Saturn’s “Ears”
Today’s the day: The Cassini spacecraft will pass through the rings of Saturn and begin sending back photographs of what the great Italian scientist Galileo once called the planet’s “ears.”

London’s Growing
London is growing . . . skyward. That’s the latest plan, anyway, and while architects are predictably ecstatic, as are, one would assume, developers and investment bankers, many Londoners are concerned (“London: Next City of the Sky?” by Alan Riding, the New York Times):

[W]ith a panache rarely seen here, London has concluded that it is time to repair its battered skyline.

In doing so, it is looking quite literally for a new profile, one with shapely skyscrapers designed by big-name architects proclaiming London’s determination to be known as an innovative 21st-century metropolis. By 2010, not just the majestic dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral but also a new forest of glass and steel will symbolize the ancient heart of London. After centuries of sprawling growth, the city is finally reaching for the sky.

A number of Londoners are worried. They already fear that the city is losing its historic identity. For them, the ideal solution would be to tear down the concrete office towers thrown up in the 1960’s and 70’s. Instead, the strategy is to surround the eyesores with stylish new high-rises in the hope of hiding bad architecture behind good architecture. But even this approach is perilous: skyscrapers that look daring today have a way of looking dated tomorrow.

Philadelphians went through a similar existential self-examination in the late 1980s, years before I got here, and the skyscrapers won -- and are still winning. I for one, think it’s been a very good thing.

Anorexia or Addition?
“Page Six” of the New York Post has picked up a Star magazine story alleging teen phenom Mary-Kate Olsen is in rehab, as in rehab rehab, undergoing treatment not for anorexia or eating disorders, but cocaine addiction.

Yes, But Hell Releases No Prisoners
Have you ever had the feeling, upon learning a convicted criminal has been released from prison, that you’ll be hearing about him again? I have, and I do today: Joel Steinberg is a free man again, having served 16 years of a 25-year sentence in the 1987 beating death of his then six-year-old daughter Lisa Steinberg. (Link via TalkLeft.)

Healthcare Contest
Here’s an idea for an offbeat contest. After a freak accident here at home recently, I paid a visit to the emergency room. Readers may submit their wild guesses as to the amount of the bill, which I received today. The reader whose guess is closest wins. The prize? You get to pay the bill.

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda. Such items, when posted, are designated by an asterisk.]

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Sole-Source Cartooning [*]
Don’t miss Mark Fiore’s new cartoon in the Village Voice: “Halliburton: America’s Favorite Contractor.” (Warning: sound.)

Rumor Has It
Singer-songwriters and former spouses (of each other) Carly Simon and James Taylor reportedly are getting back together. No, they’re not remarrying, they’re said to be planning to perform at a fundraiser for Sen. John F. Kerry.

The Party’s Over
The Federal Open Market Committee today instituted the first of what is expected to be a lengthy series of hikes in short-term interest rates. The New York Times reports:

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his Federal Open Market Committee colleagues -- the group that sets interest rate policy in the United States -- increased the federal funds rate to 1.25 percent. The funds rate, the Fed’s primary tool for influencing economic activity, had been at 1 percent, a 46-year low, for a year.

Watch for higher rates to trickle down to an account near you.

Fat or Ugly?
Lately we’ve been informed, or reminded, ad nauseum, that filmmaker Michael Moore is a scale-tipper. Also making the rounds recently is the parrot-like repetition calling Sen. John F. Kerry ugly.

[* Note: Additional items may be posted to “Political Notes” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda. Such items, when posted, are designated by an asterisk.]

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Author J.K. Rowling today revealed the title of the next and penultimate book in the famed “Harry Potter” series, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports:

The sixth book in the Harry Potter series about the boy wizard will be called Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, author J.K. Rowling has announced.

Rowling revealed the title on her Web site, and Judy Corman, a spokeswoman for Scholastic Corp., the U.S. publisher of the books. No word yet on when the book will be published.

Rowling said on her Web site that she decided to reveal the title after a hoax title (The Pillar of Storgé) was posted in the site’s “Gossip” section.

According to the Sun-Sentinel Rowling denied changing the title because the original had been “found out.”

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Each week Philadelphia Weekly, the local paper that’s home to my friend and doppelganger Jessica Pressler (actually, we’ve never met, but she’ll get that remark anyway, I think), publishes a front-of-the-book feature they call “Heroes & Goats.”

The “Heroes & Goats” column from the Weekly’s June 23-29 issue features seven items (four heroes and three goats), two of which Rittenhouse readers should appreciate.

Under “Heroes” we find:

Judith Rodin: Buzz has it that the former Penn prez may enter politics and run against [Sen. Rick] Santorum [(R-Pa.)]. Heroes and Goats may be forced to drop the acerbic quips and volunteer to help unseat Senator Pinhead.

If I were Sen. Santorum, and I’m happily not, I’d be worried. Very worried. Not about the incipient political activism of Heroes and Goats, but about a challenge from Rodin.

And under the heading of “Goats” we read:

Ralph Nader: Picks no-name Green Party investment adviser from California to be his running mate. Boy, a move like that might just blow him past [Rep. Dennis] Kucinich [(D-Ohio)] in the polls.

The week’s “Heroes & Goats” is almost enough to make up for the Weekly’s cranky review of “Fahrenheit 9/11” by Sean “You mean there are people out there more intelligent, funny, talented, and accomplished than I?” Burns, also in the June 23-29 issue.

(Note: Apologies for the lack of direct links, but the Weekly’s search function appears to be in complete disrepair. I’ll try to fill them in later.)

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It’s summertime. The hazy, crazy, lazy -- sometimes wired -- days of summer. Not a bad time to ask, are your kids getting enough sugar?

Sure, it’s summer and they’re probably ingesting quite a bit of it, what with ice cream, candy, sodas, lemonade, and, more likely than not, Kool-Aid.

You probably feel a little guilty giving your kids Kool-Aid instead of a more nutritious alternative. You shouldn’t really. Come on, ease up, they’re just kids. Besides, by putting ice cubes in their Kool-Aid, you can significantly reduce their sugar intake with the tykes none the wiser.

Now, if the idea of secretly diluting Kool-Aid is a revelation to you, or one that has you worried your kids won’t get enough sugar or, worse, get less than the neighbors’ kids, thus putting your offspring at the end of the Ivy League line, the people at Kraft Foods are there to help.

How? With “Super Fruity Kool Kubes,” currently featured in a nationwide advertising campaign.

There’s actually a recipe for Super Fruity Kool Kubes. You can travel over to the Kool-Aid web site for explicit instructions, but the gist of the concept is this: combine Kool-Aid drink mix and water, pour the solution into ice cube trays, and use the resulting flavored cubes as, well, ice cubes. In Kool-Aid.

For more fun, or what Kool-Aid’s maker calls “your own extreme flavor combo,” you might try mixing and matching different flavors of Kool-Aid and Super Fruity Kool Kubes, combining, say, “New Ice Cool Lemon Ice” Kool-Aid with cherry-flavored Super Fruity Kool Cubes, or one of four other concoctions Kraft Food suggests.

Hey, what do they care? You’re the one who will be pulling the kids off the ceiling.

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Louisville and Phoenix are Really Jumping
I noticed this brief item from the Associated Press in the morning paper:

The ACLU is objecting to a ban on sports jerseys, sleeveless shirts, and backward baseball caps in Louisville’s new nightclub district, saying the dress code is biased against blacks and poor people.

The city has given the developer of the month-old Fourth Street Live the power to enforce its dress code three nights a week during special events along the block-long stretch of restaurants, bars and shops. During those nights, the city street is blocked off, and bouncers decide who meets the dress code.

Now, aside from the dubious intent and premises of Fourth Street Live’s “dress code,” the item struck me for a less obvious reason: Louisville’s “new nightclub district” is a “block long”? One block? Oh, how I wish the neighborhood known here as South Street were confined to a single block. Ditto the nightclub-heavy section of Old City.

But when one lives in a large city, a real city, one takes the good with the bad, which is while I’ll take Philadelphia, the fifth-largest city in America, over Phoenix, the nation’s sixth-largest though gaining ground fast.

Arguing the relative merits of Philadelphia and Phoenix has become something of a pastime here of late, a debate into which Philadelphia Daily News columnist Carla Anderson stepped today with “On Charm Meter, Phoenix Lags a Lot.”

Philadelphia

Among Anderson’s observations:

At almost 500 square miles, Phoenix is about four times the geographic size of Philadelphia. Yet roughly the same number of people live there, sprawled out over all that asphalt distance. No wonder the city seems to be built out of shopping malls. The crosswalks on Philly’s Vine Street expressway have more charm than just about any sidewalk in Phoenix. […]

Phoenix plain doesn’t rate as an actual city -- no matter what the bean counters say. I say it’s more like a place where lots of people happen to live.

Phoenix

Before you fire off an e-mail either to me or to the Daily News, read Anderson’s article from start to finish. It’s more than fair, as the author ladles several compliments upon Phoenix, and Philadelphia takes it on the chin more than once.

(For local coverage of the Fourth Street controversy, see the Louisville Courier-Journal: “ACLU Joins Protest on Dress Code for Fourth Street Live Patrons,” by Jennifer C. Smith, June 29; “Activists Call 4th Street Live Dress Code Discriminatory,” by Joseph Gerth, June 26; and “Dressing Down?” by Jessie Halladay and Sheldon S. Shafer, June 24.)

Getting Around Rome
Authorities in Rome are reversing a longstanding practice of allowing teenagers as young as 14 to drive motor scooters and mini cars without a permit or any kind of test. (“Teens With Need for Speed Now Will Need a License,” by Tom Rachman, the Associated Press, in the Philadelphia Inquirer). But this being Italy, “the change is causing havoc,” the A.P. reports. “Although Thursday’s deadline was announced a year ago, bad planning means hundreds of thousands of youths will suffer a sudden driving ban -- a grim prospect for young Italians who are raised to love motors and tend to disdain the extended use of their feet.”

Teenagers complain the government’s promised free driving classes failed to materialize in other than a spotty fashion and that examinations were booked long in advance. The transportation ministry cites procrastination and estimates less than a third of those wanting the required license now have one. The new rules take effect Thursday.

Also from Rome, or from within Rome, there’s word the Vatican is getting something right: the mail. That puts the church in competition with the state, though “competition” is a relative term considering the rival is the Italian postal service. “The legends tell of how in a postal strike some years ago, overstuffed post offices put their parcels on trains that simply wandered, full, up and down Italy,” the New York Times reports. “Instances of mail arriving a quarter-century late abound.” (“Hail Marys Not Needed: Vatican Mail Will Deliver,” by Al Baker, June 27):

The 109-acre Vatican, walled in against an Italy of labor strife, strikes, long lines, late trains and a maddeningly unreliable postal system, has developed a mail service that is the envy of Italians. It is both fast and safe, [Dimitri] Auerilio said, describing it as a beacon of bureaucratic success in a landscape of ineffective infrastructures. […]

Tourists are in on this secret, as well as the Romans, because they flock to this orderly, sovereign religious state enclosed in roiling Rome to send their postcards with papal stamps from the seat of Catholicism.

As a result, more mail is sent each year, per inhabitant, from the Vatican’s 00120 postcode than from anywhere else in the world -- 7,200, compared with about 660 in the United States or 109 in Italy -- said Juliana Nel, a spokeswoman for the Universal Postal Union. . . . She called the Vatican’s service “probably one of the best postal systems in the world.”

But the sorry state of the Italian postal system is legendary, so much so that some Italians can still be seen crossing themselves before tossing their mail into an Italian box.

It’s different in the United States.

Here it’s the postal workers who cross themselves . . . on their way to work.

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda. Such items, when posted, are designated by an asterisk.]

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This letter to the editors of the New York Times, published today, requires no comment. It begs only for wider distribution:

I’m tired of hearing how David Brooks is, or was, the liberals’ favorite conservative. Too often, instead of using logic to make his case, Mr. Brooks resorts to rhetorical devices and sophistry.

In “All Hail Moore,” Mr. Brooks declares that liberals have turned from John Dewey, Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Luther King Jr. to Michael Moore for intellectual and moral leadership. This is analogous to saying that Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have replaced Edmund Burke and Milton Friedman as the conservatives’ guiding lights. Or have they?

Richard Greene, Hopewell, N.J.

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“Let Freedom Reign”
Military Occupation = Sovereignty. Single-Bidder Contracts = Free Enterprise. Theft = Reconstruction. Martial Law = Freedom. On that last point, Los Angeles Time columnist Robert Scheer writes (“Born Under a Cloud of Irony”): “[I]t is perhaps not strange then that [Iyad] Allawi, who built his exile organization with defecting Iraqi military officers, is already proclaiming the need to delay elections scheduled for January and impose martial law. On Monday Bush said coalition forces would support such a call for martial law, presumably enforced by U.S. troops.”

Say It Twice, Star
If you repeat something often enough, people just might believe it. Of course, that aphorism generally refers to repeating a misleading or false statement over a period of time, not over and over in one brief essay. No matter to Star Parker, president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education, who wonders why black voters aren’t flocking to the Republican Party since, as she remarks in a column posted today at Townhall.com, “There is increasing evidence that blacks are becoming disillusioned with traditional big-government politics of the Democratic Party,” an observation enhanced seven paragraphs later with this allegation: “Blacks are beginning to question the big-government approach that they’ve gotten from their Democratic leadership for the last 50 years.”

We’ll Hardly Miss Ye
Michael K. Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and big media’s best friend in Washington, is rumored to be considering leaving the agency this winter. The Los Angeles Times reports (“FCC’s Powell Won’t Stay, Some Speculate,” by Jube Shiver Jr.):

Washington has been whispering about Powell leaving the FCC since February 2003, when the soft-spoken but strong-willed bureaucrat suffered an embarrassing defeat over telephone competition rules. He lost a 3-2 vote on the rules, which were thrown out by a federal appeals court in March. And last week a federal appeals court sent the FCC's media ownership rules back for revisions. […]

The less-than-adamant denials from his chief of staff and agency spokesman, observers say, is an indication that Powell has had enough of the FCC. But Powell’s advisors insist that he has made no firm plans to leave.

Some political observers say Powell doesn't want to be viewed as a lame duck or have talk of his departure damage his chances of being appointed to another post in the Bush administration.

Meanwhile, no surprise here: “Another Washington lawyer, who represents television station owners and who asked not to be identified, said he had begun advising clients to wrap up any deals that might require FCC approval.”

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda. Such items, when posted, are designated by an asterisk.]

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A couple of things before signing off for the day:

Bush Sags in Poll
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll offers mixed news for both Sen. John F. Kerry and President Tinker Toys, the Times reports (“Bush’s Rating Falls to Its Lowest Point, New Survey Finds,” by Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder):

President Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The poll found Americans stiffening their opposition to the Iraq war, worried that the invasion could invite domestic terrorist attacks and skeptical about whether the White House has been fully truthful about the war or about abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison. […]

The survey, which showed Mr. Bush’s approval rating at 42 percent, also found that nearly 40 percent of Americans say they do not have an opinion about Senator John Kerry, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, despite what have been both parties’ earliest and most expensive television advertising campaigns.

Among those who do have an opinion, Mr. Kerry is disliked more than he is liked. More than 50 percent of respondents said that Mr. Kerry says what he thinks voters want to hear, suggesting that Mr. Bush has had success in portraying his opponent as a flip-flopper. […]

45 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Bush himself, again the most negative measure the Times/CBS Poll has found since he took office. And 57 percent say the country is going in the wrong direction, another measure used by pollsters as a barometer of discontent with an incumbent.

Buckley Divests NR Stake
William F. Buckley is stepping back if not down from National Review, the right-wing magazine he founded 40 years ago. According to the New York Times (“National Review Founder Says It’s Time to Leave Stage,” by David D. Kirkpatrick), “In explaining his decision, Mr. Buckley said he had taken some satisfaction in the triumph of conservatism since then, though he expressed some complaints about President Bush’s unconservative [sic] spending and some retrospective doubts about the wisdom of invading Iraq. But his decision, Mr. Buckley said, had more to do with his own mortality.”

And here’s Buckley himself on the war on Iraq: “With the benefit of minute hindsight, Saddam Hussein wasn’t the kind of extra-territorial menace that was assumed by the administration one year ago. If I knew then what I know now about what kind of situation we would be in, I would have opposed the war.”

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Just posted today: a new “Get Your War On.”

Go read it for a unique take on the rebirth of “Iraqi sovereignty.”

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Good Line
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin is just back from Baghdad, and while she doesn’t explicitly state she spent time elsewhere than her hotel lobby, she strongly implies she did, and she clearly thinks little of the recent aspersions to the effect cast upon the media by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz: “When the secretary leaves his security bubble and visits the mosques and markets of Baghdad and beyond -- as journalists do daily -- he might finally learn something. But that won’t relieve him of responsibility for the needless deaths of Iraqis and Americans.” (“Iraq Chaos a Result of Blinkered Arrogance,” June 27.)

Playing with Marbles
It looks like Ralph Nader’s going to take all his marbles and go home. Oh, wait, sorry, the Green Party didn’t even ask him to play.

Your Money Matters
If you’re hesitating to make that $10 or $25 donation to the Kerry campaign (or the Hoeffel for Senate campaign) because you think your modest contribution won’t make a difference, think again. “In Politics, the Rise of Small Donors,” by Linda Feldmann, The Christian Science Monitor, makes clear how important your money really is: “The Bush campaign has more than a million donors, compared with 345,000 in 2000. In the last election, Democratic nominee Al Gore had 155,000 donors. Last month, the Kerry campaign marked its millionth online donor.”

Lawnmower Man, Carpool Woman
The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign sees its salvation in suburban sprawl (“Bush Sees Fertile Soil in ‘Exurbia’,” by Peter Wallsten, the Los Angeles Times):

Bush has visited many of these new boomtowns -- he was in Lebanon on May 4 -- and campaign officials say he will likely see more of them before November’s election.

Each visit is designed to spur more for the campaign than a one-day burst of publicity. Playing off the excitement of a presidential appearance, strategists use it to recruit volunteers for phone banks, canvassing and voter registration efforts -- building what they hope will be an enduring GOP machine.

Karl Rove is so taken with the potential in the exurbs that he can quickly rattle off the names of otherwise obscure counties in swing states across the nation, along with the percentages of people who have not registered to vote in each one.

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda.]

Holy Cow!
Did you know that a few years ago McDonald’s Corp. lost the secret recipe for the “special sauce” used on Big Macs? I didn’t either. For the details see: “McDonald’s Finds Missing Ingredient,” by David Greising and Jim Kirk, the Chicago Tribune.

Miss Manners Rules
Judith Martin, also known as Miss Manners, usually responds to one question from a reader in her Sunday Washington Post column. This week a reader asks:

I recently attended a black-tie scholarship awards dinner. I noticed that many women attending the event placed their purses on the table. Is this correct? Did I commit a faux pas by placing my purse at my feet?

For the answer, click here.

Lance It!
It’s that time of year again. Or almost, anyway. The Tour de France. Beginning Saturday, American cyclist Lance Armstrong will be going for his sixth victory in the legendary race.

A Place for Everything
Since there’s a museum for everything, it figures there has to be a web site for everything.

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda.]

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I’d yell out “Alert the media!” except it appears wide swaths of the media already have been alerted or sent a memo or something, so I’ll just share the big scoop with you in the unlikely event you’ve missed it: Michael Moore is fat.

Here’s Richard Johnson, writing for “Page Six” in the right-wing New York Post today:

The portly provocateur appeared after a screening of “Fahrenheit 9/11” Thursday night set up by like-minded lefties at the American Civil Liberties Union at Chelsea’s Clearview Cinemas.

Reports our witness: “Preacher met choir as Moore roly-polyed his way down the aisle to brag about how well his film will do and to answer questions for 45 minutes as some hairy leftists lobbed adoring questions and others trickled out of the theater.”

Here’s a tip for Mr. Johnson, Mr. Bykofsky (see second addendum), and the rest, and Ralph Nader for that matter: We have TV sets too. We read newspapers and magazines. We know what Moore looks like. Give it a rest.

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What kind of a senator is Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)?

Is he a “moderate” Republican? An independent voice speaking out for the interests of all Pennsylvanians, standing up to the extremists in the Bush White House?

Or is Sen. Specter an administration-toadying clone of the state’s junior senator, Sen. Rick Santorum (R)?

If you can’t see through the smoke and mirrors distributed and assembled by Sen. Specter over the past two decades, or through the haze emitted by the gullible media and the efforts of a handful of single-issue interest groups, including those who donated to his primary campaign, why not let Sen. Specter’s votes on the Senate floor help you decide?

On “coffin secrecy”: The Senate, on a 54 to 39 vote, refused to lift the Pentagon’s ban on news photos of coffins of troops killed in Iraq. A “yes” vote was to lift the photo ban; a “no” vote supported continuing the Bush administration’s suppression of a free press.

Voting no: Sen. Specter and Sen. Santorum.

On “missile defense”: The Senate refused, 56-44, to shift $515 million of Defense Department spending from so-called missile defense to critical antiterrorism programs. A “yes” vote backed the funding shift; a “no” vote favored spending scarce Pentagon funds on missile defense over antiterrorism programs.

Voting no: Sen. Specter and Sen. Santorum.

On “interrogation files”: The Senate rejected, 50-46, a proposal that would require the Justice Department to release relevant files on administration policy governing the interrogation of prisoners of war and enemy combatants. A “yes” vote indicates support for disclosing the documents; a “no” vote represents opposition to releasing the files.

Voting no: Sen. Specter and Sen. Santorum.

(Source: “Area Votes in Congress,” the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 27.)

Thankfully, there’s an alternative to six more years of Sen. Specter: Rep. Joe Hoeffel.

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MoveOn with Hoeffel
The campaign of Rep. Joe Hoeffel, the Pennsylvania congressman running against incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (R), continues to gain momentum. This week Hoeffel won one of the first four endorsements from MoveOn.

The Philadelphia Inquirer explains the significance of the endorsements (“Hoeffel, Murphy Get Backing of MoveOn.org,” by Nancy Petersen and Carrie Budoff):

Last week, in an e-mail sent to all its members, MoveOn asked for nominations for House and Senate candidates to support in the fall elections. According to its Web site, the organization received 16,000 responses and 400 nominations.

Hoeffel and Murphy were two of the first four candidates whose campaigns were singled out as needing financial support from MoveOn members before they file fund-raising reports with the Federal Election Commission at the end of this month.

“Demonstrating that they’ve raised significant early money -- especially from small donors -- will make a big difference in how they’re viewed nationally,” Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn’s PAC, wrote in an e-mail to members.

MoveOn also endorsed the candidacy of Lois Murphy of Lower Merion, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb. Murphy is challenging freshman incumbent Rep. Jim Gerlach (R) in Pennsylvania’s sixth congressional district. According to the Inquirer, “The Sixth Congressional District covers parts of Montgomery, Chester and Berks Counties, stretching from Lower Merion to Reading. Pundits said the district was drawn to favor Gerlach, but his Democratic challenger in 2002, Dan Wofford, nearly defeated him in a race that was a lot closer than expected.”

Also getting the nod from MoveOn were Arizona’s Paul Babbitt and Patty Wetterling of Minnesota.

This is excellent and exciting news for Hoeffel. Please consider aiding MoveOn’s effort on Hoeffel’s behalf by donating to the Hoeffel campaign today.

Why are They Always Picking on Me?
President Let Me Finish and his handlers didn’t much care for a couple of really-not-all-that-tough questions from Carole Coleman of RTÉ. If you haven’t seen or heard the interview, you can catch it here. (See also “Angry White House Pulls RTÉ Interview,” by Miriam Lord, the Irish Independent.)

Theresa’s Money; John’s Money
Who cares how much money Theresa Heinz Kerry has, whether it’s $500 million or $1 billion? Democratic presidential aspirant Sen. John F. Kerry has been raising money hand over fist (“Kerry's Campaign Has Soared From Poorhouse to Penthouse,” by Glen Justice, the New York Times):

Late last year, Mr. Kerry’s campaign was so broke that the senator had to mortgage his own home to keep the presidential effort in motion. Now its finances are soaring, the result of a surge of more than $100 million in contributions after the Super Tuesday primaries in March. That has given Mr. Kerry the distinction of being the best-financed challenger in presidential campaign history.

Keep it up, folks. Donate here.

Who’s Number Two?
Among those jockeying for the number-two spot on the Democratic ticket are Gov. Tom Vilsack (Iowa) and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.).

Even the Liberal Green Party
Cool. Even the liberal Green Party has rejected Ralph Nader, opting instead to nominate longtime activist David Cobb. (See also “Harvest Time,” by Hanna Rosin, the Washington Post.)

Michael Moore Called Fat
Calling a political adversary fat is pretty low. It’s hard, I think, to believe Ralph Nader would stoop so low.

Dean on Nader
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean takes a dim view of Ralph Nader’s campaign for the presidency: “I think Nader’s the biggest problem in the race right now,” Dean told the Boston Globe. (“Dean Sees Nader Support as Biggest Threat to Kerry,” by Glen Johnson.)

Practicing Without a License
My driver’s license lapsed several months ago. I haven’t driven since. (Actually, I haven’t driven a car since October 2002.) What am I so worried about? As noted here previously, President Call My Father has nominated Thomas Griffith for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit who has practiced law in the District and in Utah without license. The editors of the New York Times, among other observers, disapprove:

The unlicensed practice of law is no small matter, and certainly should disqualify anyone from sitting on what is often called the nation’s second-most-important court. Licensing puts a considerable burden on lawyers, who must study for bar exams and pay dues, but it is critical to policing the legal profession. Mr. Griffith has shown a striking disregard for the rules, and his profession.

Take a Chance on Your Health
Tell me there’s more to this story than appears:

Medicare is planning a lottery later this year for people with cancer, multiple sclerosis and several other diseases. For the 50,000 winners, the government will start helping pay for their medicine, but more than 450,000 others must wait until 2006.

[T]he law limits the new program to 50,000 people and $500 million, at least $200 million of which must be spent on cancer drugs. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Medicare recipients without prescription drug coverage are eligible.

“There’ll be a lottery to be chosen as one of 50,000 lucky individuals,” Thompson said.

(Link via Digby’s Hullabaloo.)

Good Question
Purported humorist P.J. O’Rourke, writing in The Atlantic (“I Agree With Me,” July/August), asks a good question: “When was the last time a conservative talk show changed a mind?” Here’s a better question: When was the last time P.J. O’Rourke made you laugh?

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda.]

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Deborah Solomon interviews Ron Reagan in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine (“The Son Also Rises,” June 27):

Solomon: How did your mother feel about being ushered to her seat by President Bush?

Reagan: Well, he did a better job than Dick Cheney did when he came to the rotunda. I felt so bad. Cheney brought my mother up to the casket, so she could pay her respects. She is in her 80’s, and she has glaucoma and has trouble seeing. There were steps, and he left her there. He just stood there, letting her flounder. I don’t think he's a mindful human being. That’s probably the nicest way I can put it.

And on the subject of the glowing and massive coverage of the funeral of his father, former President Ronald Reagan, there’s this:

Solomon: How do you account for all the glowing obituaries of him?

Reagan: I think it was a relief for Americans to look at pictures of something besides men on leashes. If you are going to call yourself a Christian -- and I don’t -- then you have to ask yourself a fundamental question, and that is: Whom would Jesus torture? Whom would Jesus drag around on a dog’s leash? How can Christians tolerate it? It is unconscionable. It has put our young men and women who are over there, fighting a war that they should not have been asked to fight -- it has put them in greater danger.

Keep talking, Ron. It’s nice having you on our side.

[Post-publication addendum (June 27): Also of interest: “The Other Reagan Legacy: Outspoken Son Ron,” by Rene Sanchez, the Washington Post, June 25.]

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Off the Deep End
I honestly don’t know how much longer I’ll be watching this controversy unfold from the inside, but it’s fascinating to see some members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, men who long ago squandered heaps of moral capital protecting their own, sowing the seeds of yet another major rift among the faithful. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (“Burke: Voting for Abortion Rights Candidate is a Sin,” by Jo Mannies and Tim Townsend):

Archbishop Raymond L. Burke said Friday that Catholics in St. Louis who vote for political candidates supportive of abortion rights have committed a grave sin in the eyes of the church, and should confess and do penance before receiving Communion. […]

On Friday, Burke made clear in the interview that a candidate’s position on abortion trumped their stands on other issues. Regardless of a Catholic’s reasons for voting for a candidate, “If the voter is aware of that politician’s pro-abortion position, they would still be supporting someone who is cooperating in the promotion of abortion.”

This is moral -- and political -- lunacy. It’s difficult to determine what the outcome will be: an emptying of abortion clinics or an emptying of the pews, but I have a strong feeling it’s more likely to be the latter.

Bishop Hubbard Cleared
The bishop who confirmed me more than 20 years ago, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the Diocese of Albany, N.Y., has been cleared of accusations of sexual misconduct by a panel of outside investigators headed by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White (“Report Clears Albany Bishop in Sexual Misconduct Inquiry,” by Daniel J. Wakin, the New York Times).

For those not aware, Bishop Hubbard, whom the Times correctly identifies as “one of the nation’s most liberal,” long has been a righteous thorn in the side of right-wing Catholics, including Roman Catholic Faithful, a group that has been peddling false charges and outlandish rumors about Bishop Hubbard for many years. (Other RCF targets include Bishop Matthew H. Clark of the Diocese of Rochester, N.Y., and Joseph L. Imesch, of the Diocese of Joliet, Ill.) [Full disclosure: Bishop Hubbard is a close family friend of my brother’s in-laws.]

Stewart Sentencing Delayed
The sentencing of publisher Martha Stewart, convicted in March of lying to federal prosecutors, has been delayed from July 8 to July 16. According to the Associated Press, “Martha Stewart’s sentencing was delayed yesterday for an additional week after her lawyers said they wanted the judge to have enough time to consider their requests for leniency and a new trial.” The delay came one day after prosecutors filed a motion opposing Stewart’s request for a new trial, a request arising from accusations of perjury against a key government witness. (See “Stewart Should Be Denied New Trial, Prosecutors Say” by Constance L. Hays, the New York Times, June 25.)

What Year is This?
The starting salary for flight attendants at Southwest Airlines is $14,000 annually. That figure is somewhat familiar to me. At my first job after graduate school I started at $14,500. In 1986.

Joining the Ranks
Among the “lay-offs” announced this week: MCI Inc.: 2,000; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.: 600; and Campbell Soup Co.: 400. (I remember when the term “lay-off” meant the workers affected would return to their jobs at some point in the future. When did that change?)

Read Your Own Paper
The editors of the Philadelphia Inquirer write, in “Victory on Chestnut Street”:

At a grand reopening of the Victory Building on Wednesday night, a red carpet ran up the granite staircase to the original wood doors of the jewel of Chestnut Street.

Talk about extreme makeovers. Vagrants once squatted at the top of its stairs. Rats once scurried in the shadows amid debris. Scrub trees grew from balconies. . . . This Victory, indeed, is one worth celebrating.

That’s true as far as it goes. The corner of 10th and Chestnut Streets is much improved by the $25 million rehab of the Victory Building, built in 1875 as the local office of the New York Mutual Life Insurance Co. And the editors are technically correct when they observe, “This remarkable renaissance on Chestnut is soiled only by the city-owned, boarded-up former library at 1021 Chestnut.”

The party, unfortunately, is premature, something the editors would know if they read their own newspaper, specifically the columns of Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron. Saffron, with ample justification, for months has been railing against the now all-but-certain eyesore proposed by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital: a seven-story, 700-vehicle parking garage at . . . 10th and Chestnut Streets.

It’s long been clear the Philadelphia City Planning Commission hasn’t been reading Saffron’s tightly reasoned and well-informed columns. What’s surprising is to learn her colleagues also have ignored her hard work and dogged determination when instead they should be celebrating and promoting it.

[Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda.]

Let’s hope recent reports of support for the presidential campaign of would-be two-time spoiler Ralph Nader, bemoaned here two days ago, are exaggerated. The Washington Post today reports from Concord, N.H. (“An Outsider Tries to Shake the ‘Spoiler’ Label,” by Shankar Vedantam):

Ralph Nader was flanked by five supporters and two campaign aides at the Siam Orchid restaurant on Main Street. . . . . He looked at the menu and asked, “What’s the most innocuous combination of nutrients?”

“Mr. Nader, I’m Aaron Rizzio, and I’m your campaign coordinator in New Hampshire,” one man said from across the table. Nader smiled. Rizzio asked whether the candidate was ready to address a meeting of his supporters.

“Where is it?” Nader asked.

“This is it,” Rizzio replied.

That must have been quite a blow to Nader’s ego, and it gets better:

In private, four of Nader’s five supporters around the table said they will vote for Democrat John F. Kerry if polls in late October show Nader tipping the state to President Bush.

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Walk on the Dark Side [*]
According to various media reports, including a brief item in today’s New York Times, Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) has been lined up to speak at the Republican National Convention later this summer. A spokesman for Sen. Miller declined to comment to the Times. But Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) observed: “This is the same Zell Miller who said 40 years ago that President Lyndon Johnson had sold his soul when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. . . . I do not understand what he is so angry about, but apparently he has lost his way.”

The Grownups are in Charge
Oh, yeah? Well he had it coming! The Washington Post reports (“Cheney Defends Use of Four-Letter Word,” by Dana Milbank and Helen Dewar):

Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday vigorously defended his vulgarity directed at a prominent Democratic senator earlier this week in the Senate chamber.

Cheney said he “probably” used an obscenity in an argument Tuesday on the Senate floor with Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and added that he had no regrets. “I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done it,” Cheney told Neil Cavuto of Fox News. The vice president said those who heard the putdown agreed with him. “I think that a lot of my colleagues felt that what I had said badly needed to be said, that it was long overdue.” […]

Cheney said yesterday he was in no mood to exchange pleasantries with Leahy because Leahy had “challenged my integrity” by making charges of cronyism between Cheney and his former firm, Halliburton Co. Leahy on Monday had a conference call to kick off the Democratic National Committee’s “Halliburton Week” focusing on Cheney, the company, “and the millions of dollars they’ve cost taxpayers,” the party said.

“I didn’t like the fact that after he had done so, then he wanted to act like, you know, everything’s peaches and cream,” Cheney said. “And I informed him of my view of his conduct in no uncertain terms. And as I say, I felt better afterwards.”

Sure, maybe he was just having a bad day, but I wonder whether something larger than the vice president’s notorious petulance is at work here. Something like: The Republicans are getting scared.

This Bush Need Not Apply
You know you’re in trouble when even the Irish are disinclined to extend rudimentary hospitality during your visit. From the Washington Post: “The protest plans -- contrasting so starkly with the festive receptions for presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton -- prompted such massive security that the morning newspapers called the 6,000-officer deployment the largest in the history of the island. Naval gunships patrolled an estuary, armored cars searched bogs and article after article reported complaints that the civil rights of protesters were being trampled.”

Just Managing at the Times
In the American Prospect Todd Gitlin offers a disturbing and depressing review of the New York Times in the year since the departure of the much-reviled (at least among those he fired) Howell Raines (“It Was a Very Bad Year,” July 1). Among those Gitlin calls to account: Bill Keller, Judith Miller, Richard W. Stevenson, Jodi Wilgoren, and Elisabeth Bumiller.

Dogs Bite Man
In the face of massive opposition, would-be animal killer Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggar (R) has abandoned a plan to put down animals in California shelters after just three days holding. Schwarzeneggar’s proposal would have saved $14 million annually, roughly 41 cents per resident (based on 2000 census figures).

[* Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda.]

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Worthy Book I
In this week’s New York Times Book Review, Peter Godwin writes an outstanding review of American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps by Philip Weiss. Excerpts:

Tonga has long since turned away from its blood-drenched past to become the Friendly Isles. There hadn’t been a murder there for seven years when, on Oct. 14, 1976, screams pierced the warm, inky Tongan night. Deborah Gardner, a strikingly pretty 23-year-old Peace Corps volunteer from Washington State, was being stabbed to death by a fellow volunteer, Dennis Priven. American Taboo is the story of how he got away with murder and walks free in New York to this day. To tell it, Philip Weiss has conducted a remarkably tenacious investigation, and has tracked down most of Deb Gardner’s colleagues, mining their letters home, their diaries, their unpublished novels and poems. […]

Originally intended to be “missionaries for democracy,” Peace Corps volunteers are still expected to live with the people they have come to help. This search for empathy extends to a denial of the legal wand of diplomatic immunity. So Priven found himself before the local law. When presented with a conflict of interest between their duty to a dead volunteer (and her parents) and their obligation to help a living perpetrator, the Peace Corps -- from the country director for Tonga, Mary George, on up -- favored the killer. It is this betrayal of trust that provides the main motor for Weiss’s crusade. Mary George, a born-again Christian who not long after the killing said she had a vision of someone else, a Tongan, conveniently, stabbing Gardner, asked the police to drop murder charges against Priven. In her cables back home about the incident she carefully avoided the “M” word.

Worthy Book II
In the same issue of the Book Review, Anthony Walton offers a compelling case for The State Boys Rebellion by Michael D’Antonio. Excerpt:

Conditions at schools like Fernald [Walter E. Fernald School for the Feebleminded, Waltham, Mass.] were appalling for those with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other true physical or mental conditions. Given little treatment or training, they were often straitjacketed or tied to chairs and left soaked in urine and feces. Their circumstances gradually improved as advocacy groups for the disabled and mentally ill were formed; but there was no one to advocate for Freddie [Boyce] and his friends, whose borderline intelligence scores were often simply a reflection of emotional problems stemming from years of neglect.

At Fernald, the attendants reigned supreme, and physical abuse was commonplace: one lawyer described school records discovered years later as a “ledger of broken arms.” Sexual abuse of boys by attendants and older youths was also frequent. In an incident emblematic of the regime of terror, the boys were lined up one morning before taking their turns in the bathrooms. A boy called Howie refused to stand quietly; the female attendant ordered all the boys to pull down their trousers for “red cherries” (beatings with a coat hanger). Terrified, Howie wet his pants. The attendant then ordered a group including Freddie to urinate into a bowl, and hurled the contents into Howie’s face.

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I won’t be seeing “Fahrenheit 9/11” today after all.

We headed out to catch the 2:00 p.m. matinee at the Ritz East.

While we were waiting to buy tickets an employee of the theatre came outside to inform everyone that the 2:00 p.m. showing had sold out.

As had the 3:00 p.m. showing.

And the 4:45 p.m. showing.

And the 5:45 p.m. showing.

And the 7:30 p.m. showing.

And the 8:30 p.m. showing.

And the 10:15 p.m. showing.

And the 11:15 p.m. showing.

And the 8:30 p.m. showing tomorrow night.

[Post-publication addendum: Having been shut out of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” we ate lunch and then rented Michael Moore’s last documentary, “Bowling for Columbine,” which none of us had seen. If Moore was just warming up with that film, made in 2002, I can only imagine how good “Fahrenheit 9/11” must be. I’m thinking of catching “Fahrenheit 9/11” on Monday, most likely one of the earlier showings. Reader D.B., from Jenkintown, Pa., kindly suggested I see the film up there, though the invitation unfortunately did not include an offer of lunch or dinner. (Suburban Guerrilla’s Susie Madrak was luckier than I; she was able to see the film today, and observes: “The audience cheered and clapped at the end for at least five minutes; I'd never seen anything like it at a movie before.”)]

[Post-publication addendum: The otherwise excellent Philadelphia Daily News today offers readers exceptionally lame coverage of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” with Gary Thompson whining, “The movie is not a documentary.” In addition to that unoriginal, and poorly argued, “insight,” readers are treated to the gossip columnist everyone thought had retired, Stu Bykofsky, calling Moore fat not once, but twice. (Bykofsky’s snarking reminds me that the entertainment reporters at the Daily News long have had a problem with overweight people. [See final sentence.])]

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It’s Friday and I posted quite a bit yesterday, so it’s time to ease up. Besides, in a short while I’ll be heading out to catch a matinee of “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Until later, then, enjoy the following searches, just of few of many that recently brought readers to The Rittenhouse Review:

sean hannity separated at birth
Separated from what? Is there another one out there?

university of georgia cheerleading uniforms
No.

gentlemen’s club dancers photo gallery
Uh, no.

die family von gisela dulko
I believe this visitor intended to enter “familie.”

republican senator midge mcconnell of kentucky
“Midge”?

will the real hussian please stand up
Hussein, perhaps?

florida anchorwoman on-air suicide
Wow. Worse than the great Jessica Savitch meltdown.

through the lies i learned the truth. through the insults and putdowns i learned appreciation and respect.
Is someone trying to tell me something?

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Bill Pascoe, spokesman for U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan, Republican of Illinois, says his boss “is in the race to stay,” but anyone with half a brain knows that’s not the case.

The bitter truth is laid out meticulously in today’s Chicago Tribune by reporters Rick Pearson and Rudolph Bush (“With Successor in Mind, GOP Plots Ryan’s Exit”):

Anticipating a quick end to Jack Ryan’s candidacy for the U.S. Senate, state Republican leaders on Thursday began looking ahead to replace him on the November ballot, with former State Board of Education Chairman Ron Gidwitz emerging as the leading contender, several GOP sources said.

Ryan is not without his backers, including retiring U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), but it appears the Republican Party’s search for a new candidate has Ryan’s consent. The Tribune reports:

Meanwhile, GOP sources in Washington said Ryan’s campaign had been seeking advice on a strategy for exiting the race as the Republican members of Illinois’ House delegation, led by Speaker Dennis Hastert of Yorkville, [Ill.,] met behind closed doors and agreed unanimously that Ryan should drop out.

Ryan has little support among party regulars in Washington. According to the Tribune, the Illinois Republican delegation in the House of Representatives, at a meeting convened by Rep. Hastert, agreed Ryan should drop out of the race.

Meanwhile, the natives, or at least the locals, are getting restless:

On Thursday, GOP county chairmen across the state added their complaints about Ryan.

“It’s repulsive and alien for people in southern Illinois,” Richard Stubblefield of Mount Vernon, the Jefferson County GOP chairman. . . . “It’s time to move on. It’s time to have another candidate.”

Even more outspoken was state Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale), who also is GOP chairman in DuPage County, long regarded as the state’s most Republican county.

“Only in the Land of Oz would people think that Jack Ryan can beat Barack Obama after this week’s activity,” Dillard said, referring to the Democratic contender for the Senate post.

Ultimately, the matter lies in Ryan’s hands. According to the Tribune, Ryan, who won the Republican Party nomination in March, cannot be forced off the ballot. “But party leaders said privately that Ryan, should he continue to run, would have to spend heavily from his own substantial bank account because fundraising would dry up,” the paper reports.

If Ryan withdraws, the Illinois Republican State Central Committee will fill the vacancy. But with whom? The Tribune reports former governors Jim Edgar and James R. Thompson and current state Supreme Court Justice Bob Thomas have taken their names out of consideration, and Illinois Republican Party Chairman Judy Baar Topinka “has thus far shown no interest.”

Gidwitz, the leading contender to replace Ryan, is a member of the State Board of Education and previously ran Helene Curtis Industries, a family business. “Gidwitz is wealthy and could use his own money to try to mount a late-starting Senate contest,” the Tribune reporters observe.

Finally, the Tribune reports “State GOP leaders stressed that any replacement candidate would have to be thoroughly vetted to avoid any new embarrassments to the GOP.”

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This is great. Just great. The latest presidential election poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University and released today, shows a dead heat in Pennsylvania.

According to the Associated Press, the Quinnipiac Pennsylvania poll shows Sen. John F. Kerry with the support of 44 percent of registered voters and President George W. Bush garnering a 43-percent share. (Margin of error: plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.)

Neck and neck, as they say.

What’s that? Oh, you did the math? Yeah, 44 percent plus 43 percent equals 87 percent. Does that mean 13 percent of registered voters in Pennsylvania are undecided?

Not quite. Ralph Nader was named by 7 percent of those polled, leaving just 6 percent of Pennsylvanians undecided (or backing other so-called third-party candidates).

Incredible.

Pennsylvania is the nation’s sixth-largest state. Democrat Al Gore carried the state in 2000 by a margin of just over 4 percent, securing Pennsylvania’s coveted 21 electoral votes. Kerry needs those votes badly this year. Even in the best of circumstances Pennsylvania would be a tough fight. And now there’s Nader and his supporters, self-righteously proclaiming their ideological purity and condescendingly lecturing Kerry supporters that Nader represents a viable third-party alternative, insisting the secretive egotist “is in it to win.”

Everybody talks about Nader’s potential role as a spoiler -- one he strangely enjoys -- in Florida. Maybe it’s time for too many of us to look for the rot closer to home.

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Is it over for U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan, Republican of Illinois?

The Chicago Tribune reported at mid-day today (“Sources: Ryan Campaign Explores Exit Strategy,” by Rick Pearson and Rudolph Bush):

Officials in the Jack Ryan campaign have spoken to some members of the congressional delegation, asking for advice about a possible strategy for ending his candidacy in the U.S. Senate race, sources said today.

But as recently as this morning, a Ryan spokeswoman was denying rumors the candidate was reassessing whether to continue his campaign.

“We are not reassessing. Jack Ryan is in the race to stay. Jack Ryan will be in the race on Nov. 2,” Kelli Phiel told the Associated Press.

The conversations between Ryan’s campaign and Republicans in Washington came after the candidate dropped a scheduled trip to the nation’s capital to participate in a fundraising event with Sen. George Allen (R-Virginia), head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The cancellation of that fundraiser fueled speculation in the GOP that Ryan had lost crucial support from the national Republican group.

Republican sources told The Tribune said they expected the White House to weigh in on the viability of Ryan’s candidacy.

The Ryan campaign this morning acknowledged it had cancelled the trip to Washington, but that it was due to “other” reasons, unrelated to the fate of candidacy.

Meanwhile, Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass writes in today’s edition (“Ryan Should Quit Senate Race”):

Handsome Jack Ryan looks like a U.S. senator -- rich, tall, with nice teeth and an Ivy League education. But he’s much too delusional for the Senate. Some of us have seen this in him for a long time. Others became aroused only recently.

I figured Ryan was delusional last March, when the Democratic political consultants began whispering about Blair Hull’s divorce files and Hull’s files became public, killing off Hull’s campaign. The politics were a natural extension, from Hull to Ryan. Yet Ryan persisted in thinking that his own divorce files would remain sealed. He chirped and flashed those teeth, a mannequin of a political candidate animated only by his own narcissism. […]

The U.S. Senate is not a place for people like this.

I agree. The delusional do not belong in the Senate. The Bush White House, maybe, the Rumsfeld Pentagon definitely, but not the U.S. Senate.

This story is creepier than a Stanley Kubrick film.

[Post-publication addendum: Also in today’s Chicago Tribune: “Ex-Wife Stands by Allegations” and “Obama Lets Opponent Do Talking,” by David Mendell.]

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In today’s “Reliable Source,” a Washington Post column mercifully no longer in the hands of Lloyd Grove (he’s since moved on to richly deserved obscurity in New York), Richard Leiby writes:

In a just-revealed notation on a 2002 memo about interrogation tactics, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld indicated that making terrorism detainees stand for up to four hours was no biggie in the physical stress department. “I stand for 8-10 hours a day,” Rummy scrawled. “Why is standing limited to four hours?”

Adjusting the time span proportionately, what say we make Mr. Big-Shot “He Wrestled in College You Know” Secretary stand for 16 to 25 hours without relief?

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Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is a lazy man. I’m not talking about his steadfast unwillingness to make time for a decent haircut, but instead of his apparent inability to write a simple expository paragraph.

So reveals Tom Scocca in his latest “Off the Record” column in the New York Observer (June 28, 2004, p. 8).

Carter, you see, has written a book (What We’ve Lost) . . . sort of.

Scocca reports:

Despite reports of a platoon of researchers at Mr. Carter’s disposal, Farrar, Straus & Giroux has received a manuscript in which the writer’s argument frequently outruns his available facts. The result reads like a Mother Jones edition of Mad Libs: Vice President Dick Cheney is “currently under investigation by WHO for WHAT REGARDING BRIBING FOREIGN OFFICIALS DURING HIS TENURE AS HEAD OF THE COMPANY”; the White House has snubbed the “Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty, signed by TK nations WHEN.” [Ed.: For the uninitiated, “tk” is publishing shorthand for “to come” and is used as a placeholder when a writer expects, or expects others, to fill in the missing information at a later time.]

Off the Record was able to solve some of Mr. Carter’s troubles with Google. Using a dial-up Internet connection, it took 13 seconds to establish the curb weight of “the TK-lb Hummer” at 6,400 pounds (assuming it’s an H2). Slow-loading federal Web sites meant it took a full 30 seconds to learn that “the Forest Service -- created WHEN TO DO WHAT” was founded in 1905 to manage publicly owned forest reserves.

Geographic obscurities beyond Carter’s grasp include the states in which the Mall of America and Yellowstone National Park are located, the state capital of Texas, and the distance from his own residence to the former location of the World Trade Center.

Geesh. Will someone at least buy that man a map of Manhattan?

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Gail Shister reports in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer that Elisabeth Rohm’s turn on the hit series “Law & Order” may come to an end after the show’s next season.

Shister notes, “Rohm is the fifth (and weakest, in our book) actor to play the ADA.”

For this week’s reader poll, let’s turn that statement around and ask which of the five actors you think was best in the role of assistant district attorney.

Your choices, in alphabetical order, are: Richard Brooks (as Paul Robinette), Jill Hennessy (as Claire Kincaid), Angie Harmon (as Abigail Carmichael), Carey Lowell (as Jamie Ross), and Elisabeth Rohm (as Serena Southerlyn).

The poll, posted in the sidebar at right, will take your votes until the evening of Wednesday, June 30.

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Rex Reed reviews Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in this week’s New York Observer, and while the headline, “Moore’s Magic: 9/11 Electrifies,” about says it all, Reed’s essay is worth reading if only to get you salivating over what is sure to be the cinematic experience of the year:

[U]nless you’ve lost your sense of humor completely, you’ve just gotta laugh when Mr. Moore intercuts Mr. Bush’s tough talk from cowboy movies with actual footage of the corny cowboys in those movies saying exactly the same things.

I can’t wait for tomorrow.

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Iacocca’s On Board [*]
Former Chrysler Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lee Iacocca this afternoon publicly endorsed the presidential candidacy of Sen. John F. Kerry. Iacocca was a prominent backer of President George W. Bush during the still widely disputed 2000 election.

Sitting President Questioned by U.S. Attorney [*]
Bringing still more shame upon the integrity of the Oval Office, President George W. Bush today was questioned for more than an hour by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald and his associates in the ongoing Justice Department investigation into the White House leak, through right-wing columnist Robert Novak, of the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, a flagrant violation of federal law apparently motivated by nothing other than a dirty attempt at revenge against the Plame’s husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

As the Associated Press observes: “The investigation has been an embarrassment for a president who promised to bring integrity and leadership to the White House after years of Republican criticism of the Clinton administration.”

Patients’ Bill of Rights [*]
Do HMO customers need and deserve a “patients’ bill of rights”? The Democratic Party does. Most Republicans don’t. You’re not going to get your rights by sitting there doing nothing. Do something!

It’s Not Over Until the Fat Man Sings
Secretive and wilting Vice President Dick Cheney and the gang “won” the latest round in Cheney v. U.S. District Court when the Supreme Court today refused to order the Bush administration to reveal secret details of Vice President Cheney’s mysterious and donor-heavy energy task force. But it’s not over yet. According to the Associated Press, the Justices in a 7-2 decision (Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David H. Souter dissenting) said a lower court should consider whether the Federal Advisory Committee Act could be used to make the task force documents public.

Larry Didn’t Get the Memo
It looks like Larry McMurtry, a novelist not on the regular payroll of the New York Times, didn’t get the memo. In a lengthy review of former President Bill Clinton’s memoirs in today’s paper, McMurtry writes: “William Jefferson Clinton’s My Life is, by a generous measure, the richest American presidential autobiography -- no other book tells us as vividly or fully what it is like to be president of the United States for eight years.”

It’s a good thing Michiko Kakutani called in sick today.

Florida is a Blue State
The Republicans are worried about Florida. How can you tell? They’re playing kooky Cuba politics with educational programs that send American students to the island. The Associated Press reports:

[T]rips [to Cuba] are expected to drop dramatically after new U.S. measures aimed at pushing out Cuban leader Fidel Castro and squeezing the island’s economy take effect on June 30.

Despite a restrictive U.S. travel ban, American universities with a U.S. government license can bring undergraduate and graduate students for study programs generally lasting from a week to a month. But under the new rules, such trips must be at least 10 weeks long -- a requirement critics say will make it impossible for many students to study here.

The Bush administration, relying on recommendations from the U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, is concerned students and professors are abusing current travel regulations and engaging in “disguised tourism.”

The A.P. reports one example of spring-break madness in Castro’s tourist paradise:

A group of 19 graduate students from Tulane University spent two weeks here in June studying Cuba’s public health system. They spent time with children with Down’s Syndrome at a mental health center, visited a maternity home for pregnant women with high risks, and traveled to a rural clinic in central Cuba. They learned about alternative medicine, biotechnology development and the country’s battle with HIV and AIDS.

Sounds like a blast. Can’t have that kind of thing happening, can we?

Still Watching After All These Years
I can’t decide whether Human Rights Watch has the most interesting or the most depressing web site in the world.

[* Note: Additional items may be posted to “Political Notes” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda.]

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There’s Always Next Year [*]
Martina Navratilova today lost her second-round Ladies’ Singles match at Wimbledon, falling 6-3, 3-6, 3-6 to Gisela Dulko of Argentina.

Distracted [*]
If I seem a bit distracted through the weekend there can only be one explanation: the U.S. Olympic Gymastics Team Trials are underway in Anaheim, Calif. According to the schedule, the all-around preliminaries begin at 10:00 p.m. (EDT) tonight and the all-around finals start at 6:00 p.m. (EDT) Saturday. Oh, and I think the women’s team is being assembled in Anaheim this weekend also.

Fair Trade?
Jason Smathers, 24, an engineer at America Online, was arrested at his home in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., yesterday and charged with stealing 92 million e-mail addresses of AOL customers and selling them to spammers (“AOL Worker Is Accused of Selling 93 Million E-Mail Names,” by Saul Hansell, the New York Times).

What’s that? One e-mail address for every three “Try AOL Free!” CDs the company sends through the post each month?

Bad Headline, Good Article
In today’s New York Times reporters Sara Rimer and Karen W. Arenson ask, “Top Colleges Take More Blacks, but Which Ones?”

Hmm . . . Which blacks or which colleges? That question aside (the authors mean “which black students”), here’s a lengthy pull quote from an otherwise interesting article:

While about 8 percent, or about 530, of Harvard’s undergraduates were [Ed.: are?] black, Lani Guinier, a Harvard law professor, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Harvard’s African and African-American studies department, pointed out that the majority of them -- perhaps as many as two-thirds -- were West Indian and African immigrants or their children, or to a lesser extent, children of biracial couples.

They said that only about a third of the students were from families in which all four grandparents were born in this country, descendants of slaves. Many argue that it was students like these, disadvantaged by the legacy of Jim Crow laws, segregation and decades of racism, poverty and inferior schools, who were intended as principal beneficiaries of affirmative action in university admissions.

What concerned the two professors, they said, was that in the high-stakes world of admissions to the most selective colleges -- and with it, entry into the country's inner circles of power, wealth and influence -- African-American students whose families have been in America for generations were being left behind.

“I just want people to be honest enough to talk about it,” Professor Gates, the Yale-educated son of a West Virginia paper-mill worker, said recently, reiterating the questions he has been raising since the black alumni weekend last fall. “What are the implications of this?”

Someday in Paradise
Hey, Vaara, did you see this? “What’s Doing: In Helsinki,” by Lizette Alvarez:

Summers in Helsinki are the perfect salve for the country’s somber winters. The sun hovers in the sky most of the night. Temperatures linger at the pleasant mark -- not too hot, not too cold. And restaurants turn themselves inside out, their tables spilling across city sidewalks.

On sunny days, it seems as if all of Helsinki is biking, boating, walking, picnicking or just lolling about in parks and cafes. The city, a hodgepodge of Art Nouveau, Modernist and Russian architecture, provides free bicycles at stands around the city in the summer while the harborfront is chockablock with boats. Festivals are a summer mainstay, ranging from the traditional (opera) to the cutting edge (electronic music). And into the wee hours, crowds drop in on the flourishing and funky bar scene.”

One day; not any time soon, but someday.

[* Note: Additional items may be posted to “PP&T” after initial publication but only on the day of publication, excluding post-publication addenda.]

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In Monday’s “Persons, Places, and Things” (second item, “Clinton’s Memoirs: Is My Life the Last Word?”), I wondered whether My Life, truly would be former President Bill Clinton’s last word on his presidency.

In today’s New York Post, Cindy Adams reports President Clinton is in talks with an unnamed publisher, I presume Alfred A. Knopf, for two more books.

Watch for Michiko Kakutani to call in sick tomorrow.

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Spoon-feeding Hilton Kramer
In the opening pages of the June issue of the New Criterion, edited by Hilton Kramer and funded by the Olin, Bradley, and Scaife Foundations, readers are treated to a startling display of the willingness of conservative intellectuals to be spoon-fed by the Bush administration (while they’re not spoon-feeding their own bizarre schemes to the Pentagon, that is). The editors write:

Of course, they don’t say that it was only a handful of low-lifes perpetrating the outrages. . . . If we are Seymour Hersh, we write a story for The New Yorker attempting to implicate the Secretary of Defense in the episode. . . . The New Yorker published Hersh’s essay under the rubric “Fact.” But is it factual? According to a Pentagon spokesman, Hersh’s claims are “outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture.” . . . Hersh’s piece was published about a week before U.S. forces rolled into Baghdad in one of the swiftest, least bloody, and most brilliantly coordinated military assaults in history. [Emphasis added.]

A strangely uncritical assessment from a journal that not only cribbed its name from T.S. Eliot but in the same “Notes & Comments” section in the very same issue refers to itself as “the best cultural review in English.”

527s
For everything you ever wanted to know about 527s, but were afraid to ask (Ray Bradbury, please call Norah Vincent, Norah Vincent, please call Hilton Kramer), see “Shadow Warriors,” by Michael Crowley in New York magazine.

Put Up or Shut Up
Act for Change has launched a campaign calling on Vice President Dick Cheney to “Prove It or Resign.” According to the activist group: “Vice President Dick Cheney is at it again. From the earliest moments after the tragedy of 9/11, Mr. Cheney has sought to convince the American public that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was linked to Al Qaida. So far, all the evidence demonstrates otherwise, yet Mr. Cheney keeps pushing his tall tale. And now he indicates that he has evidence not previously revealed to the 9/11 Commission. If he does, he should reveal it immediately and let the experts and the public judge it. Frankly, in other times, withholding such evidence would be grounds for impeachment. If he does not have such evidence, he should stop making it up and resign.”

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Oh, that memo!
“We didn’t mean it” seems to be the Bush administration’s preferred defense against accusations it condoned, even encouraged, the torture, abuse, and humiliation of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. The Washington Post reports (“Memo on Interrogation Tactics Is Disavowed,” by Mike Allen and Susan Schmidt) officials from the White House, the Justice Department, and the Pentagon “disavowed an internal Justice Department opinion that torturing terrorism suspects might be legally defensible, saying it had created the false impression that the government was claiming authority to use interrogation techniques barred by international law.” And: “Responding to pressure from Congress and outrage around the world, officials at the White House and the Justice Department derided the August 2002 legal memo on aggressive interrogation tactics, calling parts of it overbroad and irrelevant and saying it would be rewritten.”

Oh, that kind of sovereignty!
Iraq is a week away from some sort of “sovereignty.” Not the kind of sovereignty recognizable to any student of international law, but what the heck? Writing in the Los Angeles Times (“A ‘Sovereign’ Iraq? Don’t You Believe It”), sociologist Amatai Etzioni raises questions: “The United States is about to fall prey to its own propaganda. President Bush has repeatedly said we will grant ‘full and complete sovereignty’ to Iraq on June 30. We’ve said we’ll turn over Saddam Hussein for trial and punishment and that the occupation will finally be replaced by Iraqi self-rule. But these grand promises are as unbelievable as they are unattainable.”

Oh, that Lollapalooza!
“Plagued with lousy ticket sales, this year's Lollapalooza tour was canceled yesterday, unplugging the best-known alternative rock festival in the country.” And thousands of Morrissey fans do their friends a favor by slitting their wrists.

[Note: Additional items may be posted to PP&T after initial publication.]

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This is just making its way to the “mainstream media”?

The Washington Post today reports on some strange goings-on at the Capitol in late March (“The Rev. Moon Honored at Hill Reception,” by Charles Babington and Alan Cooperman):

More than a dozen lawmakers attended a congressional reception this year honoring the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in which Moon declared himself the Messiah and said his teachings have helped Hitler and Stalin be “reborn as new persons.”

At the March 23 ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) wore white gloves and carried a pillow holding an ornate crown that was placed on Moon’s head. The Korean-born businessman and religious leader then delivered a long speech saying he was “sent to Earth . . . to save the world’s six billion people. . . . Emperors, kings, and presidents . . . have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord, and True Parent.”

Details of the ceremony -- first reported by Salon.com writer John Gorenfeld [“Hail to the Moon King”] -- have prompted several lawmakers to say they were misled or duped by organizers. Their complaints prompted a Moon-affiliated Web site to remove a video of the “Crown of Peace” ceremony two days ago, but other Web sites have preserved details and photos.

White gloves?

Carried a pillow?

(By the way, for “other Web sites,” read weblogs.)

More from the Post:

Some Republicans who attended the event, including Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (Md.), said they did so mainly to salute the Washington Times, a conservative-leaning newspaper owned by Moon’s organization. “I had no idea what would happen” regarding Moon’s coronation and speech, Bartlett said yesterday.

Conservative-leaning?

And, holy cow, Roscoe Bartlett is still in Congress?

Lovely town, Frederick, Maryland. Strange voters.

[Bonus from the Gorenfeld article: Pennsylvania Republican’s dishonesty exposed: “Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., whose office maintained he did not attend the event until I provided photographs of him there[,] spoke beside a photograph of himself pinning an American flag on Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, back when President Bush was praising him for abandoning WMD programs and before he was suspected of trying to kill the leader of Saudi Arabia.”]

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U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan, an Illinois Republican, expects the controversy surrounding Monday’s release of damaging documents in his pending divorce case to “go away very quickly,” but some state Republican Party leaders are raising questions about Ryan’s honesty and the viability of his candidacy.

The Chicago Tribune reports (“GOP Leaders Say They Felt Misled on Ryan File,” by Rick Pearson and Liam Ford): “Ryan was determined to try to quickly put the controversy over the documents behind him, including allegations made by his former wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan. . . . The documents released by the court also showed that Ryan vehemently denied the allegations when his ex-wife first leveled them in 2000. At a news conference Monday, Ryan declined to answer directly when asked to renew that denial, instead referring repeatedly to his statement in a legal declaration four years ago that the charges were libelous and ‘smut.’”

Meanwhile, Republicans, presumably including those of the God-fearing, “family values” type, are circulating “talking points” that emphasize Ryan “never broke the law, never broke one of the 10 Commandments, and never broke his wedding vows.”

As for Ryan, he offers this defense: “She says three times over eight years [of marriage], we went to places that she felt uncomfortable. That’s the worst of it. I think almost any spouse would take that as, ‘Gosh, if that’s the worst someone can say about me after seeing me live my life for eight years . . .’ then people say, ‘Gosh, the guy’s lived a pretty clean life.’” [Emphasis added.]

I give Ryan’s candidacy another 48 hours, tops.

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As one who avoids the upper double digits of my local cable company’s offerings, I rarely see the likes of Ann Coulter, at least when she’s not out hawking one of her factually impaired screeds. But Mark Ames of the New York Press caught a glimpse of Coulter the other day. His assessment:

Last week, Ann Coulter appeared on “Hannity & Colmes” looking haggard and clinically insane. The Night of the Living Dead circles underneath her eyes, the lifeless hair -- it looks like she’s been living on canned foods for the past two months. Ann looked like she should be pushing a shopping cart, not politicking for Bush. It wasn’t just what she said -- like repeatedly accusing Holocaust survivor George Soros of being an anti-Semite -- it was how she said it. She laughed insanely after every sentence fragment she uttered, a clear symptom of late-stage paranoid-schizophrenia.

You don’t have to be a delusional former psychiatrist nor a wannabe pop psychologist to see the truth in Ames’s observations of Coulter’s condition, despite how sadly misguided is the rest of his take on the more primal aspects of her purported appeal.

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The Associated Press is reporting:

An Iraqi militant group has beheaded its South Korean hostage, Al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday. The South Korean foreign ministry issued a statement confirming the report.

The pan-Arab station said it had received a videotape showing that Kim Sun-il had been executed.

Kim, 33, worked for a South Korean company supplying the U.S. military in Iraq and was abducted last week, according to the South Korean government.

Kim was shown in the videotape kneeling, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit similar to those issued to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The tape showed five hooded men standing behind Kim, one reading a statement and gesturing with his right hand. Another captor had a big knife slipped in his belt.

The video as broadcast did not show Kim being executed.

Al-Jazeera said the video claimed the execution was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked group Monotheism and Jihad.

Time to count out South Korea among the “coalition of the willing.”

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Bad news for Republicans in Illinois (and Washington, for that matter).

The top headline in today’s Chicago Tribune reads: Ryan File a Bombshell.

It’s not a pretty story, and the details are very un-Rittenhouse, so we’ll just reveal the lead graph: “Republican U.S. Senate nominee Jack Ryan’s ex-wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan, accused him of taking her to sex clubs in New York and Paris, where he tried to coerce her into having sex with him in front of strangers, according to records released Monday from the couple’s California divorce file.”

Needless to say, the fall-out from this story could be dramatic. The Tribune reports (story by John Chase and Liam Ford):

The political impact of the revelations on Jack Ryan’s candidacy will play out over the next several days. One prominent Illinois Republican, U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood of Peoria, said he was “shocked” that Ryan would run for public office carrying such baggage and called on him to get out of the race.

Reaction from other Republicans ranged from caution to outright defense of Ryan.

“We’re not looking at trying to replace Jack Ryan. He’s an excellent candidate,” said Dan Allen, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “We feel this race will be decided on the issues.”

Still, other Republicans acknowleged that Ryan’s political future was in doubt. An adviser to President Bush said the revelation made it more likely the Bush-Cheney campaign would steer clear of Illinois.

FYI: Ryan’s opponent in November is Barack Obama. (A while back I read a fascinating profile of Obama, but I can’t remember where. I’ll try to find it and post a link.)

(See also: “Ex-Wife Says Ryan Pushed Sex Clubs,” by Scott Fornek and Dave McKinney, in the Chicago Sun-Times.)

[Post-publication addendum: Although this isn’t the profile of Obama I had in mind, thanks go out to readers R.S. and B.S. for directing my attention to “The Candidate,” by William Finnegan in the May 31 issue of the New Yorker, the first sentence of which reminds me Obama published Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance in 1995. The book is due out in paperback in August.]

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More on Kakutani
For more on New York Times book reviewer Michiko Kakutani’s Sunday hatchet job on President Bill Clinton, see “Her Life,” by Michael Tomasky a web exclusive at the American Prospect’s web site, appropriate subtitled “Why Michiko Kakutani’s review of Bill Clinton tells us more about reviewer than reviewee.”

Bradbury Gets Cranky
Seemingly unfamiliar with the meaning of the term “homage,” Ray Bradbury, author of the classic Fahrenheit 451, is miffed Michael Moore didn’t ask permission before naming his new film, “Fahrenheit 9/11.” According to a report in the Boston Globe, “The author said he won’t sue ‘if [Moore] will shake hands with me and give me back my book and title.’”

[Post-publication addendum (June 23): See also Fred Clark, writing at Slacktivist, “Something Petty This Way Comes.”]

Lining Up for the Big Dog
My Life by former President Bill Clinton debuts in bookstores nationwide today and big crowds are expected at signings in New York and elsewhere. Here’s a perceptive quote from Patrick Moriarty, a chap waiting to see President Clinton in midtown Manhattan: “It’s not every day that you’re able to get within a couple of feet of one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times offers readers the first chapter of My Life.

World’s Greatest Athlete
Martina Navratilova may not be the world’s greatest athlete (I don’t follow sports closely enough to judge), but she’s got to rank right up there. Top-seeded Roger Federer may agree. According to the New York Times (“Navratilova Wins and Aims Volleys at Critics,” by Christopher Clarey): “Federer . . . was asked whom he considered the greatest athletes of all time. ‘Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher,’ he answered, before pausing for a long time, searching for one last name before walking out the door. He finally found it, ‘Navratilova.’”

The same article includes a nice quip from Navratilova: “My only ambition was to be the youngest; it wasn’t to be the oldest in something. But that’s how it worked out, so I’m not complaining.”

World’s Greatest Pundit
Here’s New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on Attorney General John Ashcroft‘s willful neglect of a domestic terrorist threat (“Noonday in the Shade“): “Writing about John Ashcroft poses the same difficulties as writing about the Bush administration in general, only more so: the truth about his malfeasance is so extreme that it’s hard to avoid sounding shrill. . . . After my last piece on Mr. Ashcroft, some readers questioned whether he is really the worst attorney general ever. It’s true that he has some stiff competition from the likes of John Mitchell, who served under Richard Nixon. But once the full record of his misdeeds in office is revealed, I think Mr. Ashcroft will stand head and shoulders below the rest.”

Wal-Mart Facing Class Action
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation’s largest retailer and employer, today can lay claim to being the biggest something else: The defendant in the largest private civil rights case in American history. A federal judge this morning approved class-action status for a sex-discrimination lawsuit that, according to the Associated Press, “could represent as many as 1.6 million current and former female employees of the retailing giant.”

More on Rowland
For more on the resignation of Gov. John G. Rowland (R-Conn.), see: “Rowland Remains Unapologetic,” by Mark Pazniokas and Christopher Keating, the Hartford Courant; “Broken Promise,” by Lisa Chedekel, the Hartford Courant; “Rowland’s Woes Far From Over,” by Edmund H. Mahoney, the Hartford Courant; “No Shaking Off This Scandal,” by Dave Altimari, the Hartford Courant; “Under Pressure, Rowland Resigns Governor’s Post,” by William Yardley, the New York Times; “A Governor Resigns in Disgrace,” editorial, the New York Times; and “Connecticut Governor Resigns,” by Michael Powell, the Washington Post.

[Note: Items may be added to PP&T after initial publication.]

Ed Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation and “editor” of Townhall.com, is trolling about cyberspace with hat in hand, today distributing an e-mail to thousands of his friends, including The Rittenhouse Review, seeking $25, $50, or $100 from each reader in order to, in his own words, “keep Townhall.com on the web.”

I think I’ll let World O’ Crap dissect Feulner’s missive, but his appeal on behalf of the apparently cash-starved Townhall.com -- with its talk of facing “a growing threat of online sabotage from the ‘angry left’” and the need to “strengthen the Townhall.com site to protect against liberal ‘hackers’ who try to shut us down and shut us up with the click of a mouse” -- is just too precious not to share with you, my friends.

The full text is presented below:

Friend,

I’m Ed Feulner, president of The Heritage Foundation.

Heritage launched Townhall.com almost 10 years ago. Thanks to your loyalty and support, Townhall.com has pioneered conservatism online. It’s grown from an online start-up to an Internet powerhouse with over 1.5 million readers each month and is continuing to grow.

But our work is far from over. And Townhall.com needs your support now more than ever.

While our troops wage war against terrorists, we conservatives are in a battle of our own – a fight against liberal extremists right here at home.

These extremists are working to undermine the war on terrorism and destroy America’s reputation and credibility around the world.

They seek to destroy the bedrock values of marriage, family and freedom that are the very foundation of our country.

The liberals’ weapons? Activist judges who rewrite laws from the bench. Domination of the main stream news media and entertainment industry. Unprecedented power over America’s classrooms and universities.

The liberal extremists will stop at nothing to attack America’s founding principles and weaken America’s sovereignty. I’m counting on you to do everything you can to help Townhall.com STOP them.

I hope you will make an online contribution to Townhall.com today.

Townhall.com is the liberals’ worst nightmare. Through opinion columns, policy briefings and breaking news alerts, Townhall.com unleashes our best weapon: the FACTS.

And that’s just the beginning. Townhall.com’s up-to-the-minute C-Log is the conservative blog. Our national Meetups connect conservatives at the local level and help them change the world one community at a time. Our online chats put you in touch with conservative leaders.

None of these features would exist without the generous support of conservatives just like you.

That’s why your support today is essential to Townhall.com. Without you on our side, we cannot stop the liberals who will do and say anything to tear our nation apart.

We’re already seeing just how low liberals will stoop to slander conservatives and our policies.

And we’re already seeing Townhall.com’s effectiveness in setting the record straight…

While Hillary Clinton is smearing President Bush’s reputation in the Middle East by telling a foreign-based Arab newspaper the President is “stubborn” and “arrogant”

…while Ted Kennedy shamefully compares America’s brave troops to Saddam Hussein’s murderous henchmen…

…Townhall.com is offering up-to-the-minute commentary on how to win the War on Terror, protect our troops and strengthen our military.

While liberals are accusing conservatives of plotting to “eliminate Social Security”…

…Townhall.com is offering straightforward facts and figures showing how personal retirement accounts will empower individuals and save Social Security.

While the liberals are branding as “tyranny” President Bush’s constitutional duty to nominate judges…

…Townhall.com is alerting the nation to the dangers of judicial activism and the urgent need for responsible judges who respect our U.S. Constitution.

While the liberals are dismissing tax cuts as “heartless,” “irresponsible” and “immoral”…

…Townhall.com is providing proof that tax cuts are the key to boosting our economy and giving ALL taxpayers more control of their own money.

I hope you’ll do whatever you can – whether it’s $25, $50 $100 or even more – to keep Townhall.com on the web and on the warpath against the liberals’ distortions.

Remember: A stronger Townhall.com means a stronger conservative movement. And Townhall.com can continue to grow stronger and stronger only through your support.

Townhall.com already reaches 1.5 million people each month! As we earn more notoriety, we welcome more and more visitors. Townhall.com must have the resources to constantly improve our site and capitalize on this unprecedented opportunity to explain our conservative ideas.

You can make that happen today.

As Townhall.com grows more influential, we face a growing threat of online sabotage from the “angry left.” We must strengthen the Townhall.com site to protect against liberal “hackers” who try to shut us down and shut us up with the click of a mouse.

You can make that happen today.

As the liberals unleash a flood of propaganda about our conservative policies, we must fight them at every turn. We must add more columnists. Recruit more conservative groups. Host more online chats. Schedule more Meetups. We must do everything we can.

You can make that happen today.

We conservatives are in a fight we cannot lose. I hope you’ll give whatever you can to help Townhall.com win this fight. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Ed Feulner, President

The Heritage Foundation

P.S. Talk radio legend Rush Limbaugh says it best: “Townhall.com is must reading for conservatives who want to make a difference.” You can make a difference today by supporting Townhall.com’s election-year strategies and technologies – from our influential columnists and member groups to breaking news updates, Meetups and online chats. Your support makes these features possible. Please send whatever you can. Thank you!

Now, is this the same Townhall.com that publishes such luminaries as Mike Adams, Gary Aldrich, Mark Alexander, Doug Bandow, Michael Barone, Bruce Bartlett, Tony Blankley, Neal Boortz, Brent Bozell, Peter Brookes, Jay Bryant, Pat Buchanan, William F. Buckley, Neil Cavuto, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, Chuck Colson, Ward Connerly, Ann Coulter, Helle Dale, Larry Elder, Edwin J. Feulner, Suzanne Fields, Frank J. Gaffney Jr., Maggie Gallagher, Doug Giles, Jonah Goldberg, Paul Greenberg, Rebecca Hagelin, David Horowitz, Dexter Ingram, Paul Jacob, Jeff Jacoby, Terence Jeffrey, Jack Kemp, Charles Krauthammer, Larry Kudlow, John Leo, David Limbaugh, Rich Lowry, Ross Mackenzie, Michelle Malkin, Clifford D. May, John McCaslin, Joel Mowbray, Bill Murchison, Oliver North, Robert Novak, Marvin Olasky, Kathleen Parker, Dennis Prager, Alan Reynolds, Paul Craig Roberts, Debra Saunders, Phyllis Schlafly, Thomas Sowell, Jacob Sullum, Mark Tapscott, Cal Thomas, Matt Towery, Rich Tucker, Emmett Tyrrell, Malcolm Wallop, Jude Wanniski, Diana West, George Will, Armstrong Williams, and Walter Williams?

That Townhall.com?

Near as I can tell, though there may be a stray in that list somewhere, every one of Townhall.com’s contributors is employed at, and draws his or her paycheck from, an entity other than the needy Townhall.com.

So, aside from the incremental costs associated with servers and other technological goods already in place at the Heritage Foundation, on what, exactly, are the drunken sailors at Townhall.com spending readers’ hard-earned money?

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This just in from the Washington Post (“Support for Bush’s War on Terror Slips, Poll Shows,” by Richard Morin and Dan Balz):

Public anxiety over mounting casualties in Iraq and the doubts about long-term consequences of the war continue to rise and have helped to erase President Bush’s once-formidable advantage over Sen. John F. Kerry on who is best able to deal with terrorist threats, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Exactly half the country now approves of the way Bush is managing the U.S. war on terrorism, down 13 points since April, according to the poll. Barely two months ago, Bush comfortably led Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, by 21 percentage points when voters were asked which man they trusted to deal with the terrorist threat. Today the country is evenly divided, with 48 percent preferring Kerry and 47 percent favoring Bush.

Other notable findings from the poll:

Fewer than half of those surveyed -- 47 percent -- say the war in Iraq was worth fighting, while 52 percent say it was not, the highest level of disapproval recorded in Post-ABC News polls.

And:

Seven in 10 Americans now say there has been an “unacceptable” level of casualties in Iraq, up six points from April and also a new high in Post-ABC News polling

Still more bad news for the Bush administration:

The public is now sharply divided over whether the war contributed to the long-term security of the United States, with barely half -- 51 percent -- saying it has, a new low in Post-ABC polls. Three in four say the conflict has damaged the image of the United States throughout the world and a majority believe the war has not improved prospects for long-term peace and stability in the Middle East.

Even more significant given the small number of likely voters thought to be undecided about the November election:

Virtually all of the recent movement against the war has occurred among political independents. Among those with no firm party ties, the proportion who said the war was “not worth fighting” increased from 48 percent in May to 59 percent in the latest poll.

Never before has a presidential campaign so poorly spent $85 million. A million dollars a day and losing ground. Karl Rove, please call your office.

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Poor Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Rejected by Democratic Party voters during the presidential primary season -- fitting treatment given, among other things, his contribution of absolutely nothing to the party’s last campaign for the White House -- it seems the junior senator from Connecticut might be a bit put off at his increasing obscurity.

The Hartford Courant today reports (“Lieberman Now Kerry’s Odd Man Out,” by David Lightman):

John Kerry’s former rivals were everywhere last week, huddling with the likely Democratic nominee, raising money for the Massachusetts senator and touting the candidate’s strengths to the media -- with one notable exception.

Dick Gephardt met with Kerry privately for about an hour at the Capitol. Bob Graham engaged reporters in a conference call on Iraq. Wesley Clark was the host of a big fund-raiser, and John Edwards headed south for some rallies.

Joe Lieberman, meanwhile, went his own way, apart from the crowd.

At almost the same hour Graham, the Florida senator, was protesting that the war in Iraq forced the U.S. to take resources from Afghanistan and thus “put our country at greater risk to terrorists,” Lieberman was at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel.

There, the Connecticut Democrat told an audience consisting largely of Iraq war supporters -- many of them Democrats -- that it’s no shame to back President Bush in this case.

“If the president of the United States happens to be a Republican who shares these values, it's in the tradition of the Democratic Party that we will support that president,” Lieberman said. “Ultimately, loyalty to country is more important than loyalty to party.”

He’s still a Democrat, Lieberman said. He still wants Kerry to unseat Bush, he said, and “I’ve made a carte blanche offer to the campaign to do whatever I can.”

But Lieberman also has strong disagreements with his party mainstream about the war, and it’s freezing him out.

“I wouldn’t say he’s a liability,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, “but the Kerry campaign doesn’t want any noise getting in the way until their candidate gets better known.”

And protestations otherwise aside, Sen. Lieberman isn’t being pushed aside by the party; the current situation is of his own making. As the Courant reminds readers, “Though the senator says he’s eager to help Kerry, he did not follow the pattern of other dropouts, who quickly appeared with the presumptive nominee. Instead, Lieberman took his time endorsing Kerry, and so far has made only one out-of-state appearance with him.”

Lake is correct. Sen. Lieberman isn’t a liability; he’s just irrelevant.

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The Hartford Courant reported at mid-day today that Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, a once fast-rising star in the Republican Party now facing impeachment proceedings, intends to announce his resignation during a televised address at 6:00 o’clock this evening.

The Courant reports (“Rowland Will Resign,” by Mark Pazniokas, Lynne Tuohy, and Jon Lender [Ed.: Link updated post-publication by CtNow.com.]):

Rowland, 47, the target of a federal criminal investigation and Connecticut’s first gubernatorial impeachment inquiry, made his decision Saturday after consulting with his lawyers, sources said. […]

The state Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision Friday, upheld the validity of the House impeachment committee’s subpoena for Rowland’s testimony, leaving the governor with no realistic options other than defying the committee.

As the target of a federal investigation, Rowland could not afford to testify, possibly jeopardizing his defense in a criminal case. Avoiding testimony by asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination would have been a political defeat.

Sources close to Rowland said they have no idea how the resignation will factor into the ongoing grand jury investigation into corruption in his administration. Rowland’s resignation is not part of any deal with federal prosecutors, who have told other targets of their investigation that indictments are possible this summer. […]

Rowland’s resignation will take effect July 1, sources said. […]

Evidence presented during the past two weeks in televised hearings had established what newspapers had reported: Rowland had accepted a variety of favors from state contractors and close aides in violation of state ethics laws.

Such a shame, huh?

[Post-publication addendum: Additional coverage: “Connecticut Governor Announces His Resignation,” by William Yardley, the New York Times; “Connecticut Governor Anounces Resignation,” by Susan Haigh, the Associated Press.]

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President George W. Bush will be in Philadelphia again Wednesday.

Obviously not one to be discouraged from visiting a city where he clearly is not wanted except by a few fringistas, President Bush is scheduled to appear at the Greater Exodus Baptist Church at 800 North Broad Street (at Fairmount Avenue).

According to today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, “President Bush is expected to speak about compassion and HIV/AIDS.”

Hmm . . . "Faith-based initiatives"? "Abstinence only"? Or some other tired cliche?

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Looking Great Over 40
At the All-England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon today Martina Navratilova, age 47, easily defeated (just 46 minutes) Colombia Castano, age 24, 6-1, 6-0. The first-round match marked Navratilova’s first appearance in the women’s singles draw at Wimbledon in 10 years, and she is the oldest woman to play the singles tournament in 82 years. (Additional coverage from the official Wimbledon web site: “Martina Sprints to Victory,” by Mike Donovan; and the New York Times: “Navratilova, 47, Wins at Wimbledon,” by Chritopher Clarey.)

Clinton’s Memoirs: Is My Life the Last Word?
Dee Dee Myers, a former press secretary to President Bill Clinton, thinks My Life was published 10 years too early. The Associated Press reports: “Myers suggested Clinton might have given shortshrift treatment to the historical record relating to his policies in a book in which he spends considerable energy discussing his early life, his conflicts, personal torment and lapses in judgment. She said Clinton’s account ‘would have been better, more integrated, more interesting, if he’d given it more time.’” Possibly, but who’s to say My Life is President Clinton’s last word on the subject? Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wrote two hefty volumes. At last count former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had written three.

Old-Fashioned Campaigning
Union members in Pennsylvania are campaigning the old-fashioned way: door to door. And it appears that are no lack of rank-and-file members willing to help. The Washington Post reports: “Saturday morning [in Erie, Pa.], AFL-CIO organizers set out doughnuts and coffee and held a meeting for workers willing to give up half a weekend to save union jobs. Their task would be to knock on members’ doors to get the word out that this year’s presidential election is crucial for jobs and health care, not to mention that the Democrat, Sen. John F. Kerry, is their friend. The hope was that 40 to 50 workers might show up. Instead, 90 people crowded a meeting room with faded walls and warped floors.”

Perp Walk in Paris
From the Associated Press: “Jean-Marie Messier, the former chief executive of Vivendi Universal, was taken into police custody Monday in an investigation into financial wrongdoing during his time at the media and telecommunications giant, police said. Police said Messier was being held by the financial crime brigade and could remain in custody for questioning for up to 48 hours.”

We Love Torture!
What is it about torturing prisoners that got so many Bush administration officials so excited? Tom Engelhardt examines the question in the Daily MoJo, published by Mother Jones magazine (“Water-boarding,” June 18): “[T]he Bush administration had torture on the brain. Its officials were fixated on the subject, which went so naturally with the President’s new-style, no-holds-barred, we’re-the-only-law-in-town, dead-or-alive, assassination-and-kidnapping ‘war on terrorism.’ It’s no longer a matter of whether knowledge of the acts committed at Abu Ghraib prison reach the President and his advisors, but of what can only be termed a complete obsession with the subject of torture among those figures. The highest officials at the Pentagon, in the military, in the CIA, and at the Justice Department clearly couldn’t stop thinking about torture -- as over the course of more than a year they requested legal memorandum after memorandum, all chewing over how to define torture so that various inhumane acts involving the infliction of mental and physical pain would not be considered such; over how far to go when too far was never quite far enough. In this sense, whether they were aware of the individual acts of horror at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere (and a number of them evidently were), they were certainly intensely aware that acts of this nature and worse were a ‘necessity’ of their war (even if photos of them were not).”

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Care”
You're paying for this: “Even with concerns growing about military troop strength, 770 people were discharged for homosexuality last year under the military's ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy, a new study shows. . . . Hundreds of those discharged held high-level job specialties that required years of training and expertise, including 90 nuclear power engineers, 150 rocket and missile specialists and 49 nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare specialists. Eighty-eight linguists were discharged, including at least seven Arab language specialists.”

“Simpsons” Fan, “Simpsons” Star?
Producers of “The Simpsons” have asked Rowan Williams, better known at the Archbishop of Canterbury, to participate in an upcoming episode of the program. The archbishop is reported to be a longtime fan of the popular animated series. Who isn’t?

[Note: Items may be added to PP&T after initial publication.]

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The Washington Post today reports (“Judicial Nominee Practiced Law Without License in Utah,” by Carol D. Leonnig,” June 21):

Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush’s nominee for the federal appeals court in Washington, has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the past four years, according to Utah state officials. […]

Under Utah law, Griffith’s only option for obtaining the state license was to take and pass the state bar exam, an arduous test that lawyers try to take only once. He applied to sit for the exam, but never took it, Utah bar officials confirm. […]

Griffith has declined to discuss the matter, which is expected to be a subject of his nomination hearings tentatively scheduled for next week.

I can’t wait to hear Republicans describe how “insignificant” this “minor oversight” really is.

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The New York Times Still Hates Clinton
What is it about President Bill Clinton that makes so many of the old gray ladies so nasty? This time, it’s Michiko Kakutani, reviewing Clinton’s memoirs, My Life.

Kakutani snarls: “In many ways, the book is a mirror of Mr. Clinton’s presidency: lack of discipline leading to squandered opportunities; high expectations, undermined by self-indulgence and scattered concentration.”

Later she spews: “For the most part, the self-portrait that emerges from this book is not all that different a Bill Clinton from the one the public has already come to know: tireless, driven, boyish, self-absorbed and optimistic, someone riven by contradictions but adept at compartmentalizing different parts of his life.”

“Optimistic”? Didn’t Kakutani get the memo? The media already have claimed that descriptive for another former president and ladled it upon their distorted memories of his person and his administration ad nauseum.

[Post-publication addendum (June 21): For more on Kakutani’s appalling mendacity, see Media Matters for America: “New York Times’ Kakutani Twice Failed to Note Clintons’ Criticisms of the Times” and “Kakutani Struck Again: She Recycled Anti-Clinton Review.”]

[Post-publication addendum (June 22): See also “Still Smiting Slick Willie,” by Eric Boehlert at Salon. Lengthy pull quote:

[“[P]erhaps it isn’t surprising that Kakutani, without citing any proof, toes the Times’ house line and accuses Clinton of telling “lies about . . . real estate,” a clear reference to the Whitewater scandal. Yet even Ken Starr’s office of independent counsel, and his successor Robert Ray, along with the Republican-run Resolution Trust Co., came to the conclusion that the Clintons never ‘lied’ about Whitewater. Instead, they put nearly $200,000 at risk in the Arkansas vacationland venture and lost $43,000 in the end.

[Kakutani could not be reached for comment about the “lies” she alleges Clinton told. In an e-mail response to Salon, executive editor Bill Keller points out that “the official investigations concluded that there was insufficient evidence to accuse the Clintons of a crime. Deceit is not a crime. I think it’s well within a critic’s right to hold that the Clintons were not entirely forthcoming. The Ray report, for example, said they were prone to statements that were ‘factually inaccurate.’”

[But Gene Lyons, author of the 1996 book Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater, which dissected the Times’ prominent role in Whitewater, says, “Bill Keller should know not every factually inaccurate statement is a lie.” If that were the definition of “lies,” he says, then the Times’ Whitewater coverage has been littered with them.]

All in the Family
Is there a more irritating sub-genre of opinion writing than “observations of a new father,” especially when the father in question writes as dishonestly as this: “You surely know about the 9/11 attacks. What you may not know -- what I hope has already been lost in the mists of history -- is that a considerable amount of attention and passion was directed during the week after your birth toward demonstrating that we in the United States were somehow responsible for them.”?

What will Shayna think reading this 20 years from now, as dad John suggests? Perhaps something along the lines of, “So what were you back then, some kind of crank?”

Meanwhile, Shayna’s Grandpa P. has been named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Good Corporate Citizen
Interesting things, one learns from commercials. For example, Whirlpool Corp. donates a new refrigerator and range to every home built by Habitat for Humanity.

A Bit of Dialogue
A bit of dialogue from “Silence of the Lambs” I missed the first time around but caught today: Clarice Starling: “I went to UVa, sir. It’s not a charm school.” It’s not?

That’s All
It’s Sunday; give me a break.

[Note: Items may be added to PP&T after initial publication.]

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For reasons not entirely clear, or at least not worthy of discussion here, members of my extended family are of late exchanging their favorite recipes.

As a confirmed non-cook I have little to contribute to the dialogue, or at least so I thought until this evening.

There are, surprisingly, at least a few nuggets of culinary wisdom that I know and feel compelled to share.

For example, I know how to prepare the perfect hardboiled egg.

Do you know how to do that?

I mean, seriously, do you?

Cover on or cover off?

Salt in the water or not?

And for how long the boiling?

Secrets all, you see.

There’s a book in here, I think, a book containing the cooking and housekeeping secrets of what my mother once politely referred to, with me in mind, as “the perpetual bachelor.”

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“Maureen Dowd Gets it Wrong.” I know, as a headline it ranks right up there with “Dog Bites Man,” but bear with me for a minute.

Appropriately, kooky pop psychologist Maureen “My Mother Myself, Chicken Soup for the Manhattanite, I’m My Own Best Friend” Dowd, writing in today’s New York Times (“Smack That Cheney-Bot!”), draws on the remake of “The Stepford Wives,” a film nobody -- or “nobody real,” as we used to say in high school, an era Dowd no doubt understands well and recalls fondly -- has seen or plans to see, for insight into the continued lies about Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda issued from the drooling mouth of our persistently debilitated vice president, Dick Cheney. [As reader M.C. asks, “What’s with that guy? Keith Richards looks better than Cheney, and Richards shot heroin for 20 years!”]

Dowd writes:

Mr. Cheney did it again on Monday in Florida speaking at -- where else? -- a conservative think tank; he said Saddam “had long-established ties with Al Qaeda.” This claim, used by the White House to justify its gallop to war, was once more flatly contradicted by the 9/11 panel’s report yesterday: “Two senior bin Laden associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between Al Qaeda and Iraq. We have no credible evidence that Iraq and Al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.”

The report says Osama did seek help from Saddam in the 90’s, “despite his opposition to Hussein’s secular regime.” But aside from sending an official to meet with Osama in Sudan, Saddam stiffed his request for weapons and training-camp space.

Mr. Cheney isn’t programmed to process evidence that shows he was wrong; he simply keeps repeating the same nonsensical claims as if he has a microchip malfunction.

Note to Ms. Dowd: Cheney isn’t nearly so complicated as you would have your readers believe.

Granted, there’s plenty of wiring in the vice president’s chest, but half a dozen implants, regardless of where they’re placed, do not a six-million-dollar man make. (Unless, of course, he’s out hustling for cushy deals for Halliburton, but there we’re talking about billions, not ’70s-era millions.)

It’s much more simple, far more readily evident, than that.

Vice President Cheney repeats the transparently false Iraq-Al Qaeda lies not because he can’t help himself, but because it’s part of the program, it’s a core element of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign.

Wolf Blitzer, the CNN personality who, like so many of his colleagues at the “network” just might become a journalist someday, yesterday asked visitors to his program’s web site whether the fanciful link between the two entities, a tie confined in seemingly respectable circles to the dankest corners of the Bush White House and the American Enterprise Institute, and to the graftmasters at 1401 McKinney, actually existed.

Last time I checked, before the poll was replaced with a new one for today, more than 30 percent of Blitzer’s web-page habitués indicated they believed Saddam Hussein’s regime and Al Qaeda were indeed linked and working together in the ongoing war of terror against the U.S., the West, and all true believers, or something like that.

Call them automatons if you will, Ms. Dowd, but Blitzer’s poll was well subscribed, and the inclinations of those participating represent millions of deliriously or deliberately misled and misinformed Americans, many of whom will pull the lever or punch the button or otherwise participate in the November election.

Were it not for Vice President Cheney’s deceitful and dishonest repetition of these and similar words, the voters who so desperately want and need to hear them might be tempted to think for themselves come November 2. And we couldn’t have that happen, could we?

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Belated best wishes to Jim McLaughlin on the two-year anniversary of the launch of his invaluable weblog A Skeptical Blog (June 11). Go pay him a visit.

In an unusual, stunning, and, yes, bold move, the Philadelphia Daily News today endorsed the presidential candidacy of John F. Kerry, the first newspaper in the nation to take a stand on the November election, and the editors issued their support with conviction and enthusiasm.

Good for the Daily News!

The editors write:

Last week, the nation looked to the past with the death of President Ronald Reagan.

This week, the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and John F. Kerry, suspended out of respect to the deceased 40th president, start fresh.

In that spirit, this newspaper, the first in the nation, endorses John Kerry for president. Unlike the current White House occupant, Kerry can lead America to a brighter, better future. He has shown the personal courage, compassion, intellect and skill to lead this country in a time of war abroad and economic troubles at home. He is a serious man for a serious time.

A few excerpts from the paper’s case against Bush:

[T]he Bush administration has been marked by failure -- failure to shepherd the country through a tough economic downturn, failure to keep the nation focused on the true enemies to our security.

He has failed in even the one challenge he set out for himself at the beginning of his administration -- to bring the country together. His has been one of the most ideologically driven and divisive administrations in recent times.

Instead of moving forward, the country has been on the wrong track. These last four years have been wasted.

Bush wasted the opportunity to lead an international movement against al Qaeda, the real terrorist threat. Instead he has led us, with false intelligence, into a senseless war. […]

Bush was left with a trillion-dollar surplus at the end of the Clinton administration. The president took the money and wasted it with tax cuts for the wealthiest. As the deficits rose to record levels, the “tax cuts fix everything” ideology prevented his administration from changing what clearly is the wrong course.

From the editors’ case for Kerry:

Given the challenges, whom should we trust to lead the nation for the next four years? The man whose incompetence helped create some of the problems?

No. We have a much better choice in Sen. John Kerry.

John Kerry’s long life in the national spotlight has been defined by steadfast support for the principled and intelligent use of American power in the world. His proposals -- not to mention the administration that he will create -- promise new hope for America.

Like Bush, Kerry was born to wealth and privilege. Like Bush, he went to prep schools and then to Yale. But in little else since then has Kerry been like Bush, who acts as if his presidency is a birthright left over by his father.

Kerry acknowledges that his privileges left him with a responsibility to serve and an ambition to lead. And he has -- from combat in the Navy, then as the cleancut (and therefore highly effective) leader of the Vietnam veterans’ anti-war movement, as a prosecutor in Boston, and in four terms in the U.S. Senate.

He is not the indecisive waffler the Bush team would have you believe. Instead, he is offering a concrete, pragmatic direction for the nation. […]

Because he respects the intelligence of the American people, he rarely talks in sound bites.

He understands that sound bites aren’t solutions. Kerry’s positions, while sometimes complicated, are grounded in reality, not in doctrines developed in think tanks. […]

The Daily News editors follow the endorsement with an aggressive and meaningful strategy to, in their words, “make sure Pennsylvania lands in the Kerry win column.” In words directly with particular emphasis to unregistered and otherwise unlikely voters, the paper exhorts: “You can help Kerry win Pennsylvania. Act now. The commonwealth -- indeed the nation -- cannot afford another four years of George Bush.”

Congratulations to Sen. Kerry and kudos to the editors.

[Post-publication addendum (June 17): Daily News readers react to the endorsement. Here’s my personal favorite, from one Michael P. Kilhoffer of Philadelphia: “So, the Daily News has joined North Korea, the French, Palestinian terrorists and al Qaeda in endorsing John F. Simoes Ferierra Heinz Kennedy Kerry. You’re in good company.”]

Earlier today I watched a preview copy of “The Hunting of the President”, a new film based on the best-selling book of the same name by Joe Conason by Gene Lyons, recounting the 10-year campaign by a motley assortment of right-wing politicians, lawyers, and activists, disgruntled Arkansas cranks and losers, deranged groupies, and other freaks, all ably assisted by a gullible and lazy media, to destroy the presidency and reputation of former President Bill Clinton.

Directed by Harry Thomason and Nickolas Perry, and narrated by Morgan Freeman, the film is gripping and chilling, and technically excellent, easily taking its rightful place within the best tradition of the genre. The film displays the familiar scoundrels in all their moral nakedness: Kenneth Starr, Richard Mellon Scaife, Ted Olson, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Larry Case, Larry Nichols, Jerry Falwell, and Cliff Jackson. The despicableness of the lead characters is presented seamlessly with the lesser known but similarly ethically and intellectually bereft participants: Parker Doszier, David Hale, Everett Ham, Susan Carpenter McMillan, Larry Patterson, and Roger Perry. The since-redeemed David Brock appears to offer valuable insights into his former comrades, while I for one couldn’t help but chuckle at the holier-than-my-peers sermonizing of Howard Kurtz.

Viewers are spared the sight and thoughts of Lucianne Goldberg, though I believe we hear her gin-laced voice rasping one line early in the film. And, mercifully, the only appearance of Ann Coulter is a brief still photograph presented during an account of Paula Jones’s devious “Elves,” of which the desiccated Coulter was one. It says much about what became known as “Whitewater” that the role of every cretin who sought to spew his or her bile and make a bundle of bucks off the backs of their betters cannot be worked into even a 90-minute documentary.

Nonetheless, but not at all to its discredit, “The Hunting of the President” failed to arouse my passions. Perhaps that’s because my capacity for anger has grown exponentially since November 2000. Or maybe it’s because I know the story well and the purpose of the film is not to present new findings but to review one of the sorriest periods in American history, a grave constitutional crisis that has yet to be appreciated as such.

Let those similarly placed not think the film unworthy of their time and attention. This is a timely and much-needed warning of the unrestrained power of a well-funded right-wing campaign conducted with complete disregard for the law. And for anyone who ever thought “Whitewater” was too complicated or too overwhelming to grasp in its details -- both the facts and the lies -- “The Hunting of the President” presents the purported controversy in a concise manner that imparts the facts and exposes the lies to reveal the scheme for what it always was: an extra-electoral plot to steal the government from its rightful owners, the American people.

Earlier this year “The Hunting of the President” was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah; the SWSX Film Festival, Austin, Texas; the USA Film Festival, Dallas; and the Tribeca Film Past Festival, New York. Already having garnered critical acclaim, the film will open June 18 in New York and Little Rock, Ark. Additional screenings are scheduled between June 24 and August 13 in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, with more locations to be added.

(Note: A trailer (preview) of the film can be viewed here.)

[Post-publication addendum (June 23): Conason’s latest book, Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth, is now available in paperback.]

It’s that time of year again: mid-June, more specifically June 16, also known as Bloomsday. I know I’m not alone in experiencing pangs of guilt each June arising from never having completed James Joyce’s Ulysses, an emotion accompanied by a sense of inferiority that I just wasn’t up to the task. Every educated person is supposed to have read Ulysses, expected to cherish this novel of novels, right?

For the past few years my annual bout of Ulysses guilt has been more acute, that due to extensive local media coverage and events surrounding Ulysses and Bloomsday arising from the presence, in Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum and Library, of Joyce’s original signed manuscript of Ulysses.

This year, the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, it was only worse.

Anyone feeling similar guilt and inferiority, whether or not they tried Ulysses three times, as I did, can find relief in “Who’s Afraid of Joyce? The Key to ‘Ulysses’,” by Frank Wilson (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 13). I know I did.

Wilson writes:

David Butler, the education officer at Dublin’s James Joyce Centre, says the book is “about how language surrounds us and conditions us . . . how we’re within language.” So the language of the narrative is inextricably bound up with the substance of it. Robert Nicholson, curator of the James Joyce Museum, says this is “a feature of Irish literature generally -- the telling is as important as the tale.”

The problem is getting a handle on that language. Butler and Nicholson, both of whom have written guides to Ulysses, say one should read the book before reading any commentaries or taking a course in it. Nicholson, who says “there are far too many books about Ulysses,” says it’s best to “read Ulysses first -- then you know what questions you want to ask” -- instead of “reaching for books by people who want to tell you what you ought to understand.” […]

“I think you need . . . to read the whole thing without any notes,” he adds, “which is how I did it, even though I understood only 5 or 10 percent of it.”

One problem, Butler notes, is that “a lot of people get bogged down in Chapter 3 and never get beyond it -- which seems to me tragic.” That’s why he suggests starting with Chapter 4, which introduces “one of the great figures of world literature, Leopold Bloom.”

That, Nicholson says, “is a very practical way of approaching it. . . . Joyce presumably intended [the book] to be read in the order in which it was written, but I agree that [Chapter 3] kills off a lot of potential readers.”

Chapter 3.

Perhaps this passage?

Of Ireland, the Dalcassians, of hopes, conspiracies, of Arthur Griffith now, AE, pomander, good shepherd of me. To yoke me as his yokefellow, our crimes our common cause. You’re your father’s son. I know the voice. His fustian shirt, sanguineflowered, trembles its Spanish tassels at his secrets. M. Drumont, famous journalist, Drumont, know what he called queen Victoria? Old hag with yellow teeth. Vieille ogresse with the dents jaunes. Maud Gonne, beautiful woman, la Patrie, M. Millevoye, Félix Faure, know how he died? Licentious men. The froeken, bonne à tout faire, who rubs male nakedness in the bath at Upsala. Moi faire, she said, tous les messieurs. Not this monsieur, I said. Most licentious custom. Bath a most private thing. I wouldn’t let my brother, not even my own brother, most lascivious thing. Green eyes, I see you. Fang, I fell. Lascivious people. [Ulysses, Hans Walter Gabler, ed., Vintage Books, 1986, p. 36, lines 226-238.]

uh-huh I said uh-huh I, um, Uh-huh.

It was in fact, all three times, that I gave up in Chapter 3.

Someday I’ll try again. The “right” way. There’s no rush. Bloomsday will be back again next year.

[Links of interest: Bloomsday 100, the site of the 19th International James Joyce Symposium (June 12 to June 19, Dublin); ReJoyce Dublin 2004, the web site of the Bloomsday Centenary Festival.]

In the latest Rittenhouse weekly poll, concluded last night, readers were asked, “To which, if any, religious belief do align yourself?”

Frankly, I was surprised by the results. It turns out Rittenhouse readers are a bunch of Godless atheists, probably a bunch of blue-staters, too.

Fully 59 percent of readers participating in the poll identified themselves as agnostic or atheist (or Unitarian, that part of a private joke that fell flat and for which I apologize). Another 26 percent identified with one form or another of Christianity (just under half of those Protestant; only nine percent of all readers chose Roman Catholic). Five percent and three percent, respectively, identified themselves as adhering to Judaism or an Eastern religion, while adherence to Islam was revealed to be negligible.

The complete results are presented below:

Agnostic/Atheist/Unitarian: 267, or 59%
Christian: Protestant: 52, 12%
Christian: Roman Catholic: 42, 9%
Other: 26, 6%
Judaism: 22, 5%
Eastern (Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism): 15, 3%
Christian: Other: 14, 3%
Christian: Orthodox or Other Catholic: 10, 2%
Islam: 1, negligible

Thanks for participating.

Due to a bizarre household accident on Friday, which resulted in an emergency room visit (the first refuge of the uninsured), I’m supposed to be off my feet and on my back. I’m cheating: I’m sitting in a chair.

The Dark Arts
William Safire, that nattering nabob of necromancy, is at it again, scaring up the ghost of former President Richard M. Nixon, this time for a Noonanesque “interview” from purgatory (ha, ha) about Iraq, Al Ghraib (it’s the media’s fault, natch), Afghanistan, the Clinton portraits, and the Washington Redskins. Channeling the dead is a trite and tiresome literary device even in the best of hands; employed by the likes of Safire, it’s just plain weird.

Truth or Consequences?
Never one to let a little truth get in the way of the desired consequences, Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday, speaking at a right-wing think tank in Florida, said Saddam Hussein had “long-established ties” with al Qaida. According to the Associated Press, “The vice president . . . offered no details backing up his claim.” Today, however, the A.P. reports, to anyone and everyone who is listening, a group that obviously excludes Vice President Cheney: “Bluntly contradicting the Bush administration, the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks reported Wednesday there was ‘no credible evidence’ that Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaida target the United States.”

Dr. Freud, Please Call Your Office
For a guy who’s so quick to cast aspersions on the mental health of former Vice President Al Gore, right-wing pundit Charles Krauthammer shows signs of, among much else, psychosis, delusion, and aphasia. You see, according to Krauthammer last week’s seemingly endless Reagan love-in was actually a nasty hate-fest, just more evidence of the nefarious intent of “the liberal establishment.”

Speaking the Truth to Error I
Paul Krugman on our un-illustrious attorney general: “No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history.” And that’s just Krugman’s opening line.

Speaking the Truth to Error II
Frank Rich recalls the real President Ronald Reagan in Sunday’s New York Times in “First Reagan, Now His Stunt Double.”

Crediting the Discredited
Paul Gigot and the wacky gang at The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page continue to provide space for those seeking to credit the discredited Laurie Mylroie; in this case, Herbert E. Meyer, a CIA official under former President Reagan, in “Intelligence Tenets” (June 14) [Subscription required.]

Specter’s Desperation
Lynn Yeakel, who in 1992 came painfully close to defeating Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), on Monday night hosted a fundraiser for Rep. Joe Hoeffel (D-Pa.), this year’s challenger to Bush-family ally Sen. Specter. Reflecting, I think, the desperation of the incumbent Republican, campaign manager Christopher Nicholas described the event as “just another fund-raiser with an ultra-left, ultra-liberal Democrat,” something Yeakel is decidedly not. (To contribute to the Hoeffel campaign against Specter, click here.)

A few things have arisen that require some attention over the next few days, not least of which is the whirl of activities surrounding Mildred’s seventh birthday, today.

Chadwin VII’s Mildred Pierce

I’ll be back soon.

I could have lived without knowing about this. (See third item, “Banned in Boston?”)

You know what’s really great about this story in today’s edition of Le Monde?

Les millions d’automobilistes circulant sur les autoroutes 5 et 405, qui traversent l’agglomération de Los Angeles, aperçoivent régulièrement des dizaines de grandes pancartes noir et blanc affichant des slogans hostiles au président Bush et à la guerre en Irak. Elles sont accrochées aux passerelles, aux grillages de protection, aux arbres, aux panneaux routiers, aux talus bordant la chaussée. Il y a aussi des images, notamment une reproduction stylisée de la célèbre photo du prisonnier irakien cagoulé, bras écartés, attendant d’être électrocuté, accompagnée de la légende “Pas en notre nom”.

Andrew Sullivan, InstaLinker, Charles Cassandra Krauthammer, et al., self-styled experts on all things European, can’t read it.

[Post-publication addendum June 14: Oh, please, ease up. I was only kidding, going for an Ann Coulter moment, if will you, with an allusion to those so ready to pounce on the alleged failings of the French for their inability to read the country’s language, or if they know it, to make even the slightest effort to learn something of the nation’s history, culture, and politics beyond that offered by National Review.]

My next-door neighbor, Giovanni Petri, was killed today, struck down by a motorcycle while the crossing the street, in front of his house, as he was heading to the store.

I didn’t see the accident, but I heard it.

Thud. Slap. Bang. Crash.

My housemates and I ran outside and then back in and outside again.

Where the hell was the ambulance?

S.A. called 911 three times. I heard another housemate, R.H., on the same line. “What? . . . A man. . . . What?” Stupid questions they were asking: Is it a man or a woman?

“Jesus Christ! There’s blood everywhere! Tell them there’s blood everywhere!”

Towels. They wanted towels. For the blood, I guess. I brought out towels. I couldn’t look. I didn’t know then who it was who was hurt. All I saw was blood.

Giovanni’s blood.

It took too long to sink in. The bleeding dead man lying on Spruce Street was Giovanni.

That Giovanni. The Giovanni next door.

His wife was home at the time. She sent him off to the store, most likely with a cheerio, see you later, and all that. There’s a daughter living there. A son came by in time.

And now he’s gone.

When you live in a large city and you happen to reach or touch your neighbors, it means something. Giovanni did that. The reaching and touching I mean.

Giovanni did that by talking. He was a talker. Oh, what a talker. Just ask anyone in the neighborhood.

I’m not sure everyone understood him, as he spoke with a rather heavy accent. When he and I spoke, we did so in Italian. It was easier that way. For him and for me. And it was good practice. For me.

His tag line was “If there’s anything I can do for you, let me know.”

Giovanni, we’ll miss you, and I only wish there were something I could do for you now.

[Post-publication addendum (June 12): Mr. Petri’s obituary from the Philadelphia Inquirer.]

From: "John Wolfington" < voolfie@verizon.net >
To: rittenhouse_review
Subject: Yawn.
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 13:45:10 -0400

I just finished reading your most recent postings and I am amused by the fact that you tried to sic the L&I people on someone who opposes your point of view.

You still cling to the utterly discredited idea that our President somehow “stole” the election. Please. You need to come back to reality. Does the fact that Bush/Cheney won EVERY recount mean anything to you? Of course not. Never let facts get in the way of a good rant, eh?

You have just demonstrated, better than I could ever hope to do, why you socialists are doomed. And yes, you are a socialist…in case you didn’t know.

You’re not interested in political discussion/debate. You want to impose your oh-so-educated will on the rest of us, don’t you? You know what’s best for all of us, don’t you?

If only the world would listen to YOU all would be well, eh?

What you and your ilk never seem to grasp is that should a true socialist regime ever take over in this country, you and your pointy-headed friends would be among the very first sent off to the camps. Trotsky found out the hard way what happens when you criticize the powers-that-be after you’ve helped install them.

In the final analysis, I’m afraid that you’re just not very bright.

Sincerely,

Your neighbor @ 1500 Locust Apts.

P.S. I’m going to find the biggest ‘W’ poster I can and put it out on my balcony. The Management Company’s number is 546-1500.

P.P.S. I’ve sent a note to Mr. Potamkin thanking him for his patriotism.

P.P.P.S. Pussy.

Watch this show.

“The Daily Show.”

Because I said so.

Because every time I watch it, the show, it’s better than ever.

And because while the host, Jon Stewart, is roughly my age, I still look younger, and thinner, than he does.

I know, I’m a weirdo, a freak. Regular readers know I have a weakness for what I’ve come to call “cheesy” Lifetime TV movies.

The genre is on full display tonight, in prime time, as the network plays “Dangerous Intentions,” starring, and yes, I know, this is an easy set up, Donna Mills, Robin Givens, and Corbin Bernsen.

I’ve made the joke a million times.

Sometimes, though, it’s not funny. The film and the subject. Too often, it’s downright scary. And dangerous. Lethally so.

See:

National Domestic Violence Hotline

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Handbook

I know it’s kind of personal, but I’d like to know. As such, I’m asking, in the weekly poll of readers, posted in the sidebar at right, to which, if any, religious belief(s) you align yourself.

The poll offers the following choices: Agnostic/Atheist/Unitarian, Eastern (Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism), Christian: Roman Catholic, Christian: Orthodox or Other Catholic, Christian: Protestant, Christian: Other, Islam, Judaism, and Other.

As always, I will reveal my vote at the conclusion of voting, in this case the evening of Tuesday, June 15.

That said, I will say now that I already have voted.

I’ll bet you think I cast my vote for “Christian: Roman Catholic.”

If so, let me say you’re wrong.

I’ll explain later.

Enough already with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, the criminally disgusting, contemptible, and loathsome “chief” of the Pentagon.

Join me in signing the petition, sponsored by the DCCC, calling for Rumsfeld to resign, be fired, or otherwise join that special part of hell on earth he so richly deserves.

Oh, wait, sorry, wow, the adults are in charge. . . . “Six Sigma” and all that crap. . . . Thank you Jack Welch and the General Electric Co. for your disgraceful handing over of the oligarchy to the shamefully collective ignoramuses of Westchester and Fairfield.

Give me a break. Will no one be held responsible? Ever?

Fire Rumsfeld!

Now!

I know you people, Rittenhouse readers. You’re intelligent, kind, thoughtful, and generous.

Today I ask you to consider adding to what I’m sure is already a long list of your favorite charities the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Sitting here in shock and confusion, I’m not yet ready to reveal why this cause suddenly has become one of my own.

Suffice it to say, I wish you, C.C., the lesser, a long and wonderful life.

One of the interesting aspects of the latest diet fad -- low carb/high protein/fat fat fat -- is that some of my favorite foods, things I for too long was ashamed to eat in private, let alone in public, are now acceptable, chic even.

Case in point: Slim Jims.

I recently watched an exceptionally -- inordinately, even -- handsome 20-something young man devour, with nary a speck of self-consciousness whatsoever, four Slim Jims, his only fault being the failure to offer even a bite to Mildred, who was sitting in the back seat of the Jaguar.

Ah, memories.

During my teenage years I ate, among many other things, Slim Jims by the yard while manning the cash register at my father’s supermarket.

Like most of us, back then I could eat anything, anytime, with no thought to the short- or long-term repercussions of my diet.

It’s different now. I’m so much more careful.

No. I’m lying. I last weighed in at 125 pounds. I eat whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want. Or, at least, whatever I can afford, including today, a Slim Jim.

And so, have at it, people. Whatever it takes, whatever you need, whatever you want. Promise me one thing: If you don’t like, or you disapprove of, what I’m eating, just shut the hell up.

This week’s Rittenhouse reader poll gets a little personal, asking, “To which, if any, religious belief do align yourself?”

Your choices, presented in alphabetical order, are: Agnostic/Atheist/Unitarian (there’s a private joke embedded therein), Eastern (Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism), Christian: Roman Catholic, Christian: Orthodox or Other Catholic, Christian: Protestant, Christian: Other, Islam, Judaism, and Other.

Already a reader has advised me the poll is faulty for its lack of an option for Wicca and the like.

If that’s your persuasion, please select “Other.”

Not entirely surprisingly, the early voting reveals Rittenhouse readers are, on the whole, a bunch of Godless atheists.

Why do you people read me?

Oh, wait, I know. Because Godless atheists, to say nothing of Unitarians, are more receptive to alternative views than all too many “believers,” myself excepted, of course.

The extraordinary success of Eats, Shoots & Leaves has me thinking.

Is the book inside me, the work just dying to find an audience, not about coming out, being depressed, or learning how to be poor, but instead about proper grammar, diction, and usage?

Imagine a book with chapter headings such as “That and Which,” “Compared With and Compared To,” “Presently and Currently,” “Was and Were,” and “Disinterested and Uninterested,” all discussed with that unique Rittenhouse wit.

Imagine the anger I could constructively release with such a work.

Imagine the money I could make.

If anyone were to buy such a book.

Would you?

[Post-publication addendum: Reader J.G. writes:

[I would not only buy such a book, I would buy several copies. Perhaps a dozen.

[Not only do I need one myself, but I would enjoy sending copies, anonymously, to other people. At work, I often find myself tempted to return memoranda, reports, and e-mail messages with corrections in red. My mother (an English teacher) believes grammar obsessions are genetic.

[Some suggestions for other chapter titles:

[You, You’re, and Your: It Does Make a Difference, You Moron

[You Use Too Many Commas

[Would it Kill You to Spell-Check?

[And of course: Why Persons Who Oppose the Oxford Comma Are a Dangerous Menace and Must Be Stopped

[On second thought, I’m not sure what kind of market exists for such a book. Could you find the grammatical equivalent of Richard Mellon Scaife? Someone who could buy thousands of copies and distribute them to needy souls. That would certainly reduce my level of Poor English Rage.]

It was not to be.

By a narrow margin -- 307 to 269 -- Democrats in the 116th House district in Portland, Maine, yesterday chose former city councilor and mayor Charles Harlow over newcomer and blogger Mary Beth Williams.

Isn’t Maine cute? Did you sum up that tally? It was 307 to 269, at least according to one source today. That makes 579 voters. Now, I know for a fact Williams herself personally paid calls on (i.e., visited, trekked about, knocked on doors) more than 1,000 homes in the district. It wasn’t for lack of trying.

(There’s a certain irony in Williams’s worn shoe leather. Back in the day when Americans were employed in the act of making things, Maine was a leader in the manufacture of shoes.)

Disappointed? Yes.

Proud? Oh yeah.

Will she be back? Let’s hope so.

(See M.B.’s post-mortem here.)

[Post-publication addendum: M.B. tells me the final tally was 317 to 289, a margin of just 28 votes. And she relates that the Green Party wants to draft her for the November election. Run, Mary Beth, run!]

I don’t know where this post is coming from, other than insomnia, but allow me to alert my fellow dog owners to T-Bonz, a “doggie” treat rather new to us that has been received eagerly by the house dog, Mildred.

(Good luck finding a link for T-Bonz. Ralston and Purina and Ralston-Purina are painfully ignorant with respect to the web.)

Mildred, officially Chadwin VII’s Mildred Pierce, the latter half of the name a reference to one of the greatest films of all times, “Mildred Pierce,” loves her T-Bonz.

The scary thing is that with my budget limiting my intake of beef and other meats, I have become strangely and inordinately jealous of Mildred while distributing these treats.

Rest assured, I haven’t tasted T-Bonz yet, but I will admit these little nuggets sometimes smell, well, pretty damned good.

Rittenhouse readers once again revealed their innate and practical intelligence in the site’s latest poll, which asked, as simply as possible, “Coke or Pepsi”?

According to the results of the poll, the voting in which closed at 6:00 p.m., Eastern time, today, 73 percent of Rittenhouse readers selected Coca-Cola over Pepsi-Cola, which garnered a mere 27 percent of readers’ votes.

Coke Is It!

As one who begins each day, before anything else, with 12 ounces of Coca-Cola over a generous helping of large ice cubes, I couldn’t be more pleased.

Did you know that 600,000 Italian-American citizens of the United States were deprived of their civil rights during World War II and that 10,000 Italian-Americans were placed in “relocation camps” during the war?

No?

Don’t worry, I won’t blame you, because I didn’t know that myself.

I learned of this outrage, some 60 years after the fact, by way of a June 3 article, “From History, A Mystery,” by Philadelphia Inquirer reporter/columnist Tanya Barrientos.

Barrientos’s characteristically excellent piece was not an examination of this sorry aspect of American history. Instead, the writer offered this historical non-nicety in comments about the latest novel from Philadelphia lawyer and writer Lisa Scottoline, Killer Smile.

Both Scottoline, in the article, and Barrientos, in an e-mail to The Rittenhouse Review, were at least as surprised as I to learn of this odd chapter in American history.

Let it be said here that I, as one who is half Italian-American, am not trying to encroach upon the greater tragedies inflicted by the U.S. government and the American people upon Japanese-Americans and German-Americans (the latter another little-documented history) during the same period. I only ask and wonder why I had not, until last Thursday, heard word one about this indignity.

Obviously, there is much more research to be done.

What does it take for the Bush administration to fire anyone, even someone as despicable, disgraceful, and shameful as Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, a man who has done more to undermine the standing of the United States, American and allied troops, and the American people than anyone else occupying his current position, or any other, in decades?

Here’s the latest from The Wall Street Journal (“Pentagon Lawyers Question Methods at Guantanamo,” by Greg Jaffe and Jess Bravin [Ed.: Subscription required. Copyright laws, however, allow me to share the article with friends. If you’re my friend and you would like to read the article in full, simply send me an e-mail, and I will forward a copy to you.]):

Some top military lawyers in the Pentagon are questioning the propriety of interrogation techniques currently being employed to question al Qaeda captives at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, senior defense officials said.

The techniques were contained in an annex to a policy report on interrogations approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in April 2003. A March draft of the report, portions of which were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, said that some uses of pain and psychological manipulation were lawful interrogation techniques and contended that, in any case, President Bush had the constitutional power to disregard laws prohibiting torture if he believed national security so required. […]

Military lawyers, many of whom worked closely in drafting the interrogation rules, have conveyed their concerns to Bush administration officials in the Pentagon, the defense officials said. Their objections to many of the tactics approved for use at Guantanamo illustrate a rift between senior military lawyers and Bush administration lawyers inside the Pentagon about which extreme interrogation measures are legal.

“There’s a divide within the military,” said an officer who recently retired from a position with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “There’s a group that’s more willing to take the more ‘creative’ approach of the [secretary of defense] and the politicos, and then the more conservative” officers who want to hew more closely to the traditional understanding of military and international law, the retired officer said. He himself is among the conservatives. “There’s a term floating around called the ‘revolt of the professionals,’” this officer said.

I for one remain convinced the worst is yet to come.

Fire Rumsfeld! Now.

Gee whiz, I’m getting old and I don’t even realize it. Hell, I’m getting old and I don’t even feel like it, physically (well, maybe sometimes) or otherwise (I still feel like a country-bumpkin kid finding his way in the world).

Anyway, this is the latest in my series of “Overheards,” and one in which I myself am involved.

Here’s the setting: I’m sitting on a bench in a little park-like space in Old City, Philadelphia, just sort of thinking about the world, a meditation that, you will not be surprised to learn, puts a frown, nay, a scowl, on my face.

The following interaction occurs:

Very Attractive Twenty-something Woman: Hey, why so glum?

Me: Oh, I don’t know, nothing really.

Very Attractive Twenty-something Woman (handing me some sort of coupon): Come to Coyote Ugly tonight. You’ll have fun!

Me: Uh, okay, thanks. [You know, it’s just that sort of lame response that has kept me from scoring with the really hot chicks for two decades now.]

Twenty-something Man on a Bicycle (swooping down on me): Hey, what’s she handing out?

Me: I don’t know, something for a bar or a club or something. Have it.

Twenty-something Man on a Bicycle: Cool. Thanks, old man.

“Old man”?

“Old man”?!

You’ll excuse me now, won’t you?

There’s a warm bath waiting for me, a tub into which I just might open a vein or two.

Overheard this afternoon in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia:

Woman #1: That sounds like so much fun.

Woman #2: Well, I’m sorry you can’t make it, but we are having a Christmas party this year.

Translation: I’m blowing you off until December.

I know I wrote in the post below that I’m outta’ here for a few days, but gee whiz, I can’t let this pass by without comment: What are we to make of the latest tête-à-tête between Greta Van Susteren and O.J. Simpson?

I’m inclined here to refer to Van Susteren and Simpson with words along the lines of “pond scum of the primordial soup,” except upon reflection I realize the scum managed to rise to the top of that ancient brew.

So instead, how about something like “bottom feeders of the primordial soup”? No, that’s not quite it since inherent in the phrase is the notion that there is still some other form of life, albeit simple, crude, and primitive, lower than the bottom feeders.

“Worthless amoeba of the primordial soup”?

I don’t know, it just doesn’t ring right.

Imagine that. I of all people, said to be one of the snottiest bloggers around, can’t come up with an insult appropriate for the likes of these.

I think I’ll let the Portland Press Herald speak for itself:

For any job, finding the right candidate comes down to more than qualifications. There’s also the issue of “fit.”

In the two primary races for seats in the Maine House representing Portland, fit is an important consideration, and one that has led us to endorse Mary Beth Williams for the Democrats in District 116 [...].

In the Democratic primary, voters are faced with a choice between an energetic and well-informed newcomer in Williams and a well-established political veteran in former Portland Mayor Charles Harlow.

Williams, a former teacher, would be joining a seasoned and competent delegation of lawmakers from Portland, so her lack of political experience is not concerning. She’ll be going to Augusta at a time, too, when new thinking is needed.

Williams displays a deep knowledge and understanding of the issues. More importantly, she appears to have a flair for creative thinking in attacking them. […]

Elect Williams!

And with that, I’m outta’ here, on leave to the Williams campaign, until Wednesday.

Yesterday I blogged about one of my neighbors here in the Society Hill neighborhood who has installed on the north side of his handsome home a ghastly metal sign reading “Bush/Cheney 2004,” signage made all the worse, and more offensive, by its being brightened with spotlights every night.

An astute reader who lives in Philadelphia has alerted me that the owner of the house in question, Jamin V. Potamkin, of 305 S. 3rd St., at the southeastern corner of Spruce and Third Streets, Philadelphia, and an eager donor to the Bush regime’s “reelection” effort, with his sign may be violating the law.

Potamkin’s house is located in the heart of the Society Hill historic district. Regardless of one’s political views, and I have made no secret during the past two years of my own, this four-foot by three-foot sign is a horrible monstrosity.

This intrepid Rittenhouse reader called the Philadelphia Department of Licenses & Inspections, the city’s dreaded “L&I,” from which the reader learned that Mr. Potamkin needs a zoning variance or exception in order to post his noxious banner.

Now, it’s entirely possible Mr. Potamkin already has secured the required permit, but we shall see. I’ll keep you posted.

Okay, so you know I’m heading to Maine tomorrow. Little did I know, however, before checking the forecast for Portland at Weather.com, that I was headed for a place that, as one who hates hot weather, and dislikes even warm weather, I would consider paradise.

Although I have referred to these projects in the past, it remains, justifiably, not widely known that I am working, very slowly, on two different screenplays. Meanwhile, longtime readers know I have a weakness for cheesy Lifetime TV movies.

Given the number of such films as I have seen, I thought I knew enough to have determined the would-be screenwriter’s formula for success on that network. But one of my brothers, taking on the pretend role of a Lifetime TV movie screenwriter, one surprisingly knowledgeable about the intricacies of the genre, once wisely observed, “And there shall be a secondary character, an African-American woman. She dispenses wisdom.”

(He’s dead on with that. Just this afternoon, Lifetime showed “A Time to Heal,” which in addition to starring the, um, incomparable Nicollette Sheridan, featured Lorraine Toussaint, see below, as a physical therapist who, well, dispensed wisdom.)

I have to admit I’ve taken my brother’s advice to heart.

I’ll reveal only this about one of my screenplays: The film’s story line includes a nurse at a senior-citizens home, a nurse who could be played by an African-American actress -- I’m thinking Toussaint, CCH Pounder, or S. Ephata Merkerson, any one of which I would be thrilled to see in a starring role in my film -- who dispenses medications while she also dispenses wisdom.

Hey, look, it’s a formula. I’m aiming for the big screen, but if in the end I can master the Lifetime TV formula, I’ll be happy to cash the check.

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, Part I
CIA Director George Tenet today submitted his resignation to President Dim Bulb, who incredulously cited “personal reasons” for Tenet’s decision to jump ship. One question: Can Tenet write a book before November? Okay, one more question: Does anyone else think the wrong man has resigned?

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, Part II
The Bush administration settles a longstanding quandary among military strategists: How to force conscription on an all-volunteer army.

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, Part III
It’s at least mildly comforting to know I’m not the only one wondering “why I stay Catholic.” (Second letter, under the heading “Cushy Job for Law.”)

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, Part IV
I don’t recall asking for this whole Reaganesque melding of churches and Republican political campaigns.

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, Part V
Village Photos, the service I use to host photos posted at The Rittenhouse Review, has increased, at no extra cost, the available bandwidth associated with user accounts. That’s pretty cool of them, I think.

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, Part VI
Tina Brown didn’t deliver this week. Instead of regaling readers with banal bits from a “smart Manhattan dinner party,” Brown, writing in today’s Washington Post, offers only this vague, and factually impaired, aside: “In the Hamptons on Memorial Day weekend, most of the pundit class spent evenings arguing about exit strategies in Iraq and then beating a nostalgic retreat to watch ‘The Longest Day,’ ‘Patton’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan.’” Since when does “most of the pundit class” spend weekends in the Hamptons?

This Isn’t What I Signed Up For, Part VII
I have the TV on while writing this afternoon, and I just saw an advertisement for a product I swear the man speaking called “Key Lime Pie.” He was going on and on about the wonders of “Key Lime Pie,” how it gives off no odor, emits no dust, and prevents tracking. It sounded strange, but it wasn’t until I looked up and at the screen that I saw he was talking about Feline Pine, a product promoted by Nature’s Earth Products Inc. as “the healthy cat litter.” That was a close one.

[Note: Items may be added to PP&T after initial publication.]

Not far from where I live, in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, there is a handsome home with an ample garden, a house on which the northern bricks the owner has fastened a large horrific sign reading, “Bush/Cheney 2004,” a rather substantial steel banner made all the more heinous by the fact that it is brightened with spotlights beginning at or around sunset.

I couldn’t help but wonder whether the owner, so keen on another round of overly generous tax cuts for the preponderance of (wealthy) people who live in this neighborhood, was putting his money where his signage is. So I did what anyone else with a PC and an internet connection would do: I looked him up.

And there he is, Jamin V. Potamkin, of 305 S. 3rd St., Philadelphia, recorded as having donated $2,000 to the reelection campaign of President Jerk Chicken. (Hey! I coined it!) (By the way, you can search your own zip code at this same site.)

Mr. Potamkin lists his profession as “importer/distributor,” an assertion I cannot readily confirm, nor can I affirm that Mr. Potamkin is related to the infamous “Mrs. Potamkin,” the insufferable woman who obnoxiously hawked Long Island Cadillacs for decades.

What kind of a dog sleeps until nearly two in the afternoon?

Oh, right. This kind of dog:

Mildred

[Post-publication addendum (June 3): Mildred, who, for the uninitiated, is known officially as Chadwin VII’s Mildred Pierce, is going for some kind of record. As I write this at 4:05 p.m. on Thursday, Mildred is still sleeping, snoring, and stretching.]

[Post-publication addendum (June 3): And the record continues, if it hasn’t already been broken. It’s now 8:00 p.m., and while Mildred is awake, she has yet to head downstairs.]

[Post-publication addendum (June 4): By the way, in the event you do not subscribe to the Fans of Mildred newsletter, allow me to inform you that my little girl will turn seven on June 14.]

It’s time for some more reading recommendations from Rittenhouse.

First off, I highly recommend Eats, Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Truss, now, at least for a time, safely -- and deservedly -- ensconced on the New York Times bestsellers list, among others.

You will enjoy Truss’s book if you’re the kind of person who can find the humor in a passage like this one:

However, if you feel you are safe paddling in these sparklingly clear shallows of comma usage, think again. See that comma-shaped shark fin ominously slicing through the waves in this direction? Hear that staccato cello? Well, start waving and yelling, because it is the so-called Oxford comma (also known as the serial soma) and it is a lot more dangerous than its exclusive, ivory-tower moniker might suggest. There are people who embrace the Oxford comma and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken. Oh, the Oxford comma. Here, in case you don’t know what it is yet, is the perennial example, as espoused by Harold Ross: “The flag is red, white, and blue.”

So what do you think of it? (It’s the comma after “white”. [Sic.] Are you for it or against it?) [Page 84]

If that’s not funny to you, well, you’re just weird. Yes, you are weird, not me; nor is the cherished reader, L.H., who sent me the book as a gift.

Long-time readers have noticed, I’m sure, that I favor the use of the Oxford comma. My good friend Susan Madrak, of Suburban Guerrilla, is opposed. Before I had heard of Truss’s book, Susie and I found ourselves, for reasons still not entirely clear, debating the merits Oxford comma: she opposed, I in favor. Although the debate did not come to fisticuffs, it quickly became evident that neither of us intended to budge from his initial stance.

You see, as it was taught to me, from a source that, if memory serves, had some association with Oxford, the serial comma is to be used after every item in a series A, B, C except for the last item in the series.

Ask someone who abhors or disdains the Oxford comma which item in the series A, B, C is the last and she invariably will say “B” when the last item in the series in plainly C.

The concept of penultimateness (I think I just made that up) is plainly lost on such as these.

I admit I had problems with Eats, Shoots & Leaves from my initial glance at the cover, though I will concede that Truss, with her strategic placement of the ampersand in the title, cleverly postponed the inevitable ruckus over the Oxford comma.

Worse, the subtitle of Truss’s work, “The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,” is confusing at best. Are we to think there should be no punctuation whatsoever?

Still worse, Truss’s discussion of the use of the possessive apostrophe is, in one very narrow area, simplistic, reductive, and therefore, misleading.

Although correctly noting that a singular noun, proper or not, ending in “s” takes an apostrophe in the possessive (hence: James’s blog, not James’ blog), Truss advises her readers:

If the name ends in an “iz” sound, an exception is made: Bridges’ score, Moses’ tables. [Page 56.]

This is not a comprehensive description of the rule at hand. What Truss meant to say was that in the case of proper nouns of two or more syllables, when the penultimate (there’s that word again!) syllable -- and not the last syllable -- ends in an “s” or “z” sound, the final, possessive “s” is eliminated. (I taught this to dozens of aspiring reporters as the “Jesus and Moses rule.”)

Second, I direct your attention to The Perennial Philadelphians by Nathaniel Burt. Surely not a book for everyone, but if you enjoy taking a look back in time, a time when the WASP “aristocracy” held sway over the doings and comings and goings of a city so large as Philadelphia, and can be entertained by a writer who knows just the right mix of weighty seriousness and wry sarcasm, this book, originally published in 1963, is for you. More than 600 pages and I finished it in three nights. (My thanks to J.L. for the gift.)

I should mention that during my weekend in the country I picked up and completed The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, by Dominick Dunne, a not altogether shielded account of the goings on of the Woodward family. Trashy poolside stuff, don’t you know? And so appropriately so.

[Note: If you shop at Amazon.com, please consider doing so by starting at the big-box link posted in the sidebar at right. (Or by clicking here.) With that simple step your purchases will lead to my receiving a respectable cut of sales, thereby helping me pay for such things as tuna noodle casserole, which lasts three nights.]

The details of my impending trip to Portland, Maine, which I’ve discussed here in the past, are being finalized.

As you know, the purpose of the trip is to help my friend and fellow blogger, Mary Beth Williams of Wampum, with last-minute electioneering and such in her Democratic Party primary campaign for a seat representing Portland in the Maine House of Representatives.

(This trip would not have been possible without the kind and generous gifts of Rittenhouse readers, who I again thank profusely.)

I’m pretty excited. It’s been years since I’ve done ground level campaigning, and I can’t think of a better place to rewet my feet than Maine. (Last visit to the Pine Tree State: 1986.)

I’ll tell you one thing, though: Traveling on a tight budget, circumstances that are new to me, presents some unique challenges. Instead of going directly to Portland, I will be flying from Philadelphia to Boston, taking a subway from Logan International Airport to the Boston North train station, and subsequently riding Amtrak to Portland. And then doing the same thing on the way back. (The trip from Boston to Portland is surprisingly long: roughly two and one-half hours. It’s a good thing I like riding trains.)

I am leaving Philadelphia on Friday and returning from Portland on Wednesday -- after the victory party, of course.

What excites me more is that I feel privileged to call Mary Beth a friend and knowing she will make an outstanding legislator: a progressive Democrat, intelligent, thoughtful, dedicated, hardworking, and principled.

You can learn an awful lot about Mary Beth from a profile published in the Portland Phoenix, “Candidate Blog,” by Alex Irvine, and from her self-authored profile at the campaign web site.

And you can learn all too much about the sleazy desperation tactics of her opponent, Charlie Harlow, or at least some of his supporters, by clicking here.

By the way, did you know that the city of Portland is represented in the state capital, Augusta, by 10 men and no women?

It’s not too late to contribute to Williams’s campaign. In fact, now is the very best time to do so. You know, if 100 Rittenhouse readers ponied up $5.00 each, M.B. would have another $500 heading into the crucial final days before the primary. To contribute to the Williams campaign, follow the link at the bottom of this page.

Selling
Sotheby’s will auction miscellany from the estate of the late Katharine Hepburn in New York on June 10 and 11. In “The Stuff of Kate,” in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer, Miriam Hill reports items for sale include “a lock of Hepburn’s baby hair, her Bryn Mawr trigonometry exams and notes on Wagner, her wedding dress, and a diamond-and-sapphire pin that Howard Hughes gave her.”

Smearing
Alexandra Polier gives a first-hand account of how Republicans, with help from the media, will smear anyone, with anything, in “The Education of Alexandra Polier” in New York magazine.

Skating
Franklin Foer examines the heretofore unexamined life of Judith Miller, New York Times reporter and WMD-hype peddler extraordinaire, in “The Source of the Trouble,” also in New York magazine.

Snooping
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports on Miller pal Ahmed Chalabi (“Chalabi Accused of Aiding Iran Spies,” by Bob Drogin):

Ahmad Chalabi, the controversial Iraqi exile who provided the Bush administration with faulty prewar intelligence on Iraqi weapons, recently told Iranian intelligence officials that U.S. eavesdroppers were monitoring top-secret communications by Tehran’s chief spy service, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The officials said the apparent betrayal of America’s secret eavesdropping and code-breaking operation could pose a significant setback to U.S. intelligence, given Iran's nuclear program, its support for Islamic militant groups and its growing political and religious ambitions in neighboring Iraq since the ouster of Saddam Hussein last year.

With friends like these . . .

Shooting
The New York Post today reports (“Subway Shooting,” by Dan Mangan, Murray Weiss, and Todd Venezia): “Monica Meadows, a 22-year-old Georgia beauty who recently moved to New York to pursue stardom, told cops she was sipping a soda on an uptown W train approaching the Times Square station when she heard a popping noise -- and saw her white sweater turn red with blood.”

Sipping
The new weekly poll has been posted in the sidebar at right. Surely everyone has an opinion on this one: Coke or Pepsi?

Slipping
In Philadelphia, or Catholic Philadelphia, there is much sadness and recrimination as St. John Neumann High School prepares to merge with St. Maria Goretti High School. Mike Newall, writing in Philadelphia Weekly has the details (“Marriage of Convenience,” June 8).

[Note: Items may be added to PP&T after initial publication.]

In responding to the latest poll, which began last Wednesday and ended today, and in which readers were asked which of six countries they would choose as their preferred haven if forced into exile, Rittenhouse readers revealed themselves to be beachcombers at heart.

Readers’ top two choices were Panama, which garnered 81 votes, or 37 percent of the total, and Madagascar, chosen by 70 readers (and by me), representing 32 percent of the vote.

Lagging in the poll were landlocked Paraguay, Moldova, and Uzbekistan, a trio joined, despite its Adriatic beaches, by Albania.

Results of the poll are summarized below:

1. Panama, 81 votes, or 37%
2. Madagascar, 70 votes, 32%
3. Paraguay, 40 votes,18%
4. Moldova, 15 votes, 7%
5. Albania, 11 votes, 5%
6. Uzbekistan, 3 votes, 1%

A new poll will be posted tomorrow.

Can there any longer be any doubt that Halliburton Co. is anything other than a criminal enterprise?

Seth Borenstein reports in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer (“Truckers Question Risky Job”):

Empty flatbed trucks crisscrossed Iraq more than 100 times as their drivers and the soldiers who guarded them dodged bullets, bricks and homemade bombs.

Twelve current and former truckers who regularly made the 300-mile resupply run from Camp Cedar in southern Iraq to Camp Anaconda near Baghdad said they risked their lives driving empty trucks while their employer, a subsidiary of Halliburton Inc., billed the government for hauling what they derisively called “sailboat fuel.”

Defense Department records show that the subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), has been paid $327 million for “theater transportation” of war materiel and supplies for U.S. forces in Iraq, and is to be paid $230 million more. The convoys are a lifeline for troops in Iraq, hauling humvee tires, boots, filing cabinets, tools, engine parts, and even an unmanned Predator reconnaissance plane. […]

KBR’s contract with the Defense Department allows the company to pass on the cost of the transportation and add 1 percent to 3 percent for profit, but neither KBR nor the U.S. Army Field Support Command in Rock Island, Ill., which oversees the contract, was able to provide cost estimates for the empty trucks. Trucking experts estimate each round-trip costs taxpayers thousands of dollars.

KBR and the Army denied that trucks made round-trips empty, and KBR said one-way empty runs were standard trucking practice. […]

In addition to interviewing the drivers, the Inquirer Washington Bureau reviewed KBR records of the empty trips, dozens of photographs of empty flatbeds, and a video showing 15 empty trucks in one convoy.

The 12 drivers, interviewed separately over the course of more than a month, told similar stories about their trips through hostile territory. […]

KBR, the Army, and the truckers gave different reasons for the empty-truck runs. Some of the truckers contended that KBR was billing the Pentagon for unnecessary work. KBR described the empty-truck runs as normal, given the large number of trucks it has delivering goods throughout Iraq. Army officials said longer convoys might provide better security.

Sounds like there’s easy money to be made by someone over there. Halliburton, I mean. Not the truckers.