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Crafted in soft, lightweight pebbled leather with a bit of sheen, this simple, gracefully curved shape distills the satchel its purest form. Very refined hardware complements the minimalist design; the slender strap detaches for multiple wearing options.
Polished pebble leather
Inside zip, cell phone and multifunction pockets
Zip-top closure, fabric lining
Handles with 5" drop
Long strap with 21" drop for shoulder or crossbody wear
13 1/2" (L) x 8 3/4" (H) x 3 3/4" (W)
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we can ship to your country.we can ship single item samples or large orders to more than 100 countries.
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I pulled my recommendations from things I have and love, would love to have, or know you or your treasured peeps would likely appreciate. There's a little something for everyone, so here goes:
2) I'm a Kitchen Gadget Junkie (to the degree our overseas lifestyle allows), and this Nespresso Citiz with Frother is by far the best kitchen electronic I've ever owned. It. is. addictive.
3) Custom, brass-frame chairs. Here. Well, we can dream, can't we?
4) We brought back a couple of these beautiful olive wood cutting boards from Italy. They're functional, yet pretty enough to use for serving cheese, hors d'oeuvres, etc. If you're not heading abroad, grab one at your local World Market.
5) I've been rocking the same pair of Wayfarers for 5+ years, and girls need a break! I tried these Maui Jim's the last time we were in the States, and wish I would've bought them. The shape is classic, but the frame is made of titanium, so they're ridiculously light, comfortable, and able to stand up to a two year-old's death grip.
6) Speaking of little people, this customizable print from OliveandBirch pretty much sums up my sentiments. *Don't count on your wees to appreciate this for, like 30 years.
7) I bought this necklace a month or so ago, and am so crazy for it. Of course, I can't ever get enough Turq-WAZ in my life. It looks so rich, belying its $58 price point.
8) Know someone who could use a little smooth, Brazilian sound in their life (who doesn't?) Try Vanessa da Mata's, SIM. *Sounds best with a caiprioska in hand.
9) Sometimes old school is just better. This retro radio has style out the wazoo. Gender neutral makes everyone a winner.
10) When we leave Rio some time next year, I hope I can take a smidgen of the Cariocan style with me. If not, this coffee table book displaying some of the most amazing homes in the city will hopefully give me a Brazilian style fix.
So, there ya have it - Happy Hunting!

subset: commoncrawl


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I got a call from my friend, the client who lives in the Tanglewood House, telling me all about this house she had just been to in West University, my stomping grounds. She was raving on and on about the landscaping - "you have to go see this house, you'll just love it!!!" When I asked her about the interiors, she said "you'll like them I'm sure, but truthfully, I was so busy looking at the landscaping I didn't concentrate on the inside." After getting the address, I thought I would do a quick stalkerish drive by, just to do some preliminary reconnaissance - you know, all legal and on the up and up, of course. Driving by the house, I could see exactly why my friend was hyperventilating over the landscaping – it was just so Texas French, for lack of a better term. I recognized the house immediately. I have passed by it a million times probably – well, maybe just a 1/2 million times, and I was itching to photograph it. I quickly texted my friend – "Can you really get me inside that house?"
And so, there I was, just a week or two later, with my camera – taking pictures all over this poor woman's house. She had been thrust into this voyeuristic endeavor without a clue of how many people would now be peering at her house, her landscaping, her furniture, and judging all the design choices she and her husband had lovingly made together. Standing at the front door, I was a little apprehensive myself. I was flying blind – what if I didn't like the decor, what would I say? Once the door opened, I let out a huge whoosh of air – with one quick glance, I knew I was going to absolutely love it. She had after all, that most wonderful combination: S&S aka Seagrass and Slipcovers – which of course only made me love her house all that more. What is it about those two S's that causes me to lust after a house? I'm beginning to think that even a shack in the dreariest part of town, with a Pottery Barn seagrass rug and white slipped sofa from Ikea would send me into rapture. But I digress.
After a quick tour of the inside, the three of us walked out into her backyard – and I my jaw dropped. It was so green and lush, divided into "rooms" by paths of gravel. There was even an outside living area, and an open to the sky stone fireplace. I immediately thought that if I lived here, I would be in the back yard most of the day and night – reading, eating, and sitting by the fire. The owner assured me that her husband does spend most of every evening out back, nursing a cigar. I thought I probably would even take up cigar smoking if I lived there! Of course, by the time the tour was all over, I was begging her to sell me her house. It has all the charm of an older house, yet it is so open and bright, the rooms all graciously flow into one another. Most likely to get rid of the camera wielding idiot, the owner promised she would give me first dibs if they ever do decide to sell. I'm not waiting by the phone.
The Tour:
The Stone Turret House: The front walk is made up of gravel and large pavers.
The front walkway leads to a large terrace set behind a low stone wall.
The front door is charming – with its small window and arch. Notice the iron balconies on the windows and above the front door.
The house is located on a corner – here the front terrace leads off to a gravel path that goes down to the side of the house and onto the back yard and garage.
The path that leads from the front terrace to the side of the house. On the right is a side door where more familiar visitors enter the house.
The side of the house – showing the entry way into the family room. The second, smaller terrace is planted with mostly perennials.
The backyard is behind the hedge. The garage is to the left – out of view.
The back yard. This view shows the rear of the house. The breakfast room is behind the French doors, while the family room is to the right.
Standing on the back porch, facing the back yard. The garage is to the left, the open room/summer kitchen is to the right. Behind the gate on the far right is the open air fireplace. The large stone path divides the backyard into two "rooms" – a fountain and table and chairs are to the left. To the right is a series of flower beds reached by gravel pathways. Until just recently, this backyard was just a sea of grass.
Along the left side of the back yard is a fountain lit by two gas lanterns. The street is behind the hedge.
On the right side of the yard are a series of flowerbeds, reached by gravel pathways.
Inside the newly converted summer kitchen. This was once an enclosed room that adjoined the garage. Now, it is open to the elements. You can see the house at the end of the stone walkway.
Another view of the summer kitchen room – there is a refrigerator out here and a flatscreen! No wonder the husband spends all his time out here.
Sitting next to the summer kitchen – is the outdoor fireplace made of the same limestone that is on the house. Behind the gates is a dog run.
Ready to go inside the Stone Turret House? Inside the turret is a small entry hall that leads to the living room.
The first view, once you pass the entry room, of the living room. Beyond the arch is the family room. The dining room is the right of the living room and the kitchen is to the right of the stairway.
The living room is so beautiful! There is a custom cut seagrass rug, along with a really pretty and feminine crystal chandelier. The large arched window is covered in champagne colored silk. The coffee table is a large mirrored rectangular that the owner recently purchased from Kay O'Toole. The mantel is original to the house.
I love this chair with its large nail heads. Behind the metal table you can just see into the turret entry hall with its Louis Philippe antique mirror.
The sofa is a creamy white slipcover. Behind the sofa, is a chinoiserie styled desk. You can see into the kitchen at the left of the desk and the dining room at its right. I absolutely adore that lantern! The owner burns real candles in it – so atmospheric!!!
Hello there! What I love about the mirror is that it perfectly reflects the gorgeous chandelier. The chandelier is really the focal point of the room – you see it twice!!
Through the arch is the family room. The front walkway lines up with the window in the living room, and straight through this archway into the family room, creating an visual axis.
The dining room is to the right of the front door and the living room. You can see the living room here, through the open doorway. Through the shutters, you can see the kitchen. In the dining room there are two matching china cabinets purchased at Joyce Horn Antiques. The iron chandelier, powered by electric candles that look SO real, is from BROWN.
The large oval table from Carl Moore has chairs from BROWN and two mismatched antique host and hostess chairs. Two large Moroccan lanterns flank the front window. The curtains are celadon colored sheers with a fleur de lis pattern.
Both matching china cabinets are filled with gorgeous white ironstone. The large gilt mirror reflects everything.
I love this host chair with its gilt finish and the burlap upholstery with nail heads mixed with white linen on its back and seat cushion. Too cute!!! You can see the second china cabinet filled with dishes and glasses.
Here's a closeup of the second china cabinet. Notice how the back of the cabinets are painted the same color of the sheers. I love china that is openly displayed like this.
Connecting to the dining room is the kitchen. This room was completely remodeled several years ago. Along the left wall is a short china cabinet, next is the door that leads to the stairwell and then is another taller cabinet that acts as the pantry. Past the kitchen is the breakfast room which looks out the backyard through French Doors.
The walls in the kitchen are stone, like the outside of the house. The large Wolf range is set inside the stone walls. Along the left is the pantry with its doors inset with brass grills.
The stone wall wraps around from the range to the sink area. On the right is open cabinetry to hold the dishes. To the right of the refrigerator is the dining room.
I love how there are no upper cabinets – instead there is a row of large windows. So pretty!!!
This glass doored cabinet is filled with green glassware – it doubles as a buffet. Through the door are the stairs off the living room.
The breakfast room off the kitchen runs along the back wall of the house. A large built in holds even more ironstone. The owner told us she has been collecting it for years! The large sunburst mirror hangs over the small breakfast table that seats two.
A close up of the cabinetry. I love the legs on the center desk section and the beadboard back on the shelves.
We now leave the breakfast room for the family room, down a few steps. Throughout the first floor there is a series of steps that add so much charm to the house. The floor plan really flows – all the rooms are open to each other, which is unusual in many older homes.
Past the breakfast room door is the family room. This large room has a custom cut seagrass rug. Through two arched French doors, you can see into the back yard There is a gorgeous antique armoire that hides the TV. This room connects directly to the living room.
In the family room, there is a cute yellow and white checked slipped sofa with club chairs that have a Lee Jofa crewel fabric used on the the back cushions and pillows.
The family room connects directly to the front living room.
This side door is where family and friends come into the house after parking on the side street. It leads directly to the gravel terrace with the perennials.
Another picture of the side terrace off the family room. So pretty!!!
The view of the family room leading into the living room. The front sidewall was moved to create an axis from the front yard all the way through the living room past the family room, out to the backyard.
The gravel and stone walkway that creates the axis from the front living room through the family room.
Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the upstairs. I didn't even GET to see the upstairs! But, I was so grateful to see the downstairs that I didn't even care. Apparently, there is some redecorating going on up there.
Giving a special thank you to the homeowner for all her gracious hospitality!!! I hope you all enjoyed seeing pictures of the Stone Turret House. As usual, I am always looking for houses to show on the blog – in Houston or else where. If you are interested or know someone who might be – please email me at firstname.lastname@example.com
Interior designer: Diana Martin at email@example.com. Diana assisted with paint colors, living room furniture and designing the kitchen cabinets.
Landscape Architect: Suzy Fischer with Fischer Schalles Inc. and Mike Gibson who does ongoing installations, advice and upkeep: 713-520-1395
Reminder: We have a giveaway on the Skirted Roundtable – hurry!!!!! www.skirtedroundtable.blogspot.com


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Exclusive Details
Charlie Sheen just hit the jackpot with "Anger Management" -- and now he could earn more jack than he made on "Two and a Half Men." You want numbers -- our sources connected to the production say NORTH OF $100 MILLION!!!!
The show was just picked up for 90 additional episodes, and sources tell us ... Charlie has a huge piece of the profits.
FX made a commitment -- if the first 10 episodes hit a certain number, the network would green light the additional 90 shows. Fact is ... the show exceeded the threshold rating with an average of 4.53 million viewers.
What's interesting ... the deal was structured so Charlie will be working non-stop for the next 2 years, and Network suits wanted it that way so Charlie didn't have a lot of free time to get into trouble.


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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—In 110 minutes of men's soccer action Wednesday evening, Birmingham-Southern and Covenant played to a 1-1 tie at BSC Soccer Park.
The Panthers move to 5-4-3, while the Scots move to 7-6-1.
Covenant scored its goal in the first half when Garrison Dale scored off an assist from Danny Knight in the 23rd minute. The Scots kept the 1-0 lead for the remainder of the half.
BSC tied it up in the 59th minute on a diving header by junior Brooks Busby off a ball from senior Emil Saevarsson. Neither team was able to score again in the game.
The Panthers led in shots, 17-10 overall and 12-3 on-goal. Junior Tobias Winter led with five shots. Junior Alex Levinson played all 110 minutes in goal and recorded two saves.
BSC resumes Southern Athletic Association action this weekend at home, facing Hendrix on Saturday, Oct. 13, at 6:30 p.m.


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Heinz Field
Pittsburgh, PA.
7:30pm EST.
The Steelers will play host to the Atlanta Falcons for their 3rd preseason game. Pittsburgh enters this game with a 1-1 record in exhibition.
The 3rd game is traditionally where you see the starters play into the 3rd quarter before being pulled in favor of the backups. This is where you want to see the starting offense move the ball effectively, keep drives alive, and start to look like a regular season unit. On defense you want to see good run defense, pressure on the QB, and a secondary that's sticking to their opponent. This one is as close to a regular season game as you'll get in the preseason.
Guys to watch especially in this game for the Steelers. Tony Hills, Marcus Gilbert, Donovan Warren, Keenan Lewis, Cam Heyward, and Stevenson Sylvester.
Latest injury updates as of 8/25/11
Ike Taylor is out.
Cortez Allen, Cotchery, McFadden, Sanders, and Jonathan Scott are questionable.
We will update the latest injury news for this game when it becomes available.
Join us here in the gameday thread and talk about the game LIVE as it happens.
Remember, if you can't watch the game on TV in your area, you can listen to the Steelers Radio Network broadcast right here on SA. Tunch, Wolf, and Bill call the game as only they can!
The Steelers Talk section will be closed during the game like always, and will immediately reopen after the game is over.


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by Hugh Gilmore
The person you'll meet in today's column, "GOdesignbuild," was a mystery man to me until this week. Back in January he emailed a response to a column I'd written about the shortcomings of the Penn Bookstore at the U. of P. He seemed obviously confident, witty and literate. But he didn't sign his message and didn't respond when I wrote back asking, "Who are you?"
I saved his email address though, and asked recently if he'd like to contribute to this reading roundup. In response, I received an enjoyable letter, much of which I now offer in a slightly edited form.
"Dear Hugh,
"Please excuse my earlier lack of identifying information … when the resident book lover ends his columns with an email contact, it is easy to assume familiarity … I forgot to introduce myself. I am Greg O'Donnell, a local general contractor, working mostly through word-of-mouth referrals on kitchen and bath projects in Chestnut Hill, well known among my group of homeowners, subcontractors and suppliers and comfortably anonymous otherwise.
"Many of the homeowners with whom I work share my fondness for reading, which has fueled many pleasant conversations after the dust has settled. Their homes and their projects are stories in themselves, requiring careful reading, sometimes-sensitive translation, and always-strong editorial guidance.
"Books and contracting go hand in hand, supplemented by an ever-growing number of online resources, making it now possible to Google almost any question, although a careful culling of the ensuing data is required. Every project we accept has its unique aspects and is an extended exercise in problem-solving, so my shelves are lined with books covering the many trades that contribute to a renovation of moderate complexity and an equal number are dedicated to design issues.
"I always tell my clients that a well-designed project is not significantly more expensive than one that is mediocre, and it will bring satisfaction on so many more levels.
"That brings me to my first offering: 'The Design of Everyday Things,' by Donald A. Norman. Norman has degrees in psychology and engineering, and he has made it his life's work to understand why we have so few 'user-friendly' interactions with the gadgets we encounter every day. Understanding his approach takes a little effort at first, but once you have absorbed it you will never look at stoves, light switches, car stereos or remote controls the same way, and you will be much slower to label yourself as too stupid to make something work. Instead you will proclaim with authority: 'Bad design!'
"More specific to renovation, I highly recommend the book, 'Home by Design,' by Susan Susanka. This book is so beautifully conceived and organized that, even if you only read the chapter headings and referenced the accompanying photos, you would multiply your design acumen tenfold. It gives the homeowner and builder a common design language, useful when the owner wishes to be more active in the process. [Check out: Designing 'No Place Like Home': NPR].
"But for sheer enjoyment, I would suggest 'The Last Chinese Chef,' by Nicole Mones. This is the third book by Mones that I have read, all set in China. [Check out: 2009 SILF Podcast: Nicole Mones The Last Chinese Chef – Shanghai – Shanghai Blogs Blog | City Weekend Guide]. It is a story about two people from different cultures using their encounter to find healing.
"It's told in a way that leaves you wondering if the grieving woman in the story will be able to let go of the pain of loss and betrayal. The tenacity with which she clings to her pain seems more consistent with the rough edges and stubbornness of real life than the formulas imposed by fiction.
"This story is told against the backdrop of the modern manifestation of a rich Chinese food culture, built on a philosophical foundation developed over thousands of years, a culture that makes use of food as the first choice in restoring emotional and physical balance.
"Imagine hundreds of dishes that carry the medicinal weight of our chicken soup, are as emblematic of local and national pride as our apple pie, but go so far beyond that they become the inspiration for epic poetry. This viewpoint will be foreign to most, especially if your exposure to Chinese food has been limited to Americanized, strip-mall, take-out varieties.
"My wife, Xuan ("Helen" to English speakers), is Chinese, and she has taken me on a tour of her cuisine in restaurants that have stretched from Philadelphia to Manhattan, and across the river in Flushing, where the sea of Asian faces and dialects will have you believing you have secretly passed into the East. They have been mostly out-of-the-way, family-run restaurants offering regional dishes, and this fall we will travel to China.
"I recently had a chance to try the food of Xian, China's one-time capital, served on Styrofoam plates in a dingy basement food court, off of Main Street, in Flushing. Delicious and indescribable, already discovered and blessed by Anthony Bourdain, whose signed photo hangs on the wall. Each experience has been more amazing than the last, and when I ask her if this is the best Chinese food I will ever eat, she answers, 'Just wait…'
"Thanks for the invitation to contribute. Take as much or as little as you find helpful. Just imagine the result if you had asked for half a dozen recommendations."Greg (firstname.lastname@example.com)."
HG: I'm pleased to provide the means for the rest of us to get acquainted with Greg O'Donnell. The diversity and depth of knowledge found among our neighbors continues to amaze me. BTW: Nicole Mones, mentioned above, is also the author of the book-to-Academy-Award-winning movie, "Lost in Translation."
OPEN CALL: Next week you'll have a chance to hear from another group of interesting readers who live in our area. If you'd like to be included, please send me a message. Tell me about a book or two you've read lately that you wholeheartedly, joyously or seriously recommend. Deadline: July 2.
Enemiesofreading.blogspot.com will lead you to more of Hugh Gilmore's writings.


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Walking slowly, with the aid of a retractable cane, Philomena Lee, the 80-year-old Irishwoman who inspired the Oscar-nominated drama "Philomena," appeared under the towering marble rotunda of Los Angeles' City Hall this month to receive the latest of her growing list of honors: a certificate of recognition signed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
A week earlier, the retired psychiatric nurse had been at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square, where she was blessed by the pope. She's met with Democratic senators on Capitol Hill, navigated the red carpet beside movie stars at multiple awards shows and stood onstage at the Golden Globes in front of a televised audience of more than 20 million people.
Lee's unlikely journey out of relative anonymity to the forefront of an aggressive marketing campaign by "Philomena's" distributor, the Weinstein Co., places the unassuming grandmother at the intersection of two complicated agendas: her own efforts to right past wrongs of Ireland's forced adoptions as well as studio co-chairman Harvey Weinstein's none-too-subtle push for Oscar gold.
PHOTOS: Philomena on the Oscar Trail
Not that she sought the spotlight.
"It's absolutely amazing," Lee exclaimed. "Just a few weeks ago, I was just an ordinary housewife. And then all of a sudden, this has just snowballed."
The movie of Lee's real-life saga of pluck and determination to locate the son who was taken from her in a Catholic home for unwed mothers when she was a teenager in 1950s Ireland is nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture and actress for Dame Judi Dench, who portrays Lee.
Now, in an Oscar race widely regarded as one of the most competitive in recent years, she's helping change the odds. And in a cultural landscape cluttered with "For Your Consideration" ads and red carpet appearances by A-list stars, the sprightly octogenarian stands out with her sincere search for justice. Call her Weinstein's Golden Girl: the awards season's unlikeliest secret weapon.
"Harvey's getting something from Philomena, but she's getting something from him very definitely — a platform," said British comedian Steve Coogan, who co-wrote, co-produced and co-starred in "Philomena." "There's nothing disingenuous about it. There's substance to back it up."
Arriving at City Hall last week flanked by a senior Weinstein Co. publicist, two associates of longtime Oscar strategist Lisa Taback, "Philomena" producer Gabrielle Tana and Lee's daughter, Jane Libberton, Lee discussed how her sudden notoriety sparked the formation last month of the Philomena Project. The Dublin-based initiative — which those attached to "Philomena" are quick to point out is unassociated with the movie — has been lobbying the Catholic Church and the Irish government to release more than 60,000 adoption files to help Irish mothers reunite with children brought to the United States through forced adoption.
That work led to the mayoral recognition praising Lee's "dedication to issues of adoption rights." Never mind that Garcetti was "tending to a fire — an emergency," an emissary explained, and couldn't honor her in person.
"It's one thing to get the film made, but to have this transformative journey with her is extraordinary," said Tana. "I think it's given her a new lease on life. Having overcome her own shame, it's been very healing."
That the name Philomena should come to be mentioned in the same breath as "12 Years a Slave" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" was hardly a forgone conclusion.
Lee's decision to break half a century's silence about her son Anthony — who was sold into adoption at age 3 by the Catholic nunnery that took in Lee when she was a pregnant, unwed 15-year-old — found the ear of former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith. When he agreed to investigate her claims for a magazine article, the odd couple traveled to the United States to uncover Anthony's fate, which Sixsmith recounted in his 2009 book "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee," a serio-comic travelogue full of heart-rending discovery and the triumph of forgiveness over hate.
PHOTOS: Oscars 2014 top nominees | Nominee reactions | Snubs and surprises
Coogan was an unlikely force to bring Lee's story to the screen. He's a major star in his native U.K. but a relatively minor satellite in Hollywood's constellation. But after reading of Lee's search for her son, the actor, known for his deadpan, self-loathing humor, endeavored to adapt her story into a script and landed financing from British and French backers. He stars as Sixsmith in "Philomena" and is nominated with Jeff Pope for an adapted screenplay Oscar.
"Philomena" began earning buzz at last year's Toronto International Film Festival. And thanks to the Weinstein Co.'s well-oiled awards-season war machine, the movie has gained traction as 2014's dark horse Oscar contender in the lead-up to academy balloting.
"Could 'Philomena' be the spoiler in this year's Oscar race?" newspaper ads quoting the Hollywood Reporter trumpet in 26-point font. "Don't rule it out."
In recent years, the dynamic convergence of on-screen issues and real-life world leaders has come to play in the fevered quest for Oscar benediction. Last year, "Silver Linings Playbook" director David O. Russell and star Bradley Cooper met with Vice President Joe Biden to discuss mental health issues when the dramedy, about a man suffering from bipolar disorder, was in contention for a best picture Oscar. And former President Bill Clinton turned up at the 2013 Golden Globes to introduce Steven Spielberg's presidential biopic "Lincoln," another best picture Academy Award nominee.
But when the Weinstein Co.'s 2013 prestige films — "The Butler," "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" and "Fruitvale Station" — failed to land major Oscar nominations, the "Harvey Effect" (as Harvey Weinstein's hard-boiled campaigning tactics that have helped net best picture Academy Awards for such films as "The Artist" and "The King's Speech" are known) refocused on "Philomena" and the real Philomena.
VIDEO: Key scenes from Oscar acting nominees
"I was slightly nervous about her being in the spotlight. But we needed to show that she's a real person," Coogan said. "It's important to remind people: This is not just a piece of entertainment. This is something real and authentic."
In January, Coogan arrived arm in arm with Lee at the Golden Globes to present a clip for "Philomena," nominated for three awards including best motion picture drama. And later that month, Lee traveled to Capitol Hill to press for reforms that would help Irish mothers reunite with their children who were given to American families in forced adoptions, meeting with Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).
In early February, "Philomena" was screened for Pope Francis' private secretary. And a day later, also accompanied by Coogan, the woman once shamed by the Catholic Church was invited to the Vatican and blessed by the pope.
"I'm still a Catholic, and this is not an anti-Catholic film," Lee said.
A Vatican spokesman cautioned against interpreting the papal audience as an implicit Oscar endorsement.
"The Holy Father does not see films and will not be seeing this one," Father Federico Lombardi said. "It is also important to avoid using the pope as part of a marketing strategy."
At L.A.'s City Hall, moments after Daniel Tamm, Garcetti's interfaith liaison and Westside-area representative, hailed Lee's "courage, her faith and capacity to forgive" and handed her the Certificate of Recognition, a slim figure charged through the rotunda's Spring Street entrance: Garcetti.
MORE: Complete list of nominees | Play-at-home ballot
He shook hands and clapped the backs of several well-wishers just outside the throng gathered around Lee before heading to his office without pausing to greet his invited guest from the Emerald Isle.
"I am inspired by her story," Garcetti said of Lee in a statement emailed to the Los Angeles Times. "We hope that this recognition helps in some way to raise awareness of the issue of forced adoptions and to shine a light on the past to open up the way for healing of so many mothers and their lost children."
After her brief layover inside Los Angeles' corridors of power (and a private screening of "Philomena" at the Museum of Tolerance), Lee returned home to southern England last week before heading to London for Feb. 16's BAFTA Awards, where the film was in the running for four awards including best film (Coogan won the BAFTA for adapted screenplay).
And come March 2, Lee will make her third trip to Los Angeles in as many months for the Oscars ceremony. Not that she's letting awards season distract her from the larger mission of the Philomena Project.
"All the glamour, that doesn't affect me," Lee said, clutching her cane. "So much tragedy has happened through all the secrets, it's so good that it's coming out. I never forget what it's all about."
PHOTOS: Show highlights Oscars 2014: Behind the scenes PHOTOS:Red carpet arrivals
PHOTOS: Show highlights
Oscars 2014: Behind the scenes
PHOTOS:Red carpet arrivals


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Lewis Eisen, MD (Critical Care) has been appointed to the position of Medical Director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at the Montefiore Medical Center Moses Division, effective October 1, 2009.
Dr. Eisen trained in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center under the mentorship of Drs. Mark Rosen and Paul Mayo. He is a national expert in the use of ultrasound and echo in fluid critical situations. He was elected by Montefiore housestaff for the Outstanding Full-Time Teaching Attending of the Year award for academic year 2008-2009.
Daniela Levi, MD, the current Medical Director, is entering the Carnegie-Mellon Master of Medical Management Program, a move considered to be of great long-term value to Montefiore Medical Center. This program was recently ranked as the top MMM program and one of the top five physician executive programs in the country, according to a 2009 Modern Healthcare survey of graduate business schools for physician executives.
"It is a pleasure to welcome Dr. Eisen to this position," said Vladimir Kvetan, MD, Chief of the Division of Critical Care Medicine. "He is a productive investigator, a superb teacher, an excellent manager of multidisciplinary teams, and ideally suited to take on this new challenge."
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(posted by Karen - written by the Topologist)
The LaSalle Relay Project has been launched by two intrepid bikers doing a 62 miler from St. Joe to northwest of Kalamazoo.
On Friday July 24 at 10:30 AM son Jim of Grand Ledge and his friend and fellow State worker Dale Turton of Kalamazoo took advantage of the first of Governor Granholm's mandatory unpaid furlough days to take off on their road bicycles from the Ft. Miami Historical Marker on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and the mouth of the St. Joseph River on a route designed to trace the great French explorer LaSalle'
s Spring of 1680 hike up the Paw Paw River Valley on his way across the Peninsula to Lake Erie.
On hand to cheer them on was a group of my late wife Elaine's relatives who live in St. Joe and Sodus plus my niece Patty Geisler and husband Geoff of Watervliet who hosted the bikers and had scouted out the route by car.
The bikers mostly followed county roads and crossed the Paw Paw River several times. On their way they traveled via Riverside, Coloma, Watervliet, Hartford, Lawrence, Maple Lake north of Paw Paw (where Dale's brother joined them), Almena and Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery ending at Dale's house northwest of Kalamazoo. The trip took them 6 hours.
LaSalle and the four Frenchmen and one Indian who accompanied him took three days to cover the same distance. They left Ft. Miami on the morning of March 24, 1680, spent a half day building a raft to cross the St. Joseph River (called by them River of the Miamis) then 2 1/2 days bushwhacking up the Paw Paw River valley. In his letter describing the trip LaSalle said "... we continued our march through the woods, which was so interlaced with thorns and brambles that in two days and one half our clothes were all torn and our faces so covered with blood that we hardly knew each other." After exiting the Paw Paw valley into "..woods.more open..." they camped on the edge of a prairie where they had an encounter with Pottawatomie Indians.
When white men explored and settled that area west of Kalamazoo they named it "Grand Prairie." That name survives today as "Grand Prairie School," "Grand Prairie Avenue," and "Grand Prairie Golf Course." When the bikers were traveling on the east end of H Avenue northwest of Kalamazoo they crossed the north end of that prairie.
The exact location of LaSalle's campsite where they were surrounded by Pottawatomie's can't be known but it was probably along highway M43 about a mile east of US 31.
I look forward to Jim and/or others road biking beyond Kalamazoo at least as far the Waterloo Farm Museum in northeastern Jackson County. From there on to Dexter the roads get so bad mountain bikes may be in order. Alternatively we may have to lay out a route that sticks to paved roads but deviates from LaSalle's route. The object is to get to Dexter where LaSalle's men built an elm-bark canoe and launched it on the Huron River.
The next leg of the LaSalle Relay would be by canoe down the Huron through Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti to French Landing with a stop at Belleville's LaSalle statue.
The final leg would be by land to Pte. Moulliee and up to Gibraltar where I am now convinced LaSalle had the raft built that would take him across the Detroit River to today's Ontario.
My ultimate hope with respect to the LaSalle Relay idea is to sucker at least six walkers into hiking from St. Joe to Dexter. I wouldn't object if they did it in stages.


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Jose and Evangelina Rocha and their son, Kyle Rocha, all of Taunton were arrested Friday on charges of trying to deliver narcotics to another son who had been part of an inmate work detail washing buildings at the Parker Terrace elderly housing in Easton.
EASTON - Police say they intercepted drugs that were going to be smuggled into prison by an inmate who was part of a work detail at a elderly housing complex Friday morning.
Three people were arrested on Baldwin Street in Easton after police said they hid drugs in a bathroom inside the housing complex for a relative working the detail to pick up and smuggle into the Bristol County Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.
Jose Rocha, 47, his wife, Evangelina Rocha, 45 and their son, Kyle Rocha, 22, all of 72 Wales St. Apt. 2, Taunton were charged with possession of Oxycodone and Percocet, conspiracy to violate the drug law, conspiracy to deliver narcotics to a prisoner, possession of Oxycodone and Percocet with intent to distribute.
Easton Police Chief Allen Krajcik said the drugs were being left for the son of Jose and Evangelina, Matthew Rocha, an inmate who has been part of a work detail power washing the exterior of buildings at Parker Terrace.
Police "observed the subjects drive into the complex, one of the subjects entered the community center and then left about two minutes later. Detectives went into the bathroom and located a condom hidden inside the room that was filled with drugs," Krajcik said.
Inside the condom were Oxycodone and Percocet pills. The three were stopped and placed under arrest.
They were each held on $25,000 bail and will be arraigned in Taunton District Court Friday morning.


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ECB's Draghi Knocks Euro Back a Bit
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi helped the euro to reverse some of its recent gains with slightly more dovish comments at his monthly press conference. Dow Jones's Katie Martin looks at how the central banker walked a fine line in the debate over whether the single currency is too strong.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
the European Central Bank may have left is interest rates unchanged but comments from its president Mario drug he ... off to the bank's policy meeting and all the euro and the global ... kids did awesome is this thing to draw his press conference would be ... tricky ... he spoke about the euro bought the usual but it just seems to have adopted on ... yes I'm not that kind of run away with this one that's because he mentions banks of the year read all the Intrade briefly but nonetheless turning heads statements ... and the idea is that it's the ECB doesn't say anything its capacity was that ... we won't says the ... Mach is taken as a message that the wheel of the King of the year and ... he stepped on Shawnee off the kind of language we use to see from the Fed's cliche when he's to talk about exchange rate has been crucial that was one of his current lead full ... audit like the thought of as analysts ... say when I when it sought to restrict and he was talking about it it has ... assuming that the ECB iStar became going to happen on the requisite knowledge of the year is stronger than it will ... cause he's in the middle of the stock at the moment in the French base we would love to get the euro done because it's it's ... it's it's also the gems of course is that Avio is like a strong currency of this withdraw his stock in the book but no facility was awesome of you did help a couple times it was such a bouncer ... the slight lead until after the event it well ... she was to address this yet ... write to her wine glasses with about ten of owning and that it was okay let's ... talk to that the economy and said that economic assessment which I can't seem to be particularly ... to more upbeat than it had been lost ... I mean to leave ... some chains take on the safe the economy is the press conference toxic that he didn't die ... after that talk about potential for a pickup in the second hole for the SMU ... AllThingD name ... and ... that's a pretty bad the year at me and very much and often in a fight on the wall and cons of this week is saying nothing about this a false idol was quite striking about your is resolutely it's not a safe and he's a politician doggies the central idea that's a special breed didn't think anything I was one guy that if she wins at the time that the well was also puts as well as the key suggests that ... a beat he bought a vineyard in what can we say about you but uses its fell intervention ... queues for so long ago it ... was not takes to be helpful to the debt ... he also took that as as a fantastic policy tool is something that can read the Senate to progress to something that would genuinely be helpful for the year where there is a whole ... um and and he was he mentioned the G twenty commitments until ... now ... but he does that do yet you say you're okay base of the G twenty oh thinking that he was saying if we see policy around the wall stuff with a twist that Amal to deny them but she turned to the pace and not something the cost of talking ... that sums that comes to this is warning about that but ... what you see generally whiskey ... appear ... more or less worried about the whole ... crisis need ... to read in parallax than you think is a ... pretty good rugby performance along with the study of the reason they are ecstatic ... yet he didn't seem to be at the App Pennington work in the market ... must panic about the indictment then that behaving themselves when in ... in prices of Tara tree but we are in a much much calmer kind of market make them less as ... it would've been quite difficult friendship contract expects extreme a moment with them and that ... isn't very compressed performance always dispute that the little that the percentage of the year and I'd ... wait for the oppressed for so sexy about house to see


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Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - An Alabama man got a dressing-down and two years in prison for rubbing his genitals on an unconscious LSU fan in a Bourbon Street burger restaurant after the BCS national title game in January. A video of the incident went viral.
State District Judge Karen Herman told Brian Downing of Smiths Station, Ala., that he's a bully who has permanently damaged someone else's life.
Downing declined to say anything before the judge sentenced him as part of a plea deal.
He pleaded guilty in October to two counts of obscenity. Prosecutors dropped a charge of sexual battery, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The incident took place last January after Alabama defeated LSU at the Superdome to claim the BCS title.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Alabama fan gets 2 years for sexual battery against LSU fan


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The Sins of Ralph Reed
From star foot soldier for the religious right to GOP lobbyist with questionable ties to Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed is finally losing his Teflon luster
The morning begins with a prayer in Jason's Deli, a strip-mall joint in Atlanta, and we all bow our heads and say amen. We—me, the Atlanta reporter, and all the Buck Springs Republicans—stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the fine a cappella rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and then we—me and the other reporter—sit down in our booth and scribble notes throughout the short, civil debate between the two candidates who are seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Georgia. One of the candidates is state senator Casey Cagle, who was a businessman before he was first elected twelve years ago. The other is Ralph Reed.
Remember Ralph Reed Ecutive director of the Christian Coalition. Hardball Republican operative. Cherubic embodiment of the religious right. He may not have created the movement, but he was the one who mainstreamed it. After a decade of TV-preacher scandals and jowly old scolds wagging moralizing fingers, Reed was slick and sensible. He was young and smart and erudite, and he had that face, that unlined diamond under a swoop of Big Boy hair that had writers struggling for something, anything, other than choirboy or altar boy or angelic to describe it. Time magazine put that face on its cover in 1995 next to the words THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. Just 33 years old, and Reed was an icon.
But that was eleven years ago, a lifetime in politics.
No one then would have guessed that Ralph Reed would end up chasing a second-tier office in a down-ballot race in an off year in Georgia. Or that he might lose.
The debate ends. The BuckSprings Republicans are pushing back from their tables, and Reed is right there in the aisle next to our booth, shaking hands and clapping shoulders. He's slight, maybe five eight in the cowboy boots he's taken to wearing. The hair has calmed down since the '90s, but he still has that face. Reed's 44 now, but in his blue blazer and open collar, he could pass for a graduate student. He's smiling and friendly, and we start to stand up so we can say hello and begin with our questions.
At which point, a guy appears at the edge of our table. His name is Art Morris, and he's Reed's finance chairman. Chatty fellow. Loves Reed. Says lots of nice and not particularly interesting things about him. But mainly, he's got us pinned in our booth, and he keeps us there until Reed has worked his way up the aisle to the front of the room and into a thick, insulating knot of Republicans.
Art's a blocker. Maybe it's an eager coincidence—his timing, his body placement—but it works out well. Because Reed doesn't talk to reporters anymore. His campaign manager, a boyish redhead in a turquoise golf shirt named Jared, has already made that clear. "We don't do anything with out-of-state press," he said earlier, striding across the parking lot with a can of Tab in his hand.
Why not
"Because we're running for lieutenant governor of the state of Georgia."
Jared says that as if it's the most obvious fact in the world, as blatant and transparent as the giant red pickup Reed's driving as a campaign prop. It's also silly. Senator Cagle is running for the same office, and he'll talk to any reporter who rings his campaign office. That's what candidates do, and usually with the same grace and charm with which they shake hands and kiss babies and ask for money. Not Reed, though. He hasn't given an on-the-record quote of any substance to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in six months, and he hasn't granted a serious interview to any paper big enough to have a Nexis account in at least as long. And sit-down interviews Not a chance.
The reason he doesn't talk to reporters is that he can't afford to. If he does, they'll just start asking him all those uncomfortable questions that have nothing to do with being lieutenant governor. Mostly, they'll ask about his relationship—his multimillion-dollar relationship—with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. And that's if they're only skimming the surface. Give them some time and they'll ask about his work for eLottery or Enron or Microsoft; or his shilling for China; or his close call with the statute of limitations in Texas; or the way John McCain got slimed in the 2000 South Carolina primary; or something called the Black Churches Insurance Program. Maybe they'd even ask how he squares up his professed salvation through his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with…well, with everything else.
Those would be awkward conversations.
So Art talks and distracts. He stays right with us as we shuffle after Reed at a harmless distance. He's been with Reed since his stint as chairman of the Georgia GOP a few years back. "He made politics fun," Art says. "He brought in celebrities from Washington." Why, in just a few weeks, Rudy Giuliani, America's Mayor, will y to Atlanta to raise money for Reed. America's twice-divorced, gay-rights-supporting, pro-choice, gun-controlling mayor stumping for the former head of the Christian Coalition. Politics and bedfellows and all.
A year ago, Reed was expected not so much to win the nomination as to claim it. The glory days of the Coalition had long faded, but he was still a star in the Republican Party. He is a prodigious fund-raiser and an industrious organizer with an extensive base of conservative Christians, and he is given much credit for delivering the Southeast to George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. "Ralph's plan," says Cagle, "was to get George W. Bush and the White House to come in and support him and squash the li'l ol' state senator."
But then all that stuff with Jack Abramoff came spilling out.
Abramoff was until recently a rich and successful lobbyist, partly because he was extremely well connected on Capitol Hill and partly because he bent, broke, and otherwise mangled a variety of laws and regulations as well as the general code of ethics by which honorable people conduct their lives. Because of that, he has created an epic, multitentacled scandal that will likely occupy prosecutors and congressional investigators well into the next administration. Abramoff is also one of Reed's oldest friends and closest business associates. They go way back, to their days with the College Republican National Committee in the early 1980s. When Reed opened his own consulting firm fifteen years later, he turned to Abramoff for help. Hey, now that I'm done with the electoral politics, he wrote in a November 12, 1998, e-mail, I need to start humping in corporate accounts! I'm counting on you to help me with some contacts.
Which Abramoff did, primarily with lucrative contracts involving Indian casinos and for which Reed and Abramoff left voluminous records. Those records started dribbling out as the Abramoff scandal unraveled—and that, in turn, elevated the Republican primary for lieutenant governor of Georgia into a national story. A corrupt lobbyist and the pious former head of the Christian Coalition tied up in gambling scandals That's good copy.
And bad news for Ralph Reed. "It's never good news if you're running for lieutenant governor of Georgia and the national media is interested in your race," says Matt Towery, an Atlanta pollster who once ran for the office himself.
TIES TO ABRAMOFF SHADOW REED'S RUN IN GEORGIA, USA Today announced in January. That same week, The Washington Post weighed in—on page one, no less—with IN GA., ABRAMOFF SCANDAL THREATENS A POLITICAL ASCENDANCY. World, an inuential Christian weekly edited by an evangelical who's worked closely with President Bush, has pummeled Reed, which in March led to another Washington Post piece: FROM A CONSERVATIVE, A LACK OF COMPASSION FOR RALPH REED. The tide of black ink rose so high that in April The Wall Street Journal, under the headline the Abramoff effect, wondered if Reed might "become the first campaign casualty of the Abramoff scandal."
But that's framing the question rather generously. If he loses the July 18 primary, wouldn't he actually be a victim of Ralph Reed
The one thing everyone says about Ralph Reed is "You can't question his faith." People who like him say it, people who dislike him say it, and people who respect his political skills but otherwise don't have an opinion one way or the other say it, too. It's not exclusive to him, of course, but rather more of a general rule, a commandment by which polite (and even impolite) society has agreed to abide.
Fair enough. Private faith is a mysterious thing—much like marriage—and the republic would be better served if reporters kept their snouts out of both. A person's true faith is impossible to know, anyway. If, to use a convenient example, a man repeatedly calls gambling immoral and then takes millions of dollars to work surreptitiously for the benefit of casinos, those are merely two conicting actions that evidence hypocrisy. They prove nothing about what he believes. (Though they do suggest he suspects the Almighty is a forgiving deity.)
But public professions of faith—a faith Reed espoused in two books and countless interviews; a faith upon which he built his reputation and his mailing list; a faith Reed used to rally conservative Christians and to change the tenor of American politics—can and should be questioned.
In the beginning, which was 1983, Reed was living in Washington, part of a pack of young conservatives reveling in the Reagan Revolution. These weren't wonky kids buffing their résumés for a summer on Capitol Hill; these were hard-core ideologues, partial to Soviet-bloc dissidents and antiabortion rallies, masters of political theater, true believers in the might and right of conservative politics. At 21, Reed was already a seasoned operator: He had campaigned in Georgia for Gerald Ford in 1976 against native son Jimmy Carter, been elected senior-class president at Stephens County High School, organized Republican rallies at the University of Georgia, and in 1983 served as the ecutive director of the College Republicans, the chairman of which was Abramoff.
Reed had been raised a Methodist, but he wasn't particularly devout. Then, one Saturday night, he was sitting in a bar on Capitol Hill called Bullfeathers when, as he wrote in his 1994 book, Politically Incorrect, he "felt a gentle tugging in my conscience that I should start attending a local church." He went to a phone booth, opened the Yellow Pages, and picked a church at random. (That's the sum total of pre-church introspection revealed in Politically Incorrect. In later interviews, the story would expand to include Reed's being tired of partying and, even later, his witnessing a married congressman stepping out on his wife.)
The next morning, Reed attended services at Evangel Assembly of God church in Camp Springs, Maryland. As a random choice, it made sense: Randy Miller, who was an associate pastor at the time, remembers that Evangel had placed a display ad in the phone book, and Assembly of God would have been in one of the first church subcategories. After the sermon, pastor Jack Cain gave a call from the altar "for people I described as not walking with Christ" to come up and be saved.
Reed went forward. It is an important ritual, that march to the altar, that public salvation. "The Word says if we receive the Lord before men, then on Judgment Day, He'll recognize us before the Father," says Cain, who retired in 2003. "If we're not afraid to recognize Him before men…well, you know, it's a little intimidating to come up front."
Reed didn't attend Evangel for long—probably less than a year, Randy Miller remembers—before moving to Atlanta to begin work on his doctorate in American history at Emory University. And he may have continued on the academic path, as he tells it in Politically Incorrect, if not for a seemingly chance encounter at the inauguration of George H. W. Bush in January 1989 with Pat Robertson, the religious broadcaster who had run for president the year before:
After dinner, Pat motioned me to follow him out of the ballroom. As we walked to the elevator, he said, "I'm going to start this new organization, and I think it will change politics in America. The evangelicals and Roman Catholics have more grassroots supporters than anyone, but they need leadership and direction. I would like for you to come on staff and help make this vision a reality."
Reed said he was reluctant, that he was through with politics. But clearly it was still in his blood. Over the next few days, he composed a memo to Robertson outlining a strategy to build a grassroots organization "by region, state, county, precinct, all the way down to block captains." With 10 million to 40 million evangelicals, "there is no constituency in the American electorate with greater explosive potential as a political force," he wrote. "Nor is there any constituency of comparable size and energy so pitifully unorganized and uneducated."
Seventeen years later, that memo seems a fine place to begin questioning Reed's public faith. The most obvious question has dogged Reed for years: Was the Coalition meant to advance a Christian agenda in the political arena, or was it about using conservative Christians, with their "explosive potential," to advance Reed's political career
Granted, it's probably not a strictly either-or proposition. But it is worth noting that Reed found politics before he found God (and discovered, as countless wags have snickered, that God agreed with his politics). It's also worth pointing out that less than three years after he wrote that memo—by which time he was the Christian Coalition's ecutive director—Reed favorably compared his work to guerrilla warfare. "I paint my face and travel at night," he told The Virginian-Pilot in 1991. "You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag." His own mother—his mother! —once told USA Today, "I used to tell people he was going to be either President of the United States or Al Capone."
Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Political Research Associates, outside Boston, who has been tracking right-wing groups for more than thirty years, suspects Reed created his own gray area between the terrestrial and the spiritual. "When you decide that taking power in a political system is the most important thing, then you rewrite the sacred texts of the religion to justify what you're doing," he says. "So in your mind you're still faithful, but the version of the faith you've created serves your political needs."
Reed's version of the faith was a primer for a supposedly more Christian nation. (Underlying that premise, of course, is a persecution complex, the notion that the devout are under attack in a country that has elected forty-three Christian presidents in a row, historically compels witnesses and officeholders to swear an oath on the Holy Bible, stamps IN GOD WE TRUST on every greenback, and explicitly anoints itself as "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.) There was heavy emphasis on the so-called cultural issues—gays, abortion, pornography, gambling, school prayer—that rile up the base. Yet Reed's Christian political primer also included such conservative (and arguably nonbiblical) standards as tax cuts, school vouchers, and deregulation.
The next step, then, was to spread that gospel. "That's what Ralph did," Berlet says. "He wrote those stories that got Christian evangelicals to get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and say, 'I'm going to save my family, my country, my world.' He wrote the script, and it's a script based on fear and scaremongering. It's very easy to get people to follow it. It's a despicable script couched in the narrative of love."
And it was effective. After starting with a scant $3,000 and a mailing list of 134,325 names from Robertson's failed presidential bid, Reed built the Coalition into a dominant force for conservative politics. It was never as large as he boasted—according to Nina J. Easton's book Gang of Five, he once claimed the Coalition had up to 3 million followers, about five times the dues-paying members—but that was Reed's gift, his magic: Through stagecraft and bluster, he made the Christian right appear to be the ascendant and inevitable future of American politics. In 1992 the Coalition, along with other religious and culturally conservative groups, shape-shifted the GOP convention, which was both impressive (they hijacked a convention, after all) and inept: The resulting circus scared the bejesus out of half of America. The 1994 Republican takeover of Congress was in part credited to Reed and the Coalition as well. By 1995, Reed was powerful enough, or perceived to be, to get his mug on the cover of Time.
The alchemization of Republican politics and conservative Christianity has continued ever since. Self-professed evangelicals are one of George W. Bush's largest bases of support; it isn't diffcult, in fact, to sketch a line from Reed to a president who believes God wanted him to invade Iraq and that gay marriage is such a grievous threat to the nation that the Constitution must be amended. "Their involvement in the last two elections, 2000 and 2004, was extraordinary by historical standards," says John C. Green, a senior fellow with the nonpartisan Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. "This voting bloc is not big enough by itself to dominate the Republican Party, but it's so large it can't be ignored. And without the efforts of Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson and others, this voting bloc would not have developed within the Republican Party."
In June 1997, Ralph Reed left the Christian Coalition to open his own consulting shop, Century Strategies, just outside Atlanta. His plan was to get "pro-family" candidates elected across the country—congressmen, governors, senators, state representatives, lieutenant governors, even Georgia's labor commissioner—and he started rounding up clients. Former associates say he was "a fantastic salesman," promising neophyte candidates that he'd raise three times more money for them than he'd charge in fees, that he'd leverage his celebrity contacts, that he'd rake the grass roots for votes. That was the appeal, Reed's political juice. But those same associates say he didn't provide much beyond the salesmanship part. "He'd say, 'We're gonna sign up 10,000 people and make 25,000 phone calls,' "says one, "but he knew nobody's going to go back and count how many phone calls we actually made. That was Ralph all the way."
Three of Century's candidates lost their primaries (though one had dismissed the firm before voting day), and a fourth dropped out of a California race. In November, Century lost at least six more races. In an e-mail to Abramoff six days after the election, Reed noted that he'd lost Governor Fob James's reelection bid in Alabama, Kentuckian Gex "Jay" Williams's run for a U.S. House seat, and Gary Hofmeister's campaign in Indiana's Tenth Congressional District. Given the national tide, those were probably not in the cards, he wrote, but we fought like dogs.
Hofmeister, who still considers Reed a friend, doesn't quite remember it that way. Four months before the general election, he wrote a letter to Tim Phillips, Reed's partner at the time, wondering when the cavalry would be coming. "Even apart from my friendship with Ralph, I was rather amazed that I received no congratulatory call from Ralph after the primary nor on anything else," he wrote. "My point is definitely not that I want to change horses…but only that as the president of the firm, I would think he should have at least a bit of contact with his clients." After the letter, Hofmeister says now, "I pretty much got back zero."
That was a pattern, former associates say. "We lost nearly every big-ticket race," one says, "except for [Georgia senator Paul] Coverdell and [Alabama senator] Richard Shelby, who weren't going to lose anyway, but we claimed them as victories. The fact is, across the board, if the races weren't premier, Ralph simply wasn't there."
It was immediately after that less-than-impressive first election cycle that Reed asked Abramoff for help "humping in corporate accounts." However it happened, Reed was soon representing a plethora of major businesses. Microsoft hired him in the fall of 1998 and paid him on and off for the next seven years; between 2001 and 2006, Reed collected almost $1.6 million from the company. For what, no one will say, though everyone's denied it ever had anything to do with chatting up George W. Bush about the antitrust case looming against the software giant. Enron was good for up to $20,000 a month starting in 1997, which is notable again not for what Reed did—lobbied for energy deregulation in Pennsylvania—but for what everyone has denied: that Karl Rove hooked him up with then governor George W. Bush's largest single donor in exchange for helping to rally the southern righteous in the upcoming presidential election. (Remember that campaign John McCain was in the lead coming out of New Hampshire, then in South Carolina came under vicious attack by operatives who painted their faces and traveled at night. The most reprehensible of those attacks was the suggestion that his adopted Bangladeshi daughter was the senator's illegitimate black baby. Reed has always denied he was behind any of the smears. But his guy won.)
The Enron gig, in turn, also allowed Reed to return a favor. In a December 19, 2000, e-mail to an Enron ecutive, he noted that Jack Abramoff would be joining a new law firm in two weeks: Abramoff is arguably the most inuential and effective GOP lobbyist in congress. I share several clients with him and have yet to see him lose a battle. He also is very close to Delay and could help enormously on that front. Raised $ for Bush.
Reed made a pile of money in the private sector. He now lives in a $2.2 million house, and he has another $2.2 million tucked away for his retirement and his kids' college. Some part of those millions came from Boeing and the Business Roundtable, which paid him to persuade Congress in 1998 to keep China on the most-favored-nations list of trading partners. Typically, that's anathema to evangelical Christians, considering China's dismal record on religious freedom and forced abortions. In fact, only a year earlier, shortly before he left the Christian Coalition, Reed argued that China's trade status should be revoked because of "some of the most brutal repression of religion anywhere in the world." In one interview, he said, "This can't just be about profits and losses and dollars and cents. It has to be about matters of the heart and matters of the soul and America being a moral leader in the world."
Working for private businesses, however, Reed used his Christian connections to make precisely the opposite argument. He hired a subcontractor to create the Alliance of Christian Ministries in China, which, in a media campaign, proclaimed that normalized relations allowed evangelicals to spread the Gospel. Whether Congress was concerned with saving Chinese souls is hard to say, but once again Reed's guys won: China retained its trade-relations status.
The promise of eternal salvation for Chinese peasants proved to be a useful tool for Reed. In 1999, Abramoff hired him to help lobby on behalf of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth that is empt from federal wage and labor laws, a loophole that allows garmentmakers to stitch MADE IN THE U.S.A. into their products without having to follow any U.S. rules. It's also a hellhole for migrant workers: sweatshop labor, sex slavery, forced abortions for imported peasants. None of that was a secret: By the time Reed signed on as Abramoff's subcontractor, there'd been years of studies and media reports documenting the conditions.
But in August 1999, Reed's direct-mail subsidiary sent a pamphlet to conservative Alabama Christians urging them to call a Republican congressman and thank him for opposing the imposition of federal rules on the Northern Marianas. The mailer, sent under the auspices of the Traditional Values Coalition, claimed that "the radical left, the Big Labor Union Bosses, and Bill Clinton want to pass a law preventing Chinese from coming to work on the Marianas islands" and that they "have spread vicious lies about this U.S. territory to silence the gospel." The pamphlet's grotesque logic: Many of those sweatshop seamstresses and bullied prostitutes "are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ…are converted to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand, ready to spread the gospel and start home churches."
Meanwhile, Reed had Abramoff humping in other contracts, too.
Abramoff's most lucrative racket, the one that earned him the nickname "Casino Jack," was representing Indian tribes with gambling interests, either in closing down competing casinos or in expanding their own operations. Also, he and his partner, Michael Scanlon, swindled those tribes with inated invoices, which might explain why Abramoff referred to his clients in e-mails as "fucking morons," "monkeys," and, once, "mofos [who] are the stupidest idiots in the land for sure." Total take: $65 million, minimum. Felony convictions related to those morons and mofos: four—fraud, conspiracy, and tax-evasion pleas from Abramoff in January, plus one conspiracy plea from Scanlon.
Among the tribes Abramoff represented were the Choctaw Indians, proprietors of the Silver Star and Golden Moon casinos outside Philadelphia, Mississippi. The Choctaws make a good chunk of change from southern gamblers, about $300 million a year—profits they naturally preferred not be siphoned off to, say, neighboring Alabama, which in 1999 was considering both instituting a lottery and legalizing video poker at racetracks.
That's where Reed comes in. Who better to stomp a lottery and video poker than the former head of the Christian Coalition "Gambling," Reed had said only three years earlier, "is a cancer on the American body politic, destroying families, stealing food from the mouths of children, turning wives into widows." Casinos, on the other hand, have a lot of cash to throw around, what with all that food stealing and widow-making: Reed took more than a million dollars from the Choctaws, which was funneled through the Christian Coalition of Alabama and a brand-new (and now long gone) group, Citizens Against Legalized Lottery, to pay for an organized, and partly successful, campaign against gambling in Alabama. A few years later, in 2002, Reed did essentially the same thing, helping to close one Texas casino and kill plans for another that threatened the market share of the Louisiana Coushattas, who paid roughly $4 million for his services.
There is apparently nothing illegal about any of that. Yes, three Texas public-interest groups complained last year that Reed violated Texas law by not registering as a lobbyist when his e-mails suggest he was, in fact, lobbying; and yes, the Travis County Attorney didn't exactly clear him when he noted that the statute of limitations on lobbying misdemeanors had expired. And true, a lot of the money Reed collected from those and other gambling-related projects was funneled through third parties and front groups—including one, the Faith and Family Alliance, that existed long enough to launder a single check and was run by a guy who's now doing seven years for soliciting minors over the Internet—but that might only look shady. And give the man his props: He did excellent work for both tribes, or claimed to. He set up phone banks and direct-mail lists and bought television time and wrote radio scripts. He even implied that he'd recruited fellow Christian-right heavy James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, to record a spot—which Dobson denies.
Simply put, Abramoff crony Scanlon wrote in an e-mail to one of the Coushattas' lawyers, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them. The wackos get their information [from] the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet, and telephone.
And that's what Reed was paid to do: froth up the wackos on behalf of the morons and the monkeys.
The problem with the Abramoff matter is that it just won't go away. It's been bubbling out for two years now, a slow, stinging torture. For a politician, such an embarrassing episode is more easily dealt with in a single shot. Get it all out, mumble something about regret, and move on. But don't let it linger. Don't let it metastasize like—what's Reed's word—a cancer.
Reed's name came up in association with Abramoff and the Indians in fall 2004, then again in June 2005, when the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held hearings that included the release of reams of e-mails and canceled checks. There were more hearings and more e-mails in November 2005, and a final Senate report was released June 22. The report accuses Reed of nothing illegal. But it does cast him in the role of Abramoff's supporting weasel, a schemer desperate to hide the source of his gambling paychecks. Even Abramoff mocked his greed, telling Scanlon that Reed is a bad version of us! And when one of Abramoff's marks fretted that Reed was an antigambling ideologue, the report notes, Abramoff laughingly replied "as far as the cash goes."
With each new revelation, Reed evolved his response. Early on, he insisted he never took any tribal money. When e-mails suggested otherwise—Abramoff to Reed on June 5, 2001, for example: Not sure I understand what this bill is all about… Please let me know so I can discuss it with the tribe—he said he never took any gambling money, which was just ridiculous. Finally, near the end of last year, he retreated to pleading idiocy: "Had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken that work."
"The problem now," says Matt Towery, the pollster, "is that he's got to prove to everyone that he wasn't quite bright enough to know [the Abramoff stuff] was wrong but that he's bright enough to govern their state as lieutenant governor."
Wait, it gets worse. Because the Abramoff scandal is so enormous, his name will continue to crop up in newspapers and on television throughout the primary and then the general election and probably the entire four-year term of the next lieutenant governor of Georgia, and every now and then Reed will come up in the same sentence or the same breath, if only as background filler, like Marley's chains rattling around the hallway. The Abramoff-related trials are just getting started, and already Reed is being haunted by the ghost of junkets past: As part of their case against Abramoff crony and former White House aide David Safavian—who was eventually convicted of making false statements and obstruction of justice—federal prosecutors in May showed a jury a photograph of Abramoff, Ohio congressman Bob Ney, and seven other people standing in front of a chartered Gulf Stream jet immediately before they all climbed aboard for a ight to St. Andrews in Scotland. Reed's the second one from the left, in the light blue shirt, smiling with his hands on his hips.
Meanwhile, the materials released through the Senate Indian Affairs hearings—which ironically were mostly chaired by John McCain—are so voluminous that reporters are still mining them for dirty nuggets.
For instance, there was the affair with eLottery, an Abramoff client that wanted to sell lottery tickets over the Internet. In the spring of 2000, after three years of languishing on Capitol Hill, a compromise bipartisan bill that would outlaw Internet gambling finally started moving through Congress. The compromise was between the online-gambling industry and a cadre of antigambling Christian righties—Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson—who said they would tolerate a ban that made exceptions for horse and dog racing and jai alai.
About a week after that deal was reached, Abramoff put Reed on a retainer, $20,000 a month, to help kill it. Their strategy: Don't mention all the things that would be outlawed; instead, focus publicity solely on the emptions to the bill—Look, frontons and racetrack gambling are being legalized!—and bluff that the bill would actually expand Internet gambling. Reed did his grassroots thing, and on July 17 the ban was defeated.
When that story first came out last fall, Reed claimed he'd had no idea gambling interests were paying him to exterminate an antigambling bill, that he'd only found out as the Abramoff mess unraveled in 2004 that eLottery had fronted him twenty grand a month. At one point, he insisted he wasn't even aware that Abramoff worked for eLottery until after the job was finished. Sure, he looked like a dope with that explanation, but the story faded away.
But then Jim Galloway of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution got his hands on some long-lost e-mails. There was one from Abramoff to his colleague, a guy named Jonathan Blank. Jonathan, it began, here is a draft for the retainer letter with Reed on the elot project. Can you review and approve, or give me your edits Blank then sent the note back to Abramoff, who on May 23, 2000, forwarded the entire thing, including the elot project line, to Reed. He wrote, Ralph, are these changes okay
Reed wrote back, Yes.
(A side note: One of the stipulations in Reed's contract was that he wouldn't have to register as a lobbyist, which meant there would be no public record that he was shivving Robertson et al.)
Galloway's story ran on March 4, five months after Reed presumably figured he'd neutralized the eLottery contract and only four months before the primary.
Seriously, the files out of the Senate committee are mammoth. Hundreds upon hundreds of pages of testimony and e-mails and copies of canceled checks, so much eye-blearing ink that a few fascinating lines inevitably get missed the first time through.
For instance, the e-mail thread on pages 308 and 309 of a file from the June 22, 2005, hearing. So far, only The Texas Observer noticed it, and then only in passing. Like most e-mail threads, it's in reverse order, so you have to start at the bottom of page 309 with the note dated July 22, 2003, from Abramoff to Reed under the subject line Black Churches insurance program.
Per our previous discussion, Abramoff wrote. Let me know how we can move forward to chat with folks who can set this up with African American elders. It can be huge. Thanks.
A file called "Charity Elder Program2.doc" was attached.
Three days later, Reed replied: Yes, it looks interesting. I assume you'll set up a meeting in DC as a next step, or whatever we should do next, let me know.
"Charity Elder Program2.doc" has apparently disappeared into the ether. Reed's communications director, Lisa Baron, says she doesn't have it. It isn't included in the Indian Affairs Committee file, and sources say Senate investigators were unable to retrieve it. But Duane Gibson, an associate to whom Abramoff forwarded those e-mails, told investigators that the Black Churches program was a wider version of the Tigua Elder Legacy Project that Abramoff had pitched to a Texas tribe only four months earlier.
The Tiguas, who are more formally known as the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Tribe of El Paso, had basically one source of income: the Speaking Rock casino. The state, through then attorney general John Cornyn, had been trying to close it down on general principles since 1999, arguing that casino gambling was illegal in Texas, and by late 2000 the matter was still crawling through the courts. The Louisiana Coushattas—clients of Abramoff and, by extension, Reed—also wanted Speaking Rock closed to eliminate the competition.
Reed's job was to monitor Cornyn's office, keep tabs on the legal timeline, and whip up support for the attorney general and opposition to the casino. Which he did for more than a year, both through contacts in Cornyn's offoce and with the help of a megachurch preacher named Ed Young (incredibly engaged and excited, Reed wrote in one e-mail). The monitoring was important because Abramoff's timing had to be perfect: When Reed e-mailed Abramoff that a judge would order Speaking Rock closed on February 11, Abramoff and Scanlon made sure they were in El Paso on February 12…promising the panicked Tiguas they could get their casino reopened for a fee of $4.2 million.
In layman's terms, this is called a con. The idea was to buy off a congressman (Bob Ney) and a senator (Christopher Dodd), who would sneak language allowing Speaking Rock to reopen into a totally unrelated bill. No one would even notice.
Only Senator Dodd didn't go along with the plan. In fact, he was mightily pissed his good name had gotten dragged into such a scam, a point he made quite clear during an Indian Affairs Committee hearing.
The failed con took more than a year to play out, by which time the Tiguas were pretty much broke. So Abramoff came up with a way for his marks to continue paying him: the Tigua Elder Legacy Project. Abramoff would arrange, at no cost to the tribe, a life-insurance policy for every Tigua 75 or older. When those elders died, the death benefits would be paid to Eshkol Academy, a private school Abramoff had founded near Washington. Eshkol, in turn, would then pay Abramoff's fee to continue lobbying on behalf of the surviving Tiguas. Morbid opportunism disguised as charity: Each dead Tigua would be cash in the lobbyist's pocket.
The Tiguas declined the offer. "It felt uncomfortable," a Tigua official told the Senate committee last November.
The Tigua-death-fund offer had been made in March 2003. Four months later, Abramoff was pitching Reed—his connection to Christians—the Black Churches Insurance Program. There was only one difference: It would be huge, to use Abramoff's word.
"Yeah," a former associate of Reed's says, "it sounds like Jack approached Reed about mortgaging old black people."
Abramoff's attorneys listened to that scenario in great detail, pondered it for a day, and then politely said, "No comment."
Reed's communications director, Lisa Baron, initially said, "Your sources are wrong," but not how or in what way. A day later, she notably did not say those sources were wrong. Ralph receives unsolicited requests of a political or business nature all the time, she wrote in an e-mail. Our records show no meeting took place to discuss the proposed project. Ralph had no involvement whatsoever in marketing such policies to African-American churches.
So yeah, it does sound like Jack approached Ralph about mortgaging old black people.
And Ralph said, yes, it looks interesting…whatever we should do next, let me know.
Maurice Atkinson says he will not question Reed's faith, because Atkinson is a Christian, and Christians don't do that. He believes in grace, believes that all men fall short of the glory of God, believes he shouldn't be picking specks from another man's eye when he surely has a timber in his own.
"I'm not questioning his faith," he says for maybe the fourth time. He pauses and looks at his shoes. "I'm coming close." Another pause. "But I'm not questioning his faith."
He is, however, questioning everything else about Reed, all that is earthly and mortal. And Atkinson carries some authority on the subject, because he was until very recently one of Reed's followers. In the early '90s, when he still lived in Indiana, he joined the Grant County chapter of the Christian Coalition because he believed in Reed's political gospel. Sure, he knew Reed was a national player. "But the federal politics were glitz," he says. "The payoff was, it helped us in our local communities."
Atkinson left the Coalition in 1996, but only because he realized his partisan Republican politics were incompatible with a nonpartisan organization. When he moved to Macon, Georgia, he stayed loyal to the GOP—at the moment, he's a vice chair of the Bibb County Republican Party and a member of the state committee—and he stayed loyal to Reed. When Reed announced his candidacy, Atkinson signed up for his steering committee. Of course he would support Reed, the man who'd shepherded conservative Christians into the political process.
Then the stories started trickling out. Abramoff, sure. But also Enron. And Channel One, another company the Christian Right generally despises but for which Reed lobbied. And the South Carolina primary in 2000. The stories kept coming until Atkinson thought: Man, this guy's got no core.
"I call them political pimps," he says. "They want to develop their market base and manipulate the system. You got Al Sharpton. You got Jesse Jackson. You got Ralph Reed. And the cause isn't for the cause. It's for themselves."
Atkinson is stumping for Senator Cagle now. He's like Cagle's own avenging angel, a former Reed acolyte who is devastating in his critique. As a political prop, he's brilliant.
Yet Atkinson is also sincere. He's a heavyset man of 44, and at times he appears to slump when he talks about Reed, about what he thought then and what he knows now. Was it all a con All the Christian Nation preaching, all the calls to the righteous
"Yes," Atkinson says. "I believe it was."
Reed could have worked for anyone he wanted to, could have lent his considerable talents to any number of Christian organizations, real ones, too, the kind that existed before Reed needed some preachers to front for his corporate clients. But Enron Indian casinos "He's either an awfully cheap whore," Atkinson says, "or he's diabolical."
And here's the part he doesn't understand. "If you really believe…" He stops, takes a breath. "You don't want to question people's faith," he says again, "but you almost have to. Because if you really believe that you know what's wrong and what's right, why would you decide—decide—to do the wrong thing"
Matt Towery has a theory about that. He has known Reed for more than twenty years, and he's known Washington just as long. He was there for the Revolution in 1994, chairing Newt Gingrich's campaign. He was one of Them. He does not dislike Reed. He just knows Reed and creatures like Reed.
"The thing people don't realize is, Ralph Reed's really not all that bright," he says. "He's able to ingratiate himself, he's able to seize moments of opportunity, but he's really not that bright."
Towery seems momentarily surprised that he's saying these things out loud.
"This is a kid," he goes on, "who went to Washington and saw people, wholesome-looking, clean-cut people, doing exactly what he's doing now" —and by now he means the past fifteen years— "and I promise you, Ralph Reed didn't have the sense to know it was wrong. He might have had the sense to think it was cute, to think it was clever. But wrong Either morally or legally No."
He lets that hang there for a moment, then backtracks, but only a little. "It's not that he's stupid," he says. "He's not stupid. What he lacks is experience in life. Quite frankly, it's a problem that affects most of D.C."
And Reed is, above all else, a creature of Washington. The red pickup, the cowboy boots, those are just good-ol'-boy props. He came of age—physically, spiritually, professionally—on the banks of the Potomac. "These kids come up in Washington, and they have a choice in life," Towery says. "At some point, you either move on with your life or you stay and you work. He stuck it out. When you do that, when you stay in that world, you lose perspective—the perspective of real businesses, of real families, of the real world, basically. Your gyroscope's off."
Jason's Deli is almost empty now. Reed's running out of Republicans to glad-hand, and Art has run out of nice things to say about Reed. The reporters obviously aren't leaving without some face time.
The race is still a toss-up at this point, which is to say it's a lot closer than anyone thought it would be when Reed announced he wanted the job. He still has his base, though, the Christian conservatives. "Becoming a Christian doesn't mean you are never wrong," Reed once wrote, "only that you are forgiven."
Reed's talking to one last Republican. Finally, he turns around. He has a wide, practiced smile on his face. "You must be the guy from GQ," he says.
I start to introduce myself.
"Of course you are," he says, taking a step back, spreading his arms like he's admiring a new lawn tractor. "You're the best-dressed guy here."
That does not sound like a compliment. A few days earlier, a fellow Republican, someone who actually likes him, had told me that Reed "would be the quintessential reptilian character. With Ralph, it's not a question of 'Do I like you' It's a question of 'Am I hungry And if I am, are you of a size that I can eat you' "
Reed morphs into a lizard, a big, grinning lizard.
Also, it's not true. I am not the best-dressed person there. Casey Cagle is wearing a very nice gray suit. Reed has his finely tailored blazer, a big silver belt buckle, and those boots. They're black and made out of…what Ostrich Alligator
I finish introducing myself, mutter something about how I thought I should dress appropriately, this being an official Republican debate and all.
"Well," Reed says, grinning for real now, because he's just been lobbed a fat, slow pitch, "you just don't know Republicans."
He keeps smiling for a beat.
"And that's because you're part of that liberal elite New York media."
He's still smiling when I tell him I live in North Carolina. But it doesn't matter. Reed doesn't talk to reporters, not any more than he absolutely has to, and not when he can dismiss them and all their uncomfortable questions.
Sean Flynn is a GQ correspondent.****


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Farmers and Texas agriculture industry representative still have time to register for the 25th annual Texas Plant Protection Association Conference, Dec. 10 and 11 at the Brazos Center in Bryan.
If you are enjoying reading this article, please check out Southwest Farm Press Daily and receive the latest news right to your inbox.
Conference organizers expect the conference to be one of the best in its 25-year history as speakers take a look at where the organization started, some of the key issues over the past quarter century and then focus on current challenges and future opportunities.
Bob Sasser, TPPA executive director, says the poster session may set a record for participation with 33 poster abstracts received.
"We also have 39 sponsor/exhibitors, and we thank them for their support. And we are still receiving conference registrations."
The theme of this year's conference is "A Vision for Texas Agriculture." Dr. Mark Hussey, vice chancellor and dean for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University, will open the conference Dec. 10.
Other featured speakers the opening day of the conference are Dr. Craig Nessler, director of AgriLife Research, and Dr. Doug Steele, director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Representatives from various companies throughout the agriculture industry will also be featured speakers during the opening day.
Discussions will focus on historical and future uses of herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, biotechnology, equipment and more throughout the two-day conference.
Registration is $85 through Nov. 15 and $100 afterward. To register and for more information about the conference, visit http://tppa.tamu.edu.
More from Southwest Farm Press:
TPPA conference has followed ag tends for 25 years
TPPA follows crucial achievements in 25-year history