News you probably missed: Lithuania may send troops to Afghanistan

Since my wife is a native of Latvia, I try to check in at the Baltic Times web site. This evening I found a very interesting story that's gone unnoticed. The little nation of Lithuania might be sending troops to Afghanistan.

From that publication:

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, the supreme commander of the Armed Forces, says he would not hesitate to send servicemen of the Lithuanian Special Operations Force to a future counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan, (Baltic News Service) reported.

"We will without a doubt meet international commitments of our armed forces," Adamkus told journalists on April 27.

A squadron of the Lithuanian Special Operations Force might be sent to the US-led anti-terrorist operation Enduring Freedom in eastern Afghanistan in the second half of this year. Lithuanian commandos already participated in the operation in 2002-2004.

"We live in times when terrorism may emerge any day in any place, and preparations are timely. Judging from assessments that I have heard, special units have been prepared perfectly," Adamkus said. "Coordination with other countries is necessary, and results are good," he added.

If Lithuania's president announced he was pulling troops out of Afghanistan, surely the mainstream media would have taken interest in that story.

Technorati tags: Lithuania military Afghanistan Terrorism افغانستان Enduring Freedom War on Terror Adamkus msm

The word on tomorrow's immigration rally in Chicago: US flags only

Immigrant rights groups and the open borders crowd must be cruising the blogs, because as least in regards to the Chicago rally on Monday, the word has been put forward. Old Glory should be the only flag waved.

Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Freedom Folks' man in Washington, had this to say:

A journey in which we're going to make sure we help them learn English, learn civics class, in which they are all given an American flag today, because this is the country they want to belong to.

Turnout for the Chicago rally may be lighter than the organizers are hoping for tomorrow. It's been raining almost constantly here since yesterday evening, and it's supposed to rain all day Monday.

Technorati tags: immigration immigrants Aliens chicago May 1 Luis Gutierrez

Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review #1 audio blog

As of 11:23AM on April 29, PJM’s Blog Week in Review is #1 on the Audio Blogs chart on iTunes!

What are you waiting for? Download and get your free weekly subcription now.

Technorati tags: iTunes iPod Podcast Podcasting Podcasts politics audio blog

Economist John Kenneth Galbraith dies

Influential author and economist John Kenneth Galbraith died yesterday at the age of 97.

He wrote a whole bunch of books, I read excerpts from them in college in some of my economics classes.

His politics were liberal, Galbraith was a very early opponent of the Vietnam War.

However, politics aside, he was a very close friend of William F. Buckley.

Buckley wrote about his friendship with Galbraith in his "literal autobiography," Miles Gone By:

He consistently writes pleasant tributes to my own books, inevitably advising the reader that my political opinions should be ignored, my fiction or accounts of life at sea appreciated.

Technorati tags: William F. Buckley John Kenneth Galbraith Obituaries books economics

Nationwide immigration rallies tomorrow

Pajamas Media bloggers will be in Los Angeles covering the big immigrants, or should I say, illegal immigrants rally there on Monday.

There will be similar rallies in cities all across the United States on Monday, May 1.

Closer to home, for me, in Chicago, the Second City rally will kick off Monday morning just west of the Loop, and the demonstrators will march two miles to Grant Park.

Traffic tip: Don't even think of driving a car anywhere near this area midday Monday. If you live in another city, check to see if there's a rally in your burg.

You've been warned.

Technorati tags: Immigration MEXICO México immigrants May 1 protest

I'm back from Irshad Manji's presentation

Light blogging today? Yes. Two reasons. One, I had to attend an all-day meeting at my workplace. The second? I attended a presentation this evening by author Irshad Manji, aka the Muslim Refusenik, at a synagogue in Northfield, Illinois, about 10 miles from my home.

It was a fascinating lecture--Ms. Manji is an exellent speaker with a lot to say that needs to be said.

Next week I'll have a longer post about the event. And yes, Kathleen Parker, some bloggers do their own reporting.

During the question and answer session, I asked her if she was familar with the Thomas Klocek case at DePaul University. She wasn't, but she responded that the atmosphere within academia is filled with fear on the subject of non-Muslims trying to discuss issues within Islam.

Quite true.

Technorati tags: المملكة آل سنة الإسلام مسلمChicago Illinois Irshad Manji יהודים, Jewish Islam Kathleen Parker DePaul Free Speech Thomas Klocek

Chief Illiniwek's last dance?

My alma mater, the University of Illinois, may have be saying good bye to its mascot, Chief Illiniwek. The forces of political-correctness may have finally prevailed over 80 years of tradition.

AP has more:

The NCAA's executive committee on Friday rejected an appeal by the University of Illinois to continue using its Chief Illiniwek athletic mascot but removed Bradley from a list of schools with imagery the organization deems "hostile" and "abusive."

The ruling means Illinois will not be allowed to host NCAA championship events unless the school drops its long-debated Indian mascot, a fixture at the Urbana-Champaign campus since 1926. School officials criticized the ruling and said they would explore what to do next.

On the positive side, Peoria's Bradley University will be able keep their "Braves" nickname.

Technorati tags: Chief Illiniwek University of Illinois ILLINI Illinois NCAA Mascots Sports

New Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review podcast is up

Last week the first Pajamas Media Blog Week in Review came out. This week's edition is available here on the Pajamas web site.

Oh, the podcast is free!

I just got finished listening. High gasoline prices is the first topic of discussion, and the panelists agree that the partisan posturing over symbolic gestures is doing nothing to lower gas prices.

Tammy Bruce gets in the best line about high energy costs; she decries the "Jimmy Carter requirement being the answer... of putting on a sweater and putting up a solar panel."

Iraq, Iran, Tony Snow's new job, and the new film Flight 93 are also talked about in week two's show.

Austin Bay moderates: Michael Ledeen (filling in for Glenn Reynolds), and Eric Umansky are the other panelists. And Ed Driscoll is at the control board again. Ed sacrificed his own blogging time to get the podcast ready.

Did I mention the podcast is free?

Technorati tags: Pajamas Media Iraq Iran Gas prices Tony Snow Jimmy Carter ايران iPod Podcast Podcasting Podcasts Free Downloads

Web server Hosting Matters under attack

I saw Little Green Footballs' story on the Pajamas site earlier today. It appears the web server Hosting Matters is under attack by hackers from Saudi Arabia. The first wave came this afternoon, and there appears to be a second assault this evening.

What they've apparently succeeded with is a denial of service attack.

Powerline and Captain's Quarters have been afflicted, according to LGF. I noticed that Instapundit is down, and Wizbang is reporting the Hugh Hewitt site is off line.

Saudi Arabia. Surprised? You shouldn't be.

UPDATE 9:05PM CDT: For now, at least, the sites are back up.

UPDATE 11:15PM CDT: Ed Driscoll's site is down. I've been trying to access it for 15 minutes.

Technorati tags: hack Hacks Blogging denial of service DOS Hacking

Vandals continue to hit military recruiting offices

Michelle Malkin has been doing a superb job keeping up (not an easy task) with the recent upswing in vandalism by Leftists at military recruiting centers.

There have been three moonbat attacks this week: The University of California-Santa Cruz, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the latest, at the University of Minnesota.

Click here and keep scrolling down.

Technorati tags: North Carolina California Minnesota Minneapolis Left Wing Extremists Military ROTC Michelle Malkin Moonbats Crime

News from Centcom: What extremists say

Sgt. Garth Gehlen of US Central Command e-mailed me the that a translation of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's recent video tape message to his followers, both real and imagined, is up on the Centcom site.

It's the usual type of demented verbage that his mentor, Osama bin Laden, has spews out. A sample:

To the American administration, and at its head the Crusader Bush, and those who surround him from the Jews, the Crusaders, the rejectionists, the apostates and others, we say you will not lead a life of ease in the land of Islam. By God, you will not enjoy your life for as long we still have a beating vein and a blinking eye.

Notice he says a blinking eye, not blinking eyes. Is this a coded message to the world's most famous one-eyed Taliban, Mullah Omar?

Technorati tags: Al Qaeda Iraq War on Terror Military Centcom al-Zarqawi al Zarqawi العراق جهاد الإسلام

Sharon Stone to speak at Cong. Jan Schakowsky's Ultimate Women's Power Lunch

The event starts in about 30 minutes. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill, is one of Congress' most liberal members. Sharon Stone is the guest speaker for this year's women's power lunch. Last year Jane Fonda had the honor.

Schakowsky is Marathon Pundit's rep in Washington.

No word on if her recently convicted check-kiting husband Robert Creamer will be in attendance.

Wow man, Lollapalooza organizers give out rolling papers at press conference

Reporters attending a Lollapalooza press conference yesterday were offered rolling papers promoting the alternative music festival. Photo courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times.

The event took place on Chicago Park District property. Earlier this year, Chicago passed a stringent anti-smoking ordinance.

I suppose a few people out there still roll their own cigarettes, but of course, rolling papers are made--and marketed--to marijuana smokers.

Charlie Jones is Lollapalooza's producer, and as the Sun-Times points out, Charlie didn't know what the fuss was about when a reporter questioned the appropriateness of the freebie-doobie papers.

Is there something wrong with them?

Then he cleaned the cobwebs out of his brain:

Later, Jones phoned the Chicago Sun-Times with a mea culpa, calling the rolling papers "a horrible mistake.''

"It's not the way we want to be represented,'' said Jones, adding that the papers were created as "a joke." Lollapalooza is "very family friendly. . . . This is not what we're about.''

Well, now that he explained things, I'm bringing my nine year-old to Lollapaloooza.

Technorati tags: Lollapalooza Chicago Music Marijuana War on drugs

Huge wind farm coming to Scotland, Kennedy works to block one in Massachusetts

The largest on-land wind farm in Europe will soon be built in Scotland. The development will be near Glasgow, and once completed, it will supply Scots with 2 percent of their power needs. At a time of soaring energy costs, every little bit helps.

West of Scotland, in Nantucket Sound off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a similar sized offshore wind farm has been proposed for several years.

And in a classic case of liberal two-faceness, Senator Teddy Kennedy and his protect-the-environment family opposes it.

Here is a passage from Peter Schweizer's Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy:

But from the moment the Kennedy family got wind of these plans (so to speak), they came out in strong opposition. Their complaint: The wind turbines would be built in Nantucket Sound, about six miles off the coast from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis. The problem was not aesthetic; the Kennedys wouldn't be able to actually see the turbines from their home. Instead Robert Kennedy Jr., who had been beating the drum for alternative sources of energy for more than a decade, complained the project would be built in one of the family's favorite sailing and yachting areas. (My note: You can't make this stuff up!) The Kennedys were quickly joined by other affluent environmentalists with homes in the area, including newscaster Walter Cronkite and historian David McCollough, and the media war began.

Cronkite, as Schweizer points out a couple of paragraphs later, switched his position to "neutral." The sting of being called a hypocrite got to the man who was once called "the most trusted man in America."

Kennedy, as the Boston Globe reported today, is apparently losing the battle over his beloved patch of blue yachting water, so he's resorting to back room wheeling-and-dealing with Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens to stop the Nantucket Sound wind farm.

It must be a great place for yachting. If I ever get a yacht, I'm taking it to Nantucket Sound.

But it's also an ideal place for a wind farm, and as Mr. Spock so eloquently phrased it in the second Star Trek movie, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Even if they are Kennedys." Okay, I made up that last sentence, but you get my point, I hope.

Yeah, there's some griping in Scotland about their wind farm, but it's going to be built. Here's what one Scottish official said about the project:

(It) is the largest single onshore wind farm to be consented in Europe and is a significant milestone towards achieving our renewable energy and climate change targets. We are strongly committed to the continued development of a diverse renewable energy portfolio in this country." - Allan Wilson, Deputy Enterprise Minister.

Glenn Reynolds over at Intapundit has more on the Cape Cod wind farm project.

Technorati tags: Scotland Glasgow UK Politics kennedy Massachusetts Cape Cod Energy Environment Wind Farm Ted Stevens

Welcome Pajamas Media readers

The Air America post is below. Michelle Malkin has more, including an Air America summary on her site.

Technorati tags: Air America Minnesota Politics Radio Media

Air America losing NYC flagship station

Maybe this is why Al Franken moved to Minnesota. Did he know he was going to lose his Manhattan studio?

New York of course is a very liberal town, and Air America has never enjoyed good ratings there. But as Media Week reports, Air America's New York ratings may soon register as a "zero," because its flagship station, WLIB, is pulling the plug on the liberal talk network.

Air America Radio will lose its New York flagship station, WLIB-AM, on Aug. 31. While the left-leaning radio network’s original lease for the Inner City station ran out March 31, AAR managed to get an extension which only lasts until Aug. 31, according to an informed source.

Through an agreement with ICBC, WLIB will be operated as a joint venture and programmed by P1, a company run by former Clear Channel and Jacor Communications executive Randy Michaels. Michaels is expected to program a progressive-talk format, but replace AAR’s network programming with more local programming. A likely addition to the new lineup: Ed Schultz, the left-of-center talker syndicated by P1.

“To be clear, Air America will not go silent on the New York City airwaves. We do not, however, comment on hypothetical speculation,” said an AAR spokesperson.

If you're in New York's Grand Central Station beginning in September, look for some screaming nuts with a portable sound system. That may end up being New York's Air America outlet.

Technorati tags: Air America Al Franken Talk Radio New York Liberal Radio WLIB

On Holocaust Remembrance Day in Illinois, media remembers Nation of Islam member on state hate crimes panel

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Flashback to last summer: Ill. Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed Sister Claudette Muhammad, the minister of protocol for Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, to the Governor's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes.

Her membership in the group only became widely known when she invited her fellow panel members to Louis Farrakhan's annual "Saviour's Day" speech in February.

Calypso Louie was in top-form that day, as this snippet from that speech shows:

"These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength...it's the wicked Jews, the false Jews that are promoting Lesbianism, homosexuality. It's wicked Jews, false Jews that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!

Blagojevich, a Democrat, refuses to fire Sister Muhammad, and the minister of protocol refuses to quit. Five Jewish members of the hate crimes panel did resign from the panel to protest Muhammad's presence on it.

Outside the commission, besides Jews, gays have expressed outrage over the Nation of Islam member being on that panel

Blagojevich was in Springfield yesterday (a story in itself, Blago refuses to live in the governor's mansion, preferring his Northwest Side Chicago home), for a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony. And reporters hammered Blagojevich over the hate crimes panel controversy. Blagojevich answered in predictable Blago fashion.

From the Springfield State Journal-Register:

"We're making real progress there, and we're just going to keep doing that," he said. "It's working well, and it's been sort of below the radar screen, and I think, frankly, that's probably the right way to do it as some of the wounds from what happened before heal."

Although Muhammad has remained on the commission, Blagojevich said it's important to condemn Farrakhan's anti-Semitic comments.

"There were maybe some voices in the hate crimes commission who should have stepped up and done that," Blagojevich said.

Hey Gov, uh, some did that--then they quit.

As far as I know, there are two gays on the panel, Rick Garcia and Larry McKeon.

I believe State Senator Carol Ronen of Chicago is the only Jewish member left on the panel. As far as can gather, she's on the committee for the long haul--if she leaves, then the panel could be Judenrein, that is, free of Jews.

Oh, click on Carol's link, you'll notice a rainbow flag in the background.

Technorati tags: Jews jewish Holocaust Gay GLBT Nation of Islam louis farrakhan Illinois Chicago Blagojevich shoah hate homophobia

Forgotten fact about Todd Beamer of Flight 93

Although it's a struggle to find any university recognition of it, Todd Beamer, the passenger on doomed Flight 93 who yelled out the call, "Let's roll," was a DePaul University alumnus.

DePaul paid Ward Churchill, who called the World Trade Center victims "Little Eichmanns," an estimated $5,000 to speak there last fall.

DePaul's complete acknoledgement of Beamer's sacrifice, as far as I know, consisted of his picture being placed in a 2002 DePaul graduation program.

Strange priorities at DePaul.

Technorati tags: DePaul Ward Churchill Flight 93 9/11 Chicago Illinois Let/'s Roll movies

Blogaholics Anonymous may be coming

Of course, a person can spend too much time online and too much time reading blogs. (Marathon Pundit being an exception, of course.)

Catherine Ellsworth in the Daily Telegraph writes on this probably-soon-to-be-on-Oprah affliction.

Some of my friends with self-diagnosed "blog issues" worry they devour too many "bad" and not enough "good" blogs and put themselves on corrective (ie "celebrity-free") diets to weed out the junk. Others fear they spend too much time reading blogs full stop and try to work somewhere without internet connection, though this can prove counterproductive when so much of modern work requires access to email and the web.

According to health professionals, there is such as thing as too much blog time. Speaking to experts recently about so-called internet addiction, it was interesting to hear "onlineaholism" described as being as dangerous as drug dependency or alcoholism. Many net addicts were risking their health, careers and relationships, experts such as Dr Hilarie Cash, founder of Internet/Computer Addiction Services in Redmond, Washington, told me.

And as James Thurber once wrote, yes, you could look it up. There really is such a thing as Internet/Computer Addiction Services.

Addiction Blogs Blogging Weblogs

Milwaukee Dem tire slashers get jail time

On election day morning, November 2, 2004, Milwaukee Republicans discovered slashed tires on the vans they had rented for that days get-out-the-vote drive.

Coincidence? No!

From AP, hat tip to Michelle Malkin:

Four Democratic presidential campaign workers were sentenced to jail time ranging from four months to six months Wednesday for puncturing the tires of Republican vehicles on Election Day 2004.

The men had pleaded no contest in January to misdemeanor property damage. A fifth worker was found not guilty.

Those who pleaded no contest were Sowande A. Omokunde, the son of Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee; Michael Pratt, the son of former acting Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt; and Lewis Caldwell and Lavelle Mohammad, both from Milwaukee.

They originally were charged with felony property damage but accepted plea deals on the lesser charge.

Malkin of course is the author of the book, Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild, , which documents cases like these about the peace-loving Democrats going overboard in pursuit of their goals. Winning elections would achieve that end, of course, something the Democratic Party has been having trouble achieving lately.

If you missed it, here is a post of mine from last night that fits the theme, Convicted vote thief joined by top local Dems at his pre-prison going away party. Michelle Malkin was not one of the guests.

Technorati tags: Milwaukee Wisconsin Politics Election Gwen Moore Democrats Michelle Malkin crime prison

A second attempt at a Whorehouse Days festival in Minnesota

Clinton Township, Minnesota is an obscure place located in Minnesota's Iron Range. It has a chance to lose the obscurity label--all it has to do is host the Whorehouse Days Festival this summer.

But don't count on it.

From AP:

Another Iron Range town has answered with a chorus of nays against Whorehouse Days -- a festival that would hark back to the area's Prohibition and prostitution past.

Organizer Darcie Novak had hoped to hold the event in Clinton Township, Minn., but ran into opposition last week at the Clinton Town Board meeting. Last year, Novak and others sought to hold Whorehouse Days in Gilbert, Minn., but the proposal was quashed by opponents.

Doris Abramson of Zim feels the festival would be offensive to women. "Why they are trivializing something that was so harsh and brutal for many women. It's not something to be taken lightly," she said.

Novak, of Clinton Township, passed out a flyer at the meeting describing the festival as a "chance for grownups to get dressed up in flapper dresses and gangster hats" and experience bed races, the world's longest bar and a madame contest.

If the festival organizers manage to get approval for Whorehouse Days, it'll be held August 18-19.

Technorati tags: Minnesota Duluth prostitution Iron Range

"Muslim-Refusenik" coming to a synagogue near me

Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith,, will be speaking at the Temple Jeremiah synagogue in Northfield, Illinois this Saturday evening. More details here.

The event is open to the public and free. It starts at 8pm. I'm planning to be there.

Technorati tags: المملكة آل سنة الإسلام مسلمChicago Illinois Irshad Manji יהודים, Jewish Islam

Autonomist Blog: Why the anti-war movement is failing

Rocco DiPippo over at the Autonomist Blog has a great post up about the anti-war movement. Here is a tasty morsel:

Hardly an antiwar rally is held that does not feature a smorgasbord of radical-Left and Communist speakers praising dictators like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez while comparing Bush to Hitler and America to an oppressive, unjust gulag. The only people who appreciate those views are brainwashed college students, failed '60s "revolutionaries" and terminally miserable people desperately looking for purpose -- any purpose -- in life.

Well phrased.

Technorati tags: Anti-war protest Castro chavez communists the Left Bush Hitler

Funeral protest bill passed by Ill. legislature, gov to sign it into law

The Let Them Rest in Peace Act will soon be law.

What is the Let Them Rest in Peace Act?

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The state Legislature sent a message Tuesday to a fundamentalist Kansas church fond of picketing soldiers' funerals: Don't come to Illinois.

The House unanimously approved the Let them Rest in Peace bill prohibiting loud and disruptive protests within 200 feet of a funeral.

"Every funeral should be conducted with reverence," said Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who spearheaded the initiative.

The legislation is aimed at the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka. Members have disrupted Illinois military funerals with signs reading "Thank God for dead soldiers."

Governor Rod Blagojevich says he will sign the bill into law.

The Sun-Times article is a little misleading; Phelps and his whackos travel the length of the country to protest soldiers' funerals.

Technorati tags: Fred Phelps Westboro Baptist Church Gay Illinois Military

Blogroll addition: Reverse Spin

I add sites to my blogroll all the time, but this one is special.

My good friend Dan Curry recently started a blog, Reverse Spin. Dan's a political consultant who has worked for several well-known Illinois political figures. He's still in the game, so you may see his name pop up here and there. He's a former reporter, and possesses a brilliant political mind and a near photographic memory.

Dan helped me out immeasurably in 2004 as I worked to expose John Kerry's Boston Marathon lie for my predecessor site, Blue States for Bush.

Reverse Spin's been operating for about a month; Dan wanted to do a "soft opening" as he got his feet wet in the blogging world.

Technorati tags: Illinois Politics blogging Blog John Kerry Boston Marathon

Sen. Burns hires a lawyer

Republican Conrad Burns of Montana earlier this year looked like a shoe-in for re-election this fall. A Republican in a red state with already one Democratic senator in Max Baucus, well, the guy can't lose, right?

Wrong. Mr. Burns is deeply entangled in the Jack Abramoff scandal, which is not "excellent" for the three term senator.

From AP:

Montana Sen. Conrad Burns has retained a lawyer who specializes in white-collar crime and congressional investigations, his campaign confirmed Tuesday.

Campaign spokesman Jason Klindt said Burns has hired Ralph Caccia, a Washington partner with the law firm Powell Goldstein.

Montana Democrats have played up Burns links to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty as part of a federal corruption investigation earlier this year. Abramoff is cooperating with prosecutors investigating influence-peddling on Capitol Hill.

Burns received about $150,000 in campaign donations from Abramoff and his associates, which he has since donated or returned. In March, Abramoff told Vanity Fair magazine that his lobbying firm got "every appropriation we wanted" from Burns' Senate committee, adding that his staff members were "as close as they could be" with the Montana Republican's staff.

Burns' Democratic opponent hasn't even been chosen, but the longtime Montana senator is vulnerable.

Technorati tags: Montana Republicans Abramoff Conrad Burns Senate

Convicted vote thief joined by top local Dems at his pre-prison going away party

"Having been there -- I repeat, having been there -- I do not wish jail for any person." Former Ill. Governor Dan Walker, discussing last week's conviction of George Ryan.

Earlier this month, as Cal Skinner reminded me, there was a pre-prison going away party for ex-East St. Louis Democratic Chairman Charlie Powell. By no means am I claiming Powell is completely naive about what occurs in prison, but having such a party, and worse, the growing tolerance of corruption in Illinois, is troubling. The event was billed as a birthday party, but since Powell will be in the "house with many doors" when his birthday rolls around, the party-organizers put together a "two-fer" celebration.

Last week, Powell began serving his 21 month sentence in federal prison for his role in a vote buying scandal.

From the Belleville News-Democrat last week:

St. Clair County Circuit Judges John Baricevic and Milton Wharton attended on the evening of April 7 at Club Illusion in East St. Louis as did Associate Judge Laninya Cason and an estimated 250 other party-goers.

They had come to wish a happy birthday to a politician who, even after being convicted of vote fraud, was able to influence county politics. St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern and his wife, Erin, also were at the party as was Assessor Gordon Bush and prominent Belleville attorney Bruce Cook, who defended Powell during his June trial for conspiracy to commit vote fraud.

Wharton said that while he was not a friend of Powell's, he attended the celebration because Powell "has done significant things for the community." Wharton mentioned neighborhood improvement projects and Powell's boarding house for destitute men.

Powell is living at a different kind of boarding house now.

Technorati tags: East St. Louis Illinois vote fraud Election Fraud Politics Mark Kern prison Democrats Democratic Party

Moron on Cong. Bobby Rush--Christian minister voted against House Christmas resolution

I almost forgot about this one. Congressman Bobby Rush (see previous post), is an ordained minister. But that didn't override his moonbattiness.

From NewsMax last December:

On December 15 the House of Representatives passed a resolution "protecting the symbols and traditions of Christmas" by an overwhelming 401-22 vote.

Representative JoAnn Davis (R-VA), the resolution's sponsor, said the resolution was necessary to counter "political correctness run amok."

"No one," she said, "should feel like they have done something wrong by wishing someone a Merry Christmas."

Twenty-two Democrats played Scrooge and disagreed.

Including Illinois' Bobby Rush.

This can't be good...Sudanese president in Iran

Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of thug-state Sudan, arrived in Tehran earlier today for "talks with high-ranking Iranian officials," the Tehran Times is reporting.

More from the same article:

Al-Bashir’s visit to Tehran indicates the significance both Iran and Sudan attach to solving the problems of the Islamic world.

It gets worse...

Although the United States and Britain have attempted to exaggerate the Darfur crisis, the problem can be managed through humanitarian efforts, without the interference of Western powers.

The Sudanese government has spared no effort to solve the Darfur crisis, but the European Union and the U.S. have exacerbated the regional crisis through their illogical interference.

Earlier this year, FrontPage Magazine's Frederick W. Stakelbeck wrote about the emerging Iran-Cuba Axis.

This Christian Science Monitor article from February discusses the growing coziness between Venezuela and Iran.

Did someone say Belarus?

Last week there was an article, Belarusian leader Lukashenko wants to boost trade with Iran, that appeared in the Russian News and Information Agency site.

An excerpt:

The president of Belarus said Friday the former Soviet republic was seeking to expand trade ties with Iran, while Tehran said the two countries had much in common in many areas.

Iran seems to be gathering its friends. Kind of like what Jimmy Neutron's nemesis, King Goobot, did when he formed The League of Villains.

Technorati tags: Iran Darfur Sudan Belarus Беларусь پارسی سی Farsi Mahmoud Ahmadinejad محمود Jimmy Neutron السودان Venezuela Cuba

Ill. state legislator pushing for an impeach Bush resolution

State Rep. Karen Yarbrough of Maywood, Illinois, has too much time on her hands. Clearly she's not willing to fix a state budget that for years has been held together by tape and strings, Yarbrough thinks the Ill. State Legislature should start the process of impeaching President Bush.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

To support her legislation, Yarbrough is relying on a provision from Jefferson's Manual, a procedural handbook written by Thomas Jefferson as a supplement to U.S. House rules.

Jefferson wrote that there are various methods of setting an impeachment in motion, including "charges transmitted from the legislature of a State."

Jefferson wrote a lot of stuff. Maybe too much, because his writings have inspired French Revolutionaries, as well as (link not safe for work) Neo-Nazis.

Jefferson was in France when the constitution was written, and his "Jefferson's Manual" isn't in the US constitution.

More from the Sun-Times:

It would be the first state legislature to pass such a resolution, though the measure faces a dim future in a Republican-controlled Congress.

"This is absolutely ridiculous," said John McGovern, a spokesman for U.S. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). Only the U.S. House can formally initiate impeachment proceedings.

I did some research on Rep. Karen Yarbrough. According to her statehouse biography, she has an M.A. degree from Northeastern Illinois University's Center for Inner City Sudies. The center is a moonbat's heaven: Its director is Conrad Worrill, a longtime slavery reparations proponent and racebaiter. The last link is courtesy of the Nation of Islam's "The Final Call."

As for this Illinois impeachment resolution, well, consider the source of it. Then laugh.

UPDATE: April 26, 10:34pm CDT Pat over at Brainster has his take on this silly caper in Illinois. He goes over some of the legal technicalities of Yarbrough's maneuver.

Technorati tags: Conrad Worrill NEIU Illinois Bush Impeach Bush Politics Nation of Islam Race Maywood Thomas Jefferson Moonbats

A trillium from a light blogging day

My hectic morning turned into a hectic day, hence the paucity of posts. On the way home from work, I took this photo, once again from my Motorola V3 RAZR phone, at Harms Woods in Skokie, Illinois.

The flower is a trillium. Everything in trillium comes in threes. Three petals upon three sepals upon three leaves, hence the "tri" in trillium.

Technorati tags: Trillium Motorola razr photography

Name that highway--for a price

For the last fifteen years, corporations have been allowed--for hefty fees--to name sports stadiums after themselves. In Chicago, the perpetually money-losing Chicago Skyway, which connects Chicago's South Side with the Indiana Tollway, is a highway in search of a naming sponsor.

Chicago has the United (as in United Airlines) Center, the Allstate Arena, and US Cellular Field.

Soon the Skyway may have a similar appellation. The road is a tollway, so namers, be prepared for hate mail.

More details on this story are available from the Chicago Tribune, free registration required.

Technorati tags: Chicago Illinois Indiana Marketing roads Driving Chicago Skyway

Daniel Pipes on Bill Hobbs and Belmont University

The post below this one has more information on the the Bill Hobbs sitution in regards to his former employer, Belmont University.

Here is a Daniel Pipes article from FrontPage Magazine.

Who would have thought that Belmont University of Nashville, Tennessee, would apply the Islamic law to its staff? But just that happened earlier this month.

Bill Hobbs, a Republican political advisor, blogger, and news writer for Belmont, which bills itself as "the largest Christian university in Tennessee," was upset in February 2006 about the cowardice of the American media in not publishing the Danish cartoons. So he drew a primitive cartoon of his own and posted it on his personal site. It sat in obscurity until April 5, when a Democratic political operative, Mike Kopp, wrote about it, calling it:

a bizzare page with the heading Draw Mohammed that spotlights a stick drawing of the Prophet Mohammed holding a bomb. The cartoon is entitled "Mohammend Blows." Under the cartoon Hobbs issues an invite to "exercise your right to free expression by drawing pictures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed". He ends the post with the phrase "Here’s my first mo-toon." All this was posted at 12:40 pm, on Friday, February 24, 2006.

Hobbs responded within a few hours on Kopp’s website, writing (spelling mistakes uncorrected):

I live in America, and am blessed to have the First Amendment, and am angry that the American media is too cowardly in the face of Islamofacists to run the cartoons. I posted that cartoon, and invited others to draw their own cartoons, as a way of protesting both American media cowardice and Islamist attempts to suppress free speech via threats of bombs and bullets and burning and beheading. But then I never publicized the site and, quite frankly, forgot is was up until today.

P.S. I am insensitve toward religions that have a large number of adherents who are running around blowing stuff up and threatening to kill non-believers over cartoons. Yes, I plead insensitivity. I would prefer my children not grow up in a world governed by Islamofacists.

Technorati tags: Bill Hobbs Belmont University Tennessee Christianity Muhammad Cartoons mohammed cartoons Muhammad Muhammad Islam محمد Islam محمد Muhammad cartoons

Blogger Bill Hobbs is back

Ten days ago I reported on Nashville blogger Bill Hobbs being for pushed out of his job apparently because of a cartoon he drew about the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoon, was in response to the uproar over the Danish Muhammad cartoons.

Bill's part of Pajamas Media, just like me.

In January, Hobbs took a job with Nashville's Belmont University. He suspended operation of his blog, which forced me to, sadly, take Bill Hobbs.com off the Marathon Pundit blogroll.

He's blogging again, and he's back on the blogroll. Here is his second post after his interregnum ended:

Hello. Anything happen while I have been away?

Hey, even though he's going through a tough time, it's nice to know he still has a sense of humor.

Technorati tags: Bill Hobbs Blog Items Tennessee Muhammad Denmark Islam محمد Muhammad cartoons Danmark

From a rare evening run

Once again I ran with my Motorola V3 RAZR camera phone, and early on in my 10 mile run, I took this photo of two white tail deer in Morton Grove's Linne Woods.

I zoomed a bit to get a fairly decent shot, hence the bit of graininess.

Technorati tags: photos Photography Morton Grove running deer motorola razr

35 years ago: John Kerry's "Jen-jiss Khan" Senate testimony

John Kerry foisted himself upon the public consciousness thirty five years ago Saturday with his treacherous testimony in front of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the Vietnam War, as Rocco DiPippo reminds today in the Autonomist Blog.

In his pompous Brahmin accent, this is what John Kerry said to members of the US Senate on April 22, 1971:

I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.

It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit, the emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam, but they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made
them do.

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis (My note: Kerry pronounced it "Jen-jiss") Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage (My note: Kerry pronounced it "rah-vage") of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

Historians have "rah-vaged" Kerry's testimony.

Yesterday in Boston's Faneuil Hall, where perhaps not coincidentally Nuance-boy gave his 2004 concession speech the day after the presidential election, Kerry gave another speech, this time about that '71 Senate testimony.

He makes no apologies for his scandalous conduct while a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. And like many from the "Sixties Generation," John Kerry still is mired in the late-1960s and the pre-Nixon resignation 1970s.

Technorati tags: John Kerry Senate Politics Boston Massachusetts Việt Nam Vietnam Winter Soldier veterans Genghis Khan

New Bin Laden audio tape

Alleged tough guy, terrorist Osama bin Laden, apparently released another audio tape to al-Jazeera earlier today. I've lost track of the last time the terror-mastermind, who sends others on suicide missions, showed his face on film or videotape.

From MSNBC:

In his first new message in three months, bin Laden said the West’s decision to cut off funds to the Palestinians because their Hamas leaders refuse to recognize Israel proved that the United States and Europe were conducting "a Zionist crusader war on Islam."

It sure sounds like the stuff UBL spews out. Crusaders...Zionists...bizarre rants..

Tecnnorat tags: Osama bin Laden Al Qaeda Hamas Israel الاسلامية فلسطين اللغة العربية terrorism Middle East War on Terror

Subscribe to the free Pajamas Media "Blog Week in Review" podcast

Many years ago I attended a sales seminar where the presenter told us what he thought were the 10 most persuasive sales words in the English language. "Free" was one of them, I've forgotten the rest.

And you can subscribe to by clicking on the finding the link on the bottom of this Pajamas Media post.

The first edition of Blog Week in Review was good. The panelists--all with superb radio voices--were Austin Bay, Tammy Bruce, Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), and Eric Umansky.

Ed Driscoll does an excellent job twiddling the production knobs.

What are you waiting for? Besides, it's free!

Technorati tags: iPod iTunes Podcasting Podcast Podcasts free Blog Downloads Politics Tammy Bruce

Islamist extremists acting extreme

I found this in my e-mail box from Daniel Pipes.

Courtesy of Steven Emerson's Counterterrorism blog.

A Queens based group, the Islamic Thinkers Society, gave this "salute" to America at a protest last week in front of the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan.

No wonder they call you sons of apes and pigs because that’s what you are.

We know many government services are watching us
Such as the FBI…CIA…Mossad, Homeland Security…
We know we are getting on their nerves
And so are you….
So we say the hell with you!
May the FBI burn in Hell
CIA burn in Hell
Mossad burn in Hell
Homeland Security burn in hell!!

Islam will dominate the world
Islam is the only solution
Islam will dominate the world
Islam is the only solution
Takbeer!
La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur Rasool Allah

The ITS extremists were in Manhattan to protest Israel, here is a portion of what they had to say about the Jewish state:

Israeli Zionists, What do you say?
How many women have you raped today?
Israeli Zionists, What do you say?
How many children have you killed today?

Zionists, Zionists You will pay! The Wrath of Allah is on its way!
Israeli Zionists You shall pay! The Wrath of Allah is on its way!
The mushroom cloud is on its way! The real Holocaust is on its way!

Technorati tags: Islam Terrorism Israel New York Queens ישראל כללי لله يا الله

Baseball blogging, Chicago White Sox are the hottest team in baseball

The defending World Series Champion Chicago White Sox defeated the Minnesota Twins tonight--it was their seventh straight win.

The biggest surprise early on in the 2006 Major League Baseball season is the opening run by the New York Mets; they're enjoying their best start ever.

And the reverse side, no one, not even the players' mothers, thought the Kansas City Royals would be any good. But KC is 3-13 and 8 1/2 games out of first. The season isn't even a month old.

Technorati tags: Baseball MLB Mets White Sox Chicago White Sox Royals

Carol Moseley-Braun goes into the organic food business

Former Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, (D-IL), had a senatorial career that even her onetime ardent supporters referred to as an embarrassment. She mostly stayed out of trouble as the Bill Clinton-appointed US ambassador to New Zealand after her she was defeated in her Senate re-election bid.

In 2004, Carol ran for president, but disappointed dozens when she dropped out of the running even before the Iowa caucuses were held. Braun endorsed Howard Dean after withdrawing. Like Al Gore, Tom Harkin, and other prominent Dems, Moseley-Braun didn't forsee the bursting of the Dean bubble.

Carol better hope she has better business sense that political, she's going to be selling organic food, under the banner Ambassador Organics. If she doesn't, she'll soon be broke.

From AP:

I see it (Ambassador Organics) as a continuing of my public service and my commitment to public service," Braun, the first black woman elected to the Senate, told the Chicago Tribune. "If I can help people to eat healthier, if I can help Americans' diets to improve, if by my company I can help build the infrastructure that expands the availability of healthy foods, then I will have served in my retirement from electoral politics."

The line of spices, teas and produce is named Ambassador Organics -- an apparent nod to Braun's time as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. Braun has an 80 percent controlling interest in the new company, which still has to work out details including an exact product line and which grocery stores will sell the products.

"We haven't gotten that far," said Braun, who plans to formally introduce the brand at a Chicago trade show in May and launch the line in September. "We have not concluded contractual agreements with them (the stores)."

So, she doesn't know what she's going to sell, nor where she's going to sell it.

It's a bad start.

This press release, courtesy of Pajamas Media, has more information on Carol's career change.

Technorati tags: Illinois Politics Organic foods Food Healthy Eating Pajamas Media

Mr. Right has a new caption contest up

In the last one, I ended up in fourteenth place.

This week's contest features Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

Technorati tags: Humor photos Rumsfeld Cheney

Ex-con and ex-Governor Dan Walker talks about George Ryan

Earlier this week, former Ill. Governor George Ryan was found guilty on various corruption charges.

The Illinois Republican's lawyers are certainly going to appeal, the turmoil within the Ryan jury gives them a little more to meat to chew on than in most cases. As things stand now, Ryan is going to prison. He's likely headed to a so-called "Club Fed" prison, but it will be no vacation. One of Ryan's predecessors, Democrat Dan Walker, spent time in prison as well.

As for what Ryan can expect, Walker knows best. He served his sentence at the Duluth minimum security prison.

From AP:

In prison, Walker scrubbed toilets and picked up cigarette butts, using a wooden rod that had the words "Governor's Stick" burnt into it.

He was also threatened by fellow inmates and forced to stand outside in the cold while waiting for meals, but Walker said the most humiliating part of the ordeal was being subjected to random searches where prison guards would bark out "strip, squat and spread."

Walker, 83, served 17 months in a minimum security prison after pleading guilty in 1987 to bank fraud, perjury and other charges related to his ownership of a suburban Chicago bank. None of the crimes were linked to his term as governor, which he served from 1973 to 1977.

"Having been there -- I repeat, having been there -- I do not wish jail for any person," Walker told the Chicago Sun-Times in a phone interview from his home near San Diego. "I really feel sorry for George and his family. ... I wish no man to have that and no man to have that disgrace that I had."

Not "Club Fed."

Technorati tags: George Ryan Illinois Ryan Trial corruption Chicago prison law crime

Profile-aphopia update: Washington Post displays symptoms

Here is headline I found on the online edition of the Washington Post:

2 U.S. Citizens Met Extremists To Talk About Attacks, FBI Says

Here are the first two paragraphs from the article, free registration may be required.

A U.S. citizen whose family came from Bangladesh was being flown to New York on Friday to face charges he lied to federal investigators about his meetings with suspected terrorists, officials said.

Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 19, who had been living in Roswell, Ga., could be arraigned as early as Saturday in Brooklyn federal court on charges he gave numerous false statements to the FBI when questioned about his travels abroad, according to an arrest warrant unsealed Friday.

Syed Haris Ahmed was the other man arrested by the FBI.

More from the Post:

Ahmed told agents that he traveled to Canada with Sadequee in March 2005 to meet with "like-minded Islamic extremists" at which time the group "discussed strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike, to include oil refineries and military bases," according to the affidavit. Ahmed said that Sadequee did not stay with his aunt but rather a person he and Ahmed wanted to accompany to terrorist camps for training, according to investigators.

Ah, but at least they're US citizens, as the Washington Post points out in the headline, so there is no need to worry. (Sarcasm off.)

Which brings to mind this Marathon Pundit post from last week, New phobia discovered: Profile-aphopia.

Here is what I wrote:

Profile-aphobia--an irrational fear, usually possessed by the mainstream media, of being labeled a bigot. Best exemplified by this April 10 AP headline in the San Diego Union-Tribune, U.S. citizen gets five years in drugs-for-missiles plot. This phobia is especially commonplace in news stories about Muslims who've been charged with terrorism related crimes. All criminologists agree that US citizens commit most of the crimes in the United States, and they are puzzled when mainstream reporters feel compelled to overemphasize the American citizenship of a US Muslim accused in a terror plot. Symptoms among mainstream media reporters become more severe when a Muslim is convicted of such crimes.

Treatment: Common sense, and a new writing-style book.

Technorati tags: Phobia Islam Mental Health Muslims عمر Washington Washington Post Dhimmi Media ذمي political correctness Canada crime Terrorism

Rachel Corrie play will be performed at an undisclosed location in Toronto

The American martyr for the cause of Palestinian terrorism, Rachel Corrie, is back in the news today, courtesy of Brainster.

Rachel Corrie was an anti-American extremist and member of the radical International Solidarity Movement. She was killed when an Israeli Defense Force D-9 Caterpillar bulldozer ran her over, yes, accidentally, as she tried to prevent the destruction of a Gaza home with a handy tunnel connected to a weapons cache.

The play My Name is Rachel Corrie, which is enjoying a long run in London, will have its North American debut in Toronto. Actually, according to the Toronto Star, it'll be just a script reading. On Sunday, at a location not made public, the script reading will commence somewhere in Canada's largest city. After plans for the play were cancelled in New York--after a public outcry--the Canadians are taking a lower key approach.

There is also a Rachel Corrie musical piece that gets performed on occasion, a cantata entitled The Skies are Weeping.

Tom Gross of the British magazine The Spectator wrote an article about lesser-known Rachels, Israeli Rachels killed by terrorists during the intifata.
There are no plays or cantatas about them.

Technorati tags: Palestine Israel Intifada יִשְׂרָאֵל دولة canada Toronto עלייה International Solidarity Movement ISM Rachel Corrie theater Music

George Ryan trial...not over till it's over

Fireworks in the juror room is what CBS 2 Chicago's Mike Flannery is calling what went occurred among the 12, make that 14 jurors, on the George Ryan panel.

One of the jurors, Elizabeth Ezell, somehow managed to serve eight months on the Ryan jury without her status as a fugitive on an arrest warrant remaining unknown for six months--until deliberations in the trial had already begun.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

(Ezell) "Do I have to accept being called derogatory names, shouting profanity, and personal attacks?"

Days later, several jurors fired off their own three-page letter to the judge (Rebecca Pallmeyer), about Ezell, saying, "Evelyn is either intellectually incompetent to handle the task, or she has ulterior motives behind her actions and gets physically aggressive."

Attorneys bickered for hours over whether a wallet with a private investigator's identification card found near a juror's home would scare her into thinking defense attorneys were spying on her -- or whether asking her how she felt about it would only frighten her more.

How could a fugitive like Ezell sit for six months as a juror in such a high-profile trial? Unlike in state court, potential jurors in federal court are trusted to tell the truth about their criminal records.

Fran O'Brien's update: There's a stench in Washington

Third Wave Dave is guest blogging over at Lucky Dawg News.

A very brief summary: For the last couple of years, Fran O'Brien's Steakhouse, which leases space from the Capitol Hilton in Washington, has been hosting weekly dinners for recuperating soldiers from nearby Walter Reed Hospital. O'Brien's picks up the tab.

Their lease is not being renewed by the Hilton Corporation.

The Hilton people, including Capitol Hilton General Manager, have not been forthright in explaining why Fran O'Brien's lease is being pulled.

Indepundit posted an e-mail from fellow milblogger Buzz Patterson about controversy:

I just had a long chat with Hal Koster. Our worst fears are not only well founded but grossly understated. It's a complete and thorough cluster @#$%. (Sorry, my words not his). I haven't been this pissed about anything in a very long time.

Andi, Kelleher's responses to our questions were blatant lies. Despite what Kelleher says, Hilton has done nothing to support the dinners... never met a bus, never contributed a cent, never negotiated for changes to bring the restaurant into ADA compliance, never advertised the restaurant or the dinners within their own hotel, never provided logistical support... in a word, they've done absolutely zip. In fact, Kelleher hides out in his office and has had no contact with Fran's owners. Hilton Corporate hasn't returned phone calls or e-mails. Hal has never spoken with a rep from Hilton about a future. This O'Boyle guy who is supposedly in charge of Hilton's leases has been MIA for years. Not only unprofessional in my opinion but grossly negligent. Fran's has been profitable every year in spite of the fact that Hilton won't even live up to their responsibilities for facilities management. They've had some plumbing issues... Hal and Marty now call their own plumber. Hilton wanted Fran's to re-upholster the booths and change the carpet, Hal and Marty asked for ADA compliance in return. When negotiations ceased, Hilton doubled their rent last month (doubled!). And then issued an eviction notice two weeks later.

Hal and Marty have retained lawyers and, as mentioned before, have the support of several influential organizations and people...

This is complete bullshit. Hilton has every right to make their business decisions. But our wounded vets are being kicked to the curb. When media show up now to document the process, Hilton's security team denies them access to the loading dock, the service elevator and the inhuman conditions our troops in wheelchairs have to endure to get to the frikkin restaurant.

It's not about the few thousand bucks it would cost to make this thing work... hell, I'll kick that in. This is about a bunch of numbskulls with no understanding of civil service, patriotism or, for that matter, good business sense. And I'm no hotel management major.

CBS and CNN are doing pieces tomorrow. As much as I despise MSM, I welcome this. Hannity & Colmes are doing a live hit Friday night. What's Alan gonna say? It's a right wing conspiracy? How can anyone argue in opposition to ADA especially when it's vets?

This, quite frankly, reeks. I'll be on my best behavior Saturday at the conference but this sucks. Pushing the throttles up...unarmed and unafraid. Feel free to quote me.

Buzz

Op-For weighs in:

This is turning out to be a major black eye for the Hilton Hotel chain, which is starting to look absolutely sleazy. With milbloggers nationwide converging on DC this weekend, they simply could not have picked a worse time to pull a stunt like this. Keep your eyes on the milbloggers, Foxnews, CBS, and CNN for updates.

If you'd like to help save Fran O'Brien's, you can bypass the Capitol Hilton and go straight for their corporate comm chief:

Lisa Cole, Director of Communications: Lisa_cole@hilton.com

Previous Fran O'Brien's posts:

Hilton Corp. not renewing lease of pro-troops restaurant

Fran O'Brien's update

Technorati tags: Fran O/'Brien/'s Hilton Hotels Hilton CNN
Fox News Hannity & Colmes Milblogs Military Washington

Pajamas Media podcast is up

Pajamas Media's Blog Week in Review, discussed in the previous post, is up.

Technorati tags: Podcast Podcasting Podcasts iPod blogging

Later today ...A Pajamas Media podcast, The Blog Week in Review

A PJM podcast. Hear Pajamas panelists Glenn Reynolds, Tammy Bruce, and Eric Umansky. Moderator: Austin Bay. Producer: Ed Driscoll. The Pajamas staff is promising more of these in the fuature. The podcast will be available this morning on the Pajamas home page.

Technorati tags: Podcast Podcasting Podcasts Weblog Blogging Pajamas Media Media Politics

"Free speech" and The Vagina Monologues

Yikes! This is still going on? Yes, there is still controversy about the play the Vagina Monologues. As for myself, I don't care if the play is performing across the street from me. I don't get riled up about this kind of stuff.

A confession: I've never seen the play. But from what I heard, it involves three women sitting on bar stools yelling out the "C" word. And they pretend to have orgasms---just like in When Harry Met Sally--man, is that original.

There is a move within Catholic circles--the more conservative, or if you prefer, the Catholic part of the Catholic church, to not have the play performed on Catholic university campuses.

That would fit in with Pope John Paul II's Ex Corde Eccliesiae (On Catholic Universities), the late Pope's statement on what a Catholic university should be.

Steven Plaut has a good post about The Vagina Monologues and Notre Dame here.

In my opinion, those that view The Vagina Monologues as a free speech issue are over-reaching. Simply put, the compulsion of universities--not just Catholic ones--to perform The Vagina Monologues is about one thing: shock value. And a quick buck, since the set for the Vagina Monologues consists of three bar stools.

To say putting on the play is about free speech just doesn't carry much water.

Of course try telling that to DePaul University's President Dennis Holtschneider. When he attempted to (inaccurately) portray DePaul as a champion of free speech after the school's disgraceful conduct in the Thomas Klocek affair became widely known, Father Holtschneider said this:

Recently, I have found myself as president standing up for this academic freedom when the university withstood a nationally organized campaign against a production of The Vagina Monologues on campus.

DePaul performances of the play date back to 2003. That year, in the same Lincoln Park neighborhood where that DePaul performance took place, the Apollo Theater had an extended run of the same play. The Apollo is less than a mile from DePaul's Lincoln Park campus. It's not there anymore, but The Vagina Monologues pops here and there in the Chicago area on a pretty regular basis.

Other campuses and cities aren't that much different in regards to Vagina Monologues accessibility. In short, if a Catholic university isn't allowed to stage a production of The Vagina Monologues, students and faculty should be able to, with little difficulty, find a nearby production of the play and view the three ladies on their bar stools yelling out the "C" word again and again and again.

The "nationally organized campaign" Holtschneider alluded to comes from the Cardinal Newman Society.

Tecnorati tags: DePaul Free Speech Vagina Monologues Notre Dame Catholic Catholic Universities Chicago Illinois Thomas Klocek

Long day at work...

Sorry for the light blogging....

Welcome Pajamas Media readers

The Johnny Cash post is two below this one.

Michael Reagan hammers Jimmy Carter

Yesterday Brainster had a post in which he said Jimmy Carter was "surely the worst president in my lifetime."

I commented on his blog that I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

Talk radio host Michael Reagan has an article today in FrontPage Magazine, where he hammers the part-time Habitat for Humanity home builder very hard.

Let’s begin with Iran, a boiling cauldron of hatred for everything associated with Western civilization. Recall that when Jimmah took office Iran was ruled by a strong ally of the United States, the Shah. Like most Middle Eastern potentates, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ruled with an iron hand. Under him, Iran was not the kind of democracy we’re now promoting for the Middle East.

The Shah, however, was also the staunch friend and ally of the United States. He saw to it that the oil kept flowing in our direction, and kept his military in good-enough shape to protect our interests in the area.

But the Shah somehow offended Brother Carter’s exalted view of the inherent goodness of a mankind freed from the strictures imposed by dictatorial rules. With a wink and a nod, he arranged to have Pahlavi replaced by an exiled mullah - the Ayatollah Khomeini - who in Carter’s view would be a moderate leader who would democratize Iran.

What Carter got for us was a Muslim fanatic seething with hatred for everything Western, who without blinking an eye spat on our national sovereignty when he took over the United States embassy in Tehran and held 52 American hostages for 444 days, until the U.S. came to its senses and elected my dad Ronald Reagan to replace the hapless Jimmy Carter.

I'd like to add despite the repressiveness of the Shah's regime, women had far more rights under his regime than to do under the mullahs, and religious minorities were respected. They're not now.

Technorati tags: Jimmy Carter Politics Religion Muslim women شريعة Islam اسلامی

The Man in Black comes around again: Johnny Cash's "Personal File" album out next month

Now here's a reason to head to the local music store in May. There will be a collection of previously unreleased recordings by the late Johnny Cash coming out, the album will be called "Personal File."

"I'm anxious to hear it" is what Cash said about the song "San Quentin" on the great Johnny Cash at San Quentin album from 1969. And I'm anxious to hear "Personal File."

From the Hollywood Reporter via Reuters:

Expect a new wave of interest in Cash next month: On May 23, Columbia/Legacy will release "Personal File," a two-CD set of previously unheard solo material, recorded by Cash from 1973-80 and culled from the musician's studio vaults.

The material on "Personal File" came to light when John Carter Cash, son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, was clearing out his father's House of Cash studio in Hendersonville, Tenn., in late 2004.

"It's a lifetime's worth of tapes -- whatever passed through (Cash's) hands," says Gregg Geller, the veteran catalog executive who produced the forthcoming set. "There were literally thousands of tapes that we plowed through. . . . There are several hundred guitar-vocal demos along the line of ('Personal File'). I would hasten to add that this is the cream."

The years 1973-1980 represent a kind of lost period of the country music baritone. Cash's ABC-TV variety show was cancelled in 1971, and his last big hit for many years, Man in Black, was released that year.

Cash found well-deserved critical and commercial success with the sparse "American Recordings" that trickled out beginning in the 1990s. The last of those, American IV--The Man Comes Around, was released in 2002. He was 70. How many septuagenarians release albums--let alone good ones?

I'm thinking (and hoping), based on what I read in the Hollywood Reporter article, that the "new" material will be similar to the American recordings.

Technorati tags: Johnny Cash Country Music Nashville music Entertainment

Great Wal of blogging part two

Rob Port of the Say Anything blog (he's with Pajamas too), tries on his blue Wal-Mart blazer, and does a great job keeping an eye on all the goings-on as the Wal Mart Media Conference winds down in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The mainstream media, epitomized by the New York Times' Michael Barbaro, has a "sneering attitude" of the retail giant, Rob says. I pretty much figured the same thing, but Rob was up close with them, and confirmed my suspicions.

Tom Forbes of Palousitics gets a jab in at Barbaro too, and posted this interesting comment from Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott:

Scott sees no threat to Wal-Mart from online merchants. How do you economically get things like toilet paper, etc. shipped through the mail?

Wal-Mart invited bloggers in addition to mainstream media reporters to its annual Media Conference. When are other corporations going to do the same thing?

For more, read Great Wal of blogging.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Business Blogging Media New York Times online marketing

Franken-senseless to speak at Minnesota Dem convention

Air America mid-day host, for now, Al Franken, aka Franken-senseless, is acclimating himself to life in Minnesota by accepting an offer to be the keynote speaker at the Minnesota Seventh Congressional Democratic slating convention in Bemidji on Saturday.

The state Democratic Party in Minnesota is known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Earlier this year, Franken moved to Minnesota. He grew up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but hasn't lived there since the 1970s.

Because his Air America gig is plagued by low-ratings and shaky financial support, it's probably best Franken keeps his eyes open for a new employment opportunity--for several years Franken's been making racket about running for the Senate in Minnesota in 2008.

However, as Franken wanders around the state, he might discover--if he's listening--that the Minnesota of the 21st century is more conservative than that state he left in the early 1970s, when Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey were representing Minnesota in the Senate.

But he's probably got deaf ears on that subject. Like many baby-boomers, Franken is still living in the late 1960s and the pre Nixon-resignation 1970s.

Oh, I almost forgot. The book I'm currently reading is Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears and Deceives by Alan Skorski.

Technorati tags: Al Franken air america Minnesota DFL Politics Politics Bemidji

Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist meet counterprotesters in Illinois

I knew that Fred Phelps and his nutty Westboro Baptist Church was coming to South Holland, Illinois today to bring his anti-gay, anti-troop preaching to the funeral of Lance Corporal Philip Martini. I didn't blog it, because, for starters, I've sounded the alarm enough so the mainstream media is finally taking notice. Also, Phelps and his followers often don't follow through on their picket threats.

Hundreds of counterproductive, including some from the Patriot Guard Riders, were there to confront Phelps and his whackos.

Illinois is one of the states expected to pass funeral-protest ban legislation this year. The bills, nationwide, have one thing in common: They're in reaction to Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.

Robert Novak donating $1.5 million to University of Illinois

My alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is in the news today, and for once, it doesn't involve its embattled mascot, Chief Illiniwek.

Newspaper columnist and Fox News contributor Robert Novak has the same alma mater. And this morning, the Chicago Tribune (free registration required) is reporting that Novak is donating $1.5 million to the school.

Here is the best part, the money is to fund a $1.5 million chair in western civilization studies.

From the Trib:

Novak graduated from the U. of I. in 1952. He says he felt enriched by the Western civilization courses he took, and he adds that the university also educated his father and several relatives.

Iran has a national baseball team?

Yep, they do. On Wednesday Iran's baseball team heads to Pakistan to participate in the qualifying rounds of the Asia Cup Baseball Championships.

As far as I know, Nuke LaLoosh is not on their pitching staff.

The finals of the tournament will take place in Doha, Qatar.

Technorati tags: Baseball Iran Farsi Qatar پارسی سی

Great Wal of blogging

Marshall Manson e-mailed me this afternoon and let me know that a couple of bloggers, North Dakota blogger Rob Port of Say Anything, who I've corresponded with a few times, and Tom Forbes of Washington state, who writes for Palousitics, are at the annual Wal-Mart Media Conference in Bentonville, Arkansas.

(Man that was a long sentence.)

Rob has a detailed post about his first day at the conference, among the things that caught his attention was the unpretentiousness of Wal-Mart's headquarters, writing that "the headquarters looks like my high school."

Contrast that with Sears' headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, which I've seen. The nation's third-largest retailer's campus-style fortress exudes power. But so did the Maginot Line. Before Sears moved to Hoffman Estates, their HQ was in the Sears Tower, America's tallest building.

The lesson is clear: An impressive headquarters is not an essential element for a successful company.

Palousitics' Tom is live-blogging the conference and has a whole bunch of posts from today's events, including his coverage of a speech by Arkansas' Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee is considered a possible candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination, and like Tennessee's Bill Frist, he's a marathon runner too.

Both bloggers traveled to Arkansas at their own expense.

Technorati tags: Mike Huckabee Arkansas Wal-Mart Blogging media Sears

New photo caption contest from Mr. Right

It's over here at The Right Place. This week's contest features our commander-in-chief. My entry is in, it might be a bit obscure, but I might get a surprise when the winners are announced.

Technorati tags: photos photo captions Bush

North Branch of the Chicago River in spring

I took this photo this afternoon from my Motorola V3 RAZR camera phone during my ten-mile run today, from the Milwaukee Road railroad bridge in Morton Grove.

Technorati tags: Motorola RAZR photography Chicago River

Sami al-Arian will be deported

Come in, Travis!

One day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the street.

Well, soon there will be one less piece of filth on the American continent. Fired University of South Florida Professor Sami al-Arian, will be deported soon.

Al-Arian's conspiracy trial ended with a hung jury, and instead of going through a retrial, the former computer science professor punched his card and agreed to admit to membership in the terrorist group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and then allow himself to be deported. It's believed al-Arian is the leader of the North American division of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Yes, newshounds, that's the same group that yesterday claimed responsibility for a bombing outside of a Tel Aviv restaurant yesterday.

This Pajamas Media post via David Horowitz' blog, nicely sums up for me my feelings on this development:

Will the -- leftists -- who defended al-Arian and collaborated his organized campaigns to attack the Patriot Act and other national security measures, now apologize for aiding and abetting his homicidal war against Jews and his Fifth Column efforts in behalf of radical Islam's war against the United States?

Probably not, but the point is valid.

There is a Free Sami al-Arian site--it hasn't been updated.

Of course there is a DePaul angle here. In addition to Ward Churchill, Sami al-Arian was another controversial speaker who spoke on the DePaul campus. Sami was there in 2002, about a year after his infamous appearance on the O'Reilly Factor, one of the decade's great moments in television.

UPDATE 6:30 PM CDT:It appears that the webmaster of the Free Sami al-Arian website read my post. The site has been updated and mentions the upcoming deportation.

Technorati tags: DePaul Ward Churchill Sami al-Arian Florida USF Florida Terrorism scum جهاد Horowitz

The death penalty for leaving Islam

The case of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan convert to Christianity, brought forth one of Islam's dirty secrets: becoming a Muslim is much easier than becoming an ex-Muslim.

Reverberations from the case are still being felt world wide.

From the Middle East Times:

Sher Ali Zarifi, head of religious jurisprudence in (Afghanistan's) Science Academy of leading intellectuals, did not refer to Abdul Rahman by name but told a meeting of scholars that punishment for apostasy under Islam was death unless the convert recanted.

Such brutish views on religion of course run contrary to the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but I doubt Mr. Zarifi cares about that resolution.

Last week, Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in Islam Online.net, wrote a long-winded essay on apostasy. Now if someone like Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch wrote something like this, cries of "Islamophobia" would be heard world wide.

Here is Al-Qaradawi's biography:

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi is a world-renowned scholar and head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS). His best known books include The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase, and Islamic Revivalism Between Rejection and Extremism. Many scholars consider him to be one of the most reputable mujtahids of the modern age. He has been active in the field of da`wah and the Islamic movement for more than half a century.

Al-Qaradawi doesn't condone the condemnation of all Muslim apostates to death, he divides leaving the faith into "minor and major apostasies."

But read this:

The death penalty with regard to apostasy is to be applied only to those who proclaim their apostasy and call for others to do the same. Islam lays down this severe punishment in order to protect its unity and the identity of its community. Every community in this world has basic foundations that are to be kept inviolable, such as identity, loyalty, and allegiance. Accordingly, no community accepts that a member thereof changes its identity or turns his or her loyalty to its enemies. They consider betrayal of one's country a serious crime, and no one has ever called for giving people a right to change their loyalty from a country to another whenever they like.

Apostasy is not only an intellectual situation whose handling is confined to discussing the principle of freedom of belief; it also involves a change of loyalty and identity. People who apostatize from Islam give up their loyalty to the Muslim nation and pay allegiance, heart and soul, to its enemies. This is denoted in the agreed-upon hadith that clarifies the kinds of people whose blood is lawful to shed and describes among those people the apostate, by saying, "Or someone who abandons his religion and the Muslim community" (Ibn Mas`ud).

(Emphasis was Al-Qaradawi's.)

For another Muslim viewpoint, visit Irshad Manji's Muslim Refusenik site.

Islam may not be incompatible with democracy, but I believe Al-Qaradawi's vision of it is.

Technorati tags: Islam Abdul Rahman Apostasy Christianity Religion Afghanistan الإسلام افغانستان Death Penalty

Shari'a invoked in Iranian threat against enemies

It's interesting that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, alluded to Islamic law, known as shari'a, when he spewed out his latest verbal barb at the United States and other nations opposed to its nuclear program, as AP noted:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that Iran would "cut off the hand of any aggressor" and insisted Tuesday the country's military must be prepared amid escalating tensions with the international community over its disputed nuclear program.

Shari'a, or Islamic law, suggests punishment for crimes such as burglarly include hand amputation.

Technorati tags: شريعة Shar/'ia Islam اسلامی Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Convicted felon George Ryan gets brutal taunting leaving courthouse

Former Ill. Governor George Ryan was found guilty on all counts yesterday in his corruption and racketeering trial.

And what was easily the worst day of his life was made a little worse, as the Republican was heckled upon leaving the federal courthouse after hearing his verdict.

The Chicago Tribune's John Kass witnessed the scene.

Free registration may be required:

As he walked out of the federal building to make his escape in a vehicle, an angry bicycle messenger with prison written on his face started taunting the former governor. The bike man was telling Ryan not to drop the soap in prison, telling him not to become beholden to other guys by smoking their cigarettes.

It was brutal. It was ugly. And Ryan couldn't help hearing.

"You better not take their smokes, you get your own, know what I'm sayin'!" he shouted, straddling his bike, laughing. "Know what I'm sayin'! Governor! Governor!"

Technorati tags: Illinois Chicago Chicago Tribune John Kass George Ryan corruption crime

Bad timing: Saudis ask West to resume aid to Palestinian Authority

Yesterday there was a barbaric suicide attack outside a fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv that killed nine people. The terror group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. Thugs from the group celebrated the occasion in Gaza by handing out sweets to kids.

Hamas, the terrorist organization elected to represent the Palestinian people, said Israeli "aggression" justified the restaurant bombing.

On the same day, the Saudi American government, through its Council of Ministers, asked that Western governments reconsider their decision to suspend aid payments to the Palestinian Authority.

Can we call it chutzpah on the Saudi's part?

Technorati tags: المملكة آل الإسلام مسلم יהודים, فلسطين Israel Saudi Arabia Tel Aviv Terrorism Hamas Islamic Jihad

Kenyans sweep Boston Marathon, Cheruiyot sets mens' course record

It was another great day for Kenya at the Boston Marathon today. Robert Cheruiyot was the winner in the men's race, setting a new Boston Marathon course record. Rita Jeptoo was prevailed in the women's race.

In the men's race, it was a rare good day for the USA, Meb Keflezighi, Brian Sell and Alan Culpepper came in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively. An American man has not won in Boston since 1983.

Breaking: Ex-Ill. Governor George Ryan guilty on all counts

The jury in the corruption trial of former Ill. Governor George Ryan and lobbyist Larry Warner found the two guilty on all counts in their federal corruption trial.

Ryan, a Kankakee Republican, is best known as the man who emptied out Illinois' death row in 2003.

Jury reaches verdict in Ryan trial

Numerous media outlets are reporting that a verdict has been reached in the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor George Ryan and lobbyist Larry Warner. The verdict will be announced after 11am Chicago time.

110th Boston Marathon today

The Boston Marathon will kick off later today in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. The first Boston Marathon took place in 1897, and has been held every year since, it's the world's oldest annual marathon. There is a mystique about this race that no other race possesses.

About 22,000 runners are expected to take part in today's 26.2 mile event

Adding to the allure of Boston is that qualifying times, initiated in the 1970s, makes the race even more appealing to runners.

Am I good enough to qualify for Boston?

Once a runner is fortunate enough to qualify for Boston, it's not "should I run the Boston Marathon," but "where do I sign up?"

There are other ways to enter the Boston Marathon, such as taking part in a fund-raising effort, which is how Vanessa Kerry, daughter of Senator John Kerry got to run in last year's race.

Her father, as I chronicled in my old site, Blue States for Bush, claimed to have run the Boston Marathon--at a time when there were no charitable exemptions to enter the race--but Kerry's boast was never verified. Kerry's campaign staff claimed the senator ran it as an unregistered runner, a "bandit" in runner-ese.

I guess Senator Kerry got caught up in the Boston Marathon mystique.

But there is more than runner-elitism that makes the Boston Marathon the ultimate runners' experience. It's the course itself.

I've run (and yes, it's verifiable) three Boston Marathons. That's me up on top near the halfway point of the 2004 race on a 84 degree day. And the course, especially for an Illinois flatlander, is brutal.

At the beginning of the race in Hopkinton, the elevation is 500 feet above sea level. The first 16 miles of the race, until the town of Newton, runners enjoy mile after mile--with an interruption now and then--of downhill racing. At the Newton western town limits, the elevation is just 50 feet above sea level. But then, thousands of legs, accustomed to miles of down hills, have to contend with four miles of uphill pacing--finishing off with the storied Heartbreak Hill at mile 20.

Now about mile 20: Even in fast and flat marathons such as Chicago's, the vicinity of the 20th mile is where many runners "hit the wall." They get a somewhat sudden feeling of severe fatigue. Legs, up until this time which are fairly limber, become stiff, and as many runners phrase it, become as flexible as telephone poles.

At Boston, throw downhills and sudden uphills into the physical fray, and those same legs, rather than being telephones, feel like steel corkscrews.

Another Boston appeal for runners is the tremendous crowd support from the people of the Boston area. Almost every mile of the course is packed with local residents watching the race. Little kids have their hands out looking for "high fives." Entire families, some of whom have been coming out to watch the race for decades, camp out early to claim the prime viewing spots. People display chalkboards, which are filled in with race updates--who's leading, who won, or what the score in the Red Sox game is. Estimates are that over 1,000,000 people view the Boston Marathon each year.

The Boston Marathon takes place on Patriot's Day, a state holiday in Massachusetts, and in addition to the marathon, a Monday Red Sox day game is a longstanding Patriot's Day tradition.

Most of the late part of the race is run on Commonwealth Avenue, and it's back to downhills for the runners. Those steel corkscrew legs become bent corkscrew legs.

The crowd watching the race becomes bigger, and louder. Runners contemplating dropping out ditch such a notion as the enthusiasm of the crowd re-ignites their diminished physical state.

The last half-mile of the race is on Boylston Street, in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood. Temporary bleachers are filled with people as the runners, many of them finishing hours after the first runner crossed the finish line, are cheered on by the crowds, as if they were champions.

Actually they are. Anyone who finishes the rugged Boston Marathon is a champion.

Previous Boston Marathon posts:

Hopkinton, Massachusetts braces for Monday's Boston Marathon
Tufts University president to run Boston Marathon
Chicago quadriplegic to compete in Monday's Boston Marathon

Technorati tags: Boston Marathon running Marathon Boston Massachusetts Hopkinton Red Sox John Kerry Bandits maraton politics

Cool mapping tool on my lower left side corner

I found this awesome Frappr map tool, via Lifelike Pundits, that allows visitors to your blog to mark where there from. If you're from outside the USA, you can zoom out to find your spot on the globe. Pretty cool.

Or just click here.

Technorati tags: Frappr Maps blog Mapping

Happy Easter!

Today it the holiest day in the Christian calendar.

And Easter Sunday is perhaps the best day get answers to questions I have about this abandoned church adjacent to the west-bound lanes of I-80 near Milford, Nebraska.

What church was it? When was it abandoned? Does the farmer who owns the land keep the structure standing because of his faith?

I did numerous internet searches about my questions, and came up with nothing.

A little help? Millions of people drive past that church each year. Someone must know, right?

Techorati tags: Nebraska Interstate 80 Easter Church photos Photography history

Norman Finkelstein asked about a petition supporting deaths threats?

DePaul Assistant Professor Norman F. Finkelstein, like one of his mentors Noam Chomsky, is regularly called an anti-semitic Jew. He's popular among the Neo-Nazi set.

Dr. Steven Plaut sent this my way. Author Irshad Manji wrote a book, The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith, published in 2004, that put her on the map as a sensible voice of reform within Islam.

In response to the uproar over the Danish Muhammad cartoons, a petition was drawn up, the Manifesto Against a New Totalitarianism, and Ms. Manji was one of the original signatories, as was Salman Rushdie, and Muslim Dutch Member of Parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Of course, the group of 12 has received at least one collective death threat because of the petition.

Here is that petition:

THE MANIFESTO OF 12:
Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global totalitarian threat: Islamism.

We -- writers, journalists and public intellectuals -- call for resistance to religious totalitarianism.

Instead, we call for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values worldwide.

The necessity of these universal values has been revealed by events since the publication of the Muhammad drawings in European newspapers. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the arena of ideas. What we are witnessing is not a clash of civilizations, nor an antagonism of West versus East, but a global struggle between democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The preachers of hate bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a world of inequality. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred.

Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of greater power imbalances: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all others.

To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed people. For that reason, we reject "cultural relativism," which consists of accepting that Muslim men and women should be deprived of their right to equality and freedom in the name of their cultural traditions.

We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia," an unfortunate concept that confuses criticism of Islamic practices with the stigmatization of Muslims themselves.

We plead for the universality of free expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on every continent, against every abuse and dogma.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

Signed,

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Chahla Chafiq , Caroline Fourest, Bernard-Henri Levy, Irshad Manji , Mehdi Mozaffari, Maryam Namazie, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, Antoine Sfeir, Philippe Val, Ibn Warraq

Pretty darn good.

On Manji's homepage, however, there is this note:

Only one person emailed a disconcerting message. A gentleman named Norman Finkelstein wrote to say, "Is there a petition supporting the death threats?" Maybe he's just a researcher

Of course, it's possible someone with the same name sent her that e-mail. But considering what I know about Norman, it was probably the DePaul professor named Norman Finkeltstein.

UPDATE April 17: Steven Plaut has moron Finkelstein on the Autonomist Blog.

Tecnnorati tags: المملكة آل سنة الإسلام مسلم DePaul Norman Finkelstein Chicago Illinois Irshad Manji יהודים, Jewish Islam

Chicago quadriplegic to compete in Monday's Boston Marathon

The 110th Boston Marathon will take place on Monday

A number of friends of mine from the Chicago area are entered in the event.

Alan Robinson from the South Side of Chicago will be there too. He's the first quadriplegic to run five marathons, according to this CBS 2 Chicago report.

And I do want to point out, with no disrepect to the hardworking wheelchair athletes also entered in Monday's event, that Robinson is not a wheelchair entrant.

Robinson trains five hours each day on a stairmaster, his fastest time is a little over six hours for the 26.2 mile distance.

Technorati tags: Boston Marathon running Run quadriplegic Boston

Welcome News.com Australia readers!

The post about RAF Flight Lt. Malcom Kendall-Smith is here.

You'll find the News.com Australia article at this location.

Noam Chomsky's top 100 lies

Keep in mind, author Paul Bogdanor lists only Noam Chomsky's top 100 lies. I did a post earlier this month about Bodanor's contribution to the book, The Anti-Chomsky Reader, which got me a thoughtful "thank you" e-mail from Paul.

Technorati tags: Chomsky Noam Chomsky MIT Academia

Blogger Bill Hobbs forced out of job over cartoon

I haven't gotten to the bottom of this story, but Bill Hobbs, a great blogger who suspended operation of Bill Hobbs.com when he took a new job earlier this year, apparently has been forced to resign from Nashville's Belmont University because of a Muhammad cartoon he drew for his blog.

Details are sketchy, but Michelle Malkin reported this tonight, and that's good enough for me.

Bill's tip jars are on the top of his page.

Last summer I e-mailed Bill about Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church to protest two Tennessee soldier funerals. Back then the MSM was ignoring Phelps, believing that the cretin didn't deserve the attention he so richly craves. True to a point, but what about the families who had to cope with Phelps Pearl Harbor-type protest tactics?

Well no one was more surprised than Phelps himself last August when he got hit with a sneak attack against his hate group. Bill, through his Tennessee media contacts, got massive numbers of counterprotesters to confront Phelps, and the loons were literally run out of two Tennessee towns in one day.

Even AP took notice.

Great work, Bill.

During the 2004 election campaign, Hobbs produced excellent post after excellent post of insightful vote fraud stories.

Let's hope this talented man gets back to blogging soon.

Technorati tags: Tennessee Nashville Belmont University Fred Phelps Military Iraq Vote fraud blogs Muhammad Cartoonsمحمد Bill Hobbs

Tufts University president to run Boston Marathon

Even more than most bloggers on the conservative side of things, I'm pretty hard on higher education in general, and university administrators in particular.

Lawrence Bacow, President of Tufts University will lead an impressive group of 200 Tufts runners as they participate in Monday's Boston Marathon, according to ABC 5 Boston.

The Tufts group is the largest college or university team entered in the 110th Boston Marathon.

Thursday's Boston Marathon post: Hopkinton, Massachusetts braces for Monday's Boston Marathon

Technorati tags: Maraton Marathon running Boston Marathon Tufts Boston Massachusetts

Fran O'Brien's update

Once again via Third Wave Dave, we have an update about Fran O'Brien's Steak House not having its lease renewed by the Capitol Hilton in Washington.

The hotel's general manager, Brian Kelleher, contacted Andi of Andi's World, and he firmly denied that the decision by the Hilton not to renew Fran O'Brien's lease had anything to do with hotel liability issues involved in building wheelchair ramps to accommodate the wounded soldiers for the weekly dinners there.

There is talk that the Hilton may continue those dinners. Whether the property planned to do that before the blog explosion against the Capitol Hilton is unknown.

Kelleher got a lot of e-mails, so the pressure was felt.

Good work, bloggers.

I'll provide updates as soon as I have more to report.

And if you want to submit questions to Brian Kelleher about Fran O'Brien's and the military dinners, you can via Andi's World.

Technorati tags: Hilton Hilton Hotels Milblogs military blogs Washington Military

Iran: Israel "heading toward annihilation"

For that dwindling portion of humanity who feel that Iran having nuclear weapons is not a problem, its nutty president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, provides more evidence that the Iran is a threat to free peoples.

From AP:

The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated."

Hilton Corp. not renewing lease of pro-troops restaurant

Fran O'Brien's Steakhouse leases space at the Capitol Hilton in Washington. Third Wave Dave tipped me off to this story. One of owners of the restaurant is the restaurant's manager, Hal Koster, who is a Vietnam veteran.

Every Friday night, Hal treats wounded soldiers from nearby Walter Reed Hospital to free dinner and drinks.

That's going to end soon.

Via Mudville Gazette, here is an e-mail from retired Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson:

Hello all,

This past Friday night I was privileged to visit Fran O'Brien's steakhouse in the Capitol Hilton, Washington, DC. Every Friday night, Hal Koster, the restaurant manager and Vietnam Vet, invites our wounded soldiers convalescing at nearby Walter Reed Army Center to a free steak dinner and drinks. It was supposedly a "slow" night for our heroes as many were on a ski trip in Colorado. But I walked into an absolutely packed room of wounded soldiers and their families enjoying a minor but well-deserved recognition for their service to our country.

I've also discovered since then that the Hilton Corporation will not be renewing the lease. Apparently, there are too many "liability issues" in accommodating American heroes in wheelchairs. In fact, the lease (and therefore the dinners) will expire in a few short weeks. If America had responded as we would in the past, this would be inconsequential really. Obviously we have not and it is a tragic commentary on today's PC-ness.

Please read the attached e-mail with more of the details.

Best,
Buzz

Buzz Patterson
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Retired)

Third Wave Dave has contact information for the Hilton Corporation. Be firm, but courteous:

*Dan Boyle (212) 838-1558

daniel_a_boyle@hilton.com

Brian Kellaher (202) 393-1000* Update: Ask for ex 5758--it will connect you with his sec.

Remember, when you contact these idiots, keep in mind that Hilton has many other business interests, too. Mention them.

Hilton properties include the following:

Hilton, Conrad Hilton, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hampton Inns, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites.

Real American patriots won't let this stand, nor will they ever spend another dime in a Hilton property as long as this continues. Make yourself heard!! Start blogging, emailing, and calling. Now!!

At the other end of the pro-troops spectrum is United Airlines. The Chicago-area based airline is one of the airlines participting in Operation Hero Miles, a program that allows donated frequent flier miles to be transferred to troops to fly home for free, or, using those miles for families to visit troops convalescing at military hospitals.

Over 5,000 round-trip tickets have been donated by Operation Hero Miles.

Still, shame on the Hilton Corporation.

Technorati tags: Hilton Hilton Hotels United Airlines Washington DC Military Walter Reed ADA Operation Hero Miles

Bad headline: Rumsfeld not facing mutiny from his generals

The headline of a story in today's Chicago Sun-Times is 6 generals call for Rumsfeld replacement.

Let me correct that.

6 retired generals call for Rumsfeld replacement.

Without looking that hard, this is the second misleading headline I came across this week. Here is the post on that one, courtesy of the San Diego Union-Tribune, New phobia discovered: Profile-aphopia.

Technorati tags: Iraq War Rumsfeld Media Sun-Times Chicago

Hopkinton, Massachusetts braces for Monday's Boston Marathon

Crossposted on Pajamas Media.

The world's oldest annual running race is the Boston Marathon, and the 110th edition of this fabled race will be on Monday, April 17th. I've been lucky enough to compete in three Bostons--in 1994, 1996, and 2004.

A number of very good friends of mine are entered, and I'll be following their progress on the Boston Marathon web site.

I plan to do a few more Boston Marathon posts during the next few days. Today's entry will focus on the sordid side of marathon running.

The 26.2 mile race starts in the center of Hopkinton, which is, you guessed, 26.2 miles away from Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, where the race ends.

Hopkinton, according to the US Census Bureau, had 13,346 resident in 2000. But on Marathon Day, properly known as Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, 20,000 runners are bussed into the what is on the other 364 days of the year, a quaint New England town.

Even under the best running condition, (low humidity, overcast, temperature about 50F), it's imperative that runners fill up with fluids to prevent race dehydration. Which experienced runners faithfully do.

But what about going to the bathroom?

That's a problem.

Although the Boston Athletic Association, which organizes the race, places hundreds of portable toilets in Hopkinton, there are about 20,000 entrants. Which means a lot of bladders need to be emptied with a limited supply of acceptable places for them to be emptied.

So to avoid long lines, runners will often go where ever they want.

After the 2003 race, Hopkinton residents collectively put their foot down in the somewhat damp soil of their town.

From the April, 23, 2003 Boston Herald (via Free Republic), BAA sorry for runners' poor conduct:

"As a representative of the BAA, we want to apologize to those residents for the actions of those athletes," said race Director Dave McGillivray. "The BAA is very concerned and we want to take all active measures possible to prevent this in the future and year to year."

Pleasant Street resident Deborah Finney said she spotted runners, both male and female, urinating near her garage. She said several women tossed used tampons in her yard.

A neighbor saw male runners dropping their shorts to rub down private parts with Vaseline to avoid chafing. Other neighbors reported runners wiping themselves with toilet paper and discarding the soiled linens in nearby fences.

(It goes on...)

Finney filed a complaint with police, who told her the acts could be classified as lewd and lascivious behavior.

I ran the 2004 race, weather-wise a very steamy day, so pre-race drinking up was an even more urgent personal duty that day. Extra porta-potties were added in a grocery store parking lot adjacent to the starting line that year. Still, there was a very long line to get into those, so I did, for me, the sensible thing: I got into the starters' corral, and peed in a Gatorade bottle I brought with me for that purpose.

And I neatly placed the sealed bottle on the side of the road shortly before the race started.

Media reports about the 2004 Hopkinton activities noted that runner-related bodily function misbehavior was way down from the previous year. No complaints about Gatorade bottles were recorded.

I didn't run in last year's race, several friends of mine did, and they reported that Hopkinton police officers were issuing tickets to those runners caught with their pants down.

My advice to entrants in the 2006 Boston Marathon? Keep your pants on in public, and if you have to go and can't endure long lines, keep an empty sports drink bottle with you.

Technorati tags: Boston Marathon running Marathon Boston Massachusetts Hopkinton

Hey bloggers: Declare your blogging income!

If you live in the United States and Marathon Pundit is your sole source of information, I need to tell you that your federal tax return needs to be postmarked no later than April 17.

Also, it's the law, any revenue deducted from blogging, like any income, is taxable. I put mine down on my IRS 1040 form as "hobby income."

And for those political bloggers, like me, out there: Remember, Bill O'Reilly was audited three times while Bill Clinton was president.

Technorati tags: IRS Taxes Clinton Bill Clinton 1040 blogging

Internet spammer discovers Skype

I use the internet telephone service Skype for the cheap international calling rates.

In one way it works a little bit like instant messaging: A call will come in as a pop-up window.

This is the message I got a few minutes ago from BIRA (bidi07).

Hi. I am from the Senegalese tourism office. I'm interested in any commercial business opportunities.

Technorati tags: Senegal Skype IM spam

The latest from our Saudi allies: Man faces 500 lashes for bowing before dancer

The Arab News has a report that a main from the Saudi Arabian town of Hail made the mistake of bowing down, falling prostrate as the News called it, in front of a presumably female dancer last year.

Some busybody at the event took a picture the man bowing with a cell phone camera, posted it on a web site, and the efficient yet brutal Saudi system got into motion.

The sentence for the man? 500 lashes in public and six months in jail.

What a country!

Technorati tags: Saudi Arabia Middle East Sharia عنالأم المملكة آل سنة السنة corporal punishment

George Ryan jurors go home for the weekend

The George Ryan jury version 2.0 left for home this afternoon. After ten days of deliberating, this grouping of jurors has yet to reach a verdict. Since the jury takes Fridays and the weekends off, there won't be a verdict in the trial of former Illinois Governor George Ryan until Monday at the earliest.

Technorati tags: politics Current Affairs Law
corruption

Wal-Mart: Not opening banks

I found this quote this a couple of days ago in the Chicago Tribune. Free registration may be required.

The failure of Wal-Mart would pose an enormous systemic risk to the FDIC insurance fund," testified Larry Maschhoff, president of the Bank of Illinois in Normal. "What if Enron ... had owned banks?

Well, Larry, Wal-Mart is not opening banks.

Marshall Manson of Edelman Public Relations pointed out to me in an e-mail some clarifications.

The retailing giant is seeking FDIC approval to operate as an industrial bank. Which means instead of having to utilize a third-party financial institution to process a customer's check, debit or charge card payment, Wal-Mart can perform these transaction themselves. Just as Target, GE, Toyota, and General Motors do.

The banks currently performing these transactions for Wal-Mart currently charge the retailer millions of dollars each year for this work. Wal-Mart is simply asking for the same privilege its chief competitor Target enjoys.

As Wal-Mart goes through the FDIC approval process to operate as an industrial bank, the scaremongers are turning up anti Wal-Mart volume "up to 11." Over a thousand local banks operate within Wal-Mart stores. Where I shop, at the Niles, Illinois Wal-Mart, Chicago's Devon Bank occupies prime interior real estate between the customer service desk and the store's restaurant.

Wal-Mart has no plans to terminate any of these banking relationships.

The volume may be up to 11, but it's still hot air.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart banking FDIC Bank of Illinois Target Niles

It could be....yes, Harry Caray bank robber strikes again

A bandit seemingly dressed as the late Harry Caray has robbed another Palos Heights, Illinois bank, the Sun-Times News Group is reporting.

Palos Heights is a southwestern suburb of Chicago, and it's the town where Marathon Pundit grew up.

The bank robber large, horn-rimmed glasses similar to the ones that became a Caray trademark towards the end of his career.

Caray was a legendary baseball announcer for six decades for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox, and the Chicago Cubs.

According to Palos Heights police detective Dave Delaney, the bank robber said just one thing, "It's a beautiful day."

Why not, "Holy Cow?"

Previous "Harry Caray Bandit" post: Holy Cow, Harry Caray bandit robs bank.

Technorati tags: baseball Illinois Chicago mlb crime

Iran "We are a nuclear country"

That's what Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is saying today.

As I've stated before, Iran will be the big story of 2006.

An excellent site to visit to learn more about the situation there is Regime Change Iran.

Technorati tags: جمهوری ايران Iran Ahmadinejad Nukes

RAF doc sentenced to eight months for refusing to go to Iraq

I had a post on this story last night. Flight Lt. Malcolm Kendall-Smith of Britain's Royal Air Force, who said the US actions in Iraq were "on a par with those of Nazi Germany," was sentenced to eight months in prison for refusing a 2005 RAF order to return to Iraq.

Kendall-Smith served two previous stints in Iraq; he's a doctor, and would not be expected to be in combat.

He'll have a lot of time to think about his refusal to follow orders.

Technorati tags: Iraqi Freedom Iraq RAF UK British

Not just Google in China: Singapore restricts political speech on web

For good reason, there has been much discussion of Google's cooperation with the government of China as that communist nation battles with the challenge that new media presents to a controlled society.

A similar struggle is occurring in southern Asia. Prosperous but not-free Singapore has drawn the ire of Reporters Without Borders. Google is not involved, however.

AFP, via Yahoo! Singapore, reports:

All political party websites and political blog sites have to be registered with a media regulator and podcasts -- recorded audio messages that can be downloaded over the Internet -- cannot be used for campaign purposes.

A spokeswoman for the information ministry told AFP that the government "has always maintained that political debates should be premised on factual and objective presentation of issues and arguments."

"The regulations governing Internet campaigning have served well to safeguard the seriousness of the electoral process," she said.

Last year (Reporters Without Borders) ranked affluent Singapore 140th out of 167 countries in its annual press freedom index, alongside the likes of Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Egypt and Syria.

Technorati tags: Singapore Blogs Google Singapura

Jamaican snapshots: The Half Moon Resort

In February, Marathon Pundit and family traveled to Jamaica. I've had four previous Jamaica posts, you'll find the links to those posts below.

One of Jamaica's most exclusive resorts, The Half Moon, is about 10 miles east of Montego Bay. In 2003, the Half Moon was named to Condé Nast Traveler's prestigious Gold List.

It belongs, it is a fabulously beautiful resort.

The list of famous guests are plentiful: Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, George H.W. Bush, Paul Newman, former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, and that hero of the oppressed, Fidel Castro.

Yes, Castro. Now this story could be apocryphal, but Morris, the cab-driver who took us to the Half Moon, told me "a couple of years ago, Fidel and Hugo Chavez had a summit at there." I haven't been able to verify his claim.

I told Morris, that Castro and Chavez fashion themselves as champions of the common man, why would they choose an elite resort for their accommodations?

"Security, mon," is what he told me.

While staying at the Half Moon, a communist such as Castro can enjoy golf, tennis, jacuzzis, outdoor pools, a private beach, saunas, and croquet.

Previous Jamaican posts:

Jamaican snapshots: The Pork Pit

Jamaica, yo problem, part one: The island by foot

Jamaica, yo problem, part two: The island by car

Jamaica, yo problem, part three: The island by car, cont'd

Technorati tags: Condé Nast Jamaica Caribbean Cuba Castro chavez Hugo Chavez fidel Venezuela Montego Bay

Court-martialed RAF doc: US "on a par with Nazi Germany"

Hey, let's look at the positive side of this story. He didn't say the US is worse than Nazi Germany.

An Australian-born Royal Air Force doctor is under court-martial for refusing to serve in Iraq.

As a doctor, Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith isn't be expected to take up arms in support of the coalition cause in Iraq. But he was ordered to Iraq, and he said "no."

It seems Flt. Lt. Kendall-Smith has been reading his Noam Chomsky.

From News.com Australia, here are the doctor's comments:

I have evidence that the Americans were on a par with Nazi Germany with its actions in the Persian Gulf.

I have documents in my possession which support my assertions.

This is on the basis that on-going acts of aggression in Iraq and systematically applied war crimes provide a moral equivalent between the US and Nazi Germany.

Technorati tags: Australia UK Britain Iraq Noam Chomsky court-martial

Ryan trial jurors go home early again

According to media reports, they left early today because of Passover. But there are still unresolved questions.

From ABC 7 Chicago:

For the second straight day, the jury in George Ryan's corruption trial has gone home early. The short days come as new questions are raised about the conduct of one of the jurors.

As we first reported Tuesday, lawyers want to know more about a conversation a caller to a talk-radio station claims to have had with one of the jurors. A gag order prevents the media from knowing the seriousness of this situation. The judge has not said if she spoke with jurors or if investigators tracked down the man who said he spoke with one of them.

As the jury wraps-up its ninth day of deliberations, legal experts are debating a question of their own: Can a juror who is said to have briefly talked about deliberations with someone she shouldn't have derail this case?

Follow-up on "Dennis the Dry Cleaner" and the George Ryan trial

ABC 7 Chicago has the relevant portion from the March 28 Roe Conn radio show where a caller, known as Dennis the Dry Cleaner, discusses a conversation he said he had with a juror on George Ryan panel:

"I have a small business and one of my customers is on the jury. And today I saw her for the first time in quite a while, and we were talking briefly about it," said "Dennis."

"Oh, I don't want to know this," said Magers (an ABC 7 Chicago anchorman who is Roe Conn show contributor).

"Here's a guy claiming --we don't know for sure -- go ahead," Conn said.

"But she had mentioned that they really hadn't even started the deliberations yet, that basically up to this point in time, they've been going over the rules that they were given," said the caller.

For more on this latest development in the George Ryan case, see the below post. The Illinois Republican and former governor is charged with various corruption and racketeering charges.

Technorati tags: Ryan Trial law Illinois Chicago

George Ryan trial: More juror controversy

A couple of Tuesdays ago I took my daughter to the Chicago's Adler Planetarium, which spawned this post.

Another big story was right under my ears, as I drove home that afternoon while listening to Roe Conn's WLS-AM talk show. I just thought the caller was a braggart who wanted to get on the radio. That still might be the case, but Rebecca Pallmeyer, the judge in the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor George Ryan, is taking no chances.

A caller who identified himself as "Dennis the Dry Cleaner" called Roe, and he said that one of his regular customers talked to him about the progress of jury deliberations.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

"She had mentioned that they really haven't even started deliberations yet," the WLS-AM caller said.

When he called talk-radio host Roe Conn to discuss what an unnamed female juror had allegedly revealed, did a man identified only as Dennis the Dry Cleaner realize he might be talking about another case of potential juror misconduct in the trial of former Gov. George Ryan?

"She said, you know, that everyone on that jury with her had put so much time in it already, it would be a sheer waste to just see them walk away today and say it's a mistrial," Dennis said.

It's been two weeks, but my recollection from that call was that Dennis was told by that juror that up till that time, the panel was setting up rules among themselves for deliberations.

There is just one alternate juror left.

Technorati tags: George Ryan Roe Conn WLS law Illinois Chicago talk radio

Miss Iraq resigns after four day reign

Last week, 23 year-old Tamar Goregian, pictured on the left, won the 2006 Miss Iraq title. Four days later, she resigned the honor, citing threats from religious fundamentalists who called her "the queen of infidels," according to ABC News.

Ms. Goregian is an ethnic Armenian Christian.

Although they received no threats, the first, second, and third runner-ups passed up on the offer to be this year's Miss Iraq.

With the bench cleared, it's fallen upon Ms. Teen Iraq, Silva Shahakian, to be the new Miss Iraq. She's a Christian too.

The original 2006 Miss Iraq? She fled the country.

Hat tip to author Steven Plaut

Technorati tags: Iraq Miss Universe الله أكبر Iraqi Christians Christian Armenian

More George Ryan juror troubles

The reconstituted jury in the trial of former Illinois Governor George Ryan ended its eighth day of deliberations early today. Here's why, according to ABC 7 Chicago:

For the first time in several days, top attorneys from both sides returned to the courthouse and met behind closed doors with Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer. They talked for more than two hours. A gag order prevents them from revealing the topic of their discussions, but ABC 7 has learned their meeting revolved around the alleged actions of a juror.

Two sources tell ABC 7's Paul Meincke there is concern about possible juror misconduct on the part of one of the panel members. It involves a conversation the juror is said to have had with someone "not affiliated with the trial" nearly two weeks ago. The judge has so far not taken any official action against the juror.

With all of this going on in the background, the entire jury continued its deliberations Tuesday in another part of the courthouse, although much to the surprise of court watchers, the jury decided to call it a day nearly two hours early. They went home at 2 p.m. and are expected to begin their ninth day of deliberations Wednesday morning.

Two weeks ago, two jurors were removed from the panel--after deliberations had begun--for not revealing their arrest records in their juror questionnaires.

Iran enriches uranium, will soon be a nuclear power

Bad news from a part of the world where bad news typically comes from. Iran will be the big story of 2006.

From AP:

Iran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time, a major development in its quest to develop nuclear fuel, former president Hashemi Rafsanjani said Tuesday according to a news agency.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran "will soon join the club of countries possessing nuclear technology." Speaking to a crowd in northeastern Iran, Ahmadinejad was quoted by the television as saying, "Enemies can't dissuade the Iranian nation from the path of progress that it has chosen."

Sounds like the ravings of a madman.

Immigration reform: What about the Cubans?

Here's an overlooked angle in the wall-to-wall coverage of the debate on immigration: Cuba.

Many Cubans want to leave Fidel Castro's socialist paradise immediately. And they're not just economically oppressed.

From the American Spectator:

So I'll tell you what. Here's my deal. If you guys in the Senate want to ram through an immigration bill to reach out and bring all these folks into the Big Tent of the Republican Party, I'll bite my lip and go along. I won't be legalistic or puristic or a nudnik. You want me to give you your short-order cooks and your lawn guys and your house painters, you got it.

But I want something in return. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door, right here in Miami. Give me your Cubans. (No, not the cigars. Apparently Babbin copped all of those.)

Here we have one of the great ironies. The one group of emigres with the most legitimate claim for asylum is the Cubans. The one law-abiding cadre that doesn't make large demonstrations is the Cubans. The one enclave that never presses for bilingual education but works to master English without complaint is the Cubans. (You would never hear them yelling "March!" in April.) And -- here is your full daily USDA RDA of irony -- the only reliable clique of Hispanic voters for the Republican Party is Cuban. Well, guess what? As things stand, the proposed immigration bill leaves the Cubans missing the boat.

How about it, Mr. President?

And yes, they still want to leave Cuba. Wall Street Cafe reports today:

Barely four months into 2006, the number of Cuban migrants to reach Cayman waters has already surpassed the number for full year of 2005. Let's see, the number of 12 months in 4 months? More Cubans are in a hurry to leave the island.

Technorati tags: Cuba Cubano Immigration Castro HR4437

Welcome Dhimmi Watch readers

The Profile-aphobia post is below.

New phobia discovered: Profile-aphopia

Profile-aphobia--an irrational fear, usually possessed by the mainstream media, of being labeled a bigot. Best exemplified by this April 10 AP headline in the San Diego Union-Tribune, U.S. citizen gets five years in drugs-for-missiles plot. This phobia is especially commonplace in news stories about Muslims who've been charged with terrorism related crimes. All criminologists agree that US citizens commit most of the crimes in the United States, and they are puzzled when mainstream reporters feel compelled to overemphasize the American citizenship of a US Muslim accused in a terror plot. Symptoms among mainstream media reporters become more severe when a Muslim is convicted of such crimes.

Treatment: Common sense, and a new writing-style book.

Technorati tags: Phobia Islam Mental Health Muslims عمر California San Diego

Feds: Sentence to prison man George Ryan released from death row "to protect the public"

Former Illinois Governor George Ryan has been in the news a lot lately, mostly involving his trial on corruption, tax, and racketeering charges. Two versions of a jury have been deliberating on Ryan's fate for three weeks.

Ryan's name outside the Prairie State is of course linked with his 2003 decision to empty out Illinois' crowded death row. Most of those formerly condemned inmates received life-in-prison commutations. A few, such as Aaron Patterson, received full pardons.

Patterson became a cause célèbre in the death penalty debate, as this web page demonstrates. David Protess, an anti-death penalty crusader and Northwestern University professor, took up the cause of Patterson, and probably, along with his students, did more than anyone in the successful effort to get Aaron Patterson freed.

Once he became a free man, Patterson promised to dedicate himself to fighting police brutality and corruption, and seemingly got off to a good start to his new life by running for public office. He was defeated in his run for the Illinois state legislature, but it looked like Patterson was going places.

Well, he was. Back to his street-gang life. A few months after that election defeat, Patterson was arrested on gun and drug charges. Last year, in a wild trial dominated by a Patterson's misbehaving, he was found guilty on those charges.

Today, a busy Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer (who is, strangely enough, also the trial judge in the George Ryan case), heard arguments from federal prosecutors regarding Patterson's sentence.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

Federal prosecutors say sentencing a man former Gov. George Ryan freed from death row to 30 years to life in prison is "the only way to protect the public."

The prosecutors contend Aaron Patterson, 40, is a Chicago street gang leader who went right back to trading in guns and drugs after being released.

Prosecutors also allege that Patterson helped mastermind gang activities during the 17 years he spent in prison for a double murder he insists he didn't commit.

They recommended a term of 360 months to life in prison.

Blogs on the far-Left are claiming, of course, that Patterson was framed by the Chicago Police and is innocent of the guns and drug charges.

Northwestern's David Protess is under fire for another high profile released-from-death-row case. Anthony Porter was released from prison after Alstory Simon confessed to the double murder Porter was convicted of in the early 1980s.

Simon has recanted that confession, which he says was coerced.

Porter sued Chicago for false arrest, and in 2005, a jury ruled against him.

Walter Jones, aattorneyny for the City said in the trial:

We successfully showed that it was truly Anthony Porter that committed this murder.

Technorati tags: Death Penalty Capital Punishment Anthony Porter Alstory Simon David Protess Northwestern Chicago George Ryan Ryan Trial Aaron Patterson law

Light posting

Away from the computer much of today on blog related business. Lots of catching up to to.

More immigration, Chicago style

It's a lovely day for a protest March in Chicago and the rest of Illinois. This is what's on tap here today:

In Chicago, several events are planned, CBS 2’s Kristyn Hartman reports.

They include a school walkout at Morton East High School, a peaceful protest in front of Congresswoman Melissa Bean’s office, a march and rally at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign campus, an immigration rights vigil at Congressman Dan Lipinski’s office and a community meeting at Truman College.

All of this activity comes on the heels of last month's peaceful demonstrations in Chicago that drew thousands of protesters.

More immigration protests

They're seemingly everywhere, the protests against new immigration laws.

For more on this topic, head over the Freedom Folks, they are experts in the field.

Technorati tags: Immigration border Politics

Welcome Pajamas Media readers

The religion adherence post is here.

There is more terrific journalism back at Pajamas Media.

Technorati tags: religion faith maps Pajamas Media

Impeachment 2006

Pat at Brainster has been closely following the move by the some within the Democratic Party to not only re-take Congress this fall, and following that accomplishment, begin impeachment proceedings again President Bush. The charges will center on Bush's "lies" about pre-war Iraq intelligence, and the recent revelations over NSA eavesdropping.

Five state Democratic state committees have voted to petition Congress to start the impeachment process against the president. Those states are Vermont, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and New Mexico.

Even if the Democrats take control of Congress after this fall's elections (but I don't think they will), impeachment faces an uphill battle.

Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is strongly against impeachment.

Among other members of the Illinois congressional delegation, only three have come out in support of impeachment. There among the most liberal members of the House: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis, and my own congresscritter, Jan Schakowsky.

Schakowsky, whose politico husband Robert Creamer was sentenced last week to five months in prison for bank and tax fraud charges, is a co-sponsor along with Davis, of a House impeachment resolution.

Melissa Bean, a Democrat who represents Northwest Suburban Chicago in a Republican-leaning district, faces a tough re-election battle this fall. She's against impeachment.

South of Bean's district is the 6th, where Democrat (and Iraq war vet) Tammy Duckworth faces Republican Peter Roskam for the open seat being vacated by retiring Republican Henry Hyde. After an exhaustive internet search, I couldn't find out what Tammy's position on impeachment is, but I believe she opposes it. Roskam is certainly against it.

Technorati tags: Illinois Vermont North Carolina Wisconsin Nevada New Mexico Jan Schakowsky Danny Davis Peter Roskam Tammy Duckworth Melissa Bean impeachment Impeach Bush Bush Congress Rahm Emanuel

Religion in America on Palm Sunday

I found a great post, mapping out religion in America, via Bill Baar's West Side on the Regions of Mind blog.

There are plenty of maps showing the adherence of various faiths by county in the United States.

For instance: Did you know that the sparsely populated Nebraska Sandhills county of Arthur is Nebraska's most Baptist?

That's because Arthur County has just one church, and you guessed it, it's Baptist.

(I took this photo two years ago in Nebraska's Hooker County, not too far from Arthur, on Nebraska Route 2, the Sandhills Highway.)

Technorati tags: Nebraska Photos Nebraska Sandhills religion Baptist Palm Sunday

Wal-Mart in Chicago follow-up

This summer, as I noted on Marathon Pundit last week, Chicago's first Wal-Mart will open.

For those on the Left, especially labor unions, that's one Chicago Wal-Mart too many.

After my morning run today, I stopped by the Niles Wal-Mart too pick up some software. I took an informal survey, but of the cars I saw in the Wal-Mart parking lot, about four out of every five had one of those distinctive (and expensive) Chicago vehicle stickers on the passenger side window.

My point? Even though Chicago is a heavily Democratic city--there are 50 alderman serving on Chicago's City Council, just one is a Republican--at least in the Niles Wal-Mart parking lot, the citizens are voting with their wallets in suburban Niles.

In Illinois, a percentage of sales tax revenue is returned to the community from which it was purchased.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart Illinois Chicago Niles taxes Unions Democrats

Palm Sunday morning, Chicago

I took this picture during my morning run with my Motorola V3 RAZR phone, from the Chicago Lakefront Trail.

Technorati tags: Chicago
metroblogging camera phones Photography Motorola

Quote of the week

I'm not sure if this will be a regular feature, but for me, this is the quote of the week.

Every time taxes are raised, a liberal gets his wings.

That line comes from John Kass of the Chicago Tribune. (Free registration may be required.) Hat tip to Cal Skinner of the McHenry County Blog for reminding me about it in the comments section of one of my Jan Schakowsky posts.

Technorati posts: Jan Schakowsky liberals Illinois John Kass Chicago Tribune

Book beat: Ex-DePaul prof Thomas Klocek at the bookstore

Marathon Pundit has been championing the cause of fired DePaul University Professor Thomas Klocek for over a year.

Three recently published books mention the case. The most recent is The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, by David Horowitz.

Page 174, the Norman Finkelstein (a DePaul assistant professor) section:

Thomas Klocek, without a hearing because he asserted in an argument with a group ...

The Klocek case is cited in Alan Dershowitz' The Case for Peace : How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can be Resolved as well as The UnCivil University by Gary A. Tobin, Aryeh K. Weinberg, and Jenna Ferer.

Technorati tags: Alan Dershowitz Norman Finkelstein DePaul Academic freedom Free Speech Thomas Klocek David Horowitz

Venezeulans on motorcycles pelt US ambassador's car

I'm not sure if this incident has anything to do with Chicago Alderman Edward Burke's allegations that last month's Illinois primary election was sabotaged by Hugo Chavez.

From AP:

The U.S. ambassador to Venezuela has grown used to facing protests and shouts of "Yankee go home!" But supporters of President Hugo Chavez appeared to cross the line when they pelted his car with eggs and tomatoes, then chased after his convoy on motorcycles.

The incident Friday drew a strong response from Washington, which summoned Venezuela's ambassador and warned him of "severe diplomatic consequences" in the event of a similar incident.

In regard to those, "severe diplomatic consequences," perhaps we can send Ald. Burke down there to be the new ambassador?

Technorati tags: Hugo Chavez Venezuela chavez international politics Chicago

Saudi restaurant owner faces 90 lashes for hiring two veiled women

You know, it's easy to look at a story like this and say, "The Saudis are very different from us."

Today's Arab News is has a story about Saudi restaurant owner Nabeel Al-Ramadan. In 2004, he hired two women who wore veils to take telephone orders for the eatery. Local officials complained--my guess is that it was the notorious Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice--and the two women were fired.

End of story? Not in Saudi Arabia, as the Arab News explains:

Restaurant owner Nabeel Al-Ramadan said he was surprised by a phone call from a local court judge asking him to meet him immediately.

When Al-Ramadan asked if it was all right to bring his lawyer, the judge told the businessman that he wanted to see him alone.

When Al-Ramadan arrived in the court, the judge informed him that he had been sentenced in absentia to 90 lashes to be administered in clusters of 30 apiece. The charge against him was violating dignity and decorum.

Vile. Oh, by the way, why do the Western feminist organizations only rarely speak out about the lack of women's rights in Islamic countries?

Technorati tags: عنالأم المملكة Saudi Arabia Muslim Women Sharia Women/'s rights Islam

Did Hugo Chavez sabotage Illinois election?

It is April, but well past April Fool's Day. However, this story is for real.

Last month there was a primary election in Illinois. In Cook County, where about 40 percent of the state's population lives, optical scan and touch screen balloting was used for the first time. Up until this election, punch card ballots were used.

And it took days for all the votes to be counted in Cook County. The blame for the slow tally was placed on--depending on was asked--either on the Sequoia Voting Systems, the supplier of the machines, or on poor training of election judges.

Now there is a new villain: Venezuela and its president, Hugo Chavez.

Alderman Edward Burke, one of the most powerful legislators on Chicago's City Council, is making this shocking claim:

We've stumbled across what could be the international conspiracy to subvert the electoral process in the United States of America.

The Chicago City Council has it's share of eccentrics and characters, Alderman Burke, chairman of the body's Finance Committee, is considered to be a one of the shrewdest legislators on the council.

On a side note, the alderman's wife, Anne, was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court this week. (She is also a member of DePaul University's Board of Trustees.)

From ABC 7 Chicago:

Alderman Burke says at least 15 Venezuelans, who may not have been in the country legally, worked side-by-side with Chicago election officials on primary night March 21, which turned out to be a vote-counting nightmare.

Burke says the fiasco may have been politically motivated, because the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is considered an enemy of the United States and may be connected to a Venezuelan company that owns a US firm (my note, Sequoia Voting Systems) that provided Chicago and Cook County with the new voting machines that contributed to the election night problems.

"I don't know how anybody could hire a company that's ownership is hidden, and traces its roots to Venezuela, where they've been involved with the dictator of Venezuela who Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld says is an enemy of the United States," said Burke.

No one is taking Burke's allegation seriously. However, Hugo Chavez has not been contacted yet about last month's election in the Land of Lincoln.

Still, someone better get elections expert Jim Lampley on the story real fast. It could be the biggest story of our lives.

Previously on Marathon Pundit: Bring back the punch card ballots?

Technorati tags: Chicago Illinois Elections Hugo Chavez Venezuela chavez Politics DePaul Cook County Jim Lampley conspiracy

Hope for America: Spirit Day at my daughter's school

Yesterday in suburban Denver, several students at Shaw Heights Middle School were suspended for wearing patriotic clothing that showed the US flag or honored the military.

Shameful.

However, today in Morton Grove, Illinois, it is "Spirit Day" at my daughter's school.

I'm almost certain this event has nothing to do with the Shaw Heights incident, or the recent immigration protests that have been going on.

Still, students at Little Marathon Pundit's school are encouraged to wear red, white, and blue or any patriotic clothing.

Oh, for your skeptics out there, her school colors are blue and gold.

There is hope for this country.

Technorati tags: Colorado immigration patriotism flag Morton Grove Northwest suburbs Denver

Chicago Tribune's John Kass on Schakowsky and Creamer

Whew, for a while I was thinking I was the only person with a keyboard who's upset about the light sentence Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's husband, Robert Creamer received for his admitted bank and tax fraud crimes.

Jan Schakowsky is the uber-liberal Democrat from Evanston. As I've noted before, I'm one of her unfortunate constituents.

But this morning, John Kass of the Chicago Tribune weighed in with his column, Schakowsky ire phony as kited checks. Free registration may be required.

Every time Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky mentions "Republicans" and "scandal" and "accountability," she'll be sticking her husband's foot in her mouth.

The foot I'm talking about belongs to her spousal unit, Robert Creamer, the noted champion of the poor and the downtrodden and Democratic political organizer.

Here's something I didn't know:

Creamer's defense argued that "Up until the present day, Bob Creamer spends nearly every waking moment focused on how he can serve the public interest--the interest of average working citizens, consumers, the elderly and the underprivileged."

Creamer and Schakowsky were probably focused on the underprivileged--when the underprivileged were serving them at the Four Seasons resort at Punta Mita, Mexico, in January. It was one of those congressional junkets paid for by a private organization, a six-day stay worth $7,045, part policy wonk navel-gazing, part fun in the sun. Think they tipped?

Technorati tags: Jan Schakowsky Robert Creamer Congress Illinois Democrats Crime Politics The Left

Spain won't be a Catholic country in 20 years

Europe is on a wild ride, and it's hard to predict where it'll end up.

This story from Expatica about Spain caught my eye. For centuries, Spain may have been the most Catholic country on the planet.

For the first time ever, a majority of young Spaniards said they did not consider themselves Catholics, according to a new survey.

The survey, by the Fundacion Santa Maria, said many felt a mounting distrust of the Roman Catholic Church and growing disbelief in God, the Spanish daily El Pais reported.

The authors of the survey said its results indicate that within a generation Spain will no longer be a Catholic country, as the present generation's children will not be brought up as believers.

It gets worse for the Church:

The survey found the Catholic Church is the least trusted of any institution, including multi-national companies and NATO.

Technorati tags: Spain España Espanya Catholic NATO

Marathon Pundit exclusive: Picture of George Ryan jurors deliberating

This photo will certainly get me a Pulitzer Prize in photojournalism. Now we know why they've been so quiet lately. I guess the court bailiffs should've visited the jury room more often.

Technorati tags: George Ryan Ryan Trial
Illinois

More hot air from DePaul, this time from M. Cherif Bassiouni

And we have the pleasure this afternoon to draw upon a new source of craziness from Catholic DePaul University, M. Cherif Bassiouni, a law professor.

From his DePaul biography:

M. Cherif Bassiouni is a Distinguished Research Professor of Law at DePaul University College of Law and President of its International Human Rights Law Institute. He is also President of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Siracusa, Italy, as well as the President of the International Association of Penal Law, based in Paris, France.

He has served the United Nations in a number of capacities, including: Member and then Chairman of the Security Council's Commission to Investigate War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia (1992-94); Commission on Human Rights' Independent Expert on The Rights to Restitution, Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Grave Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1998-2000); Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the 1998 Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court; and the Vice-Chairman of the General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (1995). In 2004, he was appointed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as the Independent Expert on Human Rights in Afghanistan.

Author Robert Spencer in FrontPage Magazine points out on Sunday the Chicago Tribune (free registration may be required) carried a Bassiouni op-ed critical of the Trib's coverage of the Abdul Rahman apostasy trial in Afghanistan.

In short, as the headline phrased it, "Leaving Islam is not a capital crime."

Bassiouni neatly tucks the death penalty sentence for abandoning Islam as something that was pretty much abandoned in the first millenium. The DePaul professor mentions that Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia have no laws on the books regarding apostasy, and therefore, a death penalty for leaving Islam.

My take on this is that even within those somewhat enlightened nations, there is a vocal minority, and not just a miniscule splinter group, that wants to bring Islamic law, also known as Shari'a, to those countries.

Spencer, who is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) states in FrontPage Magazine today.

Also, Paul Marshall notes: "Other countries, like Egypt, that have no laws against apostasy, instead use laws against 'insulting Islam' or 'creating sectarian strife.' In 2003, Egyptian security forces arrested 22 converts and people who had helped them. Some were tortured, and one, Isam Abdul Fathr, died in custody. Last year, Gaseer Mohamed Mahmoud was whipped and had his toenails pulled out by police, and was told he would be imprisoned until he gave up Christianity."

Bassiouni continues: "States that recognize it as a crime punishable by death include Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. However, there are no known cases in recent times in which someone charged with apostasy in these countries has been put to death."

However, Marshall asserts that "in the last ten years Saudi Arabia has executed people for the crimes of apostasy, heresy, and blasphemy" and "in the 1990s, the Islamic Republic of Iran used death squads against converts, including major Protestant leaders, and the situation is worsening under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The regime is currently engaged in a systematic campaign to track down and reconvert or kill those who have changed their religion from Islam."

But perhaps even more important than the simple inaccuracy of Bassiouni's statements here is the fact that if such laws are on the books, that is enough. They can then be reasserted at any time, even if they are ignored for long periods.

Bassiouni then quotes on Qur'anic passage, a favorite of CAIR's, that "there is no compulsion in religion."

But here is another Qur'an quote about apostates:

Sura 4:89: They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.

Hat tip to Steven Plaut.

UPDATE 4:00PM: Not sure how Dr. Bassiouni's fellow Muslims will view this information, but the DePaul School of Law was one of the plaintiffs in FAIR vs. Rumsfeld. DePaul was one of the schools that wanted to ban military recruiters from campus because of the Defense Department's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military.

Technorati tags: شريعة ن Chicago DePaul Islam Sharia Muslim Apostasy Christianity Catholic Catholic universities M. Cherif Bassiouni

High school immigration protests come to Illinois

I know, I used the plural in the headline, and it's just one protest, but others will surely follow here. Besides, two Aurora schools took part.

A Chicago (free registration required) Tribune article notes the protesters carried American flags. Word has must have filtered down to the troops that waving Mexican flags at these type of rallies is not the best way to convince main street America that illegals should be allowed to stay here.

From the Trib:

Hundreds of high school students in west suburban Aurora left classes this morning to march and demonstrate against a bill nearing approval in Congress that would crack down on illegal immigration.

Students at East Aurora High School and West Aurora High School took part in the protest. Aurora police estimated the crowd at about 300 students.

The students assembled across the street from West Aurora High School about 8 a.m. and marched downtown, waving American flags. They gathered in the parking lot of a supermarket to hear speeches.

Many of the students said their families are from Mexico and fear their relatives could be deported if the bill passes, CLTV (my note: a local cable news station) reported. But participants said the issue is relevant to immigrants from many countries.

Technorati tags: Illinois immigration MEXICO Aurora Politics

Payroll taxes, also should Creamer judge have recused himself from case?

Well, I think he should've done just that. But before I get to that, my last two posts on Robert Creamer focused on the check-kiting. He also pleaded guilty to not promptly paying $50,000 in payroll taxes of Illinois Public Action Council employees to the government.

Oops! Creamer is of course married to liberal Congresswoman Jan Schakowksy. As you'll read here on her political blog, Schakowsky is a vehement opponent of the Bush tax cuts.

Yet her husband took his time in paying that beloved tax revenue to the government.

Schakowsky, although she was not implicated in this scheme, was on the IPAC board of directors while this financial funny business was taking place.

Randall Sherman, a frequent commenter on the Illinoize blog, brought this issue up this morning on that blog. Why didn't Judge James Moran, who sentenced Creamer yesterday, recuse himself from the case?

From the Chicago Tribune, free registration may be required:

Creamer's ties to the Democratic community are so deep that Moran considered recusing himself from the case. The judge, a former Democratic state representative from Evanston (my note, that's where Creamer and Schakowsky live), said he had a potential conflict of interest because his son-in-law, political consultant Peter Giangreco, had worked with Creamer and Schakowsky and had sat on the board of one of Creamer's organizations.

However, neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors voiced concerns about Moran's connections to Creamer.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Ferguson said Wednesday that he was disappointed in the sentence and that prosecutors would consider whether to appeal.

Technorati tags: Robert Creamer Peter Giangreco Jan Schakowsky Evanston crime Illinois

Klocek, DePaul, and the Islamization of America

A Google news alert tipped me off to this article by Dr. Phyliss Chesler in the Jewish Press, a Brooklyn publication.

The article, The Islamization of America, hits what I call the Islamo-lobby hard.

Here are a few excerpts:

Members of Cincinnati’s Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) managed to shut down a production of a play by Glyn O’Malley about the first female suicide bomber. A group of Muslim students at De Paul University managed to get Professor Thomas Klocek fired or permanently "suspended" because, off-duty (just like the New York prison imam), he tried to tell the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Muslim students, perhaps shocked that anyone would dare disagree with their anti-Israel views, reported him as a "racist." Klocek’s pro-American and pro-Israel free speech is, apparently, not as protected as is that of another De Paul University professor, Norman Finkelstein, a notorious demonizer of Israel.

The imam? From the same article:

More recently, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Norman Seigel, followed by the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, defended the right of the New York City’s top Muslim prison imam to rage against America, Jews, and Zionists. At a conference of Muslim students, Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil claimed that Muslims were being "tortured" in city jails; that "the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House"; and that we should not allow "the Zionists of the media to dictate what Islam is to us."

The imam was suspended with pay for two weeks but not fired. Perhaps he does have the right to say anything he pleases as a citizen; perhaps his loss of this right might also endanger us all. My question is, what if he is indoctrinating a large population of criminals? Conversion to Islam, especially among African-American men in jail, is growing, both here and among North-and Caribbean-African men in Europe. Can we consider them truly rehabilitated if they hold such extremist views when they are released?

And finally...

...we must begin to insist that Muslims allow the same free speech and religious practices to religious minorities in their countries that they wish us to extend to them in the West. This means that if Muslims want religious freedoms in the West, they have to grant such freedoms to Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities in Muslim countries. It is well past time they did so. The Middle East is already entirely judenrein, free of Jews, except in Israel, and I doubt whether any of the 800,000 Jewish refugees from Muslim countries, or their descendants, will want to return. But Christians have long been – and still are – persecuted, often severely, under Muslim rule. Thus, America might begin to peg every trade or peace treaty with a Muslim country or business to an agreement about religious tolerance and freedom.

As I've noted before, Islam asks more from non-believers than any other religion.

Technorati tags: Israel ישראל DePaul Academic freedom Free speech Chicago Islam CAIR Umar Abdul-Jalil New York Jewish

Robert Creamer, Jan Schakowsky follow-up

Earlier today Robert Creamer, the husband of Cong. Jan Schakowsky, (D-IL), was sentenced to five months in prison and 11 months house arrest for his role in a 1990s check-kiting scheme while he was the head of defunct Illinois Public Action Council, a consumer advocacy group.

Schakowsky has not been implicated in the scheme.

Jan Schakowsky is one of the most liberal members of Congress. She is a member of the far-left Progressive Caucus. Other members of the caucus include such "stars" as Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters, Dennis Kucinich, Jim McDermott (Baghdad Jim), Bernie Sanders, and Lynn Woolsey.

Schakowsky made her name in the Illinois Public Action Council. From 1976 to 1985, she was the IPAC program director. Four years later, Jan organized a senior-citizen rally that was a TV reporters dream. In 1989, cameras caught Schakowsky-led seniors chasing the powerful then-Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Dan Rostenkowski, (D-IL). That protest drew national attention.

The Illinois Public Action Council was known for the aggressiveness of its members, particular in their "pro-consumer" door-to-door fundraising efforts. Those same IPAC members proved to be a useful ground force that got Schakowsky elected to Congress in 1998.

After Illinois Public Action folded, Robert Creamer went on to serve as a highly paid political consultant for Democrats such as Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Congressman Lane Evans, and Chicago Alderman Joe Moore, among others.

In short, Creamer was not a "Mr. Mom."

As for the spin from the Creamer camp that no one lost money because of his check-kiting, that may be true. But Creamer in essence obtained interest-free loans from those banks.

And while Schakowsky was not involved in the day-to-day affairs of the Illinois Public Action Council, she was on the IPAC board of directors while her husband was committing bank fraud.

Technorati tags: Jan Schakowsky Jim McDermott Cynthia McKinney liberal left Robert Creamer Lynn Woolsey Maxine Waters Lane Evans Blagojevich Richard Daley Illinois Bernie Sanders Dennis Kucinich

Cong. Schakowsky's husband gets five months in prison

My congresswoman's husband is going to prison.

Breaking news from AP:

The husband of an Illinois congresswoman was sentenced to five months in federal prison Wednesday for writing rubber checks and tax fraud.

Robert Creamer, 58, husband of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, also was ordered placed on house arrest for 11 months after he finishes his prison term.

More...

Moran said that Creamer had acted not to get money for himself but to keep a public interest group that he founded from going broke. The judge also said that neither the banks nor the government had suffered any "out-of-pocket loss" as a result of the check-kiting scheme.

But Moran brushed aside arguments from scores of politically connected Creamer well-wishers that he had devoted his life to the poor and the downtrodden and thus deserved a lighter sentence.

SEIU union against Ill. bill to ban funeral protests

Illinois is one of the states that has pending legislation working its way through the state legislature to ban, if not limit, protests at funerals.

The bill, sponsored by Ill. Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat, was introduced to the legislature in January. Quinn, with little public fanfare, attends almost all funerals of Illinois military personnel killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bill is designed to curb the efforts by Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church. That group has ruined many military funerals in that last year.

The Service Employees Union is against the Ill. funeral protest bill. According to Mark Gordon, a Republican staffer for the Illinois Senate Republicans, SEIU wants to maintain the right to protest at funerals.

It's fair to say that Lt. Governor Pat Quinn and Senate Republicans don't find themselves on the same side very frequently.

But, Senate Republicans have been strong supporters of a Quinn-backed effort to protect the families of veterans from disruptive protests at funerals. In recent days, both Quinn and Senate Republicans have become more vocal in their support after Senate President Emil Jones put a brick on what was generally considered to be a non-controversial plan.

House Bill 4532 -- the "Let Them Rest in Peace Act" -- is a bipartisan initiative backed by Lt. Governor Pat Quinn that would prohibit loud and inflammatory protests within 200 feet of all Illinois funeral services beginning 30 minutes before a funeral, during a funeral, and 30 minutes after a funeral.

According to news reports, the Senate Democrat leadership has bowed to the demands of the Service Employees International Union, which wants to be able to picket at funerals. Both Quinn and Senate Republicans have warned that any attempt to exempt union picketing would likely make the bill unconstitutional.

State Senator Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) has filed a motion to discharge the bill from the Rules Committee; but so far the Senate leadership has refused to allow a vote on his motion, which would move the bill directly to the Senate for a vote.

The measure was inspired by actions of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, a fundamentalist group who recently became known for picketing the burials of soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Technorati tags: SEIU AFL-CIO Politics Westboro Baptist Church patriot guard riders gay Illinois

Belarusian ambassador to Iran supports Iranian nukes

Well, the Belarusians support the Iran's "peaceful" pursuit of nuclear technology.

There's more. From the Iranian Mehr News Agency:

Commenting on the recent presidential election in Belarus which resulted in the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko, the ambassador said that Western threats would never discourage Belarus from following its independent policies to meet its national goals.

And to prove how independent Belarus is, its ambassador is sucking up to the Iranians.

Hopefully, democratic regimes will soon replace the current governments in Belarus and Iran.

Technorati tags: Belarus Iran Беларусь ايران Alexander Lukashenko Lukashenko

West side story: Wal-Mart coming to an impoverished part of Chicago

Even when I was in high school in the 1970s I remember reading about the unwillingness of large retailers to open stores in the poor areas of large cities. Neighborhoods that experienced "white flight" often saw many retail outlets flee as well.

Thirty years later the situation isn't much better. Those individuals living in impoverished communities for the most part face two choices: pay more for products at "mom-and-pop" outlets, or spend a lot of time on a "shopping commute" to a distant neighborhood to get decent prices on things like clothing, shoes, and the like.

The Austin community on Chicago's West Side is a poverty-stricken neighborhood. I drive through there once in a while, and I don't see the big-name stores that people like myself, who live in the northern suburbs, take for granted.

That's about to change. ABC 7 Chicago is reporting on Wal-Mart's impending opening of a store in Austin. It'll be Chicago's first Wal-Mart.

(0h, if anyone is interested, I found this story on my own.)

Of course, with America's third-largest city finally getting a Wal-Mart, local union leaders are doing their chicken-little act.

From the ABC 7 story:

"Wal-Mart, just come in and pay people a living wage, and pay them benefits and give them a pass to the future," said Dennis Gannon, Chicago Federation of Labor.

Political pressure torpedoed another Wal-Mart planned for the South Side, so the company opened in Evergreen Park, where there were 25,000 applicants for 325 jobs.

In Chicago, 3,000 people applied in the first week for an estimated 400 jobs.

"It's all about getting your foot in the door and having a great start and working for the company," said Natalie Williams, job applicant.

Clearly, there is interest in those jobs.

According to Wal-Mart, the average wage in the Chicago area is about $11 an hour, and their jobs pay less than that. Not all new hires will get health care benefits.

However, the average wage on Chicago's West Side is very less than $11 an hour.

Here is more from the ABC 7 report:

(Wal-Mart) is also offering the Austin community, and nine other potential locations around the country, millions of dollars in business programs aimed at burnishing its controversial reputation and winning over skeptical politicians and labor leaders.

Wal-Mart is inviting Uncle Remus, a black-owned fast-food chain, to put an outlet in the new store. The company is donating money to local schools and community groups.

Now, under a new program announced Tuesday, Wal-Mart is pledging to spend at least $2 million in Chicago and nine other cities to promote, support, and train local businesses, suppliers and would-be entrepreneurs so they can be successful, instead of being run over by the giant retailer.

Margaret Garner, an African-American, is the general contractor for the new Wal-Mart.

Technorati tags: Wal-Mart WalMart Chicago metroblogging African-American Inner city retail

George Ryan trial deliberations--four days with new jury, no verdict

It's time to restart the verdict watch in the corruption and racketeering trial of former Illinois Governor George Ryan. The jury completed today's session of deliberations and they did reach a verdict.

DePaul mess makes it on National Review Online's Phi Beta Cons blog

There are a growing number of well-done blogs on National Review Online. Curiously, they've been rather quiet on DePaul University and its anti-free speech abuses that have recently plagued the Chicago Catholic university.

In the print edition of National Review, however, John J. Miller wrote an excellent article last October.

This afternoon, one of those new NRO blogs, Phi Beta Cons, has a DePaul post based on the Polly Awards, as you'll read here.

Tuition and taxpayer dollars at work

As bad as this story sounds, keep in mind the University of Wyoming is a state school. One can only imagine (maybe) what goes on at private colleges.

File this one under "Why annual college tuition fee increases outstrip the rate of inflation."

From AP:

University of Wyoming trustees voiced few regrets about the called-off search for a president that cost $123,376 over about seven months.

The university spent $90,000 to hire Korn/Ferry International as a search consultant. The university also spent $10,800 on administration and support fees; $3,015 on expenses such as communication, clerical work and computers; and $19,561 for travel, food and renting facilities, according to university officials.

The search ended Thursday with a trustees' vote that kept Tom Buchanan on as interim president for the time being. Buchanan's one-year contract expires June 30 and trustees said they were in no hurry to resume searching for a more permanent president.

Technorati tags: Wyoming academia University of wyoming Korn/Ferry

Polly Awards follow up

Yesterday morning I reported on the 9th Annual Polly Awards. Campus Magazine and the Collegiate Network announced the "winners" of the 9th Annual Polly Awards, given to those oh-so "politically-correct" universities who love "diversity," but trample on the free speech rights of those they disagree with--mainly conservatives. The Pollys are also called the Campus Outrage awards.

First prize went to Yale University, which accepted former Mullah Omar aide Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi into a non-degree program despite having only the Afghan equivalent of a fourth grade education.

For more on the "Yale Taliban," visit Clint Taylor's Townhall blog, Nail Yale.

Close behind Yale was DePaul University.

Here's Steven Plaut's take in the Autonomist Blog:

Second prize went to DePaul "University" - (we use the quote marks due to our doubts as to whether or not DePaul is even an academic institution.) DePaul won for its campaign to suppress the free speech of Thomas Klocek while continuing to employ neo-nazi Holocaust denier Norman Finkelstein. DePaul's commissars, when not warring against the "Amerikan Empire," branded as "propaganda" a College Republican protest of a Ward Churchill speech on campus. DePaul college officials also shut down an affirmative action bake-sale sponsored by the campus conservative club. They then charged the club member who organized the event with "harassment."

The Washington Times has an article on the Pollys here. National Review Online's new blog, Phi Beta Cons has several entries on the awards. Jennifer Biddison at Townhall weighs in here, and don't forget Human Events Online, and The Point.

Finally, FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education today calls DePaul "The Nightmare That Keeps on Recurring."

Technorati tags: DePaul Academic freedom Free speech Polly Awards Yale Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi Ward Churchill Norman Finkelstein

Danish dairy company Arla in good graces with Saudi clerics

The boycott of Danish goods in Saudi Arabia over the Muhammad cartoons continues, except for Arla Foods, a Danish dairy products firm, the Arab News is reporting today.

Yes, they caved in to the imams.

Their move reminds me of the apocryphal quote attributed to Lenin:

The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them.

From the Arab News article:

Products of the Danish dairy conglomerate Arla Foods, maker of the popular Lurpak brand butter, will be back on the supermarket shelves in Saudi Arabia from tomorrow. Abdullah Al-Othaim, chairman of Al-Othaim Group, and Abdulaziz Al-Munajem, general manager of A.A. Almunajem Sons Co., made the announcement at a crowded press conference here yesterday.

It continues...

Arla Foods had issued an apology to Muslims worldwide as the company is based in the country where the newspaper is published. It has also pledged to disseminate awareness about Islam and make donations to charity groups.

Charities? Uh oh. Charities in Saudi Arabia are a little bit different than their Western counterparts, as you'll read here.

Technorati tags: Saudi Arabia Arla Denmark Danmark Tegninger Jyllands-Posten islam جهاد

Chomskying at the bit

One of the more unfortunate developments that followed September 11, 2001 was the revitalization of the career of MIT Linguistics Professor Noam Chomsky. He's an anti-semitic Jew, an apologist for Communism, and a life-long America hater.

Chomsky minimized the brutality of the post-1975 Communist Vietnamese government in the 1970s and 1980s. The following decade, Noam was a strong supporter of French Holocaust-denier Robert Faurisson.

Even for the far-Left, these stances were too much to stomach, and Chomsky was close to being ghetto-ized into the nostalgia section of academic thought, a sort of Donovan of academia.

But with the election of George W. Bush in 2000, and the beginning of the War on Terror, irrational hatred of America became a popular past-time among the Left.

And Chomsky proved F. Scott Fitzgerald wrong: There can be a second act in American lives.

For Christmas, I received a book edited by David Horowitz and Peter Collier, The Anti-Chomsky Reader. His fellow writer Steven Plaut tipped me off about Paul Bogdanor's site. Chapter four of The Anti-Chomsky Reader contains Bogdanor's essay, Chomsky's War Against Israel.

Bogdanor has expanded that essay in a new book he co-edited with Edward Alexander, The Jewish Divide Over Israel : Accusers and Defenders.

Here is an excerpt:

From Chapter 6: The Devil State: Chomsky’s War Against Israel:

In Chomsky’s mental universe, there are few questions about Israel and the Middle East that cannot be resolved by equating Jews with Nazis. Does Israel have a right to pre-emptive self-defense? Such arguments recall "Hitler’s moves to blunt the Czech dagger pointed at the heart of Germany… Hitler’s conceptions have struck a responsive chord in current Zionist commentary." Does Israel face threats to its security? "Hitler and Goebbels… gave a similar justification for their resort to force." Does Israel conduct military operations against terrorists? "Gestapo operations in occupied Europe also 'were justified in the name of combating "terrorism"'…" Has Israel shown a commitment to the peace process? "Does it deserve to be described as a 'peace process'? Hitler’s campaign to conquer Europe was also dubbed a 'peace process.'" How much time and effort Chomsky would save if he simply programmed his computer to spew out "Hitler" and "Goebbels" and "Gestapo" and "Nazi" at every mention of the wicked Zionists!

Technorati tags: Noam Chomsky Chomsky Israel מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל מְדִינַת anti-semitism Jews Hitler nazi Robert Faurisson MIT

Blogger wins Ohio 5k run

Robb Kestner of Running at the Mouth is a modest sort, he made an almost apologetic post last month about his winning the Dublin, Ohio St. Patrick's Day 5K last month.

Clocking in at 16:42, he topped my best by a minute.

Great job, Robb!

Technorati tags: Running Run 5K

Blogroll addition: Ace of Trump

Want to visit a good blog? Check out Ace of Trump, a fellow Illinois blogger, as well as part of Mens News Daily.

Technorati tags: blogging Blogs Conservative

Moussaoui eligible for death penalty

The jury in the federal trial of 9/11 al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui ruled that the admitted terrorist is eligible for the death penalty.

But are we just giving Moussaoui what he wants?

From Osama bin Laden's long-winded 1996 fatwa against "Zionists and Crusaders."

These youths believe in what has been told by Allah and His messenger (Allah's Blessings and Salutations may be on him) about the greatness of the reward for the Mujahideen and Martyrs; Allah, the most exalted said: {and -so far- those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will by no means allow their deeds to perish. He will guide them and improve their condition. and cause them to enter the garden -paradise-which He has made known to t