Bedding Sets Home, Replica Watches

BEIJING, May 1, 2012 (Reuters) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for annual talks with Chinese leaders that risk being upstaged by the case of a blind dissident said to be under U.S. protection in the Chinese capital. Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda (L) and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd L) walk together to a reception at the National Geographic Society in Washington Buy windows 7 key, April 30, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The fate of legal activist Chen Guangcheng, who escaped from house arrest while under watch by scores of guards, has distracted from the planned two-day talks, likely to feature trade and market access issues and diplomatic quandaries over Iran Office Visio Key, Syria and North Korea.

The United States and China have stayed mute on Chen, and neither have confirmed that he is with U.S. officials – probably at the fortress-like embassy on the eastern side of Beijing – as friends and activists have said.

But before leaving for China late on Monday, Clinton promised to press China’s leaders on human rights, an issue that has dropped down the agenda between the two countries in the more than two decades since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The talks give Washington a chance to push China on pressuring Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, halting Syria’s crackdown on unarmed protesters and reducing tensions over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is also set to attend the talks, which come amid some progress in long-standing disputes over currency Windows 7 64 bit key, trade and market access.

(Writing by Michael Martina; Editing by Don Durfee)

‘The Heart of Echizen: Wood-Fired Works by Contemporary Masters’ is one of four new exhibits on view at the Mobile Museum of Art. Shown here: a work by Yasumi Hattori. The museum also is showing ‘Boxes and Their Makers,’ ‘Today’s Visual Language: Southern Abstraction,’ and ‘Masters of Graphic Art.’ (Press-Register/Mike Kittrell)

MOBILE, Alabama — The 57 wood-fired ceramic pieces on view in “The Heart of Echizen” exhibit at Mobile Museum of Art reveal the genius of simplicity.

The exhibit, on view through July 28, was jointly curated by Christopher Kelly and Preston Saunders and highlights work from 20 potters.

Echizen Ceramics, in the Fukui prefecture near the Sea of Japan, refers to the unbroken chain of pottery from families producing utilitarian ware over the past eight centuries. Echizen products are made with the highest quality soil from the local region, according to a news release.

In the past replica watches, Echizen potters used a coiling technique called nejitate where clay is rolled into long, thin, cord-like pieces and then curled on top of itself to form a basic shape. It was fired in an anagama kiln made by tunneling into the side of a mountain, a method still used today. This pottery is referred to as yakishime because it is made without the use of artificial glazes. Echizen pottery is still made in wood-fired kilns to keep the tradition alive.

In April the Fairhope Committee On Public Art sponsored a workshop featuring Uichiro Oya, a second-generation potter from Echizen, a rural region of central Japan rich in pottery tradition dating to the middle of the 12th century.

Oya conducted a two-day workshop demonstrating his technique for producing functional pottery along with his sculptural work. One of the pieces in this show is an elephant figure with tusks.

The exhibition catalog describes Oya’s “toy-like figurines . . . created to embody light-hearted warmth.” The artist fires the works in his anagama kiln for up to a week, without glaze, to achieve a natural sequence of color and surface.

“It gives my work the look as if it was born in nature rather than made by hand,” he says in the catalog.

“The Heart of Echizen” exhibit will next move to the University of Montevallo where it will remain on view Aug. 6-Sept. 14. The exhibition was made possible by the Japan foundation, the city of Echizen, Bridgewater State University and Piedmont College, according to a museum news release.

‘HEART of ECHIZEN’

WHAT: “The Heart of Echizen: Wood-Fired Works by Contemporary Masters,” work by 20 Japanese potters

WHEN: through July 28

WHERE: Mobile Museum of Art

CURATORS: Christopher Kelly and Preston Saunders

NOTE: Echizen Ceramics replica watches, in the Fukui prefecture near the Sea of Japan, refers to the unbroken chain of pottery from families producing utilitarian ware over the last 800 years.

ALSO ON VIEW: “Masters of Graphic Art from the Collection of Gerald Swetsky,” through June 24; “Boxes and Their Makers,” through July 1; and “Today’s Visual Language: Southern Abstraction, A Fresh Look,” through Sept. 16.

HOURS: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday

ADMISSION: $10 for adults, $6 for students

INFO: 251-208-5200 or visit www.mobilemuseumofart.com  

The introduction to the exhibition catalog was written by Kelly, chairman of the art department at Piedmont College, and Saunders, associate professor at Bridgewater. The exhibition grew out of a kitchen-table conversation in 2010 involving Kelly, Saunders, Juroemon Fujita IX and Naoki Izumi.

“The idea was to showcase contemporary Echizen ceramics to an American audience,” the essay states. Wood-fired pots were chosen for the show because most potters in Echizen use wood kilns, if only for a portion of their work.

“Although the potters use similar clays replica watches, kilns and fuel, each . . . develops his or her own unique voice,” the catalog states. “A firing process, a forming technique or geographic location does not bind or define these potters fully; however, we feel highlighting wood-fired works allows each potter to tell his or her own story in the context of Echizen’s history.”

“The Heart of Echizen” is the third exhibit with Echizen as the focus to tour the United States. The first, “Eight Hundred Years of Japanese Stoneware” (1994), was curated by Donald Wood, Ph.D., of the Birmingham Museum of Art; the second, “A Glimpse Into Echizen Ceramics” (2005), curated by Christopher Kelly, focused on utilitarian work.

“We were excited to be able to offer contemporary ceramics as part of such a venerated tradition,” says Paul Richelson, Ph.D., chief curator for the Mobile Museum of Art. “We added it to the schedule late in the day because it became available. Our response was, ‘Yes, let’s do that because we are interested in ceramics and Asian art, but we not often able to combine the two.”

Richelson says the 57 works in this exhibit reflect the artists’ “less is more” philosophy.

“It is certainly amazing what you can do with so little,” he says. “It’s a tradition of coiling, not thrown pottery, and it’s not all about glazes — and yet there’s an amazing amount variety you can develop in the firing of the clays. And we are aware of the kiln they built in Montevallo. Such work is being produced in Alabama built on that historic tradition.”

One of the enduring clichés about pottery is that it looks heavy but is light as air. Not so with the Echizen artwork.

“This is coil-built and the weight is a factor in many of the large pieces,” Richelson explains. “That is not the aesthetic they’re after. There’s a real substance to these pieces.”

An elephant figurine by Uichiro Oya. (Press-Register/Mike Kittrell)

Some are vessels and jars, which are part of many pottery traditions, but one also finds sake and tea cups and tea bowls, which are synonymous with the Asian tradition. The singular characteristic is this work is what is not there.

“Relative to contemporary work, I would say there’s a lack of interest in flash,” Richelson says. “The viewer is compelled to spend more time looking at the subtleties of this wood-firing process and what it creates. You can’t engage the piece quickly — you really have to look at it.

“(The artists) are more interested in the clay surface produced by firing. All ceramics (have) a degree of surprise. What you think will happen may not necessarily be what happens. That can be calculated with experience.”

The element of serendipity or surprise is much in play here.

“This is not commercial work,” Richelson says. “Every one is an artful, complete piece on which the process has left its impact. The artist takes it to a certain point, and then the nature of making it takes over.”

Sen. Richard Lugar meets with voters outside of a polling location Tuesday, May 8, 2012, in Greenwood Tattoo Inks, Ind. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Valparaiso, IN – Veteran Sen. Richard Lugar’s loss in the Indiana GOP primary provides warnings for President Barack Obama and his Democrats as well as Mitt Romney and fellow Republicans six months before the November election.

In one state at least, anti-incumbent sentiment is coursing through the electorate, a potentially ominous sign for the incumbent Democratic president seeking a second term and lawmakers of all political stripes. The GOP also remains deeply split between the establishment wing and insurgent tea party, a fissure that underscores the challenge the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and other GOP candidates face in the months ahead to unite the party.

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“We are experiencing deep political divisions in our society right now,” Lugar, 80, one of the nation’s longest-serving senators, said in a statement after the results were known. “These divisions have stalemated progress in critical areas. But these divisions are not insurmountable.”

The loss of Lugar — who boasted of strong conservative credentials but was lambasted by critics for working with Democrats — also highlights the degree to which deal-makers are becoming a rarity on a Capitol Hill often consumed by partisan gridlock. He follows Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate known for bipartisanship, in leaving the Senate at year’s end. Others too, including former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., have left in recent years.

Ultimately, it was Lugar’s efforts to cross party lines and his longevity in Washington — two issues that tea party-backed challenger Richard Mourdock used against him — that proved too much for Indiana Republicans.

“Sen. Lugar has sided too many times with the Democrats,” Stacy Rutkowski of Valparaiso, who voted for Mourdock, said on her way out of her polling place. “He’s been there six terms, and it’s time for some new blood.”

A few hours after conceding, Lugar slammed Mourdock for embracing “groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican Party of those who stray from orthodoxy as they see it.”

“This is not conducive to problem solving and governance,” Lugar said. “And he will find that unless he modifies his approach, he will achieve little as a legislator. Worse, he will help delay solutions that are totally beyond the capacity of partisan majorities to achieve.”

Broadly, Lugar’s defeat may create an opportunity for Democrats working to hang onto a narrow four-seat majority in the Senate. National party leaders vowed to help centrist Democrat Joe Donnelly, a three-term House member from South Bend Tattoo Kits For Sale, compete against Mourdock, the conservative state treasurer, in a Senate race the party otherwise would have bypassed.

But whether Democrats follow through with that pledge — and go all in for Donnelly by spending large sums of money in the race — is an open question. Indiana has been a hard place for Democrats to win. Four years ago, Obama became the first Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election since 1964, and he did so by a single percentage point, turning out vast numbers from the Chicago-influenced urban and industrial region in Indiana’s northwest.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matt Canter said the race, with Lugar out, “could move in a more competitive direction.” The group and a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates began attacking Mourdock even before the polls were closed. Both described him as out of step with not just mainstream Republicans, but mainstream voters.

Democratic strategist Tad Devine said Mourdock’s conservative profile has Democrats optimistic about their chances despite Indiana’s Republican trend. Said Devine, “If the Senate race turns out to be a moderate Democrat and an out-of-step Republican, moderate voters who regret that they can’t vote for Lugar will help Donnelly.”

But Republican strategist Phil Musser doubts the state will be in play come the fall.

“Nationally, Democrats will throw a lot of money into it quickly. I’m not one who believes it will be a competitive Senate race,” said Musser, a former Romney aide.

The race illustrated vulnerabilities for Democrats and Republicans alike.

Incumbents, Obama included, are at risk no matter their party at a time when the economically struggling public is sour over anyone linked to Washington. So, it seems Shader Tattoo Machine, are lawmakers with a history of working with members of the opposite party.

Just ask Lugar.

Mourdock hounded the veteran senator over questions about his Virginia home — and Indiana residency — and his long Washington ties. The challenger also took Lugar to task over his collaboration with Obama. The two worked together on nonproliferation issues, and Lugar was one of only a handful of Republicans to vote to confirm Obama’s two appointments to the Supreme Court.

It wasn’t just those issues that didn’t sit well with voters, who craved change after nearly four decades of Lugar representing them. That was clear from signs stating simply “retire Lugar” that dotted the roadside along U.S. 30 east of Valparaiso, a Republican-leaning town in northern Indiana.

“He’s a good and decent man,” Valparaiso Republican Bruce Garrison said of Lugar after casting his vote for Mourdock. “But how can the country keep going on the path it’s on? And how can we send the same people back to fix it?”

It’s that reject-the-status-quo strain among voters that incumbents up and down the ballot will find themselves having to fight against over the next six months.

That Lugar — an establishment candidate if there ever was one — fell to a tea party-backed Republican made clear that the divisions within the GOP that were on display in 2010 primaries across the country had not yet healed.

“There is an element of the Republican base, and it’s stronger than ever now, that was never going to vote for Richard Lugar,” said Dan Dumezich, a Lugar supporter from northwest Indiana and Romney’s state co-chairman.

The split presents a huge challenge for Romney as he seeks to unify the Republican Party in the coming months.

He has campaigned as the establishment choice, but he was beaten badly at times by insurgent favorites, first former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in South Carolina and later in a series of contests by conservative former Sen. Rick Santorum.

Now Romney is working to mend the rifts. Whether he can — and whether the tea party and other conservatives rally behind him — won’t be clear until November.

(Image Credit: Charles Dharapak/AP photo)

As the fight to woo female voters in 2012 intensifies, President Obama today argued that women should not be relegated to a political interest group, and he highlighted the crucial contributions women make to the economy.

“There’s been a lot of talk about women and women’s issues lately, as there should be. But I do think that the conversation has been oversimplified,” the president said at a White House forum on women and the economy, two key issues in the 2012 campaign. “Women are not some monolithic bloc. Women are not an interest group. You shouldn’t be treated that way. Women are over half this country and its workforce.”

The administration’s decision to zero in on women’s issues comes as the gender gap between the president and GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney is widening. A recent USA Today/Gallup poll shows the president with an 18-point lead over Romney among female voters in the top 12 swing states.

“These issues are more than just a matter of policy. And when we talk about these issues that primarily impact women, we’ve got to realize that they are not just women’s issues, they are family issues, they are economic issues, they are growth issues, they are issues about American competitiveness. They are issues that impact all of us,” the president said.

Obama defended his record on issues related to women and vowed to stand up for them when it comes to fair pay, health care and education. The White House also released a new report today touting the steps the administration has taken to boost the role women play in the economy and help them gain economic security.

The battle over women voters ratcheted up Thursday when the president’s campaign seized on comments from Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus disputing the idea that the GOP was waging a “war on women.”

“If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars, and mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we have problems with caterpillars Rotary Tattoo Gun,” Priebus told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt in an interview. “The fact of the matter is it’s a fiction and this started a war against the Vatican that this president pursued. He still hasn’t answered Archbishop Dolan’s issues with Obama world and Obamacare Tattoo Machines For Sale, so I think that’s the first issue.”

Obama’s Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter pounced. “Reince Priebus’ comparison of Republican attempts to limit women’s access to mammograms Tattoo Machines For Cheap, cervical cancer screenings, and contraception to a ‘war on caterpillars’ shows how little regard leading Republicans, including Mitt Romney, have for women’s health,” she said in a written statement.

“Women are already abandoning the Republican Party in droves because of their antiquated positions on women’s health and out-of-touch policies on the middle class. Reince Priebus’ comments today only reinforce why women simply cannot trust Mitt Romney or other leading Republicans to stand up for them,” she said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Monday voiced support for Japan joining talks with the United States and eight other countries on a free trade agreement in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region, but said no final decision had been made.

“We instructed our teams to continue our consultation regarding Japan’s interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would benefit both our economies and the region,” Obama said at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

The United States hopes to finish talks with Australia, New Zealand, Peru Cheap Christian Audigier Clothes, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei on the TPP pact by the end of the year.

The countries say they are aiming for a “21st Century” agreement that goes further than previous trade pacts in tearing down barriers to trade and raising international standards in areas like labor and environment.

Japan, Mexico and Canada in November expressed interest in joining the talks. Over the past five months Buy White Herve leger, the current members have been discussing the feasibility of bringing the three countries into the negotiations without lowering ambitions for the agreement or allowing the talks to drag on.

Many members of Congress are wary about allowing Japan, the world’s third largest economy, into the negotiations.

They have demanded stronger evidence that Tokyo is ready to open its market to more U.S. exports in sectors ranging from agriculture to autos.

After Noda and Obama’s press conference, it remained unclear when a decision would be made on the three applicant countries.

The next time the top trade officials from the TPP countries will be together is in early June in Kazan, Russia at the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) trade ministers meeting.

APEC leaders are due to meet in early September in Vladivostok, Russia. That comes right after the U.S. Democratic Party’s convention to renominate Obama for president, raising questions whether he will attend the APEC meeting.

Noda, who faces opposition at home to his push to join the TPP talks, said it was important that the United States and Japan work together on creating rules for the region in areas ranging from anti-terrorism and intellectual property rights protection to the oceans and outer space.

“In the economic area, we shall deepen bilateral economic ties and fortify the growth and prosperity of the two countries through the promotion of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region,” Noda said.

“Our countries will work on regional trade and investment rules-making with a view to building FTAAP, or the Free Trade Area of the Asian-Pacific,” he added, referring to a longer-term goal of crafting a free trade pact among all 21 APEC members.

That “will advance consultations with a view to participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations,” Noda said.

(Additional reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Japan

Monday, April 21, 2008

Running With the Big Dogs: While Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama deflected Charlie Gibson’s question about running together, last week was a big one for Democrats’ other dream ticket: any Republican pairing that includes Mitt Romney. With a well-received cameo at a national press dinner and nods from Great Mentioners like George H.W. Bush and Karl Rove, Mitt is back—and campaigning hard for the No. 2 slot.

When John McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination back in February, the odds against picking Romney looked long indeed. The two spent the entire primary season at each others’ throats. Romney trashed McCain over “amnesty” for illegal immigrants; McCain joked that Romney’s many flip-flops proved he really was “the candidate of change.” Even Rudy Giuliani, not known for making peace, chimed in from Florida that McCain and Romney were “getting kind of nasty,” implying that they needed to come chill with him at the beach.

Sure enough, after a little time off, Romney felt better—good enough to begin his vice-presidential audition. He went on Fox to say, “There really are no hard feelings.” He interrupted his vacation in Utah to host a fundraiser for McCain. After months of dismissing McCain as a Washington insider, Romney flip-flopped and praised him as a longtime congressional champion of Reaganism. Lest anyone fail to notice, Romney confessed that he would be honored to be McCain’s running mate, and practiced ripping into the potential Democratic nominees: “When it comes to national security, John McCain is the big dog, and they are the Chihuahuas.”

Of course, any big dog should think twice before agreeing to a long journey with Mitt Romney. The past would not be easy for McCain, Romney, and their staffs and families to overcome. Before New Hampshire, McCain’s alter ego, Mark Salter, called Romney “a small-varmint gun totin,’ civil rights marching, NRA-endorsed fantasy candidate.” After the primaries were over Tattoo Supplies, Josh Romney suggested that the Five Brothers wouldn’t be gassing up the Mittmobile for McCain anytime soon: “It’s one thing to campaign for my dad, someone whose principles I line up with almost entirely,” he told the Deseret News. “I can’t say the same thing for Sen. McCain.”

For Mitt Romney, that won’t be a problem: Any grudge would vanish the instant McCain named him as his running mate. And by the Republican convention in September, Romney’s principles will be due for their six-month realignment.

The more difficult question is, What’s in it for McCain? Actually, Romney brings more to the ticket than you might think. As in any partnership, the key to happiness between running mates is a healthy division of labor. When Bill Clinton and Al Gore teamed up in 1992, Clinton had spent most of his career on the economy, education, health care, and other domestic issues; Gore was an expert on national security, the environment, and technology. Even the Bush-Cheney pairing made some sense: Bush cared only about squandering the surplus, privatizing Social Security, and running the economy into the ground; Cheney was more interested in hoarding executive power, helping narrow interests, and tarnishing America’s image in the world.

So, McCain and Romney are off to a good start: They come from different backgrounds and share no common interests. McCain, a soldier turned senator, prefers national security above all else. As a former businessman and governor, Romney rarely brings up foreign policy—for reasons that sometimes become apparent when he does so. In his concession speech, Romney said he was dropping out to give McCain a united front against Obama, Clinton, and Bin Laden. “In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” he said. “We cannot allow the next president of the United States to retreat in the face of evil extremism!!”

For the general election, the McCain campaign must decide what to do with conservative positions it took to win the Republican primaries. Here again, Romney is a godsend: a vice-presidential candidate who’ll flip-flop so the nominee doesn’t have to. No one can match Romney’s experience at changing positions: He has been on both sides of abortion, talked out of both sides of his mouth on same-sex marriage, and been for and against his own health care plan. It’s a market-based approach to principle—just the glue Republicans need to expand their coalition. Moderates might assume Romney was only pretending to be conservative, and conservatives will thank him for trying.

Straight talk is all well and good for presidential candidates. But as Dick Cheney demonstrated, the job of a Republican vice-presidential candidate is quite the opposite—keeping a straight face while saying things that couldn’t possibly be true. Take the economy, for example. McCain gets visibly uncomfortable whenever he ventures beyond fiscal conservatism. Romney is more flexible. In an interview with National Journallast week, he had no trouble contending that corporate tax cuts help the middle class. He spent the primaries warning that the United States was on a slippery slope to becoming the next France. Now he’s perfectly happy to argue that we have to cut corporate taxes to keep companies from moving to France.

In his surprise appearance at the Radio & Television Correspondents dinner in Washington last week, Romney showed another virtue that makes him perfect for the role—a vice-presidential temperament. With his “Top 10 Reasons for Dropping Out,” he proved that he is ready to poke fun at himself on Day 1.

A vice president needs to be good at self-deprecation, yet not so skilled that he outshines the boss. By that standard, Romney’s audition was perfect: He chose good material (“There weren’t as many Osmonds as I had thought”; “As a lifelong hunter, I didn’t want to miss the start of varmint season”) and delivered it just awkwardly enough to leave the audience wondering whether to laugh or feel slightly uncomfortable.

After watching him up close in the primaries, Team McCain no doubt harbors real reservations about Romney. Some conservatives distrust him so much, they’re running full-page ads that say, “NO Mitt.” A Google search of John McCain, Mitt Romney, and food taster produces more than 100 entries.

But looking ahead to a tense fall campaign, McCain should put those concerns aside and listen to voices from across the spectrum. This could be the issue that unites the country across party lines. Democrats like a little fun at Mitt Romney’s expense. The McCain camp does, too—perhaps more so. And after last week, we know that—ever the good sport—even Romney’s all for it. … 2:14 p.m. (link)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

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Twist and Shout:When the news broke last August that Larry Craig had been arrested in a restroom sex sting, he had a ready answer: The Idaho Statesman made him do it. He claimed that the Statesman’s monthslong investigation into whether he was gay made him panic and plead guilty. Otherwise, he said, he feared that what happened in Minneapolis might not stay in Minneapolis, and the Statesman would make sure the voters of Idaho found out.

Craig’s jihad against the Statesman didn’t go over too well in Idaho, where people are more likely to read the newspaper in the restroom than worry about it afterward. On Monday, the Statesman was named a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting for what the committee called “its tenacious coverage of the twists and turns in the scandal involving the state’s senator, Larry Craig.”

The story took yet another strange twist and turn this week. For the past six months, the entire political world has been wondering why Craig promised to resign when the scandal broke, then changed his mind a few days later. In a rare interview Wednesday with the congressional newspaper the Hill, Craig finally found someone to blame for staying in the Senate: The people of Idaho made him do it.

According to the Hill, Craig said “support from Idahoans convinced him to reverse his pledge to resign last year.” This was news to most Idaho voters, who have viewed the whole affair with shock, outrage, embarrassment, and dismay. But Craig didn’t stop there. The Hill reports that he also said his decision not to run for re-election “pre-dated the controversy.”

Last fall, Craig stunned Idahoans by insisting he was not gay, not guilty, and not leaving. Now he says it’s our fault he never left, he was leaving anyway, and if he’s not running, it’s not because we don’t believe him when he says he’s not guilty and not gay.

Unfortunately, Craig’s latest explanation casts some doubt on the excuse he gave last fall. If he had already decided long ago that he wasn’t running for re-election, he had less reason to panic over his arrest, and much less to fear from voters finding out about it back home. In September, he made it sound as if he pled guilty to a crime he didn’t commit to avoid a political firestorm back home. If politics were of no concern, he had every reason to fight the charges in court. For that matter, if he was so sure he wouldn’t run again, he could have announced his decision early last year, which might have staved off the Statesman investigation before it got started.

Craig’s latest revelation undermines his defense in another way as well. If he is telling the truth that he had made up his mind not to run before his arrest, that would be the best explanation yet for why he risked putting himself in a position to get arrested. Eliot Spitzer’s re-election prospects plunged long before he got caught, too.

Nothing can fully explain why public figures like Craig and Spitzer would flagrantly risk arrest. But we can rule out political suicide if they’d already decided their political careers were over. … 3:55 p.m. (link)

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

B.Looper: Learned reader Kyle Sammin recalls that Idaho’s Marvin “Pro-Life” Richardson has nothing on 1998 Tennessee State Senate candidate Byron “Low-Tax” Looper. Besides changing his name, Looper also murdered his opponent. Under Tennessee law, the names of dead candidates are removed from the ballot. So even though he was quickly charged with homicide, Looper nearly ran unopposed. The victim’s widow won a last-minute write-in campaign. Looper was sentenced to life in prison.

Bloopers: The Pittsburgh Pirates are now the most mediocre first-place team in baseball history. In their season opener Monday night against Atlanta, the Bucs provided plenty of evidence that this year will turn out like the last 15. They blew a five-run lead in the ninth by walking four batters and booting an easy fly ball. Pirate players said they’d never seen anything like it, not even in Little League. For an inning, it looked like the team had gone on strike to demand more money.

But to every Buc fan’s surprise, the Pirates won, anyway—12-11 in 12 innings—and with no game Tuesday, Pittsburgh has been above .500 for two glorious days. New General Manager Neal Huntington e-mailed me on Monday to promise that the team’s new regime is determined to build an organization that will make the people of Pittsburgh proud again. That might take a while. For now, we’re content to make the people of Atlanta feel really embarrassed. … 1:35 p.m. (link)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Larry Craig

Danger Is My Middle Name:Outgoing Senator Larry Craig can take consolation in one thing: out in Idaho, everyone wants his seat. Fourteen candidates have filed to run for the Senate Tattoo Supplies, including eight Republicans, two Democrats, two Independents, and a Libertarian. Hal Styles Jr. of Desert Hot Springs, California, entered the Republican primary, even though he has never been to Idaho. “I know I’ll love it because, clean air, clean water and many, many, many mountains,” he says. “My heart, my mind, my body, my soul, my thoughts are in this to win.”

The general election will likely be a rematch between former Democratic congressman Larry LaRocco and Republican Lt. Gov. (and former governor) Jim Risch. If Idahoans find those two insufficiently embarrassing, however, a number of fringe candidates have lined up to take Craig’s place. According to CQ, one Independent, Rex Rammel, is a former elk rancher who is angry that Risch ordered state wildlife officials to shoot some of his elk that got away. The Libertarian, Kent A. Marmon, is running against “the ever-expanding Socialist agenda” he claims is being pushed by Democratic congressmen like John Dingell.

But by far the most creative third-party candidate is Marvin Richardson, an organic strawberry farmer who went to court to change his name to “Pro-Life.” Two years ago, he made that his middle name and tried to run for governor as Marvin “Pro-Life” Richardson. State election officials ruled that middle names couldn’t be used to make a political statement on the ballot. As plain old Marvin Richardson, he won just 1.6% of the vote.

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The New Yorker, May 26 George Packer’s essay reflects on the fall of the movement that “Goldwater began, Nixon brought into power, Ronald Reagan gave mass appeal, Newt Gingrich radicalized, Tom DeLay criminalized, and Bush allowed to break into pieces.” The decline of conservatism was hastened in part by Karl Rove’s “polarizing political tactics,” which were based on “two illusions: that the conservative era would stretch on indefinitely, and that politics matters more than governing.” Now, says one source, “if you’re not rich or Southern or born again, the chances of your being a Republican are not great.”… A piece examines the myths and truths about hangovers cures. What’s the best morning-after remedy? It seems the old standby of consuming more of the same type of alcohol you had the night before might actually work. Don’t expect scientists to develop a hangover cure any time soon—it’s too difficult to conduct trials with drunk subjects, and funding bodies are reluctant to give money to such experiments.

New York, May 26
The cover story theorizes about men’s marital infidelities, leaning heavily on evolutionary psychology to argue that a happy, faithful marriage might be unattainable. It draws from friends’ anecdotes (One says that when his wife “wasn’t available, he snuck out to massage parlors in a ‘primal state’ or watched porn”) and a smattering of supporting experts (“men’s genes program them to seek many mates and try to monopolize the reproductive lives of those mates) to make the point. Eliot Spitzer’s prostitution scandal, of course, makes an appearance. … A piece by Pete Hamill marks the 40-year anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s death with a moment-by-moment remembrance of the day RFK died. Hamill writes: “The origins of this killing … lay in the Middle East …[but the killer's motives] didn’t truly matter. The crucial fact was simpler: He was able to get a gun.”

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Smithsonian, June 2008
The cover story uncovers the softer side of the great white shark, claiming that “its reputation as a ruthless, mindless, man-eater is undeserved.” The predator that inspired Jaws “rarely hunt[s] humans” and is “sociable and curious.” The beasts’ predatory nature demonstrates their intelligence, says one shark expert, because to “feed on large-brained social animals such as seals and dolphins … you have to operate on a level higher than a simple machine mentality of an ordinary fish.” And the 236 recorded great white assaults on humans since 1876? Researchers think many of them are “bite and release” attacks—the animal “trying to get a better look at the strange creature in the water.” … An article looks at the soon-to-be-perfected science of growing diamonds in a laboratory. Lab-grown diamonds have become indistinguishable from their natural cousins and “have the potential to dramatically change technology Christian Audigier Clothes sale, perhaps becoming as significant as steel or silicon in electronics and computing.”

Out, June/July 2008 An article focuses on gay parents who remain in the party scene while raising kids. So-called “disco-dads,” a source says, “have the life and children and adult responsibilities Discount Herve Leger v neck, but also keep their connections to the community, sometimes in the party scene.” The growing number of socially active dads also reveals how the gay community is changing to accommodate children and indicates “a quiet revolution that is smashing the outdated Ward and June Cleaver image of parenting.”… A piece profiles Mavendra Singh Gohil, the first openly gay member of the Indian royal family, and considers the challenges of being gay in the heavily traditional country, where a law against sex between men is still on the books. … A piece examines the practices of the Body Electric School, which seeks to rescue “gay male sexuality, and in a larger sense, sexual culture from the fear and panic that proliferated in the late ’80s and early ’90s.”

Newsweek, May 26 The cover story follows a family’s struggle with a bipolar child, who first tried to commit suicide at age 7, and the intense difficulty of treating the disease at such a young age. According to the piece Buy Herve leger strapless, in developing children, “[t]he bipolar brain tries to compensate for its weak prefrontal cortex by roping in other areas to help; these areas may now become dysfunctional, too.” Child psychiatrists “face an enormous practical challenge: they often can’t treat one disorder without affecting another one.”… Slate contributor Daniel Gross reveals in an article that fewer illegal immigrants are coming to the United States because of the slowing economy and stricter enforcement of immigration laws. For Latin Americans Replica Chloe Dresses, Spain is now the preferred destination, where “language, lenient immigration policies and the strong euro make the environment more congenial.” Decreasing numbers of immigrants from other parts of the world Herve Leger sale, like India, can also be attributed to strengthening native economies.

Weekly Standard, May 26 The cover story examines the iconography surrounding Barack Obama. “For the Bolshevik-constructivist Buy DKNY Clothing, skate-punk crowd, he is the one they’ve been waiting for.”… A feature proposes a theme for John McCain’s campaign, which is “looking to ground its messages in duty, honor, and ability, presenting the candidate as a man who has always been ready to step up and act when his country needed him.” Unfortunately, the piece points out, this is the approach both Bob Dole and John Kerry adopted, and for them “it failed to capture the imagination of the electorate.” A successful McCain campaign should center around reform as an alternative to “change.” His platform should embrace reform but do it in a manner that emphasizes Americans don’t need “more government but a government better suited to the times and to the concerns of the American family.”

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Audi RS6 sedan. Discount Emilio Pucci Dresses

All right. Now we’re torn. RS6 Avant or RS6 sedan? Both are packing the same twin-turbocharged Cheap DKNY Clothing, direct-injected 5.0-liter V10 putting out 580 hp and 479 lb.-ft. of torque. Both send power to all four wheels through a six-speed tiptronic tranny and both can be equipped with absolutely massive 420mm (front) and 356mm (rear) ceramic brakes. While it’s hard to deny the practicality of the wagon Discount Herve Leger gown, we think the sedan comes across as more elegant – in a brutally Teutonic way. The voting will commence in the comments and check the gallery below for a plenty of high-res images from the show floor.

Related Gallery2009 Audi RS6

If you have a passion for Tata-owned British luxury vehicles and you’re willing to move to central England Buy BCBG Dresses, then Jaguar/Land Rover may have the opportunity of a lifetime for you. The newly Indian-owned British marques are looking to fill 600 positions to beef up their engineering staffs that work on emissions performance. Both experienced engineers and yungins fresh out of college are needed White Herve leger sale, as well as a few HR schmucks and some purchasing and finance bean counters. The reason for the new hires includes tough new European CO2 emissions targets coupled with the fact that former parent Ford Motor Company had been supplying much of the brain-power to meet those targets. Many earth-saving technologies have already been developed Buy Christian Audigier Clothes, like an engine stop/start system for Land Rover Discount Hale Bob Dresses, but more bodies are needed if game-changing products like the LRX are to see the light of day. If you apply Replica DKNY Clothing, remember that reading Autoblog daily is considered a total asset by HR people.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd Cheap Hale Bob Dresses, Photo by madebytess
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Xenatech conversions – Click above for image gallery
Replica Concord Watches
Wonder where this firm Xenatech came from? The German company made headlines a couple of weeks ago with sketches of a Maybach coupe it intends to bring to market, but as you may well have guessed, the luxo-Merc isn’t the first chop job the company has undertaken.

Swing by the company’s website and you’ll find photochops of all manner of vehicles – most of them German Replica Roger Dubuis Watches, natch – that have been turned from sedan into coupe Replica U Boat Watches, coupe into sedan Audemars Piguet Replica Watches, and much more. The first few look like simple stretch jobs of sport-utes and sedans like the Audi Q7 Fake Porsche Design Watches, Mercedes G-Class and Bentley Continental Flying Spur. But delve a little deeper and you’ll find an Aston Vanquish shooting brake, Lexus LS460 coupe and pickup versions of the Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg. A few of them are even a little prophetic: a Mercedes CLS wagon and four-door versions of the Porsche 911 and BMW 6 Series.

The best part is that Xenatech claims some of these have actually been made IWC Replica Watches, though it isn’t saying which. Our fingers are crossed for that 7 Series with the extra headroom. Check out some of our favorites in the gallery below.

Related GalleryXenatech conversions
[Source: Xenatech via PistonHeads]