WHAT TO DO UNTIL THOMAS JEFFERSON ARRIVES IN BAGHDAD

THE HORSEFEATHERS PLAN: DEMOCRACY FROM THE BOTTOM UP

1. An American military presence that guarantees regional stability, oil assets, and business development.

2. American administration of oil assets that prevents internal fragmentation and external incursion. It also de-Arabizes control over Middle-Eastern oil.

3. Creation of a government with a weak central administration and strong federated states that each determine their own culture.

4. Coalition encouragement of market and business oriented institutions, allowing democratic ideas to emerge from a prosperous bourgeois business community.

5. Subsidization of a private enterprise free press.

The link has the details. Horsefeathers seems right on when it comes to the future of Iraq. Number 4 will be especially important if the country is ever going to see freedom and prosperity. Number 1 is something that I didn't even think of but it makes perfect sense. If we have a continued military presence in Iraq, there will be no need to immediately attack Syria or Iran. Our mere presence may force those countries to re-think their anti-American attitudes or face the stick.

Middle Ages were warmer than today, say scientists

A review of more than 240 scientific studies has shown that today's temperatures are neither the warmest over the past millennium, nor are they producing the most extreme weather - in stark contrast to the claims of the environmentalists.

The review, carried out by a team from Harvard University, examined the findings of studies of so-called "temperature proxies" such as tree rings, ice cores and historical accounts which allow scientists to estimate temperatures prevailing at sites around the world.

The findings prove that the world experienced a Medieval Warm Period between the ninth and 14th centuries with global temperatures significantly higher even than today.

The global warming issue has always been bogus because they can't determine if the world was getting warmer outside of a small time period. Our weather records are no older than the United States. Now that a study shows that the world was once warmer, don't count on the "earth is falling" crowd to relent. Global Warming and the Kyoto treaty have always been about letting the rest of the world catch up to the United States economically. That's why countries like China aren't bound by the rules.

Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel says Iraq war justified

Nobel peace prize laureate Elie Wiesel said the war on Iraq is justified and blamed unnamed European countries for failing to prevent it through pressuring President Saddam Hussein

"If some European countries put as much pressure on Saddam Hussein as on (US President George W.) Bush, there would have been no war," he told a press conference in Montreal.

"Saddam Hussein had to be disarmed (and) there were no other means," said the Nazi concentration camp survivor and author who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1986 for his message "of peace, atonement and human dignity."

Weisel's support takes the sting out of being rebuked by the pope.

Judge upholds Augusta protest law, denies Burk

A federal judge ruled against Martha Burk and protesters of the all-male membership at Augusta National Golf Club, saying the city could relegate them to a site nearly a half-mile away.

The judge called the area outside Augusta National "profoundly congested" during the Masters and said allowing protesters to congregate outside the gate presents "a realistic, plausible, even probable potential for some accidental injury."

The sheriff's office has approved protest permits for nine groups.

Burk and the Rev. Jesse Jackson plan to demonstrate against the all-male membership. Two groups have received permits to protest against Burk. Another group plans to protest against Jackson. A one-man faction of the Ku Klux Klan, who lists Tiger Woods as his favorite golfer, will support Augusta National's rights to private membership.

Another man wants to demonstrate in support of President Bush's war policy.

Then there's Deke Wiggins and his "People Against Ridiculous Protests." Their permit has been approved, too.

This protest is going to look like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. I'd like to see a group picture.

Hollywood's Darling, Liberals' Blind Spot
(Richard Cohen, Washington Post, April 8, 2003)

Just recently the government of Fidel Castro arrested about 80 dissidents and almost instantly brought them to trial -- if it can be called that. Foreign journalists and diplomats were excluded from the proceedings, in which 12 of the accused face life sentences. All of them are undoubtedly guilty of seeking greater freedom and on occasion meeting with visiting human rights activists. In Cuba, those are crimes.

Castro is probably relying on the fact that the United States is occupied elsewhere, and as usual, he needs scapegoats to blame for the dismal state of the Cuban economy. But he can rely also on the unswerving naivete and obtuseness of the American left, which consistently has managed to overlook what a goon he is. Instead, it concentrates on his willingness to meet with American intellectuals and chatter long into the night. He is, apparently, good company.

The story of Cuba's crackdown since the war with Iraq has been under-reported.

In its report on Cuba, Human Rights Watch came right to the point: "Over the last 40 years, Cuba has developed a highly effective machinery of repression." What that means is almost no civil liberties and a penal system as medieval and barbaric as any in the world. That system was accurately portrayed in the 2001 movie "Before Night Falls," which was based on the memoir of the Cuban novelist Reinaldo Arenas. He had served time in Castro's jails for being a homosexual. Before killing himself, Arenas left a note: "There is only one person I hold responsible: Fidel Castro."

About the time that movie was released, I talked with someone who had just visited Castro as part of a Hollywood contingent. I had to listen once again to how erudite the Cuban dictator is and how, of course, he has established a first-class health system. No doubt Castro has read his Gabriel Garcia Marquez and no doubt he cares about medical treatment. But he also runs a regime a shade worse than China's, according to Freedom House.

Cohen is willing to give Castro credit for first class health care, but how can we even trust that. We only know that the health care is first class at the hospitals he allows people to see.

If my Hollywood friend was some sort of aberration, I would not have given him a second thought. But he is fairly typical of many American liberals. They seem to think that any regime targeted by the United States is, ipso facto, an innocent victim. Some of that sentiment once attached to the Soviet Union -- remember how the Cold War was the fault of an insensitive America? -- and more recently to Saddam Hussein and Iraq. From some of what was said from the left, you would think that the current war is really about oil or imperialism or revenge -- and not for a moment about the sort of regime Hussein runs.

Castro is a chic dictator. Steven Spielberg palled around with him recently. He seems to see no parallels between Castro's oppression and Hitler's. A Cuban-American graduate Student at NYU wrote a great letter to Spielberg about this inconsistency. The hordes of so-called humanitarians are more concerned that the United States uses the death penalty than 90 ninety miles from our border innocent human beings are living in slavery.

Did we get him?

As U.S. officials tried to determine whether Saddam Hussein survived a massive bombing in Baghdad, the battle for control of the Iraqi capital raged Tuesday with American forces blasting government targets and foiling an apparent Iraqi counterattack. Overnight, a U.S. warplane dropped four bunker-buster bombs and blasted a smoking crater 60 feet deep at a building in the capital where the Iraqi president and his sons were believed to be meeting.

PRESIDENT BUSH said he didn’t know whether Saddam was alive after a thunderous explosion rocked the upscale al-Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad. “I don’t know whether he survived,” the president said. “The only thing I know is that he’s losing power,” Bush said at a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair after a meeting at Hillsborough Castle outside Belfast. Intelligence officials told NBC that it would take time to determine if Saddam was inside the complex.

If he miraculously survived this, he won't last much longer. Our intelligence sources and our occupation of Baghdad will mean curtains for that cheap thug.

Mona Lisa was pregnant

FOR 500 years, the art world's greatest enigma has captivated audiences and divided art historians.

Now an academic has suggested the secret of the Mona Lisa's mysterious smile is that she is just about to have a baby.

"Look at her swollen limbs. Her fingers, for example. She is not wearing rings. Yet a woman of that wealth would wear rings," Nuland said. He concludes Lisa has removed the rings because her fingers had got rather fat.

"Her face, too, is a little round while her hands are folded over her abdomen as pregnant women do," he said.

Further evidence for the pregnancy comes from records in Florence, where the painting was begun in 1503, showing Lisa del Gioconda gave birth late that year.

The more I have seen paintings and read about artists, the less I understand why the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. I think it is interesting to look at, but a lot of artists painted portraits. I have never seen it in person and maybe that makes all the difference. I love the Nat King Cole song, and there was a terrific novel written about a guy who steals it, but there isn’t much going on in the painting itself. da Vinci’s the Last Supper gives you a whole story. Maybe it is just the simplicity of her looking away from the artist and the mystery of her smile. If the French ever get their lids on straight, I may get to see it someday.

IRAQ'S OFFIICAL RESPONSE TO THE OCCUPATION OF BAGHDAD

"There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!

"They tried to bring a small number of tanks and personnel carriers in through al-Durah but they were surrounded and most of their infidels had their throats cut. "We made them drink poison last night [Sunday] and Saddam Hussein's soldiers and his great forces gave the Americans a lesson which will not be forgotten by history. Truly.

"On this occasion, I am not going to mention the number of the infidels who were killed and the number of destroyed vehicles. The operation continues.

"I can say, and I am responsible for what I am saying, that they have started to commit suicide under the walls of Baghdad. We will encourage them to commit more suicides quickly.

This could have come off the pages of The Onion. It reads like a medievel comic book with its graphic depiction of how we failed miserably. In fact, read this Onion article and see if the Iraqis aren't just as funny.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan compares Iraqi mouthpice, Mohammed Saeed Sahaf, to the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Natalie Maines says she was Joking

Maines admitted that she told a London concert audience that the group was ashamed that the President is from their home state of Texas, but added, "It was a joke and it wasn't planned. And it was really funny at the time. It got lots of cheers, and that's what it was meant for. You see the trouble that you can get into if you speak religion or politics. It gets people very upset."

When I tell people that I'm ashamed that Janet Reno is from my home state, It has them rolling in the aisles. A friend once choked on a chicken bone when I said it.

Supreme Court Upholds Cross Burning Ban

The Supreme Court upheld a state ban on cross burning, ruling Monday the history of racial intimidation attached to it outweighs the free speech protection of Ku Klux Klansmen or others who might use it.

A burning cross is a particularly powerful instrument of terror, and government should have the power to stamp out or punish its use as a weapon of intimidation, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote.

It's about time they outlawed this. How can someone burning a cross in someone else's front yard be considered free speech? It's simply a tool of intimidation, no different than calling me the phone and freely expressing that you want to kill me. If you can't yell fire in a crowded movie theatre, why can you tresspass on my property and burns things?

FORMER US First Lady Hillary Clinton, paid a record $4.8 million advance to pen her memoirs, has her publishers in a flap.

Simon & Schuster wants to publish the book in August but still has not received the completed manuscript.

"We must be off to the printer next month but the manuscript isn't in yet," a company spokesman was quoted as saying. "Advance sales are lagging. And there is no title.

"Without a title it's been difficult to market."

The publisher has not yet threatened legal action but says it is annoyed.

A spokeswoman for Senator Clinton said there was no need to panic.

"In all fairness, she has been preoccupied with serving New York during these challenging times. The writing is wonderful, touching and will lift Hillary to a new level of respect."

After lies and cover-ups and every possible strategy to gain money and power for the sake of money and power, why would anyone make a deal with Hillary and expect her to honor it?

ED ASNER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT TAKING A STAND ON ISSUES

Please forgive me. I know this is easy, but it's so much fun.

"The actors ought to be highly praised for speaking out," Asner said. "It's ridiculous actors are the ones doing it. It strikes me as unbelievable that no legislators or leaders are in the press for speaking out."

Opposition to war with a country that uses lethal gasses on their citizens, coupled with the events of 9-11 is hardly a firm position to stand on. Donahue couldn't get ratings on MSNBC with those views. In politics, only protest candidates like Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich can afford to say such things, because they cannot be elected. Actors can still be laughed off, because we don't take them seriously anyway.

Asner said people who regard Saddam Hussein in the same manner as Adolf Hitler should rethink the reasons Iraq is in its current condition. He said years of economic sanctions and the effects of past U.S. strikes against the country have put the people in a tough position.

Nice Try, but Germany's Weimar Republic was even worse off than Iraq, because of the treaties that ended World War I. It probably had a great deal to do with why Hitler emerged into power. But Saddam Hussein was already a brutal dictator before the first Gulf War. The sanctions were exactly what liberals like Asner called for to prevent that war. Back then they promised that sanctions would bring Saddam to his knees. Now they say that sanctions caused his terror.

"It's just difficult for me to imagine Hussein goose-stepping into Warsaw," Asner said.

Yeah, Hussein probably wouldn't goose-step into Poland. He would have to cross the whole continent of Europe, and face that tough bottleneck at Istanbul.

'Chemical Ali' Found Dead in Basra

Ali Hassan al-Majid, dubbed "Chemical Ali" by opponents of the Iraqi regime for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds, has been found dead, a British officer said Monday.

"Al-Majid is Saddam Hussein's hatchet man," Kenneth Roth, head of Human Rights Watch in New York, said at the time. "He has been involved in some of Iraq's worst crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity."

Maybe once his friends on the political left baptize this war years from now, Steven Spielberg will step to the plate and direct the heart-warming film about some Iraqi trying to save Kurds. Of course, it will have to wait until it does Bush no political good, and all the Hollywood protesters recant. The story will be that Bush did a decent thing despite himself, but he was so reckless about it. He wasn't a good enough President to bring the United Nations on board, and he nearly destroyed them in the process. Thankfully, Tony Blair and the British kept Bush from slaughtering the rest of the people in the country.

Remember the Anthrax?(Insight Magazine)

Five people dead, dozens of others injured and at least one more postal employee failing fast. Yet the FBI is no closer to solving the anthrax-letter attacks than it was when it began investigating them in October 2001. What's taking so long? The answer may be found in what critics say the authorities overlooked, bypassed or ruled out in a rush to wrap up a politically charged case.

It seems that instead of investigating the 911 hijackers, some of whom rented a house from an employee of the magazine that was attacked, they directed their search toward a government employee, Steven Hatfill. Hatfill had spent years trying to show the government that their security was lax and such an attack could occur. . . But the story runs even deeper than that.

Meanwhile, the motive behind the attack has been of significant interest to the FBI. In fact, this magazine has learned the FBI's field office in New York has received a letter and documents suggesting the anthrax task force take a hard look at who may have benefited both politically and financially from the anthrax-vaccination program approved under the Clinton administration to inoculate 2.4 million U.S. troops. . . Financial beneficiaries would include the BioPort Corp., which is the source of the U.S. anthrax vaccine, and other potential contractors."

BioPort is the sole provider of the anthrax vaccine. The company is run by Faud El-Hibri, an ethnic Lebanese who now is a U.S. citizen. BioPort stands to profit by millions of dollars from the sale of the vaccine, which the company hopes to mass produce for the general public and sell overseas.

The whole things sounds outlandish, but it's a really interesting theory.

President Backbone (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Jounral, April 7, 2003)

Even though it is called President Backbone most of the article is about how much Americans love America.

Our young troops love their country. That is why they are where they are. It has had me thinking a happy thought, about the success with which our country, for all its troubles the past few decades, has continued to communicate to new generations the simple idea of the goodness of loving America. They have picked up the sheer exuberant joy of understanding a thing and, because one understands it and because it is good, loving it, and then acting on that love to the extent that you would fight for it, you would even die for it. This is a beautiful thing, more precious than gold.

Peggy Noonan always find the positive in the worst of times. She had a really good piece after 911 about New Yorkers feeling united.

(Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2001

I walked by a local schoolyard. On the steps, a group of young tough kids who are often there playing a boom box. They have the look, the manner, of danger, and everyone says drugs are sold there. Yesterday they were on the steps, boom box blaring, only this time it was news reports telling us what was happening. The well-suited men and women marching by would stop and listen to the news, and then nod with thanks and leave. I listened for 10 minutes and when I left I said "Thank you, gentlemen," and they smiled and said "Welcome." They were offering a public service.

PROM ETIQUETTE (Kristi Vannatter, Pageantry Magazine, Spring 2003)

Your prom will undoubtedly be one of the most memorable events from your high school years. Prom is an incredible milestone in a teen's life. Therefore, every detail should be thoughtfully planned out in order to guarantee a successful and magical evening to remember for years to come.

Kristi is a good writer, but I can’t convince her to start a blog.. So, I’ll instead take a light moment away from world events and examine whether her prom advice would have provided me a better experience so many years ago.

Your Date

Under no circumstances must a date forget to bring his date a corsage. You wouldn't want your date to feel unadorned while all the other ladies are showing off their colorful blossoms.

She reminded me so often how could I forget?

Here is the foolproof way to alleviate the drawing of blood at the beginning of your date:
Always place the corsage on with the flowers on top, just like they grow. Insert the pin horizontally into the fabric of the dress, back through the fabric and slide the pin over the stem (around the middle) and then back through and out of the fabric.

This was a struggle, but no blood to report, or at least she didn’t wince.

A gentleman's boutonniere should be placed on his lapel at the buttonhole or where it should be. Holding the flower in place, insert the pin into his jacket, then up through the fabric and flower stem and back into and out of the fabric.

I remember her doing this like it was her 20th time.

You and your date should decide together how you will arrive at the prom — by car, carpooling with others, or by a car service, such as a limousine.

We went with Doug and Kriss. Doug had a muscle Camaro and I drove my muscle Firebird. My mother would later sell that car when I was in college for $500. I felt bad until my father said that mother also sold his favorite car for peanuts when he was away in the Army. It immediately turned from sadness to a bonding experience.

Dinner
It is customary to go to dinner before the grand event. However, it certainly does not have to be the most expensive restaurant in town.

Shannon talked me into the most expensive restaurant in town. I remember Doug and I shocked at the prices. We made $3 an hour at work. Doug held up a Mushroom halfway through dinner and said, “I paid $1.50 for this?”

If you decide to go to a restaurant with a group, first make a reservation and, second, try not to disturb others around you by celebrating too loudly. You can save your excitement for the dance floor.

We were a pretty rowdy group for four people. My date, Shannon was a cheerleader and could talk as loud as me.

Remember that many upscale restaurants will add on a service charge for larger parties of eight or more. Check your bill when it comes to see if the tip has already been added.

I didn’t look for this and after we left someone else mentioned that the restaurant automatically adds gratuity. I’m still seething from giving that guy a 30% tip.

Dance
This will probably be the most fun of the entire evening. However, many couples spend so much time at dinner and at the after parties, that they miss out on a lot of fun at the dance itself. Make sure you don't cut yourself short of the event that many classmates have spent countless hours to plan and organize.

The most memorable thing was switching jackets with Shane Gartley. I found his father’s credit card the next morning, and he was so pleased I called him, he thanked me until the end of the school year. I had just learned of Shane’s existence a few weeks earlier when he was so drunk on Senior skip day that someone had to wake him up from a stupor so he wouldn’t be late for work. His first words were, "I need a beer to nurse my throat."

One of the most exciting moments of prom is seeing everyone dressed up and looking glamorous and handsome.

My date was nonplussed that another girl was wearing her same bubble gum pink dress. Ironically, the other girl's escort had originally asked Shannon to the prom, but she turned him down hoping that she could convince me to take her. I think that guy became a doctor. She chose poorly.

Remember to express to everyone how pretty or attractive they look and don't forget to get your picture taken. These photos will serve as reminders of your remarkable evening for many years.

I don’t know how many subsequent girlfriends showed some sort of jealousy over these photos. I eventually had mom store them in the other room.

After-Parties
This is the part of the evening where creativity will come in handy. My senior prom year was quite memorable because we went to a friend's house where her gracious mother and father served an enormous breakfast for all of us. If no private home is offered, someone in your group may come up with some unsafe suggestions like the beach, all-night clubs, or rented hotel rooms.

We went to the unsafe beach.

Use your common sense and don't make a decision that will put you or anyone else in jeopardy. You will undoubtedly regret it later.

We didn’t drink nor did we do anything else that would have worried our parents.

Discuss your curfew with your parents and stick to it. Many parents will be reasonable to extend your curfew time later than normal for this special occasion.

My parents never gave me a curfew, but Shannon had a track meet the next morning and we were home around midnight. I was dozing in the stands as Shannon managed to win the 110 high hurdles, 330 hurdles and she even ran a leg in the mile relay.

Once again, I want to stress the importance of planning and organizing early. Both you and your date should be involved in the planning. Visualize how you want the evening to be and follow through on all plans.

I think we gave our dates a pretty decent prom in my mind, but they probably would have been happier with a bit more of Kristi's style. We were pretty haphazard right down to going to be beach which wasn't planned in advance. We had fun, but it was certainly spontaneous. I would have had just as much fun at the ballpark. I hope the girls had a good time.

Coach, business owners caught in gambling web (Indianola Tribune, April 6, 2003)

Tricia clued me into this one. She worked for this paper out of college.

A massive sports gambling ring based out of a Norwalk man’s home has been broken and 11 people, including three prominent figures from Indianola, have been charged, Warren County Attorney Gary Kendell announced Thursday.

Law enforcement officials, including the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, are looking for Robert Derryberry, 59, of Norwalk on charges he allegedly led a multi-million dollar gambling operation that spanned across the country and into locales as far away as Seoul, South Korea and Costa Rica. Derryberry faces 45 years in prison on charges of bookmaking, money laundering and ongoing criminal conduct.

Also arrested Thursday morning were Jerry Watters, 59 and owner of Watters Autoland in Indianola; David Summy, 51 and a history teacher and the head football coach at Indianola High School; and Jarid Downey, 30 and owner of Downey Tire in Indianola. Each face a charge of illegal gambling, a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

To date, $500,000 in cash and Robert Derryberry’s $160,000 home at 1148 Pinehurst Circle in Norwalk have been seized, with more expected as the investigation continues, Kendell said.

NOW THE CATO INSTITUTE'S THEORY

Confronting uncertainty, taking or hedging risks, presents decisions that are the staple of life and the key to prosperity. There may be risks inherent to gambling, but we should remember that government intervention entails risk too. A coercive effort to eliminate or reduce gambling must compete with that most formidable opponent, human nature. Lawmakers too need to balance the risks.

I don’t see how it is the government’s business if people want to place wagers. This is a victimless “crime” that makes criminals out of people who are really decent hard working citizens. Iowa has casinos, slot machines and a state lottery, so you can hardly say their gambling laws are for moral reasons. These gambling laws are designed to keep the tax coffers over-flowing.

These governments are too big and they bleed cash and they use gambling to fill the till. Everyone else get out of the way. This undercover investigation has been going on since 1999, meaning that the state has spent a ton of resources in lieu of fighting real crime. I’m sure those dollars would have been better spent on unsolved murders. But now the state can sit proudly with $500,000 in cash and a guy’s $160,000 home. They themselves were gambling that they could seize enough money to make a long investigation worth it. The victim in this crime was a guy who provided a service to allow people to wager some money.

Risk theory says that people tend to need a certain amount of risk to feel alive. This is usually the case for men. Several studies have shown that improvements in the safety of cars has caused people to drive more recklessly because the are trying to reach a threshold of risk. Gambling is a very safe way to reach your risk threshold without risking your life.

HEAT ON BRILL AFTER HOMELAND SECURITY BOOK PRAISES 'SYSTEM THAT'S WORKING' (VIA MATT DRUDGE)

Matt Drudge is the most important news scribe on the internet. His sources run deep and he gets great stories like this one.

Author Steven Brill is experiencing total friction among his close circle of media associates after releasing a book which claims: Homeland Security under President Bush is working!

And why have there been no fresh terror strikes in the United States since the start of the war?

Brill says it's the competence of the current leadership.

PBS host Charlie Rose shouted and squirmed and called Brill's premise "ridiculous" during a promo for the book "After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era," which Brill released last week.

What Brill has to say about Tom Ridge is really enlightening.

Brill explains: "I’ve had a kind of cultural revelation, and it centers on Tom Ridge, whom all my friends think is a bumpkin because he doesn't look and sound like them. Janitor’s son wins scholarship to Harvard, gets elected governor. Yet my friends think he’s a dummy. The reason: because he’s utterly without guile. To me he is emblematic of what’s great about the country – a guy who leaves his cushy governorship and therefore his wife has to go get a job to pay the bills because they have new rent to pay, and goes to Washington to help. And his staff is the same way.

"Sure they don’t do everything right, but they work their asses off and take all kinds of s**t from the press and the pundits and just keep their heads down and do the job they said they would do. The book is full of poignant scenes of these decent people just plain working hard and making sacrifices. No politics. No bulls**t. No glory. No scouring the papers for news clips about themselves."

Ridge always seemed kind of gruff, but Brill has really given me respect for him.

American peace activist shot during Israeli army operation

JERUSALEM (AP) -- An American peace activist volunteering as a human shield in the West Bank was seriously wounded on Saturday when Israeli troops allegedly opened fire on him.

Brian Avery, 24, from Albuquerque, N.M., heard shots fired and came out of his apartment building in Jenin to investigate just as an armored personnel carrier rounded a corner, said Tobias Karlsson, a fellow activist from Sweden.

Avery and Karlsson are members of the Palestinian-backed group International Solidarity Movement. Members of the group often insert themselves between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers to try to stop Israeli military operations.

"We had our hands up and we were wearing vests that clearly identified us as international workers when they began firing," Karlsson said. "Brian was shot in the face, and it looks like he was hit by a heavy caliber bullet because of the extent of the wound."

Being a human shield doesn't mean that the bullets will bounce off. When you put yourself in the middle of a conflict bad things can happen. These human shields aren't going to prevent bloodshed, but they can certainly provide more targets for either side. It may seem romantic to travel halfway around the world for "peace", but two peoples who have been fighting for the same land since Richard the Lion Hearted aren't going to mind picking off the occasional neo-hippie do-gooder. Palestinian suicide bombers are killing women and children, why should Israelis give a flip for any outsider who tries to prevent them from securing their country? If the Palestinians think the Israelis will get bad publicity for dead American protesters, who's to say they won't off a human shield themselves? What kind of idealism or egoism would make a person think they can change that?

NBC’s David Bloom, 39, dies in Iraq

David Bloom, an NBC News correspondent embedded with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division outside Baghdad, died Sunday, NBC announced. Bloom, a 39-year-old husband and father of three, died of an apparent pulmonary embolism, the company said. He was the second American journalist to die in Iraq since the war began.

In his most recent assignment — traveling with the 2nd Battalion, 315 Mechanized Unit of U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division in its push toward Baghdad — Bloom scored what many believe to be a first: broadcasting live reports as the American armored column he was traveling with fought its way north through the Iraqi desert.

Howard Kurtz, the media critic of The Washington Post, noted Bloom’s coverage for its “boyish enthusiasm.”

“Bloom is seen zipping through the desert so often that he’s become Iraq’s unofficial travel guide,” Kurtz wrote in a March 25 review of war coverage.

Kristi told me on Friday that Bloom was her favorite correspondent. I knew Michael Kelly's work better than Bloom's, but he too seems like someone whose potential was barely tapped.

US bans France, Germany from rebuilding Iraq

The House of Representatives has passed a supplementary budget amendment excluding France, Germany, Russia and Syria from taking part in US-funded reconstruction bids in Iraq, because they opposed the US-led war in Iraq.

Proposed by Minnesota congressman Mark Kennedy, a Republican unrelated to the famous Kennedy clan, and passed by show of hands late on Thursday, the measure would even bar access by the four countries to information on reconstruction bids in Iraq.

"This amendment sends a signal to our allies that we appreciate those who support us in our time of need and remember those that have sought to thwart coalition efforts to defeat Saddam Hussein's regime," Nethercutt said of his measure.

I don't know how binding this is on the administration legally, but they would be smart to listen and keep those countries out of the reconstruction. It's nice to defeat Saddam Hussein, but we shouldn't forget that the countries that opposed us gave Saddam resolve and that may have caused more allied deaths. It will also be a good lesson to the world that the United States treats its allies better than its adversaries.

US begins the process of 'regime change' (The Guardian, April 6, 2003)

America's readiness to establish the first stages of a civil administration to run post-war Iraq comes at lightning speed and constitutes a rebuff to European ambitions to stall on the process until some kind of role for the United Nations is agreed.

It was reported yesterday that the National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has also ruled out any key role for the UN.

The decision to proceed with an embryonic government comes in response to memoranda written by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week, urging that the US begin to entrench its authority in areas under its control before the war is over.

Pentagon officials told The Observer that the administration is determined to impose the Rumsfeld plan and sees no use for a UN role, describing the international body as 'irrelevant'.

The United Nations wanted to hold that oil for food money hostage, but it doesn't seem to matter to the administration.

Rumsfeld presented two memoranda to the White House last week, urging the President to begin setting up government institutions in areas under US control. He said the new organs could install Iraqis returning from exile under the tutelage of American civilians answerable to General Garner.

But his plan has been opposed even within the administration. Colin Powell is known to favour a military government established after victory is assured, prepared to nurture an Iraqi government centred around citizens resident in Iraq, rather than exiles sponsored by neo-conservatives in the Pentagon.

This is a good question. Do you go with the exiled leaders or the folks that are still living in Iraq? I think Rumsfeld is right. The exiles are going to be more western in their thought and are more likely to be antagonistic to the bordering states of Iran and Syria. The Pentagon can do a much better job of choosing than leaving it up to chance. Once a new government is established and the citizens understand the changes, they will be ready for the experiment in democracy.

Powell’s idea would be fine if we thought that they could be ready for democracy right away, but very few of them even understand the concept. Not only have they been in virtual slavery for decades, democracy is contrary to the ideas of traditional Islam. It will take time to make them into a free country, and we might fail that part of it. But very few governments could be worse than the one we are about to replace.

Corzine calls anti-terror aid a shell game

"President Bush and the Republicans "are playing a shell game with regard to homeland security" by giving states like New Jersey money for anti-terror initiatives while cutting other police funding programs, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) asserted yesterday.

They're going to show increases in homeland security expenditures," said Corzine of Bush and the Republican-majority Congress. "But they're cutting cops' programs."

The remarks by the state's senior senator come in the wake of assertions by Gov. James E. McGreevey that New Jersey needs more homeland security money. The governor, citing the 2001 anthrax mailings from New Jersey, was particularly upset that the state was initially slated to get just $36 million of $1.4 billion being targeted by the federal government to states to combat bioterrorism threats.

The federal government needs to worry about the federal government. Localities should be trying to take care of themselves, even if it means tough choices.

Bush could just as well say that states have to pay for these programs themselves. Why not? States have tax revenue. New Jersey like everyone else wants to keep their social spending high and depend on the federal government for homeland security. Homeland Security might be a good reminder to people that the government's #1 job is to protect it's citizens from foreign attack. That means that New Jersey should be spending the first of their money on counter-terrorism, and only after they have done that should they be funding other projects.

Clinton’s attorney says that House hurt office of presidency with impeachment

The U.S. House of Representatives committed "constitutional vandalism" when it impeached Bill Clinton in 1998 and weakened future chief executives, the former president’s personal attorney said Thursday.

Speaking to a group of college students studying Clinton’s presidency, attorney David Kendall said the former president’s impeachment lowered the bar for future proceedings. Future presidents could face removal for offenses that don’t warrant it, said Kendall, who defended Clinton during his impeachment trial. "It vandalized the Constitution because it was so poisoned by political partisanship," Kendall said. "I think the legacy of this impeachment proceeding is going to be to substitute for the rule of law the whim of the House of Representatives."

The real political partisanship was on the other side. Not a single House Democrat ever entered the evidence room before the impeachment vote. David Schippers book SELLOUT tells the real story. Democratic Senators like Moynihan and Lieberman and even Byrd had harsh words for the President, but not one was willing to see him removed from office. If lying to a grand jury and trying to coax witnesses into lying is decent behavior for the leader of the free world, then how can any prosecutor expect a witness to tell the truth?

Clinton didn't live up to his own oath of office. He's supposed to execute the laws of the land, not run over them. The House was doing its constitutional duty according to the checks and balances system. The real danger is that the checks and balances system is now broke, because Democrats refused to read the evidence and Republican Senate leadership wanted the whole thing over quickly.

Had Republicans ignored the behavior of Richard Nixon he never would have been forced to resign. He only left office because he knew the Republicans would vote to convict him.

Kendall's absurd idea that future Presidents will could face removal for charges that don't warrant it is only possible if a political party can muster 2/3 of the Senate. Any impeachment vote in the next 50 years will be along party lines, with nobody being tried according to the evidence. The Democrats decided to play defense instead of read the evidence, and once you politicize one impeachment trial, you've spoiled the rest.

STEPHEN MOORE: Major airlines could learn from Jet Blue

Despite the discounted price, the service was first class all the way: luxurious leather seats, a personal TV screen on the back of my seat, and friendly and professional attendants. Flying was actually a pleasurable experience for once.

Jet Blue's financial success flies in the face (pardon the pun) of the conventional wisdom these days that there is some law of economics that requires airlines to lose money. This is an industry in which three of the largest airlines, American, United and U.S. Airways, are all either in bankruptcy or teetering on the brink. (U.S. Air is expected to come out of bankruptcy any day now only so that it will qualify for federal funds.) The combined losses of just these three airlines in 2003 could reach $8 billion.

I flew Jet Blue last year and it was the best experience of my flying life.

The airlines already got their golden handshake last year when Congress authorized $5 billion in cash and $10 billion in loan guarantees.

Another bailout will have the perverse effect of rewarding the high cost airlines and punishing their lower cost, more efficient rivals. A bail-out will only delay precisely what this stodgy industry needs: a cathartic shake-out in which only the strong survive. That's the brutality, but the wealth creating magic formula of capitalism.

But doesn't the war give the airlines a special case for help? No, the industry's financial ailments are not predominantly a result of the war. U.S. Air and United were already on the verge of financial collapse even before 9/11. Union salaries in the big airlines were insanely unsustainable. It's no coincidence that American and United - the two airlines that have allowed the unions to negotiate the highest salaries and the highest benefits - are the two that are hanging on a thread from insolvency. The downfall of these two once proud and profitable airlines has been many years in the making.

His next point is the one I made in my blog entry about Reagan last Sunday.

So let the free market work. Congress doesn't rush to the aid of the corner grocer or the small businessman whose business model fails - even though they too probably have been temporarily adversely impacted by the war. There is certainly no national security rationale for a multi-billion dollar bailout. Even if United and American collapse, air service will continue unabated.

I've seen the future of this industry. It is Jet Blue and Southwest, Air Tran and other upstart companies that are low-cost, efficient, and customer-friendly. These are the new friendly skies, and they don't need a check from taxpayers to serve their investors or their frequent fliers.

The bodies found during Jessica Lynch's rescue were members of her company

The eight soldiers identified Saturday were with Pfc. Jessica Lynch when their convoy was ambushed near Nasiriyah on March 23. Seven were members of Lynch's unit, the 507th Maintenance Company. Two other members of the unit had been listed as killed in action, and five are listed as prisoners of war.

There was no immediate word from the Pentagon Saturday on whether the soldiers were killed in the ambush or afterward.

How did she ever surivie?

Iraq says women killed troops

Two female suicide bombers carried out an attack which killed three coalition soldiers at a checkpoint north-west of Baghdad on Thursday, Iraq says.

A pregnant woman who ran from the car just before the explosion died in the blast as did the driver of the vehicle, who Iraq's official news agency said was also a woman.

A pregnant female stepped out of the vehicle and began screaming in fear," a statement said.

"At this point the civilian vehicle exploded, killing three coalition force members who were approaching the vehicle and wounding two others."

This might be another one of the those remote control bombs like the cabdriver last week who was first thought to be a suicide case.

What kind of barbarians use their own pregnant women as time bombs?

U.S.: Forces Enter 'Heart of Baghdad'

U.S. armored forces rolled into parts of Baghdad on Saturday, smashing through Iraq's Republican Guard to reach the ultimate destination of their two-week surge across southern Iraq. In one skirmish, Marines with bayonets battled Arab fighters from abroad in a marsh on Baghdad's outskirts.

While Iraqi television played patriotic music and soldiers and militiamen loyal to President Saddam Hussein vowed to keep fighting, resistance to the American onslaught seemed tenuous. The U.S. sweep left burning tanks and bodies of Iraqi fighters behind.

"Look at all the Republican Guard waving at us," said Staff Sgt. Bryce Ivings of Sarasota, Fla., suggesting the men on the roadside had quickly changed out of their uniforms.

We fight our way to the city in two weeks. Amazing! The French can just feel their oil contracts becoming as worthless as 18 U.N. Resolutions.

TWO EXAMPLES OF HOW THE OLD SOVIETS WON'T DIE

#1 2 former Soviet generals advised Iraqi military

Two former Soviet Army generals have been so deeply involved in helping to prepare the Iraqi military for a rematch with the Americans that on the eve of this war, Saddam Hussein ordered them decorated with high honors in Baghdad.

Both generals were communist hard-liners who were part of the abortive coup attempt against the last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev.

"The ties between the Soviets and the Iraqis were very close at almost every level, in the military, in the intelligence services and in the foreign ministry," said one administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "A lot of them took the (1991) gulf war personally, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them looked for ways to get even. But that probably doesn't include Putin, who I think looks ahead, not backward."

Glad to see those old butchers could find work with a like mind.

# 2 Gorbachev calls for end to "bloodbath" in Iraq

"Those that think they are leading themselves towards victory and will achieve their goals are wrong," Gorbachev said, following talks with Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud, in an allusion to the US-led coalition invading Iraq.

"I agree with President Lahoud on the need to work to restore the authority of the United Nations and oppose violations of international law," said Gorbachev, on his first visit to Lebanon.

We don't need Gorby's pontifications on international law, whatever that is. He presided over a totalitarian regime and left office because the country would rather have had a drunken Boris Yeltsin. We in the west made him a celebrity, but he was a failure to his own people. The Russians preferred Ronald Reagan.

Is Blair turning his back on Bush? (Daily Mirror, April 3, 2003)

He told the Commons that a US dominated regime would be only temporary.

And in a rare show of defiance against Washington the Government warned it would not tolerate action against Syria or Iran.

US hawks want to impose an interim administration on Iraq with former American generals running Ministries. But the Government insisted that US officials should be only advisers.

He said Britain would work for a UN resolution "endorsing" the interim government but remained vague on the timetable.

This is vintage Blair. During Prime Minister's questions before the conflict he insisted that the U.N. would have to pass another resolution before we went to war. We never even submitted one. Blair has taken over for Colin Powell as the "good cop."

Outside the Commons Foreign Secretary Jack Straw claimed the Americans agreed the UN must back an interim government.

Mr Straw also made it clear that Britain would not back any US attack on Syria or Iran - accused of aiding Saddam in a new bout of sabre rattling by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

I don't buy any of it. We can't leave a vacuum in Iraq. We are either going to take down Iran or we're going to occupy Iraq for a long time. Iran has always been more dangerous, and paradoxically more ready for democracy. Bush named them as part of the axis of evil, and it would make little sense to forget about them now. Straw and Blair are representing the “cooler heads” but it’s an act. Once we take down Iraq, the administration will present its case for eliminating Iran and Britain will follow.

Bitter harvest as US boycotts Bordeaux

"The most notable absentee is Robert Parker, the world's most influential wine critic. His ratings make or break scores of winemakers each year. For the first time in more than 20 years, he has not travelled from his home in Pennsylvania to Bordeaux for the spring tastings, citing fears of terrorism.

"It's a total catastrophe for many winemakers," says Herve Salhi, one of St Emilion's leading wine merchants. "They depend on Parker as their only form of marketing."

The anxiety in Bordeaux is a reflection of a concern throughout France that President Chirac has gone too far in alienating America over Iraq.

I have lately found Australlian wines to be under-rated. And California wines have always been a good choice.

Rush says it wasn't Saddam on TV Today(Rush Limbaugh, April 4, 2003)

Compare the images

I don't think that video of him in a crowd high-fiving people is him. He always uses doubles in crowds - and he wouldn't expose himself right now with our Special Ops crawling all over the city unless he wants his head ventilated for him. You can see by this side-by-side photo that the Saddams don't match.

The Iraqis don't have electricity for their TVs, so this video is for our consumption - or, rather, for CNN to ram it down our throats and to talk about it as if Saddam's alive. The media makes it sound as if he gave the name of the pilots from that lost Apache, or claim he described "events" that happened since the war started. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

He could easily have cited the name of that supposed farmer, or held up a newspaper or mentioned the sandstorm or any of a hundred things to prove he's alive. He did none of that.

Trial Judge Questions Whether Moussaoui Case Can Proceed

A trial judge Friday questioned whether the government could proceed with the public trial of accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui because prosecutors are operating in a "shroud of secrecy."

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she was disturbed the government had classified so many pleadings, orders and court opinions. Brinkema said she joined in Moussaoui's skepticism about the government's ability to prosecute him in open court.

The judge pronounced herself "disturbed by the extent to which the United States' intelligence officials have classified the pleadings, orders and memorandum opinions in this case; and further agrees with the defendant's skepticism of the government's ability to prosecute this case in open court in light of the shroud of secrecy under which it seeks to proceed."

The government should regret not trying this sociopath by military tribunal. He's not an American citizen and his involvement in 911 was an act of war.

Atlantic Monthly Editor, Michael Kelly, Killed in Iraq

Michael Kelly, 46, the Atlantic Monthly editor-at-large and Washington Post columnist who abandoned the safety of editorial offices to cover the war in Iraq, has been killed in a Humvee accident while traveling with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.

He was quoted in the New York Times just four days ago as saying that he and other reporters enlisted in the Pentagon program because "there was a real sense after the last gulf war that witness had been lost. The people in the military care about that history a great deal, because it is their history."

Kelly's fluid prose and conservative ideas made him an exceptional voice in the mainstream media.

He was quoted in the New York Times just four days ago as saying that he and other reporters enlisted in the Pentagon program because "there was a real sense after the last gulf war that witness had been lost. The people in the military care about that history a great deal, because it is their history."

Here's what others said:

David Bradley, the chairman and owner of Atlantic Media, said "This is the first friend and the best friend I made in journalism. In that quarter of the heart, he can't be touched. He is loved by everyone at The Atlantic, by everyone at the National Journal, by everyone at the places we worked together. The Atlantic has had 145 years of good times and bad, but no moment more deeply sad than this one now. The best we can make of this hour is to surround his wife and children and parents and family with some measure of the love we have for Michael."

Peggy Noonan: The death of Michael Kelly is a sin against the order of the world. He was a young man on his way to becoming a great man. He was going to be one of the great editors of his time, and at the age of 46 he was already one of its great journalists. And one's first thought about him, after saying the obvious--that he wrote like a dream, that he was a great reporter with great eyes, that he was a keen judge of what is news and what should be news--is this. He was an independent man. He had an indignant independence that was beauty to behold. He knew what he thought and why, and he announced it in his columns and essays with wit and anger.

Ken Ringle offers a good piece too.

He posted his last column yesterday. It was about crossing the Euphrates River. It reminds me of Stonewall Jackson's last words. "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."

Complex found bulging with food in hungry city Distribution center was used by U.N. oil-for-food program (CNN, April 3, 2003)

A giant food distribution complex seized Wednesday by U.S. and British forces in this city grappling with hunger contained massive amounts of food.

A walk through only about 20 percent of the warehouses in the complex revealed that tens of thousands of tons of supplies -- including huge quantities of baby milk -- were being stored in Iraq's second-largest city, which has been wracked by a food shortage.

The biggest challenge for humanitarians is that the leader of whatever regime has to be humanitarian himself. Otherwise, no amount of good work will find its way to the needy. The toppling of Saddam is the most humanitarian thing that these people can hope for.

Officer: Troops Find Vials of Powder (Herald Sun, April 4, 2003)

NEAR BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. troops found thousands of boxes of white powder, nerve agent antidote and Arabic documents on how to engage in chemical warfare at an industrial site south of Baghdad, a U.S. officer said Friday.

Peabody said troops found thousands of boxes, each of which contained three vials of white powder, together with documents written in Arabic that dealt with how to engage in chemical warfare.

He also said they discovered atropine, used to counter the effects of nerve agents.

The facility had been identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency as a suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons site. U.N. inspectors visited the plant at least a dozen times, including as recently as Feb. 18.

A great rebuke to those fools who kept saying, "but the inspection process is working."

U.S.: Iran will infiltrate 5 Iraqi cities

Iran's senior leadership decided last month to send irregular paramilitary units across their border with Iraq to harass American soldiers once Saddam Hussein's regime fell, according to U.S. intelligence reports.

"This confirmed all of our suspicions that the Iranians are not our friends and not for peace in the region. They are in fact for a piece of the region," one U.S. intelligence official told United Press International.

These guys are playing right into our hands. We want to fight them and they are willing to start the war.

Wal-Mart, Ayn Rand, and the newsroom

Stand-by for the weekly apology for racial quotas.

"Wal-Mart really didn't do as well with minority audiences as they should have done, or liked to have done," Higham explained in "people and product," a news industry publication. "But the result of making a very strong commitment, over a decade, has made an extraordinary difference, to the point that Wal-Mart (now) dramatically over-indexes among minorities."

One of the keys to that success, in this most hard-edged of U.S. businesses, was Wal-Mart's decision to seek advice from two ethnic minority advertising agencies: E. Morris Communications of Chicago, which handled Wal-Mart's African-American ads, and Lopez-Negrete of Houston, which did its Hispanic ad work.

The writer finds a anecdotal evidence to re-enforce his prejudices.

But Higham's Wal-Mart story runs smack up against a very different kind of advice on the value of diversity, from Peter Schwartz of the Ayn Rand Institute.

The villain!

In a recent piece offered to newspaper op-ed pages, Schwartz attacked the notion "that people have worthwhile views to express because of their ethnicity." He savaged the idea "that `diversity' enables us to encounter `black ideas,' `Hispanic ideas,' etc." "What could be more repulsively racist than that?" Schwartz asked.

How dare Schwartz say people are people, when voting blocks are the key to political power!

Now back to the hero.

But, he recalled, "My personal experience did not prepare me for understanding our minority customers as I would have liked. I thought it did, but the process of working with wonderful, committed advertising professionals, particularly with our (minority-run) agencies, opened my mind to just how little I knew."

For instance . . .He doesn't have any specifics. But let's just take it on face value.

I haven't lived my life as a black person. I can learn a lot from those who have. African Americans' encounter with life has been different from mine, precisely because of race. And because it has, we bring different life experiences to the process of choosing, researching, editing and displaying stories.

Ah, being black is not an attribute but an experience.

Schwartz expresses a fundamental faith of conservatives when he rejects diversity as an appropriate goal for society, and when he rejects the explanations of academics who support diversity on campus.

He sneers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty newsletter for saying that students gain "enrichment from the differences in viewpoint of minorities." He scorns the University of Michigan president who says that ensuring diversity "is the only way to prepare students to live and work effectively in our diverse democracy and in the global economy."

Schwarts scorns and sneers and rejects, but does minority enrollment at MIT have to do with a black owned advertising agencies?

Schwartz believes that pro-diversity thinking is "exactly the premise held by the South's slave-owners and by the Nazis' Storm Troopers. They too believed that an individual's thoughts and actions are determined by his racial heritage."

But isn't that what slave owners and storm troopers thought?

He seems to miss something fairly fundamental: The obvious fact that one's life experience does make a difference. But he is not alone. His mindset is the wood in the door against which diversity advocates have been battering for decades. What's interesting to me is that the best case in support of diversity -- the best evidence that it is useful -- is not found in the brie and chardonnay salons of the liberal left, but in the marketplace.

How does the writer's evidence get us here? Because an ex-Walmart employee used a minority run advertising agency, we should open our college doors to students that aren't ready for that level of work? Is the market speaking that? Couldn't a minority run advertising agency be run by people who graduated from colleges that accepted them for color blind reasons?

This is a clever apology of diversity for diversity sake, but it doesn’t take into consideration that it fosters the same racism that it purportedly tries to resolve. If people at a University only meet the kinds of minorities that couldn’t make it without their race, they are bound to see minorities continually struggle to keep up. Won’t that tend to foster the idea that minorities are inferior? And does it help a minority to struggle through college for some grand experiment?

And his argument that race gives people a different life experience may have some validity, but can’t other factors be even more decisive? Does a rich kid like Jesse Jackson Jr. have a much different experience than rich kid, Al Gore Jr.? Do you think Bill Clinton at ten years old would have experienced the same things as Gore and Jackson at ten years? Even simpler, does a city black kid have the same experiences that a country black kid has? You could go down this road forever. There are plenty of factors that can be more decisive than race and ethnicity. But there aren’t any political gains to be made from differentiating city and country kids?

This kind of unfairness assuages white liberal guilt and builds a constituency of people who think that government giveaways are the only way they can make it in the world.

When celebrities entertain a political opinion, turn and run

I continue to be fascinated by this issue because I love movies, and cannot understand Hollywood monolithic thought. This is a great theory on why they are the way they are.

You might expect that among people so wealthy, there would be a higher percentage who embrace the tax-cutting wing of the Republican Party. You might think that people whose entire lives are built on freedom of expression would be hesitant to get all soft and cuddly over dictatorships such as in Cuba and Iraq.

But you'd be wrong, because in Hollywood, lines are read for dramatic effect rather than actual content. Occasionally, a politically minded actor can talk thoughtfully about the issues -- liberal Richard Dreyfuss is one example, conservative James Woods is another. But most showbiz people have little or no understanding of the concepts they routinely invoke -- for instance, freedom of speech.

Acting couple Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon yammer on that subject all the time. But last week when Roberts met Washington Post gossip columnist Lloyd Grove, who'd reported -- accurately so -- that Sarandon's mother is a conservative Republican who admires Bush, Roberts threatened him: "If you ever write about my family again, I will (expletive) find you and I will (expletive) hurt you."

That was no oddball exception to the rule. Freedom of speech is a one-way affair in Hollywood. When Hollywood calls on people not to buy products advertised on MSNBC's right-wing talk show Savage Nation, that's a "consumer boycott." When a petition appeared on the Internet a few weeks ago urging moviegoers not to go to movies starring actors who don't support the war in Iraq, that was a "McCarthyite blacklist."

Who can deny it?

Kerry says US needs its own 'regime change'

Senator John F. Kerry said yesterday that President Bush committed a ''breach of trust'' in the eyes of many United Nations members by going to war with Iraq, creating a diplomatic chasm that will not be bridged as long as Bush remains in office.

''What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States,'' Kerry said in a speech at the Peterborough Town Library.

Despite pledging two weeks ago to cool his criticism of the administration once war began, Kerry unleashed a barrage of criticism as US troops fought within 25 miles of Baghdad.

Kerry's criticism seems to be that Bush didn't leave the question of American sovereignty to the United Nations. Kerry is proposing that American national security can only be decided by non-Americans.
How will this protect us from terrorism? What does this say about the kind of “leader” he wants to be? How can President Kerry honestly take the oath of office to protect this nation if he plans to punt everything to the U.N.?

I don't very often link other Blogs, but you should see these Baghdad satellite photos on Instapundit. Not much damage on these pics, but very compelling nonetheless.

Public radio station fires host

On his show this past Sunday, among other things, Hughes was explaining why the station's fund-raiser had been postponed: "Because (Bush) has the (guts) to get up to do the right thing after 18 attempts to get everybody to help. ..."

Hughes also complained to his listeners about not wanting to run NPR news. "We know if you want a current assessment of what's going on, you're sure not listening to us," he said on last week's show. "You'll be over at Fox TV where they're not bending the news. ... It ain't happening on NPR."

Station manager Timko's account doesn't differ much. "He was fired basically over philosophical differences," Timko said. "We have a policy that eliminates or restricts the expression of personal opinion on issues of controversy, and he didn't believe that applied to him."

Imagine the poor liberals having to suffer through this when they were dying to hear the doom and gloom from the front.

'She Was Fighting to the Death'

Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23, one official said. The ambush took place after a 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah. . . "She was fighting to the death," the official said. "She did not want to be taken alive."

I had been withholding comment on the rescue because; I wanted to know more about the circumstances of her capture. She really is a hero, and proved to be brave when the situation called. I'm impressed.

I do still worry that the ability of the enemy to take prisoners of young women will make people more squeamish when it comes to waging war. How many pundits opined about minorities over-represented in the military? The left will use these pictures in their next propaganda campaign? As resourceful and heroic as she was, some will be tempted to make her the poster girl for more anti-war rhetoric. That would be a disservice to one so brave as her.

Pat 'n' Bill (New Yorker, February 8, 1999)

Scanning the New Yorker I located this old article about Pat Moynihan and the impeachment of Bill Clinton. I found this unrelated passage interesting because it was just the kind of thing that made Moynihan's so confusing.

"Let me tell you a story about the difference between academe and politics," Moynihan said. "In 1966, my friend Jim Coleman did this enormous study that found there was very little relationship between school funding and school outputs. You could spend more money, and the students wouldn't do any better. What mattered was family. I got some money from a foundation for a conference, and people came from all around—statisticians, economists, the lot of them—and we all felt that we learned something important. Well, when his study got out to the political world, they tried to drum Jim out of the profession. They accused him of being a tool of conservatives who were trying to cut social spending. He was just trying to see the world as it was. Hannah Arendt had it right. She said one of the great tactical advantages of the totalitarian élites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive."

Moynihan would constantly act as critic to the Democratic line and then vote in tow with the party. Here he states plainly that more funding doesn't mean better education, and the he would go and vote for more funding. Why are so many natural conservatives afraid to be conservatives?

It's not posted online, but the dead tree version of the March 24, 2003 NEW YORKER has a nice long piece on Clint Eastwood by Lillian Ross. Ross wrote a really good book in the 1950s called PICTURE about the making of John Huston's film RED BADGE OF COURAGE. That book was #66 on the list of top 100 works of journalism in the 20th century. I only bought the magazine because of the Eastwood piece, having been years since I last picked it up. There is also a short piece on 1950s director, Nicholas Ray.

Brother John use to subscribe when Tina Brown was editor and I read a number of those issues. I think a yearly subscription back then was around $18. Now it hovers around $50.

Oregon Law Would Jail War Protesters as Terrorists

An Oregon anti-terrorism bill would jail street-blocking protesters for at least 25 years in a thinly veiled effort to discourage anti-war demonstrations, critics say.

The bill has met strong opposition but lawmakers still expect a debate on the definition of terrorism and the value of free speech before a vote by the state senate judiciary committee, whose Chairman, Republican Senator John Minnis, wrote the proposed legislation.

Dubbed Senate Bill 742, it identifies a terrorist as a person who "plans or participates in an act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt" business, transportation, schools, government, or free assembly.

25 years in Jail? Come on. Can't we just make the protesters a target of ridicule? I wish the marchers would shut up with the war going on, but anyone who would propose such a law doesn’t understand the bill of rights. This is an example if how blind personal ambition without a proper education can create politicians that do us a disservice.

Outspoken Cherry in hot water again

In an interview on The Jim Rome Show Monday, Cherry criticized Montreal fans who booed the U.S. national anthem at a recent Canadiens game, said it was a "damn shame" Canada didn't support the U.S.-led war on Iraq and called anti-war protesters "kooks."
Cherry also said he thought he might have been fired for the heated seven-minute debate he and Ron MacLean engaged in during a March 22 "Coach's Corner" on Hockey Night In Canada.

Chalk this up to all politics is local. In the United States it would be the other guy in the debate that would fear for his job.

Will SARS wreak havoc here?

It may seem extreme to quarantine more than 100 passengers on an airplane because five people report symptoms of the pneumonia-like virus that is spreading across Southeast Asia. But scenarios like the one that played out at San Jose International Airport on Tuesday are not unexpected as officials seek to prevent the mysterious illness from wreaking havoc in the United States.

Was it a coincidence that we had an outbreak of West Nile Virus last year when Saddam Hussein is known to possess the bug? Any mysterious disease could be the product of biological warfare. Whether this particular bug was manufactured is less important than the fact that rogue nations are trying to spread these very things. Taking these nations apart can at least give us the peace that diseases aren't being used at weapons.

Stir Continues Over Columbia Professor's Comments

De Genova told a campus "teach-in" last Wednesday that he wanted to see the U.S. defeated in Iraq and suffer "a million Mogadishus" — a reference to the 1993 Somalia ambush that left 18 Americans dead.

"The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military," he said at an anti-war event attended by students and faculty.

What is it about being an American he likes? There are plenty of countries and peoples that refuse to defend themselves against tyranny. Just get an atlas.

"I am shocked that someone would make such statements. Because of the university’s tradition of academic freedom, I normally don’t comment about statements made by faculty members. However, this one crosses the line and I really feel the need to say something. I am especially saddened for the families of those whose lives are at risk," Bollinger said in his Friday statement.

Bollinger would usually keep quiet, because academic freedom is the holy water of campus life. Academic Freedom seems like a good idea when it comes to teaching different ideas, but how is wishing pain on his fellow citizens teaching? This clears up the question of whether higher education aspires to teaching or indoctrination.

Robin Williams and the War (National Review)

Irrepressibly nutty beloved comedy genius Robin Williams has broken his 12-day silence to speak out against the war in Iraq. The improvisational juggernaut (star of the box-office smash Patch Adams) has delighted audiences for what seems like 40 or 50 years now with his fast-paced, unscripted impressions of southern preachers and flamboyant hairdressers.

This is a great article about how inarticulate and lost celebrities are without someone to write their words.

Nun says protest at missile silo is worth 30 years in prison

Sisters Ardeth Platte, 66, Jackie Hudson, 68 and Carol Gilbert, 55, are accused of breaking into a Minuteman III missile silo site on Colorado's northeastern plains Oct. 6, swinging hammers at it and painting a cross in their own blood on the structure.

All three have been charged with interfering with the nation's defense and causing property damage of more than $1,000 -- a crime could put them behind bars for 30 years if they are convicted. Platte said serving a sentence would be worth it if people think more about the weapons.

Their own blood? These are the most self-congratulatory Nuns to date. I guess their blood and a prison sentence will makes them martyrs. The missiles are protecting your right to practice your religion, you idiots!

Senate GOP Loses Fourth Estrada Attempt

Republicans need 60 votes to end the filibuster and then a majority to approve Estrada for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Their latest effort again fell short, this time by a 55-44 vote.

Nothing in the constitution says that Judges require a super majority for approval, but the Democrats are making certain that it will take 60 votes to approve any candidate they don't like. Democrats have used the court system for years to make laws that they can't or won't pass in Congress. The court system was never supposed to be used to make laws, but it's a very good way for our elected representatives to dodge making tough choices that might be held against them. Nominees like Estrada will stick to laws as written, which will force politicians to go on record and vote their "conscience" if they want something.

That crazy appeals court in California that outlawed the Pledge of Allegiance was courtesy of liberals who are still in the Senate. They love that stuff, but they won't defend it. When a bill came up in the Senate to defend the Pledge of allegiance, it passed 98-0. Not one liberal had the guts to side with the court. But now the liberals are angry that Bush won't nominate more liberal judges.

UPDATE: Byron York says the problem Goes even deeper.

Russia Protests U.S. Strikes Near Its Iraq Embassy

Russia called in the U.S. ambassador to Moscow on Wednesday to protest against air strikes it said hit Baghdad's residential districts and endangered the lives of diplomats still working at its embassy in Iraq.

Russian President Vladimir Putin rammed home Moscow's sharp criticism of the Iraq campaign, saying deaths in the campaign justified its position.

A copy of the Washington Post could have warned Putin that a war is going on. That would be a good time to recall diplomats working in a city under fire. Unless, of course, you want to see them get killed in order to strengthen your protest against the war.

U.S. Forces Drive Back Iraqi Troops in North

The Iraqi forces left some of their front-line positions in such a hurry that they abandoned valuable supplies of ammunition and injectors containing the nerve gas antidote atropine.

Why are so many of these guys carrying this antidote? Maybe Hans Blix has a theory.

Former N.Y. Post Editor Files $8M Discrimination Suit

A former high-ranking editor at the New York Post filed an $8 million discrimination lawsuit against the paper Tuesday, claiming she was forced out of her job because management wanted an all-male leadership team.

Maralyn Matlick, who worked at the paper for 25 years before her dismissal in February 2002, claims Post publisher Lachlan Murdoch wanted only Australian and British men in the jobs. The Post denies the claim.

Hasn't everyone been in a job situation where management's ideas ran roughshod over what was working fine? Hasn't everyone seen a good employee passed over for promotion, because it seems a leader doesn't like some personal quality they have? Sometimes it happens because you are a woman, but sometimes it happens because you wear brown suits. The danger of working for someone else is that they never quite understand your abilities and reward you for them. The only solution is to work for yourself, then the boss is constantly reminded of your grace and charm.

Powell Warns of 'Difficulties' if Turkey Remains Noncompliant

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell bluntly warned tonight that Turkey will face difficulties securing $1 billion in proposed U.S. aid unless it cooperates swiftly with the United States in the war against Iraq.

This is a good policy war or no war. Quid Pro Quo. For years we have given countries loans and grants only to have them turn around and speak badly of us. All U.S. money should be a attached to strings the require the recipient to gush over us. Why pay goodwill money when they all soon forget?

FEC Lawyers Back Socialist Workers Party

The Socialist Workers Party, long allowed to keep its donors secret because of the danger of harassment, should continue to receive the special protection, Federal Election Commission lawyers say.

The Socialist Workers Party advocates a Marxist revolution to overthrow the U.S. government. Taking the Russian and Cuban revolutions of the 20th century as models, it wants to replace the country's capitalist system with a government of workers and farmers.

"It is a small political party and controversial, and contributors could be easily deterred from acting on their conscience out of fear of retaliation," said Michael Krinsky, a New York attorney representing the party.

I'm sure in some parts of Boston it is very unpopular to give money to Republican candidates too. The campaign finance law may be nonsense and un-American, but until the Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional, I want to see who gives the commies money.

Marine Says He's a Conscientious Objector

With his sister carrying his duffel bag and his mother holding his hand, a 20-year-old Marine reservist surrendered to the military Tuesday and declared himself a conscientious objector.

Wearing camouflage fatigues, Lance Cpl. Stephen Funk turned himself in at the locked gates of the Marine Corps reserve center where he was assigned, weeks after refusing to report when called up to active duty.

Funk said he's attended every major San Francisco Bay area anti-war rally since finishing his military training last fall. He insisted his decision had nothing to do with the war in Iraq.

WHAT!?!

Funk, who grew up in Washington state, enlisted when he was 19 and living on his own for the first time. He said he caved in to pressure from a recruiter who capitalized on his vulnerability.
"They don't really advertise that they kill people," Funk said. "I didn't really realize the full implications of what I was doing and what it really meant to be in the service as a reservist."

holy s*it! is this guy for real? I think this demonstrates the level of intelligence found at the typical war protest.
he didn't know that marines kill people... hasn't he ever seen Full Metal Jacket??
JEEESUS H CHRIST!!!
WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION PYLE!!!

Spiderman in War Protest

A self-styled Spiderman defied strong winds to scale a 47-storey Paris skyscraper without safety equipment on Tuesday to protest the war in Iraq. Frenchman Alain Robert had onlooking office workers and police on tenterhooks as he slowly worked his way up the 180 meter-high TotalFinaElf skyscraper in the La Defense business center in the west of the city. "It's as mad as the war itself," said Fatisha Amraoui, nervously puffing on a cigarette as she watched Robert climb. "I think it'll take more than this to make an impression on Bush and Blair, but it's good all the same. It makes you think."

yeah, it makes me think... total, fina, elf... petroleum companies that buy oil from saddam. So, here we have a madman protesting the war by climbing the building that houses the company that buys all of its oil from saddam,(the reason Chirac doesn't waqnt war with iraq in the first place).

I'm not sure if this is irony, or just plain obvious idiocy. I think the mad climber should read the sign in the lobby next time he wants to climb a building.

Dissenting Greens See Chance to Grow (LA TIMES)

California Greens say they have found a way to broaden their party's appeal, above all to disaffected Democrats: opposition to the war in Iraq. The Greens have made antiwar protests the central focus of their party at a time when many Democrats are squawking at leaders of their own party for backing the war.

"It's provided an enormous opportunity to differentiate ourselves," said Michael Feinstein, a Green on the Santa Monica City Council.

Regardless of how moderate the LA Times paints them, the Greens are a great example of how the American Communist Party redefines itself every generation.

Let ’Em Gouge (National Review, April 1, 2003)

. . . most people view the practice of zone pricing in gasoline markets as unfairly taking advantage of consumers. Yet many of those same people — who will curse a blue streak if you put them in front of a camera and ask them about "Big Oil" — are as we speak putting their houses on the market and enthusiastically gouging the living daylights out of anyone looking for a new home. And what's more, they're zone pricing! Surprisingly, however, no one ever rages against real estate price gouging. In fact, the opposite is the case. Business reporters gush about returns and politicians pledge to do whatever it takes to keep the real estate bubble afloat.

So is price gouging okay if you're the gouger but not the gougee? It would appear so. But in reality, price gouging — like spinach — may be unappealing at first bite but it's good for everyone in the long run. Gougers are sending an important signal to market actors that something is scarce and that profits are available to those who produce or sell that something. Gouging thus sets off an economic chain reaction that ultimately remedies the shortages that led to the gouging in the first place. Without such signals, we'd never know how to efficiently invest our resources. Moreover, we'd have no idea what to conserve. It's no exaggeration to state that, without such price signals, our economy would look like Cuba's.

People hate to pay high prices, but high prices are what ensure that some products will be produced. The 417 Greeneway in Orlando is quite free from traffic at a toll price. I-4 on the other hand is a "free" nightmare. I am allowed to spend my time on I-4 or I am allowed to spend my money on the 417. At some point, we'll choose to ride our bikes to work if the roads are too busy or gas is too much. A price is nothing but a consumer choice. Higher housing prices mean that more developers will build houses to take advantage of the price. More total houses will then help the prices level off or drop. Henry Hazlitt explains these ideas much better than me in ECONOMICS ON ONE LESSON.

Foley seeks citizenship revision

A proposed constitutional amendment that would redefine American citizenship requirements was introduced Monday by Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach.

Under Foley's bill, which he also introduced in the last Congress, a person born in the United States would not automatically become a U.S. citizen unless at least one parent was a citizen or a legal permanent resident at the time of the child's birth.

This is a genius idea, because the 14th amendment was originally created to give citizenship to freed slaves, but the language allows any pregnant woman to cross the border and give birth to a "citizen." Certainly one legal resident parent should be the least of the criteria. This would be hard politically to vote against, though I'm sure Pelosi, Kennedy and company will do so will extreme predujice, otherwise where will they build a base of future voters?

The definition of citizenship beame an issue last year when Taliban fighter Yaser Esam Hamdi was captured by American forces in Afghanistan.

Hamdi had been born in Louisiana while his parents, who are Saudi Arabian nationals, were temporarily working in the United States. He left the United States as a young child and never returned until his capture.

He is now being held as an "enemy combatant" in Norfolk, Va., but his trial has been complicated by his citizenship status.

"America must stop giving away citizenship like free AOL hours," Foley said.

Nuff Said!