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Thursday, April 27, 2006
Just another brick in the wall …
Texas Senator John Cornyn’s mailbag has been heavy of late: He’s received about 20 bricks in the mail from constituents who support building a wall between Texas and Mexico. The bricks arrive in boxes — and due to the post. Sept. 11 congressional security measures, end up in Cornyn’s office after a lengthy screening that gets all of them irradiated. Cornyn does not support a wall going across the entire border, but supports a “virtual wall” manned by sensors and cameras, and actual fences in city areas. “I don’t know how much it costs” to mail a brick, said Cornyn spokesman Don Stewart. but, like all other constituent mail, the bricks get a response. “They get a letter back,” Stewart said. “It talks about his border security efforts and his thoughts on high-density areas where fencing works.”
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Airwaves Battle on Air Force One
The controversy du jour aboard Air Force One today was one near and dear to the hearts of many otherwise happy couples: Command and control of the TV tuner.
“It’s come to my attention that there’s been requests – this is a serious question – to turn these TVs on to a station other than Fox, and that those have been denied,” Washington Post reporter Jim VandeHei told Press Secretary Scott McClellan. “My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?”
“Never heard of any such thing,” said McClellan, soon to be replaced by Tony Snow of Fox News, long viewed as an operation that enjoys most favored network status in the Bush White House.
“My TVs are on all four different channels at all times,” McClellan said of the four-screen array across from his West Wing desk.
He also noted that every White House television has split-screen capability.
“Well,” said VandeHei, “they always seem to be tuned to Fox.”
He went on.
“And these are paid for by taxpayer dollars. And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?”
No way, said McClellan.
“First time I’ve ever heard of it,” he said. “First time you’ve brought it to my attention, meaning the first time the press corps has brought it to my attention. In fact, I’ve watched other channels on here.”
Despite McClellan’s TV options, the record will show that – other than when the movie of reporters’ choice is showing (and that frequently invites a gender-based battle over what to watch), Fox is showing on the screens in the press cabin of Air Force One.
As McClellan and VandeHei talked TV channels, Agence France Presse photographer Tim Sloan volunteered that he was the one who raised the issue.
“I was the Fox victim,” he said, “and I was told, the quote was, ‘No,’ when I asked for CNN. … I was told, ‘We don’t watch CNN here. You can only watch Fox.’”
Asked who told him that, Sloan said “the magic people at the other end of the phone” in the press cabin.
McClellan said he found the issue “quite amusing, to tell you the truth.”
“I mean there are a lot of people on this plane that do watch that channel,” he said of CNN. “First time you brought it to my attention. I’ll go see what we can do on it.”
Moments later, after a quick trip up front, McClellan came back with the update.
“We just called up. They’re going to be changing it, at your all’s request, to the channel that you requested, which is CNN,” he said.
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FACE MASKS MAY NOT PROTECT AGAINSGT FLU
The kind of industrial face masks you can buy at a building supply store have not been tested to show they can protect persons who wear them from influenza, the National Academy of Sciences reported Thursday. And, with the masks expected to be in short supply in a flu pandemic, there is no reliable way to decontaminate and re-use them, said a special committee of scientists. ”Even the best respirator or surgical mask will do little to protect a person who uses it incorrectly, and we know relatively little about how effective these devices will be against flu even when they are used correctly,” Donald S. Burke, professor of international health and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University and co-chair of the committee. ”Substantial research must be done to increase our understanding of how flu spreads, develop better masks and respirators, and make it easier to decontaminate them.” Masks designated “N95” have been found by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect against 95 percent of certain airborne dust particles. The masks are widely used, both in industries and hospitals. The committee was created by the academy after the Department of Health and Human Services requested advice on whether masks would help restrain epidemic spread of the influenza virus.
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Ode to K Street
As the U.S. House of Representatives gets set to debate and vote on its version of lobbying reform, (a bill that’s been watered down and maligned by reform organizations as a “do-nothing” piece of legislation,) Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., took to the floor this morning with a poetic jab at his counterparts:
Dear K Street, How Do I Love Thee?
“Mr. Speaker, investigators have recently uncovered a letter from the Republican Leadership to special interest lobbyists — I’d like to share it with you today.
Dear K Street Lobbyists,
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth of thy oil wells,
For thou shall have $14.5 billion to drill them.
I love thee to the heights of thy drug profits,
For the Medicare bill gives you $139 billion.
I love thee for thy golf courses, and for thy private jets.
I love thee for thy donations, libations, and vacations.
For now we must part, and I’ll call it reform,
But remember, in December, once we get past November,
The travel ban expires, and I’ll meet you at the tees.
“Yours forever, ‘cause I can’t quit you,
“The Republican Congress.”
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