The traveling notepad visits IPIC

So I'm down in Orlando for the annual IPIC conference, where weather forecasters are suggesting that people pull out their winter wear because the high is only supposed to be in the 60s. Still, it is 10-degrees below normal. (Of course, it sounds great compared to the DC high of 48.)

I have been working on a number of posts about my travels in Redmond last week. I was on Federal News Radio this morning talking about it. (Hear that here.)

I ended up taking my last red-eye ever coming back from Seattle on Thursday night/Friday morning. Unfortunately, the flight was more than three hours late. I made it into the office on Friday, but the flight pretty much wiped me out for the weekend.

Some other news and notes:

* On my travels out to Seattle, you'll never guess who got the seat next to me? None other then GSA Administrator Lurita Doan. Doan was one of the keynote speakers at the Microsoft Public Sector CIO Summit. I can only imagine how horrified she must have been to see a press guy sitting next to her on the flight, but we had a good chat.

* The Washington Post this morning fronts that the problems at Walter Reed are not limited to just Walter Reed.

On that subject, a worth-read is Bob Schieffer's commentary from Face the Nation yesterday.

Only three people rise above this mess: Washington Post Reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull and the remarkable Bob Woodruff of ABC News.

The Posties did what the rest of us should have. When they heard the rumors, they took the time to check them out. Not rocket science, just the first obligation of journalism.

Then there is Woodruff, who went to Iraq to get one story, was badly wounded and after months of treatment recovered to find another: the unacceptable way that many who suffered the kind of serious brain injury he suffered were lost in a nightmare of red tape and going without the treatment they needed.

The rest of us should have paid more attention. We can only be grateful to three who did.

China Gives Big Boost to Military Spending
On the eve of the annual National People's Congress, China announced yesterday that it will augment military spending by 17.8% this year, the largest increase in more than 10 years and one that increased anxiety among some of the country's neighbors and strategic rivals, as the Guardian reports. China's defense budget for this year will amount to nearly $45 billion, The Wall Street Journal adds -- compared with some $600 billion in U.S. military spending. And a spokesman for the yearly parliamentary gathering, which opens today and is set to approve the government's budget this week, said the added money will go toward improving military technology as well as boosting soldiers' pay.