Blogoland

"Reggie a 'lottery pick' in heaven's draft"

Said Todd Scott, a Minnesota Vikings defensive back: "He was a lottery pick when it comes to being drafted into heaven."

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it."

Aggies, oh Aggies
We'll win this game or know the reason why
And when we win this game
We'll buy a keg of booze
And we'll drink to the Aggies
'Til we wobble in our shoes

Q: When you were talking about donor countries that in a growing economy were giving less, were you prepared to name them?

A: Now, well, I’d rather say that it is remarkable that we have no country up to the one percent line of foreign assistance in general. And we have I think three Scandinavians that have exceeded -- and Holland -- the 0.7 line of gross national income for assistance. We were more generous when we were less rich, many of the rich countries. And it is beyond me why are we so stingy, really. And even in Christmastime should remind many western countries at least how rich we have become. And, actually, the foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of the gross national income. I think that is stingy, really, I don’t think that is very generous.

And I have an additional point. Politicians do not understand their own populations. Because all the populations in the United States, in the European Union, in Norway, which is number one in the world, we want to give more, as voters, as taxpayers. People say we should give what we give now or more. Politicians and parliamentarians believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It’s not true. They want to give more.

Mr. Egeland complained that the United States gives only 0.14 percent of its gross domestic product to foreign development aid, compared with 0.92 percent given by his native Norway. In this category, Norway ranks first and the United States ranks last on a list of 22 industrialized nations compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The White House was forgiving of Mr. Egeland's comments. Spokesman Trent Duffy
accepted at face value Mr. Egeland's explanation that his remarks had been misinterpreted. "I think some of those were taken out of context," Mr. Duffy said.

Earlier yesterday, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the president was confident he could monitor events effectively without returning to Washington or making public statements in Crawford, where he spent part of the day clearing brush and bicycling. Explaining the about-face, a White House official said: "The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain.' "

Many Bush aides believe Clinton was too quick to head for the cameras to hold forth on tragedies with his trademark empathy.

Maske: But plenty of coaches around the league say that the best approach in such a situation is to play all the players who are able to play, keep the team's mindset the same as it has been all season and just hope that no one gets hurt.

Easterbrook: Teams that have locked up their best possible finish, as Philadelphia had before Week 16, always face a dilemma in how to handle the end of the regular season. TMQ says play to win.

In truth, the real troop problem transcends Iraq. Our shortages are caused by a military that was slashed after the Cold War and still hasn't properly recouped to meet the global demands of the war against Islamic fascism — resulting in rotation nightmares, National Guard emergencies, and stop-order controversies.

A thousand brave Americans gave their lives in combat to ensure that the most wicked nation in the Middle East might soon be the best, and the odds are that those remarkable dead, not the columnists in New York, will be proven right — no thanks to post-facto harping from thousands of American academics and insiders in chorus with that continent of appeasement Europe.

Ana Marie Cox started writing as the Wonkette in January '03, delivering a gossipy, satirical blog on D.C. politics. Now she's working on her first novel. She dished with Richard Wolffe.

Russia's status fell from Partly Free to Not Free because of the flawed nature of the country's parliamentary elections in December 2003 and presidential elections in 2004, the further consolidation of state control of the media, and the imposition of official curbs on opposition political parties and groups. Russia's retreat from freedom marks a low point not registered since 1989, when the country was part of the Soviet Union.

Lynne Cheney, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is the author of "When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots."

Lani Guinier, a Clinton classmate at Yale University Law School, was the president's choice to head the Justice Department's civil rights division until it was learned that she had not paid taxes for a domestic worker.

On Nov. 23, the 3:30 p.m. marketing meeting of Newmarket Films was devoted to the selling strategy for a movie called ''The Woodsman.'' The film, which opens in New York on Dec. 24, stars Kevin Bacon as a pedophile who has just been released from jail. While all kinds of mental illness and acts of extreme violence can be intriguing to audiences, the story of a deeply flawed but sympathetic man who is attracted to very young girls does not lend itself to the sort of film, however worthy, that any studio would be likely to finance or distribute, especially at Christmas.

At a broken meter parking is allowed only up to one hour (60 minutes). Where a meter is missing, parking is still allowed for the maximum time on the posted sign. (An hour for a 1-hour meter, 2 hours for a 2-hour meter, etc.). If all the meters are broken the driver shall follow the rules pertaining to broken or missing regular street meters as stated here.

See? It's not a total raping.

There’s a weight in the rhythm of the living on U. Pulsing beats through open doors of city streets. Jazz. Hip Hop. R&B. Blues. Uniting in Community. Sharing an affinity for evenings spent savoring food, music, life. Nights alive in the lure of U.

When the sun rises, city sidewalks revive once more. Cafes filling. Cups of coffee brimming.

The Nationals are gone. That didn't take long, did it? Save those hats with the tilted 'W' on the front. They'll be collectors' items before the week is over. Only a miracle could save Washington's deal with baseball now. Cropp killed it. Whether she did it out of civic conscience, as she claims, or pique, or political aspiration or simply -- and this is a possibility -- a general ignorance of the waters in which she was swimming, is a question for the future.

“It’s sort of a sad story."

"These hawks weren’t bothering anybody, and these people in the building loved them. "

"There’s another reason they were liked is because they killed pigeons."

"I feel sorry for these birds. The birds weren’t doing anything to anybody."

“You gotta credit these hawks. People think birds live in trees. Like the spotted owl needed virgin old growth, or pristine -- whatever it was -- trees. But here you had a couple hawks living basically on concrete. Adaptive birds. And they’ve just been shafted. No more nest.”

In northeastern Ohio, in the fading industrial city of Youngstown, Jeanne White, a veteran voter and manager at the Buckeye Review, an African American newspaper, stepped into the booth, pushed the button for Kerry -- and watched her vote jump to the Bush column. "I saw what happened; I started screaming: 'They're cheating again and they're starting early!' "

It was not her imagination. Twenty-five machines in Youngstown experienced what election officials called "calibration problems." "It happens every election," said
Thomas McCabe, deputy director of elections for Mahoning County, which includes
Youngstown. "It's something we have to live with, and we can fix it."

As expected, there were more provisional ballots, and officials disqualified about 23 percent. In Hamilton County, which encompasses Cincinnati and its Ohio suburbs, 1,110 provisional ballots got tossed out because people voted in the wrong precinct. In about 40 percent of those cases, voters found the right polling place -- which contained multiple precincts -- but workers directed them to the wrong table.

People knew when their vote was registered, because they would have to pull that lever, and when they pulled that lever, the curtain behind them opened. Now, the curtains are not connected to the cast vote button, so you can just walk in and out of the booth. All you do is when you hit the cast vote button a little bell is supposed to sound. And I said that’s what’s going to be the major problem.”

As Cobain's self-destructive art eventually gave way to a self-destructive final act, there was mourning, melancholia, and, inevitably, a new era and a new record. The autumn after Cobain's death, Beck's "Loser" hit college campuses everywhere. In contrast to Nirvana's Sturm und Drang, the record had a kitschy, intentional artifice to it. "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me?" went the song's refrain. Everyone knew that Beck was only kidding, at least about the killing. He showed those bereaved Gen Xers in search of a new sensibility that it was possible to look into the abyss and laugh.

Geffen's recent chart trifecta with its DGC acts is an unprecedented feat. The week of Jan. 29, Nirvana's "All Apologies," Beck's "Loser," and Counting Crows' "Mr. Jones" held Nos. 1, 2, and 3 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, respectively; the following week, "Lower"(sic) hit No. 1, "Mr. Jones" climbed to No. 2, and "All Apologies" slipped to No. 3.

We wrestled over what description to include and what to omit in an effort to balance taste and information.

The law prohibits entertainers from performing acts considered to be "lewd, immoral, or improper." The dance described above ended with the dancer biting me lightly through my jeans.

And it wasn't on the leg.

Naked, she dropped to her knees, with her buttocks propped toward me. Her hands still on the stage, she extended both legs over my shoulders and crossed her feet behind my head. Then, she bent her knees - rapidly and repeatedly - jerking my face toward her crotch.

While the principals read their lines, they laughed at each other, and they laughed at the readings of the actors with secondary parts, and Idle and Nichols laughed at everyone, even though they’d heard most of the lines many, many times. When the knights were faced with the peril of the Knights Who Say Ni!, suddenly “Ni!”s were coming from all over the room, and it became evident that Idle himself was providing some of the stabbing, high-pitched “Ni!”s. As Nichols, seventy-four, sat next to him, red-faced from laughing, Idle, sixty-one, was almost out of his seat, yelling “Ni! Ni!Ni!”

Meanwhile, though, a handful of the dancers were not laughing. They had scripts on their laps and were reading along, but they did not laugh once in the forty minutes of Act II. While most of the room was breaking up, these dancers read along with confused, frozen smiles. They either weren’t listening, were too tired, or weren’t getting it.

Three articles in two days? An editorial? Stay tuned for the day three story: an A1 piece on why a hawk just can't get by in today's go-go NYC.

The story of Pale Male, how he came to live at one of Manhattan's most exclusive addresses and then was sent away, is one of wealth and fame meeting nature and instinct, of an obscure international treaty researched and clarified, and of anger among those who live in an elegant building where, Ms. Moore now says, relations have become frosty.

SMILEY: OK, I gotcha. I gotcha. Now let me ask you a couple of questions, 'cause--and I'm not raising anything you're not well aware of.

Sec. BLACKWELL: Right.

SMILEY: Voters'-rights advocates in your state are criticizing you pretty aggressively of late for two recent decisions that they say in the Buckeye State--this, a battleground state--will unfairly limit some people's ability to vote November 2nd in Ohio. You've asked county election officials, I'm told, to follow two legal provisions strictly; one requiring Ohio voter registration cards be printed on thick, 80-pound-stock paper; two, the other, ordered officials to strictly interpret the rules regarding provisional ballots. What's happening here in Ohio?

Sec. BLACKWELL: Well...

SMILEY: And why are you being criticized for these decisions?

Sec. BLACKWELL: Well, first, let's talk about the registrations. We, in fact, went in partnership with thousands of groups across our state. We have record voter registration in the state of Ohio. We, in fact, have right now, and counting, 700,000 new voter registrations. We worked in partnership with unions, churches, civil rights groups, you know, housing groups; you name it, we were working with them. Our Expect More in 2004 campaign was successful.What we had said and have said for over a decade is that we encourage people to do voter registration forms on heavyweight paper, because we had an experience over the last 10 years where we had most of those--not most of them, but many of the self-mailers ripped to shreds coming through the Postal Service. The Postal Service said, `Look, have folks do this on a heavier bond paper.' What we experienced in the last 90 days at the Postal--most of these things coming in through the mail, they were coming in over the top. We relaxed that standard and, in fact, we have record numbers.Now on provisional ballots, we have the same law in Ohio that they have in Washington, DC, in the District of Columbia. We have the same law in Ohio that they have in New York and Texas. There's no lawsuit. As a matter of fact, we have the same provision that 27 other states have...

SMILEY: Let...

Sec. BLACKWELL: ...in this country. It is a provision that was just upheld by the Missouri federal District Court...

SMILEY: Mr. Secretary...

Sec. BLACKWELL: ...on Tuesday.

SMILEY: ...I hate to cut you off, but I wanted to give you a chance to respond to that. I'm out of time now. We'll have to do it again. I'm sure we will between now and Election Day, November 2nd. We'll talk to you again. Thank you for your time now. I appreciate it.

Sec.BLACKWELL: Good to be with you.

SMILEY: My pleasure.Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.

"I said, 'This is probably the most authentic production of 'West Side Story' ever, because you're actual New York City teenagers and here you are performing it on the very turf where the story is purported to have taken place,' " she said later. "They razed that very slum to build Lincoln Center. That's pretty cool. And there are so many Latinos there in the cast. It has some true grit to it."

But this is a thoroughly modern production. "The best part is we didn't follow the whole cliché that the Jets have to be white and the Sharks have to be black or Hispanic," said Brandon Gill, 17, who plays Riff, another Jet.

"You've seen this Rumsfeld story?" He said, "Oh, yeah." I said, "Well, I tell you, I want to do something. I want to have a little fun with this today." I said, "At some point I'm going to talk about this story and I'm going to bring you guys in here and say, 'Look, if it's a new policy now that employees have their bitch sessions in public, I'm going to bring you and Dawn and Brian in here and I want you to start complaining about the fact that the ice machine doesn't fill up every day, that you still have to sometimes wait for it, that your new 30-inch computer display monitor hasn't come in yet and you're still slaving away your 23-inch display," seventeen-inch display; sorry, Mr. Snerdley, and Dawn wanted to explain that the dishes in the dining room are not the right shade of white and gold that she ordered, and what are we going to do about it.

• He's a "citizen-journalist?"
• On a "truth-telling mission?"
• And the coup de grace: "Moyers's interest has always been the American people."

"It's all about being here! It's what your soul understands. It's all about being here! The Meadowlands!"

Apu [to Bart and Lisa]: "Hey! Hey! This is not a lending library! If you're not going to buy that thing put it down or I'll blow your heads off!"

COM Associate Dean Tobe Berkovitz knows plenty of students who do follow the news — and he sees it as part of his job to prod those who don’t. More than anything, Berkovitz laments the dumbing-down of the news, believing newspapers and other media will have more success attracting and keeping customers if they give people what they need, and not just what they think they want. “I think you have to offer them hard news and stick with it during those years in the desert when your circulation and ratings are low. And hope that quality will win out,” he says. “Does anybody have the guts and the dollars to hang tough for a long time? I believe that in the long run, you have to put your faith in the American
people.”

It's always tempting to think that a city like New York has utterly effaced the natural ground on which it was built. Most of the creatures that lived on Manhattan Island several centuries ago would stand no chance of doing so now - not in these new canyons of steel and glass. But the presence of a nesting pair of red-tailed hawks, sequestered on the edge of an apartment building, feels like a memory from a past this city has long since forgotten.

The hawks have gone out of their way to learn to live with us. The least the wealthy residents of 927 Fifth Avenue could have done was learn to live with the hawks.

Concededly, the techniques the organization is said to have found — humiliation, solitary confinement, "temperature extremes" (which evidently means turning the air conditioning up high to cause discomfort to nude, or inadequately clothed, detainees), loud noise, bright lights, and use of forced positions — are unpleasant. But they do not come close to the severity of discomfort necessary to constitute actual torture.

...the abuse of human life, even if the human life happens to belong to a terrorist, is considered serious business in the United States — too serious for grave terms like torture to be tossed about cavalierly by unaccountable propagandists at the ICRC.

"But should any of us really be excited by what transpired in the 47-17 win over Green Bay on Sunday? Does anyone really expect Ahman Green to rush for 39 yards if the teams meet again? Does anyone really think Brett Favre is going to do nothing while the Eagles ramrod his Packers again?"

"I know I don't think so," Packers wide receiver Donald Driver said. "Understand, we didn't play our game [Sunday]. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. If you asked anyone in this locker room if things would be different if we were to play Philly again, the answer would be a unanimous yes, because things couldn't get any worse."

Driver forgot to add that things couldn't be any better for the Eagles right now. And that's exactly why the Eagles should be worried.

"Every description of Red Bull's flavor I'm getting is different: like the south of a northbound skunk, like Sweet Tarts, like strawberry soda. None of them has anything in common -- and I haven't had a Sweet Tart in so long. Aren't there many flavors of sweet tarts? Heck if I know."

"Brian Williams is so good-looking, he's been cast as an empty suit Ken doll right out of the anchor cookie cutter factory, but I found him to be far more intelligent and have far more depth than I think a newscast will ever allow anybody to present."

"If a bird could grab a shotgun and fire back at us, it would, folks. Never forget that."