years ago I purchased a building lot high on a mountainside on St. John, VI (I wasn't there at the actual closing). I couldn't afford to buy that lot today. I've had houseplans created (handshake contract-nothing in writing other than my Emails)and I'm looking to start building a small house late this year for rental purposes and later retirement purposes. Any suggestions?
Steve Hendrix: Congratulations! Get a reliable open person to act as your agent, unless you can spend a lot of time down there. Find your Armand!
very impressed Steve!: I read the entire story before knowing you wrote it. I really should read bylines ahead of time!
At any rate - it's really beautiful. Congratulations. I'm nearing the point in my life where I may be able to afford a vacation/rental investment in another country - any generic advice to give?
I'd most likely end up in Normandy or perhaps southern France somewhere, or somewhere in Italy. What a dream!
When do you expect to break even? How often do you visit and how long does it take to get there?
Steve Hendrix: Thanks so much, mystery poster. Good luck house hunting. Break even? That must be another investment term that's new to me.
On that note, thanks everyone for all the questions and comments. I'm sorry I couldn't get to more of them, but I've got writers cramp. (and I'll see some of you over at the Travel section chat...now!)
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.
|
Steve Hendrix fields questions and comments about his experiences as a landlord in Guatemala.
| 386.933333 | 1 | 3.933333 |
high
|
high
|
mixed
|
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/01/DI2006030101622.html
|
https://web.archive.org/web/2006030619id_/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/01/DI2006030101622.html
|
Academy Awards: The Social Scene
|
2006030619
|
You may have watched the Academy Awards and every red carpet show that aired before it. But do you know what really happened behind the scenes at the Oscars?
The Washington Post's William Booth and Hank Stuever do.
From the carpet to backstage to the after-parties, the Style staff writers have the scoop on what really went down during Hollywood's biggest night.
They will be online Monday, March 6, at 2 p.m. ET to answer your questions and dish all the Oscar dirt.
Alexandria, Va.: Is it just me or has Matt Dillon aged incredibly well? He looked great last night!
Hank Stuever: Good afternoon and we apologize for the delay. We, and our computers, are sort of ... bleary today.
Still not the brightest, but hey...
Olney, Md.: Kids, are the ladies really wearing make-up on their chests? Is it obvious? How icky.
Hank Stuever: They are, and it is.
And on backless dresses, the back is thickly layered in makeup too.
Who knew the "Solid Gold" dancers still work?: I hope you got to see some of the show too, something that cracked me up...
That performance of the song from "Crash." With a great line from Jon ... "When trying to escape from a burning car, moving in slow motion is not recommended." What was up with the "Solid Gold" (tm) dancers in the background moving in slo-mo? It is actually a beautiful song, which they could have just played over actual IMAGES from "Crash," instead of the really strange interpretive dance.
And I thought Jon did a great job, I usually agree with Tom Shales, but not today! Tell him to lighten up!
Hank Stuever: I saw those dancers and thought to myself "Isn't Oscar way past the choreography days"? Apparently not.
Sigh: I know, I know, weird + hot = Joaquin Phoenix... but is he nice at least?
William Booth: Weird. Hot. We can work with that. Joaquin Phoenix last night at the VF fete was very pleasant and not weird at all. But very hot.
Bellingham, WA: It seemed from a couple of comments on the ABC aftershow that the Brokeback Mtn folks were really mad about not getting Best Picture? Was this true, and if so, do you think its justified, personally I think the whole point of not knowing who wins before the envelope is opened is that its great if you win, but you shouldn't expect it.
Hank Stuever: I agree. But I guess the BBMountain folks were getting accustomed to accolade. They were let down. I overheard some carping at VF.
Los Angeles, Ca.: Hey Hank, since "Brokeback" lost for Best Picture are you going to go back into the closet?
Hank Stuever: No, but you stay in there and make it real comfy and let us know how it's going.
Washington, D.C.: Was it me or was last night a bit of a hunk-fest? George Clooney, Eric Bana, Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix -- hell, even Phillip Seymour Hoffman is sexy. Catnip for straight women and gay men -- God bless America.
I know that when you guys cover the Oscars, you're jammed into the press room with a couple hundred other sweaty reporters, so my condolences. What was the mood in the press room like? Was everyone shocked at "Crash" winning Best Pic? And was there a fave winner in front of the microphones?
William Booth: You are correct. Press room is like flying coach and getting the middle seat. And yes, when they announced Crash, the room went like whooooooooooo. Probably because up until that point there hadn't been a single disruption of the conventional wisdom over who would win.
Re: catnip? Was it just us, or did Philip Seymour get more fizz right after he won? the man with the metal.
AFT Bureau Offices: Any indication anywhere on what types of non-alcohol drinks Lindsay Lohan and other underage entertainers were drinking last night?
William Booth: We didnt recall seeing any of the youths at the apres-fetes. They might have been out chugging tall boys in the limos while the adults were inside.
Westport, Conn.: Is Sandra Bullock pregnant and why did she attend with Keanu Reeves?
Hank Stuever: Sandra and Dope Face have a new movie coming out in June, and were there as chums, and to present an award. Sometimes people go as one another dates when they want to trigger some free advertising for an upcoming movie. Someone next to me on the red carpet wondered if she was showing a slight baby bump, so I looked real close from the side and all I saw was your basic skinny actress body. So I dunno.
Oscars v. Globes: I know the Globes are so fun because everyone gets sloshed, but I gotta tell you, there were at least a couple people last night who I would swear were drunk. Diana Ossana, for one, later confirmed when the camera caught her drinking in her seat. Is there an open bar at the Oscars?
Alexandria, Va.: I thought Sandra Bullock looked exhausted and kind of puffy. Anyone else think so or am I just being incredibly catty?
Hank Stuever: I thought she looked fine.
Courtenay, BC, Canada: Did George Clooney have a date for the evening or does he always attend these affairs alone?
William Booth: No, Hank recalls seeing Mr Clooney on the carpet with a woman he believes to be his agent. Clooney makes kind of a thing about not discussing his romantic life, which is good, we think, because it must be so sad and lonely.
Baton Rouge, La.: Is Dolly Parton ill? She looked unnaturally thin and scary.
William Booth: Cheek bones were visible.
Arlington, Va.: Why is Jon Stewart getting such a bad rap? I thought much of his sublte humour was spot-on. He seemed to tick off some of the Hollywood elite, and I loved it. I found myself laughing at many of his comments moments after he spoke. In other words, it took some thought, but when I got it, it was hillarious.
His performance wasn't laugh out loud funny like Chris Rock's (who also got unjustly slammed), but in true "Daily Show" fashion, it was subtle, smart humor. What's the matter? Are most people -- Hollywood -- just not smart enough to understand?
Hank Stuever: From what I saw -- and keep in mind, I don't get to just sit and stare at the show, I'm typing like a wacked out Ritalin kid the whole night -- the Jon Stewart hosting thing was fine. I loved the sketches and the Daily Show flavor. And it moved along at a good clip. I'm sort of with you: What do people want, for chrissakes? We wind up tearing the host to shreds every year. Who do you think they'll persuade to do it next year? Or in 2008? Who are the possibilities anymore?
Champaign, Ill.: From your observations, how contemptuous are celebrities of the average joe?
Hank Stuever: Not very. You know what it is, though? In person, when they are on red carpets or at semi-exclusive awards show afterparties, the celebrities are keeeeenly aware of being watched by all eyes, and this makes them understandably wary, possibly aloof. This is what makes the VF party the shining exception -- they are without VIP rooms. We all mingle together. By about 1 a.m. the room is very relaxed.
But back to your -- way too broad -- question. I don't think celebrities revile the average joe, especially when he's ponying up to see their movies or buy their output.
Bethesda, Md.: I did not watch the other four films which were also nominated for the best picture but I watched "Crash." In my opinion, this film was far from deserving to win the Oscar. It was tedious and weak. The only thing I could come up with as to how it won is that Hollywood has bent over backward and accommodated those right-wing conservatives who threatened to boycott if they picked any gay-related film to win. What a shame.
William Booth: Noted. Backstage, director Ang Lee was asked if he thought BB got passed over because of the subject matter and he replied "I don't know." Which is not like saying "of course not."
Burke, Va.: What was the most fun thing you saw?
Hank Stuever: I saw Madonna. Mere feet away from me. This completes a lifelong dream.
I'm going to write more about this in tomorrow's party story, but let me just say, of the dozens of famous people I've ever met, Madonna is in the oh-ma-gaw category. I almost tittered. So to again answer the earlier question, apparently I'm NOT going back into any closet.
Alexandria, Va.: I was rooting for "Brokeback" right up unitl Diana Ossana came up to accept the award for Best Adapted Screenplay - she came off as cold and blase, like she really expected it and deserved it. After that, I didn't want her to win the Best Picture! Anyway, the "Crash" people looked absoultely thrilled, so good for them.
William Booth: The Crash people went nuts. They were on cloud nine. You know, how everyone always says, well, this was so unexpected? With the Crashers, you believed them.
Does one still chug a tall boy ?: I thought people were drinkin' 40's nowadays.
William Booth: Alas, I knew them well.
Tinseltown: 1. How did Jennifer Aniston look? 2. How did Jennifer Aniston's hair look? 3. Which has more personality?
William Booth: Jennifer Aniston's hair exists on a different hair sphere. It is as if she uses the product of the gods. So, our answer would be: hair.
Potomac, Md.: So did you see or speak with Jake Gyllenhaal? He is so fine and seems very down to earth, too.
Hank Stuever: I said hi to him. He was chit chatting with his sister's squeeze, Peter Sarsgaard. Stubble heaven. I was standing there being oafy and lurky. Like everyone on a movie screen, both guys look both better and yet somehow slighter than in pictures.
Washington, D.C.: Do think the "Academy" was reluctant to award Best Picture to a same-sex love story, and so chose a "not-Brokeback" alternative? It seems hard to explain their action, given the very mixed reviews of "Crash" (it won only one Best Picture award previously, from Roger Ebert's Chicago Film Critics) and low box office relative to "Brokeback."
William Booth: Interesting factoid. On the rottentomatoes website, which collates all the critical reviews and then rates a movie, the best reviewed movies in the running were neither Crash nor BB, but Capote.
Dope Face!!!: Hank, I'm still laughing, but elaborate (besides the obvious reasons) why Keanu Reeves has earned such a distinguished moniker from you.
Hank Stuever: I just made it up. Works, though, yes? It could taken a few different ways. Sorta stonerish, sorta too calm.
Oh, and to correct what Bill THINKS he heard me say, Clooney's agent who went with him to the show IS A MAN, BABY. An old man.
Alexandria, Va.: So...the Clooney. Seems so perfect -- charming, intelligent, funny, and droolworthily handsome. He was really nice to a relative of mine when they met, made her feel like the only woman in the room. Is he really a jerk or something? He seems too good to be true.
Hank Stuever: So far I think he's good and true.
He has nicely filled that handsome, affable movie star niche that we haven't had in decades. He takes what the 40s guys had, but also what the '70s guys sorta had too. Your admiration is deserved.
Not Your Wives, Honest: OK, which drunken (or not) Hollywood stars hit on either of you?
William Booth: Jennifer Lopez expressed interest.
Riverdale, Md.: Apologies if this is a bit off-topic, but I could use a bit of Oscar 101, cause I'm confused.
Clooney wins the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
He was, um, kind of the main character in "Syriana," wasn't he? How is that supporting?
Hank Stuever: It's always odd -- how is Jake G. a "supporting" character in Brokeback? (Unless you view it as Ennis's story, contained largely in Wyoming.) Likewise, let's not view Syriana strictly as a story about Clooney's CIA agent. It's an ensemble piece. The star of the movie is big oil, right? Everyone else comes and goes. That would be my justification. Less esoterically, you could just add up screentime and see how it shakes out?
Arlington, Va.: VF Party: I heard someone say that celebs get invitations with a 15-minute arrival window. Is that true? I've heard even Oscar-winners are turned away if it's too crowded but I didn't know they had timed arrivals.
William Booth: We don't think the window thing is true for invited guests. Though the Los Angeles Fire Marshall was present and could have denied access if the party was over-filled.
Bethesda, Md.: Why did you freak out seeing Madonna? Has she been stalking you ?
Hank Stuever: Only in my dreams. Literally. For 20 years, once in awhile, Madonna shows up in my dreams -- sometimes as a pal, sometimes in need of my help, sometimes to lecture me. I'm not alone -- someone did a book in the 1990s where all these people revealed their Madonna dreams.
Fairfax, Va.: I adore Reese, LOVE her. But I have to admit that her speech made me think of Tracy Flick, her character from "Election." Seemed wayyyy over the top. Also, what is wrong with Ryan Phillippe? Every time I see them together (at HER events), he looks annoyed. Is it jealousy?
William Booth: Reese Witherspoon, we suspect, could become the most dangerous person in America.
Sarsgaard: So very very cute -- add him to the list. And tomorrow's his birthday.
Hank Stuever: What should we get him?
What to get the heavy-lidded dreamboat who has everything?
You know, watching him talk to Gyllenhaal I was thinking about all the hype surrounding BB Mountain and what it would do to Jake's and Heath's future roles in movies, career, etc. And here's Peter Sarsgaard who has done MUCH MORE and more explicit gay-themed stuff (Kinsey; and how about those steamy scenes in the Dying Gaul?) and yet he has plennnty of work, in mainstream films and art films.
Sunny, Fl.: RE: Maggie's squeeze... I don't think a Gyllenhaal should be allowed to date a Sarsgaard-- too many a's. Did Jake bring a date?
Hank Stuever: Jake did, and I have no clue who she is. Us Weekly would know. Or one of you might know.
Dallas, Tex.: I've got to say my favorite part was Altman, and the incredible Meryl-Lily lead-in. And Meryl looked great in that slinky thing instead of the usual matron gowns.
Hank Stuever: That WAS funny, wasn't it?
Baltimore, Md.: Was Felicity there alone? What happened to Bill Macy?
Hank Stuever: He was with her all night. I saw him -- nice gray, pinstripey sort of tuxedo. They are a handsome couple.
Washington, D.C.: Is it that you think Madonna is attractive? I don't see it. Gap teeth, 70's hair. Yes, very talented but not terribly attractive.
Hank Stuever: Gap teeth rule.
Silver Spring, Md.: So, what happened to Jennifer Garner? Did she slip, trip? All I heard in the background this morning was Diane Sawyer saying how close Jennifer had come to falling on stage.
William Booth: Well, we were watching it on a tv feed in the press room, but she clearly slipped. But then she had a great comeback line. "I do my own stunts."
Fairmont Street NW: We had some really yummy chili last night. We searched for your face but without success. We also had delish peanut butter bars. Maybe next year you'll be with us?
Hank Stuever: Thanks Fairmont. I will say it's been entirely too long since I watched Oscars from the sofa. Maybe someday.
Here's what I never get over: At home, the Oscars seem to go on way too long. But on deadline, the entire thing -- red carpet, show, backstage interviews -- seems to take 20 minutes.
Washington, D.C.: Reese Witherspoon and Julia Stiles must be the two ugliest blondes in Hollywood. One's like a bucktoothed chihuahua, and the other has a flat pie face.
William Booth: Buck-toothed chihuahua? Can we use that?
Re: Celeb questions about "personal life": I noticed that reporters steered cleer from asking Aniston and others "elephant in the room" type personal questions. Is it b/c the publicists have given scary instructions beforehand?
William Booth: What? Did something happen to Jen?
Washington, D.C.: I'm with you on Madonna, but did she look plastic? She has been looking sort of scary lately.
Hank Stuever: She didn't look plastic. I don't think she's had much or any work done. (She says she hasn't.) Won't it be sad the year she show's up to something with cosmetic surgery Duck Face?
Oh ma gaw, read tomorrow for a discussion of Duck Face.
I gotta go write up the party with Bill. Thanks for the chat, friends.
William Booth: Well, this has been a pleasure. We're off to file on last night's parties.
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.
|
The Post's William Booth and Hank Stuever report from Hollywood and take all your questions about what happened from the red carpet to backstage to the after-parties.
| 119.83871 | 0.967742 | 3.935484 |
high
|
high
|
mixed
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.