Stealth

NEWT GINGRICH has never met a microphone he didn't like. But suddenly he's turned quiet. The speaker and his Republican allies are trying to push through major changes in the way the federal government operates, but they really don't want you -- the voting and reading public -- to know what's going on. Call it the Stealth Revolution.Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, one of Newt's top lieutenants, is frank about the strategy. "The legislative process designed by the founders is so cumbersome that almost nothing happens," he complains.

Forward John Grant Jr. finished with three goals and two assists as the visiting Colorado Mammoth defeated the Minnesota Swarm, 16-14, on Saturday night before a season-high announced 12,243 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The Mammoth (7-9), which led 8-7 at the half, clinched a National Lacrosse League playoff berth earlier in the evening when the Rochester Knighthawks defeated the Bandits in Buffalo. As the No. 4 seed, Colorado will visit the top-seeded Calgary Roughnecks in a semifinal next Saturday at Scotiabank Saddledome.

The conservatives in Congress are taking advantage of a semantic convenience when they insist on "no new taxes for anyone. " It is based on the fact that the poorest Americans are excused from paying federal income tax in the first place, due to their small paychecks and/or disproportionately large obligations. But when tax reductions on the middle class and the rich are balanced by curtailment of government services to the needy, as in the recently passed House Republican budget plan, the tax forgiveness to the better-off comes on the backs of the unemployed, underemployed, elderly and children.

I smiled when I read Susan Reimer 's column about locking one's car doors to prevent thieves from stealing valuables from inside ("Hey Annapolis car owners: Lock it up!" March 7). It seemed so small-town 1950s America, so different from the reality of people who have to park their cars in Baltimore, where locking your car door is completely irrelevant. Here, thieves will smash your side windows and grab your personal items - even out of the glove box, where they know you've stashed your GPS - in less time than it takes to open an unlocked door.

Overnight, the Baltimore Ravens painted the town purple -- and black, and on two memorable occasions, yellow. Rush hour commuters and pedestrians woke up this morning to find that literally hundreds of logos had been spray-painted under cover of darkness on sidewalks from Baltimore's City Hall to Padonia Station, from the Elkridge Library to Perry Hall Middle School in White Marsh. The designs -- the familiar, fierce-looking fowl, rendered in lavender, over bold, black letters spelling out W.I.N.

Washington -- MAYBE IT'S the thick marble walls. Or the thick egos. But news seems to travel exceedingly slow into the inner sanctum of the United States Senate.Remember the exciting stuff -- the Berlin Wall tumbling, the Soviet Union busting apart, the failed Moscow coup, a desperate Gorby panhandling for U.S. bucks?Judged by its latest debate over building more ultra-expensive B-2 Stealth bombers, the Rip Van Winkles of the U.S. Senate must have snoozed while the world changed.In the Senate time warp, the Cold War is alive and well.

WHY DOES A $43 million aircraft lose a section of wing for no apparent reason? Is there a pattern to other, infrequent crashes of the F-117 stealth fighter? This being the second air show crash at Martin State Airport in seven years -- a pilot died in 1990 -- is it imprudent to hold these events at a facility surrounded by densely populated neighbhorhoods?The Baltimore area is fortunate to have eluded a greater tragedy Sunday when the 23-ton Nighthawk fell from the heavens before thousands of spectators and produced no serious injuries.

Although Margo Lee Sherman's solo show at the Theatre Project, "Stealth!!!," hardly lives up to the three exclamation points appended to its title, Ms. Sherman's march through her wacko material is energetic enough to almost make up for the flimsiness of her plotting.It comes as no surprise that this New York-based performer can hold her own on the stage. Having been a member of two influential theater companies, the Bread and Puppet Theater and the Talking Band, she also has numerous solo pieces and some Beckett to her credit.

It is hardly coincidental that on the same day the estimates of the budget deficit went up another $50 billion Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney announced the cancellation of a stealth fighter plane program which could have cost $57 billion. As painful as the cuts may be for 11,000 workers now facing layoff, we have to start somewhere in dismantling what President Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex."Such projects are virtually useless in terms of improving the quality of life of the average person in the United States.

When Rep. John Kasich, the conservative Ohio Republican, and Rep. Ronald Dellums, the liberal California Democrat, agree on something, the House ought to pay attention. Especially when they are supported by the civilian leadership of the Pentagon as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Not to mention the former Bush administration. The issue they agree on? The Air Force doesn't need 20 more B2 Stealth bombers at $1.5 billion each.Usually attempts to force unwanted weaponry on the military is fueled by legislators from districts where those products are made.

The conservatives in Congress are taking advantage of a semantic convenience when they insist on "no new taxes for anyone. " It is based on the fact that the poorest Americans are excused from paying federal income tax in the first place, due to their small paychecks and/or disproportionately large obligations. But when tax reductions on the middle class and the rich are balanced by curtailment of government services to the needy, as in the recently passed House Republican budget plan, the tax forgiveness to the better-off comes on the backs of the unemployed, underemployed, elderly and children.

Wanted: new mascot for 137-year-old racing event. Must appeal to the young and Web-savvy. Social media experience required. That's the premise of an anonymous marketing campaign unveiled this month to unseat the tweeting centaur Kegasus as the mascot of the Preakness Stakes infield party. The new candidates? A leprechaun and the Easter Bunny. The marketing firm hired by the Maryland Jockey Club is presumably behind the campaign, coming as it does as the Preakness advertising season starts to get under way. But it's not taking credit.

The governor wants every Maryland resident to pay an additional surcharge on their energy bills so that he can finance some company's endeavors to build a wind farm off of Ocean City. The windmill initiative might not go anywhere, but the charge won't stop if passed. Is this a quiet attempt to raise revenues? The D.C. government has a similar tax to fund its solar energy grant program, and it recently cancelled the grants to redirect the funds to other city programs. Does Maryland's governor plan to follow suit?

Overnight, the Baltimore Ravens painted the town purple — and black, and on two memorable occasions, yellow. Rush hour commuters and pedestrians woke up this morning to find that literally hundreds of logos had been spray-painted under cover of darkness on sidewalks from Baltimore's City Hall to Padonia Station, from the Elkridge Library to Perry Hall Middle School in White Marsh. The designs — the familiar, fierce-looking fowl, rendered in lavender, over bold, black letters spelling out W.I.N.

By now, anybody with a pulse is well aware that Barack Obama is not what he said he was when seeking our votes for president. He's not a conciliator, he's an ideologue. His "transformative" presidency is one seeking to transform the American system into a European-style social democracy, with the emphasis on "social." His overarching goal — judging from his actions — is to further expand an already stifling federal bureaucracy into such a monolith that private activity will be unable to escape its control.

T wilight might well become a blockbuster, but it's unlikely to be a hit at the Senator Theatre unless lots of grown-ups are closet Stephanie Meyer fans. The movie about a high school girl who falls for a vampire has obvious teen and 'tween appeal. The Senator, not so much. For one thing, it's a "no-texting zone." Owner Tom Kiefaber takes a hard line, telling moviegoers to head for the lobby if they feel the urge to text. "It's the light," he said. "We project the light in here. It's not supposed to be coming from the audience."

WASHINGTON -- The Senate endorsed yesterday President Bush's two top military priorities, the stealth bomber and the "star wars" anti-missile defense system, rejecting arguments that the easing of Cold War tensions and closer U.S.-Soviet ties made the weapons unnecessary.In a series of votes, the Senate approved $4.6 billion for the next fiscal year to test sensors in space and begin fielding an anti-missile defense system by 1996 that would protect the United States against limited nuclear attacks.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Floyd Shelton always had a pretty good idea there was something weird hidden in the gigantic Hughes Mining Barge at the Port of Redwood City.Mr. Shelton, executive director of the port, got his biggest clue one day when he found a heavy crane working on the dock over the heavily guarded barge. Puzzled that he hadn't been notified, he approached the workers. "This guy came walking up with his hand on his holster, saying, 'Can I help you, sir?' "Now, after 10 years of cloak-and-dagger secrecy about what's in the barge, the tantalizing secret is out: It's the Sea Shadow -- an awkward, hulking 560-ton ship that looks like a catamaran from hell, the U.S. Navy's seafaring version of the F-117 "stealth" fighter.