I went web-dabbling this morning and ended up knee-deep in a British tidepool, thanks to UK director Ralph Keene and Between the Tides…
“Travel west from anywhere in Britain, and sooner or later you will reach these rocks, or others like them: sea, shore, cliff. They are familiar – they are a holiday…”
“Not only animal, but vegetable life as well. The giant algae that never grow in the open sea; the green-brown sea-wracks. Dotted with periwinkles; labyrinths and parades of colour…”
The innnocent summer of 1958 isn’t over yet–just take a look.
Thanks to
Tingilinde for linking to this archive of free remixable videos from
the Creative Archive License Group!
The waitress with a British-y’all hybrid accent who just got back after 10 years in Memphis. The elegant housekeeper who has “managed” historic houses around the world. The taxi driver with 4 ads for his new book decorating the back of his high-topped London cab.
“It’s a book of racing stories, each one with a twist,” Roy Granville told us. “No sex, no violence. No four-letter words–well, no four-letter words for swearing.” Of course our friend Naomi now owns a copy of Baxter and the Bookies (its BBC review)–it is delightful.
When I first came to London, a friend told me his theory that many apparent “Londoners” had in fact been hired from Central Casting to play the parts of typically English eccentrics. I wouldn’t discount that, based on my experience.
Some of us were playing a silly game over dinner last night with the portraits of Trinity College notables (including Newton and Macaulay) who watch over the dining room of the Master’s Lodge:
If they were CEOs of modern companies, which modern company would you select for each portrait? A long-haired Isaac Barrow won ”Microsoft” (he looks surprisingly like a young Bill Gates), while a nearby notable (who shall remain nameless here) suggested “Enron.”
For “Google” both Frank and I picked a serene, mild Elizabethan who turned out to be Lord Coke. If he is in fact Sir Edward Coke he was famous for his savagery as a prosecutor, his extension of the Magna Carta principles, and the catch-phrase “a man’s home is his castle.”
People are more complicated than they appear.
CONCORD The Republican National Committee began making huge payments to accused 2002 telephone jam conspirator James Tobin’s private lawyers a week after he was indicted by a federal grand jury, records show.
According to RNC financial disclosures, it paid the high-powered Washington law firm Williams and Connolly $162,646 on Dec. 9, 2004, eight days after a grand jury charged that Tobin had aided former state GOP executive director Charles McGee in setting up an operation to jam voter-turnout telephone banks at Democratic and labor union offices throughout the state.
Five more disbursements were made on May 19, 2005, the same day a new indictment against Tobin was made public. Those five disbursements added up to $559,736, for a total of $722,382.
The Telegraph of Nashua reported yesterday that the RNC made another payment, of $164,260, to Williams and Connolly on June 15, although this could not be independently verified in a New Hampshire Union Leader review of monthly RNC financial disclosure reports.
If there was a seventh payment, the total expenditure by the RNC to Williams and Connolly since Tobin was indicted would be $886,632.
After refusing for nearly a month to comment on its arrangement with Tobin, the RNC confirmed on Wednesday that it has been paying for Tobin’s lawyers.
Williams and Connolly, which in the past represented Bill and Hillary Clinton and former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, has had at least three attorneys working on the Tobin case. Most of the paperwork on Tobin’s behalf at U.S. District Court carries the names Dane H. Butswinkas, Dennis M. Black and Tobin J. Romero.
Tobin also has local counsel, Brian Tucker of Rath, Young and Pignatelli of Concord. Thomas Rath, a member of the RNC, has declined to comment on the arrangement, but several attorneys not involved in the Tobin case said this week that when a New Hampshire firm works as local counsel with a Washington firm, the Washington firm makes payment to the local firm.
Tobin has pleaded innocent to four conspiracy charges, including a charge that he conspired to deprive Granite Staters of their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. His trial is scheduled for December.
Tobin allegedly committed the federal offenses while working as a regional political director for the RNC-affiliated National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which was working to get Republicans elected to the Senate. A key 2002 Senate race on which Tobin focused was John E. Sununu’s victorious campaign against Democratic former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
Sununu, in a brief interview yesterday, was reluctant to discuss the Tobin matter. “I don’t believe I have ever met him,” Sununu said.
He said he would have “no comment at all” on the RNC’s payment of Tobin’s legal bills.
But he then did say, “I don’t know what their policies are. Whatever they are, they should be applied equally to everyone.”
The RNC did not pay the legal bills for McGee, who is now in a federal prison after pleading guilty to similar conspiracy charges.
Yesterday, a high-ranking Republican source insisted that the leadership of the New Hampshire Republican Party was taken by surprise by the RNC’s confirmation that it has been subsidizing Tobin. The leadership was described by the source as the congressional delegation ? Sununu, Sen. Judd Gregg and Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley ? as well as local RNC members Rath and Nancy Merrill and party chairman Warren Henderson.
The source said efforts were being made yesterday by unspecified members of that leadership group to obtain more details from the RNC about the decision to foot Tobin’s legal expenses. Tobin is a former employee of the RNC and is currently employed by DCI Group, a lobbying firm also based in Washington.
The RNC, meanwhile, put a lid on information about Tobin. The Union Leader yesterday asked Danny Diaz, the RNC’s deputy communications director:
- When Tobin joined the RNC, when he left and what positions he held.
- At what point did Williams and Connolly begin representing Tobin
- Who approved paying for Tobin’s legal expenses, and when
- Who signed off on individual disbursements made to Williams and Connolly.
Diaz said that while he would “look into” those questions, he would have no comment beyond those made by another RNC spokesman earlier this week.
Tracey Schmitt, confirming the subsidy, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Tobin is a “longtime friend who has served both as an employee and an independent contractor for the RNC,” and, “This support is based on his assurance and our belief that Jim has not engaged in any wrongdoing.”
Another RNC spokesman, Aaron McLear, told the Union Leader on Wednesday that the decision to subsidize Tobin was made by “the previous administration” of former RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie. The current chairman, Ken Mehlman, officially succeeded Gillespie in January, but President Bush announced that Mehlman would be the new chairman shortly after winning reelection last November, several weeks before Tobin was originally indicted.
By JOHN DiSTASO
Senior Political Reporter
New Hampshire Union Leader, August 13, 2005
I love this photo of Frank at work in the Masters Lodge of Trinity College, undistracted by
- finding out that our bed was slept in by Queen Victoria, whereas for my part, I think sharing a bed with Queen Victoria’s memory will make it seem even smaller tonight than last night
- two days and counting of losing all his luggage
- being mostly dressed in a purple Tshirt and other stuff we bought at Heathrow
This inspired me to seek out some earlier photos of Frank working happily under earlier trying circumstances, now here and here.
When Frank and I left the US, the “here-comes-Katrina” story sounded like typical media* weather hype. (Just last month, IIRC, hurricane Dennis was going to “devastate” my home town.)
Amazon is makes it easy to send the Red Cross money. (My browser couldn’t get through to the Red Cross’s own site, which is no doubt a good sign.)
Katrina may not (yet) have left tens-of-thousands-dead, but survivors are enduring real chaos and misery.
* While I’m bashing the big “liberal” media, check out Wonkette’s proof that
white survivors “find” groceries in damaged stores, while
black survivors “loot” them.
