The French Open results had been fairly conventional most of the way. But with the most recent French Open results, no one now knows what to expect. Neither Roger Federer or Serena Williams
will even be around for the semifinals, leaving a few newcomers in the mix. With only Rafael Nadal left among the big names, it might be the worst case outcome for tennis and NBC. There are no Federer-Nadal or Williams sister finals to hype for the weekend, and some may have never heard of many remaining players. But the French Open results guarantee new blood at the end, and could still have a power matchup or two.
At the least, things have gotten exciting after a conventional first week plus The only notable upset beforehand was Venus Williams getting knocked out last weekend. Otherwise, it looked like the French Open results would be predictable, at least until the championship.
Fans expected a new Federer-Nadal showdown on Sunday morning, and another Serena Williams title on Saturday. Both scenarios are no more, thanks to Robin Soderling and Samantha Stosur. However, these two giant killers could provide intrigue at the end, assuming they don't fall off in the semis.
The French Open results in the last two days did not give Soderling or Stosur a title. In fact, if Soderling loses in the semifinals, he will have done worse in this year's tournament than last year's. To make the finals for the second year in a row, Soderling still has to beat Tomas Berdych, who reached his first Grand Slam semifinal yesterday.
With no Federer-Nadal match to hype, the new highly anticipated final would be Nadal vs Soderling. The French Open results last year had Soderling end Nadal's long reign at Roland Garros. After beating Federer to go with it, a rematch is already being projected. But first, Nadal has to beat Nicolas Almagro - who he leads by two sets after two tiebreakers - and then either Novak Djokovic or Jurgen Melzer.For the women, the French Open results are harder to put up with. With both Williams sisters gone, the rest of the field will make headlines at the end for once. No matter what, there will be a new champion, as no one left has ever won a Grand Slam.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Sunday, 28 February 2010
India's 'biggest song' readies for launch
MUMBAI: For the first time ever, over 450 artistes have lent their voices for a single song - the Marathi Abhimaan Geet - which will be launched in Thane on Marathi Bhasha Diwas - February 27.
The song, penned by noted Marathi poet Suresh Bhat, has been set to tune by well known composer Kaushal Inamdar. Labhale amhas bhagya bolato Marathi has been sung by 112 established singers and a chorus of 356 upcoming singers. It was recorded in Mumbai, Chennai and Thane with 12 sound engineers and 65 musicians.
The well-known singers include Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Suresh Wadkar, Arti Anklikar, Avadhoot Gupte, Mahalakshmi Iyer and more. Inamdar invited Shankar Mahadevan too, and so enamoured was he that he asked Inamdar to invite Hariharan as well.
Inamdar's mission to put Marathi on the global map has apparently just begun. Irked by the fact that radio stations in Mumbai resist airing Marathi songs while other language songs are played, the composer got together donations of Rs 500 each from over 1400 enthusiasts like himself and put the album together. His ambitious plans now include starting a FM radio station that will play Marathi at all hours.
Interestingly, Inamdar also refused Uddhav Thackeray’s offer of Rs 11 lakh, for it would then become a Sena song. For the inaugural event at Thane's Dadoji Konddev stadium on Saturday, Inamdar has lined up an illustrious assemblage of 21 noted Maharashtrians who will do the honours collectively. These will include filmmaker Sai Paranjape, photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, restaurateur Vithal Kamat, veteran theatre personality Prabhakar Panshikar, Planning Commission member Dr Narendra Jadhav, among others.
The album contains two more songs by Kusumagraj and Ashok Bagwe, is priced Rs 300, and took a good 15 months to complete. After Marathi Abhimaan Geet releases, Inamdar has two more ambitious projects. For May 1, 2011, when Maharashtra State completes 51 years, he wants to perform Marathi fusion songs with an overseas philharmonic orchestra.
Adds a delighted Inamdar, "Interestingly, many radio stations from Mumbai have called me in the past two days wanting to know more about the project, and expressing their wish to include Marathi music in their programming." Now that would be the icing on the cake for Inamdar's mission.
The song, penned by noted Marathi poet Suresh Bhat, has been set to tune by well known composer Kaushal Inamdar. Labhale amhas bhagya bolato Marathi has been sung by 112 established singers and a chorus of 356 upcoming singers. It was recorded in Mumbai, Chennai and Thane with 12 sound engineers and 65 musicians.
The well-known singers include Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Suresh Wadkar, Arti Anklikar, Avadhoot Gupte, Mahalakshmi Iyer and more. Inamdar invited Shankar Mahadevan too, and so enamoured was he that he asked Inamdar to invite Hariharan as well.
Inamdar's mission to put Marathi on the global map has apparently just begun. Irked by the fact that radio stations in Mumbai resist airing Marathi songs while other language songs are played, the composer got together donations of Rs 500 each from over 1400 enthusiasts like himself and put the album together. His ambitious plans now include starting a FM radio station that will play Marathi at all hours.
Interestingly, Inamdar also refused Uddhav Thackeray’s offer of Rs 11 lakh, for it would then become a Sena song. For the inaugural event at Thane's Dadoji Konddev stadium on Saturday, Inamdar has lined up an illustrious assemblage of 21 noted Maharashtrians who will do the honours collectively. These will include filmmaker Sai Paranjape, photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, restaurateur Vithal Kamat, veteran theatre personality Prabhakar Panshikar, Planning Commission member Dr Narendra Jadhav, among others.
The album contains two more songs by Kusumagraj and Ashok Bagwe, is priced Rs 300, and took a good 15 months to complete. After Marathi Abhimaan Geet releases, Inamdar has two more ambitious projects. For May 1, 2011, when Maharashtra State completes 51 years, he wants to perform Marathi fusion songs with an overseas philharmonic orchestra.
Adds a delighted Inamdar, "Interestingly, many radio stations from Mumbai have called me in the past two days wanting to know more about the project, and expressing their wish to include Marathi music in their programming." Now that would be the icing on the cake for Inamdar's mission.
Major earthquake strikes Chile; Hawaii escapes without tsunami damage
SANTIAGO, CHILE -- One of the most powerful earthquakes on record jolted central Chile on Saturday, smashing homes and bridges and unleashing tsunami waves that coursed across the Pacific, prompting alerts in Hawaii and dozens of countries. More than 300 people have died in the coastal South American nation.
Waves generated by the 8.8-magnitude quake started to smack Hawaiian beaches about noon local time, but they were smaller than the six-foot monsters scientists had feared. The water surged more than three feet in Kahului Bay in Maui before the tsunami warning was canceled in the early afternoon, officials said.
Hawaiian residents had awakened at dawn to the blast of emergency sirens. Police closed roads and roped off coastal areas, and thousands of people were evacuated. But there were no reports of flooding or damage, and by Saturday evening, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had lifted its warning for the entire Pacific except for Russia and Japan.
Japan issued its first "major" tsunami warning in 17 years, predicting Sunday morning that nine-foot-high waves could strike its northern Pacific coast and ordering about 400,000 residents to evacuate. But by late afternoon, hours after the high water was expected, dangerously high waves had not shown up.
The predawn quake that hit Chile was far stronger than the temblor that rocked Haiti last month. But far fewer people died in Chile because the quake was farther from big cities and occurred deeper underground -- nearly 22 miles beneath the surface. The epicenter was 200 miles southwest of the Chilean capital, Santiago, while the Haitian quake was centered just a few miles outside its capital, Port-au-Prince.
In addition, better building materials were used in Chile, one of the most developed Latin American countries. In poverty-stricken Haiti, more than 200,000 people perished as flimsy homes of cheap concrete disintegrated.
"The people in Chile have lots of experience with earthquakes. They've done an excellent job of preparing," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Still, the disaster wreaked havoc. Highway overpasses, buildings and bridges collapsed into mounds of twisted metal and chunks of concrete. Roads in Santiago were webbed with cracks and studded with holes big enough to swallow a motorcycle. In Concepcion, the country's second-biggest city, 70 miles from the epicenter, firefighters struggled to rescue dozens of people from a 14-story building that pancaked.
Incoming President Sebastian Piñera, who is set to take office March 11, said the quake had dealt "a very serious blow to the infrastructure of our country" and asked key disaster-relief officials to delay their planned departures. Dozens of aftershocks rattled the country, further imperiling fragile buildings.
About 600 travelers at the Santiago airport escaped when massive sections of the roof caved in, glass shattered and water poured through the terminal. Huddled under counters and inside gift stores, the travelers watched the newly renovated airport crumble around them. "Although the runways were cleared for takeoffs and landings, the airport was closed because of the internal damage.
Hundreds of prisoners in the city of Chillan, about 230 miles south of Santiago, escaped when a retaining wall collapsed. Rioting prisoners clashed with prison guards, leaving three inmates dead.
Earthquake survivors told of being flung around buildings in the dark as the temblor struck at 3:34 a.m.
Waves generated by the 8.8-magnitude quake started to smack Hawaiian beaches about noon local time, but they were smaller than the six-foot monsters scientists had feared. The water surged more than three feet in Kahului Bay in Maui before the tsunami warning was canceled in the early afternoon, officials said.
Hawaiian residents had awakened at dawn to the blast of emergency sirens. Police closed roads and roped off coastal areas, and thousands of people were evacuated. But there were no reports of flooding or damage, and by Saturday evening, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had lifted its warning for the entire Pacific except for Russia and Japan.
Japan issued its first "major" tsunami warning in 17 years, predicting Sunday morning that nine-foot-high waves could strike its northern Pacific coast and ordering about 400,000 residents to evacuate. But by late afternoon, hours after the high water was expected, dangerously high waves had not shown up.
The predawn quake that hit Chile was far stronger than the temblor that rocked Haiti last month. But far fewer people died in Chile because the quake was farther from big cities and occurred deeper underground -- nearly 22 miles beneath the surface. The epicenter was 200 miles southwest of the Chilean capital, Santiago, while the Haitian quake was centered just a few miles outside its capital, Port-au-Prince.
In addition, better building materials were used in Chile, one of the most developed Latin American countries. In poverty-stricken Haiti, more than 200,000 people perished as flimsy homes of cheap concrete disintegrated.
"The people in Chile have lots of experience with earthquakes. They've done an excellent job of preparing," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Still, the disaster wreaked havoc. Highway overpasses, buildings and bridges collapsed into mounds of twisted metal and chunks of concrete. Roads in Santiago were webbed with cracks and studded with holes big enough to swallow a motorcycle. In Concepcion, the country's second-biggest city, 70 miles from the epicenter, firefighters struggled to rescue dozens of people from a 14-story building that pancaked.
Incoming President Sebastian Piñera, who is set to take office March 11, said the quake had dealt "a very serious blow to the infrastructure of our country" and asked key disaster-relief officials to delay their planned departures. Dozens of aftershocks rattled the country, further imperiling fragile buildings.
About 600 travelers at the Santiago airport escaped when massive sections of the roof caved in, glass shattered and water poured through the terminal. Huddled under counters and inside gift stores, the travelers watched the newly renovated airport crumble around them. "Although the runways were cleared for takeoffs and landings, the airport was closed because of the internal damage.
Hundreds of prisoners in the city of Chillan, about 230 miles south of Santiago, escaped when a retaining wall collapsed. Rioting prisoners clashed with prison guards, leaving three inmates dead.
Earthquake survivors told of being flung around buildings in the dark as the temblor struck at 3:34 a.m.
India Vs Pakistan Hockey World Cup 2010 Live Streaming Online
THE HERO Honda FIH World Cup will start on Sunday, when India play Pakistan in a blockbuster on the opening day of the two-week tournament. The India vs Pakistan match will begin at 20.35 hrs IST. The first two pool matches are between South Africa and Spain, and Australia and England.
Pakistan captain Zeeshan Ashraf wants a special birthday gift on Sunday from his team. The Indian team led by Rajpal Singh, are desperate to deny him that.
No, there is 's nothing personal about it. It's all about the age-old rivalry of the green shirts and the blue shirts on the hockey turf. World and Olympic Champions Germany are hot favourites for the World Cup. If Germany wins, it will be the third consecutive time Germany will be winning the World Cup. Germany has been grouped with Holland, South Korea, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina, while India and Pakistan are grouped with Australia, England, Spain and South Africa.
Indian Hockey Team Goalkeepers Adrian D'Souza, PR Sreejesh Defenders Sandeep Singh, Diwakar Ram, Dhananay Mahadik Midfielder Sardar Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Bharat Chikara, Arjun Halappa, Danish Mujtaba, Vikram Pillay Forwards Rajpal Singh, Shivendra Singh, Tushar Khandker, Prabhjot Singh, Sarwanjit Singh, Deepak Thakur, Gurvinder Singh Chandi.
Pakistan captain Zeeshan Ashraf wants a special birthday gift on Sunday from his team. The Indian team led by Rajpal Singh, are desperate to deny him that.
No, there is 's nothing personal about it. It's all about the age-old rivalry of the green shirts and the blue shirts on the hockey turf. World and Olympic Champions Germany are hot favourites for the World Cup. If Germany wins, it will be the third consecutive time Germany will be winning the World Cup. Germany has been grouped with Holland, South Korea, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina, while India and Pakistan are grouped with Australia, England, Spain and South Africa.
Indian Hockey Team Goalkeepers Adrian D'Souza, PR Sreejesh Defenders Sandeep Singh, Diwakar Ram, Dhananay Mahadik Midfielder Sardar Singh, Gurbaj Singh, Bharat Chikara, Arjun Halappa, Danish Mujtaba, Vikram Pillay Forwards Rajpal Singh, Shivendra Singh, Tushar Khandker, Prabhjot Singh, Sarwanjit Singh, Deepak Thakur, Gurvinder Singh Chandi.
Friday, 26 February 2010
India budget 2010 highlights & India budget 2010 income tax: for poor there is nothing in the budget
New Delhi: India budget 2010 highlights & India budget 2010 income tax: for poor there is nothing in the budget. The whole Indian industry is going gaga over the 2010 budget presented by Pranab Mukherjee, the main trouble shooter of the UPA government. But it seems that the Finance Minister has got it all wrong when it comes to the welfare of the poor in the society.
Read more:
Relief for many as personal income tax slabs raised
PM lauds Mukherjee for 'right mix' budget
Budget highlights
With India’s more than half of the population embroiled in abject poverty and more than ninety five percent people spending their lives under great financial stress, his latest budget seems to have kept only five percent upper crest of the society under its lenses of welfare.
For poor and the most deprived people of our society the budget doesn’t have much to offer.
I rue the fact that Mamata is the railway minister. She should have been the finance minister to have taken up the cause of the poor people who don’t get much from any government.
For them the condition is going from bad to worse.
The first thing that strikes me instantly is the way he has neglected the poorest of the poor in the budget.
Why he has not raised the tax limit for individual earning rupees 1.6 lakh.
Given the fact that the inflation has risen rapidly in the last few years, the Finance minister could have done agreat service for the poor of the society had he raised the limit from Rs 1.6 lakh to Ts 2.5 lakh or Rs 3 lakh.
It is a great disservice to ask a person pay ten percent as income tax if he earns as little as Rs 13500 every month. Even a person earning rupees twenty thousand a month finds it impossible to run his house properly if has one or two kids.
Given the fact that most people in our country support more than their own family and support their parents and sisters and brothers, it is impossible to make ends meet in such a small salary.
The government should have hiked the tax rate for the super rich and increased the threshold limit.
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
Income Tax
# Personal Income Tax slabs widened
# Income up to Rs 1.6 lakh – NIL
# Above Rs 1.6 lakh to 5 lakh -- 10%
# Above Rs 5 lakh to 8 lakh -- 20%
# Above Rs 8 lakh -- 30%
# Deduction of Rs 20,000 in long term infrastructure bonds
# Contribution under central scheme to be included for Health Insurance exemption
# Income Tax Department ready with Saral-2 form for salaried tax-payers
# 2,000 Income Tax Returns daily
# Revamp needed of internal working system
# One percent interest subsidy on home loan up to Rs 10 lakh March 2011
# Weighted deduction on RD raised to 200% from 150%=
# Professionals with Rs 15 lakh income need account audit
# Interest on tax deduction, not paid, raised to 18%
Read more:
Relief for many as personal income tax slabs raised
PM lauds Mukherjee for 'right mix' budget
Budget highlights
With India’s more than half of the population embroiled in abject poverty and more than ninety five percent people spending their lives under great financial stress, his latest budget seems to have kept only five percent upper crest of the society under its lenses of welfare.
For poor and the most deprived people of our society the budget doesn’t have much to offer.
I rue the fact that Mamata is the railway minister. She should have been the finance minister to have taken up the cause of the poor people who don’t get much from any government.
For them the condition is going from bad to worse.
The first thing that strikes me instantly is the way he has neglected the poorest of the poor in the budget.
Why he has not raised the tax limit for individual earning rupees 1.6 lakh.
Given the fact that the inflation has risen rapidly in the last few years, the Finance minister could have done agreat service for the poor of the society had he raised the limit from Rs 1.6 lakh to Ts 2.5 lakh or Rs 3 lakh.
It is a great disservice to ask a person pay ten percent as income tax if he earns as little as Rs 13500 every month. Even a person earning rupees twenty thousand a month finds it impossible to run his house properly if has one or two kids.
Given the fact that most people in our country support more than their own family and support their parents and sisters and brothers, it is impossible to make ends meet in such a small salary.
The government should have hiked the tax rate for the super rich and increased the threshold limit.
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
Income Tax
# Personal Income Tax slabs widened
# Income up to Rs 1.6 lakh – NIL
# Above Rs 1.6 lakh to 5 lakh -- 10%
# Above Rs 5 lakh to 8 lakh -- 20%
# Above Rs 8 lakh -- 30%
# Deduction of Rs 20,000 in long term infrastructure bonds
# Contribution under central scheme to be included for Health Insurance exemption
# Income Tax Department ready with Saral-2 form for salaried tax-payers
# 2,000 Income Tax Returns daily
# Revamp needed of internal working system
# One percent interest subsidy on home loan up to Rs 10 lakh March 2011
# Weighted deduction on RD raised to 200% from 150%=
# Professionals with Rs 15 lakh income need account audit
# Interest on tax deduction, not paid, raised to 18%
Hampton Beach fire
In Ashworth Drive and Ocean Boulevard at Hampton Beach, a chain of building has been burnt by a huge blaze. According to sources, the number of buildings destroyed by the huge blaze at Hampton Beach is five. The sources said that the fire burnt down most of the houses into ashes and the chain that was burnt by the glaze includes Surf Motel, Happy Hampton Arcade and also a gift shop Mrs… Mitchells. The cause of the fire is still unknown and authorities are trying to find out the actual cause. The fire was so intense that the fire departments from Massachusetts and Maine were also called for help and to avoid further damages.
According to some sources, the chain of buildings was burnt at around 12:00 a.m. on Friday, while some other sources claimed that the time was around 2:00 a.m. when it all happened. Hampton Fire Capt ain David Lang said that at 295 Ocean Blvd. a fire alarm was activated after midnight. Hampton Fire Capt ain David Lang said,
“Eastward winds coming off the ocean driving right down into the heart of the building really fanned the flames,”
According to reports, no injuries were reported. Capt ain David Lang said,
“Hampton Beach is an old, wood-framed, historical, seasonal recreation area,”
Lang added,
“The buildings are located very, very close together. Some of them have fire alarm systems, and some of them don’t.”
According to some sources, the chain of buildings was burnt at around 12:00 a.m. on Friday, while some other sources claimed that the time was around 2:00 a.m. when it all happened. Hampton Fire Capt ain David Lang said that at 295 Ocean Blvd. a fire alarm was activated after midnight. Hampton Fire Capt ain David Lang said,
“Eastward winds coming off the ocean driving right down into the heart of the building really fanned the flames,”
According to reports, no injuries were reported. Capt ain David Lang said,
“Hampton Beach is an old, wood-framed, historical, seasonal recreation area,”
Lang added,
“The buildings are located very, very close together. Some of them have fire alarm systems, and some of them don’t.”
The Health Care Summit: Seven Hours of Blair House Blather
"I could go on and on and on."
--House Minority Leader John Boehner in the middle of his presentation at the Health Care Summit
Perhaps the most hopeful sign to emerge from a full day of bipartisan bloviating at Blair House is that the potted plant whose green tendrils were visible behind Barack Obama somehow survived the onslaught of gaseous utterances. Either the much-maligned federal government knows how to nurture a hardy breed of plants or else exposure to seven hours of health care rhetoric is not risky enough to warrant a warning from the Surgeon General.
It is, of course, easy to ridicule a staged political event whose lack of an obvious story line frustrated TV commentators, armchair pundits, and probably many viewers who tuned in. A little more than an hour into the proceedings, Washington Post reporter Ceci Connolly ridiculed the event on MSNBC as "typical hot air from Washington." And Fox News anchor Chris Wallace cracked mid-afternoon, "To paraphrase Sarah Palin, how is this transparency working out for you?"
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All three cable news networks built their days around the health care talkathon, although the purportedly liberal MSNBC abandoned Obama mid-afternoon to show the bronze medal women's hockey face-off between Finland and Sweden. But it was easy to get a sense of the bending of cable TV's revenue curve as the networks jettisoned commercials to show politicians orating about bending the health care cost curve. As Fox News anchor Shepard Smith put it in a burst of disgusted candor, "I feel like we've missed 60 or 70 commercials today. Maybe 80 or 90...All for what really? So that we can hear the same old Democratic talking points and the same old Republican talking points."
Of course, what is funny about cable TV news anchors is that they depend on predictable sound bites even as they decry them. As the day wore on, Fox and CNN repeatedly cut away from the Blair House blather to interview their own on-air experts. On CNN, Donna Brazile (a real-life Democratic strategist rather than a former assistant bag carrier given a fancy title by cable TV bookers) wrangled with conservative economist Ben Stein over his claim that "a much higher percentage of Republicans are taxpayers than Democrats." Fox News commentators like Star Parker played their assigned ideological roles by denouncing Obama's embrace of "European style socialism."
Once again, the president displayed his public distaste for this style of cable news debating. As Obama relived the 2008 campaign by taking on John McCain, the president snapped, "We can spend the remainder of our time with our respective talking points...My concern is that if we do that, then we're essentially back on Fox News or MSNBC on the split screen just arguing back and forth."
This has always been a valid complaint by Obama, since cable TV news plays a significant role in nurturing the climate of scorched-earth partisanship in Washington. Snarling political incendiaries like conservative Michele Bachmann and liberal Alan Grayson are beloved by cable TV bookers, while quiet and thoughtful House members are lucky to get on public access TV back home in their own districts.
The problem is that the Obama White House (or anyone else) has not come up with a plausible format to replace the steel-cage ideological battles on cable TV. What the Blair House summit represented was the Kabuki of congressional hearings where members self-indulgently play to the cameras and recite home-state political parables. It was hard not to yield to an irresistible urge to check on the women's hockey action on MSNBC when, for example, Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin began his presentation, "I got a letter yesterday from a farmer in Iowa..."
It probably was unreasonable to expect the health care summit to have produced a legislative breakthrough or to have galvanized public opinion. But the failure that rankled was the inability of the Obama White House and the congressional titans of both parties to make substance interesting. Nearly seven hours featuring the nation's political leadership discussing a single topic should have produced a few surprising insights about the American health care system. Instead, the ordeal left me wishing that American politics could still produce a few original thinkers capable of being in the same room with the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose career carried him from the Harvard faculty to the Senate.
Maybe the problem is that American politics has created a generation of leaders who thrive by making the most banal and boring public comments, whether they are Harry Reid or John Boehner. You can move them from Capitol Hill to a rectangular table at Blair House, but you cannot lift their rhetoric or their thought processes out of the congressional cloakroom.
As for Thursday afternoon's big news on cable TV, the Finnish women won the bronze, defeating Sweden 3-2 in overtime.
--House Minority Leader John Boehner in the middle of his presentation at the Health Care Summit
Perhaps the most hopeful sign to emerge from a full day of bipartisan bloviating at Blair House is that the potted plant whose green tendrils were visible behind Barack Obama somehow survived the onslaught of gaseous utterances. Either the much-maligned federal government knows how to nurture a hardy breed of plants or else exposure to seven hours of health care rhetoric is not risky enough to warrant a warning from the Surgeon General.
It is, of course, easy to ridicule a staged political event whose lack of an obvious story line frustrated TV commentators, armchair pundits, and probably many viewers who tuned in. A little more than an hour into the proceedings, Washington Post reporter Ceci Connolly ridiculed the event on MSNBC as "typical hot air from Washington." And Fox News anchor Chris Wallace cracked mid-afternoon, "To paraphrase Sarah Palin, how is this transparency working out for you?"
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PD toolbar!
All three cable news networks built their days around the health care talkathon, although the purportedly liberal MSNBC abandoned Obama mid-afternoon to show the bronze medal women's hockey face-off between Finland and Sweden. But it was easy to get a sense of the bending of cable TV's revenue curve as the networks jettisoned commercials to show politicians orating about bending the health care cost curve. As Fox News anchor Shepard Smith put it in a burst of disgusted candor, "I feel like we've missed 60 or 70 commercials today. Maybe 80 or 90...All for what really? So that we can hear the same old Democratic talking points and the same old Republican talking points."
Of course, what is funny about cable TV news anchors is that they depend on predictable sound bites even as they decry them. As the day wore on, Fox and CNN repeatedly cut away from the Blair House blather to interview their own on-air experts. On CNN, Donna Brazile (a real-life Democratic strategist rather than a former assistant bag carrier given a fancy title by cable TV bookers) wrangled with conservative economist Ben Stein over his claim that "a much higher percentage of Republicans are taxpayers than Democrats." Fox News commentators like Star Parker played their assigned ideological roles by denouncing Obama's embrace of "European style socialism."
Once again, the president displayed his public distaste for this style of cable news debating. As Obama relived the 2008 campaign by taking on John McCain, the president snapped, "We can spend the remainder of our time with our respective talking points...My concern is that if we do that, then we're essentially back on Fox News or MSNBC on the split screen just arguing back and forth."
This has always been a valid complaint by Obama, since cable TV news plays a significant role in nurturing the climate of scorched-earth partisanship in Washington. Snarling political incendiaries like conservative Michele Bachmann and liberal Alan Grayson are beloved by cable TV bookers, while quiet and thoughtful House members are lucky to get on public access TV back home in their own districts.
The problem is that the Obama White House (or anyone else) has not come up with a plausible format to replace the steel-cage ideological battles on cable TV. What the Blair House summit represented was the Kabuki of congressional hearings where members self-indulgently play to the cameras and recite home-state political parables. It was hard not to yield to an irresistible urge to check on the women's hockey action on MSNBC when, for example, Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin began his presentation, "I got a letter yesterday from a farmer in Iowa..."
It probably was unreasonable to expect the health care summit to have produced a legislative breakthrough or to have galvanized public opinion. But the failure that rankled was the inability of the Obama White House and the congressional titans of both parties to make substance interesting. Nearly seven hours featuring the nation's political leadership discussing a single topic should have produced a few surprising insights about the American health care system. Instead, the ordeal left me wishing that American politics could still produce a few original thinkers capable of being in the same room with the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whose career carried him from the Harvard faculty to the Senate.
Maybe the problem is that American politics has created a generation of leaders who thrive by making the most banal and boring public comments, whether they are Harry Reid or John Boehner. You can move them from Capitol Hill to a rectangular table at Blair House, but you cannot lift their rhetoric or their thought processes out of the congressional cloakroom.
As for Thursday afternoon's big news on cable TV, the Finnish women won the bronze, defeating Sweden 3-2 in overtime.
Walter Marvin Koenig
Early life
Koenig was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sarah (née Strauss) and Isadore Koenig, who was a businessman.[1][2] Koenig's parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia; his family lived in Lithuania when they emigrated and shortened their surname from "Königsberg" to "Koenig".[3] Koenig's father was a communist who was investigated by the FBI during the McCarthyite era.[4] Koenig attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa with a pre-med major. He transferred to UCLA and received a BA in psychology.
Career
Star Trek
Koenig played the navigator Pavel Chekov on the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek (TOS) television series and in several movies featuring the original cast. He was cast as Chekov because of his resemblance to British actor/musician Davy Jones of the Monkees, in a bid to attract a younger audience, especially girls. (The studio's publicity department, however, ascribed the inclusion of Chekov to an article in Pravda complaining about the lack of Russians in Star Trek.) Koenig wore a hair piece while playing the character of Chekov in his first few episodes of the original Star Trek series until his own hair grew out to a suitable length. Gene Roddenberry asked him to "ham up" his Russian accent to add a note of comedy relief to the series. He is also credited for writing the Star Trek: The Animated Series installment "The Infinite Vulcan," making him the first "original cast" member to write a Star Trek story for television. Interestingly, the character of Pavel Andreievich Chekov never appeared in the animated version of Star Trek, where Koenig never got to reprise his character on the animated series as the rest of his fellow Star Trek castmates did. Though Chekov's accent has been criticized as inauthentic, in particular his substitution of the 'v' sound with a 'w' sound, Koenig has said the accent was inspired by his father who had the same difficulty with the 'v' sound.[4]
He received Saturn Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Film for both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Koenig reprised his role of Pavel Chekov for the fan webseries Star Trek: New Voyages, To Serve All My Days and the independent Sky Conway/Tim Russ film Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, both in 2006. He is currently the only regular Star Trek cast member without a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (unless you count Majel Barrett).
Other work
After Chekov, Koenig had a starring role in a Sci-Fi thriller Moontrap opposite Bruce Campbell and another as Psi Cop Alfred Bester on the television series Babylon 5. Koenig was the "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf. He was slated to play Bester on the spin-off series Crusade, but the series was cancelled before his episode was filmed. He also played "Oro" in two episodes of the Canadian science fiction television series The Starlost, which aired in 1973 on Canada's CTV television network.
Koenig's film, stage and TV roles span fifty years. He has played everything from a teenage gang leader (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) to a middle-aged Tom Sawyer (The Boys In Autumn) to a Las Vegas entertainer (I Spy). He returned to space with a starring role in Moontrap and played a computer hard drive in Maximum Surge. In addition to acting, he has written several films (Actor, I Wish I May, You're Never Alone When You're a Schizophrenic), one-act plays, and a handful of episodes for TV shows: Star Trek: The Animated Series, Land of the Lost, Family and The Powers of Matthew Star. He has also written several books, including Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe (autobiography), Chekov's Enterprise (a journal kept during the filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot (a science fiction novel), which was rereleased in 2006 and also created his own comic book series called Raver, which was published by Malibu Comics in the early 1990s.
Koenig has taught classes in acting and directing at UCLA, the Sherwood Oaks Experiment Film College, the Actor's Alley Repertory Company in Los Angeles, and the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. In 2002, Koenig directed stage versions of two of the original Twilight Zone episodes for Letter Entertainment.[5]
In 2004, Koenig co-starred in Mad Cowgirl, an independent movie about a meat-packing health inspector dying from a brain disorder in which he played televangelist 'Pastor Dylan': a character described as "a sleazy, slimy, sex-addict." The movie played the SF Indiefest and the Silverlake Film Festival, followed by a limited release in major cities such as New York and Seattle. Mad Cowgirl was released on DVD on December 5, 2006.
Humanitarian work
In 2007, Koenig was asked by the human rights group U.S. Campaign for Burma to help in their grassroots campaign to get the message out about the humanitarian crisis in Burma. As detailed on his official website, he visited refugee camps along the Burma-Thailand border from July 16 to July 25, 2007.
Personal life
Koenig's first marriage was to actress Anjanette Comer; they divorced.[6] He married Judy Levitt in 1965; they are still together. They had a son, actor Andrew Koenig (1968-2010), and a daughter, Danielle Koenig, who is married to comedian Jimmy Pardo, with whom she has one child. Koenig had a heart bypass surgery in 1993. His role in Babylon 5 came out of that incident since his hospitalization forced him to bow out of a guest spot. The series producer promised to make it up to him for the lost opportunity, and he got the role later on.
In September 2008, Koenig served as best man at the wedding of his Star Trek co-star, George Takei.
In February 2010, Koenig's son, Joshua Andrew Koenig, was reported missing. He was last seen in Vancouver, British Columbia on February 14, and missed a scheduled flight back to the U.S. on February 16. According to his parents, he left evidence that he was depressed prior to his disappearance.[8] On February 25, 2010, his body was discovered by police in Stanley Park. Walter told reporters at an evening press conference that his son took his own life.
Koenig was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Sarah (née Strauss) and Isadore Koenig, who was a businessman.[1][2] Koenig's parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia; his family lived in Lithuania when they emigrated and shortened their surname from "Königsberg" to "Koenig".[3] Koenig's father was a communist who was investigated by the FBI during the McCarthyite era.[4] Koenig attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa with a pre-med major. He transferred to UCLA and received a BA in psychology.
Career
Star Trek
Koenig played the navigator Pavel Chekov on the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek (TOS) television series and in several movies featuring the original cast. He was cast as Chekov because of his resemblance to British actor/musician Davy Jones of the Monkees, in a bid to attract a younger audience, especially girls. (The studio's publicity department, however, ascribed the inclusion of Chekov to an article in Pravda complaining about the lack of Russians in Star Trek.) Koenig wore a hair piece while playing the character of Chekov in his first few episodes of the original Star Trek series until his own hair grew out to a suitable length. Gene Roddenberry asked him to "ham up" his Russian accent to add a note of comedy relief to the series. He is also credited for writing the Star Trek: The Animated Series installment "The Infinite Vulcan," making him the first "original cast" member to write a Star Trek story for television. Interestingly, the character of Pavel Andreievich Chekov never appeared in the animated version of Star Trek, where Koenig never got to reprise his character on the animated series as the rest of his fellow Star Trek castmates did. Though Chekov's accent has been criticized as inauthentic, in particular his substitution of the 'v' sound with a 'w' sound, Koenig has said the accent was inspired by his father who had the same difficulty with the 'v' sound.[4]
He received Saturn Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Film for both Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Koenig reprised his role of Pavel Chekov for the fan webseries Star Trek: New Voyages, To Serve All My Days and the independent Sky Conway/Tim Russ film Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, both in 2006. He is currently the only regular Star Trek cast member without a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (unless you count Majel Barrett).
Other work
After Chekov, Koenig had a starring role in a Sci-Fi thriller Moontrap opposite Bruce Campbell and another as Psi Cop Alfred Bester on the television series Babylon 5. Koenig was the "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf. He was slated to play Bester on the spin-off series Crusade, but the series was cancelled before his episode was filmed. He also played "Oro" in two episodes of the Canadian science fiction television series The Starlost, which aired in 1973 on Canada's CTV television network.
Koenig's film, stage and TV roles span fifty years. He has played everything from a teenage gang leader (Alfred Hitchcock Presents) to a middle-aged Tom Sawyer (The Boys In Autumn) to a Las Vegas entertainer (I Spy). He returned to space with a starring role in Moontrap and played a computer hard drive in Maximum Surge. In addition to acting, he has written several films (Actor, I Wish I May, You're Never Alone When You're a Schizophrenic), one-act plays, and a handful of episodes for TV shows: Star Trek: The Animated Series, Land of the Lost, Family and The Powers of Matthew Star. He has also written several books, including Warped Factors: A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe (autobiography), Chekov's Enterprise (a journal kept during the filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot (a science fiction novel), which was rereleased in 2006 and also created his own comic book series called Raver, which was published by Malibu Comics in the early 1990s.
Koenig has taught classes in acting and directing at UCLA, the Sherwood Oaks Experiment Film College, the Actor's Alley Repertory Company in Los Angeles, and the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. In 2002, Koenig directed stage versions of two of the original Twilight Zone episodes for Letter Entertainment.[5]
In 2004, Koenig co-starred in Mad Cowgirl, an independent movie about a meat-packing health inspector dying from a brain disorder in which he played televangelist 'Pastor Dylan': a character described as "a sleazy, slimy, sex-addict." The movie played the SF Indiefest and the Silverlake Film Festival, followed by a limited release in major cities such as New York and Seattle. Mad Cowgirl was released on DVD on December 5, 2006.
Humanitarian work
In 2007, Koenig was asked by the human rights group U.S. Campaign for Burma to help in their grassroots campaign to get the message out about the humanitarian crisis in Burma. As detailed on his official website, he visited refugee camps along the Burma-Thailand border from July 16 to July 25, 2007.
Personal life
Koenig's first marriage was to actress Anjanette Comer; they divorced.[6] He married Judy Levitt in 1965; they are still together. They had a son, actor Andrew Koenig (1968-2010), and a daughter, Danielle Koenig, who is married to comedian Jimmy Pardo, with whom she has one child. Koenig had a heart bypass surgery in 1993. His role in Babylon 5 came out of that incident since his hospitalization forced him to bow out of a guest spot. The series producer promised to make it up to him for the lost opportunity, and he got the role later on.
In September 2008, Koenig served as best man at the wedding of his Star Trek co-star, George Takei.
In February 2010, Koenig's son, Joshua Andrew Koenig, was reported missing. He was last seen in Vancouver, British Columbia on February 14, and missed a scheduled flight back to the U.S. on February 16. According to his parents, he left evidence that he was depressed prior to his disappearance.[8] On February 25, 2010, his body was discovered by police in Stanley Park. Walter told reporters at an evening press conference that his son took his own life.
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