Word: binding
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...Bush is in a bind--caught between his principles and moneymen on one side and the prospect of summertime blackouts, spiraling prices and mutinous legislators on the other. He needs a way out, and may have found one. This week a little-known agency called the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission meets in a special session, its first with two new Bush appointees in place. For the past year, FERC has ignored pleas for sweeping electricity price controls in California and other Western states. Last fall, at a congressional subcommittee hearing in San Diego, chairman Curtis Hebert suggested that consumers should...
...Bush, the beauty of having the nominally independent FERC send an EMS team to Granny's house is that it allows him to keep his distance and take credit at the same time--to escape the bind without seeming to try. At a frosty meeting with California lawmakers last week, Cheney repeated his opposition to price controls even as he suggested help from FERC could be on the way. The White House believes in the free market, but it will crow this week that FERC acted because Bush had called on it to be vigilant. "He has not been looking...
...Five Ages of the Universe (Touchstone Books; 2000), Adams predicts that all this dead matter will eventually collapse into black holes. By the time the universe is 1 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years old, the black holes themselves will disintegrate into stray particles, which will bind loosely to form individual "atoms" larger than the size of today's universe. Eventually, even these will decay, leaving a featureless, infinitely large void. And that will be that--unless, of course, whatever inconceivable event that launched the original Big Bang should recur, and the ultimate free lunch is served once more...
...itching for some old- fashioned deal-making back home, where he's already scored triumphs on education and taxes. But then again, he may want to linger in the departure lounge. Waiting for him is one of the most frustrating and gridlock-producing pieces of legislation to bind up Washington in recent years, which Democrats will force Bush to take up this week: the patients' bill of rights...
...That's right. This administration is the grandchild of Reagan's principle that government isn't the solution, it's the problem. Still, President Bush is in a bind, because he can no longer say the science is inconclusive. He can say that drastic actions to curb global warming could hurt the economy. It's certainly going to take a deft hand to steer the economy through the issue of climate change...