Tests Show Milosevic Died of Heart Attack
By ANTHONY DEUTSCH, Associated Press Writer
47 minutes ago
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A heart attack killed Slobodan Milosevic in his jail cell, the U.N. war crimes tribunal said, citing preliminary findings from Dutch pathologists who conducted a nearly eight-hour autopsy Sunday on the former Yugoslav leader.
The tribunal said pathologists had determined that "Milosevic's cause of death was a 'myocardial infarction.'"
Found dead in his cell Saturday morning, the 64-year-old Milosevic had suffered from heart ailments and high blood pressure, and his bad health caused numerous breaks in his four-year, $200 million trial before the tribunal.
Some wondered if suicide might have been an out for the man accused of causing wars that killed 250,000 people during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. And a legal adviser said Milosevic feared he was being poisoned.
Earlier, the chief U.N. prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, had said claims that Milosevic committed suicide or was poisoned were "just rumors."
"You have the choice between normal, natural death and suicide," she told reporters at the tribunal, where Milosevic had been standing trial for more than four years on 66 counts of war crimes and genocide in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during Yugoslavia's violent breakup in the 1990s.
Milosevic's body was to be delivered to his family by Monday, according to the tribunal and an official in Serbia-Montenegro. But there was disagreement among relatives about whether he should be buried in his homeland of Serbia or in Russia, where his wife and son live in exile.
In Serbia, Milosevic loyalists burned candles in memory of their fallen hero at branches of his Socialist Party. Elderly women sobbed and kissed his photographs adorned with black cloth, while nationalists signed condolence books declaring him a defender of "Serb honor."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would have none of that, calling Milosevic "one of the most malign forces in Europe in quite a long time."
"Some feel that they wish there had been the opportunity to bring him to justice and to have the final verdict of history be in the courts, but I think the final verdict of history about Milosevic is pretty clear," Rice said after visiting Chile.
A pathologist sent by Serbia observed the autopsy at the Netherlands Forensic Institute, an agency of the Dutch Justice Ministry.
Tribunal spokeswoman Alexandra Milenov said the autopsy revealed Milosevic had been suffering from two heart conditions. Asked if poisoning could have caused the heart attack, Milenov said it was too early to draw conclusions.
She said the inquiry into Milosevic's death was continuing, with a final report expected to be released within days.
Outside the tribunal's offices, Milosevic's legal adviser showed reporters a six-page letter that he said the former leader wrote the day before his death claiming traces of a powerful drug used to treat leprosy or tuberculosis had been found in his bloodstream.
Zdenko Tomanovic said Milosevic was seriously concerned. "They would like to poison me," he quoted Milosevic as telling him.
A Dutch state broadcaster, NOS, said later that an adviser to the tribunal confirmed such a drug was found in a blood sample taken in recent months from Milosevic. The report said the adviser, who was not identified, said the drug could have had a "neutralizing effect" on Milosevic's other medications.
Doctors found traces of the drug when they were trying to determine why Milosevic's medication for high blood pressure was not working, the NOS report said.
Milosevic had appealed unsuccessfully to the war crimes tribunal last December to be allowed to go to a heart clinic in Moscow for treatment. He repeated the request as late as last month.
In Belgrade, Rasim Ljajic, human rights minister for Serbia-Montenegro, said Milosevic's remains would be handed over to the former leader's family by Monday. His comments were confirmed by the tribunal.
Milosevic's older brother, Borislav, suggested to Serbia's Beta news agency that he should be buried "in his own country, as he's a son of Serbia."
But the late leader's wife, Mirjana Markovic, and their son, Marko, could be arrested if they returned to Serbia for a funeral. They want Milosevic buried in Moscow, where they live, Beta said.
Milosevic's daughter, Marija, disagreed with both sites. She said the burial should be in Montenegro, at the family grave in the town of Lijeva Rijeka. "He's not a Russian to be buried in Moscow," she told Beta, adding that she would not attend a Moscow funeral.
Milosevic, the first sitting head of state to be indicated for war crimes, was arrested early in 2001 after being forced from power when Serbs grew tired of the hardships brought by the Balkans conflicts.
Despite the lengthy proceedings, his death means there will be no judicial verdict on his alleged crimes.
"It is a great pity for justice that the trial will not be completed and no verdict will be rendered," Del Ponte said. His death "deprives victims of the justice they need and deserve."
In Serbia's U.N.-administered Kosovo province, Ferdone Qerkezi, 52, wept with rage, cursing Milosevic for eluding justice by dying. Her husband and four sons died in a 1999 crackdown by Serb forces.
"He should have been dragged through streets of towns and thrown into a bottomless pit so no one could ever find him," she said. "For what he has done to us, there is no punishment on earth that befits him."
"No matter his death, he should be sentenced," Qerkezi said, her eyes red. "His family should not be able to see him even dead in the next 500 years."
While some Serbs spent Sunday mourning Milosevic, others marked the third anniversary of the slaying of a key Milosevic foe: the charismatic Zoran Djindjic, who headed the pro-democracy movement that toppled Milosevic and engineered his handover to the U.N. court for trial.
Hundreds gathered in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad handing out recordings of Djindjic's speeches and urging passers-by to "remember the best Serbia ever had."
Bosko Djokovic, a 35-year-old Belgrade teacher, called it "poetic justice" that Milosevic died on the eve of the anniversary. The Serb strongman "was responsible for Djindjic's death, and he ultimately paid for that," Djokovic said.
Milosevic was the sixth war crimes suspect from the Balkans to die at The Hague. A week earlier, convicted Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic killed himself in the same prison. He had been a star prosecution witness against Milosevic.
Milosevic's trial was the longest and most expensive of the cases before the tribunal, which has spent about $1 billion in total, experts say.
___
Associated Press writers Bruce Mutsvairo in The Hague; Katarina Kratovac and Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro; and Fisnik Abrashi in Djakovica, Serbia-Montenegro, contributed to this report.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Tests Show Milosevic Died of Heart Attack
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Ex-Yugoslav Leader Milosevic Dies in Cell
Ex-Yugoslav Leader Milosevic Dies in Cell
By ANTHONY DEUTSCH and DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writers
52 minutes ago
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his prison cell Saturday, abruptly ending his four-year U.N. war crimes trial for orchestrating a decade of conflict that killed 250,000 people and tore the Yugoslav federation asunder. He was 64.
A leader of beguiling charm and cunning ruthlessness, the man reviled by the United States as "the butcher of the Balkans" was a hero to many Serbs despite losing four wars and impoverishing his people in the 1990s while trying to create a "Greater Serbia" linking Serbia with Serb-dominated areas of Croatia and Bosnia.
Milosevic apparently died of natural causes, according to the U.N. tribunal that was trying him on 66 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. His chronic heart ailments and high blood pressure had caused numerous long recesses.
His death came nearly five years after he was arrested by Serb authorities and extradited to The Hague as the first sitting head of state ever to be indicted for war crimes.
It meant there would be no judicial verdict for the leader accused of ethnic massacres and other atrocities in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and was sure to increase criticism of the tribunal for what has been a long, expensive and ultimately wasted proceeding.
The trial, which began in February 2002, will be terminated, tribunal spokeswoman Alexandra Milenov said.
The chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, expressed regret, saying she believed she would have won a conviction.
"I also regret it for the victims, the thousands of victims, who have been waiting for justice," Del Ponte told Swiss Television DRS while visiting her native Switzerland.
Former President Clinton, whose administration confronted Milosevic's regime, also lamented that no verdict would be reached.
"I am sorry that his trial will not be completed, and that he did not acknowledge and apologize for his crimes before his death. Nevertheless, his capture and trial will serve as a reminder that egregious crimes against humanity will not be tolerated," Clinton said in a statement released by his office in New York.
Milosevic was accused of being behind a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Serbs during the wars that erupted as the Yugoslav federation began breaking apart in 1991, and his death was cheered by many in the Balkans.
"Finally, we have some reason to smile. God is fair," said Hajra Catic, who heads an association of women who lost loved ones when ethnic Serb troops slaughtered 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica in 1995.
In Serbia, where many people praised Milosevic for trying to preserve Serb dominance, supporters declared his death a "huge loss."
The tribunal said a guard at the U.N. jail in suburban Scheveningen found Milosevic's body between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Saturday. The timing of his death was not released. An autopsy will be conducted Sunday by Dutch officials — with a pathologist from Serbia-Montenegro in attendance.
Milosevic's older brother, Borislav, said the family did not trust the tribunal to carry out an impartial autopsy.
He also blamed the tribunal for his brother's death because it rejected his request to get medical treatment in Russia, which offered assurances that Milosevic would be returned to finish his trial.
"All responsibility for this lies on the shoulders of the international tribunal. He asked for treatment several months ago, they knew this," Borislav Milosevic told The Associated Press in Moscow, where he lives. "They drove him to this as they didn't want to let him out alive."
Zdenko Tomanovic, the defendant's legal adviser, told Serbia's independent B-92 radio from The Hague that Slobodan Milosevic had complained that "someone wants to poison" him. Tomanovic later told state Serbian TV that Russian experts would be permitted to attend Sunday's autopsy.
The White House said it was waiting for more information.
"We have seen the news that Slobodan Milosevic has died in his prison in The Hague," spokesman Blair Jones said. "We do not have all the details yet."
There was no comment from Milosevic's wife, Mirjana, who often was characterized as a power behind the scenes during her husband's autocratic rule and has been in self-imposed exile in Russia since 2003. Their son, Marko, also lives in Russia, and their daughter, Marija, lives in Montenegro.
Milosevic's trial and Saddam Hussein's war crimes proceeding in Iraq were widely seen as together constituting the most important legal test for the international community since German and Japanese leaders were tried after World War II.
Both trials drew stiff criticism over frequent interruptions and the ability of the defendants to use the courtroom as a stage to launch vitriolic anti-Western diatribes. Reveling in the spotlight, Milosevic insisted on being his own defense lawyer.
He was able to stay as the Serbs' leader for 13 years despite a crumbling economy and increasing international isolation. He once described himself as the "Ayatollah Khomeini of Serbia," assuring his prime minister, Milan Panic, that "the Serbs will follow me no matter what."
Ivica Dacic, a ranking Socialist Party official, said in Belgrade that Milosevic's death was a "great loss for Serbia, for the entire Serb nation and for the Socialist party."
"Milosevic was carrying out not only his own defense but also the defense of Serb honor," Dacic said. "The entire country must thank him for this."
But in the end, his people abandoned him: first in October 2000, when he was unable to convince most Yugoslavs that he had staved off electoral defeat by Vojislav Kostunica, and again on April 1, 2001, when he surrendered after a 26-hour standoff to face criminal charges.
"It is a pity he didn't live to the end of the trial to get the sentence he deserved," Croatian President Stipe Mesic said.
Milosevic was born in Pozarevac, a factory town in central Serbia best known as the home of one of the country's most notorious prisons.
His father was a defrocked Orthodox priest and sometime teacher of Russian. His mother also was a teacher. Both committed suicide.
In high school, he met his future wife, the daughter of a wartime communist partisan hero. She also was the niece of Davorjanka Paunovic, private secretary and mistress of Josip Broz Tito, the communist guerrilla leader who seized power in Yugoslavia at the end of World War II.
Milosevic graduated from law school in 1964 and joined the Communist Party. The party put him in various business positions, and in 1983 he was appointed director of a major state-run bank. He became friends with several Western figures, including former U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger and banker David Rockefeller.
He also befriended Ivan Stambolic, who became leader of the Communist Party in Serbia in 1984. Stambolic picked Milosevic for the powerful post of party leader in the capital, Belgrade.
When Stambolic was elevated to Serbia's presidency in 1986, Milosevic succeeded him as Serbian communist boss.
A year later, Stambolic sent Milosevic to Kosovo, where ethnic Serbs were demanding protection from the province's ethnic Albanian majority. During a meeting of local Serb leaders, hundreds of angry Serbs gathered outside and demanded the leadership hear their grievances.
Milosevic faced the crowd and delivered a fiery speech, telling them: "Nobody has the right to beat you."
Those words shattered the myth of ethnic "brotherhood and unity" that had been the slogan of Tito's communist regime — and transformed Milosevic into a Serb hero.
Months later, in September 1987, he publicly accused his old friend Stambolic and others of anti-communist and anti-Serbian policies during a party meeting televised nationally. All were forced to resign in a de facto coup.
In 1989, Milosevic became president of Serbia in an election widely considered rigged. His rise alarmed the other peoples of the Yugoslav federation — Slovenes, Croats, Macedonians, Albanians and others.
In 1991, Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia. Milosevic sent tanks to Slovenian borders, triggering a brief war that ended in Slovenia's secession.
But ethnic Serbs in Croatia, encouraged by Milosevic, took up arms. Milosevic responded by sending the Serb-led Yugoslav army to intervene, triggering a conflict that killed at least 10,000 people.
Three months later, Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence. Milosevic bankrolled a Bosnian Serb rebellion, triggering a war that killed an estimated 200,000 people before a U.S.-brokered peace agreement was reached at Dayton, Ohio, in 1995.
Milosevic's term as Serbian president ended in 1997 and the constitution prevented him from running again. However, he exploited legal loopholes to have parliament name him president of Yugoslavia, which then included only the republics of Serbia and Montenegro.
But it was Kosovo, his springboard to power, that finally set the stage for his downfall.
In February 1998, Milosevic sent troops to crush an ethnic Albanian uprising there, drawing sanctions from the United States and its allies. In 1999, after Milosevic refused to sign a Western-dictated peace accord, NATO conducted 78 days of airstrikes on Yugoslavia.
Before Milosevic gave in and handed over the province's administration to the United Nations in June 1999, the U.N. tribunal charged him and four top aides with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo. It later broadened the charges to include genocide.
Milosevic sought to hold on to power by pushing through a constitutional change in July 2000 to permit the election of president by popular vote rather than parliament. But he misjudged his popularity, and Yugoslavs exhausted by years of war and upheaval backed Kostunica in the election.
The Milosevic-controlled election commission tried to force a runoff, but hundreds of thousands of people converged on Belgrade, setting off a daylong riot on Oct. 5, 2000. The police and army refused to intervene, and Milosevic conceded defeat the following day.
He remained sequestered in an opulent villa in Belgrade until his arrest in April 2001. He was extradited to The Hague that June.
Proceedings are continuing against 72 war crimes suspects. Tribunal figures show 47 of them are at the detention unit where Milosevic died, and the rest have been freed until their trial begins.
The most prominent suspects — former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his top military officer, Ratko Mladic — remain at large.
___
Associated Press reporter Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report from Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Did you hear: Mary Hart in running to fill Today show co-host opening?
Rumor has it that Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart is a shoo-in to be the new co-host on the Today show after soon-to-be departing host Katie Couric switches networks to CBS after her contract with NBC expires in May. Hart, 55, who is also currently finishing up a five-year contract signed in 2001 with Entertainment Tonight that will expire this year would bring with her respectable reputation a huge following, professionalism, and her famous liveliness to morning television.
Hart, who has anchored the show for two decades, signed a new long-term deal, giving her more than $5 million annually, said Joel Berman, president of Paramount Domestic Television, whose company produces the program.
Prior to the five-year contract that was renewed, Hart's deal with Paramount gave her an option to anchor the show for life. Upon sealing her last deal, the two parties agreed to renew on a five-year basis.
The contract also allows Hart to take a more creative role in possible "ET" spin-offs, including a children-oriented project and a celebrity homes show.
Hart joined the 25-year-old newsmagazine program in 1982 during its second season. She was the co-host of the canceled daytime talk show, The Regis Philbin Show.
Entertainment Tonight has ranked among the top five syndicated shows in ratings, and tied "Oprah" as the highest-rated syndicated program among women 25 to 54 in 2000.
Jann Carl would likely succeed Hart at the anchor desk at Entertainment Tonight.
The Couric Countdown
By J. Max Robins -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/28/2005
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6286862.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=supp
The drumbeat is getting louder and louder in the halls of CBS, signaling that Katie Couric is going to leap over to the network this spring when her NBC contract runs out. For the past year, CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves has been quietly wooing Couric to be Dan Rather's replacement as anchor of CBS Evening News. But now the talks are being conducted with a new urgency.
Until recently, the job had been a tough sell, even for a salesman's salesman like Moonves. The news division was in disarray in the aftermath of Rather's discredited 60 Minutes report last year about President Bush's National Guard service, and it couldn't have strengthened Moonves' hand with Couric that Andrew Heyward remained in his job as CBS News president for months, even as rumors of his impending departure swirled.
With Heyward's recent exit and the naming of network sports-division chief Sean McManus to replace him, CBS becomes a much more attractive home for Couric.
The Today star has said in recent interviews that she plans to make a decision by the end of the year whether to stay at NBC or pursue other options, which means Moonves and McManus know they have a limited window to lure Couric into their camp. (And they know that leaving temporary Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer in place much longer is soon going to look like the result of sheer indecisiveness.)
Word inside CBS News is that Viacom is committed from the very top to spend the money needed to reinvigorate a franchise that has become a threadbare operation in recent years, particularly in comparison with the news outfits at NBC and ABC.
Obviously, NBC has been trying to persuade Couric to renew her deal well before it expires—but without success. That only feeds the chatter that she still hasn't made up her mind. According to sources inside CBS, Moonves and McManus are working hard to quickly put a new face on the beleaguered news division and make it look like a place with growth potential. Nothing would send that message more clearly than landing A-list talent like Couric.
Still, Couric's dance with CBS could simply be a negotiating tactic to get NBC to sweeten her estimated $15 million annual salary. After all, she has deep roots at the network: Couric has been at NBC News for 16 years and has a long history with NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker, going back to their time together at Today in the early '90s.
Meanwhile, since new Today executive producer Jim Bell was installed last April, the show has stabilized—ratings are down 2% in total viewers compared with last fall, but the long push by arch-rival ABC's Good Morning America to supplant Today as the dominant wake-up show seems to have stalled.
Ironically, the fact that Today has seemingly righted itself may provide a rationale for Couric to take flight. Better to leave when you're still on top, this thinking goes, than when it looks like you're jumping before being pushed.
Since her pal Zucker left in 2000, Couric has lived through three executive producers and has taken more than her fair share of media abuse, culminating in a particularly vicious Alessandra Stanley piece last April in The New York Times that charged “America's girl next door has morphed into the mercurial diva down the hall.”
Couric pals say the public pummeling took its toll, and the lure of helming a nightly newscast that would let her exercise more-serious journalistic chops might be too enticing to resist.
Last August, talking about a possible move, Couric, who turns a young 49 in January, told the New Yorker that, when things are going well at Today, she has “one of the best jobs in television.” But she added, “At the same time, everybody needs recharging.” My educated guess? Come summer, don't be surprised to see Couric charged-up about her new job.
E-mail comments to bcrobins@reedbusiness.com
This story is still developing.
Joyce Comments: I think NBC may just be calling Couric on her bluff by tempting Mary Hart to replace her as her contract also runs out at the same time. Couric has been a drag on Today since she last re-signed and is replaceable with Hart who would be a breathe of fresh air to the show.
Mary Hart, Onstage And Off The Ever-perky Tv Host Entertains Tonight In Atlantic City.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20150919070126/http://articles.philly.com/1988-07-27/news/26236649_1_mary-hart-miss-south-dakota-entertainment-tonight-hostessBy Karen Heller, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: July 27, 1988NEW YORK — Mary Hart eats chocolate!
Mary Hart drinks wine!
And sometimes, when Mary Hart is alone in her kitchen and drops something heavy on her foot, she abandons her usual "gosh" and "golly" and "oh, my goodness" and actually swears!
But not often.
Oh, Mary, Mary, Mary. Not since Mary Tyler Moore has a television star been so sweet, so lively, so buoyant.
Go ahead, say it. Call the Entertainment Tonight hostess perky.
David Letterman did so relentessly, goading her almost nightly for six months, and did our Mary mind? "Wow! You couldn't ask for better publicity, now could you?" she said yesterday, sitting, with perfect posture, in the Plaza Hotel's Oak Room restaurant. "Well, if you look at being perky as emphasizing the positive side of life then, gosh, I'm perky."
Tonight she opens a six-night engagement at Atlantic City's Resorts International with Mr. Warmth, Don Rickles. (What is it about Mary and these bitter men?)
Her Atlantic City act, she contends, is much different from the show she performed in Las Vegas in April. "This time I wanted to do something that was much more me. More pop. More Broadway. More everything!" she said.
There was the just the slightest suggestion that, just perhaps, the Vegas show may have oh-so-briefly wiped that toothpaste smile from her pretty face - even if she did break down and cry when she arrived in her limo and saw her name all big and bold on the marquee.
The new 40-minute set features 10 songs, two male dancers, a five-piece band and four costume changes. For the record, they are an "ET outfit" - a black leather skirt and sweater; a flesh-colored, bugle-beaded dress; a frilly hot-pink number, and a black negligee-style dress with a jacket. It should come as no surprise that all the outfits are short.
Hart has replaced all the Vegas songs, save one. That would be "The Sound of Music."
"You know, I put the song in the Vegas act as a gag," said Hart, wearing a pink floral suit, bubble-gum-pink nail polish and a stash of diamonds on her neck, finger and wrist. "But then, my gosh, the audience just broke out in applause. I thought maybe they were missing the point, but then I realized this was really me!"
Atlantic City is important in the charmed and lively history of one Mary Hart. Born in Chamberlain, S. D. (population 1,800), Hart was asked to run in the Miss South Dakota pageant, but her father steadfastly refused permission. ''At 18, I was gosh-darned if he was going to tell me what to do, so I immediately signed up, and three months later I was in Atlantic City." That was 1971, and for her talent she sang the Beatles songs "Yesterday" and ''Something."
Alas, she did not win, but was selected as one of the 10 finalists.
After college, she worked on a Sioux Falls talk show while teaching high school English, Sunday school and - you guessed it - serving as a cheerleading coach.
Hart moved on to Iowa and Oklahoma, and married and divorced before arriving in Los Angeles in 1979. "Oh, I was like everyone else, all the other starving actors, looking for work, being turned down, trying acting or broadcasting, anything, getting nothing, just about running out of money, really down to my last quarters, and then I landed the job co-hosting PM Magazine out there."
So, how long did all this take, Mary?
"Seven months."
Hart co-hosted another talk show with Regis Philbin before she joined Entertainment Tonight six years ago. (She wasn't the first hostess, as ET diehards recall; that distinction belongs to Dixie Whatley.) Today, the show is seen on 163 stations and in 10 to 12 million homes nightly. Locally, it is seen on Channel 10 weeknights at 7:30 p.m.
And what a nifty job it is! Hart used to do a fair amount of reporting, but now she's mostly in the studio with co-host John Tesh, reading the news about various celebrities. There isn't one thing she doesn't like about the job. Well, maybe one.
"I'm never thrilled about divorces and personal problems," she said. ''Gee, that's sure not fun."
The show hasn't just made Hart a star, it's made stars of both her legs as well. Her agent had them insured at Lloyd's of London for $1 million - each.
Does that mean each time she nicks her knee shaving, she collects a cool $60,000? Does it mean that her paycheck is cut in half every time she wears pants on the show?
"I can wear anything I want, it's just I think skirts are more appropriate for the job. Actually, off the air I wear pants all the time. I wear jeans a lot," said Hart, her $2 million legs tucked under the table.
Hart is honest about them, too. "I always thought they were my strongest physical attribute, I just didn't think they would become an institution," she said.
Right now, Mary Hart is a curious breed of '80s star - famous for her legs and being perky and reading news about celebrities. She has one year left in her ET contract. If it came to a choice between entertainment broadcasting and entertainment, she'd pick the latter. She's hoping Atlantic City will help tip the scales. (Her tour will bring her back to the area, to Valley Forge Music Fair, in December.)
"I'd love to do movies like Romancing the Stone. I love action- adventures."
Series television? Something along the lines of Scarecrow and Mrs. King and, appropriately enough, Hart to Hart. And who does she admire of all the big music entertainers?
"You name it. The Pointer Sisters, Manhattan Transfer, Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole. My gosh, she's talented. I've always loved Judy Garland. And I also like Gloria Estefan."
She bit into a piece of bread, looking as if she thought she'd named them all. But no!
"Oooohh-oooohh," Hart said, eagerly chewing away so she could politely articulate her exuberant thought with an empty mouth. "How could I forget?" she said, arms outstretched.
"Barry Manilow! I just love Barry Manilow!"
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Pay attention: W right on Dubai by Richard Cohen
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/395244p-335106c.html
New York Daily News
Originally published on February 27, 2006
There are times when President Bush sorely disappoints. Just when you might expect him to issue a malapropistic explanation, pander to his base or simply not have a clue about what he is talking about, he does something so right, so honest and, yes, so commendable, that - as Arthur Miller put it in "Death of a Salesman" - "attention must be paid." Pay attention to how he has refused to indulge anti-Arab sentiment over the Dubai ports deal.
Would that anyone could say the same about many of the deal's critics. Whatever their concerns may be, whatever their fears might be, they would not have had them, expressed them or have seen them in print had the middle name of the United Arab Emirates been something else. After all, no one goes nuts over Germany, the country where some of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists lived and attended school.
To overlook the xenophobic element in this controversy is to overlook the obvious. It is what propelled the squabble and what sustains it. Bush put his finger on it right away. "What I find interesting is that it's okay for a British company to manage some ports, but not okay for a company from a country that is a valuable ally in the war on terror," he said last week. "The UAE has been a valuable partner in fighting the war on terror." It is a long way from a terrorist haven.
Somewhere in the White House, a political operative must have slapped his head in consternation as Bush made that remark. The politic thing for a President with a dismal approval rating (about 40%) would have been to join with the critics, get ahead of the anti-Arab wave and announce that he, too, was concerned about the deal. Instead, the White House stuck to its guns.
That Bush has done this should come as no surprise. He refuses to pander to anti-immigration forces and, shortly after 9/11, if you will remember, he visited Washington's Islamic Center. He reassured American Muslims and the worldwide Islamic community that neither America nor its government was waging war on an entire people.
America has many friends in the Arab world. You can go to Saudi Arabia, for instance, and talk "American" at a dinner party - banter about the Redskins or California real estate prices or, of course, politics. The region is home to many people who have gone to school in the United States and admire it greatly. They are not the majority, by any means, but they are important and influential - and they are being slowly alienated by knee-jerk insults and brainless policies that reflect panic and prejudice.
The true security cost of the Dubai deal has already been inflicted.
Maybe because Bush is a Bush - son of a President who got to know many Arabs - or maybe because he just naturally recoils from prejudice, his initial stance on this controversy has been refreshingly admirable. Whatever the case, the President has done the right thing.
Attention must be paid.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Don Knotts, TV's Lovable Nerd, Dies at 81
Don Knotts, TV's Lovable Nerd, Dies at 81
By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press Writer
29 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show," has died. He was 81.
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs "The Andy Griffith Show," and another Knotts hit, "Three's Company."
Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown in August 2005.
The West Virginia-born actor's half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and five Emmies.
The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld." The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.
As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.
Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character and doesn't mind being remembered that way.
His favorite episodes, he said, were "The Pickle Story," where Aunt Bea makes pickles no one can eat, and "Barney and the Choir," where no one can stop him from singing.
"I can't sing. It makes me sad that I can't sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but I'm just not talented in that way," he lamented. "It's one of my weaknesses."
Knotts appeared on six other television shows. In 1979, Knotts replaced Norman Fell on "Three's Company," playing the would-be swinger landlord to John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt.
Early in his TV career, he was one of the original cast members of "The Steve Allen Show," the comedy-variety show that ran from 1956-61. He was one of a group of memorable comics backing Allen that included Louis Nye, Tom Poston and Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana.
Knotts' G-rated films were family fun, not box-office blockbusters. In most, he ends up the hero and gets the girl — a girl who can see through his nervousness to the heart of gold.
In the part-animated 1964 film "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," Knotts played a meek clerk who turns into a fish after he is rejected by the Navy.
When it was announced in 1998 that Jim Carrey would star in a "Limpet" remake, Knotts responded: "I'm just flattered that someone of Carrey's caliber is remaking something I did. Now, if someone else did Barney Fife, THAT would be different."
In the 1967 film "The Reluctant Astronaut," co-starring Leslie Nielsen, Knotts' father enrolls his wimpy son — operator of a Kiddieland rocket ride — in NASA's space program. Knotts poses as a famous astronaut to the joy of his parents and hometown but is eventually exposed for what he really is, a janitor so terrified of heights he refuses to ride an airplane.
In the 1969 film "The Love God?," he was a geeky bird-watcher who is duped into becoming publisher of a naughty men's magazine and then becomes a national sex symbol. Eventually, he comes to his senses, leaves the big city and marries the sweet girl next door.
He was among an army of comedians from Buster Keaton to Jonathan Winters to liven up the 1963 megacomedy "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." Other films include "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" (1966); "The Shakiest Gun in the West," (1968); and a few Disney films such as "The Apple Dumpling Gang," (1974); "Gus," (1976); and "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo," (1977).
In 1998, he had a key role in the back-to-the-past movie "Pleasantville," playing a folksy television repairman whose supercharged remote control sends a teen boy and his sister into a TV sitcom past.
Knotts began his show biz career even before he graduated from high school, performing as a ventriloquist at local clubs and churches. He majored in speech at West Virginia University, then took off for the big city.
"I went to New York cold. On a $100 bill. Bummed a ride," he recalled in a visit to his hometown of Morgantown, where city officials renamed a street for him in 1998.
Within six months, Knotts had taken a job on a radio Western called "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders," playing a wisecracking, know-it-all handyman. He stayed with it for five years, then came his series TV debut on "The Steve Allen Show."
He married Kay Metz in 1948, the year he graduated from college. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1969. Knotts later married, then divorced Lara Lee Szuchna.
In recent years, he said he had no plans to retire, traveling with theater productions and appearing in print and TV ads for Kodiak pressure treated wood.
The world laughed at Knotts, but it also laughed with him.
He treasured his comedic roles and could point to only one role that wasn't funny, a brief stint on the daytime drama "Search for Tomorrow."
"That's the only serious thing I've done. I don't miss that," Knotts said.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
American Conservative Union Foundation: Future Conservative Leadership
Source: http://acuf.org/issues/issue25/041204news.asp
It is incredible but George W. Bush has not even been sworn in for his second term as president and the political chattering in Washington has already switched to 2008.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist made the opening move. He was the first prominent Republican to publicly express reservations about Arlen Specter becoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee after the later questioned whether a nominee who supported overturning Roe v. Wade could be confirmed for the Supreme Court. Every head inside the Beltway turned and asked, why would the normally reserved Leader get so far out front against a fellow member of the club, one whose vote he would have to seek out in a closely-divided Senate?
The astonishment was compounded when Frist quietly added a "conscience clause" in the Omnibus Spending Bill to allow doctors and medical personnel to refuse to participate in abortions if they had moral objections to the procedure, overturning existing policy. Clearly, the insiders reasoned, the Leader had read the election returns and realized that his ambitions to become president lay in winning the support of the moral right that was so critical to the GOP's 2004 victory.
It is, of course, very early to handicap the race but top expert Charles Cook suggested that the polls do mean something, even this far out. He noted that this will be the first time since 1928 when no incumbent president or vice president will be on the ballot and so the race will be especially wide open. Although he conceded it was hard to see how a pro-abortion, pro-gay, anti-gun Easterner could win the Republican nomination, he correctly emphasized that Giuliani is a "rock star" who could draw interest even in the South and overcome the odds. It is difficult to see how moderates like Pataki (especially from his own state) and Romney could breathe in the same space. McCain has run before and must be considered an exception, one who could compete with the former mayor. If he does, his friend Hagel probably would not run but if McCain does not get into the race the Nebraskan could become his effective surrogate.
Frist, another moderate, who has been the conservatives' bet noir at the last two convention platform hearings enforcing GOP centrism on reluctant rightist delegates, is another matter. As leader, he can do favors for social conservatives during the next four years as his two recent moves prove. While opponents will note that he ultimately supported Specter, he did remove a very objectionable limit on personal freedom, appealing to both evangelicals and Catholics. More important, he is close to President Bush and is rumored to be the Bush personal and organizational favorite for 2008. This would give him a preeminent fundraising advantage operating from the top government position under only the president himself.
Gov. Bill Owens had been the conservative favorite because of his long-time association with conservative causes and his strong record as governor, a position historically much stronger in competing for president than senator. Yet, Owens' support for businessman Peter Coors against conservative stalwart Rep. Bob Schaffer angered many on the right, who thought the more substantive Congressman was not only more sound ideologically but could have won in November as a more convincing candidate. The Colorado governor has also been involved in a messy separation from his wife of many years, and she has all of the sympathy in the matter both in the state and nationwide. One major national conservative analyst who is very close to Owens believes this will disqualify him from seeking the presidency.
That leaves Sen. Allen and Gov. Sanford as the most likely conservative champions. Allen's best claim is his previous record as governor of Virginia. He exudes charm and folksiness and would be very appealing to middle America. His profile in the Senate has been low except for the insider NRSC role and his lifetime voting record is only three points higher than Frist's. His gubernatorial record, however, gives him not only the executive experience most of the right desire but demonstrates solid conservative accomplishments on taxes, spending and the environment. We have called Sanford the most conservative governor in America (http://acuf.org/issues/issue15/040703news.asp) and his record in the House was impeccable. He is the smartest one around, although he does not advertise it, and he is immoveable on principle. The only problem is that he is up for re-election in 2006 and he has the good sense not to want to think about the presidency at all this early in the game.
Of course, 2008 is a long way off and somehow the country must survive until then. The sixth year of a presidential term is always difficult for the incumbent party in Congressional elections and that is only two years away. President Bush has already taken steps in the Omnibus Spending Bill to begin reducing the rate of increase in domestic spending and promises to reform entitlements, stabilize the dollar and deal with the trade deficit. He is also keeping on schedule to hold elections in Iraq, on December 2 specifically linking the elections to bringing American troops home. These are proposals of enormous magnitude and will require more courageous support in Congress than the GOP has been willing to demonstrate during the president's first term.
Readers of ConservativeBattleline.com are aware that Mike Pence (IN), Jeff Flake (AZ), and Marilyn Musgrave (CO) have led efforts to make the Republican Study Committee caucus in the House more effective for conservative principles. They are backed by the other members who had the courage to stand up to the strong-arm tactics of the GOP leadership and can be counted on for conservative leadership in the next Congress including Todd Akin (MO), J. Gresham Barrett (SC), Dan Burton (IN), Steve Chabot (OH), John Culberson (TX, Jo Ann Emerson (MO), Tom Feeney (FL), Scott Garrett (NJ), Gil Gutknecht (MN), John Hostettler (IN), Walter Jones (NC), Jeff Miller (FL), Jerry Moran (KS), Ron Paul (TX), Jim Ryun (KS), John Shadegg, (AZ), Tom Tancredo (CO), and Zach Wamp (TN). They expect to be joined by newly elected members and even some current ones who have since had buyers remorse for supporting the budget-busting drug bill.
If conservatives need motivation, consider that Hillary Clinton leads the Democrats for 2008. Frankly, a relatively conservative Democrat like Senator (and former governor) Evan Bayh of Indiana or Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia would be more difficult to defeat in the general election but the mere possibility of her victory should inspire anyone on the right. She has handled herself cleverly as Senator and will be a formidable candidate. She has the advantage that she can move quite far right on policy without alienating her base and so successfully appeal to the middle, especially if the dollar continues to weaken and U.S. troops are still dying in Iraq.
Can a consistent conservative be nominated and elected in 2008? A conservative would have the best chance for the presidency paradoxically if Republicans fritter away their mandate the next four years and the country woke to the fact that the date for the entitlement explosion would then only be eight years away. The former will be decided by what President Bush and the GOP leadership do and the degree of intransigence on the part of the Democratic opposition; the later is in the hands of conservatives themselves. A serious conservative candidate willing to confront the real problems facing America could be elected in 2008 but it would take a great deal of work on the part of the conservative movement that has to have started yesterday. It would be a long shot against high odds but conservatives could do it.
If a Bill, Rudy and Hillary trifecta is not enough to inspire conservatives to action, nothing can.
Donald Devine, Editor.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Former Montana Governor Marc Racicot 2008
Source: http://mt.gov/racicot/governor.asp
Draft Former Montana Governor Marc Racicot for President
 Racicot |
|
MARC RACICOT served as Montana's governor from 1993-2001. He has roots that run very deep in Montana's colorful history. His ancestors came to the Montana Territory in the 1860's. Marc's grandfather arrived in Libby in 1917 to work as a logging camp cook in northwestern Montana for J. Neils Lumber Company. Marc Racicot was born to Bill and Pat Racicot on July 24, 1948, in Thompson Falls.
Marc grew up, first in Miles City and then in Libby. His parents opened their home to foster children, taking in nearly 50 youngsters over time and formally adopting two: Phillip and Aimee, to join Marc, Tim, Larry, Pat and Chris in their home on Larch Street.
Under the guidance of his father, a teacher and high school basketball and track coach, Marc was a starter on the Libby High School basketball team. During his senior year in 1966, Marc led the team to its first and only state basketball championship. Marc also played basketball in Helena for Carroll College. At Carroll, Marc was elected student body President and in 1970 set a record for most assists in a basketball game, 32. That record still stands.
While at Carroll, Marc worked summers for the Highway Department, mapping county roads and railroad crossings across the state. This gave Marc his first opportunity to see Montana corner to corner and to meet many individuals who remain good friends. During college, Marc also worked in the Capitol print shop and as a dishwasher, cook and line runner in the college cafeteria. He graduated in 1970 with a degree in English and later that year married Theresa Barber, a Carroll student from Big Timber, Montana. Soon after, Marc enrolled in the University of Montana Law School in Missoula, receiving his Juris Doctorate degree in 1973.
As an Army ROTC graduate, Marc was immediately assigned to the Judge Advocate General's Corps and stationed in West Germany where he served as chief prosecutor for the largest U.S. military jurisdiction in Europe. While there, he also managed to teach business and criminal law for the University of Maryland.
After three years, Marc was discharged from the Army as a captain, returning to Montana in 1976 where he became deputy county attorney for Missoula County. There, Marc established the Missoula Drug Treatment Program for people with substance abuse problems. In 1977, Marc became a state Assistant Attorney General, as well as Montana's first Special Prosecutor, handling major cases for county attorneys across the state. In 1980 he ran for chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court, but was unsuccessful. He also ran for district judge in Lewis & Clark and Broadwater counties in 1982 and 1984, respectively, but was also defeated.
From 1977 to 1988, Marc travelled across the state prosecuting scores of cases with a conviction rate of 95 percent. He lost only two cases in twelve years. One notorious case was State vs. Don and Dan Nichols, the "mountain men" convicted of abducting Kari Swenson, an Olympic athlete, and murdering a would-be rescuer.
Marc was elected Attorney General in 1988 and took office in January, 1989. He planned to run for re-election in 1992. However, Governor Stan Stephens (R) took ill and withdrew from the race. Marc sought the Republican nomination with Lieutenant Governor Dennis Rehberg, a Billings area rancher. After winning a hard-fought primary campaign, the men ran a successful general election race that led to a narrow 51 percent victory in November, 1992. Marc Racicot was sworn in as Montana's 20th Governor on Jan. 4, 1993.
In 1996, he sought re-election to a second and final term, with Judy Martz, a Butte businesswoman, as his running mate. On Nov. 5, 1996, they were overwhelmingly elected with 80 percent of the vote, the largest winning percentage for a Governor in Montana’s history and the largest winning percentage for any U.S. Governor in 1996.
As Governor, Marc sought to improve government efficiency and bring government services closer to its owners, the people. He favored reducing government wherever possible and eliminated two executive departments. The Governor's Office staff was reduced to about half of the staff it had in 1977.
After working with the Legislature to eliminate a $200 million deficit in 1993, the Racicot Administration helped produce a $22.4 million budget surplus in 1995. At the Governor's request, the Legislature approved refunding the money to state taxpayers as tangible proof the state kept its budgetary bargain with the people of Montana to live within its means.
Some of Marc's hobbies include running, carpentry and gardening. Marc has served on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National Service and on the Board of Directors for United Way. He has been a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Montana Law School and was a member of the Board of Trustees at Carroll College from 1989-1993. Marc and his wife Theresa have five children: Annie, Tim, Mary Catherine, Theresa Rose and Joe.
Marc currently serves as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Nominated by President George W. Bush, he was unanimously elected to this position in January 2002.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Hall of Fame broadcaster Gowdy dies
Hall of Fame broadcaster Gowdy dies
'Voice of the Red Sox' loses battle with leukemia
By Mike Petraglia / Special to MLB.com
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The unmistakable Hall of Fame voice of the Red Sox and a national baseball audience for a generation has passed away.
Curt Gowdy, enshrined in Cooperstown in 1984 as a Ford C. Frick Award winner, died Monday after battling leukemia while living in his West Palm Beach, Fla., home. He was 86.
Gowdy broadcast 13 World Series and 16 Major League All-Star Games.
The Wyoming native made his debut in 1944 broadcasting a football game atop an orange crate in sub-zero weather. His enthusiasm quickly caught on and earned him a job broadcasting the New York Yankees alongside Mel Allen in 1949.
Two years later, he moved to Boston to do Red Sox games and a New England broadcast legend was born.
"I'll never forget him," Red Sox patriarch Johnny Pesky said Monday morning in Fort Myers upon hearing the news. "I was talking about him just the other day. People ask you about people you've met. The announcers back in our day used to travel with us [on trains] and we would play cards with them. Those years there just seemed like there was a lot of affection there."
Gowdy earned the George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting in 1970 for his "blend of reporting, accuracy, knowledge, good humor, infectious honesty and enthusiasm," becoming the first sportscaster to be so honored.
But it was in Boston that he touched the hearts and souls of countless New Englanders with a professional, conversational and witty style all his own.
And no one knew or trusted Gowdy more than the players he covered.
"I loved Curt Gowdy and I think he loved Ted [Williams], Bobby [Doerr], Dom [DiMaggio] and me," Pesky said. "We had some great guys and great people and I wish we could have won more.
"They were the guys you grew up with and stayed with them for a lot of years. I knew Curt for over 50 years."
Pesky recalled Gowdy's distinctive style.
"He had a great voice but he wasn't a hotshot," Pesky added. "Some guys get so big and think people listen to them because they're the thing. He was nothing like that. He and Mel Allen were the two best announcers in my era. He was an exciting guy. He had that expression, 'rounding third and heading home,' and I'll never forget that if I live to be 100."
Gowdy was named "Sportscaster of the Year" on three occasions. After leaving the Red Sox following the 1965 season, he quickly ascended to the status of national sportscaster.
Gowdy's numerous network assignments included the World Series, the Super Bowl, the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the "American Sportsman" series.
"I tried to pretend that I was sitting in the stands with a buddy watching the game -- poking him in the ribs when something exciting happened," Gowdy said in accepting his 1984 Cooperstown honor. "I never took myself too seriously. An announcer is only as good as yesterday's performance."
Mike Petraglia is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
20 Things You Didn't Know About U.S. Presidents
Source: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/homework/?Article=uspresidents
Not only were these men leaders of the United States, they were multitalented, unique, and sometimes even downright quirky. We've heard a lot about their contribution to United States history. But would you have guessed the following?
