Little big groom

Your superior correspondents were delighted to hear the news that Vo Dilun’s own Little Big Man, US Senator Jack Reed, has gotten engaged to someone who appears to be a delightful Senate side, Julia Hart, over the Thanksgiving holidays. At least we are going by the pictures we have seen. Got any pictures of your fiancée, Jack? Wanna buy some? (Sorry, that was dated and tasteless, but the P&J code of journalism requires us to sink to this level whenever the opportunity arises.)

Actually, Jack’s Washington aides are the folks who will be most happy about his tying the knot. Senator Reed is notorious in DC for his go-for-broke, party animal, freewheeling lifestyle in the nation’s capital, where he has long been considered one of Congress’s most celebrated wild and crazy guys. After one of his typical nights on the town, his loyal aides have been responsible over the years for sneaking famous young, living-on-the-edge hotties like Paris Hilton and Winona Ryder down the back steps of Jack’s bachelor pad in the morning to avoid the omnipresent paparazzi parked outside. This same group of loyalists is called upon to slip the owners of famous Georgetown watering holes a few $50 bills to pay for the broken Champagne glasses after "Reed’s Rat Pack" has had a night on the town. Never mind having to get the lipstick stains off his collar before our esteemed senator takes part in Senate Armed Services Committee hearings. True, DC nightlife will miss Jack’s move into the bliss of matrimony with Ms. Hart, but you just can’t burn the candle at both ends forever.

We sincerely wish one of our favorite pols of all time and his fiancée a lifetime of happiness together.

TWO GREAT NATIONS

From the New York Times, November 30:

KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 29 — President Leonid D. Kuchma on Monday proposed holding a new election to end the political crisis threatening to tear the country apart, while Ukraine’s Supreme Court heard complaints of electoral fraud over last week’s presidential election.

Boy, those old Soviet republics. Thank God, we aren’t like those corrupt characters.

BLOCK SHOCK

As reported in the Other Paper, there is a big battle brewing about marina expansion on Block Island, arguably the Ocean State’s most treasured spot. The BI town council and scores of local residents are vigorously protesting against the expansion of Champlin’s Marina on the famed Great Salt Pond. This has not stopped Champlin’s owners, however, from moving ahead with a proposal to expand the acreage it uses in the pond, increasing its capacity from 225 to 390 boats — a not-inconsiderable leap.

A subcommittee of the Coastal Resources Management Council is hearing the matter before a recommendation is submitted to the full council. Given how Champlin’s lawyer is the unctuous lobbyist Robert Goldberg, you almost don’t have to look at the issue to decide whom to support in this matter. This case could prove an incredible barometer for the impact of the recently approved separation of powers referendum, as half of the full coastal council is composed of legislators or their appointees. That the council also has a history of provocative voting on major projects (development of Black Point in Narragansett) has further heated the debate.

Phillipe & Jorge are big fans of Block Island, and have spent a good deal of time there in the past. Indeed, the overwhelming increase in tourists and boaters in recent years threatens the island’s unique flavor — a situation reflected by the opposition to expansion of residents and the town council. We have discussed the impact of the marina project with many recreational boaters who utilize the pond for mooring during summer and fall visits, and a vast majority oppose a seemingly greedy grab of publicly owned waters to not only turn a fast buck, but increase adverse impacts of all sorts, from overcrowding to water quality.

We hope the BI folks keep up the good fight against what on all fronts looks like a very bad idea.

THE OTHER WAR

The war in Iraq continues to go badly. November has been the second-deadliest month since the March 2003 invasion. Further, the January election, for which the Bush Administration holds out great hope, looks like it might just drag the country into further divisiveness, rather than creating stability and the seeds for democratic reform.

Yes, President Bush told us it wasn’t going to be easy. P&J would like to point out how many people (your superior correspondents included) said all along that it wasn’t necessary, either. We’re there and there are commitments that the USA and our client states — the coalition or whatever they call it — have to make good on, but we’re not surprised. Certain Vietnam comparisons seem to make more sense every day.

One surprising thing is the dearth of coverage of Afghanistan in most of the nation’s daily newspapers. It seems that the New York Times and precious few others contain regular reports from Kandahar, Kabul, and other hot spots. If you asked the average person on the street about the Taliban, for instance, we suspect he or she would tell you that it has been annihilated, but, of course, this is not the case.

Yes, the Taliban has been deposed, and yes, President Karzai is leading a reform government. But there is still plenty of Taliban opposition throughout the country. Item: On Sunday, a large group of Taliban fighters stormed the Voluntary Association for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan (a relief agency) offices in Dilaram in the southwestern sector of the country, killing three Afghan workers and wounding three security guards. A seventh person is feared kidnapped. Item: Also on Sunday, in Nangahar Province in eastern Afghanistan, hundreds of local tribesman blocked a main road to protest the arrest of a woman by American troops. A child was killed and a protester injured during the demonstrations.

Item: Early last week, Americans in Nangahar killed four people when they raided a house. Item: the Taliban has already killed 47 aid workers, election workers, and contractors this year in Afghanistan. And, let’s not forget that there’s a bumper crop of heroin, the biggest in a long, long time, on its way to the US and Europe, made in Afghanistan. The Afghan front is hardly quiet, but you wouldn’t know it from watching the TV news or your daily newspaper.

BEGGING TO DIFFER

Richard Dana, a regular Cool, Cool World reader, does not agree with us on the Jim Taricani case. Here’s what he had to say:

Your plea for Jim Taricani’s life is another in the long litany of local and national media apologists for this law violator’s crime. While not an admirer of Dan Yorke, his [November 25] opinion piece in the Providence Journal does begin to set the record straight and bring some truthful perspective to, what has become, an almost hysterical defense of bad behavior.

The facts are these: Jim accepted the FBI-made videotape from a person who knowingly broke the law, thereby becoming his or her accomplice in crime; Jim gave the tape to NBC 10 to air knowing that he was breaking the law, but apparently willing to do so to ensure his station got a ratings boost over their already sadly-trailing competition; the airing of this tape comprised [sic] the defendants’ right to a Constitutionally-guaranteed right to a fair trial and could have seriously damaged the prosecution’s case against a criminal Mayor and his bagmen and bagwomen; Jim knew the consequences of his act and took he action despite his existing heart problem; Jim is now being held accountable for his actions. This situation has nothing to do with the protection of reporters’ confidential sources who help uncover previously unreported crimes. It has everything to do with a man’s overriding ego convincing him that he could weasel or whine his way out of trouble if he was taken to task for his actions.

We still disagree, Richard. Having known Jim Taricani for more than 20 years, we know that he does not possess an out-of-control ego, nor does he weasel and whine. You seem to paint this case in black-and-white, but we don’t. Although we disagree with Judge Torres on what we believe is his overzealous pursuit of this issue, we still believe he is a fair, honest, and excellent judge. We simply disagree, and think sending Jim to prison is unnecessary.

(P&J would like to thank the legions of our legally astute readers for alerting us on how to access the Branzburg v. Hayes case, related to Jim’s legal travails, on the Internet.)

NO BULL FROM THE BARD

Your superior correspondents recently received a note from our friend Richard Walton, who tells us that he and another pal, the noted singer/songwriter/raconteur Bill Harley, caught Henry V at Trinity Rep last week and were duly impressed by this bit of dialogue from P&J’s old pal Bill Shakespeare:

But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make when all those legs and arms and heads, chopp’d off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all "We died at such a place" — some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection.

HELLO, SAILOR! WANNA DANCE?

Phillipe & Jorge want to congratulate and give a blatant plug to our old buddy, DJ Bob Ballou, whose November 20 debut spinning ’70s and ’80s vinyl (okay, we know they’re probably CDs and tapes now, but we grew up in those days with Monte Rock III) at the Coast Guard House in Narragansett was deemed a huge success.

Because of same, DJ Bob will kicking out the tunes at the Anchor, the upstairs club at the Coast Guard House, every Saturday night. The Anchor is being called the new "over-25" spot in South County — which is good because DJ Bob and P&J certainly qualify in that regard. In case you just arrived in Little Rhody, the Coast Guard House (and the Anchor) has a beautiful view overlooking the water. This is a convenient spot to toss DJ Bob if he happens to play the song that was on when you got dumped by the love of your life. It’s also where he will be heading anyway if he doesn’t follow our advice to pimp his wardrobe for full effect. Sharkskin suits in neon colors never go out of style, Bob.

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