Vicki Iseman Misses Chance to Rebut Story
The top Google result for the name Vicki Iseman is currently her biography page on Alcalde & Fay, the lobbying firm she serves as a partner. The page was erased today but can be viewed on Huffington Post.
Alcalde & Fay has issued a statement denouncing the New York Times story suggesting an inappropriate and possibly romantic relationship between Iseman and Sen. John McCain during his 2000 presidential campaign:
The allegations and malicious innuendo reported by the New York Times yesterday are completely and utterly false. Alcalde & Fay's relationship with Senator McCain has been professional, appropriate and consistent with his legislative, jurisdictional and constituent duties. The story is based upon the fantasies of a disgruntled former campaign employee and is without foundation or merit. Ms. Iseman is a hard working professional whose 18 year career has been exemplary and she has our full support. It is beneath the dignity of a quality newspaper to participate in such a campaign of character assassination.
If the firm or Iseman really wants to get that response out while it still matters, her bio page should be redirected to the statement or a more detailed response. Thousands of people are hitting Google for information on Iseman, and the first place they're likely to go is her page on the company site. Companies miss the boat by hiding or deleting web pages during a media firestorm, rather than using the traffic to their advantage.
Lisa Schiffren: Obama's a Secret Commie Baby
Even though it's a product of the conservative National Review, I read The Corner because it's a great format for political blogging -- a bunch of writers of similar politics sharing links and exchanging ideas with each other. I wish there was a liberal counterpart that took the same conversational approach. (There's also nothing better than watching them suffer in real time on election night when the vote doesn't go their way.)
Sometimes, all that like-mindedness draws out ugly sentiments a political partisan wouldn't normally express in mixed company. For example, Lisa Schiffren thinks that Republicans should dig into Barack Obama's mixed-race parentage, because interracial babies born in the late '50s and early '60s were the product of a Communist conspiracy.
I'm not kidding. This outburst of full-on crazy was posted yesterday to one of the leading conservative web sites on the planet and drew only one response in opposition. Here's Schiffren's justification for muckraking Obama's conception:
Obama and I are roughly the same age. I grew up in liberal circles in New York City -- a place to which people who wished to rebel against their upbringings had gravitated for generations. And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics. ...
Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family's background, now that his chances of being president have increased so much.
So if you're the child of black and white parents who is from 45 to 55, you're probably a "red diaper baby" unfit for public office, according to Schiffren. She's a former speechwriter for Vice President Dan Quayle who came up with the idea he should attack Murphy Brown for being a single mother, one of the most cringe-inducing moments of the 1992 presidential campaign, so she's proven herself to be the right's weirdest watchdogs of the womb.
Jake Shimabukuro's Ukelele Gently Weeps
When a musician does something great on late-night TV, it tends to show up the next morning as a search spike on Google Trends. Here's last night's discovery, ukelele hero Jake Shimabukuro performing George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
O'Brien called it "one of my favorite performances on this show ever." I didn't realize how great Harrison's song was until Prince burned the house down playing it in 2004 with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Dhani Harrison at George Harrison's posthumous induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame.
I've watched that Hall of Fame clip dozens of times, but I still can't figure out who catches Prince's guitar at the end.
Staples Takes TV Receivers for Recycling
I recently switched from satellite to cable TV, leaving me with two DirecTV receivers that have no resale value and aren't suitable for contribution to a charity like Goodwill. I hated the idea of chucking them in a landfill, because home electronics contain toxins such as mercury and lead, so I started looking into electronic recycling options.
The nearest option in North Florida appeared to be Scrap Computers, a company in Jacksonville that collects small electronics for free and larger items for a fee.
I found a better idea on a DirecTV message board: Staples stores began collecting electronics for recycling in 2007.
Staples makes it easy for customers to recycle e-waste by simply bringing their used computers, monitors, laptops, printers, faxes and all-in-ones to any U.S. Staples store, where the equipment will be recycled in accordance with environmental laws. All brands will be accepted, regardless of whether or not the equipment was purchased at Staples, for a fee of $10 per large item. Staples is working with Amandi Services, one of the country's most experienced and innovative electronics recyclers, to handle recycling of the equipment, following standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The local Staples took the receivers for recycling at no charge, bagging them up at the customer service desk.
Meanwhile, at the Legion of Decency ...
When American Catholics began the National League of Decency in 1933, you had to recite the following pledge to become a member:
I wish to join the Legion of Decency, which condemns vile and unwholesome moving pictures. I unite with all who protest against them as a grave menace to youth, to home life, to country and to religion. I condemn absolutely those salacious motion pictures which, with other degrading agencies, are corrupting public morals and promoting a sex mania in our land. ... Considering these evils, I hereby promise to remain away from all motion pictures except those which do not offend decency and Christian morality.
For decades, the league used the threat of its "Condemned" rating to pressure filmmakers to clean up their movies, quitting in 1980 with the condemnations of American Gigolo, Dressed to Kill, Friday the 13th, Little Darlings and Used Cars. By that point, they must have seen the writing on the wall. I was Catholic and 13 that year -- exactly the kind of menaced youth they were trying to protect -- and I saw four of those films the second they made it to cable.
Remembering Christopher J. West
The military made the following announcement today:
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Spc. Christopher J. West, 26, of Arlington, Texas, died Feb. 4 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered on Feb. 3 in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
West is one of my relatives by marriage -- the brother-in-law and extremely close friend of my wife's nephew. His family told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram more about the life of the Texas A&M graduate and fourth-generation soldier who joined the Army in 2007.
Spc. West was a combat medic, and was scheduled for rest and relaxation at his family's home in Arlington this weekend, according to his sister, Lauren West, 27.
"It was going to be his last mission before he came home," she said. "He loved what he was doing. He said he felt like he had found his calling. He thought that it was very possible that he could make the Army a lifelong career."
My heart goes out to his family and friends back in Texas and the people who knew him at Fort Bragg.
States Bank Millions in Unclaimed Child Support
The state of Florida is hanging on to $31 million in unclaimed child support payments, citing an inability to find the recipients:
Shireena Adams has gotten $15 in child support over the 11 years she's raised her granddaughter, creating more than a little financial strain.
"I'm thinking about giving up my car. Most the time it just sits there because I don't have enough money for gas and insurance is expensive," said the 61-year-old whose severe arthritis has her living in an Indiana apartment on $1,065 a month in disability.
Turns out the state has collected more money from the girl's father but failed to pass it along to Adams. State officials said they couldn't find her -- even though a simple Internet search would have done the trick.
A lot of states are sitting on money that was collected for child support on behalf of caregivers. The federal government is urging action, but not in the way you might expect. A new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General urges states to spend the unclaimed money -- some on federal administrative costs for child support programs and the rest on the state's general budget.
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