Prof. Boerner's Explorations

by Gerald Boerner

  

Today we continue our examination of the process of choosing a set of lenses for your SLR (or dSLR) camera. More specifically, we examine how the choice of a zoom lenses relates to different types of photographic situations. While these lenses allow us to minimize the number of lenses that we carry in our camera bags, we need to be aware of when a Prime lens may still be better. More specifically, we will consider Macro, Wide-Angle, Portrait, and Landscape photography.  GLB

    

“No photographer is as good as the simplest camera.”
— Edward Steichen

“When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear.”
— Alfred Eisenstaedt

“Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.”
— Yousuf Karsh

“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.”
— Lewis Hine

“I used to hate doing color. I hated transparency film. The way I did color was by not wanting to know what kind of film was in my camera.”
— Helmut Newton

“If I am at a party, I want to be at the party. Too many photographers use the camera to avoid participating in things. They become professional observers.”
— Robert Mapplethorpe

“I almost never set out to photograph a landscape, nor do I think of my camera as a means of recording a mountain or an animal unless I absolutely need a ‘record shot’. My first thought is always of light.”
— Galen Rowell

“But the moment you use an ordinary camera, you are not seeing the picture, remember, meaning, you had to remember what you’ve taken. Now you could see it of course, with a digital thing, but remember in 1982 you couldn’t.”
— David Hockney

  

Focal Technology: Using a Zoom Lens

A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements with the ability to vary its focal length (and thus angle of view), as opposed to a fixed focal length (FFL) lens (see prime lens). They are commonly used with still, video, motion picture cameras, projectors, some binoculars, microscopes, telescopes, telescopic sights, and other optical instruments.

A true zoom lens, also called a parfocal lens, is one that maintains focus when its focal length changes. A lens that loses focus during zooming is more properly called a varifocal lens.

Some General Advantages of Using a Zoom Lens

ScrapJazz has posted a good article on how to use zoom lenses to capture your subject better. We present, with our comments included, a modified version of that article here. Please check out the full site via the reference below.

Would you like to emphasize the subject of your photograph? Here’s one solution: use a telephoto lens and get a close-up view.

A close-up photograph of an object, person, or animal gives us perspective and details that we can’t appreciate from far away. A telephoto lens allows you to get optically close to the subject when you can’t get physically close. A telephoto lens brings distant objects closer. Like a telescope or binoculars, the image is closer and larger.

There are two types of telephoto lenses – fixed and zoom. A fixed lens covers one distance. Some common examples are the 135mm lens, 200mm lens, and 400mm lens. Zoom lens will have a variable focal length and will cover a range of distances. Some common examples are 70-200mm and 80-400mm.

There are several advantages to a telephoto lens:

• Getting closer…
  Sometimes a barrier or distance from the subject prevents you from physically moving closer to your subject. In those cases, a telephoto lens works perfectly because it brings the subject closer. While at the pond, I found I couldn’t get any closer to my subject, a dragonfly. My telephoto lens was able to do the trick.
• Highlight details…
  A telephoto lens can focus on a specific detail of your subject. In addition, it can isolate the subject from a distracting background, making the details even more pronounced.
• Great portraits…
  Telephoto lenses work well for head and shoulder portraits, taking sharp photographs without a distracting background.
• Natural photographs…
  A telephoto lens allows you to photograph people in natural surrounding and poses. Being farther from your subject, you can take photographs without your subject noticing. At the beach, I was able to capture this close-up photograph of my daughter from a distance.

When purchasing and using a telephoto lens keep the following in mind:

• Use high shutter and film (ISO) speeds…
  A telephoto lens magnifies the image. As a consequence, the effects of camera movement are magnified as well. High shutter speeds are necessary to get sharp pictures with a telephoto lens. What is a good shutter speed? A good rule of thumb is that the minimum shutter speed should correlate to the camera’s focal length. If you’re shooting with the camera’s lens zoomed to 300mm, set the shutter speed to 1/300 second or faster. Another option is to increase the camera’s film (ISO) speed.
• Minimize camera shake…
  Since camera movement is magnified with a telephoto lens, you need to use fast shutter speeds to avoid camera shake. If you must use a slow shutter speed, use a tripod. Another alternative is using a telephoto lens with image stabilization (IS) or vibration reducing (VR). These mechanical devices inside your lens can detect camera shake and compensate for it.
• Maintain precise focus…
  In most telephoto lenses, the depth of field is limited so focus needs to be precise. To aid in focusing, purchase a camera with automatic focus. A camera’s automatic focus is faster and better than manual focusing.

  [Regular telephoto lenses “compress” the scene. To preserve the depth of field you might try a Macro zoom lens, since it does not “compress” the scene. I have a been attempting to capture a scene for about two years. My telephoto zoom kept compressing the scene, but once I got my Macro zoom lens, I was able to obtain the image that I was seeking.]

• Take advantage of a wide aperture…
  When taking photographs with a telephoto lens, you have the option of using a wide aperture (such as f/4) to create an uncluttered background. When you want to really focus in on your subject use those wide apertures to blur the background.
• Use a teleconverter…
  Another popular tool in close-up photography is the teleconverter, often found in 1.4X and 2X lengths. These lenses mount to your camera to make your telephoto lens even longer. For example, a 2X teleconverter would make a 200mm lens, a 400mm lens. Although they give you more versatility with your telephoto lens, they require even higher shutter speeds and extreme care for camera shake.

  [One needs to be careful in using these teleconverters. Each of these requires a specific telephoto lens range and causes a loss of light. They are active devices with their own lenses, unlike extension tubes that allow you to take close up/macro photos with a telephoto lenses.]

Next time you want a close-up photograph or you experience a barrier, remember to use a telephoto lens. Take care to use high shutter speeds, minimize camera shake and use precise focusing. Then, you’ll have that photograph that really emphasizes your subject!

Uses of Telephoto Lenses, By Category

Telephoto lenses are available from the mid-wide angle range (15-20 mm) through the nominal 50 mm point to the portrait range (80 to 150 mm). While most “kit” lenses run somewhere from 28-80 mm, their “glass” (lens manufacturing) is generally only mediocre. In most cases, either the 35-135 mm zoom (used for portraits) or the 70-250/300 mm (for long-range nature shots) are probably the most common lenses for most users.

Stanley Leary, in his article “Telling Stories with a Telephoto Lens”, on the Black Star Rising web site presents a good take on these issues. I have included some of his article here for your reference, but you can check out the full article as cited in the Reference Section below.

But pros use the telephoto lens for more than getting closer. We also use it to better tell a story.

Depth of Field

One of the most creative tools a photographer has is the ability to control depth of field (DOF). DOF is the portion of the photograph that appears in sharp focus. Telephoto lenses have a shallow DOF as compared to wide-angle lenses. With either lens, the smaller the f-stop (f16 vs. f8) the deeper the DOF. The reverse is also true. With either type of lens, the DOF is shallower the more open the f-number (f4 vs. f5.6).

By controlling (limiting) the depth of field, you can force the viewer’s attention to only what you want them to see. Take a picture of a football receiver catching the ball, for example. If the DOF is deep and almost everything is in equal focus, the player and the ball will be lost in the color and detail of the crowd. By taking the same picture using a telephoto lens with a shallow DOF, you can isolate the player and the ball from the rest of the picture, thus calling attention to what you want the viewer to see.

Similarly, portrait photographers use medium telephoto lenses to call attention to the face and not the background in both indoor and outdoor portraits.

When you increase the DOF with a telephoto lens, the background will appear closer to the subject than it will with a wide-angle lens. The longer (more powerful) the lens, the closer objects in the photo will appear to each other, and to you. This is a powerful tool that enables you to make all kinds of statements.

Telephoto Storytelling

A sports photographer, for example, might use this technique to show a baseball pitcher in his windup. The scoreboard in the background shows a full count in the bottom of the ninth. By bringing that scoreboard up close behind the pitcher using a telephoto lens, you can see that it’s a no-hitter. That’s storytelling made possible by the creative use of a telephoto lens and selective focus.

By contrast, if the photographer instead uses a shallow depth-of-field, you won’t be able to read the scoreboard. If they use a wide-angle lens, the scoreboard will appear too far away to read.

In portrait photography, a medium telephoto lens shows faces in a normal perspective as compared to the distortion of a wide-angle lens. A moderate telephoto lens of say 80mm to 100mm on a 35mm camera will put you about five to seven feet from the subject for a head-and-shoulders photograph.

When photographing wildlife, the rule of thumb is to use a minimum of a 300 mm lens to fill the frame. You usually don’t want to be five to seven feet from wildlife. That’s why wildlife photographers use 400mm, 500mm, 600mm or even as long as 800mm lenses.

When you begin to shop for a telephoto lens, you’ll find many choices for the same focal length lens. Nikon makes lenses that cost a few hundred dollars on to up to $25,000. The f-stop is a big factor in the cost. The lower the number (faster the lens), the more expensive and heavier the lens. Faster lenses allow for making photos in less light, as well as for shallower DOF.

We all use telephoto lenses simply to “get closer” sometimes. But before mounting any lens on your camera, it’s important to ask yourself, “What story do I want to tell with this picture?” Your lens is a tool that can be used to make your point.

Using your Telephoto Lens for Long-Range, Nature Photography

The following article is available on the eHow web site. The reference to the “How to Use a Telephoto Lens” by G. Wallace-Taylor is found below in the Reference section.

With the prices of telephoto lenses dropping and the availability of SLR (single lens reflex) cameras in the consumer market, the options are endless for capturing those long-range shots. Whether you want to photograph birds and wildlife or landscape compositions, arm yourself with a few guidelines and you’ll soon be taking quality images.

A telephoto lens gets you
up close and personal.

You can improve your photographs taken with your telephoto lens. These hints apply primarily to long-range shots, not wide angle or midrange shots.

1. Step 1…
   Stabilize your camera. Telephoto lenses add weight and throw your camera off-balance. Acquire a sturdy ball-head tripod if you can. Alternately, use a regular tripod and brace it with sandbags.

2. Step 2…
   Use pressure from your hand, either up or down on the lens, when shooting to reduce camera shake. Focus through the viewfinder at the same time to make sure your composition is accurate. Pressure, especially during windy conditions, may save the shot.

3. Step 3…
   Stop down your aperture one or two stops to bring more of your subject into focus. If you’re shooting distant wildlife, a wide-open aperture will allow you to focus on one part of the animal’s body, but may blur out the rest or any additional animals that are nearby.

4. Step 4…
   Sight directly above your lens to find your subject. With long telephoto lenses, it can be difficult to locate your subject when searching through the viewfinder. Learn to sight directly above your lens while turning it to face your subject. When you’re in line, look through the viewfinder to compose and focus the shot.

5. Step 5…
   Capture moving subjects by focusing on the very edge of the subject and panning when the subject moves. This is a good technique for capturing birds in flight. Focus before they take off–and pan, releasing the shutter when they are in position.

6. Step 6…
   Shoot through a vehicle window to shade your lens from direct light. With a telephoto lens, you can set up on one side of your vehicle, allow the lens to extend into the automobile and focus on a subject outside the opposite window. The vehicle acts as a telephoto lens shade, allowing you to get the shot while avoiding light streaks.

      

References:

Barbara London, Jim Stone, & John Upton. (2008) Photography. Pearson, Prentice-Hall

Background and biographical information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Wikipedia: The Camera…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera

Wikipedia: Zoom Lens…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_lens

Web Sites and Blogs:

Brainy Quote: Camera Quotes…
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/camera.html

ScrapJazz: Tips for Telephoto Lens Photographs…
http://www.scrapjazz.com/topics/Photography/Lessons/656.php

eHow: How to Use a Telephoto Lens…
http://www.ehow.com/how_2152226_use-telephoto-lens.html

Black Star Rising: Telling Stories with a Telephoto Lens…
http://rising.blackstar.com/telling-stories-with-a-telephoto-lens.html

by Gerald Boerner

  

Black women have made their marks upon the arts, theater, literature, and the visual arts. They have won awards and become advocates for the rights of women and people of color. But unique among this group is our recent Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice under president George W. Bush. She has held academic appointments, been National Security Advisor, but she did her gender and race proud when she assumed the Secretary’s post. Let’s take a closer look at this outstanding woman leader.  GLB

    

“Punish France, ignore Germany, and forgive Russia.”
— Condoleezza Rice

“If you have any doubt about the degree with which this is self-defense, just look at those pictures from September 11th.”
— Condoleezza Rice

“In light of 50 years of bondage of Eastern Europe, [invading the Soviet Union in 1948 to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons] was probably a reasonable thing to do.”
— Condoleezza Rice

“But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let’s remember that his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.”
— Condoleezza Rice

“I don’t think that anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile.”
— Condoleezza Rice

“Oh, indeed there is a tie between Iraq and what happened on 9/11. It’s not that Saddam Hussein was somehow himself and his regime involved in 9/11, but, if you think about what caused 9/11, it is the rise of ideologies of hatred that lead people to drive airplanes into buildings in New York.”
— Condoleezza Rice

“The growth of entrepreneurial classes throughout the world is an asset in the promotion of human rights and individual liberty, and it should be understood and used as such. Yet peace is the first and most important condition for continued prosperity and freedom. America’s military power must be secure because the United States is the only guarantor of global peace and stability. The current neglect of America’s armed forces threatens its ability to maintain peace.”
— Condoleezza Rice

“The United States doesn’t and can’t condone torture. And I want to make very clear that that’s the view and the policy of the administration, the policy of the president, and that he’s made very clear to American personnel that we will not condone torture….Senator, under no circumstances should we or have we condoned torture. And the president has been very clear that he expects everyone to live up to our international obligations and to American law.”
— Condoleezza Rice

  

Black Women in History: Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice (Born: 1954) is a professor, diplomat and author. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush. Rice was the first African-American woman secretary of state, as well as the second African American (after Colin Powell), and the second woman (after Madeleine Albright). Rice was President Bush’s National Security Advisor during his first term. Before joining the Bush administration, she was a professor of political science at Stanford University where she served as Provost from 1993 to 1999. Rice served as the Soviet and East European Affairs Advisor to President George H.W. Bush during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification.

When beginning as Secretary of State, Rice pioneered a policy of Transformational Diplomacy, with a focus on democracy in the greater Middle East. Her emphasis on supporting democratically elected governments faced challenges as Hamas captured a popular majority in Palestinian elections yet supported Islamist militants, and influential countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt maintained authoritarian systems with U.S. support. While Secretary of State, she chaired the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s board of directors.

In March 2009, Rice returned to Stanford University as a political science professor and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution.

Early Education

Condoleezza Rice as an undergraduate
student at the University of Denver

Rice started learning French, music, figure skating and ballet at age three. At age 15, she began classes with the goal of becoming a concert pianist. Her plans changed when she realized that she did not play well enough to support herself through music alone. While Rice is not a professional pianist, she still practices often and plays with a chamber music group. Rice made use of her pianist training to accompany cellist Yo-Yo Ma for Brahms’s Violin Sonata in D Minor at Constitution Hall in April 2002 for the National Medal of Arts Awards.

High School and University Education

In 1967, the family moved to Denver, Colorado. She attended St. Mary’s Academy, a private all-girls Catholic high school in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado. After studying piano at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Rice enrolled at the University of Denver, where her father both served as an assistant dean and taught a class called "The Black Experience in America." Dean John Rice opposed institutional racism, government oppression, and the Vietnam War.

Rice attended a course on international politics taught by Josef Korbel, the father of future Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. This experience sparked her interest in the Soviet Union and international relations and made her call Korbel "one of the most central figures in my life."

Rice graduated from St. Mary’s Academy in 1970. In 1974, at age 19, Rice earned her BA degree in political science, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver. In 1975, she obtained her Master’s Degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame. She first worked in the State Department in 1977, during the Carter administration, as an intern in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In 1981, at the age of 26, she received her PhD degree in Political Science from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Her dissertation along with some of her earliest publications, centered on military policy and politics in Czechoslovakia.

Early political views

Rice was a Democrat until 1982 when she changed her political affiliation to Republican after growing averse to former President Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy. She cites influence from her father, John Wesley, in this decision, who himself switched from Democrat to Republican after being denied voting registration by the Democratic registrar. In her words to the 2000 Republican National Convention, "My father joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did."

Academic Career

Condoleezza Rice during a 2005
interview on ITV in London

Rice was hired by Stanford University as an Assistant Professor of Political Science (1981–1987). She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1987, a post she held until 1993. She was a specialist on the Soviet Union and gave lectures on the subject for the Berkeley-Stanford joint program led by UC Berkeley Professor George Breslauer in the mid-1980s.

At a 1985 meeting of arms control experts at Stanford, Rice’s performance drew the attention of Brent Scowcroft, who had served as National Security Advisor under Gerald Ford. With the election of George H. W. Bush, Scowcroft returned to the White House as National Security Adviser in 1989, and he asked Rice to become his Soviet expert on the United States National Security Council. According to R. Nicholas Burns, President Bush was "captivated" by Rice, and relied heavily on her advice in his dealings with Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin.

Because she would have been ineligible for tenure at Stanford if she had been absent for more than two years, in 1991, she returned to Stanford. She was now taken under the wing of George P. Shultz (Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State from 1982–1989), who was a fellow at the Hoover Institution. Shultz included Rice in a "luncheon club" of intellectuals who met every few weeks to discuss foreign affairs. In 1992, Shultz, who was a board member of Chevron Corporation, recommended Rice for a spot on the Chevron board. Chevron was pursuing a $10 billion development project in Kazakhstan and, as a Soviet specialist, Rice knew the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. She traveled to Kazakhstan on Chevron’s behalf and, in honor of her work, in 1993, Chevron named a 129,000-ton supertanker SS Condoleezza Rice. During this period, Rice was also appointed to the boards of Transamerica Corporation (1991) and Hewlett-Packard (1992).

At Stanford, in 1992, Rice volunteered to serve on the search committee to replace outgoing president Donald Kennedy. The committee ultimately recommended Gerhard Casper, the Provost of the University of Chicago. Casper met Rice during this search, and was so impressed that in 1993, he appointed her as Stanford’s Provost, the chief budget and academic officer of the university in 1993 and she also was granted tenure and became full Professor Rice was the first female, first minority, and youngest Provost at Stanford. She was also named a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution.

Provost Promotion

Former Stanford President Gerhard Casper said the university was "most fortunate in persuading someone of Professor Rice’s exceptional talents and proven ability in critical situations to take on this task. Everything she has done, she has done well; I have every confidence that she will continue that record as provost." Acknowledging Rice’s unique character, Casper told the New Yorker in 2002 that it "would be disingenuous for me to say that the fact that she was a woman, the fact that she was black and the fact that she was young weren’t in my mind."

Balancing School Budget

As Stanford’s Provost, Rice was responsible for managing the university’s multi-billion dollar budget. The school at that time was running a deficit of $20 million. When Rice took office, she promised that the budget deficit would be balanced within "two years." Coit Blacker, Stanford’s deputy director of the Institute for International Studies, said there "was a sort of conventional wisdom that said it couldn’t be done… that [the deficit] was structural, that we just had to live with it." Two years later, Rice announced that the deficit had been eliminated and the university was holding a record surplus of over $14.5 million.

Special Interest Issues

Rice drew protests when, as provost, she departed from the practice of applying affirmative action to tenure decisions and unsuccessfully sought to consolidate the university’s ethnic community centers.

Return to Stanford

During a farewell interview in early December 2008, Rice indicated she would return to Stanford and the Hoover Institution, "back west of the Mississippi where I belong", but beyond writing and teaching did not specify what her role would be. Rice’s plans for a return to campus were elaborated in an interview with the Stanford Report in January 2009. She returned to Stanford as a political science professor and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution on March 1, 2009.

Early political career

In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, Rice served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

From 1989 through March 1991 (the period of the fall of Berlin Wall and the final days of the Soviet Union), she served in President George H.W. Bush’s administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In this position, Rice helped develop Bush’s and Secretary of State James Baker’s policies in favor of German reunification. She impressed Bush, who later introduced her to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as the one who "tells me everything I know about the Soviet Union."

In 1991, Rice returned to her teaching position at Stanford, although she continued to serve as a consultant on the former Soviet Bloc for numerous clients in both the public and private sectors. Late that year, California Governor Pete Wilson appointed her to a bipartisan committee that had been formed to draw new state legislative and congressional districts in the state.

In 1997, she sat on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military.

During George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential election campaign, Rice took a one-year leave of absence from Stanford University to help work as his foreign policy advisor. The group of advisors she led called itself The Vulcans in honor of the monumental Vulcan statue, which sits on a hill overlooking her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Rice would later go on to give a noteworthy speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention. The speech asserted that "…America’s armed forces are not a global police force. They are not the world’s 911."

National Security Advisor (2001–2005)

Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell,
and Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld listen to President George W.
Bush speak about the Middle East
on June 24, 2002

On December 17, 2000, Rice was named as National Security Advisor and stepped down from her position at Stanford. She was the first woman to occupy the post. Rice earned the nickname of "Warrior Princess," reflecting strong nerve and delicate manners.

On January 18, 2003, the Washington Post reported that Rice was involved in crafting Bush’s position on race-based preferences. Rice has stated that "while race-neutral means are preferable," race can be taken into account as "one factor among others" in university admissions policies.

Terrorism

During the summer of 2001, Rice met with CIA Director George Tenet to discuss the possibilities and prevention of terrorist attacks on American targets. Notably, on July 10, 2001, Rice met with Tenet in what he referred to as an "emergency meeting" held at the White House at Tenet’s request to brief Rice and the NSC staff about the potential threat of an impending al Qaeda attack. Rice responded by asking Tenet to give a presentation on the matter to Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

When asked about the meeting in 2006, Rice asserted she did not recall the specific meeting, commenting that she had met repeatedly with Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. Moreover, she stated that it was "incomprehensible” to her that she had ignored terrorist threats two months before the September 11 attacks.

Subpoenas

In March 2004, Rice declined to testify before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission). The White House claimed executive privilege under constitutional separation of powers and cited past tradition. Under pressure, Bush agreed to allow her to testify so long as it did not create a precedent of presidential staff being required to appear before United States Congress when so requested. Her appearance before the commission on April 8, 2004, was accepted by the Bush administration in part because she was not appearing directly before Congress. She thus became the first sitting National Security Advisor to testify on matters of policy.

In April 2007, Rice rejected, on grounds of executive privilege, a House subpoena regarding the prewar claim that Iraq sought yellowcake uranium from Niger.

Iraq

Rice was a proponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. After Iraq delivered its declaration of weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations on December 8, 2002, Rice wrote an editorial for The New York Times entitled "Why We Know Iraq Is Lying".

Leading up to the 2004 presidential election, Rice became the first National Security Advisor to campaign for an incumbent president. She stated that while: "Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the actual attacks on America, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was a part of the Middle East that was festering and unstable, [and] was part of the circumstances that created the problem on September 11."

Weapons of mass destruction

In a January 10, 2003 interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Rice made headlines by stating regarding Iraqi WMD: "The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

After the invasion, when it became clear that Iraq did not have nuclear WMD capability, critics called Rice’s claims a "hoax," "deception" and "demagogic scare tactic." "Either she missed or overlooked numerous warnings from intelligence agencies seeking to put caveats on claims about Iraq’s nuclear weapons program, or she made public claims that she knew to be false," wrote Dana Milbank and Mike Allen in the Washington Post.

Rice characterized the August 6, 2001 President’s Daily Brief Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US as historical information. Rice indicated "It was information based on old reporting." Sean Wilentz of Salon magazine suggested that the PDB contained current information based on continuing investigations, including that Bin Laden wanted to "bring the fighting to America."

Role in Authorizing Use of Torture Techniques

A Senate Intelligence Committee reported that on July 17, 2002, Rice met with CIA director George Tenet to personally convey the Bush administration’s approval of the proposed waterboarding of alleged Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. "Days after Dr Rice gave Mr Tenet her approval, the Justice Department approved the use of waterboarding in a top secret August 1 memo." Waterboarding is considered to be torture by a wide range of authorities, including legal experts, war veterans, intelligence officials, military judges, human rights organizations, the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and many senior politicians, including U.S. President Barack Obama.

In 2003 Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General John Ashcroft met with the CIA again and were briefed on the use of waterboarding and other methods including week-long sleep deprivation, forced nudity and the use of stress positions. The Senate report says that the Bush administration officials "reaffirmed that the CIA program was lawful and reflected administration policy".

The Senate report also "suggests Miss Rice played a more significant role than she acknowledged in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee submitted in the autumn." At that time, she had acknowledged attending meetings to discuss the CIA interrogations, but she claimed that she could not recall the details, and she "omitted her direct role in approving the programme in her written statement to the committee."

In a conversation with a student at Stanford University in April 2009, Rice stated that she did not authorize the CIA to use the enhanced interrogation techniques. Said Rice, "I didn’t authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency that they had policy authorization, subject to the Justice Department’s clearance. That’s what I did." She added, “We were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so, by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Conventions Against Torture.”

Secretary of State (2005–2009)

Rice signs official papers after receiving the oath of office during her ceremonial swearing in at the Department of State. Watching on are, from left, Laura Bush, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President George W. Bush.

 

On November 16, 2004, Bush nominated Rice to be Secretary of State. On January 26, 2005, the Senate confirmed her nomination by a vote of 85-13. The negative votes, the most cast against any nomination for Secretary of State since 1825, came from Senators who, according to Senator Barbara Boxer, wanted "to hold Dr. Rice and the Bush administration accountable for their failures in Iraq and in the war on terrorism." Their reasoning was that Rice had acted irresponsibly in equating Hussein’s regime with Islamist terrorism and some could not accept her previous record. Senator Robert Byrd voted against Rice’s appointment, indicating that she "has asserted that the President holds far more of the war power than the Constitution grants him."

Condoleezza Rice visits Governor
General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean
in Ottawa, Ontario.

As Secretary of State, Rice has championed the expansion of democratic governments. Rice stated that the September 11 attacks in 2001 were rooted in "oppression and despair" and so, the US must advance democratic reform and support basic rights throughout the greater Middle East. Rice has also reformed and restructured the department, as well as US diplomacy as a whole. "Transformational Diplomacy" is the goal that Rice describes as "work[ing] with our many partners around the world… [and] build[ing] and sustain[ing] democratic, well-governed states that will respond to the needs of their people and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system."

As Secretary of State, Rice traveled widely and initiated many diplomatic efforts on behalf of the Bush administration. Her diplomacy relied on strong presidential support and is considered to be the continuation of style defined by former Republican secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and James Baker.

     

References:

Paula J. Giddings. (1996) When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. Harper

Background and biographical information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Wikipedia: Condoleezza Rice…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice

Wikiquote: Condoleezza Rice…
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Condoleezza_Rice

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by Gerald Boerner

  

The Congressional Medal of Honor is the top award for bravery above and beyond the call to duty awarded within our military. It is awarded to those who have put themselves in peril to protect and/or save their fellow soldiers. More often as not, these medals are awarded posthumously to soldiers who have died in their valiant efforts. Today, we look at the story of one such man who put himself in danger to protect his fellow soldiers. Fortunately, for Airman John Levitow, he lived to recover from his wounds and live a long life. John, we honor you and your fellow recipients of this award. Thank You.  GLB

    

“I had no idea what the Medal of Honor was; I had never heard of it. I came from this little town in northern California. I was pretty naive.”
— Joan Jacobson

“The Hawaii Medal of Honor is a symbol of our remembering those who stood tall for our values so that we may live in a land perpetuated in righteousness.”
— Senator Norman Sakamoto

“That was Valor Day, when the New York Police Department hands out medals. She’s wearing the medal they awarded Moira, the department’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor.”
— James Smith

“As an American it’s such a wonderful occurrence that this great nation, after 65 years, would honor the memory of a great naval war hero and spend the time and effort to dignify his medal and his family.”
— Robert Rosen

“I would simply ask Al Gore to take responsibility for his campaign and their actions, as well as his own words, … When his campaign demeans a medal of honor winner like Bob Kerrey, there should be an apology from Al Gore.”
— Bill Bradley

“It just seemed so odd that someone in a city that had both Union and Confederate soldiers — including a recipient of the Union Medal of Honor — would claim to be involved in the Lincoln assassination. What would be the motive for claiming that? To get yourself killed?”
— Diane Kamp

“The things you have to do to win (a Medal of Honor) are so rare, so unusual. Millions of people have served in the armed forces, and only a couple thousand have received one. What they would have to do would be so phenomenal, so over the top, that it just doesn’t happen very often.”
— David Burrelli

“The mayor’s sending out letters to many of the business leaders in the area, asking for their financial help in this project. Personally, I’d like to see the project completed by Medal of Honor Day on March 25. That means getting it funded, the monument constructed and installed by then.”
— Jim Rhodes

Airman Levitow: Vietnam War Hero

John L. Levitow (1945 – 2000), was an AC-47 gunship loadmaster for the 3d Special Operations Squadron who became the lowest-ranking Airman ever to receive the Medal of Honor for exceptional heroism during wartime.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, He originally intended to join the United States Navy, but changed his mind and joined the US Air Force. His first job was civil engineering, then he cross-trained into the loadmaster career field.

On February 24, 1969, Levitow was asked to fill in for the regular loadmaster on an armed AC-47 named “Spooky 71″. They were flying night missions near the Tan Son Nhut Air base area when Long Binh came under attack. It was Airman Levitow’s job to set the ejection and ignition controls on Mark 24 magnesium flares and pass to the gunner. These flares were three-foot-long, 27 pound metal tubes that would burn at 4000 degrees, illuminate with intensity of two million candlepower and burn for more than a minute.

As they were patrolling the area the pilot, Kenneth Carpenter of “Spooky 71″ had seen muzzle flashes outside Long Binh Army Base. The pilot threw the AC-47 and its eight-man crew into a turn to engage the Viet Cong in the Tan Son Nhut Air Base area.

On the pilot’s command, the gunner pulled the safety pin and tossed the flare through the open cargo door. Suddenly, Spooky 71 was jarred by a tremendous explosion. A North Vietnamese Army’s 82-millimeter mortar shell hit the right wing and exploded inside the wing frame. The blast raked the fuselage with flying shrapnel. Everyone in the back of Spooky 71 was wounded, including Levitow who was hit by shrapnel that he was quoted as saying “felt like being hit by a two-by-four.”

[Airforce Magazine: 20 Seconds Over Long Binh.]

A1C John Levitow, badly wounded, threw himself on the burning flare and dragged it to the cargo door—saving the entire crew of Spooky 71.

Night was approaching as Spooky 71, an AC-47 gunship, took off from Bien Hoa Air Base, a few miles northwest of Saigon. It was Feb. 24, 1969, and the second day of the Tet counteroffensive.

The Tet lunar new year of 1968—the one history remembers—had seen large-scale coordinated attacks on cities, provincial capitals, and bases all over South Vietnam. Militarily, it was a failure for the North Vietnamese, but it undercut the confidence of the American public and it was a turning point in the war.

The Tet 1969 offensive was carried out mostly by Viet Cong irregulars. It concentrated on US military installations, especially in the III Corps area around Saigon.

The rocket and mortar attacks on the bases picked up when darkness fell. Nothing was more effective than a gunship in breaking up such attacks.

For the next six hours, Spooky 71 would fly a combat air patrol circuit over the Saigon/Tan Son Nhut area, ready to respond wherever its fire support was needed. It would be relieved by another gunship for the midnight-to-dawn shift.

The loadmaster on Spooky 71 was A1C John L. Levitow, 23, from Glastonbury, Conn. It was his 180th combat mission, but he had never flown with this crew before. He was filling in for a loadmaster who had taken his place when he was sick.

Before the night was over, Levitow would perform an act of astounding bravery for which he would ultimately be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Levitow had joined the Air Force in June 1966, some 20 days ahead of being drafted into the Army. At first, he was a power line specialist with the civil engineering squadron at McGuire AFB, N.J.

He decided to try a different specialty after an experience in which “the power was not turned off when I thought it was turned off,” so he cross trained as a loadmaster. He flew as a crewman on C-130s for a short tour, then went to Vietnam to fly on AC-47s.

He reported to the 3rd Special Operations Squadron at Nha Trang in July 1968 and was assigned to the squadron’s forward operating location at Bien Hoa.

Despite his wounds, Levitow saw a loose, burning Mark 24 flare had been knocked free in the fuselage and was rolling amid ammunition cans that contained 19,000 rounds of live ammunition.

Through a haze of pain and shock, Levitow, with 40 shrapnel wounds in his legs, side and back, and fighting a 30-degree bank; crawled to the flare and threw himself upon it. Hugging it to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled it through the open cargo door saving the plane and aircraft. When the aircraft finally returned to the base, the extent of the damage became apparent. The AC-47 had more than 3,500 holes in the wings and fuselage, one measuring more than three feet long.

Levitow received the Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon on, May 14, 1970, on Armed Forces Day. Levitow died of cancer on November 8, 2000. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. His grave can be found in section 66, site 7107, map grid DD/17.

Medal of Honor Citation

Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Air Force, 3d Special Operations Squadron. place and date: Long Binh Army post, Republic of Vietnam, 24 February 1969. Entered service at: New Haven, Conn. Born: 1 November 1945, Hartford, Conn.

Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Levitow (then A1c.), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism while assigned as a loadmaster aboard an AC-47 aircraft flying a night mission in support of Long Binh Army post. Sgt. Levitow’s aircraft was struck by a hostile mortar round. The resulting explosion ripped a hole 2 feet in diameter through the wing and fragments made over 3,500 holes in the fuselage. All occupants of the cargo compartment were wounded and helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage. The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember who had been launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged in combat. Sgt. Levitow, though stunned by the concussion of the blast and suffering from over 40 fragment wounds in the back and legs, staggered to his feet and turned to assist the man nearest to him who had been knocked down and was bleeding heavily. As he was moving his wounded comrade forward and away from the opened cargo compartment door, he saw the smoking flare ahead of him in the aisle. Realizing the danger involved and completely disregarding his own wounds, Sgt. Levitow started toward the burning flare. The aircraft was partially out of control and the flare was rolling wildly from side to side. Sgt. Levitow struggled forward despite the loss of blood from his many wounds and the partial loss of feeling in his right leg. Unable to grasp the rolling flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare. Hugging the deadly device to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door. At that instant the flare separated and ignited in the air, but clear of the aircraft. Sgt. Levitow, by his selfless and heroic actions, saved the aircraft and its entire crew from certain death and destruction. Sgt. Levitow’s gallantry, his profound concern for his fellowmen, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

Afterthought

It may be refreshing to know that some Medal of Honor winners are still human. They live life like the rest of us. Even though they might be offered position, riches, authority, the following attitude is probably more representative of their true character:

“Yeah, that’s right, … They gave him the Medal of Honor. President Truman did. And then he came home to our little town, Grace Junction. They had a parade for him, and the town fathers came to my parents’ house and said to him, ‘Charlie, what you got in mind for yourself now?’ Charlie said he didn’t know. Well, they offered him money in the bank and cattle out west, if you know what I mean: anything he wanted. The mayor said Charlie could have a full scholarship to the state university. The banker said he could understand if Charlie didn’t want to go back to school after all he’d been through, so he was offering him a management job, big future, at the bank. The sawmill owner–we’re from piney-woods country–says, ‘Charlie, you may not want to be cooped up in a bank, come manage my crew.’ And you know what? Damned if Charlie didn’t turn them all down.”
— Jack Stanton

      

Other Events on this Day

• In 1827…
  The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first commercial railroad in the United States to carry passengers and freight, is incorporated.
• In 1849…
  The steamship California, carrying gold-seekers, arrives in San Francisco from New York, marking the beginning of regular steamboat travel between the East and West Coasts.
• In 1854…
  Opponents of slavery meet in Ripon, Wisconsin, and agree to form a new political group, which later becomes the Republican Party.
• In 1932…
  The last Ford Model A (the successor to the Model T) rolls off the factory line.
• In 1969…
  Airman First Class John Levitow was recovery from shrapnel wounds suffered when he protected his eight companions from a magnesium flare in the Helicopter.

Dates and events based on:

William J. Bennett and John Cribb, (2008) The American Patriot’s Almanac Daily Readings on America. (Kindle Edition)

Background information is from Wikipedia articles on:

Wikipedia: John Levitow… 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Levitow

The Air Force Magazine: 20 Seconds Over Long Binh…
http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2005/April%202005/0405levitow.aspx

ThinkExist: Quotation Results — Medal of Honor…
http://thinkexist.com/search/searchQuotation.asp?search=Medal+of+Honor