Along the way he offers lively
summaries of some of the key dramas of Russian history, including the
exploration of Siberia, the tragic nobility of the Decembrists and the
unspeakable siege of Leningrad. He meets the kind of near-saints that only
places with so much bad history can produce: suicidally brave journalists in
Samara; campaigning environmentalists in the Urals; a heroic AIDS worker in
Irkutsk. They vary what might otherwise have become a dismal parade of
villainy.
“We steal,” a Caspian sturgeon poacher
says, “and we think nothing of stealing because everyone is stealing.” Mr
Dimbleby notes the gangsterism of government at all levels, the brazen rackets
and the cradle-to-grave corruption that Russians must negotiate to survive. He
nicely portrays the fatal combination of savage indifference on the part of the
country's rulers and the enraging fatalism of the ruled. He is perpetually
baffled by what, to his Western ears, sound like contradictory attitudes: the
Russians he meets are sophisticated, acquisitive and yet cynical to the point
of hostility towards democracy. “Crypto-fascist” is his label for the system Mr
Putin has built.
Mr Dimbleby loves Russian literature,
and he hears Tolstoyan and Gogolian echoes as he travels. But he is not a
Russia expert (he undertook the journey for a BBC television series), and makes
some mistakes and simplifications, over Chechnya and the Yukos affair, for
example. That, however, is also his book's main virtue. His novice's eye sees
the moral outrage in everyday injustices—the use of malnourished teenaged
conscripts as slave labour, say, or the routine persecution of migrant
labourers—to which more practised Russia-watchers are too often desensitised.
His disgust is mitigated by the fascination that Russia somehow inspires too,
even in the most sceptical visitor.
"The whole thing is sort of a
study," Swartz said. "I'd say it's a comic drama. You don't put Doris
Roberts and Anne Meara in a movie without comic moments."
Roberts is widely known for her role
in CBS' sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond." Anne Meara has appeared in
television shows and movies, but is perhaps best known for her son, actor Ben
Stiller, and her husband, Jerry Stiller, of CBS' sitcom "The King of
Queens."
Laurie's trademark role was as the
mother in "Carrie," and Shepherd, an award-winning TV actress,
starred in "Cybill" and "Moonlighting."
The actors begin filming in Harrisburg
on June 14.
According to Michael Chapaloney,
spokesman for the Pennsylvania Film Office, several films are currently being
made in Pennsylvania: "My Bloody Valentine," "Hollywood &
Wine," "Shannon's Rainbow," "Fleas," "The
Nail" and "Transformers 2."
"Happy Tears," "Marley
& Me" and "Dare" are wrapping up production in the state,
Chapaloney said.
"Another Harvest Moon" is
being produced by Aurora Films of Lancaster. Chad Taylor, who plays guitar for
the band Live, is one of the partners of the company. Taylor, who lives in
Lancaster, is a producer of "Another Harvest Moon." He also worked as
a producer on the full-length film "Home," which was produced by
Haverstick Films. "One of my key roles will be to leverage my success in
the entertainment industry to get the product out to a wider audience than it
would otherwise," he said.
Swartz and Taylor said neither the
release date nor distribution details have been set.
"We're certainly targeting
theatrical releases, and we feel that our cast has put us in a good position to
do that," Swartz said. "This is a smaller film than a lot of them are
used to. None of them are getting a new pool out of this."
Word spread like wildfire in Catholic
circles: Douglas Kmiec, a staunch Republican, firm foe of abortion and veteran
of the Reagan Justice Department, had been denied Communion.
His sin? Kmiec, a Catholic who can
cite papal pronouncements with the facility of a theological scholar, shocked
old friends and adversaries alike earlier this year by endorsing Barack Obama
for president. For at least one priest, Kmiec's support for a pro-choice
politician made him a willing participant in a grave moral evil.
Kmiec was denied Communion in April at
a Mass for a group of Catholic business people he later addressed at dinner.
The episode has not received wide attention outside the Catholic world, but it
is the opening shot in an argument that could have a large impact on this
year's presidential campaign: Is it legitimate for bishops and priests to deny
Communion to those supporting candidates who favor abortion rights?
A version of this argument roiled the
2004 campaign when some, though not most, Catholic bishops suggested that John
Kerry and other pro-choice Catholic politicians should be denied Communion
because of their views on abortion.
The Kmiec incident poses the question
in an extreme form: He is not a public official but a voter expressing a
preference. Moreover, Kmiec -- a law professor at Pepperdine University and
once dean of Catholic University's law school -- is a long-standing critic of
the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.
Kmiec, who was head of the Justice
Department's Office of Legal Counsel in the late 1980s, is supporting Obama
despite the candidate's position on abortion, not because of it, partly in the
hope that Obama's emphasis on personal responsibility in sexual matters might
change the nature of the nation's argument on life issues.
Kmiec has drawn attention because he
is one of the nation's leading "Obamacons," conservatives who find
Obama's call for a new approach to politics appealing. Kmiec started life as a
Democrat. His father was a soldier in the late Mayor Richard J. Daley's Chicago
political machine, and Kmiec's earliest political energies were devoted to
Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 campaign.
But like many Catholic Democrats,
Kmiec was profoundly attracted to Ronald Reagan. For him, five words in
Reagan's 1980 acceptance speech summarized the essence of a Catholic view of
politics: "family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom."
In an interview over the weekend,
Kmiec argued that 35 years after Roe, opponents of abortion need to contemplate
whether "a legal prohibition" of abortion "is the only way to
promote a culture of life."
"To think you have done a
generous thing for your neighbor or that you have built up a culture of life
just because you voted for a candidate who says in his brochure that he wants
to overturn Roe v. Wade is far too thin an understanding of the Catholic
faith," he said. Kmiec, a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy,
added that Catholics should heed "the broad social teaching of the
church," including its views on war.
Kmiec shared with me the name of the
priest who denied him Communion and a letter of apology from the organizers of
the event, but he requested that I not name the priest to protect the cleric
from public attack.
The priest's actions are almost
certainly out of line with the policy of the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops. In their statement"Forming Consciences for Faithful
Citizenship," issued last November, the bishops said: "A Catholic
cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil,
such as abortion or racism, if the voter's intent is to support that position."
The "if" phrase in that
carefully negotiated sentence suggests that Catholics can support pro-choice
candidates, provided the purpose of their vote is not to promote abortion.
Already, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann
of Kansas City has played an indirect role in the 2008 campaign by calling on
Kathleen Sebelius, the popular Democratic governor of Kansas who has been
mentioned as a possible Obama running mate, to stop taking Communion because of
her "actions in support of legalized abortion."
But because Kmiec is a private citizen
and has such a long history of embracing Catholic teaching on abortion, denying
him Communion for political reasons may spark an even greater outcry inside the
church.
Kmiec says he is grateful because the
episode reminded him of the importance of the Eucharist in his spiritual life,
and because he hopes it will alert others to the dangers of "using
Communion as a weapon."
Stuhlinger was a German atomic,
electrical and rocket scientist. After being brought to the United States as
part of Operation Paperclip, he developed guidance systems with Wernher von
Braun's team at the US Army, and later, NASA. He was also instrumental in the
development of the ion engine for long-endurance space flight, and a wide
variety of scientific experiments.
Stuhlinger was born in Niederrimbach,
Germany, near Wurzburg in Bavaria. He earned his Ph.D. in physics at the
University of Tubingen at age 23. In 1939 he went to work in Berlin, working on
cosmic rays and nuclear physics. http://louis6j6sheehan.blogspot.com
Despite showing promise, in 1941
Stuhlinger was sent to the Russian front where he was wounded during the Battle
of Moscow, and was one of the few members of his unit to survive the Battle of
Stalingrad. His service complete, in 1943 he joined Dr. Wernher von Braun's
team at Peenemünde, where he worked in the field of guidance systems.
Ernst Stuhlinger (middle) and Wernher
von Braun signing U.S. citizenship certificates. The members of the Peenemünde
team and their family members were awarded the United States citizenship on
Stuhlinger was one of the first group
of 126 scientists who immigrated to the United States with Dr. von Braun after
World War II as part of Operation Paperclip. In the 1950s Stuhlinger worked at
the Redstone Arsenal, primarily on guidance systems. He played a small but
important role in the race to launch a US satellite after the success of
Sputnik 1. As there was little time to develop and test automated systems like
guidance or staging systems, Stuhlinger developed a simple spring-powered
staging timer that had to be triggered from the ground. On the night of January
31, 1958, Stuhlinger was at the controls of the timer when the Explorer 1 was
launched, triggering the device right on time. He became known as "the man
with the golden finger." On April 14, 1955, he became a naturalized United
States citizen along with the other Paperclip members.
Stuhlinger spent much of his spare
time developing designs for solar-powered spacecraft. The most popular of those
designs relied on ion thrusters, which use ionize either caesium or rubidium
vapor and accelerate the positively charged ions through gridded electrodes.
The spacecraft would be powered by the one kilowatt of solar energy. He
referred to the concept as a "sunship". He is considered as one of
the pioneers of electric propulsion having, among many contributions, authored
the classic textbook Ion Propulsion for Space Flight (McGraw-Hill, New York,
1964). In 2005, he was honored by the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society, and
awarded its highest honor "The Medal for Outstanding Achievement in
Electric Propulsion." http://louis1j1sheehan1.blogspot.com
Stuhlinger was director of the space
science lab at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, from
its formation in 1960 until 1968, and then its associate director for science
from 1968 to 1975, when he retired and became an adjunct professor and senior
research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Among his many
other works at Marshall, he directed early planning for lunar exploration,
worked on the Apollo Telescope Mount that produced a wealth of information
about the Sun, led planning for the three High Energy Astronomical
Observatorys, and worked on the initial phases of what would become the Hubble
Space Telescope.
After retiring, Stuhlinger and
historian Frederick Ordway collaborated on the biography Werhner von Braun:
Crusader for Space. In it, Stuhlinger downplayed claims that von Braun had
mistreated prisoners working on the V-2 program during the war. Author Michael
Neufeld has called these claims highly dubious in his book, Von Braun: Dreamer
of Space, Engineer of War, stating that Stuhlinger was not personally involved
in these areas and would have no first-hand information. Stuhlinger reiterated
the point that their aim was ultimately peaceful; in an Associated Press
article, he wrote: "Yes, we did work on improved guidance systems, but in
late 1944 we were convinced that the war would soon be over before new systems
could be used on military rockets. However, we were convinced that somehow our
work would find application in the future rockets that would not aim at London,
but at the moon."
Operation Paperclip (also credited as
Project Paperclip) was the code name under which the U.S. intelligence and
military services extracted German scientists from Nazi Germany, during and
after the final stages of World War II. In 1945 the Joint Intelligence
Objectives Agency was established and given direct responsibility for Operation
Paperclip.
Following the German failure of its
invasion of the Soviet Union (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) and the entry of
the US into WWII, the strategic position of Germany was at a disadvantage since
German military industries were unprepared for a long war. As a result, Germany
began efforts in spring 1943 to recall scientists and technical personnel from
combat units where their skills could be used in research and development.
‘Overnight, Ph.D.s were liberated from KP duty,
masters of science were recalled from orderly service, mathematicians were
hauled out of bakeries, and precision mechanics ceased to be truck drivers.’
— Dieter K. Huzel
The recall effort first required
identifying such personnel and then tracking them (particularly for loyalty),
which culminated in the Osenberg List by Werner Osenberg, a University of
Hannover engineering scientist who headed the Wehrforschungsgemeinschaft
(English: Military Research Association). In March 1945, a Polish laboratory
technician found the shredded pieces of the Osenberg List in a toilet that
hadn't flushed properly. US Army Major Robert B Staver, Chief of the Jet
Propulsion Section of the Research and Intelligence Branch of the US Army
Ordnance in London, subsequently used the Osenberg list to compile the Black
List, the code name for the list of scientists targeted for interrogation, with
the rocket scientist Wernher von Braun's name at the top.
The original unnamed plan to interview
only the rocket scientists changed after Major Staver sent a cable (signed by
Colonel Joel Holmes) to the Pentagon on May 22, 1945 of the urgency to evacuate
the German technicians and their families as "important for Pacific
war."Likewise, an equally strong desire was to deny German expertise to
the Soviet Union. In the Operation Alsos case of Werner Heisenberg, a principal
scientist in the German nuclear energy project: "…he was worth more to us
than ten divisions of Germans."
In addition to scientists specialising
in rocketry and nuclear physics, various Allied teams were also searching for
experts in chemistry, medicine, and naval weapons. An effort that predated
Overcast was the US Navy's acquisition in May 1945 of Dr. Herbert A. Wagner,
who worked at Naval Air Station Point Mugu in 1947.
The majority of the scientists were
involved with the V-2 rocket, and the rocket group was initially housed with
their families at a housing project in Landshut Bavaria. Operation Overcast was
designated by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff on July 19, 1945, but when the
nickname "Camp Overcast" was being openly used for the housing, the
code name was changed to Paperclip.
By 1958, many aspects of Paperclip had
become common knowledge. It was openly mentioned in a Time magazine article
about von Braun.
In early August 1945, Colonel Holger
N. Toftoy, chief of the Rocket Branch in the Research and Development Division
of Army Ordnance, offered initial one-year contracts to the rocket scientists.
After Toftoy agreed to take care of their families, 127 scientists accepted the
offer. In September 1945, the first group of seven rocket scientists arrived
from Germany at Fort Strong in the US: Wernher von Braun, Erich W. Neubert,
Theodor A. Poppel, August Schulze, Eberhard F. M. Rees, Wilhelm Jungert and
Walter Schwidetzky.
Eventually the rocket scientists
arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas for rocket testing at White Sands Proving Grounds
as "War Department Special Employees."
In early 1950, legal status for some
"Paperclip Specialists" was obtained when visas were issued at the US
consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; from which the scientists legally entered
the US.[2] In later decades, some scientists' WWII wartime activities were
investigated — Arthur Rudolph was linked to the Mittelbau-Dora slave labor, and
Hubertus Strughold was implicated in Nazi human experimentation.
Eighty-six aeronautical experts were
transferred to Wright Field, which had also acquired aircraft and other
equipment under Operation Lusty.
The United States Army Signal Corps
employed 24 specialists — including physicists Drs. Georg Goubau, Gunter
Guttwein, Georg Hass, Horst Kedesdy, and Kurt Levovec; physical chemists
Professor Rudolf Brill and Drs. Ernst Baars and Eberhard Both; geophysicist Dr.
Helmut Weickmann; technical optician Dr. Gerhard Schwesinger; and electronics
engineers Drs. Eduard Gerber, Richard Guenther and Hans Ziegler.
The United States Bureau of Mines
employed seven German synthetic fuel scientists in a Fischer-Tropsch chemical
plant in Louisiana, Missouri in 1946.
In 1959, 94 Paperclip individuals went
to the US, including Friedwardt Winterberg, Hans Dolezalek, and Friedrich
Wigand. Through 1990, Paperclip acquired a total of 1,600 personnel,with the
"intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK (mainly
German patents and industrial processes) valued at close to $10 billion.
Notes of Louis Sheehan
They say that every president gets the
psychoanalyst he deserves. And every Hamlet gets his Rosencrantz.
So now comes Scott McClellan, once the
most loyal of the Texas Bushies, to reveal “What Happened,” as the title of his
book promises, to turn W. from a genial, humble, bipartisan good ol’ boy to a
delusional, disconnected, arrogant, ideological flop.
Although his analytical skills are
extremely limited, the former White House press secretary — Secret Service code
name Matrix — takes a stab at illuminating Junior’s bumpy and improbable
boomerang journey from family black sheep and famous screw-up back to family
black sheep and famous screw-up.
How did W. start out wanting to
restore honor and dignity to the White House and end up scraping all the honor
and dignity off the White House?
It turns out that our president is a
one-man refutation of Malcolm Gladwell’s best seller “Blink,” about the value
of trusting your gut.
Every gut instinct he had was wildly
off the mark and hideously damaging to all concerned.
It seems that if you trust your gut
without ever feeding your gut any facts or news or contrary opinions, if you
keep your gut on a steady diet of grandiosity, ignorance, sycophants, and
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, those snap decisions can be ruinous.
We already know What Happened, but it
feels good to hear Scott say it. His conscience was spurred by hurt feelings.
In Washington, it is rarely the
geopolitical or human consequences that cause people to turn on leaders
behaving immorally. The town is far more narcissistic and practical than that.
The people who should be sounding the
alarm for democracy’s sake, and the sake of all the young Americans losing
lives and limbs, get truly outraged only when they are played for fools and
fall guys, when their own reputations are at stake.
It was not the fake casus belli that
made Colin Powell’s blood boil. What really got Powell disgusted was that W.
and Dick Cheney used him, tapping into his credibility to sell their trumped-up
war; that George Tenet failed to help him scrub his U.N. speech of all Cheney’s
garbage; and that W. showed him the door so the more malleable Condi could have
his job.
Tenet was privately worried about a
war buildup not backed up by C.I.A. facts, but he only publicly sounded the
alarm years later in a lucrative memoir fueled by payback, after Condi and
Cheney tried to cast him as the fall guy on W.M.D.
McClellan did not realize the value of
a favorite maxim — “The truth shall set you free” — until he was hung out to
dry by his bosses in the Valerie Plame affair, repeating the lies Karl Rove and
Scooter Libby brazenly told him about not being the leakers.
“Clearly,” McClellan says, sounding
like the breast-heaving heroine of a Victorian romance, “I had allowed myself
to be deceived.” He felt “something fall out of me into the abyss.”
And that was even before “the breaking
point,” when he learned the worst about his idol — that the president who had
denounced leaks about his warrantless surveillance program, who had promised to
fire anyone leaking classified information about Plame, was himself the one who
authorized Dick Cheney to let Scooter leak part of the top-secret National
Intelligence Estimate.
“Yeah, I did,” Mr. Bush told his sap
of a press secretary on Air Force One. His tone, the stunned McClellan said,
was “as if discussing something no more important than a baseball score.”
He recalled the first time that he had
begun to suspect that W. might be just another dissembling pol: when he
overheard his boss, during his 2000 bid, ludicrously telling a supporter that
he couldn’t remember, from his wild partying days, if he had tried cocaine. http://louis1j1sheehan.blogspot.com
“He isn’t the kind of person to
flat-out lie,” McClellan said, but added, “I was witnessing Bush convincing
himself to believe something that probably was not true.” He’d see a lot more
of it over the next six years before Bush tearfully booted him out.
W.’s dwindling cadre hit back hard. In
Stockholm, Condi — labeled “sometimes too accommodating” by the author —
scoffed: “The president was very clear about the reasons for going to war.”
She’s right. He was very clear about
it being because of W.M.D. Then he was very clear about it being to rid the
world of a tyrant. Then he was very clear about it being to spread democracy.
When that didn’t work out, he was very clear about it being that we can’t leave
because we can’t leave.
He was always wrong, but always very
clear.
Werner Dahm Rocket engineer. . Member
of the German Rocket Team in the United States after World War II.
German aerodynamicist, working in guided
missiles during World War II. His studies at the University of Aachen were
interrupted by the war, and he was assigned to do research with
Versuchskommando Nord. At Peenemuende he was involved in the aerodynamic design
of the A9/A10, A7, A4b, and Wasserfall winged missiles. As of January 1947, was
living at Bohn am Rhein. Thereafter evacuated to Bavaria. He returned to Aachen
and finally completed his diploma in 1947. He then went to the United States
and became part of Von Braun's rocket team at Huntsville. As of 1960, Head of
Aerodynamics Analysis Branch, Aeroballistics Division, NASA Marshall Space
Flight Center.
2 December 1960 - Apollo Technical
Liaison Groups assignments. Representatives of Marshall Space Flight Center
(MSFC) were assigned to eight of the nine Apollo Technical Liaison Groups by H.
H. Koelle, Director, Future Projects Office, MSFC. They were Rudolph F. Hoelker
(Trajectory Analysis), Edward L. Linsley (Configurations and Aerodynamics),
Werner K. Dahm and Harvey A. Connell (Heating), Erich E. Goerner (Structures
and Materials), David M. Hammock and Alexander A. McCool (Onboard Propulsion),
Heinz Kampmeier (Instrumentation and Communications), Wilbur G. Thornton
(Guidance and Control), and Herman F. Beduerftig (Mechanical Systems). Dual
representation on two of the Groups would be necessary because of the division
of technical responsibilities within MSFC.
Bibliography and Further Reading
* Objective List of German and Austrian
Scientists, Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, 2 January 1947.
* Neufeld, Michael, interviewer, Inteviews with
Peenemuende Veterans, National Air and Space Museum archives.
The Shakespeare Authorship Coalition
(SAC) is pleased to announce that Sir Derek Jacobi has agreed to join Mark
Rylance as a Patron of the SAC. As you may recall, Mark and Sir Derek teamed up
to launch the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt in Chichester, England, last year
following the final performance of Mark's play, "I Am Shakespeare."
The event, held on 8 September (dubbed "Doubters' Day"), was a
smashing success; so we are pleased to be able to keep this outstanding team
together. Sir Derek has long been an outspoken supporter of the view that the
Shakespeare Authorship Issue should be taken seriously. It is therefore
extremely gratifying to us that, in addition to very publicly signing the
Declaration, he is also willing to serve in this capacity. Thank you, Sir Derek
Jacobi!
Although the Shakespeare Birthplace
Trust (SBT) declined our invitation to participate in the declaration-signing
event in Chichester, we certainly got their attention. The September 27, 2007,
issue of The Stage magazine featured an article by SBT Chairman Stanley Wells
in which he criticized Mark and Sir Derek for signing the Declaration, warning
them that they risked ending up in a lunatic asylum, like Delia Bacon.
("Beware, Mark and Sir Derek!") Openly angry at the Declaration, and
especially at Mark and Sir Derek for promulgating it, Wells nevertheless
controlled himself long enough to offer a number of specific criticisms. The
current issue of The Stage contains Mark's reply, in which he refers readers to
the SAC website where they can read Prof. Wells' original article, Mark's
reply, plus a point-by-point rebuttal to Wells' specific criticisms of the
Declaration. http://louis0j0sheehan.blogspot.com
To read this online
"debate," go to the Contrary Views page on our website. See for
yourself who has the better argument -- Mark in saying there's reasonable
doubt, or his former Globe Theatre colleague, Wells, in claiming certainty?
(The entire exchange can also be read
and downloaded in PDF format at the website of the Shakespearean Authorship
Trust, of which Mark Rylance is chairman. The SAT will be holding its annual
lecture series in London during the month of November again this year. Please
check back at their website closer to that time for the specifics of the SAT
lecture series.)
Over 1,300 people have now signed the
Declaration, including more than 1,000 since the Chichester event. These
include 223 (17%) current or former college/university faculty members, 177
(13.5%) with doctoral degrees, and 274 (21%) with master's degrees. The largest
category by academic field continues to be English literature graduates (222),
followed by those in the arts (134), theatre arts (89), education (80), math,
engineering & computers (70), social sciences (68), history (64), natural
sciences (57), medicine & health care (55), law (53), other humanities
(52), management (45), and psychology (40). (The number residing in lunatic
asylums was minuscule, so relax, Professor Wells.) We urge everyone to continue
your efforts to recruit additional signatories, especially academics and other
highly credible individuals. The Declaration is the best brief introduction to
the authorship issue.
Finally, we would like to ask for your
support. As a non-membership organization, the SAC charges no dues. We depend
entirely on voluntary donations. We publish no newsletter, hold no conferences,
and charge no fee to sign the Declaration. We are completely focused on
promoting the Declaration, and on legitimizing the Authorship Issue in
academia. Our expenses are low, but we do need money to operate our website,
collect signatures, and seek publicity. Even small donations ($10 - $20) are
very helpful. Please visit the Donations page on our website and make a tax
deductible donation today, or send a check to: Shakespeare Authorship
Coalition, 310 North Indian Hill Blvd., #200, Claremont, CA 91711.
The three major bond-rating firms are
set to overhaul the way they collect fees as part of a settlement with New York
state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, that could be announced as soon as this
week, people familiar with the matter said.
If a deal is reached, it could change
the $5 billion-a-year bond-rating industry as fundamentally as Mr. Cuomo's
predecessor Eliot Spitzer did six years ago with his settlement with Wall
Street firms over stock-research analysts whose recommendations were
compromised by investment-banking ties.
Terms of Mr. Cuomo's settlement with
Moody's Corp.'s Moody's Investors Service; McGraw-Hill Cos.' Standard &
Poor's unit; and Fimalac SA's Fitch Ratings deal with what many critics claim
has been a chronic problem with bond ratings: They are paid for by the entities
being rated. That financial dependence has been blamed for the industry's
failure to predict that risky subprime mortgages would crumble, resulting in
losses and shaken confidence.
The accord attempts to change the
incentive structure for the ratings agencies. Now, while more than one ratings
agency reviews most deals, not all of them actually rate the deal and get paid.
That gives the agencies an incentive to go easy on their rating in order to win
the business.
Under the Cuomo settlement, which
would cover the hardest-hit portions of the mortgage market, the firms would
get paid for their review, even if they didn't end up getting hired to rate the
deal. This would mean the firms would get paid even if they were tough. The
plan, which requires final agreement by Mr. Cuomo's office and the rating
firms, wouldn't dictate the exact fees rating firms could charge. But the firms
would be required to charge more than a nominal fee for their preliminary work.
The bond-rating firms also have
tentatively agreed to disclose on a quarterly basis the fees they're paid for
nonprime-mortgage-backed securities, which includes subprime mortgages and
so-called Alt-A mortgages that don't conform with the standards of
government-sponsored mortgage companies. Such disclosures are seen as a
potential red flag to help investors detect instances where bond issuers or
their bankers may have essentially pitted different rating firms against each
other in order to get a higher rating.
In an interview in December, Brian
Clarkson, then the president and chief operating officer of Moody's Investors
Service, acknowledged that "there is a lot of rating shopping that goes
on...What the market doesn't know is who's seen" certain transactions but
wasn't hired to rate those deals. Last month, Mr. Clarkson, who once ran the
Moody's group overseeing mortgages and other structured-finance products,
stepped down, effective in July.
The settlement is unlikely to satisfy
critics who have urged that bond-rating firms stop being paid altogether by
bond issuers or that the firms be permitted to rate any deal they choose,
regardless of whether the issuer cooperates. Following the settlement, bond
issuers still would get a strong say over which firms published the final
rating, as well as those invited to look over a pool of loans in the first
place.
For Moody's, S&P and Fitch, the
agreement largely eliminates the possibility of a nasty showdown with Mr.
Cuomo, whose office has been investigating the industry for about nine months,
poring through thousands of pages in documents and emails and interviewing
senior executives at each of the three big rating firms, people familiar with
the matter said.
Mr. Cuomo has leverage over the
bond-rating industry partly because Moody's and S&P are based in New York.
The attorney general also has one of the most powerful legal tools in the
nation: the 1921 Martin Act, which spells out a broad definition of securities
fraud without requiring that prosecutors prove intent to defraud.
In a statement, Deven Sharma,
S&P's president, said the firm "is pleased to work with New York
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and other rating agencies on these important
measures, which we believe will help ensure our ratings process continues to be
of the highest quality." http://louis3j3sheehan3.blogspot.com
Moody's and S&P shares rose after
The Wall Street Journal reported news of the settlement talks Tuesday afternoon.
As of 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Moody's was at
$38.45, up $1.80, or 4.9%. McGraw-Hill was up 38 cents at $41.20.
As the probe proceeded, attorneys in
Mr. Cuomo's office concluded that rating firms could be more effective if Wall
Street had less control over which ones were paid, these people said. As part
of the deal, the firms would cooperate with Mr. Cuomo's continuing
investigation into investment banks and other financial firms that issued
mortgage-backed securities later plagued by high levels of defaults. The New
York attorney general is trying to determine if banks intentionally overlooked
or hid flaws in loans that were securitized and sold to investors.
The decision not to seek fines from
the three major bond-rating firms partly reflects Mr. Cuomo's firm but
less-confrontational style than that of Mr. Spitzer. The 50-year-old Mr. Cuomo,
elected in 2006, has promised to aggressively pursue financial wrongdoing, and
the likely pact shows he believes investor confidence can be shored up without
an all-out attack on the bond-rating industry.
Mr. Cuomo's final settlement will
likely be structured in a way that doesn't contradict rules being proposed by
the Securities and Exchange Commission or European regulators. The deal also
needs to address antitrust concerns at investment banks that pay rating fees,
but rating firms will continue to determine the level of fees they charge on
mortgage deals.
LIMA has long been a cosmopolitan city
hesitant to embrace its diversity. A capital founded by Spanish conquistadors
that subsequently exploded with influxes from Asia and then from Peru’s own
Andean highlands, it has remained a city of fairly segregated neighborhoods.
But led by Lima’s cuisine — which is rapidly gaining worldwide renown for its
freshness and creativity — that is changing. Sushi and ceviche chefs are
learning from one another. The most popular street food is “five flavors” a
rice and pasta dish with Italian, Chinese, Andean, Japanese and African influences.
Restaurants that once hid their existence from all but the “in the know” are
now advertising their presence with Web sites and — gasp — signs out front. For
the tourist, it means days of exploring neighborhoods and attractions with
distinct cultures and histories, interspersed with the spicy, sweet, and subtle
gastronomic experience of how it all comes together.
Friday
4 p.m.
1) SINS OF THE SEA
In Lima, food rules. And in the cocina
limeña, seafood is king. Just a block or two from the ocean with ceramic tile
floors and an open-air foyer, Pescados Capitales (Avenida La Mar 1337;
51-1-421-8808, www.pescados-capitales.com) combines the relaxation of the beach
with the European refinement of Lima’s upper caste. “Pecados capitales” refers
to the seven deadly sins, all of which can be ordered from the menu. Start off
with a little Freudian Lust (lujuria freudiana, grilled baby calamari for 26
soles), and then chow down on some creamy, indulgent greed (avaricia sole
Rockefeller, 40 soles) or simple infidelity (infidelidad grilled swordfish, 34
soles) if you fear that your stomach may not forgive so easily.
6 p.m.
2) PARK IT IN THE PARKS
Far from the city center but right up
against the beach is the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores, which roughly
translates as “look at all the pretty flowers,” Miraflores’s parks of irises,
cactuses, and palms make for a good stroll and introduction to Lima. Start off
at Parque Kennedy at the heart of the neighborhood, which often holds
spoken-word poetry and outdoor art exhibitions. Cross the Diagonal to Café
Haiti (Diagonal 160; 51-1-445-0539) an old-school hangout of the Lima literati
with bamboo chairs and a sidewalk cafe where you can sample Peru’s signature
beverages: a tangy pisco sour for the alcoholically inclined (9 soles, or about
$3.20 at 2.8 soles to the dollar), and the lemony-sweet hierba luisa (4 soles)
for the abstainers.
9:30 p.m.
3) PYRAMIDS AND PIE
For dessert, take a quick cab (5
soles) to La Bodega de la Trattoria (General Borgoño 784; 51-1-241-6899), the
casual wing of La Trattoria, run by the South American television dessert diva
Sandra Plevisani. Get a table out on the patio and order a bocanera de
chocolate, a fudge-filled chocolate soufflé (22 soles), looking out at Huaca
Pucllana, the complex of Incan structures across the street.
Saturday
9 a.m.
4) HEART OF THE CITY
Start the morning with a stroll up
Jirón de la Unión, the pedestrian zone that leads to the Plaza Mayor, Lima’s
main square. Pass modish shops and colorful 200-year-old colonial facades and
emerge into a wide square surrounded by some of Lima’s finest architecture.
This is the spot in which Francisco Pizarro founded the city in 1535 and in
which Peruvians declared their independence in 1821. Tour the gold-leaf altars
and paintings of the Lima Cathedral on the eastern edge, and if you have the
time, visit the Church of San Francisco a couple of blocks northeast with its
17th-century convent and extensive network of catacombs (Plaza San Francisco;
51-1-427-1381; www.museocatacumbas.com).
Noon
5) CHIFA, CHIFA, EVERYWHERE
From the city center, walk east a few
blocks and a full hemisphere to Calle Capón, Lima’s Chinatown. As a product of
early-20th-century immigration, Peru has a large Chinese population, a fact
observable by the proliferation of chifa (Peruvian-Chinese) restaurants all
over the city. Chifa is spicier than traditional Chinese food, relying more on
seafood and sauces and less on vegetables. One of the best spots is Salon Capón
(Jirón Paruro 819; 51-1-426-9286), where you can try steamed langostino
dumplings with tamarind sauce (7 soles) and spicy garlic-fried calamari
(calamar chiu jin, 28 soles). Afterward, stroll through the pedestrian zone
with the classic Chinatown arch on either end, stopping to have your palm read,
the smell of sandalwood incense filling the air.
1 p.m.
6) X-RATED POTTERY
Through December 2008, if you can make
it to only one museum in Lima, it should be the Museo Rafael Larco Herrera
(Avenida Bolívar 1515; 51-1-461-1312; www.museolarco.org) in the Pueblo Libre
district, which showcases pre-Columbian artifacts. The Gold Museum
(www.museoroperu.com.pe) is another popular choice, but this year the Larco is
featuring a collection of gold headdresses, ornaments and jewelry that rival
the Gold Museum’s in quality, if not quantity. The Larco’s real appeal,
however, is its collection of erotic pottery dating from the first millennium
A.D., which begins with the expected giant phalluses and moves on to detailed
depictions of sexual acts that are otherwise unviewable outside seedy video
stores and corners of the Internet.
3 p.m.
7) DESERT WORSHIP
Peru is known for the Inca, but Lima
is a city built by and for the Spanish conquerors. Still, Inca sites remain, so
take a cab to Pachacamác (20 to 25 soles from Miraflores; www.pachacamac.net;
entry fee 6 soles), an archaeological site that housed an important oracle for
more than 1,500 years with a beautifully restored Temple of the Moon. Skip the
tour loop unless you pay your cabbie to drive you around, but shell out the
extra 20 soles for a guide, since you can’t get into the areas under work
(which are many) without one. Bring a hat and sunglasses, because a visit to
Pachacamác reminds you that Lima is one of the world’s largest desert cities.
6 p.m.
8) MAKE MINE A MAKI
Not many cities offer both a
world-class culinary scene and a currency significantly weaker than the dollar,
so take advantage by visiting Matsuei (Manuel Bañon 260; 51-1-422-4323), a
restaurant in San Isidro co-founded by Nobuyuki Matsuhisa of Nobu fame and
Lima’s best spot for sushi.
The Japanese settled in Peru around
the same time as the Chinese, even eventually sending one of their own, Alberto
Fujimori, to the presidency (and lately, to the jailhouse). Fish as fresh as
Lima’s makes ideal ingredients in maki acevichado, a Japanese roll with the
classic Peruvian ceviche sauce (30 soles), and pick up sushi (fried calamari
with shrimp, salmon, and rice tartar, 24 soles).
10 p.m.
9) DISCOS ON THE OUTSKIRTS
Lima’s great population boom came in
the 1950s when the Andean people migrated to the city in large numbers,
creating scores of young towns, or pueblos jovenes, on the outskirts. These
young towns have grown up and are now sporting some of Lima’s best night life
in the form of a strip of clubs in the town of Los Olivos. Join the
multigenerational crowds at the Karamba “salsoteca” for salsa music in a
two-tiered club with dancing coconuts painted on the walls, or Kokus if you
prefer rock, both on Boulevard Los Olivos, (www.boulevard-losolivos.com for
both).
Sunday
10 a.m.
10) BOHEMIAN LIFE
If Miraflores is Lima’s Upper West
Side, then Barranco is Greenwich Village. Home to Lima’s bohemian upper crust like
Mario Vargas Llosa, this onetime summer resort neighborhood is filled with art
galleries, European style parks and pubs. From the marigold-studded Plaza de
Armas, walk west down to the Bridge of Sighs, an old wooden bridge over a
bougainvillea-lined walkway that when accompanied by guitar players and women
selling single roses, manages to be both touristy and romantic. Wind your way
over to the Lucia de la Puente gallery (Paso Sáenz Peña 206A; 51-1-477-9740;
www.gluciadelapuente.com), in Barranco, which has contemporary art exhibitions
like an Incan ruin reconstructed out of old computer keyboards, changing
monthly.
1 p.m.
11) GETTING CRAFTY
Rather than shopping the Inca Market’s
repetitive stalls of textiles and figurines, walk across the street from Lucia
de la Puente to the artisans’ collective Dédalo (Paseo Sáenz Peña 295;
51-1-477-0562), in Barranco. Each room in the labyrinthine century-old mansion
houses a different type of craft, from jewelry and picture frames to lamps and
leatherwork from more than 1,000 different local artists. A cafe in the back
serves coffee, tea and selections from a decent wine list. It’s a nice spot to
sit and figure out how to explain to your partner the beautiful but useless
blown glass vase you just bought.
THE BASICS
Continental, LAN and American (through
LAN) are among airlines that fly from the New York area to Lima at prices
starting around $900 for June, according to a recent online search. Peru has no
visa or special entry requirements.
Miraflores makes the best base for a
visit with a wide range of quality hotels and a beachfront location. The Hotel
Señorial (José Gonzáles 567; 51-1-445-0139; www.senorial.com), in Miraflores,
is a lovely, relaxed place with a flowery courtyard and hearty breakfast at a
nice price (216 soles, or about $77 at 2.8 soles to the dollar, for a double).
For upscale lodging, you can’t do
better than the Miraflores Park Hotel (Avenida Malecón de la Reserva 1035;
51-1-610-4000, www.mira-park.com), also in Miraflores, with double rooms starting
at $435 (rates are given in dollars). A taxi from Jorge Chávez Airport should
be about 35 soles to both these locations.
This article has been revised to
reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 8, 2008
The 36 Hours column last Sunday, about
Lima, Peru, referred incorrectly to the hours of operation for Pescados
Capitales restaurant. It is open only for lunch, closing at 4:30 p.m., and is
not open for dinner.
While pregnant with her first child,
Meridith Duffy cried nearly every day -- to her dog trainer.
She feared she'd have to part with her
pit bull, Haley, when her child was born. Haley "had never bitten
anyone," says Ms. Duffy, who lives in Braintree, Mass. "But I knew
she had that potential, and I was nervous."
The trainer had a solution: a program
to get Haley used to having a baby around. Soon, Ms. Duffy was walking through
the house with a stroller, playing a CD of annoying baby cries, and tugging the
dog's ears and tail the way a toddler might. Haley also got many hours of obedience
classes. "We had to learn that she was a dog, not a person," Ms.
Duffy says. "That was hard for us."
Jenifer Vickery of The Pawsitive Dog
helps new parents train their dogs to behave safely and comfortably around new
infants. Dave Pickford reports.
The Duffys, whose baby, Isabella,
arrived 19 months ago, are part of a new breed of parents-to-be who pay to
baby-proof their dogs. At least a half-dozen dog-baby books and DVDs are on the
market, with titles like "Your Baby and Bowser." A canine re-education
course called Dogs & Storks, launched in 2006, now has 35 affiliated
trainers in the U.S. and Canada, with hundreds of graduates.
"It's catching on because people
are choosing to have kids later, and their dogs are really their first
baby," says the course's creator, Jennifer Shryock of Cary, N.C., who
sells it to trainers for $300.
Dogs bite about 4.7 million people a
year in the U.S., the majority of them children, according to the American
Veterinary Medical Association. Bonnie Beaver, a Texas vet and past president
of the group, says that of the 15 to 20 people a year who die from dog bites,
about 80% are children.
Ms. Shryock tells expectant parents,
"When the baby comes, you are going to look at your dog for the first time
as an animal. You will feel different about Fluffy."
That came as a shock to Tracy Fuquay,
of Raleigh, N.C. For six years, her Shih-poo, Marcy, was the family princess:
She traveled in a purse, dressed in colorful sweaters, sundresses or a denim
jacket with heart sequins. When Ms. Fuquay graduated from the Raleigh School of
Nurse Anesthesia in August 2006, Marcy wore a cap and gown.
Louis Sheehan
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