October 2007 - Posts
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
This has been a busy week for me, but come Saturday I get to do something special on my night off. As you may have heard, I’m going to host Saturday Night Live. It’s quite an opportunity, and it got me thinking about exactly whose footsteps I’ll be following in. I don’t mean all the actors and comedians who normally host SNL; they’re in the entertainment business, after all. And I’m not thinking about the dozen or so professional athletes who have hosted the show over its 32-year history, including Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky, Chris Evert, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Lance Armstrong and even O.J. Simpson, way back in 1978. Like entertainers, they know how to play to a crowd.
No, I was wondering about the category that I’m in, which is “none of the above.” As it turns out, Saturday Night Live has a tradition of drawing from that category as well, starting with the very first season, when Ron Nessen hosted on April 17, 1976. Who was Ron Nessen? He was a former White House correspondent for NBC News, who had gone on to become press secretary to President Gerald Ford. Ford was the target of a lot of SNL humor in those early days, just like every president since. Ford had a sense of humor about it, and even made a cameo appearance on the show Nessen hosted.
Usually, politicians are what Saturday Night Live makes fun of. But they’ve also been invited to host the show occasionally. That list includes Rudolph Giuliani, Al Gore, John McCain, Steve Forbes, Julian Bond and Ed Koch. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader hosted the show in 1977, years before he ran for president. And presidential son Ron Reagan did the honors in 1986 (famously doing his underpants-only imitation of Tom Cruise in “Risky Business”). Some SNL hosts have been in a category all their own, such as Hugh Hefner (1977), George Steinbrenner (1990) and Donald Trump (2004).
CONTINUED >>
Editor's note: First Person "Photo of the Day" is a regular feature of photography submitted by users and readers.
Christine Haldeman from Pa. shares this photo:
"A picture of my oldest daughter with her twin sisters. Maybe I am bias, but this picture was too cute to pass up sending in."
Happy Halloween!
Click FirstPerson.MSNBC.com to submit an entry.
Click here to see more Photo of the Day features.
Tell us what you think, on comments, below.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I just got back from a great visit with 200 students -- a great, informed and involved group of young people who all attend Drexel University in Philadelphia, the scene of tonight's debate on MSNBC among the Democratic candidates for president. It occured to me today the view has changed from the podium recently. As someone who gives a fair number of speeches, it was a striking sight to stand at the lectern today looking out, as just about every student in the audience, at one point in my remarks, whipped out a cell phone and aimed their camera at me. Just as cell phones have replaced lighters as the light source of choice at concerts, they are now ubiquitous (in their role as cameras) at public events of all kinds. The students' questions were sharp: they asked about Africa (and my travels there with Bono), health care, the Iraq war, the process of picking debate questions, the role of the media in the national conversation -- and Stephen Colbert's broken wrist awareness campaign.
It's a sparkling day here, a great day for Drexel's campus to be on national display. Tim Russert and I, along with our senior political coverage staff, just emerged from a planning meeting where we went over questions. Presently I'm on the planning conference call for Nightly News. It's a full day.
Banner Day
Our in-house historian Andy Franklin reminds me that all the candidates
in tonight’s debate will no doubt closely scrutinize tomorrow morning’s headlines to see how their performance played. The fact is, no politician should ever underestimate the power of a punchy headline, as President Gerald Ford learned 32 years ago today. On October 30, 1975, New Yorkers woke up to a headline in the Daily News that became an instant, unforgettable classic: "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." It referred to a speech Ford had given the day before, saying he would offer no Federal bailout of New York. CONTINUED >>
By Pete Williams, NBC News justice correspondent
Federal officials and legal experts agree that what the State Department gave to Blackwater guards in Iraq is not immunity from prosecution but rather a promise not to use statements by the employees against them.
The Justice Department says the move by State's diplomatic security investigators complicated the effort to prosecute Blackwater employees. But this may all be academic, given the doubt about whether federal law actually covers their activities in Iraq in the first place.
Justice and State Department officials say Diplomatic Security investigators told the Blackwater guards that they must answer questions, but that anything they said would not be used against them. This is a standard warning in government misconduct investigations, though some legal experts are surprised it was given in a case like this involving potential criminal conduct.
CONTINUED >>
Oct. 30: NBC's Brian Williams previews tonight's Democratic
Presidential Candidates Debate and introduces the candidates' sound check
stand-ins. Click here to watch.
Hi. Brian is getting ready to moderate what could be a dramatic face-off in Philly between the Democratic candidates, who are now watching Hillary Clinton threatening to lap them in the national polls. This against the backdrop of the first major-league big-shot casualty of the mortgage/credit mess. Also, weird email traffic from Iraq, and a Flight of the Conchords tribute to "toughness" in honor of tonight's battle on the mean streets of Philly. (OK on the verdant campus of Drexel U.)
So we all saw Obama telling the NYT that he's taking the gloves off over the weekend. Will he? Mark Murray points out that Clinton's camp has posted videos of Obama and Edwards pledging to be nice. The AP previews tonight's potential dust-ups.
Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal is out of his job today, less than a week after his company announced a Q3 writedown of $8.4 billion, which was nearly double what the company estimated just a week before that. Merrill got into the mortgage derivatives game late, and very aggressively, and now O'Neal becomes the higest profile casualty of the credit crisis so far. Well, casualty is probably not so appropriate, given his $160 million in parting gifts. Would that all our pension annuities alone would be worth $2 million a year. One of the lingering questions surrounding O'Neal's departure: what was that last-minute stealth cuddle up to Wachovia all about? One blogger has a guess.. and it's a scary one for Merrill. On the other hand, the NYT's Dealbook blog plumbs other reasons why that deal might have actually made sense.
CONTINUED >>
By Mika Brzezinski, NBC News correspondent
They are called sports performance training centers. Some say they will become as mainstream and as necessary as the SAT prep course.
Uh oh. Another thing for us parents to wonder whether we should be doing for our kids!
At the centers, parents pay a fee for their kids to hone their skills at tennis, soccer, field hockey... you name it. The trainers are former professional athletes who help young athletes improve their game.
Now, before you roll your eyes and think "what next?," I must say, my oldest child (she's 11) would love these centers. She loves tennis and loves the thought of "training" like a professional athlete.
And that's what the kids at these centers do. Like little ants, children as young as nine years old run drills, jump up and down, and build muscles I am sure I did not have at that age.
The centers are cool places. too. Lots of action, and trainers who not only know their stuff, but build confidence and a team atmosphere.
At a time when obesity is a national crisis, and physical education programs are being cut back, you might wonder what could be wrong with the rapid growth of "sports performance training" for kids.
One question is, how far do we push our kids to be competitive? Do they really know what they want to be doing at 11 years old? Some experts say we are starting them too young, risking injury, and not allowing children to be children. Allow them to be kids? With free time? What a concept!
One mom we spoke to admits if her son gets that college scholarship, it will all be worth it - and her son is only 12!
And what about the notion of a level playing field in the school environment; do these centers further separate the "haves" from the "have-nots"?
Today's parenting is a tricky balance. And this new trend adds a whole new dimension to the competition of raising kids.
Watch exclusive Web video: Are we pushing our kids too far?
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
At its core, television news is not a complicated business. It is about bringing the events of the world into people’s homes (or these days, wherever they happen to be), and doing it with intelligence, speed and accuracy -- and maybe a little style. But doing it well can be extraordinarily difficult. Those who are best at it make it look easy, and no one was better at it than Jim Cummins, who died this past weekend. Jim was a correspondent for NBC News -- a field reporter -- for some thirty years, based out of Chicago, then Dallas. For many of those years he was also our Southwest bureau chief.
Field reporting is at the heart of what we do every day, and Jim simply excelled at it, year in and year out. He covered all kinds of stories, bringing to them clarity, immediacy, and a human touch. That he did this so well for so long is remarkable. That he did it so dependably and selflessly, and was such a pleasure to work with -- well, that was a gift.
It’s fitting that we remember Jim today, because this is an important date in the history of NBC News, and of this broadcast. On October 29, 1956 -- 51 years ago today -- the modern era of network evening news began, with the debut of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, co-anchoring what would become known as the Huntley-Brinkley Report. As we’ve said before, Chet and David, and their legendary producer Reuven Frank, created the template that has shaped so much of television news ever since. They were pioneers in what was then a young business, still being invented.
Television news itself has been around for close to 60 years, and it’s worth pointing out that for more than half of that history, Jim Cummins was a part of it. We’re proud that he was our colleague, and grateful that he was our friend.
Here is the statement about Jim that was released this weekend by NBC News President Steve Capus:
The NBC News family has lost a gentle giant of a man. Veteran NBC correspondent and bureau chief, Jim Cummins died this evening. His beloved wife Connie and their six children were with him as he passed away at the all-too-young age of 62.
It is fitting that Jim had a big family. After all, he spent decades making Americans feel right at home, with his down to earth, warm reporting style, delivery and presence. During a distinguished career with NBC News, Jim covered all kinds of breaking news assignments and memorable features. As Brian Williams recently put it, Jim was the definition of a field correspondent who seemingly covered every story more than once.
Jim was a child of Midwest America, with roots that stretched back to his birthplace in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He loved sports, and made a name for himself on the basketball court at Northwestern University. He earned his B.A. and master's degrees at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
Jim began his broadcast career in 1969 at KGLO-TV in Mason City, Iowa. He moved to WOTV in Grand Rapids, Michigan as an anchor and reporter in 1970. Three years later, he joined the NBC station in Milwaukee, WTMJ. Jim's next leap was to WMAQ-TV in Chicago. That move lead to Jim's hiring in 1978 as a Chicago-based correspondent for NBC News. In 1989, Jim became our Southwest bureau chief and correspondent, based in Dallas.
What a run Jim had with NBC News. From U.S. political coverage, to plane crashes; from the civil war in El Salvador to countless hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. His reporting led our broadcasts day after day from places like Waco; Killeen; Oklahoma City and Galveston. He earned an Emmy in 1993 for his reporting on the Midwest floods.
I thought of Jim often this week, as so many of our people showcased their brilliant talents covering the California wildfires. This was the kind of coverage that Jim poured himself into for decades.
Jim and Connie had a vision for life after NBC. A damnable cancer diagnosis came a short time after he left the job, and those plans took a backseat to a courageous battle. Tonight, he's at peace. Jim Cummins was a good man.
Amen to that. We hope you can join us for tonight’s broadcast.
By Lester Holt, NBC News Anchor
Good afternoon. Among the stories we'll be covering on Nightly News tonight is the growing tension between the U.S. and Iran over Iran's nuclear program, and whether the level of rhetoric from the west is beginning to amount to saber rattling. Today Mohamed El Baradei, the United Nation's nuclear watchdog called on the west to ease off the confrontational rhetoric. NBC's Kevin Corke is working that story for us.
Tensions between the west and Iran helped drive crude oil prices to a new record high on Friday. CNBC's Sharon Epperson will join me tonight to talk about how this will directly affect consumers, and the overall U.S. economy.
We're also on top of a story developing in North Carolina where a fire at a beach house occupied by college students has killed at least six people. NBC's Ron Mott will have a lot more on this.
There's some encouraging news out of Southern California. Firefighters have made good progress over the last 24 hours containing the remaining wildfires, though they are reminding everyone that a forecast for stronger winds could easily put them back on their heels. NBC's Martin Savidge will have that, along with a great story about one little girl's special expression of gratitude to the firefighters working to save her community.
In addition tonight, I'll take you off the coast of South Africa where scientists have sounded the alarm over a steady drop in the penguin population, and show you what they are doing to try and keep the animals off the endangered species list.
Thank your for clicking-on to our blog, and I hope you can join us later for NBC Nightly News.
by Lester Holt
Good afternoon from New York. It's pouring outside our window here at Rockefeller Center and I can't help but wish we could somehow re-direct the rain to the drought-stricken south, or the fire scorched west. We're covering both stories on Nightly News this evening. NBC's Martin Savidge will tell us where the fires stand, and what Sunday's expected change in the winds may bring. I was in California all week covering the fires, and as I was about to return home Thursday I noticed all the ground workers at LAX were wearing white masks. The smoke was thick enough to cut with a knife. Tonight we'll look at what the fires have done to air quality in the region, and what the health affects might be. Meantime on the drought front, NBC's Ron Mott will tell us about a dispute among three southern Governors over water, as the reservoir levels in that part of the country sink dangerously low.
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
My favorite in-house fellow presidential history buff, Andy Franklin, reminds us today: it was 35-years ago this very day that one of the most memorable phrases of the entire Vietnam era entered the lexicon. On October 26, 1972, President Richard Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger went before reporters at the White House and declared that “peace is at hand” in Vietnam. It wasn’t just memorable. As it turned out, it was wrong.
The New York Times, Oct. 27, 1972
By then the war had been going on for years. It had cost tens of thousands of American lives, billions of dollars, and had left the country divided, exhausted, and eager to move on. Kissinger’s announcement was greeted with euphoria for the most part, although skeptics questioned the timing -- less than two weeks before the presidential election. Kissinger’s news conference was in response to North Vietnam’s surprise announcement earlier that morning that an agreement to end the war was near. In fact, South Vietnam was not on board, and the North Vietnamese may have been trying to leverage the coming U.S. elections to pressure the Americans and the South Vietnamese to wrap up the deal being hammered out at the Paris peace talks. Nixon chief of staff Bob Haldeman recorded in his diary that day that Kissinger had called him at three in the morning “in a state of very great concern” to tell him what the North Vietnamese had done.
CONTINUED >>
By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer, Washington
The identity of the enemy in Iraq keeps shifting like the desert sands. "As the Sunni insurgents quit fighting us, the problems we have with criminality and other militia, many of them Shia, become relatively more important," a U.S. embassy official told the Washington Post. As for al-Qaeda in Iraq, President Bush stresses its continued danger, despite recent U.S. successes. "Al-Qaeda is not going to go away anytime soon," the president said in his latest news conference.
To the soldiers in Iraq, it's hard to tell who they're fighting.
"Where I was at [in Baghdad], we usually got mortars, rockets, all that stuff around there, but no one really knows who's shooting them," Pfc. Abelino Gomez, 21, of San Diego said today following a Purple Heart ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Gomez is recovering from shrapnel wounds in his stomach.
Spc. Donald Gray III, 23, of Boston, wounded by a roadside bomb northeast of Baghdad, said American forces simply fire back at whoever's firing at them.
"I mean, they don't dress any different than the regular people over there," Gray said. "It's really hard to tell."
Not that it makes much difference who's doing the firing.
CONTINUED >>
By Al Henkel, NBC News producer
Before they step onto the fire line, every wild land firefighter in the country straps on a fire shelter, a small tent-like object, coated with aluminum reflective material which they hope they never have to use. If you can't get away from an approaching fire front, you ditch your pack and tools, climb into the shelter and wait it out. The shelter can shield whoever is inside from about 95% of radiant heat. It begins to delaminate, and melt at about 500 degrees. Shelter deployments are rare, but every firefighter is trained to get inside it in less than 20 seconds. Watch a demonstration.
This week, 12 orange County Fire Authority firefighters were forced to deploy their shelters at the Santiago Fire in Southern California. They were chasing a spot fire that was headed towards a small mountain community, dragging hose through waist high brush. The winds were whipping, and small fire grew very quickly. They were trapped on a ridge in sight of a highway, and in sight of a Los Angeles Times photographer who shot an amazing series of photographs. Photographer Karen Tapia-Anderson told us that she thought she was watching firefighters die right in front of her lens. "My heart was breaking for those men. Through my shroud and my goggles I can honestly say I began to cry myself because I felt like they weren't going to make it. And I began to pray for those guys. I did. I prayed for those guys that they would be ok, I really did"
We met 5 of the 12 at their deployment site. In the typical firefighter manner, there were no tears, no wistful words, just a matter-of-fact explanation of what happened. Firefighter Brett Cowdell found the depression he scooped in the dirt to find clean air. "I deployed my shelter, put my face to the ground right here and jumped inside. We're already huffing and puffing cause we climbed the hills as fast as we could get up here I'm in the ground and I've got protection on my mouth, but it is burning as it's coming in."
They were lying down on the ground that a fire had just passed over inside a foil pup tent, trapping all that heat inside. Estimates of the ground temperature: between 300 and 500 degrees. Imagine lying down inside your oven.
All 12 walked down the hill. All 12 were checked out by paramedics. All 12 wanted to go right back out on the line. You see, the fire was still moving towards people and houses. All of them wanted to do keep doing their jobs.
When I was a young reporter, I was interviewing a firefighter and he took his helmet off. Inside, next to a picture of his wife and kids, was written this verse: Isaiah 43:2. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you." He told me you would be hard pressed to find a firefighter without that verse written somewhere in his gear.
That verse has been in my helmet ever since.
Don Teague and I will bring you the story of the Santiago Fire story tonight.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
There's no city in America as stressed as San Diego right now. And there's no city any stronger. Smoke fills the air, there's a crisis underway, and almost to a person, they are dealing with it beautifully. People have come together in some extraordinary ways. During our time in the city, I never heard a voice raised in anger or frustration. Firefighters work days on end without evident fatigue.
I walked to our superb local station the other night from my hotel, to see my friends who work there. I simply felt the need to pay homage to their coverage and salute the absolutely incredible job they've been doing, broadcasting around the clock -- a genuine public service in a city seared by disaster. They are so proud of their city and their work, and they have every reason to be. They have welcomed our huge Nightly News road show with open arms, through the fog of exhaustion.
The lobby of our hotel is a sea of people displaced by the fires. Families with children, children carrying cages housing hamsters, golden retrievers who seem thrilled at absolutely everything - wagging their tails with excitement at the chance to meet so many new friends. That's pretty much the San Diego way these days. What a challenge, what a horror, what a great collection of people coming together to heal what these flames have done. Keep them all in your thoughts and prayers.
CONTINUED >>
Hi. The housing market continues to slide, and with Merill Lynch's $8 billion dollar writedown announcment and a new guesstimate on what real estate price declines will add up to, we're starting to talk real money. Plus: is the stock trading game rigged? The first shoe to drop on Iran, and the NYC press opens up a can of whoop-ass on the former mayor for joining Sawx nation.
CalculatedRisk posts about the NYT article this morning that started putting some new numbers of expected declines in real estate values country-wide (no pun intended). $4 trillion is the new upper-end estimate, and when you look at CR's chart, you can see how this doesn't seem the least bit far-fetched. CR also parses the new homes sales numbers reported today, which are getting headlines that say "rebound." CR patiently explains why this is ridiculous (the August #s were revised downward at a "shocking" rate, June and July's #s also revised downward, the year-over-year decline is a sickening 23.3%, and initial reports don't include cancellations which are running at record levels now.) Bearish economist Nouriel Roubini takes some shots at critics who mocked his predicitions about fallout from the housing decline. And an lolcat shows just how far into the public consciousness the housing market mess has seeped.
CONTINUED >>
By Anne Thompson, NBC News correspondent and Clare Duffy, NBC News producer
Editor's Note: Anne and Clare, both proud citizens of Red Sox Nation, filed twin blogs after last night's game at Fenway Park. Here's Anne's:
The first question asked of any Red Sox fan this week is "Do you have World Series tickets?" If the answer is "yes," the next question is "Where are they?"
Through the good graces and bad luck of Burbank senior producer Mike Mosher, he gave his two tickets to the World Series to producer Clare Duffy and me. We are all lifelong members of the Red Sox Nation.
Like two giddy kids, Clare and I entered Fenway Park last night through gate C, climbed the ramp of Section 42 and up the stairs to Row 50, seats 5 and 6. That would be the last row in the right field bleachers, our seats right under the "F" of the Ford logo.
Last night, they were the best seats in the house. We were there. We had a perfect view of the field to watch Big Papi, Manny, Beckett, and Dustin Pedroia pound the Rockies. We could hear the Sox's "dugout band" play. We joined the chant of "Fran-cis" as the Nation taunted Rockies pitcher, Jeff Francis. And we sang "Sweet Caroline" at the top of our lungs delaying Kevin Youkilis' last plate appearance. It was heaven.
CONTINUED >>
By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer, Washington
Eight soldiers and one Marine died last week in Iraq, bringing the number of American deaths to 3,827 through Oct. 21. Another 446 service members have died in Afghanistan.
1. Army Sgt. 1st Class Justin Monschke, 28, of Krum, Texas, a Green Beret, died Oct. 14 when he got out of a vehicle in Arab Jabour, Iraq, and stepped on a roadside bomb. His brother, Jarett, had to break the news to their mother. "Jarett came to me, and he couldn't get it out," their mother told WFAA. "I knew from his face, and I just started screaming." Monschke leaves his widow, Melissa, and their children, Ashley, Ryan, and Dylan.
2. Army Pfc. Kenneth Iwasinski, 22, and his father were going to work on a car together and catch up when he returned home from Iraq to West Springfield, Mass., in January. But he was killed Oct. 14 by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, while on patrol with the 2nd Infantry Division. "I talked to him 20 minutes before he went out on that mission," his father told the Springfield Republican. "He was coming to the end of his tour. I wanted to make sure that he stayed focused."
3. Army 1st Lt. Thomas Martin, 27, of Ward, Ark., was the son of career military parents. A graduate of West Point, he was a cavalry scout officer with the 25th Infantry Division. Martin was killed Oct. 14 by small arms fire in Al Busayiki, Iraq. "It was just devastating," his high school physics teacher told KATV. "It's the news that hits you in the gut and makes you want to sit down and cry when you hear it." Martin was due home in a few weeks.
4. Army Spc. Jason Koutroubas, 21, of Dunnellon, Fla., was remembered as a quiet, unassuming kid who always wanted to be in the military. He was a ground station analyst with the 1st Cavalry Division in Tal Afar, Iraq. "He said there were a lot of sandstorms, and he missed trees," a friend told the Ocala Star-Banner. Koutroubas, who looked forward to going to college, died Oct. 14 in a non-combat incident. He leaves a widow and infant daughter.
CONTINUED >>
By Chai Collins, Intern, NBC News Los Angeles bureau
I am a senior at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California and for the past 96 hours our community has been on edge. During the beginning stages of the fire, several students including myself had packed a few belongings into our cars and were ready to leave campus at a moment's notice, but we feared that we had nowhere to go. With the fire raging on one side of campus and the ocean on the other, it became clear that if the fire grew completely out of hand... we were potentially waiting in a death trap.
For the past three nights, my roommates and I were terrified to sleep at night. Although we were assured by the president of Pepperdine that it was safer to remain on campus, there was still great potential for additional fires to spark close by and creep onto campus in the middle of the night. The blackened hillside and the burned cars on campus are evidence that my school came close to burning down.
Since coming to Pepperdine four years ago, I have witnessed a major mudslide that blocked off the Pacific Coast Highway and a fire last January that came close to campus, damaging a few homes in Malibu. However, nothing I've seen can compare to the magnitude of this fire and the devastation it has caused to the community. A local church, which many students attend, has burned, a pupil's apartment is damaged after the roof caught fire, and the Malibu Colony Plaza (home of the famed student hangout Malibu Yogurt) has sustained extensive exterior damage and is likely to be closed for many weeks.
Today is the first day things seem to be getting back to normal. Our local grocery store has reopened, the Santa Ana winds have worked to clear most of the smoke that was lingering over campus, and the surrounding fire is said to be nearly contained. This morning, our school President Andy Benton held a convocation for students in honor of the firefighters, Pepperdine staff members, and the local community for acting efficiently in a time of crisis. Many students who had evacuated campus have returned and we are also recommencing classes today.
Right now I am no longer on pins and needles. I feel as though I can finally breathe easily knowing my friends at Pepperdine, my family in San Diego, and I made it through this situation unharmed... and that if necessary, I am prepared to act quickly and leave my possessions behind.
Oct. 24: Brian Williams video blogs north of San Diego on a blistering hot day, on the efforst to combat the fires.
WATCH VIDEO
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
It's a scorcher of a day here in Southern California. The local news forecast graphic on the 11 o'clock news last night actually read: SMOKY, SUNNY, HOT. The Santa Ana winds have died down, but the biggest of the fires have not. We're at a staging area full of spent firefighters; everybody's spent -- completely exhausted. This is an all-consuming emergency for this region. The air is bad today; I saw some tourists -- seniors -- in downtown San Diego wearing masks this morning. Some of the larger fires aren't expected to be put down until well into November.
Yesterday in this space we provided links to local television and newspaper coverage of this story. There is also a vast amount of additional information about the fires on the Web -- maps, images, video, blogs and other resources. Here's a somewhat random and by no means comprehensive list of related links worth browsing:
http://sdfires.pbwiki.com/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/southern-california-fire-maps.html
http://map.sdsu.edu/
http://sandiegofires.blogspot.com/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3
http://twitter.com/latimesfires
http://searchengineland.com/071023-111626.php
http://jamesewelch.wordpress.com/2007/10/22/san-diego-fire-resources-witch-creek-others-2007/
http://www.livingwithfire.info/
We hope you can join us tonight, as our own teams have worked awfully hard in the heat, smoke and flames to get this broadcast on the air. Thank you for watching.
Oct. 24: Mark Potter previews his report on illegal immigration into the U.S. by Cubans, by way of Mexico. WATCH VIDEO.
By Mike Taibbi, NBC News correspondent
Editor's Note: Mike Taibbi's "Making a Difference" report airs tonight on Nightly News
Driving out from New York City to a tiny airfield in Fairfield, Pennsylvania, just past Gettysburg, I had an idea what to expect...how the story would go. There was a character at the story's center... a wheelchair-bound former Navy pilot named Richard "Footch" Fucci who'd learned to fly specially-adapted gliders and believed others with disabling injuries or illnesses could benefit the way he had from experiencing the life-affirming glory of free flight. I'd been in gliders a number of times and it never got old: you're up there, circling and soaring on the thermals or the waves of wind, just like the birds who owned the sky first. It's thrilling, no question, similar to hang-gliding in the sensation of pure flight.
Footch was a great salesman for the sport he loved, and that he'd decided to pass along to others. In the past couple of years, as the events director for the group called
Freedom's Wings, Footch had introduced his sport to well over a hundred people... men, women, kids...some of them wounded war vets and others enduring challenges in their everyday lives from paralysis or debilitating illnesses like cystic fibrosis or spina bifida. Now he and his group were trying to find a way to spread their message and their program for people with disabilities even further, by affiliating with the scores of other soaring groups organized across the country.
"Back in June," he told us, "a young woman flew with us and afterward said, 'I can't get up on a curb [with her wheelchair], but I can fly an airplane!' And that captures our mission, the spirit of Freedom's Wings...to say 'What else can I do that I didn't think I could do because I had a disability?'"
So Footch lives that mission... showing a couple of Iraq War vets recovering from terrible injuries how to grab for an exhilarating experience, just as he had despite his own terrible injuries. The soldiers...Nick Paupore and Bruce Dunlap, who'd been driven out from Walter Reed Army Medical Center...were kids again, whooping and laughing and saying sure, they'll do it again and think about qualifying as glider pilots with their new Freedom's Wings friends. Footch beamed; it had worked again. Again, he'd made a difference in strangers' lives. He'd shown them that in this sport... a sport that needs a team on the ground and hours if not days of prep work so individual pilots can thrill to its gifts for however many minutes the prevailing winds allow... you can't tell in the air whether a pilot has the use of his legs or not.
But if Footch with his boundless energy was the engine for our story, his pal Bill Murphy was, to me, its complicated soul. When I first saw "Murph" he seemed to be frowning; he looked gruff, wary... you know the type. Anger in there, maybe just a history of it, but enough of it to make you think twice about approaching him carelessly. He had a service dog, a big friendly Labrador named Montana who helped him negotiate his chair in restaurants and in other crowded spots. Murph and I spent a fair amount of time just talking, no cameras. I'd driven out with my own dog Scoop, an ancient Pug on his last legs with kidney failure but still delighted to be alive, and Scoop found a new friend in Montana.
But in my time with Murph I didn't hear any anger at all, just the story of a guy who'd had his share of life's ups and downs and who on this beautiful day was enjoying the heck out of one of the up days for sure. Murph said yes, he'd been angry in the past. Really angry about a lot of things, starting with the helicopter accident three decades earlier that ended his active service as a Marine and that sent him on a downward spiral marked by lawsuits, a failed marriage, and that damned wheelchair. But when he finally got up in the air and got the gift that soaring gives... on the good days... he found he wasn't just leaving his wheelchair on the ground below, but his anger too.
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
This is being thumb-typed on my Blackberry as we drive through a residential neighborhood in San Diego. It smells like a fireplace. Everywhere. I've resorted to wearing a mask to breathe. The smoke is one thing, but the ash in the air is downright dangerous. This morning we encountered a woman who watched her home burn down on television. She appeared to be in shock -- not quite knowing what to feel. Other residents wait for an escort up the hill to their property, not knowing what they'll find when they round the final turn on the road nearing home.
The police are still patient (even detectives are working patrol shifts and helping watch neighborhoods), and in front of a nearby strip mall, in the blazing sun, there are 25 firefighters sound asleep on the grass wearing their full gear, getting a little rest while they can.
It's a sad, smoky and unsure place. I'm watching a fire on a hillside as I type this: white smoke (someone's put water on the fire) has now given way to black smoke (the fire has re-generated), and beneath it sits the lake where the choppers hover low to fill their tanks with water. We've got it all covered -- we're living in various rental cars, dividing up the territory -- and we'll have complete coverage for you on tonight's broadcast. Please join us.
For more information on the fires in Southern California:
State of California:
http://www.ca.gov/CountyFireInfo.html
KNBC-TV, Los Angeles:
http://www.knbc.com/index.html
KSND-TV, San Diego:
http://www.knbc.com/index.html
msnbc.com:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21431682/
Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/
San Diego Union-Tribune:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/
Malibu Times:
http://www.malibutimes.com/
By Mara Schiavocampo, NBC Nightly News digital correspondent
Imagine your boss calls you into work on a Sunday. Now imagine he asks you to stay until Tuesday, without a break. No shower, no sit-down meals, no sleeping in your bed. You might agree to it, but my guess is you wouldn't be happy about it.
I just spent the day with a group of California firefighters at a command center in Santa Clarita who have been battling wildfires around the clock since Sunday. You can view my report here. As a whole, they reminded me of college kids cramming for final: exhausted but jovial. Some were drinking coffee and energy drinks. Many had bloodshot "I-haven't-selpt-for-days" eyes. A few sported days-old stubble. But all of them - every last one I spoke with - were friendly and cheerful.
We can all agree that firefighters are remarkable. They fall into that small category of things that are universally loved, like puppies and apple pie. After all, they risk their lives for ours. But today I have a newfound respect for them. They don't just respond to duty, they do it with a smile.
One group I spoke to didn't want to be interviewed on camera or give their names. They were afraid their bosses would get in trouble for not forcing them to take breaks. Of the dozens of firefighters I saw today, these guys looked the worst. They were just beat. When I found them they were getting their first break in about 40 hours. But they couldn't relax completely because they were still on call. If needed, they would have to mobilize in minutes. But they were joking around with each other and with me. They clearly enjoy the camaraderie. And I got the sense that they genuinely like to help others.
I asked one firefighter how he was feeling, given the long hours. He answered that while it was tough, one of the highlights was spending time with his firefighter buddies. With friends like these, I can see why.
By Don Teague, NBC News correspondent
I know wildfires happen in Southern California. I grew up here, went to college here, and worked several years as a TV reporter here. So, why is it so hard for me to believe my eyes when I see fire sweeping across this beautiful, rugged landscape at night?
I spent most of last night in Ramona, just a couple of miles from the house I used to live. During the Cedar fire four years ago, flames came to the very street my house sat on, and some close friends lost the dream home they had just finished building to the roaring flames.
When I saw these fires break out on Sunday, I asked the network to send me. My job isn’t to man the fire lines, or help evacuate neighborhoods…it’s to tell the stories of those who do and to inform the public. But for me, it’s more than that. My wife and children have close friends here. I have friends here. I love this place.
So it’s at once heartbreaking, and awe inspiring to see a fire line roar up the side of a mountain slope, or race through bone dry brush. And when you’ve worked enough fires like this, you learn to spot the sign of a home erupting in flames beyond the next ridge line. A surge of black smoke billowing into the sky, the smell of nylon and household chemicals burning, another dream home…however humble or magnificent…lost.
This fire will eventually go out. The thousands who’ve lost their homes and businesses will rebuild and move on. But the memory of a fire like this lasts forever.
By Rehema Ellis, NBC News correspondent
More than 60 years ago people only whispered about a woman or teenager who had a baby without a husband. Today about 37 percent of American children are born to unmarried mothers. The number is more than twice that in the African-American community. Among Hispanics the numbers are also high. It's not just teenage welfare mothers who are driving up those statistics. Adults -- men and women -- are deciding to have children and deciding not to get married.
It's a modern-day choice.
So, who would have thought Maryann Reid, one African American New York woman would have hundreds of couples from across the country asking her to choose them to be part of the group wedding she first planned two years ago with all expenses paid.
Reid says she's often gotten the initial requests from men who wanted to surprise their girlfriends with a wedding. But Reid says she always insists there be no secrets and no surprises. Her whole point with the mass wedding is to bring families together and she believes that means everyone has to know what's going on.
She also very clearly states that while she is an advocate for marriage because she believes in the institution, particularly when it comes to raising children, she doesn't push the idea on anyone.
People who don't want to get married, "they can live their life as they plan", she says. "We don't do anything to try and convince people that they should get married. So, I just tell people who don't wanna be bothered, don't be".
Reid had no problem finding wedding vendors to donate their services.
Joanne Baylor, who owns Make My Cake Bakery in Harlem, made the ten wedding cakes for the ceremony in 2005 and last month for the ceremony at the Riverside Church on New York's upper West Side.
When Maryann Reid first approached her with the idea Baylor said, "I guess the name, Marry Your Baby Daddy, has such a connotation, I really looked at it and said, 'What?'" But once Baylor understood the wedding was for couples who had been living together for years and had children but hadn't gotten married because they couldn't afford it, Baylor said, Reid's "being this advocate helping them to bring this whole thing together -- and families is what I'm about so, I was on board".
That's the sentiment repeated by every vendor; the dressmaker, the florist, the photographer even the church.
No one passed any judgement on those who haven't tied the knot or those who waited for Reid to help them do it. In the end, Marry Your Baby Daddy Day is a celebration for families -- moms, dads and their children.
By Scott Foster, NBC News producer
A day after an emotional ceremony at the White House, Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Michael Murphy was honored today at the Pentagon where his name was added to the Hall of Heroes before a packed audience of Navy SEALS, New York City firefighters and several other Medal of Honor recipients.
Murphy's parents, Dan and Maureen, held back tears as they unveiled the wall inscribed with Michael Murphy's name - the first Medal of Honor recipient from the war in Afghanistan. After a few seconds of looking at the name, Michael's father kissed his hand then placed it lightly over his son's inscription. Lt. Michael Murphy joins the hallowed ranks of over 3,000 U.S. military personnel who have been awarded the Medal of Honor -- the military highest honor presented for "uncommon valor" in combat.
Dan Murphy said the experience was a "little overwhelming," and in his remarks noted that another 18 other military personnel died heroically in the operation that claimed his son.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead, and Navy Secretary Donald Winter all praised Murphy's bravery in June 2005 during a Taliban ambush when he knowingly put himself in the line of fire to make a satellite call to rescue his 4-man SEAL team in the Hindu-Kush mountains. Murphy's fellow SEAL Marcus Luttrell survived, but tragically 16 other US troops were killed when their helicopter was shot down as they attempted to rescue the team.
Luttrell, who attended the Pentagon ceremony today, told NBC in an interview last week he wasn't surprised by Murphy's heroic actions on that fateful rugged mountain ridge over two years ago.
"That's why he was on there on that mission," he said, "that's why he was our leader, that's why he was in charge, we don't keep officers around if they don't pull their weight."
Dozens of New York City firefighters filled an overflow room at today's ceremony to pay tribute to the Long Island native who always wore a New York firefighter badge on his uniform while deployed overseas to honor the victims of the 9-11 attacks.
Hi. It's Nuthin' But 'Net lite today, after a late night with Bruce Springsteen last night. The focus is on an update on the situation with those Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) and how the banks that hold them are trying to bail themselves out. Also, strike two for Obama with the netroots, and some odd political bedfellows.
The New York Times reports on those struggling SIVs-- off the books investment vehicles that are causing big headaches for some big banks. And here's more on the fallout. There was an odd incident over the weekend, involving Treasury Secretary Paulson. He hinted that PIMCO, the huge bond fund, was going to back the CITIGROUP SIV rescue venture, but that turned out to be false. Bloomberg points out the domino effect of SIVs going belly-up. The WSJ points out that the necessity of CITI's super-SIV may bring on the failure that it's supposed to be preventing. A few weeks ago in this space, the question: "what's in your 'safe' money market fund?" came up. The WSJ has an answer.. and it's not pretty. And Calculated Risk links to the best explanation for all this you're likely to get. It's funny because it's true.
Last week ABC News ran a story purportedly explaining the evidence behind the mysterious Israeli raid on Syria. Earlier in the week, two former CIA guys filed their dissents on the media's handling of this whole thing. The IAEA is examining satellite photos of the Syrian site, but as AFP reports, the nuclear watchdog agency says it has had no indication that Syria was working on a nuclear weapons program and if other countries did, they ought to let the IAEA in on it.
And speaking of the IAEA, Mohammed el Baradai says Iran needs between 3 and 8 years to make a nuclear weapon.
Barack Obama took some hits in the netroots last week for not stepping in to try to stop the FISA reauthorization. Today, it's the presence of a guy with anti-homosexual views on a campaign Gospel Tour that has the left blogosphere riled.Talking Points Memo kicked it off.. and Americablog is leading the ongoing offensive. And you know you got trouble when even Perez Hilton is on the case!
Strange bedfellows, part 1: The New York Times put a topic that's been the subject of a lot of discussion in our newsroom lately on the front page yesterday: the obvious cooperation going on between the Clinton campaign and Matt Drudge, who was probably the individual who came closest to bringing down her husband's presidency, besides the President himself. Oddly, Times reporter Jim Rutenberg didn't find anyone to express the loathing this inspires in many a Democrat. DailyKos diarist sakitume gets at the disgust the New York Times missed. Steve Brodner has an interesting take.. but warning: the illustration make keep you awake tonight. And Andrew Sullivan got it right, about 3 weeks ago. (Hat tip: cursor.org)
And part 2: NY Yankees superfan Rudy Giuliani is rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series. This might seem obvious, given the number of Red Sox fans in.. ummmm.. New Hampshire. It also might seem offensive given the blood hatred between Sawx and Yankee fans, but as a New Englander who lived in Manhattan for a looooong time, I can tell ya.. the hatred flows much more swiftly in the direction of the Yankees than the other way around. Maybe he really is just an American League guy.
And finally, Bruce Springsteen did not dedicate any songs to me last night (but click on the link to see who he DID give a shout-out to..) though calling an audible and doing my desert-island-all-time-favorite Thunder Road did seem almost like a personal favor. To say the house was rockin' is an understatement. For lack of a bootleg.. here's a trip down memory "Road."
By Jay Blackman, NBC News Producer
It has long been a tradition that astronauts take items into space on the shuttle for people back here on earth. This latest shuttle mission is no different, and this time, one of the items is a part of Hollywood space lore.
In honor of the 30th Anniversary of the Star Wars movie franchise, Luke Skywalker's light saber was launched into space aboard Shuttle Discovery this morning. Star Wars director George Lucas was among the VIP guests watching the launch....wonder whether he said "May the force be with you" before they blasted into space...
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
This is a special day for our broadcast, and for all of NBC News. Starting today, Nightly News originates from a brand-new, state of the art studio on the third floor of our headquarters here at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. We look forward to showing it off to you tonight. But really, it’s just the most visible part of what may be the most sweeping reorganization this news division has ever seen. Today for the first time, our colleagues at MSNBC join us at the newly redesigned and renovated NBC News facility at 30 Rock -- where from here on out, we will share not only a work environment, but also talent, resources and ideas -- not to mention space in the office refrigerator. We’ve all been looking forward to this for a long time -- despite all the logistical challenges, and there have been plenty of those. For some of us, this is also a reunion -- those of us who were part of MSNBC at the beginning, when it first went on the air 11 years ago. We were in Fort Lee, New Jersey then -- sharing space with CNBC while our new digs were built in nearby Secaucus. Over the past decade, there have been a lot of changes, and today’s may be the biggest one yet. To all the new arrivals from MSNBC: welcome to your -- OUR -- new home.
By the way, our new studio includes a new set, and it looks great. A tip of the hat here to our director Brett Holey and his team for bringing it all in for a landing. Make no mistake, the content of the broadcast will always be the most important part of what we do, but we think this new set will be a valuable and versatile tool, helping us bring you the best program possible. Sets have always been a part of television news -- sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Today’s unveiling got us thinking back to our founding fathers, so to speak -- Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, whose Huntley-Brinkley Report really created the template for network evening news programs.
CONTINUED >>
Editor's note: First Person "Photo of the Day" is breaking news pictures and photography submitted by users and readers.
David Anderson has this photo from the scene:
"This is taken from the Canyon Country fire. This photo was taken from my driveway. I have no idea if my house is still there. (Location Plum Canyon)"
See more photos of the California wildfires here.
Click FirstPerson.MSNBC.com to submit an entry.
Click here to see more Photo of the Day features.
Tell us what you think, on comments, below.
By Ann Curry, NBC News Anchor
"Look, there's the restaurant where Danny Pearl was kidnapped," someone said as our car raced through Karachi. Glimpsing The Village restaurant, I saw holiday lights on a sad roof, a reminder that nothing here is as safe as it appears.
Karachi is city still on edge, 4 days after being rocked by the deadliest suicide bombing in Pakistan's history. 640 people were killed or injured in the assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto. In the wake of the tragedy, Newsweek is arguing that Pakistan is the world's most dangerous place, in part because so much terrorism can be traced back to it.
Arriving at Bhutto's compound Sunday, our NBC News team was greeted by security men armed with AK-47s, who required us to pass five bag searchers, three metal detectors and body checks before they allowed us in. They have already been warned of at least two more plots to assassinate her.
Inside, women were praying and weeping for lost loved ones in the oppressive heat. One, Zakia Raza, held a large framed photo of her husband, killed in the attack. Three months pregnant with their child, she tells us in her grief that she hopes the baby dies rather than see this world as it now appears to her.
In this nation where extreme poverty and despair fuel extremism, 
Bhutto is seen as Pakistan's only hope for democracy. Meeting for an interview in New York 6 weeks ago, she told me she wants to be re-elected Prime Minister and work with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaf to defuse extremism by offering greater political power in the regions where violence is now escalating.
(photo by Ann Curry, NBC News)
Now, amid the chaos of Karachi... at one point as I tried to get close to Bhutto, a security man actually picked me up by the waist and threw me down.. Bhutto recognized me and agreed to give NBC News her first US interview since the attempt on her life.
What she says about not giving in to fear in the face if terrorism, seems something Americans will want to hear.
We feel lucky we can bring you this interview on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams tonight.
By Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief foreign affairs correspondent
A source close to the advisory group that reported to Secretary of State Rice today on what to do about Blackwater tells NBC they laid out corrective actions they think are needed - including a major new set of policies to coordinate private contractors in Iraq. They told Rice there is a total lack of coordination outside the Green Zone - and that this needs to be fixed in "days or weeks" at most - rather than waiting for the FBI report on Blackwater to be completed. The team told Rice this problem is much bigger than Blackwater - and needs to be resolved urgently.
Rice was given detailed recommendations - including that there be "unity of effort" - one approach to coordinate who operates in the war zone. Members of the team were "taken aback" by the lack of control over literally dozens of private contractors working for the state dept - the pentagon - NGO's - and private companies in the war zone. The team also recommends that whoever takes over Blackwater's duties - if that happens - there must be much better coordination with Iraq's govt.
During their time in Iraq - the State Department team met with both Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
Experts on the team do not believe that either the military or State Department security agents have the resources to replace Blackwater, should its contract be cancelled. That would mean expanding the duties of one of the other contractors already working for State Department - perhaps by hiring some of the current Blackwater employees. Blackwater's current contract expires in May. The Maliki government is pushing for them to be ousted from Iraq.
Rice testifies Wednesday - and is planning to consult Secretary of Defense Robert Gates - to try to come up with preliminary recommendations this week.
Read more in the Washington Post.
by Lester Holt
Good afternoon from New York. Not in a million years could I imagine the first hint of our lead story would come in a recorded message this morning from my son's University. The voice was advising students and faculty to leave their dorms and make their way to the campus center and gym. I'm happy to report my son is fine, but he and his classmates at Pepperdine University are being "sheltered in place" as a dangerous wildfire burns through the Malibu area. Numerous structures have been either destroyed or are in danger. The fire is being pushed along by the infamous Santa Ana winds, reaching speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. NBC's Chris Jansing is on the scene for us and will have the latest in a live report, and Gary Archibald from NBC Weather plus will be on with us tonight to talk about when the area may see a break from the dry and windy conditions.
CONTINUED >>
Editor's note: Ann Curry will report from Pakistan on Monday's broadcast.
By Ann Curry, NBC News Anchor
It was in darkness when the bombs exploded, two of them, seconds apart. After the chaos came the reckoning: 134 dead, hundreds more wounded, it was one of the deadliest attacks in the history of Pakistan but the target, a woman, survived without a scratch.
Benazir Bhutto in person looks more like an elegant matron, in her flowing robes and flawless makeup, than someone who would knowingly court danger.
But knowing it risked her safety, she aligned herself with the US government, against the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan. And then, despite warnings that suicide bombers would come after her, she returned home to Pakistan.
Just what sort of person does this?
The eldest daughter of a President of Pakistan, she was imprisoned in solitary confinement when he was deposed and executed.
Destiny she says made her a political activist, and at 35, she was elected Prime Minister, becoming one of the only women the only woman in modern times to govern an Islamic state.
The price: Her brothers were killed, her husband was tortured, and she was humiliated by charges of corruption. She fled Pakistan in disgrace.
You'd think she'd quit.
But no, seeing a chance now 8 years later, to help Pakistan return to democracy, she comes home knowing she could be killed. In fact, she was attacked just hours after landing.
Sure she is popular with the majority in Pakistan, who wish for democracy, but she does not get along with Pakistan's unpopular but powerful military coup President Pervez Musharraf. It is said they detest each other, which might help explain why his government did not do more to protect her.
Though shaken by the attack, and knowing another is being planed she insists on staying. Madness? Or a deep love of country?
She wants to run for re-election and push Pakistan toward democracy and away from extremists who've been coming across the border from Afghanistan and radicalizing the young in Pakistan.
Is it possible the future of terrorism could hinge on whether one woman can stay alive?
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
President Bush got everyone’s attention this week when he raised the specter of World War III while discussing the potential nuclear threat posed by Iran. The risk of a third world war is the classic doomsday scenario, and it turns out -- as Andy Franklin's research confirms -- it’s one that has been invoked by presidents since – well, since soon after World War Two.
Harry Truman mentioned World War III frequently, saying that avoiding such a war was part of the rationale for American involvement in Korea (“We are in a fight to stay out of World War III”), and for maintaining a strong military (“We must maintain large armed forces for a long time to come, if we are to protect our freedom and prevent World War III.”) He also raised the subject in a political context more than once, while taking on some of his Republican critics. In a June 1951 speech, Truman said, “Partisan efforts to label our foreign policy as appeasement -- to tag it as a policy of fear or timidity -- point to only one thing: They point to our "going it alone" down the road to World War III.” In the 1952 presidential race, Truman campaigned for Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson – and against Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. In an October 1952 speech, Truman said of Eisenhower, “I thought he would stand firmly behind the great defense effort we are making to hold off Communist aggression and prevent World War III… My friends, that is not the case.” In another speech that same month, he said, “No matter what the Republican candidate says, we shall not engage in appeasement. To do that would be to take the sure road to World War III.” Eisenhower won that year, of course, and history records that World War III did not break out during his presidency. In his 1956 re-election campaign kickoff speech, President Eisenhower observed, “The only way to win World War III is to prevent it.”
CONTINUED >>
By Anthony Galloway, NBC News producer
Turning off the lights to America's fourth largest metropolis is no easy task.
I learned that first hand by calling various San Francisco authorities, trying to get them to give me a demonstration of what the city will look like on Saturday, October 20; the date when the "Lights Out San Francisco" campaign hopes residents and business owners throughout the city will turn off all non-essential lights between 8 and 9pm.
I was surprised when one of the representatives for the Bay Bridge actually agreed to turn the bridge's lights off a couple of days before the main "Lights Out" event. The night of the demonstration I prayed they would only turn off the bridge's decorative lighting, as we'd discussed, so that hundreds of motorists wouldn't be left in the dark.
Strand by strand, over the course of 40 minutes, the bridge's decorative lights -- and only the decorative lights -- were turned off. I was on the phone with Nate Tyler, the campaign's main organizer, when one section went dark. I could hear his volunteers cheering in the background as our news chopper circled overhead.
Tyler says if everyone heeds his call, the city could save 15 percent of an average Saturday's energy use. Still, he concedes that turning off the lights for one hour on one day will barely make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions. It's only a start. The real goal, he says, is to raise awareness about energy consumption and make turning out the lights an everyday affair.
Climbing to the top of San Francisco's iconic Ferry Building was no everyday affair for me, though. Three flights of stairs and one ladder up, I stood there with an engineer who agreed to flip the famous "Port of San Francisco" neon lights off, just for a second.
Standing there I wondered whether the entire city would really follow suit. Would restaurants operate by candlelight? Would families tell scary stories at home in the dark? Would office buildings turn their lights out?
The concept worked in Sydney, Australia, earlier this year. But it flopped in Salt Lake City last month. This Saturday, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Barbara will join the San Francisco effort.
If it works, campaign organizer Nate Tyler will ask all Americans to turn the lights out next March. Someday he hopes to go global. Talk about a hard task.
By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer, Washington
Ten more U.S. troops died last week in a war their former commanding general called "a nightmare with no end in sight." Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq in 2003-04, called the Bush administration's handling of the war "incompetent" and the troop surge a "desperate attempt" to make up for years of shortcomings. "The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat," Sanchez said in a speech.
In response, President Bush said he's pleased with the progress being made in Iraq.
"The situation on the ground has changed dramatically since [Sanchez] left Iraq," the president said in a news conference.
While the debate continued, the following troops died:
1. Army Cpl. Gilberto Meza, 21, was known as a "tough kid" who got into his share of scrapes growing up in Oxnard, Calif. But he began to turn his life around two years ago when he joined the Army. "This was like a career move for him," his brother told the Ventura County Times. Meza, assigned to the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, was killed Oct. 6 by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. "God, I still don't believe it," his brother told KEYT-TV.
2. Army Cpl. Benjamin Dillon was home on leave last month in Rootstown, Ohio, celebrating his 22nd birthday. He spent his time talking to his family around campfires and racing four-wheelers through the woods. Dillon was back with his Ranger unit just a short time when he was shot and killed Oct. 7 in northern Iraq. "Bad things aren't suppose to happen to such good people," his high school coach told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
3. Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy Burris, 22, grew up in Liberty, Texas, the oldest of seven children. "Born and raised in Texas and proud of it," he bragged in MySpace. In 2004, Burris moved to Tacoma, Wash., with a Christian ministry program and joined the Marines two years later. "My nickname around here is 'Jesus,'" he said in MySpace. "I'm kinda proud of that." Burris was killed Oct. 8 by a roadside bomb in Iraq's Al Anbar Province.
4. Army Sgt. Jason Lantieri, 25, of Killingworth, Conn., had a difficult time with his biological family and moved in with a foster family at the age of 11. "He was a gift to us," his foster mother told the Hartford Courant. Lantieri got a college degree and joined the Army's 25th Infantry Division. On Oct. 10, he died in Iskandaryah, Iraq, of injuries suffered when he was pinned between two vehicles. "Earth-shattering," his foster mother told the Courant. "Every mother's nightmare."
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
We’re happy to report that a member of the extended NBC News family got a promotion today. Archbishop John P. Foley, our Vatican analyst, has been named Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI. Viewers will recall Foley’s expert analysis and insight during our coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II, as well as the subsequent selection of his successor. Archbishop Foley is one of 23 new Cardinals created by the Pope today in the Vatican.
Foley, who hails from Philadelphia (and once studied journalism at Columbia University), got word of his elevation yesterday. He had reportedly just returned to his residence in Rome after having cataract surgery when he was summoned to the Vatican. “I said I couldn’t drive because I just had this surgery,” Foley recalled. “When they said, ‘We’ll send a car over,’ I knew it was important.” Foley, who turns 72 next month, is one of just two Americans among the 23 new Cardinals. (The other is Daniel N. DiNardo, the archbishop of Houston). They’ll all be installed in a special ceremony known as a consistory at the Vatican on November 24. It is the College of Cardinals, of course, that will one day vote on a successor to Pope Benedict XVI himself. But our relationship with soon-to-be-Cardinal Foley won’t give us an inside track when that day comes; all participants in those deliberations are sworn to absolute secrecy.
CONTINUED >>
Hi. Politics and policy today, with new rumblings from the Christian right that Giuliani might not be an acceptable nominee, the S-CHIP fight ends in a win for the White House, but at what cost? Also, the netroots have a new hero, and his name is Dodd. And Snowball rocks, but the Backstreet Boys-- how about something from this decade?
Salon's Michael Scherer reports that some potential "We'll Defect if Giuliani is the Nominee" Republicans are meeting in Washington Saturday, shortly after his remarks to an anti-abortion group. Steven Stark of the Boston Phoenix says a third-party run will sink the GOP. And Sam Brownback is out, which many bloggers think will help either Huckabee or Romney.
Mort Kondracke says pay no attention to Bush's 24% approval rating.. the White House is on a roll. Dan Froomkin isn't so convinced by the President's "I am relevant" declaration.
This morning's NYT editorial page foresaw the House vote to override President Bush's children's health insurance program (S-CHIP) veto, which indeed failed, by 13 votes. The GOP might be gloating that they are "on offense" on this, but maybe it's the wrong thing on which to be playing offense. Bulldog Pundit thinks the "victory over socialized medicine" is temporary. And the WSJ notes that Democrats will try again with a bill that will presumably cover fewer kids. Senator Mitch McConnell's hometown paper notes some lingering political fallout. (Hat tip: Cursor.org) And Ann at Feministing finds it odd that the National Right to Life Committee doesn't support the S-CHIPexpansion.
Salon's Glenn Greenwald posts about conservative calls to give the President unlimited power to eavesdrop on calls into and out of the U.S., and wonders how that squares with their long-professed political values of small, restrained government. Which brings us to the Democratic hero/Republican goat of the day: Senator Chris Dodd, for putting a hold on the bill that would grant retroactive immunity to phone companies that turned over customer records to federal authorities withoutt warrants. John Aravosis sums up. And Kagro X at DailyKos posts about what a hold is and how it works. ThinkProgress points out that Judiciary Chairman Leahy is furious about the FISA bill. And a Greenwald follow-up on neoconservative nepotism.
Slate's Fred Kaplan notes the chorus of general critiquing the Iraq war and concludes that if President Bush orders an attack on Iran, any generals who are opposed should resign.
Digby listened to Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey yesterday compare torture of terrorism suspects and the behavior of the Nazis during World War II, and it rang a bell. She notes the different reactions. Hmm but Mukasey today won't say whether waterboarding is torture, as RawStory notes.
And for all you bird lovers out there.. thanks to the Hotline's Last Call for this. Go Snowball.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Did anyone hear the interview with Rudy Giuliani this week, when he pulled out a great phrase from the grab bag of political arcana and spoke of the "11th Commandment" in the Republican Party? My partner in all things history around here, Andy Franklin, had the same idea I had. This calls, I think, for a review of the history of the phrase. When Giuliani uttered the "Commandment" while campaigning in New Hampshire, he suggested that the Democratic presidential candidates lately had been more negative than his fellow Republicans were. And he invoked the name of Ronald Reagan, “because he was the most successful Republican in a long time,” Giuliani said. “He used to have an 11th Commandment. It was, ‘Thou shalt not attack another Republican.’"
The so-called 11th Commandment has served the Republican Party well over the years. Ronald Reagan is often given credit for coming up with the rule, but in fact, it was someone else’s idea -- someone named Gaylord Parkinson, who years ago was chairman of the Republican Party in California. In September 1965, as California Republicans (including Reagan) prepared to compete for the GOP nomination for governor, Parkinson decreed that the candidates should refrain from attacking each other. He called it the 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” The idea was to foster party unity and avoid the acrimony of the year before, when moderate and conservative Republicans were bitterly divided over their presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater.
In the 1966 race for governor, Parkinson’s rule actually gave a boost to candidate Reagan, who was then a former actor making his first bid for public office. In the primary campaign, one of Reagan’s Republican opponents attacked him as an “extremist,” and called him “temperamental and emotionally upset,” adding that Reagan’s earlier switch from liberal Democrat to conservative Republican “might indicate instability of some sort.” It was even hinted that Reagan might have once belonged to Communist front organizations. The attacks backfired, leaving the high road to Reagan, who was only too happy to follow the 11th Commandment. He won the primary, and that November he was elected governor, defeating incumbent Democrat Pat Brown.
Ten years later, things had changed. In 1976, Reagan was a former governor challenging an incumbent of his own party -- Gerald Ford -- for the Republican presidential nomination. Ford, who made no pretense of following the 11th Commandment (he said only that he would “abide by the first ten”), had beaten Reagan in the early primaries. Reagan’s campaign was faltering, and his own advisers urged him to take the gloves off. He did. Campaigning in Florida that March, Ronald Reagan broke the 11th Commandment and attacked Gerald Ford. He accused Ford, who had then been president just 19 months, of presiding over “the collapse of American will and the retreat of American power,” and said Ford “must be held accountable to history for allowing this to happen.” He said Ford lacked “vision,” that he found it “difficult” to trust his leadership. He accused the president of favoring “pre-emptive concessions” in talks with the Soviet Union, and said, “I fear for my country when I see White House indifference to the decline in our military position.”
It wasn’t enough, or perhaps it was too much. Ronald Reagan lost the Florida primary to Gerald Ford, who was privately furious at Reagan over the attacks. Reagan’s campaign never recovered. Even so, there was talk in Republican circles of inviting Reagan onto the ticket as Ford’s running mate. Had Reagan’s criticism of Ford diminished that possibility? “I don’t think so. It was said in the heat of the campaign,” said Gerald Ford’s White House chief of staff. And who was he? A young fellow named Dick Cheney.
In the end, Ford won the nomination in 1976, and -- with Bob Dole as his running mate -- lost the election to Jimmy Carter. Reagan ran for president again in 1980, and that January, riding high in the polls, he declined to participate in a GOP candidate debate in Iowa, saying he did not want to divide the Republican Party. One fellow contender, former Texas governor John Connally (also a former Democrat), was having none of it. “He talks about this 11th Commandment thing,” Connally said of Reagan, “but he’s the man who challenged an incumbent president in 1976. If he had not made that challenge, Jerry Ford would probably still be president of the United States.”
History lesson over. We have a great broadcast for you tonight, and we hope you can join us.
Meng Wu shares her photo and story about seeing Beijing's new Olympic stadium.
"I am a college student at Beijing Forestry University studying Urban Planning. Toward the end of my summer vacation this past September, I went for a visit to the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium and it turned out to be one of the most exciting days in my life."
Click here to read his story, see more photos.
This week, we've been featuring a series on "China Rising." See our homepage for more of those reports and videos.
Click FirstPerson.MSNBC.com to submit an entry.
Click here to see more Photo of the Day features.
Tell us what you think, on comments, below.
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News producer
Lanzhou, Gansu - It wasn’t an auspicious beginning.
After several false starts this year, we’d finally received word that NBC News would be allowed to ride the train to Tibet - the world’s highest altitude railway.
The Qinghai-Tibet railway, which was completed July last year, extended existing lines so that travelers can now journey on the train from far-flung places like Beijing or Shanghai all the way to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
The connection from Qinghai to Tibet links Golmud, a remote city in western China across the Tibetan Plateau directly to Lhasa. The line runs 700 miles and traverses some of the toughest terrain known to man. Altitudes range from 12,000 to just over 16,000 feet (some reports say the highest point of the trip, Tanggula Pass, reaches almost 17,000 feet), and the tracks are built on permafrost.
Of the team - correspondent Mark Mullen, cameraman Marcus O’Brien, researcher Ed Flanagan, and myself - Mark was the most excited about having finally obtained approval from the Tibet Autonomous Regional authorities and China’s Railway Ministry. Being the pessimist, I wasn’t going to kick up my heels until we were all standing in front of Lhasa’s most famous landmark, Potala Palace.
So I should have expected the little hiccup at the very start of our journey.
The Departure
Like all passengers, we had a number of choices from which to kick off the trip. We’d whittled them down to Beijing, which covers over 2,500 miles and takes nearly two days; Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province; or Xining, the capital of Qinghai province.
We decided on Lanzhou since the trip would take just over 24 hours and the departure time was during the day, which would make for easier filming.
Lanzhou is only a two-hour flight west from Beijing. We booked an early flight, allowing for the hour’s drive from airport to train station, a leisurely lunch, and an hour to shoot at the station.
As it turned out, we wound up doing none of these.
Inexplicably -- as it was the clearest day in Beijing in months -- our plane was delayed just under four hours.
By the time we finally landed in Lanzhou, it was just after 3:30p. The train to Tibet was scheduled to depart at 5:40p.
Or so we thought.
The Arrival
With Mark egging on the lone airport baggage handler, we managed to retrieve our 18 pieces of gear and throw it onto the hired “bread car” by 4:05p. Five minutes later, we were on the highway to downtown Lanzhou, an hour’s drive away.
As my colleagues admired the views - rolling hills and grazing livestock - I urged our driver to hit the pedal and began fielding what would be the first of several dozen calls from Lanzhou Railway Minister Zhao at the train station.
It began rather cordially.
“Miss Mong, where are you now? Oh, you’re on the highway now? Good, please ask your driver to drive quickly. We will try to hold the train for you. Thank you.”
Shortly after, however, the calls came fast and furious:
“Miss Mong, where are you? Tell your driver to drive more quickly. Drive quicker, tell him now.”
“Miss Mong! Where are you?? Do you think you can get here before 5p?! We can’t hold the train! Quickly, quickly, quickly, Miss Mong!”
“Miss Mong!! Where are you now?! Have you gotten off the highway?! Tell your driver to take this exit! Aiya, Miss Mong, you’re giving me heart disease.”
“Miss Mong!! Where are you??” “We’re almost there. We’re just at a red light. I can see the station, Minister Zhao.”
“AIYA!! TELL YOUR DRIVER TO DRIVE THROUGH THE RED LIGHT! THERE’S NO TIME FOR RED LIGHTS!! DRIVE NOW! TELL HIM TO DRIVE AROUND THE CARS NOW!!”
Huffing and Puffing
When we showed up at the train station, one man was waving at us frantically to go down a path they’d carved out from other station traffic. The minister - a slip of a man whose size did no justice to the ferocity of his voice -- was standing right outside the terminal and waved our driver energetically towards an alley behind the building.
At a carport, our “bread car” stopped, and a dozen rail officials - men and women, in suits mostly - each grabbed a Pelican case and began jogging up a flight of stairs. One poor fellow had the misfortune of choosing the case containing a powerful light kit, which weighs easily 80 pounds.
As he huffed and puffed his way up the stairs, Marcus - tasked with documenting our journey with his camera -- mercilessly zoomed in on the poor man’s face, stoic-looking as sweat rained down from his forehead.
Down the platform, a dozen people and ourselves sprinted towards the train, where conductors in neatly pressed maroon uniforms and caps stood at attention by the doors. We threw everything into the rail car. I turned around to try to shake Minister Zhao’s hand, but this was no time for niceties. “Get on the train, Miss Mong!” he barked at me for the last time.
Two minutes later, at 5:14p, our train pulled out of the station, before we even had a moment to take stock of anything.
But I did manage to ring Minister Zhao to thank him and to apologize for giving him, as he had put it, heart disease.
“It’s okay, Miss Mong. I’m glad you made it after all this,” he said, unexpectedly graciously. “We hope you enjoy your journey!”
Watch a portion of the journey
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
This is a sad day in one very specific way: effective today, we come to the end of our daily biographies of Medal of Honor recipients. We have run, alphabetically, through all 109 living recipients -- and it has been an honor to publish their stories here. They are all contained in a book, which I highly recommend -- a copy of which is proudly displayed in my office and in my home. Serving these men on the board of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Foundation continues to be one of the most rewarding tasks I've ever undertaken. And starting November 5th on Nightly News, we will profile five individual recipients -- one per evening -- as part of our observance of Veteran's Day. I can promise you some inspiring stories, as we look at these men who embody the ideals of valor, courage, sacrifice and patriotism. They are the best of us.
An exciting in-house note: today for the first time we saw the test-shots of our new studio, part of our new world headquarters here at 30 Rock. Nightly News is getting ready for a beautiful new home and a new look, starting next Monday night. We'll post a video preview in this space shortly -- but wait till you see what our director Brett Holey has been working so hard on for so long. While a facility per se has no bearing on the content of the newscast, our new home is so spectacular that I actually think it will affect the tone and feel of the broadcast in ways we can't yet anticipate… and all for the better. It's a beautiful new home.
We have a great broadcast planned for tonight, including the unforgettable story of this country's latest Medal of Honor recipient -- the first to be awarded for combat in Afghanistan. I hope you can join us this evening.
Hi. Well. The stock market shook off August's credit crunch doldrums in a major way, and there was an eerie quiet surrounding all the housing/mortgage/credit derivatives problems after the Fed rate cut. But today it appears, it ain't over. A special credit cruch redux issue today.. beginning with remarks from the Fed Chairman last night and the Treasury Secretary today.. and this past weekend's revelation that the world's second biggest bank is setting up a fund to try to bail itself out of what looks like big trouble.
So now, as the WSJ reports, Treasury Secretary Paulson says this country's housing market meltdown represents a serious risk to the overall economy. A pretty big departure from this past Spring when these issues were "contained." Our friends at CalculatedRisk thought Paulson sounded like he worked for the National Association of Realtors in July. Paulson should also check in with his boss, who downplayed the housing market's potential impact on the overall economy five days ago. Babson professor Peter Cohan looks at Paulson's remarks today and Fed Chairman Bernanke's observation last night (on mortgage derivatives) that he wishes he knew "what these damn things were worth," and sees something scary. Here's the AP writeup on Bernanke's remarks. And the WSJ provides the text of Paulson's.
And just to add to the general sense of precariousness, foreclosures are accellerating this year, at a level over and above even the peak bubble years of 2005/06, as the New York Times notes.
Now to the banks, the toxic mortgage debt sludge and the self-bailout plan called M-LEC (Master-Liquidity Enhancement Conduit.. oof) that has raised a lot of eyebrows on Wall Street and in the blogosphere. The fund would attempt to shore up off-the-books Specialized Investment Vehicles (SIVs) filled with toxic mortgage paper by opening up a "Superfund" (seriously.. that's what they're calling it.) The New York Times led with it today. The WSJ notes that it'll take a brave investor to throw money into this pot. Yves Smith at NakedCapitalism has been doing a bang-up job analyzing the SIV issue. His posts can be found here, here and here. Highly recommended reading. Economist Nouriel Roubini gets more technical, and is just as skeptical. Fortune's Peter Eavis is skeptical too. The WSJ's economics blog raises some questions. Tanta at CR gets even more wonky. And NakedShorts brings his characteristic sarcasm/humor to bear.
And how bad are things at Citi? Here's what we KNOW, via the NY Post. Bloomberg points out Citi is not alone.
And looking backward (and forward at the same time?), Prisonplanet links to video of journalist Robert Kuttner and former SEC Chairman Williams Donaldson's appearance on NewsHour, in which they draw parallels to the mistakes of the 1920s. And yeah you know what happened at the end of that.
If you're freaked out by what's going on, you've got company. The trader who runs a blog and message board called MarketTicker has posted an on-line petition to try to get Washington's attention.
On the other hand, Slate's Mickey Kaus, who confesses he doesn't know jack about any of this, still thinks it's all a crock. P.S. check out the time stamp on this post. Dude, get some sleep.
And finally, a little guilt trip.. pondering what we could be doing instead of boning up on the intricacies of Specialized Investment Vehicles.
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News producer
Whenever we have an assignment in Shanghai, there's something of a mixed reaction amongst the NBC news team.
Three of us look forward to all the fun things associated with the glitzy big city: a faster urban pace, cool high-rises, great restaurants. The fourth (yours truly) dreads the attendant fuss that comes with the glitzy big city: congestion, noise, and, in particular, attitude.
Shanghai has attitude in spades.
Our fixer, Millie, embodies the city's sass.
One time, our correspondent Mark Mullen offered up praise for lining up a particularly tricky interview for NBC by telling her, "You're good."
Without missing a beat, absent any irony, Millie replied, "I know."
So when Mark wanted to cover the story of China's growing gender imbalance by twisting accepted wisdom on its head - that while the number of men here outnumbers that of women by 37 million, young women in big cities are so much in demand they can pick and choose a mate, we figured Shanghai would be the place to find interesting examples of this modern, empowered Chinese woman.
While filming a speed-dating event one weekend in Shanghai as part of the story, we came across Christine Yu. Vivacious, successful, confident, and charming, the 29-year old accountant is single and looking for love.
Although she still harbours some traditional Chinese ideas about life, Christine also exudes attitude - just like her hometown. Here's a look at her take on relationships in the big city.
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Hershel W. Williams
Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division
The first time the five foot six, nineteen- year-old Hershel “Woody” Williams tried to join the Marines, in the fall of 1942, he was too short. The second time he tried, a few months later, he wasn’t: The Corps relaxed its height requirements. He immediately enlisted. He was sent to the Pacific with the 3rd Marine Division and placed in a flamethrower/demolition unit.
Williams took part in the invasion of Guam, which seemed horrific—until he was sent to Iwo Jima the following year. The beach area in Guam was clear and relatively undefended, and the Marines could advance into the jungle. At Iwo, all the jungle cover had been blown away, and the beach became a slaughterhouse. CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
My friend and one-man History Department Andy Franklin points out (as we will note on the broadcast tonight) that America reached a milestone today: The first Baby Boomer -- a retired school teacher named Kathleen Casey-Kirschling -- became the first of her generation to apply for Social Security benefits. She'll become eligible to start collecting them on January 1, her 62nd birthday. Ms. Casey-Kirschling is considered the first of her generation -- at least by the federal government -- because she was born one second after midnight on New Years Day, 1946. The Boomers, as we all know, encompass some 76 million Americans born from 1946 to 1964. This much-celebrated and exhaustively chronicled population surge is also known as the “post-war baby boom,” because it took place after World War II, as Americans came home from the war and started families.
But let’s take a closer look. People born on January 1, 1946 would actually have been conceived nine months earlier -- on April 1, 1945. By that measure, the Baby Boom generation actually began on April Fool’s Day. But that’s not all. As of that particular April 1st, World War II wasn’t over at all. Franklin Roosevelt was still president, and Allied forces were still smashing their way through Nazi Germany, more than a month before V-E Day. In the Pacific, the massive American invasion of Okinawa began that very day. The atomic bomb was still top-secret, few people had ever heard of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, and victory against Japan was still months away. So in April, 1946, the parents of those very first Baby Boomers were getting a bit of a head start, so to speak -- insuring that their children would be first in line for Social Security, 62 years and nine months later.
As America’s oldest Baby Boomer, Ms. Casey-Kirschling is now planning her retirement years, and we wish her well, along with all who follow her. Meanwhile, somewhere out there is her counterpart -- the youngest Baby Boomer, born on the last second of the last day of 1964. That person is still decades away from retirement, and -- one hopes -- decades more away from the end of his or her life. That’s right: like it or not, Boomers will be around for many more years to come. The generation that crawled into the world before the middle of the 20th century will still be here, tottering along -- and perhaps even collecting Social Security -- more than halfway through the 21st.
Please take a moment to read today's Medal of Honor biography. We look forward to having you join us for the Monday edition of Nightly News.
By Janet Shamlian, NBC News Correspondent
Traffic was moving at the Texas speed limit, posted plus ten, when I noticed her beside me. She couldn't have been more than eighteen and was steering with her forearms, saving her hands for the keypad of her cell phone. I quickly put a lane between us, a move that hardly fixes a much bigger problem.
Teenagers have always been our most at-risk drivers. Just 7 percent of the nation's motorists, they account for 14 percent of all fatal accidents. Easily distracted by phones and friends, they also love to text and many do it behind the wheel. According to a recent poll, half of all teens admit sending text messages while driving. Like drugs and sex, the real number is probably higher.
The consequence is apparent in a flurry of fatal accidents this year. The one I can't get out of my head happened in upstate New York in June. Five teenage girls died. Fresh out of high school, they had it all ahead of them. Their graduation portraits, released by their anguished parents, have stayed with me. Police say the young driver sent and received text messages before crossing the center line.
For years, we've been talking about the dangers of drinking and driving. Could texting and driving be as dangerous? The question of how and whether to regulate it is one we'll explore tonight on Nightly News. A number of states have passed laws restricting teens from using electronics while driving, but in most cases they can stopped only if speeding or violating another law.
Teens, of course, aren't the only ones guilty of answering an email while bombing down the interstate. Everyone thinks they're the exception, it could never happen to them. Tragically, the families of those beautiful young girls know differently.
By Al Henkel, NBC News producer
Lily Flynt proudly screamed that at me Saturday night in Alpine, Texas. I could barely hear her over the screams of the other football fans in the stadium. The object of her attention is #49, Mike Flynt, who was finally playing out his final year of eligibility at Sul Ross State University. He's been nursing an injury and was finally getting into a game. He just put a great block on a lineman coming in to try to block an extra point. The lineman Mike blocked is about the same age as Lily. You see, Mike Flynt is 59 years old.
I'll repeat that. He's 59 years old.
A former strength coach at several large universities, an inventor of exercise equipment, Mike is still as strong and as fast as he was more than 30 years ago, and playing at the same weight as he did in college. His coach says he's one of the strongest men on the team. By the way, Mike is older than his coach. 2 of his 3 children are older than any of his teammates.
Mike was a captain on the Sul Ross football team in 1971, but was kicked out of school before the season started for fighting. That has haunted him for 37 years, how he, in his words, "let his teammates down." During a class reunion last summer, Mike and his buddies were kicking things around, as middle-aged guys like to do, and the question came up about that last year of eligibility. Mike tried out for the team, legitimately made it, enrolled in grad school, moved to Alpine. Lily started college this year, the Flynts were selling the house to downsize, and the timing was great for Mike to live out his dream to play again.
He pulled a groin muscle early in the year and has been rehabbing to get onto the field. Saturday night he played 9 plays, all on special teams because the coach doesn't want him running a lot until the muscle is fully healed. Mike should get in at linebacker, his true position, at some point this year.
I love this story. Mike has a fascinating story, living out a dream for a lot of us middle-aged guys. Don Teague and I will bring you this tonight.
Oh, and did I mention Mike's 2-month old grandson Collin was also there?
By M.L. Flynn, Nightly News Senior Producer
There was just one star in the sky, as we scurried across Tiananmen Square at 5 this morning, but already there were thousands of other people with the same idea - all rushing to get the best position to watch the daily sunrise flag-raising ceremony.
I had had the bright idea of shooting the ceremony, since today was the opening of the party congress, an event that comes around every 5 years. So, up out and early, our NBC Beijing bureau chief, Eric Baculinao, and cameraman, Marcus O'Brien, joined me in plunging into what seemed like a sea of folks yawning - even the young soldiers keeping an eye on the crowd.
Before long, we found ourselves standing next to Jia Xiaodong, a 43-year-old teacher at a sports school in Shandong province. Jia had ridden the bus for seven hours, and had slept in a street underpass overnight, just so he could see the flag raising. His face was beaming with excitement. But with the crowd about four people deep, Mr. Jia couldn’t really see over the heads of those in front, so instead, he, like many others around us, jostled to watch the flag raising on Marcus’s portable monitor.
Marcus, who is an old hand at taping the ceremony, had his camera focused on the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Soon, out of the dusky shadows and in lockstep formation, we saw the honor guard emerge through the tunnel gate, just under the picture of Mao Tse Tung. It is a ceremony where nothing is left to chance. Each sunrise the honor guard marches with calibrated precision: 108 steps, each 29 inches long, to the flag stand.
So, at exactly 6:24 this morning, at sunrise, the flag bearer hit a button on the flagpole, the national anthem started to play from loudspeakers, and, with a dramatic flourish, he snapped the flag into the air. Like every day, from start to finish the ceremony was 127 seconds.
Mr. Jia was transfixed. When we asked him how he felt, all he could say was,"emotional". However, he didn’t have any time to savor the moment; within minutes, the soldiers were clearing the square. Mr. Jia quickly took a photo of his flag, now whipping in the breeze, and then, like the thousands of other proud Chinese, was herded along and off the square.
Why the urgency at 6:30 in the morning? The party congress is using Tiananmen Square as a parking lot this week, for the party delegates’ cars.
By M.L. Flynn, Nightly News Senior Producer
Kate Spade. Not knockoffs, but designer originals. Coming back to China after 13 years, I knew there would be big changes, but I certainly didn’t expect to see a Kate Spade store, let alone Prada and Hermes boutiques, in the glitzy shopping mall below my hotel.
Back in 1994, Beijing’s streets were lined with small storefront shops with just the basics. The government-run “friendship store” was about the only option for tourists. Today, the choices are daunting. Beijing has at least a dozen high-end shopping malls making a visitor feel like she never left home, but it is not tourists in the boutiques; it is locals.
And that was my biggest surprise. Despite all the stories I have read about China’s surging economy, until you feel the bristle of Beijing’s streets, it is hard to understand how China has changed.
The streets once packed rim to rim with bicycles have been replaced with bumper-to-bumper Buicks and BMWs. Gridlock starts at seven in the morning – no wonder, in a city with 17 million people.
If there is an iconic symbol of Beijing, my vote is for the construction crane. Everywhere you look, there are cranes. The entire city is one big construction site with some of the most cutting edge architecture in the world. At Olympic Park, for example, red hardhats swarm the roof of the “Bird’s Nest,” the stadium for opening ceremonies. Around the corner from Tiananmen Square, the new National Grand Theatre resembles a glass eggshell. Perhaps most dramatic of all, the headquarters for CCTV, China’s national television network: two inverted L-shaped towers joined at 750 feet.
The city I remember of sloping silver hutongs has been transformed with mile after mile of glass columned skyscrapers and terraced apartment buildings. It makes you wonder if the master plan is to look like Los Angeles.
But it’s not only the physical look of the city that is transformed. The people, too, look and seem different.
On my last visit to the Forbidden City, where China’s emperors once lived, I remember workers in drab grey and blue suits staring at me with tentative glances. This week, you could barely move as what seemed like tens of thousands of retirees toured the palace alleyways. Decked out in brightly colored baseball caps, jogging outfits, and cameras strapped around their necks, China’s own version of The Greatest Generation flashed big smiles and “V”signs at me. I am not quite sure whether the “V” sign means victory, or peace, or just “V,” but in almost every public place it was the sign of the day.
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Paul J. Wiedorfer
Private, U.S. Army Company G, 318th Infantry, 80th Infantry Division
Working in the war industries gave Paul Wiedorfer an automatic deferment until 1943, when he was drafted. The following year, he was in Europe with the 80th Infantry. After fighting through France and into Belgium, his battalion was taken out of combat and put on “corps reserve.” But the rest wasn’t for long—when the Battle of the Bulge began, his unit was loaded onto trucks and sent to the front. They were on the way to relieve the garrison at Bastogne when American troops, mistaking them for Germans, opened fire on them. Wiedorfer’s commanding officer had to drape their vehicles with white sheets to convince the Americans to cease firing. CONTINUED >>
by Lester Holt
Good afternoon. We're excited about a Richard Engel story running on the newscast tonight that attempts to answer the question: is the war in Iraq making us safer from terror here at home? His exclusive report, which has been months in the making, includes a trip inside a Baghdad police detention center where accused terrorists tell Richard exactly why they are fighting Americans. It's eye opening stuff, as is an admission we hear in Richard's piece from the Director of the National Counter Terrorism Center.
We're also following up tonight on Andrea Mitchell's recent reporting on that mysterious Israeli air attack on a target inside Syria last month. As Andrea told us back on September 21st, the target was apparently a nuclear facility. Today the New York Times is shedding more light on the intelligence behind the attack, and NBC's Tom Aspell tonight will look at that and the future of nuclear programs in the Middle East. CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
At the end of the broadcast tonight, I have to correct the impression I left with a lot of viewers (including my mother-in-law and my stage manager, Vito) that NBC Nightly News (the whole network, for that matter) is moving to Universal City in Los Angeles. Looking back on what I said on the air, it's kinda easy to see how I left that impression. Here's what happened: we had an entire taped piece prepared for the end of the broadcast, but the editing console crashed, and the piece I wrote went away. What ended up airing (and leaving the impression we were MOVING, instead of merely building a new office complex in LA) was an amalgam of my words -- sans exact meaning. We've had calls, we've received letters...I've got a lot of 'splaining to do. I will take what's coming to me.
TOUGH CROWD
The afternoon headline on Gawker: TED KENNEDY FINALLY HOSPITALIZED. Ouch. While you're there, just try NOT watching the clip from Pageant Place. If you do, ask yourself: Why hasn't that ticket agent ever helped ME? I'm thinking of getting a TSA-friendly sash to speed my way through airports. It's an incredible piece of video.
Tonight's consensus top story is the Nobel Peace Prize. Al Gore spoke this afternoon -- and we'll also take this opportunity to take stock of the "green" movement and how much credit he gets for it.
From Historian's Corner today: my man Andy Franklin reminds us of the history of this great medal:
The Nobel Peace Prize was first awarded in 1901, though in 19 of the years since then, no prize was given (including the years of World Wars I and II). Before this year, 18 American individuals or organizations had won the prize, including Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964. Former Secretary of State George C. Marshall won the Nobel in 1953, as the architect of the Marshall Plan, which helped save postwar Europe. Henry Kissinger shared the award with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho in 1973; they won for negotiating an end to the war in Vietnam (although the war itself did not end until later). The FIRST American to win the Nobel Peace Prize was a sitting president: Theodore Roosevelt, in 1906. And here’s where it gets interesting: Roosevelt’s Secretary of State was a man named Elihu Root, who went on to get elected to a Senate seat as a Republican from New York. Root won the Nobel in 1912. He ran for president in 1916, but he lost the Republican nomination to Charles Evans Hughes, who in turn lost the general election to Woodrow Wilson. President Wilson, a Democrat, won the Nobel in 1919. Wilson’s successor was Warren G. Harding, who died in office, elevating Vice President Calvin Coolidge. When Coolidge was elected president in his own right in 1924, his vice president was Charles G. Dawes, who like Coolidge was a Republican. Dawes won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925. Coolidge’s Secretary of State was a man named Frank B. Kellogg, a former Republican Senator from Minnesota. And yes, he too won a Nobel -- in 1929. Cordell Hull won the prize in 1945; another Secretary of State (for 11 years under FDR) who was also a former Senator (a Democrat, from Tennessee). But he was the last American Nobel laureate who was also a politician -- someone who had at some point held elective office -- until 2002, when the Nobel Peace Prize went to former President Jimmy Carter. Now it's Al Gore's turn.
We had a nice time here tonight at a preview party for our new studio digs. We'll post much more as the debut on-air date approaches, a week from Monday.
Please make time to read today's MOH Biography. Please have a good weekend -- and we sure hope you can join us tonight...and again on Monday.
By Courtney Kube, NBC News Pentagon producer
"Neglect and incompetence" by the NSC has lead to an intractable situation in Iraq, the Former Commander of Coalition Forces in Iraq said today. "The NSC has been a failure."
Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said today that there has been a "failure of the national political leadership" in this war. He said that if some of the political leaders were in the military they would be relieved or court martialed long ago. Sanchez refused to identify specific individuals responsible for the failure, saying that he thinks we (the audience was primarily media) should be able to figure it out ourselves.
Sanchez said that the NSC, the Congress, the State Department, and the national political leadership are all responsible for the "crisis in leadership."
America is living "a nightmare with no end in sight" with the war in Iraq, he said, adding that "America has no choice but to continue" fighting in Iraq or else the country will turn into chaos, which will spill into chaos throughout the Middle East. America will be there "for the foreseeable future," he said.
The "latest attempt" in Iraq (the surge) is "a desperate attempt by the Administration," and the best the U.S. can do at this point is to "stave off defeat." He said that the latest efforts in Iraq are "a wasted effort," and as it continues men and women in uniform continue to die.
Sanchez said that political and military leaders owe the soldiers a strategy in Iraq, and that the politicians must no longer be distracted by their "lust for power" and partisan ways. He went on to say that the real problem is that the strategy in Iraq has not been resourced.
Asked when he realized the war in Iraq was on the skids, Sanchez said, "15 June 2003," which is the day he took over as commander of coalition forces in Iraq.
Today, Sanchez said, the war is suffering from "inept coalition management efforts," and the effort appears to be "continuing on the path" to failure.
By Christine Delargy, Nightly News production assistant, Washington, DC
We spent the past two days with the Charlie Unit of the Old Guard, the oldest active regiment in the U.S. Army. It's the Old Guard that serves as escort to the president, marches in military parades and renders honors funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. Honors funerals like the one held this morning for 12 soldiers killed in Baghdad in January when a Blackhawk helicopter was shot down by enemy fire.
In preparation for tonight's story, Roger O'Neil, producer Sylvie Haller, cameramen Jim Long and Tom Staton and I spent yesterday at Fort Myer where the Old Guard is stationed. We interviewed the unit's Captain David Beard, we watched the soldiers fold the 12 flags for the next of kin, and practice spinning the triads for the ceremonious handover to the families of the deceased. We sat in on the rehearsal for today's group burial, watching the Old Guard soldiers march into formation until every step was in tandem and not a millisecond off beat.
We even woke up with unit at 6am this morning to see the soldiers put on their uniforms, polish their shoes, the bills of their hats and buttons on their jackets, positioning their medals perfectly straight. The key word being perfectly. "People may say that its impossible to be perfect but here its not. You just have to work pretty hard at it and you won't find another group of people who work harder to be perfect," 20 year old Private, 1st Class Skylar Redick told Roger. Private Redick carries the unit's signature flag and left college after one year to serve in the Old Guard.
The Old Guard performs five, 10, 15 funerals a day, 378 funerals for casualties of Operation Iraqi Freedom to date. Scattered around Fort Meyer are practice coffins, filled with sandbags to simulate the weight they soldiers carry in an honors funeral. One sergeant recalled to us the strain of President Ronald Reagan's 900-lb casket on his forearms up the marble steps of the Capitol.
Roger asked each of the soldiers we had the chance to speak with, does it ever wear on you emotionally? Each paused reflectively, almost hesitating with pride, and then "yes sir, sometimes." Their honor was inspiring.
But as inspired as each of us was by the ceremonial perfection of the Old Guard, nothing could prepare us for the powerful images of the single casket funeral for the 12 fallen soldiers.
A horse drawn caisson carrying a single casket covered with the American flag lead a procession of six black limousines and five buses of family members, friends and fellow soldiers. Hundreds, literally hundreds, of mourners spilled out into Arlington, interspersed between the white headstones, as five Blackhawk helicopters flew overhead. It was the first funeral I've attended at Arlington National Cemetery. Our cameraman Jim Long has been to Iraq and back a handful of times, has covered multiple honors funerals at Arlington and even he paused with a heartfelt sigh as the fifth or sixth flag was presented to a mother with her young son.
The gregarious nature of the Old Guard soldiers we had spent hours with the day before was replaced by strong solemnity. On Thursday, they spoke to us of their honor, their duty to honor their fallen comrades with perfection, they laughed recalling their very first uniform inspections. Their words of honor could not ring more true for us than with the group burial's taps, bugle and gun salute.
To be perfectly honest, it was a honor to work on this story. And Roger O'Neil captures the power of these images in his words tonight just perfectly. The Old Guard soldiers would be proud.
By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer, Washington
The horse-drawn caisson wound slowly down Bradley Drive at Arlington National Cemetery, carrying a single flag-draped casket containing the remains of 12 soldiers whose helicopter was blown out of the skies over Iraq last January.
Five Black Hawk helicopters flew over the cemetery and an Army band played "America the Beautiful" for the hundreds of mourners who turned out this morning to pay their final respects to the 11 men and one woman, 10 of them National Guard members, who died Jan. 12 when their Black Hawk was shot down northeast of Baghdad in Diyala Province. It was the largest number of Guard members killed in a combat mission since the Korean War.
A brisk autumn breeze drowned out the words of the brief graveside service in which folded American flags were presented to relatives of the fallen soldiers.
1. Col. Brian Allgood, 46, of Oklahoma was the top American medical officer in Iraq. An orthopedic surgeon, he was a graduate of West Point and the University of Oklahoma Medical School. "He was very brilliant," his mother told the Colorado Springs Gazette. Allgood is survived by his widow, Jane, also a West Point graduate, and their son, Wyatt, 11. "It's just going to be very empty, for forever," his mother told KKTV.
2. Staff Sgt. Darryl Booker, 37, of Midlothian, Va., was a military air-traffic controller with the Virginia Army National Guard, which he joined in 1987. He had served in Iraq and in Bosnia prior to his final deployment to Iraq. "He made a choice and made the best of his choice," his father told the Newport News Daily Press. Booker is survived by his widow, Jeanne, and five children, Derica, Shata, Dante, Marcus, and Maurice.
CONTINUED >>
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Gary G. Wetzel
Private First Class, U.S. Army 173rd Assault Helicopter Company, 11th Combined Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade
Gary Wetzel grew up as the second oldest of nine children and joined the Army at the age of eighteen. It was only one month after his nineteenth birthday when he landed in Saigon. With aspirations of being a pilot, he reenlisted to be guaranteed the duty station of his choice. Assigned to the 173rd Assault Helicopter Company, the Robin Hoods, Wetzel served as a door gunner. About ten days before he was scheduled to return home after serving two tours, he was shot down for the fifth time on January 8, 1968. CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
The above expression -- a quote from Thomas Paine -- famously appeared on the desk of Ted Turner during his years running CNN. In today's posting, I plan to do the last two items on that list. I'm going to take my lead from our in-house historian Andy Franklin -- as good at the history of television as he is at the history of the United States. At the end of the broadcast tonight, we'll take stock in an NBC landmark: our Burbank Studios in California. Andy has done a little digging, and he’s found some of the great moments in NBC’s Burbank history (now there's a line that makes you wish Johnny Carson was still with us). I post it below with full credit: along with an SNL/today-in-history bonus item. Besides, Chris Colvin has done a superb job below on everything else. My job here is done.
True West
We all know that nothing lasts forever, but sometimes change is hard to take. Word came today that NBC Universal will soon bid farewell to its longtime West Coast headquarters in Burbank, in order to consolidate operations at Universal City. With the exception of our New York home here at 30 Rock, it’s safe to say that no other facility in the world embodies more broadcasting history than the NBC Studios in Burbank. NBC bought the site in 1951 -- back when the television world was young. A year later came the inaugural broadcast from those legendary studios. It was October 4, 1952, and featured the likes of Milton Berle, George Jessel, Harpo Marx, Dinah Shore, Jimmy Durante and Rosalind Russell.
NBC expanded and upgraded its Burbank facility pretty much continuously over the years. On March 27, 1955, a new studio was opened - the world’s first to be built specifically for COLOR telecasting. Once again, NBC staged an all-star show to mark the occasion -- the first NBC color broadcast to originate from the West Coast. The show was emceed by Fred Allen and included Bob Hope, Martin and Lewis, Helen Hayes, Judy Holliday, Charlton Heston, Cesar Romero, Ralph Edwards and James Stewart -- as well as Dinah Shore and Jimmy Durante, who had been on hand the first time around. A three-story office building was added to the site in 1957, another major expansion was begun in 1969, and a 6-story, 56,000 square-foot building was added in 1979.
But it was what happened inside those buildings that earned NBC Burbank its place in history. We can’t begin to catalogue all the countless programs that originated there over the years, so we’ll just mention a few, starting with the one that really put the place on the map: The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. Johnny started hosting the Tonight Show in 1962, but for the first decade, it was broadcast from New York. Johnny moved West in 1972, and from May 1 of that year until his farewell on May 22, 1992, Carson held court in NBC’s Studio One in “beautiful downtown Burbank.” Johnny made the city of Burbank famous with that line, but credit for coming up with it in the first place goes to “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In,” the groundbreaking comedy show that aired on NBC from 1968 to 1973. It too originated from our studios in beautiful downtown you-know-where, as Jay Leno's Tonight Show does today. We also have to mention some rock and roll history: Elvis Presley’s legendary comeback special -- featuring his first performances before a live audience in seven years -- was taped at NBC’s Burbank Studios in June, 1968. Presley was magnificent, and the program -- broadcast on December 3, 1968 -- was instrumental in resurrecting his career.
Nightly News itself has some important roots in Burbank. The news bureau there is where Chet Huntley (later of Huntley-Brinkley fame) began his NBC News career back in 1955. And none other than Tom Brokaw also made a national name for himself while working out of Burbank -- at KNBC-TV, starting in 1966.
As it turns out, one year after Tom got there, NBC opened its Burbank Studios to the public for tours. They cost $1.50 then. You can still take the tour ($8.50 for adults, five buck for kids). But you’d better hurry.
One last bit of NBC history, as promised -- and it has nothing to do with Burbank. Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the debut of Saturday Night Live, on October 11, 1975. The host of that first show? Comedian George Carlin. And the musical guests? Janis Ian, and the late, great Billy Preston.
Please take time to read today's Medal of Honor biography. We hope you can join us for tonight’s broadcast.
By Jay Blackman, NBC News Producer, Washington
As a producer, I have arranged thousands of standups, the part where where our correspondent is on camera. Some are easy, such as a quick call to the pharmacist for a story about prescription drugs. Some are more difficult, like a standup inside of the Space Shuttle Vehicle Assembly Building. And some are like tonight's, when just asking for permission for something makes you laugh.
In Tom Costello's story about SUV crash tests, you will see him sitting next to a dummy, a quarter-of-a- million-dollar sensor-laden crash test dummy.
When I called The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety yesterday to ask to borrow one, I figured, they must have one in their office; after all, its just a dummy. In reality, an employee of their testing center drove nearly two hours from Ruckersville,Va. to a parking lot near NBC News in Washington so we could shoot what amounts to 15 seconds on camera.
When it was over, the 110-pound dummy (who doesn't have a name--I asked) was lifted out of the SUV and strapped into the backseat of a minivan.
Hmmm...wonder if they used the HOV lane on the way back?
Hi. Lots of carry-over from our last entry, on the fight over SCHIP and its young spokesperson and the Syria/Israel/North Korea mystery.. plus scrapping over genuine-ness on Iraq, and speculation about Al Gore hot enough to met the polar ice caps.
Time Magazine's Karen Tumulty writes up how the blog-driven assault on a seventh-grader backfired on critics of the SCHIP program. Liberal blogger Ezra Klein asked one of the leaders of the attack on the Frost family, Michelle Malkin, to debate the merits of SCHIP. Malkin explains, quite heatedly, why she refuses to debate. Blogger publius critiques Malkin's answer. And the Frost's hometown paper weighs in.
National Review's Rich Lowry went to Iraq. Salon's Glenn Greenwald comments. And The NYT reports the Marines want to leave Iraq and go to Afghanistan.
Now to one of our favorite topics: the mysterious Israeli raid on Syria. The New York Times led with the story yesterday... raising questions about how reliable Israeli intelligence (which ABC News characterized as "jaw-dropping") on the supposed North Korean/Syrian nuclear weapons program really is. According to the Times Mazetti and Cooper, the Cheney camp is behind the intel, the Rice camp, not so much. And the DPRK studies blog makes an important point about the Times story.. which implies that even though the Rice camp is dubious about the intel, they're not dubious about the nuke factory: "(this) suggests the existence of a Syrian nuclear program is being taken for granted. In realty , where officials disagree is whether or not there is a Syrian nuclear program, if North Korea was assisting them (if there was such a program), and if Israeli intelligence can be trusted.] Kevin Drum links to the NYT.. but the real news in this post is in comments. Paul Woodward links to an Israeli reporter who actually went to the alleged Syrian site. The Times took note of that today. And hey Iran is weighing in now. On the other hand, the Bashman says Syria is producing nukes is a simple as 2+2 =4 And another breathless narrative of Israel's derring-do emerges.
Politics: John Nichols of the Nation reports on the Draft Gore movement.. on the eve of what might be a Nobel Prize announcement. That possibility has bloggers on the right pretty annoyed. But they're taking some solace in a British judge's ruling that there are 9 scientific errors in "An Inconvenient Truth."
And I know you've been waiting for this: the GOP unveils its '08 convention logo. Nuthin' like a starry-eyed elephant, I always say!
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Ernest E. West
Private First Class, U.S. Army 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Company L, 3rd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division
Private First Class Ernest West did his basic training as part of the 25th Infantry in Hawaii—a “paradise” in comparison to what he would experience in Korea, which he regarded as a frozen hell in the winter and a suffocating hell in the summertime. For a Kentucky boy who had dropped out of high school to take a job on the railroad before being drafted in 1950, Korea was simply the most unfriendly environment he could imagine.
In the fall of 1952, West’s unit was near Sataeri. It was a hilly area, and after dark the U.S. soldiers were monitoring Chinese troops with primitive night vision equipment. The Americans were struck by how tall the enemy troops were—six-footers from northern China and Mongolia, who were dug into bunkers along a high ridgeline. CONTINUED >>
By John Rutherford, NBC News Producer, Washington
Eight soldiers, two sailors, and a Marine died last week in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United Arab Emirates, bringing the total number of U.S. deaths to 3,811 in Iraq and 444 in Afghanistan through Oct. 6:
1. Army Sgt. Randell Olguin, 24, of Ralls, Texas, always wanted to serve his country. "Just like he did on the football field or the baseball field for us, laying it on the line, he did it for our country," his high school coach told KCBD 11. A member of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Olguin was killed by small arms fire Sept. 30 in Baghdad. He is survived by his wife of less than two years, who lives in Germany.
2. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jerome Murkerson Jr., 35, of Adger, Ala., was a huge Alabama football fan. He even called home from Iraq to make sure Auburn really lost to South Florida last month. "He said, 'I wanted to make sure I saw it on the internet right,'" his mother told the Associated Press. Murkerson was shot and killed Oct. 1 while on patrol with an Iraqi army battalion in Al Anbar Province. He leaves his wife, Wendy, and their three children, Stephen, 15, Daniel, 12, and Kristina, 8.
3. Navy Petty Officer Third Class Mark Cannon, 31, of Lubbock, Texas, stood 6-foot-5 and weighed 250 pounds. "As big as he was, he had a real soft, tender side to him," his father told the Honolulu Advertiser. "He loved helping people." A Navy corpsman, he was killed Oct. 2 rushing to aid a wounded Marine in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. "He had his Kelvar armor on, but I understand he was shot underneath his right arm," his father told the Advertiser. "Mark was the only one to die."
4. Navy Seaman Apprentice Shayna Ann Schnell, 19, of Tell City, Ind., was assigned to security at the port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates. She suffered severe brain injuries in a taxi accident Sept. 24 while going to a doctor's office in the city of Dubai. Her father, stepmother, sister, and two brothers flew to Dubai and were with her when she died on Oct. 1. She is considered the 111th female death of the Iraqi War.
5. Army Sgt. Ricardo Rodriguez, 23, of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, joined the Army in 2004 and was a gunner with the 82nd Airborne Division. He was killed by a roadside bomb Oct. 4 near Bayji, Iraq. "He was a leader and a teacher to his soldiers, and his loss will be deeply felt for a long time," a fellow paratrooper said in the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. Rodriguez is survived by his son, Ricardo, and his parents, Ernesto and Anabelle, all of Arecibo.
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I have a piece of videotape to link to today. We watched it air as part of the ITN evening news in the U.K. on Monday -- part of their coverage of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's decision not to hold elections in the U.K. It's a remarkable piece of television for the tone it conveys, and how it differs in style from the same story as told by American broadcast television networks. Click on the video and listen to ITN's political correspondent -- I think some folks (those who aren't already familiar with the media in the U.K.) will find it interesting.
Our resident historian Andy Franklin has submitted this next section on this day in history -- it's a great piece of work.
Here’s to the Losers
It is said that history is written by the winners, but let’s not forget that history is MADE by winners and losers alike. This comes to mind only because today happens to mark anniversaries for three historical figures remembered at least in part for their losses, and whose names may have never appeared together in the same sentence until now: George Armstrong Custer, Spiro T. Agnew and Susan B. Anthony. 130 years ago today, on October 10, 1877, Custer’s funeral was held at West Point, where he had graduated (last in his class) in 1861. Custer was a Civil War hero known for his flamboyance, even arrogance. He was a native of Ohio, but he is better remembered for where his life ended: in Montana, on June 25, 1876, defeated by Native Americans at the Battle of Little Bighorn -- Custer’s Last Stand. Custer was hastily buried on the battlefield, but his body was later exhumed and brought east to West Point. 96 years to the day after Custer’s funeral, on October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew abruptly resigned after striking a deal to avoid prison by admitting to tax evasion. Who was Spiro Agnew? He was vice-president to none other than Richard M. Nixon, who himself resigned less than a year later. Nixon was replaced as president by the man who had replaced Agnew as vice president: Gerald R. Ford, who in turn pardoned Nixon. That pardon contributed to Ford’s subsequent loss to Jimmy Carter, which brings us to Susan B. Anthony. On October 10, 1978 -- five years to the day after Agnew’s resignation -- President Carter signed a bill authorizing the minting of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, which went on to become perhaps the most spectacular dud in numismatic history. Never mind that Ms. Anthony was a pioneering advocate of women’s rights. Through no fault of her own, she is now also remembered for that coin, and though beyond the grave, she must suffer the indignity of her coincidental association with the likes of Custer and Agnew. Such are the vagaries of history.
Please take time to read tonight's Medal of Honor biography...we hope you can join us tonight for our Wednesday broadcast.
By Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science correspondent
Something called "personalized medicine" has been the holy grail of biomedical science for several years now. The idea is that every patient is different and that a disease like breast cancer, even though it has one name, comes in many forms. The goal, then, is to tailor the therapy to the specific patient and the specific form of disease to maximize the benefits and minimize the side effects.
Tonight we report on two big movements toward personalized medicine in breast cancer treatment. For several decades some of the biggest progress against breast cancer has come through the use of something called adjuvant therapy. Soon after the initial surgery and radiation the patient gets either hormones and/or chemotherapy drugs to reduce the chances the cancer will return.
In many cases doctors have been using a "one size fits all" approach – giving the same combinations of drugs to many patients. But the drugs don’t help all patients and they can have severe side effects. The good news is that as scientists are understanding more about the biology of breast cancer they are learning which drugs work, and which don’t, as adjuvant treatments.
In one study a group of doctors looked at which patients benefit from taxol and similar drugs. The study found that about half the women who have been getting it might not benefit. If confirmed by further studies this would be crucial information because taxol-like drugs cause not just the familiar nausea and hair loss but can bring on temporary or permanent nerve damage.
You can read the actual research from the New England Journal of Medicine and the editorial about them.
Other studies concern drugs called antrhacylines; adriamycin is the most familiar. These can cause heart damage in and rare cases leukemia. I wrote a column when this information was first being talked about at a cancer meeting last June. Since then much of it has been published.
A crucial word of caution here: Many oncologists worry that women will over-react to this information and forego treatments that could be life saving. Determining which patients benefit from which drugs is a difficult and evolving science. It involves knowing not just familiar things about tumors, such as whether they are fed by the female hormone estrogens, but also whether they have certain molecules on their surface such as Her-2 which affect how the tumors grow. New tests are appearing regularly. So the answer to the question of "What treatment is best for me?" will become more complex. But that is good because it shows that we are moving toward personalized medicine.
By John Yang, NBC News correspondent
The German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's adage that "the less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they will sleep at night" is never truer than when it comes to tax legislation. Writing tax law is an exercise driven by the fiscal math of making all the revenue numbers add up and the political calculus of getting the votes to pass the bill in Congress.
Consider the tax breaks for college sports stadium seating, the topic of tonight's "Fleecing of America."
In the 1980s, big colleges started the practice of limiting season tickets to fans who made up-front contributions to the program--the bigger the donation, the better the seat. Donors began deducting those contributions, arguing that it was to an educational charity. But in 1986, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that contributions tied to a "substantial benefit"--such as season tickets--weren't deductible.
But Congress just happened to be considering a major tax overhaul bill (which I was covering for the Wall Street Journal) and two lawmakers stepped up to protect the tax break and keep their favorite colleges--and their football fans--from being thrown for a loss: The late Texas Rep. J.J. "Jake" Pickle, a University of Texas alumnus and influential member of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, and the late Louisiana Sen. Russell Long, a longtime member of the Finance Committee and a graduate of Louisiana State University.
Lo and behold, when the tax reform bill emerged in its final form--hailed at the time as a major simplification of the code that closed loopholes--it included a provision that allowed for the full deductibility for donations in order to buy season seats at just two colleges: Texas and LSU.
The deduction was extended to all universities in 1988, but limited to 80 percent of the contribution.
CONTINUED >>
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
George E. Wahlen
Pharmacist's Mate Second Class, U.S. Navy 2nd Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division
George Wahlen started his Navy service with his own version of Catch-22: Having volunteered in 1943 in hopes of becoming an aircraft mechanic, he was selected for medical corpsman training instead. When he protested, his commanding officer hinted that if he did well in his medical training, he might yet realize his ambition to work on planes. So he worked hard and finished near the top of his group—but when he again brought up the possibility of becoming a mechanic, he was told that the Navy couldn’t afford to lose its best corpsman. He was attached to a Marine battalion as a pharmacist’s mate second class. CONTINUED >>
By Cate Cauguiran, USC
Editor's note: We asked the summer interns to write about their experiences at 'Nightly News.'
It’s 2 o'clock in the morning.
It’s my last day at Nightly. I was the last intern to come into the program, and the last one out. That night, I had two hours to pack before my flight back to Los Angeles, where I would begin my senior year at the University of Southern California the next day.
Finally, I placed the finishing touches on my piece. After having spent the last seventeen hours putting together a two-minute news segment - breaking only to help with the evening newscast.
I left the newsroom with one of those lump-in-the-throat feelings, so I swallowed hard, smiled and walked out of the revolving doors with Nightly News fleece in hand and four basic lessons in mind.
Timing
It is everything.
When I commented how an interviewee spoke fast as I was logging it in real time, I was told, "Well you better type faster."
The news waits for no one, but that is the best part. They don't call it the "Rundown Routine" for nothing.
I could always count on a daily dose of cardio at 30 Rock.
Connections.
A professor told me "it’s not who you know, but who knows you... then it's what you know." The statement speaks for itself.
However, connections aren't always professional. During my internship I was able to encounter some of the most talented people in the business, not only through observation but in my conversations. As an intern I thought I could either keep my ‘I'm-so-in-awe-of-you distance’ or not. I chose not. The rewards were exponential.
Among the many people I encountered, I made a great connection with producer Maria Alcon, who unconditionally took me under her wing in making sure I learned and applied every one of these lessons I listed here. At the end she was not only one of my greatest mentors, but a good friend.
CONTINUED >>
Brian is off tonight - he'll be back tomorrow. Ann Curry will be anchoring the broadcast tonight. We hope you'll tune in.
Hi. Warrantless wiretaps, the trickle of stuff on Israel's mysterious strike on Syria, claims about a setback in terrorist-monitoring, and a nasty battle over the SCHIP veto are getting play on the internet today.
Glenn Greenwald-- who literally wrote the book on the Bush Administration's expansion of presidential powers in the wake of 9/11, examines the NYT front page story on the Democrats' willingness to make permanent the Bush Administration's wiretapping powers. Ed Morrissey is gloating a bit.
Shumel Rosner, a reporter for the Israeli paper Ha'aretz writing in Slate, tries to help us understand the israeli attack on Syria, but leaves out one option-- that perhaps the whole nuclear weapons factory story is disinformation. Where's the evidence? Oh right-- it's classified. But a lucky few have been whispered to about it so they can edify the rest of us. Take the Washington Post's Jim Hoagland, who Rosner references in his post. Hoagland introduces the concept of North Korean casualties at the site of the attack. Here's a reminder of some other stuff Hoagland has introduced us to over the years. Conn Hallinan writing in ZMag takes a skeptical tone toward both the Syria raid and the Minot to Barksdale loose nukes incident. Oh and here's someone else who has his doubts about the nuke transport thing. (Hat tip: RawStory)
The Weekly Standard highlights Thomas Joscelyn today, purportedly critiquing Sy Hersh's reporting on the possibility of war with Iran, but really he's trying to make the case that Iran was behind 9/11. The NewsHour looks at General Petraeus' latest claims about Iranian military meddling in Iraq. (Hat tip: Cursor.org) And also via Cursor, Cernig at Newshoggers wonders about a Gates versus Cheney split on Iran.
Salon's Gregory Levey on the enigmatic billionaire who's become the leading figure in a rising Israeli right-wing.
A big Hat Tip to my colleague Garrett Haake for pointing out Anthony Cordesman's enlightening and heavily illustrated update on Iraq.
The Washington Post reports this morning that a private terrorism monitoring group called SITE Intelligence got a jump on the contents of the latest bin Laden video, and when SITE gave the info to the White House with a request that it not be shared, government computers started pinging it immediately and it ended up on FoxNews' web site. SITE says it's now prevented from monitoring al Qaeda communications through its usual channels because they're blocked. More from Will Bunch. And see the link at the bottom of the Attytood post that suggests there's more to all this than the Washington Post story reveals.
Larry Kudlow previews the Republican debate on the economy, on CNBC today at 4 Eastern. And the WashPost politics blog gets the lowdown on the current field of GOPers from one of the President's former top advisers.
Just when you thought the fight over SCHIP, the Children's health insurance program expansion vetoed by President Bush last week couldn't get any nastier, there's this: ThinkProgress reports on the assault from conservative talk radio and bloggers, on the 12 year old kid who served as a spokesperson for the program during last weekend's Democratic radio address. Digby is pissed. So is Christy Hardin Smith. Does slamming a 12 year old who was hurt in a car wreck fit a pattern? And this might be one of the most clueless things ever written. (Hat Tip Hunter at DailyKos) Atrios reminds us of another "boy sent to do a man's job." And on the overall politics of the issue: Reid Wilson writes that a children's health insurance program is an awkward place for President Bush to finally make a stand for fiscal responsibility.
The topic's not new but the article is a good read-- NYMagazine on how a lack of sleep can seriously mess with your kids' cognitive abilities. (Hat Tip: HuffingtonPost)
Editor's note: Every weekday, you can check out our First Person "Photo of the Day" -- breaking news pictures and photography submitted by you.
Mathilda Williams of Emerson, N.J. shares her fall photo.
Meanwhile, last night's report from Lee Cowan report was about fall feeling like the summer from NYC to Chicago. Watch video here.
Click FirstPerson.MSNBC.com to submit an entry.
Click here to see more Photo of the Day features.
Tell us what you think, on comments, below.
It's not often you get the Army Brass Quintet at a Washington D.C. press conference, but that was the case this morning when the Congressional Medal of Honor Society announced the "Above and Beyond Awards," to be bestowed at a ceremony that will be hosted by NBC's Brian Williams and broadcast on MSNBC next March.
The American public can nominate fellow citizens to receive the nation's most prestigious civilian award.
The awards are unique because they're presented to unsung heroes by all the living Medal of Honor recipients.
Nominate someone by Dec 16th. The foundation will select three Americans to receive the awards.
By Mark Potter, NBC News correspondent
For years, politicians, academics and virtually everyone else who cares about Cuba have been arguing about Radio and TV Marti, the U.S. government-run stations in Miami which broadcast news, messages of freedom and other programming to the Cuban people.
The core question is this: Do enough Cuban residents actually hear and see the broadcasts, and get enough from them, to warrant the 600-million taxpayer dollars that have been spent in the last two decades to keep them on the air?
What we found in reporting tonight's story for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams is that when it comes to actual facts, that question becomes a bit tricky.
Opponents says the two Martis are an enormous waste of money and have little impact. They point to various surveys, including a June 2005 telephone poll presented to Congress which said that only nine-percent of the Cuban population heard Radio Marti in the previous year, in part because of signal jamming efforts by the Cuban government.
When it came to TV Marti, the report was even bleaker, noting that fewer than one percent of Cubans saw the U.S. government television broadcasts in the course of a year.
Supporters of Radio and TV Marti, however, are quick to point out that accurate polling is difficult, and the results notoriously unreliable in Cuba's strictly controlled society. But then they cite a recent U.S. State Department inspection report which suggests TV Marti viewership might be on the rise.
They also point to surveys of Cubans by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, and polls taken with Cuban immigrants arriving in Miami which suggest Radio Marti is a household name, and that TV Marti is being seen outside Havana, away from the strongest jamming efforts. Cuba's crackdown on the broadcast signals, they argue, is further proof of Radio and TV Marti's effectiveness in trying to be alternative voices to a repressive government. Critics scoff at that logic.
With dueling facts as slippery as those, the argument quickly shifts to the political realm, which is where it has lingered for years. Around election time, by the way, much of the anti-Radio and TV Marti effort actually goes quiet for a while, because few really want to offend the powerful Cuban-American voting bloc in Florida.
Where is all the talk now that was heard earlier this year of Democratic-led hearings on the content and funding of Radio and TV Marti? With the Presidential campaign in full swing, and the Democratic front-runner, Senator Clinton, saying she supports the broadcasts to Cuba, such talk of hearings is heard no more.
We'll have more about this for you on tonight's broadcast. As you wade into this argument, though, be prepared. It gets a bit murky in there.
 |
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Jay R. Vargas
Captain, U.S. Marine Corps Company G, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade
The son of immigrants—an Italian mother and Hispanic father—Jay Vargas had two older brothers who fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa in World War II, and a third who fought in Korea. Vargas himself got as far as the Class A Portland team in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system in the early 1960s before he realized he probably wouldn’t make it as a big-league baseball player. He decided to play for the Marines instead.
By 1968, Captain Vargas was in command of Company G of the Fourth Marines in Vietnam. On April 29, his unit, positioned along the demilitarized zone separating North and South Vietnam, was the last American element in the area. It was supposed to be lifted out, but when the helicopters came under heavy fire, Vargas’s men had to march to base camp during the night. Along the way, hundreds of enemy artillery rounds burst around them, but the impact of the shells and the spray of shrapnel were partially absorbed by the soft muddy soil of the rice paddies, and everyone made it back to base without serious injury. CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
The news of a potential two-party Iowa caucus on January 3rd has all kinds of implications (to say nothing of what it could mean to the actual candidates in the actual race) and that news is ricocheting through the ranks of media and political types. It means, of course, that all those of us who like to celebrate the New Year with family and friends will have to leave the next morning for Des Moines -- while the bubbles still continue to rise from the bottom of champagne glasses -- as the crazy political calendar unfolds at a breakneck pace. In our family, tradition calls for watching the television coverage of the Times Square ball-drop. I then kiss my wife while our children react in horror and revulsion, and then the night ends. I'm guessing some of the folks in line for the first flight (or the first of various connections through Atlanta, Dallas and Minneapolis) to Des Moines on the morning of January 1st will be in pretty rough shape.
We'll talk politics tonight, along with the unseasonal heat over much of the country ("frozen tundra," indeed), the Diana investigation, health news, and the first of a series of Fleecing of America reports.
CONTINUED >>
|
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Leo K. Thorsness
Major, U.S. Air Force 357th Tactical Fighter Squadron
Leo Thorsness enlisted in the Air Force in 1952 at the age of nineteen, largely because he had a brother serving in Korea. Though he didn’t make it to Korea himself, he stayed in the military, becoming an officer and a fighter pilot. In 1966, he went to Vietnam as part of a squadron of F-105s. The “Wild Weasel” was a specially modified two-seat F-105 and had the job of finding and destroying surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites. The Weasels were capable of lingering in target areas longer than other fighters, and as a result suffered a high loss ratio; not many Weasel pilots completed their hundred-mission tours. CONTINUED >>
by Lester Holt
Good day. At this writing we're still gathering details from northern Wisconsin on a shooting rampage that has left at least 5 people dead, including a sheriff's deputy. Kevin Tibbles will bring us the latest tonight on Nightly News.
From Baghdad today came the harshest words to date from the Iraqi government regarding last months shooting of Iraqi civilians by private American contractors working for Blackwater Security. A government spokesman now says the victims were "deliberately killed," and puts the number at 17, not the 11 deaths that had previously been reported. NBC's Richard Engel is working the story from our Baghdad bureau and will join me live tonight with more on the fallout.
CONTINUED >>
by Lester Holt
Good afternoon from New York. Tonight on Nightly news NBC's Savannah Guthrie will have a lot more on Olympic track star Marion Jones’ admission in Federal court yesterday that she had lied to investigators about her use of banned performance enhancing drugs. We spoke today with another famed Olympic track medalist, Carl Lewis, who offered little sympathy for Jones, but had even sharper words for those who continue to keep doping alive in sports. We also caught up with some young athletes today who tell us what they think of Jones’ admission.
With just three months to go before the primary season begins, conservative Republicans are still struggling to unite behind a favorite. NBC's John Yang measures the tone on the campaign trail as it transitions from a race for dollars into a race for votes. CONTINUED >>
As someone in our editorial meeting today put it, we “wanted to love” Marion Jones when we first saw her in the Olympics. Of course we still can, and many still do — even with today’s admission and the focus it has again put on performance-enhancing drugs. It’s funny how the admission now changes how we view videotape of her exploits. Looking back, did anyone detect a hint of sadness while she mouthed a few of the words to the national anthem on the medal stand? Does some of her sprinting now look like she herself was surprised by her own body’s power, speed and performance — as if she was driving someone else’s car? Tonight we’ll have complete coverage of this story that intersects sports and our society.
Live From The White House ... With Feeling
We take it for granted that if something happens somewhere — in fact, if anything happens anywhere — we’ll be able to see it on television, often instantaneously. Video images are everywhere these days, but it wasn’t really all that long ago that people were still getting used to the idea. In 1947, television was just getting started. The World Series that October, for example, was the first to be televised. (The Yankees beat the Dodgers in seven.) Take another example: presidential speeches. Back then, Americans had been hearing them on the radio for years. But on Oct. 5, 1947, President Harry S. Truman gave a speech to the nation that was not only carried on radio, but also — for the first time in history — broadcast live on television. Truman had appeared on television before, but never from the White House. The TV linkup that night included just four cities: Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Schenectady, N.Y. All this would amount to little more than a footnote except for one thing: What the president said that night was truly remarkable, especially in the context of today.
In 1947, World War II was over, and the United States was emerging as a prosperous superpower. But much of Europe was in ruins; people there were suffering and hungry. With winter coming, they faced the prospect of mass starvation. Americans were in a position to help, and 60 years ago tonight, in that first televised speech, President Truman called on them to do just that. He asked the nation to make do with less, so that more could be sent to our friends in need. No meat on Tuesdays. No poultry or eggs on Thursdays. Save a slice of bread every day. Public eating places would serve bread and butter only on request. The president made a point of asking all segments of the population to help save grain: farmers, industry, individual Americans. To “the millions of American housewives” who had already begun to conserve, Truman said, “keep up the good work.” But he also called on the “many Americans who are overeating and wasting food” to stop taking more than their fair share. He asked the nation’s distillers — heavy users of grain — to voluntarily suspend operations for 60 days. And he had sharp words for profiteering grain traders — saying prices “should not be subject to the greed of speculators who gamble on what may lie ahead in our commodity markets.”
Americans in all walks of life, who had just endured years of deprivation and sacrifice during World War II, were being asked by their president to sacrifice some more — to win the peace as they had won the war — not for their own immediate benefit, but for the sake of millions of people they would never meet. Truman promised it would be worth it: “The battle to save food in the United States is the battle to save our own prosperity and to save the free countries of Western Europe. Our self-denial will serve us well in the years to come.”
Sixty years later, it is plain to see that Harry S. Truman was right about that.
Please take a moment to read today’s Medal of Honor biography of Mike Thornton, one of the best and strongest men I’ve come to know.
We hope you can join us for tonight’s broadcast.
By Dawn Fratangelo, NBC News correspondent
I’m often asked, “Who is the most famous person you’ve interviewed?” or “Who is the most impressive person you’ve every met?” It can be impossible to answer, because I’ve met so many wonderful people. Most often it comes down to this: Some of the most impressive people are ordinary folks who do extraordinary things. David Shepherd and Travis Price are two such people.
They’re high school seniors at Central Kings Rural High School in Nova Scotia (Go GATORS!). And without much thought, they did this simple thing, this one act of human kindness. They stood up for a fellow student — a freshman boy — who was being bullied for wearing a pink shirt. Dave and Travis heard about it, bought a bunch of pink shirts, handed them out and sent text messages to wear pink. The next day, nearly the entire student body was wearing pink.
Dawn Fratangelo with Travis Price, left, and David Shepherd (NBC News photos)
It didn’t stop there. The idea has spread to dozens of schools that have held “pink days,” and reaction has poured in from around the world. Two high school boys were able to send a message — loud and pink — that bullying hurts and won’t be tolerated.
Travis talked to us about how he was bullied in grade school, how it just killed him inside, he said. I talked about it with his mother, Patsy, in her kitchen. She shed tears remembering how worried she was about her son, how emotionally wounded Travis had been. At the start of his senior year, Travis told his mother, “This year is going to be amazing.” He was right. Turns out, though, we’re the ones amazed.
Video: Watch Dawn Fratangelo’s extended interview with Travis Price and David Shepherd
NBC’s crew meets the boys
Our entire NBC team is so impressed with these boys. They are thoughtful, profound, funny and welcoming. They told us of the best place to see the sunset and the view of the lush valley they call home. They invited us to a family bonfire complete with s’mores and they taught us all a lesson.
Because the next time someone asks me, “Who’s the best person you’ve every interviewed?” I will tell them: two 17-year-old boys from Nova Scotia — David Shepherd and Travis Price. They did this simple thing. They stood up for someone. And it was extraordinary.
Oct. 5: Brian Williams gives us a view of the new 'Nightly News' office space. Why do the clocks still read funny? Click here to watch.
By Chris Jansing, NBC News correspondent and MSNBC anchor
Much of what will be written about the North Korean tae kwon do team’s trip to the United States will inevitably be about international relations:
• Will this be “pingpong diplomacy” for the 21st century, opening a new era in U.S.-North Korean relations?
• Is it a coincidence that this trip comes on the heels of talks between North and South Korea?
• Is this the State Department’s (unacknowledged) way of rewarding Pyongyang’s willingness to sit down for six-party talks aimed at dismantling North Korea’s nuclear programs?
The faces of the team members as they arrived at LAX on Thursday showed the pressure of the visit. The throng of Korean media (and NBC News) was clearly not what they are used to — in spite of the fact that they are the Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods of their homeland. And “culture shock” almost certainly is a wan way to describe what they saw on the drive from the airport to the Sheraton Universal Studios hotel. Hollywood and Universal City are much further on the economic scale from their home than even an 8,000-mile flight would suggest. And they are reportedly afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing — afraid a comment might be taken in a political context.
A Korean woman offers Chris Jansing a bouquet (watch the video)
Maybe because they wanted so much to get things right, or not get things wrong, they largely avoided eye contact, and the athletes gave no interviews. But after following them from the airport to lunch (at a tofu restaurant in LA’s Koreatown, where the Korean-language signs must have been a welcome bit of familiarity) to their hotel: an unexpected and lovely gesture. One of the two women on the trip offered me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I bowed, as my Korean-American producer had told me earlier was the “p.c.” gesture, and she surprisingly offered her hand to shake. It was a touching moment, and whether spontaneous or coached, it’s indicative of what many on both sides hope will be the real outcome of this trip. If Americans can stop seeing North Koreans as “those enemies with nukes” and they can see Americans as nice and hard-working instead of a dictatorial superpower, this may be the beginning of a real thaw in a lingering cold war.
Woo Jin Jung, who moved to America 36 years ago and opened a tae kwon do school in Iowa, organized the trip. He can’t wait to get the team out of the cities and into the fields of Iowa and Kentucky. He thinks they’ll like us. And he thinks we’ll like them, even beyond inevitably admiring their impressive skills. This Goodwill Tour is not a competition, as the pingpong matches between the United States and China were back in 1971. But even while emphasizing talent over tanks for the team, Jung clearly hopes a display of ancient martial arts can make for a modern-day relationship that is less threatening and more productive. Jung has spent 15 years of his life working on this — and knows there is potential here beyond promoting tae kwon do. In the meantime, he just wants to get his new friends some McDonald’s hamburgers and Coca-Cola, both rumored to exist but not available — yet — in his homeland.
Eight soldiers who died in Iraq last week (Sept. 23-29) were among 66 American service members killed in the month of September, the lowest monthly total in more than a year. A military spokesman attributed the decline in part to the troop surge.
"We have been doing the kinds of operations that have kept al Qaeda off balance," Rear Adm. Mark Fox told reporters in Baghdad.
Over the same week, five soldiers and a Navy corpsman died in Afghanistan. Here is a brief tribute to each of last week's 14 casualties:
1. Army Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Blaskowski, 27, of Levering, Mich., played high school football and basketball and enjoyed hunting, fishing, and motorcycles. A member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, he was shot in the chest and killed Sept. 23 during an attack on his camp in Asadabad, Afghanistan. "We're mad and we're sad and we're tired," his grandmother told the Traverse City Record-Eagle. "We didn't want to lose him." Blaskowski leaves a widow, Daniela.
2. Army Cpl. Anthony Bento, 23, of San Diego was due home in July but had his deployment with the 82nd Airborne Division extended until the end of October. He died when insurgents attacked his unit on Sept. 24 in Bayji, Iraq. "The news of his death was completely devastating because he was due home in 26 days," his widow, Colleen, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. Bento also leaves a 13-month-old son, Anthony.
3. Army Staff Sgt. Kevin Brown of Harrah, Okla., had his 39th birthday coming up on Oct. 12, so his family sent him a birthday package on Sept. 25, the same day he was killed by a roadside bomb in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, while serving with the 1st Cavalry Division. "He was always a little boy at heart," his mother told the Tulsa World. Brown, who was scheduled to retire in less than a year, is survived by his widow, Lena, and daughters Charlene, 14, and Maria, 13.
4. Army Staff Sgt. Zachary Tomczak, 24, of Huron, S.D., loved four-wheeling and hunting pheasants and deer. "He was a wonderful kid," his high school principal told the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. "He was a very, very nice young man." Tomczak, on his fourth tour in Iraq, was shot in the chest and killed Sept. 25 while on patrol with the 82nd Airborne Division in Baghdad. He leaves his widow, Beth.
5. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Charles Luke Milam, 26, of Littleton, Colo., survived the Columbine massacre in April 1999 and joined the Navy two months later. A hospital corpsman, "he felt it was his calling to help the guys around him," his brother told the Denver Post. Milam served three tours in Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan with the 2nd Marine Special Ops Battalion. He died Sept. 25 in a rocket attack near the Afghan town of Musa Qula.
CONTINUED >>
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Michael E. Thornton
Petty Officer, U.S. Navy, Navy Advisory Group
 |
|
Although he came from the landlocked hills of South Carolina, the idea of being in the Navy seized Michael Thornton’s boyhood imagination when he saw movies such as The Fighting Sullivan Brothers and Frogmen. He enlisted in the Navy shortly after graduating from high school, went through Underwater Demolition Recruit Training, and became a member of the elite SEALs.
In the fall of 1972, with the U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia winding down, there were only three officers and nine enlisted SEALs left in Vietnam. Thornton was one. Their primary missions were rescuing downed American airmen and doing “sneak and peek” reconnaissance on the North Vietnamese Army’s inexorable advance into the south. CONTINUED >>
By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
Myawaddy, Myanmar- There are two ways of traveling from Myawaddy to Thailand. There's the official crossing over the Friendship Bridge, where day laborers and small traders queue for passes, and there's the numerous illegal transit points across the muddy Moei River, some within sight of the bridge.
Smuggling thrives here, all manner of goods -- and people, looking to escape the poverty of Myanmar, a country rich in gas, gems and timber, but where millions live on less than a dollar a day. Such has been the enormity of military misrule.
This morning we traveled into Myanmar, across the bridge and into the border town of Myawaddy. We entered on a tourist day pass, carrying a small camera, into a world filled with poverty and tension, where everyone we spoke to had heard about the military crackdown in Yangon, but where nobody dare talk openly.
The grounds of one temple were filled with street children, their dirty clothes hanging loosely, chasing each other, sliding on the floor, wet from a heavy downpour. One of them break danced, sliding his body round and round.
Life goes on in this ramshackle town, but they are nervous of outsiders. Everywhere there are Buddhist temples. Its the monks who are held in highest regard here not the generals. At one temple a pavilion was packed with the faithful, meditating. We could only imagine what they were thinking -- in these dangerous days, thoughts and prayers are best kept private.
I spoke to the head monk at another temple, an amiable English speaker. Had he heard about the events in Rangoon? He nodded nervously, looking around for some unseen presence, before changing the subject.
"Everything fine here," he told me.
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
It was frustrating to read a blogger yesterday accuse the American media of "moving on" after an initial burst of coverage of the Myanmar story. I wanted to write him and tell him that our correspondent Ian Williams was, at that very moment, risking his life by trying to secretly cross the border into the former Burma to get a story out of there. Now that he's successfully been able to do that, I can say what I couldn't say before. Its a dangerous business -- and of course we'll continue to cover this story.
We have a thoroughly busy agenda tonight: the torture story, Senator Craig, Myanmar, medical mistakes, and more.
Rock Stars
Eighty years ago today, on October 4, 1927, a blast of dynamite in the Black Hills of South Dakota began the 14-year process of carving Mount Rushmore – America’s granite shrine to four of its greatest presidents. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt – immortalized for their matchless contribution to our nation’s history. It’s safe to say that every president since has harbored secret dreams of being up there with the greats, carved in stone. The folks at the National Park Service who look after Mount Rushmore tell us that six sitting presidents have actually paid a visit to Rushmore. Calvin Coolidge was there in 1927 for the dedication of the site – which was then so remote that he had to travel four miles on horseback to get there. Nine years later, Franklin D. Roosevelt was on hand for the 1936 dedication of the Jefferson figure. The announcement that work had been completed on the sculpture came in November, 1941 – just days before Pearl Harbor. World War II put off plans for a formal dedication, and for the next 50 years, the only president to visit was Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1953. The official dedication of Mount Rushmore finally took place in 1991, with President George H.W. Bush in attendance. Both of his successors have visited since then – Bill Clinton in 1999, and George W. Bush in 2002.
“I had seen photographs, I had seen the drawings, and I had talked with those who are responsible for this great work. Yet I had had no conception until about ten minutes ago, not only of its magnitude, but of its permanent beauty and of its permanent importance.”
-- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, at Mount Rushmore, Aug. 30, 1936.
No discussion of Mount Rushmore can be considered complete without making mention of two more things, starting with the famous climax to Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1959 film, “North by Northwest.” That scene was not filmed on Mount Rushmore itself, but on a Hollywood set. The Park Service apparently frowned on using the actual site as a backdrop for an attempted murder. And visitors to Mount Rushmore these days (about 3 million a year) should be sure to catch another film – the one they show at the visitors center there. It’s narrated by South Dakota’s own -- and our own -- Tom Brokaw.
Please take a moment to read today's Medal of Honor biography of my good friend Brian M. Thacker. We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.
Due to a crush of stuff, Nuthin' But 'Net has to take an unplanned hiatus today. Please check back Tuesday for a double dose of news, opinion and good old-fashioned political brawling, from the internet.
By Kevin Tibbles, NBC News Correspondent
So I'm in my house one Saturday morning cleaning out the basement in preparation for a new floor, and I stumble across something I bet most of us have secretly tucked away in remote nooks and crannies.
A couple of old burned out computers, four or five cell phones, a disused VCR, batteries for what I don't know, and a mountain of cables, computer mice and who knows -- maybe a real mouse or two.
Do I just chuck this stuff in the weekly garbage pickup?
CONTINUED >>
Editor's note: Every weekday, you can check out our First Person "Photo of the Day" -- breaking news pictures and photography submitted by you.
Steve Smith shares this photo of Fred Thompson on campaign.
VIDEO: Click here to watch last night's 'Nightly' report from Kelly O'Donnell on Thompson's performance, including his recent gaffes.
Click FirstPerson.MSNBC.com to submit an entry.
Click here to see more Photo of the Day features.
Tell us what you think, on comments, below.
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Brian M. Thacker
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Battery A, 1st Battalion, 92nd Artillery
Son of a career Air Force officer, Brian Thacker graduated from Utah’s Weber State College and was commissioned in the Army through the ROTC program. After a tour in Germany, where he was “allowed to make a lot of second lieutenant mistakes,” he was sent to Vietnam in the fall of 1970, serving with the 1st Battalion, 92nd Artillery.
He was first assigned to a battery of guns that provided support for combat engineer operations. Then, in the spring of 1971, he took charge of a six-man observation team organized by the battalion. Along with an interpreter, the team was ordered to a hilltop in Kontum Province called Fire Base 6. There they supported South Vietnamese (ARVN) artillery in firing down on North Vietnamese units operating in the valley below. CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
I begin today, sadly, with something of a rant. First, there was a ban on dodgeball. Then, cupcakes started getting banned from school functions. Now, it's hugs.
We might as well just fold up our tent and go home. The nation that saved the world in World War II runs the risk of being ruled by fears of cupcakes and hugs. Can you imagine a national radio audience hearing FDR say, "The only thing we have to fear is… the transmission of germs through needless hugs"?
And back to dodgeball: I am a better person today because Kervin Abner was the most feared dodgeball player at Hendy Avenue School in Elmira, New York. Kervin threw that red rubber bouncy ball -- the size of a toaster oven -- at 150 miles per hour, hard enough to emblazon your chest with the brand name of the ball if you had the misfortune of being in its path. Kervin was my dodgeball idol. We feared him. The Germans would have feared Kervin in World War II. He was that good. Kervin made us better. Dodgeball, cupcakes and hugs have all played a role in the forming of America. What do we do now?
We have a heck of a broadcast planned for tonight: exclusive new political polling (along with Tim Russert to report it), Fred Thompson, religion, space and more. And how about Jimmy Carter?
CONTINUED >>
Editor's note: Every weekday, you can check out our First Person "Photo of the Day" -- breaking news pictures and photography submitted by you.
Kyle McCaskill shares this photo of Sen. Obama:
"This is from Senator Obama's NYC rally, it started out with singers and poets, and ended with obama speaking, 50,000 people were there in Washington Square Park."
Obama supporters have been sending us photos of their candidate on the stump. Send us a picture of other candidates on the trail.
Click FirstPerson.MSNBC.com to submit an entry.
Click here to see more Photo of the Day features.
Tell us what you think, on comments, below.
|
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
James A. Taylor
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Troop B, 1st Cavalry, Americal Division
James Taylor served in the Army as an enlisted man for ten years before being selected for Officer Candidate School and becoming an officer. After graduating as a lieutenant, he was assigned to the
1st Squadron, 1st Cavalry. In 1967 he was the executive officer of B Troop in Vietnam.
On November 8, 1967, Taylor was at his base camp when he was notified that his commander had been wounded in action and was being evacuated from the battle area. Taylor was ordered to fly out to the combat zone by helicopter to assume command of B Troop. At that time, B Troop was under the operational control of the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division. After arriving in the combat area, a decision was made to consolidate the troop, evaluate the situation, and attack the enemy at first light the next day.
Prior to launching the attack, Taylor was replaced as troop commander and resumed his duties as executive officer. As the battle began the next morning, Taylor’s priorities were to coordinate the evacuation of the wounded, to call in air and ground support, and to arrange for additional supplies, including ammunition and fuel.
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
Our broadcast tonight will cover the three stories mentioned in the headline above: the hearing on Capitol Hill today on private security in Iraq, political fund-raising, and the folks our teachers called "our neighbors to the North," coming south to take the soaring Canadian dollar (as measured against the plummeting U.S. dollar) for a spin. Because I have a colleague who had never heard of the "Loonie" and because I have a ton of Canadian friends and colleagues, we had an impromptu lesson in the slang of currency at our editorial meeting this morning. We decided "Loonie" was to the Canadian dollar was "buck" is to ours and "quid" is to the Pound. Glad we got that straightened out. For the record, the Loonie is named for the loon emblazoned on the dollar coin in Canada -- and the relatively new two-dollar coin is called the "two-nie". Those Canadians. The flip side of the coin? Queen Elizabeth II.
Making History
Forty years ago today, the United States became something it had never been before: a country with a black Supreme Court Justice. At 10 in the morning on October 2, 1967 (the first Monday of the month fell on the second that year), Thurgood Marshall took the oath and became the first African-American to sit on the nation’s highest court. It had taken 178 years. On hand to witness Marshall’s swearing-in was the man who put him there: President Lyndon Johnson. Four months earlier, announcing the nomination, LBJ made no direct mention of Marshall’s race. But he did say this:
“I believe he earned this appointment; he deserves the appointment. He is best qualified by training and by very valuable service to the country. I believe it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place.”
Thurgood Marshall went on to serve on the Court for the next 24 years, and when he retired in 1991 he was replaced by a Justice who was as proudly conservative as Marshall was liberal: Clarence Thomas.
When it comes to bringing history alive, there’s no one better than our friend David McCullough. Nightly News viewers will recall that we spent some time with David a couple of years back, talking with him about his most recent book, "1776." Today that book comes out in a lavishly illustrated version packed with facsimiles of dozens of rare documents, maps, letters and the like. They’re calling it an “interactive” book, but don’t let that throw you. It’s worth a look.
Please take a moment to read today's Medal of Honor biography. We look forward to having you join us for the Tuesday edition of Nightly News.
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Over Guadalcanal, western pacific, 1943
Wildcat Defense
James E. Swett
First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps Marine Fighting Squadron 221,
Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing
James Swett learned to fly in junior college in San Mateo, California, and graduated from the Civilian Pilot Training Program just before Pearl Harbor with 450 hours in the air. He enlisted in the Navy and became an aviation cadet, but halfway through the program, one of his officers persuaded him to become a Marine Corps pilot.
Lieutenant Swett landed on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, in the spring of 1943 as part of Marine Fighting Squadron 221. He had not yet been in combat on the morning of April 7 when he led a squadron of Grumman Wildcats on routine dawn patrol. Upon landing to refuel, he learned that Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto had ordered a major strike against Guadalcanal. In all, 76 American planes would have to defend against a wave of 150 Japanese bombers and fighter escorts.
CONTINUED >>
Hi. Will this end up being the most prescient blog post of the year? Even as the Bush Administration keeps saying, for the record, that they want diplomacy not war when it comes to Iran, the noise level on the war option keeps getting louder. Plus, a little politics, and when bad financial news is good.
The New Yorker's Sy Hersh started reporting on the possibilty of war with Iran in April of 2006. His latest update raises a scenario in which the U.S. strikes in a limited way against Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (who've just been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. Congress) -- (P.S. We'll see your Guard and raise you one CIA) This is a scenario which Hersh's sources argue can be "sold" to the American people because of the Bush Administration's contention that the Guard is "killing our boys in Iraq." And speaking of Iraq, Hersh looks at the surge and sees it as a U.S. acceptance of ethnic cleansing. Mark Silva at Tribunes' The Swamp notes the White House reiteration of diplomacy not war in reaction to Hersh. And Downing Street denies it's on board.
The (London) Telegraph has the latest on alleged war preps: an air war training center set up in the UAE. And pronounces that the Neocons are on the march again. Chris Weigant games out what could happen after U.S. airstrikes. 5th Estate at Newshoggers takes a look at the big picture as well. The Jerusalem Post says Iran is threatening to attack 170 U.S. targets if it is hit. Glen Greenwald picked up on something the Washington Post's Dana Priest said last week.. that the only thing standing in the way of a military strike on Iran may be the military itself. Oh and the rollout goes Prime Time. And a Kos Diarist says make Congress decide.
Syrian President Assad told the BBC the target of Israel's mysterious strike was an unused military building. Here's AP's writeup of the interview. And Syria's Vice President comes right out and says the air raid was aimed at justifying a future attack. (Hat Tip: SyriaComment) Global Research says war is on the front burner. And here's a view from Israel (Hat tip: Cee in No Quarter comments)
And how ugly is the discourse over this getting? Check out Glen Greenwald's latest post, and the psychology behind the criticism of it. An speaking of ugly discourse.
Ben VanHeuvelen writes in Salon today about Blackwater's ties to the Bush Administration and the Christian Right.
Politics: while we're on the subject of the Christian Right, BulldogPundit muses on the threat to take their ball and go home. And the WSJ's Jackie Calmes reports on Page 1 today that all the focus on those social issues has changed the GOP brand.
Barack Obama, marking the 5th anniversary of the vote to authorize the war in Iraq, made some interesting points about the media in his speech today, which Greg Sargent picked up on.
It's a crazy world indeed when the biggest bank in the world announces its Q3 profits are taking a 60% hit and the Dow rallies to new all-time highs on the news. Ah yes-- now we can put all that credit crunch stuff behind us.
And the Mets historic collapse has inspired ESPN.com's often-inspired Sports Guy Bill Simmons to update his classic "levels of losing." Oh the pain!
By Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
After months in new (temporary) quarters, we're back on the 3rd floor of 30 Rock in our old space made new -- part of the huge consolidation of NBC News and MSNBC that will be complete in just a few weeks. Everything looks great, and while we will all head home tonight wearing the light white sheen of a day-long dusting, its exciting to stake a new claim to our old floor. Tags hang from chairs, workers come through armed with punch lists and my old trash can may be lost forever. Then there's the matter of tonight's broadcast...
First, what I thought was a terrific piece of writing by Peggy Noonan, artfully taking on a big issue here in New York last week. Then, there's this: Today is Jimmy Carter's birthday...he's 83.
Now to the broadcast: aviation looms large in the news today, as does politics. And for my friends in the Midwest especially, there's a huge weather development to alert you to. We have some great reporting tonight. See Mark Potter's post in this space.
Tomorrow, one of the great recording artists of our time, Bruce Springsteen, releases what is (according to Entertainment Weekly) one of the great albums of our time. Note the last sentence in their review this week. The fact that I spent my youth chasing Bruce and his band up and down the Jersey Shore on Friday and Saturday nights...has nothing to do with my recommendation.
Please take a moment to read about my friend Ken Stumpf.
We are thrilled to have you back for the start of a new week, and we sure hope you can join us tonight.
By Mark Potter
It's amazing the things you can learn when you look just below the surface. That happened to us during our reporting for tonight's Nightly News story on the dramatic increase in the number of Cuban immigrants processed into the United States through the Southwest border, primarily Texas. What explains this?
Federal law enforcement officials suspect most of the Cubans are actually brought to Mexico by smugglers, who then arrange their transportation to the U.S. border. These trips are usually financed by Cuban-American family members, with the smugglers now choosing Mexico over routes closer to Florida to avoid U.S. Coast Guard patrols.
CONTINUED >>
By Janet Shamlian, NBC News Correspondent
Oct. 1: NBC's Janet Shamlian previews her story for this evening’s “Nightly News With Brian Williams.” Click here to watch
He drifted into my home without my ever noticing. Like a new pre-teen band, his name gushes from the lips of my children the way Mantle and DiMaggio may have from my father’s when he was a boy. But Mr. Rice never played professional baseball, and while he enjoys rock star status in our home, I doubt he’d make the first cut on “American Idol.”
Who is this man my son and daughters believe hung the moon? I used to listen with concern. Now, I eavesdrop for the sheer delight of hearing how, armed with dry ice and methane gas, Mr. Rice ignites the science lab as he has their collective love of the subject.
In my children’s school as in schools across this country, its an indisputable fact: There are more Misses and Mrses. than Misters. It’s always been that way, but the disparity has never been so great, as we’ll report tonight on “Nightly News.” From pay to perception, the reasons are numerous, and many are what you’d expect.
Take Adam Fogolin, the 24-year-old fifth-grade teacher I met in Minneapolis. With a master’s degree, a passion for teaching and the energy of a toddler after chocolate, Adam is the Mr. Rice of his school and one of only two male teachers in a building of 600 students. After pouring heart, soul and 60 hours a week into his kids, he spends weekends on a golf course. But there’s no tee time for Adam. He’s on the fairway because its maintenance is the second job he needs to make ends meet. It’s the grim reality keeping many men and women from careers in education.
My oldest child started middle school this fall. With the excitement of new freedoms and a fresh start, there are moments of melancholy. You see, Mr. Rice doesn’t teach sixth grade. Everyone says there’s no one like him, but for the sake of our kids — who need role models of both sexes at school — I sure hope they’re wrong.
|
Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Ken E. Stumpf
Specialist First Class, U.S. Army Company C, 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division
Early in 1967, the Communists’ control of Vietnam’s Quang Ngai Province was so complete that many villagers had never seen any troops other than those of the Vietcong. The U.S. command decided to try to break this stranglehold on the area through a series of company-size search-and-destroy missions.
On April 25, Ken Stumpf was on one of these missions. A U.S. helicopter gunship orbiting the area had killed one Vietcong fighter in one of the small villages and wounded another. Around noon, Specialist Fourth Class Stumpf was ordered to investigate with his six-man squad while another squad, including the platoon’s radio operator, followed behind. CONTINUED >>
