Hyphengate: Wasserman Schultz calls CQ sexist
By Betsy Rothstein
June 27, 2007
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is raising hell these days, and it concerns what she claims is Congressional Quarterly’s sexist policy of hyphenating names. For months, Wasserman Schultz has been angered over the fact that CQ repeatedly hyphenates her last name against her wishes.
When Wasserman Schultz first got married, she decided to use her maiden name, Wasserman, but added “Schultz,” unhyphenated, to share the same last name with her husband and, later on, their children.
“It’s my personal choice and personal name,” says Wasserman Schultz, who first had her spokesman address the matter with CQ reporters. “Look, this is not personal, but my name is spelled how I choose to spell it.”
When discussions with reporters didn’t work, the congresswoman’s spokeswoman went up the chain of command. Last week, the CQ executive board met and decided to drop the hyphen. But there is a catch. Since their stylebook doesn’t change until the year’s end, her name will not appear hyphen-less until January.
“Women need to be able to decide what they are called,” she said.
Wasserman Schultz stressed that the CQ reporters she dealt with were receptive to her. It’s the “nameless, faceless” higher-ups, she said, who were less accommodating. “I’m just glad they did the right thing,” she said. “It was a sexist policy.”
This isn’t the first time the lawmaker has experienced frustration over her name. When she was a state senator, her name would not fit on the voting screen; just “Schultz” appeared.
Editor and senior vice president of Congressional Quarterly Michael Riley said, “CQ is not sexist. We’re nonpartisan politically and we don’t want to be sexist either. I’m the new editor. I first learned of this issue last week and it caused me some concern. I did ask the right people to look into what the issues were and decided we should honor the congresswoman’s requests.”
Riley said the decision was likely made 10 to 15 years ago. “We’re not just a daily and weekly publication, but we have this massive set of 33 databases. So the reason for the delay is that we have a very complex set of databases that would have to change all [at] once rather than having it done piecemeal. It’s far more complex than I wish it was.”
Riley also said there were some editors who argued against Wasserman Schultz’s wishes. “Their initial concern was how [we would] handle the databases,” Riley said. “There were some practitioners of the old style.”
He added, “A given style should not get in the way of common sense.”
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Of Course I Am...
So I'm with my boss in the Capitol the other day...
He is talking to a guy from the district about the price of tea in China.
Congressman X walks by and says hello to my boss.
My boss asks if Congressman X has met the guy from the district.
Congressman X says hello to guy from the district and they shake hands.
Congressman X turns to my colleague as my colleague introduces himself. They shake hands.
Then Congressman X turns to me and grabs my hand for a hearty, and prolonged handshake.
I introduce myself, and Congressman X says in response...
..."of course you are..."
WTF.
He is talking to a guy from the district about the price of tea in China.
Congressman X walks by and says hello to my boss.
My boss asks if Congressman X has met the guy from the district.
Congressman X says hello to guy from the district and they shake hands.
Congressman X turns to my colleague as my colleague introduces himself. They shake hands.
Then Congressman X turns to me and grabs my hand for a hearty, and prolonged handshake.
I introduce myself, and Congressman X says in response...
..."of course you are..."
WTF.
Monday, June 25, 2007
The New York Times visits my home town!
(And if the Mayor thinks he's going to develop the foothills for some luxury condos and a gondola - he's got another thing coming. I'll chain myself to trees if necessary.)
June 22, 2007
Outdoors Is the Way Up in Ogden, Utah
By WENDY KNIGHT
WEDGED between old stockyards and a boarded-up packing plant on the western edge of town, the kayak park is not easy to find. But it is just the kind of thing that draws outdoor enthusiasts to Ogden, Utah.
Of the 15 paddlers gathered at the park, on the Ogden River, one Saturday this spring, nearly half were from Salt Lake City, 35 miles away, while one man drove 90 miles from Provo for the day.
“Ogden is rocking right now,” said Craig Haaser, 44, a potter born and raised in Ogden who was among the paddlers at the park that day.
Set in the western foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, Ogden, a city of approximately 83,000 people, is fast gaining on places like Boulder, Colo., as a destination for extreme sports.
Miles of mountain biking wind through the Wasatch-Cache National Forest within minutes of downtown, and the Ogden and Weber Rivers provide ample opportunity for in-town kayaking and canoeing. In addition, Snowbasin Resort, the site for the 2002 Olympic downhill and super G ski events, is less than 20 miles up Ogden Canyon.
Among several new developments in town is the 125,000-square-foot Salomon Recreation Center that will include a climbing wall, a surf rider pool, a bowling alley, a dance studio, a wind tunnel and a Gold's Gym. The center, which is to open this summer, is part of a multimillion-dollar entertainment and residential complex called the Junction that will occupy 20 formerly decrepit acres downtown.
While the 2002 Olympics helped raise Ogden's profile, it is the efforts of city officials, outdoor-company executives and real estate developers that are transforming the town, a former railroad hub.
The city is poised to be “the high adventure Mecca of the country,” said Mayor Matthew Godfrey, 36, over a chopped salad at Rooster's Brewing Company on Historic 25th Street.
The mayor, who took office in 2000, says he sees outdoor recreation as a means to a vibrant and financially sound community.
“We need more high-paying jobs,” he said. “We need tourism. We need a 20-to-40-year-old demographic that likes to work hard and play hard.”
To achieve that, he is recruiting recreation companies to move to town. One such company is Goode Ski Technologies, a manufacturer of carbon fiber water and snow skis and ski poles, formerly based in Waterford, Mich.
“The mayor rolled out the red carpet for me, literally,” recalled David Goode, the president and founder who relocated his 35-employee company to Ogden in August 2005.
Other ski companies, like Scott USA and Rossignol, have established small operations downtown or in Business Depot Ogden, an industrial park north of downtown. This fall, Amer Sports, the maker of Salomon and Atomic skis, expects to move its headquarters into the former American Can Building at 20th and Grant Streets that it is currently renovating.
Though Ogden is emerging as a snow sports hub, many other sports lure visitors to town. With a $1.5 million investment from Goode Ski Technologies, the city is also building a 70-acre water ski park on an existing lake that will include a half-mile-long slalom course, a 17-acre fishing lake and an 18,000-seat amphitheater for plays and concerts, a complex that Mr. Goode hopes will help to bring the water ski championship to Ogden in 2011.
Ogden already is host of a spring marathon and the Xterra Mountain Championship, an off-road triathlon with mountain biking and trail running events. It is also on the brink of being a notable climbing destination.
TWO years ago, Jeff Lowe, 56, a former world-class mountaineer who sits on a mayoral sports advisory committee, established Ogden Climbing Parks, a nonprofit organization to “make Ogden attractive to climbers,” he said. Mr. Lowe, who moved back to Ogden after 30 years in Boulder, established a series of climbing routes using bolted ladder rungs, called a via ferrata, on private land in Waterfall Canyon last year. His current project is a tower of ice — suspended from steel cables — to be used for ice climbing. He plans to build it next winter in Ogden.
The city's commitment to outdoor recreation and an adventure-based economy is attracting young professionals, some of whom are buying and refurbishing 1920s bungalows in once rundown neighborhoods.
“We see it as a diamond in the rough,” Delanie Hill, 32, said of Ogden's downtown. She and her husband, Jeff, 34, are both graphic designers; they bought a 2,200-square-foot Arts and Crafts house in 2000 for $115,000.
“It was kind of a lot at the time,” Ms. Hill said, considering other young professionals were buying two-bedroom homes for $40,000 or $50,000 in their neighborhood around Harrison Avenue and 27th Street. Once an area of “extreme poverty with two and three families living to a house” the neighborhood has changed sharply in recent years, said Ms. Hill, who grew up near Alta Resort and worked in Jackson Hole.
“I can't afford to live in Jackson,” she said, “but I can here.”
The average price of a three-bedroom home in Ogden runs about $160,000, according to Stan Booth, an Ogden-based real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. Real estate “exploded” a couple years after the 2002 Olympics, Mr. Booth said, especially in Ogden Valley, where “people from Florida and California paid asking price and felt they were getting a killer deal.” The market has since leveled off, he said.
In 2004, Mr. Haaser, the kayaking potter, who lives in Ogden year round, bought a four-bedroom house, which he is remodeling, with views of Snowbasin, for $215,000. He recently received an unsolicited offer of $350,000 for the five-acre property.
Rising property values aside, it is the revitalization of downtown that is drawing the most attention. Once home to brothels and taverns frequented by railroad workers in the late 1880s, and more recently to transients and prostitutes who moved in after residents and commerce fled the downtown in the 1980s, Historic 25th Street is both a link to Ogden's past and its future as a tourist destination.
Faux gas lanterns and sycamore trees strung with white lights line the wide east-west boulevard. Shaded by striped awnings, the century-old brick storefronts house art galleries, acupuncturists and cafes.
The town's arts scene is anchored by Peery's Egyptian Theater, which is a satellite site for the Sundance Film Festival in Park City and presents theatrical and musical performances throughout the year.
There are still empty buildings and a handful of dank bars on 25th Street, where men in dirty T-shirts call out to women walking by. Near a taco stand on the corner of 25th and Washington Boulevard, a gritty man with a faded blue bandanna around his forehead waited at the bus stop.
“That's what keeps Ogden from being too cool,” Mr. Lowe said.
Despite the lingering rough-town image, development continues. The mayor is seeking to build a gondola that would connect downtown to a proposed ski and resort community that would occupy nearly 1,800 acres and include Malan's Basin, 1,440 acres of mountainside land owned by a Salt Lake developer, Chris Peterson, who is championing the idea.
Beyond the added $10 million in tax revenues the mayor expects from the private investment, the mayor says he is intrigued with the “urban to mountain experience” the gondola would create.
But some residents are skeptical. “Nothing about this makes sense from a common sense perspective,” said Dan Schroeder, a physics professor at Weber State University and board member of the local Sierra Club, referring to the logistics of relocating existing power lines and water reservoirs.
While the reduction of pollution and traffic appeals to many of the town's environmentally conscious residents, it is the development of public and private land — including a 113-acre public golf course and over 200 acres of undeveloped land currently used for mountain biking and hiking — into a private residential community of empty nesters and second-home owners that rankles some.
“Ogden is known because of its outdoor recreation,” Mr. Haaser said. “What we have here is wonderful. Let's just keep in that way.”
June 22, 2007
Outdoors Is the Way Up in Ogden, Utah
By WENDY KNIGHT
WEDGED between old stockyards and a boarded-up packing plant on the western edge of town, the kayak park is not easy to find. But it is just the kind of thing that draws outdoor enthusiasts to Ogden, Utah.
Of the 15 paddlers gathered at the park, on the Ogden River, one Saturday this spring, nearly half were from Salt Lake City, 35 miles away, while one man drove 90 miles from Provo for the day.
“Ogden is rocking right now,” said Craig Haaser, 44, a potter born and raised in Ogden who was among the paddlers at the park that day.
Set in the western foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, Ogden, a city of approximately 83,000 people, is fast gaining on places like Boulder, Colo., as a destination for extreme sports.
Miles of mountain biking wind through the Wasatch-Cache National Forest within minutes of downtown, and the Ogden and Weber Rivers provide ample opportunity for in-town kayaking and canoeing. In addition, Snowbasin Resort, the site for the 2002 Olympic downhill and super G ski events, is less than 20 miles up Ogden Canyon.
Among several new developments in town is the 125,000-square-foot Salomon Recreation Center that will include a climbing wall, a surf rider pool, a bowling alley, a dance studio, a wind tunnel and a Gold's Gym. The center, which is to open this summer, is part of a multimillion-dollar entertainment and residential complex called the Junction that will occupy 20 formerly decrepit acres downtown.
While the 2002 Olympics helped raise Ogden's profile, it is the efforts of city officials, outdoor-company executives and real estate developers that are transforming the town, a former railroad hub.
The city is poised to be “the high adventure Mecca of the country,” said Mayor Matthew Godfrey, 36, over a chopped salad at Rooster's Brewing Company on Historic 25th Street.
The mayor, who took office in 2000, says he sees outdoor recreation as a means to a vibrant and financially sound community.
“We need more high-paying jobs,” he said. “We need tourism. We need a 20-to-40-year-old demographic that likes to work hard and play hard.”
To achieve that, he is recruiting recreation companies to move to town. One such company is Goode Ski Technologies, a manufacturer of carbon fiber water and snow skis and ski poles, formerly based in Waterford, Mich.
“The mayor rolled out the red carpet for me, literally,” recalled David Goode, the president and founder who relocated his 35-employee company to Ogden in August 2005.
Other ski companies, like Scott USA and Rossignol, have established small operations downtown or in Business Depot Ogden, an industrial park north of downtown. This fall, Amer Sports, the maker of Salomon and Atomic skis, expects to move its headquarters into the former American Can Building at 20th and Grant Streets that it is currently renovating.
Though Ogden is emerging as a snow sports hub, many other sports lure visitors to town. With a $1.5 million investment from Goode Ski Technologies, the city is also building a 70-acre water ski park on an existing lake that will include a half-mile-long slalom course, a 17-acre fishing lake and an 18,000-seat amphitheater for plays and concerts, a complex that Mr. Goode hopes will help to bring the water ski championship to Ogden in 2011.
Ogden already is host of a spring marathon and the Xterra Mountain Championship, an off-road triathlon with mountain biking and trail running events. It is also on the brink of being a notable climbing destination.
TWO years ago, Jeff Lowe, 56, a former world-class mountaineer who sits on a mayoral sports advisory committee, established Ogden Climbing Parks, a nonprofit organization to “make Ogden attractive to climbers,” he said. Mr. Lowe, who moved back to Ogden after 30 years in Boulder, established a series of climbing routes using bolted ladder rungs, called a via ferrata, on private land in Waterfall Canyon last year. His current project is a tower of ice — suspended from steel cables — to be used for ice climbing. He plans to build it next winter in Ogden.
The city's commitment to outdoor recreation and an adventure-based economy is attracting young professionals, some of whom are buying and refurbishing 1920s bungalows in once rundown neighborhoods.
“We see it as a diamond in the rough,” Delanie Hill, 32, said of Ogden's downtown. She and her husband, Jeff, 34, are both graphic designers; they bought a 2,200-square-foot Arts and Crafts house in 2000 for $115,000.
“It was kind of a lot at the time,” Ms. Hill said, considering other young professionals were buying two-bedroom homes for $40,000 or $50,000 in their neighborhood around Harrison Avenue and 27th Street. Once an area of “extreme poverty with two and three families living to a house” the neighborhood has changed sharply in recent years, said Ms. Hill, who grew up near Alta Resort and worked in Jackson Hole.
“I can't afford to live in Jackson,” she said, “but I can here.”
The average price of a three-bedroom home in Ogden runs about $160,000, according to Stan Booth, an Ogden-based real estate agent with Coldwell Banker. Real estate “exploded” a couple years after the 2002 Olympics, Mr. Booth said, especially in Ogden Valley, where “people from Florida and California paid asking price and felt they were getting a killer deal.” The market has since leveled off, he said.
In 2004, Mr. Haaser, the kayaking potter, who lives in Ogden year round, bought a four-bedroom house, which he is remodeling, with views of Snowbasin, for $215,000. He recently received an unsolicited offer of $350,000 for the five-acre property.
Rising property values aside, it is the revitalization of downtown that is drawing the most attention. Once home to brothels and taverns frequented by railroad workers in the late 1880s, and more recently to transients and prostitutes who moved in after residents and commerce fled the downtown in the 1980s, Historic 25th Street is both a link to Ogden's past and its future as a tourist destination.
Faux gas lanterns and sycamore trees strung with white lights line the wide east-west boulevard. Shaded by striped awnings, the century-old brick storefronts house art galleries, acupuncturists and cafes.
The town's arts scene is anchored by Peery's Egyptian Theater, which is a satellite site for the Sundance Film Festival in Park City and presents theatrical and musical performances throughout the year.
There are still empty buildings and a handful of dank bars on 25th Street, where men in dirty T-shirts call out to women walking by. Near a taco stand on the corner of 25th and Washington Boulevard, a gritty man with a faded blue bandanna around his forehead waited at the bus stop.
“That's what keeps Ogden from being too cool,” Mr. Lowe said.
Despite the lingering rough-town image, development continues. The mayor is seeking to build a gondola that would connect downtown to a proposed ski and resort community that would occupy nearly 1,800 acres and include Malan's Basin, 1,440 acres of mountainside land owned by a Salt Lake developer, Chris Peterson, who is championing the idea.
Beyond the added $10 million in tax revenues the mayor expects from the private investment, the mayor says he is intrigued with the “urban to mountain experience” the gondola would create.
But some residents are skeptical. “Nothing about this makes sense from a common sense perspective,” said Dan Schroeder, a physics professor at Weber State University and board member of the local Sierra Club, referring to the logistics of relocating existing power lines and water reservoirs.
While the reduction of pollution and traffic appeals to many of the town's environmentally conscious residents, it is the development of public and private land — including a 113-acre public golf course and over 200 acres of undeveloped land currently used for mountain biking and hiking — into a private residential community of empty nesters and second-home owners that rankles some.
“Ogden is known because of its outdoor recreation,” Mr. Haaser said. “What we have here is wonderful. Let's just keep in that way.”
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Skate DC
I rode around the Hill on my board over the weekend. I have become very aware of road quality. I always knew the sidewalks in DC were bad because of the tree roots - but MAN, it's pretty much a death wish to ride on the sidewalks around here.
Here's the skinny:
East Capitol - good because of the bike lane (my attempt at being responsible) but the road is rather rough. You can do it, but it takes a lot of work. East Cap heading toward the Capitol is GREAT the last block, because they just repaved.
Lincoln Park - not too bad, but LOTS of dogs. Did anyone know that dogs HATE skaters? I had no idea until a scruffy black mutt tried to eat me. Not worth the hazard.
Independence Avenue - good, but it has to be either late at night, or early in the morning due to all the traffic.
8th Street - Very good, recently repaved.
9th Street - Very bad. No good, don't even try.
Sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court - Not too bad. I really want to jump off all those steps sometime.
Lot 1 - For you Hill staffers out there, you know what I'm talking about. (It's the parking lot right by Tortilla Coast and the Cannon Building.) Not too shabby, although the guards give me dirty looks. It's not like I'm jumping off anything! (Not like I CAN jump off anything!)
Hallways at work - FAB! Oops, did I just put that in writing?! (They are marble people, I HAD TO.)
Here's the skinny:
East Capitol - good because of the bike lane (my attempt at being responsible) but the road is rather rough. You can do it, but it takes a lot of work. East Cap heading toward the Capitol is GREAT the last block, because they just repaved.
Lincoln Park - not too bad, but LOTS of dogs. Did anyone know that dogs HATE skaters? I had no idea until a scruffy black mutt tried to eat me. Not worth the hazard.
Independence Avenue - good, but it has to be either late at night, or early in the morning due to all the traffic.
8th Street - Very good, recently repaved.
9th Street - Very bad. No good, don't even try.
Sidewalk in front of the Supreme Court - Not too bad. I really want to jump off all those steps sometime.
Lot 1 - For you Hill staffers out there, you know what I'm talking about. (It's the parking lot right by Tortilla Coast and the Cannon Building.) Not too shabby, although the guards give me dirty looks. It's not like I'm jumping off anything! (Not like I CAN jump off anything!)
Hallways at work - FAB! Oops, did I just put that in writing?! (They are marble people, I HAD TO.)
Saturday, June 16, 2007
What does a Snowbunny do in the Summer?
Oh what do you do in the Summer time, when all the world is green?
Do you drink lemonaide, or sit in the shade, or watch as the clouds go by?
Is that what you do? So do I.
SHE GOES TO SURF CAMP.
NICE.
Do you drink lemonaide, or sit in the shade, or watch as the clouds go by?
Is that what you do? So do I.
SHE GOES TO SURF CAMP.
NICE.
Friday, June 15, 2007
I blame the Republicans....
I met the future President of the United States with dirty hair! I shall explain.
Tuesday night was a really long night. The pesky Republicans kept making motions to rise and rise and rise and rise.
I got home about 12:30. The next morning I thought to myself, 'self - how about we take a day off from washing your hair?' I didn't have any meetings, nothing particular to do... just work. So I put my hair up in a pony tail and went to work.
Turns out my boss endorsed Hillary Clinton for President that day and I staffed him. I had my picture taken with the next leader of the free world with DIRTY HAIR.
Oh the horror.
I blame the Republicans.
Grrr.... :)
Tuesday night was a really long night. The pesky Republicans kept making motions to rise and rise and rise and rise.
I got home about 12:30. The next morning I thought to myself, 'self - how about we take a day off from washing your hair?' I didn't have any meetings, nothing particular to do... just work. So I put my hair up in a pony tail and went to work.
Turns out my boss endorsed Hillary Clinton for President that day and I staffed him. I had my picture taken with the next leader of the free world with DIRTY HAIR.
Oh the horror.
I blame the Republicans.
Grrr.... :)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
2:02
The current vote on the Motion to Rise is the last vote of the night. Members are urged to VOTE YES. This is a 15-minute vote.
YES? VOTE YES???? UG.
YES? VOTE YES???? UG.
1:22
The Republican Leadership has forced another vote on a Motion to Rise (7th of the night). Members are urged to VOTE NO. This is a 15-minute vote.
12:46
The Minority Leader has forced another vote on a Motion to Rise (6th of the night). Members are urged to VOTE NO. This is a 15-minute vote
12:15
The Republican Leadership has forced another vote on a Motion to Rise (5th of the night). Members are urged to VOTE NO. This is a 15-minute vote.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
11:42
The Republican Leadership has forced another vote on a Motion to Rise (4th of the night). Members are urged to VOTE NO. This is a 15-minute vote.
11:14
The Republican Leadership has forced another vote on a Motion to Rise (3rd of the night). Members are urged to VOTE NO. This is a 15-minute vote.
AHHHHHH!
It is 11:08 at night, we haven't even really started debating amendments (and there are like 70) to the Homeland Security bill. I had an individual apple pie for dinner. The Republicans keep making motions for the Committee to Rise (essentially forcing a vote for no good reason - petulance in my opinion).
I do not remember this nonsense last year. My institutional knowledge guru says it wasn't like this last year because the Democrats AREN"T ASSHOLES. At some point you have to move forward!! Either that or be ready to face the consequences you dirty pig rat Republicans.
Sorry, just had to get it out.
I do not remember this nonsense last year. My institutional knowledge guru says it wasn't like this last year because the Democrats AREN"T ASSHOLES. At some point you have to move forward!! Either that or be ready to face the consequences you dirty pig rat Republicans.
Sorry, just had to get it out.
10:47
The Republican Leadership has forced another vote on a Motion to Rise from the Committee of the Whole. Members are urged to VOTE NO. This is a 15-minute vote.
10:17
The Republican Leadership has forced a vote on the Motion to Rise from the Committee of the Whole. Members are urged to VOTE NO. This is a 15 minute vote.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Friday, June 08, 2007
Cuba - travel ban or no travel ban?
I had a meeting with my friend from the Cuban Embassy the other day. He is a nice chap who comes in periodically to discuss the merits of removing the travel restrictions to Cuba.
Until recently I haven't really had an opinion on travel restrictions to Cuba. Recently, however, I have been in a few meetings on the subject.
There is the Cuban cigar company that is not advocating a timetable for regime change, but when it happens they are concerned about the taxes on their cigars. There is the Congresswoman who wants to keep the travel ban and the Chairman of the committee of jurisdiction who wants to remove the travel ban. There are the Embassy folks who cannot travel outside the beltway and then there’s me… who just sits and takes notes.
So back to my embassy chum. He came to see me about general US/Cuban relations. We got to chatting and it came time in our meeting, as happens in every meeting I have, (Hint to lobbyists and advocacy groups everywhere - if you come to the Hill, bring handouts.) to leave me with a nifty one pager on the issue. (These handy one pagers get put in a really big pile on my shelf and every 6 months or so I go through them and file them... 6 months after that I go through them again and throw them out. sorry.) So Embassy guy opens his brief case. The brief case is situated on the couch so when he opens it I can see everything that is in the case. But get this, THERE IS NOTHING IN THERE! Seriously, he pulled out the ONE page summary of the bill he wanted me to take a look at, and that was it. There were not pens, papers, pads of paper, water, ID, nothing. Zilch, bubkis, nada. It was so odd.
Odd, odd, odd.
So I'm leaning to removing the travel ban. Our restrictions haven't done much in the way of reform for the last 40 years, so how about we try something new, eh?
Until recently I haven't really had an opinion on travel restrictions to Cuba. Recently, however, I have been in a few meetings on the subject.
There is the Cuban cigar company that is not advocating a timetable for regime change, but when it happens they are concerned about the taxes on their cigars. There is the Congresswoman who wants to keep the travel ban and the Chairman of the committee of jurisdiction who wants to remove the travel ban. There are the Embassy folks who cannot travel outside the beltway and then there’s me… who just sits and takes notes.
So back to my embassy chum. He came to see me about general US/Cuban relations. We got to chatting and it came time in our meeting, as happens in every meeting I have, (Hint to lobbyists and advocacy groups everywhere - if you come to the Hill, bring handouts.) to leave me with a nifty one pager on the issue. (These handy one pagers get put in a really big pile on my shelf and every 6 months or so I go through them and file them... 6 months after that I go through them again and throw them out. sorry.) So Embassy guy opens his brief case. The brief case is situated on the couch so when he opens it I can see everything that is in the case. But get this, THERE IS NOTHING IN THERE! Seriously, he pulled out the ONE page summary of the bill he wanted me to take a look at, and that was it. There were not pens, papers, pads of paper, water, ID, nothing. Zilch, bubkis, nada. It was so odd.
Odd, odd, odd.
So I'm leaning to removing the travel ban. Our restrictions haven't done much in the way of reform for the last 40 years, so how about we try something new, eh?
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
How do you say, 'who's on first' in Arabic?
"Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the Pentagon's director of operations, was chose to oversee the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a war czar.
Lute was chosen aftern being the last one in the room to yell, 'Not it!'"
~Amy Poehler (SNL, Weekend Report 5/19)
Lute was chosen aftern being the last one in the room to yell, 'Not it!'"
~Amy Poehler (SNL, Weekend Report 5/19)
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Army Day - Hooah!
Yesterday the Army took me to Ft. Rucker Alabama home of Army Aviation. Everyone who wants to fly pretty much anything in the Army or the other services for that matter, have to spend some time in lower Alabama. (It is a true sacrifice.)
The military liaison offices take Congressional staff out and about every so often so we can see the things for which we are allocating precious federal dollars.
Exhibit A: the Hell Fire Missile ($45,000 a pop). It is actually helpful to see these wigits and gigits (no offense to my military friends) in action. When defense contractors come in and say, the HellFire missile is the best thing ever, it generally is only slightly entertaining and I am usually not convinced. When I am at Ft. Rucker Alabama and an AH-64D Apache Longbow (that's a helicopter for you civilians) flies over my head and fires one of these aforementioned missiles... it creates more of an impact... as it were.
Some things I learned while at Ft. Rucker...
First, CH-47's are AWESOME.
We got to ride around at Ft. Rucker in this bad boy. See the picture below, that is me and the 4th Squad being covert in the wire grass of lower Alabama and entering the hewey. (Just kidding, I think that is Vietnam.)
And Second, if you are ever offered fried chicken in Alabama - EAT IT.
Serioulsy. They gave us fried chicken for lunch in a military cafeteria and it was the best fired chicken I have ever had, and I don't eat meat.
On a similar note, the brown bag lunch for dinner was less impressive including two white bread sandwhiches with ham, kraft cheese and a packet of mayo, a hard boiled egg and pecan sandies.
Note to self, when in the South, eat LOTS of fried chicken for lunch.
The military liaison offices take Congressional staff out and about every so often so we can see the things for which we are allocating precious federal dollars.
Exhibit A: the Hell Fire Missile ($45,000 a pop). It is actually helpful to see these wigits and gigits (no offense to my military friends) in action. When defense contractors come in and say, the HellFire missile is the best thing ever, it generally is only slightly entertaining and I am usually not convinced. When I am at Ft. Rucker Alabama and an AH-64D Apache Longbow (that's a helicopter for you civilians) flies over my head and fires one of these aforementioned missiles... it creates more of an impact... as it were.
Some things I learned while at Ft. Rucker...
First, CH-47's are AWESOME.
We got to ride around at Ft. Rucker in this bad boy. See the picture below, that is me and the 4th Squad being covert in the wire grass of lower Alabama and entering the hewey. (Just kidding, I think that is Vietnam.)
And Second, if you are ever offered fried chicken in Alabama - EAT IT.
Serioulsy. They gave us fried chicken for lunch in a military cafeteria and it was the best fired chicken I have ever had, and I don't eat meat.
On a similar note, the brown bag lunch for dinner was less impressive including two white bread sandwhiches with ham, kraft cheese and a packet of mayo, a hard boiled egg and pecan sandies.
Note to self, when in the South, eat LOTS of fried chicken for lunch.
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