text: Jamie Stiehm 2016-05-29T08:55:35-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=jamie-stiehm Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Jamie Stiehm Good old fashioned elbow grease. A Woman's Tale Of Survival In The Surf Of Death And Taxes tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.878297 2011-06-20T15:34:10-04:00 2011-09-26T15:50:33-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ Innocent Spouse, about running afoul of the IRS when her husband died with the saloon he owned deeply in hock. John Donvan, the ABC News correspondent, did the honors of the Q & A -- opening by questioning whether the book was just "chick lit." Very nice. Well, Reader, it's fine Vineyard fare, but more than that. And I do mean captivating -- for Joynt's stylish frankness in covering every step of the way in an odyssey of loss, struggle, spirit and reclamation. If I chose a few contemporary autobiographies of women to send back to the beloved 19th and 20th century suspects -- Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and George Eliot -- Joynt's book might make the cut. A literary masterpiece? No -- but a taut yarn not easily put down, by a media maestra who worked as a writer for Walter Cronkite early in her career. Later, she worked as a network news producer for Charlie Rose and Larry King. I enjoyed every moment of this tale, which was like a refreshing dip into a cold surf of reality: (with death and taxes churning like an undertow.) My point is: it tells a lot of truth about the inner and outer lives of the (white) privileged women in our times -- yes, those meant to have it all. Austen, Woolf and Eliot portrayed the upper classes in England, so this tale is in a sense, a historical sequel. Patti Smith's lyrical Just Kids and Antonia Fraser's elegant Diary of her marriage to the late British playwright Harold Pinter, Must You Go? are other revealing selections I'd send the three best (deceased) British women novelists for a book club of their own. Older than his fourth wife by a dozen years, Howard Joynt sure looked the part of dashing Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice -- but he took after another Austen character, the silver-tongued, seductive but deceptive Henry Crawford, in personality. "Howard was the embodiment of the irresistible rogue," his widow writes of him. He wore money well, she notes, and knew his way around the finest gardens and galleries. He made his cherished Nathans' a destination, a popular haunt literally at the crossroads of Georgetown: at M Street and Wisconsin Avenue in Northwest, a short walk down to the Potomac River. His wealthy family acquired the property for him, with an arcane lease and other perplexing details Joynt never knew until after her seemingly healthy husband died of pnuemonia in the winter of 1997. I remembered the month sharply, when President Bill Clinton was inaugurated a second time. To be fair, nor did Carol ever ask Howard any questions about the business he ran with a debonair wit and only a few fleeting signs of gaping financial troubles. Largely, he hid them from her. The couple had one child, a boy of five named Spencer, who sang his dying father a song in a hospital room: "You are my sunshine." At that point, his mother's inherited troubles had barely begun. Gradually the family of two had to downsize and sell the fancy boat and house on the Chesapeake Bay and move to a smaller domicile in Georgetown. Carol had to learn the restaurant business in a big hurry -- or better yet, sell the place -- while her lawyers worked on a way to save her from ruin. Imagine the anger, mingled with grief and determination to weather the ordeal for the sake of Spencer. "We lived in a house of cards... I know him (Howard) now better than I did then," Joynt told Donovan, having overcome the IRS icicle hanging over her head for years. Howard had left stacks of bills, mortgages and a total debt "a breath shy" of $3 million to his widow. To defend her, her lawyers successfully crafted the complex "innocent spouse" defense, arguing that Carol Joynt had no knowledge of her late husband's shenanigans. This is no Everywoman tale; as a savvy member of the Fourth Estate, Joynt knows the social landscape of this small town without a map. Among those who advised her was old friend Bob Woodward, from their lean and hungry reporting days. More to the purpose, the author received expert advice from the man who wrote the "innocent spouse" statute. Because of her personality and plight, Joynt was able to mobilize the best resources available, at times free of charge. And here is where the criss-crosses between Joynt's life story and mine started. The smallest of these is that I waitressed at a nearby Georgetown watering hole one summer in the '80s -- The Third Edition -- and loved working full days as an intern at WRC-TV, biking back and forth. Just a block down the brick sidewalk, the romance between an NBC night assignment editor and an urbane bar owner had blossomed into marriage. When I later got my first job in journalism, I worked as an assignment editor at CBS News. In January 1997, I had just joined the Baltimore Sun and covered "enthusiastic Marylanders" in the inaugural parade. While the city was caught up in the pageantry, Howard's cough turned to a deadly illness that took him to an intensive care unit. When he first got there, he asked for water: "Evian, please." How could the life of the party die? He was just 57. Carol was suddenly a widow: in news parlance, "an incomplete line of type," as she wistfully notes. In a handful of lies or deceptions he took to the hereafter, Howard told Carol she was his third wife, not his fourth. His bouts of chronic depression and domestic violence also colored the pretty picture darkly, but improved with therapy. I respect the author's ability to look these in the eye. Around the same time, I left a marriage that looked pretty perfect to family and friends one June day -- packing a knapsack and heading for my aunt's house over the bridge -- in a similar situation. In an age of "oversharing," violence in the home still happens under every class of roof, often silenced by women victims as unspeakable. In Joynt's world, the birds sing secrets and walls come tumbling down. It's not all gloom and doom. This is her nature, and the journalist in her is reporting the story. In a vignette she tells with relish, baseball legend Keith Hernandez asked her out on several dates; once they went to Elaine's, which makes for a diverting passage. To alleviate the stress of the IRS review, she sometimes invited girlfriends to come to Nathans' after hours and dance, dance to their heart's desire. The "moms' dance party" fit into a simple survival strategy: "Get out of bed every morning, exercise, go forward, laugh, and try to get a dose of friends whenever possible." Joynt does not hold back on how Washington power dinner parties place (and practically police) comely single women a safe distance from attractive married males. She waxes freely on her first kiss as a widow and writes beautifully of encounters in a love affair with a married man in New York who was not quite her lover, but someone who adored her and brought her back to the land of erotic touch. Donvan confessed scenes of carnal desire in a widow made him squeamish. As a society, we've moved past the notion their bodies should be frozen in black mourning dress to make them untouchable, but not that far. The moral of the story for Everywoman, beyond Georgeton's borders, is financial literacy. Far too many of us, me included, don't know the details of their investments, taxes, mortgages, pensions and debts. Joynt said she signed tax documents each year Howard was alive without a glance -- something she clearly paid dearly for. Candidly, Joynt tells the reader, she misses her husband less and less. In the Q & A with Donvan, she adds to her posthumous portrait of her husband: "He'd get it," she said, meaning why she wrote the book. But that didn't seem uppermost on Joynt's mind. Her message, delivered in part by the medium of joie de vivre at 60, is "all about going forward." Refusing to be a victim, she freed herself of shackles left by Howard's death. Her memoir is the latest in a genre women have come to own over time -- and the leap from writing diaries in secret annexes to autobiographies is a hop, a skip and a jump. In England, Woolf was one of the greatest diarists ever. On American shores, Mary McCarthy wrote her memories of a Catholic girlhood. Frederick Douglass' autobiography is outstanding, but again, it emerges from an outsider class -- which is the salient factor. Women need to write -- and read -- more of each other's life stories and see how their paths criss-cross in a larger pattern. Joynt's book is a contribution to strengthening sisterhood through the written word. A memoir like this speaks directly to you, Reader, in a more vivid voice than a novel. On a personal note, Joynt shows journalists on the broadcast side can write pretty darn well, too. Her story holds a lot of water and is very much of the moment. I recommend it to women and men alike. ]]> Oprah and Lucretia: Friends that Go Back a Long Way tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.867857 2011-05-27T11:09:57-04:00 2011-07-27T05:12:01-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ Her name is Lucretia Mott, and she also has a glow that could light a ship's way to shore. The common language between thee, Oprah, and a famed Quaker lady from Philadelphia -- the early champion for anti-slavery and women's rights -- seemed passing strange. Lucretia is my favorite heroine of history, but I never expected to run into her on your popular culture platform. Then again, it makes uncanny sense to someone who spends half her time in the 19th century, at work on a biography of Lucretia. Oh, Oprah -- or O Oprah? Listening to the last "love letter," spoken to a wistful world on the last day of an extraordinary run, I was musing on not missing a day of work in 25 years in Chicago. Then suddenly I heard it: the Quaker in Oprah. The emphasis on a light inside each of us is the central Quaker concept of the way God works, as a divine spark within. Oprah's theology in a kind of a mass media sermon seemed to be a fresh way of putting those things. The Religious Society of Friends, started in England, settled the colony of Pennsylvania. A Protestant sect, it was the first American religion to officially oppose slavery, more than 300 years ago. In other words, Friends were way ahead of their time. "Let your life speak." This is the oldest Quaker saying in the book, and Oprah kept saying it over and over, as if she was moved by the spirit. The fluid style of her delivery was also in the manner of the Society of Friends, who still worship in silence and spontaneous utterance. Lucretia had a radiant presence and a resonant speaking voice, just as her Chicago friend does. Her ally Frederick Douglass left the best living portrait of her: "the very sight of her, a sermon... bearing a message of light and love... my heart has always been made better and my spirit raised by her words." Doesn't that captures how it felt to say good-bye to Oprah? In their times, Lucretia and Oprah were - are - singular in the power to inspire in the public square with spoken words. Their shared truths are not only in what they said over the years, but the way they voiced them -- in a flow, with energy flowing from the individual to the community. Each woman spoke from a strong faith that burnished and renewed a vision of empowering oneself and others, thus escaping the bonds of oppression. Oprah shone a first light on sexual abuse and alcoholism, the price we pay for so much hurt society had hidden in the dark. For Lucretia, improving the plight of blacks and women were inseparable causes, one and the same. The Mott house was an Underground Railroad beacon long before Abraham Lincoln came along. (Don't get me wrong, I love Lincoln, but the Quakers first moved the public mind against slavery with persuasion and nonviolent resistance.) To be heard on human rights, Lucretia traveled all over antebellum America, addressing assemblies large and small. In London at the World Anti-Slavery Convention, she became the talk of the town when British organizers snubbed the American women delegation she led. John Quincy Adams invited her to come to Washington in 1843 to speak to senators and congressmen, several of them Southern slave-owners. Lawmakers packed a Unitarian church on a cold winter night, and the striking lady, face framed by a bonnet, spoke from her Inner Light -- with no notes, like Oprah. Ralph Waldo Emerson sat spellbound in the pews and praised "the flower of Quakerism" in a letter home to Concord the next day. Lucretia and Oprah both worked outside the power structure in bringing out the best in their worlds -- with a woman's words alone. The truth is, these women are no strangers, but sister spirits. ]]> The Vietnam War Ghost: Does It Still Live in Obama's White House? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.864739 2011-05-20T16:47:13-04:00 2011-07-20T05:12:01-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ The war in Vietnam is the American tragedy of our lifetimes. The saddest part of the story is that it's not over yet. Long after the last bombs dropped and the shooting stopped, the war we lost has profoundly influenced American foreign policy. This new volume, Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama, is a clear-eyed look at the Vietnam War's fateful consequences -- especially subsequent wars -- up until the present in Afghanistan. It could not be a more timely and thoughtful contribution to the literature, published by Brookings Institution Press. Thirty-six years ago this spring, the Vietnam War officially ended in 1975. If only it were so simple. As co-authors Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb demonstrate in this elegantly wrought work, the ghost of America's lost war haunts the halls of Foggy Bottom, the Pentagon and practically has a room of its own in the White House. Barack Obama likes to treat Vietnam War deja vu lightly, to finesse Vietnam's relevance when advisors, notably the late Richard Holbrooke, obsessed over echoes of another "quagmire": "Do people really talk like that?" the president asked him once. The authors say he was privately more mindful of history's shadows over Afghanistan, the war he chose to call his own. Obama took care to get clear with his generals exactly what the game plan was -- as well as to spell out a time line with troop levels on paper in his own hand. It's worth noting Lyndon B. Johnson, the Texan president who plunged the United States headfirst into Vietnam, left office in despair when Obama was seven. Thus the president sees the war in a colder, more clinical light than some senior advisors. For the 49-year-old, Vietnam is less a searing generational experience and more a chilling lesson of statecraft. "Though Obama would rarely admit it, LBJ was often on his mind... as a warning against a dangerous policy of endless escalation," as the Kalbs put it. Shared cultural memory of the Vietnam War, shattering and inescapable in civil society and the military, has influenced every Administration since 1975. The span goes from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama. The design of the Kalbs' study is simple: to discuss how each president in 36 years, roughly two generations, wrestled with the ghost of Vietnam. To be clear, they are concerned with the legacy and wake of the war, not with the war itself. Their analysis is crisp, fresh and engaging, the narrative taut as any tragedy should be, with familiar choruses: "an unwinnable war," "overwhelming force," and of course, "quagmire." (Note: the events of May 1, 2011, the American raid in Pakistan that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, took place shortly after the book went to press, but it fits well within the framework.) What makes this riveting account breathe is the seasoned insight into the human characters on the world stage. It's what they call "backstory" in Hollywood pitches. One of Washington's wise men, Marvin Kalb, formerly a CBS News correspondent and host of NBC's Meet the Press, is now a leading scholar and author on the media. His journalism career also goes on, with newsmaker forums at the National Press Club. For the purposes of this book, he covered the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. The fix he gives on individuals is complex, giving readers nuanced portraits of several presidents and a few key courtiers, such as Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and the vivid Holbrooke -- the Cassandra of the piece? Also from his reporter's notebooks, the Egyptian leader and peacemaker Anwar Sadat's worldly graces are briefly revived. Co-author Deborah Kalb, an editor and writer, spent years covering Congress, and so between the father-daughter team the well of Washington runs deep. Some presidents stand out as more tragic than others. For starters, Jimmy Carter was luckless and powerless in the Iran hostage crisis because he remained reluctant to the end of his term in 1981 to commit our full military might. The result was a botched rescue, a debacle that certainly informed Obama's meticulous planning of the bin Laden raid, down to the last helicopter. Behind the scenes, Carter's national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski pressed for arming Islamic militants in Afghanistan in a Cold War move against the occupying Soviet Union -- and we know how well that turned out, arming and training religious radical young men to be mujahideen warriors who later morphed disastrously into the Taliban. In any case, it eventually made the Soviet endgame in Afghanistan more like the painful American farewell to arms in Vietnam, which was the point all along. Ronald Reagan, who projected an image as a resolute commander-in-chief, is revealed here as a very skilled actor. In fact, when 241 Marines were killed in a terrorist bombing in Lebanon during a civil war, Reagan took no action to retaliate. His published diary acknowledged this years after the fact. Here we learn that Caspar Weinberger, his Secretary of Defense, was the player who thwarted plans of a joint air operation with France. Why? Arguments flew fiercely, with Secretary of State George Schultz favoring force, but doing nothing won the day. This is where the post-Vietnam melody starts, according to the Kalbs, with Reagan's position that combat should be a "last resort" and that popular support was critical to any military engagement. Civilian leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, were clearly becoming more timid and reactive about the use of force. Meanwhile, as the 1980s passed, the military tried to shake off the deeply demoralizing Vietnam War experience, not at all eager to embrace just any job, mission or invasion. In other words, the next time the Army mobilized, it wanted to win and win big. This coalesced in the "Powell Doctrine," named for Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Persian Gulf War. The 1989 president, George H.W. Bush, emerges here as a good winner and a gentleman-statesman who orchestrated the end of the Cold War with restraint. As the civilian commander, he acted in sync with the Army's wish to get one limited job done -- namely, expel Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait. He was "prudent" enough to call it a day without chasing Hussein to Baghdad or getting stuck in the desert sand fighting Iraqi soldiers on their own land. That would be off-script, even "off-message" for the savvy new American military. And so the Army went home happy for the first time in a long time. That was 20 years ago, in 1991. Ugly Vietnam scars on the body politic surfaced again when the first Baby Boomer was elected president in 1992. Bill Clinton opposed the war in Vietnam and did what he could to avoid being drafted before going over to England as a Rhodes Scholar. For each one of us who loved him for that, there seemed to be someone who hated him for it. So as president, Clinton's relationship with the military was spooked and strained at first. His biography -- and an early fatal skirmish in Somalia -- had taught him to beware putting "boots on the ground." Within that parameter, Clinton and Ambasador Holbrooke directed a peacekeeping operation, followed by the Dayton Accords, to bring peace to wartorn Bosnia in the mid-1990s. Later, to defend besieged Kosovo in 1999, NATO forces, led by American commander Wesley Clark, won a war waged against Serbia entirely from a campaign of airstrikes. "Clinton did use American military power, but mostly from 30,000 feet," the authors observe. For myself, I give Clinton more credit for creative, deft use of force to achieve meaningful results on the map of Europe. Of all the presidents discussed here, he seems to have learned his Vietnam lessons well. Once he put his mind to work on foreign policy, he combined diplomacy and warfare in an inspired way. The war in Kuwait was won by multiplying the lessons of the old book on conventional military warfighting. Dayton was a new page in a new book and raised America's stature in the world. Then we come to a darker chapter of the Republic (my emphasis), where we had a brash "war president" -- not a line Abraham Lincoln would have loved. A Yale fraternity man and mediocre National Guardsman, George W. Bush also artfully avoided fighting in the Vietnam War (with help from class privilege and family connections.) Later, this Texan president started two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- three, if you count the global "war on terror." Sadly, the September 11th attacks gave a green light to invading (innocent) Iraq, something the few decision-makers in the Bush White House were champing at the bit to do: "They were waiting for their moment; it was only a matter of when," the authors write. The Kalbs say that while the Iraq War was not won, it was not lost, either, thanks to an extremely able General David Petraeus, who wrote his Princeton Ph.D. thesis on the mistakes and lessons of the Vietnam War. Again, elegiac notes of the war lost -- but not forgotten -- enter and exit the American stage, only to return again. In an effort to escape and banish the Vietnam War, the Bush wars only seemed to reinforce the perils of foreign wars fought far from home -- by choice or necessity. Because Bush's Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, scorned Army generals who wanted to do things right -- not "light" in his own contrary post-Vietnam view -- he was a man without a plan after the initial invasion. In another tragic irony, he also let the September 11th doer, bin Laden, get away into Pakistan nearly a decade ago. Nice work for a man who was not SecDef once, but twice. So vexed and conflicted are we Americans about Vietnam, the Kalbs point out, that every presidential contender who served in Vietnam lost: Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 and John McCain in 2008. The 2000 election, decided by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision, is too sad to dwell on for more than ten years, so let me skip to the next contest in 2004. The Kalbs have done a service to the truth and the record, by investigating the allegations of the so-called "Swift Boats Veterans for Truth." This outfit did much to deceive the public and hurt Senator Kerry, the Democratic standard-bearer and a decorated naval hero in Vietnam. The tragic hero in the Kalb-Kalb volume turns out to be Senator Kerry, who as a naval officer commanded a Swift Boat. Set off by Tour of Duty, a biography of Kerry by historian Douglas Brinkley, the Kalbs report the leader of the "Swift Boats" group organized a network of other veterans and raised money for a ferocious media campaign against Kerry. In so doing, they challenged his account of combat and time served in Vietnam and Cambodia. Their false thunder and fury hit the airwaves in the lull of August, usually a quiet month for campaign media. The Kerry campaign did not answer back quickly the way the Clintons would have -- by sunset. But for that, Kerry may have rowed across the relentless river of history to the White House. Why did they hate Kerry so much years after the war was supposed to be over? Once Kerry came home, he became the leading young voice against the war in Vietnam and spoke frankly of brutalities in the jungle, half a world away. His critical eloquence made him even more traitorous, for some of his fellow sailors and comrades. Did you ever hear the question Bruce Springsteen turned into a song: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Forty Aprils ago, the future senator famously asked that question in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he now chairs. The anguished question hangs in the air even now, especially now, as we witness whether a daring and lucky young president ends his war well -- and seizes the chance to lay to rest the ghost of Vietnam. ]]> A Revolution of Their Own tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.819185 2011-02-07T11:19:46-05:00 2011-05-25T18:30:24-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ The women and girls of Cairo were nowhere to be found (in any numbers) in pictures of the epic strife in Tahrir Square. The ancient city's men and boys were the predominant players staging the conflict on both sides. In the beginning, they composed the nonviolent challenge to the authoritarian government, defying tanks out on the streets and bridges over the Nile River in a rush to revolutionary freedom. The road ahead, expected to lead to a reform government led by Egypt's new Vice President Omar Suleiman, opens up an unheralded opportunity for inclusion -- if the world continues to closely watch Egypt take baby steps toward a government of the people. The United States, alone, has the power to press for our dearest democratic principles to be enshrined in the storied land. To review the week's events, thousands of men formed the brigade of longtime President Hosni Mubarak's "supporters" which came out to crush dissent. Scenes of tumult, violence and suppression were getting darker by the day, and journalists are under siege as they try to get the story out to the world. So where were the women and girls? They should have a revolution of their own, but they are probably tending to home fires, stitching the seams of private life together. As is generally the case, Arab women are kept at the periphery of public view in their culture and society, silenced and shrouded in second-class status. Their absence at the televised revolution has hardly been remarked upon by the media. It's worth noting there was female participation in the April 6th youth movement, which used social media to put this process in motion. And a New York Times column reported meeting an 80-year-old Arab feminist out in the exhilarating public scenes. Even so, here's what the Egypt pictures say to me: if we in Western democracies accept the systematic shabby treatment of women in the new configuration of Egypt, then true democracy shall be a long time coming to the Arab street. Populous and urbane Egypt is certainly not close to the worst case when it comes to oppressing women and girls. Like the dog that didn't bark in the Sherlock Holmes mystery, women in Egypt and the Arab world are very much there as witnesses and indeed hold the key to helping their countries make the transition (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's phrase) to creating government by consent. For too long, we've looked the other way, especially when it comes to our ally Saudi Arabia. Too many women there live under glorified house arrest. Authors, generals and policymakers are taking note. Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools, has a stake in building village schools that educate girls in Afghanistan, a step which he believes lights the way for civil society coming to bear from within on a repressive culture that has confounded outsiders. (Illiterate women in Afghanistan, and there are many of them, are apt to say they are "blind.") General David Petraeus is a believer in Mortenson's peaceful approach to connecting cultures, as are other Army commanders familiar with the shameful way women are treated in Pakistan and Afghanistan, our two theaters of war. The thinking goes that in the future, the Pentagon should shift its focus to empowering the other half of the young Arab population as it grows all over the Middle East, since they haven't had any luck in building bridges to young Arab Muslim males. As for policymakers, Clinton must be front and center in stating the case that Arab women deserve human rights and full citizenship if, as anticipated, a fledging democracy develops in Egypt or another Arab nation. She has sounded such a call before, notably in Beijing as first lady. We have the power and influence to put that into practice; our military aid and involvement with Egypt lies so deep that most of their top military brass was actually here on a visit when revolution broke out on the streets of Cairo. Note to Clinton: Tunisia's recent revolution rocked this cascade of democracy. The status of Tunisia's women is among the highest in the Arab world. Let me suggest, that cannot be mere coincidence. ]]> Plame's Name Was Fair Game, Remember? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.769170 2010-10-20T15:15:58-04:00 2011-05-25T18:05:23-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ Fair Game. Finally, art has brought more truth to life in telling this hauntingly familiar tale of our times. In a compelling portrait of the spy who lost her job, Naomi Watts plays Plame, opposite leading man Sean Penn, who nails the role of her intense husband, Joseph Wilson. In real life, Wilson is a former ambassador who became the gadfly of Washington when he challenged the truth of sixteen words in George W. Bush's State of the Union address. A gadfly in a good way. The televised clips of the president and his national security advisor Condoleezza Rice (oh yes, the smoking gun and the mushroom cloud) are just as evocative of memories as the Madeleine in Proust. Remember? Wilson's op-ed in The New York Times seven years ago caused the wrath of the Bush White House to rain hard on his head. What Wilson knew from his government trip to Niger threatened to undermine part of the rationale for the march to war in Iraq. Once Wilson went into the public square, declaring he saw no evidence of uranium (or WMD material) in Niger, an African country he knew well, the long knives were out for his contradicting the carefully crafted words. The way administration officials retaliated against Wilson was ruthlessly personal, they went after his wife and gave her name to at least one journalist. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, later took the fall in court. Once Plame's name appeared in black and white, her C.I.A. career was over in ten minutes. Noah Emmerich turns in a strong performance as her relentless boss. This is the most personally heartbreaking scene, because Plame loses everything and everyone she worked with in an only-in-Washington scenario. And she has her outspoken husband to thank -- or blame -- or what? It's a surreal dilemma, but she does not come across as a victim, for all the pain. This movie does a public service in itself because Bush's wartime Washington was a lonely place to be a patriotic dissenter. Both Plame and Wilson were suddenly outside of the establishment mix. Their "loyalty" to the country they served was questioned and their careers were in flames and ashes. The toll this took on their marriage is presented in the movie in a straightforward manner, resisting easy formulas. Wilson remained out in front as a public critic of the Bush war policy, and, for a long time, Plame chose a more private way to deal with loss. Eventually, they each wrote a book about the experience, the stories on which the screenplay is based. Plame's testimony before Congress is a chance to speak her piece at last. Hollywood likes a happy ending. Today, we know Plame and Wilson have gone on to another life in Santa Fe with their ten-year-old twins. Libby's sentence was commuted by Bush, though Cheney pressed for a more honorable pardon until the end of an eight-year winter in American history. Plame now advocates for nuclear non-proliferation. The entertainment company Participant Media, a relative newcomer to making movies, brought this important social injustice story to the screen with great talent, finesse and insight. It has the makings of a modern tragedy, but the characters escape that fate. Thank you so much!]]> Christine's Adventures: A Mad Tea Party in Wonderland tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.758370 2010-10-11T20:20:18-04:00 2011-05-25T18:00:30-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ by Jamie Stiehm (with apologies to Lewis Carroll) Down, down, down a Fox News hole Christine O'Donnell of Delaware went, a passage that turned into a long dark fall. On this autumn day of the unpredictable adventure that was her life, Christine planned to visit the land of Oz -- not so much to see Dorothy. But there was a witch or two she wished to look up from her dabbling days. Alas, it was not to be. As Christine hit the ground and brushed the dry leaves from her face, she faced the fact her adventure led to Wonderland instead of Oz. The empty jar of orange marmalade on the way was the giveaway. Alice was taking the day off and so Christine was elected to take her place as guest of honor in Wonderland. The White Rabbit, Mock Turtle, the Cheshire-Cat and especially the Queen wanted to get a good look at the American who presumed to speak their language so well. "I'm you," Christine greeted the Caterpillar's languid query and everyone else she happened to meet as she walked along. "How do you do?" This worked wonders in making friends with all the new characters except the Hatter. He was a bit cross because he had been told by the Queen, Sarah herself, to throw a surprise tea party for Christine. English hospitality at its finest, but the host could not conceal how truly mad he was. "So you're the little upstart who breached the well-built Castle," he said to his visitor as he opened the door to his large house. "If you please, we'll talk no more nonsense in here." Christine followed the Hattter out to the garden, under a tree, where the scene became curiouser and curiouser. The tea party had already begun. "Oh my God, Sharron, Marco, Joe, Ken, Rand, Mike, what are you doing here?" Christine said. "My fellow Americans!" "We're all in this Fox-hole together," the band of Americans said in unison. "There's a lot of anger out there and that's why we're here." The Hatter silently poured Christine a cup of Earl Grey with lemon, steaming with repressed rudeness. He was thinking this was the strangest gathering he was ever at in all his life in Wonderland. "You see, we're the Tea Party," Christine explained. "So this is just so perfect, perfect, perfect. Totally inspirational to be with." "Guys, we've got to go," Rand said, taking a watch out of his waistcoat-pocket. "The Queen invited us for croquet." Said Christine: "The party's just getting started." ]]> Conservative too good a word for Tea Party, Fox News and Newt Gingrich tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.655197 2010-07-22T11:19:22-04:00 2011-05-25T17:10:24-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ "Conservative" is frankly too good a word for Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which recently ran an outrageous headline about President Obama as an "alien." Let me count and name the other mischief-makers who are not worthy of the word, in just a moment. These are the angry white, older men who are turning our dialogue of democracy into "public discoarse." They are trying to wrest the words, music and meaning away from what we the people voted for in a historic election in 2008. Not to mention a concerted effort to undermine social and progressive institutions like the distinguished N.A.A.C.P. (founded in 1909 when lynchings were still on the American horizon.) This war of words is the first battle that the rest of us must fight, because "conservative" in truth has an honorable ring. Its origins and dictionary definition show it as special: someone who preserves and protects traditions and institutions. Someone who safeguards the past as society moves into the future, but does not welcome change too soon. Someone who burnishes the wisdom of a country or a government. Edmund Burke, the great 18th century thinker, wrote an eloquent tract on what it truly means to be a conservative at the time of the French Revolution. If any of our so-called "conservatives" has ever read Edmund Burke, (okay, anyone besides David Brooks and Ross Douthat who are more true to type) send for my smelling salts. Burke would be horrified to see his cherished word applied to the rascally likes of Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, who takes a pratfall on every page of her new The Obama Diaries. Make no mistake, everything they say or write is directed at well-off white men, inciting fury against our democratically elected government. Let's be clear and name names. "Conservative" is too good a word for Rush Limbaugh. Conservative is too good a word for Karl Rove and the master he served, George W. Bush, who started two wars of choice with no respect for precedent. Conservative is too good a word for Newt Gingrich, the elder statesman of the Republican Party. Finally, conservative is too good a word for the Republican senators who oppose Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Supreme Court supposedly because she voiced support of historic lawsuits based on the commerce clause of the constitution, traditionally the vehicle of civil rights legislation. When the right gets brazen about the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall by extension, you know something rotten is up. Sadly, the Obama Administration got bamboozled by their latest play, which I need not go into except to say that "conservative" gives this enormous block of angry white men a respectable veneer it does not deserve. Enough with dignifying them all with "conservative." They would burn the whole barn down if they could, i.e. they will undermine Barack Obama's presidency if they have their way. They are not out to protect the past, certainly not a traditional election. They are radical right-wingers who could learn a lesson from Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina senator who parted ways with his fellow Republicans in supporting Kagan's confirmation to the Court. We have to honor and respect elections, Graham said in a soft voice which captured attention on both sides of the aisle. As well it might. The muse of history, in the form of Burke, was listening, too -- with pleasure. The Southern senator, a firebrand in his House days, sounded truly like a conservative. ]]> So Long, It's Been Good to Know You, Senator tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.272161 2009-08-30T09:46:28-04:00 2011-05-25T13:55:18-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ Senator Kennedy dearly loved to laugh, even at himself as the last liberal lion in the pride. He also loved to take his place on the Senate floor as an old-fashioned orator, roaring at the latest outrage. The sound filled the Capitol dome. Oxygen was sucked out of the chamber. Some ran for cover. Others were heartened to have such a force on their side. Over 47 short years, the Senator from Massachusetts showed he was made of the same stardust as two others who held that office: Daniel Webster and his own brother, John F. Kennedy. In fact, Senator Kennedy's record as the author of major social legislation is unsurpassed. As a rookie reporter roaming the halls, I inquired if it was lonely as a liberal under Republican rule in Congress. Said Kennedy: "I RELISH THE CHALLENGE." Troubles in paradise, to be sure, yet Kennedy overcame tragedies and addressed flaws that would have broken or bent most of us. Now as his light wanes on the sailing horizon, it is time to say goodbye when the senator is put to rest today close to his slain brothers in Arlington. Living his last summer, there was thankfully time to say good-bye to his circle of family, friends and fellow Americans. Some of his foes "across the aisle" were awfully fond of him. The only Republican Kennedy couldn't abide was the late Jesse Helms. If you judge a man by his friends, Kennedy was the richest man in the land. John Lewis, a civil rights hero and congressman, loved him like a brother. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, Sen. Barbara Mikulski and President Barack Obama were a few among them. Kennedy played king-maker for Obama by choosing to endorse him early in 2008. Leading figures in the arts, education, medicine, law, business, architecture, history and on the world stage could be called at any moment as friends and believers that "the dream shall never die." At the same time, Senator Kennedy seemed to know everyone in the Boston telephone book. He was the most patrician man of the people who ever lived in the republic. Working for The Hill newspaper, I gleaned a few facts about Kennedy. That he made many unreported hospital and deathbed visits. That not a day went by that he didn't think about his brothers -- all three who died young. That Jack asked in a letter to their mother Rose to be godfather to the baby -- namely, Edward, the youngest of nine. That he caught a touchdown pass to win a big game for Harvard. Everyone liked Teddy, who radiated the sunniest bonhomie among the brothers. This winning way stayed with Kennedy as he developed the most ringing voice for social justice in Washington and never vanished, even at the end. That champagne-like charisma made all the difference to his body of work. Personal alchemy in politics, the relationships between all 100 senators, matters more to outcomes than we the people often know. When one seasoned senator publicly weeps on the floor for another, as Byrd did for his Kennedy (upon hearing news of the brain tumor), you knew there was still a lion left in the forest. Now, not so much: perhaps a cub or two. So long, it's been grand to know you, Senator. Jamie Stiehm is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. ]]> The Lost Art Of Lunch tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.265793 2009-08-24T11:32:24-04:00 2011-11-17T09:02:45-05:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ Alas, the art of lunching seems to be getting lost in Washington among my set -- let's say around Obama's age, 48 and under. For those in their 30s, this seems all the more true. There simply doesn't seem to be enough time, even on a slow summer day, to get together and compare notes on the passing parade in the nation's capital. Take this week. I was scheduled to lunch with three friends: Robert Monday, Sarah Thursday and John Friday. This was an unusually full dance card for a week. Reader, every one of these plans fell through the floor, but that's not what bothered me. What struck me is that I wasn't surprised at that outcome. We the people in the chattering, creative and governing class do not often enjoy quotidian rituals. Starting with Robert, a gentleman of letters: we failed to connect by e-mail or mobile, although we both left and sent messages that morning. By 12:15 I was having a fine impromptu lunch with our former editor, Al Eisele, in the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars dining room. But because Robert and I never actually picked up the landline phone to call each other, we missed the connection. Our 21st century systems failed. Again, we put it off. We're kind of like Charlie Brown and the football: there's always next time, next week. Al, who knows the way of the world well, is of the vintage that believes in sitting down, breaking bread and having a few shared laughs and stories with sources, scholars and colleagues. The joke may be on us, the Facebook crowd that has a hard time meeting face to face. Robert's father, the peerless Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., was the foremost American historian of his generation, and a fabulous bon vivant in New York literati circles. His published a captivating book of Journals 1952-2000. The pages are full of vignettes from breakfast with Henry Kissinger, lunch with Bill Moyers, a dinner party at Jackie's or with President Clinton's ambassador to France, Pamela Harriman. He knew how to write and live large in telling the tales of his times. He caught the characters in portraits with a living light on them, not by going to meetings and checking his Blackberry all day. Sarah and I share an intellectual zest for Abraham Lincoln. I like to claim him as my historical boyfriend, but she understands the man from Illinois just as well or probably better. She directs education programming at the polished, restored Ford's Theatre, not far from where I work on Pennsylvania Avenue. Right between the White House and Ford's, the route of Lincoln's last ride. Table talk about Lincoln with this bright young expert would be a real Washington treat. But Sarah got pulled into a meeting shortly before lunch time and couldn't come over Thursday. Dashed, I consoled myself with looking ahead to the Friday lunch date with John, a government lawyer and author. He and I met by e-mail across the world after the September 11th attacks. A commentary I wrote on how it affected our generation - history hitting home for the first time - somehow reached him at the end of the earth. We struck up a rapport and friendship that way, as unlikely as it sounds, that lasts to this day. I thought this time was more ironclad because I kept getting calendar messages and reminders, but no. Something at work came up close to the noon hour, and so John and I are down for Wednesday with Thursday as a back-up. Truth be told, Sarah and I are meeting at 11:30 Thursday and Robert and I are going to give an summer lunch another try on Tuesday. As for all of us sitting down together, that sounds like a lot of fun, but it would never happen. I'll keep you posted, if you will, on next week. Jamie Stiehm is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. ]]> Abe Lincoln, my Historical Boyfriend tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.186858 2009-04-15T15:26:00-04:00 2011-11-17T09:02:45-05:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ In his bicentennial year, Lincoln haunts the air here: in book shops, art galleries, concerts, even the blue wool overcoat he wore to Ford's Theatre on the fatal night in 1865. On the lighter side, late-night comedian Conan O'Brien came to praise him as a humorist. It's all going to my head. Smelling salts, please. I also went to a dramatization of the Lincoln-Douglas debates about slavery at Ford's: my idea of a good time. When I heard Bruce Springsteen rock the Inaugural concert back in January, the marble Lincoln Memorial itself was what actually made me misty. And the recent discovery of a secret message in his watch brought him back for a fleeting moment. Lincoln's on my heart and mind. I wonder about the sound of his voice -- one thing we'll never know. The gray-blue eyes, yes, but not his voice. And he walks with me through our troubled times. The man knows how to handle trouble. I often imagine the rainy morning scene of Lincoln's leaving Springfield, Illinois for Washington in 1861, forever. The farewell speech to townspeople, engraved on the wall by his statue in the National Cathedral, are among the saddest words he ever spoke. He wept; so did listeners as he thanked them for "all that I am." I replay his White House handshake with Frederick Douglass (who almost got thrown out of the second Inaugural party) when he asked the abolitionist orator what he thought of his address. He added how much he valued a good word from Douglass. It's hard to find time alone in my love for Lincoln, with all the competition. Team of Rivals bestselling author Doris Kearns Goodwin, you are not really a rival; Lincoln loves you like a sister. Poet Walt Whitman, you worshiped Lincoln when you both inhabited wartime Washington. The "Lilacs" and "Captain" elegies you composed for him sing to this day, but he just wasn't that into you as the great American bard. The man was too busy running a war. The president knew the other Bard's tragedies very well, and fittingly his favorite was the Scottish play, MacBeth, the tale of a good king's bloody murder. As for Mary Lincoln, we give each other our space. This difficult first lady got a bad rap from Lincoln's biographers. Our rough-hewn railroad lawyer might not have made it as far without her. He married up in the match with the former Miss Todd, who knew about poetry, politics and polished entertaining. As a bright young thing, she was also courted by his smooth-talking rival, Stephen Douglas, and the republic might be another country had she married him instead. Geography also plays a part. As a Wisconsin girl, Lincoln loomed large; I vividly remember visiting his large corner house in Springfield. Lincoln was the first president born outside the original thirteen states, suggesting it took an outsider from the "West" to settle the seething North-South sectional divide. The dry wit and storytelling he was known for sprang from his prairie roots; all the land was once an empty stage for a story or laugh. Then there's Lincoln's mastery over deep suffering. He had two suicidal breakdowns as a young man and later buried two sons, not to mention the loss of his mother as a boy. When in a blue mood, he can be consoling company. On his last day, April 14, Lincoln told Mary on a carriage ride they must try to be happy, since the war was over at last. That spring night spelled the tragic end of him in a theater. Actor John Wilkes Booth took his life by shooting him in the back of the head. Booth leapt to the stage to dash for his horse and made a three-day escape into rural Maryland and Virginia. He was not captured alive, but several co-conspirators were convicted and hanged. There to see a comedy, a thousand theatergoers witnessed a political act of Shakespearean proportions. Doctors keeping watch on Lincoln's deathbed into an April dawn said his strong body looked oddly younger than his face and his 56 years. Sevenscore and four years ago, he drew his last breath and left a broken-hearted world behind. So my historical boyfriend is a much older married man whose grand life was brutally snuffed out the same year my great-grandfather was born. Yet he'll always belong to the ages, so they say -- and to me.]]> Michelle Obama in Black and White x 3 tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.182090 2009-04-03T11:26:48-04:00 2011-05-25T13:10:22-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ They looked charmed, as if like they could dance all night at each affair. But what was truly smashing was the subliminal message contained in their clothes: a happy harmony of black and white. Michelle Obama's one-shouldered chiffon gown showed off her beautiful bone structure and beaming face. The creamy white creation by designer Jason Wu made a striking contrast to the president's flawless black tux with white bowtie. Sparkling white on bespoke black: you can't beat that classic elegance wherever you sail or fly around the world. The Obamas, with their shrewd political horse sense, didn't do that just by chance. They were saying, America, wake up from the nightmare! Black and white are finally fused and we two are one in Washington tonight. So are we all. A dramatic sartorial statement, yet black on white got lost in translation on one of the most joyful evenings in American history. I let the Obamas' deft symbolism go down without a write. Next thing I knew, the First Lady's official White House portrait, taken in the Blue Room, was published. Another gorgeous sleeveless dress that showed off her bold countenance and strong shoulders, this time in black. But then again, the double strand of white pearls, made the portrait another Obama fusion in black and white. This simple, powerful coffee with cream blend showed up again today in London. Black and white proved for the third time in three months that it's not just a fashion choice. What better way to present oneself to the Queen of England if you are new, First Lady Michelle Obama? To Queen Elizabeth II and world leaders gathered there this week, the look makes crystal clear that we, the American people, are not the usual cup of tea anymore. Much has been said about a supposed effort to echo Jacqueline Kennedy of the early 1960s, but I think Michelle Obama knows exactly who she is and how she is playing on a vast stage. Her approval ratings are up to 76% and she seems easy and secure in her own skin, with a strong Midwestern no-nonsense streak running through her. She is 45, about a dozen years older than Mrs. Kennedy was during her White House years. Michelle Obama grasped going in that she reflects the state of the nation in a more personal way than her husband, President Obama. Just as Mamie Eisenhower represented the dowdy domesticity of the dark-sided 1950s, Michelle Obama has a historic opportunity to mirror us in the moment as a society that is both black and white. For the first time, really, we overcame our tragic racial past voluntarily -- without a fight, a march, or a court order. And look at how good they go together.]]> Lincoln and Lee: A Seldom-Told Tale tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.166249 2009-02-12T00:25:52-05:00 2011-05-25T13:05:20-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ Like so many who fell under his spell since he was born 200 years ago today, I feel that to know Lincoln is to love him. I dream about the sound of his voice. I don't go through a day without him, especially these momentous days of the first African-American president, also a lanky lawyer from Illinois. It's almost as if Greek goddesses have smiled on us after a long present-day civil war. As a woman in Washington writing on history and politics, I see it took the first president from the egalitarian Midwest -- or simply "the West" -- to finally force the nation's sectional divide over slavery to an absolutely furious finale. Years before giving his most eloquent speeches, the Great Emancipator was a brilliant triangulator and a bold symbolist. Lincoln, neither Northerner nor Southerner, brought his wisdom, common sense and uncommon determination to holding the Union together in the face of the Confederate rebellion. He could see each side more clearly than they could see themselves, from high-minded Massachusetts to hot-headed South Carolina. No other electable man alive, even in the formidable "team of rivals" in his Cabinet, could have accomplished that feat. Up until the turning point of Gettysburg in the middle of the Civil War, it looked like the military prowess of General Robert E. Lee and the bravado of his gray-clad troops were winning the war. But guess what Lincoln did to discredit Lee early on? This is a seldom-told tale, but extremely revealing. Lincoln confiscated his beautiful mansion Arlington, right across the river from Washington. The elegant property is today the national military cemetery, as Lincoln intended it to be. By seizing an estate once connected to George and Martha Washington by marriage, Lincoln made the unceremonious point that Lee was nothing but a traitor to the government he had served as a career Army general. Lincoln started the practice of burying the bodies of Union soldiers right there in Lee's former front yard outside the gracious neoclassical home. Not that Lee was there to see them, but the point was plain as the nose of Lincoln's craggy face. The blood was on Lee's hands and literally running in soil that had belonged to Lee. See, Lee had done the unforgivable: he put his state of Virginia and its charming customs before his country. This devastating move gave the moral high ground to the Union. It may not have hurt Confederate morale as much as it helped Union morale, but Lincoln could not have cut Lee's reputation into shreds any more clearly and swiftly. In the last 150 years, of course, Lee has had some of the best publicists in American history portraying him as noble, dashing and gallant in serving a some sort of romantic losing cause. Am I right? Lincoln has the look of a dreamy and sad-eyed poet, but that expression can fool you. The president breathed new life into the English language and crystallized profound truths that we are still catching up with. But he was not a man to be crossed on either side of the river. The shrewd, hard-headed Lincoln played politics just the way he fought the war: to win. --- Jamie Stiehm is a political journalist in Washington. ]]> Daschle and The Noise of Democracy tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.164524 2009-02-06T16:13:30-05:00 2011-05-25T13:05:20-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ This Washington drama was like watching a Greek tragedy. Did the former Senate Democratic leader fly too close to the sun after a narrow defeat in South Dakota in 2004? Daschle, 61, clearly got accustomed to some expensive tastes for someone who still looks like a bright-eyed youth fresh from the Midwest. Outside Washington and political circles, there are no tears for the case of a wealthy man forgetting or overlooking taxes owed on a car and driver service lent by a friend. But those who know and believe in Daschle -- and there are legions of friends, supporters, allies in Congress, a large alumni group of staffers and a few Indian chiefs -- swear this does not nearly tell the full story of the Tom Daschle we know. Count me in. Years ago, as a reporter for a new weekly, I covered Senate Democrats when he was elected Democratic leader. I remember standing by the Ohio Clock in the Capitol to hear the result: Daschle beat Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut by one vote. A custom took hold: In the morning, Daschle spoke to reporters in sessions called "Dugouts." A nice dry wit like the fields of wheat in the center of the country pervaded these exchanges with the media. So did an understated modesty that stood out in a Senate crowd. And mixed in with the day's news was a Daschle turn of phrase I jotted down in my notebook more than once: "the noise of democracy." A poetic way to put it, I thought then; now it has a bittersweet streak running through it. I watched all 100 senators from the press gallery, a free ticket to the best theater in town. It was clear as day Daschle was one of the most trusted, liked characters in the chamber. Sen. Edward Kennedy told me Daschle was a "Senator's senator." And the reason why came across, too, through the sea of back-slapping: he became known for doing the right thing for the right reasons. In that same spirit, Daschle later urged a freshman senator named Barack Obama to run for president, and helped him early and often. Sens. Daschle and Kennedy worked most closely with Hillary Clinton on her failed universal health care legislation, which never came up for a vote. Thanks to that, Daschle knows the winds and waves of Congress on this topic, combined with his policy expertise. It is no wonder Republican Tommy Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor who held the HHS Cabinet post, expressed regret the nation will not have him at the helm of health care reform. Here's where I should say I contacted Daschle to express interest in working for him as a speechwriter. I'm not saying he's perfect. Clearly, he isn't. But on Jan. 8, In his first Senate confirmation hearing under the gavel of Sen Kennedy, senators lavished him with love on both sides of the aisle, a rare event that Daschle handled gracefully. His old Republican adversary, Robert Dole, showed up to give Daschle a clubby endorsement. The second hearing never came to pass, thanks to Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Finance Committee. The stage seemed set for a triumph: coming back to public service and addressing the crisis of 47 million Americans without health insurance. President Obama knows Daschle's withdrawal is a devastating loss, but then there's the noise of democracy -- which could not be ignored. --- Jamie Stiehm is a political journalist in Washington. ]]> They Won't Play Ball With the New Boy tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.162743 2009-02-01T13:26:40-05:00 2011-05-25T13:00:22-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ And I mean nothing. Not one Republican voted with Obama in the House; not one Republican in the House or Senate supported Clinton's budget bill, a progressive measure that paid down the deficit and paved the way for economic prosperity in just a few years. Once is wrong; twice is a world full of trouble for them. That pattern needs to be remembered right about now. Unruly congressional Republicans are not going to play ball with the new boy. They will not give him a courtesy bipartisan bill, no matter how worthy the cause. They will not deal in good faith and there is nothing they would like better than to ruin Obama's day -- or presidency. In the Senate, it is much the same, despite their better manners. Whether there are a handful of exceptions in the "upper chamber" remains to be seen in coming days. As his emergency economic stimulus plan lumbers from the House to the Senate floor, President Obama should keep in mind that Clinton faced cliffhanger votes on a desperately needed early piece of economic legislation. And he won, just barely. The vote was 218-216 in the House. If he had lost one Hamlet-like Democrat in the Senate, like the wavering Sen. Bob Kerrey, his White House aides believed that would spell failure for his entire presidency, not just the bill. Giving opponents a fresh slate and the benefit of the doubt, Obama did his best to woo and win over the House Republicans. Paying them a call at the Capitol, he treated them as men of reason. That was his first mistake. Or perhaps he knew he had nothing to lose by trying and the American people would respect him for that. Maybe all he hopes is to keep things civil. On that point, he won, yet seized the chance to remind them in plain English, "I won," as in the election. Obama and his band of brothers and sisters need to drill down that point, that this election was a cry for change. The only way House Republicans are going to cooperate with his ambitious agenda is if they're scared or shamed into it. Clinton did not make his opponents regret their votes. Too many loved to hate him, almost from the start, in a particularly vengeful form of partisanship. Now comes the truly strange circle of history: the role of radio talk meister Rush Limbaugh is still fixed like a star in the sky. As a reporter in my impressionable days in 1994, I witnessed how much power and influence the right-wing talk show host wields over House Republicans. This was a dinner gathering of the class of 1994 at Baltimore's Camden Yards -- remember the Republican revolution and takeover? I will never forget the encomiums thrown Rush's way, the fervent thanks, the triumphal ceremony naming him the class mascot. Every new Republican House member elected that fall believed Rush made a difference. Not in a fun frothy way, but in a real sense of delivering a certain class of voters -- shall we say angry white males? ---to the polls. That evening was one of the most sobering sights of my career, an epiphany that explained how so many seats changed overnight. The other man of the hour at the time, former Speaker Newt Gingrich was a will-o'-the-wisp compared to Limbaugh and his staying power. That is to say, Limbaugh is not just a part of the media chattering class; he is a key player in the political class, a shrewd maestro of sorts. He has politicians seeking his grace and favor; in fact, there may be more to fear from him than the pleasant chap who just moved in down the street on Pennsylvania Avenue. Know your audience, President Obama. With House Republicans, your audience is (and was) all about "No." Jamie Stiehm is a political journalist in Washington.]]> Three Truly Weird Governors, USA tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.161128 2009-01-28T15:34:11-05:00 2011-05-25T13:00:22-04:00 Jamie Stiehm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-stiehm/ Consider the evidence: Governors Sarah Palin of Alaska, David Paterson of New York (not to mention his tawdry and disgraced predecessor, Eliot Spitzer) and of course, Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. Wow, who knew what human dramas, complexes and perhaps perfidies lurked behind the doors of these governor's mansions? All owe their newfound fame to the presidential election of 2008. Now we know too much, yet the mystery remains: why have we have we here three whacked-out governors in a row? You could not make some of this stuff up. Let's take Palin first, she who swooped into our collective psyche last September as Sen. John McCain's chosen one for the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Somehow her plain speaking pattern, upswept hair, glasses and supreme self-confidence electrified the body politic. Love or fear her, she and her small-town ways could not be ignored. She was charming when she chose to be, with her winks and aw-shucks, doggone-it lines, but it wore thin when asked about foreign policy or how she intended to "be in charge" of the U.S. Senate. Sarah Palin also showed a smiling mean streak out on the campaign trail. Substance was not her strong point and we never got an answer to Katie Couric's question: what in heck does the lady from Alaska read, anyway? Stay home up there near Russia and the North Pole, and chill out, Governor. You have delighted us in the Lower 48 long enough. Less amusing was the daft and drawn-out performance of the New York governor, who botched his chance to appoint the U.S. Senate successor to Hillary Clinton. Paterson had the gift of two political plums in hand, either a Kennedy or a Cuomo, but he picked a first-term congresswoman named Kirsten Gillibrand, an unknown outside of New York. The daughter of the late president, Caroline Kennedy, an author and a civic do-gooder, and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo were shunned and treated shabbily, especially Kennedy. The governor curiously saw fit to let his aides tear her down as she withdrew from the agonizing endgame. This is an unelected governor who only got the job because of the spectacular downfall of the former governor, Eliot Spitzer. The perverse Paterson gave new meaning to "amateur hour" in his handling of a decision that should have been a swift and easy political win for him. Now comes Blagojevich, who seems to tickle some funny bones on the media circuit as he peddles his own form of legal defense. Indictment and impeachment hanging over his well-groomed head seemed not to faze him one bit as he defiantly went ahead with making his own choice for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Obama. It is sobering to realize that Illinois gave us Obama, but also elected this scary character, Chicago-born from a Serbian family, in the same space of time. While he has not been convicted of charges that he tried to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder, Blagojevich's self-deluded public conduct is so far from dignity and reality that "Nixonian" is really the only word that does him justice. Just to be safe, let's stick to electing senators to the presidency for a long time to come. ]]>


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subset: commoncrawl


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No one celebrates the Christmas season quite like the Biltmore Estate. It's a tradition that began in 1895 when George Washington Vanderbilt entertained guests during that first Christmas at Biltmore and continued in the early years when Edith Vanderbilt personally selected and supervised the wrapping of a gift for every employee and the members of their families on the Estate.
The current holiday celebration began in 1979, when the Estate was opened to the public during the Christmas season. Christmas at Biltmore is held from early November into the New Year and has proven to be one of the most popular events at Biltmore, with thousands of visitors coming each year to see the fabulously decorated estate during the daytime and at night.
The Biltmore Estate remains open on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. There's no better place to recapture the magic of the season with family and friends than with Biltmore's larger-than-life Yuletide celebration. During Christmas at Biltmore, the nation's largest home is decorated with a 35-foot Fraser fir, dozens more Christmas trees, hundreds of wreaths, bows and poinsettias, miles of evergreen garland, and thousands of ornaments, tinsel, beading and lights.
The festive holiday experience is enhanced by live holiday music and inspiring holiday demonstrations. One of the most popular activities, requiring tickets well in advance, is the Candlelight Christmas Evenings This popular evening event begins just as dusk falls. Candlelight and firelight transform the elegant rooms of Biltmore House into a vision of beauty and warmth. Choirs and musical ensembles perform holiday favorites, leaving you with a memorable experience of Yuletide cheer.
If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call at 800-235-2474. Or if you would prefer, you can send us an email at firstname.lastname@example.com. We look forward to hearing from you.


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A Closer Look at the Iowa Prairie
Take a closer look at the beauty of the prairie and the unintended consequences of development.
Take a closer look at the beauty of the prairie and the unintended consequences of development.
Grinnell has lost a beloved, dedicated member of the community.
The Faulconer Gallery: A resource for all disciplines.
Faulconer Gallery invites visitors to share comments on paintings, prints, and sculptures from across the globe.
Posters and lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec and others join Faulconer Gallery collection.
Faulconer Gallery exhibition "Against Reason: Anti/Enlightenment Prints by Callot, Hogarth, Piranesi and Goya," explores the darker side of the Enlightenment, opens Friday, April 3.
Artist Faheem Majeed discusses a multifaceted South Side Chicago installation and screens the film "Medium Cool."
Bachelor of Arts Exhibition (BAX) — April 10–May 3, 2015 — features works in the creative arts by students at Grinnell.
Burling Gallery
In 2001, The Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, acquired more than 70 German Expressionist prints from the collection of John L. and Roslyn Bakst Goldman of Rochester, NY. Since then, the Goldmans have formed a new collection of prints by international contemporary artists. This exhibition will feature both collections side-by-side, demonstrating the Goldmans' continued interests in cutting-edge printmaking and their fidelity to Expressionist ideals, including a wide variety of printing processes, masterful technique, and challenging subject matter.


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Skamania County Fire District 3 did not comply with state bid law when it built a fire station in 2008, according to the Washington State Auditor's Office.
The auditor's office found that the district hired a volunteer firefighter to redesign station plans without publicly advertising a request for services, didn't perform a review to ensure contractors paid appropriate wages and didn't maintain adequate records to support its procurement procedures. The findings were discovered during an independent accountability audit between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2010.
The district, which serves the unincorporated community of Underwood west of White Salmon, also hired contractors to complete individual parts of the project, according to the report.
State law requires the district to hire a general contractor to oversee the project and seek formal bids on public works projects that cost more than $20,000.
"The law does not allow the district to break the project into smaller components to avoid bid thresholds," the auditor's office said.
District's defense
The district said splitting the project into smaller parts would be efficient and more cost effective.
"Through donated labor, services and materials, negotiating and bidding, and careful allocation of limited resources, the fire dept. was able to construct a state-of-the-art,13,000 square-foot facility that will serve our district long into the future," the district wrote in its response. "We were able to save our district taxpayers at least $500,000."
The auditor's office said that decision means the district cannot ensure it got the best possible price for the work performed, that vendors were given equal access or that workers were paid appropriate wages.
According to the report, the district paid $51,000 to one person to provide architectural and engineering services, to act as the project manager and as the roofing contractor.
The district acquired the land to build the station in 2004 and began looking at its options to build the fire station. According to the report, a local architect donated design plans to the district but estimates to build exceeded the district's resources. The district then hired the volunteer firefighter to redesign the plans to reduce construction costs.
The district agreed to establish policies and procedures to make sure it follows state bid law.
Paul Suarez: 360-735-4522; http://www.twitter.com/col_cops; firstname.lastname@example.com.


text: I have a desktop machine and thats about 6yrs old. I have a Seagate 100 GB ATA 100 internal hard drive. so assuming it is a EIDE or leg. CPU specs: Intel Celeron D 352, fsb 3.20ghz/533mhz, NVIDIA 8400 GS 512 MB video card, 2 GB of RAM, DVD-ROM / R and CD + w, 10/100 Ethernet l2cache 512kb. I had installed a 320gb wd, worked for a while, but kept going in and out. I put ubuntu on it and the recognized 320gb, but could not play any of our PC games. I've been looking for a Seagate 500 GB to start, but cannot find one. When I tried to install the WD it said no hard drive found. So I thought maybe it was a compatibility issue between manufactures. So what do you all think about the issue please suggest me something.


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Achievement Trading Thread
I would like to get about 3 other people to beat the trenched campaign with and get all the achievements. please send me a friend request and a message relating to this site.
I'll be happy to join you. I'd love to get a dedicated regiment going to unlock some great perks.
Send me a message next time you're on. If I'm on as well, we can hook up. (nohomo)
Count me in !
GT : LordCalib4n
I am looking for someone to do coop with. I have already done every mission, earned a gold medal, and got all single player cheevos. I some level 10 weapons and level 9 cores.
GT: D3dGr7sDntS4yNo
Picked this up last night and its a lot of fun. Also interested in some coop for anyone interested.
GT - Lifeshimmerz
I'm down for coop anything in this game, hit me up!
I played the games for about 6 hours today, ilove the game, but i have no friends to play with, so would be awesome if i could play with someone here.
got 150/200 so far, only missing the gold on all maps achievment, but i will help out others for sure, i am level 10 with a fully decked trenched. Lost my former gamertag, so i have to begin from scratch, so my gs is low, but im not bad in anyway.
Anyways, hit me up :) GT: Virtua Henrik
Im looking to play with some other people, possibly go through the whole game.
I will join you guys I need to get the co op achievements.
looking to gold medal the boses and the volcano level
Looking to gold medal various stages. Feel free to send me a message.
Online now looking for gold medal help.
i need some people to get gold in the final level. I got a Gungnir sniper but i cant find good people to get under 3:20. Please hit me up if you can help me or you also need it.
Looking to find some folks that aren't retarded (matchmaking seems to find a lot of those...) to gold star missions. Feel free to add me!
Looking for a third (who happens to play a light mech) to help gold star volcano.
My current buddy is a heavy, I play a medium and we continue to get 75% health on the base every try. So that is why we are looking for a third that will be mainly focused on turrets while the two offensive players use shredders to collect as much scrap as possible.
Message me on Xbox Live if interested. GT: Evans
looking to get all co-op achievements. send me a message if you want too play.
GT: My Penance
please msg me if you have 2 others along with me for 4th so we can get the 4player along with the other achievements
gamertag - luuwat
msg me
I play this all them time, I love it!! if anyone needs any help with achievements send me a FR, I'm down to play anytime.
BR0THER Daz (the "O" is a zero)
Looking to get a 4 player mission done, maybe more.
GT = Xathlak, drop me a message
Same here...just wanting to play online with cool people.
Hit me up GT: boycedesigns
A couple buddies and I are looking for 1 more person to get the 4 player achievement, it'll take all of about 5 minutes, first come first serve though, I can't sign them up to get it for someone but I'm willing to help anyone get any of the other achievements if need be. Toss me a message saying you're from here and I'll see what I can do, thanks in advance :)
Looking for a few people to get some Gold stars with anyone interested shoot me a Friend request with a msg: XIRaNd0m HeRoIX
Gold Star - Need Last 2 Levels
I Need Help getting Gold in the Last 2 Levels
But am willing to help anybody acquire gold in other levels.
GT = kickkicksnare
Please include a message that says Trenched. See you online.
Looking for Gold Medal help/Bandolier of Brothers. I'm level 10 with a whole bunch of awesome guns and emplacements.
Make sure to include a Trenched mention in the message. Cheers!
volcano and farnsworth
please add me if you need to do these, i have all the strongest weapons/armor etc. so i be useful in the group
gamertag - luuwat
I'm looking for at least 1 guy to do the "at least 2 players" achievements. Send me an FR, my GT is keung360 :)
I'm looking for people to do the gold medals with. At least the last two missions. GT is edureboucas. Thank you.
need 4 player cheevo and gold medal last two levels send me msg:woop:
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text:
Richard K. Ellender
Position: RB
Height: 5-11 Weight: 171 lbs.
Born: June 9, 1957 in Sulphur, LA
High School: Sulphur
College: McNeese St.
Drafted by the Houston Oilers in the 9th round (243rd overall) of the 1979 NFL Draft.
Weighted Career AV (100-95-...): 0 (15060th overall since 1950)
Other SR Links: College Football at Sports-Reference.com
Output includes all passing, rushing, and receiving plays.See all Rich Ellender Super Bowl plays using the Super Bowl Play Finder


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The ball I'm talking about is the one attached to the wiper blade motor, and the ball is the nylon (?) ball on the linkage that moves the splined wiper blade arms assemblies. It popped off trying to clear some snow off the windshield off, and I've popped it back on. However, when it's just wet now, the nylon socket pops off the ball again every time.
by triumph71 in Mondovi, WI on February 29, 2012


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text:
This course is available to Australian and international students.
On this page
Admission Requirements
To be considered for admission to this course an applicant must have—
a relevant bachelor's degree, that aligns with one of the specialisations of this course, or an equivalent qualification, as recognised by UWA.
English competency
Please note: requirements may be higher for some individual courses, where this is the case the additional requirements will be specified.
Additional information
Students may apply to undertake a research project within this degree


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Discover a selection of top forums reenactment zeta on the internet. Come to share your passion on forums reenactment zeta and meet other fans of reenactment zeta. Then, why don't you create your own forum of reenactment zeta ?
Free forum : A World War 2 reenactment group depicting a Kampfgruppe (Battle Group) of the elite Waffen SS panzer division the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler SS
kampfgruppe, stahlkrieger, #reenactment, waffen, panzer, division, leibstandarte, history
Singapore Gundam modelling society for everyone around the world
sggs, singapore, gundam, society, gunpla, shin, musha, kampfer, zaku, #zeta


text:
You limited your search to:
Partner: Museum of the American Railroad
County: Harrison County, TX
Decade: 1900-1909
["Cannon Ball" at Marshall, Texas]
Date: 1903
Creator: unknown
Description: Texas and Pacific Railway's "Cannon Ball", train No. 6 eastbound headed by Engine No. 359, at the Marshall, Texas Depot in autumn 1903.
Contributing Partner: Museum of the American Railroad


text: Practice Fusion is the #1 cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform for doctors and patients, with a mission of connecting doctors, patients and data to drive better health and save lives. A driving force in modernizing American health care, Practice Fusion is used by a community of more than 112,000 monthly active medical professionals with over 100 million patient records under management. In 2014, Practice Fusion's EHR facilitated over 56 million patient visits (approximately 6% of all ambulatory visits in the US) and is the fastest growing EHR in the US.


text:
A Kitman Ho Movies and Career Information
- Movies Produced by A Kitman Ho
- Hotel Rwanda 2004
- Weight of Water 2002
- Ali (2001) 2001
- Born on the Fourth of July 1989
- Loveless (1983) 1984
Although updated daily, all theaters, movie show times, and movie listings should be independently verified with the movie theatre.
Contact mrmovietimes.com for information or comments. Please read the mrmovietimes.com Privacy Policy and terms of use. Enjoy the movie!
Copyright © 2016 Movie Times, Inc. Site Map | Google+


text:
S2 NetVR
S2 NetVR video management system supports up to 16 IP cameras and up to 4TB of video storage, making the system ideal for small businesses. Real-time video monitoring and recorded video playback are accessible from a client, web browser or mobile app.
S2 NetVR can also tightly integrate with S2 access control systems. Real-time video surveillance and recorded video playback are unified in the web-based user interface of the connected S2 NetBox or S2 Enterprise controller. Additional features include on-screen PTZ controls and integration of live video views into floor plan graphics. By clicking on an icon in the activity log, users can instantly play back recorded video associated with an event and save it to the case library.
Multiple S2 NetVR servers can connect to a single S2 controller, allowing the system to easily scale with organizational growth.


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Students mourn Skiatook cheerleader killed in vehicle crash
SKIATOOK — About 400 students mourned a Skiatook High School cheerleader Monday by wearing purple, the favorite color of the senior who died from injuries suffered in a traffic accident, the principal said.
Mallory Brooke Winegarten, 17, died Sunday at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa after the Friday crash, according to an online death notice posted by the Sien-Shelton Funeral Home.
"She was an excellent student who made very good grades," Principal Will Parker said. "She was one of those kids that every teacher dreamed of having in class. She had a bright smile, vivacious, smart."
NewsOK.com has disabled the comments for this article.


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With nearly half of U.S. births occurring out of wedlock, understanding how parents navigate their relationship options is important. This paper examines the consequences of a large exogenous change to parental relationship contract options on parental behavior and child well-being. Identification comes from the staggered timing of state reforms that substantially lowered the cost of legal paternity establishment. I show that the resulting increases in paternity establishment are partially driven by reductions in parental marriage. Although unmarried fathers become more involved with their children along some dimensions, the net effects on father involvement and child well-being are negative or zero. Close
Medicaid programs increasingly finance competing, capitated managed care plans rather than administering fee-for-service (FFS) programs. We study how the transition from FFS to managed care affects high- and low-cost infants (blacks and Hispanics, respectively). We find that black-Hispanic disparities widen---e.g., black mortality and pre-term birth rates increase by 15% and 7%, respectively, while Hispanic mortality and pre-term birth rates decrease by 22% and 7%, respectively. Additionally, black birth rates fall slightly. We present a risk-selection model whereby capitation incentivizes competing plans to offer better (worse) care to low- (high-) cost clients to retain (avoid) them in the future. Close
We leverage non-linearities in Danish child support guidelines and rich administrative data to provide causal estimates of parental behavioral responses to child support obligations. We estimate that a 1,000 DKK ($149) increase in a father's obligation is associated with a 506 DKK ($75) increase in his payment. A higher obligation also reduces father-child co-residence, pointing to substitution between financial and non-pecuniary investments. Further, obligations increase parental post-separation fertility, and reduce labor supply among high-income fathers. Our findings suggest that government efforts to increase child investments through mandates on parents can be complicated by their behavioral responses to them. Close
This paper presents quasi-experimental evidence on interactions between two different early-life investments: high quality preschool childcare and a nurse home visiting (NHV) program. We use administrative and historical data from Denmark together with variation in the timing of program implementation across municipalities between 1933 and 1960. Our results point to lasting benefits of access to childcare at age 3 on outcomes through age 65 -- educational attainment increases, income rises (for men), and mortality falls (for women). Further, the benefits persist to the next generation, who have higher educational attainment by age 25. However, the interaction effects between childcare and NHV are negative, suggesting that the two interventions are substitutes rather than complements. Cohorts who did not receive NHV at birth experience larger positive impacts of childcare than those who did -- NHV reduces the effect of childcare by 85 percent for years of schooling (of the first generation) and by 86 percent for adult income among men. Close
This paper provides quasi-experimental evidence on the impact of paid leave legislation on fathers' leave-taking, as well as on the division of leave between mothers and fathers in dual-earner households. Using difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-difference designs, we study California's Paid Family Leave (CA-PFL) program, which is the first source of government-provided paid parental leave available to fathers in the United States. Our results show that fathers in California are 0.9 percentage points--or 46 percent relative to the pre-treatment mean--more likely to take leave in the first year of their children's lives when CA-PFL is available. We also examine how parents allocate leave in households where both parents work. We find that CA-PFL increases father-only leave-taking (i.e., father on leave while mother is at work) by 50 percent and joint leave-taking (i.e., both parents on leave at the same time) by 28 percent. These effects are much larger for fathers of sons than for fathers of daughters, and almost entirely driven by fathers of first-born children and fathers in occupations with a high share of female workers. Close
This paper studies how in utero exposure to maternal stress from family ruptures affects later mental health. We find that prenatal exposure to the death of a maternal relative increases take-up of ADHD medications during childhood and anti-anxiety and depression medications in adulthood. Further, family ruptures during pregnancy depress birth outcomes and raise the risk of perinatal complications necessitating hospitalization. Our results suggest large welfare gains from preventing fetal stress from family ruptures and possibly from economically induced stressors such as unemployment. They further suggest that greater stress exposure among the poor may partially explain the intergenerational persistence of poverty. Close
This paper examines the long-term impacts of early childhood exposure to air pollution on adult outcomes using U.S. administrative data. We exploit changes in air pollution driven by the 1970 Clean Air Act to analyze the difference in outcomes between cohorts born in counties before and after large improvements in air pollution relative to those same cohorts born in counties that had no improvements. We find a significant relationship between pollution exposure in the year of birth and later life outcomes. A higher pollution level in the year of birth is associated with lower labor force participation and lower earnings at age 30. Close
Mounting evidence across different disciplines suggests that early-life conditions can have consequences on individual outcomes throughout the lifecycle. Relative to other developed countries, the United States fares poorly on standard indicators of early-life health, and this disadvantage may have profound consequences not only for population wellbeing, but also for economic growth and competitiveness in a global economy. In this paper, we first discuss the research on the strength of the link between early-life health and adult outcomes, and then provide an evidence-based review of the effectiveness of existing U.S. policies targeting the early-life environment. We conclude that there is a robust and economically meaningful relationship between early-life conditions and wellbeing throughout the lifecycle, as measured by adult health, educational attainment, labor market attachment, and other indicators of socio-economic status. However, there is some variation in the degree to which current policies in the U.S. are effective in improving early-life conditions. Among existing programs, some of the most effective are the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), home visiting with nurse practitioners, and high-quality, center-based early childhood care and education. In contrast, the evidence on other policies such as prenatal care and family leave is more mixed and limited. Close
Out-of-wedlock childbearing is more common in the U.S. than in other countries and becoming more so. A growing share of such non-marital births identify the father, which can create a legal entitlement to child support. Relatively little is known about individual determinants of the decision to establish paternity, in part because of data limitations. In this paper, we evaluate all birth records in Michigan from 1993 to 2006, which have been merged to the paternity registry. In 2006, 30,231 Michigan children, almost one quarter of all Michigan births, were born to unmarried mothers and had paternity acknowledged. We find that births with paternity acknowledged have worse outcomes along various health and socio-economic dimensions relative to births to married parents, but better outcomes relative to births to unmarried parents without paternity acknowledgement. Furthermore, unmarried men who father sons are significantly more likely to acknowledge paternity than fathers of daughters. Close
A large body of evidence indicates that conditions in-utero and health at birth matter for individuals' long-run outcomes, suggesting potential value in programs aimed at pregnant women and young children. This paper uses a novel identification strategy and data from birth and administrative records over 2005-2009 to provide causal estimates of the effects of geographic access to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). My empirical approach uses within-zip-code variation in WIC clinic presence together with maternal fixed effects, and accounts for the potential endogeneity of mobility, gestational-age bias, and measurement error in gestation. I find that access to WIC increases food benefit take-up, pregnancy weight gain, birth weight, and the probability of breastfeeding initiation at the time of hospital discharge. The estimated effects are strongest for mothers with a high school education or less, who are most likely eligible for WIC services. Close
This analysis uses March Current Population Survey data from 1999-2010 and a differences-in-differences approach to examine how California's first in the nation paid family leave (PFL) program affected leave-taking by mothers following childbirth, as well as subsequent labor market outcomes. We obtain robust evidence that the California program more than doubled the overall use of maternity leave, increasing it from around three to six or seven weeks for the typical new mother - with particularly large growth for less advantaged groups. We also provide suggestive evidence that PFL increased the usual weekly work hours of employed mothers of one-to-three year old children by 6 to 9 percent and that their wage incomes may have risen by a similar amount. Close
A growing literature suggests that stressful events in pregnancy can have negative effects on birth outcomes. Some of the estimates in this literature may be affected by small samples, omitted variables, endogenous mobility in response to disasters, and errors in the measurement of gestation, as well as by a mechanical correlation between longer gestation and the probability of having been exposed. We use millions of individual birth records to examine the effects of exposure to hurricanes during pregnancy, and the sensitivity of the estimates to these econometric problems. We find that exposure to a hurricane during pregnancy increases the probability of abnormal conditions of the newborn such as being on a ventilator more than 30 minutes and Meconium Aspiration Syndrome (MAS). Although we are able to reproduce previous estimates of effects on birth weight and gestation, our results suggest that measured effects of stressful events on these outcomes are sensitive to specification and it is preferable to use more sensitive indicators of newborn health. Close
This paper evaluates the impacts of unpaid maternity leave provisions of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on children's birth and infant health outcomes in the United States. My identification strategy uses variation in pre-FMLA maternity leave policies across states and variation in which firms are covered by FMLA provisions. Using Vital Statistics data and difference-in-difference-in-difference methodology, I find that maternity leave led to small increases in birth weight, decreases in the likelihood of a premature birth, and substantial decreases in infant mortality for children of college-educated and married mothers, who were most able to take advantage of unpaid leave. My results are robust to the inclusion of numerous controls for maternal, child, and county characteristics, state and year fixed effects, and state-year interactions, as well as across several different specifications. Close
Maya Rossin-Slater
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
2127 North Hall
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9210
Phone: (805) 893-4823