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Off the Record with Don Rumsfeld
The much maligned former secretary of defense talks about his time in office—and insists he has nothing to apologize for
The private plane about to deliver Rummy and Mrs. Rummy to their getaway in Taos, New Mexico, is idling on the tarmac at Dulles when the Secretary arrives. He enters smiling, beaming, swaggering, a compact little 75-year-old package of waning testosterone, dressed in real-man-headed-to-his-ranch khaki, two dachshunds (names: Reggie and Chester) yapping at his loafers, classy, no-nonsense wife of fifty-two years Velcroed to his side. In other words, the perfect tableau of a Bush-administration official—except, of course, that he no longer is and has chosen this outing to talk at length for the first time since he was rudely banished from the kingdom last December.
Two young, studly pilots—from the private firm Rummy uses to book his private planes—greet him in the doorway of the airport lobby. They are terribly excited to have the Secretary as their charge this morning. They've never met the man before—were never "lucky enough"—and so, yes, they fall into the category (small, if you believe the press; huge, if you believe the Rumsfelds) of Great Admirers. They stand erect and giddy, very respectful. "Mister Secretary," they say in unison, extending their hands, explaining that they, Jeff and Jason, will be safely delivering him to Taos this morning, sir! Rumsfeld seizes the moment. He has always known how to play to his audience. "Let me tell you, as an old navy pilot, fellas…" And he's off and running, flashing that special Rumsfeldian ability to exude charm and arrogance at the same time: praising their fine choice of career, giving them tips on the runway layout in Taos, conspiratorially gauging whether we might have to stop for fuel, and letting them know, in that passive-aggressive way he has, that he personally has already scoped out the weather conditions. "You don't need any final instructions or anything" he says more than asks.
"No, sir!"
Jason and Jeff head off to the cockpit, leaving the Rummys—and their two security guys—to schlep their stuff to the plane. (Rummy still has round-the-clock government security, because of "threats and things," but he doesn't want to talk about that. This will be the first of a great many Things Rummy Doesn't Want to Talk About.) But Oh Lordy, as Rummy would say, what the heck are they bringing with them to Taos What is all this stuff Is that a king-size mattress pad from Macy's, with the tags still hanging off it, that they are lugging across the country And what's with the straw rugs Joyce, a.k.a. Mrs. Rummy, says she found those nifty rugs at a hardware store, though her preferred shopping venue is Target. As for the mattress pad, it was on sale! And they needed a new one at the ranch. They are, they explain, frugal.
Except when it comes to their preferred mode of transport.
The Lear 60 they have leased for the journey is about fifty feet away on the tarmac. Would the Secretary like a ride out to the plane asks one of the security guys. Rummy gives him his best "You idiot, I'm Donald Rumsfeld" look. "'Course not!" he barks.
And we are off to Taos.
"Feel free to open the windows, ladies," says Rummy, in his oozing-charm voice. (He is either Rummy or Mr. Secretary or DHR, as he refers to himself; or DR, as his staff refers to him, with abbreviated reverence.) Open the windows "No, no," he says. An impatient snarl. (Is she going to take everything literally) The shades! The shades!
We settle in on the plane. Me, Joyce (with both dogs on her lap), DHR, and in the fourth seat, DHR's reading materials. Mounds and mounds of newspapers: USA Today, The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, etc. (Though the next day, he will claim, when asked what it's like to get excoriated in the press: "I don't spend a lot of time reading newspapers.") He has also brought with him a thick stack of e-mails and memos that he has printed out for the trip. He still does his famous "snowflake" thing, so named for his propensity to put every thought that crosses his mind into memos and distribute them like a blizzard (to whom, these days, it is not clear), with the exception, perhaps, of those things he does not recall, such as his role, or nonrole, in the Pat Tillman cover-up, which he will testify about a month after our trip. For much of the four-hour flight to New Mexico, he hands notes and papers, one page at a time, across the aisle to Joyce with a "Sweetheart, look at this" instruction. Or: "Here, this is interesting." Or: "Here, now this is interesting."
I let at least two states pass underneath us before I dare to ask: So…whatcha all reading
Heh heh. "You see the mountains There they are!" says DHR.
No, really, what's so interesting
"Bad thunderstorms, like they said."
Finally, he begins to hand pages across the aisle to me, with a caveat: "You can read it, but you can't use it." Heh heh
The Rumsfelds are headed to Taos on this gorgeous summer day to greet the only creature who might be more stubborn than DR. That would be Gus, the new mule Rummy bought for Joyce for her seventy-fifth birthday. "I said to Don," says Joyce, filing her nails, "'I want a mule.' Because our horses, I haven't been on in six years. And I just feel, at this age, it's safer for me to be on a mule than a horse. A mule is not spooked easily, very sure-footed, calm…"
DHR puts his paper down and squints. Joyce wanted a mule, he says, so he bought her one. The least he could do.
And you know, says Joyce, "in the history of the army, they were on mules." So they had that little military connection.…
"Kit Carson rode one from California to Taos, New Mexico!" says Rummy.
"Isn't that crazy" says Joyce.
So how, exactly, do you go about buying a mule
"On the Internet!" Rummy says.
He goes on to explain that he found "this mule fella in Missouri. I found the man who trained them and bred them. And, uh, he sent a video. And we looked at the video and satisfied ourselves that Gus was at least a possibility. There's always a risk! When you buy a—"
A mule online
"You can get a bad one. But from the video, he looks like a good-looking animal."
And you named him Gus because…
"Oh no, it was already named. The animal's name, technically, was Augustus. But that's a little too grand for us. So he's gonna be Gus." He picks up another newspaper. The headlines are full of news about Hillary, Barack, Rudy, McCain. Surely he has an opinion on how the election is shaping up.
"The what" says Rummy.
The presidential election.
"I think, uh…I'm gonna eat my lunch now."
Kevin, his security guard who's sitting in the jump seat behind the cockpit, proffers the prepackaged lunches. "Chicken or tuna salad," says Rummy. "Ladies"
He eats in silence, occasionally gazing out the window, then declares that he is going to "not talk for a while."
Joyce is less reticent. While her husband shields himself with The Wall Street Journal, she talks about how surreal it has been for them to "reenter," as she puts it. For six years, they lived in the bubble of the Bush administration—they couldn't even go to Taos! But now that they are "reentering," life has gotten interesting again. Why, just the other day, they flew commercial for the first time in six years!
"It was fun," says Rummy, piping up.
"Oh, my gosh," says Joyce. "It was exciting. And then we went on the train to New York. Which was the first time since he left the Pentagon. It was the first time we had done anything really like that! And it was absolutely… We were like two kids on an adventure!"
DHR has his nose back in the papers as Joyce tells the rest of the story about the amazing train ride. "And then the conductor came through and said, 'There's been a terrible tragedy.' And we thought—I mean, from where we're coming from, 'terrible tragedy' is serious. And the conductor said, 'Anna Nicole Smith has died.' "
A little snort from Rummy.
"And so isn't that…," Joyce trails off. "I mean, it's really… And then the darling couple in front of us, who had said nothing, they turned around and said, 'We've been trying to respect your privacy, but we're quite sure you have no idea who Anna Nicole Smith is.' Isn't that adorable!"
He peers over his newspaper and snorts again.
"And Don said, 'Help us out a little bit.' "
They exchange a knowing chuckle.
"But I mean, it was the real world, you know" says Joyce.
Speaking of the real world, when the Rummys are in Taos, do they ever get to hang out with Julia Roberts
Rummy smiles. "Noooo. But we've met her, and she's very nice."
"She just had another baby, Don. A boy," says Joyce.
So they've met her
"Well, yeah, I'd say," says Rummy. "I sold her some land. We had land that abutted each other, and she wanted it, so we sold it to her. But don't put that in there! I don't want that in the story."
("That's okay," whispers Joyce. "It was all over the Taos papers.")
For the next half hour, his lovely and open wife tells me about the love affair the two have shared for more than six decades. They met when they were 14. Freshman year in high school, Winnetka, Illinois. "I was obsessed!" she says. "But he wasn't crazy about me." She spent her high school years offering condolences to the other girls he shafted. Finally, she snagged him senior year. Then he got accepted to Princeton. And she made a decision—"it was deliberate," she says—to go as far away as possible. She picked Colorado. "I went west when he went east, because I didn't want to spend four years hoping he would call."
Rummy pretends to be ignoring this conversation.
Then what
Well…Joyce was no dummy. She got herself "pinned" to another guy, and Rummy went berserk. ("I think it still bothers him," she whispers.) He instantly proposed.
DR peers over his newspaper. "Oh, come on! She was so crazy about me that she ran off and got pinned to some guy in Colorado!"
"See" says Joyce. "That still makes him a little mad, right"
"Do you think it was a strategy" Rummy asks me.
I think it was a brilliant strategy!
"Yeah, well. Do you want more lunch"
He returns to the papers, and Joyce returns to the topic of reentering. I probably won't believe this, she says, but one of the really great things that's happened since the president did or did not fire her husband is that everywhere they go, people just adore Donald Rumsfeld. "They come up to him on the street and tell him how much they like him," says Joyce. "They throw their arms around him! Wherever we go. Even in New York, where you'd think it would be enemy territory! People come up to him and throw their arms around him."
She says that he got "hundreds and hundreds of letters" when he left the Pentagon. All positive. "I said to Don, 'Did you get any bad ones'" DHR squints over his papers. Well, there was one negative letter, says Joyce. "From someone who was mad because he sold property to Julia Roberts."
Rummy grimaces.
He tosses another memo across to Joyce for her opinion. "Lisa's gonna think all my good ideas come from you," he says. To me: "I feel like her secretary." (Speaking of which, Joyce reminds him, they need to thank Lynne Cheney for dinner.) Finally, he starts to share. Among the things I am allowed to read: his eulogy for Gerald Ford (yes, he carries it around with him) and a rather fascinating chronology he has typed up interspersing the life of Donald Rumsfeld with Major World Events ("1946: DHR meets Joyce.… 1947: DHR becomes an Eagle Scout.… 2003: Operation Iraqi Freedom begins"). I learn that he was born the day after the stock market hit bottom in 1932, that he was 11 on D-day, and that his father died, of Alzheimer's, the same year Ford made Rummy chief of staff. Rummy says he stole this chronology idea from a book he read on Churchill. He thinks it might be a nifty way to start his own book—which he is, in fact, planning to write, despite coy protestations. The chronology is a reminder of the profound influence DHR has wielded for more than half a century: naval officer. Four-term congressman. The youngest (and then oldest) secretary of defense. Top aide under Ford and Nixon (who once called him "a ruthless little bastard"). Ambassador to NATO. Middle East envoy. Two lucrative stints as a CEO in private industry—
He hands over another memo. "I sat down the other day and made a list of challenges in the world," he says. ("Subject: Challenges.") Another is an April 26, 2006, memo addressed to President Bush titled "Some Illustrative New Approaches and Initiatives to Meet the 21st-Century Challenges." (I can read it, but I can't have it.)
We move on to some photographs. DHR in his Princeton-graduation photo, DHR on a unicycle, DHR with Gerald Ford in bedroom slippers. And a really creepy shot of DHR's face on a shooting target in Iraq. "These were found in the terrorist training camp," he explains. "Before the war even started, they were there."
With you as the target
"Yeah. When we conquered Baghdad, we went into this terrorist training camp and this was their target, all over the place. They were using these."
Didn't that freak you out
A loud belly laugh. "There are so many things that should freak me out!" Then, a straight face. "No. Not really."
Rummy collects his papers and memos and stuffs them into his old, beat-up leather briefcase. (He's had it since 1977.) Then he gathers up the newspapers and offers them to me. In return I toss him the New York Post, the only paper he hasn't devoured today. On the cover: Paris Hilton, just released from jail. He reads the headline—V-D DAY!—and cracks up. Then he starts to read the story.
Suddenly, the quizzical Rumsfeldian look.
"Sweetheart" he says to his wife. "What's a hair extension"
"It's a very big thing right now," says Joyce. "I just learned about it three weeks ago."
Rummy looks on in horror as she describes—quite accurately—how it is done.
"Hmmmph," he says.
As we approach Taos, he gestures out the window. Look! "There's the Rio Grande." And the famous Gorge Bridge. "A friend flew under that Gorge Bridge. He got arrested for it. He was foolhardy." A beat. "And there's Julia Roberts's land!" (But he'd prefer I not mention that.)
When the plane touches down, the Rummys applaud. "Way to go!" DHR shouts to the cockpit. "You could have been a navy pilot!" Then to me: "He had a little runway left there, didn't use it all." This is apparently high praise.
Joyce tells me I should dress as casually as possible when I come to visit the farm tomorrow. Jeans "Absolutely!" (They prefer to call it a farm, not a ranch.) "Not those shoes," adds Rummy, pointing to my high heels. "Those aren't Taos shoes."
I mention that maybe we could talk about Iraq tomorrow.
A squint of the eyes. A dawning realization.
"What is this for" he asks. "And why"
That night Rummy calls, as promised, with directions to the farm. I already have a set of directions from his guy back in Washington—with the words please destroy after use on a sticky note on top—but I indulge him. He seems in good spirits; he explains that he and Joyce are enjoying their "last night alone" before Gus arrives. His directions are complicated, military-precise, every detail mentioned—including two "cattle guards" that one must navigate correctly. Um, what's a cattle guard "That is such a New York question!" says Rummy, roaring with laughter.
At nine the next morning, he's waiting in the driveway of the farm with Chester and Reggie. "C'mon, Reggie, it's Lisa! He can't see well." Reggie nuzzles my ankles. "Good dog." Today he's dressed in real-man-on-the-farm garb: old, faded jeans, a Patagonia vest, an oord shirt and white undershirt, New Balance sneakers. Despite a limp (he wiped out on the slopes last winter and screwed up his hip pretty good) that has added a bit of frailty to the Persona, he still has the macho thing going. He walks like a man with a ranch.
"You wanna leave your gear here, and I'll walk you around a bit" he asks.
Though Rummy doesn't make a habit of inviting members of the press to his farm, he seems to love showing it off. The place is—there's just no way to say it without clichés—peaceful, quiet, rustic, stunning in its raw natural beauty. It's his fifty-acre piece of heaven, his sanctuary—particularly now. In fact, it kinda ticked him off that he got out here only a handful of times while he was secretary of defense. "Have been a little busy for the last six and a half years," he says, chuckling. One of the upsides to his exile—though he doesn't call it that—is being able to come here whenever the heck he wants. He shows me every barn, every tractor, every animal on the property. "I just love it here," he says. "Where's my chain saw"
If you're expecting Don Rumsfeld—out of government now, on his farm, in a moment of repose—to play the bitter, angry, reflective, tragic fallen hero…ain't gonna happen. If he feels any of those things, he's not showing it. (And if he did, he probably wouldn't be Donald H. Rumsfeld.) The man does not do regret. Over the course of the next few hours, he will answer every question asked of him, and even when the answer is "I'm not gonna talk about that," there's never a flash of anger. Impatience, yes, but never anger.
And anyway, he would much rather show me around. "You gotta see this," he says, leading me past piles of horse manure, past an outhouse, over an irrigation ditch, into a series of dilapidated barns. Rummy's spread used to be a dairy farm—he bought it from the farmer's wife at auction, after the guy died—and he has kept everything the old man left here. His tools, his machinery, his clothes, his rifle holster ("You ever seen one"). He even kept his dirt-encrusted delivery log. "Look at this: 'Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Homogenized for Herman Quintana. Put it in the icebox.' Isn't that interesting He pretty much ran this place by himself. So he had to do it wisely."
The Rumsfelds lease part of their land to a friend who runs cattle out here—"They were all right here this morning," Rummy says; "it looked to be thirty head in this patch"—and have some handsome-looking horses. In another barn, he stores his guns. Which come in handy, with the darn coyotes. He has to be careful that Chester and Reggie don't get eaten. "They go after the young ones," he explains. "They got a calf one night." He tells the story of how he tried to save that calf in the middle of the night. "Joyce likes to keep the ammunition far away from the weapons. So we keep the weapons locked up in here and the ammunition somewhere else. And one night, you could hear the coyotes killing a calf. As sure as anything. It was calving season. And I raced out here, got the ammunition, then I ran to the gun locker, got that open, then I ran all the way back." He stops for a second, stares out at the field where it happened. Did I just detect a hint of emotion I did. "By the time I got out there, they'd finished."
Was it bad
So then what do you do with—
"A dead calf" That hint of emotion is suddenly gone. "Oh, they kind of pack it up," he says matter-of-factly. "A dead horse or anything, they pack it up and take it out to the dump."
He shows me his little workshop ("I like to fix things"), the guesthouse, the barn he converted to a playroom filled with dollhouses and a Foosball table (for the grandkids). Then, suddenly, there's a bit of a crisis: Reggie, the older dachshund who can't see much anymore, has somehow gotten into the corral with the horses. "Oh no! Reggie! Come, pal!" To me: "This is not good. They'll stomp him to death. They don't know what he is. He could be a coyote or something.… Where the hell is he Reggie! Ho! I don't see him. Stay here, Chester."
He goes off and rescues Reggie. But the darn dog keeps wandering off. Will he know not to go back in there with the horses
"No, he may not," says DR. "But he's gotta learn, I suppose." He shrugs. Learning the hard way is apparently a Rumsfeld tradition.
(A week later, Reggie will have what first appears to be a stroke. And Rumsfeld—though he won't admit this—will be crushed.)
He leads me into the farmhouse. Their main house, where Joyce is spending the morning, is across the highway, on even more land. (They've made quite a haul in New Mexico real estate acquisitions over the years.) But since it's being renovated, they've been bunking down on the farm. The farmhouse is adorable. It's a "real adobe" Taos house, with two-foot-thick walls and beamed ceilings. Joyce has it decorated in southwestern WASP: warm, muted colors; tasteful rugs on stone floors; a few carefully selected pieces of art (a simple wooden cross, a Curtis print of the Taos pueblo, a painting by a local artist of the famous St. Francis of Assisi church in Taos—made more famous by Georgia O'Keeffe—where they like to go to Mass on Sundays even though they're not Catholic); framed pictures of their three children and seven grandchildren; and a touch of whimsy, like the black steel cow sprawled out in the foyer. "That scare ya" asks DR. "Joyce found that." To commemorate one of their favorite cows, who died birthing a calf. His wife is the type of woman who turned his old congressional spittoon into a centerpiece for dinner parties. You can see why he loves her.
"We can sit here, if you want to visit," says Rummy, offering a sturdy chair at the kitchen table. For several minutes, he futzes around, trying to figure out how to pour me a glass of water. (Where the heck did Joyce put the glasses) Then he sits down, crosses his legs, and gestures at the tape recorder. Right. He had asked me to remind him first about an article in yesterday's paper speculating on whether he was shopping some tell-all book. "I don't even want to bother with that article," he says. (It will be a memoir, not a darn tell-all, spanning the full seventy-five years of his illustrious life and career.) Okay. "But I'll tell you what I'm doing. Joyce and I are in the process of typing up the papers that I was working on on the plane over. To create a new foundation. But this is a foundation that will be an operating foundation. And we have four purposes at the present time.…"
So he's not, as the article speculated, about to write a book that will "correct the factual record, so he can sleep more gently"
"Noooo! That's nonsense!" An impatient snarl. "I sleep fine."
He'd like to explain the four purposes of his foundation: "One is to provide fellowships for postgraduate work in a variety of areas, including economics and foreign policy and national-security affairs. Our second purpose is to sponsor a lecture series—Pipe down!" One of the dogs is barking. "We ran out of food, so he's hungry." He looks to the ceiling. "Oh, Joyce, tell me how to do this!" To the dog: "We don't have any food. I'll give you a YipYap, that's what I'll give ya."
A YipYap
"It's something that Joyce has to calm them down. It's a treat. Kind of a little… Here, pal. The third thing is, we're interested in microenterprise. Most of the poor countries of the world—I shouldn't say most—a number of the poorer countries of the world have corrupt governments, and so when nations help nations, a lot of that money doesn't end up going to the people; it gets stuck in graft and corruption." He explains that before he came back to government, he worked on microloans with some outfit doing work in India and was impressed by it. He wants to do it in Afghanistan. "The fourth thing we'll do is be involved and interested in the Central Asian former Soviet republics.…" A brief history lesson, then an explanation of what the Big Goal is: "We talked about it and decided that these were four things that looked like it would be timely to be helpful on. Each of us believes in free political systems and free economic systems, and so that's a thread that will run through. I just think there ought to be a way…to try to be helpful to these former Soviet republics in ways that make their transition from a communist system and a command economy to a free political system and a free economy better. So that is what we're doing. If I do write a book, the funds from the book would go right into that foundation."
Sounds ambitious.
"It is!"
You could just hang out in Taos and not do anything.
"Oh, that's not like me. I have too much energy to do that. And it's a wonderful world, all the things that can be done."
Is it your legacy you're worried about
"Nooo! I don't think in that term."
You don't Maybe a little bit
"No. You get up and do what you do. And when it's over, it's over."
He pushes out his chair, checks his watch.
But when you look back…
"You know I am not a person who looks back. You say, 'When you look back.' If you asked me when was the last time I looked back, I don't do much of it. I just don't. Tomorrow's what's important, much more important than yesterday."
But how do you want to be remembered
"Oh, I don't know," he says. "Accurately."
Okay, then. How do you think you'll be remembered
"I don't have any idea." He's slightly annoyed now. But: "I know it'll be different than it is today; it always is. I think you read in that little paper I showed you on the plane that Harry Truman went out of office with, I think, a 19 or 20 percent approval rating. And yet what was accomplished in his presidency, with all those institutions that served the world and our country so well for fifty years, it's just amazing."
Do you think your old buddy W. hopes he's Harry Truman in fifty years
"I. Don't. Know."
Do you miss him
"Um, no."
A wry Rummy smile.
How about Colin Powell Are you still close
"No! We're not close. Never were."
"I still see Cheney."
Yes, they have houses right near each other on the eastern shore of Maryland. And yes, it is true they watched the last two presidential elections together over at Dick's place, and no, Rummy is not sure if they'll be doing that again.
"I don't know!" he says. "He's a busy guy."
A few things he will say about W. He believes that someday he'll be vindicated. He believes he's a lot more intelligent and curious than people give him credit for. "Oh, my goodness gracious!" That's a yes. "But you say 'than people give him credit for.' Than the press. Let's lay it on the line. 'Than the press gives him credit for.' Just think, in my lifetime, the Republican presidential candidates: Eisenhower, considered to be a bumbler, bad syntax. Gerald Ford, the best athlete they had in decades, and they called him a stumblebum and demeaned him and made fun of him. Said he wasn't smart, which he was. He'd gone to Michigan, he'd gone to Yale Law School. I mean… And Ronald Reagan. You read his diaries now, and the man is remarkable. And yet he was dismissed as a movie actor and not very smart. So I mean, the fact that President Bush is demeaned is no different than Eisenhower or Ford or Reagan. And the fact that people believe that to be the case is not a surprise when they're told it day in, day out, by the, uh, eastern media."
I can see how you and Bush got along in the loyalty department.
"Now, that's funny."
You still like him
"I do."
You don't talk, though, right
"Uhhh…I'm trying to think. No."
Was the last time you talked to him the day you resigned
He can't recall.
What he does recall is that twice before, at the height of the Abu Ghraib disgrace, he offered to resign. "I wrote a note. The first note basically said, 'Look, this is a difficult problem for our country, and it happened on my watch, and you have my resignation anytime you feel it would be helpful.' And then I gave him that, and he rejected it. And then I wrote out a longer resignation, and, uh, resigned as opposed to offering a resignation. And he rejected that."
What does that tell you about him
Long pause. "I don't know that I want to go there. That's none of my business. To analyze…"
A month and a half after our visit, Reuters would break the story that Rumsfeld gave his final (and apparently third) resignation letter to the president the day before the midterm elections, though Bush chose not to announce it until the day after, infuriating many Republicans who felt the election could have been won if Rummy had been sacrificed first. In Taos, I asked him if he considered resigning before the elections.
"Uhhh, no," he replied. "But it was very clear in my mind that if the Democrats won the House or the Senate or both, that it made sense for me to…that it would be best for the department if someone else was there."
So it could have been different for you if the Republicans had won
I tell him there's something I've been curious about. In the early days, before the invasion, where did Donald Rumsfeld stand, exactly Were you one of the people driving the bus who wanted to invade Iraq, or—
"No." He cuts me off. "I think [Bush] was quoted in the Woodward book as saying he didn't ask me. And that's true."
But surely, at some point you must have expressed your concerns.
He did. First of all, "we—without separating me from the others—we tried not to have that happen. We tried to get Saddam Hussein to adhere to the U.N. resolutions. We tried to get other countries to put diplomatic pressure on him. Even at the very end, we tried to get him to leave the country and seek safe haven elsewhere so that that"—he means the war—"wouldn't have to happen. And before the war, I sat and—this is on the record, all of this—I sat down and handwrote fifteen, twenty, twenty-five things that could be…could go wrong, could be real problems."
He says he will show me the memo. (And eventually, he does. It's just as he describes it.) "I wrote down all of the things that could be problems: That we wouldn't find weapons of mass destruction. That there'd be a Fortress Baghdad, and a lot of people would be killed. All of this… I read it in a National Security Council meeting. Then I went back to my office—I had handwritten it—and I dictated it and added four or five things. And I think there's probably thirty items on it. And then I sent it around to each of the members of the National Security Council, to the president and the vice president. So that all of them had in their heads the things that were difficult, problematic, worrisome, dangerous."
And how was it received
"Um…" A pause. He is carefully choosing his words. "I think it was…appreciated by the president that I took the time to do that."
And do you think the president—
"Yeah, I thought he read it. Yeah."
Almost on cue, the dogs start barking. Joyce walks in, with Blanca, their housekeeper.
"Hi, Blanca!" says DR.
"Hi, sir."
He notices that Blanca looks upset. "You doin' all right What happened"
Joyce explains that a good friend of Blanca's just lost her son. Killed in a car accident last night. With another friend. Fifteen years old.
"Fifteen," says Rummy, shaking his head. "Oh, that is a shame."
He walks over to Blanca, has a private word with her.
Then we move into the parlor, so Blanca and Joyce can put the groceries away. We sit down at a big, oval wooden table next to Joyce's piano and shelves filled with jigsaw puzzles and Scrabble games. They're big Scrabble people.
So: Could you ever see yourself pulling a Robert McNamara and apologizing for your role in this war
He doesn't blink. "McNamara is a good man. And an intelligent man.…" And the rest is off the record. "Very much off the record." (DR always adds degrees to his off-the-recordness. There is, to my count, "off the record," "very off the record," and "way off the record." And he always remembers, sometimes in midsentence, to tell you when he's back on. The man is nothing if not precise.)
At one point I ask him what the hardest time in his life was. "The hardest time, without question, was being chief of staff to President Ford," he says. "Because [Ford] stepped into a flying airplane, with no crew! And to come in and be his chief of staff was just a terribly difficult assignment." It was brutal being in charge, he says, "in the immediate aftermath of Watergate, when the reservoir of trust in this country had been drained," where "you'd go out and give a press conference in the White House, and if I said, 'That's the ceiling,' they would wonder why; they'd say, 'Why is he saying that's the ceiling' I mean, there was no trust in anyone for any reason. The environment was just polluted. It was just rotten in our country."
Harder than the past six years, though
"Oh yeah. You know, people think now, Gee, isn't everything horrible and isn't it terrible " But look at the other times in history, in his own lifetime, he says. "I mean, Lyndon Johnson couldn't leave the White House during the Vietnam War, they were throwing blood on the Pentagon… They were digging graves in my front lawn the last time I was secretary of defense! So you know, everything's new and everything changes, and nothing changes."
There are a lot of people who think that you guys are cold and callous, I say, that you don't hear criticism, that it doesn't seem to affect you when you see the death toll every day coming out of Iraq.
"Oh." It's more of a moan than an "oh."
Why is that
"Probably ignorance."
But it has to affect you.
"Oh." The moan again. "Off the record…" And he tells a story that, frankly, should be on the record. It's personal and pretty heart-wrenching, the kind of thing that people who despise Donald Rumsfeld might be surprised to hear.
Why do you want this o¬ the record
"I just do. I don't like to talk about myself."
Days later, I ask if I could put the story he told me on the record. And he responds with one of his dictated memos. ("Subject: Lisa's Questions on Hospital Visits.") What follows is several paragraphs of efficient, sterile prose utterly devoid of the seeming emotion I sensed when he talked at the kitchen table about visiting wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital with Joyce. But that is Rummy. Given the chance—even a second chance—to show a pulse, he chooses not to.
DHR still lives by a code that no doubt served him well—to a point. You don't self-aggrandize, you don't kiss and tell, you don't open a vein and act like you're on Oprah. An example: I tell him I'd really love to know where he stands on social issues. He has lived a life fuller than most, and his intellectual wattage is undeniable. Surely he has thought about some of this stuff. He snorts. No, really. How does Donald Rumsfeld feel about gay marriage, abortion, etc.
"Um, I'm not gonna get into it."
But why
"The administration has positions on these things, and if you're part of the administration, you're supportive of the administration."
Yeah, but you're not anymore.
"I know. But it's just not the way I am."
He has made it very clear that he is not a man who looks back. But surely, I say, when you think about the past six years, where it began and where it is now, there must be regrets.
"Well, sure." A pause. Is he going to elaborate Sort of. "I mean, you'd always wish things were perfect, but they never are. The enemy has a brain. And the enemy watches what our folks do, and they adjust to it and adapt to it, and in the process there's friction. And, uh, I mean, the fact that we were not able to get a division in through Turkey at the outset meant that the Saddamists, today's insurgents, had free play for a good period of time.…" And so on. "I mean, there's a dozen things like that."
But what would you have done differently
"Oh, I don't think I'm gonna get into that." He checks his watch again. "We're winding up, right"
So do you ever feel like you've been made the fall guy with Iraq
"No. I think anyone who's involved in a war—eh, wars are difficult things, they're messy things, they're dangerous things, people die, people get wounded. And anyone who's involved, someone's not gonna like it, someone's gonna be critical of it. So I—if you're in the business I was in, uh, that goes with the territory."
It's hard to argue with this logic. But it does have the added benefit of deflecting any sort of criticism. It is also the kind of mindset that lets you sleep at night.
He goes on. "If you do anything, somebody's not gonna like it, that's inevitable. Therefore, if you want to be liked—as Tony Blair said, popular, which is a terrible word—if you don't do anything, then everyone's gonna like you. And if you do do something, somebody's not gonna like it. And when you cancel weapons systems, you're gonna get a bunch of generals unhappy about it. Because that's what they spent their whole life on, working on those things, getting ready for it. That doesn't bother me. I've been changing things for decades. I went into companies and changed them. And I—I'm comfortable with that, I accept that, that there's gonna be opposition to things. I was asked to come into the department, by the president, to transform it. I could have gone in and not done that. And everyone would have been smiling. And the defense contractors that were doing what they were doing would be happy, the congressmen who had things going on in their districts would be happy…
"The fact is, we're in a conflict and a struggle—the first conflict of the twenty-first century for the United States of America. It is new, it is unfamiliar to the American people, and there's… In a very real sense, the American military cannot lose a battle, they can't lose a war. On the other hand, they can't win the struggle themselves. It requires diplomacy, it requires economic assistance, it requires a range of things that are well beyond the purview of the Department of Defense." His purview. "In terms of what's going on in Iraq or Afghanistan today, what the Department of Defense is doing is working. What isn't working is the diplomatic side. The government of Iraq has not been able to find ways to bring the elements of that country together sufficiently that they can create an environment hospitable to, uh, whatever one wants to call their evolving way of life, a democracy or a representative system or a freer system. Look at Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, 28 million people are free. They have their own president, they have their own parliament. Improved a lot on the streets."
All your theories worked there, in other words.
"It's been a big success! The Iraqi government has not been successful as yet. And, uh, it's gonna take some time and some effort."
When do you see it resolved
"I'm not gonna get into that."
Right. But if you distill the general sense…the measured general sense…of what the American public feels about Iraq right now, it would be: a plan in but not a plan out. Do you agree with that
"No! No, no! The military has to have plans for post-major-conflict stabilization, and they did. And, uh, the focus of the insurgents and the terrorists and the Al Qaeda have put on Iraq… It's enormously important to them."
But you sleep okay
"I do. Always have."
No nightmares
But surely, it has to be rough getting trashed every day.
He chuckles. "No. I get up and go right on."
Even when there's a headline where another general says, "Rumsfeld failed America"
"Uh-huh. And you know, that's one general out of forty. So—"
Is that how you deal with it
"Yeah. I mean, you should see the hundreds and hundreds of letters I received. Appreciating my service to the country. And complimenting me.… People that fuss, they're mostly retired people who don't agree with some of the things that we're doing. But I tell ya, I walk down the street—people are wonderful! It's incredible. Oh, my goodness, it's overwhelming."
Does that surprise you
It is interesting, really, that the Rumsfelds have chosen Taos as their refuge. You couldn't possibly find a more liberal-hippie-crunchy hangout. And in fact, while the locals will tell you they tolerated Donald Rumsfeld's presence just fine before Iraq— "He was just another rich guy," says one nose-pierced store owner—they haven't exactly made his life easy since then. He doesn't get a whole lot of hugs in Taos—except for one guy, not terribly popular, who rides around town shouting, "Viva Rumsfeld!" there've been numerous protests. Like the time some group carried an enormous weapon of mass destruction (a giant papier–mâché Rummy) through the streets of town. Or the time his little grandchildren got heckled in the Fourth of July parade. The Fourth of July parade, for goodness sake! There are the people who shout "Warmonger!" from their pickup trucks. And there was the well-circulated story about the dude in the ski lodge who really let Rummy have it. Gave him such heck—"Well, lookee here! If it isn't Donald Rumsfeld, our favorite local war criminal"—but DHR being DHR, he just ignored him.
Wasn't that a little difficult
"No, not really. It's a free country. People can say what they want."
Rummy checks his watch again. Golly, we've gone on longer than he'd planned. Do I know how to get back to my hotel Do I need any suggestions for later There are some great bars in Taos! The Trading Post is nice also! Gotta check that out. He walks me to my car. The doggies lick good-bye. Wait a minute—do I want to see a real adobe house I am instructed to follow him in his Toyota Land Cruiser to his real house across the highway…but this is strictly off the record!
An hour later, more good-byes in yet another gravel driveway.
This time he really has to go. Gus the mule is due any minute.
Lisa DePaulo is a GQ correspondent.


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One Shields Avenue
Tupper Hall. Room 3403
University of California, Davis
95616 Davis, CA
The National Science Foundation began supporting ADVANCE initiatives in 2001, and has awarded over $130M in funding for a variety of programs. The most significant efforts seek to create permanent institutional transformation.
Professional disciplinary groups allow members to meet, engage, and share knowledge. This effort is particularly important to foster supportive, collaborative networks among scientists from under-represented groups.
We have compiled multiple publicly available databases of the published research related to NSF ADVANCE program efforts to increase diversity in STEM education and the STEM labor force. These include the literature on implicit bias, mentorship and other topics.
Balance is real challenge facing many faculty, particularly women with children. The perception (and reality) of the inflexibility and rigor of an academic career is one cause for the lack of diversity in STEM disciplines.
Through ADVANCE, UC Davis is working to become a destination campus for diverse STEM scholars. Learn more about our recruitment process and available recruiting resources.

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Fun could be found just about everywhere at St. Frances de Chantal school during the last two weeks, as the parish hosted its annual vacation Bible school. Appropriately, this year's theme was "Everywhere Fun Fair."
The focus was on teaching the children how to be good neighbors. They studied other countries and cultures, to learn about their neighbors around the world.
The camp ran for two weeks, beginning Aug. 4, and was held each weekday morning. Nearly 300 children took part in the program, with about 150 per week. "Some kids have so much fun the first week, they want to come back and do it all over," said co-director Lucy Creed.
This was the second year Creed, the parish's director of Faith Formation, and Susan Vaccaro, a Catholic school teacher at Our Lady of Peace in Lynbrook, have run the program. Creed said despite a year hiatus in 2012, vacation Bible school has been an institution at St. Frances for more than two decades.
The children were not alone in their journey in learning about God, their faith and their neighbors. The "bigs," students in grades 6-8, joined in and served as big brothers and big sisters to the "littles." There were also several high school and adult volunteers.
Nick Caracappa, 22, a graduate of Wantagh High School and a pre-medicine student at NYIT, was the director of games, which were held outdoors as long as the weather permitted.
Caracappa started out coming to vacation Bible school as a camper when he was in pre-K, so his involvement with the program spans close to 20 years. His family has been parishioners at the church for more than 30 years.
"I enjoy being with the kids," he said, adding that as part of the focus on being a good neighbor, he taught them good sportsmanship and how to work as a team.
Melissa Swanson, of Wantagh, was one of the teachers, and her daughter is involved as the program as well, moving from camper to big sister.
Swanson said that the program brings faith into local families, as children go home and talk about what they learned at vacation Bible school. "It's a great program," she said. "It brings God into the children's lives in a fun and exciting way."
Every morning, the entire camp gathered under a tent in the parking lot for prayers and songs. The children then broke into groups and rotated through a variety of activities including games, arts and crafts, and Bible study.
"This is a nice way to be with the kids," Vaccaro said, "because it's not school but they're still learning."
Creed said that the program is a lot less structured than a typical religious education class, which many of the campers attend during the school year. The goal of vacation Bible school, she explained, is to show that there is joy in practicing their faith.
"Our philosophy," Creed said, "is as long as the kids are having a good time, learning about God, it's all good."


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When I eat out I want things I would never make at home. I want new flavours, textures and combinations to try, inspiration and ideas. Mostly I want a meal to stick in my memory for a while so that I can some way justify travelling to a foreign country for a dinner.
Relæ in Copenhagen was our latest culinary jaunt and I must say it delivered on all fronts. Opened by ex Noma alumni (only the best restaurant in the world, darling), this place has been turning up regularly in the design, food and travel magazines that gather in our house, and having treated ourselves to a weekend away sans children, we were curious to find out for ourselves what all the hype was about.
Housed in an understated basement room in a seemingly down at heel (but really rather trendy) neighbourhood, your menu and cutlery can be found in a little pull-out drawer under the table. They serve only two set menus here; one for vegetarians, the other for 'omnivores'. Homemade rye sourdough bread comes to the table tucked into a cloth in a ceramic bowl. It comes with a small spouted pot full of the fruitiest of olive oils.
Starters were white asparagus and anchovies for me and sheep's milk yogurt, pea shoots and pea & pinenut 'snow' for Ray who was 'taste driving' the vegetarian menu. The white asparagus which is forced and keep in the dark to stop it turning green was blanched for the briefest time and sliced finely. Multiple preparations of the same ingredient being a bit of a theme here, here was a white asparagus puree dotted in a pool of salty anchovy broth. It was beautiful on the plate and full of flavour.
Ray's sheep's milk yogurt & pea was simply stunning. A buzzy combination of flavors and textures and the vermillion pea and pine nut snow that drifted across the surface of the unexpectedly icy cold yogurt went a large way to making it the best dish of the meal for both of us (Ray previously hated both sheep milk and peas!).
Next up for us both a plate of the tiniest new potatoes, nutty and each no bigger than a thumb nail, generously dusted in powdered seaweed. There were warm forced strawberries, white and tart, smelling and tasting almost identical to early season rhubarb. These sat in a zingy rocket emulsion. Personally I found the strawberries a bit 'design over substance', they seemed to add nothing but novelty value, but that's a small gripe.
Ray's vegetarian main of grilled onions and puree duly arrived. Yes, onions. Seriously. A plate of very young onion shoots, gridled, and a deep dark caramelized onion puree on the side. It looked awful (thus not pictured), tasted divine and not a scrap was left. My havervadgård lamb, with turnip and samphire was outstanding. The charming waiter spoke eloquently of the wild lambs that feed on the samphire and forage the Danish seaside for their fodder, with no supplementary feeding, they are wild and organic. The supplier then scoops up both the lamb and the samphire for the good people of Denmark to feast on. This is some amazing meat! Our waiter continued to wax lyrical about the slow poaching of the lamb, (here I imagine that 'poached' translates into 'sous vide', as it was just perfectly rare and tender as could be) What they called a turnip was what we would call a swede. Paper thin and delicately flavored, it was soft enough that you knew it had been cooked but firm enough that it could not have been for long. The samphire was the only the tender tips, not the woody stems so often encountered elsewhere. The entire dish sat in the deepest lamb jus imaginable. It was ridiculously good.
We passed on the optional course of fresh goats cheese although it looked great on our neighbouring diners tables and moved on to dessert. This was indeed a dish served at the end of the meal, but no other dessert rules seemed to apply here. Described simply as herbs and warm sabayon on the menu, the bright green herb 'ice-cream' was not sweet but intensively flavoured with thyme, mint, rosemary and other garden herbs, the warm sabayon sweet, lemony and peppered with tiny herb flowers. The thinnest toasted rye bread slivers were added for crunch. It was a light and refreshing end to a truly lovely meal.
Dining at Relæ is a sensory experience and locality and seasonality are a religion. Simple, good ingredients are combined for innovation, mostly very successfully. The front of house staff are interested and enthusiastic and have the most amazing leather aprons for a uniform to boot! If you stay away from the biodynamic wines, the food is very affordable, alas we did not. But most importantly this is a meal which will most definitely stick in my memory for a while. A long while.


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After 5 years (2003-2007) and returning after a major health challenge, it's interesting to note that situations in business hasn't changed at all.
There is still …and always will be the unscrupulous individuals or businesses that try to "under mind†a trusting and/ or naive company that is prepared to offer them credit on a hand shake and then wait to see what transpires …amazing isn't it?
We are living in an environment of "instant gratification†… … …internet, mobile phones,world news as it happens, live, instant coffee etc., but people don't take the positive advantages of these tools to utilise and encompass their business entities and protect themselves accordingly.
Folks we live in unpredictable times, with the world economy forever on "shaky ground†consequently as Contractors of ECCC we are far above the rest of the business world.
Whereby we can indeed engage in meaningful, intellectually stimulating conversation's to help protect these venerable business from coming a cropper with make shift, home written terms that are no longer than 3 or 4 paragraphs and expect these clause to "stand up†in a Court of Law.
Hello wake up people,, we as ECCC Area Managers have the ability, power, strength, back room support and the know how to benefit these people.
Therefore I applaud you all, and congratulate the way ECCC is moving forward with an extra 6 products since I left, and a far more professional arena to work from, and the ability to edify this professionalism to our existing and prospective clients. Thank you admin, and management for the support we need, deserve and are grateful for.


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Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
A senior Palestinian Authority official on Saturday said that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' public condemnation of the abduction of three Israeli teens notwithstanding, a majority of Palestinians support the terrorist action.
Amin Maqboul, secretary-general of the important Revolutionary Council of Abbas' ruling Fatah faction, told The Jerusalem Post that most on the Palestinian street are happy about the kidnapping of Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel if it means they can be traded for thousands of jailed Palestinian terrorists.
Indeed, Palestinians young and old have been taking their joy to the Internet, where flourishing campaigns on Facebook and Twitter celebrate the abduction with a three-finger salute (one for each of the captive youths).
This grotesque commemoration escalated this week when Palestinians uploaded to YouTube a parody video suggesting that the abduction was a conspiracy hatched between Israel and Hamas.
"The purpose of these videos is to mock Israelis, to make us look stupid," Dr. Ido Zelkovitz, a professor of Middle East History at Haifa University, told the Walla news portal. "The video is also full of religious motifs and smacks of anti-Semitism."
So, where does this leave Abbas?
Certainly, he has taken a great risk by breaking with Palestinian societal norms and not only condemning this terrorist act, but committing himself and his regime to helping Israel find and rescue the captive youths.
That's certainly what outgoing Israeli President Shimon Peres thinks.
"Abbas is the best partner Israel has ever had, and has now," Peres told the Jewish Media Summit in Jerusalem this week, adding that what the Palestinian leader "did right now before a totally Arab audience in Saudi Arabia — being clear on peace, being clear on terror, risking his life [was] not a simple position."
But Maqboul said that Peres, and anyone who thinks like him, has been skillfully duped by Abbas.
Abbas condemned the abduction in order to "spare Palestinians the dangers of Israeli aggression and avoid international pressure," insisted the Fatah official.
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli expert on Islam and the Middle East, agreed with Maqboul.
"[Abbas] says what is expected of him to say," Kedar told Artuz Sheva, noting that Abbas' mentor and predecessor, Yasser Arafat, was also skilled at speaking the right words at the right time to the right audience.
Be that as it may, Abbas had certainly managed to anger a large number of Palestinians and Arabs in neighboring countries with his perceived cooperation with Israel. In the de facto Palestinian capital of Ramallah, mobs of stone-throwers attacked Palestinian Authority police stations, and in the neighboring Hashemite Kingdom activists called to revoke Abbas' Jordanian citizenship.
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Featuring rare, exclusive etchings by Bernard Leach and a definitive series of prints representing the culmination of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham's abundant creative life.
In the 1980s Janet Leach discovered a group of etching plates in the attic of the Leach Pottery. Test images were made and a new edition commissioned. As many of the plates are damaged or deteriorating, these are likely to become highly collectable images.
The etchings represent an as yet little-scrutinized niche in Leach's oeuvre. Simon Olding is shortly to publish a new book which will help reveal the importance of these early experiments in Leach's development. During his time at the London School of Art in 1908, Leach made etchings of urban scenes and figures, as well as drawings and paintings. He took an etching press to Japan in 1909, where he produced energetic, engaging studies of rural life, as well as figure studies and portraits. On his return to England, he used the technique less and less and the press was out of use by the mid 1920s. Nevertheless, it seems etching had a great impact on his development as an artist.
Whereas Leach engaged with printmaking techniques at the beginning of his career, astonishingly, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was in her 80s when she began a period of prolific printmaking. From 1998 - 2003, using water-based screen printing inks, she was able to encapsulate the individual essence of each mark; her painting style came to life through a new medium. The White Circle, Wind Dance and Water Dance (Porthmeor) Series' of 2003 poignantly express the ultimate flowering of a mature creative language.
The exhibition also features key prints by Bryan Pearce, Anthony Frost, Breon O'Casey, David Pearce, a rare edition of Terry Frost Etchings from his SS series, and a collection of Neil Canning's most recent silksreen prints.


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Home > News & Events > Wayland Press Release Archives > 2006 News Releases > October 2006 > Daniel taking helm as dean of Wichita Falls Campus
Daniel taking helm as dean of Wichita Falls Campus
Dr. Dean Daniel, currently dean of the Wayland Baptist University campus in Altus, Okla., has been named the new dean at Wichita Falls campus, effective Nov. 1.
Daniel replaces Dr. Elane Seebo, who left the campus to become the associate vice president for external campuses in September. She now oversees the day-to-day operations of the 13 campuses from her office in Plainview.
Daniel has been the dean in Altus since November 2004, serving as only the second dean for the campus, opened in 2000 as an extension of Wichita Falls and later becoming an independent campus in 2002.
"Dr. Daniel is an experienced administrator who brings both the knowledge and skills to lead our campus in Wichita Falls. As dean of our Altus Campus, he worked with both military and civilian students and has a firm grasp of Wayland's graduate and undergraduate programs, as well as the mission of our external campus system," said Dr. Bobby Hall, provost and vice president of academic and graduate services for the Wayland system. "Dr. Daniel will also benefit from a highly qualified and experienced faculty and staff in Wichita Falls, and together they will achieve great success in the future."
Daniel's predecessor at Wichita Falls, Seebo has great faith in his taking the helm at her previous stomping grounds.
"We are delighted to welcome Dr. Dean Daniel as the dean of the Wichita Falls campus," Seebo said. "With over two years of experience at Wayland, Dr. Daniel is well prepared to take on a new set of opportunities and challenges at Wichita Falls – especially since he has been working closely with that campus for the past two years and is already familiar with many of the faculty and staff. Dr. Daniel is an excellent match for Wichita Falls, and a tremendous asset to the Wayland system."
Daniel came to Wayland from a position as account executive with Lawson Publications of Spokane, Wash., on special assignment in Lincoln, Neb. He previously served as dean at Oklahoma State University's branch in Okmulgee, Okla. and was director of education for the Oklahoma Restaurant Association prior to that.
He holds the doctorate in education from Oklahoma State University, with a major in occupational adult education and an emphasis on teacher certification and personnel development. Daniel also has a Master of Arts in Religious Education degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. He received an associate's degree from Weatherford College.
Daniel has writing experience for the food service industry and in higher education and has served on committees and boards in related fields.


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puffycow wrote: »
It's ok. Just get naked and I'll massage you to sleep.
remlap13 wrote: »
I can play in a couple hours. With the gf right now.
redfield85 wrote: »
The Greatest Move Ever?
Hey Ashtray wrote: »
I'll try to be, 8 sounds good.
WilDPanthA05 wrote: »
Hotstepping later?


text: The unjustly neglected subject of ``gooey, gloppy, mucky, magnificent mud'' requires a unique perspective to transform it from the mundane to the celebrated. That perspective is right here, especially in newcomer Stringer's inspired artwork. The joy of a child playing in mud is tied to the change of seasons in such lines as ``A cold sweet smell rises in the ground, like sap in the snow.'' Ray (Shaker Boy, 1994, etc.) uses spirited language to show a child's playfulness as the mud thaws and comes alive with spring. This blithe view of one of the building blocks of life can come only from close observation; the point of view is at ground level, where readers can visually muck around in all that goo. The transformation of winter frost to mud serves as a spawning stage for the green of the new season; it's a concept treated innumerable times in books but never quite like this. Wallow in it. (Picture book. 3-8)


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Results 1 to 1 of 1
#1 Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project. poll
- Join Date
- Aug 2005
- Posts
- 22,889
The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency's director, Leon E. Panetta, has told the Senate and House intelligence committees, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.
The report that Mr. Cheney was behind the decision to conceal the still-unidentified program from Congress deepened the mystery surrounding it, suggesting that the Bush administration had put a high priority on the program and its secrecy.
Mr. Panetta, who ended the program when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23, briefed the two intelligence committees about it in separate closed sessions the next day.
Efforts to reach Mr. Cheney through relatives and associates were unsuccessful.
YouPoll: Should Dick Cheney be Indicted?
..................Yes 12%
..............................................No 88%
You voted: No This is not a scientific survey, click here to learn more. Results may not total 100% due to rounding and voting descrepencies.
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We own and operate an independent group of original restaurants in the metro Detroit area. They include
The Moose Preserve Bar & Grill (est. 1990) in Bloomfield Hills,
Camp Ticonderoga (est. 1996) in Troy, Deadwood Bar & Grill (est. 1999) in Northville
and the Iroquois Club
(est. 2006) in Bloomfield Hills. While each restaurant is truly unique, what
they all have in common is a casual, comfortable atmosphere,
magnificent hunting-lodge interiors, exceptional and varied menu
offerings, beautiful outdoor terraces and, most importantly,
award-winning and unmatched levels of customer service. Oh, and they're
also known throughout the United States for having the best homemade,
cooked-to-order chocolate chip cookies!
We're a growing collection of restaurants, with active, working owners known as
The Great American Grubslingers.
We're visible and viable in each community that we operate in. We
employ over 250 people who are your friends, neighbors, or even
relatives. We've been in business for more than 25 years, and are proud to
make metro Detroit our home.


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When scuba diving, more oxygen and nitrogen dissolve in body tissues. The extra oxygen is absorbed by the tissues, but the excess nitrogen must be washed out by the blood during decompression. During or after ascent, this excess nitrogen gas can form bubbles in the tissues just like the carbon dioxide bubbles that form when a carbonated beverage is opened. These bubbles can cause symptoms known as decompression sickness ("DCS" or "the bends").
If gas is trapped within the lungs during ascent, bubbles may be forced into the bloodstream ("arterial gas embolism" or "AGE"). This is more likely to happen if the diver has a diseased lung or is holding his/her breath. An arterial gas embolism blocks the flow of blood or damages the lining of blood vessels that supply blood to critical organs such as the brain. AGE also can occur in non-divers if air enters the body during medical diagnostic or therapeutic procedures.
Symptoms of Decompression Sickness or Arterial Gas Embolism:
- Joint pain
- Numbness
- Tingling
- Skin rash
- Extreme fatigue
- Weakness of arms or legs
- Dizziness
- Loss of hearing
- Complete paralysis or unconsciousness (in serious cases)
If DCS or AGE is suspected, it is important to give the person oxygen and to maintain the person's blood pressure. Laying the patient down and providing fluid is helpful in maintaining blood pressure.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the recommended treatment for DCS or AGE. This involves administering 100% oxygen at increased atmospheric pressure in a hyperbaric chamber (typically at a pressure 2-3 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure). Success in relieving symptoms is greater if the hyperbaric oxygen therapy is administered within a few hours after the onset of symptoms. However, symptoms can be improved even after a day or more of delay, particularly in mild cases of DCS or AGE. Most patients only need one hyperbaric oxygen treatment to receive the greatest benefit. Repetitive treatments may be recommended until no further improvement can be observed. A small minority of divers with severe neurological injury may require 15-20 repetitive treatments.


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Many of us have old photographs that feature persons whom we cannot identify. Sometimes members of our family are in the photographs as well, and we may or may not be able to name them. Often the unknowns in the images are friends of our family members.
When I visited family members in Ireland in September, I was able to learn the answer to a couple of my 'Who's that..?' questions, but for the most part the faces looking out of these images remain nameless. Somewhat deflated, I set aside the photos and abandoned the series.
When Alan posted a photograph of an unidentified family as the inspiration for Sepia Saturday #165, I was delighted. Here is another chance, I thought, to put out these images and find out just who the heck these people are. With the photos posted here I have noted the side of the family tree to which they are probably connected. As I perused the photos bearing my 'unknowns', I realized that even if I never know the answers to all of my 'Who's that?' questions, it's still fun to look at the images and ponder who the people pictured might be.
Be sure to visit Alan and Kat's blog Sepia Saturday to connect with lots of other bloggers who are participating, and maybe you'll feel inspired to join in too.
With apologies to the late great Dr. Seuss, here is my contribution, my own 'Who-ville':
|We do know the identity of one person in this double exposed photo.
My mom Mary is the lady seated on the grass. The odd thing is Mom had no idea of
the identity of the other two people in the image.
(Maternal tree, late 1940s or early 1950s)
|Looks like this group was attending a fun event, especially with those wacky hats,
although some of the partiers look rather sombre. Only three of the eleven pictured here are named.
My mom Mary, aged 18, is second from left, seated on the floor. Mom's sister Bernadette, aged 20, is second from left standing,
and the man on the far left is their cousin Seamus Barnwell. All the other partiers are unknown.
(Maternal tree, 1949)
Click on images to view larger versions.


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Ransom Fresh Out Of Jail Hits The Studio: Ransom & Jay Rock Collabing In The Studio! "Its The Big Goon. I Will Slap.. OO Put The Camera Down. Thats Gonna Get Me Jammed Up. Im Not Doin No More Bloggin Sh*t"
Ransom is back and free. He was recently locked up for that whole Joe Budden Beef. Hes back working with Jay Rock in the studio and no more blogging. Courtesy of Jay Rock TV
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
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We're really sorry but we've sold out of this product and are unable to obtain more stock. In most cases this is usually because the manufacturer has discontinued the product. We don't want you to miss out though so here's some of our best selling products which are similar to what you are looking for. Take a look and you could just find the perfect item. Just a small point to note - they might not have the exact features as the product you initially wanted so please be sure to check the features before you buy.
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The SanDisk Ultra SSD is compatible with SATA 6Gb/s ports and is backwards compatible with SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 1.5Gb/s ports. It is backed by a three-year limited warranty.


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It's "Patch Tuesday", the traditional day where Microsoft tends to push out some major OS fixes and updates and while it used to be a big Windows day, it's increasingly more important for Surface owners. That's because the Surface, a work in progress, is constantly getting tweaked for performance and usability. Today is no different.
Both the Surface RT and Surface Pro have numerous updates queued up for installing, including a few for Office 2013. The bigger deal though is the included firmware, which once again will hopefully fix a few lingering issues some of you may still be having.
Here's the Surface RT Changelog for April:
The April cumulative update includes improved Surface Wi-Fi reliability, connectivity in various scenarios, and performance improvements including:
- Certain "Limited" connectivity issues resolved
- Improves Wi-Fi to handle a wide range of access points.
- Resolves system crashes caused by certain Wi-Fi issues.
Likewise, the Surface Pro too has a similar series of updates:
The April cumulative update for Surface includes firmware and driver updates including:
- Resolves an issue with on screen touch navigation in the UEFI boot menu.
- Resolves some Surface Type and Touch cover connectivity issues.
- Support for 106/109 keyboards on North American Surface devices.
- Resolves an issue where toggling airplane mode would disable the Wi-Fi driver.
Not too shabby. The update on a Surface RT can take around 10 minutes or so, depending on how many of the patches your device qualifies for. To check, simply swipe from the right, Settings > Change PC Settings > Windows Update (bottom).
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more details.


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Hi there! I am new to this website...looking to meet some other tennis enthusiasts in Vancouver. I live in Yaletown but am also a member of the Richmond Country Club and can host matches there anytime or can hit outside anywhere around the city. I am looking for someone to hit singles with in the evenings or weekends as I work during the day. Anyone free this Friday after work? We can hit at RCC as it is likely going to be raining. Let me know! Cheers
Views: 320
Replies to This Discussion
I'd love to hit though depends what time Friday as I have yet to restring my racket (if not, after Friday). I'm in Richmond. 604 374 3598 or email@example.com
Hi Breanna,
I can play Friday after 6:00 pm at Granville Island. There are lights until 9:30 pm
email me at email@example.com
Hiya, I'm in Yaletown as well. Usually play Stanley Park or even David Lam when it's dry. Solid 4.0 player, Rafa and I have something in common too. ;) And wow there's lights at Granville Island till 9:30!! The things you learn! Anyways for a hit sometime, or maybe we can even get some doubles together, send me a message at email@example.com
Chris :)
Hello Breanna,
Not sure if this post is still active, but I am around the same level, and haven't played in awhile, and want to get back into it.
Text me with your name as a reminder if you still want to play, I also live in Richmond, Cheers!
Hi, Would you like to play tennis this week in downtown?
My number is 604 352 0336.
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One longtime credit union member is headed to New Jersey this weekend for Super Bowl XLVIII, courtesy of the $427 million Generations Federal Credit Union.
Joel Lira won two tickets and a $1,500 gift card for airfare and hotel to see the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks face off live this Sunday, Feb. 2, as part of the San Antonio-based credit union's Get Your Game On campaign.
The campaign generated more than $30 million in new loans, the credit union said.
In addition to radio, print and billboard advertising, every Generations FCU branch was outfitted with AstroTurf and staffers sported jerseys of their favorite football team every Wednesday from October to early January.
Designed to increase awareness for credit union and promote lending, the campaign included monthly drawings for some of the most sought after games of the 2013-2014 football season.
Members won tickets to games ranging from Oklahoma State vs. University of Texas and Houston Texans vs. Oakland Raiders, to the NFL Playoff game of Dallas Cowboys vs. Green Bay Packers and the grand prize drawing of the 2014 Super Bowl.


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Schools starts and I'm back to my daily routine...:(
Somehow, there are something to look foward this weekend...kekeke..;p Oh I'm so looking forward to it..:D Want to know what? Stay tune then...haha! (wicked me!)
Let's see what's my post today...a very simple, yummy banana muffins. And these were actually done by my daughter (with my guidance of course..heehee). You may wonder why not me who was baking...well with my manicure nicely done that day...that is why...haha!
These were baked for our breakfast on the CNY eve.
Soft and delicious, they were all gone during the breakfast..:) See her little hand decorating the rapsberries...haha! She loves to do it..:)


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Kinetics Database Resources
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Administrative Links
Chemical and Biochemical Reference Data Division
Title: A nonchain process for formation of methane and toluene in the pyrolytic hydrogenolysis of xylenes
Journal: J. Am. Chem. Soc.
Volume: 86
Year: 1964
Reference type: Journal article
Squib: 1964BUR/STR5065
1,4-Dimethylbenzene → Products
View full bibliographic record.
Rate constant values calculated from the Arrhenius expression:


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ProTrack: The options keep getting better!
Florida Tech's ProTrack Co-op program incorporates professional work experience and online course work into its College of Engineering degree programs, allowing participants to graduate in four years with the equivalent of a year of career experience. Plus, this traditional combined degree/co-op programs only take five years!
Learn more about the ProTrack Co-op program now!
Construction Management: Public Information
Get the facts and figures about construction management at Florida Tech. Includes documentation required by the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE).
Construction Management Degree from Florida Tech
Pair Vital Engineering Knowledge With Excellent Business Acumen
The construction management curriculum at Florida Tech combines practical business skills with vital engineering know-how. The program prepares undergradu ¬ates to enter the field of construction as competent and confident construction managers, who organize the construction workforce, order the materials, schedule the construction activities, manage the costs and quality, and coordinate the project through completion.
A construction management degree is different than civil engineering or architecture, which focus on design and planning. Construction management is a business-oriented major for students interested in project management, construction and land development, leading to licensure as a general contractor or professional construction manager.
Whether you want to be a construction manager or an entrepreneurial contractor, a construction management degree from Florida Tech develops a strong background in engineering and experience in business and project planning. Students majoring in construction management are also eligible for entrance into Florida Tech's FastTrack MBA program.
Gain Practical Experience
The construction management degree curriculum was developed in response to direct input from construction industry experts to prepare students to enter the workplace for both vertical (building) and horizontal (highway and civil) construction technical, managerial and communication skills. The College of Engineering works closely and maintains relationships with many local engineering and construction companies and as a result, students have access to a large network that provides a wealth of resources and internship opportunities.
As an example, you'll complete a senior design project towards your construction management degree in collaboration with a team of your peers. Together, you'll conceptualize, design and present a construction project that fulfills a real-world need. You'll present your project to industry leaders and employers, and may compete in international competitions. This gives you practical experience, an expanded professional network and perhaps even a pre-graduation job offer.
Build Professional Relationships
Beyond the classroom, construction management degree majors build leadership and professional experience through internships, networking with members of our Construction Industry Advisory Board (CAIB), and participation in academic organizations, Student Government and over 100 other campus-wide student organizations.
Get Recruited Upon Graduation
Employers that have recruited Florida Tech students for internships and careers include Bechtel, Brown and Root, Creech Engineers Inc., Lane Construction Corp., NASA, The Douglas Company, WELBRO Building Corp. and Woodruff Construction Company.
Earn an Advanced Degree
After receiving their construction management degree, many of our students go to graduate school (often at Florida Tech) for their MBA. Students graduating from the construction management program are well positioned to enter the field of construction with little to no additional on-the-job training, prepared to start their careers as project managers and/or entrepreneurs.