| Facing Backlash, Blackwater Has a New Business Pitch: Peacekeeping
The beauty of an airship is you don't need big runways and airports," Wrenn says. "You can use them to deliver supplies where airplanes can't go." Doug Brooks, president of International Peace Operations Association, which represents private security contractors (though not Blackwater, which pulled out of the group in October), says in many parts of the world, "private companies are in fact holding peace operations together." The industry, in Brooks' view, is in part a natural consequence of the West's unwillingness to commit its military forces to troubled regions, leading to what he calls "Westernless peacekeeping." Globally, such contracting is a $20 billion industry, and growing, he contends. Critics, however, note that the Blackwater name is a huge obstacle to its plans for expanded peacekeeping.
Penn tells top director: No moonlighting
As an associate director of MBA admissions at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Judith Hodara hosts a weekly podcast that dispenses tips for getting into business school. It's not the only place she hands out advice. Recently, she was asked to sit on an advisory committee of a Japanese company that helps Japanese students get into top U.S. programs leading to a master's degree in business administration, including her own. Since 2004, she has also run her own college admissions business, IvyStone Educational Consultants, to guide high school students through the tricky process. While Hodara said her consulting work was "compliant with university policy," some admissions experts questioned her ties and whether there was the appearance of impropriety. Penn agreed with them and pulled the plug on her moonlighting.
McCain's Univision connection.
But I think the serious thing that happened is just this change in relationship between the candidates and the reporters has been such a sea change. In 1920, the reporters knew in detail that Warren Harding was having an affair for 15 years. They thought it wasn't their business to talk about the private life, compared to a front-page article that suspects an affair on the part of some aides. In fact, the Republican committee was so worried about this affair that they actually gave the woman $20,000 and sent her to the Orient during the entire campaign to get her out of the way. So we've changed the whole notion of what part of a private life matters. When the real story is what part of the public life matters. [E.A.] Huh? If the Republican committee was so worried about Harding's mistress, doesn't that show she was considered relevant, and that there was a chance that at least some of the press would see it as their business? Bonus PBS Newshour Moment: David Brooks defends the McCain campaign's reliance on lobbyists because A lot of them work for no pay.
Watson, Sonics defeat Grizzlies 108-101
Earl Watson scored a season-high 26 points and Wally Szczerbiak had 24, including the go-ahead score with 31 seconds remaining, to rally the Seattle SuperSonics to a 108-101 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night. The Sonics, who were without flu-ridden rookie star Kevin Durant, roared back from a 19-point deficit early in the second half to win for the first time in four games against Memphis this season. Rudy Gay scored 23 points and Hakim Warrick had 22 for the Grizzlies, who lost their 10th consecutive road game and are 1-6 since trading star Pau Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 1. Gay was just 9-for-23 from the field and shot airballs on two long jump shots in the final minute, leaving him wincing and tapping the top of his head in frustration.
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