Today's Blogs

Centrifugitive Information
By Michael Weiss
Posted Friday, Nov. 3, 2006, at 3:59 PM ET

It's partisan warfare over the New York Times cover story on documents from prewar Iraq that give detailed instructions about manufacturing nuclear weapons. Also, bloggers give kudos to Borat for splitting sides and flexing gray matter.

Centrifugitive information: Friday's New York Times cover story reports that detailed instructions about building nuclear and chemical weapons were accidentally included among the many seized documents from Baathist Iraq uploaded to a public government Web site. What began as a government exercise in full disclosure to allow bloggers and would-be I.F. Stones to analyze Saddam's prewar weapons files has ended in an online furor over what, exactly, those files disclose.

Lefty Steven Benan at The Carpetbagger Report was all ready for a fun-filled day of mea culpas from the conservative blogosphere. Instead, "conservatives are thrilled by the NYT scoop because, as they see it, the administration published seized Iraqi intelligence documents. If there were detailed secrets about how to make a nuclear bomb, this means … wait for it … Saddam 'had a nuclear weapons program and was plotting to build an atomic bomb.' Uh, no. The NYT article said the documents offered 'detailed accounts of Iraq's secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war.' This little tidbit isn't buried deep into the article; it's right up in the second paragraph. It's kind of hard to miss."

However, the article also states: "Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990's and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein's scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away." Does the Times refer to the U.N. inspections directly following the first Gulf War or to those in 2002?

Righty Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters argues for the latter interpretation: "That appears to indicate that by invading in 2003, we followed the best intelligence of the UN inspectors to head off the development of an Iraqi nuke. This intelligence put Saddam far ahead of Iran in the nuclear pursuit, and made it much more urgent to take some definitive action against Saddam before he could build and deploy it. And bear in mind that this intelligence came from the UN, and not from the United States."

Jim Geraghty at the National Review's TKS thinks "the Times editors are counting on this being spun as a 'Boy, did Bush screw up' meme; the problem is, to do it, they have to knock down the 'there was no threat in Iraq' meme, once and for all. Because obviously, Saddam could have sold this information to anybody, any other state, or any well-funded terrorist group that had publicly pledged to kill millions of Americans and had expressed interest in nuclear arms. You know, like, oh... al-Qaeda."

Lefty Oliver Willis is appalled by the unvetted uploads: "In their rush to muddy the waters, however, it appears that the Bush administration may have given rogue states like Iran access to information on how to build a nuclear bomb they never had before."

Which is exactly one canard conservative "The Lightning Baron" at The Eyrie wants to eliminate once and for all: "This is an INSANE leap of logic considering Iran's nuclear weapons program pre-dates 2003 by not just years but DECADES. Never mind the AQ Khan nuclear blackmarket, never mind the help Iran received from North Korea in recent years, never mind the help Iran received from Russia for over a decade. No, you see, Iran's nuclear program was created between the Spring of 2003 and today."

Libertarian Glenn Reynolds, aka InstaPundit, cautions his gleeful e-mailers: "[T]his doesn't say that Saddam would have had a bomb in 2004. But it does say that he had all the knowledge needed to have a bomb in short order. And as we know he was looking to reconstitute his program once sanctions were ended -- and that sanctions were breaking down in 2003 -- that's pretty significant. However, perhaps even more significant, given that we knew most of the above already, is that the NYT apparently regards the documents that bloggers have been translating for months as reliable, which means that reports of Iraqi intelligence's relations with Osama bin Laden, and 'friendly' Western press agencies, are presumably also reliable."

Read more about the Times story.

People's democracy in America. With rare exception, everyone's a fan of the new Borat movie. But it isn't just the "cringe comedy" that has them applauding. They think Sacha Baron Cohen's anti-Semitic, reactionary brainchild magnifies aspects of American culture we'd rather keep microscopic.

James Rocchi at Cinematical is a fan: "What's just as impressive about Borat [as the ethical questions it raises] is its scope. … Like Alexis de Tocqueville did in 1831, Borat's come to see how the American experiment is working. And, just as in 1831, the journey suggests it's a bit of a work-in-progress. Borat may be one of the most politically interesting comedies of the past 20 years, just in terms of the breadth and audacity of its ideas."

J. Caleb Mozzocco of weColumbus, a Columbus, Ohio, citizen-journalism blog, also plumbs the depths of Baron Cohen's mock peasant backwardness' cultural significance: "It makes for a funny movie, but Cohen is obviously interested in doing a lot more than making us laugh. He uses the movie screen as a mirror reflecting back and the audience, and while it's easy to laugh at Borat, his fictional version of Kazakhstan, and his various prejudices and superstitions, remember they're not really real. The America and the Americans we see up there, and all of their superstitions, however, are."

Read more about Borat.

Today's Papers

"Just a Massage"
By Ryan Grim
Posted Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006, at 3:25 AM ET

The Washington Post leads with declining unemployment numbers and the New York Times does the same but puts them in the context of the midterm elections. The Wall Street Journal also goes prominently with the good economic news. The Los Angeles Times leads with the story of Israeli soldiers shooting and killing two Palestinian women in a group of about 200 who were attempting to help Palestinian gunmen flee an Israeli siege.

The NYT spills much ink on the attempt by Republicans to seize on just-released unemployment numbers, which show a drop in the jobless rate from 4.6 percent in September to 4.4 percent in October. But the Times itself shows how difficult that will be: By the sixth paragraph, the article has become a piece about the war in Iraq. Eventually, it gets back to the economic news but finishes by noting that President Bush's campaign schedule has been "unusually light for a sitting president."

The Post's above-the-fold, left-column space goes to a story about a U.S. attempt to keep information about CIA prisons secret. People being held in secret prisons, says the government, shouldn't be allowed to discuss the "alternative interrogation methods" [scare quotes in original] being applied to them, even with their attorneys. Otherwise known as "torture" [TP's scare quotes], the government says the methods are needed to elicit information that suspects may have. Releasing details about the torture, says the justice department, will allow future captives to train for the specific methods used.

The L.A. Times goes below the fold, plus photo, with the story of morality coming full circle since Bill Clinton declared he didn't inhale. Now we have Rev. Ted Haggard, just-resigned president of the 30-million-strong National Association of Evangelicals, admitting that he did buy meth from a gay prostitute but, as the NYT has it in their Quotation of the Day: "I was tempted, I bought it, but I never used it." He also says that he only got a massage from the prostitute, a claim the prostitute denies. The LAT feels the need to note that meth is "a drug thought to heighten sexual sensation." The Post has the story on A2 and focuses on attempts by the White House and the rest of the evangelical movement to distance themselves from Haggard. Best White House quote: "But there have been a lot of people who come to the White House."

The NYT quotes religious-right leader and Haggard friend James Dobson lamenting that "[t]he situation has grave implications for the cause of Christ and we ask for the Lord's guidance and blessings in the days ahead." The cause of Christ he's referring to is presumably the gay marriage bans to be voted on in the days ahead, but he may also be referencing the battle for control of the House. The LAT notes that two Republican districts in Colorado are further imperiled by the scandal and that evangelical turnout nationwide may be dampened.

Haggard, though, is not only liberal when it comes to drug use and prostitution. He has successfully urged evangelicals to take a strong position in favor of the environment. The LAT has a political scientist speculating that his fall could spell the end of days for green evangelism.

The LAT takes a look at the consequences of a victory by Democrats on Bush's Iraq strategy and decides that a House or Senate takeover would put a lot of pressure on him to do something different. The Times also fronts a story on the trustees of the California teacher retirement fund voting to cut ties with investment firms that make large political contributions to the governor or other statewide officials.

NYT journalists witness a sniping and turn it into a haunting piece on the growing specter of snipers in Iraq. WSJ has a story on DreamWorks and Pixar coming out with similar stories about rats. The Post has a piece on the inability to hold corrupt contractors in Iraq accountable. The LAT reports that Bechtel is cutting and running from Iraq, despite the fact that reconstruction has essentially not yet begun. "In Iraq, Bechtel met its match," writes the Times.

It's funny cuz it's true … John Kerry has apologized for his "botched" joke that called our troops in Iraq dumb, but Rosa Brooks still wants to know: Was Kerry right? Her LAT column shows that, in fact, the military is more educated than the general public. But, equally as important, children of parents who make more than $60,000 a year are pretty much nonexistent in the military. She notes researchers have found that "as the percentage of veterans serving in the executive branch and the legislature increases, the probability that the United States will initiate militarized disputes declines by nearly 90%." Her advice: "Draft Congress!"

Today's Papers

How To Build an Atomic Bomb
By Daniel Politi
Posted Friday, Nov. 3, 2006, at 5:43 AM ET

The New York Times leads with word from weapons experts that documents posted on a Web site created by the federal government included a basic guide on how to build an atom bomb. The documents were part of a project to make public the 48,000 boxes of documents apprehended during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Washington Post leads with the final advertising push by Democrats and Republicans, who sent out more than 600 new television ads before network deadlines for the weekend. This will push the total spending on advertising past the $2 billion mark, which is $400 million more than what was spent in the 2004 presidential race.

USA Today leads with some daunting news for political junkies, as analysts warn that the use of provisional ballots could delay results for tight races by days or even weeks. The Wall Street Journal tops its worldwide newsbox with President Bush campaigning in places traditionally thought as safe Republican strongholds. The paper reports Nielsen figures revealing TV ads are up 31 percent compared with 2002. The Los Angeles Times leads with officials charging a 36-year-old auto mechanic with setting the fires in Southern California that killed five firefighters. The suspect pleaded not guilty.

The Web site was created at the behest of Republicans in Congress who said intelligence agencies never properly analyzed all the documents. The idea was to put the documents in cyberspace so people could analyze them and try to find answers about Saddam Hussein's prewar activities. But recently, the site posted approximately a dozen documents with charts, graphs, and instructions on building an atom bomb that go beyond what is publicly available. Apparently, officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency expressed their concerns to the U.S. government last week, but it took an inquiry from the NYT to get the site closed down last night.

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, President Bush kicked off his final six-day, 10-state, campaign swing that will take him to some of the country's most conservative areas. Yesterday, the president visited Montana, where he tried to rally his base by warning them Democrats would block his judicial nominations, raise taxes, make the country less safe, and give up on Iraq. According to Slate's Election Scorecard, Montana has now joined Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia as one of the "tossup states" that will determine who controls the Senate.

Contrary to previous midterm elections, the president's final campaign blitz will not be very ambitious, and he will only travel to carefully chosen places where his party won big in 2004 and Republicans believe his presence could make a difference (Slate's John Dickerson will be taking a look at these speeches in the coming days to see "what we can learn about the messages the GOP thinks will move their people out the door on Election Day").

Amid all the talk of negative campaigns this year, USAT goes inside with a dispatch from Vermont, where the race for the state's only seat on the U.S. House of Representatives is quite friendly.

A few days after the WSJ reminded its readers to take ID with them on Election Day, the WP says the new identification laws in a dozen states has some Democrats worried it could adversely affect their party's candidates and play a critical role in determining the winners.

The WSJ goes inside with a dispatch from Oregon to try to examine what happens when the minimum wage is increased, which would be one of the top priorities for Democrats if they win control of Congress. Oregon increased the minimum wage in 2002 despite concerns it would cause businesses to leave the state and increase unemployment. Four year laters, none of these fears materialized.

The NYT fronts word of a provision tucked inside a military authorization bill that orders the termination of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Now lawmakers from both parties are saying they did not realize the provision was slipped in and want to reverse the decision.

Everyone mentions that the U.S. military announced the soldier who was kidnapped in Baghdad last week is still alive, and there are currently talks in place to try and obtain his release. A U.S. military spokesman confirmed the kidnapped soldier is 41-year-old reservist Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, who is married to an Iraqi woman.

The LAT goes inside with news that five U.S. troops died in Iraq yesterday.

Violence continued in the Gaza Strip yesterday, where Israeli troops fought against Palestinian militants for a second day. At least 12 militants, five Palestinain civilians, and one Israeli soldier have died in the operation, which was intended to stop Palestinian rocket attacks. But so far, it has not gone as planned, as at least 17 rockets have been fired into Israel in the last two days.

The Wall Street Journal mentions in the top spot of its worldwide newsbox news that the president of the National Association of Evangelicals resigned yesterday after a male escort said the influential Christian leader paid him for sex. The escort said in interviews he had a three-year sexual relationship with the Rev. Ted Haggard, who denied the allegations.

The WP fronts an investigation into two nonprofits that paid for expensive trips for 12 members of Congress and 31 staffers. It seems they were both fronts for foreign lobby groups.

Everybody fronts or reefers the results of a new study claiming that the world could run out of seafood by 2048 if current trends continue. Fourteen researchers from several countries spent four years analyzing data and concluded that overfishing, coupled with other environmental factors, would cause a "global collapse" of all the currently fished species. Sushi lovers shouldn't panic just yet, as the authors say the trend can be reversed.

The NYT reports a federal judge in Virginia upheld an earlier ruling ordering the paper to disclose the identities of three sources used by columnist Nicholas D. Kristof in a series of pieces about the anthrax mailings of 2001.

13 Steps to Successful Blogging

By Ant Onaf

Blogs can be a very marketable and very profitable tool if used correctly. Profiting from blogs is just a matter of grabbing the attention of an audience and not doing any actual salesmen selling. In this article you will learn the 13 most essential steps to successful blogging.

1) Where to start?

You should begin your blog with a free blog hosting service such as Journal Home or Blogger. Starting with a free blog hosting service allows you to begin blogging instantly without having any advance knowledge of scripts, hosting, or programming. It allows you to focus on your content and not the internal maintenance of the blog. The best benefit of starting with a free service is, in the case your blog doesn't become successful you do not lose any money or are you left holding the bill. The great thing about a blog is that they are organized in chronological order, your latest entry is displayed first. When your blog traffic grows greatly and you are ready to upgrade to your own domain then you can simply make your last blog entry the announcement of your "move". Simply add a last entry stating that your blog has "moved" and type the new blog URL address. Which directs visitors to your new blog site, keeping your following, without a major inconvenience to anyone. Upgrade as you need to...but only when you need to!

2) Niche

A niche is a targeted product, service, or topic. You should first decide on a product, service, or topic which interest you. Choose an area which you can enthusiastically write about on a daily basis. You can use keyword research services like Google Zeitgeist or Yahoo! Buzz Index to find popular searched topics. It does NOT matter if your topic is popular as long as there is a audience for your topic and the topic is precisely focused then your blog should be successful. Anything can be considered a niche as long as it has a target audience no matter how large or how small the audience is. A blog about your cat can be a niche or a blog about the species of the cat family can be a larger niche market, if there are people who are interested in hearing about your cat or the species of the cat family...you can even choose to build your audience for a market which an audience does not exist, but first you must build your blog.

3) Update Daily (nothing less)

This step is a must and not a suggestion. Updating your blog daily not only keeps your blog more interesting to readers, but it also gives your blog fresh content on a day to day making it more appealing to search engines. Not updating your blog on an occasional holiday or one day here and there is understandable to most, but missing days at a time or weeks is unacceptable and will most likely result in your blog being unsuccessful. To keep your blog traffic and retain your visitors interest it is a must to update your blog daily with multiple entries. You should try to update your blog everyday with at least 3 or more daily entries. The best way to accomplish this is to set aside 1-2 hours a day for tending to your blog and adding new entries. It may even be wise to schedule a set time which you dedicate to your blog each day. Give yourself work hours and treat your blog as a job, what happens if you don't come to work for days or weeks...you lose money or worse you get fired! Same applies here...if you don't update your blog for days or weeks you'll lose visitors.

4) Traffic

It's no secret. You must have traffic to profit from blogs. There are numerous ways to build traffic. Paid advertising, free advertising, viral marketing, search engine marketing, RSS/XML feeds, and word-of-mouth. You should always use your blog URL address in the signature of your email, forum discussions, message boards, or any other communication media. You should submit your blog URL address to search engines and blog directories. You should submit your RSS/XML URL feed to blog ping services like Technorati, Ping-O-Matic, and Blogdigger. You should confidently share your blog with family, friends, co-workers, associates, and business professionals when it relates. Many blogs can be considered as a collection of articles, for this purpose you should submit your blog entries (those that are valuable and lengthy articles) to content syndicators like GoArticles.com or ArticleCity.com. Once submitted your articles can be picked up and published by others. The trick is to make sure you include your Blog URL address in the "About the Author" passage. What this does is create link popularity and backlinks for your blog, when someone picks up your article from the syndication then publish the article on their website the "About the Author" passage is included with each publication and the link you included is followed, crawled, and indexed by search engines. Imagine if your article is popular enough or controversial enough to produce 10,000 publications across the web. The search engines is bound to find your site in no time with that many publications and credit you a authority on the topic, in return increasing your rank on search engines. The small effort of writing a well written article is rewarding. You should try to write at least 1 full length article every week for syndication and submit your article to at least 10 article syndicators.

5) Track Your Blog

How do you know if your blog has traffic? Just because no one is leaving comments doesn't mean your blog isn't growing. Many visitors do not leave comments but they are returning visitors. I know it sounds crazy but with blogs people are more interested in what "you" have to say! Many visitors do not comment their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd time. Some do not comment at all, but are active daily visitors.

Tracking your blog does not have to be overly sophisticated usually a simple free page counter like .. or Active Meter will do the trick. Install (copy/paste) the code into the html of your blog template and start tracking your visitors. Its better to use a service which gives you advanced traffic analysis, such as keyword tracking information, referral information, and search engine information. Visitors, returning visitors, and unique visitors should be standard for any page counter service you choose.

6) Listen to Your Audience

When using the proper page counter you should begin to see how others are finding your blog and if through search engines then which keywords are being used to find your blog. If constantly your blog is being found by 1 or more keywords then focus your blog around those keywords to make it even more powerful. When writing entry titles and entries use the keywords as often as possible while keeping the blog legible and interesting.

7) Multiple blogs

Use multiple blogging accounts to attract more people. This means you should have a blog with JournalHome.com, Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, Blog-City.com, tBlogs.com, etc. The more blog accounts the better. You can copy/paste from 1 blog to all others. Having different blog accounts is like having a publication in different newspapers. This enables you to attract more visitors and this also increases the chance that 1 of your blogs will be in the search engine results for your focused keywords.

8) Short & Concise

Aside from the lengthy article a week for syndication and publication your blog entries should be short & concise (if you can help it). Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule and you have no choice but to blog lengthy entries, but try to avoid this as much as possible. You do not want your blog entries to become hours of reading. Visitors like to easily find information and skim through your entries. It is good to be detailed and provide useful information, but do not include useless information or run away sentences that veer away from your topic.

9) Digital Art

Try to include non-advertising graphics, pictures, photos, and art in your blog entries. Not too much. Once a week is fine. Graphics can sometimes bring your blog to life. Of course, the content of the blog is the most important aspect and you do not want to overshadow your content with graphics, but displaying graphics can add a bit of spice to the blog. Be choosy about your graphics and make sure they fit your entry topic. You should add content with the graphic, at least a caption. Original graphics, photos, pictures, and art is recommended.

10) Keep it Personal

A blog is most successful when it is kept personal. Try to include personal experiences which relates to the topic of your blog entry. Stay away from the business style of writing. Write with a more personal style and use first-person narratives. Do not write any of your entries as sales letters, instead share product reviews and personal endeavors.

11) Interact With Your Visitors

You now have the traffic you deserve. You should begin interacting with your visitors. Create a regular theme such as: "Monday Money Tip" or "Picture of the Week" which entices your readers to look forward to each week.

Give your readers advance notice about a product, service, or topic which you are going to review and then talk about later. If the President was scheduled to give a speech then in your blog you should state that you "will discuss the speech and give your opinion after the speech airs. Comments will be appreciated".

Try your best to find exclusive information that not many have. Do not disclose any confidential or secret information which is deemed illegal or can potentially get you into trouble, but try to get the scoop before everyone else does. Such as: If your blog was about Paris Hilton (the socialite) and you had a blog entry about "Paris Hilton Getting Married" then it would be interesting to your readers if you had a actual picture of Paris Hilton engagement ring. Give your best effort to dig and search the internet for exclusive information and you will possibly come up with something useful. Your readers will appreciate this and they show their appreciation through word-of-mouth referrals. Imagine how many readers will tell their friends, family, and others about information they only can find at your blog.

12) Make Money

Once your blog has gained some real momentum and your blog traffic is increasing then it is time to start thinking about turning your traffic into profit. You should use contextual advertising, like Google Adsense or Chitika. Contextual advertising is usually text links which use the content of your blog to publish targeted ads on your blog. The payout is usually based on a pay-per-click model, meaning for ever click an ad receives you are paid a small percentage of the profits. In addition to contextual advertising it is good to also use graphical advertising such as: BlogAds.com, Amazon.com, MammaMedia, or General Sponsored Advertising.

13) You're a Professional

You're a professional now! What are you still doing with that free blog hosting service? It is time to upgrade to a domain hosted solution. You need to get a web host and choose a domain name for your blog then check its availability. Select the blogging software you wish to use, such as: Squarespace.com, WordPress.org, MovableType.org, etc. When you have your new blog domain setup and ready for traffic then it is time for you to announce your move on all your previous blog accounts. Your last entry to the blog should be a "move" announcement. The title should be "Moved" and the blog entry should state something like "Old Blog has been moved to New Blog please follow and bookmark this link for future reference: http://www.YourNewBlogDomainName.com". This way all returning visitors and new readers should not have any problem finding your new blog domain.

At the level of a professional blogger you may want to team up with 1 or more other bloggers. This will create a more interesting and more powerful blog. The old saying "two heads is better than one", more authors mean more advertising and exposure because each author will have a vested interest in the blog. The idea of a team blog is to make it profitable and rewarding for all authors, while continuing to target the blog topic and keeping the blog interesting for visitors.

Following these blogging techniques should make your blogging experience much more rewarding. There is no guarantee that your blog will become popular or a household name, but the effort should at least put you one step closer. Making money online is not an overnight experience like many may think, but making money online is definitely a foreseeable possibility. As well, growing popularity on the web is not an overnight experience, but through time, dedication, and persistence you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.

About The Author
Ant Onaf is the owner and founder of http://www.JournalHome.com He is an online internet marketer, content writer, and IT consultant. Ant Onaf has years of IT-related experience and Internet-related experience. His ingenuity, dedication, and passion for technology, internet marketing, & writing have made him a monumental icon in the World Wide Web. His blog can be visited at http://www.journalhome.com/AntOnaf

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation

The Running of the Jew

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation"Sacha Baron Cohen gives us one of the funniest and most pointed satires in years -- and also one of the most complex.

By Stephanie Zacharek

Michael Schumacher Arrives at The Track For The Last Time. Brazilian G.P. 2006

Schumacher Arrives at the Track For The Last Time

Michael Schumacher arrives at the circuit F1 > Brazilian GP, 2006-10-22 (Interlagos): Sunday pre-race Michael Schumacher, seven time World Formula one Driving Champion, arrives at the race circuit in Brazil for the very last time as a competitive driver. He is retired now, and it will be marked as the end of an era in Formula 1 history. There will be volumes published about his life and times, as well as documentary movies and countless articles in all manner of publications. One thing that I feel is most important... WE cannot overlook the fact that today also marks the crowning of Fernando Alonso as World Champion of Formula 1 for the second consecutive year. There is nothing in the retirement story of Mr. Schumacher that can overshadow the most amazing repeat performance by Alonso and The Renault Team. Congratulations Fernando, to you and everyone at Renault. You have proven yourselves to be World Class thru and thru. You have won a second  World Championmship, one that you so richly deserve and achieved as participants in  highly competitive races through out this year. Thank you from all Formula One fans who have enjoyed a season where the excitement has been restored to the greatest motor racing series in the world. Michael Schumacher! God Bless You and All of your Loved Ones. You have been a mainstay of this sport for twenty years. There is very little that anyone can really write or say that would do justice to the accomplishments and contribution that you have left in your wake in the world of Grand Prix Formula One racing. Only we will wish all of the great good health, love, joy and well deserved pleasure of having your life to share with your young family, who have shared the greater part of you for these many years with your life as the most commited driver in Formula One History. Thank You Michael, for all of the memories too many to even recall. God Bless you, With Love and Prayers for you and your Loved Ones. MIchael P. Whelan Las Vegas, Nevada, October 22, 2006

Alcohol, a Car and a Fatality. Is It Murder?

Jack Healey for The New York Times

CRIME SCENE This Long Island crash led to a murder conviction.

October 22, 2006

Alcohol, a Car and a Fatality. Is It Murder?

By PAUL VITELLO

DRUNKEN drivers who kill people with their vehicles are almost never charged with murder.

Even the usual terms of criminal prosecution, vehicular manslaughter or reckless homicide, which carry far lesser degrees of punishment, are felony charges that until 25 years ago were only lightly used by prosecutors. When a presidential task force tallied the numbers of victims from various crimes in 1981, drunken driving was not even on the list.

Times have changed. "Reckless homicide" and then "manslaughter" became common charges brought against drunken drivers after advocacy groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving began campaigning in the early 1980's. But now even those terms are considered gentle euphemisms by some advocates against drunken driving — as in, words that shelter people from looking too closely at the ugliest of realities.

So, many advocates were cheered when a Long Island, N.Y., jury last week convicted Martin R. Heidgen, 25, of murder for killing two people in a head-on collision with a limousine on July 2, 2005. Still, it was such a rare event that advocates, prosecutors and defense lawyers are still trying to figure out its implications.

Will murder charges help deter drunken driving? Will juries convict these drivers, knowing that they will be in prison for a long time? And is it fair?

The Heidgen jury, which took five days to reach its verdict, seems to have had difficulty confronting these questions. In a way, the confrontation was forced on them — in part by a newly installed district attorney elected on an anti-drunken driving platform and in part by a grieving mother.

The facts of the case were never in dispute: Mr. Heidgen, an insurance salesman returning home from a party, was very drunk, his blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit. He was driving the wrong way on a highway when he plowed head-on into the limousine carrying the family of Neil and Jennifer Flynn home from a wedding. He killed the chauffeur, Stanley Rabinowitz, and Katie Flynn, 7.

The girl's mother used no euphemisms in describing the accident. "As I crawled out of the car, the only thing that was left of Kate was her head," Mrs. Flynn, 36, said two days after the crash. "And I took her, just like that, and sat on the side of the Meadowbrook and watched at the horrendousness going on around me. I want everybody to know that."

There is no official count of how many times drunken drivers involved in fatal accidents have been charged or convicted of murder. But of the more than 13,000 alcohol-related driving deaths last year in the United States, prosecutors are aware of only a few murder cases each in Texas, California and New York. So there seems to be at least a bit of ambivalence about whether drunken drivers who kill people should be subject to the same legal penalties as gunmen who kill people.

"There is a certain psychological barrier there," said Marcia Cunningham, director of the National Traffic Law Center, an agency of the National District Attorneys Association, in Alexandria, Va. Americans spend an enormous amount of time in their cars, she noted, and at one time or other just about everyone has had too much to drink. "The combination of these two familiar activities makes for a certain, what have you, difficulty with the word 'murder.' "

Nonetheless, she said, it is murder, no different from "carrying a loaded gun around, pointing it at people walking down Fifth Avenue, and having a few shots go off, killing them."

Steve Oberman, a lawyer in Knoxville, Tenn., who defends drunken drivers and who is the co-author of "Drunk Driving Defense," a textbook widely used by lawyers in the field, said the situation is usually much more ambiguous.

"The terrible part about intoxication is that once you become intoxicated you lose the ability to know that you should not be doing certain things, including driving," Mr. Oberman said. "It doesn't make it any easier on the family of the victim. But people do make mistakes."

The jurors in the Heidgen case apparently considered that. Twice they sent the judge a note saying they were deadlocked. After the fourth day of deliberations, an 8-to-4 majority in favor of a murder conviction became 10 to 2, according to the jurors. In the fifth day, the last two holdouts joined the majority. But one of those two, the jury forewoman, said later that she had felt unbearably pressured by other jurors. She said she was still convinced that Mr. Heidgen was guilty of manslaughter, not murder.

Kathleen Rice, the district attorney, said the jury reached the right verdict, regardless of any second thoughts by any of its members. "We hope that this verdict sends a message that if you drink and drive and kill somebody you will be prosecuted for murder," she said.

Since the early 1980's, when grassroots groups like MADD began a campaign against drunken driving, the rate of traffic fatalities linked to alcohol has dropped by about half, according to federal highway statistics.

But progress has stalled, said Chuck Hurley, chief executive of MADD. "The numbers have not moved substantially in 10 years," he said. "The country has gotten used to MADD, and gotten used to increased law enforcement, and the result is that every month in this country another 1,000 families get a knock on the door with very bad news because of drinking and driving."

But he added: "Is every drunk driver who kills someone a murderer? "We don't advocate that."Instead, MADD has campaigned successfully to lower the legal blood-alcohol level for drivers to .08 from .10 — now the standard in every state. Ignition-interlock devices, which prevent drunken drivers from starting their cars, have been installed in the vehicles of about 100,000 people serving probation for drunken driving offenses around the country, he said.

"We are hopeful that the Flynn-Rabinowitz case will mark a new turning point in public awareness," Mr. Hurley said, referring to the Long Island limousine victims. "But we are not sure how much we can depend on that. For now, we are putting our hopes in technology."

Better to save lives before the fact, he said. "A murder trial will not bring anyone back."

 

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Marie Antoinette, Citoyenne

MAKEOVER Depictions of the queen takes her out of her shoes and puts her in ours.

Marie Antoinette, Citoyenne

Fighting and Arrests Tarnish Ivy League’s Refined Image

Yale tailback Mike McLeod, left, and a teammate were arrested on Oct. 1 after a fight outside a New Haven restaurant

Fighting and Arrests Tarnish Ivy League's Refined Image

Brazilian Grand Prix 2006

Massa wins Brazilian GP, Alonso is champion

By Nikki Reynolds - Motorsport.com

--> -->Ferrari's Felipe Massa became the first Brazilian since Ayrton Senna in 1993 to win his home race when he took the chequered flag at Interlagos for his second victory of the season. Massa led the Brazilian Grand Prix from pole to flag and Renault's Fernando Alonso became the youngest back-to-back world champion with second place. Renault also claimed the constructors' title for the second consecutive year.

Podium: race winner Felipe Massa with 2006 World Champion Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button and Ross Brawn. Photo by xpb.cc.

Honda's Jenson Button had a strong drive from 14th on the grid to come home in third, while Michael Schumacher's final race was an eventful one. An early puncture dropped the German way down the field but he fought back in superb fashion, his determination taking him over the line in fourth place. Less than he had hoped for, perhaps, but Schumacher's performance was a memorable one to end his career.

It was fine and dry for race day, the conditions warmer than expected with a track temperature in the mid forties. The top seven held formation off the line: Massa, McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, Toyota's Jarno Trulli, Alonso, Honda's Rubens Barrichello, Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella and Toyota's Ralf Schumacher. Michael shot off from 10th to battle with the BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica.

Meanwhile, it was to be a short and less-than sweet end to Williams' year. Nico Rosberg hit the back of Mark Webber at the first corner, Webber losing his rear wing. Webber headed to the pits to retire and Rosberg had a big shunt shortly afterwards. It seems some damage from the contact with Webber sent him spinning off just before the entry into the pit straight. The Williams hit the barrier hard and was badly damaged.

Rosberg appeared unscathed and was out of the car quickly. "I was pushing hard to make up some places and Mark braked very late and I hit him," he said of the initial incident. "It's disappointing for the team as it's not a good way to finish the season. I felt the front wing was wrong and had understeer then something broke."

The safety car was deployed as the Williams had spun back onto the track after the impact. Prior to the crash Fisichella had got past Barrichello for fifth and had Michael behind him. The BMWs had been squabbling with Ralf and there was possibly some contact there but all three seemed to survive, Ralf in eighth and Kubica and Button making up the top 10.

The safety car went in after four laps and Massa and Raikkonen shot away at the front. Michael was all over Fisichella's rear wing and had a look at the first corner but didn't go for it. Likewise Alonso was measuring up Trulli's Toyota but biding his time. Michael attacked round the outside of Fisichella into the pit straight but it went pear-shaped.

There didn't appear to be any contact but Michael suffered a left rear puncture and the rest of the pack went streaming past as the Ferrari slowed and began the long, precarious trek back to the pits. Bridgestone later said they believed that debris had cut the tyre. Michael finally got in for the tyre change and rejoined way down in 17th.

At the front Massa had pulled away from Raikkonen and was going some two seconds a lap faster than the Michelin runners behind. The next unexpected events were Ralf pulling into the pits to retire and Trulli mysteriously dropping to 10th then following his teammate's lead and trundling to the pits to retire. A suspected suspension gremlin was the culprit.

"We're not sure," Ralf said about what happened. "Something was wrong at the back of the car, it seems to be the same on both cars." Trulli concurred and explained a little further. "Both cars had the same problem, a central component on the rear suspension," was the Italian's summing up of the situation.

That meant Buton was up to sixth, Kubica to seventh and the McLaren of Pedro de la Rosa to eighth. The Red Bull of David Coulthard was another retiree not long afterwards. "It was a gearbox problem again," Coulthard commented. "I initially thought it was the clutch but the gear disengaged and I lost fourth."

By then Heidfeld was ninth and closing on de la Rosa, while Toro Rosso's Scott Speed and Tonio Liuzzi were 10th and 11th. Super Aguri's Takuma Sato was going well in 12th, followed by the Spyker MF1 of Christijan Albers, the second Super Aguri of Sakon Yamamoto, Red Bull's Robert Doornbos, Tiago Monteiro's Spyker MF1 and Michael about to begin his fight back.

Raikkonen, Barrichello and Fisichella all dived into the pits together for the first time, Barrichello nearly hitting Fisichella on the way out. Massa was 13 seconds ahead of Alonso, up to second, and belting out fastest laps at the front. The Brazilian was next to pit and Alonso took over until his stop and he got ahead of Raikkonen when he rejoined.

Button managed to jump both Fisichella and Barrichello is his first visit to the pits and then homed in on Raikkonen and dispatched the McLaren into the pit straight. Kubica and Speed had a brief coming together with a little damage to Kubica's front wing but they both continued. It wasn't really clear what happened or who was at fault.

De la Rosa in second was on a one-stopper and had not yet pitted, collecting quite a train of cars behind him. Fisichella made an error at turn one which allowed Barrichello to close in, while Button was harassing the other Renault of Alonso. De la Rosa finally took his stop and Heidfeld and Michael moved up to eighth and ninth.

Michael slipstreamed the BMW into the pit straight and whipped past, then started setting fastest laps. Massa was forging ahead in front and picking his way through the backmarkers. Heidfeld pitted and got a new front wing -- the reason for the change was not clear but during the safety car period he had said on the radio the front of the car didn't feel right.

Michael was then homing in on Kubica and got past at turn one for seventh but then the Ferrari wobbled a bit and slowed. Surely not another problem for the German? That would be too much. However, it seemed it was just a mistake on Michael's behalf as he soon picked up the pace and had to pass Kubica all over again, which he duly did.

The second round of pit stops began circulating through, Barrichello and Michael first then Fisichella. Michael rejoined behind Barrichello and set about harassing his former teammate, overtaking him down the pit straight and into turn one for sixth. Raikkonen, Alonso and Massa took their second stops and Alonso rejoined ahead of Button for second.

The points order was then Massa, Alonso, Button, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Michael, Barrichello and de la Rosa. Albers had a brief trip across the grass but recovered and Doornbos was late to take his second stop with only about a dozen laps to go. Kubica was ninth and Sato hanging in there in fine style in 10th.

Michael and Fisichella were locked in battle, the Ferrari piling the pressure on through corner after corner. Many times Fisichella held him off but eventually the Italian locked up at turn one and skipped across the grass which gave Michael a wide open door to fifth. With about eight laps to go there was more drama.

Heidfeld's BMW snapped into an abrupt spin towards the end of the pit straight and crashed into the barrier at turn one. It looked like some kind of car failure but the German appeared to escape unscathed from the impact. Yellow flags came out while the track was cleared, which deprived Michael of his favourite overtaking spot.

He had homed in on Raikkonen, the man who will replace him at Ferrari next year, but couldn't go for it at turn one. Undeterred Michael harassed the McLaren all around the lap and they battled down the pit straight but Raikkonen held. But the Finn seemed to struggle through the twisty middle part of the circuit and next time they were side by side through turn one, then free of yellow flags.

Michael made it stick and claimed the fourth place; it was very close and they were wheel to wheel but it was fine driving from both men. With two laps to go Button was on Alonso's rear wing and Alonso put a little space between them; with Massa leading and Michael fourth the Spaniard couldn't afford any sort of clash with Button.

And that was it, the final race of 2006 and Massa took the chequered flag to the delight of the roaring crowds. It was a deserved win for the Brazilian; he has improved immeasurably this season and he and Raikkonen promise to be a very interesting paring at Ferrari next year. Brazil will be partying tonight.

It's never over until it's over and there was always room for something to befall Alonso and prevent his second title. However, the odds were in his favour today and he has proved his worth for the second year in a row. There are those that will detract from his achievement for one reason or another but Ferrari's shortcomings and misfortunes are not his fault and he fought hard for this title.

Button did a good job to get home third and the Honda showed some good pace at Interlagos. Too little too late for this year, and there's a long way to go before the start of next season, but the team finished 2006 on an upward trend. Barrichello no doubt hoped for more than seventh but at least it was points and considering his track record in Brazil that's not too bad.

What to say about Michael Schumacher? In his last race he reminded us just what F1 will be missing with his absence. After his bravado performance today some are bewildered as to why he is retiring -- he drove with the utter commitment he's always shown at his best. Maybe that is why he's retiring; leaving at the top of one's form is perhaps the best way to go.

McLaren didn't think it could keep up with Ferrari's pace but as it happened it wasn't up to Renault or Honda either. Raikkonen's fifth was damage limitation and de la Rosa's eighth was not particularly spectacular. Fisichella was also a little lacklustre in sixth but his and Alonso's efforts were enough to retain Renault's constructors' title.

BMW finished the season fifth in the standings behind Honda, just one point ahead of Toyota. It was more than BMW had expected in its first year but today was a lost chance to pick up points after both cars started in the top 10. Kubica crossed the line ninth and Heidfeld was classed 17th despite his premature end to the race.

Sato delighted Super Aguri with 10th and teammate Yamamoto was 16th. Speed was the best of the Red Bull owed-outfits in 11th, with Doornbos 12th and Liuzzi 13th. Both Spykers made it to the flag, Albers 14th and Monteiro 15th. Brazil was a good race and although not everyone will be happy, it was a fair and decent fight at the end of the season. Final top eight classification: Massa, Alonso, Button, M. Schumacher, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Barrichello, de la Rosa.

Photos for Brazilian GP

Discuss this article in the Motorsport.com Forums channel: F1

More news about Brazilian GP:

More than half a billion dollars earmarked to fight the insurgency in Iraq was stolen

The Mother Of All Heists

THE Dixie Chicks' biggest detractor

DIXIE DODGER October 9, 2006 -- THE Dixie Chicks' biggest detractor, FreeRepublic.com founder Jim Robinson, declined to appear in their documentary, "Shut Up and Sing." Now Ken Sunshine, who reps the George Bush-bashing Chicks, calls him "a coward. A real man would put his money where his mouth is, but this Robinson guy, he'd rather hide behind his keyboard than have a real discussion about his ideas . . . he's just a chicken[bleep] fraud." Robinson's rep, Kristinn Taylor, confirmed he ducked the interview: "He told me to go ahead and do it."

Anita Pallenberg, October 24, 1973

Anita Pallenberg, October 24, 1973

Girlfriend of founding Rolling Stone, Brian Jones, infatuation of Mick Jagger, & the Mother of two surviving children of Keith Richards; Marlon & Dandelion (Angela). Richards and Pallenberg lost a son, Tara at the age of 10 months. He was born March 26, 1976. Anita was an actress in "A Degree Of Murder", "Der Rebel", "Barbarella", & "Performance".

Casino mogul Steve Wynn ripped a hole through his $139 million Picasso

I Punched a Hole in My Picasso!
Now what do I do?
By Daniel Engber
Posted Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006, at 7:03 PM ET
--> -->

Casino mogul Steve Wynn ripped a hole through his $139 million Picasso painting while gesticulating at a cocktail party, reports the New York Post. Nora Ephron gave her own first-person account of the damage: It was "a black hole the size of a silver dollar … with two three-inch long rips coming off it in either direction." Wynn had just agreed to sell the painting; now, the deal is off. Is there any way to fix the ripped Picasso?

Yes, but it will be slow and tedious work. The torn ends of the canvas can probably be lined up, and conservators can identify matching fibers on either side of the rip by inspecting them under a microscope. In general, you can expect the wefts in the fabric—that is, the crosswise yarns of the weave—to split at the site of the impact. The lengthwise warps tend to get stretched out, but they may not break.

The rip itself can be mended in a few different ways. First, the conservator can line up the torn ends and affix them to a new piece of fabric that lines the back of the painting. She might also try to attach the torn ends to each other using a method called Rissverklebung, in which individual fibers are rewoven back into place.

To reweave the warps and wefts, you have to figure out the proper placement of each individual fiber. Bits of paint that are stuck to the fibers must be glued in place or removed until the reweaving is complete. (Conservators map out the location of each paint flake they remove so it can be replaced in precisely the right spot.) Because an accident will stretch out some fibers and fray others, you sometimes have to tie off and shorten some threads while attaching new material to lengthen others. Threads attached to the back of the canvas will reinforce the seam.

Closing the tear is only the first part of the process. An accident like Wynn's can damage the painting in other places by stretching the fabric and distorting the image. To correct for these planar distortions, the conservators try to change the lengths of individual fibers or small patches of the canvas. Applied humidity can make a fiber expand across its diameter and shrink across its length—and tighten up distended parts of the weave.

Bits of paint that have fallen off the painting must also be replaced. Wynn might have surveyed the scene of the accident and saved any stray bits of paint for the conservators in a petri dish. (Chance are he didn't strip much off the canvas—Ephron says he was wearing a golf shirt, which suggests a bare-elbow blow. An elbow covered with rough fabric would probably have done more damage.) Conservators have to touch up spots of missing paint with fresh material, color-matched to the surrounding area.

One more thing: Conservators always try to make their repairs reversible. That way, you won't cause any permanent damage to the work if you screw up, and someone can always try to improve on your work in the future.

Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer.

Explainer thanks Carolyn Tomkiewicz of the Brooklyn Museum.

L'Wren Scott

L'Wren Scott

Born, Luann Bambrough she is a former model and now a fashion stylist who lives in Hollywood. She is Mick's current "main person of interest" for the past few years. This shot from the Grammy's January 16, 2005.

Live From Reykjavik, Part III: An Insider´s Look at Iceland Airwaves 2006

Megan Pillow Bio

Related News Stories

• Scandals Of The Day...
• Justice Scalia: "Abortion" And "Homosexual Sodomy" Not In The Constitution...
• Bob Schieffer: "Most Popular" Journalist In The Gridiron Club...

Related Blog Posts

• Arianna Huffington: The Lamont Litmus Test: Why Are So Many Democrats Failing It?
• Cenk Uygur: What If Joe Lieberman Gave the Senate Back to the Republicans?
• David Roberts: CBS News and the Blogosphere

Live from Reykjavik, Part II: An Insider´s Look At Iceland Airwaves 2006

Megan Pillow Bio

Related News Stories

• Scandals Of The Day...
• Justice Scalia: "Abortion" And "Homosexual Sodomy" Not In The Constitution...
• Bob Schieffer: "Most Popular" Journalist In The Gridiron Club...

Related Blog Posts

• Arianna Huffington: The Lamont Litmus Test: Why Are So Many Democrats Failing It?
• Cenk Uygur: What If Joe Lieberman Gave the Senate Back to the Republicans?
• Mark Kleiman: Material Assistance to Terrorist Organizations

Comments :

Live from Reykjavik: An Insider´s Look at Iceland Airwaves 2006

Megan Pillow Bio

Writing a biography in the digital age. Googling My Mother

An undated photograph from the late 1950s

In 1970 in her arms at age 2

 

Googling My Mother
Writing a biography in the digital age.
By John Dickerson
Posted Friday, Oct. 20, 2006, at 6:39 PM ET
--> -->

One morning, my mother's grave appeared in my inbox. The grass had grown back around it after the burial. The stone looked pinker than I remembered. The "Beloved Wife and Mother" written on it struck me as odd. Was that inscription always there? It seemed antiquated, like something you'd see in a small town cemetery, and, in my mother's case, also a little limiting. These are the details you seize on when you're suddenly confronted by Section 3, Grave 1316-A-LH before your first cup of coffee.

I had asked for it. I was writing On Her Trail, a book about my mother, Nancy Dickerson, which was published this week. Early in the process, I instructed a few Internet search engines to make a daily pass of the Web and to e-mail me whenever they found something. Mom had been a famous reporter, so I knew I'd get some responses. That day, she was discovered on a Web site dedicated to those buried at Arlington Cemetery. (My stepfather, John Whitehead, was a commander in the Navy.)

I was writing the book to figure out who my mother was, which might have seemed like a silly enterprise, since when I was growing up it seemed like everyone knew who my mother was. She was the first female network correspondent for CBS and the first woman star of the Washington TV-news corps. But I missed most of my mother's career. I was born when Mom was 41, and by the time I was old enough to know what the news was, she had left the network and her stardom had faded. There were no videotapes of her newscasts during the '60s and '70s, just pictures of her with Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon on the piano. (Now, in the age of TiVo, my children can't miss my appearances on even the lowest-rated cable show. Plus, I give them candy to watch).

I also missed most of my mother's career because I didn't care about it. Mom and I were enemies for the first part of the 27 years we knew each other. I moved out of our house at age 14 when my parents divorced, and I never lived with her again. But our cold war ended soon after I found myself joining her profession in 1993. We became pals and, for a few years, traded gossip every day. We didn't talk about the past but the news in front of us, as if we were colleagues. Then, in January 1996 she had a brutal stroke. A year and a half later, it killed her.

The initial basket of Internet search results brought back a host of items I'd never seen—footage of Mom narrating the return of John Kennedy's body as it was brought back to Andrews Air Force Base and an account of a Nixon interview. The eBay alert found copies of her autobiography, her NBC portrait, and a 1964 Saturday Evening Post article published four years before I was born. (Her Supersister trading card I did recognize. As a 10-year-old, I found it disappointing because it didn't come with bubble gum and I couldn't trade it for Pete Rose's rookie card.)

The bulletins from the Web slowed to a few each week. New deliveries meant someone had just referred to her in the newspaper or, more often, an old posting that had been missed in the initial trawl, like the picture of her childhood home or a 1960 profile from her college alumni magazine. I knew the delay came from a quirk in the software, but these finds felt special and hard-won, as if they'd been unearthed from behind an old can of nails in the back of someone's musty garage.

Mom herself kept a lot, though she was too glamorous for garages. After she died I received 20 boxes of her journals and newspaper clippings and photographs. She saved the rice from Luci Johnson's 1966 wedding and the 800-page report she'd worked on in 1956 as a clerk for the Senate foreign-relations committee. She was a C-SPAN bag lady.

But what you keep about yourself is different from what other people keep about you. The little automated e-mail scouts were a way to screen for what might have been enduring about what she achieved. She'd been famous, but was any of it real? An old news clipping from 1961 named her among the best coifed women in America. That was hardly worth editing the tombstone for. Judith Shellenberger's story, though, might be. In November of 2005, the foundation director attended a White House youth conference and breakfasted with Laura Bush. In an article about the trip, Shellenberger looked back on her career and said Mom had been her inspiration. "I wanted to be Nancy Dickerson," she told her local paper. I read this and wrote her to ask what she meant. "Nancy Dickerson changed my whole life by inspiring me to pursue my dreams," she replied. "My whole career has centered on the motivation your mother gave me. The fact that I too could be a strong career woman."

I had heard this sentiment before but never really believed it. It wasn't just that I'm an oafish male unwise to the struggle of the sisterhood. I'd heard the tribute too many times. So many women had told me that Mom's pathbreaking career was their inspiration that the praise had become rote. Growing up in Washington, I was too used to hearing meaningless compliments dished out in earnest tones. It's our folk language. But when Schellenger's story came in over the transom, it seemed more authentic and objective for having been unsolicited. Suddenly, I was struck by the tonnage of the similar stories I'd heard but never listened to.

The Internet's long tail was working for me. Joyce Ladner, a former president of Howard Univeristy, remembered meeting Mom at Martin Luther King's March on Washington. Lew Goodman of Parkchester, N.Y., remembered the day Mom announced that the Beatles had arrived in America. As archived newspapers started to go online, Mom's history came back. Almost 300 of them mention Nancy Hanschman, her maiden name, which she used when she first went on air. The new data were almost always surprising, but what was most powerful was how they arrived. I'd never written a book before, but I'd written plenty of profiles. Doing so meant sitting down with my pile of books and papers and interview notes and following a thread until I'd forced it into squeaky shape like a balloon animal. You know what you're looking for, or at least you know that you're looking. You occupy a confined intellectual and physical space. But these alerts didn't work like that. They were off fishing for me, and the minute they hooked something, they brought it back and served it up without a filter and on their own time. Since I carry a BlackBerry (or it carries me), they were with me on the ride to work or blinking just before I put out the bedside light.

I had shoved away my mother and her fame during the ugliest time in my adolescence. Her every letter and phone call had been an outrageous interruption. Now I was calling for her intrusions. Almost everything that arrived came from the period of her life I never experienced. Combined with my methodical slog through the materials she left me, the woman who was interrupting me on my BlackBerry became more real than the woman who had pasted back my cowlick and taken me to the doctor. She was authentic and natural, qualities I hadn't seen much with my own eyes.

Though she had been dead for eight years, I couldn't shake the impulse to ask my mother about what I was discovering. This had the nagging effect of producing a recurring dream of being able to fill out an online form to ask her questions that she could answer through e-mail. (I think Google's working on a purchase of Séance.net after they get that YouTube thing worked out.)

Now that the book is done, the alerts continue, but oddly, they've turned into vanity events, letting me know about reviews and reactions to the book—to my mother, but as I have presented her. They've lost their magic. Still, the parallels of our two lives, now wound together in this book, continue to surprise me. Though no one planned it this way, the final deadline for my manuscript fell on my birthday. This week, the book hit the newsstands, and I saw Mom's tombstone again, this time in person, on the ninth anniversary of her death.

A version of this piece appears in the Washington Post Outlook section.

John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail. He can be reached at .

Keith Richards' Wife Patti Hansen & Their Children

Keith Richards' Wife Patti Hansen & Their Children:
Theodora (left) & Alexandra (right)

Patti Hansen was born in Staten Island New York, and was a model for Calvin Klein and Revlon. Patti was "discovered" at a Rolling Stones concert in 1975. She met Richards around 1980 and is also known for keeping the company of Anita Pallenberg. Richards and Hansen were married on December 18, 1983 (Keith's 40th birthday) in Cabo San Lucas at the Finisterra Hotel. The ceremony was filmed by Julien Temple.

Keith RichardsAs I View Him