Blyth Times

Get The Best Job in Washington!

Want to try for one of the best jobs in the world? Want to be in Washington at one of the most exciting times ever? Then learn more about the White House Fellowships, one of America's most prestigious programs for leadership and public service.

Each year about 11 to 19 people in the early stages of their career are chosen as White House Fellows. They spend a year in Washington working full-time as paid assistants to senior White House staff, the Vice President and other top-ranking officials in the Executive Branch of the government. They also have an education program which gives them the chance to meet and hear from leaders in the administration, Congress, the media and the business world. Add to that the fact they go on several interesting domestic and foreign trips. Plus they earn about $100,000. Yes, it is a great job.

The White House Fellowship program was started during the administration of Lyndon Johnson. Many outstanding Americans have been Fellows, including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, author Doris Kearns Goodwin, and CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Recent classes have included men and women who serve in the military as well as doctors, lawyers, educators, and those with a background in non-profit organizations as well as finance and media. Colin Powell has said about the program, "What I learned about government as a White House Fellow was the key to the opportunities that came my way."

Successful applicants have a strong educational background, have already demonstrated leadership in their careers and have a commitment to public service. Other important qualities - an ability to work well with others and a positive attitude. Not surprising for such a great job, the selection process is very competitive. Hundreds apply and they are winnowed down through regional panels to thirty finalists. The finalists spend a selection weekend with the members of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. Then the Commission recommends those individuals it finds most qualified for the fellowship to the President for appointment as White House Fellows.

You can find out more about the program and how to apply at whitehouse.gov/fellows/. Almost every Fellow says that their year in Washington was amazing and the experiences they had and the friends they made were important to them for the rest of their lives.

Talking to Amazing Ann

  Ann Coulter is at it again. Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America (Crown Forum), the newest book from the leggy, blonde, irritatingly slender liberal-basher hits bookstores this week and is already climbing Amazon’s bestseller list. And so the usual media Ann-a-rama has begun with Coulter launching the book on her pal Sean Hannity’s radio and TV shows. She’ll be on “Today” on Tuesday and will follow that with countless interviews. UPDATE: She was supposed to be on "Today" on Tuesday but was abruptly cancelled.   "Today" claims it was because of "breaking news." Coulter isn’t buying that.   The "Today" cancellation just adds to the controversy she is the master at creating.    Undoubtedly she will do countless other interviews. -Myrna

Coulter’s publicist says she never turns down an interview, even on radio talk shows that sound as if they emanate from someone’s garage. She knows her people are listening and buying thousands of copies of her books. She has already had six New York Times mega-bestsellers. Yes, there is a vast right-wing book-buying public who loves a girl who can call JFK “a venereal-disease-ridden sexual profligate and drug addict”; who never forget that “Sen. Ted Kennedy drove Mary Jo Kopechne off the Chappaquiddick Bridge”; who can recall that “President Clinton walked to and from church every Sunday carrying a ten-pound bible for the cameras – and then returned from church on Palm Sunday, 1996, to use a cigar as a sexual aid on Monica Lewinsky”; who can document, in footnote after footnote, that the Swift Boat Veterans were correct in their condemnation of the war record of “the mountebank Kerry.”

I talked to Coulter about Guilty as she was about to embark on her media tour. The book is (no surprise) another in her attacks against liberals. Her thesis this time is that liberals always act like they are being victimized, primarily by the Republican Attack Machine. While in fact, they, with the help of a very biased media, tend to victimize all who disagree with them. She has written about media bias before. “I really didn’t intend to make the book so much about the media,” she told me, "but I just couldn’t help it because the media has so much power. They like to act as if they are powerless, but everything today is about the media. I just had to point out all their dirty little tricks. If you are Paul Revere you have to sound the alarm.”

She also tells the little-reported tale of how Obama won his Illinois Senate seat. During the presidential campaign, Obama was full of sanctimony about keeping candidates’ families off-limits. But, Coulter writes, “The only reason he was in position to run for president in the first place was that the Media Attack Machine ripped open the sealed divorce records of his two principal opponents … Why did no one know that during the 2008 campaign? The fact that Obama won his Senate seat by rifling through the divorce records of his opponents is surely at least as important as the fact that Palin’s teenage daughter got pregnant out of wedlock,” she contends.

What does Coulter think of Sarah Palin? “I loved Sarah Palin. The media went after her so viciously and it was all about class,” she says. “She is a real middle-class woman, just the sort of woman that Democrats are always pretending they represent, and they attacked her relentlessly. I am not saying she was ready to be president this year, but with McCain running, she wasn’t going to get anywhere near being president. If she goes back to Alaska and is a good governor and studies and learns, she may be a presidential candidate a couple elections from now. Maybe she could be another Reagan. Remember, Reagan didn’t run for president at forty-four. She has things she needs to learn. But she has heart and soul and you can’t learn that from a book.”

As for Caroline Kennedy’s bid to be named senator, Coulter snorted, “I am indignant! In New York and Massachusetts people act as if the rest of the country is primitive, but they are the ones who are so primitive and nepotistic to even consider her. Fortunately, I think that may be headed for a crash landing. Every time she opens her mouth it gets worse.”

Although Coulter has had her great success preaching to the converted, I wondered if she also hoped her books might be read, as well, by independents or even liberals who might be swayed by her arguments. "But liberals don’t read," she replied. “If they read anything they wouldn’t be liberals. Whenever I go to dinner parties it is always conservatives who know things, who have the facts. I want my readers to read the book and be able to shoot down the myth of the Republican Attack Machine. I want them to argue with liberals on the street.”

Still, as the Inauguration approaches, Coulter is feeling just a bit more positive about the Obama presidency. “Judging by his Cabinet choices, he may not be as crazy as I thought he was," she said. “That may be worse for my career but better for the country. And that’s all right with me.”

 

Teach Your Kids About Martin

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday will be observed next Monday. There are lots of ways you and your kids could make this holiday as special as it should be. Each year this holiday is observed on the third Monday in January around the time of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, which is January 15. After King's death in 1968, a bill was introduced in Congress to make King's birthday a national holiday. An important supporter of the holiday was musician Stevie Wonder who released a single called "Happy Birthday" to popularize the idea. Six million signatures were collected on a petition asking Congress to pass the bill, which was the largest petition in favor of an issue in U.S. history. In 1983, President Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday to honor the great civil rights leader who changed America.

"I DIDN'T KNOW THAT"

Here are some Facts About Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and His Holiday:

• He went to Morehouse College when he was only 15 years old.

• He got a Ph.D. from Boston University and met his wife, Coretta, in Boston.

• He was the first African American to be on the cover of Time Magazine.

• He was the youngest man to win the Nobel Prize.

• On January 17, 2001, for the first time, Martin Luther King Day was officially observed in all 50 U.S. states.

Most schools will mark Dr. King's birthday with programs, projects or a day off, but here are some suggestions for other ways you can help your children understand the importance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and his importance to America.

1. Have your child read a book about Martin Luther King Jr. or other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Here are some we recommend:

• Martin's Big Words: The Life of Martin Luther King (Jump at the Sun) by Doreen Rapaport, ages 4-8.

• A Picture Book of Martin Luther King by David Adler (Holiday House), ages 4-8.

• I Have a Dream by Margaret Davidson (Scholastic Paperback), ages 9-12.

• If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King by Ellen Levine, (Scholastic), ages 9-12.

• Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks, (Dial Books), ages 8-10.

• Frederick Douglass: A Picture Book by David Adler (Holiday House), ages 4-8.

2. The web site enchantedlearning.com has several printable books about Dr. King including one called "I Have A Dream" which describes his dream of equality for all. It encourages kids to write about a personal dream they have that would improve the world and how they would make their dream come true.

3. Watch a DVD about Martin Luther King, Jr. Some suggestions: Biography: Martin Luther King, The Man and the Dream (A& E DVD Archives). Or do a little time traveling in an animated adventure called Our Friend Martin, starring Ed Asner and Levar Burton. (20th Century Fox)

4. On his actual birthday, take your kids on a Web tour of the most important sites of the civil rights movement. You will find a guided tour on the National Park Service web site, "We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement" at cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights.

5. We've already noted that Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have A Dream" is one of the most important speeches in American history. You and the kids can listen to it on the History Channel at historychannel.com as well as Robert Kennedy's sad announcement of Dr. King's death. Ask them why they think the speech is so powerful and had such an impact on America?

6. Dr. King's life was one service to others. Make his birthday a day of service for your family by volunteering at a local organization that is involved in helping others. In fact National Service Day this year is on the day his birthday is being celebrated. Many areas also have special events around Dr. King's birthday that emphasize tolerance, diversity and understanding. Check your local news