Rachel DiCarlo

One Perfect Day

Beauty Junkies

The Girl Who

PICTURE THE STANDARD CONGESTED AMERICAN CITY. Traffic backs up on city blocks each day during rush hour as cars creep along, catching every red light. A half-mile trip takes half-an-hour. The forced on-and-off of the gas and brake pedals spends more gas--and creates more pollution--than if cars…

IN 1999, Henry Ford bested Bill Gates as Fortune magazine's "Businessman of the Century." Ford didn't invent the car, but he revolutionized the mass production process that made cars affordable for everyone.

Martha Washington

Lipstick Jungle

Columbia, South Carolina

Rahm Emanuel, the new head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has a familiar name, a knack for fundraising, and a robust agenda for the 2006 House elections. Emanuel made his reputation in the 1990s as a shrewd White House adviser and campaign strategist for President Clinton. He…

TUESDAY marked the third year that pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli has spent in a Chinese prison. Congressman Barney Frank, along with Jianli's wife, Christina Fu, and his lawyer, Jared Genser, held a press conference yesterday to acknowledge the sad anniversary and urge a medical parole for…

STATISTICS ABOUND showing that children with absent fathers suffer a much worse fate than those whose dads stuck around. They're more likely to have low birth weight before they're more likely become obese, go to jail long-term, contract diseases, be treated for emotional problems, live in poverty,…

THE EPISODE of American Dreams that airs tonight may be the last one ever. After two-and-a-half years of good ratings, more than half of the audience has abandoned it (many of these viewers have migrated to ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition).

OKLAHOMA'S NEWEST CONGRESSMAN, DAN Boren, is anti-tax, pro-gun, and anti-partial-birth-abortion. He supports the Federal Marriage Amendment and favors broad tort reform. Adorning the floor of his House of Representatives office is a bearskin rug, and mounted on the walls are several deer heads.…

NATAN SHARANSKY's timing was perfect. On January 25, Sharansky, the ex-Soviet dissident and current Israeli cabinet member, presented a detailed report on the Palestinian Authority's promotion of anti-Semitism and genocide in its official media. He did so amidst the 60th anniversary of the…

WEDNESDAY marked the 1,000th day that pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli has been incarcerated in a Chinese prison. Congressmen Barney Frank and Christopher Cox, along with Jianli's wife, Christina Fu, and his lawyer, held a press conference to commemorate the occasion, to review the state of human…

CONNIE MACK, SON OF the former senator and the Republican congressman-elect from Florida's 14th district, has much in common with President Bush. Like Bush, Mack, comes from a family with a political tradition. And, again like Bush, Mack has a name and family connections that helped him surmount a…

THE PRESS has always assailed politicians, and politicians have retaliated in various ways. Some feed scoops to the competition. Some make jokes or give nonsensical answers in response to a reporter's question. President Bush holds his press conferences few and far between and has been known to…

DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISTS, many still seething over what they see as Ralph Nader's role in spoiling the election for Al Gore four years ago, have filed numerous court charges against the Green party candidate to try and keep him off the ballot this year.

THE PRESIDENT'S REELECTION CAMPAIGN is getting a big boost from a Christian group that has enlisted dozens of entertainers on its behalf to convince young evangelicals to vote.

AT THE DEBATE last Friday night, audience member Sarah Degenhart asked John Kerry, "Suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder, and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion. What would you say to that person?"

MY MOTHER recently told me that my apartment looks like a nineteenth-century brothel. The dark red of the walls, she said, makes her think of Belle Watling's house of ill repute.

IN THE LAST FOUR presidential elections Republican candidates have wasted little time and money campaigning for Maryland's 10 electoral votes. The state hasn't gone in the Republican column since George H.W. Bush's 1988 landslide. Al Gore carried Maryland by 17 points in 2000.

ON PAGE 266 of her new book The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, Kitty Kelley writes, "[The president's] sister-in-law Sharon Bush alleged that [George W. Bush] has snorted cocaine with one of his brothers at Camp David during the time their father was President of the United States.…

THE SPEAKERS at the GOP convention this week agree on two things: that the war on terror trumps all other issues, and that President Bush would wage a stronger, more determined war than John Kerry.

"It comes down to one seat," Alaska's senior senator Ted Stevens said at a press conference on August 18. "That seat is key to the control of the Senate." Stevens's conclusion about Alaska's Senate race this year might not be an exaggeration.

Boston

Boston Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley endorsed Howard Dean for president shortly before Christmas 2003, but tonight he will deliver a 1,000 word pre-primetime speech at the Democratic convention on the financial burden of homeland security in big cities. Since September 11, 2001, O'Malley has made…

Boston EVERY DAY, Washington Republicans accuse Democratic candidates of being too cozy with the high-profile liberals of their party like Massachusetts senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry and New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Boston

THE HYPE for Entourage was that it would be salvation for HBO viewers still reeling from the loss of Sunday night comedy after the end of Sex and the City. And it is. If Sex and the City was about female bonding and haute couture, then Entourage is about male bonding and luxury playthings. It is an…

AT THE CAPITOL Wednesday at five, two hours before President Reagan's body is due to arrive at the Rotunda for the state funeral, buses of Marines and Navy sailors are pulling up near the Senate-side entrance. Staffers are pouring out of nearby House and Senate office buildings into the 90-degree…

ON TUESDAY NIGHT Democrat Stephanie Herseth narrowly won a special election in South Dakota. Herseth's victory coupled with the special election win of Democratic Rep. Ben Chandler in February in Kentucky's sixth district might give Democrats reason to argue that the results are a rejection of…

VIRGINIA CONGRESSMAN Jim Moran looks the part. He's tall, stands up straight, and speaks confidently with a northeastern brogue. He's got the preppy-D.C. thing down. At a Democratic "meet and greet" in Arlington recently, Moran arrived wearing a blue buttoned-down shirt monogrammed at the cuff,…

THE GIGANTIC BUDGET DEFICIT in Maryland has prompted lawmakers to introduce a host of new taxes. A flush tax has been passed to pay for sewer upgrades and a car registration fee has been imposed to pay for transportation. A better way to fill the state's coffers would have been to eliminate the…

PARIS HILTON and her younger sister Nicky, the staple bicoastal "it" girls have been trading off their good looks and $3.8 billion hotel fortune for years.

IN THIS SPRING'S PENNSYLVANIA SENATE PRIMARY conventional wisdom has incumbent Arlen Specter coasting to victory over challenger Rep. Pat Toomey. Specter starts out with all the advantages. He has the backing of the Republican establishment--the White House, Pennsylvania's junior senator, Rick…

WHEN I MEET Florida representative Katherine Harris in her Capitol Hill office, she pumps my hand and greets me in a gravelly voice. "I lost it somewhere in Iraq," she explains. "I think it was the sand." Harris is not as forbidding as she appears on television. She's small, athletic-looking,…

WITH PROVOCATIVE SHOWS like Sex and the City, "The Sopranos," Curb Your Enthusiasm, and "Six Feet Under," the HBO channel has become one of the biggest players for its parent company, Time Warner, Inc.

RATHER THAN SPEND 24 HOURS celebrating love and romance tomorrow, some politically correct feminists would prefer we spend Valentine's Day pondering rape, incest, and domestic violence. Inaugurated in 1998, "V-Day"--the term a coalition of feminist groups use to describe their new version of…

THERE ARE PLENTY OF GOOD THINGS to say about "Sex and the City," the HBO comedy now in its last two episodes. It can be funny. It can be fun to watch. And there is the occasional great one liner, especially from the cynical Miranda, played by Cynthia Nixon: "Don't talk to me about…

CHRISTMAS MORNING two years ago, no one at my parents' house was allowed to use the telephone. We were waiting for a rare call from my brother from the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island. When we heard from him, Michael regaled us with his experiences at boot camp--how hard the drill…

"WE'RE IN REBUILDING mode," says Tony Perkins, the new president of the Family Research Council. "We're planning on bringing back the FRC." Describing himself as a "diplomat" and a "risk-taker," Perkins, a former Louisiana legislator, says he means to restore the FRC to the position of influence it…

"THERE IS NO SUCH THING as a bad day when you have a door knob on the inside of the door," says former Navy commander Paul Galanti. Galanti, who spent six and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, is one of the 30 subjects of the photography and essay exhibit Open Doors: Vietnam POWs Thirty…

THE COMPARISONS of Fox's new series "The O.C." to "Beverly Hills, 90210" are inevitable. Like its predecessor, "The O.C." is an hour-long drama featuring an out-of-towner main character the show drops in the midst of the problems suffered by wealthy, attractive teens in Southern California. This…

WITH THE LATINO POPULATION booming, one issue that could come into play in 2004 is President Bush's signal that he would help Hispanic immigrants gain legal residency. During Mexican president Vincente Fox's visit to Washington in early September 2001, President Bush declared that "There are…

HURRYING DOWN 17TH STREET, I realize I have barely enough time to get to Union Station for my 6:35 train back to Baltimore. I speed up to a jog. As a seasoned commuter, I've learned how to catch the last train out of the city with as little as 15 minutes to go from the time I pass the doorman at…

YESTERDAY, by a vote of 281-142, the House gave final approval to a bill that will ban partial-birth abortion in all 50 states. Bill Clinton vetoed similar bills passed by Congress in 1995 and 1999, but George W. Bush says he will sign the bill into law. But will it hold up before the Supreme…

IN WHAT IS SHAPING UP to be the only serious GOP primary challenge next fall, conventional wisdom has Republican Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter beating Republican representative Pat Toomey. Specter is starting out with all the advantages. As the incumbent, he already has the support of the…

THREE WEEKS AGO, Mike came home. He's the brother I wrote about on this page after he'd finished Marine boot camp and shipped out to the Persian Gulf as a helicopter mechanic aboard the USS Boxer. The whole family flew to Miramar, the Marine Corps air station in San Diego, to welcome him. He and…

ONE BENEFIT of the $1.7 billion budget deficit in Maryland is that it has forced Gov. Bob Ehrlich to slash state budgets and eliminate wasteful and inefficient projects. The proposed Baltimore to Washington "magnetic levitation train" would be a good place to start. Maryland is currently competing…

ANYONE WHO THINKS the face of the GOP sisterhood belongs to pro-choice moderates like Maine senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins should take a look at another Republican woman from the Northeast: Melissa Hart. The two-term Pennsylvania congresswoman has a 96 percent rating from the American…

IT MIGHT BE no accident that the national decline in church attendance has mirrored the rise of activism by church leadership. One religious group famous for its social agenda is the National Council of Churches. Although supposedly a nonpartisan organization, for the past 40 years the NCC's…

BRUCE COLE, the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, wants to put the "H" back in NEH. His two Clinton-administration predecessors had other priorities for the agency--a "national conversation" on diversity, and greater attention to regional and popular culture. Cole is making…

WITH THE POSSIBILITY that Saddam Hussein was killed last week in the bombing near a Baghdad restaurant, there has been much speculation over whether allied authorities will be able to positively identify his remains. The blast was so intense (it left a 60 foot hole and shattered windows 300 yards…

WHEN MY BROTHER MIKE walked in one day and announced that he had joined the Marine Corps, the rest of our family was shocked. None of us had thought he was the type. Physically Mike could cut it; he'd wrestled and run track in high school. But like a lot of guys at 18, he was unfocused, not sure of…

IT SHOULDN'T SURPRISE anyone that the editorial writers and opinion columnists at the New York Times oppose the war in Iraq. But what is surprising is that two weeks into the war, much of that opposition has leaked off of the editorial pages and into the news coverage. It's almost as if the paper…

HAS PRESIDENT BUSH done anything right in his campaign to liberate Iraq? You wouldn't think so, judging from some New York Times articles that have run this week. While many informed observers think the war is justified and will be over quickly the Gray Lady has been brimming with negative news…

YESTERDAY, with 64 Senators supporting it, the Senate approved a bill that would ban partial-birth abortion in all 50 states. Congress passed similar bans in 1995 and 1999 that were vetoed by Bill Clinton, but George W. Bush has said he will sign the ban into law. But can it survive Supreme Court…

IMAGINE THIS SCENARIO: The CEO of a large corporation calls a meeting of the board of directors to deal with a crisis: The business is losing four dollars for every dollar earned, much of the capacity goes unused, and the customer base, never large to begin with, is eroding at an alarming rate. The…

PAT TOOMEY has faced some long odds in his career. A conservative Republican, the 41-year-old congressman has run three House campaigns in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a Democratic-leaning, big labor district, and won every time. Last fall, he even ran on Social Security reform--an issue that terrifies…

YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT A KID ANYMORE when you find yourself hoping it won't snow. The last time a major snowstorm hit Baltimore, where I live, back in 1996, I was only 15. The night before the storm arrived, I watched the late news with my younger brother and sister--and our parents, who grumbled as…

SOMEONE SHOULD REMIND Parris Glendening he's already number one. The Maryland politician seems determined to burnish his reputation as the nation's least popular governor before he leaves office this week.

SOME POLITICIANS leave office basking in the glow of their accomplishments, loved and admired by their supporters. Not Parris Glendening. Maryland Democrats are in no mood for a love-fest with the outgoing Democratic governor. Not only did Glendening beat out Fife Symington (who was indicted for…

WITH THE 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaching and Republicans in control in Washington, the 108th Congress will likely take up the partial-birth abortion ban passed by the House last July but buried by the Democratic Senate.

LAST MONDAY, twelve days after declaring victory, Alabama's Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Don Siegelman conceded the election to Republican Bob Riley. But it almost didn't turn out that way. If it hadn't been for one woman, the Republican National Committee's regional director Kelley…

IN SOUTH DAKOTA'S Senate race, voting irregularities on the Oglala Sioux Indian reservation have made some Republicans wonder whether Democratic senator Tim Johnson's 524 vote victory over Representative John Thune was legitimate. Voter fraud, they speculate, sent South Dakota's junior senator back…

REPRESENTATIVE BOB EHRLICH hesitated for months before announcing his candidacy for governor of Maryland. And with good reason. To run he would have to risk a safe seat in Congress to challenge Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1. His name…

LAST FALL, conventional wisdom had Maryland's lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend coasting to the statehouse to succeed Gov. Parris Glendening. She had already raised a campaign war chest and her name recognition was close to 100 percent. Adding to the air of inevitability was the fact…

THE KENNEDY MAGIC may be fading. Last Tuesday, in Maryland's gubernatorial primary, 21 percent of voters, offered a choice between Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and a retired grocery store clerk, named Robert Raymond Fustero, chose Fustero. Now Townsend faces a formidable challenger in…

HBO'S "Sex and the City" can be interesting and entertaining and, as often as not, crude and startling. But midway through the fifth season, as the lead characters continue to stumble through countless men and meaningless relationships, the show's vision of a modern girl-power paradise is beginning…