Steam Power The wind is roaring outside, pummeling the junction of the towers beneath which I dwell. The month that enters like a Lion has brought us a raw chill that is as cold as any of this winter. Thin drifts of snow linger in the places where the shadows lie. It’s cold. I turned […]

Format Change I woke to an eerie silence. There was something wrong. The clock radio hissed, and the numerals glowed. There was power, and it had turned on at the designated moment. But there was no sound, and no music. I set it fifteen minutes before the BBC World Update begins at five. I need […]

From Space They are doing it again, second week in a row. There is not a flake of snow in the air and the schools are closed already. They say it is going to be a heavy snow day today, but it hasn’t started yet. They know that it will because they are looking down […]

Wounded Gazelle Dana Priest was at the top of his game on page A-9 of the Washington Post. The placement of the article showed that the Post editors don’t give much of a rat’s butt about the CIA. Inside, way inside, with the ads for Hecht’s and Macy’s Department Stores. But it is the Sunday […]

No Accumulation I was bitterly disappointed in the snow. I did not have the leeway accorded to the Fairfax County Schools, or any of the local districts to cancel the day. They closed their doors before the first flakes really started in Arlington. But it is to be expected, I thought. The County sprawls almost […]

Going to the Show We walked down the big swooping marble staircase from the second floor of the Rayburn House Office building. We popped out the art deco steel swinging door right into the middle of Condoleeza Rice’s security detail. The Secretary of State had her helmet-hair perfectly coiffed and she looked relaxed and self […]

Gil-White The winter is not over. It is right outside. I crawled out of bed and began to work on the list of things to do. There is some left over business to be complete; no job is done until the paperwork is filed, after all. I had some giddy conceptual moments at Coast Guard […]

The Deputy When he checked in at Portland for his flight to Boston on the eleventh of September, Mohammed Atta was selected by a computerized pre-screening system known to the FAA as CAPPS. In the FAA’s language, that stands for Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System, a software system designed to identify passengers who should be […]

Disclosure I love politics. My first question this morning on rising was if the frog I voted for was elected to the 47 th District of Virginia. He wasn’t, to my regret, since it would have sent a powerful signal to the national media that change is in the wind. Instead, the talking heads had […]

Roll Out It is the first full week of February, a temperate week in Washington, and Monday brought one of the holiest rituals in the Democracy- the ”Roll Out” of the President’s Budget for Fiscal 2006. If you want to imagine the process, think of it this way: a gigantic horse is wheeled up in front of […]