Charlie Jewett's blog

Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and GOP Forget Iraq Mistake in Push for Iran War

2012-01-23T15:41:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and GOP Forget Iraq Mistake in Push for Iran War
Gingrich, Romney and Santorum pushed for the Iraq War. Now the media should make them explain what they’ve learned from being wrong and why we should trust their eagerness to bomb Iran.
by Peter Beinart | January 23, 2012 4:45 AM EST

Newt Gingrich thinks that because CNN’s John King asked about his personal life last week, the “elite, liberal media” is out to get Republican presidential candidates. Nonsense. If journalists really wanted to make Gingrich and his fellow GOP frontrunners squirm, they’d ask why they supported the war in Iraq.

It’s no secret that American political culture often suffers from amnesia. Still, there’s something amazing about the fact that Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney can breezily advocate war with Iran without ever having to explain what their support for the Iraq War says about their judgment on matters of war and peace.

In a debate last November, Gingrich said that if other methods fail, “you have to take whatever steps are necessary to break its [the Iranian government’s] capacity to have a nuclear weapon.” He’s also promised to nominate as his secretary of state former Bush administration United Nations ambassador John Bolton, a man who has said that the only remaining “option is to take preemptive military action to break Iran’s program.”

Click here to read more.

Why do so many people have trouble believing evolution?

2012-01-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

Why do so many people have trouble believing evolution?
by Marcelo Gleiser
Sometimes the fossil record comes with teeth: Mapusaurus roseae on display in the "Dinosaurs of Gondwana" exhibit in 2009 at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

Updated on Thursday at 1:15 p.m.: After reading your comments, I feel it's important to clarify a couple of points concerning human hereditary descent and horizontal gene transfer. Please see the bracketed additions below.

The evidence is clear, as in a February 2009 Gallup Poll, taken on the eve of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday, that reported only 39 percent of Americans say they "believe in the theory of evolution," while a quarter say they do not believe in the theory, and another 36 percent don't have an opinion either way.

The same poll correlated belief in evolution with educational level: 21 percent of people with a high school education or less believed in evolution. That number rose to 41 percent for people with some college attendance, 53 percent for college graduates, and 74 percent for people with a postgraduate education.

Click here to read more about evolution.

Newt Gingrich’s Surprise Win in South Carolina Panics Republicans

2012-01-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich’s Surprise Win in South Carolina Panics Republicans
The Republican establishment is beside itself after Newt Gingrich’s upset victory in South Carolina—but Paul Begala says it just shows that Romney may not have the chops to win, either.
by Paul Begala | January 21, 2012 8:49 PM EST

Reactions to Newt Gingrich’s stunning and impressive victory in the South Carolina primary form a symphony. First, of course, we hear the cheers of South Carolina Republicans who have chosen their champion. From Ronald Reagan in 1980 through John McCain in 2008, the winner of this primary has always gone on to be the Republican nominee.

Click here to read more Paul Begala.

Bachmann exit cheered by LGBT advocates

2012-01-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

Bachmann exit cheered by LGBT advocates
By Chris Johnson, The Washington Blade
January 4, 2012

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann on Wednesday announced her exit from the race for the White House — much to the delight of LGBT advocates who abhorred the anti-gay positions she espoused during her campaign.

Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite who represents Minnesota in Congress, declared she was suspending her campaign during a news conference in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday after her dismal showing in the Republican Iowa caucuses.

Click here to read more.

House G.O.P. Leaders Agree to Extension of Payroll Tax Cut

2011-12-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

December 22, 2011
House G.O.P. Leaders Agree to Extension of Payroll Tax Cut
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JACKIE CALMES

WASHINGTON — Bowing under intense pressure from members of their own party to end the politically damaging impasse over a payroll tax holiday, House Republican leaders agreed Thursday to accept a temporary extension of the tax cut, beating a hasty retreat from a showdown that Republicans increasingly saw as a threat to their election opportunities next year.

Under a deal reached between House and Senate leaders — which Speaker John A. Boehner was presenting to the rank and file in an evening conference call — House members would accept the two-month extension of a payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits approved by the Senate last Saturday, while the Senate would appoint members of a House-Senate conference committee to negotiate legislation to extend both benefits through 2012.

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2011 Holiday Letter

2011-12-20T14:19:00.000-08:00

My mother mailed several hundred photo cards (w/ encouragement but zero assistance from my father) from about 1939 (their first year in the Lyme, Connecticut farmhouse) through the late 1980s. No messages or updates, just the pic.

Here is our 2011 newsletter:

Charlie/Woody: Not a surprise to people who know me, but my focus this year was a delightful bundle of energy, our three-year-old grandson. It was a sheer joy to babysit Kahlil for two months in Oregon while Caroline checked out the job market, then another three weeks in Florida. He loves riding his tricycle really fast, meals, stories, Portland's trains and streetcars, boats and bridges, and then Florida's beaches and pools. He patiently helped us move to our new Florida apartment in July, and then I returned him to his Mom. I learned that “grandfathers know best” is not always the easiest path. We had a plan to put Kahlil in school in Portland so Caroline could work and complete college, but she felt the tug to return to Denver.

GREAT travel to Seoul, Korea and southwest Japan, and then two intoxicating Canadian cities, Vancouver and Toronto. New and veteran friends made it all a blast. We were relieved that no family or friends suffered in the massive earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan. Equally mesmerizing in its power has been the Arab Spring uprisings, the almost-tsunami-like force to bring freedom and transparency that toppled dictators.

Dramatic change at home: after 17 years the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on gays in the military was ended. Another revolution was the Occupy Wall Street protests which made known to the greater American public the gross inequality between the top 1% and the bottom 99%.

The Peace Corps turned FIFTY this year (and sadly 2011 saw the death in January of its founder Sargent Shriver). I had served as a volunteer in Ethiopia in the 60s, and HQ staff member three times (yeah, a “lifer”). In late September Takashi joined me in celebrating in DC. Such fun to see colleagues from across four decades but I needed so much more time with people to catch up. (Yes, Facebook allows that!)

Andrew: This year I moved back to Washington DC after getting my degree in Construction Management from Northern Arizona University in December 2010. I decided to get back into electrical work with the local union and finally my number got called up in July. I am now trying to get more experience in the electrical field and hope to get my electrical license. I have applied for the apprenticeship program and I just have to have an interview. There are a very limited number of openings, but if I do get one there will be better job security and better pay. In August I went on a one-week trip to El Salvador with Habitat for Humanity and helped build houses there. It was a great learning experience to see how others live outside the U.S.

Takashi: What a year! The year opened with optimistic feelings with Tunisia and Egypt. I was happy for Egyptians when Mubarak fell, while at the same time could not help thinking about the Philippines; nearly 25 years after the People Power Revolution, the country has changed little and is poorer (relative to other Asian countries) than under Marcos. I am not sure what to hope for with the Arab Spring. Then we got the “shock and awe” with the Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami. After that, everything seemed to go downhill. Libya, Syria, and countless earthquakes and floods around the world and a full circle back to Egypt!! I’m sure 2012 Ascension wackos are busy preparing for the end.

While much of the world is on fire, I’ve led a quiet life in South Florida. Notable events in 2011 are; in July, we moved to a smaller apartment to downsize; we made a short trip to South Korea and Japan in August, and we attended Peace Corps Reunion in DC in September. Short trips to New York, San Francisco, and Toronto kept me craving urban living. Work-wise, I spend most of my time revising and updating homework questions and exam problems for courses that adjunct instructors teach, and attending countless meetings for committee work, while my research suffered. I shall put more time to my research in 2012 and clear off the inventories of papers! (How many years have I been saying this? Yeah, there is only one explanation why I’m not pumping out papers; I’m LAZY!!!)

Caroline: Happy Holidays from freezing cold, sunny Denver, Colorado! After a fun whirlwind year, which included a brief move to Portland, OR, Kahlil and I are back in Denver. We enjoyed our time in Portland: meeting some very nice people, hiking on rainy lush green trails, and of course spending lots of time with Grandpa Charlie and “Kashi.” As much as Kahlil and I loved wearing our rain gear every day, falling asleep and waking up to the sound of rain, the bright strong sun of Denver was a welcome sight.

As my darling little boy Kahlil gets older (now 3 1/2) I realize that more of these holiday updates are all about him and his amazing progress of growing into the wonderful adult he is destined to be. Our summer was spent at the pool, me trying to teach the little guy to swim, evenings at the neighborhood park getting destroyed by mosquitos while playing with friends. I love where we live as it reminds me of DC in the sense that it is a melting pot of races, ages, and ethnicities. One evening Kahlil played with a group of girls who spoke only Spanish to Kahlil and he spoke only English to them. It goes to show that friendship and communication can really transcend language. I am always amazed by how much we can learn by watching our children play.

Kahlil spends part of the year with his dad in Arizona. He has started pre-school there and has continued to charm and make friends with the adults and children alike. It gives me great pride to see what a loving, sweet, polite, and friendly child he is. Of course he has already started responding to the age-old question "What did you do today at school?" with the age-old answer "I don't know." Seriously? Come on, he is too young for that, right? When I do get answers out of him he usually says "I played with cars and friends." Kahlil will be back in Denver in a few weeks and I am very excited to see him, take him skiing for the first time, get cheeseburgers at our local joint, go sledding, and of course spend much time at the Denver Zoo. Kahlil and I wish you happiness and health and a prosperous upcoming year.

As last U.S. troops exit Iraq, they leave a troubled land behind

2011-12-18T04:53:00.001-08:00

As last U.S. troops exit Iraq, they leave a troubled land behind
With little understanding of each other, Iraq and the U.S. collided in a long, brutal war that exacted a terrible price from both. They separate with very different understandings of what happened.
By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times
December 17, 2011
Reporting from K Crossing, Kuwait

A U.S. military convoy sliced through the flat Iraqi desert before first light, carrying the last troops safely into Kuwait and ending America's costly and divisive war in a troubled land.

When relieved soldiers got out on the other side Sunday, shouts of "Going home!" and "It's over!" mingled with bear hugs and high-fives. One soldier hollered, 'I'm going to Disneyland!" Another, "A sweet, sweet Christmas."

The final vehicle passed a fortified Kuwaiti border police post eight years, eight months and 28 days after U.S. forces poured across the same frontier, 150,000 strong, sweating inside bulky chemical and biological protective suits, but convinced of a swift and certain victory. Once Saddam Hussein fell, the war would end and they would all soon return home.

Click here to read more about Iraq.

Thirty things to stop doing to yourself.

2011-12-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

As Maria Robinson once said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” Nothing could be closer to the truth. But before you can begin this process of transformation you have to stop doing the things that have been holding you back.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you. You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth. And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.

2. Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on. No, it won’t be easy. There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them. We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems. That’s not how we’re made. In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall. Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time. This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.

3. Stop lying to yourself. – You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself. Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves. Read The Road Less Traveled.

4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too. Yes, help others; but help yourself too. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

5. Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.

6. Stop trying to hold onto the past. – You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.

7. Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.

8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us. We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.

9. Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.

10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. – If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either. You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else. Read Stumbling on Happiness.

11. Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place. Evaluate situations and take decisive action. You cannot change what you refuse to confront. Making progress involves risk. Period! You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.

12. Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.

13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. – Relationships must be chosen wisely. It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company. There’s no need to rush. If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.

14. Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. – In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet. Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you. But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you.

15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else. – Don’t worry about what others doing better than you. Concentrate on beating your own records every day. Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.

16. Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own. Ask yourself this: “What’s something I have that everyone wants?”

17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. – Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you. You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough. But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past. You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation. So smile! Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be.

18. Stop holding grudges. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart. You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate. Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.” It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.” Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself! And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too. If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time.

19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level. – Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.

20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right.

21. Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break. – The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly.

22. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.

23. Stop trying to make things perfect. – The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done. Read Getting Things Done.

24. Stop following the path of least resistance. – Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Don’t take the easy way out. Do something extraordinary.

25. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. – It’s okay to fall apart for a little while. You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well. You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it’s healthy to shed your tears. The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again.

26. Stop blaming others for your troubles. – The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give others power over that part of your life.

27. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out. But making one person smile CAN change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world. So narrow your focus.

28. Stop worrying so much. – Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy. One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time? Three years? Five years?” If not, then it’s not worth worrying about.

29. Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen. – Focus on what you do want to happen. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right.

30. Stop being ungrateful. – No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

Obama to Iraq vets: 'Your service belongs to the ages'

2011-12-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

Obama to Iraq vets: 'Your service belongs to the ages'
By Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY
December 14, 2011
President Obama welcomed home U.S. troops in Fort Bragg, N.C., on Wednesday as America concludes its nearly nine-year-old war in Iraq.

Speaking to 3,000 U.S. servicemembers and their families who gathered in an airplane hangar on this military installation, Obama thanked the troops for their service and said the military was now entering a season of homecoming as the last U.S. troops leave Iraq in the coming days.

"One of the most extraordinary chapters in the history of the American military will come to an end," Obama said. "Iraq's future will be in the hands of its people. America's war in Iraq will be over. We knew this day would come. We have known it for some time now. But still, there is something profound about the end of a war that has lasted so long."

Dating back to his days as an Illinois state senator, Obama characterized the war in Iraq as a "dumb war." In a speech he delivered in the lead up to the war in 2002, Obama derided President George W. Bush's advisers Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle -- two of the Bush administration's most prominent backers of launching the war -- as "weekend warriors" who were attempting to "shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."

But Obama's remarks at Fort Bragg included no mention of his opposition to the war, and instead centered on his appreciation for the troops. And he spent much of his speech noting that America needs to remain committed to make certain Iraq's veterans are cared for.

"Part of ending a war responsibly is standing by those who have fought it. It's not enough to honor you with words; we must do so with deeds," Obama said.

The decision to mark the milestone at Fort Bragg -- the Army's biggest base in terms of personnel -- is not all that surprising.

Obama told the troops that America can learn much from their selfless example. To make his point, he told the story of Lt. Alvin Shell, a Fort Bragg soldier, who a few years ago responded heroically when he and his team were engulfed by flames after an RPG attack on their convoy. Covered with gasoline, Shell ran into the fire to help his fellow soldiers. When he was later told he was a hero, Shell shrugged it off saying that a "hero is a sandwich" and he's a paratrooper, Obama said.

"We could do well to learn from Alvin and all of you. Yes, policymakers and historians will continue to analyze the strategic lessons of Iraq," Obama said. "And our commanders will incorporate hard-won lessons into future military campaigns. But the most important lesson that we can take from you is not one of military strategy – it is a lesson about our national character."

The sprawling base near Fayetteville is home to the XVIII Airborne Corps, the 82nd Airborne Division and the Special Operations Command. Its soldiers have repeatedly deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan; 202 soldiers died in Iraq.

"The war in Iraq will soon belong to history, and your service belongs to the ages," Obama said. "Never forget that you are part of an unbroken line of heroes spanning two centuries -- from the colonists who overthrew an empire; to your grandparents and parents, who faced down fascism and communism; to you – men and women who fought for the same principles in Fallujah and Kandahar, and delivered justice to those who attacked us on 9/11."

Inside Newt's Stunning Comeback

2011-12-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

Inside Newt's Stunning Comeback
Newt wants you!
by Peter J. Boyer, The Daily Beast, Newsweek | December 12, 2011

Just a few months ago, among those who believed that Newt Gingrich’s presidential quest was doomed was the campaign’s own best political thinker, Gingrich himself. After a botched start and mass desertion by his top staff, Gingrich spent the summer struggling for money, organization, and, worse, for a man like him, relevance. “It was really hard,” he says now. “I got fairly tired of doing radio shows with people who would say, ‘Well, so since you’re dead …’”

By the end of summer, his campaign deeply in the red, Gingrich decided to quit—but was talked out of it by his wife, Callista. Entering the debate season, Gingrich focused on his advantages, and he began to see his near implosion as a gift. Among other things, the departure of the political professionals left Gingrich to become his own strategist. “Just as Clinton was,” Gingrich says.

Click here to read more about Newt.

"Spider-Man" is earning its keep

2011-12-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

Reeve Carney, center, star of “Spider-Man,” with fellow Spider-Men on 42nd Street on Thanksgiving. After a dramatic path to Broadway, the show makes more than its operating costs weekly.

Obama’s economic speech shifts the focus from deficits

2011-12-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

Obama’s economic speech shifts the focus from deficits
By Fareed Zakaria, The Washington Post
December 7, 2011
With his speech in Kansas, President Obama has begun a national conversation about the economy and the role of government. In presenting his view, Obama shifted the economic conversation from deficits to the crucial issue of growth. After all, deficits matter because they could have a harmful effect on growth. The question we should all ask is: What would make this economy grow?

One theory heard a lot these days is that the economy is burdened by excessive government regulation, interference and taxes. All these pressures on business, especially small business, are keeping the economy down. Cut them, the Republican candidates all say, and the economy will be unleashed. It’s a compelling picture, but the data simply do not support it.

A World Economic Forum survey that ranks countries on their overall economic competitiveness puts the United States fifth; the countries ahead of it, including Singapore and Finland, are tiny, with populations around 5 percent that of the United States. The World Bank publishes a report that looks at “Doing Business” across the globe. The United States ranks No. 4, again behind a handful of tiny countries. As is the case with the World Economic Forum, that ranking has not changed much over the years.

Click here to read more Zakaria.

Dr. Berwick’s Pink Slip

2011-12-06T08:35:00.000-08:00

December 5, 2011
Dr. Berwick’s Pink Slip
By JOE NOCERA, Op Ed, The New York Times
Dr. Donald Berwick was already in Massachusetts when I spoke to him Sunday afternoon. He was back in the Newton home where he’d lived for 30 years, being pleasantly interrupted during our conversation by his 2-year-old grandson. His last day in Washington as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had been Thursday. Friday was packing day. Saturday was moving day. And, by Sunday, he was already talking about his too-short, 17-month tenure as the nation’s top Medicare official in the past tense. Which, alas, it was.

Dr. Berwick, I’m here to tell you, was the most qualified person in the country to run Medicare at this critical juncture, and the fact that he is no longer in the job is the country’s loss. Berwick started out as a pediatrician and health care researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health and eventually became vice president of the Harvard Community Health Plan (now known as Harvard Pilgrim Health Care). There, he became enamored with the ideas being promulgated by management gurus like W. Edwards Deming and companies like Toyota, which believed that companies could create processes — and a mind-set — that would allow for both continuous improvement and continuous cost reduction. Indeed, they believed that the two went hand in hand.

Click here to read more.

A GOP Reality-Show Race, Thanks to the Tea Party

2011-12-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

A GOP Reality-Show Race, Thanks to the Tea Party
By E.J. Dionne Jr., The Washington Post
The contest for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has been described as a reality show and a circus. But what’s happening inside the GOP is quite rational and easily explained.

The obvious Republican nominee was Texas Gov. Rick Perry — obvious because his government-bashing, ideology-mongering, secessionist-flirting persona was a perfect fit for a Republican primary electorate that has shifted far to the right of Ronald Reagan.

Click here to read more.

A most moving video "It's Time" from Australia

2011-11-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

A most moving video "It's Time" from Australia:

Click here to see "It's Time."

As of today, November 30th, 2011 more than 2.6 million have viewed this video on Youtube.

Barney the bully: Congressman Frank’s other legacy

2011-11-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

Barney the bully: Congressman Frank’s other legacy
By Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
November 29, 2011

The morning after his retirement announcement, Rep. Barney Frank scored an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, gaining the opportunity to act as an elder statesman in front of a TV audience of millions. Instead, the Massachusetts Democrat chose to quarrel with the interviewer.

“You said that your district has been redrawn in a way that would make it more difficult for you to win reelection,” host Savannah Guthrie said.

Click here to read more about Barney.

Fish Reduces Alzheimer's Risk

2011-11-30T11:59:00.000-08:00

Regularly eating baked or broiled fish can help preserve brain power, according to new study

by: Nissa Simon | from: AARP Bulletin | November 30, 2011
Chalk up another win for fish as brain food.

People who eat baked or broiled fish at least once a week may improve their brain health and cut the risk of developing memory problems or Alzheimer's disease, according to a study presented today at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting in Chicago.

Eating baked or broiled fish - not fried - weekly may improve brain health and reduce the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease - image of raw fish

Research shows that eating baked or broiled fish can reduce risk of Alzheimer's.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh selected the records of 260 participants in the Cardiovascular Health Study who were in their mid-70s and who had no problems with memory, thinking or reasoning. The researchers then looked at fish consumption and found that 163 of these men and women ate fish regularly, with the majority of them including it in their meals one to four times a week.

Ten years later, three-dimensional MRI brain scans were obtained for each participant. The researchers then did a brain mapping analysis on these scans that measured gray matter, which is crucial to brain health. "This is a mathematical way of understanding the influence of fish intake on the brain," says Cyrus Raji, M.D., the lead author.

Click here to read more about fish.

2011-11-29T18:55:00.000-08:00

Frank retiring from Congress in 2012
By Chris Johnson on November 28, 2011
The longest serving openly gay member of Congress won’t seek re-election to the U.S. House in 2012.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) announced his retirement during a press conference at Newton City Hall in Massachusetts on Monday. Had the lawmaker sought re-election, he would have been pursuing a 17th term in Congress.

Click here to read more.

Will demographic shifts save Obama in 2012?

2011-11-26T18:59:00.000-08:00

Will demographic shifts save Obama in 2012?
By Dan Balz, The Washington Post
Saturday, November 26, 2011

The 2008 election was a reminder of the demographic forces that are changing America and potentially the political balance in the country. The most diverse electorate in the nation’s history added to the favorable winds that pushed President Obama to victory. He will need the assistance of those shifts even more in 2012 if he is to avoid defeat.

Much has been made of the president’s unusual coalition in 2008 — huge turnout and overwhelming support from African Americans, the backing of Latinos, the energy of younger voters, the help from college-educated Americans and the role played by unmarried women. Part of Obama’s success was due to the excitement his candidacy generated among these groups four years ago, but part too owed simply to the realities of a nation changing in ways that are favorable to the Democrats.

Click here to read more about the demographic shifts.

Charlie's Diary: Dan Balz remains one of my most favorite reporters. He's been at the WP since 1978.

Gingrich’s immigration crucible

2011-11-25T18:56:00.000-08:00

Gingrich’s immigration crucible
The Washington Post, Editorial, Published: November 24, 2011
[If, like me, you've forgotten the meaning of crucible, the definition is "a severe, searching test or trial."]

WHAT A DIFFERENCE 11 weeks make. In September, the first time the Republican presidential pack got into a scrape over immigration, no one paid much attention when Newt Gingrich urged a “much more humane” alternative to dealing with illegal immigrants than mass deportation. And no wonder: At the time, he was stuck at about 5 percent in the polls. Now that Mr. Gingrich is leading — for the time being — he is under fierce attack within the GOP for reprising the same common-sense message.

In the candidates’ debate on foreign policy Tuesday night, Mr. Gingrich, former House speaker, repeated what he has said frequently: that undocumented immigrants who have spent years in the United States, paid taxes and formed ties should be granted some sort of legal status. Mr. Gingrich insisted his policy would not amount to amnesty — a word that unhinges Republicans — since it would not apply to recent arrivals and would stop short of granting citizenship.

Click here to read more.

Wisdom/humor: "Last dictator standing/eating?"

2011-11-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

Nando's is a worldwide chicken restaurant franchise. See their ad here that ran in South Africa:

Click here to watch the video.

Would you like one a bit longer with Mao? Click here for Mao!

Thanks to my dear partner for forwarding these to me. cwj

Foreigners coming to the US for an education

2011-11-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

Fareed Zakaria, November 24, 2011

The GOP presidential candidates sparred Tuesday night on national security, but there was at least one point of agreement among them, or at least between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

“I think that we ought to have an H-1 visa that goes with every graduate degree in math, science and engineering so that people stay here,” said Gingrich.

“I'd staple a green card to the diploma of anybody who's got a degree of math, science, a Masters degree, Ph.D,” said Romney.

The candidates explained that keeping foreign-born students who study science, technology, engineering or math in the U.S. was an important step in creating new technologies, new industries and new jobs.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a report on foreign-born bachelor’s degree holders living in the U.S. The numbers give some sense of how U.S. universities remain magnets for those seeking to study science, math or engineering. There are now 4.2 million foreign-born science and engineering bachelor's degree holders in the U.S., a number double the population of Houston, Texas, for comparison.

Foreign-born residents account for:

33 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in engineering
27 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in computers, mathematics and statistics
24 percent in physical sciences
17 percent in biological, agricultural and environmental sciences

Among the foreign-born who had studied science or engineering:

57 percent were born in Asia
18 percent in Europe
16 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean
5 percent in Africa
3 percent in Northern America

Newt Gingrich: Does he have a path to the GOP nomination?

2011-11-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

Republican presidential hopeful former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, buy a pork chop lunch as they campaign at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, this summer.

Newt Gingrich: Does he have a path to the GOP nomination?
Newt Gingrich is nosing ahead of Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination, according to polls. But it could be hard for him to translate that support into primary victories.
By Jennifer Skalka Tulumello, The Christian Science Monitor
November 23, 2011

Newt Gingrich: Does he have a path to the GOP nomination?

Newt Gingrich is nosing ahead of Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination, according to polls. But it could be hard for him to translate that support into primary victories.

By Jennifer Skalka Tulumello, Contributor / November 23, 2011
Underlying the frenzied coverage of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s ascendance to front-runner status is a practical question: Is there a path for him to win the Republican presidential nomination?

Yes, but it would be challenging, and experts call it unlikely. Here’s why.

Until now, many campaign watchers viewed his bid as a vanity effort designed to help sell his books and a new documentary made with wife, Callista. The campaign would also keep him relevant as an elder statesman of national politics, influential in Washington circles, and available for top Cabinet posts should a Republican win the White House.

Click here to read more about Newt!

Charlie's Diary: "We've moved...." July 2011

2011-11-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

Today is "move day" July 5th, 2011. Grandson Kahlil and I spent last night in the new place, on the floor. My text message at 8AM: "First time in sleeping bag, no air mattress...on the floor. We both slept okay. Got some OJ and Coke at grocery store, now eating bfast, next wait for movers to arrive. xx"

Takashi made three separate trips yesterday from old apt in Fort Lauderdale to new one in Hallandale Beach...bringing stuff that was best for us to move ourselves. (He's a good grandpa: on his first trip he took Kahlil with him while I stayed behind to pack.) The final trip K&I came along, saw fireworks over the beach from our new balcony, and then the professor departed to complete the dreaded "kitchen packing" and we slept here to welcome the movers.

Lessons learned for next time: bring a towel, Charlie's camera, a few plastic cups, & grandson's favorite blanket. We actually did fine without these. Amazing how we can adapt. Hey, we got 99.8% of it right.

Kahlil is playing on the floor, happy with his "purple car" aka '66 Bonneville. He hasn't had TV since leaving Portland. Once I mop the marble floors we'll go out to find and feed the birds. We overlook a golf course and the ocean is 15 minutes away...can't wait to go swimming there this week. He wore "pull-ups" last night (Charlie is adaptable but not ready to get wet at night) and was completely dry this morning after a hectic Monday. Thataway, Kahlil.

More later. Hugs, The Three Guys

Spirited Foreign Policy Debate Includes a Test of Gingrich’s Rise

2011-11-23T19:04:00.000-08:00

November 22, 2011
Spirited Foreign Policy Debate Includes a Test of Gingrich’s Rise
By JIM RUTENBERG and JEFF ZELENY, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Republican presidential candidates highlighted their party’s lack of a single national security vision a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, differing on Tuesday night over the pace of withdrawal from Afghanistan, aid to Pakistan and, in an exchange that could resonate dangerously for Newt Gingrich, what to do with illegal immigrants in the United States.

Wading into treacherous territory in Republican primary politics just as he is climbing in polls, Mr. Gingrich said during a nationally televised debate that he would support allowing some illegal immigrants — those who had been in the country for decades, had paid taxes and had raised families here — to remain in the country. Mr. Gingrich, a former speaker of the House, warned that the party could not claim a family-friendly mantle if it was to “adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter-century.”

Click here to read more.

Charlie's Diary "Peace Corps Office of Volunteer Placement, 1978"

2011-11-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

Peace Corps Office of Volunteer Placement staff, August 1978

I worked in the Peace Corps Office of Volunteer Placement for six years, 1972-1978. I was Supervisory Placement Officer for the last two years, blessed as well as strengthened and made to look good thanks to a terrific staff. This photo shows most of the staff. The pic was taken at our conference table, by the window on the southeast corner of the building, 9th floor, 806 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington D.C. As it allowed a spectacular view of the White House, we naturally called it "The White House Table."

Who's who: [First row] Francesco Isgro, Annie McKinney, Deatra August, Patricia Neill, Dorothy Andrake, Veronica Priddy, Woody Jewett (me!).

[Second row] A.J. Simpson, Frank Johnson, David Theisson, Ruthie Ellerbe, Rob Pepper, Rita Hostetter, Bill Knight.

Come see pix from the 50th anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps at Flickr. Check out www.flickr.com and find Peace Corps Staff Event 2011

Elderly woman blasted with pepper spray: How the photo happened

2011-11-17T02:26:00.000-08:00

PHOTO BY JOSHUA TRUJILLO/SEATTLEPI.COM
Elderly woman blasted with pepper spray: How the photo happened
November 16, 2011
The telephones in seattlepi.com‘s newsroom are ringing like crazy today. That’s not uncommon in a newsroom, but there’s something different about today’s calls. More often than not, you’ll pick up the phone and hear something like this: “I wanted to ask about the pepper-spray picture.”

The photo was taken Tuesday evening by seattlepi.com photographer Joshua Trujillo at an Occupy Seattle protest at Westlake Park. The elderly woman featured in the photo was pepper sprayed by police just moments before.

Her name is Dorli Rainey, and she’s 84 years old.

Rainey was participating in a march that spilled out into the downtown streets Tuesday. When police showed up to control the crowd, she was on the front lines.

The picture, showing Rainey’s face streaked with pepper spray, tears and a milky solution used to combat the spray, has connected with readers and bloggers across the country.

The Atlantic Wire called it a “defining image.” The Washington Post likened it to John Filo’s Pulitzer-winning picture of the 1970 massacre at Kent State, saying “Although there have been many striking images of violence and peace in Occupy encampments, and many faces of the movement, none may be as immediately striking as this image of Dorli Rainey, taken by Joshua Trujillo.”

“Rainey’s direct gaze at the camera as her face drips with pepper spray is a haunting, cinematic image of brutality,” writes the Post’s Maura Judkis.

Joshua Trujillo

So, how did the photo happened? I talked with Trujillo about capturing the iconic image, and he said it all started when he saw something unusual happening out of the corner of his eye.

“I walked up right when the spraying starting, and probably within, I’d say, five or 10 minutes of my arriving was when I saw her being rushed away,” Trujillo said. “I did not see her get the spray, I did not see the officer spraying her. But I saw the immediate aftermath within a second or two of it happening.”

He started taking pictures, thinking it was unusual to see a woman her age at a protest.

“She had her head down, and I could see the spray all over her face,” he said. “Then she lifted her head up and someone splashed another white liquid in her face, forcing her eyes open.”

That’s when Trujillo and Rainey made eye contact through his camera — and when the photo happened.

“I recognized the moment as being something unique,” Trujillo said. “Photojournalists by nature go after the things that are unique, odd or extreme. Those are the things that affect people.”

He added: “In all my years in this profession, I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Later, he saw Rainey smiling and thought she appeared to be recovering. Trujillo also came in contact with pepper spray while covering the protest — it’s the second time time in a month he’s been exposed to the substance at Occupy Seattle protests.

“It’s painful, but it washes out,” he said.

Rainey told the The Associated Press she’s “pretty tough” for an 84-year-old woman.

“It’s a gruesome picture, I’m really not that bad looking,” Rainey told the AP.

A former schoolteacher, Rainey is known around town as an activist and one-time mayoral candidate. She blogs at oldladyincombatboots.com.

Click here to read more.

Beyond Seizing Parks, New Paths to Influence

2011-11-16T12:05:00.000-08:00

November 15, 2011
Beyond Seizing Parks, New Paths to Influence
By CARA BUCKLEY, The New York Times
The anti-Wall Street protests, which are being driven from their urban encampments across the nation, now face a pivotal challenge: With their outposts gone, will their movement wither?

In New York, where the police temporarily evicted Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, and in other cities, dozens of organizers maintained that the movement had already reshaped the public debate. They said it no longer needed to rely solely on seizing parks, demonstrating in front of the homes of billionaires or performing other acts of street theater.

Read more!!

Charlie's Diary. "Peace Corps event with Jimmy Carter"

2011-11-11T21:52:00.000-08:00

Charlie: For three+ years (1995-1998)I was HQ "Country Desk Officer" for several Peace Corps programs. Photo was from Atlanta dinner January 15, 1998 hosted by former President and Mrs. Carter for the second group of trainees to go to South Africa. Their grandson was one of the trainees.

I mentioned to the President that my former office Peace Corps Placement had invited HIS mother, Ms. Lillian to lunch at HQ. She of course had been a PCV in India. My staff did ALL THE WORK and threw a delightful potluck. (I'm still looking for some photos.) Ms. Lillian arrived with her Georgia state bodyguard/driver and was a delightful and relaxed guest.

Charlie's Diary. "Three dwarves from Mount Archer"

2011-11-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

All dressed up for Christmas photo 1949 in living room at Mount Archer.

My brother Jonathan, sister Jennifer and I were nicknamed the "three dwarves" as kids living on Mount Archer Road. (We were also labeled "Jon and the little kids" which I really resented as middle child, second son, but always a bit taller than my brother.) Anyway, here are some pix from one of my mother's scrapbooks circa 1949-1950. Enjoy.

Three dwarves in the Jeep, 1949.

Now we're talking GREAT DANE. Name is Joshua, year is 1949. I don't remember this one.

Jennifer and Woody in the mud, 1950.

Max Light Rail in Portland

2011-11-11T19:56:00.001-08:00

Several weeks ago I happened to sit in the front seat of a Max train and noticed a plaque dedicated to one man who helped bring the system to Portland.

Click here to read more.

Wisdom & Humor: Taking Care of the Geezer Problem

2011-11-10T21:16:00.001-08:00

from a friend:

To save the economy, on November 25, 2011, Obama will
announce that he is ordering the immigration department
to start deporting old people, over 50 (instead of illegals)
in order to lower Social Security and Medicare costs.

Old people are easier to catch, and will not remember
how to get back home!

A tear came to my eye when I thought of you.
.....see you on the bus.

My mother remembers her junior year in college

2011-11-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

Photo is my parents' first Christmas card, December 1939.
My mother, Mary Amelia Sheafe, attended Mount Holyoke College as part of the Class of 1939. She departed at the end of her third year to marry my father but always kept in close touch with friends from Mount Holyoke, and talked often about her professors and the impact on her thinking. Below is part of her entry in a booklet, "Before Computers--The Way We Were" published for their 60th reunion:

"One of my pleasantest memories of M.H.C. is, oddly enough, about breakfasts, never my favorite meal. Sunday mornings, before chapel, Marge Mullally and I went to Glessies for coffee and donuts, the most wonderful coffee and donuts in the whole world.

One of my more sentimental memories is from Junior Year, every Friday afternoon, watching from the window in Brigham for Chuck Jewett to drive thru the gates in his little Ford --and now here we are still together (had our 50th anniversary in 1988) and I still spend time looking out the window, watching for him to come home."

Charlie's Diary: I had never seen this reunion booklet before. so many classmates talked about classes, food, chapel, professors, and FRIENDS. Friends were the core of their time at MHC. One entry from a classmate, Frances (Fran) Adams Rhoads, spoke to this:

The bottom line was and is -- of course -- friendships, and here is "hiku" I wrote for '39 in a class I am taking: "Behind the mask of years
good friends, long missed, returning
are twenty again.
May it be so in May!"
.

Air Force mishandled remains of war dead

2011-11-08T13:13:00.000-08:00

Air Force mishandled remains of war dead
By Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post
Updated: Tuesday, November 8, 12:08 PM
Federal investigators said Tuesday they uncovered “gross mismanagement” at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary that cares for America’s war dead after whistleblowers reported horror stories of lost body parts, shoddy inventory controls and lax supervision.

The former mortuary commander and two other senior officials have been disciplined — but not fired — in response to multiple investigations conducted by the Air Force, the Army and the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that also received the whistleblower complaints.

The Office of Special Counsel, however, ripped the Air Force for not taking the allegations more seriously and for not punishing mortuary supervisors more harshly. It said one of the supervisors had been “untruthful,” had falsified records and tried to obstruct the investigation by firing a whistleblower. The Air Force reduced the supervisor’s pay grade but moved him into a new job at Dover created explicitly for him.

Click here to read more.

A Pharaoh Lords Over a Museum

2011-11-07T16:50:00.000-08:00

August 22, 2011
A Pharaoh Lords Over a Museum
By KEN JOHNSON, The New York Times
A giant 4,000-year-old Egyptian visitor looms over the crowd of live humans milling antlike throughout the vast entry hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is an extraordinary specimen of regal manhood. Carved from a single block of dark gray granodiorite, he sits in a form-fitting kilt on a cubic throne covered by hieroglyphics. He has the broad shoulders, narrow waist and muscular legs of a well-developed athlete. Sporting a headdress of folded striped fabric, he gazes out over the masses with imperturbable self-assurance and open eyes set in a round, youthful face. He is as thrilling as anything in the Met’s great Egyptian collection.

Scholars think this 10-foot tall, almost nine-ton monument originally portrayed the 12th-dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat II, who reigned from about 1919 to 1885 B.C. Later artists evidently altered the facial features to make him more like Ramesses II, the king who ruled from about 1279 to 1213 B.C. He has belonged to Berlin’s Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection since 1837. But now the courtyard in Germany where he usually presides is under reconstruction, so he will be a guest of honor in New York for the next 10 years.

Ancient Egyptian art has captivated Western imaginations for a long time. It inspired the ancient Greeks and Romans and the artists and intellectuals of the European Renaissance. In the 19th century it caused a veritable epidemic of Egyptomania, which infected Art Deco design in the 20th century, along with scores of scary movies, from “The Mummy” of 1932 to “The Mummy” of 1999.

“Amenemhat II” feels at once deeply familiar and otherworldly. Its tension between geometric abstraction and organic naturalism, its ambition to transform inert material into something that seems to live and breathe, anticipates the basic aesthetic terms that would define Western art from the Greeks to the start of Modernism. Despite its rigid stillness, the statue has an uncanny animated feeling, as if it were inhabited by some eternal consciousness. That, at least, is what the Egyptians wanted their viewers to experience. For them the pharaoh was truly a divine being.

Around the time “Amenemhat II” was created, Egyptian artists achieved something close to perfection in sculpture, and the idea of such exacting excellence as something to aim for — in art and in life — must be counted among the Egyptians’ important contributions to human history. Before then, it seems, people just did the best they could. But the trouble with perfection is that it cannot be exceeded, which may explain why Egyptian art changed so little over its 5,000 years (and why fascists are so fond of it). For a viewer accustomed to the churn of styles in a world of historical flux, “Amenemhat II” seems an emissary from a place where time stands still.

A year from now “Amenemhat II” will be moved into the Met’s Egyptian wing. That should be a good thing. Big as it is, it is dwarfed by the expanse of the Great Hall, and its aura of silent majesty is dampened by the distracting bustle of ordinary mortals. It needs a room of its own to frame its awesomeness properly.

“Amenemhat II” is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; (212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org Click here to read more.

"Amazing Grace" sung by 4 men beautifully...

2011-11-07T15:30:00.000-08:00

Click here to watch the amazingly graceful video.

AMAZING GRACE IN THE ROME COLISEUM,

JUST WAIT TILL YOU HEAR THE MIDDLE!

Favorite restaurants Portland: Nak Won (Korean)

2011-11-05T13:00:00.001-07:00

Nak Won Korean Restaurant
4600 SW Watson Avenue, Beaverton, Oregon 97005

A friend and I had lunch here this week (he recommended it). MARVELOUS. relaxed, friendly atmosphere. The food DELICIOUS. Try the seafood pancake. It was an appetizer but we took home some. We also had an entree. I love the traditional small dishes of appetizers...especially kimchi and bean sprouts.

Click here to read more.

Leonardo DiCaprio

2011-11-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

I'm a BIG FAN of this guy. Are you?

The actor Leonardo DiCaprio “has made a career of highly risky choices,” writes Brooks Barnes, “and somehow it keeps paying off not only on the awards circuit — he has been nominated for three Academy Awards — but at the box office as well.”

Click here to see the DiCaprio movies slideshow.

Want to walk around the Sphinx?

2011-11-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Explore Ancient Egypt
* By Liesl Clark and Peter Tyson, NOVA
Want to walk around the Sphinx? Clamber inside the Great Pyramid of Giza and seek out the pharaoh's burial chamber? Visit the magnificent tombs and temples of ancient Thebes? In this multi-layered, highly visual interactive, view 360° panoramas, "walkaround" photos, and other breathtaking imagery shot throughout the Giza Plateau and ancient Thebes (modern-day Luxor), often with special permission. You'll see Old and New Kingdom tombs and temples, pyramids and statues, and a 140-foot-long wooden boat that is 4,600 years old. Enjoy this unique journey through the Land of the Pharaohs.

Click here to see the interactive show about Ancient Egypt.

Shakespeare, The Bible, and America's Shift Into a Punitive Society

2011-11-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

by Arianna Huffington
Shakespeare, The Bible, and America's Shift Into a Punitive Society
Posted: 11/2/2011
I spent the weekend of the Great Ice Storm of 2011 in New Haven for Parents Weekend. In spite of the conditions, I had a great time, having the chance to spend time not only with my two daughters, but also with two of my all-time favorite professors: Professor (and extremely popular HuffPost blogger) David Bromwich, and Professor (and fellow Greek) John Geanakoplos.

There were two things we discussed that are still haunting me. One was a passage from Ron Suskind's Confidence Men, in which Paul Volcker questions whether Obama and his economic team are really serious about the financial crisis:

"They say they're for it, but their hearts are not in it." And this gap between word and deed, between stated intentions and so little action, made Volcker think of a phrase that he knew Summers sometimes used -- a couple of people had told him -- "that the important thing is just to be caught trying."

"Be caught trying." Is there a better description of the mindset of so many of our political leaders at this troubled moment in our nation's history? The fact that there's a crisis, and that people are hurting -- or at least that the people are angry -- has finally sunk in around official Washington. And everyone there wants to be caught trying to do something about it. But what the country, and especially the millions who are suffering, needs are

Click here to read more AH!

Bill Gates’s plan to assist the world’s poor

2011-11-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

Bill Gates’s plan to assist the world’s poor
By Bill Gates, Published: November 1, 2011
The Washington Post
Fifty years ago, almost 20 million children under the age of 5 died every year. In 2010, the figure was down to 7.6 million . This 60 percent decline in childhood deaths — reflecting advances in agriculture, education, health and sanitation — is compelling evidence of the increasing justice in our world.

But the global economic crisis is putting the long-term trend of progress at risk, as Congress’s debates about the foreign aid budget underscore.

I am giving a report Thursday to the heads of the Group of 20 governments, including President Obama, suggesting creative ways for the world to continue investing in development despite fiscal constraints. I hope three key ideas become part of congressional deliberations over the coming weeks.

Click here to read the Gates plan.

Thomas Friedman: "Did You Hear the One About the Bankers?"

2011-11-02T10:27:00.001-07:00

October 29, 2011
Did You Hear the One About the Bankers?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, The new York Times
CITIGROUP is lucky that Muammar el-Qaddafi was killed when he was. The Libyan leader’s death diverted attention from a lethal article involving Citigroup that deserved more attention because it helps to explain why many average Americans have expressed support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. The news was that Citigroup had to pay a $285 million fine to settle a case in which, with one hand, Citibank sold a package of toxic mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting customers — securities that it knew were likely to go bust — and, with the other hand, shorted the same securities — that is, bet millions of dollars that they would go bust.

It doesn’t get any more immoral than this. As the Securities and Exchange Commission civil complaint noted, in 2007, Citigroup exercised “significant influence” over choosing $500 million of the $1 billion worth of assets in the deal, and the global bank deliberately chose collateralized debt obligations, or C.D.O.’s, built from mortgage loans almost sure to fail. According to The Wall Street Journal, the S.E.C. complaint quoted one unnamed C.D.O. trader outside Citigroup as describing the portfolio as resembling something your dog leaves on your neighbor’s lawn. “The deal became largely worthless within months of its creation,” The Journal added. “As a result, about 15 hedge funds, investment managers and other firms that invested in the deal lost hundreds of millions of dollars, while Citigroup made $160 million in fees and trading profits.”

Click here to read more about Citicorp.

What Lies ahead for Occupy Wall Street?

2011-11-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

by Hendrik Hertzberg, The New Yorker
November 7, 2011
If politics is show business for ugly people (which, by the way, it’s not, not this time, not the ugly-people part anyway, not with a cast of characters as glossy as Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin’s ghost, and Barack Obama), is Occupy Wall Street the Tea Party for liberal people? Or, at least, for people who generally prefer a Democratic lesser evil to a Republican greater one?

Something Tea Partiers and Occupiers might agree on is that the groups are not like each other. (They certainly don’t look alike.) Yet there’s an irresistible symmetry. Both arose on the political fringe, more or less spontaneously, in response to the financial crisis and its economic consequences. Neither has authoritative leaders or a formal hierarchical structure. Each was originally sparked by a third-tier media outlet, albeit of opposite types—one by a cable business-news reporter’s rant against “losers’ mortgages,” the other by an e-mail blast from an anti-corporate, nonprofit, incongruously slick Canadian magazine. Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are both protest movements, not interest groups, and while both are wary, or claim to be, of established political figures and organizations, each welcomes their praise, if not their direction. Both have already earned places in the long, raucous history of ideologically promiscuous American populism. But only one, so far, has earned a place in the history of American government.

Click here to read more.

Japan Goes From Dynamic to Disheartened

2011-11-01T16:39:00.000-07:00

October 16, 2010
The Great Deflation
Japan Goes From Dynamic to Disheartened
By MARTIN FACKLER, The Sunday New York Times, top-of-the-fold story

OSAKA, Japan — Like many members of Japan’s middle class, Masato Y. enjoyed a level of affluence two decades ago that was the envy of the world. Masato, a small-business owner, bought a $500,000 condominium, vacationed in Hawaii and drove a late-model Mercedes.

But his living standards slowly crumbled along with Japan’s overall economy. First, he was forced to reduce trips abroad and then eliminate them. Then he traded the Mercedes for a cheaper domestic model. Last year, he sold his condo — for a third of what he paid for it, and for less than what he still owed on the mortgage he took out 17 years ago.

“Japan used to be so flashy and upbeat, but now everyone must live in a dark and subdued way,” said Masato, 49, who asked that his full name not be used because he still cannot repay the $110,000 that he owes on the mortgage.

Few nations in recent history have seen such a striking reversal of economic fortune as Japan. The original Asian success story, Japan rode one of the great speculative stock and property bubbles of all time in the 1980s to become the first Asian country to challenge the long dominance of the West.

Click here to read more about Japan and change. BTW, it's from October 2010.

Charlie's Diary. "Two boys on Halloween..."

2011-11-01T12:20:00.002-07:00

Grandson Kahlil 2011 in Arizona...and some other kid fifty years ago...

Happy Halloween, everyone. Ain't Halloween just great fun! cwj

Funny postscript: A dear friend who received these pix via email phoned me today. LOVED the pix, but yikes, he thought it was ME, Charlie Jewett in the cowboy pic. I thought he was kidding...he wasn't, just busy and tired. Hey, that is Barack Obama. 11/1/2011

How 10 Billion Will Live

2011-10-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

The fastest population growth is coming from the world’s poorest and worst-governed countries. As Earth passes 7 billion residents, Jack Goldstone on managing 3 billion more.
by Jack Goldstone, The Daily Beast
October 28, 2011

Next week, according to United Nations projections, the world will pass 7 billion in population, and by the end of this century it’s likely to grow by half again to 10 billion.

What will determine their quality of life? From an economist’s view, what matters is the productivity of the 10 billion—will they be educated and have jobs that contribute to economic growth? From a sociologist’s view, what matters is whether the 10 billion are socialized into stable roles in society—can they build families and join communities where they have dignity and focus on building for the future? From a political scientist’s view, what matters is the quality of government in countries where most of the 10 billion will live—will those governments avoid corruption, enforce the rule of law, and protect participation and civil rights?

Click here to read more about world population.

Floata Seafood Restaurant, Vancouver Chinatown

2011-10-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

Floata Seafood Restaurant, Vancouver Chinatown, Canada's largest Chinese Restaurant, seats 1,000 guests or divides into rooms for private groups.

Whether it's a relaxing dim sum, dinner for two for a six course banquet for 1,000 people, Floata staffs will ensure impeccable service. It is an ideal place for any group or function.

Click here to see the menu from this excellent Vancouver BC restaurant.

October 24, 2012

I'm just back from a relaxing visit to Vancouver, British Columbia. My host took me to this fabulous restaurant. The food was delicious! Service efficient and friendly, relaxed atmosphere - and the place was packed on a Saturday! charlie

A Great Day: Obama Ends the War in Iraq

2011-10-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

Robert Creamer, The Huffington Post
A Great Day: Obama Ends the War in Iraq
Friday, 10/21/11
This afternoon President Obama announced that at the end of this year, America will withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq.

Obama began his campaign for president by forcefully, clearly promising to end that war. This afternoon he delivered on that promise.

The timing of his announcement could not have been more symbolically powerful. It comes just a day after the successful conclusion of the operation in Libya -- an operation that stands in stark contrast to the disastrous War in Iraq.

Click here to read more analysis.

My mother "wrote herself a letter"

2011-10-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

Family portrait from 1983 my parent's 45th wedding anniversary.
Charlie's Diary. My mother "wrote herself a letter"

As she was turning forty my mother crafted a wonderful list of things she did not want herself to do when she was older. On the envelope, in her own handwriting, she wrote: "Letter from Molly Jewett to herself, written Nov. 16, 1955 at the suggestion of Eleanor Strubing & Boris Artzybasheff, to be opened June 5, 1975." Ellie and Boris were neighbors and friends of my parents. June 5th would be my mother's 59th birthday. It was written on official state of Connecticut stationary as my father was Lt. Governor.

I wrote Myself A Letter

This morning after my three children had left for school and my husband had left for the office, I sat at the breakfast table with a cup of coffee and began to think...

Next June 5th, I shall be 40 years old. In 20 years my children will be grown up and I presume married, and I shall be what is termed "well along in years." I hope I shall be a grandmother. My sweetest wish is that I shall be still loved by my children and that I shall be a reasonably good mother-in-law. If I'm not,it will be my own doing.

Why don't I write down the things that I admire now in older people that I know. And why don't I make a list of the things that I hope to avoid in my later years?

So I wrote myself a letter, sealed it, and put on the envelope "To be Opened June 5, 1975." Tomorrow it goes into our safety deposit box, and with the entire family prepared to remind me, I am looking forward to my my 60th birthday when I open it. [Actually, her 60th birthday would actually occur in 1976, right?] Here is what I wrote:

These things I promise myself I shall try to remember:

1. Do not repeat myself. Don't say "You have heard the story about so & so" and then tell it again. Everyone has heard it & is sick of it.

2. If I am deaf, wear a hearing aide and when I am with other people, keep it turned on at all times.

3. At Christmas and birthdays, give money to my children and grandchildren, or find out exactly what they would like to have.

4. Offer to take my grandchildren for long visits so that my children can have vacations. When I am in charge of them, do as their mother wants, not as I do.

5. Never give advice unless it is asked.

6. Don't think because I am old that I am automatically right. Admit when I am wrong.

7. If I hire child-labor, find out the current wages and pay them. Do not offer what was paid in my day.

8. Realize that my children are grown up and do not treat them like teenagers. It is no longer my business what time they get home at night.

[Half-done transcribing this...I'll finish this later. CWJ Jr 10/19/2011]

Charlie's Diary. Opera live broadcast "Anna Bolena"

2011-10-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

Charlie's Diary

1. Saturday, October 15, 2011 was the first live broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera's new season. Wow, wow, wow. Brand-new opera for me, Donizetti's "Anna Bolena" with legendary Russian-born soprano Anna Netrekko. Yup, I got to see it sitting in a theatre in NE Portland. Click here to watch a video clip from the Act I finale of Anna Bolena.

Thanks to my friend Toufy H for sending me the video clip!

Wisdom & Humor: Red Marbles

2011-10-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

Subject
Red Marbles

During the waning years of the depression in a small Idaho community, I used to stop by Mr. Miller's roadside stand for farm fresh produce as the season made it available. Food and money were still extremely scarce and bartering was used extensively.

One day Mr. Miller was bagging some early potatoes for me. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily appraising a basket of freshly picked green peas.

I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes. Pondering the peas, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller and the ragged boy next to me.

"Hello Barry, how are you today?"

"H'lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus' admirin' them peas ... sure look good."

"They are good, Barry. How's your Ma?"

"Fine. Gittin' stronger alla' time."

"Good. Anything I can help you with?"

"No, Sir. Jus' admirin' them peas."

"Would you like to take some home?"

"No, Sir. Got nuthin' to pay for 'em with."

"Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?"

"All I got's my prize marble here."

"Is that right? Let me see it."

"Here 'tis. She's a dandy."

"I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?"

"Not zackley ... but almost."

Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble."

"Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller."

Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a smile she said, "There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn't like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, perhaps."

I left the stand smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering.

Several years went by, each more rapid that the previous one. Just recently I had occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there learned that Mr. Miller had died.

They were having his viewing that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them.

Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could.

Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts ...all very professional looking. walked slowly up to Mrs.Miller who was standing next to her husband's casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket.

Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one,each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes.

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and mentioned the story she had told me about the marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.

"Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim "traded" them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size...they came to pay their debt."

We've never had a great deal of the wealth of this world," she confided, "but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho."

With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles.

Moral: We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds.

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take
our breath.

Wisdom & Humor: What if you were asked this during a job interview?

2011-10-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

This is a wonderful moral question from a good buddy. See if you can determine the right answer (let me know if you do). CW Jewett

>You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy
> night, when you pass by a bus stop, and you see
> three people waiting for the bus:
>
> 1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
>
> 2. An old friend who once saved your life.
>
> 3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
>
> Which one would you choose to offer a ride to,
> knowing that there could only be one passenger in
> your car?
>>
> Think before you continue reading...

>
> This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once
> actually used as part of a job application. You
> could pick up the old lady, because she is going to
> die, and thus you should save her first; Or, you
> could take the old friend because he once saved your
> life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him
> back. However, you may never be able to find your
> perfect mate again.
>
> The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants)
> had no trouble coming up with his answer. He simply
> answered: "I would give the car keys to my old friend
> and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would
> stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner
> of my dreams."
>
> Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up
> our stubborn thought limitations. Never forget to
> "Think Outside of the Box."
>
> However, the correct answer is to run the old lady
> over and put her out of her misery, have sex with the
> perfect partner against the bus stop sign, then drive
> off with the old friend for some beers.

Yeah, I answered correctly and got the job! No, just kidding...

Wisdom & Humor: Catching Up...

2011-10-15T18:21:00.001-07:00

Charlie's Diary: Busy Saturday and needed to go through old Emails and clean 'em out. So, some end up here. cwj

(1) If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style. --
Quentin Crisp

(2)
In Eden, Eve calls out to God. "Lord, I have a problem!"

"What's the problem, Eve?"

"Lord, I know you created me and provided this beautiful garden and all of these wonderful animals and that hilarious comedic snake, but I'm just not happy."

"Why is that, Eve?" came the reply from above.

"I am lonely, and I'm sick to death of apples."

"Well, Eve, in that case, I have a solution. I shall create a man for you."

"What's a man, Lord?"

"A flawed creature with many bad traits, He'll lie, cheat, and be vain; all in all, he'll give you a hard time. But he'll be bigger and faster, and will like to hunt and kill things. He'll be witless and revel in childish things like fighting and kicking a ball about. He looks silly when he is aroused, but since you've been complaining, I'll create him in such a way that he will satisfy your physical needs. He won't be too smart, so he'll need your advice to think properly."

"Sounds great" says Eve, with a raised eyebrow. "So, what's the catch?"

"Well,.....you can have him on one condition."

"What's that, Lord?"

"As I said, he'll be proud, arrogant and self-admiring...So you'll have to let him believe that I made him first. Just remember, it's our little secret. You know, woman to woman."

(3) Oldie but (sick) goody shtick on Dr. Laura. WHY CAN'T I OWN CANADIANS?
Laura Schlessinger is a U.S. radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstances. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a U.S. resident:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him or her that Leviticus18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to follow them.

A) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

B ) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

C) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev.15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

D) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

E) I have a neighbor who insists on working on Sunday (the Sabbath). In the book of Exodus verse 35:2 it clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

F) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev.11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

G) Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

H) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?

I) I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

J) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16). Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14).

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Your devoted disciple and adoring fan

Obituary: One of the gay movement's most important pioneers, Dr. Franklin E. Kameny

2011-10-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

Frank Kameny at an HRC event in Washington, D.C. Oct. 6, 2006. Photo by Tracy Baim/Windy City Times

Gay-rights leader Frank Kameny has died
News update posted Oct. 11, 2011
by Tracy Baim, Windy City Times
One of the gay movement's most important pioneers, Dr. Franklin E. Kameny, has died of natural causes. He was 86.

Kameny, a World War II Army veteran, was among the first gays to protest outside of the White House, on April 17, 1965, and later the Pentagon, Independence Hall in Philadelphia and other institutions. He fought against anti-gay bias in federal hiring, against the American Psychiatric Association's classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, against the District of Columbia's sodomy law, and for a wide range of other LGBT rights.

Earlier this year, Kameny's 1961 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to reclaim his government job, was put on display at the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress exhibition states: "Frank Kameny, a founder of the American gay-rights movement, was the first person to file a petition to the Supreme Court for a violation of his civil rights based on sexual orientation after being fired by the Army Map Service [ he was an astronomer ] in 1957. Although Kameny argued that the government's actions toward gays were an 'affront to human dignity,' his petition was denied by the Supreme Court."

Almost 50 years later, Kameny was invited to the White House to right that wrong. The Obama administration, represented by openly gay John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, apologized to Kameny for the treatment he received from the U.S. government, and he gave Kameny the Theodore Roosevelt Award, his office's highest honor, on June 29, 2009.

Despite that 1961 setback, Kameny continued to be an activist for the next five decades. He co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington in 1961 with Jack Nichols. He was the first openly gay person to run for Congress, in 1971. In 2007, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History included Kameny's 1965 White House picket signs in an exhibit.

Kameny visited Chicago several times. He attended the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations ( NACHO ) in Chicago just four days before the Democratic National Convention in 1968. NACHO was a coordinating group made up of 26 organizations, and the Chicago event was its third annual conference. At that Chicago conference, he coined and secured the group's approval of the slogan "Gay Is Good," representing official defiance of the then-still-prevailing views of homosexuality as an illness or a sin, if not a crime.

Kameny returned to Chicago in 1972 to participate in the first national conference to set a gay political agenda. The meetings were held in Chicago Feb. 11-13 at a North Side church. A 17-point "Gay Rights Platform in the United States" was passed by the more than 200 delegates who were representing some 80 organizations, according to writer and activist Marie J. Kuda.

When Chicago's chapter of the early national gay organization One Inc. hosted an annual banquet in early 1974, Kameny was among the national movement leaders who attended.
Kameny's home in D.C. was designated a historic landmark by that city in 2009. The "Doctor" in his name is from a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University.

Longtime Chicago activist William B. Kelley had known Kameny since 1966, when both participated in the National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations, a meeting in Kansas City that created NACHO.

On learning of Kameny's death, Kelley said: "I'm glad Frank began to receive wider recognition in recent years for those decades of stubborn and self-sacrificial battles for gay equality. Besides his commitment and achievements, I admired his great intelligence, his meticulous, utterly honest self-presentation, and his ready wit. He could sometimes appear sure of himself and of what he had done, but he deployed that certitude for all of our sakes, not for his own. And even if it had been otherwise, he would have been entitled: He was a giant figure in our history, and now one sadly missed."

The staff and board of directors at the American Foundation for Equal Rights extended heartfelt condolences to the friends and family of Kameny. AFER noted that his passing, on National Coming Out Day, came less than a month before the planned celebration of the 50th anniversary of Kameny's founding the Mattachine Society of Washington.  

The president of AFER's board of directors, Chad Griffin, released the following statement: "America has lost a hero today. Out and proud, Frank Kameny was fighting for equality long before the rest of us knew we could." He added, "Because there was one Frank Kameny, trailblazing and honest enough to speak out 50 years ago, there are now millions of Americans, coming out, speaking out and fighting for their basic civil rights. His is a legacy of bravery and tremendous impact and will live on in the hearts and minds of every American who values equality and justice."

In the landmark ruling striking down Proposition 8, AFER said the U.S. District Court referenced the efforts of Kameny and the Mattachine Society to chronicle the history of state-enforced discrimination against gays and lesbians. The court cited the famous 1966 letter from the chairman of the U.S. Civil Service Commission rejecting the Mattachine Society's request to rescind the policy banning "active homosexuals" from federal employment.

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese issued the following statement: "Frank Kameny led an extraordinary life marked by heroic activism that set a path for the modern LGBT civil rights movement. From his early days fighting institutionalized discrimination in the federal workforce, Dr. Kameny taught us all that 'Gay Is Good.' As we say goodbye to this trailblazer on National Coming Out Day, we remember the remarkable power we all have to change the world by living our lives like Frank—openly, honestly and authentically."

"The death of Frank Kameny is a profound loss and he will be greatly missed," said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "No Washington LGBT event or White House meeting was complete without Frank. I always appreciated that he gave the 50-plus-year perspective, the long view. While so many have been impatient about the pace of progress, there was Frank, insisting we recognize that, in the last two years, he was regularly invited as a guest of honor by the very government that fired him simply for being gay. Yet, he never slowed down in demanding what should be, showing us what was possible and pushing for the very equality and liberation we are still fighting for. As the history books are written on the LGBT movement, no doubt Frank's life will serve as an inspiration to those who will never have the honor of meeting him, but who embody the very future he knew would come true one day. Indeed, Frank, Gay is Good."

"Kameny's life spanned the baddest old days of the McCarthy-style witch hunts to the elations of winning marriage equality in the District of Columbia and beyond," said Sue Hyde, director, NGLTF's National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change. "In 1957, Frank lost his job, but he never lost his fierce fighting spirit, his blunt and witty command of language, or his commitment to eradicating homophobia. Frank was equally confident and strategic on the streets in front of the White House in 1965 as he was attending a White House meeting in 1977 at which he and a dozen other members of our community briefed then-Public Liaison Midge Costanza on much-needed changes in federal laws and policies. As the LGBT movement began to win in legislatures, courtrooms, and in public opinion, Frank's papers, artifacts and memories gained value. Frank Kameny wasn't only a keeper of our history, Frank created our history. His life and legacy carry us into our future."

Army Veteran and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis also commented on Kameny's death. "Our nation and our movement have lost a tireless advocate for LGBT rights," he said. "Kameny's long and hard work laid the foundation for much of the progress we see today, and certainly none more so than the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' It was his great wish to see that law relegated to the history books, and we are so proud that he was able to see that day and be a key part of that shared victory. At SLDN, we mourn the loss of our friend and ally, and we rejoice that Frank could join SLDN for special events and provide us with encouragement and wise counsel at critical stages as we followed in his footsteps and lifted posters to lobby Congress, the White House and the Pentagon for recognition and our equality."

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ( GLAAD ) issued the following statement: "Frank Kameny sparked national change and set the example for gay and lesbian Americans to live their lives openly and proudly. He taught us the power that our visibility and stories have in changing hearts and minds. Today on National Coming Out Day, we honor Frank's legacy not only by remembering this pioneer, but by continuing his work to speak out and share our own stories."

Kameny sent the following letter in 2007 to author and retired journalist Tom Brokaw, Random House Publisher Gina Centrello and Random House Executive Editorial Director Kate Medina regarding Brokaw's newest book, Boom! Voices of the Sixties. It sums up Kameny's passions and commitment to gay rights very well.

"Dear Mr. Brokaw and Mmes. Centrello and Medina:

"As a long-time gay activist who initiated gay activism and militancy at the very start of 'your' Sixties, in 1961; coined the slogan 'Gay is Good' in 1968; and is viewed by many as one of the 'Founding Fathers' of the Gay Movement, I write with no little indignation at the total absence of any slightest allusion to the gay movement for civil equality in your book 'Boom! Voices of the Sixties'. Your book simply deletes the momentous events of that decade which led to the vastly altered and improved status of gays in our culture today. This change would have been inconceivable at the start of the Sixties and would not have occurred at all without the events of that decade totally and utterly ignored by you. Mr. Brokaw, you have 'de-gayed' the entire decade. 'Voices of the Sixties'??? One does not hear even one single gay voice in your book. The silence is complete and deafening.

"As a gay combat veteran of World War II, and therefore a member of the 'Greatest Generation', I find myself and my fellow gays as absent from your narration as if we did not and do not exist. We find Boom! Boom!! Boom!!! in your book about all the multitudinous issues and the vast cultural changes of that era. But not a single 'Boom', only dead silence, about gays, homosexuality, and the Gay Movement.

"The development of every other possible, conceivable issue and cause which came to the forefront in that period is at least mentioned, and is usually catalogued: race; sex and gender; enthnicity; the environment; and others, on and on and on—except only gays.
"In 1965, we commenced bringing gays and our issues 'out of the closet' with our then daring picketing demonstrations at the White House and other government sites, and our annual 4th of July demonstrations at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The Smithsonian Institution displayed these original pickets last month, in the same exhibition as the desk where Thomas Jefferson drafted The Declaration of Independence. The name of the Smithsonian's exhibition? 'Treasures of American History'. In your book: No Boom; only silence.

"About 1963, a decade-long effort commenced to reverse the psychiatric categorization of gays as mentally or emotionally ill, concluding in 1973 with a mass 'cure' of all of us by the American Psychiatric Association. No boom in your book; only your silence.
"The most momentous single Gay Movement event occurred at the end of June, 1969, when the 'Stonewall Rebellion' in New York, almost overnight ( actually it took three days ) converted what had been a tiny, struggling gay movement into the vast grass-roots movement which it now is. We had five or six gay organizations in the entire country in 1961; fifty to sixty in 1969; by the time of the first Gay Pride march, in New York one year later in 1970, we had 1500, and 2500 by 1971 when counting stopped. If ever there was Boom, this was it. In your book, no Boom, only your silence.

"About 1972, Elaine Noble was elected to the Massachusetts state House of Representatives as the first elected openly gay public official. I had run here in Washington, D.C., the previous year for election to Congress as the first openly gay candidate for any federal office. Harvey Milk was elected to the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. No boom in your book; only your silence.

"Mr. Brokaw, you deal with the histories of countless individuals. Where are the gays of that era: Barbara Gittings; Jack Nichols; Harry Hay; Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons; Randolfe Wicker; Harvey Milk; numerous others? No booms in your book; only silence and heterosexuals.

"Starting in 1961 a long line of court cases attacked the long-standing U.S. Civil Service Gay Ban ( fully as absolute and as virulent as the current Military Gay ban, which actually goes back some 70 years and was also fought in the 60s ) with final success in 1975 when the ban on employment of gays by the federal government was rescinded. In your book, no boom; only your silence.

"The assault on the anti-sodomy laws, which made at least technical criminals of all gays ( and most non-gays for that matter, although never used against them ) and which was the excuse for an on-going terror campaign against the gay community through arrests the country over, began in 1961 and proceeded through the 60s and onward. In your book, no boom; only your silence.

"In 1972, following up on Stonewall, the first anti-discrimination law protective of gays was enacted in East Lansing, Michigan, followed by the much more comprehensive one in D.C. in 1973, starting a trend which now encompasses some twenty states, countless counties and cities, and has now reached Congress in ENDA. In your book, no boom; only your silence.

"The Sixties were a period of unprecedented rapid social and cultural upheaval and change. We gays were very much a part of all that. A reader of your book would never have the slightest notion of any of that. In your book, no boom; only your silence.
"At the start of the Sixties gays were completely invisible. By the end, and especially after Stonewall, we were seen everywhere: in entertainment, education, religion, politics, business, elsewhere and everywhere. In Boom, our invisibility remains total.
"The only allusions to us, in your entire book are the most shallow, superficial, brief references in connection with sundry heterosexuals. Where are the gay spokespeople? We are certainly there to speak for ourselves. But in your book, only silence.
"Mr. Brokaw, I could go on, but this should be sufficient to make my point. The whole thing is deeply insulting. As I said, you have de-gayed an entire generation. For shame, for shame, for shame. You owe an abject public apology to the entire gay community. I demand it; we expect it.

"Gay is Good. You are not.
\
"Sincerely,
"Franklin E. Kameny, Ph.D."
See www.kamenypapers.org

[Thanks to my friend Fred Bradford for sending this. cwj]

Does Anyone Have a Grip on the G.O.P.?

2011-10-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2011
Does Anyone Have a Grip on the G.O.P.?
By MATT BAI, The New York Times
It wasn’t that long ago that Republican moneymen and operatives in Washington were moping around K Street like Eeyore in the Hundred Acre Wood, lamenting their party’s extremist image and casting about for a candidate with a chance of beating Barack Obama in 2012. Citing what he called the “near self-immolation” of House Republicans during the debt-ceiling fiasco, Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, worried in early August that a “large number of Republican primary voters, and even more independent general-election voters, will be wary of supporting a Republican candidate in 2012 if the party looks as if it’s in the grip of an infantile form of conservatism.”

But a few months of obstinate unemployment can change a lot in Washington, and these days the mood inside the Republican establishment is, if not quite smug, then certainly relieved. In a slideshow widely circulated among Republicans in recent weeks, one of the party’s leading pollsters, Bill McInturff, noted that the consumer-confidence index (as measured by the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters), had fallen in August to a score of 55.7. No president, McInturff pointed out, has ever been re-elected with an index score lower than 75. Around this time in 1979, as Jimmy Carter, the modern standard setter for failed presidents, was preparing to seek a second term, the index was at 64.5.

Given such fast-deteriorating conditions, many Republican veterans have come around to the view that they aren’t really going to need the perfect presidential candidate, and perhaps not even a notably good one. With Chris Christie having taken himself out of the running — again — earlier this month, the field of candidates now appears to be pretty much set, and none of them are likely to inspire any reimaginings of Mount Rushmore. But maybe all the moment requires is someone who can pass as a broadly acceptable alternative — a candidate who doesn’t project the Tea Party extremism of Michele Bachmann or the radical isolationism of Ron Paul. “If we have a Rick Perry versus Mitt Romney battle for the nomination, it’s a little hard to say, ‘Ooh, the party has really gone off the rails,’ ” Kristol told me just after Perry entered the race, a development that essentially ended Bachmann’s brief ascent. Establishment Republicans may prefer Romney to Perry, but their assumption is that either man can be counted on to steer the party back toward the broad center next fall, effectively disarming the Tea Party mutiny.

If that’s the case, then it now seems like only a matter of time before the Republican empire, overwhelmed by insurrection for much of the last two years, strikes back at last. “I think it’s waning now,” Scott Reed, a veteran strategist and lobbyist, told me when we talked about the Tea Party’s influence last month. Efforts to gin up primaries next year against two sitting senators — Utah’s Orrin Hatch and Indiana’s Dick Lugar — have been slow to gain momentum, Reed said, and it’s notable that more than half of the 50-plus members of the Tea Party caucus in the House ultimately fell in line and voted with Speaker John Boehner on his debt-ceiling compromise. Party leaders have managed to bleed some of the anti-establishment intensity out of the movement, Reed said, by slyly embracing Tea Party sympathizers in Congress, rather than treating them as “those people.”

Did he mean to say that the party was slowly co-opting the Tea Partiers?

“Trying to,” Reed said. “And that’s the secret to politics: trying to control a segment of people without those people recognizing that you’re trying to control them.”

As I made the rounds of Republican Washington in recent weeks and reflected on all this newfound optimism, though, I found myself recalling what Ken Mehlman, who managed George W. Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, liked to say back then: “Hope is not a strategy.” It’s not clear which of those two things — hope or strategy — the Republican establishment is really embracing.

After all, in September, not long after I saw Reed, far-right Republicans staged another successful mutiny in the House, temporarily blocking a spending bill that Boehner had championed. Meanwhile, the “supercommittee” of lawmakers created by the debt-ceiling legislation is supposed to find more budget cuts by the end of the year, which means Washington faces another very public showdown. The deficit debate in Congress could easily dominate the campaign season, complicating the party’s election-year message and making it hard for any nominee to unify pragmatic insiders and Tea Party outsiders.

“What happens on this debt and deficit issue could split us,” Don Fierce told me when we met in his downtown Washington office. “This thing is volatile.” Fierce is a party strategist who worked in the Ford administration and for Lee Atwater during the Reagan years and then founded a lobbying firm whose clients include Apple and the Ford Motor Company. He was clearly worried that some of his oldest friends in Washington were failing to grasp the peril of the moment. “We have not disarmed the bomb,” he said. “Boehner reminds me of the lead in ‘The Hurt Locker.’ Pull the wrong wire, and this whole thing could blow up. For our people to say, ‘Gee whiz, so far, so good, no problem — ’ ” Fierce shook his head emphatically. “Just wait,” he said.

You can’t talk about the Republican establishment without trying to define what that really means, and this is something on which there is little consensus. Last month, I sat with Fred Malek in the Washington office of his private-equity firm. Malek, now 74, was in charge of fund-raising for his friend John McCain in 2008 and does the same job for the Republican Governors Association. He’s the founder of the American Action Network, a two-year-old group whose goal is to make the party’s economic agenda palatable to mainstream Republicans and independents. Malek belongs to the Alfalfa Club, whose 200 or so members, the old-line political and business aristocracy in both parties, expect the president to attend their annual dinner, and he occasionally gives exclusive parties at his home overlooking the Potomac River in McLean, Va. — including one in 2009 that brought together Sarah Palin and the party’s Washington elite.

“You think I’m an establishment Republican?” Malek asked me.

When I said that I did, he let forth a lyrical string of expletives that, sadly, are not printable here. “My dad drove a beer truck delivering beer to taverns in Cicero and Chicago, Ill.,” he said. “I’m the first one in my family to go to college. No, I don’t consider myself part of the establishment.”

I then followed his gaze to the photos on his wall: Malek in the Oval Office with Richard Nixon, Malek with Ronald Reagan, Malek with George H. W. Bush after the two jumped from a plane on the former president’s 80th birthday.

“I’m looking for pictures on my wall to prove I’m not establishment,” Malek said.

I suggested he might need to find another wall, and Malek laughed in surrender.

George Will recently said there is no such thing as the Republican establishment, which is a little like Michael Douglas saying there’s no such thing as Hollywood. But Will’s point, shared by a lot of other longtime Republicans I spoke with, is that the real establishment, the league of Protestant lawyers and bankers from the Northeast and Midwest who once exercised enormous influence, was smashed in 1964 when Barry Goldwater, acting as the advance guard for a new breed of ideological conservatives from the West and South, wrested the nomination from Nelson Rockefeller. (Among Goldwater’s most vocal G.O.P. opponents at that time was a liberal Midwestern governor named George Romney.) Since then, this argument goes, the idea of any singular establishment has been little more than a convenient media conceit.

It’s a fair point, but it may be just as accurate to say that the establishment has simply evolved over the years to accommodate more regional and cultural diversity, making it less monolithic but still ideologically cohesive. The pragmatic “white shoe” lawyers of the Nixon-Rockefeller era were largely stamped out over the ensuing decades by more conservative Reaganites from the West Coast and Bush backers from Texas, by movement conservatives whose constituents included evangelicals and libertarians and neoconservative defense hawks. They don’t all belong to the same country clubs, but they have retained a remarkable ability to mobilize around a series of candidates and legislative objectives.

Today’s establishment is really a consortium of separate and overlapping establishments: a governing establishment of those who have served in administrations or in Congress; a political establishment of campaign consultants; a media establishment dominated by Fox News or the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal and a policy establishment at organizations like the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation.

If there is any one power center that connects all of these, though, it’s what you could call the money establishment — the group of senior Republicans, many of whom came to Washington as ideological warriors in the 1980s or early ’90s, who now make their living principally through the business of government. They wield quiet power as corporate lobbyists or regulatory consultants or prolific fund-raisers, or often as all of these at once. Consider the machinations that transpired last year after Joe Miller, a Tea Party insurgent in Alaska, beat the sitting senator, Lisa Murkowski, in a primary. Murkowski’s decision to then run in the general election (which she ultimately won) as a write-in candidate put the establishment in the uncomfortable position of having to abandon either the winner of a legitimate primary or a popular incumbent. “That debate was held internally, discussed, and everyone came to an understanding,” Fierce told me. “We would support whoever won the primaries. No ifs and buts. The alternative would have been disastrous.”

Among establishment figures, Fierce is probably one of the most sympathetic to the Tea Party cause, and yet it’s the very existence of such back-room decisions that so ignites the contempt of the Tea Party activists. The way they see it, too many movement conservatives, who in their day espoused fiscal restraint and limited government, have now become stewards of the Washington shop, working alongside Democrats to keep the federal money flowing so that they and their friends in corporate boardrooms can build second homes and write tuition checks to private schools. Tea Party members call such figures “big-government conservatives” — a category that includes the former president George W. Bush and most of the party’s Congressional leadership. Or they use an epithet that was popular with an earlier generation of conservative activists: RINO, or Republican in Name Only.

You can imagine how this irritates longtime Republicans in Washington. “The thing I get a kick out of is these Tea Party folks calling me a RINO,” John Feehery, a lobbyist who was once a senior House aide, recently told me. “No, guys, I’ve been a Republican all along. You go off into your own little world and then come back and say it’s your party. This ain’t your party.”

Feehery said that Republicans had yet to sort out their “Ron Paul problem,” by which he meant the proliferation of a kind of conspiratorial, anti-Washington rhetoric. “There’s that element of paranoia,” Feehery said. “Establishment Republicans look at these guys and say, ‘You’re nuts.’ ”

It’s worth pointing out that when Republicans express concern about the anti-government militancy in their midst, it has a ring of serious denial. After all, generations of Republican candidates have now echoed the theme of Ronald Reagan in his 1981 inaugural address: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” And a progression of ideological uprisings inside the party — the Reagan revolutionaries, Pat Buchanan’s pitchfork brigades, Newt Gingrich’s band of guerrilla lawmakers and now the Tea Partiers — have only pushed the anti-Washington argument closer to its illogical extreme. Thus could a smiling Michele Bachmann stand on a debate stage last month and declare that no one should pay the federal government a penny of taxes, for anything — a statement that didn’t even draw a follow-up question from the panel of Fox News journalists arrayed before her.

Longtime Republicans have been satisfied enough to have their candidates run down activist government as a campaign tactic, even as they themselves retained a more nuanced view of the federal government’s role (which is why a Republican Congress, working with a Republican president, managed to pass a Medicaid prescription-drug bill in 2003). But when you talk to them now, these same Republicans seem positively baffled that anyone could have actually internalized, so literally, all the scorching resentment for government that has come to define the modern conservative campaign.

Vin Weber was 28 when he was elected to Congress in the Reagan wave of 1980, and he soon became one of Newt Gingrich’s chief allies — part of a group of rebellious young conservatives who rose up against their affable minority leader, Bob Michel. Weber left Congress before the 1994 Republican takeover, forced out by the House banking scandal, but soon reinvented himself as one of the more powerful lobbyists in town. When I sat with Weber on a late-summer day in his corner office across the street from the National Portrait Gallery, I suggested that he had been, in effect, the Bachmann of his day. He laughed out loud. “Yeah, probably so,” he said.

Like nearly every other establishment Republican I visited, Weber went out of his way to tell me how much he admired these Tea Party lawmakers and shared in their essential cause. “One thing I do notice about them,” he added, “is that when I ask them, ‘So how are you enjoying it?’ almost none of them will say, ‘Oh, jeez, I’m really loving this.’ They all say some version of, ‘This is not what I’d want to be doing, but I’ve got to do it for the country.’ ” Weber seemed genuinely surprised that this aversion to Washington didn’t melt away once they arrived in town.

“I can just tell you, when I came to Congress, we were rabble-rousers, but, boy, if you’d asked any of us six months into it how we were enjoying it, we’d have said this was the greatest opportunity of a lifetime,” Weber said. “It just struck me. And it’s part and parcel of this anti-government mind-set.”

I wondered if maybe the Tea Partiers’ contempt for Washington was just a kind of outsider’s shtick.

“I’d feel better about it if I thought it was,” Weber said glumly.

He had on his mind the infamous 1990 tax increase that the first President Bush negotiated with Democrats and signed into law, despite having made his “read my lips” pledge against doing exactly that. Weber was among those who adamantly opposed the deal, in much the same way that today’s Tea Partiers resist any compromise on spending.

“I’ve thought about that a lot since then and how it might have been handled differently,” Weber said, sounding a little pained at the memory. “I don’t regret what we did, although it’s hard to see how much good came out of it. We ended up with a tax deal that moved to the left, after we defeated it in the House the first time, and may have contributed to the defeat of the president.”

There was a lesson in all this for the Tea Partiers, Weber said — one he had been trying to impart to them whenever he got the chance. “I think I know what they want to accomplish, and I agree with most of it,” he said. “But if they want to accomplish it, they need to ‘rise to the level of politics.’ I mean, you can’t just stand there and take a stand and say, ‘I’m not going to compromise on my position.’ Because you won’t achieve anything.”

This issue of compromise versus absolutism came up in most of the conversations I had with longstanding Washington Republicans, because it gets to the essential quandary they face in trying to exploit a popular movement for their own policy ends. Most establishment Republicans, including those who would be derided by the Tea Partiers as big-government conservatives, were disheartened by the rate of spending during the Bush years. This is especially true for the economic conservatives who sit on the boards of policy and advocacy groups and who stood by, quietly seething, while Dick Cheney declared that deficits no longer mattered. Their No. 1 policy goal is to change the trajectory of spending on entitlement programs, namely Medicare and Social Security, before public debt becomes an all-out crisis. And many of the Republicans I talked to confided that they would be willing to accept some higher taxes on corporations, or even on millionaires, in exchange for a deal to meaningfully roll back entitlement spending — something Obama and Boehner briefly explored during the debt-ceiling negotiations.

For these Republicans, the rise of the Tea Party has been a great turn of fortune, because the movement suddenly exerted more public pressure to cut spending than anyone would have thought possible just two years ago. But the same Tea Party members who created this more conducive climate are also opposed to even a hint of compromise on taxes. (The Boehner-Obama talks failed after lawmakers on both sides rebelled, but the biggest roadblock was the opposition of strident House Republicans who were threatening to take the American economy over a cliff if they didn’t get their way.) And while the Tea Partiers like to talk about trimming programs like Medicaid, they’ve not put much of their energy behind the kind of radical restructuring that Paul Ryan, the Republican congressman, has proposed.

Instead, the loudest members of the Tea Party caucus tend to dwell almost exclusively on cuts to discretionary domestic spending, which accounts for less than a fifth of the federal budget. Not only does this do little to change the long-term fiscal outlook, but it also puts the caucus in direct conflict with establishment Republicans like Vin Weber, who are inclined to protect some of those discretionary programs — either because they actually believe the programs have merit or because some company is paying them to preserve the status quo.

“I believe in foreign aid,” Weber told me. “I believe it’s important to America.” He said he opposed the steep, 10-year cuts to defense and discretionary spending — including programs in biomedical research — that Republican newcomers backed. “If you actually did that, you would do tremendous damage to the important things government does in this country,” Weber said. “And I think the government does do important things in the country.”

Sitting across from Weber, I found it possible to understand why most establishment Republicans are optimistic that they can ultimately co-opt the House freshmen, prevailing on them to accept the wisdom of compromise. After all, here he was, the aging insurgent, now managing partner at the lobbying firm of Clark & Weinstock. A lot of the stridently ideological Republicans who came to town in the Reagan and Gingrich years quickly flamed out and were never heard from again, but Washington has more than its share of Vin Webers and Grover Norquists and Karl Roves — Republican politicians and activists who arrived crusading against the city’s corrupt culture and subsequently became fixtures in its boardrooms and restaurants. “They’ll become the establishment,” Charlie Black, the longtime Republican strategist and lobbyist, confidently predicted when we talked about the more radical members of the freshmen class.

Still, absorption into the establishment, even if possible, takes time to unfold, and Washington Republicans are focused only on the year ahead, preferring to see this disorderly period as little more than an interlude. For the past year or so, voters have viewed Republican politics almost exclusively through the lens of Capitol Hill, and they haven’t loved what they’ve seen. In polling by the Pew Research Center, negative views of the Tea Party jumped 11 points between January and August, and Congress as a whole has seen its approval ratings fall to as low as 12 percent in recent months. (It makes you wonder: who exactly is this 12 percent who say Congress is doing a fine job?) Soon enough, however, all heads will swivel to Iowa and New Hampshire, where a Republican nominee will emerge at last to put his or her stamp on the party’s image. And this is where, the establishment presumes, the long season of Tea Party zaniness will finally recede into the background, subsumed into some more enlightened, and more practical approach.

For most of the last century, Republicans were an almost exclusively executive party. While Democrats controlled Congress, with only minor interruptions, for more than 40 years until 1994, Republicans focused their energies on gaining power through the presidency, which they held for about two-thirds of the time between the elections of Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and Barack Obama in 2008. Perhaps that explains why the Republican establishment has proven so remarkably adept at mobilizing behind tested candidates, men who have proved themselves as campaigners and fund-raisers, and shepherding them through an increasingly perilous primary process.

In the last 10 presidential elections, the party has chosen only two nominees who hadn’t run previously; one, George W. Bush, was the son of a president, and the other, Gerald Ford, was already holding the office. (In contrast, Democrats during that same period nominated seven candidates who were running for the first time.) The establishment’s preferred nominee rarely makes it to the convention without a serious primary challenge, but not since Barry Goldwater shocked the party in 1964 has that candidate failed to make it there at all. In other words, while some strange things can happen when the Republican faithful get restless in the off years, the presidential process is the means by which the party establishment has traditionally reasserted control.

A lot of the establishment’s power, of course, derives from its ability to raise money and, thus, to exercise control over the party’s message to voters. Now that the campaign-finance rules have changed, making it illegal for individual donors to write unlimited checks to a party, the insiders are deploying a new tool: an independent group, with the nebulous name of American Crossroads, that can lawfully accept such donations. The group was founded by Rove and includes, among its top advisers, insiders like Ed Gillespie, the former party chairman and Bush aide, and Haley Barbour, Mississippi’s governor. They’re hoping to raise and spend as much as $240 million for the general election, mostly from longtime party donors. (To date, much of the money has come from Rove’s home state of Texas.)

Rove was publicly critical last year of some of the more controversial Senate candidates and their effect on the party’s image, particularly Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell. And American Crossroads serves as a kind of fire wall for the party establishment — a way to project, through massive television buys in every critical market, a message aimed at independent voters, while reducing to static the more extremist rhetoric that might emanate from local Tea Parties or their heroes back in Washington.

You could say, then, that everything is in place for the establishment to get a grip on the party and the White House once again — except, of course, for the small detail of having an actual candidate. For the first time in what feels like forever (though it’s more like 1968), Republicans are going into this election without a consensus choice or a guy who had clearly earned his shot. (In the desire of some prognosticators to cast Mitt Romney as the proverbial next-guy-in-line, it’s often overlooked that Mike Huckabee actually earned more delegates in 2008.) Even as Romney and Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman came pleading for their support earlier this year, the party’s traditional fund-raisers and Washington validators resisted making commitments, hoping to enlist a candidate they knew and trusted.

The establishment’s preferred candidate, generally speaking, was Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s second-term governor, who served as a political aide in the Reagan administration and as budget director for George W. Bush. Probably more than any elected official in America today, Daniels makes an argument about the moment that precisely reflects the thinking of most establishment Republicans. He did so, most memorably, in a rather unlikely forum — at the annual gathering of far-right activists known as the Conservative Political Action Conference, held in Washington this past February. Daniels devoted much of his keynote speech to the establishment case for reducing federal debt and remaking entitlement programs, which he calls a generational challenge, rather than trimming government on the margins through discretionary spending. But he also made a forceful case for the willingness to compromise and for broadening the party’s appeal beyond the most conservative voters. He didn’t say overtly that he was open to new taxes, but he told the audience of activists that Republicans simply couldn’t succeed in solving the nation’s intractable problems without giving something up in the process.

“Purity in martyrdom is for suicide bombers,” Daniels said, a comment that must have jarred some of his listeners. “I for one have no interest in standing in the wreckage of our republic saying, ‘I told you so’ or ‘You should have done it my way.’ ” And he warned, “We should distinguish carefully skepticism about big government from contempt for all government.”

When I met Daniels last month in his cavernous Statehouse office, he cautioned that the Tea Party movement, like all effective popular movements, had an effect far beyond the proportion of its actual numbers. “I wouldn’t minimize for a minute their importance,” he said, “but I wouldn’t fixate too much on the Tea Party. There’s a whole lot more to the Republican Party than the Tea Party.”

This was essentially his message for the party’s presidential candidates too, none of whom he has thus far endorsed. “It would be dumb to try to walk away from our most passionate — and I never use words like this — base,” Daniels told me. “But I think it’s fair to say that the most impressive achievements in political leadership are those who lead a party or a movement to a different place, who create some change in their own party so that it can achieve greater things. Reagan changed the Republican Party in an additive way. Bill Clinton changed the Democratic Party in an additive way. Tony Blair is the best example I can think of.”

To hear Daniels talk about the party’s challenge was to get some clarity on why establishment Republicans have been so dissatisfied with the candidates they actually have. What they want is what you might call a “channeler” — someone, like a Reagan or a Clinton, who won’t simply give voice to populist fury but who might channel it in a way that makes it palatable to a wider swath of voters, someone who can take the call for austerity in Washington and make it sound more like a high-minded reform movement (in the tradition of a Robert La Follette or even a Ross Perot) than like something you would expect to hear at a survivalists’ convention. They’re looking for a candidate who has the requisite charisma and the towering conservative credentials to persuade these new activists that the party has to be — and sound — pragmatic.

In some quarters, the search for that channeler may go on until every major elected Republican in America has politely said no, twice. Every few weeks, it seems, a new potential savior becomes the target of relentless pressure and speculation; most recently it was Christie, who despite having once suggested his own suicide as a means of ending such conjecture, made a spectacle earlier this month of seriously reconsidering his resistance, before again deciding to abstain. And yet, when you talk to establishment Republicans in Washington, most now seem, if not entirely enthralled with their choices, then at least resigned to them. National polls, which are often unreliable at this stage of a campaign, have shown a pronounced volatility in the field, with Herman Cain most recently surpassing Perry in some surveys. But most experienced Republicans still expect Romney and Perry to outlast their rivals. And in these two most likely nominees, insiders see the potential to remake the party’s image and to close its internal breach. The vexing question for Republicans is whether either man, Romney or Perry, has the capacity to do both things at once.

For the type of establishment Republican who merely endured the Bush years, there isn’t a lot to love about the prospect of a President Perry. A. B. Culvahouse, a former White House counsel to Reagan who is now the chairman of the giant law firm O’Melveny & Myers, told me that Perry’s style as a candidate reminds him of the tent revivalists who blew through town when he was a boy in East Tennessee.

While they roll their eyes privately at Perry’s coyote-killing-cowboy routine, a lot of the old guard — the “weak, tepid, milquetoast, establishment” Republicans, as Culvahouse wryly described himself to me — seem to view him as the best possible kind of Tea Party candidate, a far more desirable brand of populist than Bachmann or Palin. However much he may make a show of his disdain for Washington, Perry is nonetheless a three-term governor, and that makes him, at the very least, an honorary establishment type, the kind of guy with whom you can do business.

And yet there is a growing fear among Republicans that the things about Perry that might call to mind tent revivalism — the constant and overt religiosity, the naked appeal to popular resentment — won’t play well with independent voters and especially not with those who find it all too reminiscent of the last Republican president’s swaggering self-reliance. In a USA Today/Gallup poll in mid-September, 44 percent of voters said they were sure they wouldn’t vote for Perry — about the same percentage who ruled out Obama, and nine points higher than the percentage who definitely wouldn’t vote for Romney. And this was before Perry’s strangely garbled debate performance later in the month (and before it surfaced that he used to frequent a hunting ground affectionately known as “Niggerhead”).

At the same time, Romney, who’s supposed to be the establishment front-runner, incites no great passion on K Street and Capitol Hill, where he is regarded as a sort of well-designed political android. “Mitt Romney is a really smart, experienced guy, and he may well be exactly what you need as president right now,” Charlie Black told me. “He’s not a gregarious guy who’s easy to get to know.” Still, as summer turned to fall in Washington, discernible mostly by the slow disappearance of seersucker, the denizens of the Republican fund-raising circuit began tilting en masse toward Romney. There was a sense that the field was more or less settled, and that Romney, with his moderate pedigree and private-sector résumé, was the candidate most likely to win in pivotal Rust Belt states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. And if he wasn’t going to co-opt and transform the Tea Party movement in the way the establishment might have hoped, then at least he wasn’t going to recommend the hanging of Ben Bernanke or run around repeating the charge that Obama was a socialist — something he pointedly refused to do, at least outright, in the same debate in which Perry came unglued. If Perry’s entry had any net effect in Washington, it was to drive much of the establishment into Romney’s sterile but relatively benign embrace.

The chief dilemma here, though, is that the guy who may be best positioned to take the Republican message to the heart of the electorate may not be the guy who’s capable of holding his fractured party intact. Perry is probably the candidate who can unify the insider and outsider elements of the party, because he’s a natural fit for the Tea Party and can mollify the establishment by incorporating longtime Republicans into his campaign. A good precedent for this might be the 1980 campaign. Reagan was a hero to movement conservatives, but he also shrewdly managed to reassure a nervous establishment by selecting George H. W. Bush as his running mate and bringing into the fold respected senior aides like James Baker.

In this regard, Romney brings to mind the older Bush, who picked Dan Quayle as his own running mate in a gesture to conservatives, but who never really persuaded the movement that he was with them — a suspicion that was confirmed when he reached the tax deal. Romney would be in an especially precarious position if the next year in Washington is dominated by intraparty arguments over spending cuts and whether to compromise with Democrats, forcing him take positions that could alienate either independent voters or his own party’s activists.

Romney’s team contends that the party’s real unifier isn’t going to be their guy or Perry, but rather the current president, whose very existence will lead to increased activism and turnout for the eventual Republican nominee. The thinking here is that the Tea Party activists are just like all those working-class Democratic voters who supported Hillary Clinton in 2008, but who were so incensed by the Bush years that they turned out in huge numbers to elect Obama anyway. This may be an apt comparison, except that the Clinton voters, to the extent that you can generalize about such things, were essentially party loyalists. A lot of the Tea Party members, on the other hand, are new to politics and don’t consider themselves core Republicans. It’s a widespread notion within the movement that Romney’s health care plan in Massachusetts — and its resemblance to “Obamacare” — make him a nonstarter as a nominee.

“If Romney becomes the nominee, two or three things might happen,” Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, told me. Kibbe’s organization, led by the former House leader Dick Armey, is probably the most influential Tea Party-aligned group in Washington. “First of all, people might hold their noses and vote for him, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to walk their neighborhoods for him or ask their neighbors to show up, so you lose a lot of the energy that defines get-out-the-vote efforts. Option B is to just stay home and throw up your hands and say: ‘O.K., I’ve been disenfranchised. I’m not interested in this election.’

“The other things they could do,” Kibbe said, “is split off and go third party. If you end up with the wrong guy as the challenger to Obama, it potentially creates a real dilemma for Tea Partiers. And they’re going to have to make one of those decisions.” One of FreedomWorks’s vice presidents, Adam Brandon, jumped in to remind me that Tea Party activists well remember last year’s elections in Florida and Alaska, where establishment candidates for governor and Senate, jilted by primary voters, turned around and ran anyway. The insiders won’t have a lot of credibility now if they argue that bolting the party is a treacherous act.

Most of the Republicans with whom I talked over the past few months — though not all, by any means — were dismissive of the notion of a third-party candidacy. Such an effort, they pointed out, would almost certainly serve to get Obama re-elected, and for that reason no splinter group of conservatives would consider undertaking it, nor would any halfway serious candidate. They’re probably right, but then again, this assumes that we are still living in an age of rational political actors, where politicians run for public office because they actually want to serve or at least advance an agenda — an assumption that may be hopelessly out of date.

In today’s political arena, a certain class of outsider candidates seems mostly intent on achieving a kind of cultural relevance — the type of broader celebrity that attracts mega book deals and Twitter followers and reality-television contracts. (Palin, in a moment of astounding candor, recently mused that she might find the presidency just too shackling for her ambitions as a public figure.) So it’s not really all that hard to imagine some entrepreneurial candidate like Palin or Bachmann looking to fill the vacuum in the Tea Party movement sometime next year, especially if the popular narrative holds that the establishment has somehow triumphed again.

Even putting the presidential race aside, the friction between Republican insiders and outsiders will almost certainly manifest itself next year in other ways. Another wave of Tea Party-backed challengers for the Senate are already preparing to take on establishment candidates in states like Nebraska, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida and Indiana. Washington Republicans may rejoice that enthusiasm for these campaigns has been slow to build, but after all, the elections aren’t for another year, and at this time in 2009 no one had yet heard of Marco Rubio or Rand Paul, either. Tea Party activists who were protesting outside their Statehouses two years ago have now grown more sophisticated; they’re quietly organizing through social media, running local candidates and pressuring lawmakers in private meetings. “We’re not protesting in the streets now,” David Kirkham, the organizer of the Utah Tea Party, told me. “We are going one on one with state legislators.” Kirkham, a custom-car maker who was new to politics when I first met him last year, is now mulling a primary against Utah’s sitting governor or possibly against Orrin Hatch.

You can look at all this and say that the Tea Party has simply begun the natural process of being absorbed into the establishment, as its leaders become the next generation of legislators and Statehouse lobbyists, much like an earlier generation of social conservatives and crusading libertarians. But there is another interpretation, too, which is that the movement is actually starting to alter the makeup of the party from the bottom up, and it only appears to be losing intensity because its leaders are no longer interested in shouting into bullhorns. If that’s true, and if more Tea Party members start streaming into Washington in the years head, then the next chapter of Republican politics in Washington could look less like “The Empire Strikes Back” and more like “Attack of the Clones.”

“I think we’re going to have to have at least one more election cycle before people get that this isn’t just a typical wave in the business cycle of politics, if you will,” Kibbe told me. “We’ve described the Tea Party movement as a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. And we mean that in the technical-economic term. You have tired leadership, and you have bad ideas and just an inability to serve customers well. And that’s when someone comes in with new management and cleans house and either restores the company or breaks it up.”

Kibbe’s metaphor sounded jarringly familiar to me, because it was exactly the kind of language I heard from liberal venture capitalists in Silicon Valley back in 2004, when they were busy fomenting insurrection inside the ranks of the Democratic Party. In fact, a lot of Kibbe’s rhetoric — about hostile takeovers and the “democratization of politics,” for instance — could have come directly from the left-leaning activists and donors who gained influence through forums like Moveon.org and Democracy for America in the latter part of the Bush era. It was this same process of “democratization,” the breakup of the party’s monopoly on money and manpower, that ultimately enabled a black first-term senator to topple his party’s presumed nominee on the way to winning the White House.

There are practical explanations for why both party establishments have undergone some version of this same devolution. The most important, and most obvious, is the proliferation of broadband Internet and the way it has redefined, within the space of just a few years, the very concept of a political movement. Another is the change in campaign-finance rules, which incentivizes ideological contributors to send their checks to outside groups or set up their own, thus creating a network of parallel parties whose influence grows with every election cycle.

But of course, what’s really going on here is a broader cultural assault on the very idea of establishments, which has affected virtually ever other industry in American life in the last 20 years or so, from television networks and music labels to carmakers and local banks. The Tea Party may fade into history, but there will almost certainly be other Tea Parties, and more of them, affecting both parties and arising in ever quicker succession. To believe yourself now to be, literally, an establishment — that is, the one legitimate arbiter of just about anything in American life — is to be tragically misguided.

Some Republicans have accepted this larger reality. “I get annoyed with all the establishment types here who speak as if they’re supposed to be controlling everything, who sound like they’re annoyed when things happen that they don’t expect,” Bill Kristol told me. “I mean, welcome to the world.” What more pragmatic conservatives like Kristol are trying to do, ultimately, is to strike a highly precarious balance — to somehow embrace the Tea Party sentiment, as they must, while not allowing themselves or their party to become marginalized as a result.

“Like a lot of other conservatives in Washington,” Kristol said at one point, “ I’ve been slightly — not worried — but I’ve just regarded it as one of the things I can do as a genuine Tea Party sympathizer to counsel the Tea Party types to be sensible and not to go overboard and not to go in the wrong direction.

“From my point of view, I wouldn’t want them to win all of their fights,” he went on. “But I wouldn’t want them to go away, honestly. Now, maybe that’s too cute, and maybe I can’t manage it. And maybe I can’t tell Jim DeMint to cause this amount of trouble, but not that amount. And is there a risk he’ll win on an issue when I think it’s ill advised? Sure. But that’s democracy, and I still think that turmoil is the price you pay for a certain kind of vitality and vigor.”

I suggested to Kristol that by trying to exploit the fury of a grass-roots movement for their own ends, while also hoping to temper it, he and his colleagues might be playing with fire.

“The only thing I would object to in that formulation is that we could wish the fire away,” he told me. “The fire exists.”

Matt Bai is the chief political correspondent for the magazine.

Editor: Joel Lovell

Click here to read more.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

2011-10-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

August 14, 2011
Stop Coddling the Super-Rich
By WARREN E. BUFFETT, Op Ed for The New York Times
Omaha
OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot.

To understand why, you need to examine the sources of government revenue. Last year about 80 percent of these revenues came from personal income taxes and payroll taxes. The mega-rich pay income taxes at a rate of 15 percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll taxes. It’s a different story for the middle class: typically, they fall into the 15 percent and 25 percent income tax brackets, and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

Since 1992, the I.R.S. has compiled data from the returns of the 400 Americans reporting the largest income. In 1992, the top 400 had aggregate taxable income of $16.9 billion and paid federal taxes of 29.2 percent on that sum. In 2008, the aggregate income of the highest 400 had soared to $90.9 billion — a staggering $227.4 million on average — but the rate paid had fallen to 21.5 percent.

The taxes I refer to here include only federal income tax, but you can be sure that any payroll tax for the 400 was inconsequential compared to income. In fact, 88 of the 400 in 2008 reported no wages at all, though every one of them reported capital gains. Some of my brethren may shun work but they all like to invest. (I can relate to that.)

I know well many of the mega-rich and, by and large, they are very decent people. They love America and appreciate the opportunity this country has given them. Many have joined the Giving Pledge, promising to give most of their wealth to philanthropy. Most wouldn’t mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering.

Twelve members of Congress will soon take on the crucial job of rearranging our country’s finances. They’ve been instructed to devise a plan that reduces the 10-year deficit by at least $1.5 trillion. It’s vital, however, that they achieve far more than that. Americans are rapidly losing faith in the ability of Congress to deal with our country’s fiscal problems. Only action that is immediate, real and very substantial will prevent that doubt from morphing into hopelessness. That feeling can create its own reality.

Job one for the 12 is to pare down some future promises that even a rich America can’t fulfill. Big money must be saved here. The 12 should then turn to the issue of revenues. I would leave rates for 99.7 percent of taxpayers unchanged and continue the current 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee contribution to the payroll tax. This cut helps the poor and the middle class, who need every break they can get.

But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

Warren E. Buffett is the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway.

Click here to read more.

Charlie's Diary. This week in Portland, Oregon:

2011-10-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

Charlie's Diary. This week in Portland, Oregon:

October 11, 2011 Random thoughts and encounters.
(1) Dealing with a gay friend who is closeted. Question: What's the best dim sum restaurant in Portland? Answer: Several good ones, but try "Ocean City" in SE Portland.
Comment: My friend went to lunch, but without asking me to join. YES, I understand but it hurts when a gay friend still closeted does not feel able to invite me to join in for lunch to which his family is coming. I hope it will change but I can't bet on it.

(2) Monday, riding home on the streetcar, chatted with Chinese grandparents with their bundled-up seven-month-old grandson. He was BURIED in blankets, a scarf and hat. (Actually, Charlie played "peek-a-boo" to his own and the kid's delight.) The lady said she hoped next time they could meet my 3 1/2 year old grandson Kahlil.

Democrats embrace Occupy Wall Street as GOP strikes

2011-10-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Democrats embrace Occupy Wall Street as GOP strikes
By James Oliphant, The Los Angeles Times
2:07 PM PDT, October 10, 2011
The days of the Democratic Party keeping the Occupy Wall Street movement at arm’s length appear to be ending, even as Republicans continue to hammer away at the progressive protesters.

For a while, the Democratic establishment appeared to view the protests as something of a crazy relative. But Monday, the party’s House campaign arm made it clear that it stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the movement.

In an email to supporters, Robby Mook, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, wrote: “Protestors are assembling in New York and around the country to let billionaires, big oil and big bankers know that we’re not going to let the richest 1% force draconian economic policies and massive cuts to crucial programs on Main Street Americans.”

The missive slapped House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) for using the word “mobs” to describe the protestors.

Click here to read more about Occupy Wall Street.

Is the Tea Party Over?

2011-10-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

Bill Keller
October 9, 2011
Is the Tea Party Over?
By BILL KELLER, The New York Times
Austin, Tex.
This was supposed to be the Tea Party’s time. The incumbent president the rebels despise so much seemed vulnerable. The Republican establishment was AWOL, leaderless or intimidated. So the angry, God-fearing, government-loathing populist insurgents rushed into the vacuum, fired up the town halls, helped put a halt to any compromising in Congress and basically commandeered the national debate.

Then, for much of this year, they dominated the auditions for a presidential challenger.

In a spectacle about as deliberative as speed-dating, candidate after candidate tried out for the role of Not Mitt Romney — including, at times, Mitt Romney. We had the Sarah Palin tease, replaced by the short-lived Michele Bachmann infatuation, after which everyone swooned, briefly, for Rick Perry. Herman Cain is having a little fling now, though even voters who like his style don’t think he can win. Rick Santorum, who is in some ways the moralizing social conscience of the Tea Party, and Ron Paul, who plays its geeky libertarian id, have settled into single digits and bit parts as debate foils. Newt Gingrich is the class cutup, blowing raspberries at journalists.

Click to read more.

Obituary: Kenneth H. Dahlberg, Watergate Figure and WWII Ace, Dies at 94

2011-10-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

October 8, 2011
Kenneth H. Dahlberg, Watergate Figure and WWII Ace, Dies at 94
By DOUGLAS MARTIN, The New York Times

“Who the hell is Ken Dahlberg?” President Richard M. Nixon asked on June 23, 1972, his voice captured on tape in the Oval Office. He would find out soon enough. Without Kenneth H. Dahlberg, Nixon might not have become ensnared in the Watergate scandal and been forced to resign.

Mr. Dahlberg, who died on Tuesday at 94, became the unwitting link between the Nixon re-election campaign and the five men who, only days before Nixon’s remark, were charged with breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington.

He had been a fund-raiser for Nixon’s re-election campaign, and his name was on a $25,000 cashier’s check that had been deposited in the bank account of one of the burglars, Bernard L. Barker. The money was to help cover the burglars’ expenses, and Mr. Barker had withdrawn that amount in $100 bills. He was carrying more than $5,000 when he was arrested on June 17.

Click here to read about this fascinating history.

Secret U.S. Memo Made Legal Case to Kill a Citizen

2011-10-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

October 8, 2011
Secret U.S. Memo Made Legal Case to Kill a Citizen
By CHARLIE SAVAGE, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s secret legal memorandum that opened the door to the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical Muslim cleric hiding in Yemen, found that it would be lawful only if it were not feasible to take him alive, according to people who have read the document.

The memo, written last year, followed months of extensive interagency deliberations and offers a glimpse into the legal debate that led to one of the most significant decisions made by President Obama — to move ahead with the killing of an American citizen without a trial.

The secret document provided the justification for acting despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war, according to people familiar with the analysis. The memo, however, was narrowly drawn to the specifics of Mr. Awlaki’s case and did not establish a broad new legal doctrine to permit the targeted killing of any Americans believed to pose a terrorist threat.

Click here to read more.

Wisdom & Humor: Can't wait til it's out on Kindle or Nook

2011-10-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

Pick a title:

1. The book "Understanding Men"
has finally arrived in the book stores!

2. The book "Understanding Women"
has finally arrived in the book stores!

3. The book "Understanding Gay Men"
has finally arrived in the book stores!

or
4. The book "Understanding Teenagers"
has finally arrived in the book stores!

Thanks to my friend Sidney Feldman for sending this.

Wisdom & Humor: THE YELLOW LIGHT

2011-10-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Francesca Rock for forwarding this.

THE YELLOW LIGHT

The light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, ''I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally....I assumed you had stolen the car.''

Priceless

Obituary: Steve Jobs, Apple’s Visionary, Dies at 56

2011-10-05T19:21:00.000-07:00

October 5, 2011
Steve Jobs, Apple’s Visionary, Dies at 56
By JOHN MARKOFF, The New York Times
Steven P. Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple who helped usher in the era of personal computers and then led a cultural transformation in the way music, movies and mobile communications were experienced in the digital age, died Wednesday. He was 56.

The death was announced by Apple, the company Mr. Jobs and his high school friend Stephen Wozniak started in 1976 in a suburban California garage.

A friend of the family said that Mr. Jobs died of complications from his long battle with pancreatic cancer, with which he waged a long and public struggle, remaining the face of the company even as he underwent treatment. He continued to introduce new products for a global market in his trademark blue jeans even as he grew gaunt and frail.

Click here to read more.

Obama advocates 'big America'

2011-10-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Obama advocates 'big America'
By: Jennifer Epstein, Politico online
October 1, 2011
President Barack Obama called for a “big America” in a speech to a major gay-rights group Saturday but barely mentioned the biggest issue of all to many in the audience — the legalization of same-sex marriage.

“We believe in a big America, a tolerant America, a just America, an equal America,” Obama told the Human Rights Campaign’s annual dinner in Washington, where he advocated a society where people are respected, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“We don’t believe in a small America. We don’t believe in the kind of smallness that believes that a stage full of political leaders — one of whom could end up being president of the United States — being silent when an American is booed,” Obama said, referring to the jeers that came from the crowd at a Republican presidential debate last month after a gay soldier asked a question from Iraq.

Click here to read more.

Retiree Benefits for the Military Could Face Cuts

2011-10-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

September 18, 2011
Retiree Benefits for the Military Could Face Cuts
By JAMES DAO and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, The New York Times
As Washington looks to squeeze savings from once-sacrosanct entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, another big social welfare system is growing as rapidly, but with far less scrutiny: the health and pension benefits of military retirees.

Military pensions and health care for active and retired troops now cost the government about $100 billion a year, representing an expanding portion of both the Pentagon budget — about $700 billion a year, including war costs — and the national debt, which together finance the programs.

Making even incremental reductions to military benefits is typically a doomed political venture, given the public’s broad support for helping troops, the political potency of veterans groups and the fact that significant savings take years to appear.

But the intense push in Congress this year to reduce the debt and the possibility that the Pentagon might have to begin trimming core programs like weapons procurement, research, training and construction have suddenly made retiree benefits vulnerable, military officials and experts say.

And if Congress fails to adopt the deficit-reduction recommendations of a bipartisan joint Congressional committee this fall, the Defense Department will be required under debt ceiling legislation passed in August to find about $900 billion in savings over the coming decade. Cuts that deep will almost certainly entail reducing personnel benefits for active and retired troops, Pentagon officials and analysts say.

“We’ve got to put everything on the table,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said recently on PBS, acknowledging that he was looking at proposals to rein in pension costs.

Under the current rules, service members who retire after 20 years are eligible for pensions that pay half their salaries for life, indexed for inflation, even if they leave at age 38. They are also eligible for lifetime health insurance through the military’s system, Tricare, at a small fraction of the cost of private insurance, prompting many working veterans to shun employer health plans in favor of military insurance.

Advocates of revamping the systems argue that they are not just fiscally untenable but also unfair.

The annual fee for Tricare Prime, an H.M.O.-like program for military retirees, is just $460 for families and has not risen in years, even as health care costs have skyrocketed. Critics of the system say the contribution could be raised substantially and still be far lower than what civilians pay for employer-sponsored health plans, typically about $4,000.

Those critics also argue that under the current rules, 83 percent of former service members receive no pension payments at all — because only veterans with 20 years of service are eligible. Those with 5 or even 15 years are not, even if they did multiple combat tours. Such a structure would be illegal in the private sector, and a company that tried it could be penalized, experts say.

“It cries out for some rationalization,” said Sylvester J. Schieber, a former chairman of the Social Security Advisory Board. “Why should we ask somebody to sustain a system that’s unfair by any other measure in our society?”

But within military circles, and among many members of Congress, the benefits are considered untouchable. Veterans groups and military leaders argue that the system helps retain capable commissioned and noncommissioned officers.

And having volunteered to put their lives at risk, those people deserve higher-quality benefits, supporters argue. The typical beneficiary, they add, is not a general but a retired noncommissioned officer, with an average pension of about $26,000 a year.

“The whole reason military people are willing to pursue a career is because after 20, 30 years of extraordinary sacrifice, there is a package commensurate with that sacrifice upon leaving service,” said Steven P. Strobridge, a retired Air Force colonel who is the director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America, which is lobbying against changes to the benefits.

A wild-card factor in the debate is the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, which some experts say could avoid the stigma of cutting benefits while troops are at war.

“The fact that you are getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan does make it easier,” said Lawrence J. Korb, a senior Pentagon official in the Reagan administration who was a co-author of a recent proposal for reducing the cost of military health care. “When the war in Iraq was in terrible shape, it was hard to get people to join the military, and no one wanted to touch any military benefits.”

By far the most contentious proposal circulating in Washington is from a Pentagon advisory panel, the Defense Business Board. It would make the military pension system, a defined benefit plan, more like a 401(k) plan under which the Pentagon would make contributions to a service member’s individual account; contributions by the troops themselves would be optional. Mr. Panetta has said that if adopted, the plan would not apply to current military personnel.

While health care costs for active and retired troops are growing faster, military pension costs are larger. Last year, for every dollar the Pentagon paid service members, it spent an additional $1.36 for its military retirees, a much smaller group. Even in the troubled world of state and municipal pension funds, pensions almost never cost more than payrolls.

Citing the fiscal hazards and inequities of the system, the Defense Business Board proposal would allow soldiers with less than 20 years of service to leave with a small nest egg, provided they served a minimum length of time, three to five years. But it would prevent all retirees from receiving benefits until they were 60.

The business board says that its proposal would reduce the plan’s total liabilities to $1.8 trillion by 2034, from the $2.7 trillion now projected — all without cutting benefits for current service members.

Steve Griffin of Tallahassee, Fla., is the type of soldier the defense board is trying to appeal to: a former captain who did two tours in Iraq, he left the Army in 2010 after five years of service and thus receives no pension.

Yet in a sign of the deep support for the existing system, Mr. Griffin says it should be left alone because it provides incentives for recruitment and rewards retirees who have endured great hardship.

“Yes, it would be nice for people like me,” Mr. Griffin, 28, said of the proposal. “But I think the retirement system now is fair. We shouldn’t take anything from it. If anything, we should add to it.”

Much like in the debate over Social Security, questions about the sustainability of the military pension system abound.

Each year the Defense and Treasury Departments set aside more than $75 billion to pay not only current and future benefits but also pensions for service many years in the past. But the retirement fund has not accumulated nearly enough money to cover its total costs, with assets of $278 billion at the end of 2009 and obligations of about $1.4 trillion.

The government tries to close the shortfall by simply issuing more Treasury securities each year, thereby adding to the nation’s debt.

Given the political potency of veterans groups, it is unclear whether anyone in Congress will lead an effort to revamp the pension or retiree health systems.

But the debt ceiling agreement approved this summer by Congress, under which the Pentagon must find $400 billion in reductions over the next 12 years, may force cuts once considered unthinkable. And if Congress does not adopt the recommendations of the bipartisan committee studying deficit reduction, the mandated reductions in Pentagon spending would more than double, to about $900 billion, and fall on just about every category of defense spending.

Deficit hawks, led by Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, have begun taking smaller steps, pushing for an array of cuts to military benefits, including ending subsidies for base commissaries and tightening disability compensation for diseases linked to Agent Orange.

But those trims are considered marginal compared with the deeper reductions many experts say are necessary to contain Pentagon spending.

“If the trend continues, it will call into question the military’s ability to do other things, like buy equipment, do maintenance, train troops and equip them,” said Nora Bensahel, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a nonprofit organization with ties to the Obama administration.

“At some point, the cost pressures by the retirement benefits will really start to impede military capabilities.”

Click here to read more.

Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales

2011-10-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales
By Asjylyn Loder and David Evans - Oct 2, 2011
Bloomberg Markets Magazine

In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts.

“I uncovered the practices within a few days,” Egorova- Farines says. “They were not hidden at all.”

She immediately notified her supervisors in the U.S. A week later, Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries dispatched an investigative team to look into her findings, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue.

By September of that year, the researchers had found evidence of improper payments to secure contracts in six countries dating back to 2002, authorized by the business director of the company’s Koch-Glitsch affiliate in France.

“Those activities constitute violations of criminal law,” Koch Industries wrote in a Dec. 8, 2008, letter giving details of its findings. The letter was made public in a civil court ruling in France in September 2010; the document has never before been reported by the media.

Egorova-Farines wasn’t rewarded for bringing the illicit payments to the company’s attention. Her superiors removed her from the inquiry in August 2008 and fired her in June 2009, calling her incompetent, even after Koch’s investigators substantiated her findings. She sued Koch-Glitsch in France for wrongful termination.

Click here to read more about the Koch brothers.

Wanna Live Forever? Become A Noun

2011-10-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Henry Shrapnel
Wanna Live Forever? Become A Noun
September 28, 2011
by Adam Cole and Robert Krulwich, NPR
Adam Cole: When I say "Henry Shrapnel, Jules Leotard, Robert Bunsen," you think — what?
Me: That they're inventors?
Adam: No. Better than that. Each one has become immortal. They're nouns!
Me: Is that a good thing, becoming a noun? ...
Adam: Are you kidding? It's a wonderful thing. A thing to sing about.

Click here to read more.

50 Years Later, the Story of the Peace Corps’ Rapid-Fire Start Still Breathtaking

2011-09-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

50 Years Later, the Story of the Peace Corps’ Rapid-Fire Start Still Breathtaking
September 29, 2011
Kathi Jaworski, The New York Times
The Peace Corps marked its 50th anniversary on September 22, celebrating the over 200,000 volunteers who have served in 139 countries since 1961. A new commemorative report, “A Call to Peace”, summarizes the program’s history, the viewpoints of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs), and recommendations for the future.

Given today’s political gridlock, it’s hard to imagine the breathtaking speed of change that marked the launch of the Peace Corps. But it’s worth remembering such things can happen, and reviving the possibility of bold, rapid policy movement in Washington among those who aren’t old enough to remember.

While the idea of a youth corps serving developing countries had floated around Washington since Harry Truman’s time, the catalyst for launching the actual Peace Corps was an October 14, 1960 campaign challenge from then Presidential Candidate John F. Kennedy to an audience of Michigan college students. Within days, University of Michigan students gathered 1000 pledges among their peers to volunteer overseas. Two weeks later, Candidate Kennedy formally proposed a Peace Corps “of men and women who would dedicate themselves to the progress and peace of developing countries” as a key element of his platform. Candidate Nixon was unwilling to endorse a similar proposal, viewing it as a “kiddie corps”.

Click here to read more about the early days.

Help Wanted: Leadership

2011-09-29T13:35:00.000-07:00

September 24, 2011
Help Wanted: Leadership
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, The New York Times Op Ed
TO Barack Obama, John Boehner, Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi and Eric Cantor, I just have two words of advice: Herbert Hoover.

I know you’re all familiar with that name. Hoover lives in infamy in U.S. history for having been on duty when the Great Depression happened. You’re all courting a similar fate. Your collective behavior is setting all of you up to be known as our generation’s Herbert Hoovers — the leaders who were on duty when we entered our second great economic meltdown.

But unlike Hoover, who was just practicing the conventional economic wisdom of his day when we fell into the Depression, you have no excuses. We know what to do — a Grand Bargain: short-term stimulus to ease us through this deleveraging process, debt restructuring in the housing market and long-term budget-cutting to put our fiscal house in order. None of this is easy and the economy will not be fixed overnight; it will take years. But there is every chance it will get healed if our two parties construct the Grand Bargain we need.

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Supreme Court Is Asked to Rule on Health Care

2011-09-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

September 28, 2011
Supreme Court Is Asked to Rule on Health Care
By ADAM LIPTAK, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to hear a case concerning the 2010 health care overhaul law. The development, which came unexpectedly fast, makes it all but certain that the court will soon agree to hear one or more cases involving challenges to the law, with arguments by the spring and a decision by June, in time to land in the middle of the 2012 presidential campaign.

The Justice Department said the justices should hear its appeal of a decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, that struck down the centerpiece of the law by a 2-to-1 vote.

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Charli'e Diary: Fabulous Thach Dip

2011-09-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

from my cousin Margaret Thach, a fabulous cook:

8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup chutney
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon curry

Chile the above ingredients for four hours. Then blend in food processor. Put inside a half pineapple, and cover with toasted almonds. (That's it!)

Obama Debt Reduction Plan Calms Democrats' Concerns On And Off Hill

2011-09-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

by Sam Stein, The Huffington Post, stein@huffingtonpost.com
September 19. 2011
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's broad new debt reduction proposal has, at least momentarily, managed to placate a community of progressive activists, Democratic operatives and congressional offices who have grown increasingly despondent over the course of his presidency.

On Monday the White House outlined more than $3 trillion in deficit reduction measures that included $1.5 trillion in tax increases, $1 trillion in war savings and $580 billion or so in mandatory program savings. What stood out, however, was what wasn't in the plan at all: changes to the payment structure of Social Security or the eligibility age of Medicare that the president had voiced support for as recently as August.

Democratic sources familiar with the drafting of the proposal insist that the 80-page document, which included a $470 billion job creation program, is largely consistent with the philosophical blueprint the White House has pursued during the past year. But they also didn't beat back suggestions that Obama and his team are more eager than ever to draw contrasts with Republicans on issues such as tax policy or entitlement reform. Perhaps the best example is the president's pledge to veto any deficit reduction plan that cut Medicare benefits but didn't include a dime of tax increases -- a threat that came in response to House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) insistence that tax hikes be left completely off the table.

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Obama to Offer Plan to Cut Deficit by Over $3 Trillion

2011-09-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

September 18, 2011
Obama to Offer Plan to Cut Deficit by Over $3 Trillion
By HELENE COOPER, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama will unveil a plan on Monday that uses entitlement cuts, tax increases and war savings to reduce the federal deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next 10 years, administration officials said.

The plan, which Mr. Obama will lay out Monday morning at the White House, is the administration’s opening move in sweeping negotiations on deficit reduction to be taken up by a joint House-Senate committee over the next two months. If a deal is not enacted by Dec. 23, cuts could take effect automatically across government agencies.

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What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?

2011-09-18T15:31:00.000-07:00

September 14, 2011
What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?
By PAUL TOUGH, The New York Times Magazine
Dominic Randolph can seem a little out of place at Riverdale Country School — which is odd, because he’s the headmaster. Riverdale is one of New York City’s most prestigious private schools, with a 104-year-old campus that looks down grandly on Van Cortlandt Park from the top of a steep hill in the richest part of the Bronx. On the discussion boards of UrbanBaby.com, worked-up moms from the Upper East Side argue over whether Riverdale sends enough seniors to Harvard, Yale and Princeton to be considered truly “TT” (top-tier, in UrbanBabyese), or whether it is more accurately labeled “2T” (second-tier), but it is, certainly, part of the city’s private-school elite, a place members of the establishment send their kids to learn to be members of the establishment. Tuition starts at $38,500 a year, and that’s for prekindergarten.

Randolph, by contrast, comes across as an iconoclast, a disrupter, even a bit of an eccentric. He dresses for work every day in a black suit with a narrow tie, and the outfit, plus his cool demeanor and sweep of graying hair, makes you wonder, when you first meet him, if he might have played sax in a ska band in the ’80s. (The English accent helps.) He is a big thinker, always chasing new ideas, and a conversation with him can feel like a one-man TED conference, dotted with references to the latest work by behavioral psychologists and management gurus and design theorists. When he became headmaster in 2007, he swapped offices with his secretary, giving her the reclusive inner sanctum where previous headmasters sat and remodeling the small outer reception area into his own open-concept work space, its walls covered with whiteboard paint on which he sketches ideas and slogans. One day when I visited, one wall was bare except for a white sheet of paper. On it was printed a single black question mark.

For the headmaster of an intensely competitive school, Randolph, who is 49, is surprisingly skeptical about many of the basic elements of a contemporary high-stakes American education. He did away with Advanced Placement classes in the high school soon after he arrived at Riverdale; he encourages his teachers to limit the homework they assign; and he says that the standardized tests that Riverdale and other private schools require for admission to kindergarten and to middle school are “a patently unfair system” because they evaluate students almost entirely by I.Q. “This push on tests,” he told me, “is missing out on some serious parts of what it means to be a successful human.”

The most critical missing piece, Randolph explained as we sat in his office last fall, is character — those essential traits of mind and habit that were drilled into him at boarding school in England and that also have deep roots in American history. “Whether it’s the pioneer in the Conestoga wagon or someone coming here in the 1920s from southern Italy, there was this idea in America that if you worked hard and you showed real grit, that you could be successful,” he said. “Strangely, we’ve now forgotten that. People who have an easy time of things, who get 800s on their SAT’s, I worry that those people get feedback that everything they’re doing is great. And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure. When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that.”

Randolph has been pondering throughout his 23-year career as an educator the question of whether and how schools should impart good character. It has often felt like a lonely quest, but it has led him in some interesting directions. In the winter of 2005, Randolph read “Learned Optimism,” a book by Martin Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania who helped establish the Positive Psychology movement. Randolph found the book intriguing, and he arranged a meeting with the author. As it happened, on the morning that Randolph made the trip to Philadelphia, Seligman had scheduled a separate meeting with David Levin, the co-founder of the KIPP network of charter schools and the superintendent of the KIPP schools in New York City. Seligman decided he might as well combine the two meetings, and he invited Christopher Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, who was also visiting Penn that day, to join him and Randolph and Levin in his office for a freewheeling discussion of psychology and schooling.

Levin had also spent many years trying to figure out how to provide lessons in character to his students, who were almost all black or Latino and from low-income families. At the first KIPP school, in Houston, he and his co-founder, Michael Feinberg, filled the walls with slogans like “Work Hard” and “Be Nice” and “There Are No Shortcuts,” and they developed a system of rewards and demerits designed to train their students not only in fractions and algebra but also in perseverance and empathy. Like Randolph, Levin went to Seligman’s office expecting to talk about optimism. But Seligman surprised them both by pulling out a new and very different book, which he and Peterson had just finished: “Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification,” a scholarly, 800-page tome that weighed in at three and a half pounds. It was intended, according to the authors, as a “manual of the sanities,” an attempt to inaugurate what they described as a “science of good character.”

It was, in other words, exactly what Randolph and Levin had been looking for, separately, even if neither of them had quite known it. Seligman and Peterson consulted works from Aristotle to Confucius, from the Upanishads to the Torah, from the Boy Scout Handbook to profiles of Pokémon characters, and they settled on 24 character strengths common to all cultures and eras. The list included some we think of as traditional noble traits, like bravery, citizenship, fairness, wisdom and integrity; others that veer into the emotional realm, like love, humor, zest and appreciation of beauty; and still others that are more concerned with day-to-day human interactions: social intelligence (the ability to recognize interpersonal dynamics and adapt quickly to different social situations), kindness, self-regulation, gratitude.

In most societies, Seligman and Peterson wrote, these strengths were considered to have a moral valence, and in many cases they overlapped with religious laws and strictures. But their true importance did not come from their relationship to any system of ethics or moral laws but from their practical benefit: cultivating these strengths represented a reliable path to “the good life,” a life that was not just happy but also meaningful and fulfilling.

Six years after that first meeting, Levin and Randolph are trying to put this conception of character into action in their schools. In the process, they have found themselves wrestling with questions that have long confounded not just educators but anyone trying to nurture a thriving child or simply live a good life. What is good character? Is it really something that can be taught in a formal way, in the classroom, or is it the responsibility of the family, something that is inculcated gradually over years of experience? Which qualities matter most for a child trying to negotiate his way to a successful and autonomous adulthood? And are the answers to those questions the same in Harlem and in Riverdale?

Levin had believed in the importance of character since KIPP’s inception. But on the day of his trip to see Seligman, he was feeling a new urgency about the subject. Six years earlier, in 1999, the first group of students to enter KIPP Academy middle school, which Levin founded and ran in the South Bronx, triumphed on the eighth-grade citywide achievement test, graduating with the highest scores in the Bronx and the fifth-highest in all of New York City. Every morning of middle school they passed a giant sign in the stairwell reminding them of their mission: “Climb the Mountain to College.” And as they left KIPP for high school, they seemed poised to do just that: not only did they have outstanding academic results, but most of them also won admission to highly selective private and Catholic schools, often with full scholarships.

But as Levin told me when we spoke last fall, for many students in that first cohort, things didn’t go as planned. “We thought, O.K., our first class was the fifth-highest-performing class in all of New York City,” Levin said. “We got 90 percent into private and parochial schools. It’s all going to be solved. But it wasn’t.” Almost every member of the cohort did make it through high school, and more than 80 percent of them enrolled in college. But then the mountain grew steeper, and every few weeks, it seemed, Levin got word of another student who decided to drop out. According to a report that KIPP issued last spring, only 33 percent of students who graduated from a KIPP middle school 10 or more years ago have graduated from a four-year college. That rate is considerably better than the 8 percent of children from low-income families who currently complete college nationwide, and it even beats the average national rate of college completion for all income groups, which is 31 percent. But it still falls well short of KIPP’s stated goal: that 75 percent of KIPP alumni will graduate from a four-year college, and 100 percent will be prepared for a stable career.

As Levin watched the progress of those KIPP alumni, he noticed something curious: the students who persisted in college were not necessarily the ones who had excelled academically at KIPP; they were the ones with exceptional character strengths, like optimism and persistence and social intelligence. They were the ones who were able to recover from a bad grade and resolve to do better next time; to bounce back from a fight with their parents; to resist the urge to go out to the movies and stay home and study instead; to persuade professors to give them extra help after class. Those skills weren’t enough on their own to earn students a B.A., Levin knew. But for young people without the benefit of a lot of family resources, without the kind of safety net that their wealthier peers enjoyed, they seemed an indispensable part of making it to graduation day.

What appealed to Levin about the list of character strengths that Seligman and Peterson compiled was that it was presented not as a finger-wagging guilt trip about good values and appropriate behavior but as a recipe for a successful and happy life. He was wary of the idea that KIPP’s aim was to instill in its students “middle-class values,” as though well-off kids had some depth of character that low-income students lacked. “The thing that I think is great about the character-strength approach,” he told me, “is it is fundamentally devoid of value judgment.”

Still, neither Levin nor Dominic Randolph had a clear vision of how to turn an 800-page psychology text into a practical program. After that first meeting in Seligman’s office, Levin and Randolph kept in touch, calling and e-mailing, swapping articles and Web links, and they soon discovered that they shared a lot of ideas and interests, despite the very different school environments in which they worked. They decided to join forces, to try to tackle the mysteries of character together, and they turned for help to Angela Duckworth, who at the time was a graduate student in Seligman’s department (she is now an assistant professor). Duckworth came to Penn in 2002 at the age of 32, after working for a decade as a teacher and a charter-school consultant. When she applied to the Ph.D. program at Penn, she wrote in her application essay that her experiences in schools had given her “a distinctly different view of school reform” than the one she started out with in her 20s. “The problem, I think, is not only the schools but also the students themselves,” she wrote. “Here’s why: learning is hard. True, learning is fun, exhilarating and gratifying — but it is also often daunting, exhausting and sometimes discouraging. . . . To help chronically low-performing but intelligent students, educators and parents must first recognize that character is at least as important as intellect.”

Duckworth’s early research showed that measures of self-control can be a more reliable predictor of students’ grade-point averages than their I.Q.’s. But while self-control seemed to be a critical ingredient in attaining basic success, Duckworth came to feel it wasn’t as relevant when it came to outstanding achievement. People who accomplished great things, she noticed, often combined a passion for a single mission with an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission, whatever the obstacles and however long it might take. She decided she needed to name this quality, and she chose the word “grit.”

She developed a test to measure grit, which she called the Grit Scale. It is a deceptively simple test, in that it requires you to rate yourself on just 12 questions, from “I finish whatever I begin” to “I often set a goal but later choose to pursue a different one.” It takes about three minutes to complete, and it relies entirely on self-report — and yet when Duckworth took it out into the field, she found it was remarkably predictive of success. At Penn, high grit ratings allowed students with relatively low college-board scores to nonetheless achieve high G.P.A.’s. Duckworth and her collaborators gave their grit test to more than 1,200 freshman cadets as they entered West Point and embarked on the grueling summer training course known as Beast Barracks. The military has developed its own complex evaluation, called the Whole Candidate Score, to judge incoming cadets and predict which of them will survive the demands of West Point; it includes academic grades, a gauge of physical fitness and a Leadership Potential Score. But at the end of Beast Barracks, the more accurate predictor of which cadets persisted and which ones dropped out turned out to be Duckworth’s 12-item grit questionnaire.

Levin and Randolph asked Duckworth to use the new methods and tools she was developing to help them investigate the question of character at KIPP and Riverdale, and she and a handful of Penn graduate students began making regular treks from Philadelphia to New York. The first question Duckworth addressed, again, was the relative importance of I.Q. and self-control. She and her team of researchers gave middle-school students at Riverdale and KIPP a variety of psychological and I.Q. tests. They found that at both schools, I.Q. was the better predictor of scores on statewide achievement tests, but measures of self-control were more reliable indicators of report-card grades.

Duckworth’s research convinced Levin and Randolph that they should try to foster self-control and grit in their students. Yet those didn’t seem like the only character strengths that mattered. The full list of 24, on the other hand, felt too unwieldy. So they asked Peterson if he could narrow the list down to a more manageable handful, and he identified a set of strengths that were, according to his research, especially likely to predict life satisfaction and high achievement. After a few small adjustments (Levin and Randolph opted to drop love in favor of curiosity), they settled on a final list: zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism and curiosity.

Over the course of the next year and a half, Duckworth worked with Levin and Randolph to turn the list of seven strengths into a two-page evaluation, a questionnaire that could be completed by teachers or parents, or by students themselves. For each strength, teachers suggested a variety of “indicators,” much like the questions Duckworth asked people to respond to on her grit questionnaire, and she road-tested several dozen of them at Riverdale and KIPP. She eventually settled on the 24 most statistically reliable ones, from “This student is eager to explore new things” (an indicator of curiosity) to “This student believes that effort will improve his or her future” (optimism).

For Levin, the next step was clear. Wouldn’t it be cool, he mused, if each student graduated from school with not only a G.P.A. but also a C.P.A., for character-point average? If you were a college-admissions director or a corporate human-resources manager selecting entry-level employees, wouldn’t you like to know which ones scored highest in grit or optimism or zest? And if you were a parent of a KIPP student, wouldn’t you want to know how your son or daughter stacked up next to the rest of the class in character as well as in reading ability? As soon as he got the final list of indicators from Duckworth and Peterson, Levin started working to turn it into a specific, concise assessment that he could hand out to students and parents at KIPP’s New York City schools twice a year: the first-ever character report card.

Back at Riverdale, though, the idea of a character report card made Randolph nervous. “I have a philosophical issue with quantifying character,” he explained to me one afternoon. “With my school’s specific population, at least, as soon as you set up something like a report card, you’re going to have a bunch of people doing test prep for it. I don’t want to come up with a metric around character that could then be gamed. I would hate it if that’s where we ended up.”

Still, he did think that the inventory Duckworth and Peterson developed could be a useful tool in communicating with students about character. And so he has been taking what one Riverdale teacher described as a “viral approach” to spreading the idea of this new method of assessing character throughout the Riverdale community. He talks about character at parent nights, asks pointed questions in staff meetings, connects like-minded members of his faculty and instructs them to come up with new programs. Last winter, Riverdale students in the fifth and sixth grades took the 24-indicator survey, and their teachers rated them as well. The results were discussed by teachers and administrators, but they weren’t shared with students or parents, and they certainly weren’t labeled a “report card.”

As I spent time at Riverdale last year, it became apparent to me that the debate over character at the school wasn’t just about how best to evaluate and improve students’ character. It went deeper, to the question of what “character” really meant. When Randolph arrived at Riverdale, the school already had in place a character-education program, of a sort. Called CARE, for Children Aware of Riverdale Ethics, the program was adopted in 1989 in the lower school, which at Riverdale means prekindergarten through fifth grade. It is a blueprint for niceness, mandating that students “Treat everyone with respect” and “Be aware of other people’s feelings and find ways to help those whose feelings have been hurt.” Posters in the hallway remind students of the virtues related to CARE (“Practice Good Manners . . . Avoid Gossiping . . . Help Others”). In the lower school, many teachers describe it as a proud and essential part of what makes Riverdale the school that it is.

When I asked Randolph last winter about CARE, he was diplomatic. “I see the character strengths as CARE 2.0,” he explained. “I’d basically like to take all of this new character language and say that we’re in the next generation of CARE.”

In fact, though, the character-strength approach of Seligman and Peterson isn’t an expansion of programs like CARE; if anything, it is a repudiation of them. In 2008, a national organization called the Character Education Partnership published a paper that divided character education into two categories: programs that develop “moral character,” which embodies ethical values like fairness, generosity and integrity; and those that address “performance character,” which includes values like effort, diligence and perseverance. The CARE program falls firmly on the “moral character” side of the divide, while the seven strengths that Randolph and Levin have chosen for their schools lean much more heavily toward performance character: while they do have a moral component, strengths like zest, optimism, social intelligence and curiosity aren’t particularly heroic; they make you think of Steve Jobs or Bill Clinton more than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi.

The two teachers Randolph has chosen to oversee the school’s character initiative are K.C. Cohen, the guidance counselor for the middle and upper schools, and Karen Fierst, a learning specialist in the lower school. Cohen is friendly and thoughtful, in her mid-30s, a graduate of Fieldston, the private school just down the road from Riverdale. She is intensely interested in character development, and like Randolph, she is worried about the character of Riverdale students. But she is not yet entirely convinced by the seven character strengths that Riverdale has ostensibly chosen. “When I think of good character, I think: Are you fair? Are you honest in dealings with other people? Are you a cheater?” she told me. “I don’t think so much about: Are you tenacious? Are you a hard worker? I think, Are you a good person?”

Cohen’s vision of character is much closer to “moral character” than “performance character,” and so far, that vision remains the dominant one at Riverdale. When I spent a day at the school in March, sitting in on a variety of classes and meetings, messages about behavior and values permeated the day, but those messages stayed almost entirely in the moral dimension. It was a hectic day at the middle school — it was pajama day, plus there was a morning assembly, and then on top of that, the kids in French class who were going on the two-week trip to Bordeaux for spring break had to leave early in order to make their overnight flight to Paris. The topic for the assembly was heroes, and a half-dozen students stood up in front of their classmates — about 350 kids, in all — and each made a brief presentation about a particular hero he or she had chosen: Ruby Nell Bridges, the African-American girl who was part of the first group to integrate the schools in New Orleans in 1960; Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit vendor whose self-immolation helped spark the recent revolt in that country; the actor and activist Paul Robeson.

In the assembly, in classes and in conversations with different students, I heard a lot of talk about values and ethics, and the values that were emphasized tended to be social values: inclusion, tolerance, diversity. (I heard a lot more about black history at Riverdale than I did at the KIPP schools I visited.) One eighth-grade girl I asked about character said that for her and her friends, the biggest issue was inclusion — who was invited to whose bat mitzvah; who was being shunned on Facebook. Character, as far as I could tell, was being defined at Riverdale mostly in terms of helping other people — or at least not hurting their feelings.

Randolph told me that he had concerns about a character program that comprised only those kind of nice-guy values. “The danger with character is if you just revert to these general terms — respect, honesty, tolerance — it seems really vague,” he said. “If I stand in front of the kids and just say, ‘It’s really important for you to respect each other,’ I think they glaze over. But if you say, ‘Well, actually you need to exhibit self-control,’ or you explain the value of social intelligence — this will help you collaborate more effectively — then it seems a bit more tangible.”

When I spoke to Karen Fierst, the teacher who was overseeing the character project for the Riverdale lower school, she said she was worried that it would be a challenge to convince the students and their parents that there was anything in the 24 character strengths that might actually benefit them. For KIPP kids, she said, the notion that character could help them get through college was a powerful lure, one that would motivate them to take the strengths seriously. For kids at Riverdale, though, there was little doubt that they would graduate from college. “It will just happen,” Fierst explained. “It happened to every generation in their family before them. And so it’s harder to get them to invest in this idea. For KIPP students, learning these strengths is partly about trying to demystify what makes other people successful — kind of like, ‘We’re letting you in on the secret of what successful people are like.’ But kids here already live in a successful community. They’re not depending on their teachers to give them the information on how to be successful.”

At KIPP Infinity middle school, which occupies one floor of a school on West 133rd Street, across from the M.T.A.’s giant Manhattanville bus depot, report-card night last winter fell on a cold Thursday at the beginning of February. Report-card night is always a big deal at KIPP schools — parents are strongly urged to attend, and at Infinity, almost all of them do — but this particular evening carried an extra level of anxiety for both the administrators and the parents, because students were receiving their very first character report cards, and no one knew quite what to expect.

Logistically, the character report card had been a challenge to pull off. Teachers at all four KIPP middle schools in New York City had to grade every one of their students, on a scale of 1 to 5, on every one of the 24 character indicators, and more than a few of them found the process a little daunting. And now that report-card night had arrived, they had an even bigger challenge: explaining to parents just how those precise figures, rounded to the second decimal place, summed up their children’s character. I sat for a while with Mike Witter, a 31-year-old eighth-grade English teacher, as he talked through the character report card with Faith Flemister and her son Juaquin Bennett, a tall, hefty eighth grader in a gray hooded sweatshirt.

“For the past few years we’ve been working on a project to create a clearer picture for parents about the character of your child,” Witter explained to Flemister. “The categories that we ended up putting together represent qualities that have been studied and determined to be indicators of success. They mean you’re more likely to go to college. More likely to find a good job. Even surprising things, like they mean you’re more likely to get married, or more likely to have a family. So we think these are really important.”

Flemister nodded, and Witter began to work his way down the scores on Juaquin’s character report card, starting with the good news: every teacher had scored him as a perfect 5 on “Is polite to adults and peers,” and he did almost as well on “Keeps temper in check.” They were both indicators for interpersonal self-control.

“I can tell this is a real strength for you,” Witter said, turning to Juaquin. “This kind of self-control is something you’ve developed incredibly well. So that makes me think we need to start looking at: What’s something we can target? And the first thing that jumps out at me is this.” Witter pulled out a green felt-tip marker and circled one indicator on Juaquin’s report card. “ ‘Pays attention and resists distraction,’ ” Witter read aloud, an indicator for academic self-control. “That’s a little lower than some of the other numbers. Why do you think that is?”

“I talk too much in class,” Juaquin said, a little sheepishly, looking down at his black sneakers. “I sometimes stare off into space and don’t pay attention.”

The three of them talked over a few strategies to help Juaquin focus more in class, and by the end of the 15-minute conversation, Flemister seemed convinced by the new approach. “The strong points are not a surprise,” she said to Witter as he got up to talk to another family. “That’s just the type of person Juaquin is. But it’s good how you pinpoint what he can do to make things easier on himself. Then maybe his grades will pick up.”

A month later, I returned to KIPP to visit Witter’s classroom. By that point in the school year, character language had permeated Infinity. Kids wore T-shirts with the slogan “Infinite Character” and Seligman’s 24 character strengths listed on the back. The walls were covered with signs that read “Got self-control?” and “I actively participate!” (one indicator for zest). There was a bulletin board in the hallway topped with the words “Character Counts,” where students filled out and posted “Spotted!” cards when they saw a fellow student performing actions that demonstrate character. (Jasmine R. cited William N. for zest: “William was in math class and he raised his hand for every problem.”)

I came to Witter’s class to observe something that Levin was calling “dual-purpose instruction,” the practice of deliberately working explicit talk about character strengths into every lesson. Levin wanted math teachers to use the strengths in word problems; he explained that history teachers could use them to orient a class discussion about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. And when I arrived in Witter’s class at 7:45 on a Thursday morning in March, he was leading a discussion about Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart.” Above Witter’s head, at the front of the class, the seven character strengths were stenciled in four-inch-high letters, white on blue, from optimism to social intelligence. He asked his students to rank Okonkwo, the protagonist, on his various character strengths. There was a lot of back and forth, but in the end, most students agreed that Okonkwo rated highest on grit and lowest on self-control. Then a student named Yantzee raised his hand. “Can’t a trait backfire at you?” he asked.

“Sure, a trait can backfire,” Witter said. “Too much grit, like Okonkwo, you start to lose your ability to have empathy for other people. If you’re so gritty that you don’t understand why everyone’s complaining about how hard things are, because nothing’s hard for you, because you’re Mr. Grit, then you’re going to have a hard time being kind. Even love — being too loving might make you the kind of person who can get played.” There was a ripple of knowing laughter from the students. “So, yes, character is something you have to be careful about. Character strengths can become character weaknesses.”

Though the seven character strengths aren’t included in every lesson at KIPP, they do make it into most conversations about discipline. One day last winter, I was speaking with Sayuri Stabrowski, a 30-year-old seventh-and-eighth-grade reading teacher at KIPP Infinity, and she mentioned that she caught a girl chewing gum in her class earlier that day. “She denied it,” Stabrowski told me. “She said, ‘No, I’m not, I’m chewing my tongue.’ ” Stabrowski rolled her eyes as she told me the story. “I said, ‘O.K. fine.’ Then later in the class, I saw her chewing again, and I said: ‘You’re chewing gum! I see you.’ She said, ‘No, I’m not, see?’ and she moved the gum over in her mouth in this really obvious way, and we all saw what she was doing. Now, a couple of years ago, I probably would have blown my top and screamed. But this time, I was able to say: ‘Gosh, not only were you chewing gum, which is kind of minor, but you lied to me twice. That’s a real disappointment. What does that say about your character?’ And she was just devastated.”

Stabrowski was worried that the girl, who often struggled with her behavior, might have a mini-meltdown — a “baby attack,” in KIPP jargon — in the middle of the class, but in fact, the girl spit out her gum and sat through the rest of the class and then afterward came up to her teacher with tears in her eyes. “We had a long conversation,” Stabrowski told me. “She said: ‘I’m trying so hard to just grow up. But nothing ever changes!’ And I said: ‘Do you know what does change? You didn’t have a baby attack in front of the other kids, and two weeks ago, you would have.’ ”

To Tom Brunzell, who as the dean of students at KIPP Infinity oversaw the implementation of the character report card, what is going on in character conversations like that one isn’t academic instruction at all, or even discipline; it’s therapy. Specifically, it’s a kind of cognitive behavioral therapy, the very practical, nuts-and-bolts psychological technique that provides the theoretical underpinning for the whole positive psychology field. Cognitive behavioral therapy, or C.B.T., involves using the conscious mind to understand and overcome unconscious fears and self-destructive habits, using techniques like “self-talk” — putting an immediate crisis in perspective by reminding yourself of the larger context. “The kids who succeed at KIPP are the ones who can C.B.T. themselves in the moment,” Brunzell told me. Part of the point of the character initiative, as he saw it, was to give their students the tools to do that. “All kids this age are having mini-implosions every day,” he said. “I mean, it’s middle school, the worst years of their lives. But the kids who make it are the ones who can tell themselves: ‘I can rise above this little situation. I’m O.K. Tomorrow is a new day.’ ”

For Randolph, the experience that Brunzell was describing — the struggle to pull yourself through a crisis, to come to terms on a deep level with your own shortcomings and to labor to overcome them — is exactly what is missing for so many students at academically excellent schools like Riverdale. And perhaps surprisingly, it may turn out to be an area where the students at KIPP have a real advantage over Riverdale kids. On the professional development day in February when I visited Riverdale, Randolph had arranged a screening for his entire faculty of “Race to Nowhere,” a movie about the stresses facing mostly privileged American high-school students that has become an underground hit in many wealthy suburbs, where one-time showings at schools, churches and community centers bring out hundreds of concerned parents. The movie paints a grim portrait of contemporary adolescence, rising in an emotional crescendo to the story of an overachieving teenage girl who committed suicide, apparently because of the ever-increasing pressure to succeed that she felt both at school and at home. At Riverdale, the film seemed to have a powerful effect on many of the staff; one teacher who came up to Randolph afterward had tears in her eyes.

“Race to Nowhere” has helped to coalesce a growing movement of psychologists and educators who argue that the systems and methods now in place to raise and educate well-off kids in the United States are in fact devastating them. One central figure in the movie is Madeline Levine, a psychologist in Marin County who is the author of a best-selling book, “The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids.” In her book, Levine cites studies and surveys to back up her contention that children of affluent parents now exhibit “unexpectedly high rates of emotional problems beginning in junior high school.” This is no accident of demographics, Levine says, but instead is a direct result of the child-raising practices that prevail in well-off American homes; wealthy parents today, she argues, are more likely to be emotionally distant from their children, and at the same time to insist on high levels of achievement, a potentially toxic blend of influences that can create “intense feelings of shame and hopelessness” in affluent children.

Cohen and Fierst told me that they also see many Riverdale parents who, while pushing their children to excel, also inadvertently shield them from exactly the kind of experience that can lead to character growth. As Fierst put it: “Our kids don’t put up with a lot of suffering. They don’t have a threshold for it. They’re protected against it quite a bit. And when they do get uncomfortable, we hear from their parents. We try to talk to parents about having to sort of make it O.K. for there to be challenge, because that’s where learning happens.”

Cohen said that in the middle school, “if a kid is a C student, and their parents think that they’re all-A’s, we do get a lot of pushback: ‘What are you talking about? This is a great paper!’ We have parents calling in and saying, for their kids, ‘Can’t you just give them two more days on this paper?’ Overindulging kids, with the intention of giving them everything and being loving, but at the expense of their character — that’s huge in our population. I think that’s one of the biggest problems we have at Riverdale.”

This is a problem, of course, for all parents, not just affluent ones. It is a central paradox of contemporary parenting, in fact: we have an acute, almost biological impulse to provide for our children, to give them everything they want and need, to protect them from dangers and discomforts both large and small. And yet we all know — on some level, at least — that what kids need more than anything is a little hardship: some challenge, some deprivation that they can overcome, even if just to prove to themselves that they can. As a parent, you struggle with these thorny questions every day, and if you make the right call even half the time, you’re lucky. But it’s one thing to acknowledge this dilemma in the privacy of your own home; it’s quite another to have it addressed in public, at a school where you send your kids at great expense.

And it’s that problem that Randolph is up against as he tries to push forward this new kind of conversation about character at Riverdale. When you work at a public school, whether it’s a charter or a traditional public school, you’re paid by the state, responsible, on some level, to your fellow citizens for the job you do preparing your students to join the adult world. When you work at a private school like Riverdale, though, even one with a long waiting list, you are always conscious that you’re working for the parents who pay the tuition fees. Which makes a campaign like the one that Randolph is trying to embark on all the more complicated. If your premise is that your students are lacking in deep traits like grit and gratitude and self-control, you’re implicitly criticizing the parenting they’ve received — which means you’re implicitly criticizing your employers.

When I asked Randolph to explain just what he thought Riverdale students were missing out on, he told me the story of his own scholastic career. He did well in boarding school and was admitted to Harvard, but when he got to college, he felt lost, out of step with the power-tie careerism of the Reagan ’80s. After two years at Harvard, Randolph left for a year to work in a low-paying manual job, as a carpenter’s helper, trying to find himself. After college, he moved for a couple of years to Italy, where he worked odd jobs and studied opera. It was an uncertain and unsettled time in his life, filled with plenty of failed experiments and setbacks and struggles. Looking back on his life, though, Randolph says that the character strengths that enabled him to achieve the success that he has were not built in his years at Harvard or at the boarding schools he attended; they came out of those years of trial and error, of taking chances and living without a safety net. And it is precisely those kinds of experiences that he worries that his students aren’t having.

“The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure,” Randolph explained. “And in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything.”

Most Riverdale students can see before them a clear path to a certain type of success. They’ll go to college, they’ll graduate, they’ll get well-paying jobs — and if they fall along the way, their families will almost certainly catch them, often well into their 20s or even 30s, if necessary. But despite their many advantages, Randolph isn’t yet convinced that the education they currently receive at Riverdale, or the support they receive at home, will provide them with the skills to negotiate the path toward the deeper success that Seligman and Peterson hold up as the ultimate product of good character: a happy, meaningful, productive life. Randolph wants his students to succeed, of course — it’s just that he believes that in order to do so, they first need to learn how to fail.

Paul Tough (inquiries@paultough.com), a contributing writer, is the author of "Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America." His book "The Success Equation" will be published next year.

Editor: Vera Titunik (v.titunik-MagGroup@nytimes.com)

Click here to read more.

Wisdom & Humor: Political cartoons September 2011

2011-09-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

Click here to see all these cartoons.

Support for Obama Slips; G.O.P. Uneasy on Candidates

2011-09-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

Support for Obama Slips; G.O.P. Uneasy on Candidates
By JEFF ZELENY and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN, The New York Times
September 16, 2011
President Obama’s support is eroding in parts of his base and an effort to recapture the center has failed to draw independents, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Click here to read more about the poll.

Domestic Partnership

2011-09-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

I recently got interviewed by my Hobart College alumni magazine, and here is the result that was published in The Pultney Street Survey:

Domestic Partnership
No matter where in the world he is, Charles "Woody" Jewett '66 walks every morning. And, when they are in the same state, Jewett's partner of 12 years, Takashi, joins him.

"We're lucky to travel a lot. Takashi presents papers at conferences, and I often go with him. We've been to Istanbul, Barcelona, Madrid and Kyoto in the past couple of years," says Jewett, who is retired from the Peace Corps. "In September 2010, we climbed 1,368 steps to the summit of Kotohira Mountain in Japan to visit a Shinto shrine. That was one heck of a walk!"

The pair—competent walkers and avid movie buffs—is just like any other. "I swim; he reads. He has a great memory; mine is hazy. He's a great cook; he's got me on a much better diet than I was before I met him," says Jewett. "It might sound a little boring but we support each other. Isn't that what being in a relationship is about?"

Though they've been together for more than a decade, they have no plans to officially marry. Legally, in California, they are domestic partners, although that designation isn't available in Florida, where they live much of the year. Takashi, a professor of economics, immigrated to the U.S. without the benefits of marriage, and Jewett has his own health insurance, allowing them to avoid two issues that impact many gay couples.

"We don't need a piece of paper from City Hall. We've hosted lunches and get-togethers with friends and family so that everyone can get to know us together," says Jewett. "That's a wonderful affirmation of who and what we are to each other. And we've been very lucky that all of our friends have accepted our relationship."

Active in the gay community and in the fight for equality, Jewett has made civic engagement a cornerstone of his life. "My parents were extremely active in the community where I grew up; they never lectured us about giving back, that's just what we all did," he says.

"Right now, I'm giving back to the gay community by raising awareness about issues of equality in whatever way I can," Jewett continues. "I donate to gay-affirming causes and candidates. I'm active as a blogger and in posting and commenting on Facebook."

"I grew up in a different world. I didn't come out until I was in my 50s," says Jewett. "I feel blessed that Takashi and I have legions of lifelong friends and family who support us."

Though many of those friends are gay, he and Takashi have never been to a gay wedding. "Not once! Maybe that will change in the future. I hope it will. Relationships are important, and they're good for the community. We should honor relationships, celebrate them, not try to tear them down with hate."

Jewett's two grown children, Caroline and Andrew, have embraced the partnership. "My kids don't put labels on things. Your gender, ethnicity or orientation doesn't matter," he says. "To them, Takashi and I aren't a gay couple, we're just a couple. I think that's a very healthy way to see things."

The photograph shows us from July 10 on our hike on Wizard Island in Crater Lake, Oregon.

White House Would Cut Deductions to Pay for Its Jobs Plan

2011-09-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2011, 11:36 am
White House Would Cut Deductions to Pay for Its Jobs Plan
By HELENE COOPER, The New York Times
Philip Scott Andrews/The New York TimesPresident Obama announced that he would send his proposed jobs legislation to Congress on Monday.

2:24 p.m. | Updated The White House said on Monday that it would cover most of the cost of his payroll tax cut and other job initiatives by limiting the deductions that can be claimed on the tax returns of wealthier taxpayers.

Click here to read more.

China: Ai Weiwei criticizes Beijing's rampant growth, judicial system

2011-09-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

Ai Weiwei criticizes Beijing's rampant growth, judicial system
August 29, 2011
The Los Angeles Times
Beijing

Ai Weiwei has long been critical of Beijing's uncontrolled growth and chaotic sprawl. On Sunday, Newsweek published an online editorial by the artist-activist in which he inveighs against the city, its power structure and its dangerous sense of anonymity.

"Beijing is two cities. One is of power and of money. People don't care who their neighbors are; they don't trust you," Ai wrote.

"Every year millions come to Beijing to build its bridges, roads, and houses. Each year they build a Beijing equal to the size of the city in 1949. They are Beijing's slaves."

Those familiar with Ai's art will recall that he has addressed some of these same themes in his video series devoted to Beijing's ring-road system of highways. Ai and his team took fixed-length video shots of points around the city's concentric ring roads and assembled them into a minimalist commentary on the city's impersonal sprawl.

Ai's 2004 video "Beijing: Chang'an Boulevard" is a 10-hour video installation that similarly depicts points along the city's famous east-west highway. (The work was acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2009).

In an interview with the Times in 2007, Ai said that "the whole development of China is quite blind .... We always think that growth is positive. But it also causes problems. There's no aesthetic discussion of today's growth. There's no rationality. It's like a giant monster."

In his Newsweek piece, Ai doesn't directly address his pending legal case or his months spent in secret detention this year. But he does make a few veiled references to his situation.

"The worst thing about Beijing is that you can never trust the judicial system," he wrote. "There are many hidden spots where they put people without identity. With no name, just a number. They don't care where you go, what crime you committed.

" Click here to read more about dissident Ai Weiwei's article on China.

Quiet but busy since our Asian trip

2011-09-04T19:24:00.001-07:00

"Lincoln Rocker" with great re-upholstered job (from 2004).

August 26, 2011

Hi All, Sorry we have been so QUIET but we have been busy.

We've been back in Portland for a week. FINALLY seem to have overcome jet lag, sleeping better, more energy. Takashi is busy on university projects and daily holes up in one of two local libraries. This week it's been fun seeing our friend Arndt who is in town for a workshop (we all went out to a seafood dinner Wednesday at McCormack's next to us). Charlie's busy managing & populating a "staff reunion" Facebook page for the big Peace Corps anniversary in Washington DC in September.

Pix show some of the 30-odd packing boxes and furniture that we shipped here from Florida to "equalize" our stuff between the two coasts. I am excited about going through all my mother's photo albums. The Lincoln rocker was originally a gift from my godfather almost 40 years ago. It has been with me ever since. We had it re-upholstered in California in 2004.

I've also uploaded some Korea/Japan highlights on my Blog. More to come.

WORRYING ABOUT ALL OF YOU ON THE EAST COAST WHO FACE HURRICANE IRENE. Keep dry and safe!

Hugs for now. CWJ

Charlie and guard in Seoul, South Korea at Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Charlie and Takashi at Futami, Japan August 2011.

Boehner Asks Obama to Reschedule Economy Speech

2011-08-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

August 31, 2011, 12:31 pm
Boehner Asks Obama to Reschedule Economy Speech
By HELENE COOPER, The New York Times

4:33 p.m. | Updated Speaker John A. Boehner all but rejected President Obama’s request to speak to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday by offering an audience the following night.

Mr. Obama had asked to deliver a much anticipated speech outlining his proposals to boost employment and the economy on Sept. 7 — the same night as a scheduled Republican presidential debate, as it happens.

Click here to read more the State of the Union.

Travel to Korea and Japan, August 2011

2011-08-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

Seoul, Korea: Charlie with guardsman at Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Osaka: Charlie enjoying our last meal in Japan at "sushi go-around."

Futami, Japan: The Boys at "wedding rock"

Seoul: Gyeongbokgung Palace honor guard

Seoul, Korea: The Boys at dinner.

Visiting Japan, August 2011

2011-08-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

We depart for quick trip to Asia on Tuesday, August 9th. A quick trip: Korea (Seoul,4 days) and Japan (Osaka and Ise) also for four days. Home to the US on August 18th. Yes, we both will carry laptops and be connected everywhere. Friends, museums, and temples to see. Still working on day-to-day schedule, but no major 1,364-step temple hikes are planned like last year.

We'll be visiting the city of Ise, Japan this month. Check the map above; Ise is south of Osaka. Ise is my partner's birthplace. Here are some descriptions of the sacred site:

The shrine consists of two groups of buildings: the Imperial Shrine (Kotai Jingu), also known as the Naiku (inner shrine), and the Toyouke Shrine (Toyouke Daijingu ) which constitutes the Geku or outer shrine. The Naiku is dedicated to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu Omikami (Heaven-Illuminating Great Deity), and the Geku to the Goddess of Cereals Toyouke Omikami (Abundant Food Great Deity). Each shrine is composed of a number of buildings, including ancillary shrines, workshops, storehouses, etc. Each shrine has an inner precinct with a main sanctuary and two attendant shrines, as well as treasuries, fences, and gates.

Both shrines are constructed of wood, and every twenty years both are totally rebuilt on an adjoining site. The empty site of the previous shrine (called the kodenchi) is strewn with large white pebbles. The only building on the empty site, which retains its sacredness for the intervening twenty years, is a small wooden shed or hut (oi-ya) inside of which is a post about seven feet high known as shin-no-mihashira (literally the august column of the heart, or more freely translated as sacred central post). The new shrine will be erected over and around this post which are the holiest and most mysterious objects in the Ise Shrine. They remain hidden at all times.

Wisdom & Humor: "Human kindness..."

2011-08-05T15:54:00.000-07:00

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Portland Kayaking...Not

2011-08-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

Charlie's Diary for Sunday, July 24, 2011

8AM breakfast with men's group...nice, nice nice French restaurant "Le Provence." Probably 25 guys...all at one table so sadly you couldn't walk around and mingle.

My friends dropped me back here (remember, I don't drive. Haven't since 1994). Met up with my friend Jack and his buddy Charley and we walked over to the kayaking place. Five of us...all signed in. It was a beautiful sunny Portland afternoon.

But one new guy Robert flipped over TWICE in the first couple of minutes. He had earlier announced he could not swim so there was a level of anxiety.

But it got more fun. I tried to lower my bulky self into the boat but didn't feel "well-seated" in the kayak and decided to opt out...didn't want to be mid-river and have that guy flip over again or me flip, too. So, fun and sunny day. Took lots of photos.

I feel a bit like a phony by posting the picture above. It showed me as a KAYAKER! and of course I didn't actually go kayaking. cwj August 4, 2011

Debt Bill Is Signed, Ending a Fractious Battle

2011-08-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

August 2, 2011
Debt Bill Is Signed, Ending a Fractious Battle
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Tuesday to raise the government’s debt ceiling and cut trillions of dollars from its spending, concluding a long and fractious partisan battle just hours before the government’s borrowing authority was set to run out.

The bill, which passed 74 to 26, was immediately signed by President Obama, who took a final shot at his Republican opposition for what he called a manufactured — and avoidable — crisis. “Voters may have chosen divided government,” he said, “but they sure didn’t vote for dysfunctional government.”

Click here to read more.

The President Surrenders

2011-08-01T10:39:00.000-07:00

July 31, 2011
The President Surrenders
By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times
A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong.

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

Click here to read more.

Affluent Buyers Reviving Market for Miami Homes

2011-07-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

July 26, 2011
Affluent Buyers Reviving Market for Miami Homes
By DAVID STREITFELD, The New York Times FRONT PAGE STORY
MIAMI — South Florida is the default capital of the country. Here in Miami-Dade County, one out of five households with mortgages is in foreclosure. Nearby Broward and Palm Beach counties are not far behind. Nearly 200,000 South Florida families are stuck in the mire of default.

And yet much of Miami is gripped by a housing mania as the oversupply of distressed homes dries up and foreigners and investors swoon. Only a few years after it seemed there were so many unwanted high-rise condominiums that the only solution was to tear some of them down, there are plans to build even more.

Click here to read more about the Miami market.

Favorite Restaurants near Portland: La Provence

2011-07-25T16:55:00.000-07:00

did breakfast here Sunday, July 24, 2011

WONDERFUL!! food and service. We got there early on purpose (there were 25 of us!). La Provence~~~15964 SW Boones Ferry Rd. Lake Oswego, OR. 97035~~~

Click here to read more about this fabulous eatery.

Charli'e Diary: "We've moved...." July 2011

2011-07-23T19:31:00.001-07:00

We've moved! But still use our Portland address as we'll be there during the summer (and Charlie will be in Oregon through early November).

Grandson Kahlil helped in lots of ways as we packed up and unpacked. He proved to be a relaxed, happy camper...we tried to make sure he went "splashing" in the pool and trike riding as much as possible. Our three-year-old charmer made friends wherever he went...most of our new neighbors have dogs so you can imagine what fun it was.

Farewell beautiful Fort Lauderdale after two years. Only about ten miles south to a smaller apartment with a terrific ocean view and loads of shops. Our new Florida address is 1755 East Hallandale Beach Blvd., Apt. 1404E, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009-4684

We decided part-time living could be fun in a smallish, 920 sq ft, 1BR apartment on 14th floor at the Duo condo. (Remember we still have our condo in downtown Portland - a nice place to escape to after moving again!)

Our new building (built in 2007) comes with the a view to the east to Atlantic beach and a golf course. Condo boasts a nice gym, pool (and hot tub), washer/drier, covered parking. In our first week there we met a Personal Trainer who operates out of the gym...gee, now how easy is that! A 15-minute walk to the beach, major shopping mall next door, close to mammoth Aventura Mall. Wonderful boardwalk and sand at Hollywood Beach just a five-minute drive.

Hugs, Charlie & Takashi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallandale_Beach,_Florida

Some reactions:

(1) college roommate: "Sounds idyllic! But as you have a view of the ocean, and it is hurricane season, please give the rest of us slobs plenty of warning.
You realize you are living the American dream?"

(2) roommate in Peace Corps training (1966 @UCLA): "Typical Boomer move at this point in your life. Congrads"

Illuminating California’s Proposition 8 Trial, Onstage

2011-07-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

July 17, 2011
Illuminating California’s Proposition 8 Trial, Onstage
By PATRICK HEALY, The New York Times

A new play based on the Proposition 8 trial over same-sex marriage in California, written by the Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”), will be performed in a staged reading on Broadway in September and then produced at Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, and elsewhere.

Mr. Black and other supporters of gay marriage said they would try to recruit several other colleges and theaters to stage the play, which is titled “8,” and bring attention to the arguments in the trial last year. It culminated in August with a federal judge striking down California’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage, known as Proposition 8; the judge’s ruling is now being appealed.

The play consists mostly of verbatim dialogue and statements from the trial transcript, Mr. Black said, as well as his own observations from sitting in the courtroom most days and interviewing people on both sides of the case.

Roughly a dozen people from the trial are portrayed as characters, including Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, the lawyers for the two gay couples who sued California over the ban; Charles J. Cooper, the lead defense counsel; Kristin M. Perry and Sandra B. Stier, a lesbian couple who were among the plaintiffs; and the judge, Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California.

Click here to read more about the play "8."