With pomp, pageantry but less partying than usual, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist will be sworn in today as Florida's 44th chief executive, succeeding fellow Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. Crist, the state's attorney general the past four years, will be administered the oath of office at noon by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Lewis on the Old Capitol steps, the centerpiece moment in a daylong series of events marking the change in leadership.
Crist's inaugural address, likely a 20-minute summation of political hopes and themes, will follow. A parade, street festival and open house at the Governor's Mansion top the afternoon's events -- but the customary inaugural ball has been canceled.
From a political standpoint, inaugurals are a governor's first signature moment. And most expect Crist's speech to cast a more moderate and bipartisan tone than speeches delivered by Bush during the course of his two terms. "Charlie Crist seems to be more of a consensus builder than Jeb, who was someone who knew what he wanted to do and plowed full speed ahead," said Darryl Paulson, a University of South Florida government professor.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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See also ASIA TIMES > JEB BUSH IN 2008 article.
JERUSALEM - Former Jerusalem mayor Theodor Teddy Kollek, a tireless preacher of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence in a holy city of deep religious and nationalist divisions, died on Tuesday aged 95. Teddy was Jerusalem and Jerusalem was Teddy, the current mayor, Uri Lupolianski, said after his office reported the death of one of Israels most famous political figures.
Kollek became mayor of Jewish West Jerusalem in 1965, two years before Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in a Middle East war. He was re-elected five times, serving 28 years, before losing in 1993 to Ehud Olmert, now Israels prime minister. Kolleks name and the glory of Jerusalem will forever remain inseparable, Olmert said in a statement mourning his former political opponent, who will be buried on Thursday.
Kollek, born in Nagyvazsony, a small town on the Danube, and raised in Vienna, launched more ambitious building and restoration projects in Jerusalem than any city father since 16th century Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who built the Old City walls.
Instantly recognisable in his suit and open-necked shirt, Kollek would set out on morning inspection walks through Jerusalems diverse neighbourhoods. He publicly listed his home telephone number, saying the mayor should be available to all.
We proved that Jerusalem is a better city united than divided, Kollek once said in an interview.
Rest in peace if you can, Teddy, you were a good and righteous man.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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There has been so much bad news recently, I appreciated this storm-related item about 44 stranded travelers housed by one family in an isolated ranch house in NE NM last weekend.
#6
This must've been the storm of all storms. Heard a guy in Nebraska this morning who's been holed up in a local shelter for a week or so. He's now moving to a local hotel. No continuous power in sight either...just generators.
Oh well, at least the diesel fumes will help global warming and thaw them out.
Posted by: BA ||
01/03/2007 13:45 Comments ||
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This was the storm that hit the Denver area only a few days prior. We didn't get the massive drifts though.
Big thanks to our national guard!
Posted by: Jan ||
01/03/2007 14:23 Comments ||
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If Gore visited the area he has enough Hot Air to bring an early thaw.
Oh, God, no! It's well documented that where ever Gore goes, cold weather follows. He caused Australia's mid-summer snow, fer crissake!
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/03/2007 14:53 Comments ||
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"Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said after flying over his state Tuesday that he saw damage "more massive and more extensive than any of us imagined."
The Vatican has challenged purist Roman Catholics by disclosing plans for a daring rock, punk and jazz opera version of Dante's Divine Comedy with a soundtrack written by an avant-garde priest.
Monsignor Marco Frisina uses rock music as background for the Inferno, Gregorian chants for Purgatory and lyrical and symphonic classical and modern music for the advent of Paradise in the musical set to be staged in the autumn.
After a premier in a leading Rome theatre sponsored jointly by the Vatican and Italy's two houses of parliament, the extravaganza will tour other major Italian and European cities "to bring back the attention of the widest public to Dante's immortal poem", Riccardo Rossi, director general of Nova Ars, the company producing the opera, told La Repubblica newspaper.
The director, Elisabetta Marchetti, is recruiting a cast of 20 singer-actors, 30 ballet dancers led by the choreographer Anna Cuocolo, a 100-piece orchestra and 50 extras while as many as 250 costumes will be designed by Alberto Spiazzi. The screenplay for the ambitious production, which is officially entitled The Divine Comedy, the Opera, and subtitled "The man who seeks love," is being written by Gianmario Pagano, with the sets being designed by Paolo Micciche.
The story will be represented by 150 images, projected by six advanced technical systems, which will give the audience the impression of sitting next to the actors and dancers.
Rehearsals are due to start at the end of this month, meaning that the casting for actors to play Dante, Virgil and Beatrice should be disclosed imminently. "The only thing certain is that Dante will be interpreted by a very well known Italian singer-actor," said Mr Rossi.
Dismissing suggestions that Dante's haunting literary work might be considered to have little relevance to modern life, Mgr Frisina, who has written the screenplays for popular Italian television films on the lives of two previous popes, John Paul II and John Paul I, said he was dedicating the unusual work to Pope Benedict XVI.
"It is highly relevant... the poem is an inexhaustible source of stories, messages and teaching... his characters, while belonging to past epochs, speak to the men of today with their desire for knowledge, their fears, but essentially with their wish for elevation toward divine beauty," he told la Repubblica. "This is the poem of our Christian roots, of our faith, the opera of man in search of love, of the true sense of life... that is why I dedicate this musical version of the Commedia to Benedict XVI, the Pope who dedicated his first encyclical to love."
Mgr Frisina said that he would use heavy metal rhythms, punk rock and jazz to recount Hell, Gregorian mystical music for Purgatory and a triumphant explosion of lyrical and symphonic music, modern as well as classical, to usher in Paradise.
Recent years have seen a revival of interest in the Divine Comedy in Italy, with numerous public readings.
#4
Right now, the Italians are making a film trilogy of the Divine Comedy. It's a pity it can't be an Italian film production but with American CGI effects. As long as that was the limit to American participation, it would kick ass.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
