ENTERTAINMENT
INSIDE SCOOP
LOCAL
BOOK REVIEW
THE BUSH YEARS IN SIMPLE TERMS PAGE 4 CRIME WATCH PAGE 6 GULF WAR IN WORDS PAGE 10
FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2009
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Volume 7 Issue 354
Santa Monica Daily Press NEW ON DVD SEE PAGE 9
Since 2001: A news odyssey
THE SO FAR, SO GOOD ISSUE
Advocacy group expands to D.C.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
SUNSET PARK After 14 years of whistleblow-
own life, and, um, you know, we are facing, you know, unbelievable challenges.” The “you knows” have punctuated a rocky media rollout for the Democratic scion, who emerged from a lifetime of closely guarded privacy to seek appointment to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Senate seat. If Clinton is confirmed as Obama’s secretary of state, as expected, Democratic Gov. David Paterson will choose her successor. Kennedy, who is Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver’s first cousin, has never held public office and has faced questions about her preparedness for the Senate. She has pointed to her experience as a lawyer, education advocate and author of books on constitutional law and other sub-
ing and calling out legislators from afar, a local consumer advocacy group will finally head to the nation’s capitol to keep a closer eye on congressional affairs. Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog, which helped pass a local law prohibiting elected officials from receiving gifts from those who received benefits from City Hall, recently signed a lease for a 1,000 square-foot office space just three blocks from Capitol Hill. The expansion to Washington D.C. comes just weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. “We’re doing it now because there is a historic opportunity for change and there is a reality that the special interest and lobbying groups that have been a fixture in D.C. for many years aren’t packing up their bags and retiring to Texas along with the administration,” Doug Heller, the executive director of Consumer Watchdog, said. The satellite office, which will cost the nonprofit organization about $3,000 a month, will be headed by Carmen Balber, the current consumer advocate and political reform director who will essentially run a one-woman operation before extra staff members are hired over the next few months. The lease went into effect on Thursday and a group of staff members from the headquarters on Ocean Park Boulevard are expected to travel to Washington D.C. next week to set up the new office. “Part of the reason why I am personally excited about opening the D.C. office is just that there’s a level of high expectation from the public,” Balber said. “Change can happen in Washington. “I think it’s really important to be out there to make sure that it happens.” Consumer Watchdog staff currently trav-
SEE KENNEDY PAGE 8
SEE EXPANSION PAGE 8
DRIVEN Big Blue Bus’ Johnson a true pro
STORY BY RACHEL DARDASHTI PAGE 3 Rachel Dardashti news@smdp.com
Kennedy’s verbal ticks get people talking BY JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK If Caroline Kennedy had, you know, only known. Tracking the would-be New York senator’s verbal tics has become a political parlor game in the days since she gave her first round of in-depth interviews, even spawning a hip-hop-style mash-up online blending her “you knows” with President-elect Barack Obama’s “uhs.” Such conversational fillers are, of course, as common as, like, speech itself. But the buzz about Kennedy’s “you knows” illustrates how problematic a few extraneous syllables can be for a public figure, especially in an era when today’s verbal foible is tomorrow’s viral video. “It really did a huge disservice to her,”
said communications training coach Matt Eventoff, a partner in Princeton Public Speaking in Princeton, N.J. Rather than focusing on Kennedy’s views, he said, “people are going to spend time deconstructing the ‘you knows.’” Deconstruct they have, on newsprint, blogs and YouTube, where the “Kennedy Obama UmYouKnow Remix” can be found alongside “The More You Know: Caroline Kennedy.” The latter counts — with a buzzer — 30 “you knows” in 147 seconds of excerpts from an interview with The Associated Press. Bloggers have torn into President John F. Kennedy’s Harvard- and Columbia-educated daughter for such remarks as: “You know, I think, really, um, this is sort of a unique moment, both in our, you know, in our country’s history and in, you know, my
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