The Seattle Times: Ed cetera

Round one: Washington out

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:31:03 PST

Gov. Chris Gregoire says Washington state won't compete after all in the intial round of grant funding from the $4 billion Race to the Top federal fund. This is a sharp reversal from a recent flurry of efforts to be among the 20 or so states expected to share in the pot of education improvement funds.

Just a few days ago, Randy Dorn, state Superintendent for Public Instruction, gave assurances that Washington was in it to win it.

Was Gregoire's decision smart strategy to conserve efforts for the next round of funding in June or was it belated recognition that we never stood a chance?

Sarah Palin goes 'rogue'

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:44:59 PST

Countless sources have shown us what to do when you find yourself in the public eye for no good reason; write a book.

Monica Lewinsky, Paris Hilton and “Jon and Kate Plus 8” star Kate Gosselin went before her. Now, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has joined the ranks of distinguished, American authors — well, sort of.

Palin’s memoir “Going Rogue: An American Life” hit stands Nov. 17, and it is already a best seller. Even better, if one book does not quench your Palin thirst, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate’s novel has triggered everything from unauthorized biographies to coloring books slated for release in the upcoming weeks.

People cannot get enough of this woman — the first printing of “Going Rogue” was 1.5 million copies. To her credit, the Palin frenzy began long before HarperCollins announced her 400-page book deal. She sparked the public’s — and media’s — attention the moment Sen. John McCain revealed her as his running mate.

So, why all this fascination with Palin, a caribou-hunting, Carhartt-wearing, homegrown Alaskan renegade?

She was an outsider, a small-government politician no one had ever heard of, but McCain and the Republican Party saw her as their best chance to take over the White House. It was an intriguing turn of events, so the public assumed she must possess something extraordinary. There has to be more to Palin than her you-betcha attitude and any other Tina Fey-inspired parodies that never leave her side.

Right? Maybe not.

The day before her 13-city book tour commenced, Palin appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for a world exclusive interview. It also dispelled rumors Winfrey snubbed the conservative candidate during last year’s campaign.

The talk show host provided Palin a platform to redeem herself for past bloopers, but the new author did not make amends. Referencing the infamous Katie Couric interview, Winfrey again asked her guest the newspapers, magazines or books she read to help prepare for her candidacy.

Cogswell's Screed and the Seattle Left

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:25:09 PST

The Stranger has an interesting piece this week. Its cover story, “Death to the Old Machine,” is a 5,200-word political screed—the equivalent of five pages of text—by Grant Cogswell. Once described in the Times as a “poet populist,” Cogswell has been a filmmaker, a failed candidate for City Council (running against Richard McIver in 2001) a tub-thumper for the late Seattle Monorail Project and for the idea of replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a surface street.

Cogswell is an expressive writer. What he reveals is the flavor and fascinations of the Seattle Left, or at least a considerable part of it. There are many things you might say about the Left, but one thing stands out in Cogswell’s essay for not being there. In an half-acre of words of political discourse about Seattle, there is not one thought about its economic underpinnings—about commerce, trade, taxes, regulation, labor, competitiveness and business climate. Nothing.

A world of ''isms''

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:22:03 PST

Well, what do you know, a fast and facile accusation of sexism is being tossed at ''Newsweek'' magazine for its latest cover photo showing Sarah Palin in her jogging outit, a photo for which she posed for a different magazine, Runners World.
With no judgment on the propriety of using that photo from the running magazine, I take issue with the constant flinging of -ism terms about a woman who is proud, and should be proud, of her ability to run.

PHOTOGRAPHER/SOURCE

Caption text here.

Ipso facto, don't even take a breath, those editors at Newsweek must be sexist, right?
I think not. I think we toss 'the term sexism and other "'ism'' labels around too readily.
And no, you can not therefore conclude that I am a sexist, though many will. If in doubt, fling one of the accusations around.
As a runner who has been out in the rain, the hail and the rest of it, I say congratulations to Paliln for sending a message of fitness and health.

Mammograms, Part Two

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:40:03 PST

The Obama administration waded into the furor over new recommendations on mammograms by a government-appointed panel. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebellius downplayed the panel's findings, saying mammograms still vital for women age 40 and above.

Good start Madam Secretary: The Obama Administration must go farther. The public must be assured that the mammogram recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force do not find their way into health care legislation.

My column was one of many voices critical of panel's recommendation.

Breast cancer falls behind lung cancer as the top killer of women.
Black women have a higher rate of a more aggressive form of the disease. Like any cancer, the longer it goes undetected the stronger the disease grows and the more difficult it is to cure. Mammograms may not save enough lives to impress the scientists but if it saved your life, your wife's or your daughter's, wouldn't it be worth it.

It apparently is for the 39 million women who undergo mammograms each year in the United States. I understand the expense - more than $5 billion annually for the health care system - represents a challenge. But what would be the cost to the healthcare system if fewer women got mammograms and there was a rise in breast cancer diagnoses in the latter stages when it is more expensive and perilous to treat?

Breast cancer and false economies

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:07:03 PST

My column takes on the new breast cancer prevention guidelines issued by a federal government-appointed panel of medical experts.

The recommendations are shortsighted because they take a narrow scientific findings -mammograms don't save as many lives as we'd hoped - and extrapolate that to a recommendation to sideline this preventive tool for most women. The kicker that led to my outrage? Not all women should be taught to do monthly breast self-exams. Really?

Breast cancer kills the most women after lung cancer. Black women have a higher rate of a more aggressive form of the disease. Like any cancer, the longer it goes undetected the stronger the disease grows and the more difficult it is to cure. So mammograms don't save enough lives to impress the scientists; but what if it saved your life? Your wife's or your daughter's? Wouldn't that be enough for you? It apparently is for the 39 million women who undergo mammograms each year in the United States. I understand the expense of mammography, more than $5 billion for the health care system each year. But I wonder what would be the cost to the healthcare system if women didn't get mammograms and a significant number discovered breast cancer in its second, third or fourth stages.

A Movie About the Valerie Plame Case

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:14:03 PST

Over the weekend I watched the movie, “Nothing but the Truth.” It’s a year old, but not that many people saw it, and it’s an interesting film. A political film. I often don’t care for the politics of Hollywood movies, and I didn’t for this one, either.

“Nothing but the Truth” is a fictionalization of the case of journalist Judith Miller and CIA operative Valerie Plame. In real life, Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, went to the African nation of Niger to investigate a reason for attacking Iraq, didn’t find that reason, and later told this story publicly, saying the White House had lied about the reason for going to war. A White House source retaliated against Wilson by leaking a story to the reporter, Miller, that Wilson’s wife, Plame, was a CIA agent, wrecking the wife’s career. Miller broke no law by outing a CIA agent, but her source did, and the Justice Department demanded that Miller identify him. She wouldn’t, and spent 85 days in jail.