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Growth Market: Hillary Haters
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2007 CommentThe Facebook page "Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)" has topped the 420,000 mark, seeing growth of about 12,000 a week. About seven days ago, it had some 408,000 members. Love her or hate her, she seems to be tops on the Internet.
While her official Facebook page only has about 42,000 members, the anti-Facebook page has now bested Sen. Barack Obama's Facebook page, which used to be king, reports our Kim Clark. He has about 146,000 members right now. One thing is for sure: Democrats continue to dominate the social networking sites online. Just consider the blogosphere's love of Republican Ron Paul.
Despite all the Internet chatter, he's got about 26,000 Facebook friends—and he's the most Facebook-friended of all the GOP presidential hopefuls.
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The Little Guy Gets a Hand
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2007 CommentTwo House Democrats plan to join two House Republicans this week in a rare bipartisan move to help small-town pharmacies in their fight for faster reimbursements from the federal government's Medicare Part D program. Reps. Marion Berry, an Arkansas Democrat, will join Republican Reps. Anthony Weiner of New York, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, and Jerry Moran of Kansas to form the Congressional Community Pharmacy Coalition, according to industry officials.
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Kikkoman, the 'Shoyu' of Official Washington
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2007 CommentToday's quiz—and product endorsement: Did you know that there is only one soy sauce accepted in official Washington circles? Retired Gen. Richard Myers, a former Joint Chiefs chairman, tells us that in 1971, while he was stationed in Japan, friends "introduced us to Kikkoman. Up until that time, we'd been the victim of some other brand." His buds, says Myers, "told us that there was only one brand, and we've been using Kikkoman since." Former Rep. Norm Mineta, a cabinet secretary for both Presidents Bush and Clinton, tells of seeking out the "shoyu" sauce when he arrived in Congress in 1974. Sitting down to a meal in a House dining room, he asked for Kikkoman, only to be told that he'd have to raid the private stash of Rep. Spark Matsunaga. "I approached him and asked, 'Sparky, would you mind if I used your shoyu?' " From then on, "I'd always ask for Congressman Matsunaga's Kikkoman."
Now, 50 years after becoming one of the first Japanese companies to set up business here, the soy giant is celebrating, and Myers and Mineta are hosting the gala. Why in Washington? "It's where business, commerce, government, policy, and diplomacy intersect," says Kikkoman President Kuniki Hatayama. "We are proud," Chairman Yuzaburo Mogi tells us, "that our products have helped redefine the foods and flavors on the American table."
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U.S. Sees Putin Back in 2012
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2007 CommentJust because Russian President Vladimir Putin is barred, like U.S. presidents, from running for a third consecutive term doesn't mean he's done with the Kremlin. Administration and business leaders with ties to Russia see him running again in 2012 after one term of his handpicked successor ends. Andrew Somers, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, agrees with the scenario and adds that it's a good one for the hundreds of U.S. companies flocking there. He says Putin doesn't interfere with U.S. business interests, and that's made the country the "engine of growth for American companies." And in return, he's got proof that American business ethics are helping to reverse years of corruption there. Somers tells us he commissioned a poll that finds that locals working at firms like Ford or GM disdain typical Russian bribery and corruption. And now Russian firms are trying to lure away those employed at the American plants. But, Somers says, "they don't want to work anyplace else."
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A Bush Quirk: Flies in the Oval Office
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2007 CommentPresident Bush has a thing about noises. First we learned that he absolutely hates when a cellular phone starts ringing during meetings. Now we're told that he can't stand buzzing bugs in the West Wing. Former Press Secretary Tony Snow says that when a little black fly shows up, Bush gets to work "chasing flies around the Oval Office. It drives him crazy when flies get in." And Bush is so well known as a fly hunter among his White House staff, says Snow, that somebody "made him White House fly swatters."
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Hillary Clinton Likes Chicken and Cows
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2007 CommentPlease don't ask Sen. Hillary Clinton to choose between the agricultural products of her two adopted home states, Arkansas and New York. Caught snacking on New York apples at a Washington event she hosts to show off the state's AG, she says both have notable farm products. "In Arkansas, we've got a lot of rice. We don't grow that in New York. We've got lots of soybeans, don't grow much of that in New York," says Clinton. "New York is a fruit and vegetable state, a dairy state, an equine and wine state." In Arkansas, she boasts, "poultry is huge." But pick one over the other? "There's no comparison. It would be like, 'Do you like your son or your daughter better?' " Oh, and she loves to grill New York veggies and steaks.
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Cutting Costs One MRI at a Time
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2007 CommentStill fairly new at his job, Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, is in a race to cut healthcare costs. And he's doing it by example. "I'm a runner, and I hurt my knee in the Marine Corps Marathon last year," he says. X-rays found nothing, so his doctor suggested an insurance-covered MRI. "I wasn't paying for it. I didn't really care," says Orszag, "but my time was tight." So he put the doctor on the spot. "I said, 'Well, what's the probability that this will change the diagnosis?' And he said, 'Really small.' And I said, 'What's really small?' and he said, 'Well, probably, if I had to guess, honestly, under 1 percent.' " Orszag's reaction: "Well, we aren't doing an MRI." In time, his knee healed.
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Spying Patriots Are the Talk at CIA
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2007 CommentIt takes a rare football fan to endorse spying amid the current scandal swirling around the New England Patriots. But we've found one: CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden. While celebrating the agency's 60th birthday, he went on hometown radio station WDVE to brag about his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, where a host brought up the Pats affair. Hayden said that it's the talk of the agency. "Spying is a good thing for some organizations," he said. "It's just a bad thing if you're an NFL football team." At the birthday barbecue later that day, former President George H.W. Bush toasted the agency he once ran with some cheerleading. He decried "doomsayers who know so little about what you do," adding: "That really burns me up." And even though nearly half the 1,500 barbecue-goers weren't born when Bush ran Langley in the 1970s, he received a standing O.
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Duty Calls, Spoiling Carter's Hunt
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2007 CommentHere's proof that former President Jimmy Carter takes his retirement job as an election observer very seriously. Breaking with a 12-year tradition of joining former White House Press Secretary Jody Powell on a late November hunting trip on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the ex-prez and others with his Carter Center international election observation mission will be traveling to Nepal for the November 22 elections. "Nepal scheduled their elections in conflict with our hunting trip," sniffs Powell. "We're going to miss them," he says of Carter and wife Rosalynn.
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Out Loud: September 23, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook September 23, 2007 Comment"Don't Tase me, bro. Don't Tase me. I didn't do anything. Ow! Ow! Ow!"
Andrew Meyer, a grandstanding University of Florida student, allegedly resisting arrest after police tried to stop him while he was asking Sen. John Kerry several questions
"You can always tell when the Republicans are getting restless, because the vice president's motorcade pulls into the Capitol and Darth Vader emerges."
Sen. Hillary Clinton, at a presidential campaign rally, referring to the administration's effort to keep GOP unity on a war vote
"You're going to end up a waitress at Howard Johnson's."
Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, quoting her father, who during her student days thought she wouldn't make it as a concert pianist
"When I'm with Condi, I say she's got the Ph.D. and I'm the C student, and just look at who's the president and who's the adviser."
President Bush, poking fun at his grade-point average
Sources: Seattle Times, Politico, The Hill, White House
