Sunday, November 28, 2004
November 28, 2004
High for the HolidaysBy WARREN ST. JOHN and ALEX WILLIAMS
N Tuesday afternoon Kelly Kreth, a 34-year-old marketing director from Manhattan, was in a meeting at work when she was overcome with the jitters, the familiar rumblings of what she feared would become a full-fledged panic attack. Ms. Kreth said she had no doubt about the cause: holiday stress.
"I have a lot of issues with the holidays," she said. "There's all this supposed holiday cheer, and I feel inadequate because I never get up to that level of cheer. It's Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's. You want to be left alone, but in the next month I'm going to be with so many people that I don't have the luxury of freaking out and locking myself in a room."
With no opportunity to let her panic attack play itself out in private, Ms. Kreth said she took a Valium, just one of a number of drugs she has at her disposal to fend off holiday angst, and in half an hour, she said, she was fine. Ms. Kreth said she takes antidepressants to keep her black dogs at bay, and Percocet, a prescription painkiller, to help her cope with the awkwardness of social situations. "If I have a major party to go to and I'm feeling sad, Percocet really takes the edge off," she said. "It makes me racy and highly social, which is not how I am normally."
When it comes to warding off the holiday blues, Ms. Kreth said, "you have your pill of choice."
It was not so long ago that the preferred method of self-medication for the holidays might be called the Cheever model: copious alcohol, delivered in highball glasses and cut if necessary with a creamy bolt of eggnog.
The age of psychopharmaceuticals has changed that. With a smorgasbord of antianxiety medications easily available — if not from a physician, then from Internet drug sellers or simply from friends — almost anyone so inclined can take a tablet for holiday stress. And to hear doctors tell it, many people are so inclined.
"It is clear that psychotropic medications are used more commonly than they were 10 years ago," said Joseph A. Himle, the associate director of the anxiety disorders program of the psychiatry department at the University of Michigan. "If that medicine is prescribed by a competent clinician and taken according to the prescription, it can be quite helpful in managing holiday stress."
Despite the best efforts of Hallmark and television channels rebroadcasting "It's a Wonderful Life," holidays have long been understood to represent an interpersonal minefield for some individuals and families, as much as a time for carols and warm reminiscences around a glowing hearth.
Those seeking to brighten their seasonal blues with medicine, doctors say, are likely to pursue a number of options. For those already on antidepressants doctors will sometimes increase the dosage in advance of anticipated difficult times. While most antidepressants take days or weeks to have an effect, another class of drugs — benzodiazepines, which include antianxiety medications like Klonopin, Xanax and Ativan — can be taken when the need arises, say, before getting on a plane home to Oklahoma for those with a fear of flying or before sitting down for an elaborate family dinner for those with what might unscientifically be called holiday stress disorder.
"If something is fairly acute, then benzodiazepines are certainly the medication of choice because they work like aspirin," said Dr. Rudolf Hoehn-Saric, the director of the anxiety disorders clinic at Johns Hopkins Medical School. "They start to work in 15 minutes, last for a few hours. Then the effect is gone."
Dr. Hoehn-Saric said antianxiety medications had at least one advantage over the more traditional method of self-medication through holiday stress. "You can't drink all day long to keep anxiety down," he said. "But if you take something like Klonopin, it lasts six to seven hours, you have a much smoother effect, and you don't get a hangover the next day, which sometimes makes things worse."
While all doctors interviewed insisted that pharmaceuticals should be used only under the strict care of a physician, some said that increasing the dosage, and perhaps adding new medications to a patient's treatment regimen temporarily, is a common course of treatment to fight holiday stress.
Some patients who treat their mild depression or anxiety during the year with low doses of antidepressants like Zoloft or Paxil (known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) may benefit from a slight increase in the dose to get them from the kickoff of the Lions game on Thanksgiving through the booting out of the last guests on New Year's Eve.
But that requires planning, doctors said, because an increase in dosage in those drugs can take as much as six weeks to register in a patient's mood.
"If they felt like they needed more, they can talk to their doctor, and the doctor could consider increasing their dose," said Dr. Beth Salcedo, the medical director of the Ross Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders in Washington. "Or they might consider something like Klonopin or Xanax through the holidays and see how things go afterward."
Of course many, if not most, people find the parties, religious observances and family get-togethers at year's end a source of joy and personal renewal. There is no thought of narcotizing away any feelings of anxiety.
Among a certain group, however — addiction counselors and former addicts — it is an article of faith that the holidays represent a perilous time.
"It's a particular problem for drug addicts: here come the holidays, a time fraught with bad feelings, expectations unfulfilled, tremendous loneliness, even with a lot of people around," said Roberta Hollander, a television news producer in Los Angeles, who said she was a drug and alcohol abuser for decades but has been sober for 21 years. "The sight of people having a good time, but you don't know how to, so you stock up on drugs because you have three or four weeks where it's going to be really tough," she said. "Even when I got clean, I would spend holidays praying for January."
Dr. Marvin Seppala, the chief medical officer at the Hazelden Foundation, a recovery clinic in Minnesota, with branches in Chicago, New York, Florida and Oregon, told of a 25-year-old alcohol and drug abuser from Oregon who had kicked substance abuse at Hazelden for many months in 2003. Then the holidays came.
"He just found the holidays pushed him to the point where he wasn't so sure he wanted to change," Dr. Seppala said. "It wasn't that he didn't realize he was an alcoholic, but he started to question all of it. Ultimately he found himself in a workplace party. He hadn't really shared his recovery with people at work. Everybody else was drinking, and it seemed uncomfortable not to be. Suddenly he had a drink in his hand and, boom, he was off and running." It took four months and the loss of a job to clean up again.
Most of those who are tempted to medicate away the holiday blues never allow their impulses to reach such extremes of behavior. In fact many do not seek treatment at all, Dr. Hoehn-Saric said. The holidays are a time of giving, and that apparently extends to the contents of one's medicine cabinet.
"Oftentimes in a family, when the husband or wife is taking Klonoapin or Xanax and the spouse becomes anxious, they'll give the other person a pill," he explained. "It's not uncommon. People don't talk much about it. It generally comes up when people come for a refill for a prescription earlier than they should. `I gave my husband five of my Xanax.' "
Doctors highly caution against this practice.
Self-medication for the holidays, however, may even predate St. Nicholas, if the Roman taste for Tibers of wine at Saturnalia winter solstice festivals is any indication. Was it joy over the successful olive harvest that sent Dad back for a second pull from the amphora or the agitation over a villa full of screaming nephews in town for the week from Neapolis?
Regardless, some physicians caution against trying to blend certain older traditions — say, mulled wine — with newer ones like reliance on mood-altering medications.
It could be a ticket to an especially rotten holiday, said Dr. Alan Manevitz, a family psychiatrist at the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center. "If they're mixing antianxiety drugs and alcohol, they're really taking a risk," he said. "They're not compatible. It could backfire on you by shortening your fuse. You may get disinhibited and say the things you were trying to keep in check."
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November 28, 2004
Stars Aren't Born: How to Make It Here, Not Just AnywhereBy LYNN ZINSER
AST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Nov. 26 - Eli Manning's head poked above a ring of television cameras crowded around his locker, the microphones pushed in close to capture his quiet, invariably modest words. It is an act, many of his Giants teammates say, because Manning is neither dull nor shy, but rather trying to temper the first rush of excitement that comes with being named a starting quarterback in New York.
Whether Manning abandons that impulse and rises from starter to true New York star will not be determined anytime soon. Those cameras may not always form a stampede to capture his every syllable. A stream of endorsements may not continue to rush in. Sightings of him at Manhattan night spots may not litter the society pages.
In other cities, athletes can be merely good at what they do to be considered stars, but in New York, it takes something else. There are plenty of successful athletes who could walk down Broadway in their uniforms without drawing so much as a double take.
"They have to be confident, bordering on cocky," said Peter Land, general manager for sports and sponsorship at Edelman Public Relations in Manhattan. "Humility and modesty are ingredients that might work in other cities, but they are not words to describe New York or New Yorkers."
Land included Derek Jeter, Mark Messier, Latrell Sprewell and Jimmy Connors on his list of athletes truly embraced by New York. They are the kind of people who predict success, who project invincibility. It does not matter where they come from or what sport they play.
"People here can respect quality performances, but they fall in love with athletes like that," Land said.
The process of becoming a star here is not a simple one. Many athletes retreat from it altogether, guarding their personalities and avoiding the public. They fade into the cast of thousands making up New York's sports scene.
And then there are people like Giants defensive end Michael Strahan, who even though out for the season because of an injury, can spawn chaos at a charity appearance. As he led a group of local children through the aisles of a Hoboken, N.J., supermarket this week on a shopping trip for Thanksgiving dinner, security guards scurried to keep order while surprised shoppers scrambled to take pictures of Strahan's famous gap-toothed smile.
"You never get used to creating any kind of stir, people wanting you to sign stuff, and you pull up in your car and people are pointing at you," Strahan said. "I always said it beats the alternative of being the one on the team that no one knows anything about. I've been in that situation, and I prefer just the way it is right now."
In his 12 years as a Giant, Strahan has become one of the faces of New York sports. He attracts cameras like a magnet, eagerly giving his time for television appearances and charity work. This week, MasterCard shuttled him through a day of interviews packed around a Thanksgiving dinner he helped organize for 100 children. The smile never waned.
"I think New York is the greatest city in the world," Strahan said. "The people understand it's very difficult to do well here, but when you do well, you're almost looked at like a survivor, somebody who passed their test. If you can pass the test of everybody here in New York, you can pass it anywhere and you become the love of the city."
What Manning is experiencing is the first rush that comes with a high-profile entrance as the No. 1 draft pick. When the Giants traded for him on draft day, 3,500 showed up at Giants Stadium to welcome him. His jersey became one of the hottest sellers in the N.F.L. Now, as a starter, a new wave of attention has engulfed him.
"That's New York," Giants running back Tiki Barber said. "New York blindly will embrace you, without any conception of how good or bad you are. But in that same breath, they will stomp on you.
"That's hard to deal with."
Barber spoke from experience, having heard his name chanted in Giants Stadium during a fabulous rookie year in 1997 as well as the boos when he struggled in coming back from injuries. Barber said he saw the same thing happening to tight end Jeremy Shockey, whose crowd-pleasing arrival in 2002 turned Giants Stadium into a sea of No. 80 jerseys. Shockey's emotional on-field style enchanted the fans, and his glamorous social life added to the allure.
"Coach Pope told me a couple things before I even played a snap," Shockey said of the Giants' tight ends coach, Mike Pope. "Right when they drafted me, he said they were making thousands of jerseys of yours right now and you're going to be a star. But he said no matter how big you get, you can't forget how hard you worked to get here.
"When he was telling me that, I thought, 'No way.' "
But that is exactly what happened, and now Shockey is enduring the flip side. Injuries have hindered him the past two seasons, and his dropped passes have begun to be greeted by jeers.
Barber said he learned not to hide during the tough times. He did not curtail his appearances.
"You have to learn how to deal with the roller-coaster while at the same time show class, show accountability, because people care about those things," he said. "I think it's often more important how you respond to adversity that people respect more than how you respond to triumph."
Barber did not truly crack the top level of stardom until 2000, the season the Giants last reached the Super Bowl. That was how he, along with Strahan, passed the final test. They survived. They became the toast of the town.
Winning is a key ingredient for stardom. It is impossible to remove the four World Series championships from the formula that is Jeter's popularity.
"I'm not sure Joe Namath becomes Broadway Joe if the Jets hadn't won that Super Bowl," Land said. "It's confidence backed up that counts."
It is the difference between the Knicks legends Willis Reed and Patrick Ewing. One won championships and seemed to envelop the city in the warmth of his personality. The other failed to win and battled the pressure to share himself with the public for his entire career.
Athletes who shy away from New York's demands and complications do not enjoy New York's embrace. It furthers their cause if they become men about town, as Jeter and Shockey have, seen in places with the celebrity crowd. A little of that goes a long way. Shockey, for instance, says he largely avoids the party scene now, but his reputation has not faded.
"You could go out every night and do something in the city," Shockey said. "But the city, you can never get the best of it. It will always get the best of you."
At the heart of New York's stars is an X factor, a personality that New Yorkers can love. Surly, uncooperative and aloof do not sell here. Neither, generally, does modesty.
"I don't think any of us are boring," Strahan said of star athletes. "You never know quite what we're going to say."
Manning has shown signs that he can flourish here. He agreed to a regular radio spot before becoming a starter. He did some predraft commercials poking fun at his demand not to play for San Diego and a MasterCard spot with Strahan.
But New York's true stars are not anointed. They are put through a rigorous selection process. For Manning, it has only just begun.
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November 28, 2004WORD FOR WORD
Waging Small Wars, Then and NowBy THOMAS VINCIGUERRA
HE generals, the old chestnut goes, are always fighting the last war. But that doesn't mean they can't improvise, adapt and overcome. Witness the Army's newly published manual for waging the kind of asymmetrical conflict now being fought in Iraq. Formally known as F.M.I. 3-07.22, and titled "Counterinsurgency Operations," it was distributed to all branches of the military in October.
It's about time: Up until last month, many officers serving in Iraq had been relying on "The Small Wars Manual," a Marine Corps publication dating from 1940. Excerpts from the new Army guide and the old Marine manual show how much guerrilla warfare has changed in the last 64 years - while remaining strangely the same.
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Tread softly, advises "Counterinsurgency Operations":
Over all, don't hurt people unnecessarily. Some people simply don't understand what you are directing them to do.
But carry a big stick, says "The Small Wars Manual":
Delay in the use of force, and hesitation to accept responsibility for its employment when the situation clearly demands it, will always be interpreted as a weakness. Such indecision will encourage further disorder, and will eventually necessitate measures more severe than those which would have sufficed in the first instance.
"The Small Wars Manual" presumes that women and children are likely to be noncombatants:
For example, the patrol leader makes contact with a known camp and at the last moment finds that women camp followers are present in the camp. Shall he fire into the group?
But "Counterinsurgency Operations" warns against any such assumption:
[D]on't trust anyone! Young women have been very effective suicide bombers. Children have unknowingly and knowingly carried bombs into and through checkpoints.
"The Small Wars Manual" notes that it can be difficult to gather reliable intelligence from the locals, however friendly they may be:
In listening to peasants relate a story, whether under oath or not, or give a bit of information, it may appear that they are tricky liars trying to deceive or hide the truth, because they do not tell a coherent story. It should be understood that these illiterate and uneducated people live close to nature. The fact that they are simple and highly imaginative and that their background is based on some mystic form of religion gives rise to unusual kinds of testimony.
"Counterinsurgency Operations" recommends relying on observable facts instead:
Perform a daily comparison of the supplies purchase and movements information against the census card file information. Answer questions such as: Why is someone buying a 50-lb. bag of rice and 8 pairs of boots and 10 pairs of pants or rolls of cotton cloth when they have only a wife and four children to feed and clothe?
It helps, says "The Small Wars Manual," if you can talk the talk:
Political methods and motives which govern the actions of foreign people and their political parties, incomprehensible at best to the average North American, are practically beyond the understanding of persons who do not speak their language. If not already familiar with the language, all officers upon assignment to expeditionary duty should study and acquire a working knowledge of it.
In an era when troops are deployed with much shorter notice, "Counterinsurgency Operations" devotes an appendix to the use of interpreters:
Soldiers should not use profanity at all, and should avoid slang and colloquialisms. In many cases, such expressions cannot be translated. Even those that can be translated do not always retain the desired meeting. Military jargon and terms such as "gee whiz" or "golly" are hard to translate.
Written when pack animals were still in common use for transportation, "The Small Wars Manual" has much to say on the subject - for example, why mules are better than horses:
The mule withstands hot weather better, and is less susceptible to colic and founder than the horse ... A mule takes better care of himself, in the hands of an incompetent driver ...The foot of the mule is less subject to disorders ... Age and infirmity count less against a mule than a horse.
Animals are absent from "Counterinsurgency Operations," with one notable exception:
Military working dogs are a largely untapped resource. Dogs are trained in many skills, some of which can make a difference between success and failure of many combat missions. Dogs are trained for patrolling, searching buildings, scouting, or explosive detection. ... [But] dogs cannot be used as a security measure against detainees.
"The Small Wars Manual" recognizes that local populations may hesitate to cooperate:
While the peasant hopes for the restoration of peace and order, the constant menace and fear of guerrillas is so overpowering that he does not dare to place any confidence in an occasional visiting patrol of the occupying forces. When the patrol leader demands information, the peasant should not be misjudged for failure to comply with the request, when by so doing, he is signing his own death warrant.
The solution "Counterinsurgency Operations" offers is positive reinforcement:
Reward repentant insurgent sympathizers. Build the infrastructure of cooperative areas and publicize those accomplishments to the less-than-supportive groups. Seeing neighbors being compensated for their help will positively influence others to join in and secure them and their family from insurgent retribution.
In discussing exit strategies, "The Small Wars Manual" explains that the American military is not in the conquest business:
In accordance with national policy, it is to be expected that small war operations will not be conducted with a view to the permanent acquisition of any foreign territory. A force engaged in small wars operations may expect to be withdrawn from foreign territory as soon as its mission is accomplished.
"Counterinsurgency Operations" looks to the harm that open-ended involvement can do.
A long-term U.S. combat role may undermine the legitimacy of the HN [host nation] government and risks turning the conflict into a U.S.-only war. That combat role can also further alienate cultures that are hostile to the U.S.
Thomas Vinciguerra is an editor at The Week magazine.
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November 28, 2004
Babes in a Grown-Up ToylandBy BENEDICT CAREY
HATEVER happened to toys? Real toys, like dolls and model airplanes? A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that half of all 4- to 6-year-olds have played video games, a quarter of them regularly. Game makers are aggressively marketing to children as young as 3, while researchers report what parents already know: that children as young as 8 and 9 are asking for adult toys, like cellphones and iPods, rather than stuffed animals or toy trucks.
The trend has squeezed both makers and sellers of traditional toys, from the electric train company Lionel to retailers like Toys "R" Us and F. A. O. Schwarz. "I have seen 1-year-olds wanting to play with their parents' cellphones," said Irma Zandl of the Zandl Group, a youth-marketing research company. And they know the difference, she said, between a real and a fake one.
Which raises a question: As toys change, has play itself fundamentally changed? For that matter, does the early attachment to grown-up toys in some way shorten in the imaginative world of childhood, with its pretend tea parties and make-believe cops and robbers?
"The span in which children play with certain kinds of toys certainly has shrunk," said Dr. Gary Cross, a historian at Pennsylvania State University and author of "The Cute and the Cool," an analysis of children's consumer culture. "It used to be that 14-year-old girls could still play with dolls, and 14-year-old boys would still get Erector Sets as gifts."
Young children who have active imaginary lives tend to be adept reasoning about unknown situations and taking on another's perspective, studies suggest. "I think there are deep continuities between the functioning of the imagination in early childhood and its functioning later," Dr. Paul L. Harris, a psychologist at Harvard and author of "The Work of the Imagination," wrote in an e-mail.
There is little doubt that electronic gadgets engage the mind in different ways than dolls and Legos. Building blocks come to life only with the aid of imagination, while computer games direct and provide their own action. They also bleed into one another, with Donkey Kong skills feeding Mortal Kombat chops feeding Halo, until parent and child are playing on the same screens, competing at games or, later on, designing Web pages or publishing online diaries.
The increasing use of electronic toys troubles Dr. Jerome L. Singer, a professor emeritus of psychology at Yale. "One thing we know is that kids in preschool years need to be in touch with the real world," he said. "No matter how brilliant they are, they're not going to learn to walk, to move, to interact with others unless their hands or feet have a direct role in such activity. Plopping kids in front of a TV or computer cuts away a whole aspect of that development."
At the same time, psychologists say that childhood has always been a long rehearsal for adulthood, and in this context wired play is both adaptive, and natural, behavior.
"This is such a deep-seated part of human nature that changes in technology would be very unlikely to stunt it," Dr. Alison Gopnik, a psychologist and author of "The Scientist in the Crib," wrote in an e-mail. "Instead, children in a technological world will explore technology and use technological means for their pretend play. Babies already 'pretend' to work on computers, and older children who once may have listened to or told mythical stories, and later in history read books, may do similar things with a computer game like Myst. That makes sense, given that children will end up as adults in a world in which technology and electronics play an increasingly important role."
Some psychologists say that young imaginations, even of preschoolers, are surprisingly good at appropriating electronic imagery. Images from games and shows may linger, but they often mingle with dreams, blend with other fantasies the child has, and are reshaped and recast in a running, magical movie whose script psychologists cannot always predict or interpret.
For example, in a 2001 survey of 1,800 children aged 5 to 12, British researchers found that more than 45 percent had an imaginary companion at some point in their lives, a much higher rate than the authors expected. Imaginary friends, believed by some researchers to foster the development of empathy and sociability, typically are not based on toys, and have more social dimension than would be provided by a game character, a recent analysis found.
It is not even clear how closely the children playing with adult gadgets or games follow their guidelines or intended story lines, researchers say. "A lot of people put down action figures and video games, but kids are acting out their scripts when playing these things, and that ability is going to survive," Professor Cross said.
One piece of childhood that may not endure, as succeeding generations become more plugged in, is the adult notion that children can live for long in their own fantasy world, guarded and preserved by parents.
This idea of a protected childhood is itself an adult invention, a product of the latter part of the 19th century, when Europe's growing middle classes began to shelter children from adult work. A distinct child literature developed soon after: J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan first appeared in 1902; Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic, "The Secret Garden," was published in 1911.
But the protected space of childhood slowly eroded, as children were increasingly exposed to the consumer market - through comic books, then radio, then television. In the accelerating rush toward more wired play, it is not so much childhood that is under threat, some say, as society's idealized and perhaps sentimentalized view of it.
In fact, the move away from reading "The Secret Garden" in a quiet corner, and toward the public extravaganza of Harry Potter - the books, the movies, the action figures and video game - has been going on for a long time.
"We've been worried about the presumed innocence of children being destroyed by too much exposure to media for a hundred years, and this is another iteration of the same phenomenon," said Dr. Peter Stearns, a historian and the provost of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. "I do worry that we have an idealized view of a past childhood that hasn't been true for a long time, and perhaps was never true."
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today's papersElectoral QuarrelBy Keelin McDonellPosted Sunday, Nov. 28, 2004, at 4:54 AM PT
The New York Times leads with the Ukrainian parliament declaring last week's presidential runoff results invalid. The resolution, which was one of 11 put up at Saturday's special session, bolsters widespread evidence of voter fraud and bureaucratic hanky-panky, but that's about it. As the Times notes, "Parliament … does not have the authority to overturn the election results." The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times lead with Shiite leaders in Iraq insisting that nationwide elections occur as scheduled on Jan. 30. In a joint statement issued by 42 political parties and squired (apparently) by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the Shiites shot down a recent request from Sunni and Kurdish groups for a six-month delay.
Saturday's nonbinding motion was at least a moral victory for challenger Viktor Yushchenko, the papers report. As protests raged on the streets of Kiev, parliament also called for an immediate overhaul of the central election commission and an investigation into allegations of fraud. The Post picks up on the fact that current prime minister and ersatz presidential winner Viktor Yanukovych scuttled a planned news conference yesterday, presumably after getting wind of the legislative wrist-slap. Yushchenko has demanded new elections as soon as Dec. 12. He'll take his claims before the Ukrainian supreme court on Monday.
The date of Iraqi elections was an expected sticking point, but the Post frets that it has become "an escalating dispute that is beginning to magnify the country's ethnic and sectarian fault lines." Shiites, some 60 percent of the population, are keen to secure a governing majority, while the Sunnis and Kurds want to negotiate for balanced representation. A senior Shiite official dismissed qualms about insurgent violence and a possible Sunni electoral boycott: "[A delay] is a message to the terrorists that they are victorious."
It's still not clear who exactly has the authority to change the election date. According to the NYT, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq released a statement saying that it could not force a delay. Meanwhile, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi continued to be coy about his own election-day preference.
The NYT fronts a reality check on President Bush's much touted Social Security personal investment accounts. Financing the plan will require borrowing "from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars over a decade," a risky move with the national debt already hovering around $7.5 trillion. Still, nobody's willing to raise taxes or slash benefits. As the Times helpfully reminds us, "Mr. Bush and the Republicans in Congress have paid little political price in the last four years for the swing from budget surpluses to deficits."
The LAT fronts an excellent investigation of a nuclear-weapons scam in South Africa. Police discovered 200 tons of equipment designed to operate centrifuges for enriching uranium in a factory outside of Johannesburg, all packed up and bound for Libya. A little international snooping soon revealed that the whole thing had been arranged by infamous Pakistani scientist and nuclear black marketer Abdul Qadeer Khan. A South African official calls it "one of the most serious and extensive attempts" to build up an illegal nuclear arsenal.
A new national counterterrorism center is set to open in a few weeks, the WP reports inside. With all the flap over the intelligence reform bill, the exact nature of the center remains uncertain. It's currently set up to do the bidding of the CIA, with a director who would be appointed by Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss. However, the compromise reform bill calls for the center to be run by a presidential appointee. In any case, the hospitable Goss "has already begun clearing out [office] space … either for a director of national intelligence, should the bill pass, or for additional staff for himself as DCI with new budget authority."
Both the NYT and the WP contemplate the meaning of single-party dominance in American politics. The GOP's "uncontested control of the federal government leaves it in a position to win long-term loyalty among key voter blocs and craft an enduring majority," the Post speculates in its front pager. The Times demurs a bit, citing how "periods of one-party rule sometimes merely mask divisions and delay conflict." Both analyses trot out FDR and LBJ comparisons.
You Should Be in Pictures…The NYT Arts section catches word of an NBC plan to turn the 9/11 Commission Report into an eight-hour mini-series. The network's entertainment president promises to keep it tasteful. "We're not going to turn this into some kind of disaster pic," he said.Keelin McDonell is a reporter-researcher at the New Republic.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2110176/
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The New York Times leads with the Ukrainian parliament declaring last week's presidential runoff results invalid. The resolution, which was one of 11 put up at Saturday's special session, bolsters widespread evidence of voter fraud and bureaucratic hanky-panky, but that's about it. As the Times notes, "Parliament … does not have the authority to overturn the election results." The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times lead with Shiite leaders in Iraq insisting that nationwide elections occur as scheduled on Jan. 30. In a joint statement issued by 42 political parties and squired (apparently) by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the Shiites shot down a recent request from Sunni and Kurdish groups for a six-month delay.
Saturday's nonbinding motion was at least a moral victory for challenger Viktor Yushchenko, the papers report. As protests raged on the streets of Kiev, parliament also called for an immediate overhaul of the central election commission and an investigation into allegations of fraud. The Post picks up on the fact that current prime minister and ersatz presidential winner Viktor Yanukovych scuttled a planned news conference yesterday, presumably after getting wind of the legislative wrist-slap. Yushchenko has demanded new elections as soon as Dec. 12. He'll take his claims before the Ukrainian supreme court on Monday.
The date of Iraqi elections was an expected sticking point, but the Post frets that it has become "an escalating dispute that is beginning to magnify the country's ethnic and sectarian fault lines." Shiites, some 60 percent of the population, are keen to secure a governing majority, while the Sunnis and Kurds want to negotiate for balanced representation. A senior Shiite official dismissed qualms about insurgent violence and a possible Sunni electoral boycott: "[A delay] is a message to the terrorists that they are victorious."
It's still not clear who exactly has the authority to change the election date. According to the NYT, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq released a statement saying that it could not force a delay. Meanwhile, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi continued to be coy about his own election-day preference.
The NYT fronts a reality check on President Bush's much touted Social Security personal investment accounts. Financing the plan will require borrowing "from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars over a decade," a risky move with the national debt already hovering around $7.5 trillion. Still, nobody's willing to raise taxes or slash benefits. As the Times helpfully reminds us, "Mr. Bush and the Republicans in Congress have paid little political price in the last four years for the swing from budget surpluses to deficits."
The LAT fronts an excellent investigation of a nuclear-weapons scam in South Africa. Police discovered 200 tons of equipment designed to operate centrifuges for enriching uranium in a factory outside of Johannesburg, all packed up and bound for Libya. A little international snooping soon revealed that the whole thing had been arranged by infamous Pakistani scientist and nuclear black marketer Abdul Qadeer Khan. A South African official calls it "one of the most serious and extensive attempts" to build up an illegal nuclear arsenal.
A new national counterterrorism center is set to open in a few weeks, the WP reports inside. With all the flap over the intelligence reform bill, the exact nature of the center remains uncertain. It's currently set up to do the bidding of the CIA, with a director who would be appointed by Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss. However, the compromise reform bill calls for the center to be run by a presidential appointee. In any case, the hospitable Goss "has already begun clearing out [office] space … either for a director of national intelligence, should the bill pass, or for additional staff for himself as DCI with new budget authority."
Both the NYT and the WP contemplate the meaning of single-party dominance in American politics. The GOP's "uncontested control of the federal government leaves it in a position to win long-term loyalty among key voter blocs and craft an enduring majority," the Post speculates in its front pager. The Times demurs a bit, citing how "periods of one-party rule sometimes merely mask divisions and delay conflict." Both analyses trot out FDR and LBJ comparisons.
You Should Be in Pictures…The NYT Arts section catches word of an NBC plan to turn the 9/11 Commission Report into an eight-hour mini-series. The network's entertainment president promises to keep it tasteful. "We're not going to turn this into some kind of disaster pic," he said.Keelin McDonell is a reporter-researcher at the New Republic.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2110176/
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today's papersElectoral QuarrelBy Keelin McDonellPosted Sunday, Nov. 28, 2004, at 4:54 AM PT
The New York Times leads with the Ukrainian parliament declaring last week's presidential runoff results invalid. The resolution, which was one of 11 put up at Saturday's special session, bolsters widespread evidence of voter fraud and bureaucratic hanky-panky, but that's about it. As the Times notes, "Parliament … does not have the authority to overturn the election results." The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times lead with Shiite leaders in Iraq insisting that nationwide elections occur as scheduled on Jan. 30. In a joint statement issued by 42 political parties and squired (apparently) by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the Shiites shot down a recent request from Sunni and Kurdish groups for a six-month delay.
Saturday's nonbinding motion was at least a moral victory for challenger Viktor Yushchenko, the papers report. As protests raged on the streets of Kiev, parliament also called for an immediate overhaul of the central election commission and an investigation into allegations of fraud. The Post picks up on the fact that current prime minister and ersatz presidential winner Viktor Yanukovych scuttled a planned news conference yesterday, presumably after getting wind of the legislative wrist-slap. Yushchenko has demanded new elections as soon as Dec. 12. He'll take his claims before the Ukrainian supreme court on Monday.
The date of Iraqi elections was an expected sticking point, but the Post frets that it has become "an escalating dispute that is beginning to magnify the country's ethnic and sectarian fault lines." Shiites, some 60 percent of the population, are keen to secure a governing majority, while the Sunnis and Kurds want to negotiate for balanced representation. A senior Shiite official dismissed qualms about insurgent violence and a possible Sunni electoral boycott: "[A delay] is a message to the terrorists that they are victorious."
It's still not clear who exactly has the authority to change the election date. According to the NYT, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq released a statement saying that it could not force a delay. Meanwhile, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi continued to be coy about his own election-day preference.
The NYT fronts a reality check on President Bush's much touted Social Security personal investment accounts. Financing the plan will require borrowing "from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars over a decade," a risky move with the national debt already hovering around $7.5 trillion. Still, nobody's willing to raise taxes or slash benefits. As the Times helpfully reminds us, "Mr. Bush and the Republicans in Congress have paid little political price in the last four years for the swing from budget surpluses to deficits."
The LAT fronts an excellent investigation of a nuclear-weapons scam in South Africa. Police discovered 200 tons of equipment designed to operate centrifuges for enriching uranium in a factory outside of Johannesburg, all packed up and bound for Libya. A little international snooping soon revealed that the whole thing had been arranged by infamous Pakistani scientist and nuclear black marketer Abdul Qadeer Khan. A South African official calls it "one of the most serious and extensive attempts" to build up an illegal nuclear arsenal.
A new national counterterrorism center is set to open in a few weeks, the WP reports inside. With all the flap over the intelligence reform bill, the exact nature of the center remains uncertain. It's currently set up to do the bidding of the CIA, with a director who would be appointed by Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss. However, the compromise reform bill calls for the center to be run by a presidential appointee. In any case, the hospitable Goss "has already begun clearing out [office] space … either for a director of national intelligence, should the bill pass, or for additional staff for himself as DCI with new budget authority."
Both the NYT and the WP contemplate the meaning of single-party dominance in American politics. The GOP's "uncontested control of the federal government leaves it in a position to win long-term loyalty among key voter blocs and craft an enduring majority," the Post speculates in its front pager. The Times demurs a bit, citing how "periods of one-party rule sometimes merely mask divisions and delay conflict." Both analyses trot out FDR and LBJ comparisons.
You Should Be in Pictures…The NYT Arts section catches word of an NBC plan to turn the 9/11 Commission Report into an eight-hour mini-series. The network's entertainment president promises to keep it tasteful. "We're not going to turn this into some kind of disaster pic," he said.Keelin McDonell is a reporter-researcher at the New Republic.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2110176/
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The New York Times leads with the Ukrainian parliament declaring last week's presidential runoff results invalid. The resolution, which was one of 11 put up at Saturday's special session, bolsters widespread evidence of voter fraud and bureaucratic hanky-panky, but that's about it. As the Times notes, "Parliament … does not have the authority to overturn the election results." The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times lead with Shiite leaders in Iraq insisting that nationwide elections occur as scheduled on Jan. 30. In a joint statement issued by 42 political parties and squired (apparently) by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the Shiites shot down a recent request from Sunni and Kurdish groups for a six-month delay.
Saturday's nonbinding motion was at least a moral victory for challenger Viktor Yushchenko, the papers report. As protests raged on the streets of Kiev, parliament also called for an immediate overhaul of the central election commission and an investigation into allegations of fraud. The Post picks up on the fact that current prime minister and ersatz presidential winner Viktor Yanukovych scuttled a planned news conference yesterday, presumably after getting wind of the legislative wrist-slap. Yushchenko has demanded new elections as soon as Dec. 12. He'll take his claims before the Ukrainian supreme court on Monday.
The date of Iraqi elections was an expected sticking point, but the Post frets that it has become "an escalating dispute that is beginning to magnify the country's ethnic and sectarian fault lines." Shiites, some 60 percent of the population, are keen to secure a governing majority, while the Sunnis and Kurds want to negotiate for balanced representation. A senior Shiite official dismissed qualms about insurgent violence and a possible Sunni electoral boycott: "[A delay] is a message to the terrorists that they are victorious."
It's still not clear who exactly has the authority to change the election date. According to the NYT, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq released a statement saying that it could not force a delay. Meanwhile, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi continued to be coy about his own election-day preference.
The NYT fronts a reality check on President Bush's much touted Social Security personal investment accounts. Financing the plan will require borrowing "from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars over a decade," a risky move with the national debt already hovering around $7.5 trillion. Still, nobody's willing to raise taxes or slash benefits. As the Times helpfully reminds us, "Mr. Bush and the Republicans in Congress have paid little political price in the last four years for the swing from budget surpluses to deficits."
The LAT fronts an excellent investigation of a nuclear-weapons scam in South Africa. Police discovered 200 tons of equipment designed to operate centrifuges for enriching uranium in a factory outside of Johannesburg, all packed up and bound for Libya. A little international snooping soon revealed that the whole thing had been arranged by infamous Pakistani scientist and nuclear black marketer Abdul Qadeer Khan. A South African official calls it "one of the most serious and extensive attempts" to build up an illegal nuclear arsenal.
A new national counterterrorism center is set to open in a few weeks, the WP reports inside. With all the flap over the intelligence reform bill, the exact nature of the center remains uncertain. It's currently set up to do the bidding of the CIA, with a director who would be appointed by Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss. However, the compromise reform bill calls for the center to be run by a presidential appointee. In any case, the hospitable Goss "has already begun clearing out [office] space … either for a director of national intelligence, should the bill pass, or for additional staff for himself as DCI with new budget authority."
Both the NYT and the WP contemplate the meaning of single-party dominance in American politics. The GOP's "uncontested control of the federal government leaves it in a position to win long-term loyalty among key voter blocs and craft an enduring majority," the Post speculates in its front pager. The Times demurs a bit, citing how "periods of one-party rule sometimes merely mask divisions and delay conflict." Both analyses trot out FDR and LBJ comparisons.
You Should Be in Pictures…The NYT Arts section catches word of an NBC plan to turn the 9/11 Commission Report into an eight-hour mini-series. The network's entertainment president promises to keep it tasteful. "We're not going to turn this into some kind of disaster pic," he said.Keelin McDonell is a reporter-researcher at the New Republic.Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2110176/
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